The county government hall chose the main hall of Beishan Gate as the main hall, and the Buddha statue was moved to the side courtyard, which made it appear very spacious. Those gathered to discuss the matter included the newly elected officials, the head of the village, and the old representatives of the township, etc.; to discuss the matter,
The most important thing is to thoroughly investigate the bandit case and raise money, food and salary.
The county's field registers and household registration information were the basis for the county's tax collection. After the attack on Chongzhou City, they were deliberately burned by the Donghai bandits, perhaps packed away.
However, all the townships had their own records. After the Guangjiao Temple was captured last night, Lin Fu immediately sent soldiers to each township and asked the heads of each township to report to Zilang Mountain with their field records, household registration and other information.
To prevent them from tampering with the field records after they wake up. Anyone who dares to hide or claim to have lost it will be detained as a suspect in a bandit case for questioning.
It was only today that Lin Fu had the opportunity to come into contact with Chongzhou's field registers and household registers. He and Lin Mengde and others also specially studied the field registers in the area near Zilang Mountain.
Comparing it with the land property booklet under the name of Guangjiao Temple, we can see several obvious characteristics: the fields entered in the county land register as official fields are mostly middle and lower fields with low yields, and almost all of them are under the name of Guangjiao Temple.
It is a highly productive field.
The land tax in Chongzhou is divided into three grades, the upper field is three liters and eight dou, the middle field is one liter and six dou, and the lower field is five dou. The difference between the upper and lower fields is nearly seven or eight times.
Putting the upper fields in the name of the monastery, or bribed officials to designate the upper fields as lower fields when setting the official tax for grain fields, or directly concealed the number of acres of land. Using these means to avoid the tax assessment is definitely something the landowner is willing to do, but it is precisely
The people who are most capable of doing these things are the local wealthy and powerful people.
There were many things to do, and Lin Fu could only do it step by step. The first step was to use the bandit case to thoroughly investigate the monastery's concealed possession of Dingkou and farmland.
There is no need to discuss the thorough investigation of the banditry case. Lin Fu naturally wants to take the lead and the local authorities in Chongzhou County will only assist in the investigation.
Affected by the Guangjiao Temple banditry case, there are eighteen large-scale monasteries in Chongzhou County. Their abbots include Zuoyuan, First Zuo, West Hall, Back Hall, Hall Master, Supervisor, Assistant Temple, Zhike, Kutou, and Guan.
All the ministerial monks in the hall have taken it to Zilangshan Dongshanmen Zen Temple for questioning.
Ordinary monks temporarily stayed in the monastery, but the temple properties and warehouses were sealed and guarded by soldiers directly sent by the Jiangdong Left Army.
In addition to direct military supervision, it is also necessary to link the monastery with the Donghai bandits and the destruction of Chongzhou City for extensive publicity, create public opinion, and destroy the local believer base of the Buddhist monastery.
Lin Fu wanted to use the opportunity of the banditry case to completely suppress the monastic forces in Chongzhou. The most important goal was to use the opportunity of thoroughly investigating the banditry case to connect the rich and powerful people in the countryside to the monastery.
Check properly.
Li Shutang and Li Shuyi's Li family had a large amount of land put in the name of the family temple to avoid taxes. Li Shutang also knew Lin Fu's intention to investigate the bandit case and get involved. He expressed his position in front of Lin Fu that he would not mind.
The family temple was involved in the bandit case, which is why Li Shutang knew that the Li family could get more benefits from Lin Fu.
Most of the by-election officials are from small and medium-sized landowners or merchants. Although some individuals have sent their property to the monastery, it will not become an obstacle to a thorough investigation of the bandit case. Although the faces of the village chief, the head of the first class and the old representatives of the village have
He was worried and did not dare to openly raise objections.
The elm and poplar trees at Beishanmen have more than 200 bloodied and bare heads hanging, not just to deter pirates lurking in Chongzhou.
Wu Meijiu has been in local government for nearly 20 years, and he is still clear about the tricks hidden in monasteries in various places. Throughout the ages, countless officials have wanted to lift this lid, but they were unable to do so due to heavy local resistance, and they even lost their official positions because of it.
