"The commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty is indeed too low, of course, except for the prohibition of salt, iron, tea, etc., especially with Yi Tongfan, this tax is too little, and it is cheaper for those merchants and domestic merchants. However, there are some discrepancies in the agricultural tax he said, no, it should be said that this is the case in name, but in reality it is not. ”

Wu Zheng was a little confused and asked, "Tell me carefully." ”

Li Ruhai hesitated a little, "My lord was born in Wuzhuang, so he should know these things in his heart." ”

Wu Zheng was even more curious now, "This official was still young when he left home, and he can't remember many things clearly, so you can tell me about it." ”

Li Ruhai explained: "The agricultural tax levied by the imperial court is a fixed amount. However, it needs to be distributed to each household according to the population, and the more land the people have, the less burden they have, and the less land they have, the more they naturally cannot afford it. So, can you understand? ”

Wu Zheng understood that the imperial court still collected taxes according to Ding, not according to the acres of land.

Wu Zheng couldn't help but ask: "Shaoxing Mansion also collects taxes according to Ding?" No, wasn't Zhang Juzheng's whip law implemented nationwide during the Wanli period? ”

Li Ruhai said: "Yes." The people couldn't afford the fire, and Zhang Juzheng's taxes had long been in name only. ”

Wu Zheng somewhat understood, fire consumed silver, and the imperial court uniformly levied silver taels, so that the people needed to pay taxes with silver, which made the people's silver taels suddenly in short supply.

The actual fire consumption of the smelted silver was on average every two to two cents, or one or two percent, but the actual fire consumption levied was often much higher, reaching two to three cents per tael, and sometimes even more. Fire consumption has become an ingenious means of local agglomeration, and it has also become a heavy burden for the people.

Li Ruhai said: "The people can't bear it, so they can only sacrifice to the big households...... For example, Wu Zhuang. ”

No matter how careful Li Ruhai said, Wu Zheng couldn't help but be shocked when he heard it.

"The Wu family is also like this?"

"Yes, but not much."

Wu Zheng was depressed, but in fact, the offering was nothing more than drinking to quench his thirst.

The people took their land and gave it to the big squires, and they avoided paying taxes with the inexhaustible tax exemptions of the big squires, which seemed to be cheap, but in fact they were not.

The tax levied by the imperial court to various places is a fixed amount, so the people on the spot avoid paying taxes by making contributions, and this fixed amount of taxes is evenly distributed to the heads of the remaining households, that is, the taxes avoided by the people who do not pay taxes are paid by the rest of the people.

And the more you donate, the heavier the taxes will be borne by the people who don't.

As a result, they all chose to contribute, so they fell into a dead loop.

This is the reason why the Ming Dynasty paid heavy taxes and the people were miserable, and of course, the annexation of land by the royal family and the powerful was also one of the fundamental reasons.

And the taxes that made the people feel overwhelmed were actually very low compared with previous dynasties.

The key factor here is, where exactly do the taxes go, where does the money go?

Obviously, the royal family, the big families, the powerful and the officials have carved it up.

They have large tax exemptions.

Tax exemptions were used to attract people to surrender and annex land.

In the end, the people who did not pay were overwhelmed and abandoned their fields and fled, so the court could not collect taxes.

And the dialogue with Li Ruhai also made Wu Zheng instinctively resist collecting taxes according to Ding in the future.

……。

In the days that followed, Hangzhou was quietly changing.

The squires led by Mo Zhinian officially formed the Financial Secretary, which is obviously a new thing.

It is not among the ministers of the imperial court, and it is not even in the realm of the government.

But it has great power, and is in charge of all taxes in Hangzhou and Jiaxing.

Its power comes from Wu Zheng and the support of Wu Zheng's 70,000 troops.

Taxation is a complex undertaking that involves all walks of life.

It's not like you can figure it out.

Wu Zheng's mind was not on internal affairs, but on armament and training.

At this time, an unexpected bad news came.

Jinhua has fallen!

The world is so unexpected, the more unexpected you are, the more it will appear.

Jinhua, Lanxi, Tangxi, and Pujiang counties, Zhu Dadian, the military secretary of the early period of the Nalu Wangjian State, was stationed, and later Zhu Dadian transferred to Longwu and had no contact with Shaoxing.

But he was still stationed in Jinhua by the Longwu Dynasty, and the superintendent was the same as before.

It stands to reason that there are more than 10,000 troops under Zhu Dadian's command, and no matter how strong the enemy is, he can hold out for some time, right?

How can it be said that the fall is the fall?

In fact, Zhu Dadian is really not to blame for this.

At this time, the Qing army and the Longwu Dynasty were fighting fiercely on the front line of Wuchang and Jiujiang in the west, and the Longwu Dynasty transferred 10,000 troops from Zhu Dadian to reinforce Jiujiang.

This makes Zhu Dadian less than 5,000 people.

Duoduo led his troops to attack for hundreds of miles, and even discarded Fang Guoan as a chess piece, in order to be Jinhua.

The battle situation in Wuchang and Jiujiang is gradually clear, and the city is just around the corner, if Jinhua is occupied, and then Taizhou is captured, it will cut off the retreat of Shaoxing Mansion.

In Duoduo's view, in the first battle of Hangzhou City, Wu Zheng only won a tactical victory, and at the strategic level, he still lost.

Because whether it is Shaoxing Mansion or Hangzhou Mansion, there is no danger to defend.

Even if Wu Zheng can defend Hangzhou City, the only very likely scene is that Hangzhou City has become an island.

It's just a matter of how long you last.

But Duoduo really didn't expect that it would be so difficult to attack the small city of Jinhua.

Speaking of Zhu Dadian, he can be described as "greedy" in the officialdom.

Wherever he goes, he is criticized for his greed.

can not hide the flaws, he Zhu Dadian is ruthless, not only to others, but also to himself.

Hearing that the Qing army was suddenly attacking, Zhu Dadian called on the people of the city to go to the city to defend it, and scattered the embezzled wealth to strengthen the city wall and recruit warriors.

The entire Jinhua City was organized by him to make all the people soldiers.

Duoduo attacked for a day, but he returned in vain, and he sighed that if the red-clothed cannon discarded outside Hangzhou was still there, then he could easily break the city.

On the second day, Dordor organized six attacks, but was still held back. The casualties under his command have reached more than 600.

It was at a loss that Duoduo was surprised that a weapon more powerful than his redcoat cannon came.

This is providence.

On the third day, the remnants of Fang Guoan, who had fled from Shaoxing Mansion, arrived at Jinhua City from another gate.

Fang Guoan's remnants were Ming army clothes, and Zhu Dadian and Fang Guoan were officials in the same dynasty and knew each other.

Coupled with the current tight war, it is naturally better to have one more force to defend the city.

Zhu Dadian ordered the city gate to be opened and the Ministry of State Security to enter.

But the first thing Fang Guoan did after leading his troops into the city was to command the army to rush towards the gate where Duoduo was attacking.

The inside should be combined with the outside, and it would be strange if it was not broken.

But Zhu Dadian, who is such a greedy person, when facing the destruction of the city, the choice he made was to let the women in the family throw themselves into the well first, and then bring the fire rope to gather in the powder magazine with their children and grandchildren and guests to detonate the martyrdom.

Zhuang, Dongge University scholar Zhu Dadian!

After the fall of Jinhua City, the Tartars slaughtered the city for three days, and the dead were innumerable.