I want to be emperor

Chapter 347 The Foundation of Rule
Many policies and even strategic decisions of the Great Chu Empire are actually not understood by outsiders.

Especially the series of high-pressure taxation policies of the Great Chu Empire.

From ancient times to the present, no country at home or abroad has ever attached such importance to taxation work as that dynasty and the Great Chu Empire.

In order to collect taxes, the Great Chu Empire not only set up a tax department, a huge organization with far more people than other administrative agencies, even the subordinates of this tax department also have their own armed forces.

And Chen Xingkai, Minister of the Taxation Department, joined the Senate and became the Minister of the Senate, one of the top officials in the Great Chu Empire.

At the same time, the Great Chu Empire formulated an extremely high-pressure tax policy. In the face of tax evasion and tax evasion, it always ransacked the family and exterminated the family, and directly defined the behavior of armed resistance to tax as treason.

The Great Chu Empire paid so much attention to taxation, which made it difficult for many people to understand, especially those with traditional ideas. They believed that in order to implement benevolent governance, they needed to use probation and the like. against the tax.

The reason why the Great Chu Empire maintained high pressure on taxation was to establish a large-scale taxation agency and set up a special taxation arm in order to collect taxes. The purpose was very simple and pure, just for money.

And why so much money?

I dare not say it in the future, but now, the Great Chu Empire has only one purpose for getting so much money: to use it for military expenses.

When Luo Zhixue set up a large-scale tax agency, the direct goal was to collect funds for military expenses.

So even though internally there was great opposition to the taxation agency, Luo Zhixue still unswervingly promoted the development strategy of the big taxation department.

Similarly, after the Great Chu Empire conquered many cities, the first thing they did was to search for funds.

In addition to the regular tax collection, a large number of hostile and recalcitrant gentry property will also be confiscated.

And this series of means, no matter what the reason is, but there is still only one purpose, in order to obtain enough funds to maintain the war.

Therefore, even outsiders, especially those gentry and landowners, said that the Great Chu Empire was extremely cruel, and a large number of traditional scholars from gentry families clamored that the Puppet Chu was cruel every day.

However, the Great Chu Empire still unswervingly adopted the policy of confiscation.

Obtaining funds to sustain the war was the immediate motivation for a series of numerous domestic policies of the Great Chu Empire.

However, in this process, there will be some incidental benefits, which are extremely important benefits for ordinary people.

That is the redistribution of wealth!
Through large-scale confiscation, the Great Chu Empire officially controlled a large amount of arable land, and these arable land would be leased to landless and landless farmers at a low price, and at the same time, the private rent was lowered to a certain extent in the process.

The unified agricultural tax has greatly reduced the burden on the bottom farmers and allowed them to obtain more living space.

The strict tax policy is also an important measure for the redistribution of social wealth, because the tax policy of the Great Chu Empire, out of tax collection costs and cost-effective considerations, often prefers to collect taxes on the middle and upper classes, especially those Gentlemen and landowners.

After collecting taxes from these upper-middle-class people, in addition to military expenses and direct administrative expenses, a considerable part of these funds will be used for local infrastructure construction, work-for-relief, etc., and this is beneficial to the bottom farmer's.

In addition, there is a very important point that after a large amount of wealth is collected through taxation, no matter whether the Great Chu Empire spends it through military expenses or administrative expenses, it will re-enter the economic cycle, and this economic cycle will benefit the people. Bring job opportunities, opportunities to make money.

For example, for military expenses, the soldiers have to eat, drink and sleep after receiving their salaries, and the food they eat is all grown by farmers, and some of the supplies are also produced in factories, so in the end, there must be part of the funds Into the hands of farmers, workers, and handicraftsmen.

The tax policy of the Great Chu Empire and many other internal affairs measures, although the first goal is still to support the war and maintain the rule.

However, in the process of implementing these policies, these benign results appeared, and this made Luo Zhixue unswervingly adopt high-pressure tax policies, work-for-relief and many other measures.

And this, in turn, further increased the favor and support of the lower-level peasants, factory workers, and handicraft workers towards the empire and Luo Zhixue.

No matter what era, people at the bottom are always very simple.

They will support whoever can feed them well and live a good life.

This kind of support is very obvious in Anyang Village, a remote mountain village under the rule of Huangzhou Prefecture in northern Chu.

Because of the continuous outbreak of the eastward war on the front line, the Chu army on the front line, mainly the Eighth Division, continued to go north to Hefei to fight on the front line. Because they lost the convenient river supply channel, a large number of supplies going north could only be supplied by land transportation.

Land transportation is more difficult, coupled with the fact that the weather has turned cold, and the local area has even started to snow, which has further deteriorated the situation of material transportation.

In order to transport supplies to the Eighth Division and other troops fighting on the northern front, the logistics department temporarily recruited young and strong men in Huangmei County, Huangzhou Prefecture, which is close to the front line.

When officials from the logistics department of the Chu Army came to Anyang Village in the capital to recruit young adults to transport supplies, the local young adults actively participated, not only successfully completing the recruitment task, but also exceeding the quota.

Of course, some of them did so because they could eat after applying for the transportation group, but this was also a reward for the good life that the Chu army brought to them in the past, allowing them to see the hope of survival.

