Chapter 134: Establish taxes and start collecting grain
In the evening, in the study room of Oriole Garden, Qin Lingjun took two bricks bonded with cement and broke them with all his strength. It felt as if the two bricks had become a whole, without any looseness at all.
"Is this cement?" She asked with a bright light in her eyes: "Can it be mass-produced? Is it expensive?"
Qin Lingjun undoubtedly got the idea, Zhang Yangquan smiled and said: "Compared with glutinous rice mortar, the biggest advantage of cement is its low cost. It can not only be used to build city walls, but also build bridges and pave roads, greatly improving people's livelihood."
In fact, in this era, the city walls made of glutinous rice mortar were hard enough, and it was difficult for the attackers to break through the city walls. They had to break through the doors or climb the walls.
Therefore, cement has better viscosity, but it is actually useless. Its biggest advantage is cost.
After all, glutinous rice mortar consumes food. In this era when everyone does not have enough to eat, it is difficult to use it in large quantities.
If we have to say that cement has any disadvantages, it is that it consumes more coal. Fortunately, there is a coal mine in Tongzhou.
Qin Lingsi took the stone brick from her sister's hand, took out her dagger, and slashed it hard, only to make a small gap.
"Hehe! It's indeed hard enough. Let's use the first batch of cement to rebuild the gate of the village. If we are defeated in the future, we will have a way out!"
When Zhang Yangquan was reminded by her, he felt that he really should build the gate of the mountain stronghold. In the future, when Tuotuo's army comes, he cannot rule out the possibility of attacking Longtan Village.
With cement, city defense construction has become easier. Next, as long as we stock up on food, we should be able to withstand the onslaught of the Battle of Gaoyou.
Thinking of food, he remembered some of what Sun Hong reported to him when he went to the General Manager's Mansion today.
In May, the first season of rice planted by the common people has matured, but it is not until these days that the harvest of the first half of the year for the common people of Jiangdu has been calculated.
Generally speaking, the yield is very low, less than 200 kilograms per mu, and only about 150 kilograms after shelling.
But having said that, the field tax in the Yuan Dynasty was three dou per mu, and the two-season tax combined was only six dou, or twelve catties, so the field tax was not high.
In comparison, the land tax in the Song Dynasty was one liter per mu, which was more than three times higher than that in the Yuan Dynasty.
Of course, the majority of the tax revenue of the Yuan Dynasty came from Kecha, and rents had to be paid to the landowners. In short, it was not easy for the people to fill their stomachs throughout the year.
Recently, the General Administration has been finalizing a new tax plan. Officials have discussed several plans and handed them over to Zhang Yangquan for the final decision.
In the end, Zhang Yangquan chose the tax collection plan proposed by Luo Guanzhong. The field tax was calculated as one-tenth of the output. In other words, if the common people's harvest was four hundred catties, the field tax would be forty catties, which was much higher than that of the Yuan Dynasty.
However, the people are now cultivating their own fields and do not have to pay rent and taxes, so the calculation is not high.
As long as the General Administration no longer imposes high taxes, their lives will be much better.
In addition, Zhang Yangquan chose Luo Guanzhong's proportional tax collection plan more importantly because he was confident in his two kinds of rice.
The Kexiang 12 in the northern suburbs has matured. Although it is still being harvested, the yield per mu is expected to be about 400 jins. In fact, in the future, if there is sufficient fertilizer and scientific insecticides, the yield per acre of Kexiang 12 can reach 800 jins!<
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Compared with Kexian 12, the yield of Green Silver is higher. Even if it is halved like Kexian, it can still reach 600 catties.
In this way, the common people can get one thousand kilograms of grain from one acre of land. After deducting one hundred kilograms of field tax, they still have a harvest of nine hundred kilograms. After shelling, they still have more than seven hundred kilograms. They no longer have to worry about not being able to fill their stomachs! Calculated based on Jiangdu’s more than 8,000 hectares of farmland, the General Manager’s office can collect 800,000 dan of grain in land tax a year. It is not a problem to support an army of 200,000 in Jiangdu alone!
