The First Great Ancestor of the Five Dynasties

Chapter 76 Implementing the Salt Policy
Since the policy of free salt was implemented to benefit the people, Zhu Xiu has become extremely busy. He often stays in the secretary's office for a whole day. Occasionally, he has to jog all the way to the latrine.

Behind the large desk, Zhu Xiu reviewed the situation at each distribution point and summarized the reports. Once there was an emergency, he had to make a timely decision to deal with it.

The new policy of free salt has been implemented for more than ten days, and Anding County has basically covered rural residents. The registration and distribution work went smoothly without many obstacles.

This is related to the strength of Jiedu Prefecture's control over Anding County. Dozens of dental soldier teams were stationed at various distribution points to cooperate with the miscellaneous officials arranged by Jiedu Prefecture. After several days of vigorous publicity and fermentation, almost everyone in the county was Everyone knows about this new policy to benefit the people.

If everything goes well in Anding County, Zhu Xiu will have to turn his attention to other counties and towns in Jingzhou.

Yuanzhou is still far away, so he can only let it go first. After the distribution work in Jingzhou gets on track, Zhu Xiu will consider who to send over to implement this new policy to benefit the people.

If that didn't work, he would have to go there himself.

Zhu Xiu checked a thick household register. These were newly registered salt-receiving household registrations that had just been delivered.

Taking this opportunity, Zhu Xiu started from Anding County to conduct a census of the registered population, and secretly launched a population survey in Zhangyi Town.

Do not check, I don’t know, I’m scared.

In the first year of Kaiyun (944), Shi Chonggui ascended the throne and issued an edict to conduct an inventory of household registrations across the country. According to statistics at that time, there were 670 registered households in Jingzhou, divided into 25 townships in five counties.

Now, taking advantage of the opportunity of the salt distribution, we have re-checked the household registration, but inexplicably more than 900 households have appeared.

These new accounts were all registered within these ten days.

Zhu Xiu sighed, not feeling happy at all.

These more than 900 households are all runaway households hiding in various places in Jingzhou. A rough calculation shows that there must be at least 6000 to [-] people.

Some of them are refugees who have fled from other states, and some are tenant farmers who cannot survive in their own state and have sold themselves to wealthy households.

Household owners are usually unwilling to declare household registration for their tenant farmers. If they lose the official household registration, the tenant farmers are also officially registered households in the country and need to bear labor, which will reduce the time for farming for the main household.

Customers also need to pay Ding tax, so the tenant farmers are unwilling to naturalize and would rather be a black household.

If it weren't for the policy of benefiting the people this time, which is to distribute salt on a household basis, these hidden people would still be a group of shady households.

Zhu Xiu had thought of this before, but he didn't expect that the impoverished and isolated Jingzhou could actually hide more than 900 households and 6000 non-staff civilians.

House runaways were widespread in all dynasties in history. When the court was stable, the investigation and punishment of house runaways was stronger and the punishment was severe, which had a certain deterrent effect.

During times of social unrest, the number of people running away from military service and taxes increased sharply, and they tried their best to hide themselves away from the control of the state.

Many bureaucrats, powerful people, and wealthy households will also take the opportunity to hoard the population, resulting in tight taxation for the country and no one available for military service.

In general, this is a shortcoming of the imperial government's governance, and it is also the tragedy of the times.

If you can live and work in peace and contentment, who would be willing to leave your hometown and become a bereaved dog who is in fear all day long?

Zhu Xiu opened his little notebook, took up his pen and pondered for a while, recording the actual household registration population of each county and township in Jingzhou. These will be the basis for his future reforms.

There are two young men dressed as servants in the office, one named Yan Ping and the other Chen An, who are carefully sorting books.

A few days ago, Zhu Xiu was really too busy, so she ran to complain to Shi Kuangwei and asked him for some smart people who could read and write to come and help.

