The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 653 Do not cry without seeing the coffin

Jiaozhou.

Lu Chao and Zhou Yougen are waiting for an order from the court, and at the same time, five hundred officials just arrived here yesterday.

The 250 officials are divided into three departments, of which [-] are fast arresters, who are responsible for the security of Jiaozhou and the control of the community in the city.

Another 200 people are tax collectors, who are responsible for collecting commercial taxes and farmland taxes.

Another 50 people are county government servants, responsible for protecting officials in prefectures such as Zhizhou.

At this time, Lu Chao, Zhou Yougen, Yu Daoyuan, the magistrate of Jiaozhou, and several other local officials, Mo Biao (captain of the 250-member fast arrest team), Fan Erniu (head of the newly established Jiaozhou tax department, 200-member tax collector team leader), Zeng Zifu (50 government officials) Captain) and more than a dozen people are in the hall of the state capital.

"Master Yu, let me introduce you. This is Fan Erniu, the head of our Jiaozhou tax department." Lu Chao introduced to the prefect Yu Daoyuan with a smile.

The corners of Yu Daoyuan's mouth twitched slightly, and he greeted Fan Erniu with an embarrassed expression.

Fan Ernian lost three fingers on his right hand, was hit by an arrow in his right leg, and walked with a limp. He is a veteran of Xu Dabao. After being disabled and retired, he trained and hoarded soldiers and is now in charge of collecting taxes.

He looks very ugly, and he walks with a crook, but no one dares to underestimate him. In terms of qualifications, Zhou Yougen is worse than him, and only Lu Chao is older than him in the field.

"Captain Zeng will be responsible for the safety of all adults in the future. All adults are fine, so it's best not to run around." Lu Chao continued.

Zeng Zifu was expressionless, with a big scar on his face, and a hollow eye with no eyeball at all, which made him look even more terrifying.

At the scene, the magistrate, Tongzhi, Tongju and others were all trembling, not daring to look directly at Zeng Zifu.

Lu Chao continued: "According to Zongbing Ding's request, we in Jiaozhou mainly do a few things."

He directly said Ding Yi's request and did not mention Governor Liu's request. He also told them clearly that you should know who requested these things.

The officials listened silently.

"The first thing is, the people in the city order ID cards, and they will come in and out with the cards in the future, regardless of officials or ordinary people, they will be treated equally."

They have done this matter in Dengzhou, and they are very familiar with it now.

"Captain Mo's more than 200 arrests will divide all the public houses and shops in the city into sections."

"The more than 3 households in Jiaozhou will be divided into [-] communities, with [-] households in each community."

"Captain Mo's people will each be in charge of more than 100 households, and every household will come to know the familiar heads."

"Next year, Captain Mo's side will expand to about 300 more people, and finally guarantee that each person will manage within [-] households."

All the officials looked at each other in blank dismay, there were nearly 600 arrests in the small Jiaozhou, and there were not so many arrests in the entire Laizhou prefecture in the past.

But they already felt Ding Yi's terrifying control over this place.

Each person manages fifty households. After one year, it is basically clear who is in each household. If there are outsiders or strangers, they will be found out immediately. In addition to the so-called custom-made ID cards, this This kind of control is simply scary.

"Commander Lu, will this kind of control be too strict?" Tongzhi Mao Changwen asked cautiously.

Lu Chao remained expressionless, and said coldly, "Isn't the Ming Dynasty very loose in control?"

"How many imperial orders can be sent to the villages and towns?"

"The gentry is more effective in the local area than the government."

"People don't even know what happened in the next village."

"What is the use of such a rule?"

Lu Chao's last words shocked several officials.

This is to openly say that the rule of the imperial court is useless, and the rule of Chongzhen is useless.

But what shocked them even more was that what Lu Chao meant was that the squire was no longer needed.

In the past, they managed the villages and towns, mostly relying on the squires.

But now Lu Chao's meaning is obvious, no squire.

This is even more dire news.

