Chapter 1683: Stop

Yiying Hall, side hall.

Zhao Xu looked at Su Shi and admired this cultural idol of the Song Dynasty very much.

The whole world, including Situ, is preparing for Zhao Xu's wedding.

During the national celebration, Su Shi's three consecutive memorials made the court feel uneasy.

I heard that the bachelor had a famous concubine, Chaoyun, and judged him as "full of misbehavior". Now it seems that it is indeed quite accurate.

However, Zhao Xu was not angry. What he was curious about was, with the current annual income of the Song Dynasty of more than 350 million yuan, why in the eyes of the Su, there were still so many people waiting for help?

Da Su pointed out a problem that had been painful for the people of the Song Dynasty for a long time - accumulated arrears.

Accumulated debt refers to the money and food that the common people owe the court and officials.

There are many reasons for this part of money and food.

The first part is the normal two taxes, such as famines. If they are not serious enough to require the court to exempt them from the two taxes, they still need to be paid.

However, if they are handed over, the people will not be able to keep the stored grain and seeds. Local officials strive to be "quiet" and are afraid of affecting their political performance, so they often refuse to report it and only allow the people to "extend" it until the next year to turn it over. This creates a kind of "backlog".

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The second part is "buying". Many resources in the Song Dynasty, such as docks, mineral deposits, wineries, and smelters, were owned by the state and contracted by the people, and they had to pay "questions" every year.

But doing business must bring profits and losses. For example, when Su You first crossed over, the escape from Yanhu in Tuojing occurred because resources were depleted and the debts continued. As a result, the people owed too much debt to the government and had to flee if they could not repay it.

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The third part is "official property". The materials collected by the court need to be delivered to the collection site by the people before they are completed. If there are losses due to floods and heavy rains along the way, they will be counted on the people and they need to be compensated.

There is another kind of "official property", which is the seeds, farm tools, cattle and even land of the poor households, or the mules and horses used for transportation. The poor households do not have them themselves, so they often need to borrow them from the government.

If there is a famine such as a flood, or if the mules, horses and cattle fall ill and die, these things will also have to be compensated.

After Gao Taotao came to power, he implemented lenient policies, reduced and exempted a large number of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and vigorously encouraged production. Gao Taotao dismissed all the special debts such as green crop loans and market exchange money left over from Anshi's era.

In addition, unreasonable additional taxes such as "leftover money" and "top money" have also been abolished.

It should be said that these measures have achieved great results and have indeed brought vigorous vitality to the land of China.

However, because the foundation of the Song Dynasty was too weak in the past, most of those taken care of by these measures were those people who were third or fourth grade or above, who at least had a few acres of land and were basically able to support themselves.

There is no way around this. In Su You's philosophy of governing the country, the policies of the Song Dynasty must first be tilted towards those who are able to pay taxes. They must first ensure that the country has enough tax revenue and solidify the basic base, and then talk about it later.

Get other.

With Su You's current status, he would never dare to "show gratitude to the world" like this. After all, these money and grains are indeed owed by the common people to the country.

He can only use various measures to increase the income of the people so that they can fill this hole as soon as possible, but he will never dare to suggest that the court "remove" him.

And today, someone finally stood up and said this.

It was inappropriate for Su Zizhan, and Su You often had headaches, but it also made him very proud.

However, the monarch and his ministers did not get into the topic directly. Gao Taotao first asked from inside the curtain: "Bi Guan, mother and son, are everything okay?"

Su Shi bowed and said, "Thank you very much for your concern, the Empress Dowager. My younger siblings and nephew are all well. My aunt gave my nephew a nickname, Chu'er."

The pestle was not much better than a colander in a flat jar, and it was smaller. Zhao Xu couldn't help but laugh: "I'll go take a look when I have time another day."

Gao Taotao sighed: "I heard that having a low reputation is easy to make a living. Situ Xianqing is rich and open-minded, so he is not exempt from this custom. It shows that everyone has the heart to love his son."

"The emperor should shepherd all the people, and he should always have this intention. Neihan has written three chapters in a row recently. I am really worried after reading it. The Song Dynasty has now reached 350 million yuan. How can there be so many people in the world waiting for relief?"

Su Shi said: "The population of the country is more than 160 million, with 40 million households. Among them, the first and second class households are less than 10 million, the third and fourth class households are more than 20 million, and the remaining 10 million and less than the fifth class are all thanks to the imperial court.

Relief."

"With Xiao Yaoshu's ability, hebei's Fourth Road has been revitalized in three years, but it can't wipe out the fifth class households, let alone the rest?"

Zhao Xu immediately defended his idol: "Situ revitalized Hebei, first protecting the state and the people, so that the property-owning people will do their best, and the propertyless people will do their best. Starting from this year, the lenient government will gradually reach the fifth level and below, and everything will be done."

There is a sequence, and it is not a matter of inaction."

Su Shi bowed and said, "Yes, only with my young uncle's ability and vigorous promotion to triple the number of acres in Hebei, from one stone to four stones, can we achieve this political achievement."

"I dare to ask Your Majesty, how many roads are there in the Song Dynasty where the yield per acre is four stones?"

Zhao Xu suddenly became speechless.

