Jingwen didn't pay attention to those red-eyed people at all, because they also had no way to take care of themselves, so they were like this. If they can get the management to serve better, then the businessmen may not come to them. But as officials, they naturally can't pull their faces to serve the people, so they are destined to be high-ranking lords, so how can the people like them? Therefore, they must not be able to receive enough business tax, and Jingwen is not to blame for this. Therefore, Jing Wencai ignored them, turned around and left. And can they still bring people over and rob the taxes? This is obviously not possible. As for them to sue, then Jingwen is not afraid, to say that the strength of the sue Jingwen in Chang'an is much stronger than them.

"Ma Zhou, you don't have to worry about those birdmen, I'll support you. As long as we get the business tax in hand, then we can rest easy. When the time comes, not only will we be able to use the commercial tax as a guarantee loan, but we will also build a predominantly commercial business zone here, so that we can make a fortune? You don't have to pay attention to those birdmen, they are all sour people who can't eat grapes, and if you care about them, you can only lower your style. As long as you ignore them, they just shout two words. Can they still come and do something to you? Jingwen said.

"Thank you for your teachings!" Ma Zhou said immediately.

Jingwen and Ma Zhou slowly rushed to Mengjin County in an ox cart, and now they are not in a hurry, so they will also make an ox cart. And Jingwen actually heard the people talking next to him, which made him a little surprised.

"Hey, Zhang Laosan, the taxes in the imperial court last year were really high." Said a man who looked like a farmer.

"It's not that the taxes of the imperial court are high, it's those profiteers who take the opportunity to raise prices, so that's why we're like this." That Zhang Laosan said.

Another farmer also said: "It's all these profiteers, who take advantage of the opportunity to make a lot of money when the court collects taxes." Every time you pay your taxes. They will take advantage of the opportunity to keep the price of our grain down, and the price of cloth will be too high, and then we will be miserable. We have to pay a lot of taxes for no reason, and our days are really helpless. ”

And Jingwen was a little surprised when he heard this. Jingwen didn't expect that there would be farmers complaining about the high tax, which is really surprising. According to Jingwen's understanding in the central Tang Dynasty, the central government has been paying light taxes and cultivating life and recuperation. If it weren't for the low tax rate, it wouldn't have caused Datang's finances to be so difficult now. But in the case of such a light tax. The people still said that there was pressure, which made Jingwen a little surprised. After all, if there is pressure in this situation, then I am afraid that if the tax is raised next, the pressure on the people will be even greater.

"Fellow, can you wait a minute?" Jingwen stopped them.

"My lord, what do you want us to do?" Zhang Laosan asked.

Jingwen immediately said: "Fellow, I heard you talk about it just now, do you think the current taxes of the imperial court are very high?" Now that the imperial court has been cultivating and recuperating, why do you still feel a lot of pressure? ”

Zhang Laosan and another farmer glanced at each other. He immediately said: "My lord, it is not high or high, the court and the people are not high at all." ”

Zhang Laosan and another farmer obviously thought that Jingwen was an official who had come down to make an unannounced visit. So none of them dared to say high. After all, the ancient peasants have always been used to being oppressed by the government, so they did not dare to say anything to the government about high taxes for a while. However, Jingwen has been curious. What's wrong here?

Jingwen immediately said sternly: "Tell the truth! ”

And Zhang Laosan saw that Jingwen seemed to really want to ask, so he said: "The taxes of the imperial court are actually not high. But it's all caused by the profiteers. Because the annual tax to be collected by the imperial court is two stone of grain per ding, this is rent. Plus two zhang of silk, three taels of cotton. Or the cloth is two feet and four feet, and the hemp is three catties. This is the tune. And we're going to have to do hard work. Each person has to serve 20 days of compulsory service with the government every year, which is normal service. Of course, if you don't serve, you can also pay three feet of silk or three feet of six cloth to offset one day's servitude, which is mediocre. Of course, if the government increases the amount of forced labor, then the rent can be reduced or reduced accordingly. This is the other day, the tax collector came to popularize it for us. ”

Hearing Zhang Laosan's words, Ma Zhou immediately said: "Jieshuai, this is the idea of adhering to Jieshuai a few days ago, and asking the tax collector to explain the content of rent to ordinary people, and it should be relatively clear to explain to the people." That's why they can answer. This is also the tax that our Datang currently adheres to the rules of the former Sui Dynasty and collects from the rent. This is also based on our current tax system, and we have always implemented it this way, so what can be the problem? If there was a problem, why didn't we find it before? ”

But Jingwen was not thinking about these, but about deeper reasons.

"That's not supposed to be high, but why do you feel pressured?" Ma Zhou took the initiative to ask.

And the third Zhang and the other peasant thought for a while, and then gritted their teeth and said, "My lord, here's the thing. We have to pay taxes at the end of each year at the time of the autumn harvest. And because the government collects two things, namely grain and silk cloth. At this time, we have to exchange grain for silk cloth to be able to pay taxes. But at this time, everyone took the grain together in exchange for silk cloth, and there was too much food, so it became lowly. And those silk cloths also rose because they needed too many people for a while. However, those unscrupulous profiteers often take advantage of this time to lower the price of grain, and then raise the price of silk cloth, so we have suffered a lot of losses. But in normal times, the government is in a hurry, and we have no choice but to cut meat and sell grain cheaply, and then exchange it for expensive silk cloth to pay taxes. Therefore, I am afraid that what we actually pay is 50% to 12 times more than what the imperial court stipulates to be paid. ”

"This ......" Ma Zhou didn't know what to say, after all, he seemed to have discovered the problem here.

"No wonder, I see!" Jingwen said.

Jingwen finally knew why there was such a problem, in fact, it was all the system being used. No system is perfect, it has loopholes. And now this system has been used by some profiteers, and the result has been the current unfortunate result. (To be continued......)