The officials stared wide-eyed, and their brains were swollen when they heard these numbers, and they couldn't remember them, so where else could they see any clues?

Yan Zheng didn't ask too much, and continued in a deep voice: "The data I extracted are the Jinxiu period and the Qingfeng period in the Great Calendar Period. During the Great Calendar Year, I have only been established in the Great Zhou Dynasty for 30 years, and in the Splendid Year, our dynasty has been established for more than 100 years, and at this moment in the Qingfeng period, my Great Zhou has been established for almost 140 years. From the figures obtained in these three times, it can be seen that the number of households in my Great Zhou has grown from 12 million at the beginning to 19 million now, and there are 7 million households registered in more than 100 years. Based on five people per household, that is an increase of 35 million people. This is enough to show that the 100 years that my Great Zhou has experienced have been a peaceful and prosperous era, so the people have grown and prospered, and the people have lived and worked in peace and contentment......"

The officials rolled their eyes and said, "Do you need to say this?" Who doesn't know that my Da Zhou people have increased a lot in the past hundred years? Who doesn't know that the past 100 years have been peaceful and prosperous? ”

“…… However, I don't know if you have noticed that I have not listed the data separately. During the Great Calendar Year, there were 8.4 million peasant households in the Great Zhou Dynasty, accounting for 70% of the total household registration, and it can be said that the vast majority of the people were working in the fields. However, by the fourth year of Qingfeng, the number of peasant households had reached more than 7 million. What is the reason why the number of rural households has decreased by more than one million while the total number of household registrations has increased by 7 million? These more than 7 million peasant households only account for 40% of the total number of household registrations in the whole Great Zhou Dynasty, which is a world of difference from the 70% in the Great Calendar Year. ”

After his analysis, the officials immediately understood. Yes, what is the situation that the number of peasant households has decreased after a hundred years compared to a hundred years ago, even though the total household registration and population have increased significantly?

“…… Of course, this does not exclude the increase in the household registration of merchants and craftsmen, but the increase is far less than the difference. Last year, the figures of the three divisions and yamen showed more than 900,000 merchants in the whole week, and more than 4.8 million household registrations in other industries. Combined with the number of rural households, there are only 13 million households. Compared with today's total household registration, there is a difference of nearly 6 million households. So, what are these six million households and tens of millions of people doing? Have you thought about it? ”

The officials fell into deep thought.

“…… There is another figure, which I have put forward separately, that is, the number of wealthy households above the third class among the peasant households. It was 4.2 million in the Great Calendar Year and 3.19 million in the Splendid Year, and the number dropped sharply to less than 2 million in the fourth year of Qingfeng last year. As we all know, the bulk of our dynasty's tax revenue on money and grain is on the peasant households, and the bulk of the tax revenue on money and grain among the peasant households is concentrated in the third-class households. It is already very good that the families of the people below the third class can keep their food and clothing without giving them money, and they do not receive much tax. In addition, the total household registration of peasant households has dropped sharply, and the number of wealthy households above the third class has also dropped sharply. That's why I used to earn 100 million taels a year, but now I can only receive 50 or 60 million taels of taxes. ”

The civil and military officials nodded one after another, and after such an analysis of the boring figures, the results presented were clear at a glance. The main force of the Great Zhou Dynasty's money and grain tax came from the people who farmed, and the Great Zhou Dynasty divided the people into six classes, and the tax policy was also divided according to the level in which they were located. Generally speaking, wealthy households above the third class have more acres of land and can also collect some money and grain to pay taxes, but those below the third class, especially those of the fifth and sixth class peasant households, not only do not receive money and taxes, but need relief. Therefore, the more high-class households, the more taxes the imperial court will have. At present, the number of total peasant households is declining sharply, the number of high-class households is also declining, and the total tax revenue, of course, has also plummeted. This is a matter of course.

“…… I have to mention one more number, and that is the number of total acres. At the beginning of the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the total number of cultivated acres measured was 27 million hectares. By now, the cultivated land area of my Great Zhou has increased to 40 million hectares. That's a whopping 13 million hectares. That's nearly 200 million acres. Can anyone tell me that the acres have increased so much? Taxes have plummeted so much? What's going on? Can anyone else tell me what the six million households we counted were doing that were neither farmers nor merchants and other household registrations? Wouldn't so many acres of land allow them to settle down? Instead, let these people have nothing to do? To be a burden to the imperial court that neither farms nor works? What is the reason for all this? ”

No one can answer this question, and perhaps some of them know the answer to this question, but they don't say. Many of the officials suddenly had a premonition that a huge storm seemed to be coming. Because the thieves have a weak heart, they know in their hearts who the goal of asking this question is to target.

There is no doubt that in the 100 years since the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, more and more acres of land have been cultivated, but these increased acres have left many people with no land to plant. The wealthy and wealthy families hoarded fertile land, and the wealthy businessmen and gentry also hoarded acres of land as private property. The people at the bottom originally had some land, but their living conditions were fragile, and once they encountered a bad year, they could only borrow money to survive. The upper class households are better, and they can still have a little savings to resist natural and man-made disasters. The lower class had no ability to resist at all.