Su Shi added: "Two Zhejiang provinces were hit by disasters. Your Majesty did not think that his ministers were stupid, but ordered them to deal with the problem accordingly. Hangzhou is known as the most benign area in the world, and the people are prosperous. It took three years for the city to recover."

"In the mountainous areas of western Zhejiang and southern Zhejiang, people have accumulated debts due to disasters. There are one to two thousand households in each county, accounting for almost half of the population. It will be difficult for me to leave office."

"I asked the imperial court to spare millions of stones on the two Zhejiang roads, but I was impeached by the imperial censor and did not dare to enter the capital. With the state of the country like this, do any of the other ministers dare to speak out about the sufferings of the people?"

"During the Song Dynasty, Shuzhong, Bianjing, and two Zhejiang provinces were known as wealthy; Shaanxi and Hebei were favored by the imperial court, and are now quite relaxed; as for newly acquired lands such as Hexi, Ningxia, and Nanhai, due to their developed commerce and abundant products, they were light on corvee and received little wealth.

, the ills have not accumulated, and the people are quite happy."

"However, the fact that the people are generally happy does not mean that the accumulated debts are not serious. The areas with the most serious accumulated debts in the Song Dynasty are precisely in Bianjing, Liangzhe and Zhejiang, as well as the southwest and north of Beijing, the north and south of Jinghu, the east and west of Huainan, and the east and west of Jiangnan."

"Among them, Jinghu and Guangnan have few households. The amount of debt accumulated is almost unbearable for the common people, but it is actually not much for the imperial court."

"The quantity is large. As far as I know, there are two million strings in the two Zhejiang and one road."

"The rest of Huainan and southeast are close to this number."

"As for Bianjing, I don't know. I think the Ministry of Household Affairs must have the number to check."

"These accumulated debts may appear to be huge, but in fact they only exist in the accounts, and the collected debts have become 'allowances' to support subordinates and cannot fall into the hands of the imperial court at all."

"This is a local prefecture or county that uses the imperial court to recover accumulated debts, in order to harm the people."

"Instead of doing this, it is better to take advantage of His Majesty's wedding and depose them all. Then the world will be happy, all the people will return to their hearts, and blessings will surely come later."

Gao Taotao asked: "Cai Jing is now promoting the Ministry of Household Affairs and has always praised his ability. How come in the memorial to Han, he seems not to have much trust in the Ministry of Household Affairs?"

Su Shi sighed: "Cai Jing is indeed a 'capable minister', but he is by no means a 'benevolent minister'."

"While he served as the transfer envoy to the Huaihe River, although he achieved outstanding political achievements and was known as a great government, it was only the property owners who benefited from their property, while the have-nots benefited from their poverty."

"It's just that the proletarians have never paid taxes, so they are invisible in various memorials and statistics of the imperial court."

"But Your Majesty, those who are now burdened with debts and unable to pay taxes to the imperial court are the same as those who are now relieved of their burdens, working hard to produce, and providing the imperial court with an annual income of 350 million, but they are all your Majesty's subjects.

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"Cai Jing will never take advantage of the taboos of the country and ask the court to make corrections. He will not use state funds to poor households. Instead, he will make their livelihood difficult and make them work in industry and mining, and the salary will never be too generous, because

The power of fear is lost."

"Those who are unable to give advice but are good at making clever arrangements are what Sima Gong said: 'Talent is better than virtue'."

"He will only act in accordance with the will of the imperial court, and he will definitely be able to do it well. His 'ability' means that he can do it here."

"If a wise king gets it, it will be Yilu; if a faint king uses it, it will become a trick."

"But one good thing is that he is now in charge of the Ministry of Household Affairs. As long as His Majesty expresses his will, Cai Jing will be able to embody the Holy Heart and take comprehensive measures to solve the great troubles of our dynasty."

"If your Majesty intends to implement this kind of good governance, but I recommend Cai Jing, he would never be able to do it."

It should be said that Su Shi's heart was relatively soft, and his eyes were not fooled by the current prosperity of the Song Dynasty.

If Su You were here, he would analyze this problem more clearly - the lives of the people of the Song Dynasty have indeed improved, but this is a huge increase in the total number, but not a universal improvement in the widest range.

There is a word in later generations that clearly explains the huge crisis hidden here - the gap between rich and poor.

In other words, in today's Song Dynasty, three-quarters of the population are already running to improve, but there are still a quarter of the people who are standing still. The distance between them has not decreased, but has expanded!

However, the sufferings of these people are hidden under the prosperity. Because they are not even taxpayers, it is almost impossible for the government to have a voice to cry out for them.

This contradiction is not yet the main contradiction of the Song Dynasty, but this contradiction was once the main reason for the collapse of many dynasties, and it must not be allowed to expand and worsen.

To solve it, we must first discover that Su Shi himself may not have realized the seriousness of this matter, but at least, he has seen it.

Gao Taotao sighed: "It seems that Zizhan actually understands how to employ people."

"Back then, when your brother, uncle, and nephew were all working together on a trial project, Emperor Ren returned to the palace and rejoiced, 'Today we have gained three prime ministers for our country.'"

"The words are still in my ears. Now that Mingrun has passed through the phase, and the son has moved from the position to Zuolang, he will be promoted soon."

"Although you have the best grades, you have been wasting your time, Zizhan..."

Su You bowed: "I'm here."
Chapter completed!