This is Emperor Yongzheng, who I think is the only good emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, who has been scolded by the literati for countless years, one of the most hated policies of the literati, which is to cancel the land tax exemption of the gentry and the privilege of not obeying the levy of labor. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Of course, in order to be acceptable to Lao Zhu, and at the same time, in order to make the rebound of the world's scholars smaller, he proposed that the government give the local talents and people who were not officials to the local officials a subsidy equivalent to the exemption from land tax and grain they originally enjoyed; And Xiucai, Juren, etc. are still allowed to disobey the conscription, but their family members are exempted from the privilege of disobedience.

The land tax exemption privileges for all officials were also abolished and replaced by an increase in the amount of money; The tax exemption on the land of the lords was also abolished, and it was also changed to an additional income. However, for civil and military officials or lords, all their children and grandchildren are not required to serve in conscription.

In fact, Lao Zhu's original intention in implementing the current policy is good: in a class society, it is also correct to let the common people see that as long as they work hard to take the imperial examination, even if they can only be admitted to the examination, they will have a higher status and privileges than ordinary people, so that the common people have hope in their hearts not to rebel.

Yun Xi felt that this item was more difficult to implement than 'spreading the ding into the mu', so he had to change it while Lao Zhu was still there; as for the 'consumption of envy and return to the public', now the fire consumption is only 'fire consumption', and the real fire consumption after the reform of Emperor Yongzheng is also continuing to be collected, which is inevitable, so there is no need to reform now.

Yun Xi went to Qi Tai's house that day to greet him, and heard Qi Tai's father Qi Yu say that his family had 300 acres of land exempt from paying taxes before he remembered this matter, and then he didn't dare to discuss it with Qi Tai, Lian Zining and others, and thought about it alone for many days, sorting out the grammar, and only then handed over the song to Lao Zhu today.

Lao Zhu's expression was already serious when he saw the topic of Yun Xi's recital, he looked up at Yun Xi, and then lowered his head to look at the recital seriously.

I don't know how much time has passed, Lao Zhu said: "You are going to overturn your grandfather's governance and start over." ”

Yun Xi hurriedly said: "Is the grandson like grandpa said? The grandson is just a little bit of a change. The money and food that Xiucai Juren originally received was not reduced, but it turned out that they did not have to pay taxes, and not that the court gave them money; It's the same with officials. ”

Lao Zhu said: "If that's what you mean, then why do you want to do more? ”

"Grandpa, as far as my grandson knows, in addition to some tax exemptions for fields, Xiucai and Juren also receive money and grain from the local yamen on a monthly basis; If they have to give them money and food, why should they be exempted from taxes again? Wouldn't it be enough to increase the amount of money and food that was distributed? Officials can do the same. ”

This is what Yunxi can't understand the most; They are given money and food every month, but they are also tax-free. Every time you send more money and food, it's like Emperor Yongzheng's incorruptible silver, isn't it good.

Lao Zhu said: "When officials go to work, most of them do not bring their families to their posts alone, if they distribute money and food to officials as you said, then their families in their hometowns will not have no income, especially those officials whose families are poorer." ”

Yun Xi replied: "Grandpa, my grandson went to the house of Qi Tai, a subordinate official of the East Palace, a few days ago, and my grandson and grandfather said, I heard Qi Tai say: His father Qi Yu is expensive because of all kinds of things in the capital, and Qi Tai's money is not enough to spend, so he has to go to the capital every year to send money to Qi Tai." The rest of the officials in the capital, such as Lian Zining, a subordinate official of the minister, had a very poor life because it was not easy to live in the capital, and it was not as close to Qi Tai's house as the capital was close to the capital. ”

So the grandson thinks that it is not that the officials are unwilling to take their families to the place where they are officials; It's an official in a different place, especially in the capital, they don't dare to take their family members to their side because they have too little! ”

Lao Zhu stared at Yun Xi for a while, and said, "Yun Xi, you are not a person who will think more about the officials, this is the same as your grandfather and me, and it is very different from your father." Tell me your real reason why you want to change the tax exemption to the tax exemption. ”

Yun Xi couldn't shirk it, and said: "The reason why a dynasty will perish is because there are too many people, and the food in the land is not enough to feed so much land. This idea was said by the grandson (chapter 11). ”

"At that time, my grandson still had something that he hadn't figured out, but now he has figured it out. It is not entirely because the food is not enough to feed the population, but also because the families have annexed land and occupied too much food and clothing. ”

In fact, the royal family also possessed too many things. Seriously, according to the 20th century view, the emperor is the biggest embezzler in the world, how can he blame so many embezzlers below? But Yun Hee is now the prince, and the butt decides the head, so he can only speak from the royal point of view.

"If their land is taxed, then the court can also use the taxes they pay to help the victims, and make up for the shortfall."

