Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 483
Fan Ning only stayed for an hour before bidding farewell to Mingren. He still had to watch the Xiang Army's defensive formation in the afternoon, and he really didn't have time. In the afternoon, Mingren also left Laizhou Port for Quanzhou. Before leaving, Fanning asked for a few Baskets of coconuts and two bunches of freshly ripened bananas for the subordinates to try out.

That night, Fan Ning left Laizhou overnight to return to Tianfu.

Three days later, Fan Ning and his party arrived at Yucheng County, the easternmost part of Yingtian Mansion. It was already noon, and the county seat was still thirty miles away. Fan Ning saw a tea shed by the roadside, and said to a dozen of his subordinates: "Go over there and have something to eat, let's rest for a while."

Everyone got off their horses one after another and led their horses to the tea shed. The shopkeeper of the tea shed immediately greeted him with a smile on his face, "Welcome the guest officer to rest for a while and drink a bowl of hot tea!"

"If you have wine, have an altar first!"

"There is wine, there is my own pear wine, which is famous far and wide, the guest officer should have a good taste!"

The people tied up their horses, went into the tea shed and sat down. The waiter came forward with a jar of wine and poured them wine. According to regulations, wine in rural areas can only be brewed for self-drinking and not sold, but only the capital is strictly controlled, and other places Basically can't control it anymore.

Fan Ning was too lazy to care about this matter, and asked again: "What can I eat?"

"There are minced meat soup cakes, egg soup cakes, meat buns, vegetarian buns, sauced meat, tofu, pancakes wrapped in pickles, mutton pancakes, etc., as well as fresh pears and persimmons."

"Each person has a bowl of minced meat soup cakes, and other meat buns, sauced meat, and mutton pancakes, as many as you want!"

"Guest officer, wait a moment, I will come right away."

Several staff hurriedly went to prepare the dishes. Fan Ning looked around. There were eight or nine tables under the tea shed. They occupied four tables, and the other tables were basically full.

At this time, Fan Ning saw a few businessmen in soap clothes sitting at the table at the far end, and a middle-aged man with a wooden shackle sitting beside him with a sad face.

"Several officials sent brothers, give me a bowl of wine too!" The man with the wooden shackle begged.

"Hmph! You still want to take advantage of us after the lawsuit. Either you pay for our drinks, or shut up!"

"I happen to have no money with me. If I owe a few people first, I will definitely pay it back later."

The leader Tolerance looked at him, then waved: "Bartender, four more bowls of wine!"

The people at the next table discussed in low voices: "What a disaster! Luo Yuanwai has always been honest and timid. If this kind of thing is put on him, he can only admit that he is unlucky."

"That's right! At the beginning, I persuaded him not to be an official, but he didn't listen. He thought he was an official, but ended up getting a lawsuit for nothing."

Fan Ning felt a little strange, so he asked a guest next to him, "Is that middle-aged man Du Baozheng?"

"It's Luo Yuanwai from Shushan Township. The Baojia Law is promoted in the mansion. He became the Dubaozheng."

"Then why would there be a lawsuit?" Fanning asked again.

The guest sneered and said: "Their township owes a lot of taxes, and the county ordered him to pay the taxes within a month. He has a bad reputation. It is said that many farmers ignored him. He's in custody."

Fan Ning frowned, "According to the Baojia Law, if Dubaozheng can't collect taxes, he can hand it over to the county, and the county will send people to the countryside to collect taxes. What does Dubaozheng have to do with it?"

Another old man shook his head, "If you don't understand, don't talk nonsense. Luo Yuanwai's arrest was not about the land tax, but because the miscellaneous fees were too high. He was arrested only after he was sued."

"What other miscellaneous expenses?" Fanning was really puzzled.

The old man saw that Fan Ning was not like an ordinary person, so he shook his head, "I can't say that, if I say it, I will get into trouble, so don't make things difficult for me, officials."

Fan Ning didn't ask any more questions. At this time, the tolerance officer finished his drink and escorted Luo Yuanwai away, and the guests next to him also checked out and left. After a while, only Fan Ning and his four tables were left in the tea shed.

Gongsun Xuance, who was patrolling with Fan Ning, asked in a low voice, "Fu Jun, is something wrong with the Baojia Law?"

Last year, Wang Anshi was going to try out reforms in Yingtianfu, and he received strong support from Zhao Zhongzhen. Although Fan Ning stopped the Green Crop Law, the Baojia Law was still implemented.

The role of the Baojia Law is to ensure the payment of taxes. In the past, the county sent tolerances to the countryside to go door-to-door to collect taxes.

After the implementation of the Baojia Law, Du Baozheng was responsible for collecting taxes. Those who refused to pay the tax were sent by the county to urge them to pay. It is beneficial to taxation, so I agreed.

Fan Ning shook his head, "I don't know, but I feel a little strange. There should be no loopholes in the Baojia Law. You can ask the shopkeeper!"

