When he got up in the morning, Ye Xing had breakfast at the inn, and then left the city through the west gate. Outside the city gate was a large area of houses inhabited by civilians, most of which were simple wooden houses.
Outside the west gate is the Beijiang alluvial plain, which is very vast and crisscrossed by waterways. In fact, Donghai City is located in this place with a dense water network, but the city is located on a relatively high ground.
Further west on the map, more than a hundred miles away, is the Xijiang River, the largest river in Donghai County and one of the largest rivers in the Song Dynasty.
It originates from the mountains in the southwest of the Song Dynasty, flows through ten counties, and flows thousands of miles into the sea in the southeast.
People from other counties in the Song Dynasty basically came to Donghai City through this waterway. Although the waterway is far away, it is actually the most convenient.
The total population of Donghai County should not be large. Ye Xing estimates that it is in the millions. More than two-thirds of it is concentrated in this plain. The rest of the population is basically mountainous, and the population is extremely scattered and sparse.
Ye Xing walked for a day and found nothing new outside the city, even farmers and fishermen, and the house construction was extremely simple.
Because it is a trading city, farmers outside the city generally do not grow food. They grow vegetables, fruits and herbs, as well as some cotton and linen. All the food is transported from Xijiang from other towns.
They also raise some poultry and livestock to supply the people in the city.
If there is anything to say, this is a truly treasured place. It is much easier to grow and cultivate basic things than in Yunhai Village. It seems that anything you plug in can grow.
Ye Xing also noticed that there were many manors outside the city. In a large area, not far from the west gate alone, there were thousands of large and small manors. They were all bought by wealthy people in the city and hired some civilians to work.
The manor is separated from each other by rows of trees. There are no obvious fences, which may not be necessary. There are also small pieces of land that are owned by farmers, all in small pieces.
Ye Xing returned to the city again, walking and getting to know each other street by street, chatting with all kinds of people and businessmen from all over the place.
He wanted to visit every corner of Donghai City as soon as possible. No matter what, he didn't have the ability to conquer the world yet, so he might as well see more and walk more.
Anyway, you can reach the core central area of the Song Dynasty by boat here. He doesn't want to walk around like a vagabond, but he doesn't want to be a commoner trapped in one place.
Of course, he is not content with being ordinary, but he also doesn't want to become a famous figure, nor can he live so badly that he becomes a helpless refugee.
Of course, Ye Xing can never be worse than this. As long as he works hard, no matter how bad he is, he will not become a beggar.
After 10 days of in-depth understanding, Ye Xing basically understood the basic situation of Song State. It was not as simple as it seemed on the surface.
The composition of the Song Dynasty was a four-level management system, which was the centralized center, followed by more than thirty counties. Below the counties were towns, and below that were villages.
The central government is in charge of major affairs such as military and diplomacy, which is a real concentration of power.
But the real core of governance is in the county. The county has great autonomy. The county is essentially a small independent kingdom, with everything except military and diplomacy.
There is a permanent management agency in the town, a town mayor, and officials stationed there, who are responsible for taxation and local administrative justice. Some important towns have garrison troops.
There is no management organization in the villages under the town. For clans, tribes, etc. in the countryside, at the village level, the township regulations and village covenants are actually the real system, and they just maintain local order.
In fact, at the lowest level in the countryside, rural rules and customs are decisive, and all official laws cannot be fully implemented. Basically, the village head has the final say, and he is also the person with the most power in the village.
The central government is responsible for all military affairs, diplomacy, law-making, etc., and all local affairs are handled by the princess's mansion. The princess has money and people, and a city guard. The princess herself is the king of the country or selected by major forces.
There is also a supervisory agency in the county and the extremely powerful Department of Internal Affairs, which comprehensively supervises the situation in various places and reports directly to the king.
This system may seem superficial, but it is effective. Coupled with the generations of education loyal to the Song family, the Song Dynasty has been stable for more than three thousand years.
Maybe the people need this kind of stability, and are happy with it. It is this stability that makes Song State a prosperous and wealthy country despite its small territory and large population. At least it is not full of refugees.
Coupled with the extremely strict laws, no one in the Song Dynasty dared to openly rebel. Although there were nine major forces, there was no major turmoil because there was no support from the people at all.
