A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

Chapter 100 24. Clarify tax mobilization

Xiao Pingtai and his three followers set foot on his own territory for the first time. It felt a bit like a bully of a big landowner who led the thugs to collect rent in the village.

Bah, bah, bah, Xiaopingtai is a big landowner, why is he a rent-collecting bastard?

I imagined the kind of landowner who goes to the countryside and sees the daughter of a poor tenant farmer, and is shocked at first sight. Wow, there is such a beautiful woman in the world, and then she wants to be raped as a concubine. At this time, the handsome male protagonist appears as a hero to save the beauty, saves his childhood sweetheart, and starts his life journey of fucking the world.

Of course, in reality, there can be no beautiful girls in poor villages. When they heard that Xiao Pingtai came to inspect the territory, the old and young of the two villages were called out to meet their future lord. Xiao Pingtai briefly scanned the crowd. He was one meter three tall, with yellow hair, a sallow complexion and a skinny face. She was a village girl who was bent over by life at the age of ten. What is so good about her? I'm afraid I'm not blind!

Xiao Ping was not very interested in reading any more. What was there to see about these humble and cowardly ordinary citizens?

However, they would still do things to save face. Several village elders came to Xiao Pingtai and bowed first. Then he respectfully presented a roll of tanned leather, roughly a piece of deerskin. Then a person presented a piece of fine white silk. Although it was not the kind of colorful silk, it was excellent for making a lining.

After accepting their gifts, Xiao Pingtai thought to herself that you looked very poor and shabby on the outside, but it turned out that you still had some wealth in your heart.

Under the expectant eyes of this group of people, Xiaoping Tai announced loudly that he would never charge extra money or increase annual tribute, and everything would remain unchanged as before.

After hearing this, the people of the lords breathed a long sigh of relief, thinking that they had met a good lord, who at least did not increase taxes and was not rude. This is already great, I don’t dare to expect too much.

Koheita waved his hand and dismissed the residents, and then summoned two locals. He saw that there was an old acquaintance, a big brother who helped Koheita organize the Yamauchi Town when he was the deputy of Uchida County.

It was convenient to talk to acquaintances. Xiaopingtai asked about the basic situation of these two villages. There were forty-two households with military service members. Basically, each household had two or more male males. According to two-thirds or more With a mobilization rate of three-quarters, there can be about 30 simply armed peasant soldiers and ashigaru. The two village chiefs must provide two more horse-riding lords and four ashigaru due to their large real estate. Xiao Pingtai made some calculations, and found that these five hundred territory could gather 40 to 50 combat-effective soldiers, and 60 to 70 miscellaneous fish, which could be considered a somewhat useful force. Coupled with the twelve bows and arrows or iron cannon ashigaru that expanded the feudal obligations they assumed, and the three followers who carried the flag, the team of one hundred and fifty people could rise in two days.

Looking at the situation in the village, they are all ordinary paddy fields adjacent to the river, with two crops a year (two crops), growing winter wheat and rice, and a small part of the vegetable fields and dry land growing buckwheat, soybeans, radish, eggplant and other crops. In addition to the inherent agriculture, there are also some hunting and gathering activities, as well as a small number of mulberry trees, silkworms and silk weaving. The entire village is still the same as it was a hundred, two hundred or even five hundred years ago. Although the production methods have improved, the increase in population has still offset the increase in agricultural production. Finally, the products are quite abundant, and the local people can barely survive.

The Yamauchi family implements the policy of five public and five citizens, which at first glance is quite scary, which means that 50% of the annual income must be handed over to the public. Then after the subjects whose main income is food pay the annual tribute and leave the seeds for the next year, the remaining food may not even be enough to eat. But it's actually not that exaggerated. The Yamauchi clan calculated based on the annual rice production of this land of 2,000 dan, which means that this land must pay 1,000 dan of rice to the lord, Yamauchi Yoshiharu, or pay Yongle money of 250 kumon every year, or The bad money is a thousand guanwen. It is really not possible to just pay this amount with anything. Of course, now that this land has been sealed to Koheita, all the money and materials originally given to Yamauchi Yoshiharu can only be handed over to Koheita.

In addition to rice, other grains produced by this land are not included in the tax calculation, and the handmade products produced by the farmers themselves as a family unit are not included in the tax calculation. The residents can also rely on other grains produced and sold for money. handmade products survive.

Of course, with the urinary behavior of the lords in feudal society, it is impossible for the common people to live a good life. The remaining 1,000 shi of rice actually fell into the hands of the farmers. The farmers had to pay a separate fee, a grain fee, a suspension fee, and seven to ten days of universal labor service at their own expense every year.

Of course, Yamauchi Yoshiharu has not inspected the land for more than ten years. It is hard to say whether the annual rice production is still 2,000 koku. From Xiao Pingtai's point of view, it must be more than that. The group of secretive farmers on the way into the village, who kept talking to and interrupting him, were trying their best to prevent Xiao Pingtai from noticing any changes in the actual output of the land. But Xiaopingtai is not a hard-core official. There is no need to talk about these things. Everyone has to live their lives.

There is another one. The two village chiefs are considered the lowest-level owners. They own the most land. Then there are the farmers on small plots of land, most of whom are military service members. The last one is the tenant farmers, who only own part of the land. Permanent tenancy rights and land ownership in the land. This is what ancient China called Tianpi (permanent tenancy) and Tiangu (ownership). This is a kind of power that can be inherited and transferred.

These tenants also need to pay land rent, that is, in addition to the lord's annual tribute land rent, they also pay a portion of the land rent to the landlord. Fortunately, this share generally does not exceed 50% of the annual rice production, but it almost makes these tenant farmers almost impoverished. Xiao Pingtai worked as a sharecropper. She worked so hard for a year that she could not earn even two quid, and most of it had to be used to pay for various incarcerations. She was one of the most miserable groups in the countryside.

In short, Xiao Pingtai does not have much ability to change the current situation in the countryside. If this thing wants to be changed, this book will be over, 404. Moreover, he saw that even the tenant farmers in the village did not look like they would collapse when the wind blew. After all, as long as they act recklessly, everyone can survive. Even if they have enough to eat, they can survive even if they drink too little every day.

After visiting the lives of military service members, there is not much to say. Xiao Pingtai has also experienced the life of a farmer. There is never enough food to eat, and he cannot do other technical tasks. He can only maintain a living by fighting bad wars.

There are two updates today.

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