Three Kingdoms

In Pingyang Mansion, Fei Qian looked at the civil servants and military generals gathered together in the main hall, and seemed to be in a trance for a few seconds.

Once upon a time, I led three to five hundred soldiers and relied on some small tricks to grab a piece of territory in Pingyang, Bingzhou. Now more than three years have passed in the blink of an eye...

Now in the hall, not only are these civil servants and generals gathered, but more importantly, in the area of ​​​​Pingyang, from scratch, from a few to a large number, now a large number of people have settled. These people are Fei Qian himself. The most important foundation at present.

All the way back from Diaoyin, I saw a busy and warm scene, which made Fei Qian feel very comfortable.

For the people under the rule now, perhaps this is the beginning of hope for the year, and it is also the most energetic time of the year. Green seedlings begin to mature and grow quickly under suitable temperatures, and it seems that the changes in the crops can be felt every day. , and at this time point, there will be no conquest of various corvee labor. In addition, under the rule of Fei Qian, including Pingyang, many of the hard labor was shared by the captured Hu people...

Taxes are low and corvees are light. Although the proportion of land rent is relatively large, it will be reduced by 50% after five years of continuous farming. After ten years, the farmed land can be obtained. This is for farmers who have never had a foothold. It is undoubtedly a hopeful thing.

In addition to these farmers, there were many people under Fei Qian who fought with Fei Qian and were injured on the battlefield. However, fortunately, they did not die from their injuries. Either because of their health or their age, they could no longer go to the battlefield. After that, they were replaced by some low-level local officials based on their merits. After all, these people knew a few words and numbers in the military, so they had no problem dealing with some superficial civil affairs.

Of course there will not be too many people like this, only about a hundred or so, but it is enough to become a model for ordinary soldiers, to become that so-and-so in other people's families...

Of course, there are even more soldiers who died in battle or were injured and died. In addition to being recorded under the heroic monument, these people can enjoy the incense offerings that the Han Dynasty people attached great importance to, and their families can also receive a pension. , the most important thing is that the county government can also provide an ordinary position or an errand, so that these families can continue.

This is enough.

Ordinary people are always easily satisfied. If you can come back alive, you are lucky. If you are not disabled, you are lucky. If there are no injuries at all, or just flesh and blood injuries, and you can even bring some trophies, then it is a blessing to the ancestral graves. There is smoke, but unfortunately, if you die on the battlefield, your family will be taken care of by the government. For soldiers, there is nothing more reassuring than this.

And Feiqian is also preparing to promote an initiative...

In the hall, looking at the civil servants and generals who looked a little beaming on the left and right, he said slowly: "...Common generals and generals in the army will be awarded fields according to the law according to their merits this winter!"

As soon as these words came out, the civil servants and generals sitting down were a little surprised.

The great righteousness of supporting the country could hold its own among the nobles, but it could not arouse the resonance of many common people. For ordinary people who work hard every day, maybe they will be happy and proud when Feiqian becomes stronger, but when these exciting emotions recede like waves, these people still have to face day after day. Working, you still have to worry about one meal at a time.

Passion is only a momentary thing, but hard work is a lifelong thing. It is obviously unrealistic to want the people to shout slogans every day, and then forget all the bad realities and endure all oppression and exploitation. Even if it is only for a moment, It works, but sooner or later something will go wrong.

In the early Han Dynasty, there were also land grants. According to Han law and the title system left by the Qin Dynasty at that time, from ninety-five hectares of Guanneihou down to one and a half hectares of public servants, the same for public soldiers, soldiers, and common people. They are all one acre, but this law was not implemented well at the beginning. As time goes by, this law becomes more and more unfeasible. From the beginning, the number of acres of land was reduced, and eventually it became two hands. The stall is gone...

Coupled with the subsequent land annexation of the Han Dynasty, the public land controlled by the imperial court became increasingly scarce. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, even before the period of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, there was no land left for rewards...

However, Fei Qian now has a lot of land. Not counting the Pingyang area, just taking out the Yinshan area to distribute it can also have a lot of quantity.

Nowadays, the number of soldiers following Fei Qian in the war has gradually expanded. Even not counting the recruited Huqi, there are nearly ten thousand people. And behind these ten thousand people, one person is a family. Although more than ten thousand households do not represent the people under Fei Qian's rule, The entire population, but involved in all aspects, so many people naturally became the most direct basis for supporting Fei Qian.

