not enough?
Yang Shiba was stunned, lowered his head and counted carefully again, and said: "Sir, here are one, two, four, and thirty-two cents. There is not a shortage of one cent."
Wang Chang leaned back, crossed his legs, and said to the ignorant Yang Shiba: "There is broken silver here. It is impossible for the local government to collect it and hand it over to the emperor with a lot of broken silver. The imperial court needs to receive tax money." The ones are silver ingots. We melt the silver to make silver ingots, but there is a fire cost. Do you think the fire cost is paid by the government or you?"
"this……"
Yang Shiba was a little helpless, looking at the money on the table, and suddenly said: "If I take this little bit of silver and exchange it for treasure banknotes, will it be a waste of money?"
The broken silver is only one tael, so it is easy to exchange it for a regular banknote.
Wang Chang slapped the table and said, "Isn't there no loss of treasure money? Treasure money will also become useless money. Do you want us to give the crumpled useless money to the emperor? I think you have bad intentions!"
Yang Shiba was trembling with fright and quickly begged for mercy: "Sir, I'll hand it over, I'll hand it over, how much heat will it cost?"
Wang Chang snorted and said: "One tael of silver costs two cents for fire. Here you have one tael of silver and thirty-two cents for fire. You need to pay two cents for fire and eighty-six cents."
"so much?"
Yang Shiba was a little surprised.
Wang Chang gave him a sharp look, and Yang Shiba quickly started to find money. After taking out all the money in the bag, he was still short of sixteen cents. It was over now, and there was not enough money.
"If you don't have enough, go home and get it."
Wang Chang did not intend to let go of the sixteen cents. He must know that every cent in Huohuo was closely related to the interests of the local government. If something was done to benefit oneself at the expense of others, one should either not do it or do it thoroughly. This was Wang Chang's principle.
“This fire consumption—who stipulates it?”
Wang Chang was startled by the sudden question. He quickly turned around and saw a young man standing by the shed staring at him. Next to him, there was also a burly man.
Wang Chang looked Zhu Yunzhen up and down and said: "You have to wait in line to pay the tax. If you don't pay the tax, get out of here. Don't delay my errands."
"you……"
Xue Xia was angry and just wanted to step forward, but was stopped by Zhu Yunwen raising his hand.
Zhu Yunwen didn't take it seriously, and just said with a sullen face: "Let me ask you again, who set the fire consumption? There has never been a provision for collecting fire consumption in the court documents, right?"
Wang Chang was a little angry and shouted to the government servant on the side: "Someone is causing trouble here, drag him out!"
As soon as the yamen servant took two steps, Sun Dong came over and picked up a pole from nowhere. He grinned and said, "I advise you not to go there."
"Oh, do you still dare to fight against the government servants?"
The yamen officials were disdainful.
The pole in Sun Dong's hand whined and stirred in the wind, he swung it around a few times, then made a move and said, "If you want to try it, I can help you."
Just as the officer was about to make a move, he heard a crisp sound.
Snapped!
Then there were two more sounds.
Sun Dong turned around and saw Xue Xia grabbing Wang Chang's lapel, firing his bow left and right, and then stopped beating Wang Chang until blood came from the corner of his mouth. Wang Chang's eyes were filled with stars, his ears were ringing, his face was in burning pain, and he was whimpering and speechless.
The people around who were waiting to pay taxes were shocked. They had never seen such a fierce person who dared to openly beat the court officials.
Yang Shiba quickly took away his money, stepped aside, and looked at the scene in front of him uneasily.
Zhu Yunwen whispered a few words to Xue Xia, and Xue Xia turned around and shouted to the people who were talking about it: "The Security Bureau of the Ming Dynasty is responsible for investigating traitors and protecting the people. Today, the officials of Qiantang Agricultural Tax County have violated the regulations of the imperial court and secretly increased the fire fee." , I will be severely punished and will not be credited. You can pay your taxes later and wait outside the hospital."
"Security Service?"
The people were relieved after hearing this.
No wonder this group of people are so powerful that even the court officials don't look down on them. It turns out to be the Security Bureau. Although this mysterious organization is not as "powerful" as the Jin Yiwei and "has arrested countless people and killed countless people", after all, they are close relatives. Cousins too.
It is perfectly normal for the Security Bureau to deal with a few corrupt officials.
Sun Dong looked at the trembling government servant in front of him, smiled, turned around and walked towards the crowd, handed the pole to an old farmer, and then persuaded the people to wait outside the door temporarily.
After the door of the Agricultural Tax County Secretary was closed, Zhu Yunwen looked at another subordinate official and said: "I don't want to ask a third time. Either answer my question or be the same as him."
Another subordinate officer named Zhao Hai saw Wang Chang's miserable condition and heard that he was from the Security Bureau. He quickly said: "This fire damage occurred last year, not just in Qiantang, but everywhere..."
"Everywhere?!"
Zhu Yunwen's face was very ugly.
Emotions are everywhere in the Ming Dynasty, but you don't even know it?
Zhao Hai nodded repeatedly and said: "Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Nanzhili are everywhere..."
Zhao Hai's idea is: if the sky falls, there will be a tall person holding it up.
Qiantang is just a small place, a county in Suzhou Prefecture. If the Security Bureau wants to arrest people, it must also arrest the prefect, the chief envoy, the doctor of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the minister. We are just the lowest-level clerks. To arrest us It’s worthless…
Zhu Yunwen looked back at Xue Xia and said, "For such a big event, the Security Bureau didn't even report it. Did you suppress it, or did you not report it at all?"
Xue Xia's face turned pale and he shouted quickly: "Sir, I really don't know. None of the local security bureau branches have reported this matter."
