Fanning only stayed for an hour before saying goodbye to Mingren, he had to watch the Xiangjun practice the defensive formation in the afternoon, he really couldn't spare time, and in the afternoon Mingren also had to leave Laizhou Port for Quanzhou, before leaving, Fanning asked for a few baskets of coconuts and two bunches of freshly ripened bananas for his subordinates to try.

That night, Fanning left Laizhou overnight to respond to Tianfu.

Three days later, Fan Ning and his entourage arrived in Yucheng County, the easternmost part of Yingtianfu, it was noon, the county seat was still thirty miles away, Fan Ning saw a tea shed on the side of the road, so he said to a dozen of his subordinates: "Go over there to eat something, let's rest for a while." ”

Everyone dismounted one after another, led the horse to the tea shed, and the tea shack shopkeeper hurriedly greeted him with a smile on his face, "Welcome the guest officer to rest for a while and drink a bowl of hot tea!" ”

"If you have wine, let's have a jar first!"

"There is wine, there is pear wine made by myself, it is famous far and wide, and the guest officer should taste it well!"

Everyone tied up their horses, sat down in the tea shed, and the men came forward to pour them wine with a jar of wine, according to the regulations, the wine in the countryside can only be brewed for self-drinking, and it is not allowed to be sold, but only the capital is strictly controlled, and the other places are basically not controlled.

Fanning didn't bother to bother with this matter, and asked again, "What is there to eat?" ”

"There are meat foam soup cakes, egg soup cakes, meat buns, vegetarian buns, sauced meat, tofu, pancakes wrapped in pickles, mutton pancakes, etc., as well as fresh pears and persimmons."

"Each person has a bowl of meat foam soup cakes, other meat buns, sauce meat, mutton pancakes, as many as there are!"

"Wait a minute, the guest officer will be here soon."

Several guys hurriedly went to prepare food, Fanning looked around, there were a total of eight or nine tables under the tea shed, they accounted for four tables, and the other tables were basically full.

At this time, Fanning saw several people in soap clothes sitting in front of a table on the very side, and a middle-aged man with a wooden flail sitting on the side with a sad face.

"A few officials and brothers, give me a bowl of bars!" The man with the wooden flail pleaded.

"Humph! If you want to take advantage of us after a lawsuit, either you will pay for our wine, or you will shut up! ”

"I just don't have any money on me, if I don't owe a few people first, I will definitely pay it back when I go back."

The chief looked at him, and beckoned, "Bartender, four more bowls of wine!" ”

The people at the table next to him whispered: "What a disaster! Luo Yuanwai has always been honest and timid, and this kind of thing is put on the table by him, and he can only admit that he is unlucky. ”

"That's it! At the beginning, he was persuaded not to be this Du Baozheng, but he didn't listen, and thought that he was an official, but he ended up in vain. ”

Fan Ning felt a little strange in his heart, so he asked a guest next to him, "Is that middle-aged man Du Baozheng?" ”

"It's Luo Yuanwai from Shushan Township, and the government implements the armor protection law, and he becomes the capital Baozheng."

"Then how can you have a lawsuit?" Fanning asked again.

The guest sneered and said: "Their township has a serious tax arrears, and the county ordered him to pay taxes within a month, and his reputation is not very good, and it is said that many farmers ignore him, and as a result, the field tax cannot be paid, and the county detains him." ”

Fan Ning frowned, "According to the provisions of the Baojia Law, if Du Baozheng can't collect taxes, he can hand them over to the county, and the county will send people to the countryside to urge taxes, what does this have to do with Du Baozheng?" ”

Another old man shook his head, "Don't talk nonsense if you don't understand, Luo Yuanwai's arrest was not a matter of Tian Tax, but the miscellaneous expenses were too big, and he was sued before he was arrested." ”

"And what miscellaneous expenses?" Fanning was puzzled.

The old man saw that Fan Ning was not like an ordinary person, so he shook his head, "I can't say this, if I say it, it will cause trouble, so don't embarrass me." ”

Fan Ning didn't ask much, at this time, after drinking the wine, he escorted Luo Yuan out, and several guests next to him also checked out and left, and after a while, only Fan Ning and the four tables were left in the tea shed.

Gongsun Xuance, who followed Fan Ning on his patrol, asked in a low voice, "Fu Jun, is there something wrong with the armor protection law?" ”

Last year, Wang Anshi wanted to try to change the law in Yingtianfu, and received strong support from Zhao Zhongzhen.

In the past, the county sent people to the countryside to collect taxes from door to door, and the county was under great pressure and could not be busy at all.

After the implementation of the Baojia Law, Du Baozheng was responsible for collecting taxes, and the thorns who refused to pay taxes were sent by the county to collect them, which had nothing to do with Du Baozheng.

