Hu Changan directly told the old farmer his questions.
After hearing this, the old farmer replied with a smile: "Young man, how come you don't even know this?"
"As tenant farmers of the Lan family, why do we still listen to the government?"
"We don't pay taxes to the government. Our taxes are paid directly to the head of the Lan family."
What?
As a tenant farmer from a wealthy family, he doesn’t have to pay taxes to the government?!
Hu Changan immediately thought of the key inside.
If there are more and more people like this, wouldn’t the Ming Dynasty cease to exist in name only?
The government's control over the grassroots people is achieved through taxation and corvee.
The people have the obligation to pay taxes and bear corvees, while the government is responsible for providing relief to the people in disaster years and pooling everyone's efforts to build necessary infrastructure.
This is also the most basic cornerstone of the dynasty's existence.
But now these farmers say that they do not need to pay taxes to the government, but only need to pay taxes to the Lan family?
In this way, wouldn't it mean that the one who protects them has changed from the government to the Lan family?
Then the Lan family can be called a mini country, China.
Such a country, China, encroached on the territory of the Ming Dynasty in disguise.
And the final collapse of the Ming Dynasty was inseparable from these powerful men.
In the Ming Dynasty, the families of royal family members and officials did not have to pay taxes at all.
Not only did they not have to pay taxes, they also occupied a large amount of fertile land and had countless slaves to farm for them.
Therefore, in the late Ming Dynasty, the country could not collect taxes at all.
After all, the best fields have been occupied, and only a few acres of thin fields can be collected to collect taxes. No matter how much they are searched, they can only scrape off a layer of oily skin.
The treasury is empty, so naturally some things that need to be done cannot be done.
In the late Ming Dynasty, even military pay could not be provided.
The soldiers who closed the gate had neither food nor clothing, so they were naturally no match for the Jurchen soldiers who had strong soldiers and horses.
Unexpectedly, this phenomenon already existed in the early Ming Dynasty.
Hu Changan couldn't help but clenched his fists.
It seems that this matter in Lishui County is not easy to handle.
But the Lan family... has such a rare surname, could it be hers?
Hu Changan came back from his reverie and continued to ask the old farmer: "Old man, is the Lan family you are talking about the same as Liang Guogong?"
"Hey, who else can it be? Of course it's Duke Liang." After hearing this, the old farmer readily acknowledged it.
Hu Changan couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief.
It's the Lan family, so that's easy to handle.
He knew Lan Haitang, the head of the Lan family, so he didn't panic.
What's more, although Lan Yu is a bit reckless, he still thinks about the Ming Dynasty. He is not the kind of person who sacrifices the interests of the country for his own sake without blinking an eye.
Besides, Prince Zhu Biao is still here, and Lan Yu is a die-hard fan of Zhu Biao.
If it really doesn't work, let Zhu Biao persuade him, and everything will be solved easily.
Hu Chang'an thought for a while and continued to ask the old farmer: "Old man, I wonder how many tenant farmers like you are working for the Lan family in your village?"
The old farmer smiled boldly and replied without thinking: "Hey, in our village, everyone is a tenant farmer of a big family."
"After all, when you are a tenant farmer of a wealthy family, you only need to hand over some food and don't have to do corvee labor. It's so comfortable."
"Originally, I was the only tenant farmer in our village, but now everyone has been expelled by the big family."
"Half are tenant farmers of the Lan family, and half are tenant farmers of the Li family."
Hu Changan couldn't help but be speechless.
This land annexation phenomenon is really serious!
The fertile fields as far as the eye can see are now owned by big families?!
"By the way, this Li family is..." Hu Changan asked if he had something to say.
After hearing this, the old farmer said seriously: "Hey young man, why don't you even know this?"
"This Li family is the family of the then Grand Master Li Shan!"
"But let me tell you, it's not good to be a tenant farmer of the Li family. You have to pay too much tax."
It is indeed the Li family!
Hu Changan sighed.
This is going to be difficult!
Fortunately for the Lan family, that guy Li Shanchang has always disliked them. It's difficult to ask Li Shanchang to give up the meat in his mouth.
But the top priority right now is to check the county's population register to see if things are really as the old man said.
Seeing that he had obtained the information he needed, Hu Changan thanked the old man and hurried away towards the county government office.
Before leaving, Hu Changan specifically asked the old man his name.
The old man’s name is Zhang Wu, and the village where he lives is called Zhangjiacun.
...
After returning to the county government, the first thing Hu Changan did was to go to the warehouse to check the population directory.
Nowadays, the household registration system of the Ming Dynasty has been established and perfected, and the directory in the county government treasury neatly records the names of all the people in the county.
Of course, tenant farmers from wealthy families are not included in this list.
Fortunately, Hu Changan came here with the prince's handwritten letter, so he can barely be regarded as a servant here.
So when he asked to go to the warehouse to check the directory, the county magistrate Wang Tao did not stop him and just silently handed the key to the warehouse to Hu Changan.
The reason why Hu Changan wanted to check the hundred-name directory was to prevent wealthy families from secretly hiding their population.
In order to obtain more land, wealthy families use various methods to hide land privately.
Any lie or concealment is already childish behavior.
Some aristocratic families even bribed the government in a ostentatious manner, removing part of the population from the government's roster and directly adding them to the family's name, becoming their tenant farmers!
Of course, during the Hongwu period, these aristocratic families were not so arrogant.
At most it's just concealment.
Hu Changan flipped through it for a long time and finally found the list of Zhangjiacun.
I saw that there were more than 40 households of villagers on the list of Zhangjiacun!
Among them, the name of Mr. Zhang is clearly listed.
If Hu Changan hadn't visited the site, he would never have known that these villagers had become tenant farmers of the big family!
Sure enough, the wealthy family concealed the number of tenant farmers under its name.
They secretly bribed the homesteaders and turned them into tenant farmers in their own name!
It’s no wonder that Lijia system cannot be promoted in Lishui County.
The common people on these lists have become tenant farmers of big families. Who will listen to the government?
It's not that the people don't understand the law, or that they deliberately disobey orders, but that they have become affiliated with the big family.
At present, if we want to implement the Lijia system in Lishui County, the only way is to ask the big families to return their fields!
After all, these fields are nominally government fields, not the fields of these big families!
Hu Changan discovered this major logical flaw and quickly found Wang Tao, the magistrate of Lishui County.
However, Wang Tao seemed a little unconcerned: "Oh Brother Hu, calm down. This is what the big families do now. We are just two little officials, why should we offend those big officials?"
"Even if we really can't complete the task in the end, it's not our problem!"