Reborn in the late Northern Wei Dynasty

Chapter 216 Salt Administration and Atonement

The Eastern Wei Dynasty, inherited from the Northern Wei Dynasty, was different from other dynasties. While Gao Cheng cracked down on the gentry, it implemented the land equalization system, and the people lived well.

Whether it is collected by household or by person, there is no possibility of tax evasion for the time being.

After all, people can escape, but you can't take away the fields allocated to you.

In an era when household adjustments cost 300 yuan for a piece of cloth, the tax of 240 yuan for monogamy was already 60 yuan lower than the original tax.

Even if more children are born, compared with the income of Lutian, Sangtian, and Matian.

Whether it is light or heavy can be clearly distinguished.

If you really want to abandon so many land properties just to avoid that little tax, then there is really no way to recover it.

Emperor Yuan Shanjian disregarded the dissuasion of the general Gao Cheng, forcibly abolished slaves and maidservants and granted land for farming cattle, which immediately aroused the abuse of millions of slaves and maidservants in the Kanto region.

Although most of the income from the land belongs to the owner's family, there will be more or less a sip of soup for himself.

The foolish people in the head of Guizhou do not know that they themselves will ultimately benefit from this policy, and they do not have such a long-term vision.

When they wantonly abused the imperial court and Yuan Shanjian, because slaves were not profitable, although there was a three-year tax exemption, considering the cost of food and clothing, the aristocratic families began to release a large number of slaves.

And Gao Cheng immediately took over this group of people, classified them as tax households, and redistributed the public land just taken back from these people to them again.

Taking away other people's land and returning it to them seems unnecessary.

But this means that after paying the tax and household adjustments in the past, the slaves and maids returned to the master's house, and the situation that they only drank soup was completely changed.

They became good taxpayers, paid enough for the country's rent, kept enough for the imperial court's tax revenue, and kept the rest for themselves.

Needless to say, Gao Cheng who ordered the redistribution of land for them was full of praise.

Even Yuan Shanjian, who had been scolded before, felt better.

Gao Cheng didn't have a good reputation all by himself. Compared with tearing up his face and attacking the aristocratic family nakedly, Gao Cheng was more willing to play the trick so that Yuan Shanjian could gain this good reputation among the people. Anyway, restoring the Han system would be punished Ruined to go.

Yuan Shanjian is the mastermind of this attack on the aristocratic family, so what kind of bad intentions can the kind-hearted Little Gao Wang have.

In the final analysis, the Hebei gentry provided a lot of help in the process of Gao's fortune. In the past, it was nothing more than prosecuting hermits and reforming the official system.

And he, Gao Cheng, at least superficially wants to stand with this group of gentry, even if everyone knows each other's positions, but political performances are like this.

Gao Cheng, who returned to Yecheng from Youzhou via Dingzhou and Yinzhou, finally finished his third tour of Hebei after presiding over the household registration of slaves and maidservants, and set off for Luo.

After all, after the slaves and maidservants are registered as householders of Qimin, the whole matter cannot be changed, and the servants and maidservants who have obtained the status of good citizens will spontaneously safeguard this interest.

The slaves who were not released, seeing their former companions get so many benefits, even wished that their master's family would plot chaos, and they would have the opportunity to perform meritorious deeds.

Before Gao Cheng left Hebei, he sent [-] salt soldiers to Xindu, and handed them over to Lou Zhaodai for command and training.

In order to express his absolute trust in his uncle, Gao Cheng even transferred Sima Zhang Liang, who was in charge of forming the Salt Army, back to the shogunate.

No one was kept under surveillance on the surface.

As for the secrets, there are still some actions. For example, before the inspection of various places, a lot of personal guards were installed to serve as middle and low-level officers among the salt soldiers, a total of a hundred people.

Due to the oath of alliance that day, his patrolling around Hebei with him, and his personal guard serving in the army, Gao Cheng has already established influence among the salt soldiers, which is why he assuredly handed over the 2 people to Lou Zhao.

