Chapter 20 Tax Increase

Author: Use your soul to aim

Chapter 20 Tax Increase

On the 7th, Zhang Zongxian promised that after completing the horse market project, the city walls and roads would be renovated. During the slack season, water conservancy projects would also be built. The engineering team led by Wang Laosan worked hard to speed up the construction of the horse market. It would take less than 10 days.

This horse market can be built.

Hu Biao also came back from the grassland, bringing back 50 horses, 2,000 sheep, and 200 cattle. It took more than 30 herdsmen from the grassland to bring these horses, cattle, and sheep back.

When Hu Biao came back, he arranged the animals and immediately went to see Zhang Zongxian.

"We can earn at least 900 taels from this trip, county magistrate. If we hadn't taken care of the hundreds of households over there, which cost 50 horses, we would have earned 1,400 taels from this trip."

"Those border troops are not good at fighting, but they are good at extortion. Sooner or later I will deal with them. When next year comes, I will get you a Jinyiwei Hundred Household Dangdang. Let's see who dares to blackmail."

"Your Majesty, aren't the Imperial Guards the emperor's personal guards? I can be one too."

"There's nothing you can't do. When doing things for the palace, you have to do things for the benefit of others."

"Thank you, Lord County. Then I, Hu Biao, will also be an official by then, and I will be able to honor our ancestors."

"I have picked out the best horses from the horses brought back this time, which will be of great use to me. You also recruited some Tatars this time."

"There is actually a mixture of Mongols and Han people outside the county wall. There are Han people who are evading taxes and herders who can't survive. It's hard to tell who is Han and who is Tatar. Even in Guihua City, there are many Han people there.

Farming.”

"Oh, can we recruit cavalry from outside the border wall?"

"In Neng County, many small tribes were broken up and annexed. The original herders wandered the grasslands. There are also many Han people who have become Mongolian and can ride horses and shoot archery as well as the Tatar cavalry. This is also the reason why there are so many horse bandits on the grasslands."

"Let's talk about recruiting cavalry. What do you plan to do with these cattle and sheep?"

"I know a lot of dealers who collect cattle and sheep, but the prices can't go up."

"The wool from this sheep can keep out the cold, and the mutton is a delicacy."

"The smell of the County Lord's wool is too strong, and only the Tatars are using it. The poor people can't afford it, and the rich people wear cotton."

Zhang Zongxian thought to himself how warm the sweater he wore when he was a child was. It didn’t exist in the Ming Dynasty, so what are you waiting for? You must know that the British wool textile industry promoted the development of capital. How much warmth is needed during the Little Ice Age?

Ah! The smell of wool is so strong that it just needs to be washed. As for how to wash it, let Su'e test it.

After making a mental note, he continued to talk to Hu Biao: "You, the general manager, can't always abandon such a big stall and run away to the grassland. Or arrange for someone to take you to the grassland. You don't need to change too much at one time.

A few horses and white-headed sheep are enough. Let your friends in the world run around more. You can give them credit."

"The county magistrate's ambition is nothing compared to that of a small one! If we can give these people credit, they can ride their horses into the grassland and carry dozens of kilograms of Erguotou. Even if they go to Guihua City and back, it won't take twenty days."

"It's okay if a large caravan wants goods, but we can't give in on the price. Our only share of Erguotou is 10 taels per catty. No matter where he comes from, no one can come to this three-thirds of an acre. You can arrange to get that wool

Shave them all and put them in the horse market's warehouse for me to use."

I understand. Although the county magistrate and the horse market sell everything, the sheep and cattle have to be put outside the city. First, there are more cattle and sheep, and second, so many animals are easily infected with the disease together.

"I will tell Bo Ding to continue building sheep pens and cattle pens outside the east gate, and we will discuss the details with you."

Three days later, Zhang Zongxian was teaching dialectics to several of his disciples in the backyard. Qian Dianshi suddenly came over and said that there was an official document from the superiors, saying that taxes would be increased. Zhang Zongxian was not calm when he heard that taxes were going to be increased. Then he saw that there was an additional tax of nine cents per mu.

Fortunately, I thought, there wasn’t much! The county’s nearly 300,000 acres of land only cost 2,700 taels of silver.

Qian Dianshi saw that Zhang Zongxian was very calm and did not take the tax increase seriously, so he quickly said to Zhang Zongxian: "My county magistrate! Why are you not in a hurry! Our poor place needs to scrape out these 30,000 stones of grain and 10,000 taels of silver.

That’s not easy.”

"Why is it only 30,000 shi of grain for 10,000 taels of silver? The annual quota for these 300,000 acres of land is 10,000 shi of grain, which means that 1,200,000 kilograms of grain can be converted into 10,000 taels of silver. Including the addition just now, it is only 12,700 taels."

"Your Majesty, the normal payment is 10,000 stones of grain and 2,700 taels of silver, but there are also the Bingjing and Tanjing given to Shangguan every year, as well as the accumulated debts from previous years, plus your routine."

"Whoever owed money in the past will go to whoever owes it"

"My county magistrate! There has been no county magistrate for more than ten years. Who else are you looking for when you take office?"

"How much did you owe before?"

"About 20,000 koku"

"so much?"

"This is the accumulated debt accumulated over more than ten years."

"Then what is the norm?"

"This routine includes giving you eight pieces of silk for making clothes on weekdays, one tael of silver for each lining, one stone of rice for each lining, one tael of silver for each lining for each corvee, and one tael of silver for each lining of the county's salt.

Money and silver. Every time salt is sold in the county, one tael is worth one tael. Every year, there are 100 ribs of paint. Five taels of money and grain are collected for every 100 taels. Each grain of silver is two taels for the yellow book. Each grain of salary is two taels.

