After a long time, Pan You's face calmed down. He looked at the triumphant Dang Jin, helped the horse to get off the saddle, took a few steps forward, held his whip and bowed to Dang Jin: "Dang Hou understands the righteousness, I admire you, if you can
I am deeply grateful to you for your active cooperation with the government. Not only did you come on horseback, but you even arrived on foot to show your respect."
The change in Pan You's expression made Dang Jin very comfortable, but seeing him quickly adjust his mentality and behave like this, he couldn't help but be surprised. After carefully looking at him again, Dang Jin sighed mockingly.
Said: "I have made a mistake! Pan Shijun is indeed a person, and he has such a great deal of wisdom!"
Pan You smiled faintly, turned sideways, and said to the accompanying officials: "The Marquis Dang has spoken, and you will clear the land soon. You must measure it clearly, and don't let down the Marquis Dang!"
With that said, he ordered the magistrate of Yangzhai: "Call all the people available to your county government. I will be in Yangzhai, waiting for the results!"
"yes!"
Silently watching Pan You give orders, Dang Jin's old eyes were full of silence. When he turned around, he waved his hands behind him. Soon, another group of people walked out of the village and stood behind Dang Jin in an orderly manner.
There were about seventy or eighty people in the vast area.
In Pan You's surprised look, Dang Jin calmly ordered: "The government wants to clear the land, so you can cooperate easily and find out the amount of your land. Don't be less, and don't be more. From now on, you will pay taxes according to the amount.
New tax regulations are coming..."
"Yes!" A group of people responded, their voices uniform and loud, as if they were listening to military orders.
Following Dang Jin's instructions, Pan You immediately realized what his plan was. The Dang family had already planned this.
There are thousands of policies, and there are thousands of ways to deal with them. There is no shortage of smart people. As the tax reform policy is determined and gradually implemented, the vested interests will decisively take some roundabout measures after realizing that the situation is irreversible.
ways to reduce losses.
Concealing land is a common practice, but it is not clever. After all, if you really want to check it, you can't hide it. Therefore, many people began to think of ways to deal with the new tax system, trying to find loopholes in the established rules and exploit them.
damage.
Under the new tax system, there is an obvious loophole to exploit. Under the rule of equal taxation based on the amount of land, the more land you own, the heavier the land tax you need to pay. In this way, reducing the amount of registered land is a good idea.
A good tax avoidance method that is both within the rules and highly feasible.
Therefore, in the past few months, the landowners in Gyeonggi, Henan, Jiangnan, and Yulin, the four provinces that have implemented tax reform in advance, have been doing the same thing. In the process of land clearing by the government, they have made urgent operations.
While retaining a certain amount of land, the excess land was distributed to tribesmen, subordinates and tenants. In addition, each household's farmland was controlled to the extreme limit of 60 acres, 100 acres, 150 acres, and 200 acres under tax sharing standards.
This is almost an aboveboard and reasonable way to avoid taxes. It is conceivable that although the land has been divided, the actual control of it is obviously still in the hands of the powerful, landlords and powerful people. They are not afraid of losing it at all. After all, as powerful people, the most basic thing is
The quality lies in local influence and control.
The imperial court was naturally aware of this, but had no intention of stopping it. After observing the situation, Pan You was very dissatisfied and felt that if the landlords were allowed to do this, the imperial court would lose a lot of tax revenue. Therefore,
A decisive order was issued to prohibit the "donation and transfer" of land in Gyeonggi Province.
This order naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the vast landowning class, and the dispute was reported to the court. After some discussion, it was decided to acquiesce in the matter.
The reason is also very simple. This approach is not illegal and does not deviate from the new system. In the words of some celebrities and county officials, they did not steal or rob, and they cooperated with the government. The land is theirs, and they are free to deal with it how to deal with it. You Pan
If you don't allow it, it would be too overbearing.
Since the imperial court formulated the rules of graded taxation, it gave others room to operate in this way. For tax purposes, the imperial court could certainly issue bans, but on the one hand, it was difficult to verify land ownership. Zhao Pu always adhered to one principle: the simpler the policy, the better.
The easier it is to understand and execute, the better. On the other hand, it cannot convince everyone.
