Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 377: Year-end Military and Political Conference (VI)

Everyone present looked at each other in bewilderment, holding the tax standards in their hands, and was speechless for a moment.

The tax setting is just like a joke. There has never been a tax of three times the tax or one times the tax in all dynasties. This is not just a harsh policy, it is simply overturning the table.

Of course, everyone understood that Lu Jin would not try to play tricks on them, so he did not really intend to collect taxes in this way. In fact, if you look closely at those low-level taxes, they are very reasonable. What does this show?
There is also the taxation standard. Its classification rule is calculated according to the land area. There is an obvious loophole here. I have a lot of land and need to pay heavy taxes. So, as long as I divide the land among my family members, can't I get a low tax rate and avoid taxes reasonably?

Everyone present was not a fool. They could clearly see that this was not for the purpose of levying heavy taxes. It was obvious that Lu Jin had issued an Enfeoffment Order to the wealthy landlords, forcing them to divide up the land and property. As for the clan, once the clan land was divided, what cohesion would the clan leader have? Who would listen to you in the future?

Everyone couldn't help but grin. This lord was really cunning. He had clearly made up his mind, but he still pretended to ask questions first.
In fact, this is a habit, or way, of Lu Jin in governing. He didn't know much about politics before, so he always used this simplest and dumbest method.

As a person in a high position, if you cannot guess what the people below you are thinking, then do not express your own opinion first. Then throw out a question and let the people below you express their opinions. Let them take sides first, and then you can give them "political labels" based on what everyone says.

You don't have to care about what they are thinking. What they think is actually not important. The key is that they have expressed their stance. Since they have chosen a side, they have to continue along this path in the future. Otherwise, they will be disgraced and their political career will be over.

If an official's actions are inconsistent with his words and deeds, and he is inconsistent, he has no political credibility and others will automatically distance themselves from him. No one will be willing to be a political ally with such an inconsistent villain because he is unreliable.

Therefore, you must be careful when expressing your opinion. If you behave like a cruel official at the beginning, you will only be a cruel official in the future. If you behave like a lone minister at the beginning, you will only be a lone minister in your life.

This is politics. Although it may sound a bit arbitrary, it is very useful for Lu Jin. This is why he always likes to ask his subordinates first. While everyone was looking at each other and exchanging glances, Lu Jin was also observing their reactions.

In fact, the tax standard was not written randomly by him, but was determined after comprehensive consideration of the amount of land, unit land output, unit land labor cost, and tax standards of previous dynasties.

Even though he wanted to issue the Enfeoffment Order to force the wealthy families to divide their property, he did not push them to death. In other words, Lu Jin actually allowed some small landlords to exist.

Just look at the tax standards and compare them with the taxation of past dynasties and you will understand.

The agricultural tax in the Han Dynasty was very low, only one in thirty, but other taxes were high. Not counting indirect taxes such as salt and iron, only direct taxes, namely land tax, capitation tax, and corvee labor, added up to about 10% to 20%.

The Tang Dynasty adopted a system of rent, labor and tax, and the equal-field system. Land was publicly owned, and the people only had the right to use it but not the ownership. When a man reached adulthood, the state would give him 100 acres of land. The people were equivalent to tenants of the state and only had to pay two dan of rent each year. However, Lu Jin did not know the per-acre yield in the Tang Dynasty, so it was difficult to calculate the percentage.

Yong refers to corvée labor. Every adult male was required to perform 20 days of corvée labor every year. If one did not want to perform corvée labor, he could pay money or in kind.

Tiao was a tax on male prostitutes, usually in the form of silk, about half a piece of silk per person per year, with an overall tax rate of around 10%.

The Song Dynasty implemented the Two Tax System, with cloth harvested in summer and grain harvested in autumn, and the comprehensive tax rate was also 10%. Note that this was only a nominal tax, not including indirect taxes, other levies and miscellaneous taxes, which could reach 20% to 30%.

The taxation in the Yuan Dynasty is of no reference value. If we have to say, the northern part of the Yuan Dynasty was similar to the rent and labor service, which was about 3%, and the southern part inherited the two-tax system of the Song Dynasty, which was about 5%-10%. But this was only in name. It is hard to say how much the tax farmers actually collected. In addition to this, the people in the south also had to pay additional "taxes", "silk materials", "silver packages", etc., which made it impossible to count them normally.

In Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Dynasty, the basic agricultural tax was around 7%, which could reach 10% with the capitation tax and corvee labor. Only the former territories of Zhang Shicheng, such as Suzhou, had been imposing a punitive 20% tax, which was also a normal level and still relatively low.

