The poem says: Looking from the side, it's a mountain range; looking from the front, it's a peak; they look different from different distances and heights.
Based on the differences in structure and interests, everyone sees things differently.
Whether it was the officials of Hezhong Prefecture or the literati and landlords, they all believed that the Commissioner of Taxation was the murderous weapon, because what the court expected was to improve the finances, and that was the only thing.
This understanding is of course very accurate.
But they overlooked a crucial plan, which was the salt debt and salt notes they now held in their hands.
Although the reform of the Taxation Department may lead to an increase in tax revenue, it will only maintain the basic situation, because the country's basic finances are taxes, which should be collected in the first place. The new tax law is just more balanced, instead of squeezing the poor to death and collecting more from the rich for subsidies.
What the big landowners saw was that their illegal activities might be discovered, so they had to find ways to resist.
But they should pay taxes according to the law.
This is perfectly normal.
But Wang Anshi was aiming for open source, which required economic growth.
...
...
Salt debts and salt notes were the catalysts for economic growth.
In addition, salt debts and salt notes can make up for the limited development of the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs. Now the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs have been fighting for a year to gain a foothold in Hezhong Prefecture. It is impossible for them to expand to the entire Shaanxi Road at once. Tax revenues from other prefectures and cities cannot increase. The financial contribution that a single prefecture can make is very limited.
But salt debts and salt notes covered the entire northwest region.
Because a large amount of salt debts and salt notes were issued to the border military states, and then those merchants took the salt debts and salt notes to Hezhong Prefecture to exchange for salt.
This broke through the limitations of the public security, procuratorial and judicial systems, which controlled Jiezhou, the core salt-producing area, and provided guarantees for salt debts and salt banknotes.
It’s just that those big landlords only care about their own interests. They just saw the tax commissioner and didn’t realize that the government has been stepping up its efforts to issue salt notes recently.
All salaries were changed into salt notes, and the construction of water conservancy projects and prisons there also used salt notes as payment.
And those salt merchants came to Hezhong Prefecture with salt notes and found that they could buy anything with the salt notes, so they also used the salt notes.
A large amount of salt notes flooded into the market, but at the same time, the tax bureau, public security, procuratorate and courts endorsed the salt notes. Many people had already used salt notes to pay the stamp tax, so the credit became very strong. Everyone was not worried about holding the salt notes, because they had to pay the tax anyway.
However, the entire Shaanxi region lacked currency, which was also one of the reasons for the sluggish local economy. Because bartering was always difficult, the monetization of salt notes greatly stimulated economic development.
In addition to the madness of business, crazy harvesting is also going on in the fields, and women make up the majority of the people working there, because their husbands are working for the government to earn food during this period. Although it is very, very hard, they are full of energy, even if they are already exhausted, because they believe that good days are ahead as long as they can get through this difficult time.
They are all already thinking about next year.
Next year they will not have to pay too much tax, and if they have no debts, they will have surplus food to get through the lean period, and they can also go to the city to work in their spare time. Their lives will get better and better.
In fact, for most people, they are not afraid of hardship or fatigue. It doesn’t matter if it’s 996 or 997. They are just afraid of despair. Once they are given hope, no matter how hard or tired they are, they can endure it.
During this period, the Taxation Department was also making arrangements for tax collection. All students from the Law School were mobilized, and the Hezhong Prefecture Law Firm and various bookstores also sent a number of people to help for free.
Those bookstores sent people to help, not to do charity, nor to curry favor with the Tax Commissioner. They all knew that the Tax Commissioner could not be curryed with. They did this purely for their own business, because they all knew that disputes would definitely arise, and they all wanted to get more detailed information as soon as possible.
Autumn has arrived. In this cool and refreshing season, many literati have come to the suburbs. But this year they have no time to pay attention to the autumn scenery. Most of them are focusing on the tax collection points of the tax commissioner.
Fan Zhen and Su Che also went together to a tax collection point in the suburbs.
