Chapter 307: Twin-Star Buff |
Although Wang Anshi was stubborn by nature, he was neither rigid nor pedantic.
In fact, anyone who engaged in reform and institutional change was quite open-minded. How could rigid and pedantic people possibly seek active change?
Wang Anshi’s stubbornness stemmed mainly from two aspects. First, he was extremely intelligent, and intelligent people were certainly more inclined to trust their own judgment.
Second, his political stance. Throughout history, those who pursued reform had to firmly believe in their convictions, because everyone knew this would encounter many troubles. If one did not persist, things would quickly come to nothing.
Wang Anshi did not disagree with Zhang Fei’s indirect approach of using donations as a form of taxation. In fact, his own reforms were also about collecting money through different methods – this was essentially the same approach with different means.
He simply felt it was unreliable.
Donations were voluntary, while taxes were mandatory.
If they were willing to donate voluntarily, why wouldn’t they pay taxes?
However, the confidence Zhang Fei displayed, along with Zhang Fei’s previous successes, ultimately moved Wang Anshi.
Of course, Zhang Fei ultimately still did not agree to join the Reform Planning Commission.
However, for Wang Anshi, recruiting Zhang Fei was only hoping for an additional helper. It wasn’t that he couldn’t function without him. Now that Zhang Fei had agreed to help him with full force, that was sufficient. He didn’t force Zhang Fei.
But Lu Huiqing didn’t see it this way.
When he learned that Zhang Fei had ultimately refused Wang Anshi, he couldn’t help but feel suspicious. “Mentor, the reason Zhang San is wary of joining the Reform Planning Commission is because he is not a firm supporter of ours. He still hopes to maintain his relationship with Academician Sima.”
The implication was nothing more than suggesting that Zhang Fei wanted to be a fence-sitter, swaying with the wind.
Wang Anshi naturally understood that Zhang Fei had a good relationship with Sima Guang, and smiled: “While that may be true, you must not forget that he is currently just a commoner who doesn’t seek official position or fame. Why should he bear these risks for us? If I were in his position, I wouldn’t be willing either. Just like the first time I cooperated with him on that housing loan matter – everyone was helping each other, which is reasonable and proper.”
Lu Huiqing frowned: “But if Zhang San ultimately chooses to side with Academician Sima, it might cause us trouble.”
Wang Anshi glanced at Lu Huiqing and asked with a smile: “Huiqing, you seem quite wary of Zhang San?”
Lu Huiqing replied honestly: “Based on that previous lawsuit, our Reform Planning Commission will be subject to judicial oversight, and Zhang San’s talent in legal matters is unparalleled, and he has sophisticated methods. If he sides with Academician Sima, it could cause us great trouble.”
Wang Anshi pondered briefly and said: “His current attitude is that he’s willing to help us with full force, but at the same time he’s unwilling to get involved. This shows he won’t completely stand on Academician Sima’s side either. Why should we force him to choose sides?”
Lu Huiqing nodded slightly: “That’s reasonable.”
Wang Anshi said: “Have someone pressure Kaifeng and Xiangfu counties to ensure they avoid another Wang Hong incident when collecting autumn taxes. Otherwise, violators will be punished.”
Lu Huiqing nodded: “Yes.”
Meanwhile, after resting at home for two days, Zhang Fei hurried back to the law firm.
“Huh? What happened? Why isn’t there a single person here?”
When Zhang Fei arrived at the law firm, there wasn’t even anyone at the front counter.
“It’s Zhang San! This is wonderful. If you hadn’t come back, I really couldn’t handle everything alone!”
Suddenly Fan Li came hurrying out from inside.
Zhang Fei smiled and nodded: “I can see that.”
After the two came to the back hall and sat down, Zhang Fei asked: “Old Fan, what’s the situation with the shop?”
Fan Li replied: “Have you forgotten? With autumn tax collection imminent, the people all need tax calculations. Our shop has deployed everyone, but we’re still frantically busy.”
Zhang Fei said: “Didn’t I instruct you before to hire more people?”
“We’ve been hiring constantly!”
Fan Li said: “Now we have nearly two hundred people just for tax calculations, and most of them are clerks who came from government offices, but it’s still not enough. Because for agricultural tax calculations, no one competes with us. With our prices, who would dare compete with us? So Li Guozhong and the others have all focused their targets on commercial taxes.”
Zhang Fei nodded and said: “But it’s only these first two years that will be busy. Once we figure out the situation with all the farmland, from then on we’ll just be lying back and collecting money.”
Fan Li chuckled and said: “Everyone understands, so everyone is working very hard, competing to grab as many clients as possible. They’re even hiring people to help them.”
The key to the tax calculation business wasn’t in the calculations themselves, but in whether you could contend with the government. Zhang Fei had already proven he had this ability.
