In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

Zhao Jun's promise to the victims spread like a plague, and made Wang Yao, the transport officer of Jinghu South Road, miserable.

Because under the two-tax system, he had to raise enough grain to send to Zhenzhou this year.

The land tax was collected on the first day of May in summer and the first day of September in autumn, and the payment time was two and a half months and three and a half months respectively.

This means that the land tax in Hunan was almost collected at the end of July, but due to the sudden heavy rain, it was blocked by floods just after it set out to Yuezhou, and is now still in the Yuezhou transfer warehouse.

Zhao Jun waved his hand and immediately sent people to Yuezhou to transport the grain back to help the victims.

Then his political achievements this year would be ruined, and there would be no hope of promotion in the future.

But obviously he could not do anything because he could not do anything.

But Wang Yao figured it out soon.

Now that the Constitutional Council is in power, and the Prefect is second to none, isn't it just a matter of a word from the Prefect?

Collecting all the summer grain this year and handing it over to the court is a political achievement, but if a sudden rainstorm comes and the flood rises, giving grain to the disaster victims is also another kind of political achievement, isn't it?

As long as none of the disaster victims starve to death and as long as the land can still have a good harvest next year, then the chief minister will always record him in the book of merit.

So after a brief struggle, Wang Yao quickly changed his position and firmly supported Zhao Jun's decision.

Zhao Jun's misappropriation of taxes is not a burden.

Because the taxes in the Song Dynasty were mainly two taxes, commercial taxes, salt and wine taxes, tea taxes, and exemption money, among which the two taxes accounted for a certain proportion, but the proportion has been getting lower and lower.

From the 70% in the era of Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi, to the 30% in the era of Zhao Zhen and Zhao Xu.

For example, during the Zhao Zhen period, the summer tax grain transported by Jinghu South Road was only about 600,000 dan. According to the rice and wheat prices in Bianliang that were maintained at 200 to 400 wen per dan for many years, the average value was 300 wen, which was about 230,000 guan.

In a year, the agricultural tax paid by Jinghu South Road was less than 500,000 guan.

There were 18 roads in the Northern Song Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Renzong. Except for the major grain-producing provinces of Huainan East Road, Huainan West Road, Jiangnan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, and Liangzhe Road, the annual agricultural tax exceeded one million guan, and each road would transport two to three million shi to Kaifeng. The rest of the roads basically paid hundreds of thousands of guan.

In total, the agricultural tax alone was only more than 10 million guan in a year, which was not as much as the money Zhao Jun earned from confiscating houses to help Zhao Zhen in recent years.

Therefore, the embezzled tax itself would not have much impact on the court.

In addition to inspecting Changsha these days, Zhao Jun also went to other disaster areas. Although he had been to the disaster area in Huainan before, the disaster area had been restored for three years at that time, and the situation had improved a lot.

But now it is another matter to experience it with your own eyes.

Can you imagine the tragic situation of a village where most of the families have died out and every household is hung with white silk?

Can you imagine other counties, where a man in rags and dirt puts his daughter in a basket and carries her to the streets of the county with a straw on his head to sell her?

Can you imagine an old man crawling on the ground in the dirty mud and picking up a bone thrown by a rich man to chew on?

Landlords and wealthy families walked in the streets with servants following them and people carrying them in sedan chairs, looking at every poor person selling their children on the street, as if they were looking at a piece of goods.

Strictly speaking, except for Changsha and Linxiang, where the disaster was more serious, the rest of the counties were considered to be better.

But other counties did not have Chen Xiliang's advance warning. Even if the disaster was still better in a large area, many villages along the river suffered heavy losses.

Maybe they were still sleeping in the middle of the night, and suddenly the levee broke along the coast, and the whole village was submerged in the tide.

The remaining people wanted to survive, so they could only sell everything they could sell in exchange for a chance to survive.

Zhao Jun really couldn't sleep all night when he saw this situation.

For modern people like him, although he can get a glimpse of clues from history books, such as "Huainan is suffering from severe drought, people eat each other" and "Years of great famine, people exchange children for food".

But how can the understatement in history books compare to the cruelty seen in reality?

So the impact of all this in front of him is unimaginable.

Just like the TV series "Awakening Age" I watched when I was in college, the young great man walked through the streets in the rain and saw what he saw and heard.

It was shocking to see it from the TV series, let alone seeing it with your own eyes?

For this reason, Zhao Jun traveled to various counties many times, instructing local road officials, state governments, county magistrates and many other officials to strictly require their disaster relief actions and ensure the post-disaster management of the victims.

In fact, it is not difficult to temporarily intercept Hunan's agricultural taxes to support the victims, but the difficulty is how to live in the future.

Therefore, Zhao Jun has been urging local officials to clean up farmland, recruit local soldiers, hire young and strong people, repair the embankments on both sides of the river, and clean up the fields buried by silt and floods.

The fields of the common people were returned in full, and the gentry were required to pay for the cleaning of their fields. As for the tenants who had no fields and could only work for the rich landlords, the government would help them to reclaim the land.

