Next, the implementation of the unified payment of food and errands by the officials and gentry in Guide Mansion went smoothly.
Although the officials and gentry were very resentful, due to the strict authority of the emperor, they did not dare to fight fiercely.
In the end, only a few students lost their heads, and then Hou Fangyu, the son of the Hou Mansion, became the dead soul of the Xichang Banner School because he was young and did not know the pros and cons.
In fact, for the officials and gentry to pay grain and work together, the officials and gentry only paid an extra share of corvee silver and preferential grain tax than before, so the loss was not big.
Because the land tax in the Ming Dynasty was not high, the lack of exemptions and exemptions for the officials and gentry with many acres of land would not affect their wealthy lives.
But this brought more benefits to the court than just more land tax income.
More importantly, as the number of nobles in the Ming Dynasty increased, there were more and more gentry, but the court no longer had to reduce the income from land tax due to the increase in the number of gentry and the preferential exemptions.
Because the number of acres of land in the Ming Dynasty was basically fixed, even if some people were reclaiming land, the rate of land reclamation was not the rate of population growth and the growth rate of the number of gentry.
Therefore, if the preferential exemptions continue to exist, then in the future there will be more and more gentry. In a certain amount of land, adding more gentry will undoubtedly lead to the court receiving a lot less land tax.
besides.
The officials and gentry all paid the grain and acted as errands, which also inhibited land annexation.
Because officials and gentry do not have the privilege of exempting or exempting land taxes, they are no longer willing to accept contributions from common people and landlords. After all, if common people and landlords contribute, they will still pay the land tax for the donated land, which is equivalent to just helping the court collect taxes. , officials and gentry are naturally unwilling.
Therefore, it would be impossible for the officials and gentry to annex the land without resorting to plundering and letting the common people and landowners actively donate their land.
However, it is difficult to dissolve the dependence relationship for those who have already contributed. Therefore, these officials and gentry now have to pay land taxes on their behalf because they accepted the contributions from some villagers.
In this way, it saves the government the trouble of collecting taxes.
After all, if it is really scattered into small households for the common people, it will be very troublesome to collect taxes. It will take a few more officials to do it.
Naturally, when the officials and gentry handed over the rent collected from the donated land to the court as land tax, and even had to pay some back, after all, the common people and landlords were willing to donate it, it must be because the land rent collected by the officials and gentry was lower than the court tax. They will also charge more land rent to make up for their losses.
The common people and landowners who originally donated their land to the families of officials and gentry and became tenants to avoid taxes and corvee were naturally unwilling to do so. As a result, conflicts with officials and gentry increased.
However, the laws of the Ming Dynasty protected landlords, not tenant farmers.
Not to mention that the officials and gentry who were landowners were powerful.
Therefore, the tenant farmers were naturally unable to resist the rent increase demands of the officials and gentry.
For a time, those officials, gentry, and those whose families were tenant farmers in the past who wanted to evade taxes and dedicated their fields to farmers now became the ones who suffered the greatest loss in profits.
"The reason why we donate is to keep more money and food. Why do you suddenly want to increase the land rent now? Why? Didn't you say that the Yuan family will be richer than ordinary households if they become tenant farmers? But now according to this rent, what does it mean to not donate? The difference is, if you don’t contribute, you can still let your children study and test for literary and musical stars.”
Zhong Junshan, a tenant of the Yuan family, protested against the management of the Yuan family.
Yuan Shu, the son of Yuan Keli, came over at this time: "If you don't accept the rent increase, then you can withdraw from the land. You can take your respective land deeds and go to the county government to reorganize your household! Now the court requires officials and gentry to pay the grain and serve as errands together. We are like this." There are no exemptions for the officials and gentry clan. Even if you donate your land to our Yuan Mansion, we still have to pay the same land tax for the donated land. Didn't the steward tell you?!"
"I have said that the rent increase was too sudden. Also, why did the court do this? Shouldn't they be polite to an official family like the Yuan Mansion? Why are they not exempt from it? What is this? The imperial court!”
