Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 977 - 806 Eyeing Taixu (Please Subscribe and Vote for Monthly Ticket)_2

Chapter 977: Chapter 806 Eyeing Taixu (Please Subscribe and Vote for Monthly Ticket)_2

In fact, logically speaking, a significant drop in grain prices also has a downside: it tends to diminish the peasants’ enthusiasm for farming.

However, the people of Jin Dynasty had a stunning desire for land. The lands purchased by the Court with newly minted silver yuan this year were often snatched up by the public as soon as they were announced. And most chose to pay off their land loans within ten years rather than opting for the more favorable twenty or thirty years.

What made Li Xuan helpless was that these lands were currently being divided among local connections, and did not reach the hands of ordinary civilians.

Considering that the ruling capacity of the Great Jin Dynasty could not reach the standards of later times, Li Xuan did not pursue the matter deeply. He could only focus on the land and household registries to ensure these lands did not fall into the hands of local magnates.

The only way to benefit all the people was through more land—so much land that it was not profitable for local officials to manipulate.

Thus, when Li Xuan formulated the "progressive land tax system," he was exceptionally stringent: a family’s landholdings exceeding one hundred mu would face a tax increase of twenty percent. Those exceeding five hundred mu would face fifty percent.

This was not only to force local tycoons to sell their lands but also to pressure them to divide their families and split their clans.

For nobles and Wu cultivators, however, Li Xuan left some leeway; all merit lands and military lands were exempt from the progressive tax system.

According to these rules, Earl Chengyi’s estate would also have to sell over half of their lands, otherwise, it would face an annual deficit of several hundred thousand silver yuan.

Fortunately, at this time, Earl Chengyi’s mansion no longer relied on land for income.

The vast majority of nobles and military ministers in north and south Zhili, lured by the huge profits of the factories owned by the Li and Shenqi Union, were also investing heavily in the construction of factories.

Li Xuan anticipated that this resistance would be considerable, but not to an extent that he couldn’t handle.

Li ShanChang could not help but sigh quietly, knowing that His Majesty’s intent was set and that he could not stop it.

He clasped his fists, "Your Majesty, if you must implement reforms, then you must control the local opinion and discourse. You cannot let local scholars manipulate, fool, and incite the people to oppose the Court. Also, the recent drop in grain prices could potentially affect the market for cotton fabrics, wool textiles, leather goods, and ironware; please consider these matters carefully."

Items like silk, porcelain, and paper, Li ShanChang was not worried about; these were consumed by the wealthy and never worried about sales. But cotton fabrics, leather goods, and ironware were mainly purchased by ordinary civilians.

Recently, in Nanjing and Tianjin, numerous cotton and wool factories were being built like mad.

Li Xuan anticipated that more wealth would be invested in these industries after the reforms began.

Li Xuan’s expression tightened upon hearing this, thinking this indeed was a problem that could not be overlooked.

Regarding local opinion and discourse, Li Xuan had already made plans—he had agreed to the subjugation of Lord Tushan for the widespread and far-reaching Tushan, the Demon Fox.

For two years, Li Xuan had been frequently involved in teaching, enthusiastically accepting students, also as a means to establish a school of thought in the local regions.

The problem was that low grain prices harmed the farmers; without enough silver in their hands, people wouldn’t be able to buy industrial products.

However, suppressing grain prices was necessary so that the Court could acquire large tracts of land cheaply from local tycoons.

Nevertheless, this sales problem should be solvable, firstly because the population of Jin was vast, offering an incredibly large market; secondly, he had now secured Fusou, Goryeo, Nanyang, and the trade routes of Shendu were all open.

After two more years, when the local tycoons had little land left, the Court could attempt to use policy adjustments to pull the grain prices back up.

Li Xuan had even taken to emulating Shaosiming Palace Taiwei by selling food to those outer celestial domains and minor worlds; this year alone, he had earned seventy million silver yuan in funds.

After thanking Li ShanChang for the reminder, Li Xuan continued on towards the Heaven Palace.

Along the way, he encountered Lan Yu and Fu Youde.

"These are your father’s Divine General of Heavenly Penalty and Watchful Divine General."

Li Xuan pointed towards the two men, "Youlong, have you not greeted them? Both of them have also made significant contributions to your family’s realm."

Yu Youlong felt that these two men looked at him with a chilling gaze, similar to the white-bearded old gentleman from before.

Still, he managed to support his body and bowed to the two men.

Formalities should of course not be like this, but Yu Youlong, sitting on Li Xuan’s shoulder, couldn’t perform the complete gesture.

