The main force of the Tang Dynasty King's Army was almost in full force. Naturally, it inevitably attracted the attention of many people in the city, who were concerned about the success or failure of the army's trip. What is interesting is that the outcome that everyone in the city expected for the victory or defeat of this battle was
Different.
Most of the upper class people who yearned for the Ming Dynasty, especially the gentry and landlords, wished that the puppet Tang rebel army would be defeated and the official army would fight back to Shaoyang.
This way, they won’t have to pay taxes in the future!
Damn it, this fake Tang Dynasty didn't give them any dignity to the gentry, and dared to have the audacity to tax them as well, playing the game of taxing the gentry as one. This kind of competing with the people for profit is simply treason, and has never been heard of in the Ming Dynasty.
!
Of course, even among the upper class, not everyone expects the Royal Master of the Tang Dynasty to be defeated miserably. Many people still expect the Royal Master of the Tang Dynasty to win. This group is mainly based on the fact that there are children in the family who are officials in the Tang Dynasty and
People who benefited from the series of reforms in the Tang Dynasty.
For example, the Zhao family in Shaoyang, although they are grain merchants, they also pride themselves on their scholarly family status and are naturally members of the upper class.
Now the Zhao family has become the military grain supplier of the Tang Dynasty, and because the Tang Dynasty supported the development of industry and commerce, it also vigorously introduced Huguang grain into the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, greatly reducing various tax barriers on the trade routes and greatly reducing the cost of doing business.
, and this also made the Zhao family very profitable.
In fact, there were many families like the Zhao family in every place under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, and the longer the Tang Dynasty ruled, the more such families were, because living under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, these gentry
If the landlord class still wanted to maintain its prosperity and wealth, it would inevitably need to accept the rule of the Tang Dynasty and thus have close ties with the Tang Dynasty.
And these businessmen and even gentry families who have close relations with the Tang Dynasty, no matter whether they were willing or not before, but now that they have boarded the carriage of the Tang Dynasty, there is absolutely no reason why they can get off easily. They naturally also expect the King of Tang Dynasty to come down.
The division can win consecutive battles, otherwise, if the Ming army counterattacks, their lives will not be saved!
This is not very obvious in Shaoyang, but it is more obvious in the Guangdong, Guangxi and Guizhou regions, especially in today's Guangdong region.
As the current headquarters of the Tang Dynasty, Guangdong implemented various policies very thoroughly. Under the guidance of the Tang Dynasty, many landlords and gentry diverted funds from traditional industries such as land, and then invested them in industry and commerce, especially
It is an industry that has just emerged recently, and everyone is making a lot of money.
Why do these landlords and gentry invest their money in industry and commerce? It is naturally not because they think Li Xuan is very good and are willing to listen to Li Xuan's words and invest their money in industry and commerce, but because of various policies.
On the one hand, the Tang Dynasty implemented strict land policies. The gentry paid taxes together, unified agricultural taxes, rent-to-purchase orders, and reclamation orders. These policies specifically targeted at agriculture allowed the Tang Dynasty to ease land annexation and obtain a large number of
While farmers support this, it also reduces the benefits that big landowners can earn from their land.
Land rent has been lower than before, and now taxes have to be paid. The output of the fields is not as much as in previous years, but the landlords also have to eat and support their families. Which of those big families doesn't have dozens of people?
With hundreds of people, raising such a big family and having delicacies every day is very stressful, right?
If you are poor, you will want to change. This saying can also be applied to these landlords and gentry.
What should I do if the land produces less?
Armed resistance to taxes and the puppet Tang Dynasty was the most direct way. Many people had done it, but in the end they all ended up having their homes confiscated and their clans exterminated. The remaining people learned to be smarter.
If you can't resist this, and the output from the land is low, then invest in other industries!
In this regard, the Tang Dynasty welcomed and even maintained a supportive attitude. There were a lot of preferential policies, and powerful people began to prepare to build large-scale factories or open large-scale commercial firms, and even devoted themselves to the profitable sea trade.
Even those who are weak can still open a small workshop or shop and make a lot of profits.
However, when more and more people participate in it and they all taste the benefits, they naturally do not want the current situation to change.
If they are not willing to change, then they naturally hope that the Tang Dynasty will win. Many people even think that when the Tang Dynasty's royal army goes to the south of the Yangtze River, their own caravans will follow the army and seize the opportunity.
market!
By that time, the money won’t come in a hurry!
So now, the gentry, landlords and merchants who used to be opposed to the Tang Dynasty have actually become divided. Although many of them are still pretending to be Tang Dynasty and calling them traitors, many people are also calling them
In the Tang Dynasty, Master Wang was appointed.
