Zhao Jun's promise to the victims spread like a plague, making Wang Yao miserable when he was transferred to Jinghu South Road.
Because of the two-tax law system, he has to raise enough food to send to Zhenzhou this year.
Field taxes are collected on the first day of May in the summer and on the first day of September in the autumn. The payment time is two and a half months, and the payment time is three and a half months.
This means that Hunan's field tax was almost collected at the end of July. However, due to a sudden heavy rain, it was blocked by floods just after setting off to Yuezhou, and it is still in the Yuezhou transfer warehouse.
Zhao Jun waved his hand and immediately asked people to go to Yuezhou to transport the grain back to relieve the victims.
Then his political performance this year is over, and there is no hope of promotion in the future.
But obviously his arms couldn't hold his thighs, and there was nothing he could do.
But it didn't take long for Wang Yao to figure it out.
Now that the Constitutional Yuan is in power, and one person in the Prefectural Yuan is inferior to ten thousand people, political achievements are not just a matter of a word from the Prefectural Yuan?
Collecting all this year's summer grain and handing it over to the court is a political achievement, but when a sudden heavy rain comes and the floods rise, isn't it also a political achievement of another level to provide food relief to the victims?
As long as none of the victims starve to death, and as long as the land can still have a good harvest next year, then Lord Chiyuan will definitely mark him down in the credit book.
So after a brief struggle, Wang Yao quickly changed his position and firmly supported Zhao Jun's decision.
There is no burden for Zhao Jun to misappropriate taxes.
Because the taxes in the Song Dynasty were mainly two taxes, commercial taxes, salt and wine taxes, tea taxes, exemption money, etc., although the two taxes accounted for a certain proportion, their proportion was getting smaller and smaller.
From the Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi era, the proportion accounted for 70%, to the Zhao Zhen and Zhao Xu era, the proportion has dropped to 30%.
For example, during the Zhao Zhen period, the summer tax transportation of grain on Jinghu South Road was only about 600,000 shi. According to the price of rice and wheat in Bianliang, which remained at 200 to 400 shi per year, the average value was 300 shi, which was worth about 20 shi. Thirty thousand strings.
After one year, the agricultural tax to be paid on Jinghu South Road is less than 500,000 yuan.
There were eighteen roads in the Northern Song Dynasty during the Renzong Dynasty. Except for Huainan East Road, Huainan West Road, Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, and Liangzhe Road, which are major grain-producing provinces, the annual agricultural tax exceeded one million guan, and each road would transport goods. Except for Kaifeng, which costs two to three million stones, the other routes basically cost hundreds of thousands.
In total, the agricultural tax alone from all walks of life across the country is only over 10 million yuan a year, which is not as much as the money Zhao Jun made by raiding houses to help Zhao Zhen in the past few years.
Therefore, the misappropriated tax itself will not have much impact on the court.
In addition to inspecting Changsha these days, Zhao Jun also visited other disaster-stricken areas. Although he had been to the disaster-stricken areas in Huainan before, after all, the disaster-stricken areas had been recovering for three years and the situation had improved a lot.
But now experiencing it with my own eyes is another story.
Can you imagine the tragic situation in a village where most of the families are dead and every household is hung with silk threads?
Can you imagine in other counties, dirty clothes and tattered clothes, putting their daughters in baskets, picking them out on the county streets, and selling them with a straw in their heads?
Can you imagine an old man crawling on the ground in dirty muddy water, picking up a bone dropped by a rich man and chewing on it?
Landowners and wealthy households walked struttingly down the street, followed by slaves and carried in palanquins, looking at every poor person selling their sons and daughters on the street, as if they were looking at pieces of goods.
Strictly speaking, except for Changsha and Linxiang, which are more seriously affected by the disaster, the remaining counties have already recovered.
However, other counties did not have Chen Xiliang's early warning. Even if the large-scale disaster situation was not bad, many villages along the river suffered heavy losses.
