In the following months of the seventh year of Chengshun, the Chu Empire was calm externally and there were no major events internally. Although some places were affected by natural disasters, there were also rebellions by chieftains or powerful powerful men in some places.
But it’s all harmless!
Small-scale local rebellions are normal for a new dynasty, especially since many border areas are newly recovered. At the same time, the Chu Empire also implemented a relatively fierce land policy and a policy of returning land to locals.
The land policy will cause a large number of big landowners and powerful people to resist. There have always been landowners and powerful powerful people who have resisted in recent years, but the number of people killed is getting smaller and smaller. It is estimated that they will not appear again in a few years.
The reform of the policy of returning natives to native places is to completely abolish the so-called hereditary chieftains and abolish the so-called chieftain nobility. At most, it will only give you an official title to let you serve as an official in another place. No more will be impossible.
Accept it or die!
As a result, some chieftains accepted it and some chieftains did not accept it. Therefore, although the southwestern provinces of the Chu Empire were recovered and included in the empire's territory, in fact they have been unrest in the past few years, with chieftain rebellions occurring one after another.
This is also the reason why the Chu army continues to station heavy troops in the southwestern provinces, mainly in Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, and continues to fight every day, just to suppress the ongoing chieftain rebellion.
Regarding the rebellion of these chieftains, the idea of the empire's senior officials and the military is still simple and straightforward: kill them all!
Kill all the chieftains who dare to rebel, and naturally there will be no more chieftains to rebel.
According to the estimates of the empire's senior officials, the situation in several provinces in the southwest is expected to remain chaotic for a few years. After the imperial military has dealt with all the chieftains one by one and captured all the hard-nosed ones, it will calm down.
At that time, several provinces in the southwest can truly be considered to be under the direct jurisdiction of the central dynasty.
Some local rebellions will not affect the overall situation of the empire, and some natural disasters will also have little impact.
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The Da Chu Empire was so large that it spanned more than 2,000 kilometers from Liaodong in the north to Qiongzhou Island in the south.
From Jiayuguan in the northwest to Dajuan Island in the east, it is more than 3,000 kilometers.
In such a huge territory, there will always be some places affected by disasters every year, be they large or small.
For these natural disasters, the Chu Empire also had a complete set of response measures. For example, for droughts, the government basically allocated funds and organized the construction of emergency infrastructure. For example, for droughts, it meant digging wells, digging canals to divert water, etc.
If it is a flood, various flood control facilities will be built to relocate the victims.
In addition to these emergency infrastructure and personnel transfers, there will also be assistance for the recovery of agricultural production, reduction and exemption of agricultural taxes, etc.
In addition, the construction of these infrastructures, in addition to responding to the disaster itself, is also a form of work-for-relief, preventing a large number of people from fleeing due to natural disasters, thereby causing large-scale displacement.
When responding to disasters, the Dachu Empire officials have always liked to use work-for-relief methods. Although the money is not wasted, the results are very effective. It can not only provide relief, but also build various infrastructures, and can also control large-scale disasters. The emergence of large-scale refugees is a good thing that achieves multiple goals with one stone.
Well, apart from spending money, there are basically no disadvantages.
But the matter of money may be extremely difficult to solve for the Ming Dynasty and even other feudal dynasties, but it is not a difficult problem for the Da Chu Empire. In the seven years of Chengshun, the central fiscal revenue of the Da Chu Empire It has exceeded the 80 million mark.
Note that this is only central fiscal revenue, and does not include local fiscal revenue reserved for local finance at all levels, and local fiscal revenue is also a considerable part.
In terms of taxation, basically no feudal dynasty can compete with the Chu Empire, not even the Song Dynasty!
The economic system of the Song Dynasty was unique among previous feudal dynasties, mainly due to its focus on business.
But it should be noted that the business mentioned here does not mean that the government supports private business, but that the government monopolizes business... Basically, the government does whatever makes money, and it is a monopoly...