"It's finally here!" Fan Zhen seemed a little uneasy.
Su Zhe glanced at him and couldn't help but laugh: "It seems that our public security, procuratorial and judicial organs still have a long way to go!"
Fan Zhen looked at him in confusion, "Why do you say that?"
Su Che laughed and said, "Now we are not robbing or adding excessive taxes. We are just collecting taxes according to the law. But even so, it still makes Master Fan so uneasy. It shows that there are still many aspects that need to be improved in our public security, procuratorial and judicial systems!"
If you're so uneasy about something that's legal, it must be a problem with law enforcement.
Fan Zhenfu smiled and said, "The road ahead is long and arduous, but I will continue to explore."
But after saying that, seeing that Su Che did not respond, she looked at him again, only to see that he was looking into the distance. She could not help but follow his gaze and asked, "Huh? Why are there so many people over there?"
Su Zhe asked, "Could it be that he is paying taxes?"
Fan Zhen shook his head and said, "Impossible. This is specifically for ordinary self-cultivating farmers, and many grains have not been harvested yet. How can anyone come to pay taxes? The tax bureau also stipulates that the tax declaration will be officially carried out after half a month."
At this point, he frowned, "Could something have happened?"
After all, many young students were arranged to work here this time, but they have no experience.
So the two of them walked over quickly.
When we arrived at the door of the warehouse, we found barefoot farmers standing on the open space, standing on tiptoe, looking forward, and seemed very anxious.
Su Che saw some of them holding salt notes in their hands and couldn't help asking, "Uncle, are you paying taxes?"
"Um."
The uncle didn't even look at Su Zhe, his eyes were always fixed on the front.
Su Che and Fan Zhen looked at each other, then went to the front of the team, where they saw two young men sitting at a long table. There were three or five royal police patrolling around to maintain law and order.
Fan Zhen knew these two young men, they were law school students Huang Zhibo and Wang Zongrui.
"Mr. Fan, Attorney General Su."
When the two men saw Fan Zhen and Su Che, they were about to stand up and salute.
Fan Zhen quickly pressed his hands to signal them not to salute, and then asked, "Aren't we still in the preparation stage? Why are you already collecting taxes?"
Wang Zongrui replied: "We were preparing originally, but the villagers nearby always came to pay taxes, and later the tax commissioner asked us to start collecting taxes."
Su Che looked at the farmers again and said, "The grain hasn't even been harvested yet, why are you in such a hurry to pay the tax?"
The farmer said hurriedly, "It has to be paid anyway, so why not pay it early? It will give me peace of mind."
Fan Zhen asked curiously, "But the food is still in the fields, where did you get the money?"
"This is what I earned from my recent work. I didn't steal or rob." The farmer said, protecting the salt banknotes in his hands with both hands.
Suddenly, I heard a discussion from behind, "What's going on in front? Why isn't it moving?"
"What's going on up front?"
"Hurry up, I have to get back to work."
Seeing that the people behind him were very anxious, Fan Zhen said, "Sorry to bother you."
Having said this, he and Su Che stepped aside.
The farmer hurried forward and handed over the land deed, household registration and several salt bills.
Because they are illiterate and probably didn't hire a pen, otherwise they wouldn't have to come in person.
Huang Zhibo looked at the deed for a while and asked, "Are there any other income?"
The farmer said, "I just helped the government repair the river recently and earned some money."
Huang Zhibo asked: "Besides this, do you have any other income?"
The farmer asked, "Do the chickens we raise ourselves count?"
"How many do you have?"
"Five!"
"That doesn't count. Anything else?"
"My wife also earns some money by doing sewing and mending for others."
"Anything else?"
“No more!”
While they were asking questions, Wang Zongrui was helping fill out forms, really helping them all the way.
"alright!"
Huang Zhibo took the two salt notes, added the remaining two between the land deed and the household registration, returned them to the farmer, and called out, "Next one."
The farmer seemed relieved and was secretly delighted.
