Chapter 65 The historical path that our Zhuxia clan should have taken

Author: Yang's Liangjiazi

Chapter 65 The historical path that our Zhuxia clan should have taken

There is a saying by Liu Bei that Sun Ce has always found particularly interesting.

"The one who is on the same level as me today is Cao Cao. If he is aggressive, I will be lenient; if he is violent, I will be benevolent; if he is cunning, I will be loyal; if he goes against Cao Cao, things will be successful."

Every time you go against Cao Cao, things will come true.

Sun Ce sat upright and said to all the powerful men: "The Han Dynasty has lost its morals and is tyrannical in its administration. Therefore, the Yellow Turbans are rampant, causing disturbances from all directions and strife in the world. The country is in danger of being overrun with eggs, and all living beings are in danger of falling."

"Since the government of the Han Dynasty has caused chaos in the world, I want to restore the prefectures and counties, but I want to rebel against the Han Dynasty. Then the four directions will be at peace, the people's hearts will be stable, and things will be successful!"

"The three chapters of today's contract are all contrary to the violent laws of the Han Dynasty!"

"First, the Han Dynasty imposed heavy taxes, which caused starvation and death all over the country. I will take the corvee lightly and pay too little, and wipe out all the families in Jiangdong!"

This first article made all the powerful people surprised and astonished.

Eliminate all Jiangdong portals! That means everyone will no longer be subject to head tax!

This is indeed great news for powerful families and even ordinary people. Previously, only scholars from aristocratic families had such treatment.

Everyone looked at Sun Ce expectantly. They eagerly wanted to know how Sun Lang planned to govern without imposing household taxes.

But the second article immediately plunged them into unparalleled shock and ecstasy.

"Article 2: The Han Dynasty inhibited development, but I will not establish the land system!"

But before the surprise of the powerful heroes broke out, Sun Ce suddenly drew out his long knife and cut off the desk in front of him with one strike. The sharp blade made the hairs on the hair of the ecstatic powerful heroes stand on end and their whole bodies were filled with chills.

Sun Ce looked down at everyone with his tiger eyes, speaking every word in a serious tone: "There is one last thing, tax evaders will die!"

The powerful men suddenly had stern expressions on their faces and did not dare to look sideways. At this moment, Sun Lang was as violent as a tiger, and his heroism far exceeded that of the great ancestor. All the powerful men felt the pressure of death in the tiger's mouth.

Everyone in the hall was immediately impressed by the third article, and they were sure that if they evaded taxes, they would definitely face Sun Lang's butcher's knife.

But looking at such a powerful and powerful general, the heroes really didn't have the courage to fight.

And under this terrifying murderous intent, the powerful men were also somewhat secretly happy, even ecstatic!

As we all know, the Han Dynasty has always restricted the powerful. The four hundred years of the Han Dynasty were the four hundred years of fierce struggle between the royal family and the powerful.

The powerful were being killed, restricted, and targeted. Every day felt like a cold light on their backs, and they felt like they were sitting on pins and needles.

And Sun Lang will leave today without establishing a land system! This is a lenient way to govern the country, how can it not be popular?

Regarding these three items, Sun Ce also has very firm confidence.

In fact, these three articles can be summarized into one, that is, the purpose of the two tax laws is only based on assets, not individuals.

This has also been the main direction of tax law reform in the Central Plains for thousands of years, which is to abolish the per capita tax standard based on rent and tax, and to collect taxes based on land and assets.

The second item that surprises the powerful the most is the non-establishment of land system, which is exactly the opposite of the suppression of mergers that the Han Dynasty has been promoting.

The powerful men were in awe of novelty for a while, but Sun Ce had no trouble.

Because there is no land system, it boils down to allowing the free circulation of land. It was implemented in the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. The principle is that "the rich and the poor have no fixed status, and the land and house have no fixed owner. If you have money, you can buy it, and if you don't have money, you can buy it."

Sell"

Of course, even without considering the experience of later generations, the current population of Jiangnan may only be between one million and two million, but it occupies millions of square kilometers of land. In this practical situation, what needs to be considered to inhibit annexation?

Later feudal dynasties in this land could support tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of people. At present, there are only one or two million people. How can the powerful annex it?

After all, there are people who do the beheading business, but no one does the loss-making business. What is the benefit of annexing so much land and no one cultivating it except paying more taxes?

On the other hand, Sun Ce did not like the self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy.

Historically, agricultural technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, and the dynasty with the fastest development in farming level was the Song Dynasty, which was the first to not establish a land system.

The most famous thing about the Song Dynasty was the manor, where members of the clan had their own farms and were classified as households, employing clients who had no permanent property to carry out farming and production.

Under this production model, large estate owners improved farming techniques one after another, which led to rapid development of agricultural production.

To be honest, the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty were completely false successors. The Eastern Han Dynasty and the Song Dynasty were the real father and son.

The systems of the two dynasties are very similar. The economy is dominated by the manor economy, and the military system implements a recruitment system. Even in industry and commerce, the two dynasties are very similar. The powerful and powerful people have to control the interests of the mountains and seas, mine iron and stone, cast drums, and cook.

The sea is salt. A family gathers together, perhaps more than a thousand people.

What's more coincidental is that these two dynasties lasted for two dynasties, and their combined duration accounted for half of the duration of all unified dynasties. Counting the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, these two dynasties also lasted longer than

one third.

With so many coincidences, one has to wonder whether there is any inevitable connection among them.

In Sun Ce's view, whether he likes it or not, in the late Han Dynasty, the powerful manor economy was already the de facto economic foundation.

If you must destroy this economic model and start equalizing and conferring land again, you will be destined to become the enemy of all powerful people and cause the world's powerful people to rise up in resistance.

