A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 722 The Sleepless Emperor

at night,

Li Shimin and Li Yi slept side by side on the same bed once again.

night is deep,
The emperor, however, tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Today's visit to Sanjia Village had a great impact on the emperor.

He visited all thirteen households in Sanjia Village. Most of them ate mixed grain porridge for dinner, and the vast majority of households didn't even have any vegetables.

This is in stark contrast to the sumptuous farm-style meal he had at Li Yi's house today.

But the people all had smiles on their faces. Life was tough, but they felt quite content with the present. They ate the simple coarse grain porridge with great pleasure.

The emperor proposed that every family relocate to a more spacious area, with each adult male receiving 100 mu of land. He even said that if the family could move to a new place once or twice, the land would be doubled.

In some rural areas, the soil is not fertile or has been abandoned for a long time. To cultivate it again, crop rotation is required to restore soil fertility. As a result, the land is changed once, twice, or even three times. The worse the soil fertility, the longer the fallow period. Some people plant one crop and then leave it for one crop, while others plant one crop and then leave it for two or even three crops. Therefore, the land is allocated in large quantities.

However, not a single villager from Sanjia Village was willing to relocate to Kuanxiang.

Even though some villagers in Sanjia Village didn't even have 30 mu of land allocated to them, they preferred to work for the Li family and rent some more land, feeling it was better than moving to Kuanxiang.

In their eyes, Kuanxiang was a remote and desolate place back then.

This is not simply a matter of being reluctant to leave one's homeland, nor is it a feeling of confusion and fear about the unknown; rather, it is more a matter of distrust towards the imperial court.

Ordinary people make their choices with their feet.

Even if the Guo family, who moved in later, didn't get a single acre of land, let alone the thirty acres the old Guo family received, he would still rather stay here.

He said he rented 30 mu of rice fields, 20 mu of wheat fields, planted a few mu of sweet potatoes and corn, raised three or four pigs, and a cow. During the off-season, he worked in a workshop in town and had no worries about food and clothing.

Guo Qi didn't even register his household registration.

He didn't want to register his household there. Even if he were to be granted 30 or 40 mu of land here in exchange for registration, let alone move to Kuanxiang and be given 100 mu of land per person, he wouldn't agree.

Guo Qi is uneducated and illiterate.

But they knew that once they became citizens, they would have to pay rent, perform corvée labor, and so on. Now, without citizenship, they could work as tenants or laborers, which would be a lighter burden.

This was the most distressing part for Li Shimin.
Naturalization makes one a good citizen of the country; without a household registration, one is considered an absconder or a hidden resident, which brings many inconveniences and even a lack of security. Yet, he prefers to live this way.

"have you slept?"

The emperor asked.

Li Yi didn't sleep either.

He just lay there without moving.

The emperor was making pancakes there, and he listened the whole time.

He knew that Li Shimin was deeply moved today.

"Not yet, Your Majesty. Would you like some water?"

"No need, I just have a little trouble sleeping. Will you chat with me for a while?"

"it is good."

"Wu Yi, you say the land allocated to the people is insufficient, so why are you unwilling to relocate to Kuanxiang and receive the full amount of land?"

Why would ordinary people rather flee their registered residence and become unregistered tenants or laborers than settle down and be granted land?

in the dark,
The emperor's voice revealed weariness and confusion.

“Your Majesty, the lives of ordinary people are simply about being born and surviving. Now that the people of Sanjia Village are able to have enough to eat and wear, they don’t want to struggle or take any more risks.”

"The imperial court's policy of relocating people from narrow villages to wider villages, which is a good policy, is not very attractive to the people of Sanjia Village who have already solved their basic needs for food and clothing."

"The policy of relocating people to sparsely populated areas and granting them land is good. If it were to relocate those who were starving or displaced after the war or disasters, they would certainly be willing."

"The vast majority of people in the world only seek to have enough to eat and wear."

Li Shimin remained silent in the darkness.

a long time,

The emperor sighed, "The equal-field system has failed. I never imagined that in just six years since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, land annexation has become so rampant. Wu Yi, what methods do you have to curb this annexation?"

Li Yi did not answer.

It's too difficult to curb mergers and acquisitions.

