Taxation in ancient China was rarely used for public welfare services. [No pop-up novel website] The so-called taxation is to collect money for the purpose of governance. The suffering of the people and the improvement of society rarely concern themselves. Social public affairs and people's livelihood and welfare undertaken by modern governments are not within the scope of their consideration.
Almost all of the dynasty's fiscal revenue was used to support the royal family, soldiers, and officials. Even so, if there is any disturbance, "national shortage" will occur. The solution is also very simple, just add more factions. Every additional faction is a carnival of revenue increase for officials at all levels, but a disaster for the ordinary people below.
As far as Lingao is concerned, although the Ming government receives more than 7,000 shi of official grain tax from here every year, it is difficult to see what the royal grain national taxes paid by the people every year have brought to this county. Over the past two hundred years, , there is only one water conservancy project built by the government. Wenshui Bridge is probably a practical project built by the government, but it is only this one in more than 200 years.
The people support the government. Apart from the most basic "rough security" of living in poverty, this government has not brought any benefits to the people of Lingao. Disaster relief must be provided by the people's "goodwill warehouses"; to prevent bandits, the common people must go into battle and be brave. Although one-third of the more than 7,000 kilograms of food each year is directly used as "pay" for the garrison on Hainan Island, when the Lingao 6 bandits were raging, the people could not count on the officials they supported. The army came out to "suppress bandits".
If the government wants to win the trust of the people, it must break this pattern that has been passed down for thousands of years and establish a truly modern national system. The common people may be ignorant, but they are definitely not stupid when it comes to their own interests. They can see who is really working for them and for their benefit.
At the beginning of the meeting, the county magistrate of the county gave a speech. This was the first time Wu Ya encountered such a scene: he only had experience in trying cases in court, where the original and defendants knelt down and did not dare to look at him, and at most there were just some idle people outside the door watching the excitement. Now he was sitting side by side with a group of "Kun thieves", and there were hundreds of local people looking at him below.
Fortunately, Wang Zhaomin had already written the manuscript for him, so he just had to read it according to it. This innocuous speech was reviewed by the time-traveling party to ensure that it contained no conspiracy.
Regarding the content of the speech, the two sides had bargained once. The crossing party naturally hoped that the Lingao County Government's support for them would be "clear-cut", while Magistrate Wu wanted the words to be vague. The more vague the better. Therefore, Wang Zhaomin's manuscript was decided upon after a day of discussion between the main writers of both parties. Generally speaking, everyone was satisfied.
Wu Ya originally didn't want to come to read the manuscript, but Mr. Wu naturally didn't want to meet in such an occasion, so as not to have any excuse in the future, so the scapegoat became Wu County Cheng. Originally, Wu Ya planned to get a high-ranking official position to crush others. Dian Shi came to be his scapegoat, but was sternly rejected by the "concubine" - the county magistrate was also the second-in-command in the county, and his persuasiveness was much stronger in the hearts of the people than a half-official and half-official position like Dian Shi.
Wu Yacai was forced to serve as the county government representative at the meeting. .A red envelope of eighty taels of silver given to him by the traveling party soothed his hurt heart a little.
After Wu County Cheng talked about the serious pirate situation faced by the county and the importance and necessity of holding local team training for joint defense, he announced that the county government approved the proposal for joint defense in Lingao County starting from Damei Village. . The club name of Tuanlian was "Bairen Society". The government gave Bairenshe relevant documents and granted it the job of organizing, training, and commanding group training.
Bairenshe set up an "office" in Dongmen City as the office for the group training. At the same time, team training funds and food can be collected from the villages that join the cooperative.
The president of Bairen Society. Of course it was Wu De. Although he is not a military leader, the leaders of the Tuanlianshe are generally local gentry who specialize in dealing with the government and villages. As the newly appointed People's Commissar of Civil Affairs, it is more appropriate for him to assume this official position. Moreover, through this position, he can be recognized by local prominent figures for future work.
Wu De was not wearing training uniforms. In fact, all the time-travelers attending this meeting today were dressed more formally than usual. Of course, this formality does not mean suits and ties, but rather no longer wearing the usual colorful training uniforms. Today he is wearing an 87-style blue naval officer's spring and autumn uniform without a collar badge. It looks very solemn.
Wu De's speech was delivered in Mandarin, and Xiong Buyou led several people for simultaneous interpretation, including Lingao dialect, Hainan Mandarin and Minnan dialect.
