Three Kingdoms: Ancestors of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 756 Tyranny
"Dare to ask the villagers, but I don't know how to call them?" On the outskirts of Linyuan County, Prince Liu Zhen went deep into the countryside and asked the local people: "The scholars in the lower reaches have a special question. Don't be offended by it."

In June, Liu Chan appointed Prince Liu Zhen to go to Xiangzhou to inspect the local people's livelihood after the autumn harvest for him, and then reported to the imperial court.After Prince Liu Sui visited the seriously ill Taiwei Huang Quan, he and Dong Yun supervised the examination officials at Shangshutai.After the autumn harvest time, the prince also went to Xiangzhou honestly, and went deep into the grassroots to understand the people's livelihood in Xiangzhou.

Liu Sui grew up in Bashu, and he didn't understand the Jingchu dialect. The words he spoke were conveyed to the ears of the people through translators.

The farmer with dark skin and slightly white sideburns, saw that it was a nobleman asking, and smiled with a cracked mouth: "I am Cai Xi, if you have any questions, I will tell you."

After speaking, Cai Xi stared at the grain bag that Deng Zhong took out for himself.

Seeing Cai Xi's greedy eyes, Liu Sui didn't care and asked, "Since entering the Han Dynasty, how has your life been, and what kind of taxes have you paid?"

Hearing this, Cai Xi took a few glances at Liu Zhen, and saw a strong man wearing a bow and blade behind him. He smiled and replied truthfully: "I dare not hide the nobleman. After I returned to the Han Dynasty, a lot changed. I used to wait The cultivated land is rented from the government. Now after entering the Han Dynasty, the officials will divide the land, and the land will be enough for us. And the tax paid by the land has been reduced a lot. This year, a certain family pays less than 3 and [-]."

As he spoke, Cai Xi chuckled and said: "After entering the Han Dynasty, among the people in my township, there were more than a dozen people, and they were also divided into acres. Every family cultivated the fields. Although it was hard work, it was also willing. And a certain Although I am a rough person, I also know that since last year, there have been very few drowning babies in the village."

Liu Sui nodded slightly, indicating that Deng Zhong would hand over the grain bag to Cai Xi, and said with a smile, "Thank you fellow villagers, I don't have any questions."

Cai Xi looked at the bag of grain in his hand, and couldn't help being stunned. He didn't expect to earn a bag of grain so easily. Looking at Liu Sui's back, he hurriedly thanked him.

On the way, Deng Zhong held his long sword, followed behind Liu Zhen, and asked, "Prince, when we came down from a secret patrol, the common people spoke the same words, and they all talked about tax reduction and exemption. It seems that Zhuge Governor's governance has been quite effective."

While strolling in the countryside, Liu Zhen sighed and said: "It is not only quite effective, but in just two years, Zhuge Governor has been able to govern Xiangzhou to such a degree, he can be called a good official."

Laymen watch the excitement, while experts watch the doorway.Compared with Deng Zhong's shallow understanding of government affairs, Liu Sui, who has been familiar with "Han Shu" since childhood, and followed Liu Chan and Zhuge Liang, knows that Zhuge Qiao's policies are not easy.

For example, Zhuge Qiao promoted the limited-name land system in Jingzhou, and it was very difficult to abolish a series of maladministration since Soochow governed Jingzhou.After all, Soochow used a different field acre system, but applied the governance thought of the manor to the governance of the country.

There are only three land distribution systems under his rule in Wu State.One is to carry out civilian villages in places with good natural conditions; two, to grant land or townships and counties to military generals as fiefs;

That is to say, the land system of Soochow is not granted but leased, just like landlords rent out acres to common people, and only naturalized common people are eligible to lease acres.

At the same time, in order to urge the people to cultivate, Sun Quan stipulated the number of acres that the people should cultivate. This purpose was contrary to the idea of ​​the Shu Han to prevent the people from occupying more acres of land.Therefore, under the requirements of the laws of the State of Wu, most of the people basically have to rent land from the State of Wu for cultivation, and sign a contract once every two years.

In terms of taxation, regardless of private land or leased state land, Sun Quan has tax items such as renting rice, taxing rice, money, and cloth, and the tax on renting land must be heavier.Moreover, according to the wars that took place, military taxes would be collected from the people, such as the "Liao Tax" in the Ming Dynasty. Sun Quan fought wars every year, so he could collect war taxes from the people every year.

The seven seven eight eight taxation, and the tax collection of the "two-year constant limited field" and "yuli field" two types of farmland, in total, compared with the taxes of Soochow and Cao Wei, the Cao family can be regarded as a kind person.

