Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 390 Debate

Song Chunlin listened patiently for a while to what was discussed at the court meeting. Some of the discussions were about the floods in the south of the Yangtze River, or about the fact that tax revenues in the south could not be collected year after year, and whether it was time to send troops over to collect the revenue.

When it comes to taxes in the south, all the old ministers remained silent. The south where no taxes could be collected was 100% the territory of King Pingnan. There were mostly mountains there, and the mountains were rugged and there was not much land for farming. Therefore, since the founding of Dajing, even if the weather was good, taxes there had never been collected once. It was considered good to be self-sufficient.

If they were unlucky and encountered a bad year, such as a natural disaster, not only would they not be able to pay taxes, but the emperor would have to open the treasury to provide relief to them.

Therefore, all the old foxes present remained silent. Anyway, this problem had no solution. Anyone with a little bit of common sense would not start with this matter at this time, and send troops to collect taxes and send troops to the vassal territories for no reason. Do they think that life is too leisurely and want to provoke a civil war?

The official who proposed that the court send troops to collect taxes was a young man with a fair and tender face. He should be the son of a noble family. He did not hold a high position and was just called in by his superior. However, Song Chunlin saw that the superior had bad intentions and thought that this man might have a grudge against the other party's family and was trying to trick the young man.

Sure enough, after the young man passionately expounded his ideas, the people around him became very quiet, and those who were not quiet were speechless, and some even covered their mouths and laughed.

Hiss, that young man obviously didn't understand the people's sentiments, let alone state affairs, and his superiors didn't intend to give him any advice, so he was just standing alone in front of the court awkwardly. The silence of the emperor and those old ministers made a layer of cold sweat quickly break out on his forehead.

Seeing this, Song Chunlin shook his head secretly, thinking that this fool would probably be caught and sacrificed to the gods.

Sure enough, the emperor opened his mouth with two words: "Idiot."

Then the master waved his hand casually and had the young man dragged away, but he was only taken away without any punishment.

After taking the man away, the emperor sighed in front of the room full of ministers, and thought of what Gu Fengyun had mentioned to him, the civil service system and the retirement system.

Looking at those old ministers who were very old, deaf and blind, and could not stand for long at court meetings, they had to be given chairs. Moreover, they liked to stick to their own opinions on many things. The emperor was always troubled by this, but he had no reason to ask them to stop being officials, otherwise it would seem that he was cold and heartless.

The emperor felt a headache when he thought of the lack of successors in the court. He was just about to ask someone to speak, and then he saw Song Chunlin, who looked gossipy.

Very good, it's you.

"Huh? What?" Song Chunlin, who was called, looked confused. No, he was asked to speak based on what he had just said. What did he say?

The emperor was very pleased to see him at a loss. He asked Song Chunlin with a smile: "Chunlin, tell me, do you think the tax revenue in the south can be collected this year?"

Song Chunlin widened his eyes, looking at the emperor in disbelief, cursing in his heart that the emperor was not a human being and had actually dug a big hole for him here. He was not stupid, and he had just been dragged down because of the previous lesson. Now he felt that no matter how he answered, it would be wrong.

Gu Fengyun on the side also looked like he was enjoying the show, not worrying at all that Song Chunlin would be held accountable for saying the wrong thing. Gu Fengyue was more worried, but he was mainly worried that Song Chunlin would take action unexpectedly and anger the other senior ministers to death.

Song Chunlin hesitated for a long time, but seeing that the emperor looked very interested, he finally said something.

"Well, I think they can't collect taxes because they don't have enough food?"

"Um, so what?"

So? So what?

At this moment, Song Chunlin was like a poor student who was suddenly called upon by the teacher to answer a question in class. Because he did not pay attention in class, he could not get the answer the teacher wanted at all, and could only try bit by bit.

"Why not let them have fewer children and grow more land?"

Have fewer children? The emperor didn't understand, and neither did the courtiers. Song Chunlin himself felt something was amiss the moment he said it.

"Well, it doesn't seem to work, how about planting more land?"

"There are many mountains in the south, and there is little arable land. Brother Song said he wanted to plant more land, but has he ever been to the mountains in the south and seen with his own eyes how the local people planted the land? That's why he makes things sound so easy."

The person who spoke was the Minister of Works, who had remained silent until then and was also the Empress's brother. Minister Xue was in charge of the Ministry of Works, and the Ministry of Works also owned all of Dajing's agricultural tools. The agricultural tools that Song Dazhuang and his team had improved were also sent to the Ministry of Works. After being personally reviewed by Minister Xue, the drawings would be distributed throughout the country for the local Agricultural Departments to build them accordingly.

Therefore, when Minister Xue said these words, he simply felt that Song Chunlin was just like the young man just now, who was inexperienced and did not know his place.

Song Chunlin still respected Minister Xue very much. He bowed to him and said, "Minister Xue, I have never been to the southern mountains, but I know that you can find crops that are suitable for local growth and have high yields anywhere. Besides, why do you have to focus on growing grain? You can also fill your stomach by growing other things."

Speaking of other things, the emperor also became interested. He asked Song Chunlin to elaborate, so Song Chunlin began to talk about the grapes, cotton, and watermelons he grew in the north.

"...None of these three things can fill my stomach. Grapes and watermelons are expensive, and ordinary people can't afford them."

"Your Majesty, this is wrong. Although ordinary people can't afford it, the nobles can. Ordinary people grow watermelons, and the nobles buy them. The money they earn can be used to buy food, isn't that good?"

"If you are a businessman who is only after profit, you are obviously able to be self-sufficient, but you still want to go around in circles. Isn't that putting the cart before the horse?"

"This old man... Never mind. I don't want to know your name. Your idea is wrong. If you can really be self-sufficient, why haven't you collected the taxes over there for so many years?"

This question left the old man speechless, but his contempt for the businessman did not diminish in the slightest.

Song Chunlin couldn't stand the way he looked down on businessmen, so he glared at the old man coldly. He didn't have any concept of respecting teachers here, so he immediately retorted when he wanted to.

"You said that businessmen pursue profits, but I want to ask, farmers farm to have food to eat, and you are an official, are you also doing things to achieve your own career? People always have to have a purpose in doing things. If nothing grows in the land, how can farmers be happy? If you are an official and have nothing, would you be happy? You must be unhappy. Others have the ability to meet people's needs. Under the condition of not violating the law and morality, how can making money be lowly? We are all working hard, why do you look down on others?"