Five Dynasties River Mountains Fengyue

Chapter 294 Long-term consideration
"I wish I could pry away every brick and tile here and bring them back." This is Shi Congyun's opinion on the Chengdu Palace. He has already ordered people to scrape off the golden sand from the palace pillars and tear down the jade owls on the roof. After dismantling, expensive carpets, antique treasures, even ivory chopsticks for eating, jade bowls, silver pots, etc. were packed away.

But he was still dissatisfied, and said regretfully, "There are a lot of precious sandalwood in the palace wood. If it weren't for the fear of the palace collapse, someone would want to chop it up and drag it away. These white jade carvings can be sold for a lot of money if they are on the girder."

Wei Renpu laughed beside him and said, "It will cost more to transport it back, so it's better to sell it on the spot."

Shi Congyun nodded, "It's a pity that this imperial palace will be demolished. It will take time and effort, and it will take up too much land to keep it, which will affect the development of Chengdu."

Wei Renpu thought for a while, "It can be reserved as a palace in Shu. If you want to come here in the future, you can live here, and you can also house some relatives and friends who need it temporarily."

Shi Congyun thought about it for a while, and thought it was reasonable, "Demolition will waste money and people, so let's just throw it away."

As Shi Congyun's affairs progressed smoothly, more than ten days later, Shi Congyun ordered the removal of all the checkpoints at the gate of Chengdu, all the blockades in Chengdu were lifted, and the production and life of the people returned to normal.

Everyone rejoiced and rushed to tell each other that the streets of Chengdu gradually returned to their former prosperity, and the people were not so afraid of the Zhou army, and their opinion of the army changed greatly.

The entire Shu Kingdom transitioned very quickly, and soon returned to the previous state.

Shi Congyun also began to think about the issue of governing Shu, because this was a rare vacuum period, and he forcibly removed many officials. Most of these officials took into account the status of both officials and local powerful people. It's best to do it yourself.

With the deterrence of the army and the vacancy of power, his policies are the easiest to implement at this time.

As an agricultural country, China’s agricultural tax has been the biggest burden for thousands of years, and it is also the biggest burden for the people at the bottom. The main income of the imperial court was not abolished until decades after the founding of New China. Many people may not know it, but as a child in the countryside, history Congyun is still fresh in his memory.

He also recalled the situation when he was fighting in Hebei, the land in Hebei was annexed, and the powerful warlords occupied the land and would rather abandon it than let the people cultivate it.

But neither he nor the officials dared to move, because Hebei was the front line, the forward position to fight against the Northern Han and Khitan. If people were pushed into a hurry, some people would directly surrender to Khitan, or make trouble, the consequences would be disastrous.

But Shu didn't have so many worries, and Shu was far away from the northern border.

Shi Congyun's first thought was to divide the land into acres, which is one of the policies that Yongzheng strongly advocated. It means to abolish China's thousands of years of poll tax, and pay taxes according to the amount of land, not according to population.

No matter how it has changed for thousands of years, the agricultural tax in ancient China has always been a poll tax.

But wherever there are people in the world, the "Matthew effect" will occur, that is, "the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker". As time goes by, it is inevitable that powerful landlords will become bigger and annex land.

At that time, people who have no land will still have to pay poll tax, and powerful and powerful lands with tens of thousands of acres will still only have to pay that little poll tax.

Yongzheng's method is to let landlords and tyrants with more land pay more taxes.

But it is obvious that this is against officials, landlords, big merchants, gentry, and scholars (with fame) across the country, so he is miserable.In addition to making up all kinds of jokes, even later scholars said that "the prosperity of Kangxi and Qianlong" deliberately gave away Yongzheng in the middle.

Shi Congyun really wanted to implement this kind of policy in Shu, because it would obviously effectively prevent land mergers in the farming society, protect the interests of the bottom peasants, and also stimulate fertility, increase the population, and make the country strong.

Timing is also very important, because at this time the main tyrants in Shu, those officials, big and small, were forcibly removed by him. !
In his heart, he wanted to implement it on a trial basis in Shu.

What's more, in his heart, the land of Shu is the same as it was in the Qin and Han Dynasties. It is the country's rear granary and money belt, and there is no need to fight. This kind of place cannot be gradually controlled by the powerful.

Therefore, he spent several days to understand and check the archives of the Shu State Household Department, and after asking Xiao Huanghua many questions, he found that the reality was very complicated.

First of all, land ownership is changing, and it will change from time to time, and new land will be reclaimed, which is not as easy to register as a head.

The second is that there is a lot of room for manipulation. For example, if a group of land owners agree to avoid taxation, they can completely avoid taxation through frequent land transactions.

The third is that the situation in Shu is complicated, and there are many cottage villages in the mountains that the government cannot fully control.

But the most important thing is that the limitations of transportation and communication technology will cause the local big landlords to completely fool and live in the center. As long as you dare to think, there will always be a way.

So this is why Shi Congyun is very opposed to excessive or extremely moralized viewing of issues. In doing things, we must face up to human nature instead of empty talk to harm the country.

