The hot summer weather made people unbearable. After walking for a while, the group of travelers including Lu Yu and others began to rest in the shade of the trees.
This official road is an east-west horizontal road in Hebei Province. It is an important road between Heshuo and Qingxu Haidai, so the road has always been well maintained.
For example, the big cypress tree that is providing shade to Lu Yu and the others is said to have been planted during the Guangwu period, two hundred years ago.
The green trees planted by people in the past did not allow contemporary people to enjoy any benefits, but they could provide shade for generations to come.
Being willing to plan for the future and being able to plan for the future may be the inheritance of this nation.
Sitting under the shade, enjoying the breeze, some people in the team started chatting.
However, Lu Yu and the others did not speak at this time. They just listened to these travelers chatting about the world while drinking water. These people naturally have a lot of experience when traveling all over the world, so Lu Yu and the others also heard a lot of useful information.
What caught Lu Yu's attention the most was what two well-dressed travelers were talking about. One of them was from Wei County and the other from Zhongshan.
The Wei Jun man and the Zhongshan man should have some experience and knowledge, so the topics they talked about were relatively deep.
Among them, the Weijun people talked about one thing, which was the tax collection reform currently being carried out in Weijun. This government affairs was only carried out in Weijun, so the Zhongshan people asked a lot about this matter.
Today's Hebei people, especially those traveling from south to north, attach great importance to the Weijun people in the business travel team. This is not only because the Weijun people are from Wang Ye'an, but also because these people generally have extraordinary experience.
This change is related to the missionary work that was carried out only within the jurisdiction of Wei County.
The Taishan Army has always attached great importance to missionary matters. As early as the old Taishan period, missionaries were set up to teach Taishan children how to read and write.
After that, every time the Taishan Army built a base area, it would promote literacy and policy education.
Common education slogans include "land to the tiller", "work for a good life" and other slogans, which are to educate grassroots leaders in Guizhou to be kind and productive.
In terms of literacy, Taishan Army also does a good job. Children are usually brought together to learn to read. Adults generally have their own lives to run around, so they listen to the missionaries' sermons every day.
Spring and autumn are the busiest times for farmers. At this time, production and farming are generally given priority. Once winter arrives, the township office will collectively teach the Guizhou leaders how to read.
However, these missionary activities require too many literate groups, so currently they can only be promoted in the Wei County area. When the literacy rate in Wei County increases, they can be gradually extended to surrounding counties.
This development path is vividly called spreading the pie by Zhang Chong.
Therefore, Wei County now enjoys the dividends of this policy for a short period of time.
Compared with merchants from other counties, merchants from Wei County can often make surprising remarks, and they understand and agree more with the policies of the Taishan Army.
Therefore, when this Weijun businessman began to talk about the tax reform implemented locally, the others gradually stopped talking and listened attentively to what this man said.
These businessmen from various townships and communities certainly understand that since this policy will be implemented in Wei County, it will be implemented in other places in the future. And taxation is closely related to everyone, how can they not listen carefully?
I heard this person sigh first:
"Our king is really a saint alive. Once this policy comes out, we ordinary people will really feel at ease."
Then this Weijun businessman introduced the changes in Weijun area to everyone in detail.
Contrary to the common belief that what Wei Jun practiced was light corvee and light service, the leaders of Wei Jun and Guizhou, according to Xing Shang, actually practiced heavy taxation.
In the words of the merchant, when the Han Dynasty was in Hebei, the tax on their local communities was twenty to one. But now, after the Taishan Army came, they paid ten to one.
Now everyone is surprised, the tax has increased, why do the merchants still say this is benevolent government?
But after Wei Junxingshang himself finished speaking, everyone suddenly realized.
But at this moment, Liu Deran in the corner smiled inwardly, filled with a sense of superiority to these ignorant Guizhou leaders.
Of course he knew why the Taishan Army imposed heavy taxes on Wei County.
Why don't you look at what the Taishan Army did in the township community? Which one doesn't want people, and which one doesn't want money or rice?
Those ignorant servants think that sharing the land will mean a good life? But they don’t see it. Without the protection of local sages, those tax collectors won’t suck the blood and marrow of you servants?
Liu Deran has long said, why did the Han Dynasty pay a tax of thirty to one in the past? It was because they could not control the rural communities. The rural sages in these places protected the villages from being bullied by the tax collectors.
For example, how do tax collectors collect taxes? It is by measuring acres of land. One of the methods is called the foot measurement method.
In ancient times, the number of acres was calculated based on the distance between steps. In the Han Dynasty, one mu was twenty-four steps long and ten steps wide. In the Han Dynasty, it was based on the standard of thirty tax one.
So for a ten-acre field, the tax collectors only need to walk eight steps with their feet, and then say that the food in these eight steps belongs to the state.
However, this method of collecting taxes is still too crude. Some privately developed fields do not follow this mu system, so tax collectors have almost no way to collect taxes on these privately developed fields.
