Ying Fusu

Zhang Han's sigh, which couldn't hide his worry, left Fusu stunned in place.

He was still reeling from the astonishment brought on by Zhang Han's words for a long time.

—Am I too optimistic?

—If taxes are reduced or exempted, the fiscal situation will be even worse than this estimate suggests?

Surely not?

The agricultural tax was one-fifteenth of the total tax, and the poll tax was calculated per person per year, which was 120 coins. This was the tax standard established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, in history!

During the later reigns of Emperors Wen and Jing, the rates were further reduced on this basis.

The agricultural tax was halved to one-thirtieth, and the poll tax was reduced by two-thirds, to only forty coins per person per year!

It was this tax standard of taking one-thirtieth of the agricultural tax and calculating the poll tax on three people that led to the first golden age in the feudal history of China: the reign of Emperors Wen and Jing!

This was precisely what surprised Fusu.

—Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, levied a 1/15th agricultural tax and a poll tax on each person, which brought sudden peace to the country that had been ravaged by the wars at the end of the Qin Dynasty.

Whether it was contemporaries or later generations, although no one said that Emperor Gaozu of Han "loved the people like his own children," they would at least mention that at the beginning of the Han dynasty, he reduced taxes and corvée labor and allowed the people to rest.

Emperors Wen and Jing levied one-thirtieth of the agricultural tax and calculated the poll tax on three people, which directly contributed to the reigns of Emperors Wen and Jing!

Emperor Xiaowen of the Han Dynasty became known as a living saint, and even Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, and Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, took Emperor Xiaowen as their role model!

All of this was predicated on the fact that the Chang'an court of the Han dynasty almost exclusively controlled Guanzhong, Hanzhong, and Bashu, while delegating all the former territories of the six kingdoms east of the pass.

How come by the time it came to the Qin Dynasty, the agricultural tax of one-fifteenth and the poll tax of one person per person were causing the Xianyang court to be unable to make ends meet and to be unable to maintain itself?

If Fusu wanted to further emulate the reigns of Emperors Wen and Jing in history, and on that basis reduce agricultural taxes by half and poll tax by two-thirds, wouldn't the Qin Dynasty go bankrupt on the spot?

And then—what was Zhang Han's reaction?

So, you're not even slightly surprised by Fusu's plan to "re-establish fiefdoms"?

Shuiling accepted reality and began to analyze the situation for Fusu after tax reduction and re-granting fiefdoms.

It was as if they had long anticipated that Fusu—or even the second emperor of Qin—would do this, and were mentally prepared, or even had a plan in mind to respond.

Thus, surprised by both Zhang Han's reaction and the conclusion he proposed, Fusu sat there in astonishment, unable to recover for a long time.

Zhang Han, however, maintained a solemn expression as if facing a formidable enemy and having an insurmountable problem, and picked up the second scroll of bamboo slips again to take a look.

After pondering for a long time, he spoke again, bringing Fusu's 'soul' back.

"Your Majesty should know that the farther the army is from the place where military provisions are transferred, the more military provisions it needs."

"—To transport one shi of grain from Xianyang to Hangu Pass, an additional two or even three shi of grain would be needed for the laborers transporting the grain, covering a distance of a thousand li."

"If the supplies were transported to the north wall, the losses would be even more alarming."

"Back then, when the First Emperor appointed Meng Tian, ​​the current Grand Tutor and General-in-Chief, as commander-in-chief and dispatched an army of 300,000 to conquer the grasslands in the north, the Imperial Household Department had submitted a memorial to the emperor."

The memorial stated: "For the army's northern expedition to the grasslands, the Imperial Treasury will provide thirty zhong of military rations, and one shi of grain for the northern wall."

"In other words, for every thirty shi of grain issued by the Imperial Household Department, only one shi could be sent to the North Wall to feed the soldiers in the border region."

...

"I was fortunate that the First Emperor did not abandon me and appointed me as the Minister of the Imperial Household Department. I was also ordered to conduct calculations."

"Calculating the military rations, for every 600 li (approximately 300 kilometers) of grain transported, half of it must be reduced—that is, one shi (approximately 0.5 kg) of grain must be delivered for every two shi (approximately 100 kg) of grain."

"For every 1,200 li that is sent, 75% of the weight must be reduced to 15% – that is, one out of every four shi of grain must be delivered."

"After traveling approximately 2,500 li, 93% of the grain will be lost—meaning only 7 out of every 100 shi will be delivered..."

As he spoke, Zhang Han couldn't help but sigh with emotion, and a sense of melancholy appeared on his face.

Then he added, "To minimize the loss of military rations during transportation, we can only shorten the distance between the granaries where the rations are stored and the troop's location as much as possible."

"That is, to shorten the transportation route."

"And my Great Qin has Meng Tian's border army in the north and Ren Xiao's army in Lingnan in the south."

"In order to balance the north and south and prevent unrest in the east, the First Emperor finally decided to use the former Wei state's large granary, Ao Cang, as the starting point for the distribution of military provisions for the Qin army."

