"promise!"
Cao Shuang left to do some business. Zhao Duan walked around the palace with his hands behind his back and couldn't figure out why Uncle Wang suddenly disappeared.
At this moment, another eunuch suddenly came to report.
"Report! Your Majesty, the Prime Minister and the officials of the Six Departments are now outside the palace gate asking for an audience. They say there are important military and state affairs and they urgently need to see Your Majesty!"
"Something happened again?!"
Zhao Duan paused for a moment as he walked back and forth. There was only one thought in his mind, but he quickly realized it and didn't care about anything else.
In the middle of the night, Zhang He suddenly came with hundreds of officials. Something big must have happened!
"Xuan! Xuan them to Daqing Hall!"
"promise!"
The eunuch went down to deliver the order, and Zhao Duanze immediately called the maids in, put on his regular clothes, and then led the crowd to the Daqing Palace.
By the time Zhao Duan arrived at Daqing Hall, Zhang He and others had already arrived.
Xiao Duan looked at them all sweating profusely, and couldn't help but think that these old guys were quite young, and their legs and feet were quite nimble.
But then he immediately threw these messy thoughts out of his mind. Taking three steps and two steps at a time, Zhao Duan quickly came to his own place and sat down.
Zhang He immediately led the officials to salute him after he sat down.
After he had excused himself, Zhang He couldn't wait to say:
"Your Majesty, something serious has happened!
There were rebellions in four places including Southern Jiangsu, Northern Jiangsu, Bian'an and Caiyun County half a month ago!
The thieves were so powerful that in less than seven days, hundreds of thousands of soldiers gathered in each county and were frantically attacking various counties. The local garrison in each county was unable to suppress them, so they all sent requests for help to Bianjing. ! "
Boom!
Outside the Daqing Hall, a thunder sounded, and in the brightly lit hall, the flames seemed to sway at this moment. Zhao Duan's face changed drastically, and he almost fainted on the spot from laughing!
Just after Uncle Wang disappeared, rebels broke out in four counties in the country, and their number reached hundreds of thousands!
What happened to Da Song!
What an eventful time!
After all, he has been the emperor for many years. Zhao Duan relied on his strong self-control to quickly stabilize his emotions. After thinking carefully, he immediately asked:
"Is there any news saying why these people rebelled?"
All the officials looked at each other in confusion. In the end, a right-hand minister from the household department couldn't shirk the situation and was pushed out by his companions.
Seeing Zhao Jun looking at him, the Minister of Household Affairs hesitated for a while and then cautiously said: "According to the news from the four counties, it seems that it is because of the collection of summer grain."
"Huh? What about the collection of summer grain?"
Even though Zhao Duandang was stunned, he thought of many reasons, but he never thought that it was because of this.
So what is summer grain?
As the name suggests, summer grain is the grain harvested in summer. Generally, the grain harvest period in the feudal period was divided into two seasons.
One refers to the grain that was sown in the autumn and winter of the previous year and harvested in the spring of this year. This is summer grain.
The other is the grain sown in spring and summer this year and harvested in autumn. This is called autumn grain.
The government generally levies grain taxes twice a year, once in summer and once in autumn.
It is now the end of June, the day when the summer grain harvest is harvested and the government collects grain taxes.
Logically speaking, this has been a rule for thousands of years, and people have been paying it forward. Why did something go wrong this year?
When something goes wrong, there must be a monster. Zhao Jun understood that something must have happened that he didn't know about. Looking at the appearance of these officials just now, he was even more sure. He immediately asked: "What happened?
Why would the collection of one summer grain actually force the four counties to rebel? What did those local officials do in the local area to cause a large number of people to rebel! "
Zhao Jun was angry. He had been holding back his anger because of Uncle Wang's disappearance, but now that this matter was revealed, Zhao Duan exploded after holding back his anger.
This question was also asked angrily while slapping the armrest of the chair!
All the officials lowered their heads and were frightened like quails by the furious Zhao Jun. After hearing the question, someone answered after a while: "It is said that after the Huns invaded last year, we levied an extra 100% tax on this year's summer grain." Caused by the restoration work in Hadong County?”
"One centimeter?"
Zhao Duan was stunned, how much is one centimeter?
Just because of an extra cent of tax, the people in the four counties started to rebel?
Do you want to be so brave?
Looking at Zhao Duan's unbelievable look, Zhang He finally sighed and walked out, and told him the general story of the matter.
Originally, this extra 1% tax was levied for the post-disaster reconstruction of Hedong County.
It's just one centimeter, not a lot, and it is acceptable to most people. Therefore, after it was proposed, this policy was quickly confirmed and disseminated after considering the actual situation.
But just like rumors, a policy may originally be harmless, but if too many people deal with it, it is very likely to lose its original true meaning!
When the original tax of 1% reached the county, it became 2%, when it reached the government it became 5%, when it reached the county it became 10%, and when it reached the heads of the people, the original 1% tax was increased. Those Baojia village chiefs and even the big households received as much as 20%!
The grain tax in the Song Dynasty was not high. The commerce in the Song Dynasty was developed. The main tax was the commercial tax. The grain tax was generally about 40% of the land.
In addition to the tax and other miscellaneous taxes, which may eventually be handed over to the court, about 60% to 70% of the grain tax, the common people can only have 30 to 40% left, which is enough to feed themselves.
But this is only the most ideal situation. Local wealthy gentry often use various means to seize and annex land from the hands of ordinary people.
There was very little land left for the common people, but the annexed land still belonged to these common people, and they had to pay the annual tax.
As a result, the people's lives became more and more difficult. In the end, they had no choice but to sell their land to landlords and then rent other people's land as tenants to make a living. This allowed these wealthy landowners to annex more land.
The food you can get by working as a tenant is not as much as what you can get by growing your own land. At most, you will starve to death.
It was good at first, but the imperial tax was reduced to 20%.
Even these wealthy landlords in the countryside have to pay at least 10%.
So they passed this tax on to the tenants, and the increase in tenant rent was still based on the 20% tax.
The tenants were just able to survive, but now they were burdened with an additional 20% tax. Once calculated, they couldn't even survive on the remaining grain. What's more, they had to sell their sons and daughters to pay this increase. of taxes.
Hence, wherever there is oppression, there is resistance!
The people in the four counties where the local landlords oppressed the most severely turned over the table!
If you don't let me live, then I will rebel. Anyway, I will die, and I will die. There is nothing to be afraid of!
As time went by, more and more people joined the rebel team, so the counties that could barely suppress it could no longer suppress it, so they had no choice but to bring things to light!
When officials suddenly received the news from below, this scene emerged...
(End of chapter)
