Li Ye obtained a thick stack of information from the imperial case, "This is a secret investigation report by the internal guards, showing the number of slaves owned by powerful households in the counties of East and West Shannan Province."
The three of them looked at each other in shock. None of them expected that the emperor would send his internal guards to conduct a secret investigation.
Li Ye smiled and said: "We can't hang ourselves on a tree. The internal guards themselves have the function of investigation. Using their functions will help the court grasp first-hand information."
Wei Jiansu took the information on Shannan East Road and looked at it. The first one to bear the brunt was the Du family in Xiangyang, which had more than 3,600 slaves.
Wei Jiansu looked at the list of Shannan West Road again and was even more shocked, "Your Majesty, are you right? There are actually more than 20,000 slaves in the Guo family in Hechuan?"
Li Ye nodded, "Basically they are all refugees from Hebei and the Central Plains. The Jiangnan side is a refugee area, the Jingxiang side is also a refugee area, and there are Bashu, and at most the Shen family in Jiangnan has more than 30,000 slaves.
I wrote to you. The Shen family has turned all their slaves into civilians. Other Jiangnan families have followed suit. However, there are still more slaves, and the number is huge. Therefore, I request that the slave tax be introduced immediately. It will be levied starting this year and will start next month.
declare!"
Wei Jiansu handed the list of information to Zhang Li and Liu Yan and asked: "What is the use of this information obtained by the internal security investigation?"
"I am considering dividing it into three levels: A, B, and C. Those who have more than 1,000 slaves are Class A, those who have 300 to 1,000 slaves are Class B, those who have 300 to 300 slaves are Class C, and the others are ordinary classes.
, mainly adjusted through taxation. As for levels A, B, and C, it is not as simple as taxation.
Of course, I will do my best to be benevolent and righteous. First, each state will issue a rectification notice, and the rectification will be completed within ten days. If the county government records all abolition of slaves, it will be considered qualified and passed. If there is no movement within ten days, it will be passed.
The state government will send an inspection team to your door. If you still refuse to inspect or commit fraud, then the court officials will come to your door to collect taxes and impose a tenfold fine. If you make a mistake, you can appeal. After the appeal, we will send someone to investigate again.
.
But once the court rejects the appeal and the payment and fines are not paid within a month, the internal guards will come to enforce the law. What do you think of this plan?"
Zhang Li pondered for a moment and asked: "In your Majesty's plan, do you not see the role of the county government?"
Li Ye said calmly: "There are red faces, white faces and black faces. Let the county government buffer and appease them!"
Li Ye took another document and handed it to the three of them, "This is the implementation method that I personally drafted. If it needs to be improved or supplemented, you can figure it out yourself and implement it together with the slave tax. First, start with the Jia of Shannan East Road and West Road.
Wait for the big players to start."
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid it's more complicated in Bashu!" Wei Jiansu sighed.
Li Ye smiled lightly, "I have my own arrangements over there in Bashu!"
The three of them left. Li Ye walked a few steps with his hands behind his back, then turned around and ordered: "Go quickly to announce that Liu Wutong is here to see me!"
Soon, Liu Wuzhou, the commander of the Imperial Guard, hurried over and bowed in salute, "I humbly join you, Your Majesty!"
Li Ye said slowly: "The imperial court will soon introduce slave tax laws and classified inspections. It will take the lead in inspecting the large Class A households with more than 1,000 slaves in Shannan Province. They will definitely let them conduct self-examination first. I guess these wealthy families have no
A few of them will make corrections conscientiously, and they will definitely find ways to transfer. The internal guards will send people to monitor, grasp the evidence and location of the transfer, and then cooperate with the state government's inspection, or monitor the state government's inspection, do you understand what I mean?"
Liu Wutong understood immediately and said immediately: "I understand that the inspection stage is not the time for internal security to take action."
Li Ye praised his understanding and nodded, "That's right. Inspection is not a matter of the internal guards. The internal guards can provide information and monitor the state government's inspections. If the state government's inspections are not effective, they can write reports, but they cannot interfere or interfere.
, Do you understand? Surveillance means just watching with a cold eye, and waiting until the end, refusing to pay taxes or fines, then it’s time for the internal guards to take action!”
"The humble position fully understands, looks on coldly, does not interfere, does not interfere, only records!"
"Yes, let's make arrangements! Start with Shannan Road."
Liu Wutong bowed and left.
Li Ye immediately issued two orders, adding 30,000 troops to the Jiannan Governor's Mansion, and Li Sheng was appointed as the Governor of Jiannan.
Second, Wei Boyu was ordered to train 50,000 new soldiers in Dengzhou.
The two armies guard against unusual movements on the east and west roads of Shannan.
