For example, there are disasters from year to year, or locusts crossing the border.

Or local officials, citing various unexpected disasters, reported to the imperial court.

All in all, agricultural taxes are high, but at the same time the annual treasury is still empty. And this led to the beginning of the poverty and weakness of the Great Zhou.

However, in fact, in the eyes of the people, it is a different picture.

No matter how big the disaster became, the government would always send people to collect food.

If anyone dares not to pay, it will be cheaper for you to be beaten to death.

What makes the people dare not speak out is that these officials do not care about the lives of the people, as if in their eyes, the most important thing is to collect enough food.

As for whether the people have food to eat or whether they have a way to live, they don't care at all.

But...... Your Majesty's new policy seems to be different from the past?

I saw Tian Yu cough lightly, looked at the village elder and continued:

"In the future, the agricultural tax will include all taxes and fees, including but not limited to various additional taxes and fees collected by the government. In other words, from now on, you only need to pay one tax, and it's all included. ”

When the village elder heard this, a look of surprise flashed in his eyes. How could he not understand that the reason why so many taxes were designed was actually to enrich the private pockets of officials.

Even many taxes that have not heard of the name are set by local parents and officials, and the imperial court does not even know that there is such a thing.

However, these low-level people will only aim their resentment at the one on the throne.

Thinking of this, a flash of horror flashed in the village elder's eyes.

This wave of policies is really wonderful! Your Majesty has a master by his side, absolutely!

But...... The village elder still put away the excitement in his heart.

After all, whether it is collected by local parents and officials or collected by the imperial court, in essence, there is no difference for ordinary people.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but ask:

"Dare to ask the official, since this agricultural tax will include all taxes from agriculture, then dare to ask the imperial court how much it will be set?"

"Will it be more than ...... Fifty percent? ”

Fifty percent?

When Tian Yu heard this, he looked at the village elder in front of him with a slight stunnedness.

The village elder knew that he was speechless, and hurriedly raised his hand and scratched his head. Embarrassed smile.

"Don't blame the official, the little old man is just talking nonsense. It's just that...... If the tax revenue exceeds 70%, the people may not survive. Therefore, Xiao Lao'er dared to propose, hoping that the official could suggest to the court that the tax rate should not be raised too high, and the people would not be able to make a living. ”

As soon as these words came out, Tian Yu stood directly in place.

What kind of tax, dare to collect seventy percent?

Isn't this driving the people to their deaths?

However, what he didn't know was that although the taxes of the Great Zhou Dynasty did not seem to be high, the empress had been cutting agricultural taxes as much as possible over the years.

But the question is...... The people's expenditures have not decreased in any way, but have a tendency to intensify.

Let's put it this way, at the end of the year, all those miscellaneous taxes are added together, and it is not an exaggeration to say that seventy percent.

This bloody reality was placed in front of Tian Yu, and Tian Yu only felt dizzy.

His gaze swept over the people present, only to find that they did not even have a complete piece of clothing on them.

As for shoes, there is no need to say more. Most of the shoes they wore were made of weed......

At this moment, Tian Yu seemed to understand a little bit why the academy put them in the countryside.

Maybe if you don't go deep into people's livelihood, you won't know how difficult people's livelihood is!

Tian Yu took a deep breath, and then slowly exhaled a breath of turbidity.

He stood up solemnly, his gaze lingering on the village elder for a moment, and then swept past him, looking at the ordinary villagers farther away.

Skinny and full of vegetables......

Tian Yu didn't know why, but he felt a little stuffy in his chest.

"Everyone, listen to me!"

There was a tremor in his voice, but it soon calmed down.

"The official's surname is Tian, and the single name is a feather character. It's the Si Tian official of your Xiaoyu Village. As the name suggests, the so-called Si Tian Guan is in charge of everything related to the cultivation of the field. Naturally, this also includes agricultural tax revenues. ”

At this, the villagers' eyes immediately widened.

Now the matter of dividing the land is basically a certainty. But if the agricultural tax is too high, then it is better to work long hours in the landlord's house. In this way, no matter how high the tax is, it will not have much impact on these ordinary people.

"Now the agricultural tax set by His Majesty is 30% of the grain harvested that year."

As soon as these words came out, the eyes of the villagers immediately flashed with disbelief.

But at this moment, they heard two words, "but ......"

Hearing these two words, the light in the eyes of the village elders and the villagers disappeared without a trace in an instant.

They knew that where could the imperial court be so kind?

Only harvest 30% of the grain? Fool it!

Who knew that Tian Yu said unhurriedly:

"The so-called 30% is the tax of the harvest year. In the event of a disaster year, the tax will be reduced or reduced according to the disaster situation, and all taxes will be exempted at most. ”

"At the same time...... If a war breaks out in the Great Zhou, or if a major natural disaster occurs, taxes will rise accordingly. However, the upper limit is 50%, and it is under the premise of ensuring that no one starves to death. ”

"As for the seventy percent that the village elder said, it is absolutely impossible!"

When the villagers heard this, everyone froze.

Compared with that, what they cared about more was actually another sentence in Tian Yu's mouth.

That's ...... On the premise of ensuring that no one dies of hunger.

You don't see, for thousands of years, these people have always been at the mercy of others.

In addition to their families, they don't even care much about the people in the village.

But in today's policy, His Majesty is actually concerned about the life and death of the people.

Your Majesty...... It seems that the people are not bad?

……

At the same time that Tian Yu took over Koba Village, a similar situation also occurred in the villages around the capital.

Some of these so-called Sitian officials were selected from Lanxiang Academy, and some were selected from among the Jinshi.

Naturally, the evaluation of this policy will not be unanimous. There are even many traditional students who have fiercely criticized this kind of behavior of dividing the land.

However, these high-level remarks were quickly swept away by the riots of the people.

The people don't care what the people say, the way of the sage. What they care about is the benefits in their hands.

At this moment, the people have become the champions of the New Deal.

If anyone dares to scold, then I'm sorry, the people will be extremely polite and greet his ancestors for eighteen generations.

So, with the help of the empress, Yang Dong promulgated this new policy.

In just a few days, it has become the hottest topic in the capital.

Even many businessmen began to take the initiative to talk about the truth of this matter.