Su Che nodded slightly, understanding why these farmers were so anxious to pay taxes. They were still worried that the tax commissioner would not recognize the salt notes.
Fan Zhen walked forward, glanced at the form, and asked, "Don't we have to pay taxes on the money earned from repairing the river?"
Su Che whispered, "Mr. Fan may not know that helping the government build the canal is considered government relief, so the tax commissioner decided to exempt this part of the income from tax."
Fan Zhen nodded and said, "I see." Then he smiled at Su Che and said, "It seems that the tax commissioner is not as unkind as the rumors say."
Su Zhe smiled and said, "Maybe they are not interested in this."
Fan Zhen was stunned for a moment, then he started laughing.
Another farmer came forward and said timidly, "I don't have a household registration."
Huang Zhibo immediately said, "Let's go inside and register our household registration first."
"yes."
In a blink of an eye, more than half of the team was gone. Every farmer who had paid his tax was secretly pleased with himself while holding his household registration card, and he was full of praise for the salt banknotes and the tax commissioner.
This really stunned Fan Zhen and Su Che. They had been officials for many years and had never seen such a generous farmer. In the past, they had always cried to the sky when they paid taxes.
.
Shouting, how can I be so proactive?
Outside the western suburbs, a horse-drawn carriage was seen driving quickly on the road.
"Impossible! This is impossible!"
Liang Youyi waved his hands and said, "Collecting taxes is not an easy task. Now that we gentry have not helped, they need to prepare for a longer time. At least they need to inform every household. How is it possible that someone will take the initiative to pay taxes now? I have lived for decades and have never seen such people."
Wei Yingfang said: "But some people have seen with their own eyes that some tax collection points have already started collecting taxes."
Liang Youyi said: "Could it be that they deliberately hired someone to create a false impression?"
Cao Yi said: "That's possible, let's go and take a look first."
After a while, the carriage slowly stopped and the three people got off hurriedly.
Looking up, I saw that the door of the warehouse was empty.
Liang Youyi immediately said, "Look! I was right! There is no one here at all."
Wei Yingfang asked, "Could it be that they really saw it wrong?"
The three of them walked over again and saw two students putting the thick stack of salt banknotes into the cash box.
Wei Yingfang immediately walked over and asked, "Where did you get these salt notes?"
The two students recognized the three of them and bowed to them. Then they replied, "This is the tax paid by the nearby farmers."
Liang Youyi asked anxiously, "Has anyone come to pay the tax yet?"
"The two villages around here have already paid. I'm just about to go collect taxes elsewhere."
"?"
Liang Youyi couldn't help but open his mouth wide.
squire?
By the time your squire comes to collect the debt, I'm afraid the money will be gone.
Some time ago, the people tried their best to get salt notes, and would rather go hungry than save the salt notes to pay taxes. Although the tax bureau had stipulated the price ratio between salt notes and grain, there was still loss? And they had to carry grain on their backs, how tiring!
They either worked on government projects to earn salt notes, or sold their chickens and vegetables in exchange for salt notes to pay taxes.
Even the third- and second-class households were anxious to buy some surplus grain in exchange for salt notes.
This just matches the consumption of government officials.
This led to the previous market prosperity.
They had obtained the salt coupons, but they were worried that the government would go back on its word, so they came to pay taxes while the grain was still in the fields.
Salt notes were convenient and did not require weighing. Farmers’ income was very simple, so they did not ask too many questions and the matter was settled quickly.
One village only takes half a day.
It also saves the government a lot of trouble. Normally, this is the busiest time for the government, but this year the government doesn't have to worry about anything and doesn't have to send people to transport grain back and forth.
This even caused all the warehouse officials to feel very lost.
The power has fallen into the wrong hands!
But Yuan Jiang and Cai Yanqing were also busy. The emergence of salt notes completely changed the government's financial operations. They had to redeploy, for example, how to deal with the collected salt notes?
