Dressed as the Queen Mother to grasp the script of a strong country

Chapter 22 Gongsun Mo

After listening to what the aunt said, Liang Meng realized that the bandits and the people pursued by the officers and soldiers he met on the way back to Peixian County were all people who had fled Peixian County.

Daikin's land policy is that each citizen obtains a piece of land and records it in a book. The land tax is a fixed tax per person every year based on the recorded land area.

The tax paid by the people was on grain.

Liang Meng's thoughts couldn't help but leave here.

National treasury finance means that the state obtains money from the people, and the state uses the people to ensure that everyone can live better.

According to historical development, national taxes come from three places: taxpayers, tax places, and tax merchants.

The so-called taxpayers are people who are asked to do labor service or taxed on a per capita basis. How much tax does each person have to pay?What the Zhou Dynasty adopted was that the land belonged to the state, and some people worked to cultivate the land.However, this method would not stimulate the enthusiasm of farmers. Therefore, by the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, private land ownership existed.

The land produces food, and the food is handed over to the state, which then feeds the army. Logically speaking, the state should collect taxes based on the area of ​​the land.

However, at this time, because it was not possible to support more people who were living and earning money, and most of the people were illiterate, it was determined that there were not enough administrative officials, which resulted in the situation that each common person had a piece of land, so I would just tax each person directly. , thus giving rise to the taxpayer system.

Tax land means taxation is based on the area of ​​the land.

It was not until the Tang Dynasty that a system of taxation based on land area came into being.

Tax merchants refer to taxing the income earned by merchants from doing business.

Taxation has gone through a process from people doing labor to paying money; from paying tax based on population to paying tax based on wealth; from paying food to paying money.

It seems that Daikin's grain collection process still needs improvement.

Then he made up his mind.

"Madam, should we go to the execution ground?" Hongyu asked.

"Let's go take a look, He San. Go and bring in the soldiers who are secretly protecting you. I'm afraid we will have to fight a tough battle."

"Yes, I obey my orders." He San said.

Liang Meng and everyone walked to the execution ground.

execution ground
The official who supervised the beheading said: "Gongsun Mo, this is what you will get if you dare to go against me."

The official who supervised the beheading said to the people at the execution ground: "This is the fate of fighting against this officer regardless of life and death. If anyone dares to act like Gongsun Mo, then his fate will be your fate. I won't show you how dare I show my worthless bones." The consequences for disobeying my officer are that you don’t know what it means to have food and clothing.”

The common people were all as silent as a cicada when they heard the words coming from the prison officer's mouth.

"Madam, I'm really pissed off. I didn't expect that I, Dajin, would be such a lawless, arrogant, daring, and hateful dog official." Hongyu said angrily.

"Mom, this man is really bullying, I really want to beat him." Ninth Princess said.

Liang Meng was really shocked by this scene. He knew that corrupt officials in ancient times were abominable, but he never thought it would be so frightening.

"Death is imminent, let me see if you, Gongsun Mo, are still capable." The supervisor was very satisfied with the effect created today.

At this time, He San had returned.

"Madam, the soldiers are already in place."

Liang Meng nodded.

"A dog officer is a dog officer because he is a dog officer at heart. Even if you kill me, Gongsun Mo, you can't cover up the fact that you are corrupt, pervert the law, and deceive the emperor.

Even if I, Gongsun Mo, die, countless Gongsun Mo will appear. If I can't rectify you once, then I will do it twice, three times and countless times until the day I rectify you. "

Gongsun Mo straightened his spine, looked straight and spoke righteously, without the slightest fear of death.

Facing Gongsun Mo's retort, the supervisor, who thought Gongsun Mo would beg for mercy, said angrily: "You are almost dead, and you still dare to be so arrogant. Let me see if anyone will challenge me after you die.

Anyone who challenges me will have the same fate as you, but you can't see their fate, come on. "

"There is no need to be afraid of death. I only wish I could not bring you to justice. I wanted to kill you, this dog official, but now I am about to die and I cannot kill you. However, it is a blessing to die on the road to fight with you." Gongsun Mo said loudly.

The man who beheaded drank a bowl of wine and sprayed the wine on the knife.

Gongsun Mo also closed his eyes at this time.

Just as the knife fell, Liang Meng shouted: "He San."

After hearing Liang Meng's words, He San swung out the knife in his hand.

The knife that was slashing at Gongsun Mo was interrupted by the sudden attack, and the two knives fell to the ground.

Gongsun Mo opened his closed eyes and stared blankly at what happened.

"Who dares to rob the execution ground? Give it to me." The supervisor said in panic.

When the people saw someone robbing the execution ground and officers and soldiers searching it, they were so frightened that they fled in all directions.

