Ji Han Liu Zhang

Chapter 213 Governing a Great Country is Like Cooking Small Fresh Food

Liu Zhang got off the carriage and stood in front of the wheat field as if looking into the distance, looking at the boundless yellow ocean.

Liu Zhang secretly speculated that there were many problems in the Eastern Han Dynasty when aristocratic families were powerful and the poll tax was the main source of tax revenue.

The poll tax is the main source of tax revenue. Such a tax policy is very beneficial to the owners of large tracts of land, such as the local powerful clans and lords. The powerful clans and lords own a large amount of land and only need to pay a small amount of land tax, while the common people in Guizhou Owning a small amount of land requires paying a large amount of tax, oral tax, regular tax, etc., and nearly half of the output of rented land must be paid to the landlord's family.

Therefore, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, local powerful people hid people. Every time they hid a person, they would pay less of the head tax to the government. The powerful people could extract part of the head tax payable by this person as their own income, and the hidden population, Usually they are not forced, but because they cannot afford the high head tax, they simply hide under powerful families to avoid exploitation by the government.

As more and more people were hiding, local powerful people became more powerful, which led to the Eastern Han Dynasty having less and less control over the population, and its control over local areas became weaker and weaker. The foundation of the empire is now dysfunctional.

This was the problem Liu Zhang had to face. In this case, if Liu Zhang reduced the land tax, it would not be of any benefit to the landless and landless farmers. It would only increase the income of powerful landlords who owned large amounts of land. If we want to truly provide preferential treatment to the people of Guizhou, we must reduce or reduce the head taxes borne by the people, such as the arithmetic tax and oral tax.

The common people have to bear fewer head taxes such as arithmetic and oral taxes, and their burden is light, so they will not consider relying on the powerful and hiding. The more people and land the government can control, the greater the base for tax collection.

Following this line of thinking, the ultimate form is the system of dividing people into acres promoted by Yongzheng. The head tax is no longer collected, and everything is divided into the land tax. People can hide and run away, but the land cannot escape no matter what.

‘Big steps. ’ Liu Zhang shook his head. It was a policy of the Qing Dynasty to spread the land between children and farmers. It was more than a thousand years away from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The era was different, the culture was different, the customs were different, and there were huge differences in every aspect.

Directly using the ten thousand years later to the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Zhang suspected that Shu would self-destruct without achieving any results.

First of all, the officials in Shu, big and small, were familiar with collecting land tax of thirty to one tax, and asking for arithmetic and oral taxes from the people. Suddenly, these officials were asked to give up collecting arithmetic and oral taxes from the people and calculate how to do it. It may be difficult to find a suitable method and adjust a suitable taxation policy after spreading the calculated tax and oral tax into the fields.

Secondly, the people were accustomed to paying the arithmetic and oral taxes. For a while, they were asked not to pay the arithmetic and oral taxes, but to think about paying the poll tax spread into the fields. It was difficult for the people to accept it. After all, in the four hundred years since the Han Dynasty, the world has had great inertia. If it suddenly brakes suddenly, it will undoubtedly overturn.

In addition, although the allocation of people into acres is a policy of the Qing Dynasty, its foreshadowing policy is a whip method of the Ming Dynasty. A whip method is to fold part of the corvee into the land, and to divide the labor into acres is to fold all the corvee into the land. Its spirit is the same. All the restrictions on people and the taxes levied on people are spread into the fields. From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, it took hundreds of years to go from a whipping method to a small business.

The emergence of the one-whip method also required the household modulation in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the rental system in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the two tax laws in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, step by step.

One step ahead of the times is a genius, two steps ahead of the times is a madman.

At this thought, Liu Zhang put the policy of dividing one person into another and put it behind him, but he did not give up the idea of ​​changing the tax law. After all, the current tax law was really unreasonable and needed to be changed to some extent.

Moreover, Liu Zhang believed that by virtue of his military prowess in pacifying Bajun and conquering Nanzhong last year, as well as his reputation among officials and people through appointing virtuous people to govern, he had more or less the prestige to carry out reforms.

"Wang Qing, I would like to reduce some of the civil and oral taxes borne by the people. What do you think?" Liu Zhang, who was determined, turned to Wang Shang and said.

"Ming Gong is benevolent." Wang Shang first praised him when he heard this, and then he said after careful consideration: "Now the attack on Hanzhong is just around the corner, and a lot of food, grass and baggage are needed. Although Ming Gong ordered King Cao of Jin to implement the salt and iron monopoly, things have changed. It has not achieved much results yet, and the benefits have not been much... At this time, I am afraid that it will be inappropriate to reduce or reduce the people's calculation and oral taxes in the upcoming battle of Hanzhong. Although Duke Ming has this benevolence, he still wants to do it for me. See, after we capture Hanzhong, we can reduce or reduce the number again."