The Ming Dynasty has not yet fallen, the magistrate Yu Daoyuan thought in his heart, but he didn't dare to hum, he was already thinking, hurry up and write to the court, and transfer himself away from here.

The culture of the Ming Dynasty is noble and the military is cheap, and now the commander of the guard station like Lu Chao is talking nonsense in his prefecture, and he doesn't pay attention to them at all. He knows that Ding Yi has no court at all.

Lu Chao continued: "Second thing, Chief Fan will lead his subordinates to re-measure the fertile land in the whole prefecture. All the land, no matter who owns it, will have to pay taxes according to the land in the future."

"What?" The officials were shocked again.

"This is, this is going to break the sky, and there will be chaos." The judge Li Jilong screamed.

"Commander Lu, think twice." Yu Daoyuan and Mao Changwen urged each other.

Zhang Juzheng wanted to do this kind of thing back then, but he failed to do it as the chief assistant. After his death, you can see how miserable he was. Didn't Zongbing Ding think he was better than Zhang Juzheng?

"What's the difficulty? Why think twice?" Lu Chao asked solemnly.

"This matter, this matter will definitely not be done, and no gentry will cooperate." Li Jilong stomped his feet and said, he has thousands of acres of fertile land in his family, of course he does not want this matter to be promoted.

"Anyone who doesn't cooperate will be killed." Fan Ernian who was beside him said coldly, "Anyone who doesn't pay taxes will be regarded as a traitor and a gangster."

"The imperial court is in troubled times, using troops everywhere, increasing the Liao's salary every year, and the food and salary are not enough. If the tax is not collected, what will be used to pay the sergeant, and how to resist foreign enemies? Kill, kill, kill, whoever does not pay the tax, will be executed."

In the end, Fan Niannian uttered the word "kill" three times in a row, completely shocking everyone.

"Hiss..." All the officials gasped in unison, and everyone's faces turned pale with fright.

Zhou Yougen said even more coldly: "I brought three thousand soldiers and horses, I want to see how many squires are there in Jiaozhou? How many can each kill?"

The surroundings suddenly became quiet, and there was a faint smell of blood in the air.

After an unknown amount of time, Lu Chao said with a smile: "You are the parents and officials of Jiaozhou. I hope you will lead by example and lead by example."

The officials nodded one after another, and no one dared to say no.

Li Jilong could feel Fan Erniu looking at his neck coldly, and if he wanted to say no, someone might chop off his head from behind immediately.

"Dare to ask, dare to ask the commander, how to collect taxes?" Li Jilong bit the bullet and said.

"Our people will first go to every village and town, post notices for ten days, and publicize everywhere." After all, the common people could not read at the end of Ming Dynasty. Ding Yi's trick was to send people to post notices in every village for ten days, and then every day someone Explain it there to ensure that all ordinary people can know it.

Because the villages are far away and distributed in various places, this preliminary work will take about one to two months to complete.

"All squires should not have more than twenty servants and weapons in private possession. If there are a large number of servants equipped with weapons, they will be regarded as traitors and will be killed."

"What if there are horse bandits?" Yu Daoyuan asked anxiously. Many squires built castles in their homes, and some servants brought weapons to prevent horse bandits.

"We will suppress the bandits as soon as possible to ensure the safety of the country and the people in the territory."

"There shall be no slaves, and anyone who sells his body shall give up his slaves unconditionally."

Lu Chao said the first two things first, which shocked them again.

The gentry and landlords in the Ming Dynasty were powerful, that is, they had a large number of slaves and servants, the so-called domestic slaves.

The house slaves live under the master's family and depend on the master's family for food and drink, so they are naturally willing to do things for the master's family.

When Ding Yi was collecting taxes in Laiyang, he met a large number of squires who led their families to start a business.

It is easy to solve this by returning the house slaves free and thereby weakening the power of the country gentry.

Historically, in the 17th year of Chongzhen, Jintan's servants Pan Mao and Zhu Shaoji, after hearing that Li Zicheng's army had captured Beijing, contacted the servants and asked their master to get rid of slavery.

