Warlords: Rising from the Northwest Border and Sweeping Across the Powers

Chapter 368: The Talented Chen Tong

A moment later, in the reception room on the third floor, Su Zhengyang slowly walked into the room, smiled at An Chengjie and others present, and slowly said, "Councilman An, Governor Qian, I wonder if you suddenly came to me to discuss something important? Xiao Jiang, take out my treasured Da Hong Pao and let Councilman An and Governor Qian taste it."

An Chengjie and Qian Haodong stood up subconsciously and said, "President, we are sorry to bother you for taking time out of your busy schedule to see us."

Su Zhengyang waved his hand and said, "Sit down. There's no need to be so polite. You two are both my seniors. There's no need to be so polite."

An Chengjie got straight to the point and said, "Regarding Mr. Wang's suggestion yesterday that the governors of each province should hand over their military power to the central government, after returning, Brother Qian and I have carefully considered and decided to support Mr. Wang's suggestion and respond to the call of the Northern Frontier Government to hand over the military power of the Lizhou and Quzhou armies to the Northern Frontier Central Government."

An Chengjie paused, then looked at Su Zhengyang and said, "However, Brother Qian and I have a few small requests."

Su Zhengyang said calmly: "Governor An, please feel free to speak. I am very relieved that you can make a decision to support the central government."

"Xiaotong, you haven't met the President yet!"

Chen Tong looked confident, stood up quickly, walked to Su Zhengyang, and said respectfully: "Hello, Mr. President, I am Chen Tong, the director of Quzhou Canglong Bureau, and also the son-in-law of Governor An."

After Su Zhengyang and Chen Tong exchanged glances briefly, he nodded and said, "I've heard that Governor An has found a good son-in-law with outstanding talents. After meeting him today, I find that he is indeed a handsome man!"

"President, I hope that after the An faction surrenders its military power, Xiaotong can serve in your newly established military system. I, An Chengjie, am by no means a nepotist. My son-in-law has studied abroad and is both civil and military, with extraordinary knowledge and talent. If the president does not believe me, you can send someone to find out."

Su Zhengyang waved his hand and said, "No need. Brother Chen is obviously a man of great talent and knowledge. However, I do have something I would like to ask Brother Chen for advice."

Su Zhengyang's eyes flashed, and then he stared at Chen Tong and said, "Today I checked the financial report of the Northern Frontier government. The Northern Frontier government, which owns more than 3.2% of China's territory, only has an annual tax revenue of 6.5 million oceans. You know, according to the information I got, the Southern Government, whose territory is much smaller than that of the Northern Frontier, had a fiscal revenue of million oceans in the same year. This is really not right. I wonder what Brother Chen thinks of this matter."

Chen Tong thought for a moment and said calmly, "Mr. President, please forgive me for being blunt. In fact, the tax revenue of Northern Xinjiang should be much more than 300 million yuan. Northern Xinjiang has more than 7 million square kilometers of land. It is not an exaggeration to describe it as vast and fertile. Agricultural tax revenue should account for more than 70% of fiscal revenue. However, in Northern Xinjiang today, land annexation is too serious. A large amount of land is in the hands of landlords, gentry, and aristocratic families. The gap between the rich and the poor is far beyond imagination."

"Landlords and gentry have vast tracts of land and full granaries, but ordinary people can hardly even afford to eat and wear clothes. The most important thing is that these landlords and gentry rent the land to ordinary farmers at extremely high prices and collect rent. Since they have their own connections in the local area, it is easy for them to evade taxes. As a result, the agricultural tax that can be collected in Northern Xinjiang each year is less than 30% of the total agricultural tax, or even 20%."

"The problem of land annexation has existed since ancient times. It is a problem that has been difficult to solve in all dynasties. This is only one of the problems. The second is commercial taxes. Nowadays, in addition to the normal payment of commercial taxes by some small merchants, some large chambers of commerce and business organizations will find foreigners to hold a certain amount of their shares. In the treaty signed between the Northern Frontier government and the Western powers, foreigners can be exempted from paying taxes to the Northern Frontier. In this way, they can reasonably avoid taxes. Even if there are unreasonable places, the officials of the tax department dare not offend those foreigners."

"Besides, among the ten major business houses under the jurisdiction of Northern Xinjiang, except for the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and the Northwest Chamber of Commerce, the other eight major business houses were either founded by foreigners themselves or have foreigners' shares. If they paid taxes normally, it would definitely be an astronomical figure beyond imagination."

Chen Tong spoke eloquently and made two points that were very insightful and directly pointed out the fundamental problem of the current low fiscal revenue in Northern Xinjiang.

Behind Chen Tong, An Chengjie showed a worried look and stared at his son-in-law's back.

The problem that Chen Tong mentioned has become the norm in the entire Northern Frontier and almost everyone knows about it, but Chen Tong put it on the table so bluntly that he offended countless people.

Su Zhengyang looked at Chen Tong with a hint of admiration in his eyes and said, "Brother Chen is indeed a man of extraordinary talent and courage. Don't worry, I, Su Zhengyang, have always liked talents like you. In the future, there will definitely be a place for you, Chen Tong, in the Northern Frontier!"

"Mr. President, you are too kind. Judging from your past style of work, if I work under you and show enough ability, my path to promotion is bright. I also believe that I will be a shining star under the President."

Su Zhengyang looked at An Chengjie and said, "After the Northwest War Zone is established, I will personally issue a letter of appointment and give Brother Chen a position at the level of a division commander. How things will develop in the future will depend on Brother Chen's own abilities. If Brother Chen can display his talents and make great contributions to the Northern Frontier, it will be no problem for him to be promoted to a marquis or a general in the future."

An Chengjie pondered for a moment. In fact, he was somewhat dissatisfied with the conditions given by Su Zhengyang. He had handed over the military power of two or three hundred thousand troops in his hands. Not to mention exchanging a commander's position for his son-in-law, at least he could give him a lieutenant general or an army commander. It was not too much, right? However, Su Zhengyang was only willing to give him a position at the division commander level.

An Chengjie was about to bargain, but Chen Tong turned around and gave him a calming look, which made An Chengjie swallow the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

Su Zhengyang then looked at Qian Haodong and said, "I heard that Governor Qian's son is now over 20 years old. When the time comes, I will give him the same treatment. At the same time, you two can continue to serve as the governors of Lizhou and Quzhou and manage the affairs of the state. What do you think?"

"Mr. President, could you please arrange a quiet place for me to discuss this with my father-in-law and Uncle Qian, and then give you a specific answer?"

Su Zhengyang also understood that this matter was of great importance, so he nodded and said, "Xiao Jiang, arrange a quiet and bright tea room for the two governors and serve them tea and snacks."

"Yes, President."

In a tea room of more than 20 square meters in the government building, Qian Haodong said to Chen Tong impatiently, "Xiao Tong, Su Zhengyang is only willing to give us a division commander position in exchange for the military power of hundreds of thousands of troops in our hands. This is simply too much. We should have rejected him directly just now. What are we still discussing?"

Chen Tong said calmly: "Uncle Qian, please be patient and listen to my analysis..."