"How did you think you have been an official for so many years? Or did you think you were stupid? Who is the one who still kneeling down in the hall? Why did you sue me? How did you think of such stupid words?"

Zhao Huan felt a little embarrassed about Wang Shiyong: "If you don't have a registered residence in the Ming Dynasty, you don't count as a person. If you don't count as a person, you still ask who will kneel down in the hall? It's so embarrassing. I don't even have the shame to say that you are my minister!"

Wang Shiyong replied a little absent-mindedly: "I heard from the officials, those children..."

Zhao Huan couldn't help but glared at Wang Shiyong who answered the question and said, "Don't worry about those children. Go back and wait until the women's association comes to you before sending someone to deal with it. Starting from tomorrow, the beggars and Qingpi will begin to be investigated in Bianjing City."

"Those who have broken hands and feet cannot work are sent to the yamen such as the ancestral hall to be maintained. Those who can work but beg for arrest are arrested. They will go back and send them to Qin Huiwan with the green skin on the street."

"The people often say that the world is bright and bright in broad daylight, so that the people can live comfortably!"

After thinking about it, Zhao Huan simply asked someone to go to the street to buy some wine and vegetables, intending to eat and talk about things.

In addition to the problems such as Beggars' Sect and Picking and Separation that existed throughout the dynasties and could never be cured, there is another very fatal problem in ancient Chinese history, that is, the population trading problem, or the hidden household problem caused by population trading.

As we all know, one of the important reasons why Emperor Wu of Han used military service for years and was criticized for being a powerful military force was that he "half the household registration."

However, if you think about it, you will know that halving the household registration and halving the population are two completely unconcepts.

Half of the population means that half of the population is actually dead, and halving the household registration is actually the same as "2 million refugees in Kanto and 400,000 unknown people", which means that many people have lost their household registration booklets in the government, resulting in the halving of the number of household registrations.

This is also the reason why Sima Gang wrote in "Zizhi Tongjian" that "Han and Wu suffered the defeat of Qin, and avoided the disaster of Qin"-

If Liu Yezhu really had no choice but to fight, and as a result, more than half of the people across the country died, there was probably no need to wait for Chen Sheng and Wu Guang to rebel in Daze Township. Just the Huns who were confronted by Liu Yezhu could laugh three times and then lead their troops back to kill Liu Yezhu.

What is more amazing is that the problem of the number of household registrations and even the number of people's residents disappearing inexplicably does not exist only in the Han or Song dynasties. This is a problem that has been around since the beginning of the family and the end was not until Principal Jiang moved to Taiwan.

The root of the problem is simple-

People are divided into different levels, and trafficking in persons is even a legal business.

According to the "Li of Zhou", there was a legal slave trading market in the pre-Qin period. The Zhou royal family and various vassal states all had the position of "caire people", "in charge of goods and bribery in the market, people, cattle and horses, weapons, chariots, and rare."

The "people" in "The Book of Zhou" is not the people of later generations, but refers to slaves and servants. Like "cows, horses, weapons, chariots, and rare things", they are goods for trading.

During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the court also collected taxes from slave transactions. "Book of Sui: Food and Goods" records that "from the Jin Dynasty, every commodity sold slaves, horses, cows, land and houses, and had a certificate of 10,000 yuan. The amount was estimated to be 400 yuan and the number of people who sold them was 300 yuan, and the number of people who bought them was 100 yuan." The tax rate was 4%, of which 3% was borne by the seller and 1% was borne by the buyer.

These people who are allowed to be legally traded are slaves, also called "slaughter-in-law". These people are legally classified as untouchables and do not have the status of "nationals". Instead, they are regarded as private property of the master's family and can be brought to the market for buying and selling. For example, the "Tang Law" clearly stipulates: "Slaves and servants are compared with livestock property"; "As long as the slaves and servants have the same wealth, they will be punished by the master."

This means that selling slaves is legal, and it is no different from taking the lead in selling cows on the market.

Similarly, the later Ming Dynasty also had this problem, and there was even a "dedication" system developed to avoid taxes.

These problems have caused a decrease in the number of household registrations—

From a people with household registration to a low-ranking household registration, the people of tenants naturally lost their household registration. When the government counted Dingkou, it naturally stopped counting these people.

For example, among the statistics in "The Records of Emperor Taizong of Ming Dynasty", in the second year of Yongle, there were 9.685,200 households in the world, and the number of Dingkou was 5.954,700. There was no significant increase in the following decades. Not only did it not make much progress compared with the Hongwu year, but sometimes there was a decline in the population.

In fact, even if you think about it, you will know that it is not normal -

It is normal for the population to decline in the world during chaos, because fighting is not about treating guests to dinner or embroidery and making fuss. It will be a real death.

But after peace in the world, the people had no variety shows, nightclubs, mobile games, and entertainment projects like Douyin to pass the time. Creating villains was almost the only entertainment project!

More importantly, from the day when the family world appeared to the end, no expert has ever jumped out to talk about family planning, and there is no bullshit argument like "when the country's population growth is insufficient, foreign talents can be introduced, especially Nigel can be introduced"!

So this seems abnormal-

When the number of Dingkou is too large, the land is overwhelmed, and the productivity is not developed enough, and the means of production are not enough to support everyone, it is normal for war to break out to resolve population pressure. However, when the war ceases, a large number of young and strong people die due to the war. After the vacant fields are redistributed, the people can have enough food. At this time, a big explosion of population growth occurs.

However, no matter how the emperor and the court in the world encourage childbirth, population growth will stagnate or even negative growth. Even some time travelers will ignore this problem intentionally or unintentionally, and always look for the root cause of the demise of a dynasty from other aspects.

However, in fact, the hidden household problem caused by voluntary or involuntary population transactions is also one of the culprits that caused the demise of a dynasty.

This problem naturally existed in the Song Dynasty.
Chapter completed!