June 20th of the third year of Zhonghe, Fuping County.
Shao Shude has just sent away Tian Congyi, the envoy for the establishment and observation of the capital.
Tian Congyi came here to urge Xia Sui's army to leave quickly. What a joke! Three thousand Yamen troops were stationed in Huayuan, three thousand were stationed in Tongguan, and two thousand cavalry (including the "borrowed" Yifang army cavalry) were stationed in Meiyuan.
, the main force of the Tielin Army stayed in Fuping. The local government has been supplying these uncles every day for more than two months, so they can't leave, right?
A few days ago, even the Hebei sergeants who had just received their rewards left Tongguan east and went home. Why did Xia Sui's army stay here? Is it entrenched and unable to leave? So Tian Congyi came over and wanted to find out what was going on.
After learning that Xia Suijun stayed because of "insufficient food gifts", Tian was slightly relieved. But he was also a little angry. What did these military leaders think of Guanzhong? They plundered money and food at will. Just last month, the guard
The Zhongwu Army and other troops in Chang'an were arguing about pay again and almost plundered Chang'an again. In the end, some money and food were urgently transferred from Ji County to calm them down.
Tian Congyi didn't say anything when he left Fuping, which was regarded as acquiescence to Xia Sui's army before leaving after collecting food. Anyway, the emperor was having fun in Sichuan and had no intention of returning to Chang'an. Shao Shude would leave in a month at most, so why bother with him?
What about breaking up?
"Your Majesty, the summer grain harvest in several counties has been completed. Li Yanling has sent people to each county to collect the agreed corn and wheat, and transport them to Tongguan County for concentration. In addition, Li Renjun is back." Chen Cheng walked into the study and reported.
Li Renjun coaxed and deceived more than 3,000 households in several counties near Chang'an, and then transported them back to Suizhou along with the captives and grain and grass rewards.
This is Shao Shude's last search for manpower in Guanzhong. Now that the war is over, no one will follow you anymore. Everyone feels that life has finally stabilized, agriculture and commerce have begun to slowly recover, and the desire to immigrate abroad has been greatly reduced.
This year, Suizhou has opened 2,500 hectares of farmland, and its potential has almost been exhausted. Among these lands, 600 hectares have been allocated to military farms. So far, the farms have a total of 2,000 hectares. Currently, about 10,000 Chao captives are farming. 900 hectares have been allocated to military farms.
Each sergeant received an additional ten acres of land, and the entire Tielin Army each had thirty acres of land. The remaining 1,000 hectares were incorporated into the state, bringing the number of public lands in the state to 1,500 hectares, and were temporarily leased to immigrants from Guanzhong for cultivation.
Overall, if we include the family members of sergeants who have migrated from other places one after another, the Chaozhong prisoners escorted back, and the civilian households from Guanzhong that have been attracted by the past, Suizhou currently has a population of more than 124,000 people and more than 8,800 hectares of land, which is almost close to the upper limit.
Already.
It is not impossible to continue to increase development efforts, but it is not necessary. The cost-efficiency ratio of investment has begun to decline sharply. If you have this time, it is better to shift the focus to Yinzhou, where the return on investment is quite high. The five counties of Suizhou will be
Leave it to the local people to develop it themselves. If they are exhausted, they will acquire another three thousand hectares of land, but Shao Shude does not want to spend this money.
After less than three years of development, Suizhou has now become the number one economic center in Xia Sui. The combined Han population in Yinzhou and Xiazhou’s seven counties is only 60% of that in Suizhou’s five counties. Regional development is serious
It's unbalanced and it's time to slowly correct it.
"Tell Li Yanling to transport one batch back as soon as you collect it. There is no need to wait. No one will dare to stop them from entering the territory of the Serbian Army." Shao Shude said: "By the way, 300,000 grains of dendrobium and 200,000 grains will be sent to Xiazhou.
, 60,000 dendrobium will be sent to Suizhou, and 40,000 dendrobium will be sent to Yinzhou. This is more or less the arrangement."
It is really not that easy to transport 300,000 grains. The Tielin Army fought continuously and captured a large number of carriages and draft animals. However, these grains also had to be transported in several trips, so time was very precious. By the time it snowed in winter
, it can only be transported twice, and it is quite reluctant.
