After Chu Qing expressed his thoughts, Tao Shaozhang opened the bookcase, took out the copied files and put them on the desk.
While showing Chang Xian, he tearfully recounted what he saw and heard in Xiao County.
Changxian listened for a while, his brows furrowed into a frown, and his face already had a bit of anger.
As a prince who aspires to be a wise king, Changxian is filled with anger.
Following Tao Shaozhang's story, Chu Qing and Changxian already had a general understanding of the situation in Xiao County.
Not mentioning the nonsense about Tao Shaozhang becoming a son and a grandson, just talking about the local people's livelihood situation, one word, it's so miserable, two words, it's so miserable!
Xiao County is surrounded by mountains on three sides. There are 5 out of 8,000 registered households. If there are five people in a household, that is more than 40,000 people. This is still a small number. You must know that in the Chang Dynasty, there were more than a dozen people in each household. Not considered a hermit.
Even if there are 40,000 people, these 40,000 people alone are really enough for Li Mu to understand and manipulate clearly.
The tax regulations of the Chang Dynasty stipulated that all Ding men aged 21 and middle men over 18 years old were granted land, of which 80% were oral land and the remaining 20% became permanent land.
The shoutian Dingnan had to bear the obligation to pay taxes and perform corvee service. This was mandatory and he had to pay two shi of millet to the court every year.
In addition to paying for food, they also had to do hard labor. Each soldier had to do at least twenty days of corvée every year. If it was a leap month, buy twenty days and get two days free, which meant that you had to work for twenty-two days.
If there is no corvee, silk or cloth will be used instead, which is "yong". According to calculation, one day is equivalent to three feet of silk or three feet and seven inches of cloth.
Of course, sometimes there are too many things to do, and it is impossible to just let you work for twenty or twenty-two days at full time. You have to work overtime. If you work overtime for twenty-five days, you will be exempted from transfer. If you work overtime for thirty days, you will be exempted from transfer. .
It is impossible to bring harm to the common people. Chang's law stipulates that overtime work cannot exceed thirty days.
Chang's law stipulates this, but in fact, it's really not the case.
There are policies and measures to counter.
Regarding the matter of being greedy for money and taxes, it is also divided into entry level, advanced level, and king level.
Let’s talk about the entry-level first, which is the lowest level of difficulty and the most common one, that is, concealment.
It's not about concealing tax returns, it's about concealing population. The farther away from the capital, the more so.
If there are 5,000 people in a county, 3,000 people will be registered in the household registration. After collecting the "tax" from 5,000 people, I will give money to 3,000 people, because I will register 3,000 people.
The second is the advanced level, which is a little bit technical, not common, but not many.
To advance into the upper class is to collude with officials and businessmen, to pursue the high-end market, not to cause harm to the common people, but to harm the court.
For example, if a certain county is hit by a disaster, the court must allocate money and food. The money is used to build houses and roads for disaster relief, and the food is used to feed the victims.
Then, he casually wrote a note, saying that all the official grain saved by the disaster was destroyed, and privately worked with wealthy households or local powerful people to raise the price of grain, and sold the official grain out in the name of merchants, which was equivalent to making a fortune first. Official food money, and then greedy a sum of money from the court for disaster relief.
So here’s the question, it’s God who has the final say when it comes to floods, heavy rains, and collapse of the sky and the ground. It doesn’t mean that there will be a disaster just because you want it to happen. What should you do?
Easy to handle, man-made!
To write a note, there was a bandit disaster. This advanced version was mostly used in coastal areas, that is, the East China Sea area. The Ying people were directly blamed. It was said that a group of Ying people came in small boats and started killing and robbing. ,lost heavily.
The court then thought about whether it was more cost-effective to send troops or to give money. It must be the latter, and then allocated money.
The reason why it is called an advanced version is because it involves the local military guards. If you want to play this trick, you must collude with the local generals. It is a corruption of both civil and military forces. When the money comes, the spoils are divided on the spot. It is fair, just and open. .
