"Anyone below the Third Duke who has slaves and maidservants can pay three thousand six hundred per mouth."——————【Hanshu Biography of Wang Mang】
Wu Shuo had a guilty conscience. After being looked at by the emperor, he was almost frightened and did not dare to speak anymore.
The discussion on the changes to the calculation of Fu and Gengfu ended here. The emperor finally adjusted the age range for people to calculate Fu. The original calculation of Fu was from fifteen to fifty-six years old, but now it is changed to twenty to fifty years old.
The age range for oral education was also adjusted from seven to fourteen years old to thirteen to twenty years old, and special emphasis was placed on exempting county scholars from oral education to encourage poor people to send their children to school.
By adjusting the age groups for collecting arithmetic and oral taxes, the survival pressure of the people will be further alleviated. Not only has the amount of population tax been reduced, but in order to encourage the birth of children and support for the elderly, government subsidies have also been specifically increased:
Children, from the age of one to three, will be given fifteen coins per year by the Shaofu. Elderly people over seventy years old will receive rice and grain subsidies from the village for their birthdays every year."
In the past, the population tax was so heavy that people even abandoned the elderly and did not dare to have children. The social atmosphere was ruined and the economic development was stagnant. The emperor's adjustment to the population tax was just the right medicine. However, in this way, the court was bound to have to spend more money.
expenses, and...
"I think that now the warehouses are not abundant and the expenses are difficult. There are millions of people, old and young, who meet this requirement in the world. They pay more than 100 million for this every year... Will it be difficult for the young master?" Yang Qi changed the topic and actually said:
The young master thought about it.
"The way of heaven is to make up for the deficiencies by making up for the excess." The emperor looked at Wang Jiang with a smile and said softly: "If the exemption is exempted here, there will naturally be more benefits in other places. Nowadays, there are not a few slaves in powerful families, and they are fine.
They produce, do not pay taxes, do not do corvee, and gather people to take advantage of their own strength. The court has repeatedly banned them. Naturally, their tax is more than that of ordinary common people. In my opinion, for adults, the tax will be increased five times; for children, the tax will be increased five times.
It is best to add the money obtained by tripling the oral tax to the Shaofu and distribute it among the people."
"Your Majesty, this..." Huang Wan hesitated a little. Every powerful family kept a lot of servants. If each of them had to pay five times the tax, it would be a big sum in a year: "I'm afraid we need to think about it in the long run."
"It is of great benefit at this time. I believe that you are loyal to the country and there should be no further discussion. Young Master." The emperor called out Wang Jiang, who immediately left the table and came to the middle to salute and kneel down: "This is a matter of calculation."
Changes in Fu, oral Fu, Geng Fu, etc. are related to the wealth in the next few years. The edict will be issued from the Chancellery today. You must implement it in all counties and counties without making any mistakes."
Wang Jiang immediately agreed, saying that having something to do is better than having nothing to do. Today, he originally just wanted to make some suggestions and collect less taxes in the budget. A loss of less than one billion is still affordable for today's young master. At the same time,
He could also invite people better than the emperor and secure his position. But who would have thought that so many ministers would use the topic to reduce the "population tax", an important tax source of the Shaofu, to a minimum.
If the salt and iron franchise had not been vested in the Shaofu in the past two years and became an important pillar of the Shaofu's income, Wang Jiang would have been criticized by a lot of his subordinates after he returned, because he was in charge of the mountains, rivers and ponds and was expected to support the emperor every year.
If you don't receive much money, how much say will you have in the court in the future?
"I promise!" Wang Jiang knew that he had a heavy burden on his shoulders. When he was serving as Taicang Order in Da Sinong, he only had to deal with the couriers every day, transporting grain and delivering it to various places, and only needed to keep detailed records of grain storage and retrieval.
The books are just fine. Now that I have moved to the Shaofu, I realize how difficult it is to become an official. The Shaofu is responsible for the inside and outside of the palace, including imperial doctors, eunuchs, Fu Jie, and even Huangmen eunuchs, and the Shangshutai are all in their names.
Down.
Wang Jiang used to be a six-hundred-stone official, but he was suddenly promoted. Over time, he would inevitably be unable to control the situation, just like today. He thought deeply about whether he should try not to talk nonsense in the future, and should keep to himself as before.
It's better to keep a low profile.
The emperor did not expect that the enthusiasm of the other party's new official would be extinguished by this meeting not long after he took office. He appointed Wang Jiang just because the other party fully supported Mi Zhu and the powerful people of Sanfu to stabilize the grain supply during the drought in Sanfu.
This left a good impression, and considering the age of the other party, he was allowed to serve as the young master for transitional purposes.
