He Xi didn't know that his disguise had been seen through. He changed into a scholar's green shirt. He took Xu Bao'er, Wang Qianli, and four or five bodyguards, pretending to be a traveling scholar. He did not stay in Jiaxing City for a long time, but went directly out of the city.
Township.
After leaving Jiaxing City, He Xi did not decide where to go. Instead, he followed the river in the countryside and wandered among the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River. After walking for half a day, he saw an old man covering his face with a straw hat under a big tree by the river.
, with the fishing rod next to it.
He Xi got off the boat and went over and said, "Uncle, can I ask you something?"
The uncle didn't even put down the straw hat on his head. He waved his hand and said: "Go, go, don't scare my fish."
Seeing this, He Xi thought about it and asked his entourage to fold a bamboo pole, hang a rope on it, and drop the bait. He also pretended to fish.
Half a day later, the old man put aside his straw hat a little, exposed his eyes, and saw that He Xi had not left yet. He said: "Young master, you can ask anything you want. I finally understand. As long as you are here, I won't think about fishing today."
.”
He Xi said: "My surname is yours."
The old man said: "You don't have to pay much attention to Liu."
He Xi said: "Uncle Liu, where are you from?"
Uncle Liu raised his hand, pointed to the small village not far away, and said: "Liujia Village."
He Xi said: "I think Uncle Liu is considered an elder in the village."
Uncle Liu said: "Since the emperor ascended the throne, a few years of peace have passed. It has allowed me, the old immortal, to live for a few more years. Most of the people in the village are my juniors."
He Xi said: "Uncle, how many people are there in Liujia Village?"
Uncle Liu replied nonchalantly: "More than a hundred households."
He Xi asked: "How much is the tax per mu?"
Uncle Liu was stunned, sat up, looked at He Xi and said, "Who are you and why do you ask this question?"
He Xi said: "I am an Imperial College student and I am out to study. Just ask me. Is there anything I can't say?"
Uncle Liu said: "There is nothing that cannot be said. Three fights."
He Xi was stunned and said: "The court tax is more than five liters per mu. How come your family's land tax is six times more than what the court stipulates." He Xi seemed to have thought of something. She said: "Uncle Liu, your family is an official
Tian?"
Uncle Liu sneered and said, "My family does not have that blessing."
He Xi was a little confused and said, "How do you say this? The tax on official land is much heavier than that on civilian land. How can it be considered a blessing?"
Uncle Liu said: "They have never had any dealings with each other."
He Xi became more and more confused.
What is official land? It is the land occupied by Zhang Shicheng's relatives. After Zhu Yuanzhang pacified Zhang Shicheng, he designated these lands as official land and asked local officials to collect rent on his behalf. So what the official land had to hand over to the government was the court tax plus the tenant rent.
It is more than double that of Mintian.
Official land has a heavier burden than private land. This is the reality.
He Xi said: "Please ask the elders for advice."
Uncle Liu looked He Xi up and down and said, "I don't think you look like a Imperial College student. You do seem to be a caring person."
He Xi said: "Thank you, uncle."
Uncle Liu said: "However, it is not a secret. Why can't we say that the dog officials are good at it? You should know how the official fields came from. The best fields in the south of the Yangtze River are the official fields. They are all close to rivers and water.
Good fields can produce much more than our fields, and some good fields can produce twice as much as my fields."
"These fertile lands are no longer government lands. They have been occupied by wealthy families. After these wealthy families occupied the government lands, they no longer even wanted to pay the rent for the government lands. So, let us do it for you."
He Xi never expected that things would have developed to this point.
Zhu Yuanzhang's establishment of official land was due to the nature of farmers. After he defeated Zhang Shicheng, the most important spoils he obtained from Zhang Shicheng were large areas of land. How to deal with these lands and let Zhu Yuanzhang return them to the people, Zhu Yuanzhang was reluctant to part with them. So it was set to
Official land, in essence, is just a share of the rent.
These official lands were essentially court property. If Zhu Yuanzhang's original intention was followed, these lands would be directly managed by tenants. When the government levied taxes, they also collected the tenant rent. After all, tenants also had to pay land rent when they rented land.
To be honest, He Xi felt that the official land system was not reliable before.
Without him, Zhang Shicheng and the powerful people of Zhang Shicheng Group occupied the most fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River. Even if they paid an extra share of rent, renting official land would still be profitable. Therefore, when He Xi learned about the official land system,
I am worried that there will be a phenomenon of second landlords.
That is to say, large families occupied official land and turned official land into private land. They turned the original tenancy into taxes.
It’s as if many low-rent houses have not reached the hands of those who need them, but have become profit-making tools for second-time landlords.
But He Xi never expected that they would go so far.
It is no longer just a cut of the profit, but the entire cost is passed on.
"No wonder Guo Huan has such great ability." He Xi suddenly realized.
