Chapter 87 Taxation

After the epidemic was under control, it also gave Song Yuzhu a reminder. The medical facilities of this era were backward, there was no such thing as a hospital, and the only way to treat illness was to rely on local doctors. Once a large-scale epidemic occurred, it would be like what happened in Yongning County, with heavy casualties.

The level of doctors is also different. Without systematic training, most of them rely on their personal experience to treat patients. Misdiagnosis of symptoms happens from time to time, so half of the patients rely on their luck, and generally rely on the skills of the doctors. If you are lucky enough to meet a reliable doctor, maybe a prescription can cure the disease; if you are unlucky, a common typhoid fever can kill you.

Moreover, most doctors with good medical skills were concentrated in the prefectures and counties, and were used by the rich. If the poor people were sick, they could only rely on the local barefoot doctors, who would give them blood, eat some stove soil, or go up the mountain to collect some medicine to pay for it. This is also one of the reasons why the average life expectancy of the ancients was low.

Song Yuzhu wanted to build large comprehensive hospitals like those in later generations in every provincial capital, and small clinics in towns and villages to ensure that people could treat common diseases.

However, this is easier said than done, but it is very difficult to actually implement.

The first problem of a hospital is that it does not have enough staff. An experienced doctor needs to go through several years or even decades of exploration before he can master the basic methods of traditional Chinese medicine.

There are only so many people in the Imperial Medical Academy, and it is impossible to assign them all out. Local doctors who are proficient in medicine have their own clinics to practice medicine. It would not make much sense to invite them to the hospital to see patients. It would be like taking money from one pocket to pay for another.

Secondly, it is not easy to train a qualified doctor. To study medicine, one must be able to read and write, read medical classics and write prescriptions. If you are illiterate, you cannot do this job at all.

In this era, most people who could afford to go to school were from wealthy families. They all wanted to take the imperial examination and become an official. How could they let their children become doctors?

Being a doctor is not a high-ranking profession. Even if one fails to pass the imperial examination, there is still a family business waiting to be inherited. Who would want to be a doctor to earn a few dollars?

Things are back to the starting point. In an agricultural society, due to labor shortage, most of the manpower is used for farming, and there is no surplus manpower at disposal.

Talking about development without considering the reality is just hooliganism, so if we want to get rid of this situation, the first thing we need to do is to increase the population.

Future development is also inseparable from population. A country that can feed 1.4 billion people now has only 80 million people. The labor gap can be imagined.

The second is to increase grain production. Only when people are well fed and clothed and live a prosperous life can other industries be developed.

This is also one of the reasons why Song Yuzhu did not take out the drawings obtained from the technology tree.

*

At the end of October, news came from Binzhou that the steam locomotive in the harbor was almost completed, with only the final internal installation and launching test remaining. It was expected to be ready to sail in the spring of next year!

This ship is the largest ship ever built. It is 86 zhang long, 15 zhang wide, and has a draft of 4 zhang. Its estimated displacement is more than 1,500 tons and it can carry more than 800 tons of cargo.

Even in modern times, it is definitely a huge ship!

The keel of the entire ship is made of hundreds of years old fir wood, which has high density, good oiliness, is strong and durable, and can withstand sea water and wind and waves.

The hull is divided into three compartments: upper, middle and lower. The bottom one is the power compartment, which is responsible for the navigation power of the entire ship. Because it is a steam engine ship, it must carry sufficient amount of coal, and the maximum speed can reach thirty nautical miles per hour.

Chen Lun and his subordinates also developed a backup power source. Once the main power source fails, the main steam engine can be stopped for maintenance and the ship can continue sailing using the backup power source.

The second floor of the cabin is a storage compartment and a resting place for the crew, where fresh water, food and daily necessities needed by the crew are stored.

The third floor is the cargo hold, which is also the largest hold in the entire ship and can accommodate tens of thousands of pieces of transported goods.

The ship was also equipped with six large-caliber cannons. After Jin Yan developed the bomb safety, the chance of the shells exploding was very low, almost negligible. With these cannons, once they encountered danger at sea, they could directly engage in battle with the enemy.

This steamship cost a total of 7 million taels of silver, which was almost the tax revenue of Daqi for two years. Fortunately, a lot of silver was extorted from the noble families at the beginning, but of course Song Yuzhu had spent almost all of it.

All that remained was to decide who to send to sea. Song Yuzhu planned to send an army to the west on board the ship.

He not only wanted to let the West know that there was a developed and wealthy country in the far East, but also wanted to let them understand that this country was extremely powerful and should not be offended!

Zhao Xiao must train an army with outstanding capabilities and water knowledge before going out to sea next year.

There are now 80,000 troops stationed in the Jingxi Camp, and the rest of the troops have been taken to Xiguan by Bai Yizhou and others.

Originally, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zheng Da'an planned to lead his troops back to Xiguan, but was dissuaded by Zhao Xiao, who left him behind to garrison the capital.

The reason was that Zheng Da'an and the others had no sense of belonging to Daqi at that time. If they were thrown into Xiguan, they might rebel at any time.

So Zhao Xiao simply kept all the soldiers left by Ye Qing and sent his trusted subordinates to the border.

After two years of getting along, Zhao Xiao has gathered all the remaining soldiers together. These soldiers are loyal to him. Even Zheng Daan is willing to follow him through life and death, and admires this young general from the bottom of his heart.

By the way, Zhao Xiao said that the court was going to select a thousand men to go out to sea to intimidate those white monkeys. These idle old soldiers were eager to go.

"General, send me. I will beat them to a pulp!"

"The general asked me to go! I will help the emperor conquer England and make it a vassal state!"

"I'm going too. I'm going too..."

