amaotonovel Chapter 341 Old Liu is really ruthless!
Chapter 341 Old Liu is really ruthless!
As Liu Bowen and the officials from eastern Zhejiang wielded their swords against the region, the gentry of eastern Zhejiang quickly fell into a state of widespread devastation.
The progressive tax system proposed by Liu Bowen and the officials of the Ministry of Revenue still followed the standard of 15 mu of land per adult male, and stipulated that the land could not be bought or sold, nor could it be rented out.
On this basis, the tax levied on each adult male would double for every five mu (approximately 0.33 acres) of land he owned.
For example, if Mr. Ding owns 30 mu of land, the first 15 mu will be charged at a rate of 20 jin of grain per mu, the 16th to 20th mu at a rate of 40 jin of grain per mu, the 21st to 25th mu at a rate of 80 jin of grain per mu, and the last 5 mu will be charged at a rate of 160 jin of grain per mu.
How much can one acre of land produce?
How much does it cost to cultivate one acre of land?
If the gentry could still bear the tax of forty catties of grain, then the tax standard of eighty catties or more was an unbearable nightmare for them.
Of course, this standard is not unavoidable, because a family cannot have only one member. As long as there are enough members in the family, even if they own a lot of land, they can still pay taxes based on the minimum standard of 20 catties of grain per mu.
However, Liu Bowen and the officials of the Zhejiang East faction creatively linked taxes to household registration, stipulating that each household could not own more than 75 mu of land, and if a household owned more than 75 mu of land, taxes would be doubled for every 5 mu.
In other words, if your family has five male members, you can pay taxes based on the minimum standard of 75 mu (approximately 1.67 hectares). However, if your family has six male members and owns 90 mu (approximately 6.67 hectares) of land, then the additional 15 mu (approximately 1.67 hectares) will also be subject to double the tax.
What if you don't want to split up the family property but also don't want to bear double the taxes?
It's simple. A family with six men clings to their seventy-five acres of land and lives off it. The last man refuses to register his household with the government, so the government won't allocate any land to him. That's all.
Of course, you can hide a male child, but because this hidden male child does not exist in the official records, he cannot study, cannot engage in any profession, cannot take the imperial examination, and cannot even travel far away.
Moreover, the government can also prosecute you for concealing your family members, and you shouldn't complain when your whole family is exiled to Dengzhou to do hard labor.
If the above methods could still be circumvented, what truly disgusted the gentry of eastern Zhejiang and even the entire Jiangnan region was the new method proposed by Liu Bowen.
Whether a commoner is getting married or taking a concubine, they must register with the local government's household registration office. Anyone who is not registered will be considered to be engaging in an unmarried relationship, and will be treated as unmarried in any place where they need to go through the government.
In other words, marrying a wife without registration is equivalent to not marrying at all, and marrying off a daughter without registration is equivalent to not being married at all. The government does not recognize the fact of the marriage between the two parties, and naturally will not protect the rights and interests of both parties.
For example, if a man from the Zhang family marries a woman from the Li family, but they do not register their marriage with the government, then when their marriage becomes unbearable, neither the man's betrothal gifts nor the woman's dowry will be protected by the government.
Moreover, the government would investigate both parties for concealing their marriage, punishing them with fines, flogging, or even exile. In short, you could conceal it if you wanted, as long as you were willing to bear the consequences.
What about those who were married in the past?
It's easy. Just go to the household registration office to register for a replacement certificate for free, or simply gamble on human nature and the government's efforts to investigate concealed marriages. If you win, all is well; if you lose, you can only blame your bad luck.
Finally, Liu Bowen and the officials from eastern Zhejiang added a point: all the above provisions should be piloted in eastern Zhejiang first, and local officials should go to the announcement pavilions in each village and community to read them aloud to the people.
Then, Liu Bowen's reputation plummeted, almost overshadowing Yang Shaofeng's.