Such actions were responded by a large number of slaves who yearned for personal freedom.

People always look forward to freedom, so Ding Yi identified the mentality of the slaves, and first announced that in the Denglai area, slavery will be abolished, and all gentry will give up their slaves unconditionally.

But here comes the problem, how do the servants live without their master's house and without their own fields?

It's very simple. Ding Yi collected heavy taxes and forced the gentry to sell or even give away the land, and then distributed the land to the servants to make them landowners.

"Within ten acres of land, the tax is [-]%, and in case of natural disasters, etc., it can be reduced or exempted."

"More than [-] mu, less than [-] mu, the tax is [-]%, in case of natural disasters, etc., it can be reduced or exempted"

"On fifty acres, within two hundred acres, the tax is [-]%, and in case of natural disasters, etc., it can be reduced or exempted."

"A fixed tax has been implemented for more than [-] mu. From [-] to [-] mu, the tax is [-]%, based on the output of two stones per mu. In case of natural disasters, etc., it can be reduced or exempted."

"More than [-] mu and less than [-] mu, the tax is [-]%, and in case of natural disasters, etc., it can be reduced or exempted."

"Above [-] mu and less than [-] mu, the tax is [-]%. In case of natural disasters, etc., there is no reduction or exemption."

"For those with more than [-] mu, [-]% of the tax will be paid, and there will be no reduction or exemption."

Lu Chao went on to say: "If there are officials, soldiers, craftsmen, teachers, doctors, etc. in the family, the tax can be reduced by [-]%, and no reduction for more than [-] mu."

Li Jilong almost jumped up when he heard this. After doing the calculations, his family has to pay [-]% of the tax for the thousands of acres of land, and there is no reduction or exemption.

This is not robbing our money or food, you just rob it.

He was furious in his heart, but just now Fan Erniu and the others had said murderous words, and he dared not refute a word.

Suddenly, he thought, why not distribute the fields to my children?Then I don't have two thousand acres?

But before he thought about this idea, Lu Chao said again: "Considering that some people will distribute the land to their children and relatives."

"So when we split up, we collected [-]% of the tax."

"For example, Mr. Li, you have [-] acres of land, and you want to distribute [-] acres to each of your two sons."

"When the tax is divided, the government has to collect the separation tax, that is, the two sons each pay 150 mu of land to the government."

"There is also an inheritance tax. If Mr. Li dies and still has not been divided, the son will receive the land and collect [-]% of the tax, that is, [-] mu of land, and [-] mu of land will be owned by the government."

"Of course, these division taxes and inheritance taxes are nonexistent if the property is below [-] mu."

Li Jilong became angry with embarrassment when he heard this, and his face was flushed. Ding Yi was forcing him to distribute a large amount of fields, or even give them away.

Li Jilong was completely angry: "You just say directly, how many fields are suitable for each of our households? The rest are all for Ding Zongbing."

"Master Li." A few officials nearby hurriedly pulled him away, signaling him not to be impulsive.

"What are you doing, isn't Ding Yi just trying to steal our fields, just say so?"

"Bang" Lu Chao took the case, and was furious: "How did your Li family get thousands of acres of land? You don't have any idea?"

"Master Ding is benevolent enough to let you pay taxes. According to my opinion, it is not an exaggeration to confiscate your family and kill you. Li Jilong, I will destroy your whole family and rob you of your land. What do you object to?"

Lu Chao stared and glared, with a murderous look on his face, fierce and majestic.

Of the countless landlords, gentry and officials in the grain fields of the Ming Dynasty, which one was innocent.

Which one cannot be killed?
"Ni Niang, you are making you pay taxes so much nonsense." Zhou Yougen was also furious: "Come here, drag it out and chop it up."

Hush, huh, [-] elite soldiers rushed in from outside.

"No, General Lu, please spare me." With a plop, Li Jilong's legs softened in fright, and he fell to his knees.

(End of this chapter)