Liu Zhang shook his head and added: "Although some of the calculated and oral taxes have been reduced or reduced, this part of the tax is not collected. Instead, it is spread into the land tax and the land tax is slightly increased."

Faced with Liu Zhang's idea of ​​reducing the calculated tax and oral tax and increasing the land tax, Wang Shang thought carefully about the feasibility of this policy.

Liu Zhang was silent and just waited for Wang Shang to think. Although he could not implement the allotment of land into acres in one step, Liu Zhang planned to reduce the head tax borne by the people to some extent and instead levy an additional land tax on the powerful tyrants who occupied a large amount of land.

All in all, whoever has money will earn it. Of course, the powerful people who occupy a large amount of land are levied extra land tax. The powerful people will naturally use various means to avoid it and spread the extra land tax on the heads of the people. Liu Zhang I guess something like this will definitely happen.

Faced with the powerful manipulating the law, Liu Zhang planned to rely more on Gao Rou, the law cao. Gao Rou was proficient in the law, and he was born in Yanzhou and had little connection with the Yizhou powerful men. It was most suitable to use him as a sharp blade. .

In a nutshell, Liu Zhang regarded Gao Rou as the role played by Cao Wei's mandarin.
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Brazil County.

Zhonglang Jiang Wu Yi frowned and looked at the map on the desk with all his attention. His eyes even focused on a line from Bazhong to Hanzhong, which was the route of Micang Road.

The former rice thief Zhang Lu sent his subordinates Pu Hu and Yuan Yue to invade Badi through Micang Road. Under the guard of Andong Zhonglang general Gao Pei, Pu Hu and Yuan Yue didn't take any advantage. But later, taking advantage of the rebellion with De Zhonglang's general Zhao Wei, and using despicable means of pretending to be a business traveler, Pu Hu and Yuan Yue finally broke through the Baiqu Market and won a small victory.

With the lessons learned from the past, Zhang Lu naturally would not let the Shu soldiers use the same method to attack Hanzhong in the opposite direction through Micang Road, so Zhang Lu sent Du Yi, the general of Quren, to garrison on Micang Road, which gave Wu Yi brought great obstacles, which made Wu Yi, who wanted to make some achievements, feel a little melancholy.

At this time, a scribe stepped into the Chinese army's tent and came to Wu Yi. Seeing this person, Wu Yi looked away from the map. At the same time, with expectant eyes in his eyes, he asked :"how."

The scribe shook his head: "General Zhonglang, the thief Du Yi is cautious. Although I gave him his wife's clothes, Du Yi was unmoved and still took the clothes I gave him. He gestured to his body shape a few times and said that the clothes we sent were not very suitable and did not fit his body shape, so we should send him a few more pieces so that he could try on a suitable one."

"There are such shameless people in the world." Hearing this, Captain Xu Meng couldn't help but cursed.

Wu Yi, who was hindered by Du Yi's camp on Micang Road and had no good way to break through Du Yi's camp, planned to use the provocation method to provoke Du Yi out of the camp to fight, so he sent a scribe to give Du Yi a woman's gift. of service. But at the moment, it seems that this strategy has completely failed. Du Yi remained unmoved and even teased them.

The captain Xi Su looked helpless, but now Wu Yi's plan failed. As the commander-in-chief of Wu Yi, he opened his mouth and prepared to save some face for Wu Yi: "I am not a Han Chinese, and I don't value integrity very much. You can say that I am a widower." He has the sense of shame to deal with such a person and give him women's clothing, but he is happy, and maybe he thinks we are giving him preferential treatment."

"Barbarians are barbarians and cannot be judged by common sense." Xu Meng shook his head and was speechless for Du Yi for a moment. According to common sense, a general would be furious after receiving a woman's clothing. However, Du Yi was uncharacteristically angry at him. There was no expression at all, and according to what the messenger said, Du Yi actually made several gestures at his figure with the woman's service, which can be said to be shameless.

Although the strategy he used failed, Wu Yi didn't look unhappy. Instead, he smiled and said, "This Du Yi is quite interesting."

Wu Yi, who only smiled for a moment, quickly put away his smile, and no emotion was revealed on his face. He thought to himself that since outsmarting him failed, he could only consider being tough.
-

Xinggu County.

After notifying Gao Yi, the governor of the surrender, and obtaining Gao Yi's authorization documents, the two young heroes Cuan Wen and Cuan Wu of the Cuan family led the tribe of the Cuan family to Heilang Yi. Outside the occupied silver pit, he took advantage of the heavy fog in the early morning to hide his figure in the fog and quietly launched an attack on Hei Langyi's camp.

