Jingzhao Mansion, other homes of princes and dignitaries, and some temples and Taoist temples also provided some porridge and winter clothes for charity. But the porridge was not only so thin that even human figures could be seen, but the quantity was simply not enough. Some mansions even stipulate that when giving out porridge, each person can only receive one bowl. As for winter clothes, there are very few.
Although he had already been mentally prepared, the words of the women made Huang Qiong frown and never let go. His left hand was clenched into a fist and then opened again. Even though he had been mentally prepared for it, Huang Qiong still couldn't remain indifferent to this matter.
Looking at Huang Qiong, who was frowning, He Yao said softly: "Master, should we come up with some more money and supplies? Although today we have collected more than 4,000 yuan of grain and rice, and some winter clothes. . But there are too many refugees around Jingzhao Mansion, and the large amount of money and food is still a drop in the bucket. This winter is extremely cold. If we don’t provide relief, some people may not be able to survive."
It was just He Yao's kindness, but Huang Qiong shook her head slightly. After a long silence, he said: "That's all. No more is too much. I don't feel sorry for the money and food. The money and food spent on the refugees are taken from the people and used for the people. But if there are more, I'm afraid some people will not I'm so happy that I even did some tricks secretly. I'm afraid the old man's place will be full of impeachment tips again."
"There are some things you still don't understand. This kind of thing is a good deed, but it is also something that attracts attention. In the eyes of many people, I am already a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh. This time I took out four thousand strings of money and food. In some of my own People who refuse to do good deeds and are not happy when others do them may already be competing for the hearts and minds of the people, or simply seeking credit in front of the father."
At this point, He Yao looked a little at a loss after hearing what he said, and even thought that he had caused trouble for Huang Qiong, and his face was a little pale. Huang Qiong gently held her little hand and said, "Sister Yao, I'm really happy that you have kind thoughts. But you are still a little too immature about this matter in court."
"In fact, even if my father knows that we are giving up these grains and winter clothes, as long as we don't deliberately act pretentious, even if my father knows, he will only praise him and never say anything. But this prince in the capital is not me alone. We I took out so much food and winter clothes at once, what do you want other princes to think, and what do you want other princes and dignitaries to do?"
"And more people will think that I am taking this opportunity to win over the people and seek some personal gains for myself. Besides, all we can do now is to help them for a while, and nothing more can be done. Wan Jia Sheng Buddha Things like this are not suitable for the children of the Tian family. However, don’t worry too much. Whose woman you are now is not a secret in the capital."
"We have spent so much money and food this time. Some people will not be too stingy when they see the British Palace doing this. Look, at least King Yong will also give some money and food. There are also I'm afraid some concerned officials will also be unable to sit still. In addition, some important figures currently stranded in the capital will also spend a sum of money and food to help the victims."
Huang Qiong did not say it clearly because he had no choice. Now he told the girls what the old man said to him in Wende Hall a few days ago. Therefore, He Yao, Lin Wanqing, Zhu Xing'er and the others, who had never had any experience in political struggle, were naturally confused by what he said, but Duan Jin and Lin Hanyan understood it clearly.
One of the two daughters has been married to King Jing for many years, although they have always been a couple in name. But after all these years of being with King Jing, Lin Hanyan already knew what he should know. This kind of Machiavellian tactics is not unfamiliar to Lin Hanyan at least. What's more, the almost semi-closed life in the past few years has given her an understanding of the cruelty of this aspect.
He was born into the royal family of Dali, and this world has always been a place where the more powerful people are concentrated, the more intense the struggles in certain aspects. Duan Jin, who was also born into a royal family, naturally saw those things very clearly. There is nothing that should or should not be done in the fight for the throne. In the eyes of many people, whether you do something sincerely or not, it is a way to gain status.
After Huang Qiong said this, Duan Jin and Lin Hanyan both glanced at Huang Qiong. However, when the two women looked at Huang Qiong, Duan Jin was a little surprised, but Lin Hanyan looked normal. As for Duan Jin's surprised eyes, he was more surprised that Huang Qiong had reached this point. It's not because of Huang Qiong's words that he was surprised.
Huang Qiong just smiled faintly at the way the two women looked at him, without any explanation. After patting He Yao's little hand, who was still a little unwilling, to express comfort, Huang Qiong stood up and left the room, returning to his study. But after returning to the study, Huang Qiong's brows furrowed again when he thought of the rewards given by He Yao and his daughters.
He did not deceive He Yao in that matter, and he told the truth. This time, the British Prince's Palace spent so much money and materials to help the victims of the snowstorm in the capital. Some people will certainly feel uncomfortable, thinking that he is trying to win over people's hearts. But some people with active minds may also spend money and materials to make mistakes in order to please themselves.
The capabilities of my own government are limited. If others take action, the victims of this snow disaster may have a much easier time. But the problem is that this can only solve the temporary dilemma, but it is not a permanent solution to the problem. In fact, the most fundamental thing now is to allow these refugees who have poured into the capital to return to their hometowns to live and work in peace and contentment. Food is the most important thing for the people. As long as the tillers have their own land, who will become a refugee?
