A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 663: I haven’t seen anything like this in many years.

"The fish scale book records the location, size, shape, upper, middle and lower fields of the land, etc., and the yellow book records the number of people registered in the household. These two volumes were combined to compile a complete book of taxes and servitude.

The tax collection book details the original amount of the two taxes, the number of cultivated acres, etc. When collecting, it mainly consists of three parts. The payment method is an easy-to-know receipt, the tax payment method is self-payment, and the tax payment voucher is a triple-printed stamp. "

Longqiao County Government,

The newly moved house was relatively simple, but the prime minister was personally in charge, and there were [-] guards from the Beiya Imperial Army standing guard outside, making the small courtyard immediately look majestic.

Kill pigs and sheep, steam buns and cook noodles,

The Lingshi who came from Chang'an and the local county officials were all very happy. Mutton soup, meat dumplings, and guillotine noodles were rare and abundant.

Wu Huaiyu sat at the same table with Fatty, Liu Rengui, Zhao Renben, the county chief, the county lieutenant, and several captains of the Forbidden Army. The conditions were limited, and everyone was not so particular.

Huaiyu told everyone at the dinner table about the entire process of tax collection in Sanyuan County, from checking the household registration, property, and land acres, to compiling a complete book of taxes and servitude, and then issuing tax payment notices "Yi Yi" to the people. "Zhiyudan" allows the people to turn it in by themselves to avoid corruption and deductions by subordinate officials in the middle section.

Sanyuan County will set up a collection point in each township to collect taxes twice a year in summer and autumn.

The yamen fills in the easy-to-know instructions in advance for the taxes that the people have to pay, detailing the tax rate, money and grain payable, etc., and distributes it to the people. After the households have paid the taxes according to the limit, they will issue cut-off checks. When the money and grain are put into the treasury, the government Also fill in the printed book and submit it to the department at the end of the year.

The bill is a triple-printed bill, with the ticket stub, check limit and household license respectively written on it. One is kept for record, one is paid to the servant for payment, and the other is given to the household for collection. The stamp is stamped diagonally between the bills. "

Zhao Lushi couldn't help but ask, "Ms. sir, from now on people will really pay their own taxes to each household and not care about anything else?"

"Well, taxing neighbors is a very harmful policy. We can't tax for convenience, nor can we just focus on completing our tax collection tasks, so we can tie five or ten households together and let them work together. Tax paid.”

It is very common for the yamen tax collection to be tied to the collection of one guarantee and one mile. Five households have one guarantee. If one household fails to pay in full, the other four households must make up the payment.There are a total of [-] insurances for a hundred households in an area. If one or several insurances are not completed, other insured households will also have to contribute.

Why does this kind of payment method appear? Naturally, it is because many people do not pay in full. The officials' payment is linked to the official's performance. If the unpaid payment reaches [-]%, the state and county officials will lose the opportunity for promotion and be fined [-]%. Year.The higher the debt, the more severe the penalty.

If it reaches 50.00%, you will be dismissed directly, and the collection will be linked to your own black hat, so everyone will naturally be active.For the subordinates, this is also the first major task, and it is related to their own wealth, so they must go all out.

Therefore, it has become a routine method to bind five or ten households to collect taxes. If some people really cannot pay, they will ask their neighbors to pay. In short, we must find a way to raise the tax. As for who pays more and who pays less in the end It's not important. What's important is that the collection is completed.

Wu Huaiyu is not allowed to tie people up like this now, nor is he allowed to arrange big households to be grain chiefs or supervisors, otherwise the common people will have to be deducted again.
Directly ask each household to go to the township to pay taxes, take the stamped notice tax bill, just pay according to the bill, and then get a receipt to save it after paying.

"If the collection is not completed, will the officials be punished?"

"Punishments are of course still necessary," Wu Huaiyu said. The previous punishments were quite severe. If you owed one-tenth of the amount, you would lose your chance of promotion and pay the fine. It was a bit high, and the punishment could be lowered, but it must be included in the assessment.

"We are now trialling a new law. In the past, those who often failed to pay were mostly landless people, or people with very little land. Now we include landless people as customers, and we only levy household tax, not land tax or free warehouse tax. Grain, the difficulty is greatly reduced, not to mention that even for common people with a lot of land, the ninth-class households and the ninth-class households are levied two taxes, and the tax burden is greatly reduced. They are all within a reasonable burden, and the taxes can be paid..."

"Ms. sir, the people pay taxes to the township, and the land tax goes from the township to the prefecture and county for storage. How do we do this transportation?"

"In addition to renting and transferring, don't the common people also have the responsibility to serve? For the transportation of grain, it is natural to recruit a group of strong men to serve in transportation,"

Every strong man had to serve 20 days of free national labor a year. In prefectures and counties, he usually served as corvee. If he did not serve for enough days, he had to break the silk and turn it in and call it Yong.If the number of days exceeds the limit, the rent can be reduced.

Transporting food is not too difficult, just organize some strong villagers to transport it.

"Our Sanyuan County pilot project is at the forefront of the world. In many places, we still have to cross the river by feeling the stones, and we must be cautious at every step.
I propose that a working group be formed. A working group consists of a county official, a township official, a student from the county school, and a military official from the Chang'an Ministry. A working group,
The zoning department is responsible for leading the villagers to conduct an inventory of the registered household population, land acres, property, etc.,"

This working group is composed of people from different units, coupled with four villagers recruited to help run errands. The most important thing is to supervise each other.

