Liberalize the food prices!

It is definitely a bombshell for the vast northern region under Wuyi.

Since Li Ze's rise, under his rule, he has always implemented unified purchase and sales of grain, and linked grain as general equivalents to all prices, thus forcibly maintaining the stability of prices under his rule. In order to ensure the effective operation of this policy, Li Ze even purchased grain from high prices outside when there was insufficient food, and sold it at a fair price in his jurisdiction, so that he had to subsidize hundreds of thousands of chunks of silver every year to level the accounts.

The relaxation of grain prices means that the policy that has been implemented for many years is over. Although public grain still exists, public grain is paid more as a tax.

In the north under Li Ze, under normal circumstances, farmers only had two types of taxes that they had to pay, one was public grain and the other was capitol tax. Others did not even exist in corvee. When people needed to collect certain large-scale projects or serve wars, the court gave them wages.

Of course, if farmers want to go to the city to sell their own local specialties, they still have to pay taxes. But this is a type of transaction tax.

Speaking of which, under Li Ze's rule, farmers' lives are still very easy. Compared with other places, although they are not rich, they will definitely not go hungry. If the family can manage their own land and do some other small business on the basis of helping them with food and clothing, they will have a particularly prosperous life.

Of course, the court still took many measures to tie the farmers to their own land. For example, the land is not allowed to be abandoned. If one year of abandonment, the public grain will double in that year. If two years of abandonment, the land you distributed will be taken back.

Are there any landlords in the north?

Of course there are also some. However, the top ones are not likely to exceed 5,000 acres of land now. This is the red line drawn by Li Ze at the beginning. If it exceeds this limit, you can pay taxes and doubt your life.

Nowadays, there are actually not many landlords who still own so much land. Because it is difficult to find tenants, everyone has land, who will plant it for you? When the farming time comes, everyone is busy working in their own land. Therefore, in the north, there are still big landlords with so many acres of land, and the tenants at home generally have two sources. One is from the pseudo-liang, without any household access and empty hands. The other source is not very glorious, and it is slaves sold from the northeast.

"This matter is very difficult to deal with!" Faced with Li Ze's questioning, Chunyu Yue, who was the most familiar with the law of the Tang Dynasty, spread his hands: "Li Xiang, according to the law we announced earlier that the Tang people will never be slaves, those who escaped from the south can barely be classified as among the Tang people, but those slaves who were sold were not Tang people. They were the savages, Goryeo, and Japanese people captured by Zhang Zhongwu and the others."

"In fact, it's far more than that!" Tian Bo said on the side: "Young Master, now our rule is vast. Except for the core areas, most of them are vast and sparsely populated. For example, in Lingzhou, the Tang people there can be divided into 100 acres of land when they are born, but they absolutely cannot grow them. Guizhou, Tanzhou and other places are almost the same. Even in Mozhou and Pingzhou, the same is true. So this has destroyed the slave trade business. Zhang Zhongwu and the others relied on selling slaves to our territory, and their annual income was millions of yuan. For them, this was a business without a foundation."

Hearing this, Li Ze's face became darker.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" he asked coldly.

"Young Master, you only said that the Tang people will never be slaves, and you didn't talk about these people!" Tian Bo looked innocent, "In fact, there are also chains of slaves on the sea."

"There are also on the sea?" Li Ze was shocked.

"Do you still remember those subordinates of Pan Motang of Tiehook?" Tian Bo asked.

"Is Pan Motang involved in these businesses?" A sharp look flashed in Li Ze's eyes and his tone became cold and stern.

"He didn't!" Tian Bo shook his head and said, "But his former subordinates saw this opportunity to make a fortune. I heard that they swept through the island countries along the southeastern sea, looted a large number of people from the island, and then sold them to our Tang Dynasty."

After hesitating for a moment, Tian Bo continued: "Even in the Western Regions, Yuan Chang, Peng Shuangmu and others sold back a large number of people captured during the war."

The Tang Dynasty could not help but stop the slave business. In fact, when Li Ze first went to Beijing with Liu Ruyan, there was a special market for human teeth in the Dafang Market in Chang'an. Liu Ruyan bought a lot of girls there. Now most of those people have become soldiers in Qianniu Guards, and a few people have already married and have children.

