"The people should not fight against the officials. You are asking for trouble if you get angry with the people in the government office."
Xu He looked at the man pulling the reins, changing from the leisurely manner on the way back, and his face fell. He didn't have a good impression of those debt collectors, but he patted Zhang Fangyuan's hand and still persuaded his husband.
"What kind of officials are they? They are even worse than ordinary people. But they have been in the government for a long time. County magistrates are common and they think they are superior to others. They order ordinary people around."
At first, the people in the yamen saw that he was strong and healthy, and wanted to make him a yamen runner. He could be a constable, detaining and hunting down criminals, collecting debts, etc. It would look nice to see him showing off in and out of the yamen, but the monthly salary was not even as good as that of a waiter in a restaurant, so he refused to go.
Xu He closed his mouth and looked at him quietly.
"Okay, can I be so petty as to be angry with them?" Zhang Fangyuan looked at his wife and laughed again.
Xu He thought to himself, you have a big heart, who has a small heart?
He said, "There are only two of us in our family, so we shouldn't be able to pay much tax."
Every year when it comes to paying taxes, the villagers will fall into melancholy. They suddenly have to take out a large sum of money, and it is not like doing any business for someone else. Although they have to give money and gifts, they also have to have a lively party and a banquet. Paying taxes is completely equivalent to taking it for nothing. With such a small income a year, who can be happy?
Xu He was afraid that Zhang Fangyuan was also worried, so he joked: "If you marry me later, maybe I can save this head tax."
Zhang Fangyuan smiled and said, "Don't you know the saying 'buy early and enjoy early'?"
“…”
"Your head tax is nothing." Zhang Fangyuan said, "And I am happy to pay it. What worries me is the days of paying taxes. I'll probably have troubles in the future."
Xu He was slightly puzzled: "What do you mean?"
Zhang Fangyuan didn't say anything directly, but touched Xu He's hair: "Don't worry about it, I'll block it. You will know what's going on later."
Xu He frowned slightly.
According to the imperial law, people all over the country paid taxes according to their population size. Among them, those aged three to fourteen, regardless of whether they were girls or boys, had to pay a tax of thirty coins per year, which was called "head money". Those who are fifteen years old are considered adults, and the annual head tax for adults is one coin per year, and one coin is one hundred and twenty coins.
People had to pay poll tax until they reached the age of 56, which meant that the age range for people to pay poll tax was between three and 56 years old, and they had to pay poll tax for 53 years while they lived.
Of course, this is just the head tax for ordinary people. If a family is wealthy and has slaves to serve them, the head tax will be paid by the owner at twice the price of ordinary people.
In other words, the richer the family, the higher the tax.
Apart from these, before Xu He got married, the villagers often laughed at her and said that she would not be able to get married and would have to stay at home to pay the late marriage tax, which is also legal. In order to encourage marriage, the imperial court required that if a young man between the ages of fifteen and thirty did not marry, the head tax his family would have to pay would become higher as he got older.
The poll tax increases gradually from the age of fifteen upwards, reaching its peak at the age of twenty-two, which can be as high as five hundred thousand. However, it will slowly decrease after the peak, and there will be no late marriage tax after the age of thirty.
For this reason, families with many children will plan to marry off their daughters and sons as soon as they reach adulthood, and will hold their weddings some time after the New Year every year in order to avoid taxes. As a result, there are many weddings in March and April every year.
Families who are looking to get married want to wait until June to avoid the head tax, and the two sides are passing the buck to each other. However, generally speaking, families who are looking to get married cannot avoid it, because after all, they are betrothing their wives, and if they bargain too much, they will not be able to get a wife.
Because of the head tax, it was rare for villagers to keep slaves or have three wives and four concubines. It was difficult for them to support their own people, so how could they dare to support so many more people?
There are only two people in Zhang Fangyuan's family now, and the head tax is calculated in taels, which is 240 coins. In addition, there is a "household tax" for each family unit. Each family has to pay 200 coins a year. This does not matter how many people there are in your family, whether it is one person or ten people, as long as you settle down and set up a household, you have to pay it, unless you are an illegal resident. Of course, for illegal residents, it is not a matter of paying money. They will be arrested and detained in the government office, where they will be interrogated carefully to find out what is going on.
Xu He went home and did the math, and started sobbing on the spot. He had spent all the money he had earned that day, and even had to pay a lot from his savings.
Just this amount of money costs four hundred and forty coins! There are only two people in their family!
In the past, Liu Xianglan was in charge of the family's tax payment by contacting the government, and he had only heard about it vaguely. Now that he is in charge of the household himself, he realizes how huge an expense it is.
Zhang Fangyuan watched Xu He counting the money, and his face immediately lost its luster. Although he wanted to comfort him, he still told him honestly: "It's not just this, you haven't calculated the military service fee yet."
Xu He sat up straight in shock: "How is military service calculated?"
Zhang Fangyuan said slowly, "Girls and boys have a late marriage tax, and men have a military service tax, also called 'gengfu'."
Imperial law stipulated that men had to serve the court from the age of twenty.
There are three types of military service. One is called "Gengzu", which means working for the local county government for one month a year without any wages. For example, they are responsible for repairing city walls, casting dams, and building official residences in the county.
