Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 449 Inspecting Gushu
Soon, Fan Ning left Songcheng County and took several entourages to visit the counties under the jurisdiction of Yingtianfu. Except for Songcheng County, which is commercially developed, the rest of the counties are mainly agricultural. They are important production areas in the Central Plains, and there are endless farmland everywhere.

Fan Ning first arrived in Gushu County. It is now May, and it is the time when winter wheat is headed and grouted. There is also the mobilization of the whole people, going to the fields to catch insects.

The Song Dynasty mainly used mirage ash, fishy water, lime, sulfur, etc. to kill insects. Since Kunzhou shipped millions of catties of sulfur to the Song Dynasty every year, the price of sulfur plummeted, and the price of sulfur per catty was only sold to more than [-] yuan. , Farmers use sulfur to grind it into powder and sprinkle it on places where diseases and insects are easy to grow. The effect of killing insects is excellent.

A dozen miles away from the county seat, Fan Ning saw dozens of people building a huge waterwheel. Everyone pulled the ropes together to erect the huge waterwheel.

Everyone in Fan Ning was struggling, so he said to the four subordinates: "Go and help."

Zhu Long and other four guards rushed up to help stabilize the water truck, and the water truck finally stabilized. Amidst shouts and shouts, the water truck was finally put into the pre-built frame, and then various parts were installed later. The waterwheel is basically ready to use.

At this time, a middle-aged man came forward to thank him, "Thank you officials for your help, otherwise I wouldn't be able to pretend today."

Fan Ning saw that several of them were wearing archer's soap suits and carrying knives, so he asked, "Are you guys on business?"

"It's not a business trip, it's County Magistrate Xie who brought the archers to help."

Fan Ning chuckled, "Please thank the county magistrate for coming to see me! Just say that Fan Ning of Yingtian Mansion is here."

The man was shocked, "It turned out to be the magistrate, the villain is rude!"

He hurriedly saluted, turned around and ran towards the waterwheel.

Not long after, a man in his thirties hurried over and saluted Fan Ning: "Xie Wensheng, magistrate of Xiaguan Gushu County, see the magistrate!"

Fan Ning got off his horse, pretended to laugh and said, "Thank you county magistrate for your excuse!"

At this time, dozens of people came forward to meet Fan Ning. Fan Ning asked everyone to stand up and said with a smile, "It seems that the summer harvest is going well this year!"

Everyone chattered: "The key is sufficient water source and effective irrigation facilities."

Some people also said: "God opened his eyes, and the weather is good this year."

Fan Ning smiled and said, "Everyone go get busy first! I'll talk to you later."

Everyone went back to install the waterwheel, and Fan Ning said to Xie County Magistrate, "Xie County Magistrate, please accompany me to see the farmland!"

County magistrate Xie nodded, and led Fan Ning to the field ridge. The two walked along a slender ridge to the center of the wheat field. Fan Ning looked around and saw a lush seedling bed in the distance. Then he laughed and said, "It looks like we have to plant another season of rice!"

"In another month, the wheat will be harvested, and then we will rush to plant another season of rice. The seedling raising is almost ready, so we have to start watering the fields after harvesting the wheat. Officials in our county will participate in the rush to harvest and plant."

"Can the farm cattle be guaranteed?"

"Almost! We have established a farming cattle mutual aid association, which can guarantee a farming cattle of [-] acres. When the time comes, the farming cattle will work harder, and the farming will basically be guaranteed."

Fan Ning was a little interested, and said with a smile: "Let's talk about the Farming Cattle Mutual Aid Society."

The Farming Cattle Mutual Aid Society was Xie Wensheng's proud move. Unfortunately, the former magistrate and general judge did not appreciate it, and he could not achieve his political achievements. Seeing that the prefect Fan was interested, he resisted the excitement in his heart and said: "The Farming Cattle Mutual Aid Society is a low-ranking three Established years ago, the first thing is to register the number of cattle farmed by each farmer, and then register the number of acres and cattle farmed by large households. In this way, it will be found that some families have more fields but fewer cattle, while others have fewer fields and more cattle, and then adjust If there is a surplus, form a mutual aid society.”

"Do you want to pay for the cattle?"

