First Minister of Ming Dynasty

After the three marshals left Chuzhou, they did not go to Guo Zixing, but went to the Hezhou boundary to meet Sun Deya.

When they arrived in Hezhou, they realized that although Sun Deya's troops were quite strong, they were short of food and could make ends meet. They often rely on looting the people to maintain their military use, which aroused a lot of scolding.

But the three of them didn't have many soldiers left, even if they were robbing, they couldn't grab much.

Right now they were dumbfounded. In Zhu Yuanzhang's place, although they had no military power, they still had enough to eat. But when I arrived in Hezhou, I was going to starve!

What is this?

It's better to lie down in Chuzhou and make a salted fish!

It turns out that being deprived of military power is not the worst!

In fact, all forces at the moment, including Yuan Ting, are deeply troubled by lack of food. If it were not for the lack of food and grass, the court would have sent a large army to destroy Zhang Shicheng and regain control of the canal.

It's just that among such a group of hungry ghosts with green eyes, one person can immediately get rid of the dilemma of lack of food and grass.

There is no doubt that this person is Zhu Yuanzhang, who is dedicated to divert farming and farming.

Lao Zhu entered Chuzhou on the first month of the fourteenth year of Zhizheng, and then eradicated corrupt officials, attached to the power of Yuan Ting, seized Liuhe and other places, accepted Peng Zaozhu and others for refuge... No matter what happens, from beginning to end, Lao Zhu is always there. In insisting on dividing fields, insisting on farming.

From top to bottom, everyone, every livestock, and every bit of effort must be invested in food production.

Even literati like Li Shanchang were dragged into the fields by Zhu Yuanzhang and went to work with them.

In February and March, stepping in knee-deep muddy water, plowing the fields, planting rice seedlings, and planting early rice, made the future Korean father miserable. They all got sick with cold, weak waist and knees, frequent night urination. I feel that I am aging early.

"Mr. Li, let's let you work in the fields. It's nothing else. I want you to know the hardships of farmers and let you understand that there are so many different acres of land. Just take this piece of irrigated land under our feet, and the output can be compared to the next one. There are twice as many hillsides in China. No matter how we divide the acres equally, it is impossible to take care of all aspects and convince everyone."

Li Shanchang nodded quickly. He knew this too well. For a ridge of land, for a little water, there will be fierce quarrels in the countryside, even armed fights, fights by oneself, fights with neighboring villages, and even kills.

A little field and a little water will kill you. Isn’t it incredible to let some high-quality human beings who are aloof and do not touch the sun and spring water, and even care about animals better than similar high-quality humans?

Life is priceless, how can you die so casually?

The common people are too stupid and barbaric!

Sure enough, it is inferior, not worthy to breathe and eat meat like us...

After all, after a long time at high places, he will never realize the difficulties of the Xiaomin.

There are several children in the family who want to eat with their mouths open. There are only a few things that can be produced in the fields. They have to pay land taxes, taxes, and heavy taxes. The tenant farmers have to pay almost half of the land rent.

With a little more water for irrigation and one more ridge, you will be able to produce more food, and this food may be able to feed one more child without starving to death in the disaster year.

It's so difficult, do you think the people can still work hard?

For thousands of years, rural areas, under land annexation, are the most extreme involution. Take a step back, that is, there is no place to die. Not only will you die, but your family will also die!

Lao Zhu's family was defeated by natural and man-made disasters, and the family was destroyed. I had to be a monk in a temple and break away from the mainstream society.

If it weren't for the Red Scarf Uprising, perhaps in the future he would be a rickety figure in the temple, with muddy eyes and a lonely old monk full of bleak abdomen, Chaomu alive and dead silently.

Zhu Yuanzhang should almost be the emperor who knows the suffering of the people the most. Because of this, he madly divided the fields and put all his thoughts on food.

It's just not enough!

"Mr. Li, the land is divided, and the grain is recovered. The next step is the land tax. We have to collect the land tax to feed the soldiers and horses. How to harvest the land tax, but more knowledge!" Zhu Yuanzhang talked to him while he was resting. Li Shanchang chatted.

Old Li nodded vigorously. He also understood Zhu Yuanzhang's thoughts. Although he was very tired in this team, he was not as comfortable as doing things in Yuanting, but he had no satisfaction. Sometimes he even suddenly appeared some small things. Little surprise.

For example, this time the levy of land tax.

In fact, Zhang Ximeng arranged for someone to go down to find out the situation while ploughing in the spring.

Those more than one hundred students were sent to the village by Zhang Ximeng to check them out. Yes, it was one step at a time. Every village and every family would not let it go.

This kind of practice is simply unheard of and unseen by Li Shanchang.

He really couldn't imagine that a yamen, a government, could do things so meticulously!

Zhang Ximeng needs to find out the situation of each village, and then summarize it into his hands, and this information will become the basis for the next levy of land.