Fan Ning shook his head, "I don't know, but I feel a little strange, there should be no loopholes in the armor protection law, you can ask the shopkeeper!" ”

Gongsun Xuance immediately summoned the shopkeeper and asked him, "What happened to that Luo Yuanwai who was arrested just now?" ”

The shopkeeper was a little embarrassed, and said for a while: "It's a bit complicated, the official is not a local, it's best not to ask, it will cause trouble." ”

"You can talk about it casually, and we will listen to it casually, and when we get out of this tea shed, we will forget about it."

The shopkeeper saw that there were no locals in the tea shed, so he lowered his voice and said: "It's actually unclear here, you have to eat and live in the countryside, and you have to subsidize money, these expenses are not borne by the county, and they are spread to the countryside, which doesn't sound like much, but in a year, it's also a lot of money." ”

"That's not right!"

Fanning opened his mouth and said: "How can the cost of going to the countryside be borne by the township?" These miscellaneous expenses have always been borne by the county government. ”

Fan Ning knew that this fee had always existed, because the government was urging taxes for the transfer envoys, and the transfer envoys would subsidize the local government every year according to the tax amount to collect a tax and labor fees, and then the states would decompose it into the counties.

The shopkeeper shook his head and said: "Things are not so simple, if there is no benefit, who wants to be right?" The security office also has expenses. ”

Fanning understands a little, this is a new problem encountered in the Baojia Law, who will bear the expenses of Baozheng and Du Baozheng?

The terms promulgated by Wang Anshi clearly stipulate that the expenses of Du Baozheng should be borne by the county, and if the number of days of attendance in the county is reduced, then part of the expenditure should be transferred to the townships and counties as their funds.

"Is it that this Luo Yuanwai privately apportioned the expenses of Baozheng, but the amount was too large and he was sued?"

"The amount is very large, I heard that this Luo Yuanwai collected 300 yuan a year, almost the same money, but who should take this money, this is the key, do you understand?"

Fan Ning nodded slowly, he fully understood that the county's anger was not because Luo Yuanwai apportioned miscellaneous fees to the people without authorization, but because the money was swallowed by Luo Yuanwai, which was the reason why Luo Yuanwai was arrested.

..

After everyone had eaten and drunk, they got on their horses and set off again, and Gongsun Xuance asked, "Do you want to go to the county office?" ”

Fanning shook his head, "Respond directly to Tianfu." ”

"The prince doesn't want to take care of this?"

"What if you manage it, what's it like?"

Fanning sighed softly and asked, "What do you think is the problem with the armor protection method?" ”

Gongsun Xuance thought for a while and said: "The essence of the Baojia Law is to add a yamen at the township level, just like the title of the shopkeeper, Baoya, we may not recognize it in Tianfu, but in the eyes of the people, it really exists." ”

Fanning nodded, "In the past, all kinds of expenses in the county were counted on from above, and they have always been very poor, called clear soup to cook the county government, but now there is an additional baoya, and the county has a way to collect money, and the result of the change is that the income of the court has increased, but the people are more poor." ”

"The prince is right, the original intention of the imperial court was not to increase the burden on the people, but in the county, changing the law has become a way to collect money, the county has abundant income, and the tax of the imperial court is guaranteed, but the final result is that the burden on the people has increased greatly."

"That's right, the essence of the change is the redistribution of interests, but if the court can't move the interests of the powerful, then where do the increased interests of the court come from? In the final analysis, it is still to exploit the people. ”

Fan Ning was very emotional in his heart, if Wang Anshi implemented the reform in the future, I am afraid that he would also become an opposition.

The Song Dynasty implemented strong cadres and weak branches, needless to say, the forbidden army directly belonged to the Sanya, the Xiang army belonged to the pacification envoy, and the local government only had a small number of township soldiers.

Financially, the income from rural taxes goes to the Department of Transportation, and the income from urban commercial taxes and the income from the sale of large quantities such as tea and wine goes to the Department of Promotion, and the state and county officials have almost no income, so they can only rely on the imperial court to allocate a little funds, or obtain a small income through land rent and rent to supplement their financial resources.

In this way, the imperial court's control over the local area was very strong, which effectively avoided the recurrence of the local secession in the late Han Dynasty and the division of the Tang Dynasty.

But there are pros and cons to everything, and it is precisely because of the strong suppression of the imperial court that the local government cannot break through upward, so it can only look downward for financial resources, but the system has been stable for a hundred years, and the local government has also suffered from no excuse to expand financial resources.

Once the law reform was implemented, the local government found an excuse to exploit the people, and once the desire of the local government that had been suppressed for a hundred years was released, it was bound to form a powerful destructive force on the rural foundation.

Seeing through the essence of the change, at this moment Fan Ning strengthened his belief that if the Great Song Dynasty wanted to change the situation of redundancy and weakness, it was necessary to strengthen the army internally and expand and plunder externally, and there was no other way.