Zao Zhi was the first to express his agreement. As someone who basically deals with farmers all day long, he knew how much farmers longed for land, so he happily said: "This is a great kindness for the Lord!"

The rest of the people present also agreed, because they actually knew that although Fei Qian only mentioned ordinary soldiers, how could he be missing the number of people present?

So everyone was inevitably a little happy and praised him one after another.

So the first civil affairs matter was finalized, and it went extremely smoothly...

However, Fei Qian knew that conferring farmland was not a good thing.

Once land can be bought and sold, it is like opening Pandora's box, and many things will fly out.

But it is unrealistic to ban land sales.

It's like in later generations, while leaving a huge back door, it is covered with the so-called "circulation", "renting", "use" and other words, but in essence it is just like "transfer in place", it is still a kind of A euphemistic deal...

If it were now stipulated that land sales were not allowed in the Han Dynasty, first of all, not to mention whether the gentry would riot as a whole, but whether they would lose their enthusiasm and initiative for production is a very serious problem.

A regime that uses force to maintain social stability will sooner or later run into problems. If it wants long-term peace and stability, it must grab the throat of the ruled class below and then put a rope around it, so that it can command and control the ruled class. .

For the Han Dynasty, or for most feudal dynasties, what was the most important magic weapon?

It's the land.

The more land controlled by the imperial power, the greater the authority of the imperial power, and the more land controlled by the powerful families in various places, the greater the power of the aristocratic families. If it is still handled according to the current system, the land that has been dispersed will be granted. , sooner or later it will be disrupted again and gathered into the hands of the big clan, then the old routine from peace to chaos will be repeated again and again...

So how to control, or prevent, or regulate such a situation?

In fact, Fei Qian also had a headache, but he had to face it.

This is a big project, and it is also a structure that must be gradually established at this stage. Otherwise, when the gentry gradually invades and takes control of the countryside, if they want to make any changes, it will increase the difficulty and bring difficulties. cause unnecessary trouble.

However, Fei Qian knew that there was a ready-made regulation that he seemed to be able to use for reference...

"From the beginning of this year, all taxable taxes will be calculated based on acres of land, and no additional taxes will be levied or calculated..." Fei Qian looked around and said slowly, "...what do you think?"

"Excuse me. Count, this... I'm afraid it will reduce a lot of taxes..." Du Yuan squinted and began to estimate how much impact it would have if the oral taxes were reduced. For him, after all, he manages the logistics of Pingyang and even the entire Bingbei region, so he naturally knows the things about Koufu the best...

There were mainly three types of taxes in the Han Dynasty: land tax, also called local tax; suan tax, or oral tax; and then corvée, also called sergeance or force tax.

Among them, the land tax is very low, only one thirty-year tax, and the higher one is only one-fifteenth. The additional plough tax collected is only 55 yuan per hectare in the new year. It can be said to be the lowest land tax in ancient times, but in comparison, The poll tax in the Han Dynasty and other taxes calculated from the regular service were relatively heavy, especially now.

For a normal farmer's family, in addition to the "household tax" of 200 yuan per household, each adult man also needs to pay another 300 yuan in "gengfu" every year. This is just the price of a "garrison soldier", that is, In lieu of paying for duty at the border, if you want to spend money to be exempted from serving as a "regular soldier", you have to pay 2,000 yuan. Moreover, Han law also stipulates that this responsibility, even if you are disabled or old and weak, such a project will not There is no way to avoid it, so "let's stop and come out".

In terms of population tax, at the beginning, children under the age of fourteen, regardless of gender, had to pay a tax of 23 years ago every year. Of these 23 dollars, 3 dollars went to Da Sima as special military expenditures, and the remaining 20 dollars It is returned to the Shaofu, that is, the emperor for use. The adult population tax needs to be paid until the age of 56. Each person pays 120 yuan per year. Merchants and slaves double the tax. The adult population tax all belongs to Dasinong. To manage.

Such a population tax made many farmers unable to have children, and even deliberately killed their children, causing many human tragedies. This extreme situation attracted the attention of the Han Dynasty, and it was finally changed from 7 Collection begins at the end of the year...

In order to collect more population taxes, and also to encourage childbirth, if a woman reaches the age of 15 and is not married, she must start to collect heavy taxes, which will be increased every three years, up to five times. In other words, in the Han Dynasty, women who wanted to upgrade To become the highest level of "Dead Man", the first condition for a family is to have enough money, otherwise the first level of "Leftover Fighter" alone is enough to collapse an ordinary family...