The auxiliary troops on the left and right sides of the Yamen Army were also mobilized. Even Li Xiaochang of the Bulgarian Army received a request from Shao Shude and asked him to send people to help transport. In short, he tried his best to get the food away before it snowed.
.
“Your Majesty, when canals are opened in Yinzhou next year, there should be a lot of new fields, but there are no people to cultivate them. What can we do?” Chen Cheng asked.
After Feng Xuan made the tea, he personally brought it to the courtyard. When Chen Cheng saw this, he quickly stood up and lowered his head, not daring to look directly.
Her identity is different. She used to be Feng Yin's younger sister, but now she is the lord's concubine. And seeing how his lord dotes on the Feng sisters, Chen Chengcheng doesn't dare to neglect her.
"Judge Chen is good at planning and has repeatedly offered suggestions to defeat the enemy. The king relies heavily on him. This is a tea produced in Huazhou. Although it is not included in the "Tea Classic", it still has a lot of flavor." Feng Xuan said with a smile.
Since she made the decision, she has looked very good in recent months and has become more lively. Her brother and sister-in-law, Mrs. Liu, almost thought she had become a different person.
"Is it Xiaohua Mountain?" Chen Cheng asked tentatively: "I remember that there was a poem called "Tea Pavilion" that mentioned this tea. There are endless wars in the world, so it is rare to have Xiaohua Mountain."
"Tea has no name, but it is produced in Xiaohua Mountain. Scholar Zhu once praised it in a poem, 'It is so quiet beyond the dust, the tea is fragrant in Xiaohua Mountain.'" Feng Xuan pursed her lips and smiled.
After saying that, he bowed and walked away without delaying the two of them to talk about business.
"Judge Chen, I feel that I should have agreed to go out to kill the thieves. The Governor of Ximen Zhongsui once hinted to me, and I was very moved. However, the court did not mention anything about the four prefectures of Yifang or the three prefectures of Shuofang.
So I lost interest. Now think about it, if I go out to the east to attack the thieves, I might be able to gather the people in Henan, take the road through the river, and send them back to Suizhou." Shao Shude sighed and said: "That's all, this matter has passed.
Regret is useless. Regarding manpower, I thought about it and opened shops in Guanzhong and Hedong to sell war horses and purchase other things. At the same time, these shops can also pay attention to recruiting poor and helpless people, and send them back to Xia Sui for unified resettlement.
Go to Yinzhou to cultivate land. The world is in chaos, and there are always poor and helpless people, and there are quite a lot of them. Over time, we can always get a lot of people."
"This is a wonderful strategy. If horse racing is widely set up, hundreds of households can always get it a year. If there is a war, there will probably be even more." Chen Cheng praised.
"People are always the foundation." Shao Shude said: "Get ready in the near future. Go to Yanzhou to meet Li Xiaochang and make him feel at ease. When you return, it will be almost time for me to leave for Xiazhou."
“As ordered.” Chen Cheng responded.
******
On July 21st, Shao Shude left Fuping and headed towards Yanzhou, and the Tielin Army Brigade followed suit. The Feng family will also move to Xiazhou, and Li Kan's village is returned to its original owner.
Shao Shude did not ride a horse, but sat in the carriage with the Feng sisters. The reason was also very simple. Xiao Feng (the capital of the Feng Dynasty) was pregnant. When the generals heard the news, they all congratulated. The king started fighting in the past five years since he went to aid Hedong.
After four years of fighting, it is really not easy to have an heir. The only person who is unhappy may be Oritsugu Yu, his sister is the king's real wife, and it is really frustrating that things ended up like this.
Sitting in the carriage, Shao Shude took the time to study the financial problems of the four states of Xia Sui.
According to the imperial system, all states and counties in the world, including feudal towns, must implement the two-tax law. However, in actual operation, feudal towns gradually "illegal accumulation", and the operations were carried out in a different way, or even not implemented at all. The court saw that this was not possible, and must
To rectify the situation, especially those disobedient feudal towns.
When the Two Taxes Law was implemented, the vassal towns in the world could be roughly divided into four types: the Heshuo separatist type, the Central Plains containment type, the frontier control type, and the southeast financial source type. The relationship between the Heshuo counterfeit vassal and the imperial court was very poor, and they did not apply for a household registration.
