"My dear friends, do you have any good ideas to teach me?" Ma Jin asked faintly with his eyes flashed.

"Your Majesty, in my opinion, the people are the easiest to satisfy. If you have a house to live in, wear clothes, and have enough food, they will be grateful. Therefore, I think you can start from this aspect." Changsun Wuji stepped out and bowed.

Ma Jin nodded. Changsun Wuji said it well. The people are indeed very satisfied, but how many dynasties can do it just by letting the people have enough food?

In the eyes of the people in power in the past dynasties, the small people at the bottom cannot be called human beings, they can only be considered animals, and can be killed and seized. If you are happy, you will give a sweet date. If you are unhappy, you will ignore it and let it die. In their opinion, there are many people in the world, so who cares about death?

The only wish of the people is probably to have a full meal and not to starve. Otherwise, how could there be a saying that "food is the most important thing for the people". It is because the taxes in ancient times were so heavy that they could kill people. After working hard for a year, the people could barely not starve to death. This is a good year. If they encounter droughts and floods, they can only sell their children and daughters, and they will eventually become a pile of dead bones on the roadside.

As for how many reliefs from the court can be brought to the hands of the people? Otherwise, how could countless people rise up in the year of famine?

Therefore, if you want to give real benefits to the people, you must not pass through these officials below. Otherwise, after these people’s layers of hair plucking, one of the ten grains of rice will be burned into the hands of the people, which will be a matter of burning incense.

Thinking of this, Ma Jin suddenly had a flash of inspiration and had an amazing idea in his mind. He pondered for a moment, and suddenly felt that it was very feasible. He couldn't help but look up at His Highness and ministers and said with a smile:

"Love, do you think if I exempted the world from taxes for five years, will the people's hearts be with me?"

Ma Jin's words were like a bolt from the blue, directly bombing Changsun Wuji and others, exempting the world from taxes for five years. Your Majesty was crazy about gaining and losing? Not to mention five years, the court could not bear it even for a year. Without the source of money and grain, where did the salaries of civil and military officials come from, where did the army's food and wages come from, if there was another famine, where would the money and grain come from?

"Your Majesty..." Changsun Wuji couldn't help but stand up and advised him.

Who would have thought that Ma Jin waved his hand and stopped Changsun Wuji's words and asked directly:

"How much did I earn from one year older last year?"

Changsun Wuji was stunned. For a moment, he didn't understand Ma Jin's intention, but he didn't dare to neglect it. He hurriedly bowed and replied:

"I heard from Your Majesty that in the fourth year of Shenwu, I will earn a total of 218.94 million taels of silver, which is the year with the largest annual income since the founding of the Great Zhou Kingdom."

Ma Jin nodded and said indifferently: "I plan to allocate gold, silver and treasures worth 1 billion taels of silver from the treasury to the national treasury to offset the taxes for the five years of the world."

"Puff~"

Changsun Wuji, who slowly retreated back into the column, was confused by Ma Jin's words, and he couldn't help but leaned back and squatted on the ground. However, Changsun Wuji did not feel any pain at all. Instead, he climbed up with both hands and feet, looked at Ma Jin in a daze, and said in disbelief:

"Your Majesty, what did you say just now?"

Ma Jin smiled slightly, not caring about Changsun Wuji's rudeness at all. He looked at the stunned expressions of His Highness and ministers and said with a smile:

"I plan to allocate one billion taels of silver to the treasury to make up for the national use."

"Billion taels..." Changsun Wuji murmured in a daze. What does this mean? The Great Zhou Empire has been in full swing for five years, but when did Your Majesty's treasury be so rich? You can take out 1 billion taels of silver at will. This is the rhythm of having to go to heaven.

Not only Changsun Wuji, but others were also shocked by Ma Jin's heroic spirit. After a long time, everyone came to their senses. Kou Zhun walked out excitedly, knelt down to Ma Jin, and said in a trembling voice:

"If this is true, Your Majesty's actions have never been done forever, benefiting all living beings, and benefiting the world, and will win the hearts of the people. I will thank Your Majesty for the sake of the millions of poor people in the world."

"I, please thank Your Majesty for your priest on behalf of the people!" Several other ministers also knelt down and shouted.

"You all love me!" Ma Jin raised his hands and said seriously: "The people in the world are my people, and I should treat them like children!"

After everyone stood up, Ma Jin continued:

"What I want to exempt this time is only taxes involving agriculture, and commercial taxes, salt and iron taxes will still be collected as usual!"

"Your Majesty, do you mean that you only exempt the people from land taxes?" Fang Xuanling asked carefully.

"Not only land taxes, but other taxes, taxes, labor services related to fishing, hunting, etc., must be exempted?" Ma Jin said in a true voice, but looking at the eyes of the ministers who were extremely puzzled, he explained in detail:

"What I mean is that in the future, only commercial taxes, deed taxes and taxes involving important materials such as salt, iron and tea will be exempted from all other things, and local governments will not collect any taxes and labor services."

"But you have to understand that I am only exempt from taxes from ordinary people, not from wealthy families."

"Your Majesty, if this is the case, I think a standard can be set, for example, those under 50 acres can be exempted from taxes, while those over 50 acres will still be charged." Zhang Juzheng said in a statement.

Ma Jin nodded after hearing this and asked, "What kind of land do the people in my Great Zhou usually have?"

"Your Majesty, the farming of ordinary people in our Great Zhou family will not exceed 30 acres, and produce only more than a thousand kilograms of grain." Changsun Wuji stepped out of the list and replied.

"Your Majesty, I think tax exemption can be relaxed appropriately, for example, some small and medium-sized landlords can also be included in the tax exemption to win over the hearts of poor scholars in the world." Wei Zheng then said with a remark.

Ma Jin nodded when he heard this. If it weren't for Wei Zheng's reminder, he wouldn't have thought that the poor scholars in ancient times were not really poor families. In an era when books were more expensive, how could ordinary people have started school and bought books? Therefore, poor scholars refer to children from small and medium-sized landlords or merchant families outside the aristocratic families. In Ma Jin's opinion, this group of people is also a target that can be won by Ma Jin.

"As far as my dear said, as for who should pay taxes and who should not pay taxes, your cabinet will first draw up a charter and leave it to me for review."

"I will obey the order!" The ministers hurriedly bowed to accept the order.

"Okay, you all retreat first, I'm a little tired." Ma Jin yawned and said lazily.

"I'm going to leave!"

…………

After Changsun Wuji and the others retreated, Ma Jin's expression suddenly became solemn. Although solving the problems of the aristocratic family was the top priority, there was another problem before that, which was more important than that in his opinion, that was military power!

In this Liangzhou plot against rebellion, Ma Jin discovered a problem that he had ignored before, that is, the control of the county soldiers. Although the combat power of the county soldiers is far less than that of the court guards, the victory is large. The number of county soldiers in the entire Great Zhou territory is at least more than five million. Can the court really control such a huge force?

Ma Jin knew very well that these troops could not be controlled by the imperial court, and they had long been corrupted by the local aristocratic families.

In Ma Jin's opinion, the most urgent thing is to solve this problem, otherwise he would not even be able to sleep well.

"Wang Cheng'en, go and call the adults from the Privy Council over!"
Chapter completed!