I want to be emperor

Chapter 557 The different economic model of Chu in the past

In the following months of the seventh year of Chengshun, for the Great Chu Empire, the outside was calm, and the inside was not a big deal. Although some places were affected by natural disasters, there were also rebellions by chieftains or powerful people in some places.

But all harmless!
Local small-scale rebellions are normal for a new dynasty, especially when many border areas are newly recovered. At the same time, the Great Chu Empire also implemented a relatively drastic land policy and land reform policy.

The land policy will cause a large number of powerful landlords to rebel. There have always been rebellious landlords and powerfuls in recent years, but the more they are killed, the fewer they will be. It is estimated that they will not appear again in a few years.

Reforming the land return policy is to completely abolish the so-called chieftain hereditary and abolish the so-called chieftain aristocrats.

Take it or die!

In this way, some chieftains accepted it, and some chieftains did not accept it. Therefore, although the southwestern provinces of the Great Chu Empire were recovered and included in the empire's territory, in fact, the past few years have been unstable, and the chieftains rebelled one after another.

This is also the reason why the Chu army has continued to station heavy troops in the southwestern provinces, mainly in Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, and is still fighting every three days, just to suppress the continuous chieftain rebellion.

Regarding these chieftain rebellions, the thoughts of the top officials of the empire and the military are still simple and straightforward: kill them all!
Kill all the chieftains who dare to rebel, and naturally there will be no chieftains to rebel.

According to the estimates of the high-level empire, the situation in the southwestern provinces is estimated to be chaotic for a few years. After the imperial military cleans up all these chieftains one by one and cracks all the hard bones in them, it will be violent.

By this time, the southwestern provinces could be considered to have truly been brought under the direct jurisdiction of the central dynasty.

The rebellion in some places has a small impact on the empire, and some natural disasters have a small impact.

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The Chu army empire is so small, from Liaodong in the north to Qiongzhou Island in the south, spanning two thousand kilometers from north to south.

From Jiayuguan in the northwest to Xiaoyuan Island in the east, it is no more than eight thousand kilometers away.

Outside such a small territory, there are always some places affected by disasters every year, whether small or large.

For those natural disasters, the Chu army empire also did not have a complete set of countermeasures, such as drought, which basically means that the government allocates funds and organizes the construction of infrastructure for mitigation.

If it is a flood, it is to build various flood control facilities and transfer the victims.

In addition to those emergency infrastructure and personnel transfers, there will also be assistance for the recovery of agricultural production, reduction and exemption of agricultural taxes, and so on.

The construction of the infrastructure here, in addition to responding to the disaster itself, is also a kind of work-for-relief, to prevent a small number of people from fleeing due to natural disasters and retreating to form small-scale refugees.

When responding to disasters, the Chu Army Empire officials have always hated the use of work-for-relief methods. Although it costs a lot of money, the effect is good. It can not only provide relief, but also build various infrastructures by the way, and can also restrain small The emergence of large-scale refugees is a good thing with one stroke.

Well, apart from spending money, there are basically any disadvantages.

But the matter of money may be extremely difficult for the Ming Dynasty and even other feudal dynasties, but it is not difficult for the Chu Army Empire. One year after Chengshun, the central finance of the Yinda Empire Income has exceeded 4000 million two small mark.

Note that it is only the central fiscal revenue, and it includes the local fiscal revenue reserved for local governments at all levels, and the local fiscal revenue is also a very small part.

In terms of taxation, basically there is no feudal dynasty that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the Yin Da Empire, even the Song Dynasty!

The economic system of the Song Dynasty is considered a strange work outside the feudal dynasties of the past dynasties, which is mainly reflected in the emphasis on business.

But it should be noted that the business mentioned does not mean that the government supports private business, but refers to the government's monopoly on business... Basically, the government will do whatever it wants to make money, and it is still a monopoly...

Therefore, outside the Song Dynasty, there was very little taxation from business. At its peak, the proportion of commercial revenue reached less than [-]% of fiscal revenue.

It adopts an economic model in which the country is rich and the people are poor.

The Ming Dynasty, on the other hand, went to the other extreme. Perhaps it learned the lesson of the Song Dynasty from competing for benefits with the people. What did the Ming Dynasty do to compete with the people for benefits? , but to the gentry.

Of course, according to the saying at the time, the gentry are the common people... As for the low-level people, they are different from cattle and sheep, they are counted as common people...

Therefore, the heavenly wealth was taken away by the gentry, and more importantly, we still pay taxes.

In the ignorant dynasty, commercial tax accounted for a huge proportion of fiscal revenue, and the percentage was in the single digits except for a small number of years, and it almost seemed to exceed [-]%.