Apart from the Song Dynasty, it seems that every dynasty tried to suppress land annexation, but almost none succeeded.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the country suffered severe war damage, resulting in a sharp decline in population and a large amount of wasteland, which laid the foundation for the equal-field system.

Once the chaos ends, the population will inevitably increase significantly, and at the same time, farmland will be rapidly annexed.

Most of the land was privately owned, so what did the imperial court use to grant land?

The equal-field system was the foundation of the rent-labor-tax system. If the equal-field system collapsed, then the rent-labor-tax system, the basic national tax system, would become a castle in the air.

That would naturally cause major problems for the country's finances.

Rental-based regulation has its advantages.

This system originated with Cao Cao, a powerful and ambitious warlord.

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, war broke out everywhere, people fled and land was abandoned. In the ninth year of Jian'an, Cao Cao issued an edict to collect land rent.

Cao Cao recruited displaced people to cultivate land, stipulating that he would charge them four liters of rent per mu of land, and each household would only need to contribute two bolts of silk and two catties of cotton.

With the original national tax system completely collapsed at the time, Cao Cao's military-agricultural system and rent-and-tax system achieved the goals of agricultural recovery, economic development, and sufficient tax revenue.

The fixed-rate land rent, with no increase in rent even for increased production, further stimulates farmers' enthusiasm.

Furthermore, the poll tax and population tax, which had been levied per person since the Qin and Han dynasties, were changed to a tax levied per household, which increased the population without increasing taxes, thus facilitating population recovery.

The rent system laid the foundation for Cao Wei's unification of the Three Kingdoms and the end of the great chaos in the land.

After Cao Wei,

The rent system has been practiced and maintained throughout history.

The Northern Wei Dynasty implemented the equal-field system.

The equal distribution of land and the system of rent and taxation became fundamental to the state.

These two basic policies were indeed very effective in an era of frequent wars.

And now,
Land consolidation is rampant.

There wasn't enough public land to be given to the people.

"Your Majesty, I remember that during the Kaihuang era of the previous dynasty, the equal land distribution policy was implemented, but in Guanzhong, each household could only be allocated about twenty mu of land."

The Sui Dynasty also failed to solve this problem. From Emperor Wen of Sui to Emperor Yang of Sui, their solution to this dilemma was to relocate people to rural areas and grant them land.

Yang Guang even went so far as to directly build Luoyang as the eastern capital and move the capital to the Guandong region.

Li Shimin sighed.
"A few days ago, I reviewed the memorial submitted by the Ministry of Revenue. In the fifth year of the Daye era of the Sui Dynasty, there were 188 prefectures and 1,269 counties in the country, totaling 9.07 million households."

Within the pass, there were fifteen prefectures with 890,000 households. But now, within the pass of our Great Tang Dynasty, there are only 390,000 households.

Especially in Henan and Hebei, during the Sui Dynasty, there were 45 prefectures in Henan and Hebei, each with more than two million households, totaling more than 4.9 million households.
But now, in Henan and Hebei provinces of our dynasty, there are only 679,000 households.

Four million nine hundred thousand households versus six hundred and seventy-nine thousand households—that's only 13% of the population of the Sui Dynasty.

Speaking of this household alone,
The two rivers region in the Kanto region should be considered a wide area, since the amount of farmland will not decrease.

However, there is not much wasteland or empty fields in Henan and Hebei now. Instead, the land is more concentrated in the hands of powerful clans and gentry, led by the Five Surnames and Seven Clans of Guandong.

Taking advantage of the chaos in the world, they expanded their annexations even more aggressively.

Not only was land consolidation more severe in Guandong, but the problem of unregistered households was also more serious. While war and famine did lead to a significant decrease in the population of Henan and Hebei, it is not said that the population was reduced to only thirteen percent in just over ten years. In fact, a large number of people went bankrupt, lost their land, abandoned their registered residence, and became tenant farmers of powerful clans.

The powerful families of Guandong, led by the Five Surnames and Seven Clans, took the opportunity to annex large amounts of land while also recruiting many hidden households as their tenants.
With land on one side and population on the other, it became increasingly aloof and superior.

The Li family is somewhat similar in Yusu Town, but they are still far from being as powerful as them.