Therefore, the Song Dynasty had a lot of taxes from business. At its peak, the proportion of business income reached more than 70% of the fiscal revenue.
It adopts an economic model in which the country is rich and the people are poor.
The Ming Dynasty went to the other extreme. Perhaps it learned from the Song Dynasty's lesson of competing for profits with the people. The Ming Dynasty did not compete with the people for profits, but this benefit was not really given to the people. It was given to the gentry.
Of course, according to the saying at the time, the gentry were the common people... As for the people at the bottom, they were no different from cattle and sheep and were not considered common people...
Therefore, the wealth of the world was taken away by the gentry, and more importantly, they did not pay taxes.
In the Ming Dynasty, commercial tax accounted for a very small proportion of fiscal revenue. In most years, it was a single-digit percentage, and it was almost impossible to see a ratio exceeding 10%.
It's okay if all kinds of businesses don't pay taxes, and the gentry don't even pay land taxes... As a result, the finances of the Ming Dynasty were completely ruined, and it can be called the worst economic and tax system in history... …
In the ancient clan period, if the clans did not pay taxes, they would organize armies to help defend their homes from foreign enemies. However, the gentry of the Ming Dynasty knelt down when they saw anyone...
Why?
Because the clans have something to protect, these clans can basically be regarded as warlords. If foreign enemies come to claim their territory, they will naturally resist.
But the gentry, especially the gentry who were mainly scholars, were not warlords, and they had no territory to protect, so they had no psychological burden at all when kneeling.
Returning to the Song Dynasty, its special economic model and taxation system turned the Song Dynasty into a dynasty with extremely high financial revenue.
However, when the Song Dynasty faced various natural disasters, it did not use work-for-relief, but directly recruited young victims into the army.
Although they both spend money, the starting points of providing relief for work and directly recruiting young people from the disaster victims to join the army are different.
The purpose of providing relief for work is to help the affected people tide over the difficulties. At the same time, the infrastructure built can also be an important help for them to resume production after the disaster. Restoring subsequent production is a very important part of it.
The main purpose of directly recruiting young men to join the army is to prevent rebellion. As the saying goes, there will be chaos but no rebellion. As long as the military pay is sufficient, chaos will generally not occur in the army, unless the generals plot rebellion, but that is another topic. As for resuming production, that's not their main focus.
It's just that the army composed of disaster victims in the Song Dynasty basically had no combat effectiveness, and they maintained the army for a long time as soon as they were recruited, which eventually led to the financial collapse of the Song Dynasty.
This point does not exist in the Dachu Empire. The Dachu Empire invests in disaster relief, essentially to restore production. Therefore, once the disaster is over, the affected areas can quickly resume normal production. Not only can the people in the disaster area survive, but also It can also continue to contribute to the empire's tax revenue.
It was like this before, and it is still like this now!
Thanks to the vigorous relief efforts and various other measures from the Da Chu Empire, although many places were affected by disasters in the seventh year of Chengshun, they did not cause much turmoil.
There has been no large-scale famine or large-scale displacement. Generally speaking, the negative impact has been controlled in the local counties. After the difficulties are overcome, production will be resumed in the future. When the weather is good next year, we will be a good man again!
It's just that disasters occur frequently in various places. In order to provide disaster relief and reduce the burden on farmers, the empire will reduce or reduce agricultural taxes in disaster-stricken areas. Therefore, the agricultural taxes in Chengshun in the past seven years have not increased much. On the contrary, there has been a large increase in the Yellow River-Yellow River Basin this year. floods have declined.
However, the economic system and taxation system of the Chu Empire were different from those of traditional feudal dynasties. Like the Song Dynasty, the Chu Empire was also a dynasty that valued industry and commerce.
Unlike the Ming Dynasty, where the government personally controlled and monopolized whatever industry made money, the Chu Empire supported private capital investment through official guidance.
