What Yunxi put forward in the memorial was that "the officials and the gentry all pay the grain and serve as errands". This is the most annoying of the three policies that made Emperor Yongzheng, I think the only good emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, scolded by literati for countless years.
, the content is to cancel the land tax exemption and the privilege of not doing corvee for the officials and gentry.
Of course, in order for Lao Zhu to be able to accept it, and at the same time to reduce the backlash from scholars all over the world, Yunxi proposed that the government should provide local scholars who were not officials with money and grain subsidies that were roughly equivalent to the land tax exemption they originally enjoyed; and
Scholars, scholars, etc. were still allowed not to do corvee themselves, but their families were exempted from the privilege of not doing corvee.
The land tax exemption privileges of all officials were also abolished, and their salaries were increased; the land tax exemptions of lords were also abolished, and their salaries were also increased. However, for civil and military officials or lords, all their children and grandchildren do not have to perform corvee service.
In fact, Lao Zhu's original intention in implementing the current policy is good: in a class society, let the people see that as long as they work hard to take the imperial examination, even if they can only pass the imperial examination, they will have a higher status and privileges than ordinary people, so that they can have hope in their hearts.
It is also correct not to rebel.
Because Yunxi felt that this item was more difficult to implement than "dividing a small family into a farm", he wanted to change it while Lao Zhu was still there; as for "returning the envy to the public", now Huoyu is still just "Huoyu",
The real losses after Emperor Yongzheng's reforms are continuing to be collected, which is inevitable, so there is no need for reform now.
Yunxi went to Qi Tai's house to greet him that day. He heard Qi Tai's father Qi Yu say that his family had 300 acres of land that was exempt from paying taxes. Then he didn't dare to talk to Qi Tai, Lian Zining and others.
After discussing with others, I thought about it alone for many days, sorted out the grammar of the memorial, and then handed the memorial to Lao Zhu today.
When Lao Zhu saw the title of Yunxi's memorial, his expression became serious. He raised his head and glanced at Yunxi, then lowered his head to read the memorial seriously.
I don't know how much time passed, but Lao Zhu said: "You are trying to overthrow grandpa's policies and start over."
Yunxi hurriedly said: "Is my grandson like what grandpa said? My grandson just made a slight change. The money and food that the scholars originally received have not been reduced. It's just that they don't have to pay taxes, instead of being paid by the court."
Just give it to them; the same goes for officials."
Lao Zhu said: "If that's what you mean, why bother?"
"Grandpa, as far as my grandson knows, in addition to some tax-free land tax, now scholars and juren also receive money and food from the local government on a monthly basis. Since money and food have to be distributed to them, why should they be tax-free again? It is not possible to increase the money and food distributed.
That’s it? Officials can handle it the same way.”
What Yunxi couldn't understand the most was this; giving them money and grain every month, but tax-free. Wouldn't it be nice to give them more money and grain every time, just like Emperor Yongzheng's Lianlian Silver?
Lao Zhu said: "Most officials go to their posts without their families. If money and food are distributed to officials as you said, then their families in their hometowns will not get any income, especially those officials whose families are relatively poor."
Yunxi replied: "Grandpa, my grandson went to the home of Qi Tai, an official in the East Palace, a few days ago. As my grandson told my grandfather, I heard Qi Tai say: His father Qi Yu is because everything in the capital is so expensive, Qi Tai's salary is not enough.
, they have to go to the capital to send money to Qi Tai every year. Other officials in the capital, such as Lian Zining, a subordinate of the minister, have to share a house with other officials because it is difficult to live in the capital and unlike Qi Tai's family who is not close to the capital.
, life was very bad.”
"So Sun'er thinks it's not that officials don't want to take their families to the place where they serve as officials; it's that when they serve as officials in other places, especially in the capital, they don't dare to take their families with them because their salaries are too small!"
Lao Zhu stared at Yunxi for a long time and said: "Yunxi, you are not someone who thinks too much about officials. This is the same as your grandfather and me, but very different from your father. Tell me your real reason
, why should we change the tax exemption to a salary increase?"
Seeing that he couldn't shirk it, Yunxi said: "The reason why a dynasty will perish is because there are too many people and the food in the land is not enough to feed so much land. This idea was once said by my grandson (Chapter 11
)."
"There were still things that my grandson had not yet figured out at that time, but these days I have figured it out. It is not simply that the food is not enough to feed the population, but also because the aristocratic families have annexed the land and have taken over too much food and other things for food and clothing.
"
In fact, the royal family also possesses too many things. Seriously speaking, according to the perspective of the 20th century, the emperor is the biggest corrupt criminal in the world, how can he blame so many corrupt criminals below? But Yunxi is now the prince, and his butt determines his head.
, I can only speak from a royal perspective.
"If they pay taxes on their land, then the court can use the taxes they pay to provide relief to the victims, and make up for the excess damage."
Lao Zhu said: "These families also have to pay taxes on the land they occupy. Now the Chang family and the Xu family own a large amount of land. Apart from the tax-free land, don't they also have to pay taxes?"