They decided that the Transportation Bureau would take back part of the money, and leave the rest to the government to be used for local loss expenses.
Now that salt notes are so popular, officials have also fallen in love with them. After all, you are distributing grain and salt, so this is also a restriction. It would be much better to just distribute money. I can buy whatever I need without having to take grain to the market to exchange it.
The most idle place at the moment is the Imperial Court. While Ye Zuqia has gone out of town to enforce the law, Zhang Fei actually has time to sit under the big tree in front of the Big Dog Restaurant and drink tea.
Of course, he didn't come to drink tea, but to listen to a report.
"According to the news from Jingdong East Road, the Qingmiao Law is going very smoothly in the local area. Only a few counties have not lent out all the Qingmiao money, and the rest have lent out all of it."
"Yeah?"
Zhang Fei asked: "Is it so smooth?"
Big Dog said: "But our people think there are hidden dangers."
Zhang Fei frowned and asked, "What hidden danger?"
Da Gou replied: "Many of the people are rather blind. They see others borrowing money, so they also borrow money, thinking they are getting a bargain. However, they forget that the local government will increase the exemption tax this year, and most of these people will not be able to pay it back. At the same time, part of the green seedling money will be directly shared by the local big landlords.
The big landlords also observed that many people might not be able to pay back their debts, so they planned to wait until the people could not pay back the government, and then they would lend the money they received from the government to the people at an interest rate higher than 2%. If they continued to borrow new money to pay off old debts, those self-cultivating farmers would sooner or later become their tenants.
Zhang Fei said thoughtfully: "But this can avoid direct conflicts between the government and the people."
Big Dog nodded, "Yes. And it's not just the third- and fourth-class households that are affected, but also the first-, second-, and fifth-class households."
Zhang Fei asked: "What do you mean?"
Da Gou said: "Since those big landlords took the initiative to help the government share the burden, this also forced the first and second class households to share some of the green seedling money. However, they are not like those big landlords who can easily lend money and be sure to recover the debt. They can only pay interest to the government.
Even some big landlords have already set their sights on these first- and second-class households. They have land in their hands, and if they can't pay the money for the young crops, or don't have enough coins, they will have to borrow money from them. As for the fifth-class households, they can't borrow money for the young crops at all. They will still mortgage their small land to the big landlords as before, and become their tenants. "
Zhang Fei said: "When the money they owe to the landlords is due, the government will just issue another round of green seedling money, which will be just right for them to borrow new money to pay off the old debt."
The big dog nodded and said, "Yes."
"It seems they are better at playing than I thought."
Zhang Fei nodded slightly.
But Zhang Fei was not surprised.
Historically, the reformists and local forces were in hostility, so the new laws caused great problems at the local level. But this time it was different. The relationship between the government and the landlords became very close because they had a common enemy, namely the public security, procuratorate, courts and tax commissioner. They would cover for each other and become very cautious.
Zhang Fei asked, "Do they think these things can be kept secret from the imperial court?"
Big Dog said, "This is impossible, because many local officials are not on the side of Lord Wang, and there will definitely be people who will impeach this matter. But those self-cultivating farmers who cannot pay back will definitely borrow money from the landlords to repay the debt to the court, and those landlords are also prepared. This hidden danger can be covered up for the time being and will not cause public resentment."
Zhang Fei asked: "When do you think public discontent will erupt?"
Da Gou immediately said, "I dare not say that. If there is a natural disaster or man-made disaster, there will definitely be a large number of people who cannot pay back the money, and this will definitely not be covered up."
Yes! It is indeed very difficult to control this outbreak point, unless I am the biggest creditor. Zhang Fei pondered for a moment, and suddenly asked: "Does the official know about this?"
Da Gou hesitated, "The message from Jingdong East Road must have passed through Bianliang. The government should know this."
Zhang Fei nodded.
Dagou said again: "In fact, compared with Jingdong East Road, Jingzhao Prefecture is more likely to have problems?"
