Thinking deeply, Zhang Jian raised his head and looked at Li Zicheng. At this time, he really admired this young man who was nearly forty years younger than him. If he could really follow his idea, the Huaihe River diversion into the sea would probably

It's really just around the corner.

"Zhiyuan, if we add Lijin..."

But as a businessman and also the director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, Zhang Jian knew clearly that this was just the best idea. The reason why river transportation was more expensive than railway transportation was because of the lijin.

"With the river basin as a flowing railway, the railway is free of charge, so the control of the Huaihe River cannot be free of charge."

Li Zicheng showed a sly smile and made this suggestion. Isn't it for himself? In China of this era, that tax is really nothing. There are no exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes in the attached areas, but the problem is on the road, shipped from Daye.

Iron ore is free of charge on the road, but when entering Lianyungang, it is subject to customs duties. In this era, tariffs do not distinguish between domestic and foreign countries. As long as you enter the port, you need to pay customs duties, unless you have paid the charge.

Nowadays, Chinese goods are not allowed to go abroad, not even to provincial gates, because they have to pay taxes when they leave the province, and they also have to pay taxes when passing through other provinces. When they arrive at the port, they have to pay even heavier tariffs, but those foreign goods are

After paying the customs duties and sub-export taxes, you don't need to pay any cents. Compared with Chinese goods, the cost for them coming from across the ocean is even lower.

It is for this reason that the rent for factory buildings in the annexed areas of the Longhai Railway has been built, and the land prices are getting higher and higher. More and more people are setting up factories in the annexed areas. When opening a factory here, not only are there no excessive taxes, but more importantly

Yes, no matter where you set up a factory along the Longhai Railway, it is equivalent to issuing an "imperial edict" that "the five provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan, Shaanxi and Gansu are free of lijin", because railway transportation is free of lijin.

"this……"

Zhang Jian was taken aback by this sentence, "It's easy to control the Huaihe River. This matter is too big a deal."

"Weng Zhi, I am exempting the Huaihe River administration from lijin. I am afraid that the president will be the first to agree. You must know that this lijin is... a local tax."

As he spoke, Li Zicheng smiled. On the one hand, the purpose of transporting and nourishing the Huai River was for the development along the Huai River. As long as the Huai River enters the sea, the basin along the Huai River can regain its old appearance of "walking thousands of miles away is not as good as the two sides of the Huai River."

It can make the coast of Huaihe River become the granary of Lianyun and even China in the future, but on the other hand, it is to restrict the development of Jiangsu Province, to be precise, the official development of Jiangsu Province. This is the most important thing. The reason why I can control it

To put it bluntly, Jiangsu controls the Jiangsu Army with money.

Jiangsu is now following Guangdong's example of forcing poor children to go to school to punish their fathers and brothers. This has already cost the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Civil Affairs and various departments as much as 60 to 70% of the money. Without Lianyun's monthly contribution of more than 200,000 yuan, from the province

From the road to the county, it is impossible to maintain operation. Finance is the mother of common government and the foundation of a country. As long as Jiangsu cannot do without its own money, they will not be able to escape their control.

For Jiangsu Province, the biggest tax is Lijin. If the Ma'anshan Iron Mine and Tongling Copper Mine were to enter Lianyun under the false pretext of Jiangsu, millions of Lijin alone would be needed a year. Instead of fattening the place, let them out of their control.

, it is better to use this money to do more beneficial things, and further help Jiangsu lose weight.

"Zhiyuan, this... I'm afraid Governor Cheng will be unhappy by then."

Zhang Jian smiled and had no objection. As an industrial and political leader of Jiangsu Province, how could he not be unaware of the inexplicable reality between Li Zhiyuan and Jiangsu? On the surface, the Jiangsu Army is the Jiangsu Army, but

In fact, it is half of the "Li Jiajun", let alone Cheng Dequan. Even the Jiangsu Provincial Council, which they keep expressing their obedience to, may not be able to mobilize the Jiangsu Army. The only one who can mobilize the Jiangsu Army is Li Zhiyuan.

Who cares who is serving the bowl and who is submissive? In the past, people thought that Zhang Jizhi was the uncrowned king of northern Jiangsu, but now the real uncrowned king of Jiangsu is the one in front of him, but he has been cleverly hiding behind the scenes.

"Weng Zhi, since ancient times, if you want to achieve something that benefits the country and the people, you don't care about the opposition of others."

