Ma Zi once said: "Taxation is the source of life for the bureaucracy, the army, the clergy, and the court, in a word, it is the source of life for the whole apparatus of power." Strong government and heavy taxation is the same concept...... the development of the economy in the south of the Yangtze River, far beyond the other provinces of the country, the ability to transfuse blood for the country, naturally higher than other regions, so since the Tang Dynasty, the rulers of the past dynasties have implemented a generous policy on this place, the economic minister of this dynasty Qiu Jun said: "Han Yu is endowed with the world, and Jiangnan is nineteen, in today's view, Zhejiang East and West live in Jiangnan nineteen, and Su, Song, Chang, Jia, Hu five counties, and live in two Zhejiang nineteen also." Although there are inevitably exaggerations, the dependence of the state's finances on Jiangnan can also be seen.

In order to ensure that the heavy taxes were levied according to the amount, on the one hand, the imperial court stipulated that officials from Jiangsu and Zhejiang were not allowed to serve in the household department, so as to plug the loopholes and prevent troubles, and at the same time, it specially appointed important ministers in the court or honest cadres as the local governors of the heavy endowment areas. However, no matter how severe the officials urged the bureaucrats, the cunning gentry and landlords could always do everything possible to evade taxes, send money and grain, transfer the burden to the poor households who had no land and little land, and even colluded with the greedy officials to cheat and increase the burden of the small people.

Therefore, after the heavy taxation of Jiangnan at the beginning of the country, in just over a hundred years, the land tenure relationship of the Jiangnan generation has undergone fundamental changes. The main body of taxation was originally "Guantian,...... It is the land that belongs to the state and is directly handed over to the people for cultivation, and the tax on this land has always been two to three times that of the people's land...... Some of it became land with lower taxes, and the rest of the land went to the poor. As for the land in the name of the wealthy merchants, it was all registered as private land.

There is also a large amount of land that has been consecrated to the names of those who have achieved fame...... Jiangnan culture and education are prosperous, and there are many people who are promoted to scholars, and after each big competition, many counties have tens of thousands of acres, or even tens of thousands of acres, of cultivated land are hidden from the tax list. But in this way, those poor households who have no way to make trouble "become the actual payers of the heavy endowment." There is a strange thing that small households have to pay taxes for large households, "those who complete the course are whipped every day, and those who are free are free.

Moreover, although the imperial court and local officials have taken all measures to levy and extort excessively, the amount of taxes that exceed the supply capacity of the people is still in arrears every year, so the phenomenon of free taxation in Jiangnan is very serious, and it has never even been paid. Taking Susong Erfu as an example, in the second year of Hongwu, which was heavily endowed, hundreds of thousands of stones were in arrears. In just seven years from the thirteenth year of Yongle to the nineteenth year of Yongle, the two governments were in arrears in taxes and grain, no less than millions of stones.

Then from the first year of Xuande to the seventh year of Xuande, the Suzhou government accumulated as much as 8 million stones, and a generation of famous ministers Zhou Chen patrolled Jiangnan. At that time, the total amount of tax payable in Suzhou was 2.77 million stones, and the annual tax in Songjiang was 1.2 million stones, but the amount of tax and grain collected each year was only half of the amount due. Therefore, there was a proverb at that time: the court is greedy, and the people are greedy. ”

This is still the best of the Ming Dynasty, Hong, Yong, Xuan three dynasties "its examination is strict, the officials can not be said to be industrious, because of the shortage of taxes and grain and grass job investigation and punishment is not a few, tax and grain arrears are still so much. After that, the authority of the central court declined, and the control of the local government was far less than at the beginning of the founding of the country, and the officials from Jiangnan gradually grasped the right to speak in the court. Therefore, this kind of argument is thrown out from time to time about "Jiangnan is like a mountain, and the people do not know the joy of life, and every time they pay taxes, they have to sell their children and daughters, or even abandon their fields and flee", and even fabricate the number of deaths in the famine, just to make their hometown pay less taxes.

The lie has been told a thousand times, and it has become a fact, so since Jingtai, the imperial court has repeatedly reduced the arrears of taxes in Jiangnan, and there is even a saying that every five years is reduced by five years. As a result, the landlord became more and more fearless, and when he paid taxes, he tried his best to default on his ...... But how can ordinary people withstand the tyranny of the tiger and wolf urging taxes? So who are the people who can owe taxes and wait for relief? Go without saying.