"He San, hurry up and save Gongsun Mo and leave the execution ground." Liang Meng ordered.

The execution ground was in chaos.

"Who is it? Who is it? You dared to rob the court and saved Gongsun Mo." The supervisor was furious and threw the pen, ink, paper and inkstone to the ground.

"Sir, we haven't found the person who kidnapped Gongsun Mo yet." The officer said cautiously.

"Trash, a bunch of trash, if I can't catch Gongsun Mo and his gang, you will die." said the supervisor.

"Yes, sir, I obey your orders." The officers and soldiers retreated cautiously.

"Gongsun Mo, take me to arrest you. I will cut you into pieces." The supervisor said fiercely.

Inn
When Gongsun Mo saw Liang Meng and others, he saluted and said, "Gongsun Mo, thank you madam for saving me."

"I saved you because you are worth it. Is it true that you discovered that Pei County officials falsely reported the land area? Is it true that you are a successor to the machine arts?" Liang Meng said.

Gongsun Mo nodded.

Liang Meng thought in his heart that the successor of the mechanical skills is a craftsman talent and a science talent. How rare and rare it is in this era.

Moreover, this man was not afraid of power. He could give up his life in the face of the Tao he believed in and prove it with his own life. The more Liang Meng looked at Gongsun Mo, the more he thought he was good.

When Gongsun Mo saw Liang Meng looking at him, he asked, "May I ask, madam, who is this person?"

"You just need to know that I am the one who saved you. Why ask so many questions." Liang Meng said.

"Madam, what you said is wrong. When Madam saved Gongsun Mo, she must have needed Gongsun Mo's help. In this case, Gongsun Mo needs to ask clearly, what does Madam need Gongsun Mo for?" Gongsun Mo said calmly.

"What will you do if I want you to do something harmful to nature?" Liang Meng said mischievously. "Although Gongsun Mo is grateful to Madam for saving his life, if Madam uses the grace of saving her life to coerce Gongsun Mo into doing something that goes against the principles Gongsun Mo abides by, Gongsun Mo is willing to return his life to Madam to repay the grace of saving his life." Gongsun Mo said. Mo said firmly.

"You mean that if I ask you to do something that goes against your will, you will die, right?" Liang Meng asked.

Gongsun Mo nodded.

"Then what do you mean by Tao?" Liang Meng asked.

"Gongsun Mo's so-called Tao is anything that is beneficial to the people of the world. Gongsun Mo is willing to give his life." Gongsun Mo said.

"You all go down." Liang Meng ordered everyone to go down.

"I am the one who can make your way come true. I am the current Queen Mother." Liang Meng said calmly.

"The Queen Mother, Madam is the Queen Mother." Gongsun Mo was shocked and saluted after he came to his senses.

"Common people, please see the Queen Mother," Gongsun Mo said.

"Get up, there is no need to be polite. Since the Ai family knows about the land issue in Pei County that you are worried about, they will handle it on their own," Liang Meng said.

"Gongsun Mo, on behalf of the people of Pei County, would like to thank the Queen Mother." Gongsun Mo said.

"The people of Peixian County are our Dajin people. How could the Aijia ignore the people of Li?" Liang Meng said.

"Presumably the Queen Mother saved Gongsun Mo because of more than one incident." Gongsun Mo said.

"Yes, the Ai family saved you not just for this matter. The Ai family knows that you are proficient in institutions, and the Ai family wants you to use your talents for my use." Liang Mengdao.

In fact, mechanism art contains too much knowledge of optics, physics, and mathematics. With such a ready-made talent, how could Liang Meng not be excited.

After the invention of firearms, and the addition of physics talents to the aqueducts and the Grand Canal, we will definitely be able to get twice the result with half the effort.

In Dajin, the terrain is higher in the west and lower in the east, and rivers flow from west to east. The climate is consistent within a certain range, which results in the same special products within a certain range.

If you try to transport goods by land, it will take a long time and the tolls will be frighteningly high. In ancient times, one of the reasons for high military expenditures was that the tolls were expensive.

Ancient history is a process from doing labor to paying people to work, so if you want someone to escort grain and grass, you need a lot of money.

In the river, the time can be greatly shortened.

Wheat grows in the north and rice grows in the south. Since rice crops twice a year and wheat crops once a year, the number of people supported by rice is much greater than that supported by wheat.

With more people to feed, there will be more business people and more troops, and the south will be more developed than the north. The imperial city of Dajin is in the north. Once the south rebels and takes the land route, it will spend a lot of time on the road. , by then the originally insignificant rebels will begin to take shape.

