Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 216 Reasonable Burden

Taxation in ancient China was seldom used for public welfare services.The so-called taxation is to collect money for the purpose of ruling.The sufferings of the people and the improvement of society are rarely bothered.The social public affairs and people's livelihood and welfare undertaken by the modern government are not within the scope of its consideration.

Almost all the fiscal revenue of the dynasty was used in the three aspects of supporting the royal family, raising soldiers, and raising officials.Even so, whenever there is a disturbance, there will be a "deficiency of national use".The solution is also very simple, that is, to add pie.Every additional dispatch is a carnival of increasing income for officials at all levels, but it is a disaster for ordinary people below.

Taking Lingao as an example, although the Ming government has to obtain more than 7000 shi of the official grain tax from here every year, it is difficult to see what these imperial grain and state taxes paid by the people have brought to this county. For 200 years, the government presided over There is only one water conservancy project built. The Wenshui Bridge is probably a practical project run by the government, but it has been the only one for more than 200 years.

The people feed the government.Apart from the most basic "coarse security" of living a meager life, this government has not brought any benefits to the people of Lingao.Disaster relief relies on the "righteous storehouse" of the people; to fight against bandits, the common people are required to fight and be brave.Although one-third of the more than 7000 stones of grain each year are directly used for the "community payment" of the garrison troops on Hainan Island, when the bandits and bandits in Lingao were rampant, the common people could not count on the officers and soldiers they supported. Came out to "suppress bandits".

In order to win the trust of the people through the regime, it is necessary to break this pattern that has been passed down for thousands of years and establish a truly modern state system.Ordinary people may be ignorant, but they are absolutely not stupid when it comes to their own interests.They can see who is really doing things for them, for their benefit.

At the beginning of the meeting, the county magistrate of the county gave a speech.It was the first time for Wu Ya to encounter such a scene: he only had the experience of trying cases in the courtroom, that is, the plaintiff and the defendant were kneeling below and did not dare to look at him, at most there were some idlers outside the door watching the excitement.Now I am sitting side by side with a group of "kun thieves", and there are hundreds of people from all over the world watching him.

Fortunately, Wang Zhaomin has already written the speech for him, so he just needs to read it accordingly.This innocuous speech has been reviewed by the traversing party to ensure that it does not contain conspiracy.

Regarding the content of the speech, the two sides had a bargain. Naturally, the crossing party hoped that the Lingao County Government's support for them would be "clear", while the county magistrate Wu hoped that the words would be vague, the more vague the better.Therefore, Wang Zhaomin's manuscript was decided after a day of discussion between the main pens of the two parties. Generally speaking, everyone is satisfied.

Wu Ya originally didn't want to come to read the manuscript, but Mrs. Wu naturally didn't want to show up on such an occasion, lest there be no excuses in the future, so he became the county magistrate in place of the dead ghost. His scapegoat, but was rejected by the "Kun Thief" sternly-the county magistrate is also the second in command in the county after all, and his persuasive power is much stronger in the hearts of ordinary people than a half-official, half-official position like Dian Shi.

Wu Ya was forced to act as the representative of the county government at the meeting.A red envelope of 80 taels of silver was given to him by the traveler, which slightly soothed his hurt heart.

After Wu Xiancheng talked about the serious situation of pirates in the county and the importance and necessity of organizing local group training and joint defense, he announced that the Lingao county-wide joint defense subsidy initiated by Damei Village was approved by the county government.The group training club is named "Bairen Club".The government issued relevant documents to the Bairen Society, granting it the work of organizing, training, and commanding regiment training.

Bairen Society set up a "public office" in Dongmen City as an office for group training.At the same time, it can collect group training funds and food from the villages that join the club.

The president of Bairen Society.Of course it was Wood.Although he is not a military leader, the leaders of the regiment training clubs are generally local gentry, who deal with the government and the villages. As the new civil affairs commissar, it is more appropriate for him to take up the position of the government.And through this position, he can be recognized by local dignitaries so that they can work in the future.

Wu De didn't wear training uniforms. In fact, all the traversers who attended the meeting today were dressed more formally than usual.Of course, this formality is not a suit, leather shoes and tie, but no longer wearing the usual colorful training uniforms.Today he is wearing an 87-style blue navy officer's spring and autumn uniform without collar badges.It looks dignified.

Wu De's speech was conducted in Mandarin, and Xiong Buyou led several people to perform simultaneous interpretation, including Lingao dialect, Hainan Mandarin and Hokkien dialect.

