Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1211 Governor
Cui Junsu said to Li Gang, "People in the Sui Dynasty paid the same rent regardless of the size of the land. The service was free, and if the service was less than 20 days, they had to pay silk as a substitute for service every day. But in our dynasty, all miscellaneous expenses, together with labor, They are all distributed among the fields one by one, and the taxation is not based on the dime, but on the basis of the field, so the common people are actually much more relaxed."

But in this way, relatively, the expenditure of the imperial court actually increased.The regular tax is reduced, and there are no free laborers to collect various labor services, and they have to pay to hire labor. In this way, just the civil engineering in various places has increased a lot of expenses.Building roads and bridges, waterways and city pools, and even repairing river embankments all became additional expenses.

For example, in the counties and counties along the Huaihe River, due to the frequent flooding of the Huaihe River, embankment and slope protection have to be repaired every year.

For this reason, the imperial court now has to set up several other yamen, one of which is the canal governor's yamen, which is responsible for the dredging, maintenance and management of the canal, and the other is the river channel governor's yamen, which is responsible for the management of the Yellow River, Yangtze River, Huaihe River, Hanjiang River and other rivers.

The general manager of the river is in charge of dredging and embankment of rivers and lakes.

The great rivers and lakes in various places are directly managed by the imperial government's river yamen, and are no longer borne by the localities, which can be regarded as reducing the burden on the localities. At the same time, they are uniformly dispatched by the imperial court to increase management efficiency.

The annual expenses of these two governor's offices are quite astonishing, and many of the expenses are the wages of hiring civilians to do labor.

"Li Dongge, in the past, the people often said that the tax was fiercer than the tiger, and the people suffered from the labor. In the previous dynasty, the canals were dug, the east was built, the Great Wall was built, and the Liaodong was conquered. The battle continued, and the people were miserable. Finally, the whole world was revolted. I feel that Therefore, these two tax laws have been introduced to replace the rent-yong tax adjustment system, and the apportionment of local miscellaneous expenses and labor labor are all allocated to the fields to alleviate the suffering of the people. Don’t you think these are right?”

Li Gang had nothing to say, of course he didn't say that the emperor was wrong.

"In the past, Yang Jian built Chang'an, Yang Guang built Luoyang, and the emperors of the Sui and Sui dynasties built the eastern and western capitals. They recruited many peasants, all of whom were free servants. The people brought their own dry food to serve as slaves. The time spent on the road was sometimes even served as slaves. Several times, but will the Sui Dynasty take care of this loss?"

"But now, the imperial court has successively restored some palaces in Luoyang and Chang'an in recent years. There are quite a few civilian servants among them, but the imperial court does not use half of them for free. They are all hired by the common people. Applying for recruitment, eating and lodging are all on the construction site, wages are still paid every day, and no one has ever been owed wages. The people exchange wages for labor and subsidize their families. Everyone is very happy, and no one is dissatisfied and resentful."

"The money spent by the imperial court to restore the palace and transform the city is not directly using the money from the treasury, but through commercial means, and finally wins both sides. Just like last year in Chang'an City, the old square wall was demolished and the street market was demolished. It costs a lot to drain the ditches, add public toilets and bathrooms, and dig more wells, etc., but in the end, the newly built market shops are sold or rented out, and the expenses are recovered after changing hands, and there is even a lot of surplus.”

The local officials of the later generations all know how to manage a city. A city is actually a huge commercial body. If it is run well, it will only make a profit.Now Luo Cheng is also beginning to use some of this idea, changing the simple administrative methods in the past into commercial operation methods, such as Chang'an and Luoyang, which are representative cities, and their performance is not bad.

Chang’an’s street market renovation pilot project, the imperial court demolished the walls of the squares, changed the street shops, rented them out and sold them, and became a land transferor, a land developer, and finally a market store manager, and earned more than 01:30 points.

It was also because of Chang'an's success that Luo Chengcheng promoted Yin of Chang'an Prefecture to Yushi Zhongcheng, almost without any resistance.Although he is young, his political achievements are there.

Luo Cheng actually looks down on Li Gang, an old Confucian who is a little bit old-fashioned, but his moral education is not bad. I still hope that the prince can be upright and have good conduct.Weakness in ability doesn't matter, the emperor will have ministers to assist in governing, but if the emperor's moral character is not good, then the country will be in disaster.

"Li Xueshi only saw the money brought by the court, but he didn't see where the money came from and where it went."

"Does a bachelor know what taxation is?"

Li Gang looked at the emperor, "Taxation is the source of finance for the imperial court."

"That's right, but you only talked about the surface. Taxation is not only the financial source of the court, but also a tool for governing the country. It is the distribution of wealth and the root of stability in the world. The essence of taxation is fairness and justice, but this fairness is absolutely Not a public stall."

Whether a court cannot win the hearts of the people and whether it can be strong or not is actually rooted in its tax system.

Like the Sui Dynasty, the population tax is the most backward tax system. It seems fair, but in fact it is the biggest unfairness. This will inevitably lead to the instability of the country's foundation.

What is the nature of taxation?It is the redistribution of social wealth, which means that the poor pay less tax and the rich pay more tax. Whoever occupies more social resources and who gets more wealth has to pay more taxes.

The Sui Dynasty went in the opposite direction, and it is not surprising that the two generations died.

Just like Wang Mang's usurping the throne and reforming the system, his death was also caused by the tax system. Wang Mang's tax system was even more like a castle in the air, so he died faster.

"Tax is the country!" Luo Cheng said four words directly.

Without taxes, there would be no country. To maintain a country, citizens must pay taxes.The embodiment of the state is taxation.Just like at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court could only levy taxes on ordinary people. Officials and scholars did not need to pay taxes, and even those who surrendered to their names were also exempted from taxes and duties. Therefore, in fact, the Ming Dynasty was no longer a normal state. country.

He can only increase the wages of ordinary poor people again and again, and the end result is the peasant uprising and the country's demise.

Why did the tax system change after the founding of the Qin Dynasty? One of the important ones is that the officials and gentry pay food together.Aristocratic officials can discount money to serve on behalf of them, but they must not be tax-free.

The emperor can give them higher salaries and even privileges such as family shade, but he will never give them the privilege of tax exemption.

The core of Daqin tax law is property tax, not population tax.Even if you are a slave, a prostitute, or even a barbarian, as long as you own property in the land of Daqin, then you must pay taxes, which is nothing more than more and less.

"Li Xueshi, you can actually go to the streets more and ask these folks, ask them, compared with the Sui Dynasty, when were they happier?"

In terms of happiness, Luo Cheng is confident that the Qin State, which has only been established for six years, definitely makes the people feel happier than the Sui Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)