...

"After the autumn harvest, not all the agricultural taxes collected by the court are sent to Xianyang and deposited into the Prime Minister's residence and the national treasury."

"Most of the tax grain from the Guandong region will be sent to the Ao Granary for unforeseen needs."

"The tax grain from Guanzhong and Hanzhong would be sent to Xianyang and deposited into the national treasury to be used by the Prime Minister's office to pay the salaries of officials."

"Naturally, local counties would also withhold a portion of the tax revenue based on the number and salaries of their officials, and use that revenue to pay the officials' salaries for the following year."

"The tax revenue losses that His Majesty has overlooked are precisely here..."

As soon as Zhang Han finished speaking, Fusu, who had already recovered from his astonishment, couldn't help but frown slightly.

He vaguely realized the problem, so he got up from his seat and walked to the side of the hall, to a map that was hanging there.

With his hands behind his back and his head held high, he looked at the administrative map in front of him, which roughly depicted the various prefectures of the country.

Just as he was about to speak, he saw Zhang Han step forward and point to the far right of the map.

"Take the Qi region as an example."

"The local prefectures and counties collect agricultural taxes and poll taxes after the autumn harvest, withhold the annual salary required by local officials, and then send the remainder to Xingyang Ao Granary."

"From the coastal region of Qi to Ao Cang outside Hangu Pass, the journey is more than a thousand miles."

"For every shi of tax grain transported from Qi, at least five shi of rations were usually provided to the transport laborers in order to ensure its successful delivery to Ao Cang."

"And this loss is something the Xianyang court never pays attention to or even considers."

...

"In a prefecture, there are tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of shi (a unit of dry measure) of tax grain. The imperial court will only allow local authorities to retain about 20% of it for the salaries of officials."

"The remaining grain, not a single stone, must be sent to Ao Cang outside the pass, or even to the Xianyang State Treasury in Guanzhong."

"If Xianyang ignores the losses along the way, what should the local county officials do?"

"—Very few people dare to falsely report or underreport agricultural taxes."

"This loss of several times over during transportation was naturally imposed on the people."

...

"It is like a farmer who owns sixty mu of land and gets one hundred and eighty shi of autumn grain every year."

"Based on the one-twelfth tax rate of our Great Qin agricultural tax, this farmer should pay fifteen shi of agricultural tax."

"Three stones of these were intercepted by local counties and prefectures."

"The remaining twelve shi (a unit of dry measure) will require sixty or even seventy shi of laborers' rations to be delivered smoothly to Ao Cang."

"Therefore, the annual tax payable by this farmer family was 15 shi of agricultural tax, plus at least 60 shi of grain loss during transportation."

"Local counties usually collect this loss under other names."

"And the common people, naturally, suffered terribly."

"The autumn harvest only yielded 180 shi (a unit of dry measure), and agricultural taxes alone amounted to 75 shi—nearly half of it!"

"In addition to poll tax, household tax, and all sorts of other exorbitant taxes and levies;"

"As a result, there are now slanderous remarks against our Great Qin, saying: 'The taxes of Qin are more than half of what the people receive.'"

"Why is half of the tax collected?"

"After the autumn harvest, each farmer yields three bushels of rice. Two-thirds are taken as taxes, and the farmer keeps only one-third..."

...

……

hiss~

huh~~~

Zhang Han's lengthy discourse ultimately led to a conclusion that caused Fusu to let out a long sigh.

The majority of the poem.

In my past life, whenever the topic of the Qin Dynasty came up, these four words would always appear.

However, regarding this tax rate—as high as two-thirds—later generations have offered various opinions, making it difficult to determine its truth.

Is it true?

Two-thirds of the taxes were higher than the personal income tax imposed on the super-rich in later generations!

It's almost as high as the tax rates during the Roosevelt era!

With such heavy taxes, how could the Qin Dynasty possibly have perished after only two generations?

How could there possibly be a "second generation"?!

They'll probably fall in three to five months!

But can you say it's fake?

It's written in black and white in history books and historical records—and more than one person says so;

Even if there were a group of ancient people, especially from the Qin Dynasty, who wanted to smear the Qin Dynasty, they wouldn't all be so united in their opinions, even agreeing on the "fake" tax rates, would they?

It wasn't until this moment, when he heard from Zhang Han, the Minister of the Imperial Household Department, about the tax collection model of the Qin Dynasty—especially in the remote areas of Guandong—that Fusu finally understood where the so-called "half of the taxes" came from.

The tax itself is not high;

At least the taxes that the Qin central government wanted and needed were far from reaching the alarming proportion of "half," that is, two-thirds.

For example, the agricultural tax—one-twelfth of the tax, or about eight percent, is actually quite normal.

The poll tax and household tax, combined, amounted to only a few hundred coins, which amounted to less than ten bushels of grain.

A farmer works for a year and gets about 200 shi of grain. He takes out less than 30 shi to pay taxes, and he can keep 170 shi in his hands. So it is not a matter of "heavy taxes".

