Chen Minggang thanked him and sat down, his eyes flickering on Xiong Buyou's face.
"Master Xiong, please tell me if you have anything to say."
"Lao Ba!" Xiong Buyou also called him Wang Zhaomin's name to show his affection without derogating himself. You must know that the gentry in the county also had to call him "Lao Ba".
"I have something, and you have to explain it to me." Xiong Buyou got straight to the point - considering the communication skills of both parties, it is easier to communicate with the straight to the point.
He explained Wang Zhaomin's request, and then asked: "What's the problem with the county's autumn grain collection?"
"Of course there are problems." Chen Minggang seemed to have expected this question. His calm expression told Xiong Buyou that he had known about this for a long time.
"Mr. Xiong, does Australia also collect grain?" Chen Minggang asked.
"Imperial grain and national taxes exist all over the world. Australia is no exception." Although agricultural taxes have been abolished in this time and space, they have only been abolished for a few years.
"Master Xiong knows how Australia collects grain," Chen Minggang asked, "What are the disadvantages?"
Naturally, Xiong Buyou didn't know about this. He thought that the government would cancel agricultural taxes to benefit farmers, and to eliminate the disadvantages of disturbing farmers was also one of the reasons. He could only say: "I don't know about this, but it probably exists."
"That's it, there are difficulties in every line of work." Chen Minggang spoke very calmly, "Take the Ming Dynasty as an example. The summer and autumn odes every year are the official affairs of the imperial court. However, there are always some unruly people in every county who are stubborn and unwilling to resist.
"Come on, if the county pursues the competition more closely, it will abandon the fields and flee to other places. For the sake of performance evaluation, the county magistrate cannot pursue the competition too closely..."
This is very different from what Xiong Buyou heard about the tax issues in the Ming Dynasty in the lecture on social conditions in the Ming Dynasty. Besides, are the big households who owe taxes willing to throw away their land and flee? On second thought, the lecture on social conditions in the Ming Dynasty talked about the shortcomings of the system.
The question is, Chen Minggang is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the system. How can he say bad things about the system? Let’s just listen first.
"The number of households in the county is a performance evaluation of the county magistrate. If the number of household registrations decreases during the term of office, the performance evaluation will not look good. Therefore, it is inconvenient to deal with such unruly people and they can only count on how much they pay."
"Do the gentry in the county pay full grain?"
Chen Minggang nodded: "Mr. Xiong is right to ask. According to the rules of this dynasty, the gentry naturally has the advantage of being exempted from food. However, the gentry can't help but use the preferential treatment from the court to 120,000 yuan. For a few dan,
It’s free of more than a dozen dan, and if you’re free of more than a dozen dan, it’s free of hundreds of dan. Mr. Xiong must have heard of Gui Ji.”
Xiong Buyou recalled his study materials and nodded. He understood a little bit.
"Is there anyone who has brought some land recently to dedicate it to you?"
"That's not true." As Xiong Buyou is the main person dealing with the locals, according to regulations, such information must be reported to him.
"It's almost time. Someone will probably come before the autumn grain harvest begins. Master Wu is worried about this, so he asked Master Wang to come and talk to Master Xiong."
"That's it!" Xiong Buyou understood completely. The county was most afraid of a group of "tricksters" who would rely on the power of the Chuang Chuan Group and not pay the autumn grain, so they hurriedly asked Wang Zhaomin to come and negotiate with them about paying the grain.
If the Crossing Group is willing to take the lead in paying the autumn grain, it will be a shock to all walks of life in Lingao. People who originally wanted to rely on the Crossing Group to pay less grain or not pay the grain will have to think carefully.
However, Xiong Buyou thought that things were not that simple. He said casually:
"So it won't be easy to collect autumn grain this year, right?"
"Of course it's not easy to conquer." Chen Minggang replied without hesitation, "You probably know that in Lingao, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, so the unscrupulous people always have to be more unscrupulous. It's really not easy to get things done without a bad person to control it.
.”
Xiong Buyou thought, who is this "evil man"? Of course they are the Gou brothers - these two brothers have been responsible for the collection of grain taxes in Lingao many times. They are famous "grain poor" in the county.
The "grain clerks" are not necessarily yamen servants, but mostly local "evildoers" who either have their own business or are simply gangsters. They are all connected with the office of the household secretary in the county yamen.
When the yamen began to collect grain, they cooperated with the yamen servants in going to the countryside to collect rent, taking the opportunity to extort money and gain benefits.
At first, this kind of "grain gap" was just a thug of the book office. As time went by, powerful landlords and gentry in some places also came to get involved, using their power in the countryside to collect taxes. Then they bullied the people and exploited the farmers.
When the national tax on imperial grains was levied, he himself could not help but make a fortune. What was even more unscrupulous was that the common people had already paid the tax, but they were withheld by such people, and instead the county was in arrears with taxes every year. Ming
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River were in serious tax arrears. When the Qing government was clearing up the accumulated debts of the past years, someone once made it very clear that the common people did not owe taxes. Those who owed taxes were the gentry and landlords who "took over the taxes."