This made the tax calculation business an iron rice bowl. The common people spent this little bit of money for peace of mind – it was absolutely worth it.
Once they figured out the situation with clients’ land, wouldn’t they just be lying back and collecting money from then on? It was like collecting protection fees. Although land transactions were frequent, the law firm could also provide services for land deals, which not only earned them money but also allowed them to keep control of information about clients’ land.
This led to many people coming to the law firm not to file lawsuits, but because they were eager to provide legal services.
Suddenly they heard someone outside saying: “How is there not a single person here?”
Fan Li was slightly startled. “That sounds like Academician Sima’s voice.”
The visitor was indeed Sima Guang.
Zhang Fei quickly invited Sima Guang into the inner hall, while Fan Li tactfully went to watch the counter.
“Why is your shop so empty?” Sima Guang asked curiously.
Zhang Fei smiled and said: “With autumn tax collection imminent, everyone has gone out to the countryside to help the people with tax calculations.”
“I see.” Sima Guang nodded with a smile. “Now that tax avoidance is becoming increasingly difficult, your charitable organization will benefit greatly.”
What a way to make conversation! Zhang Fei chuckled and said: “You can’t put it that way. When we do charity work, our aim is charity itself, not tax avoidance.”
Sima Guang laughed and said: “You may not say it that way, but that’s how you’re doing it. Tell me honestly – did you also ask Wang Anshi to help you?”
Zhang Fei was startled. “What do you mean by that?”
Sima Guang said: “Yesterday in the Chamber of State Affairs, Wang Anshi repeatedly emphasized that this year’s autumn tax collection must be strictly supervised to prevent another incident like Wang Hong’s, which would damage the government’s credibility.”
“Isn’t that quite normal?”
“Normal?” Sima Guang chuckled. “Recently Wang Anshi has been working day and night on his new policies – where would he find time to worry about this? I knew as soon as I heard it that you were up to something.”
Zhang Fei said sheepishly: “Even if that’s true, it’s still within Academician Wang’s duties, so there’s nothing wrong with it!”
Sima Guang suddenly glanced at Zhang Fei. “Wang Anshi didn’t recruit you into the Reform Planning Commission?”
Zhang Fei shrugged slightly and said: “He did mention it, but I didn’t agree.”
Sima Guang nodded. They had discussed this matter before. Although he always felt Zhang Fei was hiding his true thoughts, at least Zhang Fei hadn’t deceived him – he really hadn’t accepted Wang Anshi’s invitation. Suddenly he pulled out an article from his sleeve. “Take a look at this. Is it workable?”
“Thank you, Academician Sima.”
Zhang Fei received the article with both hands, looked it over, and said excitedly: “Academician Sima, this article is truly excellent.”
Sima Guang said: “But you must remember your original promise. If your charitable organization fails to fulfill its duties and instead uses this to accumulate wealth, I definitely won’t spare you.”
This article was what Sima Guang had written to help the charitable organization, explaining the meaning of “preserving wealth amongst the people”.
It contained considerable praise, which amounted to an endorsement.
If this charitable organization didn’t live up to its name, Sima Guang’s reputation would also be implicated.
Zhang Fei nodded repeatedly and said: “Please rest assured, Academician Sima. I will only do better than what you’ve written, never worse. If I weren’t confident, I wouldn’t dare ask for your help.”
“That’s more like it.” Sima Guang nodded, then smiled and said: “You’re probably the only one in the world who could manage to get both me and Wang Anshi to help with the same matter.”
Zhang Fei chuckled and said: “Why don’t you think of it this way – this could be considered cooperation between you and Academician Wang. Who knows, it might produce miraculous results.”
Sima Guang snorted: “Forget it! That Wang Anshi and I are not the same type of people.”
Zhang Fei muttered quietly: “Then when I was serving corvee service…!”
Sima Guang glared at him.
After obtaining Sima Guang’s article, Zhang Fei immediately rushed to the printing workshop and handed the article to Hou Donglai to print immediately.
“By the way! Old Hou, how are you doing with the workshop matters?”
“I’ve already found a place. I’ll take you to see it another day.”
Hou Donglai said this, then paused slightly. “It’s just that if we sell movable type, there will definitely be newspapers trying to steal our business.”
Once the News Gazette came out, published every two days, making money was ridiculously easy.
As a merchant, Hou Donglai naturally wanted a monopoly.
It was better to enjoy profits alone than to share them with everyone.
Zhang Fei said: “If people can steal our business, they can do it whether we have movable type or not. Besides, the government has already mastered this technology – it can’t be kept secret.”
Hou Donglai glanced at Zhang Fei and said: “Then I’d also like to invest some money in the workshop.”
