After a long time, Pan You's face calmed down, and he looked at the triumphant Dang Jin, holding the saddle to dismount the horse. He took a few steps forward, held his whip and bowed to Dang Jin: "Dang Hou understands the righteousness, I admire him, if he can I am deeply grateful to you for your active cooperation with the government. Not only did you come on horseback, but you even arrived on foot to show respect, which is also what you should do." Zhao said.
The change in Pan You's face made Dang Jin very comfortable, but he was also surprised to see him quickly adjust his mentality and behave like this. After looking at him carefully again, Dang Jin sighed mockingly: "I've made a mistake! Pan Shijun is indeed a person, and he has such a high regard!"
Pan You smiled faintly, turned sideways, and said to the accompanying officials: "The Marquis Dang has already spoken, so you can clear the land soon. Be sure to measure it clearly, so as not to disappoint the Marquis Dang!"
With that said, he ordered to the magistrate of Yangzhai: "Call all the people available to your county government. I am here in Yangzhai, waiting for the results!"
"yes!"
Silently watching Pan You give orders, Dang Jin's old eyes were full of silence. When he turned around, he waved his hand behind him. Soon, another wave of people walked out of the village and stood behind Dang Jin in an orderly manner. There was a crowd of about seventy or eighty people.
In Pan You's surprised look, Dang Jin calmly ordered: "The government wants to clear the land, so you can cooperate easily and find out the amount of your land, neither less nor more. From now on, you will pay taxes according to the New tax regulations are coming..."
"Yes!" A group of people responded, their voices uniform and loud, as if they were listening to military orders. imperial edict
Following Dang Jin's instructions, Pan You immediately realized what his plan was. The Dang family had already planned this.
There are thousands of policies, and there are thousands of ways to deal with them. The big man never lacks smart people. As the tax reform policy was finalized and gradually implemented, vested interests realized that the situation was irreversible and decisively adopted some roundabout measures to reduce losses.
Hiding land is a common practice, but it is not clever. After all, if you really want to check it, you can't hide it. As a result, many people began to think of ways to deal with the new tax system, trying to find loopholes in the established rules and use them to stop losses.
Under the new tax system, there is an obvious loophole to exploit. Under the rule of dividing tax based on the amount of land, the more land you own, the heavier the local tax you need to pay. In this way, reducing the amount of registered land is a good tax avoidance method. It is within the rules and is highly feasible.
Therefore, in the past few months, the landowners in Gyeonggi, Henan, Jiangnan, and Yulin, the four provinces that have implemented tax reform in advance, have been doing the same thing. In the process of the government clearing land, they have made urgent operations. While retaining a certain amount of land, the excess land was distributed to tribesmen, followers and tenants. Moreover, each household's farmland is controlled to the extreme limit under the tax sharing standards of 60 acres, 100 acres, 150 acres, and 200 acres.
This is almost an aboveboard and reasonable way to avoid taxes. It is conceivable that although the land has been divided, the actual control over it is obviously still in the hands of the powerful, landlords and powerful people. They are not afraid of losing it at all. After all, as powerful people, the most basic thing is The quality lies in local influence and control.
The imperial court was naturally aware of this, but had no intention of stopping it. After Pan You inspected the situation, he was very dissatisfied. He felt that if the landlords did this, the court would lose a lot of tax revenue. Therefore, a decisive order was issued to prohibit the "donation and transfer" of land in Gyeonggi Province. imperial edict
This order naturally aroused dissatisfaction among the vast landowning class, and the turmoil was uploaded to the court. After some discussion, it was decided to acquiesce in the matter.
The reason is also very simple. This approach is not illegal and does not deviate from the new system. In the words of some famous county officials, they did not steal or rob, and they cooperated with the imperial government. The land belongs to them, and they are free to deal with it how they want. Pan You is too overbearing if you don't allow it.
Since the imperial court formulated the rules of graded taxation, it gave others room to operate in this way. For tax purposes, the imperial court could certainly issue bans, but on the one hand, it was difficult to verify land ownership. Zhao Pu always adhered to one principle: the simpler the policy, the better. The easier it is to understand and execute, the better. On the other hand, it cannot convince the public.
