The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 105 Huabu’s Ten Taxes and One VS Ming Dynasty’s Thirty Taxes and One
The captain glanced at Yang Wanyong gratefully before continuing.

"The leader said that we are not asked to be kitchen households or salt households, but to be salt factory workers.

After arriving, only one person from each household would work as a salt worker in the salt factory.For salt workers, the factory not only provides food and accommodation, but also gives them one stone of grain per month.

If you do a good job and produce enough salt, the factory will give you salt as a reward! "

After hearing these words, the atmosphere of the crowd immediately changed, and many people looked surprised.

"Salt workers are treated so well? Is it true?"

"With one stone of food per month, you can feed three people for almost nothing!"

"That's not true - I heard yesterday that the people who reclaim wasteland here are eating from a big pot, and work points are recorded, and there is no salary. I didn't expect that the salt workers were actually paid, and they were so generous."

"The salary is so good, it's not impossible to become a salt worker."

"···"

Yang Wanyong was also surprised by the good treatment of salt workers.

Although salt work is hard work, and I feel that my hands and feet will easily ulcerate over time, but if I can feed two or three people, it is worth it.

Not to mention that if you do a good job, you will be rewarded with salt.

But he also had doubts.

So he asked: "Captain, did the above say how to arrange the arrangements for the salt workers' families?"

“I was just about to say this,” the captain said with a smile, “The leader said that the Hai Salt Factory should be used as a pilot project for new settlement rules.

Don't ask me what a pilot is, I can't explain it either.All I know is that the families of the salt workers first divided into small groups to cultivate villages around the salt factory.

In collective farming villages, just like in the big camp, work points are recorded according to contribution.

But as long as the team cultivates [-] acres of land, the fields can be divided.

Each household has the right to use five acres of land, and another five hundred acres will be distributed according to the total work points earned by each household in the team.

As for the remaining fifty acres of land, it belongs to the public.Why return to the public?

The food we came here to eat cannot be given to the rebels in vain, right?
The tools and rations we need to reclaim the wasteland cannot be provided by the rebels in vain, right?
Not to mention, the rebels will also protect our safety - the rebel soldiers are not allowed to eat, are not allowed to support their families, and are not allowed to receive compensation for their death or injury? "

The captain stopped here, and the crowd started buzzing with discussion again.

Yang Wanyong listened carefully and found that everyone had a lot of questions.

"We will allocate five acres of land for this foundation. If some people are lazy and work less, or simply go to do other things, won't they get five acres of land in vain?"

"Now that the land is divided, how much tax will the rebels charge? It won't be higher than that in the Ming Dynasty, right?"

"···"

As a former rich farmer, Yang Wanyong keenly noticed the "field use rights" in the captain's words.

I thought, what is the right to use?

Could it be that after the land was divided, it still belonged to them?
However, no one questioned the return of fifty acres of land to the public.

As the captain said, during the process of reclamation, they ate from the rebels, used the rebels, and accepted the protection of the rebels. The rebels should have received part of the land.

Besides, after all, they were part of the rebel army.

As for whether the Ming Dynasty's reclamation policy was better than that of the rebels?

None of the refugees present understood this.

Because the large-scale land reclamation organized by the Ming Dynasty was basically during the Hongwu period.

Who among ordinary people would know something that happened so long ago?

In the past 200 years, there were only a few remote prefectures and counties in the Ming Dynasty. Occasionally, officials would recruit refugees to reclaim wasteland to enrich their household registration and increase their political achievements.

But the land in those places is mostly barren, and reclamation is difficult and even unsafe.

Farmers need at least one year, or even two or three years of hard work to support their family.

In addition, reclamation of wasteland without official permission is against court law.

Otherwise, how can we call those people who went to the mountains to cultivate wasteland privately as fugitives?

Overall, the conditions for the rebels to colonize North America are very good.

It is incomparable to the early Ming Dynasty - at that time, too many people died due to the change of dynasties, and a large amount of mature and good land was abandoned, and the people could pick it up for nothing.

But this kind of good thing only existed in the first 20 years of the founding of the feudal dynasty, and don't even think about it at other times.