Although there are many government-run enterprises, they are only involved in national defense and people's livelihood industries. Not to mention national defense, people's livelihood is basically only involved in two industries, one is grain and the other is salt industry.
There is not even a monopoly on steel, let alone industries such as tea, porcelain, and textiles.
For some light industries, the government not only does not have a monopoly, but also vigorously supports and encourages private capital to invest. The large number of new textile industries that are emerging in the Dachu Empire are a typical example.
Nowadays, the machine-made cloth of the Dachu Empire has become not only a best-selling domestic product, but also a leading export product, relying on its low price and good quality.
A large number of ships came to the Chu Empire for trade. In addition to purchasing traditional Chinese export commodities such as porcelain, silk, and tea, machine-made cloth also became a commodity they purchased and sold in large quantities.
In addition, as the Chu Empire gradually controlled the northwest region, that is, the Shaanxi-Gansu region, it gained a large amount of wool sources. Therefore, the woolen textile industry also emerged rapidly, and its high-end woolen materials also became one of the export commodities.
How should I put it? The industrial and commercial model of the Chu Empire was based on government-run enterprises controlling and specializing in the three major industries of national defense, salt industry, and grain industry. These three major industries did not allow private capital investment, nor local financial investment. Only the Ministry of Industry can invest on its own.
Important industries, such as heavy industries such as steel, mining, machinery, and shipbuilding, as well as a small amount of light industries related to people's livelihood, are dominated by official investment, but official capital will not monopolize... If private capital wants to invest, the government is quite welcome, as long as However, investment in heavy industry involves large investments and relatively slow returns, so there are not many private capital involved for the time being. Most of them are small mines, small ironworks, small machinery factories, etc., so the impact will not be big for the time being.
In light industry, especially those that do not affect national defense security or people's livelihood, a small amount of official investment is guided, and private investment is mainly supported and encouraged. The rapid development of Suqin Textile Company in Suzhou Prefecture, Jiangnan Province is a typical product of this policy.
At the same time, it leads and guides private capital to invest in other industries, such as light industry and even heavy industries such as steel, coal, machinery, and shipbuilding.
Even in some industries that appear to be very profitable, the government will not seek to establish monopolies. Instead, it will allow private capital to invest and compete on their own.
"First Evolution"
Here, it also involves the financial revenue system of the Dachu Empire. The financial revenue from industry and commerce is not mainly based on the profits of government-run enterprises.
In fact, among the government-run enterprises of the Dachu Empire, except for the Dachu Empire Salt Service Company, the others basically did not turn over much profit. They either did not make any money, or they invested it in production after making money.
As for the Salt Service Company, this is an exception. This thing is used to make money to subsidize the finance. Even after paying taxes, there are still profits of several million taels a year. However, it is estimated that the profits from the salt industry will not be that high starting next year, because the empire's senior officials feel that the profits from the salt industry are too high and taxes will have to be increased...
It is estimated that the total revenue from the salt industry will not change much next year. It will still be about 15 million taels of silver, but most of it will be turned into salt tax and turned over to the national treasury, instead of leaving a considerable part as before. Turn over in the name of profits.
After all, the commercial revenue of the Da Chu Empire is mainly based on industrial and commercial taxes. Regardless of whether it is a government-run enterprise or a private enterprise, you have to pay taxes... Just because you are a salt company does not make you special.
Not to mention the Salt Company, even the several mints under the Mint directly under the Ministry of Finance have to pay taxes!
In the Dachu Empire, paying taxes is a very serious matter and should not be taken carelessly.
Taxation is the basis of finance, and finance is the basis for maintaining rule.
Therefore, the Da Chu Empire has always attached great importance to taxation, even in the newly recovered Liaodong.
By the way, starting in late September, the Third Army of the Chu Army in Liaodong launched a new round of offensive. Hundreds of thousands of troops set off from Jinzhou, Yingkou and other places to fight towards Shenyang.