Wu De said: Bairen Society will put the interests of the people of the county as the most important thing, and strive to take on the important task of maintaining the safety of the county. With the support of the gentry and the common people, Bairen Society will unswervingly continue to uphold the purpose of "removing the strong and helping the weak, protecting the environment and the people", and making new contributions to the stability and prosperity of Lingao County and the creation of a harmonious society in Ming Dynasty .

This set of novel vocabulary made the participants quite curious. The only shortcoming is that when Wu De mentioned Emperor Chongzhen, Wu Ya and others on the rostrum immediately stood up and shouted "Long live the emperor!" ", the representatives from all walks of life below also fell to their knees.

After Wei Guangzheng finished his clichés, the meeting got to the point: food distribution.

The newly appointed People's Committee of Civil Affairs, Wu De, takes a cautious attitude towards this matter. After all, sending food and dispatching missions is a complicated and meticulous job. The traversers have no political authority and no detailed information. They only rely on the deterrence of force .According to their consistent experience, any such burden will often fall on the people at the bottom of society.Now they are still powerless to change the social structure, the only way is to control the distribution of food within an acceptable range and avoid excessive coercion.

Therefore, the grain and poverty imposed by the cross-traveling group on the people of Lingao was named "reasonable burden".

The "reasonable burden" scheme is based on the collection of villages.Each village self-reports the amount it can afford.

The reason why the form of self-reporting is adopted is that the travelers do not have time to conduct a complete investigation of the land and harvest conditions of the entire county, and it is difficult to control the burden very accurately.Although it is not too difficult to obtain the Yulin booklet data of the taxation of each village from the county government, but this kind of booklet is actually not very accurate, and it is even full of errors.The reason why officials regard it as a treasure is only because it is the only evidence for collecting grain and taxes.Land concealment in the late Ming Dynasty was quite serious, and the Yulin book could not reflect the actual production level of each village at all.Using the data provided by this booklet will only increase the tax burden that was originally unreasonable. .

Although there are also travelers who think that there will be a problem of reduction in the self-reporting of each village.But Wu De pointed out that even if there is a reduction and concealment, it is better than using the Yulin book.First, each village knows its own actual output, and the reported figures will at least not exceed the level it can afford; The village's self-reported numbers will not be too low - they dare not fool the traversers, if there is such a situation, then they can come and kill them as an example.Third, Wu De believes that such an approach embodies the spirit of equal consultation and is beneficial to win over the hearts of the people.

Sure enough, when this method was announced, all the villages breathed a sigh of relief.Originally, I was afraid that the time-traveling group would make a big opening, but now it is enough for them to report themselves as "pledge".

Everyone knows this pledge. Whenever the government has any important affairs to do, as usual, there will be something like "pledge" and "happy loss".This is easier to talk about than the imperial grain and national tax, plus spending some money to bribe the servants who handle it, you can bargain.

"Everyone report the figures according to the actual situation of their own villages, and do what they can." Wu De said with a pleasant face.

The meeting hall was full of voices. The representatives of each village were only prepared to accept a number and go back. Now that they have reported themselves, some people in the village feel that they cannot make decisions—after all, once the number is reported, it is a law. .It is not appropriate to report more than less.

Seeing that this was an opportunity, Huang Tingkun deliberately said: "This is a major event in the village. It is inconvenient for us to make decisions, so we should go back and discuss it."

When the people around heard it, they all felt that it was reasonable, so some people stood up and asked to go back to discuss with the elders in the village before coming back to report.Many people also echoed.

This is good, Huang Tingkun thought to himself, there are so many villages, and the distances are different. It will take at least four or five days to go back and forth, and it will definitely take a few days to go back and forth in the village. The meeting will have to be at least half a month later. It's over.

Wu De was prepared for this situation, so he asked the villages to make statistics first, to determine how many "reasonable burdens" can be determined on the spot, and how many need to go back to discuss.Submit the list.

According to statistics, there are about [-] villages that can be decided on the spot, and the other [-] or so villages can be discussed at home.

"If you can decide on the spot, report the figures in a while," Wu De announced. "If you want to go back to discuss, go back to discuss after the meeting is over. Report the figures to the office before February [-]."

As a result, Huang Tikun's hope that the meeting would be adjourned first was completely shattered.The meeting continues.

After deciding on the "reasonable burden", Wu De announced the content of the dispatch.

The issue of dispatch is far more difficult than "reasonable burden".There is no shortage of land in Lingao, but there is a shortage of labor.Although immigrants from the mainland enter the county every year, the death rate is very high due to the problem of acclimatization.For a small family, labor is the guarantee of the family's survival. For a large family, only with labor can they get more wealth, so even if they have many long-term workers, servants and tenants, they are unwilling to send people to work.

(End of this chapter)