Zhao Xiao said, "Stop arguing. Do you think going out to sea is just for fun? The sea is much more dangerous than land. If the weather is bad and a big wave overturns the boat, it will be useless even if you cry out to heaven or earth."

Zheng Daan bared his teeth and laughed: "Who would join the army if they were afraid of death?"

The soldiers below raised their arms and shouted: "Who would join the army if they are afraid of death?!"

Zhao Xiao couldn't help but smile: "Okay, the emperor only needs a thousand people, these thousand people must be able to swim, and they must be the elite among the elite."

When it came to the idea of being able to swim, the soldiers from Xizhou immediately wilted. They were all landlubbers and few of them could swim, and those who could swim could only do it like dogs in shallow puddles.

The soldiers of Dongzhou raised their arms and shouted, "General, we can swim. We grew up by the sea and are great at swimming!"

Some soldiers even took off their clothes and dived into the moat next to the military camp with their bare buttocks. They jumped out of the water after a long while, shaking the water droplets off their hair and shouting: "I can hold my breath in the water for a long time!"

Zhao Xiao: "Get up here quickly! Do you think I'll let you go into the water now?"

This guy is called Ge Zhongshun, he is a lieutenant, in his early twenties, with a round face and bright eyes, and two canine teeth when he smiles. Although he is young, he has earned his position by fighting hard. On the battlefield, he is like a tiger out of a cage, and he becomes more and more courageous as he fights.

Zhao Xiao had some impression of him and waved to him.

Ge Zhongshun put on his pants and ran over happily: "General, can I do it? Let me go!"

"Going out to sea is no joke. You still have a mother at home."

Ge Zhongshun said: "I still have three brothers at home. Even if I die a hero, my brothers can still support me!"

Zhao Xiao patted his shoulder and said, "Good boy, then you are one of them!"

Soon, each barracks selected elite soldiers who were good at water, and gathered a thousand people. Any one of these people could be a strong man who could fight ten people at once.

Zhao Xiao also decided to lead them to the West himself.

*

The weather is getting cooler, and the temperature in Shangjing has dropped to around 10 degrees. Next year is the fourth year of Changzhi and the first year that people officially start paying taxes.

The Ministry of Revenue has not yet determined the specific tax rate. The main taxes people pay are land tax, population tax, corvée and military service.

During the prosperous dynasty, taxes were heavy, and the land tax was two-tenths. If one acre of land produced one hundred kilograms of grain, twenty kilograms had to be handed over. The remaining eighty kilograms might not all reach the hands of the common people, because many of them were tenants.

The tenants did not have their own land. They cultivated the land of local wealthy landlords. Not only did they have to pay taxes to the state, they also had to hand over most of their grain. Only the little that was left was enough to fill their stomachs.

If the year is bad, the people will suffer terribly and starvation to death is common.

The court could reduce some taxes, but the problem was that even if taxes were reduced, the people still did not benefit much. Most of the grain was still in the hands of the rich.

Secondly, the population tax, also known as the Dingfu and Dingqian, was set during the Wu Dynasty at 23 wen per person per year between the ages of four and fifteen. When people reached adulthood at the age of sixteen, the dingqian increased to 100 wen, and the tax had to be paid until the age of fifty.

During the Sheng Dynasty, the Ding tax increased a lot. It was changed from the age of four to two, 25 coins per person per year. After the age of sixteen, when one became an adult, the Ding tax increased to 120 coins and had to be paid until the age of fifty-three.

To give a simple example, there are seven people in a farm family, including two adult men and one young son. In that case, the family would have to pay 265 coins in taxes per year. You can imagine how huge the expense is.

The Ding tax limited the population growth of this dynasty. After all, an adult had to pay more than one hundred coins in taxes every year. It was okay when you were young, but if you lost your labor force when you were old, the money would become a burden.

Therefore, the Ding tax must be changed, but how to change it is a difficult problem. It is necessary to ensure the income of the treasury while not harming the interests of the people, which really makes Song Yuzhu embarrassed.

After the morning court session, he kept a group of officials from the Ministry of Revenue to discuss the issue of taxation alone.

In the Imperial Garden, Song Yuzhu was sitting in the pavilion drinking tea. The weather was cold and the flowers and plants in the garden had begun to wither. Five or six eunuchs were tidying up the garden, removing the withered flowers and replacing them with cold-resistant plants.

"Your Majesty." Liu Lin came over with a group of subordinates.

"Jingjie, come and sit down." Jingjie is Liu Lin's pen name.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Liu Lin sat on a small stool at the side. The others did not have such treatment and could only stand outside the pavilion to be ordered around.

Song Yuzhu put down the teacup and asked, "My dear, do you grow flowers?"

Liu Lin shook his head: "I am a layman and I don't know how to grow flowers. Jiaci likes to grow flowers, but she only grows common varieties that are easy to grow. She prefers those that can bloom big and lively flowers."

There was a smile in Song Yuzhu's eyes. Liu Lin's ancestors were butchers, and officials who were not on good terms with him even asked him to kill pigs behind his back.

“Is that flower pretty?”

Liu Lin followed his gaze and saw a white flower with pink tints trembling in the wind. Even a layman like him could tell that this flower was precious.

"nice."

"That Beauty Cheek plant was sold for more than 100 taels of silver per flower, but it's a pity that the flower only blooms for one season and is now almost withered, no different from dead grass. The eunuchs will pull it out and burn it soon."

"I heard that the wealthy merchants in Jiangnan love flowers and plants, and their yards are full of these precious flowers."

Liu Lin lowered his head thoughtfully.

"It's time to collect taxes next year. Can the Ministry of Revenue draw up a tax rate?"

(End of this chapter)