The funniest thing about the Qing Dynasty was that they were still collecting Liao tribute even after entering the Pass, but they changed the name to nine cents of silver. After that, after the so-called "equalizing the land tax", the comprehensive tax rate was about 15%. In fact, corruption losses such as fire consumption and floating collection had to be added, so the real tax rate for the people could reach 20%. After the Taiping Rebellion, "lijin" was added, and the tax rate became even higher.

Therefore, considering all dynasties, if we only count direct taxes, a tax rate below 10% is considered benevolent, with the Tang Dynasty having the lowest rate. The people's tolerance is around 15%-20%, and chaos will occur if it exceeds 20%.

With this understanding, let’s look at the tax levels set by Lu Jin.

5% for 7 acres, 10% for 14 acres, 16.6% for 20 acres, % for acres, % for acres, % for acres, and don’t even bother looking at the rest, because they are all red lines and we don’t plan to collect them at all.
This is just the most basic agricultural tax. The Ding tax and corvee are actually small parts, very small, and together they account for only 3%.

Lu Jin himself divided these nine levels into three stages. According to the traffic light theory, for self-cultivating farmers with 3 to 10 acres of land, even with the % capitation tax and corvee, the total tax they need to bear will not exceed %. Lu Jin called it the green light zone, which is the most comfortable stage.

The three levels of one hundred to five hundred acres, plus the Ding tax and corvee, are between 13%, 17% and 20% respectively. Lu Jin calls this stage the yellow light zone, because the yellow light is very short and unstable. Under this tax rate, no one will last long in these three levels, and they will consciously divide the land and downgrade to a green light.

Why? Because this is the result of the dual influence of psychological level and actual income, especially when the variable of unit labor cost of land is added.

What is unit labor cost? It means that a young and strong man and a cow can only cultivate 50 acres of land at most. He cannot cultivate more than that.

If a person owns 13 acres, he has to pay %, and he needs two strong laborers and oxen to cultivate it. Since two people are cultivating the acres together, why don't I just divide it in half and turn it into two acres?
Similarly, for three hundred acres, at least six people are needed to cultivate it. If a man has three sons, four strong men together, and two tenant farmers, to cultivate the three hundred acres of land together, he will have to bear a high tax of 17%. In that case, why doesn't he just divide the land among his sons?

In addition, taking psychological activities into consideration, one hundred acres, three hundred acres, or even five hundred acres, is not too much land at this time, and it would not be too painful to divide it with one's own son, so one can just divide it.

That is why Lu Jin classified these three levels in the yellow light zone, because they cannot hold on for long and will take the initiative to divide the land and enter the green light comfort zone.

Once the amount of land exceeds one thousand acres, it enters the red light district. This is a very confusing number, like a hot potato that you can't hold on to, but you're reluctant to throw away.

Let's divide the land. One thousand acres is not a small amount. I have so much land that I can't bear to divide it up.

If he doesn't divide the land, he will need at least 20 young and strong men plus oxen to cultivate one thousand acres of land, and it is difficult for an average family to gather 20 young and strong laborers. If he doesn't divide the land, he will have to hire tenant farmers.

In ancient times, from the Han Dynasty to the Republic of China, the tenant farmers and the landlords generally took half of the land each. Some unruly landlords would receive 60% or even 70%.

In this case, I recruit tenant farmers to cultivate the land, and the total amount of agricultural tax, corvée and capitation tax is 27%. Then I give 50% to the tenant farmers, and I still have 23% of the output. What the hell am I doing?
You say that I am not a human being. I will ask the tenants for 27% and take 43%. After paying % tax to the government, I will have % left. Does that seem okay?

I can only say that you are dreaming. If you give the tenants 70% to 30%, can you first see if you can recruit people to farm for you?
Let me tell you a true story. In the early Ming Dynasty, during the Hongwu period, a large number of landlords voluntarily donated their land to the government. Do you think why? Was it because Zhu Yuanzhang collected high taxes? To be honest, Zhu Yuanzhang's taxes were not high. Except for the special area of ​​Suzhou, other places generally only collected 10%. So why did they give their land to the government for free?
Because there is really no one to farm. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang had been promoting large-scale immigration. People who had no land or even little land were directly migrated to less populated areas to share the land, resulting in a large reduction in the labor force in the original densely populated areas. You want to recruit people to farm the land? You can't recruit anyone at all.
The government doesn’t care whether your land is abandoned or in cultivation. Since you have so much land on the fish scale book, I will collect taxes based on that much land. I don’t care about you. It’s your own business if you don’t cultivate it.