Looking at his words today, he knew that the other party was not without ideas, so the emperor thought of adding more things to the other party, and could not just use it as a decoration: "The Young Master will start from now on to conduct an inventory of every household in the world, and there must not be any omissions. This is a top priority.
The imperial court has been in turmoil for many years, and the people have been displaced. Many of the old registers were from the time of Emperor Xiaohuan and Xiaoling. Now that taxes have been revised, how can we not re-register them and collect taxes according to the registers? "
"Your Majesty is wise." Zhao Wen was worried that Wang Jiang would not be able to accept it alone, so he took the initiative to agree: "Immediately order the Chancellor to prepare an edict and order all the counties and states in the world to verify the household registration in detail and count the households to meet the needs of the government.
"
Only by thoroughly investigating the total population, distribution, gender and age structure, the court can not only accurately collect taxes and organize corvee labor, but also implement targeted policies based on this information. The number of acres of land is currently too large to be fully investigated, but
Households are related to finance and economy, and the emperor must investigate them clearly no matter what.
"At the end of the year, the officials must be ordered to include this in the performance appraisal. If the county magistrates and county magistrates fail to verify the case, they will be handed over to the court officials for dereliction of duty and laziness!" the emperor said sternly. He knew that if no pressure was exerted, the bureaucrats would definitely deal with it.
"Your Majesty, this is unavoidable..." Yang Qi frowned, as if he had something to say.
Dong Cheng said nonchalantly from the side: "Mr. Yang, it was reasonable to say before. Now that they are eating the emperor's salary, they naturally want to be loyal to the emperor. It is beneficial to the country to check the household registration. The local counties and counties must obey the orders."
If you fail to comply with it, you will have to be punished according to the law... There is nothing to excuse this."
Yang Qi was stunned for a moment and swallowed what he was about to say.
In fact, Dong Chengda could wait for Yang Qi to finish his words before making a final conclusion. Now that Yang Qi has not spoken yet, who knows that the other party wants to make it difficult for the county magistrate to manage officials. It is not easy to be an official?
"I believe that the number of households can be divided into three categories: civilian households, rural households, and military households." Zhao Wen directly ignored Dong Cheng's ridicule of Yang Qi and said steadily: "They are divided into Shaofu and DaSiNong.
, the Taiwei case was reviewed and settled, and finally three-thirds of the registers were transferred to Situ to form a general register, which will be regarded as a fixed rule from now on."
"According to the previous system, every time an emperor died, the number of household registrations and cultivated land in the world would be checked to see the difference in increase or decrease. However, the intervals may be long or short, which is not enough to determine the policy for the court." The emperor is now also familiar with the laws and regulations of the government.
system, and only if he is familiar with the details of these bad policies, he will not be easily fooled.
Since Emperor Guangwu, the census of population and land has been carried out once for every emperor. Although it ensures real-time updates of registers and stabilizes tax sources, such rules have huge loopholes. For example, the emperor can only conduct an inventory during his lifetime when the new emperor comes to the throne.
Check once, during the intervening ten years of population growth and decrease, tax collection, and policy formulation, does the court still use the population data censused more than ten years ago as a reference?
Moreover, most of the new emperors who succeeded to the throne in the Eastern Han Dynasty were young and weak, or succeeded to the throne from side clans. The emperor had no authority, and the government was in the hands of his relatives. The annual population verification was nothing more than a formality. After reaching the peak of 50 million, the annual population census
The numbers never fluctuated significantly. For the mid-Eastern Han Dynasty, which did not suffer major disasters, this data is questionable - especially after Emperor Xiaohuan took office, he was originally in conflict with the two young emperors.
The population, which had been declining during the period, suddenly increased by nearly 10 million after the census.
The emperor casually abolished this flawed census system and stipulated separately: "This year is the year of Wuyin. In the future, every two years of Yin and Shen, the local government will be ordered to conduct household census and update the register."
Changing the inventory of one generation of emperors to one every six years not only increased the frequency of inventory, but also enabled subsequent emperors to lead a certain inventory with their authority established, so that they would not be deceived by being young and weak.
"The imperial court just issued an edict to the world. From now on, there will be fewer things to do in order to let the people rest." Yang Qi felt that such a frequency was too high, which would lead to the phenomenon of officials frequently disturbing the people, which violated the original intention of the imperial court and the people to rest, so he expressed his concerns.
After coming out, he also knew that this matter could not be changed, so he suggested extending the time limit for the inventory: "Your Majesty, please give me your careful review."
"After six years of rest and concentration, the world may not be in trouble." The emperor said in a calm tone.
It is true that recuperating and recuperating, and having less trouble in the world, is the result of the emperor's unanimous compromise with the ministers based on the current situation. But this does not mean that he should continue to recuperate and have nothing to do. In the eyes of the emperor, with the recovery of national strength and economy, it may not be possible.
It takes six years.
