Sixth, it is another disguised population tax... Under the rent-and-labor system, of course, most of the military service can be eliminated, but the military service itself is converted into taxes such as silk and satin. In other words, labor service still exists, but it is changed into taxes.
And what was the basis for labor service? Again, the number of people.
What's more, in addition to traditional labor, there are always other types of labor that require people to do... such as the infamous Yaqianlizheng system in the Song Dynasty.
The yaqian was designed to look after public property, but in reality, which public property was not emptied by officials? Therefore, the yaqian service became a robbery that forced the people to replenish the official property.
The Li Zheng is similar to... In order to facilitate tax collection, a household is designated as the Li Zheng to perform a job similar to that of a tax farmer.
However, wealthy families who become tax farmers can take the opportunity to rob, but ordinary people who do this job dare not collect taxes from the truly powerful families, not to mention that there are poor people who really cannot afford to pay the taxes. As a result, the common people who serve as village heads have to use their own property to pay the taxes... which is basically equivalent to open robbery.
In short, after going around in circles, it is inevitable that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but the richer the rich, the more powerful they become, and the less likely they are to be exploited. On the contrary, the poor get poorer, and their burden does not get lighter at all.
For example, when it comes to infanticide, the logic is very simple. A family has limited land and property, but as long as the children grow up, they will have to bear the corresponding population tax and labor tax (silk)... The result is that the poor cannot afford to raise children, and dare not raise children, so when there are too many children, they will drown.
This was especially true in Fujian Road, where there were many people and little land. Infanticide had become a basic custom there. Hu Yin was almost drowned because of this. In the wealthy Liangzhe Road and Jiangnan East Road, although there were fewer cases, similar incidents were still common.
This is where things come together. Infanticide is not a bad custom, and Fujianese are not born to bear a bad reputation. It is a problem of population-land contradiction and taxation. The same goes for cremation and water burial, which are to save land for farming. Obscene worship and vegetable-eating cults are still the same. It is the result of the grassroots losing confidence in the government and the government's failure to govern the grassroots.
This has been China's problem since ancient times...the grassroots farmers bear everything, but no one takes them seriously.
This was the reason why the Song Dynasty was so prosperous that it lasted for more than a hundred years. It was also a question that Zhao Jiu had considered for a long time before his trip to the southeast... He was mentally prepared when he came here, and he just asked his close ministers to do the investigation, and he would have a deeper understanding after his own analysis.
Just like that, two days later, Emperor Zhao, who had never set foot out of Taiping Prefecture, erased the six words and rewrote them into two simple words:
One is merger;
The second is Ding Fu.
This is connected to the textbooks I learned in those years.
Soon after writing these two words, Zhao Jiu hesitated for only a moment before tearing them off. Then he wrote down the two words that had been lingering in his mind before he came to the notebook:
One is that in prosperous times, the population will increase, and taxes will never be increased;
Second, the tax rate will be distributed according to the land area.
Two words, two pieces of paper, and Emperor Zhao was once again caught in the dilemma of making a choice.
However, just when the official was hesitating, Li Gang finally asked for an audience. After crossing the river, the official stood up the literati in the southeast, but stayed in his provincial capital for six or seven days without saying a word. At the same time, more and more literati, including those from Lianghuai, Jiangdong, and Fujian, had already gradually gathered in Liangzhe, and he could not bear the pressure from all sides.
Therefore, we would like to ask Emperor Zhao to travel east to Liangzhe to fulfill his promise regarding the "political symposium".
Zhao Jiu, who had not made up his mind, knew that he could not delay any longer. He sighed, put the two pieces of paper together, and set off eastward, but ordered Li Gang to accompany him.
On the second day of October, the imperial carriage arrived in Jinling and gathered Liu Qi's troops.
On the eighth day of October, the imperial carriage arrived in Suzhou, and the whole city of Suzhou welcomed it. Emperor Zhao immediately issued an official decree here, that he would summon the scholars and officials from the southeast to discuss politics in the vicinity of Hangzhou at the end of this month. Moreover, in addition to the incumbent and retired officials with ranks and benefits, and students and scholars, no matter whether they were monks or laymen, businessmen or common people, no matter whether they were from Lianghuai, Liangzhe, Liangjiang, or Fujian, as long as they had something to say, they could speak before the emperor regardless of whether it was written or oral... After the clear decree was passed, the southeast was finally in an uproar again. Scholars and people from all over the place rushed to report it, and gathered in Suzhou and Hangzhou. By the time Emperor Zhao's ceremonial procession left Suzhou, there were no less than hundreds of scholars from the southeast riding donkeys and carriages accompanying him.
On October 15th, due to the unexpected rain, the imperial carriage arrived in Hangzhou a little later. Then Emperor Zhao met with Prime Minister Lu Yihao for a secret talk. In the next few days, the scholars who gathered had filled the city of Hangzhou and the area inside and outside, and there were no less than a thousand of them.
On October 19, the final decree was officially announced. Emperor Zhao, Prime Minister Lu, and two scholars Fan and Lu will hold a corresponding symposium on the bank of West Lake starting on October 25. For five consecutive days, the emperor, the prime minister, and the internal affairs ministers will work on the spot. If there is an agreement, an edict will be issued on the spot to make it a decree.
For a time, the southeast was boiling three times.
On October 22, with the arrival of Xu Jingheng, the Prime Minister, Emperor Zhao finally remembered something and took the three prime ministers Lu, Li and Xu to visit the Supreme Yuansheng Emperor in the Dongxiao Palace... It is said that the two brothers were very friendly and respectful to each other when they met. The scene was extremely warm, and the two emperors and the three prime ministers even had a meal of Dongpo pork together in the Dongxiao Palace.
As a result, in the next three days, the price of Dongpo pork in Hangzhou city doubled.
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