And this can be seen from the fact that more and more scholars participate in the Imperial Examinations of the Tang Dynasty every year!
Scholars in ancient times were never a separate group, but representatives of a wide range of interest classes!
If these upper-class social groups under the rule of the Tang Dynasty were only divided, then the ordinary people under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, especially the largest group of farmers, regardless of whether they were homesteaders or tenants, had no support for the Tang Dynasty.
Beyond the expectations of many people.
The series of agricultural policies of the Tang Dynasty naturally affected the medium and large landowners, but small landowners and ordinary farmers were the beneficiaries.
The four policies of unified grain payment by the gentry, unified agricultural tax, settlement order, and rent-to-purchase order have brought real benefits to the farmers in the middle and lower classes of society.
On the surface, the gentry paying taxes together seems to have nothing to do with the farmers, but in fact it still reduces their burden, because if the gentry do not pay taxes, then the financial burden will all fall on these farmers, and then the taxes they pay will be
It's far more than the current numbers.
The unified agricultural tax, due to the implementation of the apportionment of the land into the land, there is no head tax, and the tax is paid according to the number of fields. What does this mean? This means that under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, tenants, that is, landless farmers, do not have to pay taxes!
Tenants don’t even own land, so they are naturally not the objects of agricultural tax!
This alone was enough for Datang to gain the support of countless landless farmers!
And even for those homesteaders and small landowners, the unified collection of agricultural taxes and the absence of various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes in the past have greatly reduced their burdens.
In the past, the formal taxes they had to pay were not much, but there were many kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and the burden was quite heavy. Now, although the agricultural taxes are also quite large, they are still extremely reduced compared to the past.
A big burden.
The Reclamation Order is not bad. There is no tax for reclaiming wasteland. This kind of thing has been done by many dynasties, so it is nothing.
But rent-to-purchase is different. As long as you rent government land for ten consecutive years, the land becomes your own. This kind of good thing is simply unheard of.
Many of the above policies also made many farmers under the Tang Dynasty support the Tang Dynasty almost from the bottom of their hearts.
Why?
Because the village officials always told them from time to time that if the puppet government came back, the official land allocated to everyone would be gone, all kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes would come again, and the tenants would have to pay taxes again.
In this case, farmers used the simplest and most direct way to express their interests and demands: join the army!
Nowadays, in rural areas under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, the enthusiasm of poor children to join the army is very high!
Of course, there are also factors such as joining the army to divide the land, joining the army to have food and food, etc.!
Although Shaoyang has not been under the rule of the Tang Dynasty for too long, and it was under military control for a long time in the early stage, and did not implement many internal policies under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, but even so, the people in Shaoyang City
Many ordinary people are still very concerned about the victory or defeat of the Tang Dynasty King.
They expected Wang Shi to defeat the Puppet Ming Army and not let the Puppet Ming Army come back and take away their land!
Whether it is the gentry, landlords, merchants or farmers who poured into industry and commerce, they are actually vested interest groups of the Tang Dynasty. Naturally, they do not want the Tang Dynasty to fail!
Hao Bainian naturally had no intention of paying attention to the public opinion trends in Shaoyang City after his death. The affairs in Shaoyang City are now handled by the Huguang Governor appointed by the Tang Dynasty and a group of local officials. Hao Bainian's task is to lead the First Army to
Changsha.
Hao Bainian received another letter from Li Chunjing of the Second Army this morning!
Li Chunjing asked the First Army to arrive in Changsha before the twelfth day of the first lunar month in the fourth year of Xuanping, and at the same time prevent Hengyang's enemies from going north to Changsha!
And now it is the eve of the Spring Festival, the 28th of the New Year. If we calculate the time, it is only about half a month before the agreed time. It is more than 200 kilometers from Shaoyang City to Changsha. This means that the army has to march for 20 kilometers every day.
kilometers or more.
This marching speed is quite challenging for an army of tens of thousands, especially when the road conditions along the way are not very good!
Although sometimes when the Tang Army was marching, there were extreme examples of marching more than 30 kilometers in one day, but this was basically just a one-day forced march. If it was to be a continuous march, the First Infantry Division under the First Army would
In last year's autumn and winter battles, we ran back and forth between Guiyang Prefecture and Hengyang, creating an extreme example of running 150 kilometers in five consecutive days, and it took half a day to defeat more than 3,000 people.
Ming army.
This march record is the highest record since the founding of the Tang Army, and it has not been broken yet.
Although part of the road from Shaoyang to Changsha is an official road with relatively good road conditions, there are also some roads with average conditions, and some roads are extremely poor.
Therefore, it is difficult for the First Army to ensure that it walks 20 kilometers every day.