Rice is different from potatoes. Once the shells are removed, the germ will be damaged and cannot be planted again.
In order to ensure that the two kinds of rice seeds are not obtained by others, Zhang Yangquan is currently only planting them in Jiangdu, and has formulated a plan to send troops to control the harvest in the future, and to send officials to supervise the shelling. Finally, he will formulate strict laws to strictly prohibit the outflow of rice seeds.
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In this way, it won't take long for the General Manager's Office to accumulate a large amount of food and grass, and the people will be able to live a prosperous life. By then, it will naturally attract refugees and make Jiangdu more prosperous.
In order to support the people, except for land taxes, he has no plans to collect taxes for the time being. Let the people of Jiangdu breathe a sigh of relief first, and then study how to formulate taxes based on their harvest situation at the end of the year.
While he was thinking, Qin Lingsi came behind him, squeezed his shoulders, and asked flatteringly: "Brother-in-law, tomorrow is a holiday, where are you going to take us to play?"
Zhang Yangquan was stunned for a moment and did not answer for a while.
The holidays in the General Manager's Mansion are the same as those in the Yuan Dynasty, with five days off in the big month and four days in the small month.
At first, when an official asked Zhang Yangquan to take a holiday, he was surprised and started rebelling. He was also considering how many days of rest he would have each day?
As a result, those officials said that almost every rebel army has a holiday, and there is another thing in common, the number of holidays is no less than that of the Yuan Dynasty.
Perhaps the leaders of the rebel army felt that since they wanted to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty, they could not let their subordinates feel that the welfare benefits of following them were not as good as those of the Yuan Dynasty.
All in all, a tacit understanding gradually formed.
Zhang Yangquan thought about it carefully. If he really had to work every day, no one would be able to bear it. Although he worked very vigorously, he was in a different position after all. As long as he wanted to rest, he could rest at any time.
Therefore, Zhang Yangquan agreed to the request of the civil servants and stipulated that the holidays of the General Manager's Palace were the same as those of the Yuan Dynasty, with five days off in the big month and four days in the small month. There would also be holidays on some other special holidays.
The military is different. They still have to train every day, but each person’s family leave is increased by one day.
Zhang Yangquan slowly turned his head and looked at Qin Lingjun. He was willing to take the two sisters out to play, but he was afraid that Qin Lingjun would not agree.
Unexpectedly, Qin Lingjun looked away this time without objecting.
Qin Lingsi squeezed Zhang Yangquan hard, stared at him and said, "What a piece of wood! Tomorrow is the Chinese Valentine's Day, have you forgotten?"
Zhang Yangquan was stunned for a long time, then Xuan Er remembered that tomorrow happens to be the seventh day of July, and said quickly: "Okay, I will take you to the lake to listen to the opera tomorrow!"
Early the next morning, Qin Lingsi got up early like a child on a spring outing, and then urged Zhang Yangquan and Qin Lingjun to get up.
After breakfast, the three of them went to Baobao Lake and rented a small boat to cruise around the lake.
Today is a sunny day, with bright sunshine and clear blue sky.
Zhang Yangquan acted as the boatman and rowed the boat for the two sisters. Not far away, the guards rowed boats to follow behind to protect them.
Qin Ling thought of the pouting Lao Gao and looked up to the sky and sighed: "Oh my god, have you ever seen such a stingy manager! He can't even rent a boat, so he takes his fiancée and little sister to row such a small broken boat!"
Zhang Yangquan smiled and said nothing. Of course he was not reluctant to spend the money, but he just felt that rowing a boat was more artistic.
Qin Lingjun could understand Zhang Yangquan's intention, so he glared at the girl.
"If you don't want to sit down, just go down. I think there are many young talents in Jiangdu City who are willing to take you to sit on the boat! I heard that Mr. Cai family often goes to the racecourse to see you recently."
Qin Lingsi snorted: "He is interested in my identity, not my person!"
Qin Lingjun was stunned, silent for a while, and said: "You are already a grown man. If you really like the person, brother-in-law and I will support you!"
