Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 95: The Foundation of the Nation Has Decayed (Part 7)
"Your Highness, everyone. The purpose of the Yellow Book is to make the household registration of the world clear. With this as a basis, the country can correctly collect various taxes and reasonably select farmers to accept corvée labor. In this way, the operation of the country can continue, and the country can last forever."
This is a common truth, and Cao Huachun and others just nodded slightly.
Taking a deep breath, Lu Fengyi continued, "In this way, it is very clear who dislikes the Yellow Book the most. It is those unruly people who want to evade taxes and corvee labor, and those clerks and corrupt officials who want to take advantage of it! Hmm~~ To make it easier for everyone to understand, I will use Doctor Wu as an example."
It seems that the old man is somewhat dissatisfied with himself for bringing Jinyiwei to scare him. Wu Youxing smiled bitterly and raised his hand to make a gesture of invitation to Lu Fengyi.
"Let's assume that Doctor Wu received a reward from the Crown Prince, and returned to his hometown to buy 200 mu of good paddy fields. But Doctor Wu is not a juren, so not only can he not be exempted from taxes, but he also has to do corvée labor. And because Doctor Wu has so many good fields, he might even have to be the grain chief... This grain chief is not an easy job. If the taxes in his jurisdiction are insufficient, the grain chief will have to bear the difference himself. Doctor Wu is very worried, but he doesn't dare to ask the Crown Prince for such a small matter, so what should he do?"
"Well..." It was Xu Guangqi who answered this question: "Of course, we should bribe the village chief and the head of the village."
"Eh? It seems that Lord Xu is also an expert here. Why don't you ask Lord Xu to continue?"
"No, no, I was deeply affected by it when I was a child, but I have never understood how it works. So I would like to ask the old man for guidance."
"Well. Then I will continue. Doctor Wu bribed the head of the village and the head of the village, saying that I have too much land in my name and the taxes I have to bear are too heavy. Can you help me think of a solution? The head of the village who took the money from others waved his pen and recorded the fifty acres of land in Doctor Wu's name to fifty poor families with little land. This kind of operation is called live or flying. Hmm? Young master, raise your hand, is there a problem?"
"Old sir," Li Chunzhong asked timidly, "If someone else's land comes to me, won't he take the profits and I pay the taxes? Will the fifty poor households agree?"
"Hahaha, how could they not agree? Those fifty households are all poor! They can't even go to school and can't read, so how can they understand the changes in the documents from the head of the village? As for the tax collection next year, these fifty households will definitely feel that they have collected a little more than last year. But on the one hand, the annual land tax in our dynasty is actually not much, and the increase of one mu of land tax can be borne by these fifty households. On the other hand, our dynasty likes all kinds of temporary levies, and the people are accustomed to it. If these fifty households have any questions at that time, the head of the village can just say that the court has increased the levy again."
"Damn it! Not only did they harm the people for their own selfish interests, but they also brought disgrace upon the court."
"Hey, young general, don't be angry. I've just started." After holding down Liu Zhaosun, Lu Fengyi continued calmly, "Doesn't Doctor Wu have 200 acres of land? How can we transfer the burden of 50 acres? I gave you five taels of silver, you have to continue to find ways to reduce taxes for me. So, the head of the village came up with another idea: in the past ten years, four families in this village died out. Then the head of the village transferred 40 acres of the remaining 150 acres to the names of these four extinct families. Well, these four families died out, and the land under their names naturally became wasteland. Then there is no need to pay taxes. This method is called dead land transfer."
Looking at the people who had fallen into silence, although Lu Fengyi was in a heavy mood, in order to let Zhu Youdong really understand the situation at the grassroots level, he continued: "The Lijia system of our dynasty stipulates that 110 households in each Li are the main households. In addition to the main households, the old, weak, lonely and widowed are registered in each Li. This is called "distinct households". Taizu said that such families do not have to pay taxes because of the lack of labor. Then the head of the village asked Doctor Wu to instruct his youngest son to bring ten acres of land and register it with the account of an old man left in the village. This method is called "split households".
As a result, Doctor Wu did not have to pay taxes for the entire 100 mu of land. Then, if Doctor Wu wanted to exempt the remaining 100 mu of land from taxes, it would not be something the village head could do. So, under the introduction of the village head, he met the head of the household department of the county. After taking out 20 taels of silver as a bribe, the head finally agreed to help.
At this point, I want to explain to you that our dynasty allows the sale of land. If two people buy and sell privately, the contract they sign is called a "white contract". The government does not recognize a "white contract". Only when this contract is submitted to the county government and stamped will it take effect. The effective contract is called a "red contract".