They just simply felt that living under the rule of the Chu army had a bright future, and they didn't want to go back to the period when the Ming Dynasty ruled, so they heard that when the frontline army was fighting, they needed to transport supplies by hand, even though it was cold and there was no wages. , people just take care of food, but these young adults are still very happy to go.

As for why not join the army directly and support the Chu army by fighting.

If you want to participate, others don't want you...

At present, the armed forces of the Chu Army, the main division troops are actually not many, because the number is limited, the selection of soldiers is actually very strict, and many young and strong people who want to apply may not be able to be selected.

As for the garrison... More and more troops were surrendered by the Ming army at the front. In order to prevent these troops from harming the area, the Chu army had to continue to set up a new garrison. Now the size of the garrison has reached [-] divisions. And most of them are full.

The Chu army has been continuously weeding out the garrison, and there will be young and strong recruits from the people to join the garrison.

Therefore, it is not so easy for young and strong folks who want to join the Chu army and serve the Great Chu Empire.

Being a soldier of the Great Chu Empire is not something you can become if you want to.

Thanks to the efforts of the transportation regiment composed of a large number of civilians, the logistics department sent a large amount of food, grass, ammunition, winter clothes and other materials to the Eighth Division, the Fifth Garrison Division and other forces fighting on the northern front in one go, effectively alleviating the burden of the epidemic. The shortage of materials for the Eighth Division and other units.

Luo Zhixue, who was outside Jinling City, after receiving the report from the logistics department, thought for a while and said, "Water can carry a boat and capsize it. The ancients never deceived me."

Luo Zhixue touched his conscience and said that in fact, he did not do too many things specifically to improve the lives of the people. The starting point of many policies and measures he made was not really to make the people live a better life. Big empty slogan.

The starting point of Luo Zhixue is very simple.

In the early days, it was to make money to obtain military expenses, and later, to a certain extent, it paid attention to maintaining the stable rule of the area under its own control.

To put it bluntly, Luo Zhixue came up with many policies just to make his rule more stable, and these policies are not limited to some people's livelihood policies, such as the establishment of the Minister of State, the establishment of the Military Affairs Council, etc. Wait, there are many more.

However, these policies have attached some benefits that are beneficial to people's livelihood, but in fact, the benefits are limited.

At least under the rule of the Great Chu Empire, there are still many hungry people...

However, even so, just such a small benefit allowed the local people to brave the wind and snow to transport supplies for the frontline army in the cold weather!
These low-level people are actually very easy to satisfy!
Luo Zhixue read the report and pondered for a long time.

Well, it's not like being touched. As a superior, Luo Zhixue, who has been emperor for more than a year, doesn't have such low-level emotions.

What he saw was that the requirements of the people at the bottom were relatively lower than those of the gentry, landlords, and citizens, and were easier to meet, and they were also more feasible in terms of governance.

If you make a slight policy preference, you will be able to gain the support of hundreds of millions of people at the bottom, especially farmers.

And once you get the support of a wide range of grassroots people, you can completely lay the foundation for the real rule of the empire.

After all, it is unreliable to rely solely on military power to maintain rule, and there are huge risks. It is like a fortress on the beach, and it will be over when the tide rises.

Luo Zhixue had to find a ruling foundation for his empire besides military power.

Regardless of whether it is a landlord or a new type of capitalist or other upper class, Luo Zhixue thinks it is unreliable or unnecessary.

Because they all have weaknesses and lack the ability to resist force.

As for these few gentry landlords, capitalists, etc., it’s okay for them to be obedient, and if they don’t obey, they can just bombard them and it’s over. There is no need for Luo Zhixue to compromise with them.

Well, that's what the Chu army is doing now. In the newly occupied area, the Chu army has never been soft-hearted, and they don't care what the landlords and gentry think.

In short, you have to pay taxes obediently, or ransack your family and exterminate your family. Even if you want to escape to the Ming Dynasty, you have to keep your family property!

But the people at the bottom, especially the peasants, are different.

There are more of them, and they are easier to satisfy. It is more cost-effective to attract them. If this is used well, then it can become the real ruling foundation of the empire.

Well, there are too many people at the bottom. Once they resist, it will be too troublesome to suppress them. It’s not good to kill them, and it’s not good not to kill them...

The thieves in Shaanxi are a typical example. Ming Ting killed batch after batch, but he couldn't kill them all...

And Luo Zhixue felt that even if he really resisted, he couldn't really kill him. If he really killed him, who would he rule?
Now, he has secretly finalized his attention: farmers!
After Luo Zhixue made a decision, he quickly found several civil servants under his command!

Naturally, Luo Zhixue would not directly tell them about the basis of governance, but talk about some more intuitive governance measures.

For example, solve the problem of rural water conservancy infrastructure, such as solving the problem of excessive rent, and how to prevent further land mergers, and how to find ways to let those landlords sell a large amount of land in their hands.

And each of these measures is a very grand topic, and a simple meeting naturally cannot solve any of these problems. Luo Zhixue called these people here today, just to let them know: I am very concerned about the living conditions of the peasants at the bottom, and you should pay attention to it too!
(End of this chapter)