Xiong Buyou knew that the Gou brothers had been responsible for the grain distribution of Guodu County and nearby areas all year round, and they had made a fortune from this.
Chen Minggang knew that the Gou family was wiped out by them, so why did he say such a thing? He thought for a moment, and a thought flashed through his mind: Could it be that Chen Minggang was hinting to them that they could also do the tax collection thing?
This is a coincidence! Xiong Buyou is a little excited. If the book office also has this idea, they can use this guy to learn more about Lingao's tax situation.
However, he did not make a specific statement for the time being, and just stared at Chen Minggang with great interest. This attitude made Chen Minggang a little confused - he did have plans to recruit the Cross-Travel Group to join in and take over the county's tax revenue.
With the power of the Crossing Group in Lingao, if they come forward, even if they just borrow a banner, it will be enough to scare the whole county - and he can also take advantage of the opportunity to make a big profit. It turns out that the Gou brothers are powerful, but they don't buy it.
There are also many wealthy gentry and landowners. Now that there are Australians, I am afraid no one will dare not buy this account. His personal income will naturally be much greater.
As for the specific handling, the Australians knew nothing about the Ming Dynasty's grain collection - not to mention these overseas visitors. The only person in the county who knew about this was Master Wang. Although Master Wang understood it, he didn't have the skills.
The county's Yulin register. Every specific matter must be subject to his arrangements...
Thinking of this, Chen Minggang even felt a little elated. With the Australian, a "food man" with a strong ship and a powerful gun, Chen Minggang had to deal with the families who were against him.
Chen Minggang planned to take this opportunity to exploit the county severely. Not only did the people in the county dare not make irresponsible remarks, but even Wu Mingjin and Wang Zhaomin did not have the guts to refute. Anyway, there will be Australians when the sky falls.
This tall man is in charge. If the Australians can live in Lingao for a long time in the future, or even break open the earth to open a mansion, he will naturally be a hero if he collects food for the Australians. The Australians were driven away by the imperial court, and they must be blamed for the excessive extortion.
"Master Bear!" he shouted.
"Oh, oh," Xiong Buyou responded, "Old Ba! What do you mean, you want us to be the 'evil people'?!"
Chen Minggang smiled but said nothing.
"I have to go back and discuss this," Xiong Buyou said hesitantly, "This is a big deal."
"Isn't food also an important matter for the nobles?" Chen Minggang nodded.
He thought about this wishful thinking again and again, and believed that there was no flaw. The key was how to persuade the Australians. He felt that the problem was not big. If the Australians want to establish a foothold here, food is the foundation. The Australians are opening up wasteland and farming everywhere, which shows that they
The degree of hunger for food. When the Australians first established themselves, they called the leading figures from every village in the county to collect grain and recruit people to impose "reasonable burdens." Obviously, there was a huge demand for food. There is such a thing
If you have the opportunity to get a large amount of food, why not do it?
"That's right, that's right." Xiong Buyou simply made a full gesture to lure him to talk, and then said hesitantly, "It's just that we are overseas and know nothing about the Ming Dynasty's tax collection..."
"You don't need to worry about this." Chen Minggang felt that he had enough to say, so he directly showed his attitude.
"Okay, with a word from you, Lao Ba, I can truly reply." Xiong Buyou said goodbye with his hands in hand.
Chen Minggang sent him out respectfully, and when he saw that he had gone far away, he returned to the private room. Just as he was about to have some snacks to satisfy his hunger and make some careful calculations, suddenly his apprentice, named Zhou Qi,
He hurriedly rushed in. First he called out, "Master! Something's wrong!"
"What's the matter?" Chen Minggang saw him walking in a hurry and asked quickly.
"What's wrong with my wife?" Chen Minggang disliked his shrew-like wife Zhang. Zhang's shrewdness was famous in the county. His family lived on the back street of the county government, and almost all his neighbors were from the county.
Officials who work as servants. When it comes to being sinister and cunning, there are few people in ancient society who can compare to subordinate officials, but even this group of people shake their heads when they mention Chen Minggang's wife.
Chen Minggang is also a well-known and outspoken figure in the county, but he can't do anything about this wife. His father-in-law is Piao Tianwenxue, the former Lingao County Yamen Xingfang, even if he doesn't like it, there is nothing he can do.
"Master's wife just hit Qiu Hong's place!"
"Ah?!" Chen Minggang stood up. Qiu Hong was a prostitute who came from the mainland a few years ago. She set up a private shop in the county to pick up clients. After she was attracted by him, she became his forbidden wife. Chen Minggang was very excited.
He was infatuated with this outsider woman who was very different from the local women. Because he was worried about his wife being noisy, he did not dare to hide his love in a golden house in the county, so he built a house outside the city to house her and bought several maids for her to use.
, and specially arranged people to keep watch around the house, firstly to prevent his wife from making trouble, and secondly, to prevent wild bees and butterflies from seducing Qiuhong and cuckolding him.