I served as an admonisher in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 225: Harvesting the imperial court, loopholes in the immunity law

Women's affairs still have to be resolved by women.

After Tang Wanmei took over as the president of Jingming Society, no member of Jingming Society had any trouble for several days.

No one gathered in the teahouse, and those who heard insults to Su Liang came out to scold him.

They chose to protect Su Jingming silently.

Bao Zheng couldn't help but sigh: Jingming is so lucky!

……

On the first day of June, the Reform Department officially promulgated the exemption law.

Servant, that is, corvee.

It is compulsory unpaid labor given by the imperial court to the people, such as: building cities, paving roads, digging canals, planting trees, defending villages, etc.

Throughout the dynasties, corvee and taxation have always been two big mountains that weighed on the people.

The rulers of every dynasty would shout the slogan of "light corvee and small tax", but few could actually achieve it.

The exemption law implemented in the entire Song Dynasty this time is different from the exemption law in Qizhou.

First of all, the imperial court issued several decrees to reduce the types of corvee labor, and as much as possible, local soldiers were responsible for the labor tasks in various places to reduce the burden on the people.

Secondly, nearly [-]% of the people who enjoy immunity from military service have been cancelled.

Then, the state, prefecture, and county governments paid to hire people to serve, and the required funds were allocated according to household level (similar to the current tax, those with more money will be taxed more).

In addition, consider the situation of some poor tenant farmers.

The court also set up two options: you can pay tax-free money; you can also pay no money and still serve.

The people can choose whichever they think is suitable.

No local official can enforce the collection of free money.

This law was intended to liberate the people from tedious labor, which would not only allow the people to have more time to do their own things, but also increase the revenue of the national treasury.

The pros and cons of the immunity method and the young crop method are almost the same.

It benefited the court and the people, but it harmed the interests of many bureaucratic landlords who had the privilege of being exempted from service.

However, the current bureaucracy is so submissive that it dares not speak loudly because officials have been tested in [-]-day examinations.

The landlord class is almost symbiotic with the bureaucratic class.

They knew that this was a major national policy, and since they were supported in business, they did not dare to make any objections.

……

After the exemption law was promulgated, it was immediately implemented throughout the Song Dynasty and had immediate effects.

Kaifeng Mansion took the lead in taking action.

Less than three days.

Kaifeng Prefecture dismissed more than [-] laborers from the government office, and released thousands of rural laborers from the four surrounding counties.

The soldiers all cheered and dispersed.

Every time a reform decree is implemented, the people are the most excited.

Zhao Zhen visited the countryside many times incognito and was particularly happy to hear the people's praise for the new law.

He felt that he truly understood how to be a sage monarch after the All-Song Dynasty Reform.

As long as the people of the world can be stabilized.

He had enough confidence to make the scholar-officials and landlords and merchants completely obey the holy orders.

Although the current official system of the Song Dynasty is bloated, it has a huge benefit.

That is: the imperial power is absolutely concentrated, and there is no possibility of "powerful ministers" appearing in the court.

As long as Zhao Zhen dares to be "dictator", he can control everything and make the entire Song Dynasty's reform run completely according to his wishes.

……

It's nearly dusk on the ninth day of June.

In Yushitai.

Su Liang was preparing to go to the Reform Department with several documents in hand when he suddenly heard a noise coming from outside the door and couldn't help but go out looking for the sound.

Outside the door, two government guards were driving away a commoner boy.

This young man's clothes are shabby, his hair is messy, his face is covered with dirt, and there are circles of black mud around his neck.

The cloth shoes under his feet were also open, and the soles were worn away.

After the boy was pushed aside by the Forbidden Army soldiers, he still rushed inside.

While rushing in, he shouted: "I want to file a complaint! I want to find Su Jingming!"

"The Yushitai is not the place for you to file a complaint. Besides, if you really want to file a complaint, just take out the paper and we will pass it on to you!"

"I have the paper, but I won't show it to you guys. I want to show it to Su Jingming!"

"I think you are just here to cause trouble. There are rules in the Yushitai. Do you want to see Yushi Su whenever you want? If you have anything to do, go to Kaifeng Mansion!"

"If I don't go, I'm going to see Su Jingming!" "Boy, if you keep messing around, believe it or not, I will arrest you!"

……

At this time, Su Liang shouted: "Su Da, Wang Chen, don't be so rude to a child!"

