Gong Xu said.
The four of them sat down.
The servants served them tea one by one.
After everyone left, there were only four of them left in the hall.
"Brother Gong, I heard you went to the city this morning. What did the county government say?"
Wang Wei, the patriarch of the Wang family, asked.
"well."
Gong Xu sighed and said, "This is a death order from the imperial court. Even the acquaintances at the county government office are useless."
"Pooh!"
Pan Shishu spat and said, "Fan Zhongyan is from Wu County, and yet he brings trouble to us."
"Have you ever gone to see the Fan clan?"
"Even if we did, Fan Zhongyan himself spent money to buy land for their impoverished clan members. How could they speak for us?"
"I didn't expect the Fan family to become so prosperous all of a sudden. It would have been great if I had made friends with them earlier."
"Who could have predicted this?"
"Forget it, let's talk about what to do. This year's autumn tax, my family will have to pay more than 30,000 dan of grain."
"My family also has to pay an extra 20,000 dan, and it's not just grain, but people have also left. Seventeen households have already left last month. If this continues, everyone will leave."
"Isn't it? In the past four months, more than forty households have left from my side alone."
"Who isn't?"
Several people sighed to each other.
These large clans and landlords were all extremely wealthy and owned tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land.
When the imperial court issued a new policy, the tax burden on them suddenly increased by tens of thousands of stones.
Who can stand this?
And it's not just taxes, it's people too.
Although strictly speaking, not many people have left their command.
Because the clan regulations in the south are still relatively strict and restricted by the clan system, many young and middle-aged people from families with slightly better conditions did not leave.
Only those families who are extremely poor, so poor that they can barely survive, will choose to take a gamble and break away from the clan to become independent.
This phenomenon is all too common in the South.
This situation occurred later when our army launched certain reform plans in the Soviet area. Many young and strong people in the south were bound by their clans and could not join the army or leave the clan to engage in production independently.
On the contrary, it doesn't matter in the north. The clan constraints in the north have long been in name only and almost non-existent due to the repeated attacks of the Five Barbarians Invasion of China, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, etc.
Therefore, the clan reform plan introduced by Zhao Jun a few years ago was implemented smoothly in the north, but was not implemented at all in the south.
But the fact that not many of their subordinates have left does not mean that their interests have not been harmed.
After the land tax was distributed among all the landowners, the taxes they had to pay increased. This made it difficult for the big landlords who owned tens of thousands of acres of land to bear the burden, and they began to discuss solutions.
"Brother Gong, didn't you find out anything when you went to the county government office this morning?"
Zhang Ruohai, the head of the Zhang clan, asked.
Gong Xu said, "The county government did give us some advice. They told us to sell our land to the court and build cement plants, steel plants, and textile mills."
"What is this?"
Everyone was puzzled.
"Who knows?"
Gong Xu scratched his head and said, "Besides, it's hard to say whether this thing can make money. I've done some research and the initial investment alone is huge. If it doesn't make money, won't it bankrupt us?"
"Forget it, this land was left by my ancestors. I won't sell it even if you kill me."
Others shook their heads.
"The problem now is that we need to come up with a set of rules. The county government can't do anything about it. The state government, the Censorate, and the Imperial City Office are investigating everywhere."
Wang Wei spread his hands and said, "If we find out that the county magistrate is protecting us, he will be demoted and dismissed from his post. He won't go against the court for us, so no matter how much money he gives, it will be useless."
"Is the imperial court trying to force us to death now?"
Pan Shi was very angry.
In fact, the court's taxes were higher in the past few years than they are now, reaching 30% at its highest. But although they were severely exploited at that time, they could still barely survive.
The reason was that the price of grain was relatively high at that time, especially during the war with the Western Xia and Liao dynasties. Even though the taxes were high, they still made a lot of money by relying on the remaining grain in their hands and the high grain prices.
The second year of the Qingli reign was the best of times. The war had just ended, and grain prices hadn't fallen much, even higher than usual. The court also slashed agricultural taxes. They continued to exploit the tenants, and with all three taking advantage, they made a tidy profit.
Until last year and this year, the price of grain has dropped from more than 300 wen per dan in normal years to more than 200 wen per dan now. However, because of the reduction in taxes, they still have ample profit margins, and no one else will starve to death, but these big landlords will not.
But with grain prices falling and the government increasing taxes, they were in a bit of a pickle. Although the tax rate still hadn't reached its peak, after getting used to a good life, who would want to go back to the high taxes of the past?
So they all looked sad and jumped up and down.
In fact, the imperial court had already given them a choice at this time, which was to force them to join the ranks of businessmen, invest in steel mills, textile mills, and cement mills, and join the trend of the times.
If you join in at this time, which is the critical moment of Zhao Jun's reform, then even a pig standing on the wind can take off.
But there are always short-sighted people who miss this opportunity.
Even took the wrong road.
Zhang Ruohai suddenly said, "Everyone, if this continues, we'll all have to sell our land. There's only one solution."
"What method?"
Everyone looked at him.
Zhang Ruohai said in a deep voice, "All our land is just a small part of Suzhou. Taihu Lake is so vast, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are so vast, and countless wealthy families have become impoverished because of this. If we can unite them and protest to the court, perhaps we can get them to take back their land."
"Are you crazy?"
Wang Wei was surprised and asked, "Aren't you afraid that the court will arrest you and punish you?"
"Don't forget, everyone: the law does not punish the masses."
Zhang Ruohai said, "If it's just one or two people, the court will definitely crack down. But what if it's thousands or tens of thousands? The gentry and wealthy families who will be harmed are more than just us. If they link up together, they will be a huge force!"
The law does not punish everyone?
Several people looked at each other, thinking.
yes.
If they unite together, perhaps they can really force the court to back down.
However, what they didn't know was.
In the fourth year of Yongzheng's reign, the gentry of Jiangsu and Zhejiang protested against the land tax at the Zhejiang Governor's Office, but were violently suppressed by the then Zhejiang Governor Li Wei.
And Zhao Jun.
Of course he would be more ruthless than Li Wei.
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