Under Qiang Nai, when the Ministry of Officials inspected the officials serving in Jiangnan, "if they can complete half of the indicators, they will be qualified: if they can complete sixty percent, they can be good" to be promoted: if they complete seventy percent, they will be regarded as cadres and focus on training. If it can be eighty percent of the indicators, the legend can directly become the head of the household...... Of course, legends are legends because no one has ever reached them.

Therefore, people in the know say that Jiangnan "has the name of heavy endowment, but there is no heavy tax." Jiangnan is the most important in the world, but Jiangnan is also the most in the world. This not only makes the imperial court empty in the name of making profits, but also has no real profits, and in the name of burdening heavy burdens, there is no truth of losing. Moreover, because the amount of money cannot be paid off year by year, the old arrears and the new levy are confused, and the grain payers do not know which is the old arrears and which is the new levy, and the officials are corrupt and corrupt are all mixed in the people's debts, and the heavy taxation provides convenience for the traitors and embezzlers, and of course it will eventually fall on the powerless and powerless people.

For these situations, Hai Rui, who had served as the magistrate of Suzhou, was very clear, and he had long been willing to relieve the suffering of the people and cure those greedy and shameless gentry. So he knew that he was sent to Jiangnan this time, in fact, to use his hardness to impact this almost monolithic paradise on earth. But he gladly accepted the order, because in his opinion, he and the cabinet were just taking what they needed.

But although he has a generous and sad heart, he doesn't want to die before he succeeds. Hai Rui knows very well that Su Song's taxes have accumulated for a hundred years, and if he goes through those old accounts and collects the tax arrears over the years, he can only make people angry, and no one will support him. He remembered that Shen Mo once said to himself: Struggle is the same thing, it is to unite one part of the people and defeat the other part: the more people who are on your side, the less likely you are to fail, and if the people who support you are strong against those who oppose you, you have the possibility of success. This vulgar wisdom would not have been listened to in normal times, but now he is facing an unprecedentedly brutal battle, and the probability of defeat is far greater than success. In Hai Rui's view, it doesn't matter if you are ruined, but you can miss this good opportunity to rescue the people and sort out the finances and taxes, and the poor people in the south of the Yangtze River don't know how many years they will have to suffer in the suffering; The national situation of the Ming Dynasty does not know whether to give it back or not, and the opportunity to do it again.

Therefore, it must be successful, so Hai Jui narrowed the scope of the crackdown, did not pursue the tax arrears of previous years, and only required a new measurement of the land owned by each household, and registered it "as a tax payment certificate in the future." His goal is very simple: "It is to let those who have more land pay more taxes, and those who have less land pay less taxes, and return a fair life to the people."

But the most difficult thing in ancient times is to seek justice for the weak.

Even if he is Hai Rui, he can't rely on fame and courage to do it, but to talk about strategy.

First of all, in order to build momentum for the next Qingzhang Tianmu and gain the support of the people, he celebrity compiled the benefits of Qingzhang Tianmu into a catchy smooth mouth and ordered officials to go to the countryside to publicize to the people: at the same time, he issued a notice to fight lawsuits for the people for free, and if the people have a complaint, they do not need to write a complaint, they can directly come to the government to file an oral complaint...... This is also Hai Jui's summary of the past judicial process.

The day before yesterday in Songjiang, Hai Rui told Xu Jieran that Wu Zhong was a lot of people, and his temperament was fierce and stubborn, and he was quick to litigate. In short, it is necessary to ignore those who are distracted from the people, accept less lawsuits, and do everything so that it does not affect the lives of the people. , This is actually not entirely out of selfishness, there is indeed such a problem in the Susong area, because after ten years of fighting against the Japanese, almost all the people have practiced martial arts and fitness, and they are naturally not afraid of things if they have martial arts; Second, Susong's economic development has reached a certain level, and a large number of unemployed vagrants have appeared, who are idle all day long, picking quarrels and provoking troubles, which naturally brings bad folk customs.

However, Hai Rui thinks that the people in Jiangnan are not good, one of the reasons is that the officials do not fulfill their responsibilities, and the officials who are parents are full of more things than less, and even eat the plaintiff and the defendant, how can they make decisions for the people? The poor people have no way to deal with it by the government, so they can only solve it themselves. Another reason is the existence of the "litigator", Hai Jui believes that "the prosperity of healthy litigation is rooted in the person who instigates the lawsuit, but it also originates from the fact that the lawsuit is not good and the lawsuit is used to instigate the profit." In order to make a fortune by repeatedly writing pleadings, these litigators made some simple things very complicated, such as problems that could be solved through mediation, but at their instigation, the contradictions intensified, and lawsuits were brought up, which made the people's customs even more corrupt.

