Traveling through history leaving a name

Chapter 143 The Tax Collector
In the past few months, after Cao Cao made up his mind to establish his capital in Youzhou, the political center of the entire north began to move from Yecheng to Youzhou.

The gentry in the Central Plains were the ones who opposed moving the capital to Youzhou the most.

However, Cao Cao has always been strong. Historically, when Cao Cao was alive, no one dared to have an opinion on Cao Cao's decision.

For example, Kong Rong, the twentieth grandson of Confucius, never held back his opinions on Cao Cao, and directly sarcastically and mocked him. The final result is obvious, and he was killed by Cao Cao.

Even Xun Yu would be abandoned by Cao Cao immediately after he had a political disagreement with Cao Cao.

Cao Cao made up his mind to move the capital, and no one could stop him and could only be forced to accept it.

Of course, although the capital was said to be moved, it was only Cao Cao's shogunate, which was Cao Cao's personal political center, and Han Xiandi Liu Xie was still placed in Xudu (Xuchang).

As Cao Cao moved his capital to Youzhou, various institutions of the imperial court were also moved here. Therefore, Youzhou suddenly had a lot of dignitaries.

These people came to Youzhou to buy properties, houses and fields.

Many people also use their superiority to buy and sell by force.

For a time, the entire Youzhou people complained.

During this period of time, the yamen of various counties in Youzhou received many cases of forced buying and selling, but in the end no matter how they checked, they could find those court ministers or gentry and celebrity families.

Regarding the actions of these people, if it was not too much, the Youzhou side chose to turn a blind eye.

However, this time, these dignitaries who came to Youzhou finally put their minds on Youzhou taxes.

"I firmly oppose the imperial court's direct intervention in Youzhou's taxation. If the imperial court wants to take over Youzhou's taxation, it must first collect all the taxes of other states and counties into the imperial court."

At the court meeting on this day, Li Bai, the governor of Youzhou, loudly opposed the proposal of some people who wanted to collect taxes from Youzhou to the court.

"Li Taibai, you are presumptuous, you mere governor of Youzhou, you even yelled at the court, who gave you the guts?"

After Li Bai said his objections, someone immediately jumped out to accuse him.

"Youzhou's taxes are so high, but only [-]% of the taxes are paid to the imperial court. I suspect that someone must be pocketing their own money. I suggest checking Youzhou's tax books to see if there are any."

"Any comparison account in Youzhou has records. You can check the accounts at will, but it is impossible to take back the tax collection rights of Youzhou, unless the tax collection rights of all states and counties are revoked." Regarding the accusations of everyone, Li Bai did not feel the slightest No refund.

"Besides, the Prime Minister has promised that Youzhou only needs to pay [-]% of the tax, which is not the ratio I stipulated."

In the Han Dynasty, the power of taxation was always in the hands of local officials. After local officials collected taxes, they usually kept part of the tax revenue to run the functions of the government office, and then turned over part of it.

In ancient dynasties, the retention ratios of local taxes and national taxes were different. For example, in the Song Dynasty, local officials basically did not keep taxes. They had to be handed over to the imperial court first, and then directly transferred to the local yamen by the imperial court.

This model makes the tax data of the Song Dynasty look very good. At the peak, it reached a tax of 500 million yuan per year, which is equivalent to [-] billion yuan.

By the time of the Ming Dynasty, most of the local tax revenue would be kept to maintain the operation of the local government. As a result, the annual tax revenue of the entire imperial court was only a few million taels of silver, which seemed to be only a tenth of that of the Song Dynasty.

In fact, the accounts cannot be calculated like this. Although the Song Dynasty seems to have a lot of taxes, there is not much left after it is distributed to the local government. Coupled with miscellaneous taxes, its operating efficiency is not as good as that of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the Han Dynasty did not retain most of the local taxes like the Ming Dynasty, the proportion retained was still very high.

The states and counties under the imperial court in the north will keep most of their taxes, and less than [-]% of them will be turned over to the court.

After Cao Cao inspected Youzhou a few years ago, he was allowed to only pay [-]% of the tax to the imperial court, and the rest was reserved for the development support of Youzhou.

"Everyone, we don't need to argue about this matter. Let's talk about it when the prime minister comes back." Finally, Cao Pi stood up to stop everyone and said.

What he meant was very clear, and we will wait until Cao Cao comes back to discuss this matter.

After Cao Pi stopped it, the matter finally came to nothing.

However, some people don't give up even though they don't achieve their goals.

"Pay taxes, pay taxes, and everyone who enters the city has to pay ten dollars."

In Jicheng, at the gates of each city, a team of tax collectors stopped the flow of people entering the city.

"Master, we are not business people, why do we still have to pay taxes?"

When they heard that they had to pay taxes, the crowd exploded immediately.

"What nonsense are you talking about? You have to pay to enter the city. If you don't pay, you are not allowed to enter the city." Hearing that someone was unwilling to pay, the tax collector immediately scolded them again.

"Captain Niu, what's the situation? Why do you suddenly have to pay the city tax?"

At this time, someone looked at the soldiers guarding the city gate. These soldiers and tax collectors were obviously not in the same group. They stood straight on both sides of the city gate, ignoring the tax collectors at all.

"I don't know who these people are. I think they should be tax collectors sent by the imperial court, but they have nothing to do with us." The city gate guard officer known as Captain Niu explained.

They are under the jurisdiction of Li Bai, the governor of Youzhou, and these tax collectors are under the direct leadership of the central government.

In fact, not only at the gate of the city, but also in various parts of Youzhou, countless tax collectors began to collect taxes everywhere.

At the farmer's market in Yuyang City, a group of tax collectors rushed in and started collecting taxes from house to house.

"Your family has to pay a tax of [-] yuan a month." A tax collector said to the owner of a vegetable shop.

"My lord, our store has filed tax returns with the tax bureau every month..."

"I don't care who you pay taxes to. We are sent by the imperial court to collect taxes. You must pay taxes to us. This month's tax is [-] yuan. Please give it to us." The tax collector said arrogantly to the shop owner. .

"My lord, our bill has not been made this month, and we will definitely file a tax return to the imperial court when it is done..."

"What do you mean? Don't want to pay taxes?"

Hearing what the shopkeeper said, a tax collector immediately became angry.

"I order you to pay the tax immediately, or we will close your shop." A tax collector pointed at the shop owner and scolded.

"This official, you have to be reasonable in everything you do, right? I just finished my tax return a few days ago last month, and I have to pay the tax again in less than three days. How can I..."

"You mean you don't want to pay taxes, right?" the tax collector asked, pointing to the shopkeeper's nose, his finger was about to poke the shopkeeper's face.

"Since you say you are the tax collectors of the imperial court, please show your documents, otherwise don't blame me for going to the Yamen to report you."

The shopkeeper also got a little angry, and was threatened by someone pointing his nose. He had to doubt the true identities of these tax collectors.

Tax collectors in Youzhou will follow formal procedures when collecting taxes, have all kinds of certificates and tokens, and keep a deposit after collecting taxes. It is impossible to collect taxes like this arbitrarily.

"Sue us, okay, I'll give you face, right? Brothers, teach him a lesson and let him know who he is."

"Alas! Why are you beating people, ah...help..."

(End of this chapter)