When the borrowed money cannot be repaid, the only thing they can do is to use the acres of land to pay off the debt. In this way, the first-class household became a second-class household, and the second-class household became a third-class household. Those who are inferior to the lower class have no land, and they can only be reduced to tenants and displaced people. The tenant farmers who flood the estates of the great families, the coolies who carry goods in the wharves of the major cities, and the destitute wanderers who wander the streets everywhere are the six million people who have no household registration.

Although they are not registered in the household register, they are tens of millions of real people. And on these tens of millions of people, the imperial court can't collect a penny of taxes. Not only could it not be received, but in order to prevent chaos, the imperial court recruited the young men among these displaced people into the army. It is also called "changing the displaced people into soldiers, this is the policy of both the internal and the military". These homeless people were raised as uncles, but in turn they consumed the food and taxes of the imperial court. This forms a dead knot in an endless loop.

Yan Zhengsu didn't break this dead circle today, because it wasn't time yet. As the change deepens, he will definitely point out the dead knot and untie it. But it needs to be done step by step.

“…… The above is well documented, if in doubt, you can check and verify at any time. Based on the current situation of my Great Zhou, this official and Fang Zhongcheng came to a conclusion after careful discussion and reflection. If we want to change the dilemma of our Great Zhou's financial decline, the most urgent thing is to return the displaced people to the land. When the people cultivate and the land is produced, the court will have finance and taxes. The most urgent task at the moment to enable the people to be comfortable with farming is to solve the practical difficulties of the people, and not to force the people to sell their land and land and go bankrupt because of natural and man-made disasters. To solve this fundamental problem is the most urgent thing for the imperial court to do at this moment. Otherwise, the situation will continue to deteriorate, a large number of people will go bankrupt and flee, and all those acres of land will be returned to the annexation family, and the finances and taxes of the imperial court will further deteriorate. And the more displaced people, the more unstable the country becomes. ”

Many of the officials nodded secretly, indeed, this is the root of the problem. The people are no longer farming, so what money and grain taxes are collected? The people have become homeless, and the pressure on social security will become very great, and it is likely that some chance will turn into big trouble. But this is easier said than done, and I don't know what the new Fa will do.

"As we all know, our Great Zhou Dynasty followed the system of the previous dynasty, and the governments of various roads set up a large number of Changhui warehouses, and their intention was naturally to purchase and store the people's grain in the harvest year, so as not to let the grain depreciate too low. In a year of poor harvest or famine, it can also be sold at a fair price to stabilize the price of grain, prevent profiteers from making profits, and provide relief to the people of famine. The establishment of Changping Guanghui warehouses is exactly the move of the imperial court to benefit the people. And it has a very huge effect on stabilizing the situation. However, the current situation is that all positions are currently semi-closed. Originally, there were only more than 20 road houses to set up regular closing positions, which was already a drop in the bucket for thousands of prefectures and counties in Dazhou. It's sad that half of them are now closed and no longer effective. ”

“…… Some people may ask, why do you talk about Changping Guanghui's warehouses. As everyone knows, it is precisely because the regular closing has failed to play an effective role that it will have no power to help the people. Imagine that in a good harvest year, when the price of grain falls and no protective purchase is possible, the people will inevitably receive very little. And once the grain harvest fails in the year of natural disasters, and there is no way to stabilize the price of grain, the people are bound to spend more silver to buy the high-priced grain hoarded by the profiteers. This time and again, how much did the people lose? It is precisely because of such tossing and turning back and forth that the people have nothing to rely on and will be reduced to abject poverty. will have to borrow usury to survive. How can the usurious loan be repaid, and in the end it has to be offset by acres of land, and it is bankrupt and exiled. All of this is interconnected. Therefore, what is urgently needed at the moment is to protect the people's enthusiasm for farming, so that the people can rely on it and not resign themselves to fate. If grain prices do not fall in good years and do not rise in famine years, the people can make plans to make up for their arrears with abundance, and they can coordinate with themselves. If the imperial court can free the people from worries, why worry about the people not actively farming? Who wants to be displaced, suffering from hunger and cold? ”

There was a buzz in the hall, and many people nodded their heads. A lot of the previous words are just foreshadowing, and Yan Zhengsu has officially entered the topic when he says this. And what he raised is the crux of the matter. Many officials threw themselves on the five-body body that Yan Zheng Su admired. There are many problems in the Great Zhou Dynasty, but many people only know the surface but do not know the inside. For example, when finances are tight, many people will only smack their lips and sigh, but they do not know the reason. Or they see the reason, but they don't know the point because it's too complicated and confusing. Yan Zhengsu taught them a good lesson today, peeling off the cocoon layer by layer, reaching the core of the problem, and pointing out the key points of solving the problem.

Keep in mind that the first domain name :.com this book. The mobile version of the mobile version of the wonderful book house is :.com