Zhao Mengqi knew that although there were already a lot of enclosed fields in the Taihu Lake Basin at this time, there was actually still a lot of room for development compared with later generations.
Enclosing land will indeed affect the ecological environment, but if we look at the overall situation and carry out scientific and reasonable overall planning, we can still achieve benefits and avoid disadvantages to a large extent.
Human beings have never simply conformed to nature, but have been transforming and utilizing nature.
Moreover, from an objective fact perspective, it is impossible to prohibit land encirclement. Not only did the Song Dynasty fail to prohibit it, but even the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties continued to encroach on land.
The previous Song Dynasty court also tried many times to control the chaos surrounding the fields. However, the power of the local tyrants was too strong, and every time the officials who advocated this matter had to withdraw sadly.
However, as the successor of the empire, Zhao Mengqi, many political methods are ineffective against him, and he also has an army at hand. He has just annihilated the Liu family's rebels. With the immense prestige created by this incident, few people would dare to speak out against it.
Since he has encountered such a good opportunity, Zhao Mengqi has no reason not to make good use of it and make great efforts to comprehensively manage Taihu Lake. This will not only benefit the economy of the Song Dynasty at this time, but also provide him with an opportunity to reform the military issues. Moreover, at this time Removing the root cause of Taihu Lake flooding can also reduce countless troubles for future generations.
Now basically everything is ready, all I need is money and food.
"As for money and food, there is always a shortage of rich people in Jiangnan. My idea is to first take out 10,000 hectares of fertile land and pre-sell it to the rich guys. Wouldn't that give me 20 million?"
The output value of cultivated land in the Taihu Lake Basin, even in later generations, was more than twice the national average, so land prices were higher than elsewhere. At this time, paddy fields were about 20 to 30 acres per mu.
Selling the fields was originally part of Wu Qian's plan. He was not surprised. What surprised him was Zhao Mengqi's selling method, "Pre-sale!?"
People in this era pay attention to paying with one hand and delivering the goods with the other hand. Who would have thought that people in later generations would spend so much money on it, and the building could be sold for money while it was still on the drawings...
"Yes, let the buyers pay first, and then hand it over to them after the fields are released."
Wu Qian was shocked, "Is this possible?"
Zhao Mengqi said calmly, "Why not? Don't I, Zhao Mengqi, even have this kind of credibility? Land is a hot commodity, and a few years' delay in receiving it will not affect the wealthy people's enthusiasm for land."
After thinking about it carefully, Wu Qian felt that this was the truth, "Your Highness has a wonderful idea. You can try this strategy."
Zhao Mengqi continued, "We recruit Xiang troops to work and pay them wages as usual. If you want to buy land, you just need to put the money in the account. When the time comes, you will pay with the land, which saves a lot of cash. ".
This guy is also very good at using the methods of later generations of capitalists.
Of course, he didn't just sell the land to soldiers. He also had corresponding follow-up plans to have certain control over these lands to prevent them from being plundered by the powerful, and he also intended to conduct some improvement experiments on the agricultural production model.
This matter is not urgent right now, let’s talk about the current situation first, “Also, since the imperial court has issued many bans on enclosing fields, there must be many illegal fields that are not legal and are not even listed on the tax rolls. Then these landowners are either Pay up the land price and taxes, or these fields will be lost to the official. In addition, while the floods have submerged the fields, we can also comprehensively measure and organize the fields, re-establish the land deeds and tax records, and eliminate hidden fields."
Various taxes in the Song Dynasty were transformed into property taxes to varying degrees, and the two-tax law implemented in the agricultural tax was a symbol of property tax. Its principle was "only based on assets, not people."
Therefore, the imperial court did not care about how much land a household owned, but only whether the landowner paid taxes in full. This was the so-called "taxation of land for others."
Hidden land is land that has not been registered with the government as a way to evade taxes. Naturally, those who can do this are powerful bureaucrats.
In the Song Dynasty, the land controlled by the government in the tax register was only about half of the actual land. Therefore, in order to recover tax revenue, the border law was implemented many times since the southern crossing, which was to clarify the true status of land ownership for tax collection.
Pingjiang Prefecture was the first place to implement the Meridian Boundary Law, and the initial effect was indeed
The reality is obvious, but over the past hundred years, things have changed. Even if we passed through the border several times later, the tax registration is still inaccurate, and there are still many hidden fields. This is also one of the reasons for the shrinking tax revenue.
The Song Dynasty did not establish a land system and allowed free trade of land. No matter who the landowner was, the land owner paid the same taxes, so the ownership of the land changed very frequently. It is said that "a thousand years of land, eight hundred owners."
Moreover, it has also caused a phenomenon that the property rights of land are very fragmented. One acre of land may be divided among several different owners. The land owned by one person may not be together. There is one piece in the east and one piece in the west. , which also makes taxation very inconvenient.
Zhao Mengqi planned to merge every landowner's land into one place as much as possible, of course, mainly targeting the big landowners.
Even if it will become broken due to transactions in the future, it will still be relatively clear for at least a few decades.
After hearing this, Wu Qian was somewhat frightened by these cruel moves, and was extremely frightened, "Your Highness, if this is the case, there will be more chaos!"
Merging the land may not have much impact on the landowners, but checking the hidden land and asking them to pay for the land that belongs to them is a blow to them.
If you touch the cheese of the wealthy people, they will definitely not sit still and wait for death.
"Then let's see if it's their heads that are strong or Gu's knife that's strong!" Zhao Mengqi didn't care.
In his heart, he was kind enough not to divide the land among local tyrants.
Wu Qian frowned, "Your Highness, if this is really the case, I'm afraid you will be infamy throughout the ages."
"Haha, *** can make these people pay taxes honestly, but the orthodox Han Dynasty court can't?"
What Zhao Mengqi was talking about was that after the fall of the Song Dynasty, especially at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the same people in Jiangnan were unwilling to pay taxes to the Ming Dynasty. After the Manchu and Qing Dynasties took over, they became more obedient and even took the initiative to provide money. That "one emperor through the ages" was so deaf that he went to the south of the Yangtze River to live in debauchery.
"Now that His Highness has made up his mind, I will sacrifice my life to accompany you and give good treatment to these rich men!"
Wu Qianqian had a premonition that if he supported and helped King Yan implement these policies, he would probably be scolded as an accomplice of the cowardly tyrant, and the end would probably be miserable, but he still decided to side with King Yan.
Then he thought of a practical problem, "Your Highness, if we want to implement this strategy, I am afraid that the local officials are not trustworthy. When the time comes, they will do whatever they want..."
Yes, no matter how good the policy is, if no one implements it, or if it is not implemented properly, it can only become a joke.
Local officials are closely related to powerful people, so dispatching officials to other places may not be effective, and it seems difficult to operate.
Zhao Mengqi pondered for a while, "There are many literate people in Dongwei, and there are many clans. Then we will transfer the imperial students here. The two will cooperate and supervise each other. It should be feasible."