On the morning of the next day, the imperial court officially launched the "Slave Breeding Tax", which stipulated in detail the tax payment for the breeding behavior of slaves. It stipulated that slave owners must pay two taxes for each slave every year. If the tax is evaded, once discovered,
, will be subject to a heavy fine of more than ten times.
The objects of taxation and heavy penalties are clearly slave owners, and the tax burden is also on slave owners and has nothing to do with slaves.
The "Slave Raising Tax" has been formulated a long time ago and will be launched immediately upon the emperor's order.
At the same time, the "Tang Dynasty Ten-day Journal" issued on that day was specially issued with an extra number and was sandwiched among newspapers. Ten thousand copies of the ten-day journal were printed and distributed to all parts of the country through Jinzouyuan.
The implementation of the slave tax had almost no repercussions in Chang'an and Guanzhong. The abolition of slavery in Chang'an and Guanzhong was implemented most resolutely. There were no more slaves, but it caused strong repercussions all over the world.
There are a total of twenty-seven wealthy families in Shannan Province that are classified as Class A slave-owning households, distributed in nineteen states.
According to the unified deployment of the imperial court, each state government issued a unified rectification notice to the Grade A wealthy families in their respective jurisdictions on the list, requiring them to abolish slavery within ten days. If they did not abolish slavery within ten days, the state government would come to inspect and approve the tax.
Money and fines.
There are two large Class A families in Xiangyang, the Du family and the Huang family. Although the two families are relatively hidden and unknown to the outside world, the investigating internal guards still used various means to find out the bottom lines of the Du family and the Huang family.
The Du family owned 2,700 slaves, and the Huang family owned more than 1,300 slaves. Both families were included in the Class A list and received rectification notices.
That evening, Du Youguang, the head of the Du family, came to visit the Huang family.
Huang Min invited him to sit in the guest room. Both of them belonged to the second generation of the family. Huang Min's father, Huang Kai, was still there and could make decisions for him. However, Du Youguang's father, Du Yan, passed away. Suddenly something big happened. He asked for help.
Instead of consulting with the elders, he came to discuss with his in-laws, the Huang family.
However, the marriage between the Du and Huang families was a matter of the previous generation, and their next generation did not marry. Huang Min's brother-in-law is Du Youguang's fourth brother, but Huang Min's two sons and one daughter have nothing to do with the Du family.
The main reason is that Du Youguang is relatively short-sighted and stingy, which has harmed the interests of the Huang family in many aspects, making Huang Min gradually dissatisfied with Du Youguang. The last time Huang Min's grandson held a banquet for the full moon, he did not invite Du Youguang, but invited the Du family's
Another elder.
"I heard that the Huang family is ready to compromise?" Du Youguang asked tentatively.
"Brother Du, who did you listen to?"
Huang Min glanced at him dissatisfied and said calmly: "How can things be so simple? Just give up if you say you give up. Who will compensate for the Huang family's losses?"
"But if you don't give up, you'll have to pay taxes!"
"Brother Du, you still have to pay taxes. In fact, it's not much. If you don't get even a cent, the county government will be in trouble!"
This sentence has two meanings. One means paying taxes honestly. Anyway, more than two thousand dollars a year is not much?
The second meaning is to pay an appropriate amount, not to give up everything, and to give an explanation to the county government.
It depends on who you are. An upright person will definitely understand it as the first meaning.
But for a miser like Du Youguang, he naturally understood the second meaning.
Du Youguang immediately understood what the other party meant. He concealed most of the number of slaves and paid taxes with a small portion. He paid less and concealed more. I guess all the big families in the world would do this! Who would pay taxes honestly?
The two of them didn't talk to each other, so Du Youguang had to stand up and say goodbye. Huang Min sent him out and said to him: "The rectification period is only ten days, brother, you must hurry up."
"I know, I hope both of our families can survive this disaster safely."
Du Youguang's words had profound meaning, and there was a hint of threat in his tone, which made people feel very unhappy.
Huang Min watched Du Youguang's carriage drive away with cold eyes. Her father was right, let the Du family quell the emperor's dissatisfaction with the Jingxiang family!
This time the emperor chose the two roads in Shannan as the pilot area, which more or less implies not forgetting old grudges.
In the next few days, the Huang family began to count the slaves in several large estates, restore them to civilian status, and sent them to the county government for registration. Before that, they had only made preparations and did not move, fearing to alert the enemy.
Huang Min played a trick. He reported to the county government in two batches. The first batch only reported a list of 300 people and regularization, and on the last day, he submitted a second batch of 1,000 people to the regular list.
At the same time, the Du family was also pretending to count the slaves and restore civilian status. They declared more than 500 slaves to the county government, and more than 500 slaves were all converted to civilian status.
These farmers who had regained their freedom stayed in the nearest manor in Xiangyang, while the other 2,700 people who were hidden were arranged to go to more remote manors.
The Huang family was doing the same thing and moved a thousand slaves to the farthest manor.