Zhenjiang Prefecture, Dantu Town.
When the end of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen was approaching, this commercial town located at the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River actually ushered in prosperity that had not been seen in many years.
This year was undoubtedly disastrous for the Ming Dynasty and China as a whole. Beijing fell and Donglu took over. The great Ming Dynasty has reached a situation where the Southern Han Dynasty and the Northern Han Dynasty are confronting each other. It seems that the relatively peaceful situation in the Eastern Jin and Southern Song Dynasties is the best future for the Ming Dynasty.
Who among all knowledgeable people does not know the principle of partial peace and unrest? Since ancient times, the dynasties that had settled in Jiangzuo were all bulldozed by the Central Plains dynasties? The "exception" of Taizu of this dynasty actually arose in the southeast, rather than being located in the southeast. The nature is completely different!
Is it possible that after tens or even hundreds of years, the Chinese Divine Continent will usher in another heavenly collapse?
However, the future Tianqing will have little impact on the common people living in the present. They only care about the food, rice, oil and salt in front of them, and survive in this troubled world.
For the ordinary people of Zhenjiang Prefecture, who were directly under the direct rule of the Ming Dynasty who moved south, the edict "to waive accumulated arrears, cancel three pays, and exempt land taxes for five years" gave them a way to finally breathe a sigh of relief. hope.
To be honest, the Ming Dynasty's Zhengfu Tianfu is not heavy at all. However, the prerequisite for "not being heavy" is to spread the land tax on all farmland and everyone should bear it together. Before the chaos, the Ming Dynasty had more than 700 million acres of farmland on its books, and the real number must have exceeded one billion acres!
With one billion acres of land, the burden is 26 million stones, rice and flour. Each mu is only two liters of rice flour, which is only three and a half kilograms... The tax rate is so low that it is insignificant.
However, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, most of the land belonged to the gentry and bureaucrats, or was in the name of the gentry and bureaucrats, and no taxes were required. But no matter how much the imperial court cuts costs, it will still have an income of 10 to 20 million a year!
Therefore, local governments could not completely avoid collecting taxes, but they could not collect taxes from the gentry. Therefore, taxes can only be collected from the few small farmers who still own land and the tenant farmers who actually have no land but still own land in name!
In addition, there is a cost to collecting taxes! You have to let the corrupt officials collect it, they have to take advantage of it... The court gets one tael, so why should the people below have to get two taels, right?
Therefore, a land tax of 10 to 20 million yuan and additional stipends (that's all that is actually available) turns into 50 to 60 million yuan at the grassroots level!
Moreover, starting from the reform of Zhang Juzheng in the Ming Dynasty, the proportion of "collecting silver" was increased. Here in Jiangnan, except for the rice harvest, everything else was collected at the expense of silver. And this process gave the gentry in the monopoly villages the opportunity to make profits from business - if the Ming Dynasty could have a normal business environment, it would be fine. The price of rice here in Jiangnan is high and there is plenty of silver. Recruiting silver through discounts should be a policy that benefits the people.
But the problem is that starting from the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the tax-free privileges of the gentry were extended to commercial activities. Not only are they exempt from paying land taxes, but they can also make huge profits by evading business taxes.
In this case, rural commercial activities were easily monopolized by the gentry - without their consent, foreign businessmen could not go to the countryside at all without their permission. Monopoly is definitely not good. Therefore, the burden on farmers’ shoulders has increased again!
In Jiangnan, which has always been "heavy taxed", the nominal land tax is only a little more than three bushels per mu. After several increases, when it falls on the shoulders of ordinary small farmers, it has already exceeded one stone!
For those poor peasants who actually no longer have land but still bear the burden of land, the pressure of taxes is even greater. It is precisely because of this that Li Zicheng’s slogan of “no conscription for three years” was so inflammatory.
Zhu Cixi also knew this, so in early December of the 17th year of Chongzhen, he issued an edict to the areas directly under the jurisdiction of the imperial court such as Nanzhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang, declaring "no conquests for five years", which was better than Li Zicheng's "no conquests for three years". "Tax" will be extended for two years, and at the same time, the accumulated arrears of the past years will be waived, and all additional taxes and levies will be cancelled.