The only good thing after the flood was that the flood washed a lot of silt onto the shore, causing the plains on both sides to be full of mud and sand. Although a lot of sand cannot grow crops, the silt is rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which is beneficial to the growth of crops.

Therefore, in the past, many fields that were too barren to be cultivated could be cultivated after piling up silt. If this was not possible, Zhao Jun also asked the local government to help excavate the mountainous land and divert canals for irrigation.

These policies are certainly good policies, but there are many opponents.

First of all, this requires a lot of manpower and material resources. It is by no means a policy that can be implemented simply by thinking it is a good policy. For example, excavating mountainous areas, cultivating new soil, and diverting canals for irrigation require at least tens of thousands of young laborers and a lot of money.

Secondly, those landlords and gentry don't want to do anything. Why should they help the mud-legged people to cultivate the fields for free, but help them clean up the fields for money?

Are the landlords and gentry not ordinary people of the Song Dynasty?

Amidst such opposition, Zhao Jun cannot insist on having his own way.

After all, there must be unscrupulous landlords, wealthy businessmen and gentry, and he also killed some in Tanzhou, but there are still many landlords and gentry who are normal human beings who have not done any bad things and cannot kill people indiscriminately.

Therefore, Zhao Jun can only be reasonable.

On the first point, Zhao Jun told the local government that after the disaster, since late rice could not be planted and the young labor force had nothing to do, it would be better to hire them and let them contribute.

The imperial court paid them to dig mountains, open fields, divert water canals, and build ponds. This method is called work-for-relief and can quickly restore production.

As for the second point.

Zhao Jun said that under normal circumstances, the court in disaster-stricken areas would exempt taxes. For example, Huainan has been exempted from taxes for two years.

However, the degree of tax exemption is generally judged based on the severity of the disaster.

The disaster area in Huainan reached more than ten states, causing tens of thousands of people to starve to death, hundreds of thousands of people displaced, and millions of people affected to varying degrees, so it will be exempted from tax for two years.

But this time in Changsha, only Tanzhou was hit by floods. About 200,000 to 300,000 people were affected, and only more than 1,000 people drowned. So far, no one has died of starvation. It is not as serious as the one in Huainan, and the court may not exempt it. tax.

Even if tax is exempted, it is only for the poor who have no property. Landowners with property still have to be included in the tax list.

So if you, as landlords, have a big family and a big business, and your ability to withstand risks is much better than that of the poor, and if you try your best with limited abilities, the court will be very pleased that you have shouldered certain national responsibilities, and will also give you preferential treatment in taxation.

After careful consideration, the landowners felt that they would surely make a profit without losing any money, and agreed one after another.

The main reason is that the tax exemption is too attractive.

Because it is said to be preferential treatment, but it is actually a transaction.

I have used tax exemptions to allow you to contribute money and efforts in exchange for price stability and accelerated post-disaster recovery and construction.

Even though agricultural taxes in the Song Dynasty were not high, the agricultural taxes on Jinghu South Road were less than 500,000 yuan a year, but there were many excessive levies and miscellaneous taxes.

Especially the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes imposed on the landlords, which exploited them to death, led to very frequent landlord uprisings in the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, compared with the tax that sucks the bones and sucks the marrow, this small amount of money and supplies can be regarded as a small amount of money to avoid a major disaster. Even if the court is exempted from taxes for half a year in the next year, it can still make money back.

Therefore, with the help of Zhao Jun's allocation of this summer's taxes and the joint efforts of many landlords and wealthy businessmen in Tanzhou, prices in the disaster area were stabilized and order gradually returned to normal.

By October, Zhao Jun had been staying in Tanzhou for more than two months. Today, good news came. The imperial court distributed 500,000 yuan in disaster relief funds, which has now been sent to Tanzhou.

At the beginning of the evening, in the Changsha County Yamen, Zhao Jun was looking at the official reports on post-disaster recovery work from various places. Chen Xiliang came in happily and said: "Zhiyuan, great, the disaster relief funds from the court have arrived."

"Um."

Zhao Jun raised his head and just nodded in response.

Seeing that he was not very interested, Chen Xiliang couldn't help but wonder: "Zhiyuan, isn't this a happy thing?"

"yes."

Zhao Jun put down the official document in his hand and sighed: "But this little money is still a drop in the bucket, and you have to think that this flood only affected Tanzhou, and the disaster was not serious. If the court wants to ensure that every victim is properly resettled, it must It costs a lot of money, but if there is a major disaster like the drought in Huainan a few years ago, it will be a bottomless pit. "

"After all, you still have to do your best."

Chen Xiliang said.

"There are endless disasters to be rescued. We can only pray that a once-in-a-century drought like the one in Huainan will happen less frequently. First, we must prepare for rainy days. In good years, we must stock up on food and grass, build more dams, cultivate more fields, and dredge more rivers."

Zhao Jun said: "The second is to improve commercial prosperity. After this disaster, I hope you can communicate well with Hengzhou, Yongzhou, Quanzhou, Guizhou and other places, make every effort to dredge the Lingcan, and increase trade with Guangdong South Road It turns out that cotton is being widely grown there, and these cash crops can also be introduced and grown in Hunan.”