The guard capital expanded due to the addition of a hundred people from Xue Hu'er's subordinates. With a hundred people serving as officers of the salt army, Gao Cheng's personal guards returned to the number of thousands again.

The focus of Gao Cheng's appeasement has always been on Hebei, and he has often neglected Henan.

In the past, the pattern of the four surnames of the Han nationality in Northern Wei, Taiyuan Wang, Xingyang Zheng, Qinghe Cui, and Fanyang Lu, was changed long after Xindu was founded.

The four surnames and five clans in Hebei who made great contributions to the Gao family's rise jumped to the top gentry.

The Wang family of Taiyuan and the Zheng family of Xingyang were inevitably reduced to the second line, and they received the same political treatment as the Bohai Feng family who deeply participated in Xindu Jianyi.

This situation cannot be changed by Gao Huan marrying two widows, such as Zheng Dache from the Zheng family in Xingyang, and Wang Niang who is suspected of being pregnant.

After all, what the four surnames and the five ethnic groups did in the Hebei Uprising was to advance the business, how much they paid, and how much they gained.

It doesn't make sense that the Zheng family in Xingyang, and even the Wang family in Taiyuan, who didn't join until Er Zhuzhao fled back to Xiurong, completed the reversal with only two widows.

Due to emotion and reason, these people must retreat to the second line to make way for the four surnames and five clans. Fortunately, the people in charge of the two clans understand this truth, or they may be oppressed by the Gao clan's soldiers.

There was not much friction in the raising and lowering of the door watch.

Now that all the four surnames and five clans in Hebei have expressed their support for the Luoyang government order, how could the Henan gentry stand up and resist when the generals divided the town into different places.

Of course, even if Henan and Hebei became a mess, the Taiyuan Wang family would not take any action. Who told them to live in Bingzhou, the Gao family relied on the group of Bingzhou Hus who were moved in one after another.

On the seventh day of November in the sixth year of Taichang (537), Gao Cheng returned to Luoyang. In the past, only widows greeted him, but now there are many more maidservants who are released into private households.

Gao Cheng had no choice but to use the tactic of suspicious soldiers. The army entered through the Jianchun Gate with great fanfare, while he led his bodyguards, family members and brothers around the north of the city, and entered the city through the Daxia Gate, leaving all the enthusiastic women in vain.

There is no way, Yuan Jingyi, who is a foreign wife, was awarded the title of Princess of the East China Sea. Such an honor is too tempting.

More than [-] officials and ministers died in the Heyin Incident, less than ten years ago. Among the wives and concubines, some were forced to remain widows for various reasons.

Once Gao Cheng fell in love with her, all problems would be solved, and many widows surnamed Yuan also looked forward to being able to win the title of princess like the two sisters Yuan Jingyi and Yuan Yuyi.

Even in Yaoguang Temple, where the concubines are housed, many nuns with long hair who practiced practice have also been moved by common sense.

For most people, if they have a choice, who would like to have a good youth and always be accompanied by the ancient Buddha with green lights.

It's just that they were a little more cautious compared to people outside the temple, and they only dared to secretly ask the maid to invite Gao Cheng to Yaoguang Temple to offer incense.

Gao Cheng was busy with government affairs and was afraid of people's words, so he didn't go to the appointment openly.

As for whether he had contact with the queens and concubines of Yuan Xu, Yuen Long, Yuan Gong, Yuan Ye and others in private, it is not known.

Maybe not, after all, King Gao is not a womanizer.

Gao Cheng was not an excuse to be busy with government affairs. After returning to Luoyang, he immediately went to the Zhongshu Province to draft a government order as the Zhongshu Supervisor:
It is stipulated that private sales of table salt are prohibited. Salt merchants deduct taxes directly according to the market price, and sell them directly to government shops in various places, and the government shops continue to sell them to the public at market prices.

This behavior is equivalent to the separation of production and sales. The salt merchants who produce salt do not participate in the sales, and the government, a big customer, eats it all at once, which speeds up the turnover of funds.

The government sells the salt at the market price, but the tax has been deducted from the purchase price, so as to prevent the salt merchants from evading taxes.