Guo Huan is just a chief envoy. Is there any way to cover up all aspects? He Xi tried his best to find out the truth. The manpower and material resources used are no longer what a chief envoy can do.
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There is more than just one person behind Guo Huan.
They were a group of people who were fed by Guo Huan with his generosity to the court.
He Xi said: "Old man, didn't His Majesty say that such things can be reported to Beijing, and His Majesty will definitely uphold justice for you."
Uncle Liu was silent for a while and said: "It's not that I haven't thought about it, it's just that I have lived in vain for so many years. Some things are still clear to me. This is easy to say, but not so easy to do. Nowadays, Jiangnan land production is about
There are three stones of food. Now it is only one-tenth. I can still get by if I grit my teeth. If I go to the capital to accuse him, His Majesty will definitely deal with the dog officer. But what will happen next?"
"Some people from the countryside can never leave."
"Actually, it's not like there were no complaints from the villagers, but the family was ruined."
"If you think about it, forget it. This is much better than the chaos that broke out in the world more than ten years ago. Isn't it like this all your life? The people will not fight with the officials."
The Chinese people are the most rebellious and can endure pain the most. If you push them to the edge, it will lead to a huge war like the earth will collapse. But if you don’t force them to the edge, they can endure many things.
.
Just like now.
Yes, Guo Huan increased taxes for the people and sought benefits for the gentry. Then he used the principle of dividing the officialdom by those who saw it, and integrated all the officials up and down. He was greedy for money and didn’t know how much money he made. However, the end of the Yuan Dynasty was not far away, and
Zhu Yuanzhang has always been committed to land for the tiller. Nowadays, most people in the Ming Dynasty are homesteaders.
Therefore, although the taxes suddenly increased six times, plus the burden of court taxes and services, it was not impossible to survive.
Therefore, they just cursed verbally and did not have the courage to fight against corrupt officials to the end.
Although they will not keep secrets for these dog officials, they will not take the initiative to report to the court.
He Xi was silent for a while and said, "Uncle Liu, can you tell me that it was the villagers who sued and their families were ruined?"
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After leaving Liujia Village, He Xi visited a few more villages, and the news he got was pretty much the same. Moreover, he also figured out where the food in the warehouses in Hangzhou came from.
This is a small town. At the end of the street in the small town, there is a warehouse. Now it is dilapidated and has not seen the light of day. Not to mention that it is guarded. It is a place where wild dogs and cats roam.
He Xi was walking among them, and when he moved a little bit, he saw smoke and dust rising everywhere.
And his thoughts were even more like smoke and dust, constantly rolling around. He Xi sneered and said, "It's really a clever act of robbery."
In order to prepare for famines and disasters, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered all villages and towns to prepare charity warehouses. The so-called charity warehouses mean that every household provides some grain, which is managed by the village or town. The county is responsible for supervision. In times of disaster, people can distribute grain from the charity warehouses.
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It can be said that this is a very original insurance institution.
Please note that the ownership of this charity warehouse does not belong to the imperial court or the government. The government only has the responsibility of supervision. In current terms, the ownership of this charity warehouse is at the village collective level.
The imperial court had no right to mobilize the grain from the free warehouse.
What He Xi saw was that the charity warehouses in various villages were in ruins. However, every household still had to pay the annual charity donation. In the past, it was not compulsory to donate food to the charity warehouse. It was just that when there was a disaster, you
If you don’t donate food to the charity warehouse, it will be difficult for you to receive food from the charity warehouse.
But now the charity warehouse no longer exists, but the charity donation still exists. This has clearly become a new kind of exorbitant levies and miscellaneous taxes.
Xu Baoer said with some worry: "Master He, this has been investigated clearly. Let's go back to Beijing and report to His Majesty. I don't believe that the entire Jiaxing Mansion doesn't know about such a thing. I'm worried that if your Excellency leaks here,
Without him, he could also see that the Guo Huan case involved too much. It was a big case. It was estimated that all the officials in Hangzhou City, and even Zhejiang Province, from the chief envoy to the county magistrate, were involved in this big net.
There were even local gentry and even some officials in the central government.
The possibility of encountering danger is even greater.
Even Xu Baoer was not worried that Guo Huan sent people to kill He Xi. He was worried that some people behind Guo Huan would regard Guo Huan as an abandoned son and let Guo Huan bear the charge of assassinating the imperial envoy. All they wanted was that the court would no longer investigate.
He Xi is actually not worried about this, because people have different ideas. In He Xi's opinion, what kind of person is Zhu Yuanzhang? He cannot be said to be an emperor for eternity, but it is rare to see a hero in hundreds of years. Guo Huan
How could he have such courage? However, He Xi didn't want to risk his own life to see Guo Huan's courage.
He Xi said: "Okay, the investigation here in Jiaxing is almost done. Let's go to Huzhou."
