I also contacted officials and stakeholders I am familiar with.

They even wanted to plan large-scale riots.

But when protesting, the transport envoy Du Qi was polite at first, but later he simply ignored it.

Find an official you are familiar with, or even someone who has a say in the court.

At the morning court, several officials righteously pointed out the dangers of the land-based tax system. The next day, Zhao Zhen ordered them to be dismissed and investigated just because they stepped into the Chuigong Hall with their right foot first.

Then the Constitutional Council passed the edict at lightning speed, and the Secretariat had no intention of rejecting it, so he lost his job without knowing why.

Later, naturally, no one spoke up for them anymore.

The last is planning riots.

It just so happened that Zhao Jun was cracking down on gangs and evil forces, and he arrested and killed the local gangs in Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Even some of their good friends were taken away and chopped to pieces, and all the property and land under their names were confiscated.

After all, it was unrealistic for ancient landlords to avoid being involved in gangs. They would naturally have thugs under their command, and it was not impossible that they even had a few desperate criminals.

While they were organizing people and planning riots, they were arresting people everywhere, causing chaos.

Seeing some landlords who were once brothers and sisters being labeled as leaders of evil forces and dragged to the execution ground and beheaded, the riots that were originally planned naturally died down.

If you cause trouble at this critical juncture, wouldn't that just be asking for trouble?

They want to protect their own interests, but they are not stupid enough to send their entire family to the guillotine.

"Oh, what can I think of? I've thought of everything I need to think of."

Gong Xu said helplessly, "I can't even hide my rent or pay less tax now. The tax collectors in the village are watching me."

"Didn't you do anything?"

"It was okay before. I could just bribe their leader and those tax collectors were nothing to me. But now? Bribe their leader and they'll report me to the county or even the provincial government in the blink of an eye."

"Yes, now more than one family is watching us. If we want to take care of things, we have to go through the county government, the county tax bureau, the Imperial City Department, the Censorate, and even the state government. After all the work, it's better to pay taxes."

Everyone hung their heads and sighed.

In the past, their tax payments were only under the jurisdiction of the county government, so all they had to do was to establish good relationships with a few officials in the county government, such as the county magistrate, the chief clerk, and the county lieutenant, and then give some money to the clerks responsible for collecting taxes. The cost was not high.

Now what?

Although taxes have been allocated from the county government and are now under the management of the local tax bureau and the national tax bureau, paying taxes is also a political achievement of the county government. If there is any tax evasion, the county government will also keep an eye on it.

At the same time, the Imperial City Bureau and the Censorate also monitored many local departments. Once any member of the tax department found that his superiors helped others conceal taxes, they would report it to the Imperial City Bureau and the Censorate, and the report would be successful.

After all, local officials now have salaries, and local fiscal revenue greatly affects their salary income. And if a report like this is meritorious and recorded, it is allowed to be recommended for official promotion.

Although becoming an official juren does not have any special privileges, it is just like a scholar who passes the provincial examination and becomes a juren. He is eligible to take the official examination. Once he passes the official examination, he is equivalent to a jinshi and officially becomes an official.

Therefore, officials all over the world dream of being recommended to become official candidates. Not only do they work hard and make progress, but they will also report corruption immediately if they find it around them, which greatly increases their enthusiasm.

In this situation, it would be difficult for them to bribe even if they wanted to.

"Everyone."

Pan Shi suddenly said to the crowd, "The court only gives us two options now. One is to sell our land to the government and become wealthy ourselves. But if we don't have land, how can we earn any money?"

"You could go into business, though. I have a classmate who took the Jiaxu imperial examination together. Although we both failed, we remain close friends."

Someone said, "After failing the imperial examination several times, he settled down to run his business at home. Now he owns more than ten shops in Yangzhou and is worth hundreds of thousands of strings of cash. He lives just as well as we do."

"hehe."

Wang Wei sneered, "Business is ultimately a lowly profession. Besides, you all know how dangerous it is. If you're not careful, you could lose everything."

"But the imperial court is still promoting commerce and supporting industry and commerce, and has implemented many preferential policies."

"So what? Think about it, everyone. We have land. As long as someone works it, it's a sure-win business. Why would we bother with a menial job?"

"That's true."

"That's true. If it were me, I wouldn't want to take the risk of doing business."

"Brother Liu, if you want to go into business, go ahead. I won't go anyway. What do you think?"

"Yes, businessmen are always in danger of losing their jobs. How can they be as free as we are?"

"Well, then forget what I said."

The landlord who suggested going into business was attacked by everyone and was speechless.

In the final analysis, although the Song Dynasty abolished the status of slaves and slaves, the classes still existed, with scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants, and merchants having the lowest status.

In particular, since ancient times, agriculture has been emphasized and commerce has been suppressed. Their landlord class is mainly engaged in agriculture and naturally discriminates against commerce.

Besides, as the saying goes, money is hard to earn, but shit is hard to eat.

Doing business involves great risks, and when the market is bad, it is not uncommon to lose everything.

But it is different for these landlords. Although there are natural disasters, as long as the land is still there, they can get a stable income regardless of drought or flood. It is just a matter of making more or less money.

"But now the court's second option is to allow us to become businessmen, saying we can invest in steel mills and cement plants."

Pan Shi spread his hands and said, "Isn't this ridiculous?"

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