Traveling through history leaving a name

Chapter 10 Taxation
In 205 AD, on New Year's Day, Li Bai, one of Zhang Qingfeng's students, returned to Erdaogou Village.

When he came back, he was dressed in an official uniform, fresh clothes and angry horses, with a few subordinates by his side, and he was extremely dignified.

After Li Bai came back, he also informed the whereabouts of other people in the village.

When the villagers learned that more than a dozen of the people who were captured last time had become officials, there was an immediate sensation. Soon people from all over the country knew about it.

Among the dozen or so families who were officials, the threshold was almost crossed by congratulators.

"It's time to make a difference, you guys have made a difference."

Looking at Li Bai who was respectfully saluting him, Zhang Qingfeng was quite emotional.

In addition to feeling emotional, his heart was inevitably sour.

Unexpectedly, before he himself began to assist Cao Cao, his students became officials under Cao Cao first.

"Teacher, I'm the magistrate of Luping County now, but I don't have much experience in being an official, so I want to find a few more juniors to help me." Li Bai said to Zhang Qingfeng: "It would be better if you are willing to help me, teacher."

"I won't go. As for whether your junior brother is willing to go, you can discuss it with them yourself." Zhang Qingfeng said lightly.

He came to assist Cao Cao in unifying the country, and he really looked down upon a county magistrate.

In the Han Dynasty, those who governed a county with more than [-] households were called magistrates, and those who governed a county with less than [-] households were called chiefs, so there are terms such as county magistrate and county magistrate.

"Then, teacher, can you help me see what I should do to govern the place well after I become the county magistrate?" Li Bai asked Zhang Qingfeng again.

"Governing the country is only for the people to be rich, and for officials to govern Qingming."

Zhang Qingfeng said: "After you become the county magistrate, the first thing you need to do is to farm the fields and develop water conservancy, so that the people can have enough to eat. You should not have forgotten the agronomy and water conservancy I taught you, right?"

"No." Li Bai replied.

"Clear government is also very important. A government with corrupt officials will lose popular support and make people distrust the government. At this time, it will be difficult to do things."

"If you can make the government clear and the people prosperous, then you can develop industry and commerce. Only industry and commerce can make the country strong and rich..."

That day, Zhang Qingfeng talked with Li Bai for a long time.

A few days later, Li Bai left Erdaogou Village with a group of people under the farewell of countless villagers.

There were a total of sixteen students aged fifteen or sixteen who followed him this time.

Although Li Bai became an official, he did not bring his family and relatives with him because he had just taken office.

On the contrary, there are several other family members whose children are officials outside the country and want to go to the mountains to seek refuge. However, considering that the outside world is still not peaceful, and because they have just taken up their posts, they were persuaded to come down and plan to wait for the situation outside to become clear before taking action. .

When Li Bai returned to the village, in addition to taking away sixteen Zhang Qingfeng's students, he also brought unexpected effects to the remaining students.

After learning that Du Fu and Li Bai had come out of the mountain and were reused as officials, the children who studied with Zhang Qingfeng worked even harder in their studies.

They also want to be officials outside one day.

Because of this incident, Zhang Qingfeng's prestige in Erdaogou Village has become even higher.

Even several other villages in Shili Baxiang tried their best to send their children to study with Zhang Qingfeng.

For the children who came later, Zhang Qingfeng didn't accept everything he ordered, he had requirements.

His request is very simple. If you want to study with him, you must have a girl, and you will accept a boy after you accept a girl.

Even so, in just a few days, Zhang Qingfeng had hundreds of students.

Up to now, the first batch of female students accepted by Zhang Qingfeng, the older ones, such as Yang Yuhuan and Li Shishi, are all sixteen or seventeen years old.

According to the standards of this era, they are old enough to marry, but Zhang Qingfeng told them that giving birth too early will damage the body, and it is best to give birth after the age of 20.

Zhang Qingfeng also took care of the work of the children's parents, so they were not married yet.

In addition, after they learned to read and write at Zhang Qingfeng's place, their visions were different. Each of them had a high vision, and most people really didn't like it.

They studied with Zhang Qingfeng for almost six years, and the older girls had almost graduated, so Zhang Qingfeng left them to teach the lower grades.

In this way, Zhang Qingfeng would have a lot more teaching assistants, making his teaching job much easier.

While Zhang Qingfeng continued to teach and farm in the Taihang Mountains, on the other side, Li Bai and a dozen of his juniors also arrived in Kuangping County where he took office.

Kuangping County (today's Miyun area) is under the jurisdiction of Yuyang County.

Because it was a newly recovered territory, in order to allow officials to take office smoothly, the imperial court assigned a small army of [-] people to protect each official who took office, mainly responsible for suppressing bandits and maintaining stability in the local area.

Of course, this is only temporary. Once the local situation stabilizes, this army will be withdrawn.

After the new county magistrate took office, he was welcomed by the local landlords and gentry.

Of course, this is only temporary. If the county magistrate harms their interests, they may also turn their faces.

After Li Bai took office, he also warmly received the wealthy gentry who came to give gifts and visits. It can be regarded as a good relationship with local snakes. At least let them not make trouble even if they do not support him when he is in power.

Although Li Bai received the visiting landlords and gentry, he dared not accept gifts.

As a young man, everything is done in a hurry. Less than a week after taking office, Li Bai led his juniors to measure the acres of fields, count the population, and register them.

This job is not an easy one. Li Bai and his sixteen junior brothers lead people everywhere every day.

After running for more than two months, and with the cooperation of village chiefs from all over the country, the registration of all the population and land acres in Yuyang County was finally completed.

The main reason for registering the land acres and population is to collect taxes.

This is what the newly appointed commander must do after Cao Cao captures the new territory.

It's just that some commanders are lazy and will directly use the yellow book registered in the Han Dynasty to collect taxes. There are really not many officials like Li Bai and others who have made great efforts to re-register and compile the book.

There were also some obstacles when measuring the acres and counting the population, mainly due to the secret obstruction of the landowners and gentry.

They also knew that the commander's measure of land was to collect taxes, and collecting taxes was equivalent to taking food out of their bowls, so they naturally felt resentful.

Fortunately, Yuyang is located in Youzhou, which is the territory that Cao Cao has just conquered. In addition, Cao Cao currently has [-] soldiers in Youzhou. Facing the officials sent by Cao Cao, the powerful people here really dare not blatantly block them, so it is In the end, Li Bai and the others were asked to register the fields and population.

After everything was done, it happened to catch up with the wheat harvest in Youzhou area.

After the wheat was harvested, the yamen finally began to receive taxes, mainly grain and only a small amount of money.

Li Bai only needs to supply the troops stationed in Junping with the tax and food received, and the rest can be kept for emergencies except for some that are handed over to Yuyang County.

There are five thousand troops stationed in Zhangping. After excluding the food supply for this army for a year, half of the food can be left.

However, even if it is only half, the tax revenue of Kuangping County is much higher than that of several other surrounding counties. This is the benefit of Li Bai and others in measuring the acres and counting the population.

(End of this chapter)