Therefore, the method of inventorying land and preparing atlases to verify fields began to appear.
But this is not easy to do, because local powerful people will resist this behavior. After Ruguang Wu established the world, he implemented a nationwide land inventory, but he soon suffered from local rebellion.
In the end, the matter came to nothing.
And this incident can be regarded as evidence of what Liu Deran said about the protective role of rural sages on the villagers.
And it should not be said that it is difficult to make up this kind of album.
It costs money, time and effort.
There must be a capable team to implement it. In the past, the Han Dynasty could only use local officials to do this, but these people were generally from local wealthy families and rural sages, so how could they push this matter with their heart?
Therefore, Liu Deran believes that the low taxes of the Han Dynasty are all due to the merits of the local sages.
But what about now? It is your fault that the leaders of Wei County and Guizhou are in bad luck, because the country sages who protected them in the past were all defeated by themselves.
Just like the big cypress tree he is sitting on now, due to two hundred years of growth, some of its roots have grown out and spread to the roadbed.
At this time, you don't want to cut down the roots of the tree, but you want to poke out the whole tree.
When you people happily cut down trees, you finally find that there are no towering trees to protect you travelers from the wind and rain.
How stupid!
In addition, even though Liu Deran was full of disgust for the Taishan Army, he still had to admit that they were indeed much more powerful than the Han Dynasty.
The methods used in the past to suppress the Han Dynasty's tentacles were completely useless against the Taishan Army.
The Taishan Army started directly by dividing the fields.
All land was returned to the township government, and then divided among township commune officials.
These people were supervised by superiors and did not dare to abuse their power, and they were also familiar with local conditions. Therefore, the Taishan Army easily established local household registration and land registers.
So the Taishan Army knows exactly how many fields you have at home, how can you hide?
Moreover, if the Taishan Army is engaged in such a mess, it will need more money and food. So where will this extra money and food come from? Or will it be sucked from you small people?
Although Liu Deran has never been exposed to local affairs, his junior brother Lu Yu has.
In the words of his younger brother, in the past, the ratio between officials and civilians in Hebei was 60 civilians supporting one military and political official. Under such circumstances, everyone at the top and bottom could accept it.
But now, the number of various petty officials in your Taishan Army has increased many times compared to that of the Han Dynasty. Preaching is good, but do you need officials? Mutual aid is good, but do you need officials? Encouraging farmers is better, but do you need officials?
Which of the policies of your Taishan Army does not require these lowest-level officials to work? How many people will you need in the end?
From what Liu Deran himself saw, Youzhou was okay, as not many policies had been implemented there. But Jizhou was different. It was run by the Taishan Army like the old land, and various policies were implemented in turn.
In the past, a rural commune consisted of several rural officials including the three elders, the stingy husband, and Youyou. Among them, the three elders were not included in the establishment and did not receive salary rank.
But now, in a Taishan Army township office, there are a dozen people in total, all of whom are salary-ranked officials. This is a four to five times expansion.
So at this moment Liu Deran smiled and despised these Hebei and Guizhou leaders:
"If you people and the Taishan bandits are allowed to work together, there will be hard times ahead!"
But suddenly, what Wei Junxingshang said hit Liu Deran in the face, making him extremely embarrassed.
But the merchant smiled and said these words in a contemptuous tone:
"We are not those noble people who do not distinguish between grain and grain. We think that the Han Dynasty pays us thirty taxes and one tax. That is really the case. Let's talk about the former tenants of our community first. These people did not pay taxes to the Han Dynasty, but they
The land is rented to the landowners. Those landowners are forcing them to take away all their food rations. But now these people own the land with the help of our Taishan Army, and they only need to pay one-tenth of the land.
You don’t have to pay anything else. Do you think it’s a great policy?”
All the merchants nodded and shouted in unison:
"Great Virtue!"
The merchant in Weijun was very happy, shook his head again, and said:
"Let's talk about those self-cultivated households in the past. These people must have their own land, and they can enjoy thirty-one taxes. But it's really nice! Yes, you only pay thirty-one taxes for your land, but
You also have all kinds of other things. Do you want to pay the money, do you want to pay the oral money? And then add in the various kinds of apportionment, your Han Dynasty will not get less than those in the land. My father was the one who wanted us from above back then.
When the family paid the Qiang tax, they were forced to death. I don’t understand what the chaos in the Westerners has to do with us Northerners! Why should we sell our sons and daughters to support you!”
Having said this, the businessman was a little choked up.
After all, the common people in Hebei suffered so much in the past. Which of them has not suffered from this disaster? Who in the family has not had a relative forced to death by the harsh government from above?
Therefore, all the merchants were stunned for a while, but only Liu Deran and the other three were quite embarrassed.
Then Weijun Xingshang continued:
"But since our Taishan Army came, one is one, and two is two. As soon as we came, we were given land. This is a direct grant. Then we set a horizontal line for us. No matter what happens next, we will receive ten percent of it."
