Chen Minggang sat down, and a pair of eyes rolled on Xiong Buyou's face.

"Master Xiong, please say something if you have something."

"Eighth!" Xiong Buyou also called him by Wang Zhaomin's name to show affection, and at the same time did not depreciate his identity. You must know that the gentry in the county also have to call him "Old Eight".

"I have something to do, you have to give me an account." Xiong Buyou gets straight to the point -- in terms of the communication skills of both sides, it is easier to communicate with each other.

He said Wang Zhaomin's request, and then asked: "What is the problem with the collection of autumn grain in the county?" ”

"Of course, there are problems." Chen Minggang seems to have expected this question for a long time. His calm expression told Xiong Buyou that he had known about this for a long time.

"Master Xiong, does Australia also levy grain?" Chen Minggang asked.

"The imperial grain and national tax are available all over the world. Australia is no exception. "Although the agricultural tax has been abolished on this plane, it has only been abolished for a few years.

"Mr. Xiong knows how Australia collects grain," Chen Minggang asked, "What are the drawbacks?" ”

This Xiong Buyou naturally didn't know, thinking that the government would cancel the agricultural tax, benefiting farmers is one aspect, and the disadvantages of disturbing farmers are also one of the reasons. I had to say, "I don't know much about this, but I guess there is." ”

"That's it, there is a line of difficulty." Chen Minggang spoke very calmly, "Take Daming as an example, the two endowments in summer and autumn every year are the main items of the imperial court. However, there are always a number of people in each county who stubbornly resist and do not pay, and if the county is more closely followed, they abandon the fields and flee to other villages. For the sake of performance appraisal, the county magistrate can't chase too closely......"

This is very different from what Xiong Buyou heard about the tax issue in the Ming Dynasty at the Ming Dynasty social situation lecture. Besides, are the big tax debtors willing to throw away their land and flee away? After thinking about it, the lecture on social conditions in the Ming Dynasty was about the shortcomings of the system, and Chen Minggang was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the system, how could he be willing to speak ill of the system? Let's listen to it first.

"The number of households in the county is the performance appraisal of the county magistrate, and if there is less household registration during his tenure, the performance appraisal will not look good, so it is inconvenient to investigate this kind of Diao people, and how much to pay."

"The gentry in the county, are they the ones who pay the grain in full?"

Chen Minggang nodded: "Master Xiong asked on the point, according to the rules of this dynasty, the gentry naturally have the benefit of free food, but the gentry can't help but use the preferential treatment of the imperial court to 120,000 points." Those who are free of a few stones, those who are exempt from a dozen stones, those who are exempt from a dozen stones, are exempted from hundreds of stones. Mr. Xiong has always heard of trickery. ”

Xiong Buyou recalled his study materials and nodded, he kind of understood.

"Has anyone recently brought land to your people?"

"Not really." Xiong Buyou, as the main person who deals with the locals, is required to report this kind of news to him according to the regulations.

"That's fast. On the eve of the autumn grain campaign, someone will probably come. Master Wu was worried about this, so he asked Master Wang to talk to Master Xiong. ”

"I see!" Xiong Buyou fully understood that the county was most afraid that a group of "Diao Min" would rely on Shili who crossed the group and would not pay the autumn grain, so he hurriedly asked Wang Zhaomin to talk to them about paying the grain.

If the crossing group is willing to take the lead in paying the autumn grain, it will be a shock to all walks of life in Lingao, and the people who originally wanted to pass through the group to pay less grain and not pay grain will have to weigh it carefully.

However, Xiong Buyou thought to himself, things are not so simple. He said casually:

"So, this year's autumn grain is not good, right?"

"Of course it's not good." Chen Minggang replied without hesitation, "You probably also know that in this place of Lingao, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and the people must always be unscrupulous. It's really not easy to do things without a wicked person in town. ”

Xiong Buyou thought, who is this "wicked man"? Of course, it was the Gou brothers -- these two brothers had repeatedly contracted the collection of grain from Lingao. It is a well-known "food gap" in the county.

The "poor grain" is not necessarily the official in the yamen, most of them are local "wicked people", who usually either have their own livelihood, or are simply green-skinned gangsters. They all colluded with the household secretary office of the county yali, and when the yamen began to collect grain, they cooperated with the yamen to go to the countryside to collect rent, taking the opportunity to extort and reap benefits.

At first, this kind of "food gap" was just a thug of the scribes, and after a long time, some local powerful landlords and gentry also came to get involved, using their shili in the countryside to collect taxes. And then bullying the people and oppressing the peasants. The national tax on imperial grain was levied, and he himself could not help but make a fortune. What's even more unscrupulous, the small people have already paid taxes, but they are detained by such figures, and the county owes taxes every year. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the arrears of the prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River were extremely serious, and when the Qing court cleaned up the arrears accumulated in the old years, someone once said very clearly: the small people do not owe taxes, and those who owe taxes are the gentry and landlords who "contract taxes".

