Gao Xian came out of the queue and said to Jia Yun: "Due to the severe drought, the harvests in the three provinces of northern Xinjiang have dropped sharply, and the taxes have only been collected by 60% so far. In addition, the people's customs are strong, and the trend of refusing to rent and stopping taxes has suddenly arisen. If we use the soldiers to force the collection

If we take it forcefully, it will probably trigger a civil uprising, so all the princes in the court tried their best but were unable to do anything."

Emperor Chongming in the hall said calmly to Jia Yun: "What do you think about it? You might as well say it directly. None of the princes in the court can think of a way. It doesn't matter if you are wrong. I forgive you."

Jia Yun was startled when he heard the words. Emperor Chongming asked him about the affairs of the court, as if he wanted to take a test. After thinking for a moment, Jia Yun said: "Return to your majesty, the sage said: "The people are the foundation of the country. The sage should treat the people like innocent children and treat them with contempt.

"Collect taxes and educate their minds." Since there is a severe drought in northern Xinjiang and the people have no food to pay, why not exempt them from taxes and open warehouses to provide disaster relief to calm the hearts of the people."

Emperor Chongming's face remained as usual and he said calmly: "Being able to say this shows that you study hard."

Before Jia Yun could relax, Emperor Chongming continued: "If Quan Dang opens a warehouse to provide disaster relief, the imperial court will suffer a huge tax deficit."

Jia Yun knew that it was not that easy. Even the princes in the court could not think of a way. How could it be so simple? In the final analysis, the matter was that the court had no money.

Emperor Chongming didn't expect Jia Yun to come up with any countermeasures, he just wanted to take the exam.

After a pause, Emperor Chongming waved his hand and said: "The treasury is empty, and this matter is not something you can solve. I just want to read your book."

Jia Yun nodded after hearing this, thought for a moment, looked up at Emperor Chongming, and said cautiously: "Your Majesty, the treasury is empty. If this continues, it will not be good for the court."

Emperor Chongming frowned when he heard this. The national treasury could not make ends meet, so what could he do? If he added more taxes, the people would not be able to survive.

Emperor Chongming was well aware of the imperial court's tax revenue. Every year, the land tax paid by various provinces amounted to 10 to 20 million taels, plus millions of taels of various customs duties, and hundreds of thousands of miscellaneous taxes including pawnshop tax.

Most of the silver was also transferred to the treasury of the household department, totaling more than 20 million taels.

The tax money seems to be a lot, but the great court gets money everywhere, including the salaries of the more than 20,000 officials in the court, the enjoyment of the emperors and princes, the food silver of the soldiers, the annual salary of thousands of princes and descendants, and the annual salary of three hundred people who repair the river.

More than 10,000 taels of funding, hundreds of thousands of labor and food money for officials, military expenses, etc. The annual expenditure of nearly 20 million taels mainly depends on these money.

After careful calculation, the money from annual taxes is not enough, and at most there is only a little surplus. If there is a famine year, the national treasury will be unsustainable and can only rely on the provinces to raise funds.

Thinking of this, Emperor Chongming was helpless. Everything he could save in the palace was saved, but it was only a drop in the bucket.

"Okay, I know this, and it's not your turn to worry about the court's affairs." Emperor Chongming said impatiently.

Jia Yun gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty, as far as the students know, the imperial taxation mainly relies on the Ding tax, and the law of Daqian states that the population needs to be counted every five years, and the upper households need to collect nine qian per person.

Ding Yin, and then in descending order, each household will be levied one penny, which is fair in theory, but officials at all levels may not be able to conduct careful verification, and some officials do not care about the lives of the people for the sake of so-called political achievements.

In order to collect more money, things that should be deleted are not deleted, and things that should not be added are increased instead, causing the people to suffer unspeakably.

In addition, officials and gentry concealed the population, and cunning people used their guest status to avoid it. As a result, the tax collected fell on the poor people.

There are even cases where upper households use money and power to rank themselves as middle households, while poor people are deliberately rated as upper households.

In order to pursue the surplus, officials often make false boasts when compiling and reviewing. On the other hand, they give up their wealth to become poor. The result of the increase in the surplus of dingyin is that the people have to bear more dingyin and suffer from "institutional payment" and "guaranteed compensation".

the suffering.

An old friend said: "The people lament the uneven distribution of happiness and suffering, and the officials are concerned about the inability to collect taxes, so the officials and the people are burdened."

Emperor Chongming looked at Jia Yun who was talking eloquently in surprise, thought for a moment, and said: "So what do you think?"

Jia Yun fell silent for a while and boldly said: "The students suggested abolishing the Ding tax and adding the money collected from the Ding tax into the land tax. After all, the head tax is collected on a per capita basis. The poor people have no land and money and cannot afford to pay. Naturally, the court will find it difficult to pay."

Collect them all, and those who have land have money and can afford to pay taxes. Only in this way can the court tax money be collected in full and the national treasury will be full."

Emperor Chongming was startled when he heard this and looked solemn. Jia Yun's words were not unreasonable. The land tax in various parts of the imperial court was collected well, but the poll tax was always collected unevenly. This was precisely because the people had no food left in their homes and could not afford to pay the poll tax.

Ding Yin not only affected the court's tax revenue, but also made life difficult for the common people. Because the population verification was not timely, some family members died without verification, and even the grandson was still paying the poll tax to his deceased grandfather. Many people could not pay.

He had no choice but to flee to another country. If things go on like this, it will not be a good thing for the stability of the court.

What's more, this move will also curb the powerful and gentry from annexing people's land, which will be of great benefit to the people.

After a moment of silence, Emperor Chongming reprimanded: "After reading a few books, I started to talk too much. I really don't understand what I mean, and I read it all in the dog's belly."