Maybe I was still asleep in the middle of the night, but suddenly the bank burst and the whole village was submerged in the tide.
If the remaining people want to survive, they can only sell everything they can in exchange for a chance to survive.
Seeing this situation, Zhao Jun really couldn't sleep all night long.
For modern people like him, although there are some clues from the history books, such as "Huainan is suffering from severe drought, people cannibalize each other" and "older people are hungry, so they change their sons and eat".
But how can the understatement in history books compare to the cruelty seen in reality?
So the impact of all this on him was unimaginable.
Just like when I was in college and watched the TV series "The Age of Awakening", the great man in his youth walked through the streets in the rain and saw what he saw and heard.
It was already shocking to see it in the TV series, let alone seeing it in person?
For this reason, Zhao Jun traveled to various counties many times, instructing local road secretaries, state governments, county magistrates, and many other officials to strictly require their disaster relief operations and ensure the aftermath of the disaster victims.
In fact, it is not difficult to temporarily intercept Hunan's agricultural taxes to support the victims. What is difficult is what to do with future life.
Therefore, during this period of time, Zhao Jun has been urging local officials to clear farmland, recruit local troops, hire young people, renovate the dams along both sides of the river, and clear out the fields buried by silt and floods.
The common people's fields were returned in full, while the gentry's fields were required to pay for cleaning up. As for the more tenants who had no land and could only work for wealthy landlords, the government would help them reclaim their land.
The good thing after the flood is that the flood washed a large amount of silt to the shore, causing the plains on both sides to be filled with sand. Although a lot of sand cannot grow food, the silt is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which is beneficial. to the growth of food.
Therefore, in the past, many fields that were too barren to be cultivated could be cultivated after piling up silt. If this was not possible, Zhao Jun also asked the local government to help excavate the mountainous land and divert canals for irrigation.
These policies are certainly good policies, but there are many opponents.
First of all, this requires a lot of manpower and material resources. It is by no means a policy that can be implemented simply by thinking it is a good policy. For example, excavating mountainous areas, cultivating new soil, and diverting canals for irrigation require at least tens of thousands of young laborers and a lot of money.
Secondly, those landlords and gentry don't want to do anything. Why should they help the mud-legged people to cultivate the fields for free, but help them clean up the fields for money?
Are the landlords and gentry not ordinary people of the Song Dynasty?
Amidst such opposition, Zhao Jun cannot insist on having his own way.
After all, there must be unscrupulous landlords, wealthy businessmen and gentry, and he also killed some in Tanzhou, but there are still many landlords and gentry who are normal human beings who have not done any bad things and cannot kill people indiscriminately.
Therefore, Zhao Jun can only be reasonable.
On the first point, Zhao Jun told the local government that after the disaster, since late rice could not be planted and the young labor force had nothing to do, it would be better to hire them and let them contribute.
The imperial court paid them to dig mountains, open fields, divert water canals, and build ponds. This method is called work-for-relief and can quickly restore production.
As for the second point.
Zhao Jun said that under normal circumstances, the court in disaster-stricken areas would exempt taxes. For example, Huainan has been exempted from taxes for two years.
However, the degree of tax exemption is generally judged based on the severity of the disaster.
The disaster area in Huainan reached more than ten states, causing tens of thousands of people to starve to death, hundreds of thousands of people displaced, and millions of people affected to varying degrees, so it will be exempted from tax for two years.
But this time in Changsha, only Tanzhou was hit by floods. About 200,000 to 300,000 people were affected, and only more than 1,000 people drowned. So far, no one has died of starvation. It is not as serious as the one in Huainan, and the court may not exempt it. tax.
Even if tax is exempted, it is only for the poor who have no property. Landowners with property still have to be included in the tax list.
So if you, as landlords, have a big family and a big business, and your ability to withstand risks is much better than that of the poor, and if you try your best with limited abilities, the court will be very pleased that you have shouldered certain national responsibilities, and will also give you preferential treatment in taxation.
