Wear it with the house, but I am a black household [Quick Transmigration]

The palace banquet was very lively, and everyone was in harmony.

As a brother who had lost his chance, Anxi was warmly welcomed by several princes. For a while, the first prince came to ask about his health, and for a while, he was dragged by the third and fourth children to gossip.

The eighth prince also took advantage of this time to toast Anxi with a lot of wine, and acted like a good younger brother in front of his foreign ministers.

Anxi also saves face. Whoever comes to toast will drink a few glasses. Anyway, the alcohol content is very low, and you won't be afraid of getting drunk if you drink too much.

Of course, apart from these so-called brothers, Anxi was a neglected person among others. No clan came to talk, and no ministers came to toast. The few were still those who recruited in the poetry collection.

But everyone knew that they were the emperor's people, and they were just pretending to come here at this time.

After all these people left for a round, Anxi left early on the pretext that the princess was pregnant.

New Year's Eve is the busiest day for members of the royal family. Today they have to sacrifice to heaven, tomorrow they have to worship their ancestors, and the day after tomorrow they have to attend various banquets.

In the past years, An Xi pretended to be sick and would not go there, but now that he looks better, there is no reason for him, so he was busy until the end of the first month.

Anxi didn't go to court because he had no errands, but it didn't mean he didn't understand the dynamics in court.

Even though those nobles were partially compensated, their losses were still huge.They hated the third prince to the core, and they had been eager to make trouble during the Chinese New Year. Now, just after the New Year's Day, they couldn't wait to make trouble.

This time the matter involved a lot, it was even more serious than the military officer's matter before, and it was already related to Da Chu's safety.

For feudal dynasties, agriculture is the most important foundation. Every time the dynasty collapses and social turmoil is basically due to the lack of food for the people.

Therefore, fields are very important to the people and to the country.

If the agriculture is stable, the country will have long-term stability. If the agriculture is not stable, the dynasty will basically come to an end.

The nobles knew this, so they simply exposed the matter of Yintian.

With regard to Yintian, at the beginning of its establishment, Da Chu issued an order that Yintian was not allowed to exist.The first thing the parent officials in every place do when they take office is to investigate Yintian, and if they are found, it can be used as the most important indicator for performance evaluation.

And if there are hidden fields in the area under your jurisdiction, and you don't know about it yourself, but others find out, it is your dereliction of duty.

For officials who dereliction of duty, the imperial court punished them very severely. They were downgraded several grades, and they would not be promoted for several years.

This is a rigid requirement for officials, but for ordinary people, if they discover that they have secretly opened up wasteland but did not report it, they will be arrested and served in corvee for three years.

In ancient times, corvée was a very hard job, and it was particularly easy to die. Often many healthy people died, or were half dead from exhaustion.

For the people, not having enough to eat may be the most difficult thing, but corvee service is definitely the most fearful thing.

So unless it is absolutely necessary, few people would dare to conceal it or not report it.The big households that really produce hidden fields are those landlords, local gentry, or dignitaries from all walks of life.

That is to say, the so-called privileged class. They have a good relationship with the government, or they cover the sky with one hand in the local area, so they can hide their land and not report it.

And these people often have various relationships behind them, and it is always difficult to find out.

Regarding Yintian, in addition to the local parent officials, Da Chu also set up a supervisory censor, who is responsible for the investigation.

The position of supervisory censor is generally to supervise officials, or to inspect counties and counties. In Dachu, there is also an important duty, which is to check whether there are hidden fields in various places.

After so many years, the supervisory censor has done a good job. There are basically no hidden fields in Dachu. No matter where they are, as long as they open up wasteland, they will report them as soon as possible.

But is this really the case?

No!

In front of civil and military officials, the nobles tore off the face of the household secretary and the supervisory censor. What they said was that they accepted bribes and helped others to conceal the matter of the land.

That's not to mention, the nobles also revealed a secret, that is, half of the fields currently registered in the register are wrong. but wasteland.

The kind of wasteland that produces nothing and does not pay taxes.

Hubu Shangshu was so angry that his brain was bleeding, "Nonsense, you are talking nonsense, this is slander, absolutely slander."

Wei Guogong sneered, "Slander? Report to the emperor, I have evidence."

As he spoke, he took out a few booklets, "Your Majesty, one of these is the annual gift received by the Minister of the Household Department last year. Although they are all isolated papers, they are actually mixed with land deeds. Your Majesty, my court There are generally two types of deeds. One is the red deed, which needs to be registered at the government office. It belongs to whoever it is registered in, and no one else can take it away. But in fact, there is also a kind of white deed among the people, which is also a land deed, which is generally used in private business transactions. It is easy to carry and trade, and does not need to go to the government to register. This is the deed that the Minister of the Ministry of Households receives. After a few years, the deed will be sold for a large sum of money."

Hubu Shangshu's face was gloomy and terrifying, "Your Majesty, all of this is Wei Guogong's conjecture. He has no evidence to falsely frame the court officials, and asks the emperor to make decisions for this humble minister."