Of course, there are also rewards. If a woman becomes pregnant, her husband will be exempted from the tax for one year.

Even so, the taxes collected still could not meet the huge expenditure, so the so-called "donation fee" was added later, which is a tacit understanding that all people in the world are self-sacrificing, so every adult man and woman pays a tax every year An additional 63 qian was to be "dedicated" to the emperor for his court expenses.

Secondly, local corvee labor is also the heaviest burden on farmers.

Every male registered in the household who is over the age of seventeen must serve one month of unpaid labor in the place of household registration every year, engaged in civil engineering, building bridges and roads, managing rivers, transporting grain and grass, and other infrastructure or labor.

The collection of corvee is limited to thirty days, but as long as the quality of the project is not up to standard, it needs to be reworked. This time is called "not counted as corvée", that is, it is not counted in the fixed service period, so in practice, the time of corvee Often it takes more than a month...

Under Fei Qian's rule, it was an exception.

Why do farmers in Pingyang think that Fei Qian is very good and a good official, and will even come to greet Fei Qian's return on his own initiative? One of the important reasons is that many of the local corvee laborers are captured Xianbei people. Instead, the burden on farmers near Pingyang was reduced, so there was basically no phenomenon of farmers fleeing due to corvee labor.

Although Han law strictly prohibits the appearance of refugees, whether it is a county guard or a county magistrate, as long as a refugee appears under the rule, he will be punished with a serious crime, but the problem of refugees has been repeatedly banned, and it is also a major problem that currently plagues the Han Dynasty regime...

"It may be feasible to avoid talking and counting..." Xun Chen nodded and said, "...if the gift of words is reduced, we can use it to recruit people, and we can gather people from the surrounding areas...If we remove the calculation, we should facilitate business and promote people's livelihood. also……"

Linghu Shao and Wei Liu on the side also nodded in agreement.

The newly joined Jia Xu silently looked at his nose and mouth, making it clear that you can do whatever you want and I don't have any objections...

In the Han Dynasty, refugees were often given preferential treatment by exempting them from oral tax, serving more people, etc., and then attracting them to resettle. Therefore, everyone including Xun Chen was no stranger to such measures. As for Suan Min, it was more aimed at Che. , ship owners, that is, the fuel surcharge in later generations is only a tax on people above the middle class, and it is also a measure that can promote commerce.

Taxing cars and boats was an initiative of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

The fuel surcharge in later generations was more or less a civilized grab for money, and only consumption was done if you had a driver. However, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was a more shameless plunder. As long as there were cars, boats, livestock, and slaves at home, they had to be taxed, regardless of whether they had them or not. All users must pay taxes. Those who do not pay taxes or pay less taxes are allowed to report to each other among the people, and a complaint order is issued. Those who complain will be rewarded with half of the property found. As a result, the effect is naturally quite ideal...

In fact, the most important impact of this incident was that it weakened the development of many middle classes in the Han Dynasty, leading to the entire Han Dynasty eventually making great strides towards extreme polarization.

Regarding these matters, the gentry like Zaozhi, Xunchen, Jia Xu, and even Du Yuan, Wei Liu, Linghu Shao, etc., who are more or less familiar with people's livelihood and political affairs, can understand it to a certain extent, but as for Huang Xu and Zhang Liao on the side , but they seemed to understand somewhat, and were a little confused, so they didn’t have any opinions...

Fei Qian looked at Xun Chen and others, knowing that these people probably regarded what he just said as a temporary measure to attract refugees, so he coughed twice and emphasized: "Everyone , the meaning is not to exempt the oral tax and calculate the net for a while, but from this year onwards, it will never be levied!"

Jia Xu, who originally looked like a wooden sculpture, suddenly raised his head, his eyes that were originally narrowed into a line widened, staring straight at Fei Qian.

But no one noticed Jia Xu's strange behavior, because other people also looked surprised and found it incredible...

ah?

Permanent exemption?

Everyone in the hall looked at each other.

This is easier said than done. Not to mention the resulting reduction in tax revenue. If it continues to be implemented and then goes back on its word because there is not enough money to spend, the credibility that has been built up with great difficulty will completely collapse...

Could this Fei Qian be confused because he just became Marquis of Pingyang?