Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 573: Thousand Points of Condemnation

Confucianism has an ideal society where all the world is united!
But no matter how loud you shout, you will be unhappy if you are asked to pay taxes like ordinary people.

The policy of requiring all gentry to pay taxes together was a policy that was not implemented outside the capital. Even within the capital, a wave of opposition was formed.

In fact, there was fierce debate over this policy in the cabinet, and it was finally passed with great reluctance.

Because the emperor has spoken out, the world cannot ban land annexation, the amount of tax the court can collect is decreasing, and the number of people eating official food is increasing every year. If it is not like this, our dynasty will soon be destroyed! You see, the emperor sees it very clearly, can't the cabinet ministers see it clearly? Can't the officials and gentry of the world see it clearly?

The truth is actually very simple and not hard to see clearly. However, depending on who is affected, everyone will have different reactions.

After Jia Lian took the lead, all the ministers in the cabinet followed suit and went to the Ministry of Revenue to report the taxes on their land output.

If you don't report it, you won't know. After reporting it, you will find out that the Jia family's land is basically in Liaodong, and only a small part of it is in the suburbs of Beijing. Of the two thousand acres of land, five hundred acres were granted by the emperor.

Family members know their own affairs, and those nobles and relatives of the royal family are naturally panicking. If the court really counts, 80% of the land in the suburbs of Beijing is in the hands of these people. Why? They are the landowners who have been persistently annexing for many years and generations.

At this time, the amount of agricultural tax revenue in Shuntian Prefecture has not changed much. The amount of tax to be paid each year cannot be reduced, so who will bear it?
This is obvious. The rich and powerful are happy to see this phenomenon, because they can use countless means to bring the few pieces of land under their name.

These people are a minority in Beijing. But looking at the rest of the world, if you are an official in Beijing, how can you make a living without thousands of acres of land at home? When Zeng Guofan was an official in Beijing, he complained about the pressure of expenses. This was still an official, although he was a clean official. How difficult should the lives of ordinary people be?

In this era without statistics and the Gini coefficient, many things cannot be visualized with numbers.

The history of this country is so long that many people have forgotten how Huang Chao killed any gentry he saw.

If that day really comes, someone will be affected, but why must it be me? As long as we survive, the new emperor will still need people.

It is even possible to speculate in troubled times and become a founding hero.

There may be some ambitious people among them, which is really hard to say.

In the past, as long as all the powerful people made trouble together, the emperor would take a step back, and they would take three steps forward. If he kept going back and forth, the reform would fail or even go backwards.

But this time is different.

At the first grand court meeting in June, when eight out of ten officials and dignitaries stood up and collectively opposed the unified tax payment by the gentry, Emperor Chenghui sat on the dragon throne without saying a word, looking at the people kneeling in the hall.

Some of them are so familiar and yet so strange.

There were very few ministers and dignitaries who did not stand up to oppose. Among the royal relatives, Li Heng and King Zhongshun did not stand up to oppose. Among the nobles, Jia Lian did not stand up to oppose. Among the civil officials, except for the cabinet ministers, there were dozens of young officials who did not stand up to oppose.

The opponents, with an attitude of sacrificing their lives for justice, knelt on the ground with their chins held high, and spoke passionately.

If you open your mouth, the discipline will be corrupted; if you keep silent, the country will fall.

Or, there are treacherous people in the country who have seized power and harmed the world. If this continues, the people will lose their hearts and the country will no longer be a country.

The former was still relatively polite, while the latter directly wanted to remove all the cabinet ministers and replace them.

The most typical representative among them is the Minister of Rites, master of Neo-Confucianism, Gu Dongcheng.

His mouth was spitting out saliva, his beard was soaked, and he talked for more than two quarters of an hour in one breath.

It is truly a quote from classics!
Emperor Chenghui listened to him patiently, but after talking for two minutes, he just kept repeating the same old clichés.

It’s still the same old Three Dynasties rule. Emperor Chenghui became impatient. Are you bullying me because I haven’t read the Bamboo Annals?

Well, because the Bamboo Annals was discovered in the Jin Dynasty, the scholars at that time were indeed quite fanciful. Later, the rulers also banned this book.

The reason, of course, is that a positive doctrine is needed to prove the legitimacy of the emperor's rule.

