558. Throwing stones to ask the way
The main taxes in the Han Dynasty were land tax and tuition, as well as various corvee labor. The land tax rate fluctuated back and forth between thirty and ten taxes, and was exempted from land tax in the prosperous era. In short, the land tax in the Han Dynasty was very light, but the people still had to bear the tuition tax collected by the head, and there were many heavy corvee labor, so the overall burden was not easy.
In Xinmang, natural disasters and man-made disasters continued, the court had financial difficulties, and the people's burden increased. Many farmers avoided labor service and fled in order to evade taxes, which is the so-called escape of households. At this time, their names were not included in the household registration book and became hidden households. The government did not have the information on hidden households, and could not impose taxes on them, which was a huge loss for the court.
The hidden households did not contribute taxes to the court, but most of them devoted themselves to the wealthy families and worked hard for them in exchange for the protection of the powerful. They endured the exploitation of the powerful, paid high land rent, and had a very meager income. However, they could eat and had relatively safe personal safety, and they did not need to face the government directly. All the troubles related to taxes were represented by the powerful. Therefore, becoming hidden households and entrusting themselves to wealthy families was a shortcut for poor people to survive in troubled times, and in that era, it was not easy to survive.
After all, hidden households are not people from the country, but from wealthy families. They do not create value for the country, but only serve the powerful people they depend on.
The status of slaves in the Han Dynasty has been greatly improved compared with the pre-Qin period. From a legal perspective, the master cannot kill him at will. Wang Mang was forced to commit suicide because his son Wang was killed. Although it was Wang Mang's political show, it can also be seen that it would cost to deal with slaves at will in the Han Dynasty.
Despite this, slaves still have the nature of private property and do not have complete personal freedom. The powerful have a large number of slaves. Some of them are registered in the government, while others are not recorded in the government and cannot grasp their data.
The world has been in chaos for decades, and the population has decreased seriously. Relatively speaking, the value of people has increased. People are wealth and the foundation for the development of the country. However, a large number of people are occupied by a few powerful people, which is very unfavorable for the country.
In addition to occupying the population, the powerful also occupied a large number of the most important means of production in agricultural society: land.
Some of the fields occupied by the powerful are legal, registered in the government and paid land tax. In addition, there are more hidden fields, which are illegally occupied. In the chaos, many people left the fields and fled, and many idle fields were occupied by wealthy families. The harvest of farming was owned by the powerful, and the country could not get a penny.
This is what Liu Yu said: "The powerful man greedy for my land and robbed my people."
People and fields are limited. If the powerful tyrants occupy more, they will naturally be less left to the country. These seized resources greatly harm the national interests. For the sake of the Han Dynasty and the people of the world, Liu Yu must fight against the powerful and robbed the fields and people back.
For this reason, Liu Yu must find a way to weaken the power of the powerful, make them lose the power of resistance, obediently obediently obediently, and the powerful will never be willing to surrender. This is a core interest dispute between the two sides and will never be relaxed.
Demolition of the dock wall is the first step to weaken the power of the powerful. Although only a few walls were removed, the powerful lost the fortress to retreat and had no way to resist the powerful state machinery.
On the other hand, this tangible wall binds the population under the wings of the powerful, giving people a sense of belonging psychologically. Demolition of this wall breaks an invisible barrier, causing a crack in the relationship between the powerful and the population that dependent him.
Liu Yu wanted to tell the people of the world that you are all people under the rule of the Han Dynasty and belong to the country, not the private property of the powerful.
The next move is obvious, which must be to reclaim the fields and release the population.
Zheng Shen was worried about this, "Your Majesty, Wang Mang wanted to do this, but he forced the people of the world to rebel, resulting in chaos in the world and the country overturned. Your Majesty, the knowledge is not far away. This matter is too dangerous. You must be careful when doing it."
For Liu Yu, who overthrew Wang Mang and restored the Han Dynasty, opposing Wang Mang was politically correct, and Wang Mang supported him had to oppose it. But in fact, what he had to do was the same as Wang Mang.
The "Wangtian System" and "private system" promoted by Wang Mang are targeted measures, and from the starting point, they are completely correct. However, he was completely wrong in terms of methods and means.