Of course, whether to convince the public or not
It is also secondary. The key point is that the purpose of the imperial court's implementation of the new system is to change the nature of taxation and the basis for tax calculation, to remove the tax from people to land, and to reduce the burden on farmers to a certain extent.
As for the ownership of the land, it is not the point. After all, no matter where it belongs, the land is there, and the tax system standards are also very clear. How much land is there, how much tax is paid.
The large landowners' practice of transferring ownership to avoid taxes will certainly cause certain losses to the court's tax revenue, but it is a reasonable tax avoidance and falls under the rules. The rules are set by the imperial court and must be maintained unless the imperial court changes the current rules and completely prohibits the sale and circulation of land. However, this is obviously unrealistic and more difficult than tax reform.
In this context, it is foreseeable that in the future, a large number of land operators in the Han Dynasty will need to pay a certain amount of "share money" to the old landlords in addition to paying regular taxes to the court. imperial edict
As for how much to pay, it depends on their private agreement. If this situation continues to develop in the long term, local personal dependence on land will become more serious.
For farmers who own a small amount of land, the new tax system is friendly. Compared with the two-tax system, the taxes they need to pay every year have actually dropped, and the burden has been greatly reduced.
But for those small farmers with the nature of "tenants", this is not necessarily the case. The official tax of the court is based on the amount of land, and the private tax of the landlords depends on the landlord's "conscience", but the conscience of the feudal landlords , and how to withstand such a test.
For these farmers, if they encounter overly greedy owners and double taxation, the burden can be imagined, and new land conflicts will arise.
Although the current land situation in Dahan is far from that point, Dahan is still mainly home-owner farmers. However, the development of some things has its own laws, and some trends are even irreversible. Farmers went bankrupt, lost people and land, and land annexation continued.
Changes came and went, but in the end they were just improvements. The fundamental issue of feudal land ownership had not changed, so the future of the Han Empire was foreseeable.
Perhaps it was because of seeing this that after Emperor Liu learned of this situation, he once asked the Zhengshitang to issue an order that the ownership of the registered land must be clear, and the court should protect its ownership. imperial edict
Emperor Liu's intention was very simple. Since he wanted to avoid taxes by dividing the land, the land belonged to the owner once it was divided. At least legally, the land no longer belonged to the original owner. If there is a dispute over land ownership in the future, the government should also judge according to the records.
However, this was rejected by Zhao Pu, and the two had a rare dispute over this. Zhao Pu's idea was very realistic. If Emperor Liu wanted to issue such an order, it would be a blow to the bottom of the pot. It would cut off the roots of the landlords in the world. It would inevitably lead to group dissatisfaction and even resistance, which would have a serious impact on the tax reform that was already on track. , causing unnecessary trouble, which is detrimental to the overall situation.
Emperor Liu insisted that in addition to the official taxes of the imperial court, the landowners could also collect private taxes. This was not in line with the imperial system. If things continued like this, the country would inevitably be ruined. Zhao Pu also agreed with Emperor Liu's views, but was still unwilling to let him issue orders.
After arguing for a long time, it finally ended with Emperor Liu's compromise, because of four words: the overall situation is the most important thing. The tax reform was implemented in accordance with Emperor Liu's will, and the new system was approved by Emperor Liu. After it has been implemented to this point, some new problems and drawbacks have emerged, which must be endured by the reform.
It was this kind of compromise that made Emperor Liu realize that he was like blocking a flood, trying his best, but the tide was still coming, unstoppable. If he could hold on while he was alive, what would happen after him?
After I die, I won't care about the flood. Emperor Liu had a new understanding of this sentence. He wanted to take care of it, but he really couldn't. It wasn't enough. The older a person gets, the more powerless he feels.
Perhaps because he felt that he had offended Emperor Liu, Zhao Pu later privately suggested to Emperor Liu that necessary compromises for reform were acceptable. If your Majesty is so determined, you can wait until the tax reform is completed before making further calculations. In the future, you can expand the role of the land register. imperial edict
Emperor Liu reluctantly accepted this, but said without interest, "How much time do I have?"
Emperor Liu had long realized that this tax reform would take three to five years, not to mention two years.
It may not be completely completed in 2018. Just look at the progress and turmoil in several pilot areas.
Reform while compromising! This is Emperor Liu’s summary of this tax reform!