Considering that all the civil and military officials were present, Emperor Chenghui decided to save face for the old scholar and asked him slowly, "Would you like a drink of water?"

Gu Dongcheng's face turned pale immediately. He knew very well that the emperor's question meant that his patience was running out.

"Let's adjourn the court. You ministers may make your reports." Emperor Chenghui decided to wait and see to avoid escalating the conflict.

Gu Dongcheng was anxious and shouted: "Your Majesty, I speak from the bottom of my heart for the sake of the country. Please think twice and take back your order!"

With this shout, all the ministers who were kneeling down echoed it one after another, and some of the ministers who had already stood up knelt down again to echo it.

Emperor Chenghui smiled calmly and said, "Jia Buqi, do you have anything to say?"

Jia Lian walked out of the crowd slowly, stood in front, clasped his hands and saluted, then stood up and looked back, saying, "I think the biggest benefit of the land tax is that we can know who owns the land or which family owns it. Do these lands need to pay taxes every year? Why is it that in each county, when there are fewer households paying taxes, why does the amount of taxes remain the same? I really want to know how many common people these people and the families behind them have forced to sell their land and children just to survive."

"Jia Lian, you are slandering me!" Gu Dongcheng stood up, glared at Jia Lian, and pointed at him with a trembling finger.

Jia Lian looked at him with a smile: "Are you talking nonsense? Just check and you will know. Why get excited? Those who are innocent will be innocent, right, Master Gu?"

"You bastard, you traitor, you..." Gu Dongcheng fell back and fainted. Soon, he was carried away.

After a while of confusion, Jia Lian sighed and said, "Who else wants to argue with me?"

Some people stood up quietly, some glared at Jia Lian, but did not dare to speak.

Jia Lian sighed, "Don't blame me for looking down on you. You know the truth better than anyone else. You are the disciples of the saint, but you are doing the same thing as Yang Zhu. In recent years, Shaanxi and Gansu have been in chaos, Henan has been in chaos, Shandong has been in chaos, aren't you afraid that one day it will be your turn? You keep saying the will of the people, but you don't pay taxes, so how can you have the nerve to represent the will of the people?"

Jia Lian turned around and folded his hands, "Your Majesty, I request that a taxation department be set up to collect taxes, and a taxation army be set up. I will be the criminal. If anyone is unwilling to pay taxes, I will lead the army to collect them. If this can be accomplished, it will extend the life of the Great Zhou for another 200 years."

Everyone was in an uproar. Many of them knelt on the ground with their heads down, looking up at Jia Lian in horror, thinking that he was simply the incarnation of the devil in the court.

"It's over. Let's stop here today and adjourn the court." Emperor Chenghui decided to wait for a while. Jia Lian stood in front of the crowd and retreated helplessly.

The emperor left first, and Jia Lian was about to leave too. But before leaving, Jia Lian looked around one by one, and everyone he looked at lowered their head, and then he left.

If an ordinary minister did the same as Jia Lian, he would probably be beaten up by a group of people.

However, no matter which minister came, he was no match in terms of ancestral background or achievements in the court.

Jia Lian also knew that after what happened today, he had completely become the so-called public enemy.

The moment he stepped out of the hall, someone behind him yelled, "Jia Buqi, why are you pretending? I don't believe you. Aren't you afraid of being pointed at and despised by the people?"

A beam of sunlight in the morning penetrated the clouds and fell on Jia Lian. From behind, Jia Lian seemed to be surrounded by golden light.

Jia Lian paused for a moment but did not turn around. Instead, he recited a line of poetry: "I face the criticism of thousands of people with a cold brow, and I bow my head and am willing to be a cow for children."

After reciting the poem, he left.

Hundreds of officials at the scene looked stunned.

"Didn't they say Jia Buqi can't compose poetry?" someone asked in a low voice.

"He is a top scholar in the imperial examination but cannot write poetry. How dare someone say such nonsense? And do you dare to believe it blindly?" Someone gave a reasonable explanation.

At this moment, even the cabinet ministers and the nine officials of the six ministries and departments all lowered their heads subconsciously, not daring to look at Jia Lian's back.