The problem lies in the fact that this small amount of tax revenue requires several times the transportation cost to reach its destination—such as Xingyang Aocang or even the Xianyang treasury.

Logically speaking, this transportation cost should be borne by the state.

It makes no sense for ordinary people to pay taxes and then also have to pay for the transportation costs of those taxes out of their own pockets.

The problem is that the Qin Dynasty was not a unified regime that rose from nothing to something, like a tall building built from the ground up.

Instead, it was the original "Qin State" that became the Great Qin Empire through conquest and annexation.

From the Qin state to the Great Qin, many things actually changed.

Governing a country and governing the world are quite different, even diametrically opposed.

However, as Fusu had said earlier, the Qin Dynasty was not prepared for unification.

At the very least, they were not fully prepared.

The political system that was originally applicable to the Qin state, which governed Guanzhong in an orderly manner and even became so powerful that it was able to sweep away the six states, is still operating with the old logic.

In short: the world today is not regarded as "the world" by the Qin central government, but as a larger version of the Qin state.

Everything has clearly changed;

But the rules haven't changed.

For the Qin people in particular, there was almost no change before and after unification.

Before unification, the Qin people used their own writing system, currency, and weights and measures;

After unification, the First Emperor standardized the written language, the width of cart tracks, and weights and measures, making everything familiar to the Qin people accessible to all.

—The Qin laws that the Qin people followed before unification;

After unification, everyone in the land abided by Qin laws.

It's as if the Qin state still exists, only it has annexed the six other states, expanded its territory by thousands of miles, and its population has increased several times over.

In reality, the Qin state, along with the six other states that were annihilated, had already been melted down and forged into the Qin state we know today.

Da Qin is not the Qin state.

The rules of the Qin state were no longer applicable to the Qin Dynasty.

The most critical thing is that nobody realizes any of this.

The First Emperor, in particular, who personally facilitated the unification of China, was unaware of all this.

There was no precedent to provide the First Emperor with any reference or guidance on how to rule and govern a unified feudal dynasty.

Thus, the First Emperor could only endlessly exert his "thinking" power, feeling his way across the river by touching the stones—and in the process, he subconsciously reverted to the old thinking of the "Qin State".

Specifically, everything Zhang Han mentioned at this moment is a very typical and representative case.

During the Qin Dynasty, the territory of the Qin state was only that large.

The Qin River Valley stretches for eight hundred li, and at most, Bashu and Hanzhong are added.

Xianyang is located almost in the very center of Guanzhong, and taxes transported from various parts of Guanzhong to Xianyang can arrive in a very short distance.

Even if there are losses along the way, it would only mean that the tax burden doubles—from one in twelve to two in twelve, so the people wouldn't feel the impact that strongly.

As for Bashu and Hanzhong, the former already had the "difficulty of the Shu Road" buff, and the Xianyang court already assumed there would be losses.

The latter went north through Wuguan Pass, which, although outside the pass, was not actually that far from Xianyang.

This led the Qin court to develop a fixed mindset: losses during the transportation of taxes were not a big deal at all.

Local counties can fully afford it.

However, after unifying the world, this ingrained way of thinking led to an extremely serious consequence.

—The taxes from remote areas, especially the Yan region in the northeast and the coastal areas in the southeast, cost five to six times their value in transportation just to get them to Hangu Pass!

This is only what was sent to Aocang outside the pass!

If it were sent to Xianyang, the price would skyrocket to more than ten times!

However, the Qin court did not realize this and was still stuck in the mindset of the "Qin State" era, so they did not take it seriously at all.

Thus, despite the relatively light tax burden—the Xianyang court hadn't collected much tax revenue—the people of the land were burdened with the weight of "half the tax burden."

The court in Xianyang was still thinking: With such normal taxes, how could anyone find fault with me?

The people of the world thought to themselves: "Damn Qin people, how dare they collect most of the taxes from the people?"

yes;

I am but a lowly commoner, and I dare not do anything to you, Qin, the tiger and wolf.

But you wait!

Wait and see when I get the chance to kick you, then you'll see if I don't!

In this information asymmetry, the existence of the remnants of the former six states became a catalyst that accelerated the collapse of the Qin Dynasty.

Taking advantage of the information gap between the two sides, the remnants of the six states frantically fueled the flames, and with the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang uprising at Dazexiang as a black swan event, the demise of the Qin Dynasty after only two generations became inevitable.

"Father, are you unaware of these matters?"

After an unknown period of silence, Fusu finally asked a question in a deep voice.

"Even if Father Emperor is unaware, why didn't the Minister of the Imperial Household report this to the Emperor?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Han let out a long sigh, shook his head with a self-deprecating smile, and said, "I only came to understand the advantages and disadvantages of this place after I became the Minister of the Imperial Household."

"But the First Emperor could no longer hear dissenting opinions."

...

"The First Emperor's ambitions reached the stars, and his unfulfilled ambitions were countless."

"The First Emperor has long since become deaf to anything that might hinder the achievement of his ambitions and grand plans..."