"Building canals is a big deal."

"Well, so you need the local governments along the river to work together to build the canals."

"yes."

"I learned that the price of private labor is between 50 and 100 Wen per day. River workers are more expensive, around 150 and 200 Wen. Five hundred thousand Guan can employ 30,000 people for about half a year. This money must be spent wisely. The focus is on restoring agriculture and repairing river embankments.”

"yes."

"Okay, make good arrangements. Post-disaster reconstruction work has a long way to go."

"yes."

Chen Xiliang responded and then retreated.

He felt that he could learn a lot from Zhiyuan, such as the work-for-relief method, and that it turned out that through these negotiations, he could obtain the support of the wealthy landlords.

In fact, sometimes in addition to class antagonism, people still need more communication. Sometimes communication is more important than opposition.

After Chen Xiliang left, Zhao Jun still had a gloomy look on his face and was not very happy because the court's disaster relief funds had arrived.

The methods he gave are actually more conventional methods for later generations to deal with disasters, economic depression, and reconstruction work. History has proven that this method is indeed feasible and effective, including the US imperialism.

But there is a prerequisite here that the government must have enough money.

If you don't have money, you still issue money indiscriminately, and you still have to provide work-for-work relief, you are just asking for death, and the country will collapse very quickly.

The good news is that the court now has money.

The bad news is that we are running out of money.

The situation in the northwest is getting increasingly tense, and it's just the beginning, so the imperial court has enough money to support him in rebuilding the disaster area.

Once the war actually starts, the amount of money spent will be astronomical. The national treasury currently has tens of millions of dollars in savings, which have been saved frugally in the past two years to prepare for the war. After the war begins, I am afraid that it will be wiped out soon. .

Even though in the past two years, Zhao Jun had confiscated many houses of corrupt officials and wealthy businessmen, bringing more than tens of millions of money to the imperial court, and countless money was sent to Bianliang.

However, confiscating homes alone is a waste of money, and killing the goose to retrieve the eggs will not last long, so conventional means must be used.

"Fortunately, the natural disasters encountered by the Song Dynasty in the past few years have basically been minor disasters. Even the severe drought in Huainan in the past few years can only be regarded as an upper-middle level. A major disaster that truly affects millions or even tens of millions of people It’s not happening yet.”

"I have been walking in the local area for almost two years since February of last year. In the past two years, I have accumulated a lot of grassroots work experience, learned about the life of the grassroots in the Song Dynasty, and gradually figured out the path to reform."

"The first is taxes. The main taxes are really light, only 5% to 10% of the harvest. But the excessive levies and miscellaneous taxes are ridiculously high. No wonder when I was studying history, Professor Zhang would say, "The Northern Song Dynasty paid heavy taxes, and everyone agreed, but few Objection."

"But it was only through taxation that the Northern Song Dynasty could sustain itself for so long. If tax adjustments and reforms were carried out now, the Song Dynasty might face serious pressure. It seems that when it comes to reducing the burden on farmers, we still have to take it step by step."

"There is a certain truth to the Young Crops Law like Wang Anshi's, but it can only be used as a reference and cannot be fully accepted. There are also Zhang Juzheng's reforms and Yongzheng's reforms, which need to wait until domestic productivity increases before they can be promoted and implemented."

"However, taxation is temporarily unavailable, so we can still reform the civil service first. No wonder Fan Zhongyan wants to reform the civil service first. As expected, we can only understand the reason by going down to the grassroots and looking at the situation."

"As for making money, in the end we have to increase revenue and reduce expenditure to solve the three redundancy problems. In addition, we need to absorb gold and silver from Japan and actively explore overseas markets and expand foreign trade. This is also the path of the Southern Song Dynasty."

"No matter what, I must find a path that belongs to the Song Dynasty. For the farmers of the Song Dynasty, for all Chinese Han people, in order to not have the shame of Jingkang, and in order to let the Han nation stand on top of the world, I must work harder. I must not slack.”

At the end of Xu Shi, it was late at night, and Zhao Jun continued to lie in front of the case, fighting for his ideals.

Thanks to book friend book friend 20180106230604207 for putting forward pertinent opinions on the last two chapters. I have made some modifications, which I personally think are more reasonable. You can go back and take a look. In fact, I forgot to write a paragraph in the last chapter, which was about people selling their children and daughters. As a result, there was not enough foreshadowing, and everyone felt that the protagonist's speech was relatively plain. It was my problem, and it made everyone feel inadequate. In fact, the protagonist has always been a person living in a greenhouse. This period of traveling around the world is also to make up for this shortcoming. Otherwise, relying solely on words will be a castle in the air.

Many friends said that the first stage was not that good. It is true that firstly, I was sick this month and my condition was affected. Secondly, I personally think that the protagonist still needs to go to the countryside for a walk before he can do anything practical, so the plot is slightly lacking.

Thank you all for pointing out the problem. If you have reasonable opinions, I will listen carefully. As for those who directly criticize you, I pretend I didn't see it.