Xiong Buyou knew that the Gou brothers had contracted the grain supply of the county Guodu and neighboring areas all the year round, and they had made a fortune in this.

This Chen Minggang knew that the Gou family was exterminated by them, and weishenme deliberately said such things? He pondered for a moment, and a thought flashed through his mind: Could it be that Chen Minggang was hinting at them - they also did the matter of contracting taxes?

That's a coincidence! Xiong Buyou was a little excited. If this bookstore has this idea, they can take advantage of this guy. Learn more about Lingao's tax situation from him.

But he didn't make a specific statement for the time being, just stared at Chen Minggang with great interest. This kind of attitude made Chen Minggang a little confused -- he did have the intention of pulling the crossing group into the gang to contract the county's taxes.

With the prestige of the Crossing Group in Lingao, if they came forward, even if it was just to borrow a big banner, it would be enough to make the whole county frightened - he could also take the opportunity to make a big profit. Originally, the Gou brothers were powerful, but there were also a lot of gentry landlords who didn't buy it, and now that there are Australians, I'm afraid no one dares not to buy this account, and his personal income is naturally much larger.

As for the specific handling, Australians don't know anything about Daming's grain collection - not to mention these overseas visitors, the whole county, in addition to himself, is Master Wang. Although Master Wang understands, he doesn't have the county's fish book in his hand. First, the specific affairs should not all be left to his arrangement......

Thinking of this, Chen Minggang was even a little fluttering, there was a "food gap" with the Australians, and he Chen Minggang wanted to clean up a few families who were against him.

Chen Minggang planned to take this opportunity to crack down on a hard deal in the county, not only did the people in the county dare not say anything wrong, but even Wu Mingjin and Wang Zhaomin did not have the courage to refute it. Anyway, when the sky falls, there is an Australian who is a long man on top. If Australians can live in Lingao for a long time in the future, or even open a mansion, he will naturally be a hero to collect grain for Australians; The Australians were driven out by the imperial court, and the extortion and extortion had to be counted on their heads.

"Master Bear!" He screamed.

"Oh, oh," Xiong replied, "eighth! You mean, you want us to be the 'wicked people'?! ”

Chen Minggang smiled but did not speak.

"I'll have to go back and discuss this," Xiong Buyou said hesitantly, "This is a big deal." ”

"Isn't food also a big deal for you?" Chen Minggang nodded.

He fought again and again on this wishful thinking, believing that there was no flaw, and the key was how to move the Australians -- he felt that the problem was not big, and that food was fundamental for the Australians to gain a foothold here. Australians are cultivating land everywhere, which shows how hungry they are for food. From the very beginning of the Australian foothold, they called the leading figures of all villages and villages in the county to collect grain and levy Ding, and engaged in "reasonable burdens," obviously there is also a great demand for food. There is such an opportunity to justifiably get a large amount of food, why not?

"It's the pole, it's the pole." Xiong Buyou simply made a full gesture, tempted him to speak, and then said hesitantly, "It's just that we are overseas people, and we don't know anything about the tax collection of the Ming Dynasty......

"You don't have to worry about that." Chen Minggang felt that the words were almost over, and directly showed his attitude.

"Okay, with your words, I can really reply." Xiong Buyou took his leave.

Chen Minggang sent him out respectfully, and only when he saw that he was far away did he return to the private room. Just as he was about to have a snack to fill his hunger, and then he was thinking about it, suddenly his apprentice, named Zhou Qi, hurriedly broke in. First shouted, "Master! Something! ”

"What's the matter?" Chen Minggang saw him in a hurry, and hurriedly asked.

"Master, Master-" Zhou Qi swallowed.

"What's wrong with Shi Niang?" Chen Minggang doesn't like his wife, Zhang, who is famous in the county. His family lives in the back street of the county government, and almost all the neighbors are county officials and officials. When it comes to sinister and tricky, there are few people in ancient society who can compare to Xu officials, but even this group of people shakes their heads when they mention Chen Minggang's wife.

Chen Minggang is also a well-known figure in the county, but there is nothing he can do about this wife. His father-in-law is the former secretary of the Lingao County Ya Punishment Room, the eldest brother-in-law is now working as a secretary in the torture room, and the younger brother-in-law is working as a government official in the fast class, all of whom are colleagues with the same voice. It's a network of relationships built up over generations, even if he doesn't like it.

"Shi Niang just called Qiuhong!"

"Huh?!" Chen Minggang stood up. Qiu Hong was a prostitute who came from the mainland a few years ago, and set up a private door in the county town to pick up customers, and after he took a fancy to it, it became his confined. Chen Minggang was very infatuated with this out-of-town woman who was very different from the local woman, because he was worried that his wife would be noisy, and he didn't dare to hide Jiaojiao in the golden house in the county town, so he built a house outside the city to settle her, and bought her a few maidservants to use, and specially arranged people to watch around the house, one is to prevent his wife from making trouble, and the other is to prevent wild bees and butterflies to seduce Qiu Hong, and give him a green hat to wear. (！ )

[зZcｎ.]