Chapter 169: Yinzhen put down his hand and pulled the person over...
Yinzhen put his hand down, pulled him in and hugged him, sighing contentedly, "Honghui is already this old, how can you still be so cute?"
Qi Buchen was like a twisted candy in his arms: "Stop flattering me and tell me the truth."
Yinzhen smiled helplessly and said, "Nian Xialing knows, right?"
"Hmm~" Qi Buchen hummed through his nose
Your father-in-law.
Yinzhen pinched her nose and pondered for a moment before saying, "When I was working at the Ministry of Revenue, I read some of Nian Xialing's administrative files when he was the Governor of Huguang."
"In the Huguang region, a traditional head tax has existed since the Ming Dynasty. This tax was levied on artisans as a form of labor service. Even today, the descendants of these artisans have either migrated or disappeared, leaving no place to collect the tax. However, this tax persists, and a certain amount must be paid annually."
"Before Nian Xialing, local officials never considered resolving this issue, opting instead to use local government silver to pay the bills. Most of the time, this expenditure was passed on to the people, impoverishing both officials and civilians."
"After Nian Xialing took office, he investigated this issue and submitted a memorial requesting that this tax be included in the land tax. By levying only a small increase in tax per mu, the tax shortfall was resolved, freeing local officials and civilians from the burden."
Qi Buchen was a little confused: "So?"
Yinzhen's eyes were filled with thought. "Since my father ascended the throne, the population has increased from over 19 million households in the first year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign to over 23 million households today, and farmland has increased from over 5.3 million hectares to over 6.9 million hectares today. If we only look at the numbers, it shouldn't be that many people are left without land, reduced to vagrant tenants. But in reality, these past few years, the rich have been able to expand their fields, while the poor have been left with nothing."
"Land annexation." Qi Buchen spat out four words.
"Yes." Yinzhen's eyes grew more thoughtful, his brows furrowed slightly. "The problem of land annexation has existed since ancient times. I've read through history books and found that in every dynasty, land annexation was the main cause of social conflicts in the later years. It can even be said that land annexation was the initial trigger for the downfall of these dynasties."
"I've been wondering what exactly causes the serious land annexation. Is there really no way to curb it?"
"It wasn't until I saw Nian Xialing's file that I had some inspiration."
Qi Buchen had already forgotten that she was still looking for trouble, and asked with wide eyes: "What?"
Yinzhen lowered his eyelids, his hands rhythmically patting Qi Buchen's body. However, he didn't directly answer her question. Instead, he sorted out his own thoughts: "The increase and decrease of the population in an area has always been an important factor in the evaluation of officials. In recent years, few areas have reported a decrease in population. The only difference is whether the population increases or decreases. But this situation is impossible just by thinking about it. Forget about anything else. Just look at those places that are hit by disasters every year. On the one hand, they claim that the disaster is serious and they need disaster relief money, while on the other hand, they claim that there are not many deaths. You can imagine what's going on. It's nothing more than not canceling the household registration of the dead and adding some non-existent people."
"They only do this to make the assessments look good, but these over-reported populations must pay a population tax. They certainly can't pay for it out of their own pockets, so they simply pass the tax on to the people. The people can't afford it, so they naturally have no choice but to sell their land, which results in the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer."
"If this continues, in just one or two hundred years, it will cause major problems."
Qi Buchen couldn't help but add, "Not only that, those officials certainly wouldn't dare to impose the burden on the wealthy. They would help those wealthy families hide their populations, and then pass the burden on to the poor. Even worse, local landlords might collude with officials to use this method to force the people to sell their land. The pace of land annexation would only accelerate, and perhaps within a hundred or two hundred years, there would be a major problem."
She remembered that the Qing Dynasty seemed to be no more than three hundred years in total, so it must have been sixty or seventy years now, right?
Yinzhen thought about it for a moment and realized that the probability of this happening was very high. He nodded and said, "You're right. I thought too highly of the situation."
"So, the reason for land annexation can actually be attributed to the head tax. Without it, officials could falsify population figures without much consequence, and wealthy households wouldn't need to hide their populations. But the head tax is the most important tax today. If it were abolished, the shortfall would be too great... Nian Xialing incorporated the labor service silver for artisans into the land tax, population and land tax... Landlords have more land but fewer people, while ordinary people have more people but less land... to achieve a balance..."
Yinzhen was obviously in a deep thought mode, his words became fewer and fewer, and his brows were furrowed more and more.
Qi Buchen had an expression as if he was forcibly holding back something.
She couldn't help it, she was already screaming in her heart, I've learned this! I've learned this! High school history! I remember! The tax burden should be levied on each acre! The tax burden should be levied on each acre!
But she couldn't say that she remembered clearly the policy of equalizing the land tax and knew that the premise for the implementation of this policy was that taxes would never be increased. But so far, she had not heard that Kangxi had issued a decree to never increase taxes.
After holding it in for a long time, seeing that Yinzhen's brows showed no sign of relaxing, she couldn't help but speak cautiously, "It doesn't necessarily have to be canceled immediately."
"Hmm?" Yinzhen obviously didn't hear what she said and asked casually, "What did you say?"