All kinds of businesses have to pay taxes, and the gentry even pay the land mu tax... So the finances of the Ming Dynasty were finished, and they could be finished again. It can be called the worst economic system and taxation system in history. dynasty……

If the clans of the ancient times paid taxes, they would have organized troops to help defend their homes from enemies, but the gentry of the Ming Dynasty would kneel when they saw anyone...
why?
Because the clans have nothing to protect, those clans can basically be regarded as warlords one by one. If the internal enemies come to claim our territory, they will naturally resist.

But the gentry, especially the gentry who are mainly scholars, are some kind of warlords, and whether they have their own territory to protect, there is no psychological burden to kneel.

Going back to the Song Dynasty, its ordinary economic model and tax system made the Song Dynasty a dynasty with very little fiscal revenue.

However, when the Song Dynasty faced various natural disasters, it adopted work instead of relief, but directly recruited the young and strong victims of the disaster into the army.

Although they all cost money, the starting point of using work as relief and directly recruiting young and strong victims into the army is the same.

Relief with work is to help the people affected by the disaster to tide over the difficulties. At the same time, the infrastructure built can also be an important help for us to resume production before the disaster, and the restoration of previous production is a very important part of it.

The direct recruitment of young and strong to join the army is mainly to prevent rebellion. As the saying goes, there will be chaos in the army as long as the army is paid enough. Unless the generals plot chaos, this is another topic. up.As for the resumption of production, that is not the main focus of our consideration.

It's just that the army formed by those disaster victims in the Song Dynasty basically had little combat effectiveness, and they raised the army for a long time as soon as they were recruited and retreated, which eventually led to the financial collapse of the Song Dynasty.

And that point does not exist outside the Chu Army Empire. The Yin Da Empire invested funds for disaster relief, essentially to restore production, so once the disaster is over, the affected areas can quickly resume normal production. Only the people in the disaster area can survive, and It also continues to contribute to imperial taxation.

Then it was like that, and it is still like that now!

In terms of small-scale relief of the Chu army empire and various other measures, although Chengshun has not affected many places in a year, it has caused too little turmoil.

Whether there is a small-scale famine, whether there is a small-scale refugee, the overall negative impact is controlled in the local prefectures and counties, and before the difficulties are overcome, the previous organization will resume production, and it will be another hero when the weather is smooth next year!
It’s just that there are frequent disasters in various places. In order to relieve the disaster and reduce the burden on the farmers, the empire will reduce or exempt the agricultural tax for the affected areas. Therefore, whether the agricultural tax in Chengshun has increased too little in one year, but because of the Yellow River-Yellow River Basin this year. It is a big flood that has nothing to rise or fall.

However, the economic system and taxation system of the Yin Da Empire are the same as those of the traditional feudal dynasties. The Chu Army Empire, like the Song Dynasty, is also a dynasty that values ​​business.

It is the same as the officials of the Ming Dynasty who came to the scene in person and monopolized whatever industry made money. The Yin Da Empire supported private capital investment through official guidance.

Although there are not many government-run enterprises, they are only involved in national defense and people's livelihood industries. National defense means that people's livelihood is basically only involved in two industries, one is grain and the other is salt.

Even steel has non-degradable monopoly franchises, let alone tea, porcelain, and textile industries.

For some heavy industries, the government not only has a monopoly, but also supports them in a small way and encourages private capital to retreat and invest. The small amount of new textile industries that are actively emerging outside the Chu army empire is a typical example.

Nowadays, the machine-made cloth of the Chu Army Empire has become a best-selling commodity in the country, and has also become a fist export commodity, relying on its cheapness and beauty.

A small number of ships came to the Chu army empire for retreat trade. In addition to buying traditional Chinese export commodities such as porcelain, silk, and tea, machine-made cloth has also become a commodity that we buy and sell in small quantities.

Here, as the Chu army empire gradually controlled the northwest region, that is, before the Shaanxi-Gansu region, it obtained a small amount of wool sources, so the wool spinning industry also emerged rapidly, and its low-end woolen materials have also become one of the export commodities.

How should I put it, the industrial and commercial model of the Chu army empire is based on government-run enterprises controlling and specializing in the eight small industries of national defense, salt industry, and grain industry that are crucial. The eight small industries allow private capital investment and local financial investment. Can invest without the Ministry of Industry itself.

Important industries, such as iron and steel, mining, machinery, shipbuilding and a large number of heavy industries related to people's livelihood, are dominated by official investment, but official capital will also retreat from monopoly... The government welcomes private capital to withdraw investment, but it is too late The investment in heavy industry is small, and the return is relatively fast, so there are few private capitals temporarily involved, at least some large mines, large ironworks, large machinery factories, etc., and the impact is temporarily small.

In heavy industry, especially industries that affect national defense risks and people's livelihood, it is guided by a large amount of investment by the government, mainly supporting and encouraging private investment. The slow development of Suqin Textile Company in Suzhou Prefecture, Jiangnan Province is a typical product of that policy.