If there is not an extremely powerful new force behind him, such as the Guanlong Military Group, it is impossible to defeat the countless tyrants in this world.

Therefore, instead of fighting against all powerful men, it is better to further improve the manor economy and set up a corresponding tax system.

An important reason for the disunity of the Han Dynasty was that the tax system was seriously out of touch with the manorial economy. On the one hand, wealth such as fields, houses, and real estate were in the hands of the powerful, and on the other hand, the government was still trying its best to impose harsh poll taxes on the common people.

In the Tang Dynasty, the Two Tax Law was implemented for the first time, and taxes were collected based on assets. After the implementation of the Two Tax Law, the wealth collected within two years even far exceeded the taxes collected in the hundreds of years since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, through the rule of Zhenguan, and during the Kaiyuan Dynasty.

lump sum.

Of course, since ancient times, both China and foreign countries have faced the same problem, that is, "people who have the ability to pay taxes also have the ability not to pay taxes!"

Therefore, after the land system is not established, the most critical thing is taxation!

Those who evade taxes will die. This is an iron rule that Sun Ce must establish. Just like a heinous crime, the offender will be killed immediately.

Sun Ce solemnly said to everyone: "Jiangnan is in decline and has a population of only one million. Even if the land is distributed equally and everyone is taxed ten times, it will only be more than 10% of the tax of the Han Dynasty. Therefore, I am exempted from the household tax.

The tax will be taxed, and the land tax will be regarded as the only agricultural tax."

While everyone was pondering, Sun Ce helped them calculate an account: "If Jiangdong had not established a land system, you could have thousands of acres of fertile land, or even ten thousand acres of fertile land. Even if you pay a single tax, the wealth you can obtain will still be several times or even ten times.

, a hundred times what it is now.”

"Ten times, a hundred times richer than today! This benefit is so different that even a young boy can see it at a glance. So I hope you can distinguish the pros and cons, and don't give up this hundred times wealth and glory and wealth for petty gains. Tax evaders will die.

This is an iron rule!"

"Those who report tax evasion at the same time can get half of their taxes! The government will share it with them."

The last one immediately made all the powerful men take a deep breath and feel a chill on their backs.

Each of their homes has a large number of guests and tribes. Once they evade taxes, one of these people will report them.

Half of their vast wealth, thousands of hectares of fertile land, and beautiful wives and concubines were given to the whistleblower. However, the powerful men themselves were left with their heads missing and were left to feed the dogs in the wilderness.

If this is the case, all other people in the clan will benefit from tax evasion, and only the powerful themselves will bear all the risks and consequences.

Naturally powerful people would not be stupid enough to do such a thing.

Someone immediately asked: "How does Sun Lang plan to collect agricultural taxes? Will he collect acres of land in the same way as mine fields, or in kind?"

The taxation system in the Central Plains has always been relatively confusing. The well-field system divides an acre of land into nine pieces, like a nine-square grid. The surrounding eight pieces are classified as private fields, and the middle piece is public land. The grain produced by private fields belongs to the people, and the grain produced by public fields belongs to the people.

Paid as taxes.

Collection of physical goods is more popular nowadays. For example, each commoner must hand in a piece of cloth every year. In Cao Cao's farming, officials weighed the grain produced per mu of land and levied taxes based on the actual grain produced.

But these taxation plans are too troublesome to count.

So Sun Ce said: "I plan to implement a whip method to combine all household taxes, taxes, handymen, etc. into one line, and tax according to the acre. There is a fixed tax per acre of land, and the tax will be paid according to the number of acre of land.

"

This law saves a lot of messy taxes and does not implement a progressive tax system. A thousand acres of fertile land in the hands of the common people will pay the same tax as a thousand acres of fertile land in the hands of powerful men.

This can save a lot of officials. The tax officials only have to do one thing now, which is to check how many acres of land the wealthy family has.

It can not only improve the tax system, but also save petty officials from disturbing the people.

As for the tax amount per acre of land, this cannot be determined now.

After all, Sun Ce's power, including Wu County, does not control more than five counties. The population, acres, and output within the territory are almost unknown. At least they have to wait for Zhang Zhao, Gu Yong and other wise ministers to conduct an inventory before they can determine

Down.

When the banquet was over, the departing powerful men were all excited. They also strengthened their belief that they must persuade relatives and friends in the county to fully support Sun Lang in seizing Wu County and implementing Huang Lao's rule. Now that Liu Yao is back, the powerful men must do their best.

He resisted and firmly supported Sun Lang.

This is the rule of Huang Lao! It is the most conducive to recuperation and recuperation, with light corvee and low taxes, and governance by doing nothing. The government does not care about anything except taxation. It is definitely a blessing for all the powerful people in Wu County.

Yes, the departing powerful men talked and exchanged ideas, and they all agreed that what Sun Lang implemented was not a new law, but a restoration of the Huang-Lao rule of the early Han Dynasty.

Sun Ce's three-chapter treaty, you can say that he made earth-shaking changes and completely overturned the Han Dynasty's long-standing philosophy of governing the country.

But on the other hand, you can say that Sun Ce did almost nothing. He only did light corvee and low taxes, and then recognized the objective economic foundation of the Han Dynasty.

If after the Three Kingdoms, China had not experienced the Five Husbands, and Xianbei had not re-implemented the land equalization system since the Spring and Autumn Period, prohibiting the free circulation of land, then the Han Dynasty would only need to carry out a tax reform similar to the Two Taxes Law, and the economic system of the Eastern Han Dynasty should directly transition to the manor economic form of the Song Dynasty.

, at worst, it was still at the level of the late Tang Dynasty.
To be continued...