The chief told Doctor Wu, "Didn't you just buy ten acres of land from General Liu? You should sign the deed first and don't come to go through the formalities. This way, there will be no record in the government office, and the Yellow Book and the Fish Scale Book will not be changed. In this way, the income from the ten acres of land will be yours, but the taxes will still be paid by General Liu. This method is called 'no transfer at all'."
"How ridiculous! Am I stupid? I'm so poor that I have to sell my land, and I still have to pay taxes for him?"
"Hey, General Liu, you just said that you were so poor that you had to sell your land. It seems that your family is in trouble. And this Doctor Wu has 200 acres of paddy fields. His family must be rich. When the time comes, I will hire a few strong men to stand in front of your house. What will you do? Don't obey? I will beat you until you obey!"
"This, the government doesn't care about this? Oh, why am I so stupid. The government has been bribed by him."
"The government? General Liu, you think too much. According to the ancestral system of our Great Ming Dynasty, when there is a dispute between villagers, as long as it is not a murder case, the village head, the village chief, and the three village elders must first mediate. If the mediation fails, the village head and the village elders agree to hand it over to the county government, and the county government will accept the case. The government? You can't even see the county magistrate, okay?!"
"How ridiculous! How ridiculous! I thought the villagers were simple and honest, but who knew they would be so bloody!"
"Haha, why is Doctor Wu angry? I'm talking about you." Lu Fengyi continued, "Speaking of which, aren't all those cunning and shameless people in the countryside making their fortunes this way? The milder ones buy someone else's land and rent it to the seller forever. Then they explain that the land is half white and half red. In other words, I sold the land to you. In addition to renting your land and paying you rent, I have to bear half of your taxes. This is called 'subsidy'. In addition, there are many other means such as 'having it all but gone', 'suspending it in vain', and 'burying it'. In short, the unruly people collude with the clerks and even the heads of a county to rob and plunder in various ways. In the end, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer.
Of course, these changes meant that the land tax was completely transferred. But Doctor Wu was still a commoner and had to perform corvée labor. According to the rules of our Ming Dynasty, families with more people were upper households and had to send more people to perform corvée labor, while families with fewer people were middle and lower households and had to send fewer people to perform corvée labor. Doctor Wu bribed the head of the village again and changed his family from an upper household to a middle household.
But here comes the problem. The number of males in the village is fixed. If your household is downgraded, there will be fewer people going out to serve, and the village will have one less person serving. So the head of the village looked at the village and selected Mr. Li's family, which had only two males, and changed Mr. Li's family from a lower household to a middle household.
Mr. Li's family had two male members, and they were lower-class households. Only one person could serve in the military service at a time, so no matter if it was the imperial court's once-in-ten-year corvée or the temporary additional service in the prefectures and counties, one of them could serve in the military service and the other could farm the land at home, and they could barely get by. Now they were changed to middle-class households, and two people had to serve in the military service, so wouldn't the land be left uncultivated? Mr. Li naturally disagreed, and then, hehe...
Even here, it was not over. Doctor Wu took this opportunity to find Master Li and said that there was no man in your family to farm, so why not sell all the land to me. Look, the Wu family's land expanded again. Then the Wu family used the previous method to exempt the land tax. There was more money to bribe the head of the village, and then, and then... In short, the bad people got rich , and the good families were oppressed and lost everything. This is: "Those with fields stretching across the fields will not be exempted from all taxes, and those with houses as big as hanging nets will be exempted from all taxes!"
Of course, this is not the end. Doctor Wu's family already had land and money, and they used various means to avoid taxes and corvée. It took only a few years for the family's wealth to grow. At this time, the Wu family could contribute some money to build bridges and roads, and build porridge stalls in times of disaster. As a result, those who were originally oppressed by him and had their families broken up had to rely on him and become his lackeys. At this time, he could completely throw aside the head of the village and the head of the village, and deal directly with the county magistrate. He became a gentry that the county magistrate had to treat politely.
What's even more frightening is that the Wu family is rich now. They can fully support their children's studies without any scruples. In ten or twenty years, if someone in the family passes the imperial examination, the Wu family can spend a lot of money and grain to let this scholar bribe the superiors and speed up his promotion. If the operation is done properly, what if this scholar rises to the top and even enters the cabinet as a minister? "
"Everyone." Looking around at the pale faces of the people around him, Lu Fengyi changed his teasing tone and said solemnly, "Now you understand what kind of enemy you need to face if you want to rectify the Yellow Book, right?"