The dark clouds blocked the sun again. After a series of thunderbolts, the wind started to blow. The raindrops were as big as beans, crackling and falling. In an instant, a heavy rain came, and the capital was shrouded in rain and fog. This is the world. Everyone knows that you are right, but they just want to oppose you.

Yang Zhu, who was so stingy as to not give even a hair away, represents human nature. The great harmony of the world is just a beautiful wish. It is a distant goal that human society strives for.

Jia Lian didn't know anything else, but he knew one thing, because in the era when he came, more and more young people missed the old man.

Why? Of course I feel wronged.

People cannot live without grand narratives, but without every detail under the grand narrative, they cannot rely on the spirit to solve specific problems in life.

The purpose of reform is to redistribute the cake!
In this world, no reform is successful. Even the short-term results will eventually be swallowed up bit by bit.

Jia Lian could pretend not to see it, but he was in this era, enjoying the dividends given by this era, and he couldn't help but do something if he was not careful.

It was the same sentence in the hall before, extending the life of the Great Zhou for 200 years. Of course, this might be an exaggeration.

After all, even such a powerful department as the Lighthouse IRS cannot reverse the decline.

Some people can always achieve their goals reasonably and legally as long as they are willing.

If it's illegal, just make a law.

In the sudden rain, Jia Lian squatted under the eaves, holding a cigarette and looking at the road ahead. It is unknown whether others are confused or not, but he is determined to rush forward.

I don't know which busybody published the full text of everything that happened after Jia Lian appeared in the newspaper the next day.

What naturally spread throughout the capital was Jia Lian's poem.

I don’t know what the rich and powerful people are thinking, but ordinary people are the ones who feel it the most deeply.

In a teahouse in the capital, after the storyteller finished telling the story of Jia Lian in the hall in one breath, the audience was silent and no one gave the storyteller any tips.

Until a scholar stood up, walked to the front of the stage, took out a silver dollar, and gently put it down, instead of throwing it on the stage as before, more and more guests lined up and put money on the stage. The storyteller was dumbfounded, looking at this group of guests, he was a little panicked.

The scholar walked out of the teahouse, with his back to the door and facing the street, and shouted angrily: "I face the criticism of thousands of people with a cold brow, and I bow my head and am willing to be a cow for children."

A scholar also walked out of the teahouse next door and shouted with the same excitement: "Establish a mind for heaven and earth, and establish a life for the people!"

Things kept happening one after another, and someone shouted, "The public will live forever!"

Someone shouted: "The world will be united!"

Despite this, the court's efforts to require gentry to pay taxes together eventually came to a halt.

Neither the emperor nor the cabinet took the initiative to bring it up again. It seemed that this incident had never happened.

According to news from the palace, after returning to the harem that day, Emperor Chenghui had someone bring him wine and got drunk.

Everyone chose to stop, but Jia Lian refused to stop. If this road is blocked, then he will take another one.

A society that is so stale and refuses to change will sooner or later be burned to ashes by the fire from the bottom.

In the long history of this country, there have been Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, Zhang Jue, Huang Chao and so on. Someone will emerge in the future.

Jia Lian sighed and continued on his way. As he said before, Jia Lian considered himself a layman, and he would do as much as he could, and would not do anything he could not do.

In the name of the Ministry of Industry, Jia Lian submitted a memorial to build a railway to connect the Shijingshan Iron and Steel Plant with the capital and Tianjin.

This matter went smoothly for the upper echelons. Everyone tacitly agreed not to bring bad luck and did not stop Jia Lian from building the road.

But it was only the upper level. Building a road is not something that can be done just by talking. Difficulties were encountered when land acquisition began.

Countless troubles came one after another. Some said that ancestral graves were related to feng shui and could not be moved easily. Some said that trains were like monsters and they were afraid of disturbing the ancestral graves, so they refused to move. Others asked for an exorbitant price, increasing the price tenfold.

In short, there were all kinds of troubles. Jia Lian was not in a hurry, but just watched from the sidelines, asking people to summarize the various problems and wait for him to come up with a solution.

It was a hot and humid day, and Jia Lian was sweating all over just sitting in the yamen, not to mention his subordinates who were running around outside.

Jia Lian also specially arranged for people to prepare enough summer medicine.

Jia Lian looked at the map without any emotion on his face, but his heart was not at peace. Since that day, he had never seen Emperor Chenghui again.