Most of the officials from Jiedu Mansion were sent to various places to implement the salt policy, and Shi Kuangwei had to choose two from the tooth soldiers to send them.

When Zhu Xiu met them for the first time, he knew that they were the two young men who picked up black pancakes from the mud and snow in front of him when they were at Longshan Pass.Both of them were orphans of Zhang Yijun and grew up in Yacheng. A few years ago, when things were good, Shi Kuangwei gathered these orphans together and specially asked his husband to teach them how to read and read.

I haven’t learned much in the past few years, but I know a lot of words.

"Yan Ping, find the account books of Cancao in Anding County." Zhu Xiubi walked as fast as he could, without raising his head.

"Hey~" Yan Ping responded hurriedly, rummaging through a pile of books, and when he found it, he quickly handed it to Zhu Xiu.

"Secretary Zhu, can I ask you something?" Yan Ping asked in a low voice when he saw Zhu Xiu put down her pen and looked through the account books.

"Yeah." Zhu Xiu nodded.

Yan Ping said curiously: "The villain and Chen An look alike. Many people said we are brothers. Sometimes even the handsome man can't tell them apart. Why can Secretary Zhu tell me apart from the first meeting?" Which of the two is who?"

Zhu Xiu closed the account book and said with a smile: "It's very simple, because people's eyes can't deceive. Your eyes and Chen An's eyes are different."

"Eyes." Yan Ping muttered, looking for a mirror to see what his eyes looked like.

Zhu Xiu smiled without further explanation and continued to check the account books.

Yan Ping has a smart personality, lively and active, his eyes often wander around, showing a sense of agility.

Chen An is simple and honest, taciturn, with steady eyes, which makes people feel that he is a loyal person at first glance.

Yan Ping was helping to reconcile the accounts and couldn't help complaining: "These miscellaneous tasks should have been done by Pei Jinzhi Pei, but at this juncture, he actually reported illness and went home, causing Secretary Zhu to wipe his butt. I’m so busy that I can’t even eat a warm meal.”

Zhu Xiu glanced at him and said, "Stop being so verbose and do your job well."

From the first day of the implementation of the salt policy, the judge Song Shen and the envoy Pei Jin reported illness and went home. One said he wanted to go home to take care of his sick mother, and the other said he had sores on his buttocks and needed to stay in bed to recuperate.

Song Shen has an old mother by his side who is often sick. This is known to everyone in Anding County.

But he chose to report his illness at this busy time and left a lot of affairs in Jiedu Mansion. Zhu Xiu guessed that it was probably due to pressure from the Xue family.

Pei Jin didn't have an old mother to serve, but he had a fierce wife begged by the Xue family.

The two chief officials of the Jiedu Mansion gave up. Matters related to the transfer of money and food, and the cashier's affairs were suddenly left unattended, and most of them were paralyzed. Zhu Xiu had to personally take over a small part of the work, barely ensuring the normal operation of the Jiedu Mansion.

Free salt for one year was a huge blow to the Xue family. Zhu Xiu and Shi Kuangwei were already prepared for the Xue family to fight back.

However, the absence of Song Shen and Pei Jin still caused a lot of trouble for Jiedu Mansion.

If things go on like this, it will definitely not work. If Jiedu Mansion wants to take power, the two great generals Song Shen and Pei Jin are indispensable.

When the implementation of the salt policy becomes more stable, Zhu Xiu plans to talk to the two to test their attitudes.

Chen An, who was dark and stocky, walked quickly into the room, cupped his hands and said in a low voice: "I would like to inform you, a small official, that Liangyuan County Magistrate Shen Xuemin wants to see you!"

Zhu Xiu was startled, raised his head and said in surprise: "Shen Xuemin? Why did he come to Anding instead of staying in Liangyuan?"

"I don't know! It's just that Magistrate Shen looked anxious, as if something big had happened!" Chen An answered honestly.

"Ask him to come here!"

(End of this chapter)