I

  Chapter 74 073 [Tax Envoy]

   "All quit the company?"

   "They're all retired, we're the only ones left."

   "Alright, the rest are true friends."

   "..."

  The news that Zhao Han was canceled as a child student came out. There were a total of 34 members of the Datong Club, and within two days only a few were left: Zhu Zhiyu, Fei Ruyi, Fei Ruhe, Fei Yuanjian, Liu Ziren and Xu Ying.

   There is no other reason, just ashamed to be with a domestic slave.

  Of course, each of them spoke in a more tactful manner. They didn't fall out with Zhao Han face to face, but just found various excuses to prove that they didn't have time.

Fei Ruyi, that dead **** guy, hasn’t been to the academy for a long time. He said that he was going home to slowly study "Mengxi Bi Tan"—when he was reading "Zhu Zi Yu Lei", he was shocked by the saying that the moon does not shine, and suddenly had an interest in natural science. interest.

  Fei Ruhe has also been missing for half a month, and is clamoring for his family to invite a riding and archery teacher.

  Wrapping the stainless steel gun head in cloth, Zhao Han used the spear as a crutch, and went to bid farewell to the mountain chief Fei Yuanlu on the snow.

  This gun is made of mulberry wood. Mulberry trees grow slowly and tend to crooked. Farmers are reluctant to cut them down. A gun shaft made of mulberry wood is very valuable.

Forget about ash poles, they are fine for folk competitions, but fighting on the battlefield is pure nonsense-"Huizhou beef tendon wood is the first, followed by sword spine wood. The red edge is strong and straight, and it is fragile. The ash is soft, and the stick is also good. "

  The real top battlefield spears are all made of composite materials: tough wood as the core, wrapped in leather, and then wrapped with copper wire and rope.

   "Crack, crack..."

  Zhao Han had one foot deep and the other shallow, staggering forward in the snow, it was really difficult to use his strength without a stick.

  This year, the snow fell so heavily that Pang Chunlai's thatched roof was crushed by the snow. Master Pang can only live in a private school, if he insists on living alone, he will be frozen to death at night.

  In just a few days, many people in Qianshan County froze to death.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  Zhao Han brushed off the snowflakes on his body, leaned the spear against the wall, raised his hand and knocked on the door.

   "Come in." A voice came from inside the room.

  Zhao Han pushed the door open and entered: "Boy pay respects to the head of the mountain."

  Fei Yuanlu asked with a smile: "Why don't you claim to be late?"

   "Tong Sheng has been removed from the name, I don't deserve this title," Zhao Han cupped his hands and said, "I'm here to bid farewell to the head of the mountain."

"Ugh!"

  Fei Yuanlu sighed, and said, "I didn't drive you down the mountain. If you like reading, you can still listen in the academy."

  Zhao Han said: "The boy is the second shopkeeper of the Dingsheng Building. He had a lot of sabotage in the past, and he has to work harder in the future."

   "Forget it," Fei Yuanlu said, "It's a good job to be a shopkeeper of a restaurant, but don't lose your poems and books."

   "Boy, I would like to follow the instruction," Zhao Han bowed, "Farewell."

  Fei Yuanlu's mood faded, he waved and said, "Let's go."

  Except for money and manuscripts, Zhao Han didn't bring anything with him, and no one was disturbed, so he went down the mountain alone with a spear.

  The wind and snow hit his face, and he stepped on the air and fell from time to time, but Zhao Han was in a happy mood, like a caged bird that had escaped from its trap.

   In another four months, he will be fifteen years old, or sixteen in ancient times.

  The second shopkeeper of Dingsheng Building is Zhao Han's escape route for himself. You can make money while working part-time, and at the same time make friends with all kinds of teachers and scholars, and wait for the time to wait and see the changes in the world.

  In winter, Hekou Town is still prosperous, as long as Xinjiang and Qianshan River are not frozen.

   "Brother, you are here!" Fei Ze (Jian Dan) warmly greeted, this guy is now the accountant of the restaurant.

  Zhao Han leaned the spear against the counter and asked, "How's the business these days?"

   Fei Ze sighed: "Business is good, but the gate tax has increased again."

  Zhao Han said with a smile: "The court is short of money, so why isn't the tax going up?"

   "The increase is too much," Fei Ze said in a low voice, "A few days ago, the **** came to the county to collect taxes, and the county magistrate couldn't do anything about it."

   "The current Holy Majesty has quite the legacy of Wanli Lord." Zhao Han joked.

  During the Zhengde period, there were door stall tax, market tax, and commodity (product) tax on the market. Due to the establishment of imperial stores everywhere, the eunuchs apportioned randomly, resulting in various types of taxes.

  In the early years of Jiajing, the reform was vigorously carried out, and all taxes were unified, and the "gate tax" was collected uniformly.

  This kind of door apportionment tax is based on the county, and the tax amount to be paid by each county is stipulated. According to the amount of tax receivable, the magistrate asks the county and towns to apportion it, collects it once every quarter, and then transports it to the taxation (division) bureau at the end of the year, and the taxation department submits it to the central government layer by layer.

  During the Wanli period, it was directly bombed, and the emperor sent mine supervisors and tax envoys to exploit desperately.

  The most terrifying thing at that time was the mining tax. When the **** saw which one was particularly rich, he said that this person had mines at home, and if he didn't pay the tax quickly, he would arrest him directly. At that time, countless people went bankrupt.

  Emperor Chongzhen is now in a hurry, and he also sent eunuchs everywhere to collect taxes.

  The gate tax in Hekou Town has been raised at the beginning of the year, and it is said that it will increase at the end of the year, and the eunuchs went directly to the county government to force them.

