I still remember how exciting it was after the lawsuit ended, and countless people had tears in their eyes.
Zhang Fei became a hero in the hearts of the people.
However, it has only been a few days.
This incident immediately took a big turn. The excitement turned into complaints, and the tears filled the eyes turned into lamentations everywhere.
It's so dramatic.
It can be seen how difficult this reform is. You must know that this is only preliminary work, and it is only limited to the capital area, and the result is also troublesome.
If it goes one step further, it is really unimaginable!
And this time, Zhang Fei cannot stay away. If they intend to use this matter to reverse Wang Hong's case, once they succeed, he may be sent to Qiongzhou to surf.
Xu Zun also believed that this might be the other party's revenge.
There are already signs of this.
Many officials in the court began to use this as an excuse to excuse Wang Hong. When Wang Hong was there, nothing happened, and the tax collection work went very smoothly. It was calm. Now that Wang Hong has left, the result is widespread resentment among the people.
It can be seen that Wang Hong's approach makes sense.
Your emperor loves to toss.
look.
Let's make some trouble.
Wang Anshi made a sound statement and was concerned about the country and the people, but what was the result?
Talking on paper.
Whimsical.
Returning the people without any taxes but the state with the mercy?
This is simply a big joke.
Now even before the tax is increased, the people are already complaining incessantly. It will be difficult to increase the tax.
Wang Anshi's slogan was wildly ridiculed by many ministers.
The Ordinance Department of the Second Government was established.
"Teacher, look, these are some leases I sent people to find."
Lu Huiqing took out several leases and handed them to Wang Anshi, "According to my investigation, in fact, in most white leases, the taxes are divided equally into the rent. The landlord and the tenants each get half.
Another part is entirely borne by the tenant farmers, that is to say, the tenant farmers also paid taxes, but all the taxes were collected by the landlords. As for the situation mentioned by Lin Dan, the landlords transferred all the unpaid taxes to the tenant farmers.
, not none, but very few.”
"It doesn't make sense."
Wang Anshi slapped several contracts on the table.
Lu Huiqing said again: "Teacher, you really shouldn't have relented on the summer tax issue. This kind of thing cannot be compromised."
Wang Anshi glanced at him and sighed: "To tell you the truth, I regretted it very much afterwards, but at that time Wen Yanbo repeatedly emphasized that the court was not well prepared, which was also true, so I thought of giving in. I thought that the summer tax might also
It’s too late to collect it.”
Lu Huiqing said: "But now they are making a fuss about their mentor's words, which will cause more public resentment. If they make a fuss and the court chooses to give in, can they not continue to make a fuss? Besides, this is not a huge problem.
Most of them are just people obstructing it and deliberately bluffing. I think the court does not need to pay attention to it. If those tenant farmers want to complain, they should complain about the high rent, not the court's taxes."
This guy is more ruthless than Wang Anshi.
If you want to achieve great things, you should not stick to small details.
Wang Anshi nodded: "This is my mistake. I will report it to the officials later. I still have to act according to the plan and cannot be exempted from summer tax."
He didn't want to add to the burden on the tenant farmers, but when things got to this point, he couldn't retreat and had to be strong, otherwise, it would be all over.
In fact, this has been true throughout the ages.
Reformers, in the initial stage, were very aggressive. This has nothing to do with good or evil, it is purely a political act.
It’s impossible not to do this!
With that said, Wang Anshi picked up the contracts again, looked at them for a while, and said, "Go and ask Zhang San."
Lu Huiqing was stunned, "Looking for Zhang San? I'm afraid Zhang San can't help with this matter."
Wang Anshi said thoughtfully: "Since the problem lies in the lease contract, let's see if Zhang San can fight for justice for those tenant farmers."
Lu Huiqing's eyes lit up.
yes!
If the contract could be proven invalid through litigation, wouldn't the problem be solved?
"Yes! I'm going to find Zhang San now."
Lu Huiqing immediately rushed to the Bianjing Law Firm, but failed. Fan Li told him that Zhang Fei did not come to the Bianjing Law Firm today at all.
Lu Huiqing immediately rushed to Zhang's house.
It turned out that Zhang Fei left home early in the morning and has not returned yet.
The other party involved this matter with Wang Hong's case, which was equivalent to forcing Zhang Fei to unite with Wang Anshi.
Zhang Fei is not a passive person, whether in bed or in court.
He and Xu Zhiqian rushed to Baima Township early this morning to seek help from Geng Ming.
In this matter, Geng Ming was also a grasshopper on the same rope as them.
If Wang Hong comes back, Geng Ming will definitely be dead.
In fact, everyone knows that Geng Ming is Zhang Fei's pawn against Wang Hong. That case is by no means a coincidence.
Geng Ming, who had just reunited with his wife and children, was very nervous when he learned about this, and immediately helped Zhang Fei find two tenant farmers' contracts.
"There are many types of lease contracts for farmland, but these are the two main ones. If the tenant farmer has a good relationship with the landlord, they will state in the land deed that the landlord will collect tax from the tenant farmer every year.
Corresponding money and food.
Secondly, if the landowner and the tenant farmer are not very familiar with each other, they can sign a contract privately in the form of a large or small deed, stating that if the court wants to tax the land, it will be borne by the tenant farmer."
