Emperor Sui Yang

Chapter 219 Tax Exemption, Land Grant Exemption

After everyone left the boat, Yang Su stayed behind.

The wing room on the second floor of the big ship,

Chen Shuyi made tea for the two of them. Yang Su especially liked drinking tea, and had a common topic with Chen Shuyi, who is proficient in tea ceremony.

After taking a sip of tea, Yang Su said with a faint smile: "There are many rich people in the Kanto area, and most of the food is in their hands. You can borrow it, but you can't grab it."

He knew Yang Ming quite well now, and he knew that Yang Ming would rather fight against the powerful than embarrass the common people.

To solve the problem of food shortage, only these two aspects, Yang Su would hardly think about it, and would choose to recruit from the people.

He can provoke anyone in the elite clan, but he dare not provoke the entire elite.

Yang Ming is his grandson-in-law, so he must persuade him well so that Yang Ming won't go the wrong way.

Guandong is the area east of Hangu Pass, which is almost the area around Henan and Shanxi.

Yang Ming frowned and said, "Right now, there is only Hanoi County, and the food supply is reduced by half. If this problem exists in other places, the food problem is not optimistic."

"There must be problems in other places," Yang Su said with a smile: "One of the sixteen policies proposed by His Highness at the beginning is to ensure the food supply of the people. In fact, it is a bit taken for granted. Food will never be enough. The food in the warehouse has been requisitioned, but it is not enough, does your Highness believe it?"

Yang Ming was stunned for a moment: "Please ask Mr. Yue to clarify."

Yang Su nodded with a smile: "A steamed bun is a meal, a piece of Hubing is a meal, four dishes and a soup is a meal, people's stomachs can fit it, it's just enough to share the hunger, there is little food, and there is nothing to eat. As long as there is more food, you will naturally eat more. In fact, it is the same, so the old man believes that, except for masons, bricklayers and other manual labor, other people's labor, per person per day, three Hubing is enough."

"Three Hubing?" Yang Ming said in a daze, "Isn't this too little?"

Yang Su shook his head and said, "It's too much, can we afford it? Three slices of mustard cakes can basically maintain the daily consumption. The old man once calculated that if each person has five slices of cakes per day, it may be less than four months. There will be no food, so what will happen then?"

"Your Highness, don't think that this old man is abusing people's power. He did the same thing when Gao Jiong was building Daxing City. 60 people built Tokyo and 60 mouths. These mouths are usually resolved by themselves, but now, the unification is resolved by the court, and the court is also difficult."

Yang Ming knew in his heart that he was pointing to him from a practical point of view, but three cakes were too unreasonable, no wonder so many people died in your Xiurenshou Palace.

Yang Ming knew that every decision he made had to be cautious, because it was related to the diet of more than 60 people.

"How many days will meat be served?" Yang Ming asked.

Yang Su said: "Ten days is the best, every day at night, add a meal of gruel."

"Less is really less. If we borrow food from the rich people in the Guanzhong area, how much does Yue Gong think we can borrow?" Yang Ming asked again.

Yang Su couldn't help laughing and said: "I said borrowing grain, but it was just a perfunctory remark to worry about your forced recruitment. In fact, borrowing grain is not easy to borrow. First of all, in whose name? The court? You don't have the qualifications, you yourself ? You don't have such a big face."

Indeed, even though Yang Ming is a prince, if he really wants to affect the interests of the family, he will not let him manipulate him.

Borrow food?Everyone is not stupid, and no one knows that it is not easy to get back the borrowed things, and most of the time it is in vain.

Besides, Yang Ming couldn't afford it either, he couldn't be recruited in the name of the court, and Yang Guang didn't give him this authority.

How could he have imagined that before he arrived in Luoyang, there would already be a huge problem in front of him. Needless to say, the situation with Dou Yan and Pei Xizai in Hedong County might also be the same.

Seeing that Yang Ming was deep in thought, Yang Su kindly reminded: "His Royal Highness still needs to take care of himself. You think of the common people, but no one thinks of you. On the side of the capital, His Majesty is waiting for you to deal with the errand. This errand can't be handled well. From now on, His Highness will struggle in the court hall."

What he said was already very reserved. Yang Ming knew that if Tokyo created problems, his father would not spare him lightly, but food supply seemed to have become an unsolvable problem.

There are quite a lot of wealthy families in the Kanto region, the first being the Hongnong Yang family, the Luoyang Yuan family, the Luoyang Dugu family, the Luoyang Changsun family, the Xingyang Zheng family and the Chenjun Yuan family.

These few families have a large number of children who have become officials in the court. Except for the Yuan family, the others belong to the Guanlong noble group.

It would be easy for Yang Ming to discuss other matters with them. Borrowing food?No talking!
As the so-called one percent of people owns 90.00% of the wealth, the food reserves of these families is an astronomical figure.

But can't move.

As for Yang Ming's family property, it's not enough to get it between his teeth.

Yang Su thought that he had convinced Yang Ming, so she chatted with Chen Shuyi on the tea ceremony, but Yang Ming was still thinking about the aristocratic family in his mind.
Of course, he didn't have the guts to move the biggest ones, but it's okay to trouble some small landlords.

So here comes the question, how to deal with the landlords?
Sitting in a daze until evening, Yang Ming didn't come up with a solution.