Yang Qi was speechless, and in a blink of an eye he saw Huang Wan's deep gaze looking over him. He felt helpless and sighed in his heart.
The emperor is opinionated, decisive and visionary. Although they are known as prime ministers and assistants, they have very few opportunities to influence the emperor's decision-making. It is good that such an emperor is wise enough. The ministers can only concentrate on doing things and nothing else.
Worry. But the emperor often has some unique ideas, and the deep meaning behind them is often shocking. How can veterans like Huang Wan and Yang Qi feel relieved?
"The matter of verifying the household registration in the world is handled by Situ." The emperor named Huang Wan, but the Taiwei Zhu Jun did not record the affairs of the minister, which invisibly inferior Huang Wan. And the census of the population is a major matter related to the national economy.
Letting a prime minister take the lead and be assisted by the Shaofu, DaSinong and other departments can be of great benefit: "This is the first time in more than ten years that the household registration has been verified. It is to set an example for the future. Mr. Huang, you must not make any mistakes."
."
Situ was in charge of the people's civil affairs. This was indeed Huang Wan's responsibility. However, when Huang Wan, who had been given the heavy responsibility, met the emperor's profound gaze, his heart couldn't help but skip a beat, and he immediately lowered his head and made a promise.
He has always been able to accurately figure out the Holy Will. This time, he didn't need to think too hard to know that if the emperor handed over the matter to him, if anything went wrong in the future, he would be responsible for it.
"Besides what Mr. Zhao said about civilian households, village households, and military households, there is another item that the Young Master must investigate in detail." The emperor stared at Wang Jiang and said in a deep voice: "The Young Master will formulate the slave registration list from now on, and the existing slave registration will be
The official slaves and maidservants were registered one by one. Local powerful and large slaveholders were ordered to go to the government to report the number of slaves and maidservants in their homes, their ages, etc., and the local government registered them and issued certificates."
As soon as the emperor's words came out, Wang Jiang and others murmured in their hearts. The imperial court's own slaves and maids were not bad. Most of them worked as laborers in salt ponds, mines, and weaving rooms. It was also convenient for the young government to count them - of course the slaves were
There is no need to pay extra fees.
The main reason is that the powerful people have just decided on the policy of five times the tax for slaves. For an adult slave, the powerful people have to pay 400 yuan a year for them. And which ordinary powerful family does not have hundreds or even thousands of slaves?
For larger ones, there are tens of thousands of servants, and the annual tax paid for the slaves is an astonishing figure.
With this policy in place, how could these powerful people take the initiative and report it honestly?
However, the emperor already had an idea in his mind. He said: "Anyone who does not have a certificate issued by the government and is not on the government's register will not be regarded as a slave. The powerful are not allowed to kill or force them to do hard work at will. Violation of this is a serious crime. Those slaves have neither
The certificate is not in the register. If you are bullied by powerful people, you can directly file a lawsuit with the government and allow you to sue yourself. The government is not allowed to refuse your complaint!"
The previous monarchs only issued edicts to free slaves. What was the edict not to abuse, kill or harm slaves compared to this? The emperor first registered the slaves' household registration. The government without household registration would not recognize them as slaves and regarded them as free citizens.
, powerful people do not have the power to do whatever they want.
Once disposed of, those slaves could flee elsewhere, because they were not on the slave register. Without proof, the powerful could not prove that they were their private property. What's more, the emperor also allowed slaves who were not on the register to sue their masters.
Give the government power and take the opportunity to suppress powerful forces.
As soon as this policy came out, I believe that most powerful people would rather take the initiative to register their slaves and pay tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands in taxes for their slaves every year, so as to have a guarantee that their private property would not disappear out of thin air.
By mastering the number of slaves in the country, the emperor can have a general understanding of the number, strength and wealth of the world's powerful people, which can not only increase the annual income, but also weaken the economic strength of the powerful people.
After solving the most important item, the follow-up matters will be much easier to deal with. The emperor abolished the household modulation system that had imposed additional in-kind taxes on the people since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. At this point, the imperial court's tax sources were greatly reduced. It is conceivable that the financial situation in the next few years will not be easy.
Optimistic, in addition to instructing Han Bin, the minister of the Du branch who was present to watch, to assign Du Zhilang to the Gongqing's office to conduct strict audits, he also had to start sourcing money.
In the next few years, Jizhou's sea salt will be developed on a large scale, and with the addition of Yangzhou's Huai salt and the implementation of salt, iron and wine fermentation, the court does not have to worry about large-scale deficits yet. It is light on agricultural taxes and heavy on commercial taxes. It would rather use the crisis to force reforms.
Not to arbitrarily increase the burden on farmers is the policy direction of the emperor's future planning.
However, after everyone dispersed, the emperor still left his servant Liu Biao alone.