They resisted many times, but after several attacks, they basically obeyed in the end, implemented the Two Taxes Law, and paid taxes to the court.
The three towns in Heshuo are all like this, and the eight towns in the northwest of Beijing, which are members of the Shence Military Department, are naturally no exception. However, as border defensive vassal towns, the eight towns in the northwest of Beijing are already unable to make ends meet, and they all rely on central government subsidies for money and food. Therefore, their so-called financial
The data was only for the court to see, and it was basically unclear how to send tribute, and additional allocations from the court were required.
According to the normal state, the collection of taxes and levies in the four prefectures of Xia Sui mainly fell into three categories: local tax, household tax, and interrogation tax. In the second year of Zhonghe, Shao Shude was on an expedition abroad, and the tax collection in the town was inertia based on the previous method, and the data was incomplete.
Only Song Le worked hard to organize the information in Suizhou and sent himself a summary.
Suizhou taxes are currently levied on a base of more than 7,000 households. New immigrants and newly established households (such as sergeants) in recent years are not included in the scope of taxation. According to the rules of the imperial court's two tax laws, the current average
A household pays three husks of corn, two and a half bolts of silk, and 280 cash per year. In theory, it can receive more than 20,000 husks of corn, more than 18,000 bolts of silk, and more than 2,600 cash.
This amount of money is almost enough to support the state soldiers, and it may be a little less. How can it be possible to support so many wolf-like sergeants? Moreover, for the farmers, this burden is too "light", and additional taxes must be imposed!
The additional taxes are mainly on grain, and the proportion is variable. Because Xia Sui's fiscal and taxation system is the same as that of the imperial court. The principle is to live within your means, that is, how much tax you need to spend, but in general, a person with a family of five or six
For a family that cultivates 30 acres of land, it is normal to levy an additional 10 hu of land tax on top of the three hu of land tax a year. In this way, the whole family is left with 17-18 hu of food, which is 22-22 hu of what is needed for a normal and healthy life.
There is still a slight gap in the 24 hu of grain, so I have to eat glutinous rice bran to make up for it.
The household tax is similar, because rewards need to be given to the sergeants, which requires a large amount of copper coins and silk. The household tax is only two to three thousand coins a year and less than 20,000 bolts of silk, which is completely insufficient. Moreover, the household tax and the farmers
The sideline business is closely related to the sideline business. If the sideline business is underdeveloped, you can’t do it even if you want to add taxes.
Although there is a sericulture industry in Suizhou, the production capacity is only that much. The animal husbandry industry is quite passable, but due to various reasons, external sales are not smooth, business has not started, and the people have not much money in their hands. A levy has been added.
At present, only three pieces of silk are collected from each household every year, and it is difficult to raise more than 500 pieces of silk.
In other words, in the second year of Zhonghe, Suizhou collected a total of more than 97,000 husks of corn, 24,000 bolts of silk, and more than 4,600 qian in regular taxes (taxes were mainly collected in Xiazhou and Yinzhou).
The income from military-affiliated farms is not taken into account, and because private households in Guanzhong and sergeants are all migrant households, they are not included in the scope of taxation. This is roughly the amount, which is basically spent on raising state soldiers, paying for officials at all levels, and opening rivers in the state.
Things got better, and there was even a small deficit.
"This financial system is riddled with holes." Shao Shude put the documents aside and thought to himself: "When I return to Xiazhou, I must sort it out. A formal financial system is the foundation for long-term peace and stability. I am afraid that everything is going wrong in the world now.
Not many military leaders can reconcile the accounts, and the finances are definitely in a mess, so it’s no wonder the sergeants are causing trouble."
With his head resting on Dafeng's plump thighs, Shao Shude almost thought about the financial and tax issues along the way. Until he arrived in Xiazhou in late September, he was still thinking about how to collect taxes from Tuoba Sigong.
On September 25th of the third year of Zhonghe, Shao Shude entered Xiazhou. At this time, two years and nine months had passed since the last time he went out to conquer the bandits. The smoke of war had gone away for the time being, and what awaited him below was something bigger than the war.
Internal governance issues are a hundred times more difficult.
Perhaps, this is the fundamental factor that determines whether he can bring peace to the world, rather than force or strategy.
