Apart from anything else, taxes are also required to be paid on the fields of aristocratic families. If there are people in the household department, part of the fields can be hidden and taxes can be owed.
You read that right, you owe taxes.
Why use debt?
Here we have to talk about the ancient decree of "Amnesty to the World".
Many people read some TV novels and see the words "amnesty for the world".
Take the Song Dynasty as an example. Because of the will left by Zhao Kuangyin before his death, scholar-bureaucrats could not be punished. This also led to the fact that as long as the civil servants in the Song Dynasty did not rebel, they would be exiled at most.
Those officials in exile can regain their freedom as long as they are granted amnesty.
Take Su Shi, for example. He was exiled in his later years, but later met with amnesty and died on the way back to the north.
This also led to people’s misunderstanding of Amnesty, thinking that Amnesty only includes criminals.
In fact, this is not the case.
In ancient times, general amnesty was given under circumstances such as changing the Yuan Dynasty, offering sacrifices in the suburbs, adding titles to the emperor, ascending the throne, establishing a prince, etc.
Occasionally, a general amnesty will be granted for some more special and less common reasons - such as the emperor's patrol, the suppression of rebellion, the discovery of auspiciousness, the establishment of a queen, the conferment of Zen, a visit to the imperial temple, a solar eclipse, etc...
From these reasons for the amnesty, it is not difficult to see that the amnesty is actually for celebration.
In this case, how can the amnesty only pardon the prisoners?
In fact, amnesty also includes tax arrears.
Even if there is a natural disaster in a certain place, the court will exempt taxes for some years.
But this does not mean that people will be able to pay their taxes on time if things go well.
In fact, there are always some people in the world who cannot pay taxes due to some reasons.
And Amnesty covers those who owe taxes.
Many people may think that if this is the case, then everyone owes taxes, so how can the court collect taxes?
In fact, ordinary people would not dare not pay the taxes they owe as long as they can pay them.
Those who do this are wealthy, landed, and famous gentry families. They usually evade taxes by half-paying and half-arrears. For example, they pay part of the tax, then use various reasons to default on the part, and verbally promise to pay back the next year.
Of course, a written record will also be made.
Because the families of those who owe taxes have the right to speak in local public opinion, and many families also have officials from the court, when encountering such situations of tax arrears, local officials and officials who collect taxes do not dare to take violence.
The only way to collect the tax is to put it on hold. Anyway, as long as sufficient taxes are handed over to the court, local officials can use other methods to supplement the tax, such as exploiting ordinary people and businessmen with no background under clever pretexts, or using the excuse that the harvest is not good.
Ask the court to reduce taxes, etc.
As for the taxes owed, you don't have to pay them until the court issues an amnesty order.
The prerequisite for doing all this is to have their people in the Department of Husbandry, so in the eyes of the aristocratic family, the official position in the Department of Hubu is more important than the official position in the Department of Personnel.
If they really follow Li Shimin's request, they will not have many people left in the household department.
This is unacceptable to them.
"His Majesty said that this is his bottom line. If he doesn't agree, there is no need to talk. I think it's okay to agree. Although those official positions are more important to our family, compared with our family's reputation, which one
More important?" Lu Yuan said.
Cui Hao said with some suspicion: "His Majesty wanted us to give up our official positions in the Ministry of Household Affairs, but why didn't he propose to give up the Minister of Household Affairs too? Could it be that your Lu family reached some kind of deal?"
Several other people also looked at Lu Yuan with some suspicion.
Apart from the Minister, the two ministers in the Ministry of Hubu have the most power. Why didn't Li Shimin ask the Lu family to give up the position of the minister of Hubu?
Lu Yuan was a little flustered in his heart, but he pretended to be angry and said: "In this case, I won't care about this matter. You can do whatever you want. We, the Lu family, will not participate."
After saying that, he stood up and prepared to leave.
"Brother Lu, don't be angry. Brother Cui said it unintentionally." Several people quickly grabbed Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan's face was ashen and he said: "Obviously, he did not discuss it with us and did it by himself. Not only did our family suffer losses, but now he still doubts me. Your Majesty did not ask me to give up my position as Minister of Household Affairs.
Did you ask your family to give up the position of Minister?"
When everyone thought about it, Lu Yuan was right.
Although Li Shimin wanted a lot of positions and they were all relatively important, he really didn't move to the level of minister.
Everyone's doubts were gone, but they were a little dissatisfied with Cui Hao because of Lu Yuan's words.
As Lu Yuan said, this incident was entirely caused by Cui Hao himself, but it caused losses to his family.
Cui Hao's expression changed and he said, "You're talking nonsense. I did this for our five families without any selfish motives."
"Why don't you discuss it with us if you don't have selfish motives?"
"Yes, if you had discussed it with us in advance, there would be no trouble now."
Everyone began to denounce Cui Hao.
Lu Yuan sneered in his heart. Fortunately, the Lu family chose to join Li Shimin.
How could they be Li Shimin's rivals if they were so seemingly inseparable from each other?
"Everyone, I think the most important thing is to resolve the matter at hand as soon as possible. As for the losses of our family, we will report it to the family when the time comes, and the family will naturally negotiate with the Cui family." Lu Yuan said.
Cui Hao gritted his teeth and looked at Lu Yuan. Although several others were a little dissatisfied with him because of this incident, they did not show it.
Not only did Lu Yuan's few words arouse everyone's anger, he even suggested that they all seek compensation from the Cui family.
If the Cui family can still refuse forcefully, but the other four families together, the Cui family can only try to appease them, and in the end they may have to cut some flesh.
Will the family let him go then?
No matter what Cui Hao thought, other people's eyes lit up.
As the saying goes, those who are obsessed with the authorities are clear to those who are watching. They felt distressed when they patronized you before, and subconsciously wanted to refuse.
But if we can get some compensation from the Cui family, the loss will be within an acceptable range.
"Brother Lu is right. The longer this matter is delayed, the worse it will be for us."
"That's right, I heard that tens of thousands of untouchables were going to the palace gate to beat those who were kneeling to death. If the imperial army hadn't come forward and stopped them, something big would have happened. There must be someone behind this incident.
If the people behind the scenes continue to incite, and those untouchables come to our house, who of us can resist them?"
If they were in their ancestral land, they would naturally not be afraid, but this was Chang'an, and it didn't take tens of thousands, even a few thousand, to trample their family's mansion in Chang'an to the ground.
They shuddered at the thought of this and wanted to resolve the matter as soon as possible.
Cui Hao didn't want to agree, but the other companies had reached a consensus. If he didn't agree, he would offend the other companies to death.
In desperation, Cui Hao could only agree.
When Lu Yuan saw this, he admired Li Shimin very much.
In fact, he suggested that Li Shimin relax the conditions, but Li Shimin did not agree.
Li Shimin told him with certainty that the family would eventually agree.
Unexpectedly, it turned out to be exactly what Li Shimin expected.