Liu Maopao looked carefully at the man who had grabbed him.
Ah. It was that same scholar who had debated with him last time about the slogan "When Chuang Wang arrives, there will be no taxes."
Of course Liu Maopao had no idea that the person standing in front of him was actually Li Yan, the chief strategist of Chuang Wang.
Recently Li Yan had been entering the city frequently.
One reason was to investigate public opinion among the common people.
The other reason was to listen to Liu Maopao's speeches criticizing current affairs.
Unlike ordinary listeners, Li Yan did not simply hear the speech and walk away.
Every time Liu Maopao spoke, Li Yan gained new insights.
Combined with his own thinking afterward, he always felt that he had learned a great deal.
Today's speech had been especially enlightening.
He had not yet had his fill of the discussion, so he could not resist stepping forward to stop Liu Maopao.
Liu Maopao smiled.
"Brother, I remember you. You were the one arguing about Chuang Wang's 'no taxes' slogan last time."
Li Yan cupped his hands politely.
"Thank you for remembering me. My views last time were immature and probably made you laugh."
"Today, after hearing your brilliant analysis, I feel as if my mind has suddenly been cleared. I have a few questions that I sincerely wish to ask. Would you be willing to discuss them?"
Liu Maopao laughed.
"Come. Let's talk in the teahouse."
The two entered a nearby teahouse and sat down. They ordered a pot of plain tea and began their discussion.
Li Yan spoke first.
"Your proposal earlier was truly excellent. Take Jinan City as an example."
"The Prince De Mansion alone owns nearly half the farmland around the city, and all that land is exempt from taxation."
"Add to that the local gentry and scholar families, who also pay no taxes at all."
He sighed deeply.
"In the end, the people who actually pay taxes control less than twenty percent of the total farmland."
"To use that twenty percent of land to pay one hundred percent of the taxes. How could the common people not suffer?"
"According to your suggestion, if the remaining eighty percent of farmland also paid taxes, then the tax burden would be spread across the full hundred percent."
"Even if the tax rate per mu were cut in half, the total tax revenue would still increase."
"And the people would only need to pay half the taxes they do now."
Liu Maopao nodded with a smile.
"Yes. That is exactly the idea."
Li Yan continued.
"I understand the agricultural part now. But what about commerce?"
"Merchants may not own farmland. They only conduct business. How do you make merchants who earn more pay more taxes, and merchants who earn less pay less?"
Liu Maopao chuckled.
"That involves commercial taxation. A very complicated subject."
He reached into his robe and pulled out a piece of paper.
It was an invoice.
This invention came from Wang Tang, the chief administrator of Gao Family Village's Xi'an office.
Whenever someone bought goods, the merchant issued an invoice. This system had already been widely implemented inside the territories governed by Dao Xuan Tianzun, but outside those areas almost nobody had seen such a thing.
Li Yan accepted the paper and examined it carefully.
"What is this?"
"An invoice," Liu Maopao explained.
"When a customer buys something, the merchant must give them this document. It records the price and quantity of the goods."
"Two copies are made. One stays with the merchant, and one goes to the customer."
Li Yan looked puzzled.
"What is the purpose of this?"
Liu Maopao smiled.
"For collecting taxes."
"If you gather all the invoices issued by a merchant and calculate them together, you can estimate how much money the merchant has earned."
"The more he earns, the more tax he pays."
Li Yan immediately understood.
"But… what if merchants cheat?"
"Very difficult problem," Liu Maopao admitted, spreading his hands helplessly.
"Extremely difficult."
"A merchant could falsify accounts, create fake invoices, or hide some invoices entirely. It would be very hard to detect."
"So the invoice system is still in a trial stage. It cannot fully solve the problem yet."
"To deal with that issue, we also developed another method."
"We directly include the merchant's tax inside the price of goods."
"But honestly, that method has not produced perfect results either."
Li Yan stared blankly.
"…"
Liu Maopao laughed.
"I can tell at a glance that you are not a merchant. You do not need to understand all the details."
"You only need to remember one thing."
"Every system is created by people. That means every system will have flaws."
"Finding problems is not scary."
"You simply correct them."
"What is truly frightening is lacking the courage to correct those flaws."
Li Yan sat in silence for a moment.
Then he spoke slowly.
"Your words have benefited me greatly."
"The true problem of the Ming court is not that bad policies exist."
"The real problem is that the court lacks both the courage and the ability to fix them."
"That is why things have deteriorated to this point."
When Liu Maopao heard him say this, he sensed a particular emotion hidden within Li Yan's voice.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Brother, the way you speak makes it sound like you personally possess both the courage and the ability to change the country."
Li Yan quickly waved his hands.
"No, no. I am not capable of such things."
Liu Maopao laughed softly.
"You are being modest."
"Judging by your eyes alone, I can tell that you are someone who wishes to change the world."
"Allow me to ask boldly. Do you have relatives serving as high officials in the court? Is that why you hope to push for reforms?"
Li Yan shook his head hurriedly.
"No. Not at all."
Liu Maopao chuckled.
"Let me say something bold."
"Even if you did have relatives in high positions, reforming the country would still be nearly impossible."
"You seem like a perceptive man. You must understand that the current imperial court cannot be changed by just a few officials."
Li Yan froze.
"…"
Liu Maopao carefully observed his reaction.
When he mentioned "relatives serving in the court," Li Yan's expression had not changed at all.
But when he said "a few officials cannot change the situation," Li Yan had subtly nodded in agreement.
Combining these clues together…
A bold guess formed in Liu Maopao's mind.
He grinned.
"You wish to reform the nation, yet you have no relatives in official positions."
"You are just an ordinary man, yet you seem confident you could carry out reforms."
"Heh…"
Suddenly Liu Maopao lunged forward and grabbed Li Yan by the collar.
"Got you!"
"So you are secretly plotting rebellion!"
"If my guess is correct, you must be an important figure among the rebels."
"Come with me to the government office."
Li Yan was terrified.
He immediately struggled backward.
Rip!
The front of his robe tore open.
His clothes were nowhere near the quality produced by Gao Family Village.
Liu Maopao froze for a moment.
Wait a minute.
He had only meant it as a joke.
But this fellow reacted far too strongly.
That meant he probably really was an important rebel.
Liu Maopao quickly tried to grab him again.
But Li Yan jumped backward.
His foot caught the leg of a stool.
Thud!
He crashed onto the floor and rolled twice.
Liu Maopao stepped forward clumsily to grab him again.
Unfortunately, both of them were scholars.
Their combat ability was practically nonexistent.
Their movements were slow and awkward. The scene looked ridiculous.
Liu Maopao flailed his arms like a powerless scholar trying to catch a chicken.
Li Yan was not doing any better.
The two of them rolled and stumbled across the floor of the teahouse before tumbling out into the street.
At that moment two men suddenly rushed out from the roadside.
They immediately moved to shield Li Yan.
At the same time one of them threw a punch straight toward Liu Maopao's face.
They were members of the Old Eight Team, the fierce bandits who had escorted Li Yan into the city.
These were trained fighters.
If that punch landed, Liu Maopao's face would probably explode into a bloody mess.
But just as the fist was about to strike, another fist appeared from the side and blocked it.
Bang!
The attack was stopped.
The special operations soldiers from Gao Family Village, assigned to protect Liu Maopao, had arrived.