When Jia Yun heard this, he couldn't help but said angrily: "What your Majesty said is true, it's the student Meng Lang."

Emperor Chongming raised his eyes and looked at Jia Yun, without saying much, and said, "Look, you haven't eaten yet. Come and eat with me."

It is a great honor to accompany the emperor to dine. There is no reason not to accept it. So Jia Yun bowed and smiled and said: "Then I am a student who is very lucky today. I will thank your majesty for the gift in advance."

Emperor Chongming was delighted when he heard this. This guy is so rude...

Rongfu, Rongqing Hall.

The whole hall was filled with laughter and laughter.

Jia Mu, Mrs. Wang, Wang Xifeng and a middle-aged woman gathered together to rub dominoes.

The middle-aged woman is the mistress of the Xue family, Mrs. Xue Wang, known as Aunt Xue in the Jia family.

On the table, a small mountain of silver was piled up in front of Jia Mu, and everyone was filled with smiles.

In a good mood, Jia Mu asked Wang Xifeng on the side: "I heard that you and General Lian'er had a quarrel?"

Wang Xifeng, who was originally happy, suddenly frowned, but it passed away for a moment, and said with a smile: "Old ancestor, when we talk about this matter, you always comment, look at the one in my family, the one who I see all day long, is the top star of Cuiyufang.

Damn it, I just said a few more words, and he showed his face to me."

What kind of temper is Wang Xifeng? How could he say a few words? She probably didn't give the man face. However, Jia Mu didn't care and said with a smile: "Yuan Dao, you girl has been practicing in the past few years, but I didn't expect that you are still short-sighted."

"Now that the aunts and wives are here, they are all relatives, and they are all people who have been here before. Ask them, which man from a wealthy family is not so good at this, and is it worthy of you being so entangled in your heart?"

Aunt Xue smiled affectionately and said: "What the old lady said is absolutely true. Over the years, let alone the old lady, we have not seen any weird things. If the family has a big business, there are many things to do. The men go out to have fun.

It’s nothing.”

Mother Jia agreed: "My aunt is absolutely right. Lian'er is just a playful person, but looking at the past, he is still a family man..."

Wang Xifeng was noncommittal, obviously jealous.

Jia Mu didn't take it seriously. In her opinion, the left and right were just stubbornness. The men in the house were missing, so she said: "The men in the house are all like greedy cats. Who doesn't have fishy mouth? Lian

My son is fine now! I am so angry that my concubine is laughing at me now."

Aunt Xue said hurriedly: "I don't lie in front of the old lady, so how can that brother of mine be better off? He is away from home all day long... Oops, I really can't mention it! He's not as good as these brothers of yours! Especially

Is it Baoyu? I have seen so many young masters from rich families, but I have never seen any family whose children are better than Baoyu. They are all taught well by the old lady."

When talking about Baoyu's good qualities, Jia Mu loved to hear it and said modestly: "He is also a person who likes to look good. I thought he was like that, but after two years of looking at him coldly, he didn't have those things.

I simply like to be pretty!”

Then he taught Wang Xifeng: "Girl Feng, you sent everyone around Lian'er away and left you alone. What's the big deal? For a young master like us, it would be better if we had more good-looking servants around us."

It’s not a bad thing. You don’t want to fool around outside and be coaxed by foxy people. As long as we, the young masters from a good family, are filial, polite and sensible, everything else is just trivial."

"Ouch!"

Aunt Xue said excitedly: "I originally thought they were all disadvantages, but I never thought there would be such an advantage! I've really learned a lot!"

Everyone burst out laughing.

While several ladies were chatting animatedly, suddenly, they heard a burst of exclamation coming from the corridor outside the door.

Mother Jia couldn't bear to hear this kind of sound. Her heart skipped a beat. Not knowing what had happened, she looked outside.

Mrs. Wang and others also smiled.

Then he saw the young man who had been following Xue Pan being brought in, and cried: "It's terrible, Uncle Yun from Mozhuyuan beat Uncle Xue..."

When Aunt Xue heard that her precious son had been beaten, she immediately panicked. She quickly stood up and asked anxiously: "Why was my son beaten? What's going on?"

Seeing Aunt Xue lost her mind, Jia Mu frowned and said, "What happened? Please tell me more carefully."

The boy was running all the way back to his house. He was out of breath at this time. After catching his breath, he hurriedly said: "Uncle Xue was walking around in the west city today. He saw Uncle Yun from Mozhuyuan and came up.

Say hello, but who knew that Uncle Yun was unreasonable and beat Uncle Xue so hard that he couldn't even see his anger coming out."

As soon as these words came out, Aunt Xue was like a thunderbolt, she was horrified, her head was dizzy, she couldn't even speak, and she was on the verge of collapse.

Wang Xifeng was busy supporting her and asked over and over again: "It's so good, why did you start to do it?"

Mrs. Wang, who was silent, spoke up: "Even my father wanted to do something last time, so he said he was nothing."

Jia's mother frowned. She originally thought that Jia Yun was a man of etiquette, but she didn't expect that he would actually take action.

But I couldn't care about these at this time. The most important thing now is Xue Pan, so Jia Mu said: "Where is Brother Pan? Have you gone to see the doctor?..."

The boy replied: "Uncle Xue has been taken to Shuntian Mansion Office. I have no choice but to come back and report first."

Jia Mu was stunned when she heard this. This damn evildoer beat someone and threw him into the government office...

However, this was not the time to care about this matter, so he hurriedly ordered: "Yuanyang, go find the great master and ask him to take people to bring Brother Pan back to recover from his injuries. No mistakes can be made."
Chapter completed!