Entering the backyard, Su Tiancheng just looked around, didn't clean up, and didn't need him to clean up, the county government had already arranged for people, and it was cleaned up, as for the furnishings inside the courtyard, he didn't care about it, and when Wang Furong and others came, they would naturally arrange it, and the former magistrate of the county moved everything away, and the family members also left, leaving an empty courtyard.

The county government is worthy of being the county government, even the place where the horses are fed, are ready-made, just on the left side of the back garden, a large open space, a bit similar to the racecourse, on one side is the horse shed that has been built, many nurses have seen this place, very happy, they are still a little worried, if there is no place to feed the horses, I don't know what to do.

Sihai Restaurant is not far from the county government, just walk over, Su Tiancheng and Qu Qingze, take Wang Dazhi, and go to the banquet together.

Su Jun didn't dare to leave for the time being, the official seal was on his body, he would not leave the county government until he found a safe place to store it, Su Tiancheng also knew the importance of the official seal of Lu Dao, and Su Jun went.

Su Ertong and many nursing homes accompanied Su Jun.

Before Lu Tianming had time to go to Sihai Restaurant to arrange it in person, he saw Su Tiancheng and Qu Qingze come out, he originally thought that Su Tiancheng was going to take most of the people who came with him to the restaurant, but he didn't expect it to be three people.

Seeing such a situation, Lu Tianming secretly thought to himself, there are not too many people, it seems that the new magistrate likes to be quiet, notify the secretary of the sixth room, and go with him, it's okay.

The group slowly walked towards the Four Seas Restaurant, Su Tiancheng and Lu Tianming were talking, and Qu Qingze was talking with Zheng Keyou.

"Lord Lu, let's talk about the basic situation of Jiangning County."

Lu Tianming was a little surprised, he didn't expect that Su Tiancheng had just taken office, and he wanted to understand the basic situation of Jiangning County.

"My lord, there are 250,000 households in Jiangning County, and last year's population was 650,000, with 40,000 hectares of cultivated land......

Su Tiancheng frowned, Jiangning County is Gyeonggi County, the largest county under the jurisdiction of Yingtianfu, how can there only be 40,000 hectares of cultivated land, about 600,000 mu, less than one mu of cultivated land per capita, it should be more than that, according to his imagination, there are at least one million mu of cultivated land, can it be said that Gyeonggi County, land annexation, is it so serious.

"The annual tax in Jiangning County is a total of 130,000 taels of silver, of which 110,000 taels are given for fields, and the rest of the salt, customs duties, commercial taxes, inland customs duties, tea taxes, mineral silver, forestry output taxes, etc., totaling 20,000 taels."

Su Tiancheng almost thought that he had misheard.

The field endowment of the Ming Dynasty is not very heavy, but the field endowment of Jiangning County is no longer ordinary, calculated according to 600,000 mu of cultivated land, the average tax per mu of cultivated land is 1.8 yuan of silver, and the cultivated land in the south is about 2.5 stone per mu, which is equivalent to the harvest, and the silver is about seven dollars and five cents, so that the tax has reached more than 20% of the total income, which is unlikely.

Under normal circumstances, the field endowment should not exceed 10% of the yield per mu.

This can only show one situation, that is, the situation of land annexation in Jiangning County has been very serious, most of the land, in the hands of the bureaucrats and gentry, they have a meritorious reputation, do not have to pay taxes, but the imperial court's land endowment will not change, these burdens will naturally be transferred to the peasants.

If there is a famine, the peasants will certainly not be able to survive.

"My lord, Jiangning County has been very difficult in the past few years, and it has not been able to pay taxes in a row, and I have to apply for some exemptions from the Tianfu Ya every year."

Su Tiancheng only smiled bitterly.

A huge Jiangning County, occupying more than half of the city of Nanjing, including some surrounding towns, a year of tax is only a mere 130,000 taels of silver, thinking of the situation of Nanjing City full of merchants, he thought that he was dreaming, not to mention the rest, is Qinhuaihe a green building, a month's income, I am afraid that more than Jiangning County's annual taxes.

He vaguely knew that most of the officials in the middle of the court were from the south, and most of them were from the south and Zhejiang, and after the great famine in the north, these officials in the south still wanted to protect their own interests and opposed the use of the south's financial resources to support the north.

It seems that the problem is indeed not so simple, but in any case, it is not possible without silver, economic interests determine the superstructure, without silver, even if you say the sky, no one will listen to you.

"Lord Lu, Jiangning County's taxes, except for the Tian Fu, how much is the rest of the tax?"

"The specific number, the lower officials have to go back to check, probably I can remember, the salt tax is eight thousand taels, the commercial tax is one thousand taels, the customs tariff is four thousand taels, and the rest of the taxes are seven thousand taels in total."

Probably seeing that Su Tiancheng's face was a little wrong, Lu Tianming hurriedly added.

"My lord, the situation in Jiangning County is special, Ying Tianfu is knowledgeable, and the household department is also clear, and over the years, there has been no reminder to pay taxes, so you don't need to worry."