No matter how hard the policy is formulated, there will always be loopholes. Only with human efforts can we approach perfection infinitely. Valley

In fact, as mentioned earlier, it is impossible to average land in a county or a house.

Juntian’s units are actually natural villages.

It's not realistic to go farming out of the village dozens of miles or hundreds of miles away from home.

That is immigration, not Juntian.

In this way, there will be a very interesting phenomenon. After eradicating the tycoons, in a natural village, each household can get the land roughly average, and the output of the field will not vary too much.

Even if someone has more land and higher output, the villagers know each other well.

Just look at the size of the grain storage, and it's clear.

In this case, the expropriation of land tax is not so difficult, and it is even said that only by finding the right way, it can be solved easily.

What is the method?

It lies on the results of this stack of inspections.

Zhang Ximeng picked up a report with a lot of typos, but could still read the general meaning, and explained it to Li Wenzhong and a few other students.

"Look, there are more than 180 households in this village. The scale is not small. According to estimates, the harvest of summer grain for this season should be around one stone. Their ration field is 3 mu, and the circulation field is 15 mu. Lots of mulberry fields and fish ponds."

"For example, for a family of five, the transferable land that needs to pay the land tax is 75 acres. According to estimates, the surplus grain is 75 shi. According to our rules, within 20 shis of the surplus, pay half of the land tax, which is more than 20. From stone to fifty jewels, you must pay 10%, and if you exceed fifty shi, you need to pay 15%."

"In other words, the land tax they need to pay is one stone plus three stones, plus three stones, seven buckets and five liters, which is a total of seven stones, seven buckets and five liters. The highest tax rate we set is 25%, which is That said, if someone’s surplus grain exceeds 1,000 shi, the excess will have to pay 25% of the land tax."

"The tax rate is set in this way, in fact, most ordinary people can't reach it at all. For a small number of wealthy households, we have eliminated the tycoons, but have not touched their interests too much. If anyone is not willing to pay more land taxes, then don't Blame us for being polite."

"This is the general situation of one village, let's look at the next village..."

Zhang Ximeng did not hurry, took out one by one examples, and made detailed explanations. Gradually, the students pricked their ears and their expressions became serious. Many people couldn't help nodding their heads, and a few quickly took their notebooks to write them down.

The students present were all from poor families, and they heard old people complain about land taxes and excessive taxes since they were young.

Paying the land tax every year is like going through a ghost gate.

But after listening to Mr.'s explanation, the big guys only thought it was too reasonable. If they were to accept the law in this way, they would all want to take the initiative to pay.

"This is a rough account. Before the summer harvest, a notice must be issued to each village to announce the collection method and amount of the land tax. If there is no accident, it will be levied according to this amount. At the same time, if there is a large discrepancy , To allow the villagers to make comments, you are also responsible for passing them up, and sending someone to verify again."

"In some villages, families with soldiers must arrange for people to help with the harvest, so that the grains should be returned to the warehouse, so that the soldiers can feel at ease! Those lonely old people, or families lacking strong labor, should encourage the villagers to interact with each other. Help, if necessary, you can also send someone to help, and strive not to miss a family!"

"Chuzhou is not big, and the total number of counties ~www.novelmt.com~ is no more than 200,000 people. Chuzhou is also very big, because you can see the whole world from Chuzhou!"

"The methods and experience we have summarized here will be extended to all parts of the country in the future. We will do it well to convince the people. With sufficient supply of food and grass, and sufficient backing of troops, we can become stronger and stronger in order to recover the Han. Home mountains and rivers!"

"In short, do it with a common heart, worthy of your own background, worthy of your conscience, worthy of the bowl of soup from the superior!"

The students nodded vigorously, no matter what happened in the future, at the moment, they firmly remembered what Zhang Ximeng said.

...

Zhang Ximeng confessed the students' tasks and went to Juntun again.

The situation in Juntun is relatively simple, it is nothing more than a few thousand households dealing with Zhang Ximeng, they want to pay less.

After all, although Zhu Yuanzhang had set a three-to-seven split.

Thirty percent turned in, and seventy percent was kept as the army's rations, but how to determine the output was Zhang Ximeng's power.

For example, Feng Guosheng explained to Zhang Ximeng in every possible way, "Sir, why are our thousand households 30% higher than Li Xincai's thousand households per mu? This is not fair!"

Zhang Ximeng looked at the aqueduct and smiled and said, "Why don't you report this aqueduct?"

"This, the brothers did it by themselves. It hasn't been fixed yet... It was not originally. I, I haven't had time to report it." This future Song Guogong, blushing, trying to defend his embarrassment, is very interesting. .

Zhang Ximeng smiled and said, "Report it now. It is also a credit to build more water conservancy projects. Brothers have rewards. As a thousand households, you also have credits!"

Zhang Ximeng smiled and went to the next place to investigate...The busyness lasted until May, when the southerly wind blew up overnight, and the wheat covered with yellow.

In the fourteenth year, it is years old, so familiar!