Qin Lingsi curled her lips and said, "I don't have the time to think about these things right now! Hey, look, the man on that boat seems to be that guy Guo Huan!"
Qin Lingjun followed her gaze and nodded: "It's Guo Huan. The woman next to her seems to be Cai Han!"
Qin Lingsi smiled and said: "This boy actually met the Cai family's daughter on the Chinese Valentine's Day. It seems that he has been fascinated by the Cai family's daughter."
Qin Lingjun was about to speak when he suddenly noticed that the speed of the boat had slowed down. He turned around and saw that Zhang Yangquan was silently looking at another boat.
She turned around and saw that there were two familiar people on the bow of the ship. One was Shen Qianqian, and the other was a wild boar.
The wild boar did not notice Zhang Yangquan and the Qin sisters sitting on a small boat nearby.
He stood on the bow of the boat facing the wind, looking at the sparkling sea, and said calmly: "Miss Shen specially invited me out on Chinese Valentine's Day, isn't it just to have a romantic relationship with me?"
Shen Qianqian stood silently behind him and sighed: "Mr. Zhu, I want to have a frank talk with you! I hope we can resolve the misunderstanding between you and my family!"
When Shanzhu heard the word "Zhu San", he trembled all over and said coldly: "Master Zhu San is dead. He died in the sea of fire together with the 136 people of the Zhu family!"
Shen Qianqian said anxiously: "I know you have hatred in your heart, but we only let him into the city when we heard that he had been ordered to be safe. We didn't know that he would take revenge on your family."
It turns out that when Fang Guozhen rebelled, the imperial court sent Duoer Jiban to lead an army to conquer the country. When Duoer Jiban arrived at the place, he recruited local people to help him.
Among them, the Zhu family was robbed several times by Fang Guozhen because of their cargo ships. They hated these pirates the most, so they actively helped Duoer Jiban deal with Fang Guozhen.
After a big battle, Duo'er was captured alive by Fang Guozhen.
Fang Guozhen forced Duo'er to recruit him from the class and named him Dinghaiwei. The court really agreed, and Fang Guozhen released Duo'er from the class.
Unexpectedly, Yuan Ting only agreed verbally, and after Duoer Jiban was released, he was like a stone in the sea. After waiting for several months, he did not see the officials who came to Zhao'an.
Only then did Fang Guozhen realize that he had been tricked, and in anger, he rebelled again.
Before the rebellion, he decided to plunder the Zhu family in order to raise food, grass, wealth and revenge.
The Zhu family was in Taizhou. In order to enter Taizhou, Fang Guozhen used the court to verbally agree to Zhao'an's decree and deceived Shen Wansan into saying that he was not on good terms with Taizhou Daru Huachi and the other party would not allow him to enter the city and hoped that Shen Wansan would help.
Shen Wansan relied heavily on Fang Guozhen's protection at that time, so he had no choice but to agree. He also felt that since Fang Guozhen had been ordered to be safe, he would not be too messy.
Unexpectedly, after Fang Guozhen's army entered the city, he killed all the Taizhou defenders and the entire Zhu family. They looted all the wealth and burned it again.
Except for the Zhu family, Fang Guozhen did not attack other people in Taizhou. He robbed the Zhu family of food and wealth and left.
At that time, Shanzhu happened to be studying abroad, so he escaped from the disaster. When he returned home, he found out that his whole family had been killed by Fang Guozhen.
Out of grief and anger, the wild boar changed his name and wanted to avenge his family.
Later, the imperial court attacked Fang Guozhen many times, and Shanzhu participated in the battle as a volunteer every time. Unexpectedly, the imperial court attacked at one time and ordered him to peace at another, which greatly disappointed him.
He turned to join other pirate forces and wanted to use black and black methods to deal with Fang Guozhen.
As a result, the pirate force he joined was no match for Fang Guozhen. They were beaten to pieces and surrendered to Fang Guozhen.
Knowing that there was no hope of revenge, Shanzhu came to Yangzhou in despair and joined Longtan Mountain by chance.