The Evil King's Favorite Concubine: Genius Perfumer

Chapter 21 Potential Danger

"Little Ji..."

In the middle of the night, Gan Tiantian didn't feel sleepy, lying on the pillow and muttering to himself.

"Little uncle and brothers are so happy, why... I can't be as happy as them from the bottom of my heart?"

She turned her head to the side, and Ji Bingyun, who was as misty as smoke, was leaning on the bed rail and picking her fingernails leisurely—please, Master Ji, can there still be dirt on your hands? What are you picking, are you just pretending? What do you know?

Ji Bingyun responded indifferently: "You are working hard."

"...Well, maybe you really hit the spot!"

Gan Tiantian got up, sat down on the edge of the bed, and kept a body distance from Ji Bingyun, talking shoulder to shoulder.Although this guy has a poisonous tongue, he often speaks to the point and is extremely sharp.

I struggled with the problem for a long time, but he pointed it out in a few words, maybe it is true!

"Yeah, I just think that happiness comes too suddenly."

Gan Tiantian supported the bed with both hands, and his little feet dangled under the bed.

"Xiao Ji, the education I have received since I was a child is that without going through a lot of cold, I can't get the fragrance of plum blossoms. Now...Although I have worked hard, but..."

Aren't the entrepreneurial stories of those successful people full of twists and turns and sweat, like Tang Seng, who went through ninety-nine and 81 difficulties to obtain the truth?

She has only struggled for more than a month, and she has earned a lot of money that many people probably can't earn in a lifetime... Although in the eyes of the real rich, it is just a drizzle, but compared with the general living standards of this era, it can definitely make the whole family happy. I have no worries about food and clothing for a lifetime.

Is happiness really so easy to get?
It feels so unreal.

"Hehe, your thinking is too simple."

Ji Bingyun raised the corners of her mouth in disdain, and gave her a look of "Are you an idiot?" "Two hundred acres of paddy fields, 1000 taels of silver, do you think your family can live a good life in the future?"

"what?"

Gan Tiantian was stunned, this... With the fields and savings, can't he live a good life?Can't it?

Of course she also knows that with money alone, without any social status and backing, her family's survival is not secure enough.

However, they all bought land and became landlords!The younger uncle and the second elder brother are also preparing to study hard and take the exam to be a scholar or something. The future of the Gan family is bright no matter what.

"Innocent."

Ji Bingyun sneered again.

"Girl, at your age, you probably don't know what land offering is."

"I know."

Gan Tiantian was very unconvinced!
Although she was born in science back then, her literature and history scores have always been very good, and the common sense problems of feudal society can't trouble her!

"Oh? You know what?"

Ji Bingyun was really surprised.

"Hmph, look down on people."

Although the dynasty of Da Xiao was not in the historical dimension she was familiar with, after living here for a period of time, she gradually discovered that the system and customs of this dynasty were very similar to a dynasty in her dimension.

In the Ming dynasty, land donation prevailed, and many people often donated their land to rich families and clans, and instead became farmers, tenant farmers or even slaves.

Could it be that these people are born servile, or are they stupid, insisting on giving their land to the lords, willing to be slaves?

In fact, this has a lot to do with the tax system at that time.Although the taxation at that time was very low on the surface, it could not withstand the exploitation and increase of levels by officials at every level.Coupled with various trivial and bad rules and regulations, the burden and pressure are really great for ordinary farmers.

Farming is originally a business of "watching the sky and eating". God is in a good mood, and there is still some harvest that year, and life may be barely passable.In case of drought, severe floods, locust plagues, it's over, and selling children and daughters will not be able to live... It's not surprising that there is land but no food!
Another point is that in addition to taxes in Ming Dynasty, taxes are collected on the basis of acres of land, and there is also a small tax on the basis of the head!
Therefore, in order to evade taxes, the common people became servants of wealthy families from ordinary families. Naturally, their status was much lower, but they no longer had to pay taxes.

In order to eat, children can be bought and sold, let alone the status of a good citizen?

Over time, the rich and powerful families had more and more land and servants, and the talent and taxes that the imperial court could collect became less and less.On the other hand, since the rich and the servants who donate to the rich cannot collect taxes, the local government has to transfer the remaining amount to the common people under its jurisdiction in order to complete the tax task.

This is a vicious circle, which again prompts the people to invest in the names of officials and wealthy families in order to avoid increasingly heavy and outrageous taxes.

"……am I right?"

Gan Tiantian looked at Ji Bingyun with some complacency.Hmph, want to test her?

She may have to hide her clumsiness in front of others, for fear of being seen that her knowledge does not match her identity and age.For Ji Bingyun, it was not necessary.

"Girl, I didn't expect you to have some knowledge."

Ji Bingyun's words are really a compliment.

Even if an adult scholar were to talk about the issue of donating land, she might not be able to explain it as thoroughly and clearly as she did.

This girl is really not simple, so it is even more necessary to implement her own plan...

Ji Bingyun was thinking silently in her heart, and continued to say calmly, "But you only know one thing and don't know the other. As you said, this is a general donation, and there is another kind..."

"It's called false offering!"

"Fraudulent devotion?"

what is that?
Gan Tiantian became curious, she had never heard of this term.No wonder, history books belong to history books, reality belongs to reality, and things in books are dead after all.

She would not pretend to understand, so she asked: "What does false offering mean?"

It turned out that the kind of land donation that Gan Tiantian knew belonged to self-contribution, and it was voluntary.

In addition, there is another kind of offering, which is called "false offering", which refers to some local hooligans, village tyrants, and villains who arbitrarily call other people's land "own property" or "unowned land". , directly dedicated to the wealthy family.

This is Chi Guoguo's tough grab!
However, despite the fact that things are so unreasonable, they happen frequently.

Generally, the families whose land was forcibly robbed in this way were small widowed households with dead headed family members, or weak families with few members and no relatives to support them.

Those villains snatched the land and took refuge in the wealthy family. For their own benefit and out of encouragement, the wealthy family would usually protect their shortcomings and help drive the original landlord out.

"Heh, your family's two hundred acres of land, with only one and a half-year-old children in the family, probably will be remembered by others in a short time, don't say I didn't remind you."

Ji Bingyun spoke lightly, but Gan Tiantian suddenly became anxious.

Is this... really that dangerous?
(End of this chapter)