It was February of the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627 AD). The spring has already begun and the winter has passed. It was originally a time when spring is cold and everything is reviving, and it is a beautiful and beautiful season, but for the vast majority of poor people, this season is also very difficult.

At this time of year, the government has to collect "Spring Fu" from the people. The "Spring Fu" here does not mean "the meaning of a poem in spring", it is not so poetic, and no one is still in the mood to write poetry at this time, because the "Spring Fu" here refers to the taxation in spring.

Some friends who are not familiar with history think that the Ming Dynasty's taxes were very low, but in fact... these friends are right, because for merchants, the Ming Dynasty's taxes were indeed very low. For the gentry class, they were tax-free at all, but for ordinary people, the Ming Dynasty's taxes were very heavy.

The Ming Dynasty collected taxes twice a year, one called spring fu and the other called autumn fu. As the name suggests, spring fu is the collection in spring, and autumn fu is the collection in autumn. These two taxes were very heavy, causing many people to lose their families. Especially since the 46th year of Wanli (1618 AD), Liaodong had insufficient military wages, so Liao fu was added (later, it was added several times, and nine cents of silver per mu of land was added). This extra tax was retained until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, which made the people suffer in a great pain.

Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the hillside, watching the yellow cow eat grass while watching a villager living nearby walk into the Ma family courtyard. This villager chose to visit the Ma family during the Spring Festival, but in fact, there was only one purpose - "spoken sending".

The so-called "indiscriminate sending" means placing one's own property in the name of someone else.

As mentioned earlier, the gentry class is tax-free, but ordinary people must pay heavy taxes. In this case, some people who cannot live a life will go to the local gentry's house, visit the door, and take the initiative to say, "Please take me as a slave, and my land and I belong to your home..."

Then the gentleman must have smiled and said, "How dare you take this? Of course it is good to come to my house. Come on! I won't take away your fields, so you can continue to farm. Just pay me some small money every year."

As a result, the fields were still the same field, and the farmers who were arable land were still the same farmer. However, according to the government's information, the fields no longer belonged to a farmer, but a gentry. The farmers who were arable land also became the long-term workers of the gentry's family, so the land naturally did not need to be taxed... The taxes that were originally collected by the state became collected by the local gentry, and the national finances were deteriorating day by day.

Of course, although there are many people who are willing to take the initiative to join others as slaves, they still account for a minority in the entire peasant class. The Chinese have a strong sense of rural concepts, and a piece of land is the lifeblood of a farmer. If ordinary people are not desperate, they will not be able to do such a thing as giving all their lives to others.

According to Zhu Ba's memory, people used to "spoken sending" to the Ma family every year, but only three or five families in a year, so there were not too many... This year, it was very different. Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the hillside and watched for a while. In just half a day, three farmers came to "spoken sending" to the point of development. If this continues, from the beginning to the end of "Spring Fu", at least thirty or forty families would "spoken sending" to the Ma family and become the nominal long-term workers of the Ma family. Thirty or forty families mean hundreds of acres of land, and the tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty would be reduced by another hundred acres.

"The drought is indeed even worse." Zhu Yuanzhang sighed. The number of people who "sent intrigue" means that more people cannot pay taxes have increased. This is undoubtedly the effect of the drought. However, this is not what Zhu Yuanzhang is most worried about. What he is worried about is the system problem...

Floating in the sky for hundreds of years as a bystander, he had seen many bad policies of the Ming Dynasty, including the financial problems brought to the country by the tax exemption of the gentry class. This is a serious bad policy that must be solved, but even the talented and wise Zhu Yuanzhang felt that this problem was difficult to solve!

Why? Because to amend this decree, it is equivalent to being an enemy of the entire gentry class of the Ming Dynasty!

However... if the tax problem is not solved, the Ming Dynasty's finances would not be alleviated and the country would not be saved...

Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but think: "If I were to be the emperor of the Ming Dynasty now, how would I fight against the gentry all over the world? As in the Hongwu period, I ordered all the killings like in the Hongwu period? No, it would definitely not be possible! The situation in the Hongwu period was different from now. At that time, I held heavy troops and had a high prestige, so I could send the army to kill all disobedient people. Even if I were to be the emperor, the entire country's army could not listen to me. The only consequence of opposing the gentry all over the world was that a general led his troops to rebel, and then the ministers responded that I would be isolated and helpless... and after being killed by the rebels, a new king was established."

Forget it, it is too early to think about this now. I am just a cowherd kid from the Ma family. My identity is too low and I have not found a starting point to save the Ming Dynasty. It is useless to think too much.

