Sima Yan was happy to hear this, and then asked, "I also know a lot, but how many vassal countries there are, which of you can say?" ”

"This ......" Everyone only knows that the emperor is welcomed, but when asked about the specific number, they all look at each other, and no one knows.

Sima Yan asked twice in a row, and when he saw that everyone couldn't answer, he was a little unhappy. At this time, he saw Shu Yan standing far away at the end of the ministers. He knew that although Shu Yan had not been a Shang Shulang for a long time, he was very diligent, and all the various departments of Shang Shutai were familiar with all kinds of matters, so he beckoned Shu Yan to come close and asked, "Do you know how many countries are there in the four Yi tributes?" ”

Shu Yan is more valuable in every Cao, not only concentrating on real-time tasks, but also very interested in studying previous information. Of course he does. "Back to Your Majesty, now among the four Yis of Dongyi, Xirong, Nanman, and Beidi, there are Fuyu, Ma Han, Chen Han, Ben Han, and Wa Guo who have paid tribute to Dongyi; Xirong has Tuyuhun, Yanqi, Qiuzi, Dawan, Kangju, Daqin, etc.; Nanban has Linyi country, Funan country, etc.; Beidi has Xiongnu, Xianbei and other departments. A total of 23 countries paid tribute. ”

Sima Yan was very happy when he heard this, and he was a little fluttering again. Shu Yan saw that the emperor was happy, and thought: Why don't you take advantage of the emperor's happiness and explain to the emperor a matter in his heart that is related to the hardships of the people?

It turned out that in his spare time, Shu Yan often corresponded with Han Ruoxin and Xia Tingchang in his hometown. Although he is in Luoyang, he cares about Han Ruoxin all the time, and often says some words of encouragement in his letters. Ruoxin has always said how she is well, please rest assured. But yesterday, Shu Yan received a letter from Pavilion Chief Xia. Xia Tingchang said in the letter that Ruoxin served as an assistant teacher in Shujiazhuang Xuxue, and Ruyin still did not pay salaries, and he was still doing obligations, only relying on the few acres of thin fields that the villagers cleaned up for him. Moreover, Ruoxin is sixteen years old this year, and he has to pay twice as much tax as before. Shu Yan read the letter and felt melancholy for these two things.

The first thing about the school, because the preparation for the establishment of the school is done by himself, and it is also his own intention to be a teaching assistant if Xin Xin, but it has been a year since the beginning of the preparation of the school, and Ruyin has not paid the salary to the assistant teacher! If Shujiazhuang Zhenxue is not distributed, then the rest of the Zhenxue is likely not to be distributed, if this is the case, then there are more people involved, and if it is not good, it will affect the success or failure of the hometown Zhenxue.

Compared with the matter of teaching assistants in Xuxue, Ruoxin has to pay twice as much tax at a young age, and more people are involved, and it is widespread all over the country. Therefore, Shu Yan wanted to take advantage of Sima Yan's happiness today to make a bold suggestion to the emperor about taxation. Although he has a beautiful vision in his heart, in fact, he overestimates the strength of his own humble family, and fighting with all the wealthy families is no different from ants shaking a tree.

Let's talk about the taxes of the Jin Dynasty first. The imperial court taxes are divided into land taxes levied on the basis of acres, oral taxes levied on the basis of population, and miscellaneous taxes such as deed taxes and market transactions, among which the field tax and the oral tax are the main taxes. In the chaos at the end of the Han Dynasty, the population flowed, and the Hao clan took the opportunity to occupy the land, and the landless peasants were more and could not survive, so they could only rely on the local Hao clan, and a large amount of land of the Hao clan also needed these people to cultivate. Gradually, the population of these wealthy families increased, and in order to avoid population taxes, the wealthy families often concealed the number of these tenants they owned. These wealthy families themselves had the right to be exempted from easement, so they did not have to pay taxes, and they hid a large number of commoners who should have paid taxes, which caused a large loss of taxes in the imperial court.

