Fengdian.

"I listen, there has been another drought in Le'an County recently?"

"Yes." Shang Shu ordered Cui Hao to come out and said: "Your Majesty, yesterday there was a report from the county guard of Le'an County that a rare drought broke out in Le'an, starvation was everywhere, and the victims had fled to the nearby Qi County, Leling County and Jinan County. More than 1,000 people have starved to death now, and if the imperial court no longer distributes food for disaster relief, I don't know how many more people will starve to death! ”

Ran Min's brows furrowed: "More than a thousand people starved to death?" What does the county guard of Le'an eat, why didn't he report the disaster earlier! ”

"Your Majesty doesn't know, Leling County, which is adjacent to Le'an County, has also recently had an earthquake of varying scale, and the mountains and rivers are blocked, and the news cannot be conveyed to Daliang for a while."

Hearing this, Ran Min couldn't help but sigh and said, "It's really eventful. This year is really not beautiful, floods, droughts, locust plagues, earthquakes we have all encountered, I don't know how many people starved to death! The granaries of the imperial court must be opened immediately, and the speed must be fast, so that the soldiers in the army can be responsible for escorting, and the necessary carriages, ox carts, and all kinds of livestock must be cooperated, and it is necessary to provide relief to the victims as quickly as possible! ”

"No!"

In this troubled world, it is either a disaster or a man-made disaster, and the people really can't survive, and it is very likely that they will rise up.

So how do you deal with these occasional disasters?

After thinking about it a few times, Ran Min finally made him think of a solution.

So Ran Min said again: "Zhuqing, recently, I paid a private visit to Chenliuyi Mountain Village to observe the people's feelings. The elders of the village claimed that their village would survive even in a disaster year and not starve to death. I was very curious, so I asked the reason, and it turned out that this mountain village is a very united mountain village, where everyone is happy and cares for each other. ”

"Every autumn, every family will take out about one stone of corn for relief in a famine year. Because it is located in the shrine and managed by the locals, it is also known as the shrine warehouse! I think this practice is very good, a family produces a stone of grain, and it is managed by a special person, as the so-called dripping water becomes a river, a family is a stone of grain, ten households are ten stone of grain, and a large county of tens of thousands of households is tens of thousands of stones of grain a year! In this way, even if there is a disaster year, the people can still be self-sufficient! ”

The method proposed by Ran Min is the "Yicang" that will not appear until the Sui Dynasty.

During the period of Emperor Wen of Sui, the eldest grandson Ping was worshipped as the book of Duzhi. He saw that there were many floods and droughts in Xiazhou County, and the people did not give it, so he ordered the people to produce corn and wheat every autumn with less than one stone, the difference between the rich and the poor, etc., and store them in the alleys to prepare for the fierce year, and the name was Yicang.

Emperor Wen of Sui commended and adopted his recommendations. Subsequently, Tang Taizong and Tang Gaozong all set up this kind of righteous warehouse among the people, and since the end of Wu Ze, they have solved the country's financial difficulties with righteous warehouse grain.

Later, Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty set the Yicang tax as the official tax income of the state. Historically, Yicang has also been set up from time to time.

When Cui Hao heard Ran Min's idea, he immediately stood up and said, "Your Majesty Shengming! ”

"Floods and droughts are inevitable in the former holy places. After the funeral now, the household registration is withered, and the rent is paid every year, and the warehouse is not realized. Give it at any time, only for the year, if there is a disaster, what mercy will be given? Your Majesty should implement this law in all parts of the country, and the ministers are invited from the prince down, counting the acres of land and crops to maturity in autumn, and allowing them to see the Miao Yili persuasion class, and order the millet to be produced. The land of rice and wheat is also taxed in the same way. Where each is located, it is the warehouse of words. If the valley does not climb and the people are hungry, they will be given as they like in the prefecture and county! ”

Ran Min bowed his head slightly and said: "What Cui Hao said is very satisfying. However, this righteous warehouse is the most taboo for insufficient national use, and loans from the social warehouse to charge official expenses! Therefore, I made an edict here--both for the people to store in advance, and the officials to raise their palms to prepare for the murderous year, which is not necessary for me, and is endowed with resources. The things that benefit people are deeply commendable. It is advisable to go down to the department and establish a system! Anyone who takes a drop in righteousness for no reason will be beheaded! ”

"Yicang, when it is stored in the state of storage, in order to prepare for the murderous year, the prince has reclaimed the field, and the mu is two liters. The genus of corn and japonica rice depends on the land. From the beginning of the year, including me, all of them must go to the ground to cultivate, reserve the righteous warehouse, and determine the method of accumulation, and the upper and lower third-class taxes are allowed, and the upper household is no more than one stone, the middle household is no more than seven buckets, and the lower household is only four buckets. It can be increased according to the year! ”

"Your Majesty Shengming!" The ministers shouted.

