Gu Zhengchen, Luo Shao, and Yang Liang were talking about something and walked outside Nancheng. Within four miles, they arrived at a village called Nanzhou.
On this day, more than 100 households in Nanzhou paid autumn taxes.
According to the regulations of the imperial court, the summer tax does not exceed August and is mainly based on wheat; the autumn tax does not exceed February of the next year and is mainly based on rice.
The collection of autumn taxes begins after the autumn harvest is completed.
The tax collection time in different villages is not exactly the same. It may be that this village collects taxes in October, but the next village or village collects taxes in November or December.
The tax collection process is not a forced collection. If the tax cannot be collected today, we will not directly kick down the door and move things. Instead, we will give a certain buffer period, which will not exceed February next year at the latest.
Of course, February next year is the latest time for the policy. When the county government implements the policy, the time given to the people is usually the twelfth lunar month. If the tax cannot be paid, it is not impossible for the government officials to visit during the Chinese New Year...
Jurong implemented a grain chief system, and these grain chiefs were responsible for collecting and transporting grain from the fields.
The collection here is to assist the prefecture and county in collecting, which means that the county government officials need to be present, and they need to hold the receipt issued by the county government, that is, the tax collection voucher.
The transportation here is not just to the Fuzhou and County treasury, but also part of the grain is transported to Jinling.
It should be noted that grain chiefs are generally from wealthy households with a well-off family background.
Lao Zhu's idea is very simple. These grain chiefs have money and land in their families. They can afford the losses caused by transportation on the road. If ordinary people organize transportation, they may not be able to pay for the losses on the road, let alone send it to Jinling in full.
However, Lao Zhu’s idea is based on an ideal assumption, that is:
Big business owners are very generous.
To be honest, Lao Zhu really shouldn't have such thoughts. He also didn't want to think about the face of the wealthy landowner Liu De when his whole family was almost dead and his parents didn't even have a place to bury themselves.
I can’t say that all the big players in the world are Liu De, but there should be about 70% to 80% of them.
Being stingy, stingy, looking down on the people, and bullying the villagers are the normal behavior of landlords.
If you expect the grain managers to bear the losses during transportation, you might as well expect Liu De to give your parents a cemetery. The grain director will not suffer a loss. After all, he holds the power to tax, so how can he suffer a loss?
Southern Zhou Dynasty, rice field.
The grain chief, Zhou Dalu, hammered the gong and announced the news of taxation to every household, telling the people to come to the rice field to receive instructions and move grain.
Men from every household ran out, and some women and children followed.
Two long tables were pushed together, and all four chairs were occupied.
The two people on the east side are the accountants.
There are two people to the west, one is Tao Yong, a clerk in the county government office, and the other is the bearded Zhou Dalu.
After the people arrived, gongs were sounded. After the silence calmed down, Zhou Dalu stood up and shouted at the top of his voice: "There was a notice from the court earlier that this year's autumn grain will be folded into colored cotton cloth. However, the county magistrate thought that folding colored cotton cloth would disturb the people and create a new situation." The Weaving Courtyard will weave the whole county’s cotton cloth and hand it over to the imperial court. You can just pay the grain as usual.”
"This is the official of the county government office. He has brought you a post. The official seal of the post has been confirmed by the li chief, the old man, and the head of Jia. It is indeed from the county government office. Now take the post and move it here according to what is written in the post. Food. The head of the household, Zhou Da, is under the jurisdiction of Zhou Xili Chang and Zhou Xiangjia Chang. The family has a total of three dingkou. There are five acres of re-rented land, eight liters and five spoons per mu, and ten acres of reed land, five and three spoons per mu. Four buckets, eight liters and five spoons. The head of the household, Zhou Hui..."
Gu Zhengchen stood behind the crowd and watched the people come forward to receive the coupons. He asked several more times to confirm the payment amount before going back to fight for food.
The whole process was orderly and smooth.
Before the post was finished, people had already arrived carrying food.
But what is surprising is that the adult carried a bag, and the woman or half-grown child behind him also carried a small bag and followed.
Gu Zhengchen frowned and stepped forward and asked, "Are you Zhou Da? This bag of rice should be enough for five buckets. Why did the child bring rice too?"
Zhou Da looked at Gu Zhengchen and spat to the side: "We should give four buckets, eight liters and five spoons of food. The bag of rice under our feet is enough for five buckets and eight spoons. That's enough. Thank God, the child's hand There is still a bucket of rice here, so I have to add more if I can’t help it.”
Gu Zhengchen glanced at Luo Shao, who became nervous.
"Why is this so?"
Gu Zhengchen asked.
Before Zhou Da could speak, the child beside him said first: "Because there are too many corrupt officials..."
Gu Zhengchen was a little surprised, this kid really dared to say that.
Zhou Da rubbed the child's head and told him to shut up. He looked at Gu Zhengchen and others: "If you want to know why, you might as well wait and see. Seeing as you are scholars, you are really deaf to what is happening outside the window."
"you……"
Yang Liang was about to speak, but Gu Zhengchen raised his hand to stop him.
Luo Shao looked at Gu Zhengchen, who had a gloomy face. After Zhou Da left, he explained in a low voice: "Your Majesty, your post is a tax collected by the county government. However, the grain chief often charges an extra portion to make up for the loss. I heard this It’s an old practice…”
Gu Zhengchen looked at Luo Shao sternly: "In the world, only the imperial court can collect taxes! Who are the grain chiefs? They only assist the imperial court in collecting taxes and transporting goods. Since when did they have the right to collect additional taxes?"
"Well...but they organized migrant workers to transport food, and there was indeed a loss."
Luo Shao wiped his cold sweat.
Gu Zhengchen waved his sleeves: "The emperor has given them the loss of the grain chief at Fengtian Palace. That is the supreme honor of seeing the beauty of heaven and eating in Fengtian Palace!"
Zhu Yuanzhang did give face to the grain chief. From time to time at the end of the year, he would recruit him to Jinling to meet and have a meal. Occasionally, he would promote one or two grain chiefs to become officials.
This was Zhu Yuanzhang's confidence in the grain growers' generosity, hoping that they would make selfless contributions, transport more grain, serve the court, and not always bully the people.
But Lao Zhu didn't know that these people had become even more prosperous by relying on the "opportunity" to see the emperor. Even the officials in some places had to be careful when they saw it, otherwise they would be dining with the emperor. When speaking, a sentence came up: How can we know the county...
Start handing in autumn grain.
When the dendrobium was taken out, Gu Zhengchen's face became even more gloomy.
Dendrobium is a kind of container with a slightly thicker lower part and a slightly narrower upper part. The overall shape is similar to a large wine glass with ears on both sides.
Before the Tang Dynasty, dendrobium was relatively large, weighing ten buckets per stone. Starting from the Song Dynasty, one dendrobium was changed to five dou, and one stone was equal to two dendrobiums. In the Ming Dynasty, the amount of Dendrobium was only sixty kilograms, equivalent to four buckets of rice. Two Dendrobiums weighed one hundred and twenty kilograms, which was not enough for one stone.
Zhou Da stepped forward, opened the sack, and poured half of the grain into the dendrobium. The grain chief, Zhou Dalu, came over to check the quality of the grain. After confirming that the grain was not rotten or too shriveled, Zhou Da continued to pour grain until the whole pile of dendrobium was full. A cone-shaped tip emerged...
Gu Zhengchen frowned: Could this be the famous kicking with a sharp tip in the history of the Ming Dynasty? What bastard was responsible for that charming kick?