The taxation system of the Song Dynasty was very simple. All tithes were implemented, and taxes were paid according to one-tenth of the things produced, and all taxes were paid in silver taels.
How do farmers, hunters, and fishermen determine the amount of production? It is determined by the town's tax administrator, the treasurer, on a family basis.
Assessments are made once every three years, and taxes are paid with the same assessment amount in three years. Regardless of whether you have a bumper harvest or a poor harvest, you go to the town warehouse to pay taxes by yourself once a year.
In the past, Ye Xing's father was a teacher and did not cultivate farmland, so he did not have to pay taxes even after the assessment. Later, after Ye Xing's mother became normal, she only grew some vegetables for her own consumption and did not pay taxes.
Until a few years ago, when Ye Xing went to the mountains to hunt and collect herbs, he only paid street stall fees when he went to town to sell mountain products. His main job was to be a teacher in the village, which was exempt from tax.
As for merchants, they are also taxed at one-tenth of their annual sales. Merchants are registered with the state. They are also assessed by the treasurer every three years and pay taxes every year.
Each town has treasury officials, who are dispatched by the county guard. They are not affected by the local mayor or local government and are not allowed to serve in their hometown.
What's more important is that they are on a rotational basis, and they must change their post after three years, and their salary is paid directly by the city guard.
Treasury officials do not dare to mess around when assessing the taxes of each household, because what is made public and recorded in the town is of course unlikely to be completely fair.
In normal times, treasurers collect street stall fees on the day of the fair, which is the source of their daily funds.
The treasury officials handed over the collected taxes to the county governor, who then paid salaries to officials at all levels. Because the salaries were much higher than those of civilians, being an official was what people in the Song Dynasty were most passionate about.
However, due to the autonomous status of each county in the Song Dynasty, in addition to the army, the king of the country could not appoint a town chief.
The king of the country also has an agency, and the treasury is responsible for taxation. The treasury officials assess the tax revenue of each county, and half of it is given to the treasury.
Land is privately owned, but taxes must be paid every year. Two percent of the land price is tax, which means that the land price will double in fifty years.
If the land output is not traded, no tax will be paid. If the transaction is carried out, a transaction tax of 10% of the transaction amount will be paid. If the land does not pay taxes for three consecutive years, the land will be taken back to the state.
Many unowned lands belonged to the lord of the country. Anyone who owned land could purchase it from the treasury of each county in one go.
For paid transfer of land use rights between private parties, the transaction tax, which is 10% of the transaction amount, is paid to the town treasurer, and then the name change is registered in the town and a property rights certificate is issued.
This simple system made the Song Dynasty simple to manage, but it was actually quite wealthy, because as long as there were people, there would never be an exhaustion of tax revenue.
Although the leader of the country belongs to the Song family, the Song family stipulates that people should be selected based on merit. In addition, the Song family clan behind the Song Dynasty is an extremely powerful sect. Ability to be authoritarian.
Moreover, we need to coordinate with the major forces in the country. In fact, the major forces do not want the Song Dynasty to be chaotic. After all, it will affect the interests of the sect, so the Song Dynasty has long-term stability.
As for the other sects who did not rebel, it was because there was an unknown force behind the Song Dynasty that could deal them devastating blows anytime and anywhere.
It is said that the Song family is the secular representative of this force.
In fact, each sect is a powerful place. In fact, each city lord is selected by the sect and then appointed by the king.
In other words, the Song Dynasty was essentially governed by all major forces, and although the interests were not equally divided, they were shared.
People in the Song Dynasty were proud of business, so business was developed and wealthy, and people practiced martial arts. However, more people were proud of literature and business.
The Song Dynasty was weak in front of the powerful neighboring empires, and it was rich and powerful compared to the small neighboring countries, but no one started disputes lightly.
Although there are hidden forces behind each big country, to those powerful forces, everything in the world is just a game.
According to Ye Xing's understanding, the Song Dynasty should be a centralized country with four levels of management, simple but effective management. In fact, it was also a mixture of complicated forces.
The Song State was actually just a maintenance organization for interest groups. The country has always been like this!
All this is roughly the same as the history of China that Ye Xing knows, but the details are very different.