Qi Buchen took a breath and whispered, "I say, it's not necessary to abolish the population tax immediately."
Yinzhen pulled himself out of his thoughts for a moment: "What do you mean?"
"That is, because the population size determines the population tax, officials' false reporting will burden the people," Qi Buchen said carefully. "Then we can achieve our goal by simply untying the relationship between population size and the population tax. For example, the population tax will no longer be determined by the newly reported population size each year, but by a fixed number. That way, even if officials make false reports in the future, the people will not have to pay more taxes."
"Untie, secure, that's right!" Yinzhen slapped his thigh and laughed, "How did I get into a dead end?"
He gave Qi Buchen a loud kiss on the cheek: "You are really my good wife!"
After the kiss, she found that Qi Buchen's face was distorted, and asked curiously: "Why, do you dislike me?"
Qi Buchen curled his lips and almost cried: "You hit my thigh!"
Yinzhen: “…”
After a lot of rubbing and coaxing, Fu Jin gave up his plan to settle the score.
After surviving the disaster, Yinzhen wiped away the non-existent sweat before returning to business: "The idea of fixing the population tax is good, but how should it be fixed? On what basis? Accordingly..."
From the proposal to the implementation of a policy, there are too many problems to be solved, and it is definitely not something that can be implemented directly by just talking about it.
Qi Buchen didn't say anything more. On the one hand, she didn't know the specific details and she only memorized the general knowledge points at the beginning; on the other hand, the talents in ancient times were not bad either. Maybe sometimes they were limited by the times and couldn't get out of certain blind spots, but as long as they had ideas, their work was no worse than that of later generations.
At least he is much better than Qi Buchen, who is not even a half-baked one.
After talking for most of the day, it was time to go to bed. Qi Buchen yawned, listened to Yinzhen's occasional mumbling, and fell asleep in a daze.
Oh, what did we say at the beginning?
Waking up early the next morning, Qi Buchen recalled the question he had when he fell asleep the previous night. He suddenly shuddered and woke Yinzhen up: "So when you said yesterday that you were looking at someone from the Zhongnian family, you meant Nian Xialing?"
Yinzhen was stunned for a long time after being woken up. Only then did he realize what Fu Jin was asking. He rolled his eyes speechlessly and said, "What else? You woke me up for this?"
He is actually quite young!
Qi Buchen couldn't tell whether he was unwilling or angry. He just felt that the air in his chest was blocked and he couldn't swallow it or spit it out, which made him feel very uncomfortable.
She especially wanted to ask, why Nian Xialing? Why Nian Xialing? What about Nian Gengyao? Did you value him as well? So, in history, when you married Concubine Nian and later doted on her so much, was it because you truly loved her, or because you valued the Nian family father and son?
So what about now? You still value Nian Xialing. Will you take Nian into your family?
But these questions are just for thought; it is impossible to ask them out loud, never in this lifetime.
Yinzhen is not the Yongzheng in history. No matter what the Yongzheng in history thought, at least the possibility of Yinzhen marrying Nian is very small now.
You have already taken advantage of others, so it is better to live a simple life. Don't always find fault with things that have not happened. This will only push your lover further away and end up benefiting others.
Qi Buchen persuaded himself in his heart and kissed Yinzhen on the lips: "mua~" and said, "No, I woke you up because I remembered that I fell asleep without kissing you last night, so I have to make up for it~"
Then he kissed her again: "mua~ This is from this morning~"
"Good morning, Your Majesty." She blinked her right eye and smiled mischievously.
Yinzhen looked at her with a gaze that was as if soaked in honey. He said disdainfully, "Why do you become more clingy as you get older?" But his hands were honest and unceremoniously hugged her and turned over. "Since Princess is so reluctant to leave me, I will reluctantly sacrifice myself and go to the government office later."
Just in time to wake up in the morning full of energy.
Ever since he got the inspiration from Qi Buchen, Yinzhen devoted himself to it as if he had obtained a precious rare copy. He even neglected the official duties of the Ministry of Justice, which attracted the attention of many people. They speculated why Prince Yong suddenly changed his nature.
"It's probably because of the incident between the Eight Banners and the Ministry of Justice."
"avoid arousing suspicion?"
"No, Prince Yong is such a person?"
"Then tell me."
"I think he must be thinking about something important."
Everyone rolled their eyes: "What's the difference between saying it and not saying it."
"Tsk." The person who expressed a different opinion said disdainfully, "You are too ignorant to understand what I am saying."
Seeing that he looked like he knew something, everyone exchanged glances and began to interrogate him.
"How can I say such a thing?" He shook his head and looked at others with contempt.
Someone said, "Then just give me a hint."
Everyone echoed: "Yes, yes."
Someone provoked him: "I think he is just pretending and playing tricks."
"Who are you talking about?" The person who was suspected of having inside information could not bear the provocation and immediately said, "You know nothing! I'm telling you, Prince Yong, it's time to take action, humph!"
He turned and left, and the rest of the people looked at each other in confusion.
"What does he mean?"
"What do you think he means?"
"How should I know!"
"How would I know?"
Everyone stared at each other for a while, then scattered like birds and beasts.
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