During the period of Wang Mang, there were intensive government orders, and reform orders were one after another. He thought that with a single edict, the problem could be solved in an ancient way, thus making the new dynasty a new dynasty where everyone has food to eat and some have clothes to wear. Unexpectedly, his retro reform dragged the world into a collapsed vortex.
People in the world flocked to oppose Wang Mang. He felt very wronged about this, thinking that the people were unreasonable and did not know that the court was protecting their interests. Wang Mang was completely for the sake of the people in the world, but why did people in the world hate him so much?
The ideal politician Wang Mang thought until his death that the world had defeated him.
This emperor who really wanted to do things ended in a tragedy. After him, Liu Xiu's measures became much gentler. He issued an edict in stages to liberate slaves one by one, and released a large number of people. However, the population alone was not enough. The released population needed to farm, and the fields were still in the hands of the powerful. The population was separated from the powerful, but there was not enough distribution of fields, which made these people resent the imperial court and even opposed the imperial court when they were traveling through the fields with the powerful.
Liu Xiu's Dutian was very strong, so he took a ruthless move, killing the prefects of more than a dozen counties and dealing with many powerful people. However, in the wave of opposition from the powerful people in the world, Dutian was still unable to fully implement it, and finally had to end the battle with the emperor and the powerful people compromising each other.
At this time, the powerful have begun to become a powerful force, and it is very difficult to deal with them, but it is something that Liu Yu must face and solve.
Zheng Shen asked, "After Your Majesty entered Handan, he has not ordered the idle land in the world for a long time. Why is this?"
Liu Yu sighed and said, "Because the time was missed, the time was not as good as that of the time in Guandong. It can be seen from the fact that the idle fields in Runan is not as good as that of the time."
The Du Tianyuan Order implemented by Jianshihan achieved remarkable results in Kansai, largely because it was early to take action. At that time, the world was in a disorderly state, and the land was abandoned for a short time. The powerful households were eager to maintain their own territory. It was not easy to survive. Where could they have time to occupy the idle land?
The court quickly took action, locked in idle fields and carried out military farming, limiting the expansion space of wealthy families. Therefore, the current state of Guanxi is relatively ideal. Ordinary people have land to plant, and a large amount of imperial fields are under the control of Liu Yu, continuously providing money and grain support for the Han Dynasty.
In the past ten years under Liu Xiu's rule, Kanto had a period of stable development. The powerful took advantage of the situation and occupied a large amount of idle land, leaving the court with much less room for operation, which greatly reduced the effect of Liu Xiu's military farming. At this time, I'm afraid there would be no achievements in going to spend idle land.
"The land must be used to save the land, not just to save the idle land, but to comprehensively follow the land. This matter must be discussed in a long-term way." The emperor pursed his lips, which made his face look particularly firm. He said: "I will not issue any decrees that are completely unenforceable like Wang Mang. This will not only harass the world, but also damage the authority of the court. I will not compromise with the powerful like Liu Xiu and bow to my ministers. I will move forward step by step, even if I only do one small thing at a time, and never give up halfway. Give me thirty years, even if I only take one step a year, after thirty steps, I will definitely do something shocking."
The emperor said that this is capital, after all, he is only twenty-four years old, not to mention thirty years, fifty years are possible.
Zheng Shen unconsciously looked at the bronze mirror next to him, and his old face reflected in the mirror. The emperor could have been for decades, but he was more than thirty years older than the emperor, and now he was over the age of knowing destiny. In that era when the medical level was backward, he belonged to the type of person who could be reimbursed at any time. However, as a person who believed in Confucianism, he was still ambitious and wanted to follow the emperor to do something and establish a great achievement of keeping his name in history.
"I won't spend the idle fields for now. The number of land in Kanto will be based on the existing official registration book. I will try to implement the magistrate system."
The system of lingyi is actually for the purpose of land and population, and the role of scattered fields is similar to that of tyrants. They are all aimed at the powerful.
Yang Yanshou was anxious, "Your Majesty, the system of magistrates is absolutely impossible to work at this time. The power of the world's powerful people is probably not able to handle it. Even if the powerful people make trouble together, I will never be able to suppress it."
Liu Yu smiled and asked, "Shi Yuan, have you ever had a fight?"