Gongsun Xuance immediately summoned the shopkeeper and asked him, "What happened to that Luo Yuanwai was arrested just now?"

The shopkeeper was a little embarrassed, and said after a while: "It's a bit complicated here, the officials are not locals, it's best not to inquire, or you will cause trouble."

"You talk about it casually, and we listen to it casually. When we leave this tea shed, we will forget it."

The shopkeeper saw that there were no locals in the tea shed, so he lowered his voice and said, "It's not clear here. When you go to the countryside on business trips, you also need to eat and live, and you also need to subsidize money. These expenses are not borne by the county. They are distributed to the countryside. It’s a lot, but after a year, it’s still a lot of money.”

"That's not right!"

Fan Ning said, "How come the village will bear the expenses for traveling to the countryside? These miscellaneous expenses have always been borne by the county government."

Fan Ning knew that this fee had always been there. Since the government was urging taxes on behalf of the transfer envoy, the transfer envoy would subsidize the local government with a tax collection labor fee every year according to the tax amount, and then the states would distribute it to the counties. It has been there for a long time, and this time the implementation of the Baojia Law does not involve this cost.

The shopkeeper shook his head and said: "Things are not that simple. If there is no benefit, who would want to be the one who protects the integrity? Baoya also has expenses."

Fan Ning understood a little bit. This is a new problem encountered in the Baojia Law. Who will bear the expenses of Baozheng and Dubaozheng?
The provisions promulgated by Wang Anshi clearly stipulated that the expenditure of Dubaozheng should be borne by the county. If the number of days of work in the county is reduced, part of the expenditure should be transferred to the townships and insurances as their funds.

"Could it be that this Luo Yuanwai apportioned the expenses of Baozheng in private, but the amount was too large and he was sued?"

"The amount is huge. I heard that Luo Yuanwai received three hundred yuan a year, which is almost the same amount as a family. But who should get the money is the key. Does the guest understand?"

Fan Ning nodded slowly, he fully understood that the county's anger was not because Luo Yuanwai apportioned miscellaneous expenses to the people without authorization, but that the money was swallowed by Luo Yuanwai, which was the reason why Luo Yuanwai was arrested.

After everyone ate and drank enough, they got on their horses and set off again. Gongsun Xuance asked, "Are you going to the county government office?"

Fan Ning shook his head, "Respond directly to Tianfu."

"Your Majesty doesn't want to take care of this matter?"

"So what if you don't care, so what if you don't care?"

Fan Ning sighed softly and asked, "What do you think is the problem with the Baojia Law?"

Gongsun Xuance thought for a while and said: "The essence of the Baojia Law is to add a yamen at the township level, just like the shopkeeper's name, Baoya, we Yingtianfu may not recognize it, but in the eyes of the people, it is real. exists now."

Fan Ning nodded, "In the past, all kinds of expenditures in the county were allocated from the top, and they were always in short supply. It was called clear soup to cook the county government. Now that there is a Baoya, the county has a way to make money. The result of the reform It means that the revenue of the imperial court has increased, but the people have become more miserable."

"Your Majesty is right. The original intention of the imperial court was not to increase the burden on the people, but when it came to the county, the reform became a way to make money. The income of the county was abundant, and the taxation of the imperial court was guaranteed, but the end result was that the burden on the people was huge. Increase."

"That's right. The essence of the reform is the redistribution of benefits. But if the court can't move the interests of the powerful, where will the court's increased benefits come from? In the end, it is still exploiting the people."

Fan Ning was very emotional. If Wang Anshi carried out reforms in the future, he might become an opposition party himself.

The Song Dynasty practiced strong stems and weak branches. Needless to say, the army, the forbidden army directly belonged to the Sanya, the Xiang army belonged to the appeasement department, and the local government had only a small number of township soldiers.

In terms of finance, the income from rural taxes and taxes belongs to the Transshipment Department, the income from urban commercial taxes and large-scale monopoly sales such as tea and wine goes to the Judiciary, and the state and county government offices have almost no income. Small income to supplement financial resources.

In this way, the imperial court's control over the localities is very firm, which can effectively avoid the recurrence of the local separatism in the late Han Dynasty and the separatism of the Tang Dynasty.

But everything has advantages and disadvantages. It is precisely because of the strong suppression of the imperial court that the local government cannot break through upwards, so it can only look downward for financial resources. However, the system has been stable for a hundred years, and the local government also suffers from no excuse to expand financial resources.

This is the root cause of Wang Anshi's reform that eventually turned into a law that harmed the people. Once the reform is implemented, the local government will find an excuse to exploit the people downward. of destructive power.

Seeing through the essence of the reform, Fan Ning strengthened his belief at this moment. If the Song Dynasty wants to change the situation of being redundant and weak, it must implement a strong army internally and expand and plunder externally. There is no other way. Law.

(End of this chapter)