Chapter 85: The Ridiculous Treasures of the People
The sultry summer weather always makes people feel unbearable, and they wish the sun would set early and bring autumn closer.
But in the eyes of farmers, it is very short-lived. The most arduous, tense and concentrated labor for farmers is "War in Double Summer".
During these two and a half months, they not only have to complete the summer harvest but also the summer planting. The farmers will not have a day of leisure.
This is a profession that involves fighting against the sky and the earth. Every day, you have to appear in the fields early and wander around. Even if there is no farm work, you still have to pull out another weed so that the crops can absorb more nutrients.
The wheat in the fields had been harvested long ago, and the farmers paid taxes to the court. As a scholar-official, Wang Hao owned the land but did not need to pay the income. The Wang family was the head household and had a large amount of land in their hands. Although these fields were not Wang Hao's land, they did not have to pay taxes.
The land, but it also belongs to Wang Hao's name, was bought with real money and silver, so he can enjoy a very large tax exemption, and others can't say a word "no".
This is also the main reason why the Wang family can produce so much grain. Two hundred thousand kilograms of grain is not a small amount of money. In an era when wheat and millet yields were one stone per acre, two hundred thousand kilograms of grain would cost at least two thousand kilograms.
Many acres of land!
Ye An couldn't help but secretly sigh that the scale of land annexation in this era was so huge that it far exceeded the historical records!
It is now the second year of Tiansheng. Compared with the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, it has just ushered in its fourth emperor and is still in a stable and stable period. Emperor Renzong's father, Emperor Zhenzong, brought a considerable change to the Northern Song Dynasty due to the Chanyuan Alliance.
stable stage.
But even so, the sheer scale of the land annexation still frightens Ye An!
Is land annexation a good thing?
Yes and no! The so-called "hiding wealth among the people" system created by the old Zhao family seems to make sense, but when it comes to practice, it turns out to be nonsense.
Ye An is a bystander of history, and he is familiar with the existence of ancient and modern times. He knows the true meaning of the so-called hiding wealth from the people. Guan Zhong once made a clear definition: "When the people are not taken away, the people will be rich. If the sacrifice is not neglected, the wealth will be rich."
Yang Sui."
The meaning is very simple, which is to develop production and stabilize national fiscal revenue by reducing taxes and levies, hiding wealth among the people, and this is also the earliest idea that quantitative change leads to qualitative change.
But the old Zhao family is carrying out capital expansion and monopoly under the pretext of hiding wealth from the people!
The tax system of the Song Dynasty was not one of exemption and reduction. On the contrary, it had increased compared to the Five Dynasties. In addition to the summer and autumn taxes, there were many taxes in various places with different names and different regions. All kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes were shocking!
Even so, a large number of land annexations were still going on. In the Tang Dynasty, the sale of land was still strictly restricted. But by the Song Dynasty, land annexation had become the most normal economic form. As long as you have money, you can buy land. As for
The original homesteaders on the land naturally became tenants after selling the land.
People who lost their land still had to rely on the land to live. They did not need to pay summer and autumn taxes to the court. They only needed to pay 50% or 60% of the income from cultivating the land to the owner's family. The rest was their own, and of course the rest.
The exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes still have to be paid.
As a result, the two-tax system of the Song Dynasty became an oppressive system. Tenants who lost their land did not pay taxes to the court, while families with official positions only had to pay relatively small taxes. As a result, all the pressure was placed on only the owner-cultivators.
on the body.
Wealth is hidden among the people. What is hidden is the land, and the output of the land is wealth. The so-called people are actually the families of big families and officials!
This is the Song Dynasty that Ye An saw, and it is also the true face of history. It is shocking and makes people tremble with fear. Ye An can be sure that he is not the only one who sees this, but no one stands up to oppose it, which shows the benefits.
Because of this, everyone becomes an ostrich who buries his head in the soil and lets the fire burn his buttocks.
I originally had a good impression of Ye An of the Song Dynasty, but now my good feelings are decreasing and disappearing with the increase of knowledge. The professor once said that you will never get the truth by looking at history, but now Ye An is really
After seeing history, the truth is even harsher than what is recorded in the book.
The master and the apprentice sitting on the bullock cart were both staring at the fields in front of them, but compared to Ye An, Xuan Chengzi was more looking forward to a good year this year.
The summer harvest has ended, and we won’t know how this year will be until after the autumn harvest.
Along the way, Xuanchengzi kept taking out millet cakes from the package and giving them to the children on the roadside. Without exception, these children had grass tags on their heads. Some children lost the grass tags while fighting for the rice cakes.
, but soon they picked it up from the ground and inserted it into their heads again. They knew that after inserting the grass tag, they could be bought by others and they would not have to starve...
Ye An looked at this road and saw that almost all the children were asking for food with straw tags on them, but the sallow-faced and skinny adults would not ask for food from the oxcart they were in. They just prayed in their eyes, hoping to buy these children themselves.
Selling children has become the last resort to fight famine. Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, once advocated and encouraged the people to "sell children and sell daughters" and regarded it as a means to save famine. In order to avoid the human tragedy of "cannibalism", Liu Bang ordered the people to sell children.
Selling children in exchange for food to survive is the so-called "The Emperor Gao ordered the people to sell their children and eat them as Shu Han."
Although this is against human ethics, the child can survive after being sold!
Ye An looked at these children silently, then turned to look at Lao Dao: "How many children can Lao Jun Guan save?"
Xuan Chengzi's hands trembled slightly, and he squeezed out four words from between his teeth: "At most fifty!"
So Ye An stood on the carriage without hesitation and shouted: "Songshan Laojun is a kindhearted man and is willing to adopt five hundred children!"
Wow…………
The moment Ye An shouted, the bullock cart was surrounded by victims. Xuan Chengzi's expression turned extremely ugly. He took Ye An's arm and lowered his voice and said: "Ridiculous! It can't be saved! The maximum number of people is a hundred! Five is the limit!"
Laojun Guan cannot afford to support hundreds of people!"
Ye An looked at the child being pushed into the bullock cart, and Niu Er constantly trying to avoid being pulled out of the cart, and said: "It doesn't take long, just three months! I only need three months, that's enough!"
"
The children don't eat much, they just need to be distributed and managed effectively. The food in Laojunguan is enough to sustain these five hundred children for more than two months, and the mountains are generous, and you can find a lot of edible things in the mountains.
Even birds and beasts can fill their stomachs.
The victims of the disaster are not unaware of this, but the mountains and forests also belong to others. After Zhongyue was divided into three parts, the mountains and forests of Songshan also belonged to Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.
Although he has something in his hands that can stop the disaster, what Ye An needs most now is time!
Five hundred children seemed like a lot to adopt, but from the time Ye An shouted this voice, the number of children behind the oxcart continued to increase.
"Laojun Guan" and "Mr. Guanmiao" are simply golden signs. In the eyes of Xuan Chengzi, Ye An's behavior is tantamount to boasting. As the number of people increases, the expressions of Ye An and Lao Tao become more and more serious.
Ugly.
There were at least a thousand children behind the oxcart, and Ye An's method was simple and crude. After arriving in Yangcheng County, he asked the gatekeeper Liu Mentou for help, and directly selected five hundred children from the back of the team to bring them into the city.
At this critical moment, we can only help those who need it most. Most of the children who can keep up with the physical strength are stronger. The bullock cart is their opportunity. Only when their health is really bad will they not be able to keep up. Those who are left behind are the ones who are left behind.
Those most in need of help.
Although this choice is cruel, it is the most rational method.