Reborn in the late Northern Wei Dynasty

Chapter 266 Exemption and Taxation

When Wei Xingqing sent Zheng Boyou and Princess Qingyang to Luoyang, Gao Cheng, who was in Zhongshu Province and made the final ranking of the candidates, focused on the two answer sheets whose names had been revealed.

In this session of the imperial examination, Gao Cheng brainstormed and indeed got a lot of ideas. Taking into account the feasibility of the strategy and the quality of the strategy papers, the leader of the classic department was only selected between two people.

One is Wang Xi. Wang Xi proposed to Gao Cheng to set up a professional department to grasp the supply and demand situation in various places, put forward the view that the expensive should be cheap, and explained it in detail.

The so-called migration to high refers to the flexible collection of taxes from various places, such as collecting coins in areas where grain prices are high, and collecting rice grains in areas where grain prices are low.

At the same time, I asked Gao Cheng to set up a permanent warehouse. In good years, he would buy a lot of rice grains, so as not to make the grain cheap and harm the people. In bad harvest years, he would sell a large amount of rice grains to stabilize the grain prices.

The other person is Cui Lian. Cui Lian used to be in charge of the government in Guangzhou and was in charge of general affairs.

He traveled among the people for another half a year, and he knew the hardships of the people in corvée, so he proposed a method of exempting them from labor in his policy theory.

And when the imperial court needed the people to perform corvee service, such as civil engineering, building bridges and roads, regulating rivers and canals, and transferring grain, Cui Shan suggested that the collected exemption money be used to recruit people to participate in the work.

It was not Cui Shan's first idea to use money as a substitute for labor. The Han law allowed the children of rich families to pay and hire people to perform labor on their behalf.

Cui Shan's method is equivalent to popularizing the power of rich children to the public, but he does not stop there. Cui Shan believes that the collection of exemption money is not to generate income, but to benefit the people.

He suggested that after Gao Cheng implemented exemption with money, he issued a decree to force the government to use the money to recruit people to work in accordance with uniform standards.

And every time the money is used to recruit people, corresponding records must be kept. Whether a bridge was built or a road was built, every expenditure must be able to be checked during the assessment.

By assessing the use of government agency money, the central government can also see at a glance what local governments have done this year.

The amount of agent service money is limited. In the past, the local government used the people's power for free and did not spare it. That's why Wei Jing recruited people's husbands for hunting.

Now it costs money to recruit people, and it can effectively stop the abuse of people's power by state and county governors.

Recruiting people for paid labor with proxy money can also greatly increase their enthusiasm for work compared with unpaid labor.

As long as the central government can maintain its authority and ensure that the people can be exempted from corvee labor by paying the exemption money, the method of substituting money for labor can solve the wanton showdown of local corvee workers. This is undoubtedly a policy that benefits the people.

The more Gao Cheng looked at it, the more familiar it became, and suddenly he realized that this is Wang Anshi's recruitment method!

The service collection law enabled people who took turns to serve as conscripts to return to their hometowns to work in agriculture, and households enjoying the privilege of exemption from service had to pay service money, which increased the government's income.

The promulgation of the labor recruitment law also made Wang Anshi angry with the privileged class, and finally laid the root of the disaster for the failure of the reform.

But King Gao didn't have this kind of worry. He not only wanted to collect the exemption money from the privileged class, but even Yuan Shanjian who lived in the palace had to pay him King Gao.

But when it comes to his original intention, Gao Cheng does not seek finances to increase income. This move can prevent the local government from abusing people's power, and he is satisfied.

What's more, there is one point that Cui Shan didn't mention, but Gao Cheng himself is very clear that the implementation of the exemption money system can greatly alleviate the inflation of the people, and Gao Cheng may even increase the issuance of coins to meet the people's demand for coins.

This also means that Xiao Gaowang, who holds a lot of coins, can live a prosperous life for a while.

However, it is also necessary to prevent good intentions from doing bad things. Although under the background of the land equalization system, it is difficult for the public to fail to pay the exemption money, Gao Cheng decided to follow the principle of public voluntariness when implementing this policy in the future.

As for the people who have not paid the immunization money, the local government is not allowed to send more people indiscriminately. In order to save money, they will catch this group of disasters.

This point is also something that Gao Cheng wants to write into the decree.

Among the two answer sheets, Wang Xi was better in terms of essays, but in terms of strategies, Cui Shan was more in line with his wishes.

After some hesitation, Gao Cheng finally chose Cui Shan.

At this time, Cui Yan didn't know that he was about to escape, so he kept asking Zheng Boyou who was locked in the cell opposite him for news.

Gao Cheng heard Wei Xingqing's report, but he didn't immediately pay attention to it. For the time being, the imperial examination was the most important thing. He just put Zheng Boyou in prison first, and Princess Qingyang was temporarily locked up in Yaoguang Temple pending trial.

As the time for the release of the scientific examination results approached, even though he was quite confident in his son's talent and learning, Cui Yan couldn't help feeling nervous, fearing that Cui Li would not perform well on the spot.

Zheng Boyou didn't have the mood to pay attention to Cui Yan, but he also secretly hated that he didn't have a worthy son, otherwise he might be able to come to a scientific examination to save his father.

But what he didn't know was that in Gao Cheng's eyes, he and Cui Yuan were completely different in nature. Cui Yuan was just corrupt, while Zheng Boyou falsely murdered good people for the crime of treason in order to plunder people's wealth. Even if Zheng Boyou His son has the talent of Zaifu, and he is destined not to be pardoned.

It is impossible for Gao Cheng to set a precedent for pardoning such evil deeds.

Zheng Boyou didn't even know that his eldest son Zheng Yun's Yangxia County prefect and his second son Zheng Jian and Yitong Kaifuxing's official posts in the army would be lost.

When Gao Cheng ranked the sixty candidates for each of the five imperial examinations in Luoyang, Sizhou Muke and Zhu Hunyuan had already led three thousand plays in the family and entered the capital city of Jianzhou Prefecture. Easily took over the state city.

This was also the first time that Gao Cheng's influence touched Shanxi. Gao Cheng also sent someone to Jinyang to inform Gao Huan of such a sensitive move.

At this time, Gao Huan had already heard about the establishment of the state from the messenger, and he quickly sent people to Gaodu to inquire about the authenticity of the news, and to check whether Zheng Boyou had done what Gao Cheng said.

There was no other reaction to Zhu Hunyuan's move to enter Jianzhou.

But the life of the officials in Jianzhou is difficult, especially the chief official Facao. Ever since Zheng Boyou and his wife were arrested, they have been terrified every day.

If it weren't for Ke Zhu Hunyuan arriving quickly, he would have packed up and abandoned the official and fled. But now looking at Ke Zhu Hunyuan's trilogy who is strictly guarding the various sects, and pretending to be an idler is clearly a secret sentry watching him. He also gave up his plan of fleeing for his life, and could only pin all his hopes on Zheng Boyou and his wife.

Luoyang, Zhongshu Province.

After a whole day of hard work, Gao Cheng finally ranked the [-] test papers for the five subjects. Although he had torn off the pasted paper on the answer papers, he still judged himself based on his talent this time.

There are selfish intentions, such as promoting Song Qindao from seventh to second in the criminal name department.

As well as the reduction of Zu Ting from the third place in the classics department to the tenth place, he is worthy of entering the ranks of court officials.

(End of this chapter)