A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 671 Unstoppable enthusiasm
"Member Li is so confused!"

"It's true that I'm confused. I'm losing a lot for a small amount of money."

In Longqiao, in a private room of a teahouse, Li Changgui, an old master, was drinking tea with a few friends. Speaking of the major case of the Li family that Miyuan had just experienced, several people could not help but feel lingering fears.

"That husband is really ruthless."

Several people sighed in unison. These were all old officials in the Sanyuan County government office. In this three-acre land in Sanyuan County, although they were just minor responsibilities, they were indeed capable of controlling the wind and rain with one hand.

And Li Yuanwai was a figure that they were even more afraid of in the past. He used to live in Chang'an City, and not just anyone could be a bad handsome man, let alone be able to get a Yuanwai County Lieutenant to serve in the end.

In the eyes of the old masters and others, the most powerful thing about Wu Huaiyu is not that he is ruthless, but that he is very skillful. He chose Li Yuanwai to kill chickens and scare monkeys, but he did not make a fuss about leaking his household registration and hiding his land grain.

Instead, they exposed Yuan Li for colluding with thieves to kidnap, extort, rob and kill, and even wipe out their families. They also exposed him for setting up gambling schemes to lure people into gambling and borrowing loan sharks. Finally, he forced people to sell their land at a low price to pay off debts, and even pawned off their wives. Women, other things such as vice-virgins turning into prostitutes, etc.
Every one of them is exposed, and it will be criticized by thousands of people and reviled by thousands of people.

In the end, Li Yuanwai's case resulted in thirteen executions, a number of exiles and prison sentences, and many families' homes were confiscated.

This case also included the incident of Mr. Li leaking his household registration and hiding his land and grain, which seemed inconspicuous.

But everyone knows that is the real root of Mr. Li's passivity.

"Why is this tea tasteless?"

An old official looked at the expensive green tea, but it felt like water.

"This is Qingfeng Marrow. It is said to be a good tea produced by the Wu family in Jianzhou Tea Garden in Jiangdong. Although it is loose tea, the price is astonishingly expensive. A box of sixteen small bags weighs one pound, but it is worth twenty taels of gold." Gong Cao pointed at the tea ceremony, "I usually can't afford this tea, so I bought a pound today."

"Man, I'm so willing to give it up."

Another person said, two taels of gold, that is sixteen thousand yuan, can be exchanged for three hundred stones to buy the new wheat harvested this summer, which is less than the output of two hundred acres of land.

"I don't drink it myself. I just bought a box of Wu family tea to show off. I bought a pound of tea and got a small bag for tasting. I specially cooked it together to try it out."

"Brother, you won't buy tea from the Wu family and give it to Mr. Wu, right?"

"Or should I give it to Magistrate Zhao or Yuan Liu?"

"How dare I give them gifts in this limelight? I plan to go to Chang'an tomorrow to visit the next generation of Dukes,"

Several people nodded. Li Changgui and Li Jing had some contacts.

A few old officials would not be willing to drink the green phoenix marrow that costs one thousand yuan or two. They usually drink some tea, but most of them drink high-quality phoenix marrow that costs sixteen yuan a pound.

"Having said that, I think this tea tastes extraordinary again." The white-haired old man who just said it was as light as water said with a smile.

"Add some salt. I remembered what the teahouse manager told me. He said that if you are not used to loose tea being too light, you can add a little green salt to give it a different flavor. However, it is not recommended to boil it or add orange peels. Ginger, green onion, etc., not to mention milk chicken, otherwise it will become swill. This green phoenix marrow is fried loose tea, not steamed green cake tea."

Lao Gongcao picked up an exquisite porcelain vase, but it was the peach-blossom-colored Hexi Zhangye red salt that was served in the elegant room of the teahouse.

After adding some red salt, I tasted it and it turned out to be even fresher and even a little sweet.

"so amazing."

"This one suits me better."

Drinking Jianzhou Qingfeng marrow with peach blossom salt for one thousand yuan per tael, the old men were not really thinking about the tea.

Let’s focus on the matter of Miyuan in front of us.

"My brother was the quickest to respond. He took the initiative to report all the people, land and acres early, and also voluntarily paid this year's rent adjustment per acre.

We are still slow,

As soon as I got back, I quickly arranged for someone to re-declare the household registration truthfully, get the land, and then pay the grain. "

"I'll make arrangements right away."