There are also many people who have given up their jobs.
During the discussion, Wu Meijiu saw that the newly elected officials were not opposed to a thorough investigation of the banditry case, and he felt that there was something special about these by-elected officials. However, he did not care about this. He was also afraid that Lin Fu's methods would be used on him.
On the head.
Lin Fu really came to listen. He kept squinting his eyes while discussing the bandit case, and then discussed raising money and food.
Chen Lei reported the accounts of Okura in the county. The newly elected officials were all worried about whether their salary, labor and food bank would be available. Without money and food, how could they talk about stabilizing the people, clearing out the bandits, and rebuilding Chongzhou?
The summer grain is collected after the wheat is ripe, and there will be another two months before the summer grain can be collected. Besides, after the summer grain is collected, it must first be paid to the Jiangdong Left Army. The remaining grain can only maintain the daily expenses of the county and do other things.
It's far from enough.
"Master Wu, you are familiar with Hailing Mansion. How much do you think the mansion can allocate?" Lin Mengde asked Wu Meijiu.
"The 10,000 taels of silver allocated last time is almost the limit. Don't expect how much the higher-ups can allocate. The main thing is to rely on the local governments to raise their own funds," Wu Meijiu said. He was quite clear about the situation in Jiangdong County. The money was given to the Governor's Mansion and the
The Xuanfu Envoy has the money in his hand, but the Inspection and Envoy has no money in his hand. Yue Lengqiu, what is the relationship between Wang Tian and Gu Wuchen, how can it be possible for him to transfer money to Chongzhou neatly? He then said, "Even if it's the boss.
We can allocate another sum of money, but it won't come in a day or two. I'll just store grain and money in the county warehouse, not to mention helping refugees. In a few days, I'm afraid even I will be hungry..."
Before it was time to collect summer grain, the only way to raise wages from the local area was through apportionment or borrowing.
Wu Meijiu could only think of apportionment, and all the officials could think of apportionment.
It is okay to ask for donations from large households, but the county does not have the ability to repay its debts. Who will lend money and food to the county to tide over the difficulties? When it comes to asking for donations, the head of the village and the old representatives of the township are holding back their energy, thinking
How to resist asking for donations.
During the discussion, the focus was on the objects and proportions of the additional levy. After discussing for a while, they all felt that asking the county secretary to agree to an additional summer grain levy could temporarily alleviate the county's thirst for money.
"It's not good to increase taxes!" Lin Fu shook his head. If this increase in taxes could actually be borne by the landowners, he would not have any objections. Although the taxes are determined based on the fields, people who are familiar with local taxes should know that any increase in taxes will
, the vast majority of apportionments will be transferred to small and medium-sized landowners and tenants. Small and medium-sized landowners have small yields and can withstand a harvest, but poor peasants and tenant farmers will be extremely difficult. "Jiangdong Zuojun can still hold on for a while now.
, there is no need for the county to draw taxes from the summer grain. Since the amount of summer grain taxes is the upper limit, the county can borrow part of it from local wealthy families first, and then return this part of the loan as soon as the summer grain is collected... I think the county has not suffered a disaster this time.
Big business owners will still be reasonable!”
This is similar to the nature of local governments using taxes as collateral to issue local bonds, and it is not a patent for future generations. Lin Fu looked at the village elders and village elders. These people are actually representatives of local powerful families.
It means that they have a lot of surplus grain and money in their hands.
"This is feasible," Li Shutang responded to Lin Fu, "but we don't know the total amount we need to borrow, and everyone has no idea..."
"It's Mr. Lin's sympathy." Wu Meijiu bowed his hands to Lin Fu, and then asked Li Shuyi: "Li Shuban, how much is the summer grain rate?"
Li Shuyi was quite familiar with the local affairs and did not need to search the records. He replied: "The grain is 6,172 dan..."
This number is not large, and the village chiefs all breathed a sigh of relief. If it is shared out, each family can still bear it. Even if they forcefully ask for donations, the total will not be less than this number, not to mention the summer grain and salary portion as collateral.