There are no saints in the world. You can't expect or force your subordinates to be saints, and don't imagine anyone to be a perfect saint. They don't make mistakes and are not selfish. That is impossible, unless they are not human.

Based on this kind of thinking, Shi Congyun thought of these possibilities before he started to do it.

But difficulties can hardly stop his determination, and gradually he also thought of a way.

The land can naturally be changed and developed, and it is difficult to grasp all the information on the cultivated land in the whole territory of Shu, but he can implement this policy in the most fertile areas of Chengdu and its surrounding plains!It can also be implemented on a pilot basis in the most fertile land around the states and counties.

As for the small and fragmented cultivated land in the outer mountainous areas, it is ignored and taxed on a head-by-head basis as usual.

As for the various cottages in the mountains, they didn't pay much taxes in the first place, and they have always been in a state of depending on their mood.

These fertile lands are the bulk of the grain income and the bulk of the tax revenue. They are also close to the city, so they are easy to check and control. They cannot deceive people and can quickly grasp the situation.

If someone wants to open up wasteland to avoid taxes in other places, let him do so, which will strengthen the development of Shu.

He thought about these things and made up his mind, so he wrote them down one by one.

And it just so happened that at this time all the officials in the Shu region were forcibly removed by him. Most of the big households in Chengdu were officials, and [-]% to [-]% of their homes were ransacked, and the rest were trembling and unable to stop him.

So Shi Congyun decided to wait for the new batch of officials sent from Daliang to arrive and train them himself. At the same time, he also chose a person to sit in Chengdu and implement his policies.

Of course, these have to be done step by step. The first thing is to measure the fields in Shu, register who owns them, and how many there are. .

This is the case with any major event. It is useless to call or scold, and it cannot be done quickly. It must be done in a down-to-earth manner and implemented step by step.

Shi Congyun had calculated in his mind that this person must first be a confidant, and secondly have the ability to engage in politics, and it is best to be a commoner, or know the suffering of the people.

However, he has not yet finalized the candidate.

In the afternoon of that day, Shi Congyunzheng and Wei Renpu were eating and talking in a small pavilion on the west side of the palace, and drinking tea after eating.

Shi Congyun asked his own soldiers to come up with a wooden tray, and he picked out a few thin silk clothes from Meng Chang's palace and gave them to Wei Renpu. Because the weather was getting hotter, Wei Renpu was still wearing the thick clothes he had when he was dispatched, and he was no longer wearing them. fit.

Wei Renpu even thanked him, and then touched the exquisite silk, and there were tears in his old eyes.

Shi Congyun was puzzled.

Wei Renpu clasped his hands and sat down: "The old man has lost his composure, and the commander-in-chief laughed at him. Seeing this exquisite fine brocade clothes, he remembered some old things.

The old man was born in Daming when he was young, his family was poor, his father died early, and his mother worked hard to support him.

In winter, it was so cold that I couldn’t sleep at night. My mother ran around and borrowed a piece of coarse cloth to make clothes for me. She endured the cold and went away in a few years. "

As he spoke, he shook his head: "The old man has brocade clothes to wear now, but it's a pity that he can't wait."

Shi Congyun was also a little sad when he heard it, so he didn't interrupt. After a while, Wei Renpu told him more about his childhood.

This era is very bitter, with turbulent wars and lack of supplies. In troubled times, there are also some opportunities for the people at the bottom. For example, Zhao Shijian's grandfather, Zhao Ying, came from a poor background, and so did Wei Renpu.

Later in the afternoon, Shi Congyun made an approximate distribution of the fertile cultivated land in Shu based on the map and the records of the Ministry of Household Affairs. He marked some large and small circles on the map, and calculated the area of ​​cultivated land in each state and county in Shu.

However, he only roughly calculated according to the household registration. Specifically, he needs to measure each state and county. The reason for this is to see which places have the most fields.

However, his behavior confused the soldiers around him and Fei Shi who was called over to scold him. If a general doesn't fight, what can he draw on the map?

In the evening, after he had dinner, Shao Ji, Fu Zhaoyuan, and Meng Xuanzhe came to see him and reported the situation of the wealthy families still in the city.

Shi Congyun looked at the list, and he wasn't going to embarrass these people anymore. If commerce is in chaos, so will Shu land. The economic pillar of Shu land is the export of Shu brocade. If they are pulled out, many people who raise silkworms will not be able to sell anything.

But when Shi Congyun saw Shao Ji hesitate after the report, he immediately understood that he had something to say.

"If you have something to say, just say it, don't tell me I'm going to sleep." Shi Congyun said.

Unexpectedly, Shao Ji didn't know whether he was nervous or unable to speak, suddenly knelt down on one knee with a plop, cupped his hands and said loudly: "Marshal, you must be the emperor!"

This time, not only Shi Congyun was taken aback, but Fu Zhaoyuan, Meng Xuanzhe, and the guards at the door were all stunned.

(End of this chapter)