Even after the first pass, the working group has to be changed and checked again.

At the same time, after the first draft of the fish scale book and yellow book is released, it must be publicized in the countryside. If the people think it is untrue, they can appeal for revision or report.

After the public announcement is correct, the official draft will be compiled and a complete book of taxes and levies will be compiled. Then tax reminders will be issued based on this. When the people get the list, they can compare their own situation. If they are correct, they will pay taxes accordingly. After paying the taxes, they will also have to go to the Yamen. After stamping, if the collection does not match, or the number on the receipt is wrong, you can go to the Yamen to deal with it to prevent subordinate officials from committing corruption.

Each working group will be included in the assessment and rating based on the amount of taxes they have completed, etc. Those who owe too much, have a bad attitude, cause too many conflicts, etc. will all need negative reviews.Today's meal includes steamed pork and mutton cakes with noodle soup, which is very generous and polite. However, the rules have been issued. Now it's time for everyone to work hard. If anyone is ineffective or breaks the rules, you won't be polite.

And it would be very difficult for a working group composed of many people to do whatever they wanted to do as they did before.

In particular, the repeated public notices, easy-to-know instructions, triplicate lists, etc. must be stamped and filed, making it much more difficult to mess around.

After a hearty meal, Wu Huaiyu held another mobilization meeting. If he did well, he would be rewarded, and even subordinate officials would have the opportunity to join the ranks. If he did not do well, he would be fined, dismissed, or even directly exiled if he committed a serious crime. In the border areas, family property was even confiscated and the whole family was exiled.

After dinner.

The originally relaxed atmosphere became a little tense.

Doctors of Confucianism and Medicine from the county school came to see Wu Huaiyu and felt that it was not appropriate to recruit their students to the working group.

"There are 60 economics and medical students in Sanyuan County. These students enjoy the preferential treatment of the imperial court, which exempts them from school service and provides them with food and shelter. Now they are asked to do something for the imperial court. What is there to refuse?
Just practice it in advance and learn something other than classics and medicine, which is also good for them, and it doesn't take up too much time. "

"If we requisition them, we will also give them wages, food and subsidies, and they can learn and make money at the same time. Isn't it great? If these students perform well, they will also have the qualifications to be selected as officials in the Yamen in the future. , and it’s good for them.”

In the Tang Dynasty, local official schools only had students who studied Confucian classics. Later, Wu Huaiyu suggested that the court add medical doctors, medical assistants and medical students to strengthen local medical education and treatment, especially in the face of plague and other infectious diseases. In terms of prevention and treatment, even one of these medical students can become a reserve military doctor to prepare for the war.

And now, at the state level, Chongyuanxue and Buddhist and Taoist students have also been added.

In the central government, there are also some technical students, such as arithmetic, law, calligraphy, etc.

Last year, the local county medical school added ten veterinary students in addition to the twenty medical students.

These officers and students are treated very well, and are even exempted from school duties, and are provided with food and accommodation, and even clothing.Their status is to be preparatory cadres. They are good at reading and can study in the Imperial College and even take the imperial examination as apprentices.

And if their grades are not particularly outstanding, many students can also become subordinate officials of the government.

After Wu Huaiyu said something, he proposed to increase funding for the economics school and medical school in Sanyuan County, and even build two new schools for them in Longqiao New County. He immediately asked these two ninth-grade Ph.D. The principal was satisfied.

Several Cao Zuo in the Yamen gathered together.
"Everyone, what do you think?"

A very senior Si Gongzuo among the county's officials spoke first.

"I think we are serious this time. Let's cooperate obediently. We should take back the household registration, property and land forms that we handed in before and fill them out again.

Mr. Wu is not easy to fool, so don't bump into him at this juncture. Look at the three hundred Bei Ya forbidden troops outside, how murderous they are. "One of Hucao's si Huzuo also said immediately.

There are five officials in the county and 21 assistants. They also have forty officials under them, all of whom are officials from Sanyuan. Many of them are hereditary officials. The official assistant has a gray beard and hair, although he is not a high-ranking official. Wearing a crimson official uniform, he had a high prestige in the government office. He had been working as an official in the Sanyuan County government office during the Sui Dynasty.

Even when Li Jing was the magistrate of Sanyuan County, he was already an old official in the county.

If a person can stay in the county for decades, he is really familiar with all aspects. There are his disciples and disciples everywhere. In many cases, he can speak better than the county magistrate.
And he has always had a good relationship with the Li family.

"I haven't seen anything like this in many years," Lao Si Gongzuo sighed.

He has served as a county magistrate for several years, and he has experienced more than a dozen terms. He is a smooth county magistrate and an iron-clad veteran, but this time he also admitted that he was timid.

The dignified prime minister was personally in charge, and he also brought with him a fifth-rank admonishment official, a sixth-rank household member Wai Lang, dozens of provincial commanders, and [-] Beiya imperial guards.

Seeing that the other Cao Zuo were all cowed, the veteran Cao Cao also wanted to quit.

Sighing, he walked out of the door. Originally, this year was the old Gongcao's first year in the Yamen, and he would also celebrate his seventieth birthday. He was still quite strong, but now he still walked into the office of the county magistrate Zhao Renben.
"In the Ming Dynasty, my subordinates are old and sick, so I have no choice but to resign from the Ming Dynasty."

(End of this chapter)