So the landlords had no choice but to donate their land to the government and turn it into government farmland.
Zhu Yuanzhang did not issue the Enfeoffment Order like Lu Jin did. He just used the method of recruiting immigrants. In fact, it was also an accident that made the landlords hand over their lands.
If, at the level of one thousand acres, you are still willing to endure the low income of 23% and grit your teeth and refuse to divide the land, then Lu Jin will welcome it with open arms. The government can legitimately collect 27% tax, which is more than the income of the landlords. The landlords have become employees of the court. Why should I be unhappy?

Damn, if there really is such a fool, clinging to one or two thousand acres of land and not dividing it, the local county magistrate will have to run to call him the Great Lord of Heaven, he is simply a living Bodhisattva, this is a big taxpayer, he must be well respected.
Therefore, the level of one thousand to three thousand acres is definitely the most difficult. It is hard to bear to divide the land, but the income is too bad if it is not divided.

But when it comes to 3,000 or even more than 10,000 acres, it becomes simple.

Because anyone who can possess so much land must have a clan behind him. Once the clan is involved, the relationship becomes complicated. Even if you don't want to divide it, the eldest grandsons and sons of each branch will make a fuss about dividing the family property, and they may even fight each other to the point of bleeding for the family property. Do you think the Enfeoffment Order is a joke on you?
Therefore, as long as this method can be implemented, even if it is a large clan, after two or three generations at most, he will become a self-cultivating farmer with 30 to 50 acres of land.
First, it will go down from the red light area to the yellow light, and the yellow light will not last long before it turns into a green light.

Everyone looked at the tax bill and calculated silently in their minds for a long time, and they found that Lu Jin had set it very reasonably. For self-cultivating farmers, the tax was really not high. For a small landowner with three to five hundred acres of land, if he did not want to bear high taxes, the worst that could happen was that he would divide the family and the land.

In fact, the main target is those large landowners with more than a thousand acres of land. Wang Guangyang immediately asked, "My lord, are you trying to force the big families to divide their property?"

Lu Jin nodded without hesitation, "Yes, especially those tax farmers who own hundreds of thousands of acres of land. These people helped the Tartars to harm their Han compatriots. Calling them traitors is a compliment to them. Shouldn't their land be divided? I just let them divide the land and property by themselves. I was merciful not to confiscate their property or openly rob them.

"Those who have tens of thousands of acres of land, even if they are not tax farmers, at least have to work as officials for the Tartars in the Yuan court. Otherwise, they simply cannot keep so much land and would have been squeezed dry by the Tartars and the Semites. Am I right?"

Everyone was silent. Some of them had served in the Yuan court before, such as Qin Conglong, who was a high-ranking official at the provincial level.

Seeing that no one said anything, Lu Jin asked curiously, "Don't you have anything to say?"

Everyone shook their heads. Xia Yu from the Martial Academy spoke up, "Since the Lord has made the decision, let's do it. I think the tax amount is quite reasonable. It is not unacceptable to small farmers with a few hundred acres of land. At most, they can just divide the land among their own family members."

Eh? Seeing this, Lu Jin became even more curious, "Aren't you worried that if I do this, it will force someone to rebel?"

Qin Conglong said immediately, "What is there to worry about? The lord has not called for them to be killed. As long as they are willing to divide the land, the tax amount can be reduced. He has not forced them to die, so why would they rebel? Even if there are really stubborn people, the Eastern Expedition Army has not withdrawn yet, so if they dare to rebel, they will be killed."

Well, okay, that's actually true. Since Lu Jin has made the decision, what else can they say? The tax amount is also set without any problem. If they don't accept it, just kill them. Anyway, nothing serious will happen.

Those who can sit in this room are naturally not ordinary people. They also know the harm that the rich families' concealment of land and population pose to the imperial court. As the saying goes, the head follows the butt. Now they are officials, so of course they will help Lu Jin's imperial court. What else can they do?

Wang Guangyang then asked, "My Lord, what you listed is only the grain tax. Will the capitation tax and corvée tax still be collected? If so, how should they be collected? Or should they still be collected according to the two-tax system, in summer and autumn?"

Lu Jin nodded immediately and said, "Of course we have to collect the Ding tax and corvée tax. We will still collect them according to the two-season system. The Ding tax is collected in summer and the grain tax is collected in autumn. Adults are calculated based on the age of 16. Each adult pays four catties of cotton per year, and underage half-Ding pays two catties of cotton. For the landless urban population, adults pay 200 coins per year, and half-Ding pays 100 coins per year."