.
The Jiangdong Zuojun did not draw pay from the summer grain, which was equivalent to an additional summer grain levy by the local government. This part of the money and grain had to be considered as a donation from the Jiangdong Zuojun. Everyone also whispered to each other and praised Lin Fu for his concern for the local area, which was really a blessing to the local area.
It is indeed true that it is rare for a garrison to prevent a place from causing harm, and it is rare to have a garrison that can feed the place back.
In the face of praise, Lin Fu just said that we need to work together to overcome difficulties.
Li Shutang and Hu Zhiyong first represented the Li family, and the Hu family recognized the loan amount. Others used the Li family and the Hu family as standards to measure the total amount of borrowed money and grain until it was equal to the total amount of summer grain and pay.
More than 6,000 stones of grain can only be converted into 2,670 taels of silver, which can only support the daily expenses of the county. Even if you try to cope with it, nothing can be done, but you can always get the relief money from the county secretary and Hailing Mansion.
Dial it down.
*********
During this meeting, Lin Fu did not expect to extract much money from the wealthy and powerful families in the countryside. He suggested that the county use the summer grain tax collection as collateral to borrow money and grain from various families to tide over the current difficulties, and even tried to appease them.
To alleviate everyone's anxiety about the monastery banditry case: the total amount of the loan is very limited, and there is a guarantee that it will be returned after two months.
Six thousand stones of grain or two thousand five hundred and six hundred taels of silver would not be a big deal for the Li family.
During the meeting, someone came in to report that the Jiangning ship had arrived. Lin Fu, Lin Mengde, Cao Ziang, and Hu Zhiyong left early and rushed to Nanlu Jiangan Wharf.
Chongzhou County is still in a mess, and Li Shuyi, Hu Zhicheng and others cannot be burdened any more. The families of Xihehui are temporarily resettled in Xisha Island, and all ships from Jiangning are anchored directly at Guanyin Beach.
Lin Fu rushed to the Nanlu Pier and saw that other ships were heading towards Guanyin Beach. Only the Jinhai was approaching the pier. Under the moonlight, he saw Liu Yue'er and Xiaoman standing on the deck.
Look up this way.
They were standing in the light, while Lin Fu and the others were walking on the mountain path in darkness. Even though there were many guards accompanying them, it was still a dark shadow. They seemed to believe that Lin Fu was in the shadow and stared here.
It had been half a year since they were separated. Every time a messenger came, there would be letters between the two of them. However, Lin Fu was too busy with his affairs, so he only occasionally wrote a letter for the messenger to send back. Thinking that he had been away on an expedition for half a year, the two of them
I was worried and scared for half a year in Jiangning.
When Lin Fu came closer, the two women suppressed their excitement, frowned and lowered their heads, hiding their lovesickness between them as they looked at each other.
There were strict generals on the pier. Cao Ziang, Lin Mengde, Hu Zhiyong and others boarded the ship with Lin Fu. Also on the Jinhai were Ge Cunxin, Ge Cunxiong, Cao Ziang's wife and son Cao Wenlong, Sun Wenbing, Sun Wenpei and Sun Jingtang's concubines.
Shi Zhao et al.
Liu Yue'er still missed her in all kinds of ways. When Lin Fu boarded the boat, in front of outsiders, especially in front of many subordinates, she bowed her head and saluted first: "I, Mrs. Liu, have met your husband!"
"How much did you miss me in Jiangning?" Lin Fu asked.
Liu Yue'er was stunned for a moment and almost cried in public.
Cao Zi'ang, Lin Mengde, Hu Zhiyong and others boarded the ship to greet her: "I have seen Mrs. Ru!"
Liu Yue'er returned the favor one by one, and Lin Fu took her hand and asked, "If you're not tired, come with me to the island for a walk?"
"Yeah!" Liu Yue'er nodded and responded softly.
Xiaoman pursed his lips and complained softly from behind: "It's the maid's life after all. No one cares whether I want to go or not?"
Lin Fu looked back at Xiaoman and said with a smile: "Can I drive you off the boat?"