Gui E left the political affairs to Shi Dao and took two of his entourage to the countryside around the provincial capital for a private visit incognito.
He inquired carefully along the way to verify the specific pros and cons of a whipping method, and soon discovered the same problem as Meng Shu.
Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that a census should be conducted every ten years, but by Zhu Di's time, the yellow household registration rolls in various places were filled in at will, and the head tax was collected at will by the chiefs. The state and county officials only confiscated the head tax, regardless of what happened below.
Collected, resulting in a small number of common people bearing the entire labor service fee!
When Shandong levied a whip tax this time, the total population may not have been concealed much, but the specific household registration was a mess!
Some farmers, whose ancestors have been dead for hundreds of years, are actually ordered by the government to pay taxes because they collect taxes based on the yellow household registration register. They only recognize the register but not the person, and they don't bother to check the real situation. Even if it is checked, it is very difficult.
Check clearly.
Gui E frowned all the way, not complaining that Wang Yuan had changed a whipping method randomly, but thinking about how to improve it as much as possible.
Even if Wang Yuan did not change it, the original whip would still have many problems in actual operation.
Walking through the village, he came to the village school at the entrance of the village. The sound of Lang Lang reading brought Gui E back to reality. He suddenly smiled and stood outside the village school, watching the children inside reading and literacy. It seemed that in this way he could forget all the worries of being an official.
.
But I heard the private school teacher say to the children: "You just study hard and recite, and I will go find the devil in the world."
The children behaved very well, shaking their heads and reciting the articles, but not long after the teacher left, they threw away their books and started playing.
Gui E stood outside and couldn't help but smile when he saw this, as if he was remembering something interesting from his childhood.
With the tutor in the distance, Gui E followed him to a small forest.
But I saw a child holding a wooden stick, directing several children to form an army, and then they divided into two teams to catch each other and fight.
"Sir is here!"
A child shouted, and the children immediately ran away.
The school teacher had no choice but to find the "culprit" and shouted sternly: "Yin Bingheng, stop!"
The child named Yin Bingheng stopped running away. He returned with a stick, clasped his fists and bowed, "Greetings, sir."
The private school teacher asked: "Why did you lead your classmates to skip class again?"
Yin Bingheng said: "The students want to imitate the king, practice martial arts and military skills, and then go out to sweep Mongolia!"
"Nonsense," said the private school teacher. "A good man, you should know the words of the sages, study five chariots of books, and dance with swords and sticks all day long. What does it look like?"
Yin Bingheng said: "When a man is alive, he is proud of himself. What does five cars of books mean?"
"you you……"
The school teacher was so angry that he was shaking all over. He rushed over, grabbed the child's ears, and dragged the little brat back to his parents.
His father, Yin Lun, has just passed the Shandong Juren Examination and will go to Beijing to take the examination in the spring. He is currently reviewing the Four Books and Five Classics at home.
Seeing his son being dragged by the teacher and giving him a lesson in person, Yin Lun quickly said: "Sir, please calm down, I will teach him to be honest and obedient today!"
This private school teacher is very old, and both father and son are his students.
"ah!"
A stick was thrown at him, and Yin Bingheng was hit so hard that he jumped up, but he stood still and did not dare to run away.
After Yin Lun caught his son and beat him violently, he shouted, "Do you know you were wrong?"
Yin Bingheng gritted his teeth and remained silent.
"You still haven't admitted your mistake!"
The Yin family was barely a small landowner, and although they lived a comfortable life, they rarely saw meat. Yin Lun, a scholar who had been a vegetarian for a long time, had amazing arm strength. In anger, he picked up his son with one hand and slammed him out of the door.
He beat his son to pieces.
The private school teacher was startled and quickly advised: "Just hit him, don't fall to death."
Yin Lun said: "It would be better for such an unfilial son to fall to death!"
Yin Bingheng got up dizzy. When he saw his father coming over again, he quickly shouted: "Father, my son will worship the general in the future. If the general is beaten to death today, wouldn't father want to accept the honor of being a prince?"
Yin Lun had already raised his stick, but he couldn't laugh or cry when he heard this.
Gui E watched for a long time and couldn't help but praise: "Young man is so ambitious!"
Yin Lun said angrily: "What kind of young man is he? This bastard is only eight years old."
Gui E was surprised and said: "He was born so tall at the age of eight, but a boy who died at the age of twelve or thirteen years old has the same words as that boy. This boy will definitely be a general in the future!"
Yin Bingheng held his head high when he heard this and said proudly: "I will definitely become a general in the future."
"Hahahaha!" Gui E laughed endlessly.
