Although Zhaoqing in December is not as snowy as in the north, it is still very cold. Most of the pedestrians on the street are already wearing cotton-padded jackets. However, the difference between Zhaoqing and many cities at this time is that in this severe winter
, but there were no beggars, homeless people or other poor people freezing to death in the streets in the city.
Even here, not even a beggar can be seen!
And all of this stems from a new policy issued by the Tang Dynasty this fall, the ‘Relief for Work Law’!
This administrative system is not considered a law. Its original purpose was to provide relief to the victims. It originated from the large-scale typhoon floods that occurred in western Guangdong in the first half of this year. At that time, many victims were affected in various places, and there were even riots over this.
There was a civil unrest.
At that time, Li Xuan not only used military means to suppress the disaster, but also mobilized a large number of resources for relief and began to distribute free relief food to the victims.
But later it was discovered that such a cost was too huge, and human nature is evil. When the government began to distribute relief grains for free on a large scale, and everyone could receive a bowl of porridge to satisfy their hunger, many people were unwilling to leave.
Every day, I stayed at the soup kitchen waiting for free food, and more and more people came to give it back, and even some ordinary people started to receive free food.
When this situation was reported to Li Xuan, Li Xuan directly proposed a work-for-relief method with a stroke of his pen, eliminating any possibility of getting something for nothing!
If the victims in the disaster-stricken area do not have food rations, then they can come to the government to sign up. Then, the government will organize them to open up wasteland and build roads, bridges, canals and other tasks that require a lot of labor.
projects; women are organized to spin, weave and sew clothes, and outsource them to textile factories under the Ministry of Industry.
The victims can get food or money as compensation. Although the compensation is very low, it is not even as much as the money ordinary people earn from doing part-time jobs. However, this kind of relief is not to help the poor, and the Tang government just needs to ensure that they are hungry.
No death, no large-scale famine or even civil unrest.
Later, this work-for-relief method was widely used by local governments and became the Ministry of Household’s first choice for solving disasters in various places.
However, this work-for-relief method is only useful for those who have labor force, but many people who have no food and clothing lack labor force, so the Tang government naturally cannot ignore this.
On the one hand, it organizes local gentry to open charity halls to adopt orphans and elderly people. For the local gentry who need reputation, unless they are iron roosters, most people will still contribute more or less money.
After all, these lonely elderly people and orphans are actually their local people.
On the other hand, Li Xuan also instructed local governments to start opening government-run orphanages and nursing homes within their capabilities.
The Tang government was also concerned about the relief of the victims. Although the "work-for-relief" program could not completely solve the problem of the victims, it could be regarded as easing part of it to a great extent.
Subsequently, this work-for-relief method was also introduced by cities in various places, specifically to deal with beggars, refugees, etc. living in the city.
Among them, Zhaoqing was naturally the first to implement this policy. At the beginning of autumn and winter, Zhaoqing began to concentrate on rectification, gathering all the beggars and refugees in the city, and those who still had labor force were sent to major factories, or
Just send them to clear wasteland, build roads, etc.
And it’s mandatory!
People with labor force did nothing but became beggars. This was a huge waste of labor force, and this was intolerable for the Tang Dynasty, which was short of population.
As for beggars, refugees and children who have no labor force, they are sent to government-run nursing homes, orphanages, etc.
However, in fact, these government-run nursing homes and orphanages cannot be considered completely free, because if they really want to support these people completely free, the local government’s finances will not be able to support them. Therefore, there will also be some relaxed services in these nursing homes and orphanages.
Let them do the work.
Even if it's just the simplest job, it can at least allow them to be partially self-reliant!
Of course, in this process, the local underworld forces, such as beggar gangs, etc., will inevitably be cleaned up. Regarding these unofficial violent organizations, the Tang Dynasty's attitude has always been firm and solemn: kill them.
!Kill!Kill!
Facts have proved that any so-called violent organization is as fragile as a castle in the sand when faced with the professional violence machine of the state, and is not even as strong as the resistance organized by the gentry and landlords.
Therefore, in the process of "relief through work", the Tang Dynasty wiped out many beggar gangs and even pulled out many strongholds of various White Lotus sects.
Killed a large number of so-called White Lotus sect members who made money in the name of religion, committed crimes, and even conspired to rebel.
Later, Li Xuan simply issued a religious law. Any religion that has not been officially registered and approved is a cult, and public or private preaching is prohibited!
In this operation launched in autumn and winter specifically to target political beggars, refugees and even chaotic illegal forces, the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty became the biggest winner!