Therefore, the direct acceptance of oral proceedings by ordinary people was the key to reversing this confusion, and Hai Jui ordered the people to declare that a book of proclamation must be set up in the future, and that those who could not write it themselves should be allowed to make oral statements."

As soon as this decree came out, it caused a strong response from the people of various prefectures, and for a while, the people came to complain in an endless stream before the Fuya...... Of course, it is impossible to have this effect if anyone else is the governor, but now it is Hai Rui who is in the hall, Hai Qingtian, who is the master of the people, and the king of Haiyan, who is not afraid of power, what else do the people have to scruple about?

In the evening of the same day, more than 3,000 oral and written pleadings were received. Wang Xijue, who assisted in government affairs, said with a wry smile: "On this day, I received a year's worth of money. Dugong, let's stop doing business? "Hehe, this is the ...... business", Hai Rui looked up from the pile of old papers on the table and said with a smile: "You can classify these cases and take a look." After speaking, he continued to bow his head and copy the calculation.

Tonight, Hai Rui actually lit ten butter headlamps for the first time, illuminating the hall as bright as day. Because at this moment, not only the two of them are busy in the house, but there are also sixteen auditors invited from Huilian, who are tackling the registration files of the year-old land in the house............ Although it is ready to be re-measured, if the ownership of the land can be sorted out, it can naturally greatly reduce the difficulty of clearing.

This errand must have felt like an ant gnawing an elephant to an ordinary bookkeeper, but it was just an ordinary errand for the auditor, who was accustomed to the vast number of books. For their efficient and accurate work, Hai Rui is naturally nine points satisfied, and the remaining one point is dissatisfied, because their asking price is too high, each person is three taels of silver a day, it is said that this is still an internal preferential price. So in order to shorten the working day, Hai Rui had to grit his teeth and start a big deal............ Compared to the remuneration to be paid, this is really nothing in the amount of gas.

Fortunately, in the second half of the night, the auditors completed the task assigned by Hai Rui, and the first one sent the summary conclusions to him, and the rest went back to sleep.

Hai Rui rubbed his eyes, took the report and looked at it, although he was already mentally prepared, he still said, "Ouch, a voice: "So much?" ”

This sound caused Wang Xijue to turn his face, and Hai Rui handed him the report. Wang Xijue took it and went to the oil lamp to read it carefully, but saw that it read: , List of the total number of acres of land registered in Songjiang Prefecture" The total number of acres of land and the total amount of grain tax in each county of Songjiang are listed in detail below; And compared with the number of acres of land and the total amount of grain tax 20 years after the founding of the country............ Because during this period, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, and the reclamation was basically over, and the statistics were of reference value.

It can be seen that in the 24th year of Hongwu, a total of 4.76 million mu of registered land was registered, and the total grain tax was 1.38 million stone: in the second year of Longqing, 4.3 million mu of registered land was registered, and the total grain tax was 1.03 million stone. The total amount of land registered has shrunk by 460,000 mu, and the total amount of grain tax has shrunk by 350,000 stone. This figure is already very beautiful, because there are still statistics from Jiajing for 20 years, with 4.4 million mu of registered land and a total grain tax of 700,000 stones...... This shows that Hai Rui's previous three governors, Shen Mo, Tang Ruji and Gui Youguang, have done a very good job within the scope allowed at that time.

No matter why the registered land has shrunk, it doesn't matter where the nearly one million acres of cultivated land that have been added over the years have gone after dredging the Wusong River and developing Shanghai Beach. With regard to the tax revenue, which has shrunk by nearly half for a time, the auditors have given a set of relevant data: in the 24th year of Hongwu, the amount of re-assigned official land was 3 million mu, and the tax-free land was only 30,000 mu.

However, in the twentieth year of Jiajing, only 1.7 million mu of re-endowed official land remained, and the rest was resold to the people by the government in various forms to become Pingfu private land; The number of tax-free fields has reached 900,000 mu. By the second year of Longqing, the number of official fields re-assigned was 1.1 million mu, and the tax-free fields reached 1.17 million mu, exceeding the number of official fields for the first time.

From the 20th year of Jiajing to the second year of Longqing, the amount of cultivated land deteriorated further, but the amount of taxes increased significantly. However, he believes that this cannot hide the evil consequences of land annexation, because the acres of land that are not taxed are still not taxed, but can only squeeze more oil and water out of the poor people.

Under a series of figures, there is another line of statistics, which is the total amount of land of the Xu family in Songjiang is 1.46 million mu.! ~！