Lu Tianming thought that Su Tiancheng was frightened by the amount of taxes paid by Jiangning County, and if he wanted to talk about his feelings, he also thought that the taxes were very high, looking at many other counties, the taxes were not high, and they always said that they could not collect them.

After the levy of Liaoyu, the total tax of the Ming Dynasty was only about 30 million taels, and the average to more than 1,000 counties was only about 30,000 taels.

Su Tiancheng sighed secretly in his heart, Zhu Youzhen, Zhu Youzhen, if you continue to develop according to this trend, you will not be able to lose the country, although the land endowment is not high, but it supports most of the financial revenue, these burdens are on the heads of the peasants, and those rich businessmen who rival the country have not paid much tax at all, coupled with the seriousness of land annexation, it is concentrated in the hands of the bureaucrats and gentry, relying on fame, there is no need to hand over the land endowment, and the remaining burden is naturally passed on to the heads of the peasants at the bottom. It's impossible to say that people don't rebel.

Speaking of other taxes, it's a joke, there are so many big businessmen in Jiangning County, and there is only one thousand taels of business tax, what is the difference between this and no tax.

The salt tax was directly controlled by the imperial court, and the profits from selling salt were amazing, almost the same as the real estate of later generations, and the tax was 8,000 taels, which was estimated to be less than the income of the big salt merchants in one day.

As for the customs tariff, Zheng Chenggong once relied on the control of the customs tariff, and was rich enough to rival the country, with an annual input of more than 20 million taels of silver, and only 4,000 taels in Jiangning County.

It is a great irony that those who have the money to pay taxes do not have to pay them, and that the peasants who cannot afford to pay taxes bear the greatest burden.

Su Tiancheng suddenly felt that the first thing he had to do was to collect taxes, and he had to think of an excellent way to deduct the silver from the hands of the big landlords and gentry, without violating the rules of the court too much, and not causing a sensation, otherwise, those officials in the court, especially those who gave things, would bite people like mad dogs again.

As for the method, it is complicated to say, but it is actually simple, the big businessmen are afraid of death, they have joined forces with Qu Qingze, and they have already done it once, and they have brought down Lei Wentong, so why not do it a few more times.

Su Tiancheng secretly made up his mind, as long as he was in Jiangning County for a day, some rules would have to be set, and if he couldn't receive taxes of more than one million taels of silver, he wouldn't think about doing this county, and besides, he would have to reduce the field tax to the greatest extent.

"My lord, there are a total of 206 scribes in the county government, of which 117 are in the Yingtianfu and the Ministry of Officials, and the remaining 89 are all in charge of the expenses of the county government, and there are a total of 1,057 officials."

"Oh, how many people are there in the Inspection Division?"

"There are not many sergeants in the Yamen of the Inspection Division, there are more than 30 people now, and the related defense affairs are mainly responsible for the Nanjing Five Cities Soldiers and Horses, including many customs defenses in Jiangning County, and the county government has to give the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division some silver taels every year, relatively speaking, there are not many things in the Inspection Division, and several governors of the county are ready to abolish the Inspection Division."

"Jiangning County's defense, why should the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division be responsible for?"

"This, that's also the arrangement above."

Su Tiancheng narrowed his eyes, how could such a situation occur.

If you want to say that the main armed forces of the local area are the inspection department and the official service, the inspection department used to be directly under the control of the above, and later, the imperial court could not afford the expenses and handed it over to the local government.

For example, in Shanxi, because of the invasion of the rogues, the inspection department has become the main force of the local armed forces, and the recruited sergeants have all entered the inspection department, as for the county government officials, because of their bad reputation, there are not many people who are willing to do the bureaucracy, and some county government officials, the sergeants of the inspection department, how many more than 1,000 people, there is no big problem in dealing with small groups of rogues.

The most important thing is that this is the amount of armed power that the magistrate can directly control, and it is justified in name, and no one can say anything.

The civil officials of the Ming Dynasty, without the will of the imperial court, could never mobilize the army.

Could it be said that Nanjing's management methods are the same as Beijing's, because with the Beijing camp and the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses, it is not allowed to have excess local armed forces.

But this is also unreasonable, Jiangning County has more than 1,000 government officials, which shows that the task of maintaining local law and order is still undertaken by the county government, and the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division has not played much of a role.

"Lord Lu, has there always been only so many sergeants in the Inspection Division?"

"No, it's mainly because the county government can't afford it."

"Oh, that is to say, the sergeant of the Expansion Inspection Division, Ying Tianfu will not have any opinions."

"This, for several years in a row, the county government has not been able to pay taxes in full, if the sergeants of the inspection department are expanded, Ying Tianfu may have an opinion."

"In this way, the county government will give some silver to the Tokyo camp and the Xijing camp every year."

"Yes, that's right."

Su Tiancheng nodded, and didn't ask anymore, here, I'm afraid it's not just the matter of silver, but also some other factors, the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses Division and the Jingying in Nanjing, all they see are their own interests, and they want them to maintain law and order in Jiangning County, it's just a joke, the silver is wanted, and things will not be done.