Even among the people in the secret camp, many of them were bought by Tuhu from the hands of the human teeth.

It’s just that Li Ze didn’t like this kind of business of displaying people like animals, bargaining, and buying and selling. Especially when selling his compatriots as goods, Li Ze couldn’t accept it. Therefore, after the Tang Dynasty’s law that never became slaves officially came into effect, all human teeth were basically unemployed under Li Ze’s rule. But what Li Ze did not expect was that there were indeed policies from the top and countermeasures from the bottom. In a short time, a more cruel large-scale slave trade appeared.

"According to the law, we cannot hold these people responsible." Chunyu Yue said: "Where there is a need, there will be a deal. Li Xiang, unless you make up for the Tang Dynasty's household registration for these people, the relationship here is too great, and there will be a lot of opposition. After all, these slaves were bought back with real money."

Li Ze rubbed his temples and said a little annoyed: "I know, but it's still human beings. In my Tang Dynasty, I can also contribute to the Tang Dynasty! The problem exposed in this case in Zhenzhou this time is that these people did not treat these slaves as human beings, and they actually reached the point of wanton killing. If it weren't for the oppression that they were too cruel, these slaves who were not familiar with the land and could not speak well would rebel? They killed a whole family in a village, and the elderly, weak, women and children were not spared. Although these people were arrested and beheaded in the end, will such a thing happen in the future? I have read the detailed report written by the Censor of the Censorate. Although these people are worthy of death, it is not an exaggeration to say that they have a love for them."

The few people in the room stopped talking. After all, they knew the final detailed process of the slave rebellion and rebellion in Zhenzhou.

After walking back and forth in the room for a few times, Li Ze finally made up his mind and looked at everyone and said, "You have some reason. These people are not us Tang people, so Tang Lu can't control them. We will not mention the past and will not pursue them anymore. But this matter still needs to be managed. If these slaves are not given hope, I am afraid that such things will happen in the future."

"What does Li Xiang mean?" Chunyu Yue said.

"For those who fled from the pseudo-liang, those who came from the south, as long as they lived under our rule for a year, they could borrow money from the household, right?" Li Ze looked at them and said, "These slaves who were sold can be implemented according to this law, but the time will be slightly longer, three years, up to three years. With these three years, those who spent money to buy them have already made enough money, right?"

"Once these people have obtained the status of Tang people, they can no longer be slaves, at most they become tenants or slaves who sign contracts."

Chunyu Yue looked at Li Ze and said, "Li Xiang, but this cannot ban the slave trade. In order to make this business more prosperous, it will make the population gap bigger and bigger. Those who need slaves can only keep buying more slaves to fill the gap left the slave."

Li Ze sighed: "This is a problem that we cannot solve. The only thing we can do is to give those who have come to a better future, so that they can have hope and not create big cases like Zhenzhou. I believe this case also reminds some people that they should not be too overdoing their work, otherwise these people can do anything with their hearts."

Chunyu Yue nodded silently.

"Zhang Xun, publish the causes and consequences of this matter in the newspaper as a warning." Li Ze told Zhang Xun.

"yes!"

"Xia He, led by the Ministry of Revenue, will conduct a thorough population census this year, and I will find out the number of these slaves. Those who take the initiative to report, register and conceal the report. Once found out, all of them will be confiscated." Li Ze said.

"Okay, the Ministry of Revenue will require local governments to report the increase or decrease of Dingkou every year. There are many experienced people. This year, it is just a little more thorough. It is roughly at the end of the year, and the specific data should come out." Xia He nodded.

"Mr. Chunyu, give a detailed explanation of the handling methods of these slaves to various prefectures and counties, so that they can refer to the implementation."

"Young Master, once this decree is continued, it is equivalent to legalizing such slave transactions. As long as it is not the Tang people, it is within the scope of the transaction. If that is the case, we will collect taxes." Xia He said: "The slaves I bought in the past need to be taxed, and future transactions will also be taxed."

Li Ze was stunned for a while before he said heavily: "Taxes are collected, heavy taxes are paid. Every person who uses slaves must pay a deposit to ensure that these people are alive. If they die, the deposit will be gone and confiscated."
Chapter completed!