For example, among the more than 6000 mu of land, Sun Quan had to collect more than 6600 dendrobium in total.However, Cao Wei only collected 4 liters of rice per mu, a total of more than 2400 dendrobium rice. In comparison, the tax under Sun Quan was 2.75 times that under Cao Wei's rule.

This is still ordinary people. If it is a villager in Jingzhou, Sun Quan has to expropriate 2 hu rice every year from the common people who leased other acres of land. If the unhulled rice is counted, it is about 3 hu, which is almost the output of most of the fields.Under Cao Wei, the settlements were only divided into 37 or 46 points.

Sun Quan, who was harsh, even paid for the cloth paid by the common people to the point of accuracy, and always weighed every penny, for fear that he would suffer a disadvantage.This is also the reason why the registered people in Cao Wei can experience population growth, but the registered people in Soochow have a negative population growth trend.

Faced with such suffering people, Zhuge Qiao abolished all the lands of various names left over from Soochow with a big wave of his hand, and all adopted the system of restricted land.Ding Nan received 25 mu of land, [-] mu of Yongtian, [-] mu of public land, [-] mu of women's land, [-] mu of Yongtian, and [-] mu of public land.

The people of each household give priority to the allocation of their own cultivated acres, and if there is any shortage, they will be supplemented by the remaining unmanned acres, and there is no such thing as leased acres.Then adopt household modulation, collect taxes according to the tax per mu of the Dahan, and use cloth to pay for grain, and all taxes are paid with grain.

Among the Three Kingdoms, the Wu tax is the heaviest, the Wei tax is the second, and the Han tax is the lightest.Therefore, in terms of stability, the local people are happy for every gram of Han.Of course, there are also disadvantages. There are few taxes, and naturally there are few soldiers to support. You need to rely on the governors of each capital to be self-sufficient.

Of course, it's not just that, Zhuge Qiao also appropriately released some official households, turned them into peasant households, and issued the laws of the great man.The "Shu Ke", which is famous for its strictness, arrived in Jingzhou, but it was still considered light of law by the people, which shows how much the Wu State harmed the people.

At the same time, Zhuge Qiao was still implementing the salt and iron official management system in Jingzhou area. Because there was no salt pool in Jingzhou, the salt used to come from the southeast, but now it was under the rule of the Han Dynasty, and the salt from Badi was brought into Xiangzhou for sale.Strict control was carried out on the iron system, and agricultural tools, weapons, and armor were provided for Deng Ai who was stationed in the Yangshui Army.

Listening to Prince Liu Sui's simple introduction, Deng Zhong couldn't help being dumbfounded, and bluntly sighed: "Confucius said: 'A tyrannical government is fiercer than a tiger. It's scary."

Liu Sui shook his head and said, "Harvest government harms the people, but good government benefits the people. Zhuge Xiangzhou used good politics to make the people happy, and there were no fewer than tens of thousands, or even more than a hundred thousand people, who were hidden from the population register."

Zhuge Qiao, who was working in the state government office, sneezed, rubbed his nose, and leaned over his desk to write a clever copy.Or as the crown prince Liu Sui said, after he implemented two years of benevolent government, the number of people registered in Xiangzhou has surpassed the one million people donated by the state of Wu at the beginning. Perhaps the increase of more than [-] people was not as Liu Sui said, but this year it has increased. The [-] registered citizens can make the emperor happy for a few days if they report to the central government.

After all, this shows that the taxation policy of the Han Dynasty has entered a virtuous circle. With high taxes, fewer people are registered and unwilling to have children; when taxes are low, people are willing to have children and are willing to be registered.

Liu Sui was still chatting with Deng Zhong, and said: "Linyuan County has been inspected, and Lexiang and Jiangling have also been inspected. Now we can go to Yangshui area to inspect the former general's army."

After Liu Fan arrived in Xiangzhou, he met Zhuge Qiao first, and accompanied him to the two markets of Lexiang and Jiangling to see how the merchants were doing and the number of boats on the river.After the inspection, just as Zhuge Qiao said, the river was full of boats and merchants, and all kinds of products from Jiaozhou, Northwest, and Southwest could be seen here.

Then Liu Sui deceived Zhuge Qiao to go to Deng Ai's military camp to inspect the situation in the army. Taking the opportunity to get rid of Zhuge Qiao, he took his personal guards and walked secretly to several villages and hills to inquire about the people's livelihood. As Zhuge Qiao said in the memorial, Xiangzhou There was a chance of life at the beginning, so Liu Sui went to inspect the military settlement with peace of mind.

(End of this chapter)