I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 1033 - Chapter 1033 Sowing Discord

Chapter 1033: Sowing Discord Chapter 1033: Sowing Discord Editor: Atlas Studios The pearls that were retrieved were carried back to the Prince’s estate and divided according to the top, middle, and bottom grades.

Looking at the few high-quality pearls in the small wooden bucket, a highly-satisfied Fan Zijin said to the children, “How about selling these pearls to me?” Little Bear was about to agree without thinking when Little An quickly tugged at his sleeve secretly, and the former immediately shut his mouth.

Noticing his son’s subtle action, Fan Zijin looked at him with raised eyebrows.

Little An looked up and said as if nothing had happened.

“Daddy, we’re going to keep some as a form of advertisement.” Fan Zijin said calmly, “Even if you sell it to me, it can be used as an advertisement.

At most, I’ll get someone to walk around Guangzhou with the pearls and help you promote them.” “Then we’ll choose some to be our representative pieces in our shop before selling the rest to you, okay?” Fan Zijin looked at his son fixedly and asked, “You even want to open a shop?” Little An coughed lightly and nodded.

“We’re going to open a shop that specializes in selling pearls.

I mean, we can’t very well sell them right away after opening the clams on the beach, right?

That would be too cheap.

If we sell polished pearls in our shop, the price will increase a lot whether we sell them individually or wholesale.” “So the shop will be left empty after you finish selling the pearls?” The breeding period in the aqua farm was about three years, which meant that pearls only appeared once every three years.

If they could be sold that first year, what about the remaining two years?

Fan Zijin felt that children were still too inexperienced.

Little An said proudly, “We’ve just decided to open three more aqua farms.

We’ll see if we can do varying breeding periodsaEUR”two, three, four, and five years.

This way, we can do experiments and stagger the clam opening times.

After two years, we can open clams every year.” Fan Zijin opened his mouth before closing it.

After a while, he asked, “Have you considered the cost?” Little Bear waved his hand magnanimously.

“Don’t worry, Second Uncle.

It won’t cost much.” Tiger Head shouted generously, “We’re not short of money now.” Even the usually thrifty Little Bear nodded with a smile.

They didn’t lack money now and could spend as much as they wanted.

Seeing Fan Zijin choke, Qi Haoran said to him, “Just choose a few of the best ones.

Why do you have to buy up everything?

You have to let them keep some as a form of advertisement.” Fan Zijin said, “I intend to open a jewelry store.” Qi Haoran said to him earnestly, “Zijin, since you’re not short of money now, you should focus on national affairs.

How can you always think about business?

As of now, you’re already involved in businesses spanning from salt, iron, wood, satin, tea, porcelain, restaurants, teahouses, and provision stores.

Now, you even want to open a jewelry store?

Are you going to open a bank the next day?” “Hey, you’re right.” Fan Zijin glanced at him and said, “I do have plans to open a bank.” Qi Haoran’s mouth fell open.

After a moment, he said, “You’re welcome to contribute to the national treasury of Great Qi now that Big Brother is revising the merchant tax.

No matter which family the business belongs to, one has to pay taxes.

Seeing as you have so many businesses under your name, you must pay a lot of taxes.” Fan Zijin’s heart ached.

Ever since he started doing business, he had never paid taxes.

Just like Great Zhou, Great Qi officials were not allowed to run businesses.

However, these were only the rules of the law and nobody really abided by them.

It was just like how the land under the name of the juren could be exempted from taxes.

Once a person became a juren, many people would go to the juren with their title deeds, asking to register them under the juren’s name to avoid taxes.

Every year, they would give the juren some money in return.

It was the same when doing business.

Most of the officials registered their family’s business under the servant’s name then took their name cards to the government office to register.

Every year when it came time to collect taxes, the government office would bypass these shops.

However, those with noble titles were not included in this ban.

Hence, Qi Haoran and Fan Zijin’s businesses were under their own names.

However, before Great Qi, Fan Zijin had been using Qi Xiuyuan’s name card to do business.

This was why he said that he had never paid taxes up till now.

After Qi Xiuyuan ascended the throne, he first removed the tax exemption regulations above the level of a juren.

He made it clear that a juren could only receive tax exemption on a certain area of farmland.

Even for officials serving in the imperial court, there was a limit to the amount of land that was exempted from taxes.

Although the higher the rank, the more land one could receive tax exemption on, it was still far inferior to the previous system.

First-grade officials could only be exempted from taxes on 500 acres; everything in excess of that had to be taxed.

Even though Qi Haoran was a supreme-grade noble, he was only exempted from taxes on 800 acres.

He had been paying taxes obediently all these years.

It could be said that this change implemented by the Emperor had increased the national treasury’s grain tax by a lot.

After all, most of the fields were owned by these officials and juren.

Once this rule was implemented, the base tax had increased several times.

And now, the Emperor was going to target the private businesses of the officials.

Although Fan Zijin’s heart ached, he had no choice but to accept it.

If even he went against it, it would be even more impossible for this decree to be implemented.

At this moment, there were indeed many people in the court who hoped that Fan Zijin would jump out and object.

There were even people who directly provoked Fan Zijin’s stewards, wanting them to protest the taxes.

Fortunately, none of Fan Zijin’s stewards were stupid, and none of them had made a fuss of it.

Qi Xiuyuan’s approach was as uncompromising as always.

He first issued an order that businesses and landholdings registered under the names of slaves would have their taxes increased by 20 percent.

He also decreed that any officials who allowed tax evasion in their jurisdictional shops would be charged with severe corruption.

Minor offenders would be dismissed from their posts, while the more serious offenders would be executed.

This effectively cut off any opportunities for officials to evade paying taxes.

After all, which officials didn’t own a few shops?

What a ruthless move by the Emperor.

Hence, some people targeted Prince Rong’s shops and tried to think up ways to instigate Prince Rong to make a fuss in front of the Emperor.

Since the Emperor doted on Prince Rong so much, the latter’s meddling would make it difficult for the Emperor to implement this change.

With the higher-ups setting an example of not following this new rule, the plan would most likely fall through.

Hence, just as Qi Haoran was feeling sorry for Fan Zijin, an official came to his shop to ask him to pay up the taxes.

When the matter was reported to Qi Haoran first, he scowled and slammed the thing on the table with a bang.

“Making use of me?

Do you think I’m easy to bully?” As long as the decree was implemented, he would not refuse to pay taxes in support of his big brother.

But now, the decree had just been issued and before the Ministry of Revenue had yet to take action, someone had already come looking for him.

Qi Haoran knew very well that this person was trying to sow discord between him and his big brother, and he couldn’t let them get their way.

On one hand, if he simply handed the taxes over, he couldn’t take it lying down.

On the other hand, if he didn’t, he would ruin his big brother’s plan.

Qi Haoran felt super aggrieved.

Qi Haoran sat in the government office for a long time with a livid expression.

Then, he took a deep breath and said to Fei Bai, “Get Zhu Liang to prepare the money.

We’ll pay as much taxes as we should.” The second person to learn about this was Fan Zijin.

Because Mu Yangling was pregnant, Qi Haoran had ordered that Zhu Liang was not allowed to tire her out with external matters, be it business matters or farm matters.

Hence, the first person to receive the news was Qi Haoran.

And because most of the stewards in Mu Yangling’s shops had come from Fan Zijin, he was the second to know.

Reacting completely differently from Qi Haoran, he sneered and mocked, “I’ll watch them shoot themselves in the foot.”