···
People talked for a while and then asked questions all over the place, which made the captain very anxious.

After a while, I finally collected all the questions and answered them one by one.

"I didn't talk about the settlement in detail - what should I do if someone is lazy?
There are minimum work point requirements for each household during farming. If the total score obtained in the end is too low, you will not be able to obtain the guaranteed land, but will only be able to obtain the land allocated according to the number of work points later. "

Hearing this, those people who were worried about being taken advantage of by lazy people were obviously relieved.

Obviously, if there is no guaranteed five acres of land and only work and land are allocated, it will be a big disadvantage.

If someone is lazy and fails in allotment of fields, the number of fields he will be allocated will definitely be very small.

"Let's talk about the land tax - in the first year after the land is divided, it is only one tax per twenty; starting from the second year, it is changed to one tax per ten.

Don’t think too much, everyone. The leader said that in addition to regular taxes, the rebels will not impose other miscellaneous taxes on the fields where food is grown.

In addition, when the corvee was called for, the rebel army would not only provide rations to those who served, but also provide a certain amount of wages, instead of asking everyone to prepare their own dry food and work for nothing like the Ming Dynasty. "

In fact, Liu Sheng originally wanted to abolish corvee directly, but changed his mind under Li Changwen's persuasion.

First of all, collecting and issuing corvees was the main means for the imperial court to mobilize people's strength to do things. If the right to collect and issue corvees was given up, many things would be difficult to accomplish.

Moreover, even the people of later generations may not all be people who understand the principles and practice them, let alone the people at this time.

If corvee labor cannot be collected, the people may not be willing to do certain things even if the court pays for them.

In addition, the civilian husbands needed by the court were hired at market prices, which would cause a heavy financial burden.

Therefore, before the country develops to a certain level, abolishing corvee is suicidal.

Finally, while people enjoy the rights granted by the state, they should also bear certain responsibilities and obligations.

For example, military service was not abolished by any developed country in later generations.

Therefore, corvee can only be reduced and lightened, but it cannot be completely abolished.

As for whether the land tax of one in ten would be too high and dissatisfied the immigrants, Liu Sheng was not worried.Through some of his original knowledge, coupled with the confirmation of Li Changwen and others, he basically understood the weight of farmers' taxes at this time in the Ming Dynasty.

When many people mention agricultural taxes in the Ming Dynasty, they will think of the ultra-low tax rates of [-] to [-] or even [-] to [-] tax.

But why is the burden on farmers so heavy in the middle and later stages?
If you look at information related to land taxes in the Ming Dynasty, you must pay attention to an easily overlooked item - time!
The information all says: What percent is the agricultural tax rate in a certain place in a certain year?

Why is the year stated?

Because the amount of agricultural taxes in various parts of the Ming Dynasty changes every year - if there is no change, it must be because the relevant agencies and local officials are lazy and directly use the previous year's.

The collection of agricultural taxes in the Ming Dynasty was actually a fixed-amount assessment.

For example, the imperial court requires a certain province to pay a certain number of tens of thousands of shi of grain as agricultural taxes this year, and then the province allocates it to each prefecture, the prefecture then allocates it to each county, and the county allocates it to Lijia.

Of course, the Ming court was not inflexible at all.

If a province is hit by disasters this year and the grain harvest is poor, provincial officials can bargain with the court on the amount of agricultural taxes.

For example, let’s petition to reduce or reduce taxes on farmers in a certain area.

This kind of policy, when the officials were in charge of the Qingming Dynasty and the central court and local government were operating well, the burden on farmers was indeed not heavy.

But in the middle and late dynasty, the central government officials were incompetent and local officials were corrupt. Coupled with the land annexation over the past 200 years, the agricultural tax of [-]% per [-]% could only become a legend.

For example, in a certain province, many places were affected by disasters this year and the grain harvest was severely damaged. However, the governor and other senior officials concealed the information and did not report it due to political performance and other considerations.

Coupled with the ignorance of the central government's top management, the province will set a normal tax amount for the province.