"It seems that when it comes to tax evasion, no matter what era, people's wisdom can be pushed to the limit!"
Zhang Fei nodded with a wry smile.
The big and small deeds are yin and yang contracts. After all, it is tax evasion. The lease cannot be written too clearly. Both parties will sign another one privately. If the court wants to tax the land, it will be clearly stated who should bear it.
The division of responsibilities is very clear.
But if the two parties are familiar with each other, they will put a code word in the contract, and the tenant will pay a percentage of the tax to the landlord based on the tax banknotes presented by the landlord.
You have to pay taxes to get tax money, and when the landlord cannot produce the tax money, the tenant farmers naturally do not have to bear this part of the tax.
But there is also a risk, that is, the landlord forges tax bills, or obtains real tax bills through other means, and the tenant farmers have to bear the losses. The two parties do not have enough trust, so they generally will not sign such a contract.
Xu Zhiqian asked anxiously: "Zhang San, can this lawsuit be fought?"
Their first thought was to see if they could file a lawsuit to help the tenant farmers exempt themselves from this part of the tax.
Zhang Fei hesitated for a moment and suddenly asked Geng Ming: "Why don't those two tenant farmers come to consult in person?"
Geng Ming said sarcastically: "They are afraid of offending the landlords."
As he spoke, he added: "Unless our benefactor can ensure that they have no worries."
Zhang Fei turned his head to look at Xu Zhiqian and sighed helplessly: "That's the problem."
Xu Zhiqian asked: "Can't you guarantee that they will have no worries?"
"If it were just two tenant farmers, it would be a trivial matter, but the problem is not about the two tenant farmers."
Zhang Fei shook his head and sighed: "Even if I help them avoid paying this part of the tax, I can't control whether the landlord will take back the land. Now that there is less land and more people, the landlord doesn't have to worry about renting out the land. On the contrary, the tenant farmers are afraid that it will be lost."
Let’s eat.”
Xu Zhiqian asked: "What should we do?"
Zhang Fei shook his head and said: "We can only rely on Bachelor Wang for this."
This is not a question of right and wrong, but a question of the means of production. The means of production are in the hands of the landlords. Do the tenant farmers dare to sue the landlords?
The lawsuit won.
yes.
There is no need to pay tax.
But the job is gone!
Death is worse.
In fact, the means of production have always been the root of the contradiction.
Litigation is difficult to solve the problem of the means of production.
This can only rely on the imperial court.
After the discussion came to no avail, Zhang Fei and Xu Zhiqian came out of the Geng family courtyard, said goodbye to Geng Ming, and left in a carriage.
Seeing that Xu Zhiqian was in a low mood, Zhang Fei said: "Don't be disappointed yet. There should be a lot of room for maneuver in this matter. After all, Academician Wang will not let their conspiracy succeed."
Xu Zhiqian nodded slightly.
Suddenly I heard someone say on the roadside: "Mr. Qin, please be a little more accommodating. My son was just born and is not even one month old yet. My wife has no milk to feed, so I can only hire a wet nurse. If I pay taxes on the money,
, my son may starve to death!"
"Pause."
After hearing this, Xu Zhiqian immediately ordered Long Wu, then opened the curtain and looked outside, only to see a young man begging to a middle-aged man with a big belly.
The middle-aged man sighed: "It's useless for you to beg me here. It's not our boss who wants this money from you. It's all collected by the imperial court. There's nothing we can do about it. We don't even ask for a penny more. This amount of tax is not enough."
It was decided by the imperial court, and there is still some time before the tax is paid, so you should hurry up and think of a way."
The young man cried and cried: "But it's only been a few days. Where can I get money? The autumn grain has not been harvested yet."
The middle-aged man said: "Borrow some from wherever you like."
After hearing this, the young man choked up and became speechless.
He knows what it means to borrow money at usury.
But if you don’t borrow it...!
When the middle-aged man saw him, he said no more and said, "I have to go to another house, so I'll take my leave first."
As soon as he walked away, he heard the cry of a baby coming from inside the house.
The young man seemed to have not heard anything and stood blankly in front of the door, looking helpless.
Xu Zhiqian frowned slightly and suddenly shouted: "Qingmei."
"Sister Qian'er, is something wrong?"
"How much money did we bring out?"
"There seems to be thirty or forty dollars."
"Mrs. Xu, do you want money? I still have about a hundred dollars here." Li Si said hurriedly.
Xu Zhiqian said: "Give all your money to that little brother."
"Why!"
Wait until Li Si gets out of the carriage with the money.
Xu Zhiqian ordered Long Wu again, "Let's go first."
The carriage slowly drove forward.
Zhang Fei comforted him: "This is just an example. According to the two tenant farmers' contracts, even if you pay taxes, you won't be unable to survive."
Xu Zhiqian shook her head and said: "This is by no means an isolated case. No one has a problem. Most tenant farmers count every penny they have."
After saying that, she glanced at Zhang Fei again and saw him looking at her with worry, so she said: "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I've seen this kind of thing too many times. I can help everyone."
Why did their father and daughter support Wang Anshi's reform? It was because they had too much help and could only hope for the imperial court's reform.