Chapter 265 My father-in-law, the one who knows the court
In March of the second year of the Qingli period, in Ruyin County, Yingzhou, northwest of Beijing.
The new magistrate of Ruyin County came to take up the post at the beginning of this year. He was a Jinshi who passed the imperial examination this year. His name was Li Xiaoji and he was only 21 years old. He served as the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Works for more than half a year and was then appointed as the magistrate of Ruyin County.
At this moment, he was walking slowly in the yamen with a frown on his face.
Ruyin is not only a county, but also the seat of Yingzhou, so the provincial government can directly govern it.
He just went to the provincial and county government offices for a meeting.
At the meeting, in front of the inspector of the northwest route of Beijing, Bai Zhipeng, the governor of Yingzhou, expressed the court's new policy in righteous words and demanded that the county magistrates and county magistrates of each county must strictly implement it.
However, after the meeting, Bai Zhipeng found Li Xiaoji and hinted something to him.
Or it can't be called a hint, it's just some common rhetoric in official circles, which has a bit of a warning effect.
Li Xiaoji is a smart man. He concealed his background before coming here and did not publicize it, so no one in the world knew that he was Li Di's grandson.
From Bai Zhipeng's words, he could hear that the other party seemed to be hinting that he should take his own side.
At that time, Li Xiaoji looked like a new official. He was timid and pretended to be stupid, as if he didn't understand what the other party meant at all. He managed to fool the other party in this way.
But the other party's attitude made Li Xiaoji a little puzzled.
Logically speaking, as the governor of a place, the top leader of the provincial government, apart from the higher authorities, even the prefectural magistrate cannot compete with him. Why should people be asked to take sides?
It's really hard to understand.
At this moment, the yamen runners outside came to inform that the village heads and household heads from all the townships had arrived.
Li Xiaoji couldn't figure it out, so he just stopped thinking about it and went to do his business first.
He immediately issued orders for new policies.
March was almost peaceful. During this month, Li Xiaoji traveled all over the countryside, promoting the court's new policies. Countless people were ecstatic, and his benevolent policies spread everywhere.
With the cancellation of a large number of exorbitant taxes and levies, agricultural tax was only 8.19 million guan, a direct reduction of nearly four-fifths compared with last year's 36.32 million guan. According to the two-tax reform, 70% of the tax was sent to the central government as national tax, and 30% was retained by the local government as local tax.
This means that the actual agricultural tax this year is about 12 million guan, one-third less than in previous years, directly reducing the burden on farmers by two-thirds.
Therefore, it was a carnival for the people and the landlords for a while.
It also made many landlords willing to cooperate with the imperial court, and they would take the initiative to truthfully confess when local officials investigated hidden households and properties.
Even if some people realize that doing so is likely to bring crises in the future, for example, after the imperial court investigates your industry, it suddenly raises the tax rate and makes you pay more taxes.
However, under the almost semi-threatening situation of the imperial court, most landlords still chose to cooperate.
Only a very small number of landlords chose to do bad things, such as some landlords in remote mountainous areas, who chose to continue to hide their household registration and property, and did not take the court's decrees seriously. Some even concealed the news of the new policy from the village head and household head, and extorted money from the people.
Ruyin County is located in the Henan Plain. It has been an important grain-producing area since ancient times. Several rivers such as Xiaoru River and Ying River pass through the county. It has abundant water resources and a large number of farmlands.
Since there are not as many mountains as in Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangzhou, Guangxi and Sichuan, the task was delivered very smoothly.
Soon the people of the whole county knew the news, which was very exciting.
In May, one day, Li Xiaoji was working in the yamen when he suddenly heard a yamen runner say that the provincial government wanted him to come over.
Li Xiaoji was puzzled, so he left the mansion and went to the provincial government office without any delay.
At this time, Bai Zhipeng was sitting leisurely in the provincial government office. Next to him sat a fat man dressed in silk and satin. The fat man said, "Brother, will this man be obedient?"
"Don't worry, after testing him a few times, he's probably just a fool who just entered the officialdom. With a little coaxing and deception, he'll probably be fine."
Bai Zhipeng smiled and said, "Besides, it's easy for your brother to control a county magistrate."
"Then it all depends on my brother."
The fat man laughed.
His name is Bai Zhiyuan, and he is Bai Zhipeng's younger brother.
People in later generations believed that all officials in the Song Dynasty were honest and incorruptible, and enjoyed themselves with high salaries and benefits.
But in fact, although high salaries and high benefits are true, human greed has no limit. Therefore, high-ranking officials at that time would often arrange for their relatives and servants to do business and make huge profits.
The only advantage was that officials and gentry of the Song Dynasty all paid taxes collectively.
It is not like the Ming and Qing dynasties, where as long as one passed the imperial examination and became a Juren or above, certain taxes would be exempted, which caused serious tax problems and led to a large number of farmers registering their land under the names of Juren and Jinshi to avoid taxes, resulting in a situation where tax revenue could not be collected.
However, this year's new business tax is more troublesome. Since it is a progressive tax, for businesses like Bai Zhiyuan that make hundreds of thousands of guan, the tax rate is actually much higher than before.
Although there is an advantage, that is, not having to pay taxes in advance, but seeing the taxes that are heavier than in previous years, Bai Zhiyuan is of course a little unwilling.
Moreover, in previous years, he often evaded taxes with the help of his brother, and even relied on his brother's power to force purchases and sales. It just happened that when Zhao Jun was on tour that year, Bai Zhipeng was not serving in Yingzhou, but was serving as a magistrate in Sichuan.
When Zhao Jun went to Sichuan, he was very lucky to encounter the transfer of the Ministry of Personnel. He was transferred from Sichuan to Huainan, which Zhao Jun had just investigated. Last year, he was transferred to the northwest of Beijing. He was really lucky.
So even though the Bai Zhipeng brothers knew how powerful Zhao Jun was, they were still taking chances and acting lawless, still doing things to hide the truth, thinking that no one would find out.
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