This time, it wasn't just the Zhejiang gentry who were criticizing Liu Bowen; the things that Liu Bowen, along with the officials of the Zhejiang faction and the Ministry of Revenue, had involved many parties, and the most unfortunate were those who hadn't even finalized the "Great Ming Code."
Because the household law was to be drastically revised, many things such as household service, land and housing, marriage, education, debt, and markets were involved. The officials in the Ministry of Justice even wished they could just stab Liu Bowen to death.
……
"Tsk tsk, Old Liu is really ruthless!"
Looking at the progressive tax system that Liu Bowen and the officials of the Ministry of Revenue had devised, Yang Shaofeng felt nothing but admiration, in addition to the urge to burst into laughter.
The reason for the maniacal laughter was that Liu Bowen and the officials of the Ministry of Revenue had become slaves to their masters.
After all, it involves tax rate reform, and it is a progressive tax system. To properly control the rate, we must take into account data such as per capita and per household, as well as parameters such as the yield per acre of various crops, cultivation costs, and the impact of conscription and corvée labor on cultivation.
To put it simply, if Liu Bowen and the officials of the Ministry of Revenue wanted to produce the progressive tax system implementation manual in Yang Shaofeng's hands, they would have to lose at least two pounds of hair.
As for admiration, it's naturally because the clauses listed in this progressive tax system implementation manual have taken into account almost all possibilities, and at least from Yang Shaofeng's perspective, they are quite comprehensive.
Then, the progressive tax system was no longer Yang Shaofeng's concern, because there were ten county magistrates in Dengzhou Prefecture, and they were mainly responsible for implementing the progressive tax system. In Ningyang County, there were County Magistrate Wu Yanhu and Registrar Chen Mo, so Yang Shaofeng didn't need to worry about it.
What Yang Shaofeng is really concerned about now is the infrastructure projects in Dengzhou Prefecture.
Thanks to Liu Bowen's suddenly insane fellow villagers and the extremely brainless Sun Gupu, Dengzhou Prefecture inexplicably gained about 20,000 extra laborers this time.
According to the decree issued by Emperor Zhu, Sun Gupu and all the Yellow Turban leaders were sent to the capital to line up. Ordinary Yellow Turban believers were released and returned home after five years of hard labor. The remaining 19,000-plus "Japanese pirates" were exiled to Dengzhou for hard labor, with no possibility of being pardoned.
the term?
There is no time limit.
Whether they were real Japanese or fake, these people had no choice but to do hard labor until they died.
With 20,000 "Japanese pirates" and the forced laborers sent to Dengzhou Prefecture one after another because of the Plowshare Case, Yang Shaofeng now has as many as 40,000 laborers at his disposal.
Forty thousand people! In the entire history of the Central Plains Hall, how many projects could mobilize forty thousand laborers?
Especially Yang Shaofeng, who has never fought such a rich battle in his life!
"First, we will allocate 20,000 people to build the new city of Penglai."
"The remaining 20,000 people will all be sent to build roads, and the main road from Wendeng to Laiyang will be completed as soon as possible."
"Once the main road is completed, the new city of Penglai should be almost finished as well. Then we'll have these 40,000 people work together to finish the auxiliary roads."
If we calculate based on the construction level of that road in Ningyang County, a cement road one zhang wide could be built by 20,000 prisoners in a day, which would take about half a year to complete.
Of course, this is just the main road from Wendeng to Laiyang. If you include the auxiliary roads connecting other counties, the entire construction period will take about one to one and a half years.
It doesn't matter anyway, since this time Sun Gupu's rebellion case has implicated many people. In addition to the 20,000 forced laborers in the Plowhead case and the 20,000 forced laborers who were captured, the gentry of eastern Zhejiang who are involved this time will also contribute a large number of their relatives to do forced labor.
Just as Yang Shaofeng was pondering this in his mind, Xu Jingyu, the magistrate of Penglai County, rushed over to request an audience.