He wasn’t stupid either. If there were too many newspapers, the newspaper business would be somewhat affected, and profits would shift to the printing workshop.
Zhang Fei said: “That workshop belongs to a charitable organization. You can choose to donate money, but you should know the rules of charitable organizations.”
After hesitating for a long while, Hou Donglai said: “Zhang San, we are merchants after all – we still want to make money.”
Zhang Fei also thought for a moment. “You don’t have much money anyway, so you’d better keep it and accumulate more. This game isn’t quite suitable for you to play yet.”
Others were throwing thousands or tens of thousands of strings into it – if you threw in a few hundred strings, your son could only get a menial job there.
After many days, Sima Guang’s article appeared again in the Scholar’s Gazette.
But times had changed. Previously, the Scholar’s Gazette had relied on these scholars to attract attention, but now everyone couldn’t live without this newspaper. No matter who wrote for it, everyone loved to read it.
If something was poorly written, everyone could mock it a few times for entertainment.
On the surface, Sima Guang’s article praised the charitable organization for voluntarily donating to the Palace Communications Office and improving printing technology, using this to explain the concept of preserving wealth amongst the people.
He praised Zhang Fei, Cao Dongdong, and Ma Xiaoyi – as wealthy people and sons of officials, they had social responsibility. After making money, they were willing to donate to the state and to the people. Wasn’t this the concept of preserving wealth amongst the people?
Wasn’t this the ultimate essence of Confucian thought?
Wasn’t this what scholar-officials pursued – “In poverty, perfect one’s own virtue; in success, help perfect the world”?
Wasn’t this governing the realm together?
Of course, he also took the opportunity to subtly mock Wang Anshi.
Once this article was published, it immediately sparked intense discussion.
Highly moral scholars like Fu Bi, Wen Yanbo, and Zhao Bian gave this article extremely high praise.
This was also what they had been hoping for.
But Gu Ji, Lin Dan, Li Zhan – these vested interests among the conservatives – also expressed great appreciation for it.
Although they hated Zhang Fei to the bone, they were also very clear about who their greatest enemy was.
When these people argued with the reform faction, they usually used the common people as a cover, talking about preserving wealth amongst the people and competing with the people for benefits.
And this charitable organization had turned this philosophy into an objective reality.
Of course they supported it.
“Oh my! How foolish! I’m really foolish!”
Fan Yong slapped his forehead and said: “What do Young Master Cao and Xiaoyi know about charity? Behind this, it must be Old Ma and Lord Cao making the decisions. There must be a reason for this – how did I not think of it at the time? If Academician Sima had mentioned our White Crystal Inn, that would have been worth a thousand gold pieces!”
Saying this, he immediately said to Fan Zheng: “Zheng’er, immediately take some money and donate it to the charitable organization. We also need to earn a good reputation. We don’t lack money now – we just lack this reputation.”
Fan Zheng hesitated for a moment and said: “Father! I’ve also looked into this charitable organization before. It’s not simply doing charity – they only donate part of their profits, while the remaining money will be used for business to ensure sufficient funds for charity.
Their children can all take positions within it, and whoever donates more money can hold higher positions, while also avoiding taxes.”
Fan Yong asked: “What are your thoughts?”
Fan Zheng said: “I believe that simply donating a sum of money may not achieve the reputation Father desires, and recently the imperial court has been investigating taxes very strictly. Therefore, why not follow the example of the Cao and Ma families by donating a batch of land? This would avoid taxes while also allowing me to enter and manage this charitable organization. Not only would this avoid the risk of tax investigation, but it would also firmly tie our White Crystal Inn to charity, which would be of great benefit to future generations.”
Fan Yong frowned and said: “But once this land is donated, it won’t be ours anymore, and we can’t use that money for our own business.”
Fan Zheng said: “Has Father ever considered why Zhang San donated money to the Palace Communications Office to develop printing technology?”
Fan Yong asked: “Why?”
Fan Zheng said: “Because technology can be brought back for our own use, and currently all the talent is concentrated in the imperial court. We can also donate toward sugar refining, salt production, wine brewing, and other technologies that benefit our business. Then we can use these technologies to earn the money back.”
Fan Yong frowned and said: “But others can use the technology too.”
Fan Zheng said: “I believe this aspect can be negotiated. After all, since we’re the ones donating the money, those people must seriously listen to our suggestions.”
Fan Yong pondered for a long while, then said: “How much do you plan to donate?”
Fan Zheng said: “We must donate more than the Cao and Ma families in order to gain control of the charitable organization.”
Fan Yong said: “But will Zhang San agree to this?”
Fan Zheng said: “I will discuss this clearly with him. If they don’t agree, then we simply won’t donate.”
Fan Yong nodded slightly: “Handle it as you see fit.”