Discount one tael of silver, and so on, a total of 3,000 taels."

Such a poor county has to plunder so much. Wait, these officials will not accept the real amount. They can give me 3,000 taels of silver. How much greed do they have to be? With so many li chiefs, officials, government servants and Huang Shilang.

It will definitely have to be plundered several times. They will also take the opportunity to lend money and annex land.

Qian Dianshi saw that Zhang Zongxian was thinking thoughtfully and continued: "The grain collected needs to be supplied to the border wall for transportation and loss, and an additional 10% will be added. The loose silver collected must be cast into official silver to pay back."

10% loss."

"That's 33,000 shi of grain and 11,000 taels of silver. Based on an average annual output of 300 kilograms of 300,000 acres of land in the county, one acre has to bear 17.6 kilograms of grain."

"That's not what the county magistrate thinks. Among the 300,000 acres of land owned by feudal lords, gentry, and Huang Shilang, there are a total of 150,000 acres that do not need to be taxed."

"Not only do they not need to pay taxes, but they also make profits from it. Tell me the truth. I want to collect all the taxes, plus everyone's share. How much food do the people have to pay?"

County Lord, this is the case all over the world! Your annual salary is only 70 shi, and you may not have that much in your hands. The court often gives spices and other things to compensate for the salary. Being an official requires pomp and circumstance.

70 stone is not enough for this application.

"Qian Dianshi just tells the truth, don't mention anything else."

Seeing that Zhang Zongxian was a little impatient, Qian Dianshi hurriedly said: "According to previous calculations, the equivalent of food would be 200,000 shi."

"That's half of the output of 150,000 acres. The 80,000 people in Qingjian County, except for those tax-free fields, have less than 2 acres of land per capita. Even if the average land is 2 acres, a family of four can only keep it after paying the tax.

It takes 1,200 kilograms of grain, which is less than one kilogram per day on average. Is this enough to eat?"

"I know that you, the county magistrate, care about the people, but you can't handle it if you can't explain it to the superior! If you don't let the people below take it, they won't collect it properly. This would cost lives every year, and if you don't let them take it, they won't do it.

"

"Qian Dianshi, please go ahead and let me think about it."

With less than a kilogram of grain a day, you still have to do heavy work. There is no oil or water to replenish your strength. You have to rely on carbohydrates. You also have to save seeds for planting next year and buy salt. You can barely survive starvation. Even if you pay in full this year, there will be a drought next year.

,arrive

When you were young, you had to sell your land to make a living. You didn't have to pay land tax when you rented other people's land. However, there were still other extra sects, plus you had to bring your own dry food to serve as corvees. No wonder the people in Shaanxi rebelled after the three wages were levied.

If you don't rebel, you will starve to death.

What should I do to pass this level? If you don’t pay enough taxes to the boss, you won’t be promoted. If you want to pay in full, the people will have to do surgery. Even if you check the hidden fields, you won’t be able to make up 20,000 dan! If you really want to be promoted, the people Zhang Zongxian will die.

If they can't do it, they and their disciples can't explain it. Even if they don't get promoted, the border troops who can't afford the food for this wall will starve. If they rebel, it will be even more destructive.

Even if the output of the wine industry is paid in grain, it won't work. If he is so kind to the people, the people below will suspect that he wants to rebel. In addition, the output of the wine industry must be kept secret, otherwise those greedy people will never let this person lay eggs.

The golden rooster. Even a rebellion will only destroy the fragile economy of the north. In the end, we can only imitate Li Zicheng and become rogue bandits to completely destroy the north. Even if the rebellion succeeds and there are no talents to replace these officials, they still have to use them to govern the people, so it is better not to

rebel.

Zhang Zongxian thought for a long time and decided to proceed step by step. First, inventory the land and then ask those who are not qualified for tax exemption to make up for the tax arrears. Speed ​​up the pace of destroying Huang Shilang. He must have food reserves, and it is up to him to pay off the arrears.

Those feudal kings will kill them sooner or later and distribute the land to the people. They will increase their efforts to cultivate their own people.

We still need to recruit more disciples. We also need to find a safe way for people to pay taxes without going through the hands of those soap officials. Otherwise, we will encounter this problem in other places in the future. The key point is to control these soap officials. Originally,

You only need to pay a maximum of 40 kilograms of grain per acre of land. Now they have embezzled so much.

After thinking about the countermeasures, Zhang Zongxian called the people from the household room over. Originally, Zhang Zongxian divided the people from the household room into two groups and asked them to supervise each other and compete. Now it is time to see the results.

Soon the chief and deputy of the household came. When they met, the two looked unconvinced with each other. Zhang Zongxian directly asked them how the investigation was going. The chief said that only the feudal lord did not have the guts to investigate.

, everything else has been checked, but the deputy said that he did not check Huang Shilang’s case and everything else has been checked.

After asking the two to hand over the checked fish scale book, Zhang Zongxian looked at it and directly asked them to call their people over. Under the supervision of the officials, they would check on the spot whether there were any problems with the other party's inventory results. In order to compete, the two teams

The position was still at odds with each other and kept pointing out the other party's problems. The staff kept records.

In the end, the deputy thought clearly. He knew that if he lost, he would be liquidated by his original boss, and now his whole group was counting on him to enter the Yamen. He pointed out all the hidden fields in Qingjian County. The previously hidden population was also revealed by him.

Check out.

The head of the house still had the mentality of fooling his superiors and helped the local government hide the population of a large area of ​​land. Zhang Zongxian immediately had the head of the house taken down and imprisoned. The deputy was promoted to chief. All the people who were originally in charge were

get rid of.

Then ask the newly appointed director to continue the inventory and re-check the missing volume as soon as possible.

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