Chapter 531: 1 Whip Technique! Kill the Rich and Divide the Land!
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Suzhou Prefecture.
The king of Han went to his camp.
Zhou Chen has changed his clothes, but his face can still be seen with the vicissitudes of life.
During this trip to Suzhou, Yun Niang's tragedy hit him too hard.
Especially Yun Niang died here, and Zhou Chen also became a prisoner here!
It is of course extremely painful for Zhou Chen to revisit old places and miss people after seeing things.
Zhu Gaoxu didn't say much when he saw this, but asked about business matters.
"Xun Ru, tell me about the situation in Suzhou Mansion!"
When it came to business, Zhou Chen also suppressed the pain in his heart and slowly talked about his efforts in the past two years.
In fact, after Zhou Chen took office two years ago, he did not rely on the status and power of the imperial envoy to alert the enemy. Instead, he first went deep into the people to conduct investigation and research.
Without any entourage, he asked the peasants and women in detail what was the most painful thing, what was the reason, and how he hoped to deal with it.
As a result, over time, the people were willing to confide in him whatever was on their mind, and they got along with each other like father and son in the family.
It was also during this period that Zhou Chen deeply realized that the people in Suzhou Prefecture and even the entire five Jiangnan Prefectures were living in dire straits.
"Your Majesty, Suzhou used the Tangpu polder technology to turn the original low-lying waterlogged land into fertile farmland, and then developed mulberry fish ponds to raise fish in the water, grow rice in the fields, and plant mulberries on the banks..."
"Under such a plan, the rice output of Sujiang Prefecture's 4.7 million acres of land can reach more than 9 million shi, with an average of two shi per acre. Suzhou Prefecture has become a land of fish and rice known to the world."
"Not only is the food output impressive, Suzhou Prefecture also grows a large number of mulberry, linen, cotton and other crops, which makes Suzhou Prefecture's textile industry very prosperous. Suzhou Prefecture alone can contribute more than two million pieces of cloth, and private trade does not include this. Among them, the total number will probably be no less than five million, and some even think it exceeds ten million..."
Hearing Zhou Chen's words, Zhu Gaoxu nodded with satisfaction.
It seems that this boy was not just busy talking about love in the past two years, but also did a lot of practical things. At least he learned the true situation of the entire Suzhou Prefecture.
"However, due to the heavy tax system established by the imperial court, the amount of taxes paid by Suzhou district government is equivalent to the entire Huguang Province and twice that of Fujian Province. The villain once calculated that the average tax and grain burden per household in Suzhou Prefecture is as high as five dan. Each person pays about one stone and a half. It is no wonder that Suzhou Prefecture has been in arrears in taxes and grains since the early years of Yongle..."
Zhu Gaoxu's expression changed upon hearing this, he held his chin and fell into deep thought.
From the first year of Yongle to the present, Suzhou Prefecture has a food shortage of 3.92 million shi.
Next door, Songjiang Prefecture was also famous as a land of plenty, but its life was not much better. The imperial court exempted it from taxation of several million dan.
It's obviously a land of plenty, but why can't we get enough food?
Looking at the data reported by Zhou Chen, we can actually understand the problem.
Five dan per household may not seem like a high number, but how many people actually pay taxes and grains honestly?
Generally speaking, ordinary people rarely resist paying taxes, and most people who can still live a comfortable life will not have the courage to default on the court's food taxes.
Of course, there are also people who have no money to pay because the taxes are too high, but that is mainly in the northern regions where natural disasters are frequent.
Those who really default on taxes and grain are the powerful and evil gentry.
On the one hand, they tried every means to annex the fields, resulting in fewer and fewer real farmers. On the other hand, they used clever excuses to default on tax and grain arrears. It was strange that the court could collect the taxes!
On the contrary, the amount of land that can be taxed has decreased, and the amount of assessed taxes falling on farmers has increased, from five dan to eight dan to ten dan. It has been soaring and cannot stop. The overwhelmed farmers can only donate their fields to become Tenants, or simply flee and become refugees!
The prosperous and prosperous land in the south of the Yangtze River, known to the world as a land of plenty, has turned into a "ghost country" in the mouth of the court ministers. It is really ironic to the extreme!
"Xun Ru, how is this person Kuang Zhong?"
Kuang Zhong, the prefect of Suzhou!
Upon hearing this name, Zhou Chen's expression suddenly became complicated.
"Your Majesty, Kuang Zhong... loves the people like a son and is quite capable!"
"When he first took office, he learned that Suzhou Prefecture had been in arrears with taxes for four years. He suggested converting these arrears of land taxes into Ming Dynasty treasure notes for payment. However, as expected, he was refuted by officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs. The people of Suzhou must be allowed to pay in kind."
"After the villain arrived in Suzhou, he and Kuang Zhong conducted careful investigations and calculations on the taxes of Suzhou Prefecture. At first, the two of us tried to reduce the burden on farmers by lowering the tax rate. But at the same time, it will also It reduced the court’s local taxes, so it didn’t take long for it to be strongly opposed by officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs.”
"Then Xiaoren and Kuang Zhong developed the 'square meter method', which can make the burden on official land and private land more equal through the average consumption of rice and tax collection. After it was implemented in Suzhou Prefecture, it received a good response. However, That's when something happened to Yun Niang..."
At this point, Zhou Chen couldn't speak anymore, and his tears couldn't stop falling.
Zhu Gaoxu had no choice but to stand up and patted his shoulder to express comfort, but he was thinking about the "square meter method" mentioned by Zhou Chen in his mind.
Rice consumption is the part that is lost during transportation. When the court collects rice from the people, it will be taxed directly, and the amount may vary depending on the mood. This is just an extra tax on the shoulders of the people.
This kind of rice consumption, UU reading www. uukａnshu.net There are many ways for local wealthy and powerful families to avoid it and distribute it to the poor people. But before, the imperial court only levied the full amount of tax and did not care who would bear the burden of the rice consumption.
Under Zhou Chen's square meter law, both large and small households must bear strict equal responsibilities for rice consumption. As a result, the tax burden on ordinary people has been reduced a lot.
The second point is about the huge gap in the tax burden borne by official land and private land. Zhou Chen narrowed this gap by reducing taxes.
However, Zhou Chen's "Square Meter Law" did not reduce the total taxation in the Jiangnan region as a whole. Instead, it alleviated the serious uneven taxation problem in this region through equalizing rice consumption and discounted collection.
To put it bluntly, the square meter law is a temporary strategy to deal with people's complaints, but it does not fundamentally solve the problem.
Even if the square meter law was successfully implemented in the five provinces south of the Yangtze River, Jiangnan would still be the same Jiangnan, the court would still be unable to collect taxes, and the people would still be living in dire straits and complaining!
If you want to solve the problem in Jiangnan, the square meter method is not enough, you need the political strategy of the savior prime minister.
Zhu Gaoxu took out a pamphlet from his arms and handed it to Zhou Chen.
"Kuang Zhong should be arriving soon. You and he should study this 'one whip method' together, and be ready to implement it when I come back!"
Zhou Chen: "???"
What?
A whip?
This name is so weird!
Zhou Chen didn't know why and asked subconsciously: "Then, Your Majesty..."
"The things in Jiangnan are not as difficult as you think. It's nothing more than 'killing the local tycoons and dividing the land'."
"You do your best to 'divide the land', and leave the killings like 'killing the local tyrants' to me!"
Zhou Chen: "!!!"
Kill the rich!
Divide the fields!
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