Yunxi said: "Grandpa is familiar with history books. He should know that in the early years of each generation, the officials governed the Ming Dynasty and the government orders could be passed down. In the late dynasty, the official administration was chaotic. In fact, it does not need to be in the late dynasty. As long as the official administration is slightly slack, those who occupy more land will
The family will try every means to conceal the amount of land."
"The subordinate officials in those places are all local people, and the county magistrate is just a flowing county official. It is self-evident which side the subordinate officials prefer. No matter how honest and loyal the county official is, he cannot measure the whole world by himself.
With acres of land in the county, those gentry families will eventually be able to conceal the amount of land and never pay taxes."
"Not to mention that it is not certain whether those officials are honest or not; my grandfather has skinned so many officials, so he knows that the integrity of officials cannot be trusted."
Lao Zhu said: "The fields in the world have been inventoried. Do they dare to pay less taxes on the registered fields?" After speaking, Lao Zhu came to his senses and said: "They can still open up wasteland."
Yunxi said: "Grandpa is right. Now the Ming Dynasty has a small population, so many fields have not been cultivated. When the population increases in the future, many wastelands will be cultivated."
This is the case in history. The population of the Ming Dynasty increased and more and more land was cultivated, but the land that paid taxes was still the land counted by the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang. Even because of fleeing from famine in disaster years, the land that paid taxes continued to increase.
reduce.
Lao Zhu picked up Yunxi's memorial again, read it carefully, and said: "You are right, local subordinates will not care about local people. But local officials, even if they do not have tax exemption preferential treatment, they still
You can hide the land that has been reclaimed. It is difficult for county officials to count the amount of land that is connected together. They can still hide the acres of their own land, but they have to pay a certain amount of tax, which is better than not paying at all."
There is no way to solve this problem now. Not to mention now, even Emperor Yongzheng, who divided the land between farmers and farmers and paid for the grain as one, did not completely solve this problem; the data in the early period of the Republic also had errors; after that, until the establishment of the Republic in the 21st century
Only with our own satellite system can we truly count how many fields there are in the country.
Yunxi then said: "My grandson can't think of a solution now."
Lao Zhu did not feel that Yun Hei was unreliable, but thought that Yun Hei was telling the truth. He thought about it again and said: "Grandpa, it was true that he was a little careless at the beginning, and the food payment will be handled according to your memorial. But why should we remove it?
Are their family members exempt from corvee service?”
Yunxi said: "This is to prevent too many people from being exempted from the corvee. They can be allowed to pay the exemption money and not do the corvee."
Lao Zhu said: "How many people can be exempted from corvee? In the end, they only collected tens of thousands more money, but it broke the hearts of all the scholars in the world. This must not be done. Grandpa cannot agree to this."
Yunxi thought about it carefully, and found that the harm of being exempted from the corvee was indeed smaller than not paying the grain. Besides, it was true that they could not really be allowed to do the corvee. Paying the exemption money was something that happened after Zhang Juzheng's whipping method, and it doesn't happen now. But he
I still want to limit it.
So Yunxi said: "It is still necessary to restrict the people who are exempted from the corvee. Only the descendants of the scholar can be exempted from the corvee, and others such as brothers are not allowed. If there are no biological children or grandchildren, the adopted descendants can be. Most of the descendants of the scholar are more than those who are exempted from the corvee.
The number of corvees is small, so there shouldn’t be much opposition.”
In addition, Yunxi planned to implement the method of "dividing people into acres" in order to prevent the people from concealing the population. Combined with this article, it would prevent officials from having too many people exempt from corvee service.
Yunxi even planned to abolish corvee labor and form a professional construction team to repair bridges, embankments, etc., but this would have to be a long time later.
Lao Zhu thought for a while and nodded in agreement with Yunxi. Then he said: "Yunxi, your idea is so clever that my grandpa can't believe it. But grandpa can see that for the Ming Dynasty's land tax, you have nothing more to do with it than paying for food."
If you are on duty, you must have other ideas, so let’s share them today.”
Yunxi was surprised: Lao Zhu could actually see that he had other ideas? What flaws did I have in my memorial? But since Lao Zhu had asked, Yunxi couldn't hide it anymore, so he said: "Grandpa is really perceptive.
My grandson indeed has other ideas."
"The name that my grandson came up with is called dividing ding into acres. The measure is that in the future, the ding tax will no longer be levied separately, but will be spread into the land tax. This will prevent families with less land and large populations from having to pay more ding tax in the future, thereby reducing
The taxes of the poor are reduced and the families with more land pay more taxes.”
"And it can also prevent the situation where a family originally had multiple sons, so there were a lot of people on the roster, but suddenly they died one after another, and their names were still on the roster, so more taxes were levied."
"At the same time, it can reduce the number of people hiding their numbers and recruit more people to serve as corvees."
In fact, it will help Yunxi immigrate overseas in the future, but I can't talk to Lao Zhu about this.