As a senior member of the Security Bureau, Xue Xia felt increasingly stressed. The security bureau branches scattered in various places have big problems. The Suzhou branch has problems. Could it be that the Hangzhou branch also has problems?
Fire consumption!
What the hell is this? A whipping method is just about collecting money. Why don't you just collect it? Why do you have to force it yourself?
Zhao Hai swallowed his saliva and said nervously: "Maybe it's because there is no need to report this kind of thing..."
Zhu Yunwen's eyes were cold and stern, and Zhao Hai trembled in fright.
"Why do you say that?"
Zhu Yunwen asked.
Zhao Hai explained uneasily: "My lord, now the imperial court has changed the two taxes to collect money, but when the broken silver is melted and forged, there is indeed a loss. A thousand taels of silver are collected from the private sector, and after being melted and forged into silver ingots, there may only be nine taels. One hundred and fifty taels, the shortfall of fifty taels, the court needs the local government to make up for it, and the local government has no money, so it has to spread the money to the people."
"Although this type of fire consumption is not included in the regular tax, it is actually a way to supplement the regular tax. Even if the Security Bureau knew about it, the county magistrate, the prefect, the chief envoy, and the Minister of Household Affairs knew about it, they would not think that the fire consumption was levied. There is something wrong with consumption. Since it is correct, why should we report it..."
Zhu Yunwen looked at Zhao Hai coldly without saying a word.
Xue Xia and Sun Dong breathed a sigh of relief. In this way, the levy of fire consumption is reasonable. It is not a problem with the Hangzhou Prefecture Security Bureau branch. As long as the Security Bureau is not at fault, then the matter will be easy to handle.
Although Zhu Yunwen is a liberal arts student, he is also someone who has been criticized by chemistry teachers and physics teachers. He knows that there will inevitably be losses during the melting process. Although energy is conserved, he cannot say conservation by holding on to the air.
There are losses, but the local government is not willing to be taken advantage of, and the household department in the capital calculates according to the account books. If the accounts cannot be reconciled, someone will have to find someone to fill the hole.
It was obvious that the local government did not have the consciousness to be a Nuwa, and they did not have colorful stones in their hands, so they used the common people as backers and introduced a so-called fire consumption, which could solve the problem of the loss of broken silver in melting and forging, and also take the opportunity to collect more silver coins. , this extra part naturally does not need to be given to the Ministry of Revenue, but should be used as filial piety to honor the superiors, and by the way, a sum of money can be retained to improve life.
As for the people...
Who cares about them.
Zhu Yunwen pulled up the chair and sat down, and asked Zhao Hai: "You explained the reason for the occurrence of fire consumption, but you did not explain clearly why one tael of silver was charged for two yuan of fire consumption. This broken silver was melted into silver ingots. This is the loss." So huge?”
One tael was lost two cents, two hundred wen, which was cut off by one-fifth. Even though Zhu Yunwen was a liberal arts man, he knew that this number was not scientific. If the loss was such a big one, who would be stupid enough to smelt it into silver ingots? They had to be neat and orderly. Ship box after box to the capital? Wouldn't it smell good if you change it to sacks and pull them through one sack after another?
Zhao Hai grimaced. The official in front of him was not easy to fool at all. Following the simple logic that a dead Taoist friend would not die a poor Taoist, Zhao Hai directly betrayed his superiors: "This is stipulated by the county magistrate, we are just following orders... …”
Zhu Yunwen sighed and said to Xue Xia: "Although the fire consumption is there, it will never be too much. It may be possible to lose 20 to 50 taels from one thousand taels, but it is absolutely impossible to lose two hundred taels. The specific loss will be watched by the Security Bureau. Go ahead, make a statistics in each place to see how much the one thousand taels was lost, and calculate it clearly. The lost part will be made up by the court in the future, and the people will not be allowed to pay."
Zhao Hai looked at Zhu Yunwen in surprise and said quickly: "My lord, this is a big matter. The Ministry of Household Affairs may not be able to make the final decision, and the Security Bureau does not care about tax issues. If no one pays for this part of the loss, then the villain I can’t bear it.”
Zhu Yunwen stood up and said coldly: "You really can't bear it, Sun Dong. Go and tell the county magistrate. If you dare to collect taxes other than regular taxes in the future, then you can put yourself in shackles and go to Beijing to plead guilty!"
Sun Dong agreed and turned around.
Zhu Yunwen looked at Zhao Hai and asked: "The fire consumption starts with a whip method, right?"
Zhao Hai nodded.
Indeed, during the Hongwu Dynasty, most taxes were in kind, and the collection of silver taels accounted for a very small proportion. Even if you have a little silver taels, you will not be wasted.
"Then how did the local government collect more tax money when there was no fire consumption?"
Zhu Yunwen looked at Zhao Hai seriously.
Zhao Hai opened his mouth and said helplessly: "Lin Jian Ki Hu."
"Haha, look, it's easy to make some money locally. Whether it's made of leather or not, there are always loopholes that can be exploited!"
Zhu Yunwen was a little sad.
The so-called Linjian Kihu means that during the period of physical tax, when people paid grain, the government used a type of container called dendrobium to pack the grain. After the grain was packed, it was weighed and then the portion of the grain paid was calculated.
Usually, when the grain is put into Dendrobium, it must be filled to the top.
Just when the people think that this dendrobium is enough to pay the tax, an official will run, accelerate, charge, lift his feet, kick, and the dendrobium will be tilted, and the grain will be scattered with lightning speed...
The part that is spread out is the government's income.
By the way, this young man, your family’s food supply is not enough. Come home and bring us another bag of food. Let us kick it, no, let us weigh it...
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