Such actions as those of the Five Surnames and Seven Families, who extensively annexed and seized land and concealed household registrations, were in fact an attempt to undermine the imperial court.
After all, the imperial court's system was based on the rent-labor system, which was based on the number of adult males and households.

Without household registration, there would be no taxable households or taxable individuals.

No matter how much land a powerful family owns, they are still subject to the same tax rate based on the number of adult males. Even if they own tens of thousands of acres of land, they pay the same two shi of rent as if they own only one acre. In fact, if they obtain an official position or become a monk, they can be exempted from taxes.

The imperial court is now facing several major problems.

First, there was a shortage of publicly allocated land, and most of the land was consolidated into the hands of powerful landlords.

Secondly, the number of registered residents was insufficient to meet the tax requirements, and most of them went unregistered and became tenants of powerful landlords.

The imperial court wanted to relocate people to more fertile land, but there was not much land to be given in the Sanhe region, and most importantly, there were no people to relocate.

“Today I visited three villages, and although there are thirteen households, only three are registered,” Li Shimin said.

Li Yi did not hide anything from the emperor, "I have heard that there are currently 500 registered households in Yusu Township, but there are about 5,000 customers."

Li Shimin suddenly sat up.

Eyes wide open in the darkness.

"hiss!"

Li Shimin felt sweat beading on his back.
"It is imperative to investigate and apprehend those who have fled, order them to surrender within 100 days, and grant them permission to return to their hometowns."

Li Yi also sat up.

"Your Majesty, the people have abandoned their registration and fled, either because of war or famine, and are now wandering far from home. But the root cause is that the people have no land, or the land they are allocated is insufficient, and they are unable to bear the taxes and corvée labor. They are forced to flee to other places to hide and rely on landlords and powerful families."

Simply issuing warrants to fleeing households and ordering them to return home is only treating the symptoms, not the root cause.

“But household registration is the foundation of national taxation and corvée labor,” Li Shimin declared loudly.

"Your Majesty, nowadays many people either flee into the mountains or other places to reclaim wasteland, or enter the city to work as laborers, and many more become tenants and guarantors hidden by landlords, which is also a choice they are forced to make."

As Your Majesty saw in Sanjia Village today, many people have chosen to become unregistered households, tenant farmers, or hired laborers, simply to survive.

Li Shimin said in a deep voice, "Light the lamps."

Li Yi settled down and lit an oil lamp.

The emperor rose, put on his robe, and sat at the table. "Brew a pot of tea. I wish to have a long talk with you by candlelight."

As soon as Li Yi made a sound, the maids and guards outside came to ask for instructions. Li Yi asked them to bring a charcoal stove and tea leaves, saying, "I'll brew it myself. You can wait outside."

"It's late, let's have some black tea."

Li Shimin nodded indifferently.

"I think the root of the problem is land annexation. What do you think about the court increasing the enforcement of the land limit order? Officials and commoners should strictly enforce the land quota and thoroughly investigate any land outside the land register."

Li Yi took out some black tea from the ceramic tea caddy.

I baked it a little bit.
Boil water, scald the cup, add tea leaves, and brew.

"Your Majesty, the idea is good, but it's difficult to implement."

"Even the best policy is meaningless if it cannot be implemented."

The emperor's proposal to limit land use

This was also part of the equal-field system. For example, a commoner, a able-bodied man, should have been granted 100 mu of land, though this might be halved in smaller towns. This 100 or 50 mu was both the maximum amount of land that could be granted and the maximum amount of land that a commoner could own.

A prince is granted 100 qing of permanent land, which is equivalent to 10,000 mu. Theoretically, this is the maximum amount of land a prince can own.

An ordinary citizen,
If one already owns twenty mu of private land, then when allocating land, this twenty mu should be deducted from the allotted land quota; it cannot exceed the quota.

In fact, during the Sui Dynasty, the government already had regulations for punishing illegal buying and selling of land and for occupying land beyond the permitted limits.

The land allocated to each person cannot be bought or sold; upon death, the land is returned to the family.

Those who sell their land will be punished with ten strokes of the cane for every acre, and an additional stroke for every twenty acres, up to a maximum of one hundred strokes. The land will be returned to its original owner, and any confiscated property will not be recovered.

