Although Zhaoqing in December is not as snowy as in the north, it is also cold, and most of the pedestrians on the street are already wearing cotton jackets, but the difference between Zhaoqing and many cities at this time is that in this winter, there are no beggars, homeless people and other poor people who freeze to death in the streets and alleys in the city.

Not even a beggar can be seen here!

And all of this stems from a new policy issued by the Tang Dynasty this fall, 'Cash-for-Work Law'!

This administrative system, which is not considered a law, was originally intended to provide relief to the victims, and it came from the large-scale typhoon and flood disaster in western Guangdong in the first half of this year.

At that time, Li Xuan used military means to suppress it strongly, and on the other hand, he also mobilized a lot of resources for relief and began to distribute relief food to the victims for free.

But later found that this kind of cost is too huge, and human nature is evil, when the government began to distribute relief food for free on a large scale, it was everyone who could go to receive a bowl of porridge to satisfy their stomachs, but many people were unwilling to leave, and stayed at the soup kitchen every day to wait for free food, and even engaged in more and more people, and even some ordinary people began to receive free food.

When this situation was reflected on Li Xuan's side, Li Xuan directly waved his pen and directly proposed the method of cash-for-work, eliminating any possibility of getting something for nothing!

If the victims in the affected areas do not have food rations, then they can come to the government to sign up, and then the male government will organize them to open up the official fields, in addition to building roads, bridges, canals, and other projects that require a lot of labor; Women are organized to spin and weave cloth and sew clothes, and to outsource textile factories under the Ministry of Industry.

The victims can get food or money as a reward, although the remuneration is very low, and it is not even as good as the money earned by ordinary people doing odd jobs on weekdays, but this is originally an emergency not to help the poor, and the Tang government just needs to ensure that they do not starve to death, and there will be no large-scale famine or even a civil uprising.

Later, this method of cash-for-work was widely used by local governments and became the preferred method of household departments in solving disasters in various places.

However, this way of cash-for-work is only useful for those who have labor, but many people who have no food and clothing are short of labor, and the Tang government naturally cannot ignore this.

On the one hand, it is to organize the local gentry to open a good hall to adopt the lonely old and orphans, this kind of thing for the local gentry who need fame, unless it is those iron roosters, otherwise the average person will more or less contribute money and efforts, after all, these lonely old people and orphans are actually their locals.

On the other hand, Li Xuan also instructed local governments to start doing what they could and opening government-run orphanages and nursing homes.

For the relief of the victims, the Datang government is also concerned, and although the 'work for relief' cannot completely solve the problem of the victims, it can be regarded as a part of the relief.

Subsequently, this cash-for-work scheme was also introduced by cities in various places, specifically to deal with beggars and homeless people living in cities.

At the beginning of autumn and winter, Zhaoqing began to concentrate on rectification, gathering the beggars and displaced people in the city, and those who still had labor force were all sent to major factories, or sent to open up wasteland and build roads, and so on.

And it's still mandatory!

People with labor force don't do anything, and they know that being a beggar is a great waste of labor, and this is unbearable for the Tang Dynasty, which lacks population.

As for the beggars, displaced people, and children who have no labor, they are sent to government-run nursing homes and orphanages.

However, in fact, these government-run nursing homes and orphanages cannot be regarded as completely free, because if they really want to support these people completely free, the finances of local governments cannot support them, so there will be some easy work for them to do in these nursing homes and orphanages.

Even if it's just the simplest job, at least it can make them partially self-reliant!

Of course, in this process, it is inevitable that the local underworld forces will be cleaned up by the way, such as beggar gangs and the like, and for these unofficial violent organizations, the attitude of the Tang Dynasty has always been firm and unique: kill! Kill! Kill!

And it turns out that any so-called violent organization, in the face of the professional violent machine of the state, is as fragile as a castle of sand, and is not even as strong as the resistance organized by the gentry and landlords.

Therefore, in the process of 'work for relief', the Tang Dynasty wiped out many beggar gangs by the way, and even pulled out many strongholds of various chaotic sects of the White Lotus Sect.

He killed a large number of so-called White Lotus cultists who amassed wealth, committed murder, and even plotted rebellion in the name of religion.

Later, Li Xuan simply promulgated the Religious Law, and any religion that has not been officially registered and approved is a cult, and it is forbidden to preach openly or privately!

