"After many years, I have been like a ping, and I met Jiang Lang with tears today, I think you think it's so bitter!"

In the middle of summer, Jiang Xinghuo met Li Jinglong at the port of Shanghai.

Jiang Xinghuo accepted Li Jinglong's overly eager hug with a stiff smile, and he didn't know why the other party put on a posture of "once the golden wind and jade dew meet, they will win countless in the world".

"First settle the troops, the barracks and all kinds of supplies are ready."

The tax guards have already gone to the countryside in batches, and with these returning expeditionary forces and armed forces in their hands, Jiang Xinghuo is much more down-to-earth.

He rushed from Huating County to Shanghai County to personally preside over various work, and very carefully expanded the barracks where the original counterinsurgency troops were stationed at that time, and arranged all kinds of materials such as rice, flour, grain, oil, vegetables, fruits, towels, bedding, etc., and the expeditionary force had been bundling on the sea for a long time, and now he got off the ship and could have a good rest.

Sharpening knives is not wrong for woodcutters, isn't it?

Entering the flower hall of the Shanghai County Ya, the two poured tea, Jiang Xinghuo's face turned pale, and his eyes calmed down.

"What? The situation in Matsue Prefecture is bad? Li Jinglong took a slow sip of hot tea and asked.

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head and only said: "The situation in Songjiang Mansion is not bad, but judging from the feedback from the tax guards in the countryside in various prefectures in Jiangnan, the situation in other prefectures is very serious. ”

"In the first two years, a round of apportionment into the mu was carried out to solve the burden of forced labor on the people, but in the final analysis, there is still no in-depth investigation and solution to many problems of land."

This is something that can't be helped, Zhu Di has just ascended to the throne, and he can use the knife against the conscription when the ruling foundation is very unstable, which is already a great courage, and he really can't make this kind of decision if he changes to another emperor.

However, the situation in the first two years can only go so far, as for the problem of the land itself, as well as the problem of agricultural taxation that is closely related to it, the Ming Central Committee at that time was not able to solve it.

However, now that the world has changed, not only is the internal and external stability basically stable, but also the tax guards who can read and count have been trained in large numbers, and there are objective conditions for solving these problems.

In fact, although the Hongwu Dynasty cleaned up the Jiangnan gentry at the beginning in the name of clearing Zhang Shicheng's forces, the Jiangnan gentry cut melons and vegetables, but with the passage of time, thirty years have passed, and the Jiangnan gentry not only did not decline, but after Lao Zhu's butcher's knife was cut, they sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and grew into a dense bamboo forest.

Solving the problem of forced labor is not the most important step in the land reform, on the contrary, it is only the first step.

Now, through the reactions of various places and his own actual investigations along the way, Jiang Xinghuo summed up the situation that the gentry's erosion of the land and population had seriously weakened the foundation of the Ming Dynasty's rule in this place.

Land and population are the most important wealth of the feudal dynasty, if there is no land and population, then the huge state machine of the Ming Dynasty is equivalent to losing fuel and power, and it cannot operate at all.

Although the tax collectors went to the countryside, although not all the investigations were clear, according to the situation that has been revealed so far, it can be called "shocking".

Although the yeoman farmers and tenant farmers do not have the burden of forced labor, the actual burden is still very heavy, because they not only have to bear the summer and autumn taxes, but also have various temporary apportionments that the imperial court does not require, but the local governments themselves carry out, in addition, there is also the extortion and extortion of grass-roots officials, tax officials and others in the tax collection as Jiang Xinghuo said before, which adds up to often lead to the poor people selling their children and daughters, but now the situation is slightly better, because the people still have the way out of work.

With the great development of the textile industry in Jiangnan, there are not only government-run handicraft workshops, but also spontaneous private workshops among the people, which have developed greatly at the same time, but also means that the demand for textile workers has increased.

Jiang Xinghuo pulled out a report document and handed it to Li Jinglong.

Li Jinglong unfolded it, but it was Zhu Yong's report, this kid gave up the good future of the northern expedition with his father, and he really collapsed his heart to go to the countryside, and although the article has no rhetoric at all, at least the sentences are smooth and can speak clearly, which is already a pretty good cultural level in the current martial arts.