The reason was that the emperor went to the imperial estate in Xishan to escape the summer heat and took the cabinet with him.

Adjutant Fan Ping hurried in. After entering the room, he was not polite at all. He asked someone to bring him a bowl of iced sour plum soup. He drank it in big gulps, exhaled a breath of foul air, and then walked behind Jia Lian.

At this moment, Jia Lian, with his hands behind his back, looked up at the huge map. In the future, Jia Lian will build many railways, still in the name of the country.

This little trouble right now is just for practice.

It seems that everyone in the world laughs at India, but aren’t people all over the world becoming Indianized?
"We have basically found out that those who gathered to obstruct the land acquisition personnel are all local gentry. I estimate that they will ask for a huge amount next time. No, they are already asking for a huge amount. Some people want to exchange land and also want good irrigated land. Some people privately entertained the staff and said that as long as they are willing to pay a high price for the land acquisition, they will naturally offer it. There are also people who really believe in feng shui and paid people to help them avoid his land."

Jia Lian hummed and said nothing. Dealing with these people is difficult, but not difficult. It depends on whether you have the courage and whether you can hit the vital point with one move.

Pointing to a memorial on the table, he said, "Take a look. Is there anything you need to add?"

Fan Ping picked it up and started reading without hesitation. He finished reading it in a short while: "Sir, isn't it a bit too cruel?"

"You have to be ruthless. You have to be soft on one hand and hard on the other to convince these people. If you can reason with them, then use reason. If you can't reason with them, then you have to use physics."

"I have nothing to say!" Fan Ping was really convinced. He thought in his heart that this memorial would not be passed.

When Jia Lian's memorial entered the palace, it was naturally given the green light and appeared on the emperor's desk.

The emperor, who was discussing matters with the ministers in the pavilion, read the memorial first and then handed it to Zhang Tingen: "Jia Buqi is quite resentful. Please take a look first."

After Zhang Ting'en finished reading the memorial, he passed it to Lin Ruhai without saying anything. After Li Qing finished reading it, he couldn't help but say, "Isn't this nonsense? Not cooperating with the court in land acquisition is considered treason. How can this be justified?"

Yue Qi remained silent. Pan Jixun shook his head and smiled bitterly, "This incident reminds me of the river repair. It was the rainy season, and I was ordered to repair the river. The local county magistrate came to see me on behalf of the gentry and suggested that we repair one side and put the other side on hold. The reason given was so bad that I was speechless at the time."

"Haha, what reason did the magistrate give?" Lin Ruhai asked curiously.

Pan Jixun said, "Most of the gentry's fields are on one side, which is low-lying and good fields. The other side is mainly the land of the common people, which is slightly higher and difficult to draw water on a daily basis. In order to collect taxes next year, the county magistrate requested to save the gentry's good fields first, and then save the poor fields of the common people. I asked him, why should the gentry's good fields be saved if the gentry don't pay taxes? The county magistrate was embarrassed and said nothing, but I figured it out."

When Emperor Chenghui heard this, he couldn't help but ask, "What do you want to understand?"

Pan Jixun said: "The laborers who followed me to repair the river are struggling to hold on to the river bank. What they fear most is that the river bank will burst and the land at home will be submerged. At the end of the year, they will have no grain to pay taxes, let alone food. The only thing they can do is to sell the land at a low price in exchange for a little food to sustain their lives. Without land, they can only become tenants of the landlords. Apart from anything else, the landlords' rent cannot be reduced by a single grain. If a grain is reduced, they will have to sell their children to pay the landlords' rent. These people cannot afford to have any disease or disaster. If they encounter any, their families will be destroyed and their lives will be ruined."

Everyone was silent, and Emperor Chenghui nodded solemnly: "Continue!"

Pan Jixun said: "At that time, I did not give any guarantees. I just tried my best to lead the people, be on guard everywhere, and fight the flood with all my strength. Finally, there was no dam breach. However, I made up my mind at that time that if it was really impossible to prevent it, I would save the common people's land first. Let the land of the landlords and gentry be flooded."

Emperor Chenghui laughed out loud after hearing this, and everyone followed suit. Then the atmosphere became solemn again.

(End of this chapter)