The third type, which is the king version, is very rare. It has a lot of technical content, a high degree of difficulty, complicated operating procedures, and must have a strong enough relationship. It is similar to the fancy work played by Li Mu in Xiao County. Most of it is Original, no plagiarism, occasional tribute.
The so-called King Edition makes up for the shortcomings of the entry-level version, enriches the content of the advanced version, learns from each other's strengths, and integrates the strengths of each company, thereby making the common people complain endlessly.
The first is tax money. Li Mu ate both ends, and the people paid the grain. Li Mu falsely reported the numbers, withheld the big head, and sent the small head to the capital. He used entry-level technical means, which was to conceal the population.
Let's talk about the period of disaster. Li Muxing called coolies, saying that they were building roads and fields, but in fact they were digging mountains and quarrying rocks, and then selling them to local merchants. After this period, he also asked the court to allocate money for disaster relief, which enriched the content of advancing into the class.
A small disaster can be repaid in serious terms. If one person dies, it is said that ten people have died. If one household is affected, it is said that ten households are affected.
If the disaster is medium, the disaster will be severe. A hundred people will die, but it is said that a thousand people will die. A hundred households will be affected by the disaster, but it is said that a thousand households will be affected by the disaster.
If there is a catastrophe, it will be over. Li Mu can't wait to say that the world is falling and Thanos is reborn.
There is no disaster, no problem, it is man-made, but it is not to cause banditry, but to transport stones to the mountains, and then block the road after transporting them. It is not to cause trouble, or to burn the fields, or to be struck by lightning. In short, there are many tricks There are many, and two or three disasters throughout the year are not too few, and five or six are not too many.
In addition, they also plundered and harvested land wantonly. The people had no money to eat, so they sold themselves into slavery or sold their land.
The most disgusting thing is that when people take away their land and make them slaves, they do not write the land deed or exchange the slave status. In other words, it is two land deeds and two slave status. The people know one and the court knows the other.
This means that every citizen in Xiao County has to serve as a corvee, and when they have to pay taxes according to their population, they have to pay according to their names in the register. The less, the better.
Serving as a corvee was private work for Li Mu. Although it was private work, if he did the corvée work, then the court would allocate money to provide grain. Then, Li Mu would greedily use the money and grain. He was a middleman and earned the price difference. He was a middleman. Black eats black.
It is better to call it Xiao County than Li County. From top to bottom, from small to large, Li Mu alone had the final say, and he forced many people to death.
Just say the word "forced to death". If it weren't for the fact that there was no other way, who would die?
The forced people have no household registration, not even slave registration. It is not an exaggeration to call them refugees. They cannot go anywhere after leaving Xiao County. If they want to come to the capital to seek justice, where does the door of Jingzhao Mansion face? Kai didn't know even more. Even if he went, no one would pay attention to him. He turned around and left the city. Maybe he died inexplicably and was buried in a mass grave.
To put it more simply, the people of Xiao County cannot live without it, cannot die, cannot escape, and cannot afford to live.
With a "pop" sound, Changxian slapped his hand on the desk, his chest heaving.
"Xiao County, Xiao County is half a day's journey away!" Changxian's face trembled with anger: "There are so many shocking things. Where is the law of heaven and the law of the king!"
Turning his head suddenly to look at Tao Shaozhang, Changxian asked in a deep voice: "Why don't you report it to the court?"
Tao Shaozhang was waiting for this sentence: "Reported, impeached, reported every day, impeached every day, reported in the political hall, impeached in the political hall, your highness, guess what?"
Changxian frowned: "What's wrong?"
"It's useless." Tao Shaozhang spread his hands: "It's useless at all."
Changxian: “…”
Chu Qing on the side was extremely sure that Tao Shaozhang had definitely been waiting for today for a long time, and most of the time he was planning to tell the emperor this story.
