Late Tang Dynasty: I

Chapter 60 Shocking Land Mergers
Sun Kui, the current Yin of Jingzhao Prefecture, is also a ruthless person.

Sun Kui was born as a Jinshi. In the original history, the imperial court issued an edict to crusade against Li Keyong. Sun Kui was the deputy envoy at that time, and the envoy was Zhang Jun, the current prime minister.

At that time, Zhang Jun was afraid that Zhu Quanzhong would win Zhaoyi, so he presented Sun Kui as the envoy of Zhaoyi Jiedu. He wanted to take Zhaoyi first, so he urgently ordered Sun Kui to lead two thousand soldiers to Luzhou.

It's a pity that the Hedong Army set up an ambush halfway, and the Forbidden Army couldn't fight at all. The brigade dispersed and Sun Kui was captured on the spot.

Li Ke was overjoyed when he heard that the deputy envoy had been captured, and persuaded him to surrender with kind words.

"The public should calmly face the court, why do you have to perform the formation yourself?"

Sun Kui yelled: "Cao Ru Niang, don't dare to be a thief!"

Li Keyong was not a good-tempered man either, so he was furious when he heard that, and immediately ordered Sun Kui to be sawed to death.

Sun Kui was not afraid in the slightest, his face was as usual.

During the execution, the executioner didn't know how to saw people, so Sun Kui said: "Dog slave, you ask someone to find two wooden planks to clamp me, can't you saw me off with the wooden planks attached?"

The executioner obeyed his orders, ordered people to find a plank, clamped Sun Kui up, and just sawed it into several sections.

Until he died, he didn't beg for mercy, and kept yelling.

Really kind of person.

People with kindness should be placed where there is kindness.

Li Ye intends to confer on Sun Kui as Minister of the Ministry of Households, to work with the Zhongshu sect, and to discuss state affairs, but before conferring on this official, Sun Kui's quality must be tested. If he is incompetent, Li Ye dare not impose heavy taxes Then bear it on him.

When the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the taxation system based on rent adjustment was implemented based on the land equalization system. All households with land equalization, regardless of the number of land granted to their families, paid a fixed amount of tax per head and served certain corvees.

After the Kaiyuan period, due to the increase in population and continuous land mergers, the public had no more land and implemented the equal-field system. There was not enough land for men, and they had to pay fixed rent adjustments. The common people could not afford it, and most of them fled.

Until the reign of Emperor Dezong of Tang Dynasty, Yang Yan led the implementation of the two-tax law.The poll tax was changed to a property tax, and the grain-based tax in kind was changed to a currency tax.

The two-tax law can be described as a great innovation in taxation in the Tang Dynasty. There are two taxes, household tax and land tax.

The rich pay more taxes, and the poor pay less.

What is even more valuable is that the Two Taxes Law has changed the tax-exemption policy for high-ranking officials and relatives of the royal family in the tax adjustment, and everyone pays food as a whole.

It's just that when it's executed below, it changes the flavor.

Because the two-tax law is mainly based on currency tax, farmers need to sell the grain after collecting grain and exchange it for money to pay taxes.

But the government has the power to set the price. For example, if you have to pay a tax for one stone of grain, one stone of grain can be sold for 500 cash at the market price, but the government sets the price for 1000 cash, and the common people can only pay 1000 cash. When paying taxes, the government and business colluded, merchants aggressively lowered prices, and colluded with outsiders, farmers often had to pay several times the tax, which far deviated from the original intention of the tax law.

In order to avoid taxes, the dignitaries and dignitaries completely passed on the tax to the peasants. Often, if the peasants paid one shi of grain to the state, they would have to pay ten shi of grain to the big family.

What's more, when the acres of land are hung on the farmers' heads, the tenants who cultivate the land not only have to pay the landlord's rent, but also help the landlord to pay taxes.

In this way, plus the land rent of the landlords, the peasants will pay taxes equivalent to several times the original tax, resulting in the destruction of many peasant households.

Before Li Ye was the problem of peasants, among which tax reform and land annexation were the top priorities.

Even in Chang'an now, how long did it take for the officials to return to Chang'an? All the unclaimed land was seized by the officials. Even the land in Huangzhuang donated by the emperor to house the soldiers in the river was partially taken away by ingenuity.

While holding a huge amount of court salaries, the officials of the imperial court frantically encroached on the land and fished the common people.

From the ministers and prime ministers to the county magistrates and yamen servants, one counts as one, basically everyone has shit on them.

Shocking!
The 21 counties around Chang'an, with a population of ten to nine, have vacated tens of millions of acres of land, which were privately awarded and accepted by the officials below.

Huazhou brought tens of thousands of soldiers' families, and the land must be divided. The household department reported that the land was gone. Liu Jun, the household servant at the time, committed suicide in fear of crime, trying to force the emperor to stop here.

How could Li Ye achieve his wish.

I have been busy with the military all along, just to survive and stand firm, and I haven't had time to free up my hands yet.

The court's wealth is insufficient, and farming is the most important thing...

…………

As soon as Li Ye returned to Chang'an, he received a report from Zhang Chengye, saying that Wang Jian had conquered Maozhou, Pengzhou, and Hanzhou in Xichuan, and he could not stop attacking Chengdu for a long time. war.

Shannan Xidao Jiedu envoy Yang Shouliang rebelled against the imperial court and refused to accept the court edict. He led [-] troops to resist the imperial court and entered Hanzhong.

The report also stated that Yang Shouxin, the former Yushan military camp command office, was Yang Shouliang's cousin, and asked the court to release Yang Fugong to rehabilitate his younger brother and execute the guilty person.

Yang Shouxin was already chopped up by Li Ye when he was dealing with Yang Fugong. At that time, no one in the court said, otherwise it would be much more convenient to deal with Yang Shouliang in Hanzhong with Yang Shouxin around.

It seems that in order to control the situation as soon as possible, he dealt with it in a hurry. Even if there is a trial, he will not make this mistake. Li Ye is a little annoyed.

Looking down, Fengzhou's defense envoys have returned to the government. Zhang Chengye has controlled the Fengzhou treasury, established a firm foothold, and controlled the important roads leading to Hanzhong. It is only the seat of Fengzhou and Shannan West Road, Hanzhong The Xingyuan Mansion is only a hundred miles away, and there are conflicts with Yang Shouliang from time to time.

At present, people have been sent to declare to Wang Jian, Chen Jingxuan, and Gu Yanlang respectively, but they have not yet responded. The army cannot move in Fengzhou, and neither Langzhong nor Jiange can be obtained. Should we first solve the Hanzhong matter? If we want to destroy Yang Shouliang, six thousand soldiers will not be enough. , and the court needs to send additional reinforcements.

Li Ye pondered, it took dozens of days for the messenger to travel from Guanzhong to Chang'an. If the army entered Hanzhong at this time and arrived there, it would be more than a month later and it would be time for farming.

Farming time is very important in Li Ye's heart. If the farming time is delayed, a year's work will be wasted and there will be no food, and there will be big troubles. Therefore, Li Ye will definitely not fight at this time.

However, it is okay to send troops. In the past few months, the number of soldiers in Chang'an has increased by [-] to [-], and [-] soldiers will be trained to fall into the camp. The food is not enough. Li Ye plans to send [-] soldiers to Hanzhong. There are [-] soldiers and horses.

Keeping Fengzhou, with the wealth of Hanzhong, he can support an army of [-], and then recruit more than [-] troops from the local area. After several months of training, there are [-] troops. Naturally, Zhang Chengye can deal with it calmly.

It's just that Zhang Chengye can't return to Beijing so soon.

(End of this chapter)