Secondly, one serves as a "regular soldier", which means one only serves once in his life, but each service lasts for up to one year and he has to go to the capital to serve as a soldier.
The last type is called "garrison soldier". They go to the border to guard for three days every year. The time is very short, but they are not assigned to the nearest place. They go wherever they are assigned. It would be fine if it was close to home, but if it was far away, it might take a year or two to go back and forth, the travel expenses would be huge, and it would also delay things.
For this reason, the imperial court was also very "humane". If one wanted to serve in the military nearby, one could do so by paying money and making arrangements. As for the specific amount, it was still decided by local officials. Those who simply did not want to go had to pay money, and the court would hire someone else to go, at three hundred coins a year.
Because the "garrison soldiers" could pay money to avoid military service, gradually the first two types also evolved into a situation where they could pay money and not go. The "shift soldiers" were paid one hundred coins per turn, and the "regular soldiers" were paid two hundred coins per turn.
"The imperial court does not calculate the military service age based on the date of birth. They recruit people for military service as soon as they reach the age of twenty. I am exactly twenty this year, so I have to pay the military service fee."
Zhang Fangyuan looked at Xu He with a smile: "Of course, you don't have to pay it to me. I can go to serve."
Xu He glanced at him and said, "Since you want to serve in the army, I will save your military service fee."
"No, no!" Zhang Fangyuan begged for mercy. It would be fine if he stayed in this county, but if he was sent to guard the border or serve as a soldier in the capital, not to mention when he could come back, it would be a question of whether he would be able to come back alive. "If you are willing to let me go, I can't let you go either."
Xu He laughed and said, "So what kind of military service did you do this time?"
Zhang Fangyuan said, "I don't know. I'll have to wait for the yamen runners to come and see me. This is arranged by the court. They come once in the first half of the year and once after the autumn harvest in the second half of the year. The service takes turns, and the chief clerk will record it."
Xu He nodded. The heavy taxes and levies made life difficult for the common people. We are still living in a peaceful and prosperous age. If it were a year of war, taxes would increase and military service would be more stringent, which would be unbearable.
The bailiffs walked along the main road of the village and soon arrived at their house.
Xu He said politely to the yamen runner, "I have already prepared the tax money, but I don't know what kind of service my husband will be serving this time?"
It was an extremely troublesome thing to come to the village to collect taxes every time. The county government was also the busiest at this time. There were countless families who could not pay, some begging, some crying, some kneeling... In short, no matter how good-tempered the yamen runners were, they would lose their patience after collecting for too long.
Showing off one's power is not the goal; collecting taxes is the important matter. For this reason, when meeting a family like Xu He, such an answer to the question is particularly comfortable to hear, and the tone is also different from the fierceness in the Hu family: "Your husband Zhang Fangyuan is indeed twenty this year. He will start as a "shift soldier" and the second half of the year will be a "regular residence". Do you want to pay money or go to serve?"
Xu He said: "Pay the money."
"Then you should pay 560 coins this time."
Xu He took out another amount of money on top of the original amount and strung it into four strings. The bailiff counted the amount three times, and after verifying that it was correct, he recorded it clearly in a book for their family.
The yamen runner said, "If you don't want to serve in the second half of the year, you have to prepare the money early like this time."
"Okay. Officers, have some tea before you go."
The yamen runner waved his hands. Although he was a little thirsty, he couldn't be lazy. If he didn't do his job well, the pressure from his superiors would be great. "We still have to collect two more houses. It's getting late. I dare not stay any longer."
Xu He did not stay long, and the yamen runners went to Chen's house not far away.
The yamen runner was still talking from a distance, saying, "If every family was as quick as this one, there wouldn't be so much trouble. We would be able to collect all the taxes for this village in three days."
"If there is such a cheap job, it won't be your turn or mine."
After Xu He watched everyone rush into the Chen family's yard, he went back to his own yard and closed the gate. He asked Zhang Fangyuan to burn pig hair in the house because he was afraid that Zhang Fangyuan would go out and have a conflict with the yamen runners again.
"Gone?"
"They're all gone."
Zhang Fangyuan put down the pig's trotter with the hair burnt clean and said: "I haven't asked Fourth Uncle if his family has enough money to pay the tax."
Xu He said: "Fourth uncle's family has an extra Xiaomao, but they can't have much more friends than ours."
In fact, Zhang Fangyuan was just saying it casually. His Zhang family was already an upper-middle class family in the village, and none of his uncles were so poor that they could not pay taxes. My uncle's family has many cousins, so they pay the highest taxes. However, more people mean more money. Although my uncle pretends to be poor, he is not unable to pay the taxes.
It was precisely because they knew that the Zhang family was a wealthy family in the village, and that they had more worries than other families when paying taxes.
"Brother, don't cook fish tonight. Just make something simple. Also, clean the pig's offal in the house and braise it in the middle of the night."
Xu He didn't understand what Zhang Fangyuan meant, but he did as he was told.
Later, when the night breeze was blowing and it was dark, he finally understood why Zhang Fangyuan was like this.
--------------------
The author has something to say:
The taxes mentioned in this chapter refer to the amount and quantity of taxes paid in the Han Dynasty mentioned in "Daily Life of Ancient People". It is quite interesting and you can also take a look at it. But this article is not written based on the background of the Han Dynasty. It is fictional and a hodgepodge, so please do not verify it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