After asking the question, Li Zicheng looked at Zhang Jian in front of him, but he pretended to be telling the truth. Today, he had to convince Zhang Jian that he was a local snake in Jiangbei.

"Zhiweng, you know me well. For me, Li Zhiyuan, I just want to do some things and achieve some careers. As for other things, I don't think about them.

Heaven and earth should be ashamed of the people, but the central government should not be ashamed of its conscience. Such things are worth doing. Building railways is for building factories, and now, transporting and nourishing the Huaihe River is also..."

Li Zicheng shrugged his shoulders and smiled helplessly.

"Some people say that I am the king of Subei. If I intervene in the matter of transporting the Huai River again, I don't know what will be said in the mouths of interested people. Zhi Weng has been advocating the management of the Huai River for decades. He has already had a big article in his heart. Zicheng has no idea.

He is willing, only willing to use his own efforts to help Zhi Weng achieve this achievement that will last forever and benefit all people."

As he spoke, Li Zicheng stood up and bowed deeply towards Zhang Jian.

“Please don’t postpone it, Naoong.”

Zhang Jian also stood up and said seriously.

"If Zicheng has this intention, how can he refuse him?"

Chapter 203 The President’s concern for the people (please vote for me!)

The sun and the moon flow forward like water, and they cannot stay. Autumn passes and winter comes, and winter passes and spring comes again.

As the President of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai was busy with all kinds of troubles. The feeling of having the power over the whole country was really wonderful, but it was really frustrating. Yuan Shikai, who lived in Jurentang, Zhongnanhai, felt like he was in a cold place.

It seems to be extremely unstable, hot and cold, changing day by day, and sometimes going against the seasons. It can be said that life has no order.

No, in the middle of the night, I met with the Minister of Industry and Commerce Zhang Jian in Jurentang. The two talked for four or five hours starting in the afternoon and ended at nearly nine o'clock. Although Zhang Jian was there, Yuan Shikai talked from time to time.

He yawned, but now that he was gone, Yuan Shikai no longer felt sleepy as before.

“To handle affairs in a county, one must have a provincial perspective; to handle provincial affairs, one must have a national perspective; to handle national affairs, one must have a global perspective.”

Yuan Shikai frowned as he read Zhang Jizhi's words, and then remembered the plan to "relieve Huaihe River through transportation" that he mentioned when talking to Zhang Jizhi earlier. Although that plan really made him excited, but...

.

"Without spending a single dollar from the central government, the Huaihe River's century-old problem can be solved and benefit 80 million people along the coast."

When he said this sentence, Yuan Shikai raised his eyes slightly and looked at Liang Shiyi. He was the secretary of the Presidential Office. It was for this reason that he was called here at this time.

"It is true that the president does not cost the central government a single dollar, but he robs the local government of millions of cents. This abacus is really accurate."

Although he only heard what the President said, Liang Shiyi still smelled it. Here and there, "reinforcing the Huaihe River with good luck" was basically "controlling the Huaihe River without making any adjustments." Could this idea be his Zhang Jizhi's idea? I'm afraid it was this trip.

Go to Lianyungang for the harvest

"Lijin belongs to the local area. If it spends huge sums of money to connect the Grand Canal and exempts it from taxes along the way on the grounds of unified management of the river basin, it will undoubtedly be poaching the flesh of the local area."

When Liang Shiyi was digging for local meat, both he and Yuan Shikai were thinking about the origin of lijin. In the fourth year of Xianfeng, in order to raise military expenses for the pacification of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the local government levied lijin donations. Lijin was originally a temporary war finance.

Then, once the war is over, it should be stopped immediately. However, a common situation in Chinese history is that once a levy is started and the government tastes its sweetness, it is impossible to cancel it on its own initiative. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom War, Lijin has become

Not only is it impossible to cancel a large amount of local government revenue, but it has also become more severe and vicious.

The most important thing is not that centimeters will continue to be levied, but that the Manchu Qing Dynasty originally implemented a strict centralized system, and local governments did not have independent financial rights. With the collection of centimeters, local governments can withhold 80 centimeters for use, and local governments are sitting on the centimeters because of the centimeters.

This in turn stimulated the enthusiasm of local authorities or officials to set up checkpoints to collect taxes on their own territory. The income of lijin was also rising steadily. By the third year of Xuantong, the income of lijin was 43 million taels. It was a tripartite with the land tax and customs.

The three major incomes are established.