Historically, Yin Bingheng was a disciple of Weng Wanda. He was the one who went to Anhui to inquire about injustices.
It's not a civil examination, but a martial arts examination. He ranked fourth in the national martial arts examination.
Yin Bingheng's father was a Jinshi, and later he became a very successful official, but he insisted on joining the army. He followed Weng Wanda to attack Mongolia in the north, and fought the most brutal battle between the Ming Dynasty and Mongolia since the Yongle Northern Expedition.
At that time, the Mongolian army of 100,000 troops marched south, and Weng Wanda sent the Xinkewu Jinshi, leading a thousand soldiers, into two groups to rush to the frontline pass.
In the first battle, Yin Bingheng hit every target, and one man shot and killed twenty-seven Mongolian cavalry.
The Mongols did not dare to attack this pass again and went around to attack the next pass. Wang Bangzhi, the first Wu Jinshi at that time, who was equivalent to the Wu Zhuangyuan, was afraid that the Mongols would take a small path to bypass the pass and cut off the grain road, so he led hundreds of people to go out on his own initiative.
Guan fight.
Encountering an ambush by tens of thousands of cavalry, Wang Bang directly shot and killed seven people and a Mongolian general, and actually drove back tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry.
Tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry were not far away. A Mongolian general became more and more angry as he thought about it. He shouted: "The Ming army is only a few hundred, and tens of thousands of us are still defeated. How can we have the dignity to return to the grassland?" So he led his troops to fight back.
Confronted again with the pursuing Ming army.
General Zhang Feng was soon killed in battle, and Wang Bang vowed not to retreat until he died.
Hundreds of Ming troops faced off against tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry. Relying on the advantage of the terrain, they fought from afternoon to night. After being surrounded by groups, they continued to fight for a whole night. After dawn, the Mongols were already scared and drove their horses together.
The Mongolian soldiers dismounted and charged behind.
Wang Bangzhi wielded a heavy iron mace and killed dozens of enemies with his own hands. He was attacked by enemies who emerged from the horse's belly. His legs were tightly hugged. He was exhausted after a long battle and could no longer hold the iron mace. He pulled out his waist knife and cut himself to death.
.Subsequently, Wang Bangzhi was cut into pieces by the Mongols, and stones were stuffed into his stomach in order to vent their anger.
Knowing that this pass was failed, Weng Wada ordered Yin Bingheng to go and hold him back, and personally led his elite cavalry to set up an ambush on Baishan Mountain. He also ordered General Zhou Shangwen to lead most of his troops to attack from both front and rear.
Yin Bingheng only had 500 soldiers in hand. After receiving the order, he took the initiative to attack tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry in the mountains, buying precious time for Ming Dynasty reinforcements. This man killed all the way through the temporary defense lines of the Mongols in the mountains, and was cut into pieces when he found the kingdom.
He took off his clothes, wrapped the broken corpses and killed them, finally successfully brought Wang Bangzhi's corpse back to the Ming army camp.
It is said that the ancient army would collapse if the casualty rate increased, but these two groups of 1,000 soldiers, under the leadership of a few new military scholars, had a casualty rate of over 99% and refused to retreat. In the end, they almost died on the battlefield.
What's even more valuable is that Yin Bingheng is only 21 years old this year!
Yin Bingheng, who was injured all over, refused to be judged for his first merit, insisting that Wang Bangzhi's first merit was his. After recovering from his injuries, he was transferred to the south to fight against Japanese pirates, and he and Qi Jiguang became close brothers.
Such a famous general was quickly appreciated by Emperor Jiajing and was sent to supervise the construction of the gates of the Forbidden City. After finally repairing the Forbidden City, he was sent to Baoding to serve as the commander-in-chief to prevent Mongolia from going south and rushing directly into Beijing. There was no way to fight in this place.
Yin Bingheng reorganized the army in Baoding and used all the money he could have pocketed to purchase 2,700 war horses.
Until the Wanli Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng was dead, but Yin Bingheng was still alive. The Japanese pirates reappeared in the south. Among the famous anti-Japanese generals, only Yin Bingheng was left.
Such a brave, honest and loyal general was still a general in Baoding until his death because he was involved in political struggles.
At this moment, Yin Bingheng is only eight years old, skipping classes all day long and dreaming of becoming a general.
Gui E loved talents and asked: "A general must be brave and resourceful. Do you know the art of war?"
Yin Bingheng shook his head: "I don't know."
Gui E smiled and said, "I know a man who is proficient in the art of war, and I would recommend you to be his student."
Yin Lun couldn't help but ask: "I don't know your surname?"