  Eunuchs must be able to eat enough, county magistrates can eat their bones, officials can drink soup, but it is the shops and vendors who suffer—in fact, the central court has a limited increase in income, and those business taxes have been embezzled layer by layer.

   Fei Ze pointed to the street and said, "We're okay, it's just that the restaurant makes less money, and the vendors outside are really miserable."

  Zhao Han walked to the door of the restaurant, looked left and right, and came back and said, "No wonder there are fewer vendors. How much tax has increased?"

"I don't know how the increase, anyway, small stalls and shops can't continue," Fei Ze said in a low voice, "These small vendors have been forced to join the Iron Foot Society. They were too noisy to go out."

   "Haha, you have to do things when you receive money." Zhao Han laughed.

  The Iron Foot Association has completely transformed from a coolie union into an organization of gangsters. Those small vendors on the street, to put it bluntly, are joining the Iron Foot Association, but in fact they are paying protection fees for gangsters.

   Usually the protection fee is very good, so why not express it now?

  Zhao Han asked: "Where is the shopkeeper?"

   Fei Ze replied: "I went to the town for a meeting to discuss how to deal with the tax collectors."

  In the evening, the shopkeeper Fei Xi came back, and immediately ordered: "Prepare the sticks, shop assistants, let's go to the streets together tomorrow!"

   "Uncle Xi, what can we do?" Zhao Han asked.

  Fei Xi pulled Zhao Han to a corner, and whispered in a low voice: "The lords above have already connected in various villages and towns. Tomorrow, we will take to the streets to protest the tax and send all the tax collectors back to the county!"

interesting.

  The next morning, the whole town took action, no matter the vendor or the guy, each prepared a stick.

  The iron feet will act as the main force to resist the tax, and immediately block the pier after the tax collectors disembark.

  The tax collectors didn't notice any abnormality, and continued to walk forward until they finally stopped in front of the booth.

  The small vendor held a stick and said nothing.

  The other vendors stopped doing business, and all took out their sticks.

   "You... what are you going to do?"

  The tax collector finally felt bad, and was so frightened that he turned around and was about to run away, but was blocked by the iron feet behind him.

"hit!"

  The crowd rushed up to fight in groups, and the tax collectors cried for their father and mother, and gradually the screams became weaker.

   Two were killed on the spot, and the rest were all injured.

  Zhao Han witnessed the whole process, and he doesn't know how to define this action.

   Gentlemen join forces, merchants command, trade unions, street vendors, and guys all go into battle in person.

  Violent resistance to the law?

   The question is is the tax increase legal?

  Even if the door tax was raised twice in a row, the total tax of the entire Qianshan County was still less than four hundred taels of silver. The tax increase by Emperor Chongzhen was really not much.

  But when it came to the eunuchs, the actual tax collection was more than 10,000 taels.

  All the gentry in the county teamed up to violently resist the tax, scaring the county magistrate too much to go out.

  But the **** was not afraid, and took his servants with him to the Fei family's ancestral house in Henglin.

The **** held a whip in his hand, pointed at Fei Yuanzhen and said, "Hekou Town is the most affluent in Qianshan County, and the annual gate tax is raised to 2,100 taels. You are the head of the Fei clan, and I will give you half a month's time." , if the collection is not complete, I will come directly to Fei's house to ask for money!"

   "Cough cough cough cough!"

  Fei Yuanzhen coughed repeatedly, and said weakly: "I want to teach you to know that the old man is weak and sick, and he is in Henglin, so he really can't control the river mouth. Please..."

   "Bring it in!" The **** interrupted him.

  The servant brought by the **** is a gangster recruited in this county. These gangsters showed off their power and carried in a thin-skinned coffin.

  Fei Yuan was so frightened that his face turned pale.

   "After half a month, if the taxes are not paid, you can lie in by yourself!" The **** left after leaving.

  Fei Yuan stomped his feet in anger: "It's unreasonable, it's unreasonable!"

  The gentry discussed immediately, but they were still unable to think about it, so they had to go to the governor and the censor to file a complaint.

  Those censors were originally promoted by Chongzhen, so how could they care about the business of tax eunuchs?

  The governor of Jiangxi has been replaced by Xie Xuelong, who is quite capable. But now that the Donglin Party was on the decline, he didn't dare to offend the eunuchs anymore, and he was busy rebuilding the Tengwang Pavilion, and took the opportunity to get some money back.

   After a brief contest, the **** won.

  Each family contributes money to pay taxes, only two thousand and one hundred taels, and they can still take it out. What's more, small vendors also share their shares, and for the gentry, each household can't share much.

  However, what if we continue to increase taxes next year?

  Eunuchs can't get enough to feed, and magistrates and officials are also eyeing!

  This is just a door-to-door tax. Their tea factory, paper mill... which one is not increasing labor tax?

   Pass it on to the workers and peasants!

  Wages of workers have declined as a whole; rents for tenants have risen as a whole.

  Even the monthly income of the house slaves has been reduced, and dissatisfaction is brewing at the bottom of society.

   As the New Year approached, the **** set up four gates privately in Qianshan.

   One is set in Ehu Town, one in Shitang Town, one in Henglin Town, and one in Shanglu Town, blocking all the commercial waterways in Qianshan.

  The eunuchs did not dare to collect taxes on paper (stationary goods), and set up a separate name to collect "compartment tax", and all passing ships had to pay.

   Now, merchants from other places are also miserable, so they can only bite the bullet and pay. At the same time, while raising the price of commodities, they squeezed the wages of boatmen.

  Boatmen, boat clubs, increasing resentment.

  Zhao Han watched this with cold eyes, only hoping that the **** would light a few more fires.

  (end of this chapter)