Qin Official

Like Anlu, in Shaxian, it has long been spread that "Wu Zhonghou wears the white helmet and white armor of the First Emperor".

But compared to the empty slogans that only big figures such as "Jing Nan" care about, the people of Shaxian are watching more and more Anlu immigrants and Wuchang soldiers outside the city with fear, fearing that this huge army and civilians living here will rob They took over their own land, occupied their own houses, and then took away their food, wives and daughters.

Fortunately, although there were some minor conflicts involving soldiers bullying men and women, the military judges under Marquis Wu Zhong dealt with the offending soldiers in a timely manner, and the worst offenders were taken to the middle of the street and beheaded.

Seeing that county soldiers are still maintaining order on the streets, this is undoubtedly telling the people of Shaxian:

"Although the sky has changed, the king's law remains!"

The people used to dislike Qin's harsh laws, but now they just hope that this "rebel army" can still be restrained by laws.

A chaotic world without rules is a hundred times crueler than an orderly tyranny.

In mid-March, a motorcade left the county temple and paraded around the county seat.

"Second and third sons, please listen carefully. This is what Marquis Wu Zhong said personally. It concerns your food, clothing, and warmth!"

Someone in the car was beating a gong. When the people were almost gathered, several Confucian scholars from Chu under Lu Jia coughed and read "Wuzhong Hou's Letter to the People":

"Since the beginning of the 30th year, the imperial court's taxation has increased day by day, and it has collected more than half of the tax. The people have been miserable. Marquis Wu Zhong tried to persuade him several times. The first emperor originally wanted to change things, but the traitorous officials were greedy for their own profits and ignored the people's livelihood. They killed the emperor and usurped the throne. Want to change it.”

"Shang Jun once said that you can strengthen the country without following the law; you can benefit the people without following the etiquette. There is no immutable law in the world. Now Wu Zhonghou wants to stir up chaos and reverse the law. The law of taxation is from Anlu and Sha Xian are the first in the world! From today on, the tax fields are only the May Day of Yu fields..."

The crowd stretched their necks and listened with widened eyes, but there was no response for a while. After a while, an old man shouted:

"Young man, can you speak human language?"

Everyone laughed, the Confucian scholar looked embarrassed, Lu Jia chewed his bald pen several times and came up with allusions, such as the words of the Shang Lord, and how to bring order out of chaos, but the head of Guizhou could not understand.

Fortunately, Heifu had anticipated this, and the five hundred masters beside him, Sha Xianrenxing, immediately intervened and chatted with the fellow villagers in the local dialect.

"Husband, how much rent did you pay last year?"

The old man had no worries when yelling at the Confucian scholars in the car. At this moment, he looked at Xing's armor and shrank back, not wanting to stand out.

Confucian scholars only have mouths, but soldiers have spears and swords.

However, the old woman next to him was very bold and interjected: "My family is a public official, and the land is outside the city. We have a total of one hundred acres of land, of which fifty acres are classified as tax fields. Each acre produces two stones of rice. What do you think my family is? How much did you pay?”

A simple math problem, this is also the way the Qin Dynasty paid land rent.

The land registered by each household in the government's "Field Rental Registration" is called "yutian". According to the tax rate required by the court this year, such as the eleven tax, ten acres of the hundred acres of Yutian will be divided into "yutian". It is a tax field. When the autumn harvest is completed in August or September, the harvest of these ten acres of land will be handed over to the government.

But the tithe tax will always exist only in the ideals described by various schools of thought.

The Qin Dynasty had so many major projects and conquests, especially the Southern Expedition. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians had to eat, and the tithe tax was completely unsatisfactory, so the tax rate for land rent was higher every year.

In Shaxian, this year's taxed land ratio has accounted for half of Yu's land, which is equivalent to half of the annual harvest, and all the land rent has been paid! The food left in the fields is only enough for the poor to barely survive. It's okay to eat, but it's basically impossible to save.

To make matters worse, the local government often encounters difficulties in cash flow and imposes additional oral taxes. Of course, the poor have no money to pay, so they owe the government money and food. They can only accept the imposed bonds with a grimace and do more hard labor. repay.

Later generations said that Qin's tax revenue was "twenty times that of ancient taxes, which collected most of the taxes." This was probably the case. High land rents, oral taxes, and heavy corvee labor were the most criticized aspects of Qin's government.

"The same goes for Anlu."

Sha Xian was afraid and dared not speak out, but the people from Anlu knew everything and said:

“When we first encountered bad years and bad harvests, we could pay less and delay the payment of land rent, but now we don’t care about it.”

