Daming: I asked you to hang yourself, but I didn’t ask you to rebuild the Ming Dynasty

Chongzhen waved his hand to signal the military households to stand up, and he said:

"In the north, these years have been either a severe drought, a locust plague, or a plague!"

At this time, the land given by the court to military households had long been snatched away by officials. They had been reduced to servants renting land and farming. They could not get military pay or expedition money, and their lives were miserable.

After hearing the emperor's words, the military households felt the same and kept whispering:

"It's just that these years have been so miserable..."

"Isn't that right? There was a severe drought every year, and we finally had a harvest. Then a group of grasshoppers came and ate up everything..."

……

Zhu Youjian knocked on the table, waited for everyone to quiet down, then pointed south and continued:

"The south is better!"

"I have decided to go to the south!

Go to Nanyang!

There is a vast plain thousands of miles away, the land is very fertile, and the winter is not that cold.

Nanyang is located between the Han River, Baihe River and Tang River. There are dense rivers flowing all year round, just like Jiangnan. "

Without waiting for the military households to speak, he immediately raised his voice:

"Li Zicheng, that turtle grandson, robbed such a good place like me, but he doesn't know how to use it. Let's go and rob it back today!"

Everyone watched eagerly.

The emperor, why are you telling us soldiers this?

But... why do you want to go to Nanyang for no reason?

But I saw the emperor rolling up his sleeves and looking like a ruffian:

"Young children, I have nothing to say. If I leave with you, I will give you land, mother-in-law, food, and food! If you don't leave with me, then I have broken your heart. We have nothing to say!”

He looked around and saw that the soldiers were obviously agitated, so he immediately made a bold statement:

"The four great families and that dog official Liu Youru have a grudge against you, we know it!"

"I blew them up and avenged you!"

When the military households heard this, they were immediately tempted.

The emperor actually avenged us little soldiers...

It’s better to be the emperor!

But Zhu Youjian continued: "Kill them, what will these turtle grandsons do if they have accumulated so much property?"

The military households became restless.

The four major families have controlled power over the years, and almost all the land in Xincheng County has been robbed by them.

The dog official Liu Youru wears a pair of trousers with the four families again, so he must have accumulated a lot of money!

"You have been with us all your life, and we have nothing else!"

Zhu Youjian smiled and rubbed his index and middle fingers very philistinely:

“We decided to share the money from the four families with those who came with us.

If someone doesn’t want to leave with us so that we can get together and disperse, I will give him thirty kilograms of food, which will be regarded as our king and subject. We thank you for your support to us before..."

Everyone's eyes widened...

Does the emperor mean what he said?

But I heard Chongzhen continue to say: "Our ancestor, Emperor Taizu, was born as a poor beggar. Our family has ancestral precepts and cannot be sorry to the people. Over the years, even if our family has received an increase of three wages, on average, we only need to harvest one acre of land." How much!"

Zhu Youjian winked at Ni Yuanlu, the Minister of Household Affairs.

Ni Yuanlu scratched his head. As a member of the cabinet, he knew the big data on the court's tax revenue. If it was accurate to the average number per acre - I really didn't know this!

Wu Ganlai, who was in the household department behind Ni Yuanlu, stood up and said:

"Your Majesty, our dynasty has 8.576 acres of farmland. The total amount collected by Taizu's dynasty is more than 3200 million shi, and our dynasty has collected 2638.13 shi of grain.

One stone of grain weighs approximately 153.5 kilograms. "

Wu Ganlai did a quick verbal calculation and came up with the answer very confidently:

"To put it into perspective, I charge an average of 0.034 shi per acre of land. If converted into kilograms, it should be five and a quarter kilograms, which is two cents and three cents."

After hearing this answer, not to mention the military households, even Zhu Youjian was stunned!

Were taxes so low in the Ming Dynasty?

Only 5.219 kilograms of grain are collected from one acre of land?

Wu Ganlai seemed to like to show off his mathematical abilities. He continued: "Due to constant military disasters, our court has sent three additional pays..."

He lowered his head and thought for a while, then said: "Three rates have been increased several times. According to the current data, after the increase of three rates per acre of land, the total levy will be nine cents of silver... equivalent to 0.018 stone grain."

After hearing this answer, Zhu Youjian just wanted to laugh loudly.

There is no anger, no sad smile...

Funny isn't it?

How fucking ridiculous!

This is the so-called exorbitant taxation...

The government forced the people to rebel!

Who forced the people?

The tax standard set by the emperor is - an average of 7.982 kilograms of grain per mu of land!

Less than eight pounds of grain!

This is the amount of grain that should be paid per acre of land after two seasons’ regular taxes plus three rates!

Are you surprised?

funny isn't it?

However, this is the truth!

……

All the people were shocked when they heard this conversation.

Not to mention the military households, other prisoners in the yard couldn't sit still...

How is that possible!

In which year does the official not collect [-]% of the grain produced?

Although the yield of dry land in the north is not as high as that of paddy fields in the south, one acre of land can yield about [-] kilograms of wheat. If it is a first-class field and the weather is good, it can even harvest [-] kilograms!

The emperor only set a tax of less than eight pounds?

My God!

Those stupid officials wanted to take away a total of seventy or eighty kilograms!

This does not include the so-called losses secretly increased by governments at all levels, as well as the "drenching" and "kicking" (hu) caused by grain collectors...

About Linjiankihu...

As an aside, the inheritance of these methods of yamen petty officials has never been broken.

It still existed until the Egg Age. No matter how pure the farmers' grain was, a certain amount of so-called "impurities" and bag weight had to be deducted.

In addition, before weighing, use the grain inspection poke to poke it in with a "Kuchu" sound. When you pull it out, the grain will flow out. If you know someone, hurry up and say hello, and they will stop you. If you don’t know the person, and you don’t hang around for three to five minutes and spill half a bag of grain, they won’t leave and let you block them.

Of course - the people are not allowed to take away the spilled food...

Ask any farmer over 40 years old about this, who doesn’t know?

……

Everyone's eyes widened...

All the ministers can only remain silent...

The emperor laughed so hard that tears came out...

"it is good!"

"That's great!"

Zhu Youjian looked around and suddenly took off his green dragon robe.

Everyone was shocked again - the emperor's underwear was full of patches. Looking at the stitches, some of the patches were probably more than ten years old...

"Look at you, do you have any good clothes on you?"

Zhu Youjian looked around, pointed at the military households around him, then stepped into the crowd, looking around at the people prostrate on the ground.

"They say that I am dissolute and immoral, that I impose excessive taxes and excessive amounts of money!"

"Look at you, look at me!"

"Crash!"

The loyal ministers knelt on the ground, shouting about death penalty.

"I don't blame you!"

Zhu Youjian waved his hand: "You are pretty good. I raised donations before, and some of you had no money and wrote IOUs for me to deduct from my salary. I remember them all!"

"For example, Fang Yuegong!"

Zhu Youjian looked to the north: "Fang Yuegong's brother was captured by Zhang Xianzhong. They searched the whole family, but no money was found!"

When it comes to Fang Yuegong, everyone knows it.

This man is from Gucheng, Xiangyang. He has always been upright and has never been greedy for anything in his official career. He has never even accepted the "freezing fee" customary in official circles.

So much so that Fang Yuegong couldn't even afford clothes, and there were patches on his official robes.