Gui E cupped her fists: "Raozhou Gui E."
Yin Lun was shocked: "It was actually Gui Weiyuan who raised his son Yin Lun from Qihe to meet the chief envoy!"
Gui E smiled and said: "I'm afraid your son doesn't know how to study. Why don't you learn the art of war from Wang Xiang? Wang Xiang likes such ambitious and brave young men."
"If this is true, it is the blessing of our ancestors." Yin Lun was very enlightened. Historically, although he became a Jinshi himself, he did not stop his son from learning martial arts, and even invited famous teachers to teach his son martial arts and military tactics.
Gui E asked the child to stay in the village. He would first write a letter to Wang Yuan, and after Wang Yuan agreed, he would send the student there next spring.
That night, Gui E stayed at Yin Lun's house and talked about a whipping method.
Yin Lun said: "A whip tax cannot be levied according to the yellow tax roll. My father has been dead for more than ten years, but he still has to pay taxes according to the official yellow roll. Many hidden people are able to escape."
Gui E asked: "As you think about it, how should we solve it?"
Yin Lun shook his head: "It cannot be solved."
"Yeah, it can't be solved." Gui E sighed.
The next day, Gui E returned to the provincial capital and wrote a letter to Wang Yuan. The content was only one: to increase the proportion of land tax sharing and to minimize the labor burden borne by the population.
What's the meaning?
That is to say, efforts are made to approach "divide a small amount into an acre" so that the landlords can pay more.
Dividing a small person into an acre is an in-depth reform of the Yitifang method, and is the final evolved version of the Yitifui method.
In ancient times, poll taxes and miscellaneous taxes could not be abolished. As far as the purpose of collection was concerned, it was similar to the three mentions and five unifications of New China in the 1990s. This thing gradually disappeared until the 21st century.
Wang Yuan read Gui E's letter in the capital and quickly replied: "Shaofeng's three-year summer grain harvest will increase the land servitude by 10% to test the reaction of the local gentry and powerful people. He ordered all prefectures and counties to change and complete household registration as soon as possible.
Yellow Book.”
This is why Wang Yuan did not dare to blindly carry out reforms across the country. He had to conduct experiments in one of the provinces first.
Even if the experiment in Shandong Province is successful, after it is promoted nationwide, fine-tuning will have to be made to suit local conditions based on the different situations of each province.
Historically, Zhang Cong was very impatient during the reform because he was too old, and he resigned before the reform was implemented nationwide.
Because local resistance was too great, Zhang Juzheng chose to compromise with the big landowners on the one hand, and overcorrected during the implementation process on the other. Although the central government's finances were greatly improved, the reform process was distorted and distorted, and it also ignored individual differences across the country.
Wang Yuan's reforms were not perfect, but he tried his best to make them overall reliable.
In fact, state and county officials in Shandong were also troubled by the outrageous yellow records.
Many farmers did not want to pay taxes to the ghosts in their families, and even refused to pay the taxes of living people. The lijia chief and grain chief only watched the excitement, and the local police could not spare enough manpower to collect the taxes.
It's almost the Spring Festival, and I've only received two-thirds of the total tax amount set by the province.
With such a large tax gap, political performance evaluation must be inferior!
As a result, the local government took the initiative to correct the loopholes in the reform, and state and county officials promised benefits to Chief Lijia. Chief Lijia would come forward to collect taxes from those people who did not pay taxes and those who concealed their population. Chief Lijia would take a cut of the taxes received.
Chief Li Jia took the opportunity to press for more, and the fish and meat village became a mess.
Then, the matter was settled.
Because no matter how messed up they are, the taxes that people have to pay are less than before, so they can live on.
After Shandong once again increased the weight of land taxation, the large landowners were unable to resist the tough Chief Secretary and could only force the state and county officials to complete the yellow household registration register. The state and county officials did not want to no longer be unable to collect taxes, so with the cooperation of the large landowners, they tried their best to change the yellow household registration register.
If there are any errors in the register, try to find out the concealed population.
In the third year of Shaofeng's reign, the collection of summer grain in Shandong was very satisfactory.
Three-quarters of the total taxes in most states and counties are paid by the people automatically. The remaining one-quarter is left to the Lijia chief to collect the taxes. The Lijia chief has lost most of his power and does not dare to be as arrogant and fishy as before.
There must be limits in the countryside. Except for a few lijia chiefs who are too vicious, the rest are relatively "harmonious", and the whole of Shandong seems to have entered a "prosperous age".
As long as the general direction of the policy is reasonable and as long as local governments do not act recklessly, the loopholes in the reform will be automatically corrected by private forces.