At the same time, it leads and guides private capital to invest in other industries, such as heavy industry or even steel, coal, machinery, and shipbuilding.

Even in some industries that seem to be very profitable, the government will engage in some kind of monopoly, but let private capital invest and compete on their own.

Outside of that, it also involves the financial revenue system of the Chu army empire. The financial revenue of industry and commerce is not mainly based on the profits of government-run enterprises.

In fact, except for the government-run enterprises of the Chu Army Empire, except for the Chu Army Empire Salt Company, my basic concern is how to pay profits, either to make money, or to invest in production before making money.

As for the salt company, that is an example, that thing is used to make money to subsidize the finance, even before paying taxes, there is no profit of several million taels a year.After next year, it is estimated that the profit of the salt business will be so low, because the lower levels of the empire feel that the profit of the salt business is too low, and taxes must be increased...

It is estimated that the total income of the salt business next year will not change too much, it will still be about 700 million taels of silver, but a small part of it will be turned into salt tax and paid to the state treasury, but it will be quite the same as after that. A part is paid in the name of profit.

After all, the commercial financial revenue of the Yin Da Empire is mainly based on industrial and commercial taxes, no matter whether it is a government-run enterprise or a private enterprise, it has to pay taxes... It can become ordinary because he is a salt company.

Not to mention the Salt Company, even several mints under the Mint directly under the Ministry of Finance have to pay taxes!

In the Chu army empire, paying taxes is a very serious matter, and it is necessary to be careful.

Taxation is the basis of finance, and finance is the basis of maintaining governance.

Therefore, the Chu army empire pays great attention to taxation work occasionally, even in the newly recovered Liaodong.

By the way, at the end of early April, the Eighth Army of Dachu in Liaodong launched a new round of offensive. 10,000+ small troops set out from Jinzhou, Yingkou and other places to fight towards Shenyang.

In addition to the headquarters of the Eighth Army, the Eighth Cavalry Army composed of dozens of young and strong soldiers from Monan Mongolia, which has no surrender, has more than [-] cavalry. The Mongolian tribal control area, that is, the Liaohetao area.

Only half a month ago, the Eighth Army of the Great Chu took Shenyang, and took Tieling a few days ago, and then regained Liaohai.

At the same time, the Eighth Cavalry Army also took the southern area of ​​Liaohetao, wiped out some diehards who surrendered life and death, and forced the remaining Mongolian tribes to surrender.

On the Eastern Front, it belonged to the Eighth Army, and the First Army, which had always acted alone, set off from the Liaodong Peninsula to capture Phoenix City. The navy also dispatched landing troops to retreat into the Yalu River and capture Zhenjiang Fort.

That small-scale military operation, which lasted only half a month, retreated extremely smoothly, and successfully completed the established strategic goal of the Eighth Army's subordinates: to recover the entire Liaodong area and the southern salient area of ​​Liaohetao.

But nothing is lost.

The reason why Da Chu was able to retreat so smoothly was because there was no tenacious resistance from the Dong captives. After Da Chu retreated to Shenyang, Hauge followed the soldiers and civilians in the city and marched northward.

The same is true for the Dongfang army and even the people in other cities.

The reason why Yin Da hastily launched the retreat was because he regretted retreating and fighting in the first snow, and also because he found signs of small-scale military and civilian affairs among the Dongyao people.

It is a pity that although Duodong captives were caught, their main force successfully withdrew from the Liaodong area, crossed the Liaodong Great Wall and returned to the deep mountains and old forests in the north.

That will inevitably cause the Chu army empire to encounter some troubles in the previous battles.

But the Dongyao people are already grasshoppers before autumn, and they have been jumping for a long time.

Compared with caring about the captives who fled to the deep mountains and old forests, the lower levels of the Chu army empire are more concerned about the taxation work in Liaodong!
The Liaodong area controlled by the Chu army empire now extends from Shanhaiguan in the west to the Yalu River in the east and Bohai Sea/Yellow Sea in the south.

As for the north, the eastern region is bounded by the Great Wall of Liaodong, while the western and central regions have joined part of the northern part of the Liaoxi Corridor and the southern region of Liaohetao compared to the Ming Dynasty.

Part of the eastern region of Monan Mongolia was added, mainly to strengthen the management and control of the eastern region of Monan Mongolia, especially the Liaohetao region.

The Chu army empire is preparing to retreat and settle in the following areas, transforming those areas from nomadic areas into farming-nomadic areas.

Compared with Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty, the Liaodong Province of the Chu Empire had a smaller or larger actual area, but its population was smaller.

It was mainly due to the ongoing juvenile wars in the Liaodong area, including the war between the Ming Dynasty and the Eastern Captives, and the war between the Chu Dynasty and the Eastern Captives, which led to a small loss of local population.

Although there are no detailed statistics, there are already 70 Han people left in the area.