They received at least 50,000 people for free, almost free labor!
Under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, unless you were really lying in bed unable to move or were really young, that is, someone who had no labor force at all, otherwise, getting something for nothing was not allowed by law, even if you were a beggar.
Labor is the right and obligation given to them by the eternal sage Li Xuan!
As a city at the foot of the world, Zhaoqing is naturally the most thoroughly renovated city. It is such a large city, including the urban areas within the city walls and the suburbs. In the past two years, it has expanded to a population of nearly 100,000, including local residents of Zhaoqing, from all over the country.
Recruited workers and their families, soldiers and officials and their families.
But in this big city, which has grown to a population of 100,000 in just two years, there is not a single beggar in the city. It must be said that this is due to the Urban Management Office under the Zhaoqing Prefecture Patrol Bureau.
The core members of the Zhaoqing City Management Office are all people from the Xingquan Prefecture City Management Office. They were extremely powerful when they were in Xingquan Prefecture. After arriving in Zhaoqing, their scale has rapidly expanded to hundreds of people.
Every day, people from the city management office wearing "urban management" armbands will always appear in the streets and alleys, monitoring and cracking down on any phenomena that hinder the appearance of the city!
Urinating in the street, fine!
Trash out casually, fine!
Businesses occupying streets will be fined!
Fines are imposed every day, and the money collected is merciless!
As for the beggars, they are their key targets. If they find them, they will arrest them and send them to different places!
Thanks to the strong combat effectiveness of the City Management Office, the city appearance of Zhaoqing has also reproduced the scene of Xingquan Prefecture!
When many outsiders come to Zhaoqing City, the first feeling is that it is clean, and the second feeling is that of rules!
Needless to say, it is clean. There are people cleaning the streets anytime and anywhere, and no one dares to litter, defecate or anything like that!
There are a lot of rules, and the one that impresses foreigners the most is queuing!
No matter what you do, if there is someone in front of you, you have to queue up.
When some outsiders first arrived in Zhaoqing City, if they wanted to skip the queue when entering the city gate and jumped in line directly, they would be immediately arrested by the patrolmen guarding the city gate. In the mild case, they would be fined, and in the worst case, they would be directly imprisoned.
In some places on the street, if someone dares not to line up and someone else reports it, if there happens to be a patrolman nearby, then the patrolman will come over immediately and impose a fine without saying a word!
And this makes many people extremely uncomfortable!
It’s not like no one has criticized the Tang government’s many strict regulations on urban management, and the final punishments for these strict regulations were basically fines.
But basically nothing happens, because these fines are usually divided between local finance and central finance, and the local government gets the lion's share!
Because the taxation power implemented by the Tang Dynasty was all vested in the Ministry of Taxation, even the Ministry of Taxation would eventually leave a part of the tax collected to the local finance according to a certain proportion, which is the national tax.
However, the proportion of local taxes is relatively low, and in case of fines, the proportion retained by the local government can reach 80%!
And the local governments in the Tang Dynasty were in financial difficulties, and everyone was a pauper!
In particular, the local financial burden of the Tang Dynasty government is generally large. For example, the salaries of officials. According to the current official salary system of the Tang Dynasty, the salaries of officials in central agencies and dispatched agencies are the responsibility of the central finance, while local finance
The salaries of officials are determined by local finance in accordance with national benchmarks and fluctuate to a certain extent based on different financial conditions in each region.
Although the state has set standards, the money still has to come from local finances!
In addition to the salaries of officials, local finance also has to bear the burden of local infrastructure, education, etc.
Therefore, the pressure on local finances is actually very high, and local governments are doing all kinds of tricks to generate revenue!
The best way is to develop the local economy. When the local economy improves and the tax department collects more taxes, more local taxes will be allocated to local governments, and local finances will be better off.
Among them, the cities that do the best are generally those cities with convenient transportation and relatively good industrial and commercial development. Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, Wuzhou, and Lianzhou can be regarded as typical representatives, but in many places, the results are relatively small in terms of what they want to do!
Therefore, in addition to developing industry, commerce, and agriculture to increase local tax revenue, in order to generate revenue, local governments will also make great efforts on fines!
The patrol bureau is specifically responsible for carrying out fine tasks. Patrol bureaus in many places have additional fine tasks every month, which cannot directly deduct the salaries of patrol officers.
However, the list of fines cannot be set randomly. Generally, the items and standards are set by the imperial court, and local governments have no right to increase or decrease them on their own. Otherwise, you can report it directly to the local Supervisory Office. Once you report it, it will be accurate, and you can still get the report.