Wei Guogong was unhurried, "I really have no evidence for this, but I know that the servants of the Minister of the Household Department sell more than ten mu of land every year. These lands don't seem to be many, but they are sold every year. People doubt it. Besides, the imperial court does not recognize the existence of Bai Qi. As the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, he actually makes people buy and sell Bai Qi. Doesn't it mean that he knows the law and broke the law."

"Your Majesty, I admit that I have sold the land, but I used the white deed. This I know I was wrong, but the folks use it more often, and it is indeed very convenient. To save trouble, I just did this. But Wei Guogong slandered me for accepting bribes, I absolutely dare not admit it, those fields are the property of my ancestors, so selling your own property is not illegal, right?"

Duke Wei smiled, "It's not against the law, but is the land under Bai Qi counted as hidden land?"

"How can it be calculated? Although it is not registered with the government, it still pays taxes every year!" The Minister of the Household Department was surprised, it turned out that Wei Guogong was waiting for him here.

Whether you are greedy or not, you can find out if you check this matter. Besides, the Li family is a big family that has been passed down for hundreds of years, and the family property is rich, so there is no need for corruption at all.

Therefore, neither the emperor nor other civil and military officials would believe this charge.

But when it comes to Bai Qi, it's a bit confusing.

The white deed is a deed that existed in the previous dynasty. The people have always believed in this, and getting the white deed means that the land on the deed belongs to them.For the convenience of inheritance, the common people rarely go to the Yamen to register as red deeds, and only hold white deeds.

If this was just an ordinary person, it would not be a big mistake. After all, paying taxes on time is not considered concealment.

But he is different, he is the Minister of the Household Department.

really

Wei Guogong said, "30 years ago, the first emperor issued a decree that all land must be registered in the government office. As the secretary of the household department, you took the lead in violating the first emperor's order. Not only did you not register, but you also bought and sold white deeds privately Master Shangshu, are you guilty?"

Tobu Shangshu's face was extremely ugly, but he couldn't say anything to refute.

Wei Guogong smiled with satisfaction, and turned to the emperor, "Your Majesty, I know that the Minister of the Household Department didn't do it on purpose. He just didn't realize that selling the white deeds was against the will of the late emperor. It can be seen that the Minister of the Household Department is a fool. Such a person is in charge of the Household Department. Your Majesty Can you believe that there is no hidden field in the world?"

"Besides, the supervisory censor, they have the responsibility to investigate Yintian, but I have checked the records, and it has been ten years, and the supervisory censor has not found any Yintian, how is this possible? Dachu is so big, it is impossible not to People take chances. Looking at the records ten years ago, more or less, hundreds of acres can be found every year, and even more than a thousand acres. What does this mean? It means that since the supervisory censor took office, there has never been a vegetarian meal. I didn't take the matter of tracking down Yintian to heart."

What Wei Guogong said makes sense, and no one in the court can refute it. It is definitely unscientific to say that there has been no such thing in ten years.

Yushi Jiancheng muttered for a while, wanting to say something justified, but Wei Guogong preempted him, "If you don't believe me, let me give you an example. There is a Juren named Shan in Wanhe County. Since he was admitted as a scholar, he has Someone put the land under his name to evade the household tax. This is nothing. The imperial court stipulates that a scholar can be exempted from the household tax of ten acres of land, and a person can be exempted from twenty acres. But since he was elected, the name There are thousands of acres of land, and this thousand acres of land are all taxed for inferior land. Regardless of whether this is reasonable or not, when the old minister sent someone to investigate, he found that there were still many wastelands under Shan Juren’s name. And those wastelands are located in tidal flats near rivers."

Anyone who knows what a tidal flat is. As long as there is no flood, the tidal flat is the best field. The land there is fertile and moist, very suitable for growing rice, and it is much better than the first-class fields.

If there is a flood, it will be washed away and nothing will be left.

But even so, the common people are willing to grow food on the tidal flats.For one thing, floods don’t come every year, but one year of planting here is worth two or three years in other fields.

In places where there are floods every year, the tidal flats are indeed wasteland, but in most areas, it is impossible to be flooded every year.

Wei Guogong's words are very clear. With his own fame, Shan Juren not only exempted thousands of acres of land from paying taxes, but also turned the tidal flats that might be top-grade fields into wasteland for his family.

And such a thing, the supervisory censor did not find out?

Is the meaning of hiding the land, is it concealing and not reporting, and not paying taxes is hiding the land?

No, such a situation where the good land becomes wasteland and the tax paid is much less than the actual situation, it is also a kind of hidden field.

This clearly means that there are hidden fields, and there are many, but the supervisory censor did not find out.

As soon as these words came out, the faces of the third and fourth princes all changed.

The third prince is because the Minister of the Household Department is his grandfather, and the fourth prince, he is an official in the supervisory censor's yamen, and he is the oldest in the entire supervisory censor, except for the censor Jiancheng.

Now Wei Guogong said that the Minister of the Household Department and the supervisory censor were irresponsible, and he just slapped them in the face.