After careful consideration, the landowners felt that they would surely make a profit without losing any money, and agreed one after another.
The main reason is that the tax exemption is too attractive.
Because it is said to be preferential treatment, but it is actually a transaction.
I have used tax exemptions to allow you to contribute money and efforts in exchange for price stability and accelerated post-disaster recovery and construction.
Although agricultural taxes in the Song Dynasty were not high, Jinghu South Road only paid less than 500,000 yuan in agricultural taxes a year, but there were many excessive levies and miscellaneous taxes.
Especially the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes imposed on the landlords, which exploited them to death, led to very frequent landlord uprisings in the Song Dynasty.
Therefore, compared with the tax that sucks the bones and sucks the marrow, this small amount of money and supplies can be regarded as a small amount of money to avoid a major disaster. Even if the court is exempted from taxes for half a year in the next year, it can still make money back.
Therefore, with the help of Zhao Jun's allocation of this summer's taxes and the joint efforts of many landlords and wealthy businessmen in Tanzhou, prices in the disaster area were stabilized and order gradually returned to normal.
By October, Zhao Jun had been staying in Tanzhou for more than two months. Today, good news came. The imperial court distributed 500,000 yuan in disaster relief funds, which has now been sent to Tanzhou.
At the beginning of the evening, in the Changsha County Yamen, Zhao Jun was looking at the official reports on post-disaster recovery work from various places. Chen Xiliang came in happily and said: "Zhiyuan, great, the disaster relief funds from the court have arrived."
"Um."
Zhao Jun raised his head and just nodded in response.
Seeing that he was not very interested, Chen Xiliang couldn't help but wonder: "Zhiyuan, isn't this a happy thing?"
"yes."
Zhao Jun put down the official document in his hand and sighed: "But this little money is still a drop in the bucket, and you have to think that this flood only affected Tanzhou, and the disaster was not serious. If the court wants to ensure that every victim is properly resettled, it must It costs a lot of money, but if there is a major disaster like the drought in Huainan a few years ago, it will be a bottomless pit."
"After all, you still have to do your best."
Chen Xiliang said.
"There are endless disasters to be rescued. We can only pray that a once-in-a-century drought like the one in Huainan will happen less frequently. First, we must prepare for rainy days. In good years, we must stock up on food and grass, build more dams, cultivate more fields, and dredge more rivers."
Zhao Jun said: "The second is to improve commercial prosperity. After this disaster, I hope you can communicate well with Hengzhou, Yongzhou, Quanzhou, Guizhou and other places, make every effort to dredge the Lingcan, and increase trade with Guangdong South Road It turns out that cotton is being widely grown over there, and Hunan can also introduce and grow these cash crops."
"Building canals is a big deal."
"Well, so you need the local governments along the river to work together to build the canals."
"yes."
"I learned that the price of private labor is between 50 and 100 Wen per day. River workers are more expensive, around 150 and 200 Wen. Five hundred thousand Guan can employ 30,000 people for about half a year. This money must be spent wisely. The focus is on restoring agriculture and repairing river embankments.”
"yes."
"Okay, make good arrangements. Post-disaster reconstruction work has a long way to go."
"yes."
Chen Xiliang responded and then retreated.
He felt that he could learn a lot from Zhiyuan, such as the work-for-relief method, and that it turned out that through these negotiations, he could obtain the support of the wealthy landlords.
In fact, sometimes in addition to class antagonism, people still need more communication. Sometimes communication is more important than opposition.
After Chen Xiliang left, Zhao Jun still had a gloomy look on his face and was not very happy because the court's disaster relief funds had arrived.
The methods he gave are actually more conventional methods for later generations to deal with disasters, economic depression, and reconstruction work. History has proven that this method is indeed feasible and effective, including the US imperialism.
But there is a prerequisite here that the government must have enough money.