In this operation launched in the autumn and winter specifically for political beggars, displaced people, and even chaotic illegal forces, the Datang Ministry of Industry became the biggest winner!

They have received at least 50,000 or more people for free, almost free labor!

Under the rule of the Tang Dynasty, unless you are really lying in bed and unable to move or are really young, that is, you have no labor force at all, otherwise, it is not allowed by law to want to get something for nothing, even if you are a beggar.

Labor is the right and obligation given to them by Li Xuan, the Holy Monarch of the ages!

As the foot of the world, Zhaoqing is naturally the most thoroughly renovated city, a huge city, including the city and suburbs within the city walls, has expanded to nearly 100,000 people in the past two years, including the local residents of Zhaoqing, workers recruited from all over the country and their families, soldiers and officials and their families.

But this big city, which has grown to a population of 100,000 in just two years, is now full of beggars, but there is not a single beggar in sight, and I have to say that this is due to the city management office under the Zhaoqing Prefecture Patrol Police Bureau.

Zhaoqing City Management Office, its core backbone are the original Xingquan City Management Office people, they were in Xingquan Mansion when they were extremely powerful, and after arriving in Zhaoqing, the scale has rapidly expanded to hundreds of people.

Every day, people from the city management office wearing the armband of 'chengguan' will always appear in the streets and alleys, monitoring and cracking down on any phenomenon that hinders the appearance of the city!

Defecate on the street, fine!

Take out the garbage casually and fine!

Merchants occupy the streets, fines!

Fines every day, and receive soft money collection!

As for those beggars, they are their key targets, they will be arrested when they find them, and then sent to different places!

Under the strong combat effectiveness of the city management office, the appearance of Zhaoqing is also a reproduction of the scene of Xingquan Mansion!

The first feeling of many outsiders when they come to Zhaoqing City is that it is clean, and the second feeling is the rules!

Needless to say, there are people cleaning on the street anytime and anywhere, and no one dares to litter, defecate and so on!

And there are a lot of rules, among which the deepest feeling for outsiders is queuing!

No matter what you do, if there is someone in front of you, you have to wait in line.

When some outsiders first arrived in Zhaoqing City, they wanted not to queue up at the city gate, but directly cut into the queue, and they were immediately arrested by the patrol police guarding the city gate, fined at the lightest, and directly imprisoned at the worst.

In some places on the street, if someone dares not to line up and others report it, if there happens to be a patrol police nearby, then the patrol police will immediately run over, not to mention it, fine!

And this makes many people extremely uncomfortable!

It is not that no one has criticized the many harsh regulations of the Tang government on urban management, and the final punishment of these harsh regulations is basically based on fines.

But it's basically gone, because these fines are usually split between the local finance and the central government, and the local government takes the lion's share!

Because the tax power implemented by the Tang Dynasty is all vested in the Ministry of Taxation, even if the Ministry of Taxation will eventually leave a part of the collected tax to the local treasury according to a certain proportion, that is, the national tax.

However, the proportion of land tax is relatively low, and if it is fined, the proportion of local retention can reach eighty!

And the local financial difficulties in the Tang Dynasty official mansion are all poor!

For example, according to the current official salary system of the Tang Dynasty, the salaries of officials of the central institutions and dispatched agencies are responsible for the central finance, while the salaries of local officials are floated by a certain proportion according to the national benchmark and according to the different financial conditions of various places.

Although the state has set standards, the money actually has to be taken out of the local finances!

In addition to the salaries of officials, the local government also has to bear the burden of local infrastructure, education, and so on.

Therefore, the pressure on local finances is actually very large, and local governments are also full of tricks in order to generate revenue!

One of the best ways is to develop the local economy, and when the local economy comes up, the tax department collects more taxes, and the local taxes allocated to the localities will naturally increase, and the local finances will be more abundant.

Among them, the best ones are generally those cities with convenient transportation and good industrial and commercial development, Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, Wuzhou, and Lianzhou can be regarded as typical representatives, but many places want to play how to play the effect!

Therefore, in addition to developing industry and commerce and agriculture to increase land tax revenue, the local government will also make great efforts to impose fines in order to generate revenue!

The patrol police station in many places has a fixed fine task every month, and the salary of the patrol police officers cannot be directly deducted.

However, the name of the fine cannot be formulated indiscriminately, generally the imperial court formulates projects and standards, and the local government has no right to increase or decrease on its own, otherwise, you can directly report it to the local inspectorate, and you can also get a report bounty!