Chen Yu asked curiously, "Why not just hand over the cloth?"

Lu Jin said, "The quality of folk cloth varies greatly. It is better to collect cotton and take it to the government-run textile factory to weave cloth yourself."

Okay, that works too.

Qin Conglong then reminded him, "Marshal, do you want to collect taxes from unmarried women of childbearing age? From 16 to 30 years old, they have to pay 600 coins per year until they get married."

Lu Jin immediately responded, "It means to urge adult women to get married and increase the population as soon as possible, right?"

"That's right." Qin Conglong nodded immediately.

"Okay, then add this one too. We don't really charge much money anyway. We just want them to get married earlier." Lu Jin agreed immediately and then said.

"Corvée labor is the same as the Ding tax. For the time being, corvée labor will definitely be collected in the next few years. After all, we need to build cities, repair water conservancy projects, and restore production. If you really don't want to perform corvée labor, you can pay an additional Ding tax instead of corvée labor."

Everyone nodded immediately, thinking that the tax amount was reasonable.

In fact, four kilograms of cotton as the Ding tax was not a lot. If we calculate based on a family of 60 mu of land, the cotton yield per mu in that era was 90 to kilograms. Planting half an acre of cotton was enough for a family to pay the Ding tax, and they would still have more than enough left over.

With ancient weaving technology, it takes three pounds of cotton to weave a piece of coarse cotton cloth, and four pounds is just a little more than one piece of cloth.

Seeing that the taxes were all finalized, Li Shanchang asked again, "General, if we levy taxes according to this method, will the soldiers in the army still be rewarded with land if they make meritorious deeds in the future?"

Lu Jin said immediately, "You can give them money and promotions, but no more land. If they want to buy land, they can buy it with their own money, but no matter how much they buy, they have to pay taxes according to this standard."

Li Shanchang thought about it and thought it was possible, so he said, "Let's settle it. The last item on the agenda is the salary system for officials. How should it be formulated? Do you want to discuss it?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin immediately said, "You can discuss the salary issue yourselves, and then come up with a set of rules for me to see.

"I have only one request for the salaries of officials. There is a problem with the salaries of the former Song Dynasty. The salaries of senior officials are too high, while the salaries of grassroots local officials and clerks are not even enough to eat. Isn't this forcing grassroots officials to embezzle?
“So even the lowest-ranking ninth-rank official’s salary cannot be lower than that of a porter or boatman. You decide how much the salary should be. Also, the salary of a high-ranking official cannot be higher than that of the former Song Dynasty.

"But don't think it's too little. I have prepared 14 months' salary reward for you."

Everyone was immediately interested when they heard this. Qin Conglong immediately asked, "May I ask, Marshal, what is the salary for 14 months?"

Lu Jin immediately explained, "There are 12 months in a year, and salaries are normally paid monthly or quarterly. If the official's evaluation is good or above within a year, he will be awarded one month's salary as a year-end bonus at the end of the year, which is equivalent to receiving 13 months' salary in a year."

Everyone nodded. In fact, previous dynasties also had the habit of giving out year-end bonuses, but it seemed that Lu Jin's year-end bonus was not easy to get. He also had to have a good performance evaluation, which forced officials to work hard.

Lu Jinze continued, "Then from the time this person becomes an official until he retires, if this person has never been corrupt and has good political performance, then he will be given one month's salary per year as a pension reward based on the number of years he has served as an official.

"For example, if an official has served for ten years, he will be awarded ten months' salary as a pension when he retires. If he has served for twenty years, he will be awarded twenty months' salary, which is the 14th month's salary. However, it is not paid every year, but is paid out uniformly when he retires."

Everyone was delighted when they heard this. This lord was quite generous, but he was also a thoughtful person. Although this pension was definitely not small, it was not so easy to get.

Qian Yongren thought for a moment and said, "This 14th month's pension is indeed an incentive for honest officials, but will it put too much financial pressure on the court?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin said, "You think too much. First of all, this is a reward for officials who have never been corrupt or abused their power. If you are corrupt, you will lose the reward. Not only will you lose the reward, but you will also be prosecuted. It is unclear whether you can get it.

“Secondly, I hope that everyone is a good official. If they are loyal to their duties throughout their lives, I dare say that the value they create and the taxes they help the court collect will definitely be more than the salary of a dozen months. Why should I be stingy with such virtuous officials?

"If they can manage the local area in an orderly manner, make it prosperous, increase the population, and increase tax revenue, will I still need his pension?"

Everyone was immediately convinced when they heard this, it was indeed true.

(End of this chapter)