After lighting the lights, Yang Ming went to the deck on the second floor to get some air. He heard from the sailors that the boat would slow down tonight in order to reach Dizhu Mountain around noon tomorrow.

At this time, Li Xiuqing walked out of the cabin and put a piece of clothing on Yang Ming:
"It's cold at night, Your Highness still needs to be careful."

Yang Ming cleared up his emotions, turned his head and said with a smile:

"I'll ask you a question, and there will be a reward for answering it."

Li Xiuqing smiled sweetly, and said expectantly, "Please, Your Highness."

Yang Ming said: "If you want to take something away from someone, what is the best way to do it? Of course, you can't use methods such as stealing."

Li Xiuqing shut her mouth, thought hard, and after a while, said:

"I can't seem to figure it out."

Yang Ming smiled slightly, raised his hand to brush her temples, and said, "It's cold outside, you should go back."

"It's just that." Li Xiuqing held Yang Ming's wrist and said innocently:
"When I was young, if I wanted to take something away from Jiancheng, I would lie and claim that it was Grandpa's idea, because only in this way, Jiancheng would honestly give it to me. As for the others, I never took them things, so I don’t understand.”

Yang Ming was taken aback for a moment, as if he had grasped something suddenly, but he couldn't think of it all at once.

"Go back first and let me be alone," Yang Ming said.

Li Xiuqing said with a playful smile: "Then, is there any reward for Your Highness?"

After having sex with Yang Ming, Li Xiuqing became closer to Yang Ming. Although she was still reticent at ordinary times, she was very talkative with Yang Ming. Almost every little move she made seemed to be acting like a baby, but Her intention was not to be coquettish.

Yang Ming laughed, raised his hand and patted the opponent's truncus, the latter screamed, covered his face and burrowed into Yang Ming's arms: "Be careful not to be seen."

"Go back to the room and wait for me." Yang Ming gently kissed her forehead: "Don't wear clothes."

Li Xiuqing groaned coquettishly, and ran back into the cabin blushing.

Just now, Yang Ming already figured out what to do. He suddenly realized it from Li Xiuqing's words.

If you want to take something from a wealthy family, then you have to find a legitimate reason for them to hand over the things.

This reason can only be given by Yang Guang, Yang Ming has no such ability.

Historically, after Yang Guang ascended the throne, he issued an edict to exempt women, slaves, and trilogy from taxes, and at the same time no longer grant land to women, slaves, and trilogy.

This policy dealt a great blow to all aristocratic families, but in history, the aristocratic families did not resist much. Although the reason is unknown, this policy almost wiped out a large area of ​​land in a short period of time. It is owned by the state and redistributed by the state.

But right now, Yang Guang has no such idea.

If I write a memorial myself, state this matter, and then deliver it to the capital, what will my father think?

To weaken the aristocratic family and strengthen the centralization of power is definitely the original intention of his father Yang Guang, so Yang Ming plans to give it a try.

So he returned to the cabin, called Xu Jing and Chen Shuyi, prepared pen and ink,
He wrote the memorial himself, and Chen Shuyi has a good literary talent and can help polish it.

In the memorandum, the lack of food in Hanoi County was mentioned, and Yang Ming was worried about the food supply of the states, counties, and counties. Therefore, he applied to temporarily exempt slaves and maidservants in the Kanto region from granting land for a period of two years.

Here, he did not include women, because this item is mainly aimed at ordinary people.

The reason why Yang Ming asked to be exempted for two years was because he didn't want to take too much responsibility, because once Yang Guang agreed, he would definitely point out at the court meeting that this was a request from King Qin, and I think it is more appropriate and can be implemented.

In that case, the big families would hate Yang Ming to death, but if it was only two years, it would be just a little skin trauma, not a muscle injury, and the hostility of the big families towards Yang Ming would not be that great.

Once the granting of land is exempted, the taxes on these acres of land this year will all belong to the state. Although the tax is collected at the end of the year, Yang Ming can borrow some grain from the local grain merchants first, and pay the tax back.

The land taken back to the country will be redistributed by local officials, that is, Yuzhou Mu Yang, and Yang is now on his way to Luoyang.

My brother is easy to deal with, and the government will endorse it, and those grain merchants have to borrow it if they don't.

During the whole process of writing the memorial, the expressions on the faces of Xu Jing and Chen Shuyi kept changing, because the contents of the memorial were a bit shocking to them.

After Yang Ming finished writing, he looked around the two of them and said with a smile, "Don't pass it on."

The two froze at the same time, nodding hastily.

After sealing it with wax, Yang Ming handed it to Xu Jing: "Let Chen Kui choose a capable one from the trilogy of the palace, and send it to Chang'an Station in the capital as soon as possible, and present it to His Majesty from there."

In Chang'an Station, there are eunuchs from the Ministry of Internal Affairs staying there all year round. As long as the memorials are directly submitted to the emperor, they will deliver them to the palace.

Afterwards, Yang Ming stretched comfortably, looked at Chen Shuyi who had been waiting for a long time, and said with a smile:
"Go back to sleep, I'll be at my daughter's place tonight."

Chen Shuyi shrugged with disappointment, turned her head and left.

(End of this chapter)