Cuan Wu, who was leading the way, held an extremely sharp ring-shou knife in his hand, and tied the handle of the knife tightly with his hand with a strip of cloth to avoid accidentally breaking the ring during the fight. When the first sword falls off, on the battlefield where the sword has no eyes, if the weapon is lost, then it is like cattle and sheep to be slaughtered by others.

Regarding the layout of Hei Langyi's camp, Cuan Wu had sent out many batches of scouts early to investigate. In addition, he pretended to be a merchant trading with Hei Langyi and took the risk to personally inspect Hei Langyi's camp. He already had a vivid map. He knew where the defenses in Hei Langyi's camp were tight and where the defenses were lax.

In the heavy fog, you can't see more than a few steps in front of you, so Cuan's troops move forward closely to avoid being disconnected.

Cuan Wu, who was leading the way, relied on the memory in his mind to lead his subordinate Erlang forward unhurriedly, towards a loophole in the Black Wolf Yi camp that he knew.

At this moment, behind Hei Langyi's camp, Hei Gou, Hei Lang Yi's guard, said to his partner Hei Pi: "Hei Pi, did you hear anything? There seems to be something moving outside the camp. It sounds like There seems to be a lot of them.”

Heipi, who had been on duty all night, was yawning again and again. At this moment, his mental state was very poor. He just said perfunctorily: "Maybe it is some kind of wild beast."

Although the black dog also kept vigil, he was also very tired, but he was cautious and frowned and shook his head and said: "It doesn't sound like a wild beast, but more like the sound of a person walking."

"Tch." Heipi waved his hand and said disdainfully: "Hei Gou, what are you talking about in your sleep? How can anyone walk around in the thick fog so early in the morning? Even the Han merchants who trade with us are extremely greedy for silver. They don’t get up so early, and they usually arrive at our tribe when the sun reaches high in the sky... I guess there are a large number of elk moving around, so the movement is a bit louder."

The confusion on Black Dog's face did not dissipate because of Heipi's words. He only squinted his eyes and looked outside the camp, trying to penetrate the fog and see clearly what was making the noise outside the camp.

As time ticked by, the movements outside the camp became clearer and clearer. Black Dog heard a sizzling sound. This sound was very familiar to him, but his head felt a little heavy after not sleeping all night. But I can't remember it right now.

Finally, Black Dog remembered what caused the sizzling sound. It was caused by the friction of iron armor. Although the thick fog had not dissipated and Black Dog had not yet seen the specific situation outside the camp, he had already He opened his mouth and shouted loudly: "The enemy is attacking."

"Enemy attack." He shouted twice, preparing to run towards the center of the camp to deliver the news of the enemy attack to the sleeping tribesmen.

But at this time, there were several whooshing sounds from outside the camp, and several slender black shadows passed through the fog, passed through the gaps in the camp fence, and turned towards the black dog. After half a beat, they were also ready to turn towards the center of the tribe. The black skin that ran away from the area shot away.

"Ah..."

A black arrow that passed through the mist hit Heipi who was facing the outside of the camp. By coincidence, Heipi's throat was hit. Heipi just wailed and fell to the ground with a plop.

The black dog beside Heipi was luckier than Heipi. He was only shot in the calf. But when he turned around and was about to run to deliver the news, he struggled and shook because of the arrow wound on his calf. After a few times, he also fell to the ground with a plop.

The black dog who fell to the ground gritted his teeth to suppress the severe pain in his lower calf. He stretched out his hands and crawled hard toward the middle area of ​​the tribe. He insisted on his duty and shouted loudly: "Enemy attack."

The black dog, which was trying hard to crawl, turned back and looked back from time to time, wondering who was taking advantage of the fog to attack his tribe.

Soon, Black Dog saw the people coming clearly. He couldn't help but look a little desperate. They were a group of Han soldiers wearing iron armor and holding sharp blades. This group of Han soldiers easily knocked down the defensive fence with axes and swords. The leader The Han generals strode towards him.

‘A little more relaxed. ' Seeing his subordinate Erlang using a knife and ax to chop down the weak fence of the Black Wolf Yi camp in front of him, Cuan Wu secretly said something in his heart, and then Cuan Wu strode forward and came to the man who was still shouting about the enemy attack. Behind Yi Ren, he looked at Yi Ren who turned around to look at him.

"He is somewhat loyal." After Cuan Wu showed respect to the Yi man who had an arrow in his calf, he swung his sword and killed the black dog.

At this time, the fog dissipated a little, and the loud shouting of the black dog in front had some effect. A group of Black Wolf tribesmen woke up from their sleep and rushed towards the place where the black dog made the sound, just in time with the people who broke the camp. Cuan Wu faced off.

"Kill." Cuan Wuping raised his sword and pointed at the gathering Black Wolf Yi. After signaling to the troops behind him, he strode forward and took the lead to kill.

(End of this chapter)