As soon as the decree came out, all the people cheered!
His Royal Highness the Prince of Fujun really loves the people like a son, it must be that Emperor Taizu Gao is still alive!
Because the tax burden has been greatly reduced, the farmers around Dantu Town have also gained a little purchasing power. As the new year is approaching, they can go to Dantu Town to visit and buy things that they would never dare to think about on weekdays. A few New Year's goods, some clothes, and a few free theaters. The free theater was, of course, not a Lunar New Year drama, but an anti-Qing drama sponsored by the Propaganda Department of the Generalissimo's Mansion.
In a dilapidated theater in Dantu Town, "The Prince of Dagukou Shows His Power" is being performed at this time. On the stage, a "Prince Xiaosheng" with a golden helmet is holding a Qinglong Yanyue Sword and a painting. With painted faces, the two sledgehammers hit you and me. It was so lively, and they were accompanied by the sound of gongs and drums!
It was lively on stage and lively off stage. At the place closest to the stage, sitting at a square table, was a tall and graceful girl in green clothes. This girl was about fifteen or sixteen years old, with picturesque features and a delicate appearance, and she looked like a Jiangnan Yue girl. Judging from the way she was dressed, she looked like a lady. Everything she wore from head to toe was of high quality. She didn't know who the eldest lady was when she went out for a walk. But there were three or five dark, burly men standing around with their arms folded. They all had stern faces, with blazing guns stuck in their belts and swords hanging from their belts! The villagers who came to watch the opera were so frightened that they stayed away.
Next to the girl, there was a child dressed as a Confucian scholar. He was in his early ten years. He was obviously an innocent age, but he looked like a little adult, shaking his little head with a look of disdain.
The girl was happy to see it, clapped her hands hard, and shouted with a voice like a silver bell: "The Crown Prince is so majestic! The Crown Prince is the most powerful..."
But the young man shook his head and said: "How can you use Guandao? You should use a fire gun!"
"Xiaohua! What do you know, a little kid?" The girl glanced at the boy, "The prince's martial arts skills are world-class, even more powerful than Second Master Guan. Of course he uses the Guan Dao..." She pointed to the stage, "Did you see that the general has been defeated?"
"Hmph, it's all fake." The young man named Xiaohua snorted, "When you become the crown prince's concubine, you can just ask him yourself."
The girl's face turned red with embarrassment, she lowered her head and muttered: "Who said I wanted to be his concubine..."
The young man nodded and said: "Sister Cha, it's true! When we were on the boat the day before yesterday, my father and your father were still talking about this... They brought you to Beijing this time just to get you." If he is sent to the palace, he will definitely sleep with the prince!"
"Stop talking, stop talking..." The girl suddenly found that there were a lot of people around her, saying how embarrassing it was.
But daddy really wants to marry himself... and sleep with the wise and mighty prince? No, I have to ask.
Thinking of this, the young man stood up suddenly and said to the young man: "Xiaohua, let's go!"
"Leave?" The young man was stunned, "The play isn't over yet!"
"Stop looking, go to the official ship." The girl bit her red lips, "Go and ask!"
The young man waved his hand and said, "Hey, what do you have to ask? I can't go wrong with this... When did I, Chen Yonghua, miss what I said?"
This young man is actually Chen Yonghua! It’s the leader Chen Jinnan who “calls him a hero in vain if he doesn’t know Chen Jinnan in his life”!
Oh, he is not the chief helmsman yet, he is just the son of Zheng Zhilong’s aide Chen Ding. He is only 11 years old this year.
The girl who was with him was Zheng Sen's half-sister Zheng Chagu, and she was also the chosen servant that Zhu Cihong was going to take in.
While the two children were watching the play, Zheng Zhilong, the richest man in the Ming Dynasty, a tall and powerful man in his forties, dressed as a military attache, was on a large and luxurious official ship, holding a gift he had just received. He was reading a letter with a frown on his face.
His close aide, Chen Ding, who was short in stature and slightly overweight, spread out a map and wrote on it with a brush.
After a while, Chen Ding put down the brush in his hand and said to Zheng Zhilong with a smile: "General Rong, it seems that the Tatars will not go south for the time being... Half of Qiantose's country has been stabilized!"