"The year of the year also has a constant, how can the county from time to time to send miscellaneous materials, the name is varied, it is said to be a feudal family, but after repeated questioning, there is no way to investigate. In the meantime, the officials and ghosts, the long passage is for good profits, the clever ones are exempted from the reduction, and the fools are re-levied in special poverty, which makes the countryside excessively levied, and the taxes are onerous.

Today, there are hundreds of fees, some in the name of lamps, some in the name of charcoal money, some in the name of rice money, and some in the name of raising horse money. The interests of the elders are at stake, and the people are idle.

Miscellaneous taxes are out of the hands of others, and the poor have no resources to seek from them, so they are poor and cannot be poor; If the rich use it to win the market, there will be no name for being rich but there will be a real wealth, and the disadvantages will last for a long time! ”

The report is not long, but the problems reflected are serious.

Li Jinglong frowned and said: "From this point of view, the failure of the prefecture and county is still the harm of the powerful officials. ”

"yes."

Jiang Xinghuo tapped the table lightly with his fingers.

"This kind of situation of strong and powerful officials uniting and squeezing normal resources at both ends, if it is not solved now, it will inevitably lead to uncontrollable turmoil in the future, and it will inevitably impact the foundation of the rule, if it is another two hundred years, this Jiangnan really has nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty."

Jiang Xinghuo is telling the truth, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan was self-contained, and even Beijing fell, and the emperor hanged himself, and Jiangnan still had a complete set of political, economic and cultural systems, and he was still able to make a Nanming by himself.

To put it bluntly, the imperial court at the end of the Ming Dynasty couldn't even collect taxes in Jiangnan, and they were beaten up when they sent people to collect taxes, and they couldn't control it when they were killed.

"Then what is Jiang Lang going to do?"

In this case, if you ask Li Jinglong to find a way, he will definitely have no choice, but it does not prevent Li Jinglong from believing that Jiang Xinghuo has a way.

In fact, Jiang Xinghuo does have a way.

According to the previous thinking, the first is to clean up the illegal occupation of land by the nobles and the powerful, and the second is to put an end to the hands of the grassroots officials and tax officials in the tax collection process.

Through the actual investigation during this period, Jiang Xinghuo expanded these two points according to the specific situation and expanded them into four cruxes to solve the tax problem.

These adjustments made in light of the actual situation, after Jiang Xinghuo's thinking, have been put into writing, and they intend to use this as the fundamental method of the tax reform to convey it and publicize it widely.

The first point is the system of lieutenant chiefs and grain chiefs.

This system is more complicated, and it is necessary to briefly trace the historical origins.

To put it simply, after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, a unified grass-roots organizational framework was not immediately formulated, and some of the township organizations in various places were continued from the Yuan Dynasty, and some were reorganized or founded, until the fourteenth year of Hongwu, Lao Zhu ordered the implementation of the Lijia system nationwide, and the original grass-roots organizations of the rural society that had been inherited from the Yuan Dynasty were basically integrated into the unified institutional framework of the "Lijia system".

The specific method of compiling the lijia is that every 110 households are organized into a "li", and the 10 households with the most grain are rotated to serve as the "lichang", and they take turns to serve in a fixed cycle of 10 years, and the order is pre-arranged according to the amount of grain, while the remaining 100 households are called "jia heads", and if there are the elderly, disabled, young children, widows, and sojourners who cannot afford it, they are called abnormal households.

As I have said before, in the official grassroots system of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, there is no concept of "township, town", these are spontaneously formed private settlements, in the official standard, there is only "capital", so in the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu when the Yellow Book was created for the second time, it was stipulated that the integrity of the original rural division of "capital" should be maintained when organizing Lijia, for example, there are 600 households in one, and 550 households are divided into five "li", and the remaining 50 households are assigned to this "capital", with the name of each li chief with a pipe errand, It is not allowed to allocate other capital households to make up for it.

In addition, in Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Huguang, Jiangxi, Fujian and other fields with a large amount of political envoys, the Ming Dynasty also successively established a grain chief system, that is, responsible for collecting grain when collecting taxes.

But with the passage of time, these systems, whether they are the chief of the interior or the length of the grain, have now begun to deform.