Several retired old officials turned out to be Cao Zuo in the government office. Although they are retired, they are still powerful in Sanyuan County.

Although he is not as good as Mr. Li, his family still has hundreds of acres of land and even some property.

After seeing what happened to Yuan Li, who would dare to be careless?

Even the old hero has planned to repay some of his previously hidden property and donate a sum of money and food to give him peace of mind.

If the momentum goes wrong, he is also willing to immediately return some of the benefits he received from the affairs he handled before retirement.

······
Three days later,
Li Yuanwai's three repeated executions passed the emperor's verdict three times in a row.

The thirteen prisoners sentenced to death were all executed immediately without waiting for the future.

During these three days, Sanyuan County was very lively and the officials were very busy.

Almost all the reports reported by various townships had to be revised. Especially those big and powerful people came to tell them that they had forgotten mistakes and asked for revisions.

This time everyone became much more honest.

The fields were measured by themselves first, and the measured size, shape, position, etc. of each field were clearly written on a wooden sign and inserted into the ground, waiting for the government officials to come and verify.

The household registration and acres of land here have not yet been verified, and the big households over there have taken the initiative to drive this year's newly harvested summer grain to the countryside to hand over the grain. According to the actual acres of land, etc., all they brought was new grain, and they also took the initiative to add more grain. The fire consumption was reduced by [-]%.

Originally, in Sanyuan County this year, those whose land exceeds [-] acres will still be charged according to the original rent adjustment, while those who are dissatisfied will be given preferential exemptions.

But everyone is very enthusiastic and cannot stop them. They all want to learn from Xianggong Wu and Xianggong Li and take the initiative to pay the grain according to the new method this year.

The rent for an acre of farmland is four liters, the free warehouse grain is three liters, the fire consumption is one liter and four, the small grain is two liters, and the rent for one mu is one dou and four liters.There are differences between the middle and lower classes, but they are all very honest in paying grain.

They even took the initiative to pay household taxes without any urgency, declared their property honestly, took the initiative to improve their household status, and voluntarily paid more taxes.

For a time, every township was full of large grain and tax payers. After paying the rent and paying the free grain, they also paid small grains after making up for the fire consumption. Many people also took the initiative to donate more money and grain in the name of a good harvest.

It can be said that this situation has never happened before.

In the past, when collecting taxes, we had to send subordinates, appoint village chiefs, arrange big households to act as reminders, and even have to bundle neighbors and security guards together to collect taxes. It was still difficult to complete the task.

The big landowners are busy paying grain, but the small households are enjoying a rare relief. Many people have become customers and do not need to pay grain. Although they are still the principal households, they have too little land under their names, so most of them are exempted. They cannot pay much this year.

Longqiao Wu Family Round Fort.

Crown Prince Chengqian was reluctant to leave after he came. He liked the countryside very much. The time Fan Chuan spent with Wu Huaiyu last year was very unforgettable for him.

Now with the help of Li Yuan's case, Cheng Qian can stay in Sanyuan for a longer period of time.

These days, he followed Wu Huaiyu to visit the countryside and learn about all aspects of the new law. He even went to the countryside together with the working group to participate in household registration verification, land clearing and ownership confirmation.
"Teacher, I want to buy two to three hundred acres of land in Xiaoli Village and build a small village."

All the land other than that of Mr. Li was confiscated to the public, and some of it has been returned to the owner. Some of the land can no longer be found, or the land was bought by the Li family with money. Naturally, it does not need to be returned, so it became public land.

Sanyuan County government asked Wu Huaiyu how to deal with these public fields.

Wu Huaiyu's instructions were to first fill up the fields for the county government office, county economics, and medicine, and then allocate a piece of land to build a new Beitian hospital.

This Beitian Yuan is actually an official charity organization. Beitian Yuan was established under the auspices of some temples in the past. It raised money from good men and women, and then provided relief to orphans, disabled people, the sick, etc.
The newly built Beitianfang in Sanyuan Yuan is mainly used to adopt orphans and abandoned babies, relieve beggars, help widows and orphans who are lonely and sick, and even help collect and bury neglected corpses.

A piece of land is designated for farming, and the rented grain collected is used as a Beitianfang.

For the remaining fields, some supplementary job fields will be used. The income from job fields is an important part of officials' income. Local job fields are insufficient. In fact, the final part of the shortage is that the wool comes from the sheep, and it is finally spread to the people. .

There are still some leftovers, which should have been allocated to fields.