"I heard that since Lord Xi of Anlu was sentenced to move far away, local officials no longer dared to say no to the laws that were tampered with by traitors. They were all happy to use punishment and death as a threat, and the court also used good deeds to force the people to collect taxes. Those who are good officials but do not pay enough will be regarded as mediocre officials and will be sent to Lingnan."

For a time, the small streets of Shaxian became a gathering of complaints, and the people were very dissatisfied with the heavy land rent imposed by the imperial court.

"it's good now!"

Xingzhen raised his arms and shouted: "Wu Zhonghou is in charge of the affairs of the south. From this year on, the land rent in Anlu and Shaxian will only be charged on May 1st! One-fifth! One hundred acres of land, only twenty acres of tax land. The rest of the grain produced can be kept by the people themselves."

"In addition, the people previously owed money and bonds to the government due to insufficient payment of oral taxes, and all of them were handed over to the county. Marquis Wu Zhong said that no matter how much they owe, they will all be written off!"

Now, even the illiterate Guizhou people on the street understand. I heard that the rent has been reduced and all past debts will not be counted. Who would be unhappy? They all smiled broadly, but still asked suspiciously:

"really?"

"If it's true, let's ask Marquis Wu Zhong!"

Following Xing's pointing direction, everyone turned around and saw Wu Zhonghou standing on the city wall, bowing to Anlu and Sha Xian, his voice full of anger.

"I am also the son of the head of Guizhou, and I know the suffering of the common people."

"From today on, all counties and counties that surrender to the rebels will only charge 51% for their land rent. We will never break our promise!"

"When we successfully pacify the situation and bring order to the chaos, land rents and oral taxes in not just Anlu and Shaxian, not just the south, but all over the world will be reduced even lower, even less!"

…

The people of Anlu only obey Heifu's orders and believe whatever he says. Marquis Wu Zhong is the savior of the people of Anlu, how can he still deceive the township party?

But for the Shaxian people, even if Heifu came forward to vouch for the promise, not many people believed that Wu Zhonghou's "new government" would fulfill its promise.

After all, rent collection is a matter of August or September. I don’t know what will happen then.

It wasn't until two things happened that Sha Xian changed his attitude.

First, some poor Guizhou leaders doubtfully sent the bonds owed to the government to the county temple. Wu Zhonghouzhen threw them into the fire outside the door and burned them!

At this time, similar bonds were sent like pieces of paper, and they were all burned, so a scene similar to Mengchang's burning of bonds and justice occurred:

Everyone who came was worshiped, and for a few years he could not even pay his dues. The gangster, who was about to become a permanent prisoner, shouted:

"Wuzhonghou Longevity!"

"Long live the king!"

The shouts were uneven, and because they were unorganized, they were quickly lost among other voices.

But the official Sha Xian who was in charge of the matter still heard it. Sha Xian asked Ji Ying a little uneasily: "Lieutenant Ji, I'm afraid it's not appropriate for him to shout like that..."

"People can shout whatever they want. There is nothing wrong with that."

Ji Ying smiled brightly. Lu Jia came up with this plan. It was a plan to burn useless bonds and make donations that were unobtainable, so that the people of Shaxian would be close to the emperor, and the good voice of the rebel army would be made public.

He looked up and down at Sha Xianling, who had worked hard for the past two days, and said, "By the way, the Lord also asked me to borrow something from the county magistrate."

Sha Xianling said submissively: "What is it?"

"The county prince's head is on his head!"

…

Sha Xianling's head is a bit heavy.

This was the second thing that made Sha Xian people begin to believe in the promise of the "new government": Sha Xian Ling, who was very good at collecting taxes and rent, and had forced many people to death, was actually dragged to the entrance of the market in official uniform. After beheading, Wu Zhonghou's men still carried the bloody head for everyone to see.

"The treacherous minister took advantage of your majesty's prolonged illness to control the government. He regarded those who taxed the people deeply as good officials and those who killed many people as loyal ministers. Sha Xian ordered him to be promoted to an official position, but he blindly oppressed the people, supervised and supervised too hard, and committed the five mistakes of an official. The people of Shaxian are deprived of life, the gangsters in Guizhou are freezing and starving, and the number of dead is unknown. The crime deserves death!"

The onlookers all clapped and cheered, and the cheers were louder than when they heard that the rent could be reduced. Their joy was almost the same as when they burned the coupons.

After all, one thing can only be revealed in August or September, but the other thing happened right under your nose and cannot be faked.

But with the last two things as the foreshadowing, the people of Shaxian were already seventy-eight percent convinced of the rent reduction.

Heifu looked at this scene from the tower with a sad expression.