Lao Zhu said: "These families have to pay taxes on the land they occupy. Now the Chang family and the Xu family occupy a large amount of land, except for the tax-free land, don't they also pay taxes? ”

Yun Xi said: "Grandpa is familiar with history books, and he should know that in the early years of each generation, the officials are clear and clear, and government decrees can be issued from top to bottom; In the later part of the dynasty, the rule was chaotic. In fact, it does not take until the late dynasty, as long as the rulers are a little slack, those families who occupy more land will try their best to conceal the amount of land. ”

"The officials in those places are all locals, and the county officials are just county officials who run water, and the officials tend to be there, it goes without saying. No matter how honest and loyal the county officials were, it was impossible for them to measure the acres of land in the county by themselves, and eventually those gentry would be able to conceal the amount of land and keep their families from paying taxes. ”

"Not to mention whether those officials are honest or not; Grandpa has skinned so many officials, and it is not credible to know the integrity of officials. ”

Lao Zhu said: "The world's acres of land have been inventoried, do they dare to pay less taxes on the registered fields?" After speaking, Lao Zhu reacted and said, "They can still open up wasteland." ”

Yun Xi said: "Grandpa is right, now the population of the Ming Dynasty is small, and many fields have not been cultivated; When the population increases, a lot of wasteland will be reclaimed. ”

Historically, this is the case, the population of the Ming Dynasty is increasing, and the land is being reclaimed more and more, but the land that pays taxes is still the land counted by the founding Zhu Yuanzhang, and even because of the famine in the disaster year, the land that pays taxes has been decreasing.

Lao Zhu picked up Yun Xi's recital again, read it carefully, and said, "You are right, how can the local officials not look at the local people." However, even if there is no tax exemption and preferential treatment, local officials can still conceal the land that has been cleared, and it is difficult for county officials to count the amount of land that is connected together, and they can still conceal their own acres of land, but they have to pay a little tax, which is better than not paying at all. ”

There is no way to solve this point now. Don't say that now, even Emperor Yongzheng, who is engaged in spreading the land into the mu and collecting grain in one piece, has not completely solved this problem; There are also errors in the data for the early days of the Republican era; After that, it was not until the 21st century that the republic established its own satellite system to truly count how many fields there were in the country.

Yun Xi then said: "Grandson can't think of a solution now. ”

Lao Zhu did not feel that Yun Xi was unreliable because of this, but thought that Yun Xi was telling the truth. He thought about it again and said, "Grandpa was indeed a little thoughtful at the beginning, so I will do it according to your performance." But why remove their families' right from forced labor? ”

Yun Xi said: "This is to prevent too many people from being exempted from forced labor. They may be allowed to pay exemption money and thus not to be subject to conscription. ”

Lao Zhu said: "How many people can be exempted from forced labor?" In the end, it was just an extra tens of thousands of dollars, but it hurt the hearts of all the scholars in the world, don't do this, this grandpa can't agree. ”

Yun Xi thought about it carefully, the harm of being exempt from conscription is indeed less harmful than not paying food, and besides, it is true that they can't really be allowed to serve with conscription; Paying the exemption money is still a matter after Zhang Juzheng's whip law, and there is no such thing now. Still, he wanted to limit it.

So Yun Xi said: "There should still be restrictions on those who are exempt from servitude." Only the children and grandchildren of Xiucai and Juren can, and others such as brothers cannot; If there are no parents and grandchildren, the step-children and grandchildren can. Most of the talented people have more children and grandchildren than they are exempt from forced labor, so there should not be much opposition. ”

Later, Yun Xi planned to implement the 'apportionment into the mu' to prevent the people from concealing the population, which could be combined with this article to prevent too many people from being exempted from servitude.

Yun Xi even planned to cancel the conscription at some point and form a professional construction team to repair bridges and embankments, but this would have to be a long time later.

Lao Zhu thought for a while, nodded and agreed with Yun Xi's statement. Then he said, "Yun Xi, your idea is so ingenious, grandpa sighs to himself; But grandpa can see that you must have other thoughts about Daming's Tianfu, in addition to this body of food errands, so let's say them all today. ”

Yun Xi was surprised: Lao Zhu could actually see that he had other ideas? What do I have to do in the song? But since Lao Zhu had already asked, Yun Xi couldn't hide it, so he said: "Grandpa is really discerning, and his grandson does have other ideas." ”

"The name that my grandson wants is called paving into acres. In the future, the measure is to no longer collect the ding tax separately, but to spread it to the field tax, so as to prevent the emergence of households with less land and more people from paying more taxes in the future, so as to reduce the taxes of the poor and let the families with more fields pay more taxes. ”

"And it can also prevent the situation that a family originally had multiple sons, so there were many people on the roster, but suddenly they died one after another, and there were still their names on the roster, and the tax was overcharged."

"At the same time, it can reduce the number of people hiding from people, and more people can be conscripted to serve in forced labor."

In fact, it is also conducive to Yun Xi to immigrate overseas in the future, but this can't be said to Lao Zhu.