high official

Chapter 46
The system design of the dynasty was entirely determined by the will of the founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.For example, in tax collection, he believed that corrupt officials would take advantage of the opportunity in the fish and meat village to make the people suffer, so he came up with the method of "good people governing good people" to divide a county into several grain districts according to the tax level, and use the land property to The wealthy household with the largest number and the best reputation is the head of grain, who is fully responsible for the collection of taxes and grain.

Usually a grain chief is responsible for the taxation task of several thousand to ten thousand shi, but there are also as few as a few hundred shi. This is mainly related to the geographical environment of the prefecture and county. Like Fuyang County, where there are "eight mountains, half water and half fields", the population lives They are scattered and there is little arable land. A grain chief is basically responsible for the tax collection task of a township, more than ten miles, and more than a thousand shi.

Every tax season, the grain chief and deputy grain chief of the district will notify the village chiefs to organize the villagers to pay grain at the designated place on the designated date.During this period, the government will send a secretariat to act as an accountant, which is also the practice of supervision.This kind of semi-official collection method is naturally not very efficient. At most two or three miles of people can pay the tax a day, and it can be considered very powerful after collecting it in seven or eight days.

In fact, it is quite a lot, two to three hundred households in two or three miles, and every household must be investigated for pennies, and the work is indeed very heavy.Therefore, in these days of grain collection, the grain chief and the county book office would go to Hebutou before dawn, set up tables and spread out books, and wait for the people to come to pay taxes.

As soon as the sun was shining, more than a dozen open-top boats broke through the morning fog and approached Hebutou in Shangxin Township in all directions.The boat was covered with straw mats, and the hull was kept low, and it was filled with new rice... This is the people from the nearest mile to the town, who came to pay their taxes.

Chao's family worker on the dock loudly reminded the head of the team to park the boat as densely as possible, so as to leave room for the boat that paid the duty later.

There are ten armors per mile, with a total of 110 households.Among them, the top ten households are called lichang households, and the heads of households take turns as lichang households.The remaining one hundred households are called Jiashou households, and they take turns as Jiashou.Therefore, under the head of the village, there are always ten Jiashou, and each Jiashou is in charge of ten families.

The head of the village ordered the chiefs to do so, and he himself jumped onto the pier, and when he came to the end of the narrow trestle bridge, he saw a long table lying in front of him.There are books, books and ink on the table, and two chairs are placed behind the table.Sitting on the chair on the left was Chao Tianjiao, who was dressed in a purple straight gown and wore a Liuhe hat, and on the right was a young man wearing an official scarf and a white shirt. He should be the secretary from the county.

Li Chang made a salute to the two of them, Fang said to Chao Tianjiao, "Justice, our autumn grains for Shibali have arrived, please accept it."

"En." Chao Tianjiao tucked his beard together, looked at Wang Xian, and after he nodded, he said: "Old rules, the upper class come first."

"Justice nobles often forget things, we don't have high-class households in Shibali." The village chief said with a smile.

"There are again, and you have to pay according to the re-verified book." Chao Tianjiao flipped through the account books and said, "There are three households in total, one for each of the upper, middle and lower."

"Ah..." The head of the village was a little dazed, "I never heard of it before."

"Didn't you hear that?" Chao Tian said anxiously: "There are also ten more households in Zhonghu. Here, this is the list. Tell the thirteen households to hand in part of it today. , I will make it up tomorrow, or I will pay it together tomorrow." He coughed and said, "Let the rest of the people pay the tax first."

"Here, at this time, how do I explain..." the head of the village held the list and said in distress: "Those who raise their households will have to scold me to death." The Ming Dynasty divided the people into three classes according to land, wealth, and population but.The lower the class, the lower the tax rate, and the higher the class, the higher the tax rate.Low-class households have a minimum tax of [-] yuan, and upper-class households have a maximum tax of [-] yuan. The difference is three times. It is no wonder that the people are so low-key and humble. They have thousands of acres of fertile land. Yes, they all wait for themselves.

Of course, it is up to the government to have the final say as to what it is, which creates a huge space for rent-seeking.The annual registration season is a feast for household scribes, village chiefs, and square chiefs.Its vital interests are related, and every household dare not save this money.After taking the money, you have to do things for others, and now you tell them that you can't do it. Not only is it a heartache to refund the money, but there is also the trouble of suffering from inequality.

Why is it my family and not someone else?Those unlucky families must scold him to death.

"Just tell them straight up!" Standing next to Chao Tianjiao was his younger brother Chao Dijiao, who rolled his eyes and said, "No matter what, they have to pay this amount this year, and if they don't want to OK. After the expiration date, the government will follow up with you, and then you can slowly argue with the bad guy."

Regardless of the fact that the first half of tax collection is based on 'good people governing good people', it is not mandatory.But once arrears occur, the government will show its hideous face and send people to the countryside to remind the class.That harassment can be described as flying and jumping, crying like ghosts and howling like wolves.If you don’t pay the reminder, the government will chase after you, hit the board, stand in the shackles, and have to make up for the tax you owe if you have to go bankrupt...

Seeing that he couldn't make sense, the village head had no choice but to turn back and let the first-class folks go to pay the tax first, but one of them left behind said: "Your family has been upgraded to a middle-upper class."