Salt is also a hard currency, so there is no need to worry about sales.

There is no need to worry about the possibility of accumulating a large amount of unsalable salt. At worst, it will be sent to Luoyang for Gao Cheng to use as military salary and official salary.

There is no need to worry about the problem of villagers dying of old age and leaving their hometowns. In other dynasties, the people were poor after all.

This does not exist in today's Eastern Wei Dynasty. Although it is impossible for everyone to get the highest amount of land grants, life is indeed comfortable.

After having a surplus, there will also be trade demand.

The other dynasties were so poor that there were two clinks, why run to the county.

Gao Cheng didn't let the shops send people to the countryside to sell them. The sales in the market are supervised by the city secretary and tax collectors, and the prices sold can generally maintain the market price.

There is no need to ignore the survival wisdom of the people at the bottom. Even if they don't have time to go to the city, they will organize trusted people to go to the city to buy.

They may lack long-term vision, but the little people are never less clever.

Gao Cheng considered whether to expressly promote this behavior, and then appointed this type of people as rural officials, so that power would go to the countryside.

But after thinking about it carefully, I still gave up. For the time being, don't force the gentry too much, cut the flesh with a blunt knife, and take your time.

And the possible consequences of this behavior are worth considering.

In order to prevent the possibility of subordinate staff making profits, Gao Cheng took full account of the current market price of salt, and deliberately kept the price of 20 yuan for a bucket of salt for the time being, only making small profits but quick sales.

Mainly Kanto, Hebei, and Huaibei have salt production areas, and the transportation cost is low.

Can it be set higher?Of course you can. During Wu Zetian's period, the highest price of salt was 500 yuan per bucket, which was 20 times that of 25 yuan per bucket during Tang Taizong's period.

In the prosperity of Kaiyuan, the price of salt dropped to 10 yuan per bucket. In order to collect money, after the implementation of salt monopoly, the price of salt immediately increased to 110 yuan per bucket.

The price of table salt in the middle and late Tang Dynasty was generally maintained between 200 and 300 yuan.

Compared to the means of raising money in the Tang Dynasty, Gao Cheng's poll tax was only the price of a bucket of salt.

This is also the reason why he must keep the price of salt constant. The market price fluctuates, and no one knows how outrageous the market price can be shouted by the subordinates under the collusion of many local forces.

During Wu Zetian's time, 500 qian per bucket was 20 qian higher than the annual poll tax for four adults under Gao Cheng's rule.

Once Gao Cheng's government decree on salt affairs was issued, there was no opposition to it. The market price was deducted from the tax, and the government directly sold it to government shops, and then the government resold it to the public at the market price.

No one can point out what's wrong with such behavior.

With small profits but high sales, the salt sellers earn less, but with the government as a big customer, they don’t have to worry about sales, and the government provides such convenience for salt merchants, if they still object, the intention is obvious, it is nothing more than tax evasion , or disturb the market price.

Both actions will be slapped hard.

Gao Cheng cooked salt in Sizhou and built 2666 salt stoves, which was also his confidence to lower the price of salt.

The common people praised the behavior of constant salt price even more.

After Gao Cheng had done such a great deed, it was rare for him to relax. He led his bodyguards at the invitation of the No. 15 emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Queen of Yuen Long, to go to a separate courtyard outside Yaoguang Temple to participate in Zen meditation.

An honest gentleman like Xiao Gaowang would definitely not enter Yaoguang Temple.

But when he thought of Yuen Long who was only 19 years old, he let his father-in-law Yuen Quan suffocate him with a quilt.

Gao Cheng felt that, as Yuan Quan's son-in-law, he had the obligation to take care of Yuen Long's family.

The old man made too many sins. Six years ago, he suffocated three emperors in a row, 19-year-old Yuen Long, 23-year-old Yuan Ye, and 34-year-old Yuan Gong.

Aren't the wives and concubines of these people waiting for Gao Cheng, the son-in-law, to atone for their sins?

The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility.

　It's gone tonight, and the National Day will be maintained twice a day as much as possible.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)