In August, various parts of the Tang Dynasty entered the autumn harvest season.
Most of the news coming from counties and counties across the country is very optimistic. In addition, water transportation has been launched on a large scale this year, which will reduce road losses to a certain extent.
This year's grain production is likely to be much greater than in the sixth year of Yuanzhen's reign, which makes the DPRK and China relatively optimistic about the two wars launched next year.
Another round of census started by the Ministry of Household Affairs this year is going smoothly. The previous one was delayed for four or five years, but this time with the previous foundation, it is expected that the task will be completed after next spring plowing.
Su Dan, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, reported the good news to the emperor at the small court meeting in Taiji Hall, saying that this year, coupled with the capture of the East China Sea War, the population of the Tang Dynasty will definitely exceed the 15 million mark, and will quickly approach 20 million people.
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Li Po was quite happy about this. When the world was just pacified, the population census was very difficult, and the final result was also terrible.
In the early years of the Sui Dynasty, the Central Plains, with a population of more than 50 million, had only been reduced to less than one-fifth of its previous population after more than ten years of war.
Moreover, due to lack of food, people continued to die in some places, banditry was still rampant, and incidents of cutting off Chidao occurred frequently. These people are almost the prototypes of the green forest heroes in the novels that people read later.
Three or four years later, the world stabilized again, the population began to grow rapidly, and the whole territory of the Tang Dynasty was a prosperous scene.
This shows that he is a good emperor and has not been compared with the founding monarchs of the past dynasties.
Of course, this is also God's care. Since Li Po brought peace to the world, the weather has generally been smooth everywhere, and there are not all minor disasters. They have all been rescued in a timely manner, and no major losses have been caused.
While winning the hearts and minds of the Tang Dynasty, it also ensured the stability of the world.
The basic construction of Datang has been going on for two years. The cities, roads, dams, bridges, ditches for irrigation of farmland, etc. are all being repaired and restored.
For this reason, a lot of manpower and material resources were wasted, and the war in the East China Sea also put a strain on the imperial treasury. Now, it is repairing holes year after year, and it is difficult to make a surplus.
But having said that, the Tang Dynasty's tax reduction and tax reduction policies have been implemented relatively well, and people's families are getting better and better.
Taxes were reduced in Kansai for three years, field taxes were levied in the sixth year of Yuanzhen, taxes were reduced in Shuzhong for one year, and after Xiaoxian was pacified, taxes were reduced in various places in Jiangnan for two years.
Needless to say, Jindina is the hometown where Li Po started, so he no longer needs to rely on these preferential policies.
Border areas such as Liangzhou and Lingzhou generally produced their own food for their own use. The imperial court levied a poll tax on herdsmen of all ethnic groups, all of which was paid with cattle and sheep.
The growth of taxes in the Tang Dynasty was very rapid in the early Tang Dynasty. In the first few years, it almost doubled every year. Later, the increase could exceed 30%, because tax reduction policies in various places gradually expired.
As for places such as Henan, Hebei, and Shandong, the tax reduction period has not yet come. At that time, the court announced that tax exemption would be tax-free for five years, and taxes could not be levied on these places until the eighth year of Yuanzhen.
The land tax in the Tang Dynasty was also very low. After the princes were pacified, the policy of thirty taxes to one tax, which had been implemented since the Han Dynasty, was implemented. In the sixth year of Yuanzhen, the world gradually became peaceful, and some courtiers wrote to reform the tax system.
At that time, it happened to delineate the various roads, and by the way, the counties were divided into upper and lower levels. The land was vast and the fields were abundant. Those with a large population were called upper counties and upper counties. Those with poor land and insufficient population were called lower counties and lower counties. From then on, the examination was conducted every five years, as appropriate.
Depends.
This is combined with the political achievements of local officials. If you have the ability to turn a lower county or lower county into an upper county or upper county, that will be a real political achievement, and there is no negotiation for promotion to a higher position.
According to this pacification, the tax system in lower counties was maintained at 30 taxes per yen, while in upper counties and counties, the tax was increased to 15 tax yen. In the event of natural disasters, taxes could be reduced or reduced as appropriate.
The taxes of the nobles are also set at thirty to one, which cannot be lowered. As far as the noble families are concerned, according to the amount of wealth they have, it doesn't matter whether they pay or not.
The most important thing about the two-field tax system is that the nobles pay taxes for the peasants who rent their land. Whether it is one tax for thirty or one tax for fifteen years, the government will not collect it from the landless farmers, but will only go to the nobles.
This is a huge expense for aristocratic families, and the Jinyang Wang family is almost bankrupt. It is because of this, poor management, and there are people in the family who are trying to do something, and the final result is that they cannot pay the taxes.
Of course, there must be loopholes to exploit, but in the early Tang Dynasty, not many people dared to provide such convenience to the nobles, and the noble families also had to consider the consequences of tax avoidance.
The aristocratic families are not engaged in production. The problem they are facing now is actually how to take good care of the farmers who rent the land so that they don't go hungry, and how to cope with the government's expropriation and let local officials show their political achievements.
Such a situation would naturally arouse a lot of resistance, but war and chaos were easy to overcome, and the Tang Dynasty, with its strong military and horses, did not shy away from the cascading effects of quelling various chaos.
Wherever there is resistance, the Tang army will appear. It will be more convenient when Zhechong mansions are built everywhere.
From the fourth year of Yuanzhen to the sixth year of Yuanzhen, there was a lot of bloodshed in the local area, and many people lost their heads. There was a period of unrest in the court, and there were always people who came to make trouble about the taxation of nobles.
Many people want to restore the happy life of the pre-Sui Dynasty. At that time, the treasury of the Great Sui Dynasty was extremely full. It was mentioned in the report of the Ministry of Household Affairs in the third year of Daye that household registrations were flourishing and Chinese and foreign warehouses were all overflowing. All the donations were not available.
It was a grand occasion that when the funds were exceeded, the capital's money was immediately used up and accumulated under the verandahs.
It can be said that the people were prosperous and the country was strong, and land taxes were reduced again and again, which brought the national power of the former Sui Dynasty to its peak.
Later, a great poet surnamed Su once praised that since the Han Dynasty, Dingkou's vassal status and warehouses and treasuries have been as prosperous as those of the Sui Dynasty.
At that time, the population of the former Sui Dynasty was prosperous, and the annual income was far from comparable to that of the Qin and Han Dynasties. There was prosperity both inside and outside the country, and the nobles naturally enjoyed benefits.
It can be said that after the abolition of the Nine-Rank Zhongzheng System, the nobles entered a golden period in the Sui Dynasty. A unified country, a huge population base, a stable political economy and social structure, and foreign enemies could no longer threaten its rule.
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The Central Plains dynasty rarely had such a period of time.
Again, it is a pity that Yang Guang messed up all this. He used his own power to wipe out a dynasty that should have been extremely powerful in its heyday. That is really not something that ordinary people can do.
From this simple description, we can actually know that the current national power of the Tang Dynasty is far behind that of the former Sui Dynasty, but the nobles still want to return to the old system. How is that possible?
They must be joking if they still want to enjoy happiness when the country is in ruins. Therefore, the taxation of nobles was an irreversible trend in the early Tang Dynasty. Anyone who wanted to go against the trend would be severely punished.