The root cause of allowing these refugees to return home lies in the increasingly serious land annexation. If this problem is not solved, no matter how many methods are used, they will only treat the symptoms rather than the root cause. But this problem is precisely the most difficult to solve. China has thousands of years of history, except for the era of compulsory state ownership of land.
Almost no dynasty can properly solve the problem of land annexation. Even in more than one dynasty, violent land annexation has caused huge conflicts in which the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. Natural and man-made disasters will trigger violent turmoil. Even if you encounter someone like Zhang Jiao, who instigates them in the name of preaching, war will immediately spread all over the place.
Not only was the dynasty he was familiar with in his previous life eventually overthrown by a peasant uprising. It was during this era that my ancestor finally gained a yellow robe and conquered the Qi Dynasty through the peasant uprising, didn't he? If there had not been the peasant uprising in the late Tang Dynasty, my ancestor might still be living a life of selling private salt, a life of adding blood to the knife edge.
The biggest problem now is that in addition to the seizure of land by clans and officials, there are also many people who voluntarily bring their land to serve. Under the so-called ancestral family law that limited business by the imperial court, in addition to salt taxes, agricultural taxes were basically the main tax collection. But it happened that the clans and officials who occupied the most land were exempted from the tax, and even the distinguished gentry and scholars were exempted from the tax.
For those lands that have not been annexed, the burden on the people is getting heavier and heavier. There is no way, officials want political achievements, and the court wants tax revenue. Clan members, officials, and even scholars are exempt from taxes. The money and food can only be harvested by people who have not invested the land. The imperial court specially conducted examinations to assess officials based on the tax collection and treasury situation in various places.
Even for those state and county officials, the annual assessment of tax receipts must be based on whether they are honest and honest, and may even directly determine their subsequent career. If you work in a prefecture or county and owe too much money and food, then don't expect to be promoted. Whether you can keep your current official title is another matter.
You have traveled thousands of miles to seek official positions just for money. How can you do this if you don’t let people get promoted or even become officials? Therefore, in order to assess their political performance, state and county officials are using more and more methods. It's like the money and grain that was originally supposed to be collected from a hundred acres of land was eventually spread to dozens of acres, or even only a dozen acres of land to bear. As for more land, it was exempted due to various reasons.
However, the money and grain collected by each state and county in the Qi Dynasty were collected based on all the fields in each state and county. No one cared whether those fields were exempted from taxes. This resulted in those who had no fame and no way to be exempted from taxes. Ordinary people who are already very poor have an increasingly heavy burden.
Once the capitation tax is added, the money and food borne will exceed the rent of being a tenant to a large family. Many people would rather give their land to large families who can be exempted from paying taxes and become tenants for them. In this way, the annual burden will be smaller. Even if you have to pay the poll tax, it is much easier than paying money and food to the court.
He even simply lost his land and went out to become a refugee, so that he could even be exempted from the capitation tax. If you can't even find anyone, where can you collect the capitation tax? Not to mention other places, Zhengzhou is the largest source of refugees in Jingzhao Prefecture. Huang Qiong, who had just resigned as Zhengzhou's envoy, knew clearly that the minimum population tax in the states and counties under his jurisdiction was more than 10,000 yuan in arrears.
When people go out to become refugees, the impact is not just on the capitation tax. The decrease in the number of people in prefectures and counties means that the number of people eating salt is also decreasing. The salt tax, another main source of annual income for the imperial court, is also decreasing. What is even more dangerous is that once the refugees occupy Xiaoshan Forest because they cannot find a way out, the consequences may be even greater.
This has become a vicious cycle, with less and less land available for expropriating money and grain. A large number of people who lost their land went out to become refugees, which brought more negative impacts. In order to complete their performance evaluation, the state and county officials below had no choice but to collect money and food from the poorest group of people desperately.
The imbalance of taxation not only further aggravates land annexation, making the poor poorer and the rich richer. Moreover, with the limited amount of land in the world, land annexation has become more and more intense. No matter how hard the officials below work, they are afraid of losing their official reputation. However, without the ability to control land annexation, there is also less and less land available for expropriation of money and grain.
The less land available for taxation, which means that the court, which mainly relies on agricultural taxes, has less and less input. With the annual revenue of the imperial court reduced, there was no way to raise troops, pay salaries to officials, let alone provide relief to the victims. Even now, with a drought that does not cover a large area, the imperial court cannot even come up with money for disaster relief.
Even when there was a snow disaster in the capital, there was not much food available for relief. It's just that the imperial court's income is decreasing day by day, but it still focuses tax collection on agricultural taxes. On the contrary, for those merchants whose business is prosperous, almost no one collects taxes except for some so-called routine levies at checkpoints along the way when goods are transported.
No matter how big the business is, there is almost no tax to pay except for the routine checkpoints along the way. Although those routines are not low, compared with the income of the business, Huang Qiong estimates that they are not proportional at all. What's more, those merchants are still using any means to evade this limited business tax, which is not high.