Take the Lichang system as an example, on the one hand, there is the problem of fleeing households, because of the heavy taxation, even if there is no pressure of forced labor, the pressure on the peasants has been greatly reduced, but there are still a large number of fleeing households in the disaster year, which has led to the depression of the few households in Lijia; On the other hand, the elders take turns to do it, but they are all measured according to the family income ten years ago, and after ten years, the person who may be in the turn has already fallen into the middle of the family.

Obviously, people are blackened, and you can't count on people's moral consciousness in front of interests.

In order to alleviate their own pressure, or simply to make money during their term of office, some lieutenant chiefs will take the opportunity of collecting taxes to collude with the officials of the yamen and the tax collectors to do evil together.

Therefore, when we are cleaning up the powerful and powerful officials at the grassroots level, we must also vigorously rectify the system of lieutenant chiefs and grain chiefs, which have already somewhat collapsed.

The second point is the issue of "economic urging", that is, the upper and lower hands of the officials in the process of tax liberation, which is often regarded by grassroots officials as a good time for extortion.

The third point is the issue of "taking refuge."

The so-called "refuge", on the one hand, in the early Ming Dynasty, was in terms of acres of land, and the gentry and heroes registered their land in the names of others through the so-called sprinkling, trickery, flowers, and hanging falsehoods, so as to exempt themselves from the burden of taxes and grains; On the other hand, it refers to the men who should serve as servants, in order to escape the heavy sage, forced to take refuge in the gentry and wealthy households, and become the family members, righteous men, and village households under the shadow of the wealthy families. However, the good news is that the problem of forced labor has been solved, so many people who have taken refuge in the gentry and wealthy households have now returned to their own households.

And no matter what the name of these deceitful means is, and how different the specific methods are, they are actually the same in nature, that is, the gentry and powerful people use all methods to push the taxes they should bear on others, and this kind of problem cannot be solved by normal officialdom alone.

Is Hai Rui's head iron enough? Are the bones hard enough? This is the entire history of the Ming Dynasty can be ranked in the forefront, but even so, in the history of Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, Hai Rui in the fourth year of Longqing was in office as the governor of Yingtian, and he was determined to correct the deformity of land possession that was not worthy of the name and the disconnection between rights and obligations, and vigorously destroyed Haoqiang, setting off the climax of "returning land", but after a few months, it could not be implemented. It will inevitably be met with stubborn resistance and vicious accusations from them and their spokesmen.

Previously, Jiang Xinghuo mentioned this problem in the design of the system of integrated payment of grain for the gentry, in fact, whether it is Daming or Daiqing, they have a headache for this problem, and what can really touch the root of the problem is still to rely on knives.

Referring to the experience of the fourth elder brother, Jiang Xinghuo prepared enough knives this time, intending to compare with the powerful gentry in Jiangnan.

This is also why Jiang Xinghuo did not plan to officially leave until Li Jinglong's expeditionary force returned to China.

The fourth point is the issue of "preferential exemption".

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, this word mainly refers to the compassionate care of special groups such as the elderly and widows, and Lao Zhu issued an edict in the first year of Hongwu that "those who are more than 70 years old in the people are allowed to have a son to be raised, and they are exempt from miscellaneous and general servitude"; In the second year of Hongwu, it was decreed that "if the civil is more than eighty years old, there shall be one son, and if he has a field of property, he shall be sent to serve as a servant, and he shall be ordered to hire someone to replace the official; those who have no land, are allowed to serve as servants, and are exempt from miscellaneous labor"; In the third year of Hongwu, he decreed that "all civil widows, whose husbands died before 30 years ago, and who do not change their temperament after 50, will be exempted from the service of their own family in addition to the door of the table."

These compassionate care for special groups fully reflect the humanity of Lao Zhu, the problem is not in the special groups, but in the officials, and there is also "the deceased officials, their families will be exempted from serving for three years; In fact, Lao Zhu's regulations are very dead, and the preferential treatment for officials is extremely limited, limited to the miscellaneous errand service that should be paid by the household, and does not exhaust the money and grain Lao Zhu when he is alive, and even for the family of the prince and noble, he is not allowed to condone the tenants and servants in the family who do not obey the errand service.

Doesn't that mean it's a matter of servants? Now that the apportionment is in the mu, there should be no problem with the preferential and exemption policy!