Yang Yanshou was stunned. He didn't know why the emperor asked this, but he still answered honestly: "I met a group of thieves when I was young. Although I tried my best to resist, I still couldn't fight. Not only were my property taken away, but my life was almost lost. Thanks to me who used my words to provoke trouble among the group of thieves and caused internal strife, I won a glimmer of hope and escaped after searching for an opportunity."
Liu Yu said: "That's it. You can't defeat the thieves, but if you let them fight, you will get the chance. The same is true for dealing with the powerful. Never regard the powerful people in the world as a family. Instead, consider their differences in interests, use their contradictions, divide them, disintegrate their alliances, and make them fight each other. The powerful people will compete to join the government and use it for my own use. In this way, the initiative will be in the hands of the government."
Yang Yanshou was already smart. After hearing this, he immediately understood the emperor's meaning and said convincedly: "Your Majesty has a great view, so I will suddenly understand."
Zheng Shen stroked the beard under his jaw and thought to himself, this emperor was only in his twenties, so why was he so scheming? He was thirty years old, but he could think clearly. He could only say that this was a natural emperor, not an ordinary person.
He asked, "Your Majesty wants to implement the tomb system. Is it necessary to build a tomb?"
"No need." The emperor shook his head, "Why do you need to build a ready-made imperial tomb? The Wuling City is now in short supply, so I want to move some people from Guandong to replenish it."
"When Emperor Wu, those with more than 3 million wealth would be moved. I believe Your Majesty would not use this as a basis?" Zheng Shen slowly guessed the emperor's meaning and asked about the standards of migration.
"If this happens, I will really be enemies of the world's powerful people. My family's wealth is three million, and the migration standard is too low. It will force those people to join forces and fight against me."
Liu Yu smiled and said, "There is no property standard for this migration, only the land is based on the land. Those with more land are moved. The counties in Guanzhong do not need to move. Qing, Xu, Yu, Ji, Yan, Yi, and Jing are moved to two families in each county, and the remaining six states, and each county is moved to one major surname."
"Each county has only moved one or two powerful people, and the people who were moved are alone, so they must not make any name for themselves. If they dare to fight against the court with the power of one surname, they can only be at the mercy of the government. If they dare to raise trouble, the government will easily pacify it." Zheng Shen also smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you are really a small step!"
"Not small, not small!" The emperor's face was very relaxed, "A stone can also cause waves. I just want to throw a stone to ask for directions and see their reactions."
Yang Yanshou said: "I am stupid. Your Majesty has just said that you will not pass the fields. The government will not pass the fields of the powerful. So how do you determine the number of fields of each surname? How do you choose the one with the most fields?"
The emperor pointed at him and said, "Shi Yuan, you are so smart, why are you confused? The government is a judge and a middleman. How could he do such offending things?"
Yang Yanshou's eyes lit up, "Your Majesty, what do you mean... are you going to choose the wealthy families themselves? Let them... recommend each other?"
"You are not confused. Remember, as the prefect of a county, you are the protector of the people of the whole county, the support of wealthy families, and the presidency of justice for them. My words must be remembered, and you must give justice to the powerful men of our great men!" The emperor looked at him, his eyes flashing with a cunning light.
This little cowherd is so fucking cunning! This sentence suddenly appeared in Yang Yanshou's head, which scared him himself. Yang Yanshou seemed to be trying to drive away this idea, bowed down quickly and said, "Your Majesty is really wise and wise. I can follow the Holy Lord and use my meager power. It is really my blessing!"
Zheng Shen couldn't help laughing, his beard trembled up and down. He laughed and said, "Your Majesty, your move is really too clever. In this way, I'm afraid that the powerful people in the county will fight hard, and no one wants to be the title of the largest clan in the county. They will fight to find the government to save the land. They just migrate a few powerful people and even the fields will be saved together! Or, those big families are rushing to sell land! Haha, it's really wonderful!"
Zheng Shen was a model of observing etiquette in the eyes of the emperor, but he was rarely disrespectful at this time. In front of the emperor, he opened his mouth and laughed loudly, without his usual calm attitude. The emperor looked at him in surprise and thought to himself that Zheng Shangshu would be so happy.
Zheng Shen felt the emperor's gaze, suddenly stopped smiling, coughed twice in his throat, arched his hands properly, and said with courtesy: "Your Majesty forgive me, the old minister was forgot about it and was rude."
Chapter completed!