"Why?" The man's reaction was exactly the same, and he was shocked: "Didn't you book the next class?"

"This is bastard's ass—the rule!" The head of the village spread his hands and said, "I've been promoted to a high-level middle school, so I can't justify it."

"No, I gave the money too!" The villager was straightforward, and said angrily from a simple heart: "Why don't others go up, but my family goes up!"

The villagers all cast sympathetic eyes on him.

"You're happy when everyone is up?" the head of the village angrily said, "The county master thinks it's too loose, so let's just tighten it up! This year your family will pay more, and next year his family will pay more. There is only one round in ten years, yelling What are you doing!" He scolded others, "Don't you hurry up and pay the tax, do you want to follow the price increase?"

The villagers turned from sympathy to anger, ignored the quarrel between him and the village chief, rushed to unload the boat, and queued up to pay the grain with the burden.

The first villager to hand over grain reported his name to Chao Gonggong.Chao Tianjiao looked through the books of his family and sang: "Eighteen miles, there is a Jiajia first household, the head of the household is Ji Danian, the inferior is the superior, and the rice is three buckets and six liters, and the silk is seven taels of money." It is not a white book approved by the government, but a private book counted by the government.

That Ji New Year responded, and handed a bundle of silk to the tax-collecting scale. The vice-grain chief of the scale grabbed it casually and said with a straight face: "Tai Chao weighs the scale, [-]% off, and the receivable is [-] taels!"

This is talking nonsense with open eyes, but the common people have been used to it for so many years, and Ji Danian accompanied him with a smile and said: "You always call it, it happens to be nine taels." For a while he was still playing tricks on the scale, and he insisted on making you hand over a catty.

Here, the deputy food chief weighed the silk and sang: "Silk pays the tax!"

Over there, Ji Danian's two sons also encountered the same trouble when paying the grain. Chao Dijiao, who collected the grain, grabbed a handful of rice and said, "Tai Chao weighs the scale! [-]% off! Four Dou due!"

Ji Danian's two sons also didn't dare to babble, and carefully poured the grain on the burden, and the white rice, into the dendrobium with "four buckets" written on it... Dendrobium is a standard container used by the government to measure grain. Grain does not need to be weighed, as long as different dendrobiums are used to combine.

According to regulations, the grain in the dendrobium must be filled to the brim, and it has to go beyond the wall of the dendrobium and piled up in a pointed pile... The two sons of the Ji family, according to the requirements, piled the dendrobium to the limit. They were just about to breathe a sigh of relief for finally paying the tax .But he saw that Chao Dijiao rolled up the lower part of his robe, took two steps back, held his breath and sank to his dantian, then shouted loudly, rushed to Hu, and kicked hard!
The rice that exceeded the wall of the dendrobium fell to the ground naturally, and Ji's son hurriedly picked it up, but Chao Dijiao said loudly: "Don't pick it up, it's a waste, didn't you hear it? If you pick it up again, don't hand it over!"

The son of the Ji family had no choice but to fill up the hu...

.

Wang Xian, who witnessed this scene, was naturally dumbfounded.

Chao Tianjiao on the side said slightly complacently: "This kick is called 'kicking the dendrobium and dripping the tip'. Kicking the dendrobium can make the rice grains dense and dense for refilling. The tip that falls off is considered a waste of envy."

"Can the villagers be convinced?" Wang Xian swallowed his saliva and said, with this kick, at least half a bucket of rice will be paid.

"You don't have to pay if you don't accept it. When you wait for the government to collect it, it will cost more than that." Chao Tianjiao said indifferently: "It has been like this for thousands of years, so what if you don't accept it?"

"Oh, it's really unnecessary..." Wang Xianxin said, making the dendrobium a little bigger would have the same effect, and the food would look better.

"Hehe..." Chao Tianjiao said with a smile, "Half of the rice spilled on the ground belonged to petty officials..."

"Hmm..." Wang Xian coughed dryly. His father told him not to take money that has no conscience, and you don't have to refuse it if you don't take it, because if you don't take it, it will go into other people's pockets, and they will call you a stupid pig ...

Emperor Taizu was sympathetic to the people, and the tax rate was extremely low. Even with these tricks, the villagers could afford it.This is also the advantage of letting the grain chiefs collect taxes. They are born and bred, and they dare not exploit too much and stir up civil uprisings, which will basically not exceed the tolerance of the villagers.

After a busy day, we collected food from 330 households and 40 people in Sanli.In fact, after more than [-] years of recuperation, the people in these three miles have already exceeded [-] people, but in order to avoid taxes, they all concealed themselves and became black households.So don't look at the weakness of tax payment, it is also full of secret wars between the mind and tax collection...

As for Chao Gonggong, who collects taxes, he collects and settles two books...according to the standards of the Hongwu period, and according to the white books approved by the government.During the collection, almost [-]% was retained.The [-]%, [-]%, and [-]% belonged to Chao Tianjiao, and the [-]% was brought back to the Yamen by Wang Xian, and handed over to the housekeeper for disposal.

As for the grain on the ground, the government will not see it, and the tax collectors will divide it privately, so it is a fat job.

When it was dark, the taxable grains that should be paid had already been put into the warehouse, and the intercepted part and those wastes were sold directly to the grain merchants and transported away overnight...

.

(End of this chapter)