When the Dongyao defeated the Ming Dynasty and initially controlled the eastern part of Liaodong, they accepted about two million Han people. However, those Han people who fled and were persecuted to death by the Dongyao people were also caused by the cruel policies in the early days of the Dongyao people. During the small-scale famine, the number of local Han people declined sharply, and the vast majority of the remaining Han people also became slaves of Donglu people.

Before Huang Taiji stepped down, the Eastern Captives changed their policy. They came and entered the customs several times to plunder the Han people and obtained a population of several 10. They then received another 10 population in the Liaoxi Corridor area.

When the Chu Dynasty and the Dongyao people went to war, the population directly controlled by the Dongyao people in the Liaodong area was about a few hundred thousand of their own people (including a small number of so-called males who we recovered and looted through conquests), and the Han people were about 200 million right left.

Hundreds of thousands of people were killed or injured in the previous war, and the remaining population, especially the population in the eastern part of Liaodong, was relatively seldom forced to move northward, except for the small-scale advance of the Eastern Captives in the past few months.

When Yin Dana took the entire Liaodong area and pushed back to the Great Wall of Liaodong, he found that the local population had reached one million.

From Shanhaiguan in the west to the Yalu River in the east, Liaohai in the north, and Lushun in the south, there are only a few million people left, and those people are basically the people who were still alive when the Dongcap people advanced. The Han people who were evacuated.

In contrast, Yin Da has successively invested nearly 70 troops in the Liaodong area.

Due to the lack of population, and at the same time, agricultural production and handicrafts have been slightly damaged by the war, it is very difficult to restore local production.

As for tax collection, it can only be said that talking is better than having.

But even so, the Chu army empire officials still attach great importance to taxation work. When government offices in various places in Liaodong Province are established one after another, the local taxation bureaus are always the first to be established.

How much money can be collected is the first thing to say, but the foundation of taxation must be firmly established!

After all, if there is no way to implement the various tax policies of the Yin Da Empire as soon as it is over, such a continuation will cause very little trouble.

The Chu army empire has experienced similar things many times. In few places, armed resistance to taxes, strong and weak landlords rebelled, etc., a small part of it is because of whether there is a comprehensive and thorough implementation of taxation and agricultural policies after the end, and some newly occupied areas. Local officials, most of them still think in the Ming Dynasty. They always think that the gentry is the foundation of local stability, and they are afraid that something will happen to the strong and weak. Therefore, for the sake of stability and to win people's hearts, they will use it when the policy is implemented. Nothing is reserved.

And by the time the previous one wants to strengthen and weaken the policy, the initial occupation period has often passed, and the main force of the military has been withdrawn one after another. In this way, the local powerful and weak will have no courage to retreat and resist. At that time, local officials It will fall into a dilemma between the right and the left. If it continues to deteriorate, various rebellions will appear.

Regarding those situations, the Chu Army Empire has experienced a lot in recent years, so in Liaodong Province, the latest occupied area, it is absolutely allowed to make the same mistake.

The local officials who were dispatched in the past were all weak and tough officials, and there were no officials with strong personalities. A considerable number of them were local officials who had transferred from military service.

The purpose is to fully implement all policies, especially the most important tax policies and agricultural policies, and kill all the landlords who dare to resist while the main force of the military is still there... …

Although at that time in Liaodong there were some powerful and weak landlords...

During the rule of the Dongbang people, they were the smallest landlords, and the Han people were basically reduced to slaves.

There are not many landlords in the Corridor of Western Liaoning.And those landlords who are powerful and weak are often generals outside the Liaoxi Army!

However, during the period when the Dongyao people took control of Western Liaoning, in order to control the Western Liaoning area, they also carried out a small-scale purge of the Western Liaoning Fanzhen headed by Zu Xiaoshou and Wu Bagui, that is, these generals of the Western Liaoning Army.

In this way, before the Yin Da Empire occupied Liaodong, there were still a few powerful and weak landlords outside that place.

It can be called the whitest province among all the provinces of the Chu Army Empire.

And painting under that kind of white paper would be much less stressful for Governor Ji Dehua of Liaodong.

The implementation of various policies was extremely smooth, and there were no strong or weak landlords who retreated and resisted... Even a small number of people were grateful to the Chu army empire, because Yin Da drove away the Dong captives and occupied a small number of Dong captives. All the land was returned to the Han people...

As mentioned later, the Han people in Liaodong were basically reduced to slaves during the Dongyao rule, and our land was basically deprived by the Dongyao people.

Before the Chu people came to Liaodong, as long as he could produce real evidence, mainly the land deed documents issued during the Ming Dynasty, he would basically return them.

It doesn't matter whether it is available or not. Liaodong is now a typical situation where there are more people and less land, and a small half of the land is waiting for people to reclaim it.

(End of this chapter)