Zhang Fei was slightly startled, "What do you mean?"
Big Dog said, "Currently, the people of Jingzhao Prefecture are causing trouble. They are demanding to pay the same taxes as the people of Hezhong Prefecture, but the local landlords and gentry are strongly opposing this. Unless the public security, procuratorate and court leave Hezhong Prefecture now, problems will arise sooner or later."
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "Prefect Lu is really foresighted. It seems that we have to go next year. You ask the people over there to increase publicity and let them know how happily the people of Hezhong Prefecture pay taxes."
"yes."
"Oh, right! Now that it's the critical moment of collecting taxes, is there no news for me? I at least want to know how many lawsuits I have to fight next year?"
"It's unclear at this point because most landowners haven't started paying taxes yet."
"I won't give up until I see the Yellow River!"
Zhang Fei shook his head and sighed, then stood up. "Go and make arrangements. I have to send a secret letter to the emperor in the next two days."
"yes."
That night, Zhang Fei sat alone in the study. On the desk were the court records sent by Cai Bian, Shangguan Jun and others, but he seemed not to be interested in them.
Suddenly he felt warm, and he subconsciously raised his hand to cover the soft and slender hand on his shoulder, "Thank you, ma'am."
But then he heard a light snort, turned around and was startled, "Zhi Qian?"
Xu Zhiqian said sourly: "Is Sister Gao the only one who will add clothes for you?"
Zhang Fei asked back: "Did you say that?"
Xu Zhiqian blinked awkwardly, and suddenly glanced at Zhang Fei holding her hand, and said, "Can't you tell the difference between my hand and Sister Gao's hand?"
"Well!"
Zhang Fei said: "Of course I can tell the difference. Her hands are softer, and yours are smoother. It's just that I received another letter from Jingdong East Road today, which made me uneasy."
As soon as this matter was mentioned, Xu Zhiqian immediately put other things aside and asked, "What did the letter say?"
Zhang Fei secretly breathed a sigh of relief and informed Xu Zhiqian of the situation on Jingdong East Road.
Xu Zhiqian stamped her feet in anger, "They are simply colluding with each other, no different from beasts. This will not only harm the people, but also Mr. Wang's new policy."
At this point, she paused for a moment and looked at Zhang Fei suspiciously, "Is this what you expected?"
This issue was discussed last time, but Zhang Fei deliberately avoided it. Xu Zhiqian has always been very suspicious about this. Now everyone knows that the two judges are competing, and Zhang Fei must be on the side of the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs.
“If it were that simple, I wouldn’t bother.
.
”
Zhang Fei said: "Don't be too simple to add fuel to the fire."
Xu Zhiqian asked, "So you want to help Master Wang?"
Zhang Fei nodded.
Xu Zhiqian's face lit up. She was still a reformist. "Then have you come up with a solution?"
Zhang Fei said: "There is only one way to save all this at the moment."
"What is the solution?"
“We must find a way to buy out most of the debt contracts held by those big landowners to stabilize the situation.”
"ah?"
Xu Zhiqian was stunned. It was the first time she heard such an operation. "Is this possible?"
Zhang Fei said: "If the debt is transferred to us, then we can control it."
Xu Zhiqian said: "But how can we have so much money to buy those debts?"
Zhang Fei said: "This requires someone's help."
"who?"
"Officials."
"Official family?"
Xu Zhiqian was stunned for a moment, and shook her head like a rattle, "No! No! The government adopted the new law in the hope of improving finances. If the government takes on the debt again, it would be a waste of time. The government will never agree to it."
Zhang Fei suddenly stood up.
"what?"
Xu Zhiqian was surprised.
Zhang Fei stood up, stretched out his hand and led him to the chair, and said with a smile: "So we have to write a letter to convince the government."
The next morning, a fast horse came out of the imperial court and galloped eastward.
On the slope, Zhang Fei looked at the fast horse, scratched his head, and complained: "Eating from three different families is really a technical job!"
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