Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 73 The Grain Tax Dispute
A lackey must leave himself a way to survive; he can't just go down one path to the end. The master, in order to protect himself, won't care about the life of a lackey... Mutual cooperation is the only way to give oneself more options.

This isn't about loyalty or disloyalty; it's about having more connections so that more influential people will be willing to help you out.

This does not affect loyalty to the master; the royal family can be loyal to the true master in his heart according to his own wishes.

After the banquet, Wang Men understood Liu Bei's meaning—if he didn't want to die, he had better not harm Liu Bei easily, otherwise this merit that could have been properly resolved would turn into a disaster.

Liu Bei understood Yang Qiu's methods. Once Zhang Chun's business became the government's business, it would be impossible to use Zhang Chun as bait, and Zhang Chun and Wang Men would naturally no longer be pursued.

Moreover, only Liu Bei could get Zou Jing to cooperate; Wang Men and Zou Jing had no connection whatsoever.

Moreover, Liu Bei had no grudge against the Wang family; he was simply trying to survive.

If the Wuhuan trade market can be reopened, it would be equivalent to the Wuhuan, who had previously become alienated, returning to the embrace of the Han Dynasty. No matter how the court struggles, the emperor will do his best to promote this matter... Who would dare to touch the emperor's property? Everyone has to cooperate.

Liu Bei made full use of Zou Jing's value as the Protector of the Wuhuan.

This is the benefit of friendship. Liu Bei and Zou Jing had a sufficient foundation of trust. Even if Liu Bei used Zou Jing's identity without prior notice, Zou Jing would not doubt or hesitate because of this. Instead, he would immediately realize that Liu Bei was helping him gain political achievements.

Furthermore, Zou Jing could use this opportunity to escape the vortex of factional strife and might even be promoted.

In fact, if Zhang Chun were smart enough, it wouldn't make much difference to the Zhang family whether the Yuyang Horse Market belonged to the Zhang family or the imperial court.

As a modern person, Liu Bei's concept of a platform was deeply ingrained; creating a platform and cooperating to achieve profit was the way to do business.

The Zhang family used their resources and gray-market businesses to invest in the legitimate Protector of the Wuhuan, allowing the imperial court to officially reopen the border trade. The Zhang family of Yuyang could not only launder the gray market goods into domestic products, but also gain more benefits due to their geographical advantages.

After all, this is a legal transaction with the support of the entire Han Dynasty, making it easy to expand the platform, which is much easier than the Zhang family maintaining it privately.

If the platform expands several times, even if the Zhang family can only obtain a portion of the profits, it will still be more profitable than before when they had to maintain it and make deals, and there will be less risk involved.

The original resources and industries belong to the Zhang family, as do the connections they have with the Wuhuan tribe. They can't escape these benefits; it's just a matter of changing the name.

As long as Zhang Chun hasn't gone mad, he shouldn't be unable to understand.

Of course, risks still exist—Zhang Chun's blocking of traffic information will likely have long-term consequences.

But in any case, at least Liu Bei can now go to Anxi to take up his post.

He couldn't refuse the position, but he also couldn't truly accept it, lest Zhang Chun's lingering effects affect him.

……

In October of the second year of Guanghe, Liu Bei went to Zhongshan with Wang Men.

To get to Anxi, one must actually pass through Lunu. However, Liu Bei did not enter Lunu city. Wang Men went back alone to communicate with Zhang Chun and also brought back a message from Liu Bei about his upcoming post to Lunu.

The county magistrate is an official appointed by the imperial court. He can go to take up his post on his own. He does not need the Prime Minister's office to make arrangements. The county will take care of him.

When Liu Bei came to Anxi this time, he only brought more than twenty personal guards, namely Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and a squad of elite guards.

Zuo Yuan didn't come this time. Liu Bei sent her to build an intelligence network. Information gathering was the top priority. Zuo Yuan was a retainer, and Liu Bei regarded her as a comrade-in-arms.

Liu Bei did not intend to establish a secret service organization, but rather to have Zuo Yuan use wandering knights, musicians, and maids to build an intelligence system to avoid future problems such as the loss of communication.

Of course, it can also be used to spread rumors when necessary.