"Sha Xianling is still pretty good. Although he did a lot of things that were a help to others during his tenure as an official, in order to survive these days, he has done everything he can to do everything I arranged. It's a pity to be beheaded like this..."

But there is no way. The local harsh government has been implemented for a long time. Since Heifu keeps saying that he wants to "bring order to chaos," someone must come forward to take the blame for "chaos."

The county magistrate, the lieutenant, the prime minister, the first, second, and third leaders, choose the one with the greatest public anger to take the blame. Anyway, they are all officials in other places, and they have long been hated by the locals.

In this way, the pent-up public anger in the past can be calmed down, and the remaining two chief officials will be more respectful after the death of the rabbit and the fox. Heifu will appoint another military official to take the place of the missing one, and the local order can be maintained.

If you kill one person and make the people happy, then kill him!

"Executing officials, reducing rents, and burning coupons, these three things can be replicated south of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, or even anywhere in the world, and they can be replicated time and time again!"

These are the three axes Heifu uses to win over the people.

Although Heifu always talks about "I am a farmer's son" recently, it is no lie. He has indeed taken advantage of his own background to step into the perspective of the common people and carefully study their likes and dislikes.

We should not just copy the experience of later generations. We should "attack the local tyrants and divide their fields" and carry out "land reform". We should analyze specific problems in detail.

The main contradiction in the Qin Dynasty was the contradiction between the government and the people, the contradiction between the court's heavy rents, heavy taxes, heavy corvee and the people's desire to recuperate.

In the Jiangnan area, there is an abundance of land but a shortage of people. There are basically no local tyrants and evil gentry. The people in Guizhou are not as eager for land as they are in Guanzhong and Shandong. Dividing land is of little use. Reducing rents and burning coupons are the right remedies.

Heifu has finalized a clever plan to win public support for the long term in the future. Lu Jia was full of praise for this, but Wu Chen still kindly reminded:

"Your Majesty, although these changes are benevolent and righteous, and they are well received by the people, they cannot be exchanged for food..."

Sha Xian's remaining food was only enough for the army and the people for eight days.

Hei Fu seemed to have just remembered this matter: "Yes, these are more likely to be for the long term and cannot solve the urgent needs. Those poor households in the head of Guizhou who really benefited are also very poor. Even if they want to live in poverty, they have no money. A grain of extra grain.”

"Of course, your Majesty has a clever plan?"

Heifu suddenly asked Wu Chen a question: "How much is the reputation of the court worth?"

Wu Chen was somewhat educated and knew the allusion of Shang Yang's move of wood to establish trust, so he said: "Shang Jun was worth a hundred gold at that time, but now..."

He shook his head and said: "It's worthless!"

If the credibility of the imperial court was still useful, there would be no soldiers from the Southern Expedition Army following Heifu in rebellion.

Heifu pointed at himself: "Then, how much is my reputation as Marquis Wu Zhong worth?"

Wu Chen flattered him and said, "The promise made by the king is worth a thousand pieces of gold!"

Hei Fu laughed and said, "Boy, don't flatter me. My reputation is not worth a thousand pieces of gold at all. It is worth thirty shi of grain at most. But with the reduction of rent, burning of coupons, and execution of officials, my credibility has increased to fifty." It’s a waste of food…”

He picked up a brand new deed, which was a very common evidence of transactions and loans in the Qin Dynasty.

"The bonds owed by the people to the old government have been cancelled. Now, it is the turn of the new government to borrow food from the people, Wu Chen."

"promise!"

"Let Xing find all the rich people in Shaxian County who have a household income of more than 100,000 yuan according to the household records. I will entertain them and let each family borrow fifty dan of grain. For the middle family, each family will borrow thirty dan of grain, and I will personally stamp it and issue an IOU to them!"

Wu Chen was stunned for a moment and understood what Hei Fu meant, but hesitantly said: "But Lord, Sha Xian is short of people and has little food. Even if rich and middle-class people are willing to borrow food, they can only get together ten thousand shi of rice. Enough for the soldiers and civilians to feed them for three to five days..."

Heifu shook his head: "Of course I know, this is just to relieve an urgent need, so that our army can save a few days of food and go elsewhere."

Wu Chen was overjoyed: "Other places, where do you want your soldiers to go?"

"There are many places to go, but the most important thing is only one place..."

"There is food and people there. Not only does it have the right location to dominate the situation in Jianghan, but it also has the position to call on the world to gather and respond!"

"That is the old capital of Chu State and the capital of Nanjun!"

Heifu looked to the west, towards the upper reaches of the river: "Gangling!". m.