"No, it's mainly about exchanging labor services. They will negotiate on their own. For example, today you lend me a cow, and I will help you shovel snow in winter, etc. This is one way. The Sheri Land develops a supply and demand card, and a special person is responsible for registering the cattle supply time, repayment method, etc. of the cows. After the cows need the news, they will contact them by themselves. After the contact is successful, they will come back and delete the information. All these methods should be implemented simultaneously, and finally the problem of cattle farming can be solved.”

Fan Ning listened very carefully, and he quickly understood that Xie Wensheng's method was actually to provide information and complement each other. If this method is to last long and form an industry, it can promote the rural dentistry industry, with a large number of professional dentists People travel from village to village, providing all kinds of information.

At present, dental services in rural areas are mainly for the sale and purchase of farmhouses. If the scope of services is expanded, it should be a very promising business.

Although Xie Wensheng did not make use of rural residents, his idea of ​​providing information services to villagers is good, and his plan of exchanging labor services for labor services is also very pragmatic and worth learning from.

However, Fan Ning is more interested in his method of registering the acres of land. You must know that a very serious problem in Song Dynasty is to conceal the acres of land. The purpose of doing this is of course to evade taxes. There are many ways to conceal the acres of land. One way is not to register with the government. This is the most common way for rich and powerful families, but ordinary people dare not do this.

Another way is to use a small land deed for a large field. One mu of land is registered on a land deed, but it is actually two mu of land. As long as the land is not sold, it will be impossible to find out. Thirty percent of the land is concealed, and even Fan Ning's father concealed a few acres of land.

It would be a surprise if Xie Wensheng could find a solution to this problem. Fan Ning asked, "Can you tell the truth about the registration of each family's acres?"

Xie Wensheng immediately realized what the magistrate was thinking about. How many government officials have been troubled by the problem of registering the real number of acres, and Gushu County was no exception. His face flushed slightly. How could he do the real registration.

Xie Wensheng had no choice but to tell the truth: "Registering the number of acres is also reported by the people themselves. We haven't measured them on the spot, but I do have an idea about the real acres."

"What do you think?"

"Can we refer to the method of collecting real estate deed tax, let the common people supervise each other, and reward whistleblowers? I have discussed with many county officials, and we think this is a feasible method."

Fan Ning was silent for a while. The method Xie Wensheng said was actually a modification of the method of rewarding house deed taxes in the city for reporting. In order to prevent people from transferring privately and escaping the deed tax, the government encourages neighbors to supervise each other. Once verified, they will be confiscated. Real estate, while rewarding the whistleblower with half of the real estate.

After the implementation of this plan, no one dares to escape the deed tax, but is it applicable to rural land?
It can only be said to be partially applicable. First of all, the real estate transactions in the city must be transferred for deeds for wealthy and powerful families to prevent future property rights disputes. The wealthy families do not care about the deed tax, and only a few people try to escape the deed tax. Therefore, the government uses the method of reporting and severely punishing The impact is not large, and the effect is very good, which can basically prevent private transfers.

But rural land is different. It is useless to report the land of local wealthy families. Not to mention that ordinary people are afraid of protection and dare not report. It will trigger strong resistance from wealthy families, even powerful families.

It is a disaster for both the locality and the court, so this method can only be effective for ordinary people and small and medium-sized landlords. It is basically meaningless for powerful and powerful landlords, so it is called partial application.

Historically, when Wang Anshi reformed, he adopted the Fangtian Average Tax Law, and strictly measured the land all over the world. Regardless of the rich and the common people, they were treated equally. The investigation of missing land requisition caused strong resistance from the landowners, and almost touched the hearts of all property owners. Benefit.

This is the serious conflict between national interests and personal interests, and it is doomed that Wang Anshi's reform will not last long. This is not a question of who is right and who is wrong. It really touches the interests of the entire ruling class. The latter abolished most of Wang Anshi's reform measures.

This is an important reason why Fan Ning opposed Wang Anshi's reform. If the reform is to be successful, the interests of the middle and upper classes must not be touched. We can only find ways to make the cake bigger and make a fuss about the distribution of the new cake on the basis of safeguarding vested interests. , This is the pragmatic and long-term reform path.

Fan Ning smiled and said: "The key to solving the problem of hiding land is to reduce taxes. If the land does not have to pay taxes, then who will hide the land, don't you think?"

Xie Wensheng was dumbfounded when he heard that, the land does not need to be taxed, how could it be possible?
(End of this chapter)