Of course, whether or not the public is convinced is also secondary. The key point is that the imperial court implemented the new system with the purpose of changing the nature of taxation and the basis for tax calculation. It aimed to remove the tax from people to land and reduce the burden on farmers to a certain extent.
As for the ownership of the land, it is not the point. After all, no matter where it belongs, the land is there, and the tax system standards are also very clear. How much land you have, how much tax you have to pay.
The large landowners' practice of transferring ownership to avoid taxes will certainly cause certain losses to the court's tax revenue, but it is a reasonable tax avoidance under the rules. The rules are set by the court and naturally must be maintained, unless the court changes the current rules.
A complete ban on land sales and circulation is obviously unrealistic and more difficult than tax reform.
Against this background, it can be foreseen that in the future, a large number of land operators in the Han Dynasty will need to pay a certain amount of "share money" to the old landlords in addition to paying regular taxes to the court.
As for how much to pay, it depends on their private agreement. If this situation develops in the long term, local personal dependence on land will become more serious.
For farmers who own a small amount of land, the new tax system is friendly. Compared with the two-tax system, the taxes they need to pay every year have actually dropped, and the burden has been greatly reduced.
But for those small farmers with the nature of "tenants", this is not necessarily the case. The official tax of the court is based on the amount of land, and the private taxes of the landlords depend on the landlord's "conscience", but the conscience of the feudal landlords
, and how to withstand such a test.
For these farmers, if they encounter overly greedy owners and double taxation, the burden can be imagined, and new land conflicts will arise.
Although the current land situation in Dahan is far from that point, Dahan is still dominated by homesteaders. However, the development of some things has its own laws, and some trends are even irreversible. Homeowners will go bankrupt and lose people and land.
Land annexation continues.
After all the changes were made, they were just improvements. The fundamental issue of feudal land ownership remained unchanged, so the future of the Han Empire was foreseeable.
Perhaps it was because of seeing this that after Emperor Liu learned about this situation, he once asked the Zhengshitang to issue an order that the ownership of the registered land must be clear, and the imperial court should protect its ownership.
Emperor Liu's intention was very simple. Since he wanted to avoid taxes by dividing the land, the land that was divided belonged to the owner. At least legally, the land would no longer belong to the original owner. If there were any disputes about land ownership in the future,
The government should also record the trial according to the register.
However, this was rejected by Zhao Pu, and the two had a rare dispute over this. Zhao Pu's idea was very realistic. If he followed Emperor Liu's wishes and issued such an order, it would be a drain on the bottom of the cauldron, and it would destroy the landlords in the world.
This will inevitably lead to group dissatisfaction and even resistance, which will have a serious impact on the tax reform that is already on track, create unnecessary trouble, and be detrimental to the overall situation.
Emperor Liu insisted that in addition to the official taxes of the imperial court, the landlords could also collect private taxes. This was not in line with the imperial system. If things continued like this, the country would inevitably lose its status. Zhao Pu also agreed with Emperor Liu's views, but asked him to proceed.
Ordered, still unwilling.
After arguing for a long time, it finally ended with Emperor Liu's compromise, because of four words, the overall situation is the most important. The tax reform was implemented in accordance with Emperor Liu's will, and the new system was approved by Emperor Liu, and it has been implemented to the present point.
Some new problems and drawbacks must be endured during reform.
It was this kind of compromise that made Emperor Liu realize that he was like blocking a flood, trying his best, but the tide was still coming, unstoppable. If he could hold on while he was alive, what would happen next?
After I die, I will not care about the raging flood. Emperor Liu has a new understanding of this sentence. He wants to control it, but he really cannot control it. It is not enough. The older a person gets, the more powerless he feels.
Perhaps because he felt that he had offended Emperor Liu, Zhao Pu later privately suggested to Emperor Liu that necessary compromises for the reform were acceptable. If your Majesty is so determined, you can wait until the tax reform is completed before making further calculations. You can do it in the future.
Expand the role of land registers.
Emperor Liu reluctantly accepted this, but said without interest, "How much time do I have?"
Emperor Liu has long realized that this tax reform may not be completely completed in three to five years, let alone two years. Just look at the progress and disturbances in several pilot areas.
Compromise while reforming! This is Emperor Liu’s summary of this tax reform!