Anxi is very similar to Xinting on the Juma River. It is located on the banks of the Hengshui River and has excellent farming conditions. Most of the land here belongs to the estates of the Zhongshan gentry.

The city's commerce was not very prosperous, and there weren't many people. Apart from the government offices, the rest of the city was rather deserted. The reason the government offices were bustling was mainly because October was the time to collect grain taxes.

In fact, the grain tax in Zhongshan was quite normal, fully in line with the imperial court's requirement of one-thirtieth tax. However... this "one" usually fell on the shoulders of middle-class and poor households without any background.

This is the common practice in most places. Horses have their own labor service, and grain has its own labor service. The labor service will definitely be assigned to middle-class households with land, while ordinary people cannot ask wealthy families to collect taxes.

However, the method of collecting grain tax, a regular tax, was not a decision made by prefects like Zhang Chun or Liu Wei.

The prefect or prime minister usually just asks each county to pay the grain tax in full—then each county distributes it to the townships, where the township officials and elders "select" the households to collect the grain and pay the tax.

The village head, the three elders, and the heads of each pavilion were all from powerful families.

This has always been the way of the world; every year presents challenges, and sometimes, a year of plenty is more likely to lead to bankruptcy than a year of disaster.

However, things are a little different for An Xi.

When Liu Bei arrived at the government office in Anxi, he passed through the city and saw tax officials collecting tax grain into the warehouse.

Presumably because there wasn't enough grain to be stored, a dispute broke out at the entrance of the county granary, attracting a large crowd.

Liu Bei initially thought it was a class dispute between officials and commoners, but to his surprise, the quarrel was actually between the gentry.

A young scholar pointed at a tax collector and roared, "Using these large granaries to collect grain is utterly unethical! The other day, there was a disturbance caused by bandits, and the grain harvest was already difficult! If we continue to use these large granaries to collect grain, how will we survive?!"

The young man looked to be about the same age as Zhang Fei. He must have been angry because the grain had been stored in a large granary when he paid his taxes—out of ten bushels of grain, only seven bushels were stored.

In fact, this is the case everywhere; this young man clearly lacks experience in the ways of the world.

The tax collector, presumably a granary official, retorted without hesitation: "If we don't use large granaries and don't allow for losses, then all the grain losses will fall on the shoulders of us granary clerks! This is the usual practice for grain storage! Zhang Jialang, stop pointing fingers and making a fuss! Hurry home and gather grain to make up the difference!"

“Mother of you! You people from Zhongshan are xenophobic and difficult. You conscripted me into laborers when I was about to move my whole family back to Hejian, and forcibly demanded land... My family has accepted this loss!”

The boy cornered the granary manager and threw the sacks of millet from the grain cart to the ground: "But my family has already paid all the taxes! What difference do you want? Don't push your luck!"

"Do you think your father wants you to make up for it? If your father is short of tax grain, the whole family will be exiled to Rinan! If there is no tax revenue, your father will have no way to survive!"

The granary clerk threw his grain tally stamp on the ground: "Do you think I wanted to be this granary clerk? Zhang He, you have connections, why don't you go find the inspector and have him dismiss me from this post immediately! I'd rather pay to get rid of this job!"

That's true. County officials are all locals, and tax officials are appointed by their superiors to be in charge of affairs. If possible, no one wants to offend anyone.

The Inspector was an inspector responsible for conveying government orders, examining officials, and verifying tax collection.

This is the tax collection season, and supervising tax officials is the core job of the tax inspectors, because corruption is most likely to occur in tax collection work.

However, judging from the fact that the granary official said this in public, he probably did not embezzle any money and was probably just eager to be dismissed.

Grain tax was a crucial matter of government in the county. Liu Bei, as the county magistrate, was actually involved in grain tax affairs. The county magistrate was usually responsible for collecting overdue taxes or forcibly collecting them, etc. And if a civil uprising broke out, the county magistrate had to suppress it.

But Liu Bei had no intention of actually taking the official position and originally didn't plan to get involved in the matter.

But now I've heard the name Zhang He...

Liu Bei naturally had to stop and watch the excitement.

(End of this chapter)