This will cause the Great Golden Imperial City in the north to be beyond the reach of the south.And if a canal is built that runs through the north and south, grain can be transported from the south to the north, and troops can be transported to the south as quickly as possible.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty built the Grand Canal for this reason. The following Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties all regarded the Grand Canal as their lifeblood.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the Red Turban Army uprising cut off the Grand Canal, which ultimately forced the Yuan Dynasty to shrink its territory back to the north. During the Opium War, the British army controlled the mouth of the canal, which led to the Qing Dynasty ceding territory and paying compensation.

In addition to canals, there is also sea transport for fast transportation. Sea transport is subject to ship technology and is vulnerable to enemy attacks, so it is easily replaced by canals.

For fast transportation, in addition to the Grand Canal, there were also railways. In the end, the role of the Grand Canal was replaced by the railway, and then it slowly disappeared from the stage.

The Grand Canal has many advantages, but it can also become blocked and needs constant repairs.

The Grand Canal can be built in a few years. It may take more than ten or even decades to build a railway from an agricultural society to an industrial society.

Boats evolved from a log that could float on the water, to a raft, to a sailboat, and finally to a boat with a steam engine.

At this moment, Daikin's ships are just rafts. If they want to develop maritime transportation, what if they encounter enemies overseas?

Although the original owner of this era had never seen anyone overseas, Liang dreamed that there were people overseas. It was only the undeveloped technology of the ship that caused everyone to stay in a corner.

After much deliberation, Liang decided to build the Grand Canal. Although it had many shortcomings, it was currently the most suitable.

The reason for the demise of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty was that the construction of the canal caused the people to do too much corvee work, so Liang Meng planned to learn from the lesson and spend money to make the people work. Of course, all this needs to be based on weapons and food.

"After the battle between Daijin and Sunset, the people were displaced. Although the world is unified, the people are still in poverty and some people still cannot eat. Thinking of this, the Aijia couldn't sleep at night. The Aijia looked up the bamboo slips left by their ancestors and found that there was something This method can make the people of the world have enough to eat." Liang Mengdao.

"What method did the Queen Mother say?" Gongsun Mo said.

"It's a new seed, a canal, and a waterwheel. And this canal and waterwheel need Mr. Gongsun's help." Liang Meng said.

"Nowadays, the agricultural tools used by my people in Daijin are carts and oxen. I hope Mr. Gongsun can transform the agricultural tools." Liang Mengdao.

Gongsun Mo agreed when he heard that it was something that would benefit the country and the people.

"One more thing the Ai family wants to do is to ask Mr. Gongsun to preside over the construction of the canal." Liang Meng said.

"What is a canal?" Gongsun Mo asked.

Liang Meng explained.

Gongsun Mo looked at the Queen Mother who was talking eloquently in shock, and said in disbelief: "There can be such things that benefit the country and the people in the world. Gongsun Mo will definitely not betray the trust of the Queen Mother and will complete this matter."

After Liang Meng talked with Gongsun Mo, Gongsun Mo completely became Liang Meng's person.

"Madam, it's already late at night. You should go to bed early." Hongyu said.

After Gongsun Mo left, Liang Meng began to write bamboo slips for Prince Su.

"Hongyu, give this bamboo slip to He San, and he will hand it over to Prince Su himself." Liang Meng ordered.

"Slave, please obey," Hongyu said.

Liang Meng told Prince Su exactly what happened in Pei County. Within the territory of Dajin, Liang Mengmeng's Pei County was definitely not an exception. It was so rampant when Dajin started its military and its national power was at its strongest. You can imagine how unscrupulous it will be later.

Liang Meng will definitely not tolerate it. As for whether he is worried about the resistance of the aristocratic families, these aristocratic families have many ways to enclose the land later, so showing weakness at the beginning of Dajin is what they will do. Therefore, as long as the aristocratic families are not touched, the most fundamental interests are , such as the recommendation of officials, Liang Meng will not worry about angering them.

He informed Prince Su that he would be in charge, and that the eldest prince and Prince Li would lead the army. Each place would conduct land surveys personally, and collect grain in exchange for copper coins. He also informed Prince Su.

Pei County Government
"Master, you have tea." The butler carefully handed the tea to the master and said.

Ever since he let Gongsun Mo escape last time, the master has become more and more irritable.

Today, when the master heard that Prince Su was personally supervising the land distribution, he was trembling with fear. This made it more and more difficult for him, a housekeeper who had served the master for many years, to face the master's increasingly moody temper.

The butler could only sigh silently.

The housekeeper felt very strange when he saw that the master did not take the tea from his hand. He looked up and saw a cut on the master's neck with blood flowing.

"Ah... come on, come on, come on, there's an assassin, there's an assassin, the master has been killed." The housekeeper crawled out of the room to call for someone.

(End of this chapter)