If you don't have money, you still issue money indiscriminately, and you still have to provide work-for-work relief, you are just asking for death, and the country will collapse very quickly.
The good news is that the court now has money.
The bad news is that we are running out of money.
The situation in the northwest is getting increasingly tense, and it's just the beginning, so the imperial court has enough money to support him in rebuilding the disaster area.
Once the war actually starts, the amount of money spent will be astronomical. The national treasury currently has tens of millions of dollars in savings, which have been saved frugally in the past two years to prepare for the war. After the war begins, I am afraid that it will be wiped out soon. .
Even though in the past two years, Zhao Jun had confiscated many houses of corrupt officials and wealthy businessmen, bringing more than tens of millions of yuan to the court, and countless money was sent to Bianliang.
However, confiscating homes alone is a waste of money, and the method of killing the goose to retrieve the eggs will not last long, so conventional means must be used.
"Fortunately, the natural disasters encountered by the Song Dynasty in the past few years have basically been minor disasters. Even the severe drought in Huainan a few years ago can only be regarded as an upper-middle level. A major disaster that truly affects millions or even tens of millions of people It’s not happening yet.”
"I have been walking in the local area for almost two years since February last year. In the past two years, I have accumulated a lot of grassroots work experience, learned about the life of the grassroots in the Song Dynasty, and gradually figured out the path to reform."
"The first is taxes. The main taxes are really light, only 5% to 10% of the harvest. But the excessive levies and miscellaneous taxes are ridiculously high. No wonder when I was studying history, Professor Zhang would say, "The Northern Song Dynasty paid heavy taxes. Everyone agreed, but few Objection."
"But it was only through taxation that the Northern Song Dynasty could sustain itself for so long. If tax adjustments and reforms were carried out now, the Song Dynasty might face serious pressure. It seems that when it comes to reducing the burden on farmers, we still have to take it step by step."
"There is a certain truth to the Young Crops Law like Wang Anshi's, but it can only be used as a reference and cannot be fully accepted. There are also Zhang Juzheng's reforms and Yongzheng's reforms, which need to wait until domestic productivity increases before they can be promoted and implemented."
"However, taxation is temporarily unavailable, so we can still reform the civil service first. No wonder Fan Zhongyan wants to reform the civil service first. As expected, we can only understand the reason by going down to the grassroots and looking at the situation."
"As for making money, in the end we have to increase revenue and reduce expenditure to solve the three redundancy problems. In addition, we need to absorb gold and silver from Japan and actively explore overseas markets and expand foreign trade. This is also the path of the Southern Song Dynasty."
"No matter what, I must find a path that belongs to the Song Dynasty. For the farmers of the Song Dynasty, for all Chinese Han people, in order to not have the shame of Jingkang, and in order to let the Han nation stand on top of the world, I must work harder. I must not Slouch.”
At the end of Xu Shi, it was late at night, and Zhao Jun continued to lie in front of the case, fighting for his ideals.
Thanks to book friend book friend 20180106230604207 for putting forward pertinent opinions on the last two chapters. I have made some modifications, which I personally think are more reasonable. You can go back and take a look. In fact, I forgot to write a paragraph in the last chapter, which was about people selling their children and daughters. As a result, there was not enough foreshadowing, and everyone felt that the protagonist's speech was relatively plain. It was my problem, and it made everyone feel inadequate. In fact, the protagonist has always been a person living in a greenhouse. This period of traveling around the world is also to make up for this shortcoming. Otherwise, relying solely on words will be a castle in the air.
Many friends said that the first stage was not that good. It is true that firstly, I was sick this month and my condition was affected. Secondly, I personally think that the protagonist still needs to go to the countryside for a walk before he can do anything practical, so the plot is slightly lacking.
Thank you all for pointing out the problem. If you have reasonable opinions, I will listen carefully. As for those who directly criticize, I pretend not to have seen it.
(End of chapter)