Just as Zhu Yuanzhang thought of this, he suddenly heard several senior workers shouting at the foot of the small hillside: "Zhu Ba, come back quickly, what should I do with you if you have any trouble?"

"Oh?" Zhu Yuanzhang became energetic, took the big yellow cow, hurried back to the side courtyard of the Ma family, and walked straight towards the cottage where the officials in charge of the matter.

I saw that there were quite a few people in the cottage where Qi was in charge. In addition to Qi, there were also Yang Chao, and three middle-aged farmers, all over forty years old, with a look of wind and frost, with thick hands and feet, honesty, and unscrupulous words. Zhu Yuanzhang recognized at a glance that these people were villagers who came to the Ma family to "spoken sending" this morning. Although these three people looked honest, they might not necessarily. If they were really honest and honest, how could they come to "spoken sending"?

"Prepare it and go to the county yamen with me." The Qi manager said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "I want to take these people to the yamen to complete some procedures. You and Yang Chao will follow me and help me."

Zhu Yuanzhang was so smart that he understood after hearing this sentence. Mr. Qi planned to take these people to evade taxes blatantly. He glanced at the table with his eyes. Sure enough, there were three newly written contracts on the table, and the content was exactly the same. The general idea was that he was Zhang, Li, and Liu, now he voluntarily sold himself to the Ma family as a slave. The land at home was given to the Ma family... There was a picture behind him, with finger marks on him. There were also several land deeds and house deeds under the contract, and the transfer certificates were written.

The three honest farmers also brought their registered household registration posts, which said they were from the village, Dingkou, name, age, gender, land and cattle and animal preparations... These things are very important. In the Ming Dynasty, you must have registered household registration posts, otherwise you will be arrested by the government and served as a military officer if you can't walk a few miles away.

This is a system developed by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, and he is very familiar with it. Since these farmers have signed the contract for sale, their household registration must be modified. Ordinary people are not qualified to change it themselves. If they can change the household registration themselves, what if they can change it by themselves? To change it, you must go to the yamen, and the yamen will be modified by the yamen. After the modification, they must be stamped with a seal.

Zhu Yuanzhang's heart once again felt anger. These people were invading the interests of the Ming Dynasty. If Zhu Yuanzhang, who had the power in his previous life, had already ordered all of these people to behead him, but at this time he could only endure it. With a flash of anger in his eyes, he quickly suppressed it and turned into a calm look.

Yang Chao next to him saw that his eyes seemed to have a strange look, but when he looked carefully, he could not see anything. He was wrong. He thought Zhu Ba was stupid and didn't know what was happening in front of him. He was eager to show off in front of the Qi governor and suppress Zhu Ba, and quickly seized the opportunity and said, "Zhu Ba, do you know what we are going to the yamen to do?"

Zhu Yuanzhang said in a deep voice: "These brothers are going to enter our Ma family and work with us for the Qi manager. Of course, we should help them."

Yang Chao immediately burst out laughing and laughed loudly, "Zhu Ba, you kid is really stupid, you don't even understand "spokenness"?" He turned his head and smiled flatteringly at Qi Guanshi, "Qi Guanshi, look at how stupid Zhu Ba is, I don't know anything. He will definitely do bad things for you in the future."

As soon as he finished speaking, the general manager raised his hand and gave Yang Chao a big ear: "You stupid killer, can you say the word "intrigue" loudly? You can only do this kind of thing, not say it. You stupid talent and learn more from Zhu Ba. People understand it in their hearts, but you stupid talent and don't say it, but you stupid talent and you don't understand it in your heart, and you have to say it even if you don't understand it in your heart... I think you don't know how to do things."

Yang Chao covered his face and took a step back. With his poor intelligence, he really didn't understand why he was beaten.

Zhu Yuanzhang sighed in his heart: You are really not a good material for being a follower. How can you shout loudly about the illegal things you do when you are a follower? At this time, you have to pretend to be unfaithful. A person who doesn’t pretend to be stupid is a real fool!

His face was calm, without showing any expression of mocking Yang Chao. He walked to the table, packed up the deeds, land deeds, and body deeds on the table. After carefully reading it, he helped Qi Guanshi put it in his arms. He was not ostentatious, not silly, and did his best to do what he had.

Manager Qi nodded and greeted the three honest villagers: "Let's go, you have to come back before dark. After a while, you will enter the yamen. Don't talk to me casually." He turned his head, glared at Yang Chao again, and sneered: "If you open your mouth and yell in the yamen, I will ask someone to tear your mouth when you come back."

"Yes... the little one dares no longer." Yang Chao knew that he had lost another point, so he nodded and bowed.
Chapter completed!