In addition to the headquarters of the Third Group Army, there were also more than 40,000 cavalrymen in the Third Cavalry Army composed of dozens of young men from Monan Mongolia who had surrendered to the army. They fought from the direction of Monan Mongolia into the last piece of Monan controlled by the Eastern captives. The area controlled by the Mongolian tribes is the Liaohetao area.
Just half a month later, the Chu Third Army captured Shenyang, a few days later it captured Tieling, and then recaptured Liaohai.
At the same time, the Third Cavalry Army also captured the southern area of Liaohetao, annihilated some die-hards who refused to surrender, and forced the remaining Mongolian tribes to surrender.
On the eastern front, the Seventh Army, which belonged to the Third Army but had always acted alone, set out from the Liaodong Peninsula to capture Phoenix City. The Navy also sent landing troops into the Yalu River and captured Zhenjiang Fort.
This large-scale military operation, which only lasted for more than half a month, went extremely smoothly and successfully completed the established strategic goals of the Third Army: to recover the entire Liaodong region and the southern protruding area of Liaohetao.
But there are also losses.
The reason why the Chu army was able to progress so smoothly was because it did not encounter strong resistance from the Dongji people. Before the Chu army attacked Shenyang, Hauge had already led the soldiers and civilians in the city to retreat northward in advance.
The same is true for the Eastern captive armies and even the people in other cities.
The reason why the Chu army launched an attack in a hurry and even braved the first snow to fight was because they found signs of a large-scale retreat of the Dongji people.
It is a pity that although many Dongbiao people were captured, their main force successfully withdrew from Liaodong, crossed the Liaodong Great Wall and returned to the deep mountains and forests of the north.
This will inevitably cause the Chu Empire to encounter some trouble in the subsequent campaigns.
But the Dongji people are already like grasshoppers after the autumn, and they can't jump around for much longer.
Compared with caring about the Eastern captives who fled into the deep mountains and old forests, the senior officials of the Chu Empire were more concerned about the taxation work in Liaodong!
The Liaodong region currently controlled by the Chu Empire extends from Shanhaiguan to the west, the Yalu River to the east, and the Bohai/Yellow Sea to the south.
In the north, the eastern area is bounded by the Liaodong Great Wall, while the western and central areas have added part of the area north of the Liaoxi Corridor and the southern area of the Liaohe Tao compared to the Ming Dynasty.
The main purpose of adding part of the eastern Monan Mongolia region is to strengthen the management and control of the eastern Monan Mongolia region, especially the Liaohetao area.
The Da Chu Empire was planning to carry out immigration and colonization in the above-mentioned areas, turning these places from nomadic areas into areas that combine farming and nomadic life.
Compared with Liaodong during the Ming Dynasty, the actual area of Liaodong Province in the Chu Empire was much larger, but the population was not large.
Mainly due to the wars that lasted for many years in the Liaodong region, including the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Eastern Captions, coupled with the war between the Chu Dynasty and the Eastern Captions, resulted in a large loss of local population.
Although there are no detailed statistics yet, there are less than 500,000 Han residents left in the area.
When the Eastern Captives defeated the Ming Dynasty and initially took control of the eastern region of Liaodong, they accepted more than two million Han people. However, this part of the Han people fled and was persecuted to death by the Eastern Captives. This was also caused by the cruel policies in the early days of the Eastern Captives. Due to large-scale famine, the number of local Han people dropped sharply, and most of the remaining Han people became slaves of the Donglu people.
After Huang Taiji came to power, the Dongban people changed their policies. Later, they entered the customs several times to plunder the Han people and gained hundreds of thousands of people. Later, they also eliminated hundreds of thousands more people in the Liaoxi Corridor area.
When the Chu Dynasty went to war with the Dongqi people, the population directly controlled by the Dongqi people in the Liaodong region was about hundreds of thousands of their own people (including a large number of so-called Jurchens they had recovered and plundered through conquests), and about two million Han people.