"I dare not accept such honor!" Fu Youde had already noticed the similar faces of the two, thus he retracted the fierceness in his eyes and returned the greeting.

Lan Yu’s expression remained cold as ever. His hatred for the Jin Dynasty’s imperial family was even greater than that of Li ShanChang.

However, for Li Xuan’s sake, he also withdrew his gaze.

Li Xuan then brought up the official business, "About the upcoming expedition to the Outer Void, how have you Divine Generals discussed it?"

"This matter is yet to be fully planned, and moreover—"

Fu Youde appeared hesitant, "Your Majesty, the action you plan to take seems akin to pirate behavior? I fear it might tarnish Your Majesty’s moral reputation, and people will criticize it in the future."

The person before him, Xuanhuang Great Emperor, actually found the Outer Void food trade insufficiently profitable. He planned to soon use those several Yunzhong warships and eighty thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Generals to plunder the Outer Void, to gather funds and food, and expand the Heavenly Court’s military power.

The ’Heavenly Realms’ of the Outer Void might be lacking in food, but were abundant in various minerals.

Lan Yu scoffed indifferently, "When the Great Ancestor raised his banners in Huai west, he started as merely a bandit, and his moral reputation was not worth mentioning. But once he seized Jinling, thus all the directions observed him. Hence, the troops in our hands are the real moral reputation and fame! Now, for His Majesty to feed war through war is nothing but wise."

He gave Li Xuan a fist salute, "However, what is currently lacking is reliable intelligence. We only know the positions of those thirty-three fragments of Taixu Realm outside, but we do not know which family is wealthy, which family has strong power, and which is easy to attack. So, the conflict between the Three Jewels Divine General and Divine General Zhenhai is significant, and Master Zhongliu is quite vexed."

Li Xuan himself realized that when it came to military strategies, he relied more on modern military equipment to overpower and flatten the enemy, and was not really among the top tier.

He considered that the wars outside the Taixu Realm seemed more akin to naval battles. Thus, Li Xuan left the strategy for this military expedition to be discussed by the Divine Generals.

And in this regard, the most authoritative were undoubtedly the newly appointed Three Jewels Divine General Zheng He, and the Divine General Zhenhai, Yu Tonghai.

One had ventured to Nanyang seven times, while the other was the top naval Divine General in the early years of the Jin Dynasty.

Li Xuan frowned and then helplessly said, "I’m also trying to find out more; let’s just wait a bit longer, it should be soon."

Regarding the Outer Void, Li Xuan’s current sources of information were quite scarce.

Now one was Lv Qiluo, and the other was Shaosiming.

Lv Qiluo had some ’close friends’ in the Outer Taixu, whom she occasionally contacted.

Shaosiming, while trading with the Outer Void, also came to know some situations there.

Thinking of Shaosiming, Yuan Taiwei, Li Xuan was very expectant.

This person owed him two hundred million silver yuan, and under the interest accumulation, he should soon be unable to cope, Li Xuan guessed that he would soon harvest the fruits.

Yuan Taiwei had agreed to help Li Xuan collect intelligence from the Outer Void to offset part of his debt, and it was supposed to happen today.

There was also Lord Tushan with nine tails; Li Xuan didn’t place all his hopes on Yuan Taiwei—he had also sent Lord Tushan to the Outer Void to gather intelligence.

Recently, this individual had acquired two reliable allies: ’Inari Oogami’ from Fusou, and the big demon ’Tamamo no Mae’ from Fusou, both surprisingly from the Fox Clan lineage, possessing nine tails and of the Great Heavenly Level big demon.

Lord Tushan forcibly controlled them under his command, significantly boosting the prestige of the Tushan lineage.

However, this individual would still need five to six days to return from the Outer Void.

Feeling cheerful, Li Xuan then took Yu Youlong to the ’Yunyan Pavilion.’

Recently, Xue Yunrou had taken the child back to the Heavenly Master’s mansion in Tiger Mountain to prepare for registering the little tiger head into the Zhang family’s genealogy. Thus, at this moment in the Heavenly Palace, only Luo Yan and Pingan were present.

When Luo Yan saw Li Xuan and the Yu Youlong on his head, she glanced up and down at both of them and then snickered, "I thought Pingan was your eldest son, but it turns out that Hongshang and you had a secret connection much earlier. I’m curious about how you will handle the bureaucrats from the Court in the future. Just by looking at the face, one can tell that this Jin Emperor is indeed your son, Li Xuan."