In order to increase tax revenue, Sima Yan implemented the land occupation system and household regulation after unifying the whole country. The system stipulates that officials can occupy a maximum of 50 hectares of land according to their grades, the first grade can occupy a maximum of 50 hectares, the second grade can occupy a maximum of 45 hectares, and the tenants cannot exceed 15 households, the third grade can occupy a maximum of 40 hectares, and the tenants cannot exceed 10 households, and so on, the ninth grade can occupy a maximum of 10 hectares of land, and the tenants can only have one household. In this way, a large amount of land and civilians were liberated from the hands of the Hao.

After the emancipation of the commoners, the imperial court encouraged the peasants to reclaim wasteland and expand production, stipulating: each Ding male can occupy 70 acres of land, of which 50 acres belong to the class field, which is the field that needs to be paid, and the remaining 20 mu does not need to be paid; Ding Nu can occupy 30 acres of land, of which 20 acres are class fields, and the remaining 10 acres do not need to be paid. The standard of 50 acres of class land for Ding men is Su Si Hu, and the standard for 20 mu of school land for Ding women is one Hu and six buckets, that is, 8 liters per mu. The second Ding man, that is, the semi-adult man, pays Erhu, and the second Ding woman does not pay. In the Cao Cao era, four liters of millet were collected per mu of land, and the Jin Dynasty not only overcollected, but also had an unreasonable provision, that is: regardless of whether men and women occupy a sufficient amount of land, they must pay the field tax according to the standard of 50 mu or 20 mu. In this way, the income of the Jin Dynasty greatly increased.

With the land occupation system, it lays the foundation for household modulation. The occupation system corresponds to the field endowment, and the household modulation corresponds to the oral endowment. Household survey is the collection and taxation of taxes on a household basis. Before the Jin Dynasty, especially in times of war, various warlords would levy various materials in various names based on the number of people in addition to formal taxes. Due to the migration of population, after Cao Cao unified the north, he changed the tax unit from the original single population to the household as the tax unit. Because it is much easier to count households than to count the population, it is relatively simple to calculate the tax on a household basis. By the Jin Dynasty, Sima Yan inherited this practice and officially promulgated the household modulation. Household regulation regulations: Ding Nan's household, that is, the family where the adult man is the head of the household, needs to pay a household tax of three horses of silk and three catties of cotton to the imperial court every year; Households with female and secondary male households, that is, households with no adult men and only adult women or semi-adult men as the head of the household, the tax is halved; For those who are more remote, it will be levied at two-thirds to one-thirds.

Fifty acres of land and four husks, each household three horses of silk - two feet two inches wide, four zhang long for one horse, three catties of cotton, is a basic standard. Based on this benchmark data, each county will divide the rural households under its jurisdiction into nine classes according to the fertility of the land, family members, etc., and the taxes to be paid will also fluctuate around this benchmark data, with some households paying more and others paying less. The final aggregate figure will be equal to the sum of the field endowment and the oral endowment calculated from the baseline data. They constituted the vast majority of state taxes in the era of agrarian civilization.

According to Han Ruoxin's family situation, there is only one person, and there should be less household transfer. Shu Yan didn't know what standard the tax officials in his hometown had set for Ruoxin, and whether he had reduced it for her, but one thing was certain, that is, he was 16 years old this year, and he had to pay twice as much millet, silk, and cotton as last year. This is a great burden for many orphaned children like Ruoxin.

Shu Yan himself is also an orphan, he is well aware of the difficulties he has experienced in life, relying on his natural optimism and open-mindedness, often regard all kinds of hardships as a process of honing himself. Although he lost his parents when he was a child, no one could see that he had any grievances and sorrows. His spirit also infected Ruoxin, and Zhixin admired his character even more.