However, in fact, with the passage of time and the relaxation of discipline, the preferential exemption system has begun to change its taste, not only in the conscription of officials to enjoy these preferential treatment, but also in the taxation, many officials who have returned to their hometowns and live in the countryside have appointed themselves as gentlemen, do not pay taxes, should not be conscripted, has become a social atmosphere, and even once the scholars have achieved fame, they also seem to regard themselves as nouveau riche, and they must enjoy the actual preferential treatment.

This led to the gentry and the scholars, who separately devoured the money and grain of the Ming Dynasty, grabbed and expanded the privileges of preferential exemption as much as possible, and shirked the obligation to pay the money and grain.

The problem of preferential exemption, that is, the problem of the gentry and the gentlemen paying less taxes or even not paying taxes, has now been fully leaked through the investigation of the tax guards in the countryside, and Jiang Xinghuo must take precautions.

In fact, if the issue of preferential exemption is ignored, and Jiang Xinghuo does not interfere in the historical line of this world, then it will not need to be until the end of the Ming Dynasty two hundred years later, only the middle of the Ming Dynasty a hundred years later, and the taxes in the entire Jiangnan will basically be half rotten because of the preferential exemption.

On the one hand, the Songjiang Prefecture once clearly stipulated that "the first product is exempt from 10,000 mu of land, and the second grade is gradually decreasing, and the Lang Department is exempt from 3,000 mu of land"; Haiyan County also has a clear stipulation that "3,000 mu of land is exempted for Jinshi, 1,500 mu for people, and then decreasing below Xiucai, 60 mu of land for supervisors, 40 mu for students, and 30 mu for people who go out of different ways." On the other hand, such as Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jiading, Huzhou, etc., went so far as to draw separate maps of official households and private households, that is, to divide the fields of a county and include them in the official household map (incumbent and official officials), that is, they should not be bad rumors, and they would not pay money and grain.

After listening to Jiang Xinghuo's thoughts and looking at the thick stack of documents handed over, Li Jinglong couldn't help but feel a little numb in his scalp.

Yes, before he started to do it, Li Jinglong retreated a little embarrassed.

In Li Jinglong's view, this matter was not done by people at all.

The people who will be offended by this are not one or two, but tens of thousands of scholars, gentry, and officials!

Without the use of thunderous means and the use of harsh punishment and harsh laws, it is simply impossible to deter these slippery officials, errand officers, tax collectors, lieutenant chiefs, grain chiefs, and all kinds of people at the grassroots level, so as to solve the problem of "economic urging."

At the same time, with regard to the gentry's "taking refuge" and illegally occupying land, these two ways of occupying more land and paying less taxes are not used with knives, and it is equally impossible for them to obediently spit out the fat meat they have eaten in their mouths.

The issue of "preferential exemption" is all the more inevitable to blame the vast majority of incumbent Jiangnan officials and the gentlemen who have retired and returned to their hometowns.

Think about it, the incumbent officials, the gentry, the gentry, the servant, the chief of the grain. To offend so many people in one breath, and these people are all serious and powerful, to curtail or even abolish the privileges they have long held in their hands will inevitably cause stubborn resistance and backlash.

"Scared?"

Li Jinglong gritted his teeth: "I'm afraid of a fart!" ”

At this time, Li Jinglong remembered that it was no longer the Hongwu Dynasty, nor was it the Jianwen Dynasty, he didn't need to shrink his head, with Jiang Xinghuo in front, he only needed to be responsible for moving the knife.

What is the same dust as the light? Now there is only light and no dust! There is no room for dust in Lao Tzu's eyes!

"That's right."

Jiang Xinghuo laughed and said: "Cao Guogong broke his family to benefit the country, and his head was killed to seek help, how can Shilin's public opinion be shaken by just a few discussions?" The dynasty has a law, and the center will not tolerate the courtiers who dare to slander and dare to do things, so let go of your hands and feet! ”

Li Jinglong let out a sigh of "hum", didn't hesitate anymore, and just asked, "What now?" ”

"Let the soldiers of the expeditionary force rest for seven days, and set off after seven days, starting from Songjiang Mansion, to ensure that the fields and acres of each prefecture are cleared in order.

(End of chapter)