At this time, Cheng Wei Hui in the imperial history came out again: "Your Majesty, the minister has something to play!" ”

Please speak. ”

"The minister wants to impeach Wang Zheng, the county commander of Binh Duong County, Han San, the county commander of Hanoi, Cai Rong, the county commander of Surabaya County, and Wang Xuan, the county commander of Pingshi County...... The above twenty-five people are all guilty. He is a magistrate, who sets up a name, levies more taxes, and fills his own pockets. ”

Hearing that it was the order of twenty-five places, Ran Min couldn't help but feel a little dizzy, and said with his forehead raised: "I will send Jinyi Wei to investigate and collect evidence in depth." Yushitai and Jinyiwei should be united, Yushitai is the main, Jinyiwei is supplemented, and the inspection is covert. I will not wronged an innocent person, but I cannot spare a guilty person! ”

"Your Majesty Shengming!"

Wei Yan retreated, and then Wang Meng came out again: "Your Majesty, in fact, it is common for local officials to collect more money and silver, and these people may not all be corrupt officials. ”

"Huh?"

"Your Majesty knows about the return of the fire? When the magistrate collects the money tax, he will collect more money and silver on the grounds of attrition, which is also called fire consumption or envy, but the scope of envy consumption is greater than that of fire consumption, and envy consumption also includes finch and mouse consumption. ”

Wang Meng lowered his hand and said: "That is, the rice grain that was collected from Yunjing was stolen and lost by the finch rats, which is called the finch rat consumption." During the Han Dynasty, every stone of grain was paid, and two buckets were consumed, and from the beginning of the dynasty, the consumption of finches and rats increased from one stone of grain to two buckets to four buckets! ”

When Ran Min heard this, he couldn't help frowning and said, "Is the finch and rat consumption so serious? ”

Regarding the matter of returning the fire to the public, in fact, Ran Min knows about it, and this matter has been there since ancient times.

It's inevitable that the finch and rat will consume it, but this fire will not consume silver, and it will obviously increase the burden on the people.

Since most of the silver paid by the people is broken silver, there is some loss in the process of melting the silver ingot, and this loss is called fire consumption.

This part of the fire and silver consumption was borne by the people. In order to facilitate the collection, the fire consumption silver is coordinated by the imperial court to collect the fire consumption of the provinces, and the fire consumption rate is formulated and included in the imperial court tax. To put it simply, fire consumption is a new legal tax, and taxpayers must pay the fire consumption tax.

Taxes are generally in kind, such as copper coins, broken silver, grain, cloth, etc., which are difficult and complex to collect by the imperial court, and the fineness is not the same, which is not conducive to the preservation of the financial system. But there is no way, Ran Min can't move Zhang Juzheng's "one whip" method out now, right?

Ran Min thought about it for a while, and then said, "The imperial court is not short of this bit of food and money. In this way, the fire consumption tax will be abolished immediately, and the officials in various places will not be able to set up a false name and levy taxes privately, and violators will be immediately beheaded! ”

"Your Majesty Shengming!"

Two days later, Ran Min received another report that there was a severe drought in Guanzhong, starvation was everywhere, corpses were pillowed, and tens of thousands of people died. Ran Min is pulling out the cold in his heart, didn't he just distribute disaster relief food not long ago?

Why are so many people still dead?

Ran Min immediately became angry in the court, and continued to let the treasury open a warehouse to release grain, and if there was no surplus grain, he went to the people to buy it, and used all the forces that could be mobilized to send the grain to the disaster area as quickly as possible.

But it didn't take long for the drought in Guanzhong to continue to heat up, and more people died.

At this moment, Ran Min couldn't hold it back, so he took Chen Changsheng, Evil Lai, and a brocade guard overnight to accompany him, and went straight to Guan Zheng