Then local governments at all levels began to apportion taxes. Due to corruption and incompetence, places where tax amounts should be higher were apportioned less, and places where taxes should be less were apportioned more.

Officials and gentry were exempt from taxes and were often large landowners, so most of the fixed agricultural taxes allocated fell on a small number of homesteaders.

The peasants suffered a disaster and did not receive relief. Instead, they were forced by the government to pay heavy taxes.

Think about how miserable it would be?

This is how Yang Wanyong, a former rich farmer, was forced to flee his hometown.

In this case, many farmers in the late Ming Dynasty did not know about the thirty-year tax.

The people they faced were the county clerks and government officials who came to Cui Zheng, as well as the township chiefs who helped Cui Zheng.

These people will only tell the peasants how much summer and autumn taxes your family should pay this year, how much the transportation costs and losses of transporting grain to the capital are, and what dingyin, labor money, Liaoxiang, suppression pay, training pay, etc. should be How much to pay.

Finally, in front of the farmers, a "just" amount was calculated, and a note was written telling the farmers that they must pay the full amount of grain by a certain date, and what serious consequences they would bear if they did not pay the full amount.

Even this seemingly "just" amount can make farmers bankrupt and even sell their wives and children.

If you just sold your land and became a tenant farmer, you might still be able to tolerate it.

But if it comes to selling their wives and children, few people can bear it anymore. They will either drag their families and flee their hometown, or they will simply rebel!

Yang Wanyong and other refugees fled their hometown mainly because of drought and locust plague, but heavy taxes and various miscellaneous tax assessments were also one of the important reasons.

Therefore, after hearing the captain announce the tax policy of the rebels, many people were stunned at first.

Then there were cheers of unbelievable surprise——

"Great! Do you really only pay regular taxes?"

"Did you really get food and pay while serving?"

"···"

The people are not questioning it, they just think the policy is too good and cannot believe it.

Yang Wanyong felt that it was impossible for the rebels to joke about this matter, so he took advantage of the crowd to be quiet and asked him what he was concerned about.

"Captain, what did you mean when you said we have the right to use the land after it was divided? Doesn't the land belong to us?"

"I knew someone would ask about this." The captain laughed, "I was confused at the time, so I asked Manager Wang repeatedly.

This field is not ours, but in fact it is almost as good as ours.

Let's put it this way, in North America, the ownership of the fields, or the bones of the fields, belongs to Huabu.

The use rights we have after dividing the land are somewhat similar to the permanent tenant rights outside, but there are some differences.

In North America, when you buy or sell land, you can only buy or sell the use rights, and you must go to the relevant yamen to sign a contract, and you are not allowed to buy or sell privately.

In addition, you can rent the land to others for farming, but this person cannot rent it to a third person.Do you understand? "

The people below looked at me and I looked at you. Apparently many of them were confused.

"It sounds like it's no different from the outside, but it's really different."

"Captain Yang, do you think it is much different from the outside world?" someone asked Yang Wanyong.

Yang Wanyong had already roughly understood the meaning of "field use rights". Hearing this, he smiled and said, "Just like what the captain said, it is said to be different from outside, but it is actually similar."

At this time, the captain said loudly: "Don't think about it, everyone. Speaking of which, this salt worker can't be selected just by signing up.

Since each household requires one person to work as a salt worker and to cultivate wasteland, families with at least two strong men can sign up.

If you want to sign up, come to me now. If the recruitment from other teams is full in a while, don’t blame me! "

Once they heard that there were still requirements, many people were convinced that being a salt worker was a good thing.

So he stopped thinking about dividing the fields, and those who met the conditions gathered around the captain.

Yang Wanyong thought this was an opportunity to get rich quickly.

So I ran to sign up.

But he does not plan to be a salt worker himself, but wants his eldest son, who has just turned 17, to go there.

Young people learn things faster.

Although he is not old yet, he is definitely not as good at learning as his eldest son.

The most important thing is that his skills are mainly in farming and other tasks, and he cannot use them in the salt factory.

Once the land was divided, it was time for him to show off his talents.

　Second more.

　　Two more today.

　　Seven thousand words.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)