Wu De said: Bairenshe will give top priority to the interests of the people of the county and strive to assume the important task of maintaining the safety of the county. Under the correct guidance of Emperor Chongzhen and the care of officials at all levels of Lingao County Government, the county will With the support of the gentry and the common people, Bairen Society will unswervingly continue to uphold the purpose of "eliminating the strong and supporting the weak, protecting the environment and the people", and make new contributions to the stability and prosperity of Lingao County and the creation of a harmonious society in the Ming Dynasty. .
This novel set of vocabulary made the participants quite curious. The only drawback was that when Wu De mentioned Emperor Chongzhen, Wu Ya and others on the podium immediately stood up and shouted "Long live the Emperor." ” Representatives from all walks of life below also knelt down with cheers.
After Wei Guangzheng finished speaking, the meeting got down to business: sending out food and missions.
The newly appointed People's Commissar of Civil Affairs, Wu De, is cautious about this matter. After all, sending food and missions is a complicated and detailed task. The time traveler has neither the authority of the political power nor detailed information, but only the deterrence of force. According to their consistent experience, this kind of burden often falls on the people at the bottom of society. Now that they are unable to change the social structure, the only way is to control the distribution of food within an acceptable range to avoid excessive pressure.
Therefore, the grain and difference imposed on the people of Lingao by this crossing group were named "reasonable burdens."
The “reasonable burden” plan is to collect taxes on a village-by-village basis. Each village self-reports the amount it can afford.
The reason for adopting the form of self-reporting is that travelers do not have time to conduct a complete survey of the county's land and harvest conditions, and it is difficult to control the burden very accurately. Although it is not too difficult to obtain the Yulin register data of each village's taxes from the county government, this kind of register is actually not very accurate and is even full of errors. The reason why officials regard it as a treasure is because it is the only evidence for collecting grain taxes. The land concealment in the late Ming Dynasty was quite serious, and the Yulin register could not reflect the actual production level of each village at all. Using the data provided in this booklet will only increase the already unreasonable tax burden. .
Although there are also travelers who believe that allowing each village to report on its own will lead to a reduction in the number. However, Wu De pointed out that even if there is reduction and concealment, it is still better than using the Yulin Book. First, each village has a good idea of its actual output, and the reported figures will at least not exceed what it can afford; second, with the authority they now have and the legend of "mastering the power of ghosts and gods", each village The village's self-reported numbers will not be too low - they don't dare to fool the time travellers. If such a situation really happens, they can kill them as a warning to others. Third, Wu De believes that this approach reflects the spirit of equal consultation and is conducive to winning over the people.
Sure enough, as soon as this method was announced, every village breathed a sigh of relief. Originally, we were afraid that the Time Travel Group would make a big deal out of them, but now they just need to report their "pledge".
Everyone knows about this pledge. Whenever the government has something important to do, they will usually make "please" and "please lose" and the like. This is easier to talk about than the imperial grain and national tax, and if you spend some money to bribe the servants in charge, you can still bargain.
"Everyone should report the figures according to the actual situation of their own villages and act according to their ability." Wu De said cheerfully.
The venue was suddenly filled with people. The representatives of each village were only prepared to accept a number and go back. Now they reported themselves, and some people in the village felt that they could not make the decision - after all, once the number was reported, it became a law. . It is inappropriate to over-report or under-report.
As soon as Huang Hankun saw this opportunity, he deliberately said: "This is a major event in the village. It is not convenient for us to make the decision ourselves. We should go back and discuss it."
After hearing this, the people around felt that it was reasonable, and some people stood up and asked to go back and discuss with the elders in the village before coming back to report. Many people also agreed.
This is good, Huang Hankun thought to himself. With so many villages at different distances, it would take at least four or five days to go back and forth. In addition, it would definitely take a few days to argue with each other in the village. The next meeting would have to be at least half a month later. It's over.
Wu De was well prepared for this situation, so he asked each village to make statistics first. How many of them could decide on the spot as a "reasonable burden" and how many needed to be discussed later. Submit the list.
According to statistics, about 80 villages can be decided on the spot, and the other 200 or so villages can be discussed later.
"If we can decide on the spot, we will report the figures in a moment," Wu De announced. "If we want to go back to discuss, we will go back to discuss after the meeting is over. The figures will be reported to the office before February 15th."
As a result, Huang Hankun's original hope that the meeting would be dismissed was completely shattered. The meeting continues.
After deciding on the "reasonable burden", Wu De announced the contents of the mission.
The issue of assignment is far more difficult than "reasonable burden". Lingao is not short of land, but it is short of labor. Although immigrants from the mainland enter this county every year, the mortality rate is very high because of the problem of acclimatization. For a small family, labor force is the guarantee of the family's survival. For a large family, only with labor force can they obtain more wealth. Therefore, even if they have many long-term workers, slaves and tenants, they are not willing to send people to work. ! ~!