There will be no exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes in the future. And let me tell you, the village officials in the township offices are much better now than in the past. They are really polite to us and do things well!"
This sentence made everyone burst into laughter. Of course they understood what the Weijun man in front of them meant.
As the Taishan Army cleaned up local township and village officials, it caught a lot of troubles. The last remaining ones and those promoted were all conscientious.
This kind of conscience is compared to those of the past, who were greedy and incompetent. In the past, those local officials were greedy and incompetent. They were simply silverfish.
At this time, someone below interrupted:
"It hasn't been taken care of by the Taishan Army, but I think this kind of thing won't grow. I've never seen a cat that doesn't eat fish, and I've never seen a rat that doesn't steal rice."
After the Weijun businessman heard this, he imitated the missionary from his hometown, waved his hand down, and said loudly:
"We have asked this before, but what did the missionaries in our village say later? They said that if someone punishes you once, they can punish you twice. Whoever dares to steal will be killed with the knife of our Taishan Army!
It depends on whether you steal it faster or we cut it faster!"
After saying this, the crowd cheered loudly.
They are not afraid of getting through life, but they are afraid of having no hope for life. And now, life is getting better and better.
But at this time, discordant voices emerged. But he could no longer tolerate the "stupid" concepts of these businessmen. Liu Deran stood up and mocked:
"You are cattle and horses, but you think that the people who eat cattle and horses like you will pity you! How foolish you are. In the past, you had the support of local clans and village sages. Even if you encountered a tax collector, you could unite together to resist taxes! But what about now?
You are divided into households one by one. The Taishan Army now charges you 1/10 of your tax, but later it is found that it is not enough and they want to increase taxes. What can you do? Going further, even if the higher-ups do not increase taxes, the small officials
If you want to deceive, extort, and line your own pockets, what can you do? Why don't you just pray for the wise villagers to come back?"
Seeing that everyone was speechless by what he said, Liu Deran consciously won the conversation, and then said with a heartbroken expression:
"But can the country sages come back? They can't come back! It's your choice, great wise men!"
But Liu Deran was quickly scolded by the Weijun merchant.
He first looked up and down Liu Deran's clothes, saw that he was dressed like a scholar, and then said clearly:
"You big turban, what do you know? It's okay for people like you to chant sutras. Do you understand us farmers? You act like you're doing your best for us. Do you know how we in Wei County collect grain taxes?
"
With the intention of showing off, the merchant turned around and said to everyone:
"Then what the big turban said, don't the people in the Taishan Army know? So from the beginning, they cut off the opportunity for grassroots officials to get involved. Once the Taishan Army is assigned the task of collecting taxes from above, someone will come down to the township commune.
Help with the collection. Some weigh the rice, some make the records, and some specialize in collecting the grain and putting it into the warehouse. In the end, orders have to be given from bottom to top."
"Take our commune as an example. When people from their hometowns become commune officials, they will invite the whole commune to the venue for a meeting to talk about why this tax is collected. It is used to build water conservancy projects and provide for the army. That's it.
With water conservancy and an army, we can make progress better and better, and we will not be robbed by thieves again. So should we hand over this rice?"
Everyone shouted:
"It's due!"
When everyone cheered, the Weijun businessman became angry again and pointed directly at Liu Deran:
"After handing over this rice, it will be used on our heads in the end. What can't we hand over? If it were like the Han Dynasty, eating it to those corrupt officials and filling their brains with fat intestines, I wouldn't hand over a grain of rice. But they are like Taishan.
The army won’t give these people a chance! Do you know how they harvest rice?”
At this time Liu Deran was also curious, and he listened silently.
"Our cooperative allocates directly to each household, that is, it is clearly calculated how much rice each household produces. After people measure the rice, it goes directly to the grain depot. Here, the social officials have no chance to participate at all. They don't get any benefits.
Bian, why are those petty officials so greedy?"
Seeing that Liu Deran was about to speak again, the man interrupted him directly:
"I know you, the big turban, are not convinced. Are you going to say, why can't we be greedy after the rice is in the treasury? But what does this have to do with us? We just pay the quota. The Ren Taishan Army even consumes money on the road.
We have all been spared. Just ask, do you accept this? Can you do this when the Han Dynasty is here?"
Liu Deran was so angry that he was speechless for a moment, and then all the merchants laughed even more heartily.
But at this time, Zheng Yi, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said something meaningful:
"Human, it has been the same for thousands of years. Don't think too much of the Taishan Army. If you just do what you say, will the Han Dynasty reach this point?"
Now all the merchants were unconvinced and were about to argue with this man again.
But at this moment, a puff of smoke rose from behind, and everyone no longer had the intention to argue. They hurriedly packed their things and avoided the main road.
Soon, a military brigade with strict steps came from the west.
Just by looking at the word "Ganling" written on the flag, you can tell that this is a local suppressing force of the Taishan Army.