Zhong Junshan started talking.
"Don't make irresponsible remarks about the imperial court! Now you have to either increase the rent or withdraw from the land. I'll give you two choices."
Yuan Shu taught Zhong Junshan a lesson and then said.
…
"The integrated payment of grain and errands by officials and gentry has been implemented smoothly in Guide Prefecture, and is now being implemented in other prefectures in Henan. The main problem at present is that officials and gentry increase rents for tenants, which has caused many disputes and voices of dissatisfaction with the court. There are more and more people, not only the gentry, but also tenant farmers. The common people and landlords have no complaints, mainly because they have nothing to do with them."
Fang Congzhe reported to Zhu Youxiao the specific situation of the unified payment of grain by officials and gentry.
"It still has something to do with it. After the official and gentry unified payment of grain and errands is successfully implemented, in the future, when agriculture progresses and output increases, and at the same time, in order to increase the enthusiasm of farmers, we can directly lighten the corvee and reduce the tax. After all, once the privileges of officials and gentry are abolished, no matter how easy it is, The small amount of corvee and taxes can benefit the common people and landlords."
Zhu Youxiao replied.
"Your Majesty said so."
Fang Congzhe replied, but his heart sank. He guessed that Emperor Zhu Youxiao still attached great importance to agriculture, and to promote agricultural development, land taxes had to be reduced or reduced. In this case, the main source of Ming's treasury revenue in the future would inevitably turn to business. Tax.
Although Fang Congzhe didn't care who was the main tax source, commercial tax or agricultural tax, the people under him were mainly officials from the merchant gentry class, so they naturally hoped that commercial tax would not be raised.
Zhu Youxiao indeed attached great importance to agriculture because he knew that agriculture was the basis of industry.
But because of this, agriculture had to be controlled by the imperial court, and mainly food had to be controlled by the imperial court.
From the previous clearing of farmland, expropriation and redemption of vassal land to nobles, and now the officials and gentry working together to pay grain and serve as errands, his purpose is to keep all the cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty in the hands of common people landowners, that is, in the hands of farmers. Only in this way can it be guaranteed that the court Through the collection of land taxes, the food was controlled by the court.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao ordered at this time: "After the implementation of the integrated payment of grain and errands between officials and gentry in Henan is completed, we will start in Beizhili."
"yes!"
Fang Congzhe replied.
Although the government and the gentry were of great benefit to the court, it also harmed the interests of the gentry and many tenant farmers.
Moreover, most of these gentry and tenants were actually relatives, friends and neighbors. After all, when the gentry had the privilege of tax exemption and exemption, those who could donate to a large household as tenants had to be relatives, friends and neighbors who were related to the gentry. Otherwise, other people would also No chance.
Therefore, it was easy for these gentry and the dedicated tenants to unite.
These tenants are generally called Xiangyong.
Next, because the policy of paying grain and serving errands to both officials and gentry was promoted in full swing in Henan, it soon spread to Beizhili.
Many gentry and rural warriors in Beizhili also got wind of it.
Naturally, these gentry did not dare to object openly, but many secretly encouraged Xiangyong to go to the government to demonstrate.
At this time, a large group of village warriors, no less than ten thousand people, came to the Wanping County Government Office, surrounded the County Government Office, and began to demonstrate and shout slogans.
However, the slogans shouted by these rural heroes are particularly surprising.
Because they actually asked the emperor to respect scholars.
"Be kind to Wenquxing gentlemen! Don't treat them like common people!"
"Stop promoting the idea that officials and gentry must pay taxes and pay taxes together. Scholars are literary stars in the sky. They come down to earth to assist the emperor and control the people. They are not like us who work hard and pay taxes!"
"If you don't treat Mr. Wenquxing kindly, God will punish you! You can't treat Mr. Wenquxing like this!"
Many village warriors throughout Wanping County's yamen shouted like this and began to fight for the injustice of the scholars.
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