There were at least hundreds of thousands of casualties in the subsequent wars, and a considerable number of the remaining population, especially those in the eastern Liaodong region, had been forcibly moved northward during the large-scale retreat from the East in the past few months.
When the Chu army took over the entire Liaodong area and pushed the front to the Liaodong Great Wall, they found that the local population was less than one million.
In the huge area starting from Shanhaiguan in the west, to the Yalu River in the east, to Liaohai in the north, and to Lushun in the south, there is only a population of less than one million left, and these people are basically the people who had not had time to forcefully retreat from the East. The evacuated Han people.
As a comparison, the Chu army has successively invested nearly 200,000 troops in the Liaodong region.
Because the population is expensive and scarce, and agricultural production and handicraft industries have been severely damaged by the war, it is difficult to restore normal production in the area.
As for tax collection, it can only be said to be better than nothing.
But even so, the Da Chu Empire officials still attached great importance to taxation work. When government offices were established in various parts of Liaodong Province, the local tax bureau was always the first to be established.
Let’s not talk about how much money can be collected, but the foundation of taxation must be laid firmly!
After all, if the various tax policies of the Chu Empire were not implemented from the beginning, it would cause a lot of trouble later.
The Chu Empire had experienced similar things many times. Armed tax resistance and rebellions by powerful landlords occurred in many places. Most of them were due to the failure to fully and thoroughly implement tax and agricultural policies at the beginning. Local officials in some newly occupied areas, Some people's thinking is still stuck in the Ming Dynasty. They always feel that the gentry is the foundation of local stability. They are afraid that the powerful will cause trouble, so for the sake of stability and winning people's hearts, they will have reservations when implementing policies.
By the time they want to strengthen their policies, the initial occupation period has often passed, and the main military forces have gradually withdrawn. In this way, local powerful people will have the courage to carry out various resistances, and local officials will fall into trouble at this time. If the dilemma continues to worsen, various rebellions will emerge.
Regarding these situations, the Chu Empire has experienced a lot in recent years, so it is absolutely not allowed to make the same mistakes in the latest occupied area, Liaodong Province.
The local officials who were deployed were all officials with a tough attitude, and there were no officials with a weak character. A large number of them were local officials who had retired from military service.
The purpose is to comprehensively implement all policies from the beginning, especially the most important tax policies and agricultural policies, and take advantage of the fact that a large number of main military forces are still there to kill all the landlords and powerful people who dare to resist...
Although there were no powerful landlords in Liaodong at this time...
During the rule of the Dongji people, they were the largest landowners, and the Han people were basically reduced to slaves.
There are quite a few powerful landlords in the Liaoxi Corridor area. And these powerful landlords are often generals in the Liaoxi army!
However, during the period when the Eastern Captives accepted Liaoxi, in order to control the Liaoxi region, they also carried out a large-scale purge of the Liaoxi vassal towns headed by Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui, that is, the generals of the Liaoxi Army.
As a result, after the Chu Empire occupied Liaodong, there were not many powerful landlords left in this place.
It can be said to be the whitest province among all the provinces in the Chu Empire.
Painting on this kind of white paper is much less stressful for Liaodong Governor Ji Dehua.
Various policies were implemented very smoothly, and there was no resistance from the landlords at all... Even the vast majority of the people were grateful to the Chu Empire, because the Chu army drove away the Eastern captives and took away the land occupied by a large number of Eastern captives. It was also given to the Han people...
As mentioned before, the Han people in Liaodong were basically reduced to slaves during the rule of the Eastern captives, and their land was basically deprived of their land by the Eastern captives.
After the Chu people came to Liaodong, as long as you could produce real evidence, mainly land deed documents issued during the Ming Dynasty, they would basically be returned.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have one. Liaodong is now a typical land with few people and lots of land, with most of the land waiting for people to cultivate it.