Hearing Su Liang's voice, the two guards immediately stopped.

One of the bodyguards, Su Da, who was a little thinner, said: "Mr. Su, there are so many people who want to see you this year. Some lied about your distant relatives, some claimed to be your classmates, some included love letters in their petitions, and some There are those who claim to have had a romantic relationship with you, but if we don’t chase them away like this, we really can’t get rid of them!”

Su Liang smiled helplessly.

Nowadays, he has become famous throughout the Song Dynasty, and there are many people who pretend to be related to him just to see him.

The Yushitai can stop dozens of people every day.

When the commoner boy heard that the person coming was Su Liang, he couldn't help but be overjoyed.

"Su Yushi, I...I really have a complaint to file. This...this is my complaint paper. Take a look! Take a look!" After that, the boy in cloth took out a wrinkled paper from his arms. stationery.

Su Liang glanced at the letter but did not take it.

He smiled and said: "Brother, if you really have a grievance to complain, just go to Kaifeng Mansion; if the person complaining is higher than the official position of Bao Xueshi in Kaifeng Mansion, you can go to Denwen Drum Courtyard, Denwen Drum Courtyard The petition will be submitted to Tai Jian, who will then submit it to the officials, but I cannot accept it!"

Su Liang didn't answer, naturally because he was afraid of breaking the rules.

If he accepts this petition today, if the news spreads, it is estimated that someone will hand him the petition every day.

He had ten hands and they were not enough.

"No! This paper can only be read by you, I can't trust anyone else!" The young man was still stubborn.

Su Liang had no choice but to wave his hand and said: "Su Da, send it and the paper to Kaifeng Mansion."

"Yes." Su Da handed over.

"No, I won't go! I can only give you the petition. I don't believe anyone. My mother said that I can only believe Su Liang and Su Jingming from Yushitai! This matter has something to do with the exemption law!" the young man shouted. .

Hearing this, Su Liang stopped immediately.

"Bring it!"

Immediately, Su Liang took the boy's paper.

He opened it and was dumbfounded.

There are about three hundred words on the petition paper, varying in size.

Among them, there were more than [-] ink knots and more than [-] typos. Su Liang read it twice but still didn't understand what it was about.

"If you are teasing me, I will let you go to Kaifeng Mansion for dinner tonight!" Su Liang lifted up a corner of the paper and waved it.

He suspected that the child was playing a prank.

"I...I'm not lying to you. I'm illiterate. Find a secluded place and I'll tell you in detail!"

Su Liang thought for a while and said, "Let's get on the carriage."

At this time, Su Da held the long sword in his waist and followed Su Liang into the carriage.

He was worried that the commoner boy might deliberately harm Su Liang.

"My name is Ge Shitou. I am from Gezhai Village, Dongming County, Kaifeng Prefecture. I...I want to sue Dongming County Prime Minister Xu Dayou for changing my family from a fifth-class household to a third-class household."

"what?"

When Su Liang heard this sentence, he understood what Ge Shitou was going to say.

Household registration in the world is divided into five levels.

The first class is the upper household, the second and third class are the middle household, and the fourth and fifth class are the lower household.

The servitude of the lower household is light, while the servitude of the upper household is heavy.

The exemption money is evenly distributed according to the level of each household.

The third-class households obviously paid more exemption money than the fifth-class households.

Su Liang asked: "Is there a mistake?"

"Impossible. My neighbor was originally a third-class household, but suddenly he became a fifth-class household. He gave money to the county magistrate!" Ge Shitou said excitedly.

Su Liang frowned slightly.

This is really a policy from above and countermeasures from below.

All the fifth-class books are in the hands of local officials. They operate secretly and can manipulate the candidates and numbers of upper, middle and lower households for their own benefit.

It can change the upper household into a middle household or a lower household; it can also change the lower household into a middle household or an upper household.

In this regard, unless officials go door-to-door to investigate, there will be no errors at all when the number of conscripts is probably reasonable.

Officials at the bottom can still exploit the imperial court and harm the people at the bottom.

Officials around Bianjing City dared to do this, let alone remote areas.

After listening to Ge Shitou's story, Su Liang couldn't help but murmured: "It seems that the supervision of the new law must get through the last link in the countryside, otherwise the Bodhisattva's sutra will be read incorrectly by a group of evil monks!"

(End of this chapter)