But under the current situation, there is not much land left. Wu Huaiyu feels that it is meaningless to use it to grant land, so he thinks it is better to lease the land to some landless customers and give them permanent lease rights.

The government collects rent, and customers can also have a piece of land to farm.

The prince suddenly proposed to build a small village with two to three hundred acres of land and to be neighbors with Wu Huaiyu in Sanyuan. Wu Huaiyu could not refuse.

He is the crown prince.

Once he opened this mouth, he had to make arrangements.

Fortunately, the prince didn't want much, so Huaiyu agreed immediately.

The three acres of land confiscated from the yard outside of Mr. Li's house, and another [-] acres of irrigated land, were just a matter of words.

"Thank you teacher,"

Cheng Qian was in the countryside these days. He followed him everywhere and looked around. He was surprised, "Teacher, the Sanyuan pilot project is progressing very well. Has the pilot been successful?"

"It's almost done, but success is inevitable. There is no reason why our trial will fail this time. We mainly need to find problems, and then come up with solutions to deal with them and improve the shortcomings of the new method. From this aspect, what Miyuan discovered There are many problems, but actually this is the biggest gain,”

Wu Huaiyu's solution to the Sanyuan pilot issue is a bit suspected of cheating. If it is really to be implemented across the country, it will still be very difficult for officials such as county magistrates to implement the new law.

However, Wu Huaiyu was taking the lead in Sanyuan after all, and the symbolic meaning was more important. The main purpose was to summarize a set of rules and procedures for the implementation of the new law, various response plans, and even corresponding punishment regulations to provide samples for future implementation in various places.

"When will the teacher return to court?"

"I will have to stay in Miyuan for a while. Although the big obstacle is gone now, the subsequent re-registration, especially the confirmation of rights and the exchange of deeds, are extremely arduous and will not be completed in a while, especially when it comes to When it comes to land, there will definitely be a lot of disputes and conflicts.”

There was no computer system in the Tang Dynasty. Everything relied on paper, pen and ruler. It was too much work to tear down the previous files and start over.

Wu Huaiyu still has to keep an eye on it.

"Teacher, will the new two-tax law be promoted throughout the country next year? Will the imperial court no longer have financial difficulties by then?" Cheng Qian said.

"It's not that simple. My suggestion is to add three more pilot counties in Jingyang, Yunyang and Yueyang next year in Weibei, Gyeonggi Province, to continue to accumulate experience, make up for deficiencies, and train more officials.
This pilot project will be expanded to the entire Weibei counties in Gyeonggi and Weibei the next year."

At the beginning of Zhenguan, Wu Huaiyu proposed to adjust the division and divide the world into ten counties, and then merge provinces, states and counties. Yongzhou in Gyeonggi Province now has eighteen counties under its jurisdiction, nine counties in the north and south of the Weihe River.

“After three years, the new law is still only being tried out in nine counties in Weibei?”

"Don't be hasty, haste makes waste. The more serious and urgent the matter, the slower and more detailed it is. If we can try it out in all nine counties in Weibei in three years, it will be very successful. In the fourth year, start again It will be implemented in the nine counties of Weinan in Yongzhou, as well as the surrounding Qizhou and Huazhou. In the fifth year, it will be expanded to the entire Guanzhong Longyou area.

ten years,"

Wu Huaiyu raised a finger and said, "It will take ten years to implement the new law to the ends of the earth and make it truly universal."

"It takes so long?"

"Your Highness, there is no rush."

In fact, Wu Huaiyu thought it was amazing that it could be completed in ten years. Although the map of Datang is very vast, in fact, Lingnan, Qianzhong, Nanzhong, and even Longnan, Hetao, and the large area of ​​​​Northern Saibei were only nominally included in the Tang Dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty,
In fact, it is just a rule of tyranny. To put it bluntly, it is just in name only. In fact, it is all self-governing and separatist.

The two tax laws were certainly good policies for the court, and the emperor was extremely supportive of them. However, the two tax laws replaced rent-yong modulation and touched upon the vested interests of the aristocrats, officials, powerful landlords, and
This is very complicated,
There will definitely be a lot of people who are dissatisfied. If you are in a hurry, you will easily make mistakes, which will give people opportunities to take advantage of.

"Don't worry, Your Highness. When your Highness inherits the Tang Dynasty in the future, it will definitely be a Tang Dynasty with a prosperous country and a strong people. The Two Taxes Law will definitely be fully implemented and stable."

(End of this chapter)