On the other hand, collecting taxes at customs and levying lijin when encountering difficulties has long been a huge obstacle to China's economic development. Chinese businessmen and even foreign powers hated the lijin system. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were plans to abolish the lijin system, but it was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty that the lijin system was abolished.

After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Lijin system remained the same. After the establishment of the Republic of China, local separatism by warlords became more serious, and they relied on Lijin to make a living. Although he knew that the collection of Lijin was the biggest obstacle to China's economic development, Yuan Shikai knew that the resistance to abolishing the Lijin should not be underestimated.

“The meat of the land is dug, but the blood of the people is saved.”

After sighing, Yuan Shikai said to him in a deep tone.

"Yifu, just now Ji Zhi told me that when transporting raw silk from Sichuan to Hankou Customs for shipment and export, in addition to regular taxes, you have to pay a levy once when you leave the province, and you have to pay two levies in disguised form, and you have to pay once when you enter Hubei.

Before going to Hankou Pass, you have to pay three more disguised taxes. After loading at Hankou Pass, you have to pay an export tax of 5 yuan. The raw silk that originally cost more than 500 taels per box has increased to more than 700 taels per box after going through many checkpoints.

Even 800 taels, while the export price of each box is only more than a thousand taels, and the export sales are squeezed by Japanese silk dealers. The silk factory is almost unable to make ends meet and is about to go bankrupt. If this donation is not wasted, I'm afraid..."

A sigh came from Yuan Shikai's throat. At this moment, he still looked like a thief, but instead he looked like a great president who was worried about the country and the people.

"Yifu, according to customs figures, last year our country's exports were 430 million taels, while imports were more than 640 million taels, and imports were as much as 11 million taels, and raw silk accounted for nearly

30%, or our country’s raw silk exports will go bankrupt due to donations, then..."

Closing his eyes, Yuan Shikai, who was full of concern for the country and the people, stopped talking. Liang Shiyi was a shrewd man. Although he was ten years younger than Yuan Shikai, he was a Jinshi after all. He had been close to him for more than ten years and knew him well.

He understands that the president may really be "concerned about the country and the people" when he says this, but he is more afraid that he still wants to make a fuss about money. Whether it is the central government or the local government, to put it bluntly, the central government relies on money.

If there is no money, we have to let the local area become stronger. If there is no money in the local area, then it is naturally impossible for the local area to be disloyal. The key to local money is gold.

Therefore, only by abolishing the Lijin and cutting off the financial resources of local governments. All provincial finances are directly allocated by the central government, so that the government can consolidate power and centralize power. Whether tax revenue should be returned to the central government or to local governments seems to be a trivial matter, but it is

It is a major issue related to the concentration and decentralization of central power. When central power is highly concentrated, financial power will never be delegated to local governments.

After thinking about this link, he spoke.

"President, it can be said that the business circles from all over the country have been calling for the abolition of the lijin more than ten years ago, and they indeed wanted to abolish it at the end of the Qing Dynasty. If those people hadn't listened to the slander, I'm afraid that the lijin would be the same as yours.

Cut off”

When Liang Shiyi mentioned this matter, he glanced at Yuan Shikai. He was the one who presided over the "cutting and increasing taxes" in the late Qing Dynasty. However, as soon as it got started, the president was driven home.

"No matter how you look at it, this is something that should be done and must be done. I just don't know what the president wants to do?"

"We just established the Communist Party last year, but if we come up now, we will lose a lot of money..."

Yuan Shikai, stroking his beard, looked extremely hesitant.

"Yes, I'm afraid someone will say that President you have broken off our friendship."

How could Liang Shiyi not know the reason why the president said this? The president has just been elected. If he announces the cuts at this time, who knows what kind of disturbance will be caused in the local area. If Sun Huang and others are allowed to

use……

"President, it's actually quite easy to cut the salary."

As the Deputy Minister of Finance, Liang Shiyi would take this opportunity to bring up something that he had always wanted to mention but had no chance to do so.

"oh……"

After a slight response, Yuan Shikai said nothing.

"President, ever since the emergence of lithium-ion manufacturing, it has been in conflict with the customs tax, which led to the negotiations on the lithium-ion tax increase when you presided over the New Deal. Didn't the president at that time just see the lithium-ion tax being levied?

The rather heavy domestic tariffs not only seriously hindered the circulation of domestic goods, but also hindered the entry of foreign goods. Not only did the interests of domestic merchants suffer, but the interests of foreign merchants were also greatly damaged. In order to safeguard the interests of foreign merchants, the great powers
To be continued...