Those who occupy land beyond the limit shall be punished with ten strokes of the cane for each mu (unit of land area), one degree more for ten mu, sixty strokes of the cane for more than ten mu, one degree more for twenty mu, with a maximum sentence of one year of penal servitude. If the land is occupied in a lenient or secluded place, no punishment shall be imposed.

The wealthy acquired land, and the poor lost their jobs. Therefore, an edict was issued ordering the buyers to return the land and to punish them.

The imperial court strictly prohibited the buying and selling of allotted land. Perpetual land could be bought and sold, but the occupation of land beyond the permitted limit was forbidden.

However, the imperial edicts of punishment were often just empty words and had no real effect.

What even the Sui Dynasty couldn't accomplish,

The Tang Dynasty could not accomplish this now.

Take Li Yi for example. His title was Prince, and his permanent estate should be five thousand mu.

But in reality, Li Yi still has about 5,000 hectares, which is equivalent to a hundred times the area of ​​his original farmland.

Could the emperor issue an edict to force Li Yi to return the excess 495,000 mu?
This isn't just Li Yi exceeding the land limit;
Almost all nobles, officials, and powerful landlords exceeded their quotas.

Without official rank or merit, a person could only own 100 mu of land, but even small landlords in the countryside owned more than 100 mu.

The Emperor's Edict
Can it really challenge all the landlord classes in the world?
He dares to challenge, but he can't win.

"Is there no better solution?" Li Shimin asked expectantly.

"I believe this needs to be done in several steps. To check household registrations and prevent runaways, we must first address the problems of people who have no land yet are burdened with land rent, taxes, and corvée labor."
Households are classified according to their assets, and then further classified as primary households and secondary households based on whether they own land.

Rural households were classified into five or six classes based on the amount of land they owned. The top three classes consisted of large landowners, while the bottom three classes included small and medium-sized landowners and self-cultivating farmers.

The clients did not own land; they were tenants or hired laborers.

Landless tenants and laborers were registered as customers. The court granted these customers the same personal rights as the owners and ordinary citizens. They were not required to pay land rent, rent, or grain to the public granary. They only had to pay household fees and perform corvée labor.

If people without land are designated as customers, they only need to perform corvée labor and pay household taxes, without having to bear rent and taxes. This would greatly reduce their burden, and people might be more willing to register as citizens.
After all, in those days, without a household registration and dependent on powerful landlords, one lost a lot of personal freedom and became a semi-servant.

Both the master and the customer were registered households of the imperial court.

This would definitely be smoother than directly searching the runaway households and then issuing a warrant to return them to their hometown. After all, directly searching the runaway households and then sending them back to their hometown would be like taking away their tenants from the landlords, powerful families, temples, etc., which they would naturally not want.

Regarding the issue of land consolidation
Li Yi believed that no matter how much they cracked down, it wouldn't make much of a difference. After all, who were the real landowners who annexed the land? It was the royal family, the imperial relatives, the princes and nobles, and the high-ranking officials. They were the biggest landowners.

Do they really want to give up their land again?

This goes against human nature and is bound to be difficult to implement in practice.

It would be better to follow the example of the Song Dynasty, not suppressing land consolidation, but allowing land transfer, which is essentially complete privatization.

but,

When land is transferred or sold, a contract must be drawn up with the government and a deed tax must be paid.

Simultaneously,

The best solution would be to change the original system of levying rent based on the number of people in the household to a system of two liters of millet and two feet of silk per mu (unit of land area). Whoever owns the land should pay the rent. If a person has no land or little land, they should pay whatever amount they have or not pay at all.

The burden on the people has been reduced, but the government will still receive taxes and levies without any decrease.

If conditions permit in the future, we can implement a system of merging the poll tax into the land tax, which would be even more powerful.

Isn't this better than directly prohibiting nobles, officials, landlords, and powerful families from over-occupying land, and forcing landless people to register as citizens and bear the burden of rent, taxes, and corvée labor?

Any policy must be implementable.

"Do not suppress mergers, maintain a primary customer system," Li Shimin murmured, holding a cup of red tea.

(End of this chapter)