Although Shu Yan is optimistic, he is very sympathetic to orphans like him in his heart. He often felt that it was unreasonable to use the age of sixteen as the standard for becoming a child. But due to the decree of the imperial court, he didn't dare to reveal it easily. But today, with the opportunity, he has to give it a try no matter what, he wants to stretch out his arm and be a praying mantis blocking cars.

"Your Majesty, although the number of vassal states that are vassals to the Great Jin has increased a lot, the vassal states are subject states after all, and they are still far from the Great Jin Dynasty's own people, if Your Majesty knows how much his own people have increased, he will be even happier."

"Well, that's natural, no matter how many vassal countries there are, they can't compare to my own people after all. I know that you have always been good at performance, and you must have kept in mind the number of households in the world, so tell me about it. ”

Shu Yan first whetted the emperor's appetite, and the ministers below were happy to see the emperor, and they were all waiting to hear Shu Yan say about his achievements. Shu Yan did have these data at his fingertips, he was not in a hurry, such as a number of family treasures: "Back to Your Majesty, at the beginning of the unification of my Great Jin Dynasty, when the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu were established, the total number of households in the three kingdoms was 1,473,433 households, and the total population was 7,672,881 people. At that time, the warlords were fighting, the world was the most chaotic, and the common people suffered the most. Later, Emperor Xuan, Emperor Jing, and Emperor Wen swept away all the princes, and after the leadership of His Majesty, Tai Shige. Life, on behalf of Wei called the emperor, and the north to destroy Rong Di, the south of the Eastern Wu, the four seas to restore unification, and then with the people to recuperate, just 20 years, now we have the number of households in the Jin Dynasty has reached 2,459,840 households, the population has soared to 16,163,863. ”

Sima Yan was taken aback when he heard this: "Really? In just 20 years, the number of households in my dynasty has increased by 70%, and the population has more than doubled. Although he felt a little surprised, he absolutely trusted Shu Yan, and in his heart, he was also very willing to believe that these numbers were true.

Although the ministers under the rank who were related to the people's households, such as Sikong, Dasi Nong, and Mincao Shangshu, all of them also knew something about this matter, they could not accurately say the specific figures. They listened to the emperor's question—of course, they knew that the emperor's question was from the joy of their hearts, and they were full of hope that there would be no false doubts, so they all played: "What Shang Shulang said is true, although the ministers don't remember the specific number, but the general data is correct." ”

Shi Chong was the most kind to greet him, and he said: "The population has more than doubled in 20 years, which is a grand event that has never been seen in all dynasties. The minister thought that although the increase in population was large, but when he thought about it, there were no more than two sources, and all of them were the credit of His Majesty: first, now that the world is peaceful, the displaced people who used to hide from the war have returned; Second, now that the people have sufficient food and clothing, and live and work in peace and contentment, there will naturally be more things like men marrying and women marrying and multiplying. Taken together, it makes sense that the population is increasing so quickly. ”

Listening to Shi Chong's words, Shi Hui smiled at Shi Chong and said: "I want to add one sentence from Shi Shizhong, the rapid increase in the population of our Great Jin is also related to a decree of His Majesty, that is, unmarried women over the age of seventeen are not allowed among the people, and women over the age of seventeen must be forcibly married by the county magistrate." This is just like the multi-cultivation of land encouraged by the system of land occupation and household adjustment formulated by His Majesty, women are like fields, only by marrying early, and there are no women in the boudoir to be married, can we have more people for Dajin as soon as possible. ”

Everyone laughed when they heard Shi Hui's words. Only Shi Chong, with a straight face and an expressionless face. He thought in his heart: Shi Hui's words were ostensibly about political affairs, but looking at him, it seemed to be said to me. Because I have a daughter who is over seventeen years old, and he happens to have a twenty-year-old son, does he want to marry me? His son is very smart and handsome, and if he can get married, he will be as good as my goddaughter, but my wife regards her goddaughter as the pearl of her palm, and I can't be the master......