Zhu Nao

Zhu Nao and Xu Yu brought Xue Daoqing to the hall, and the other officials who attended the meeting were already waiting in the hall.

All the officials were very surprised to see Xue Daoqing, and they couldn't help whispering among themselves.Xu Yu hurriedly found an official and whispered a few words in his ear, asking him to inform the officials in the synagogue not to mention specific figures during the meeting.When the official got the order, he hurriedly passed on the word.

The land and population are government secrets, and Xie Wuji's people should not know about them. Otherwise, once the two sides start a war, Xie Wuji will know the logistics situation of Chengdu Mansion like the palm of his hand.Similarly, the situation of Xie's army's food, grass and soldiers is also the secret of the army. Xie Wuji's so-called 2 army is just a name, maybe there are only more than [-], maybe there are [-] to [-], and this matter will not be known to outsiders.

Therefore, the last thing Xue Daoqing should know is the specific numbers.As for the rest of the decree, it doesn't matter if you let him listen to it. Xie Wuji sent him to Chengdu Mansion just to let him learn this.

Zhu Nao asked someone to arrange a place for Xue Daoqing in the corner of the lobby, so that he could hear everyone talking, but could not see the contents of the classic books.The meeting officially started.

The official responsible for calculating the data distributed several official documents that had already been transcribed to the officials present at the meeting.

"Fu Yin, Shao Yin, this is the total number of people and cultivated land in each state. This is the total number of people and cultivated land in each state 30 years ago, and ten years ago." The accounting official introduced, "This year's total cultivated land Compared with ten years ago, it has decreased by about one-fourth. Compared with 30 years ago, it has decreased by about one-fifth. Especially, the three prefectures of Yuzhou, Zizhou and Meizhou have the largest reduction. Among the states, Only Langzhou has a lot of cultivated land, but it has increased.”

Comparing this year's figures with figures from a decade ago and 30 years ago is what Junau asked officials to do.

The reason for this comparison is that although Sichuan is peaceful now, the actual management is still very chaotic. You must know that in the past few years, there were floods, locust plagues, military disasters and bandit chaos, which can be called natural disasters. Man-made disaster.Refugees are everywhere, and a large number of people have fled from their homes.Now under the governance of Zhu Nao, the people are gradually returning to the farmland, and the household registration and fields have undergone a lot of changes, which definitely need to be revised and supplemented on the old basis.

But the bad thing is that when the [-] troops recruited by Yuan Jilu rebelled, the rebel army broke into the city and burned the place where the official documents were stored in the government. The old ones are lucky enough to survive because they are stored in remote places.

In fact, the inventory of land and population began last year, but the old books were destroyed, the government had no basis for comparison, and the overall situation was not stable. Even if Zhu Nao knew that the results of the inventory were problematic, he could only muddle along and did not go to the bottom of it. end.

But this year's situation has been much more stable than last year, and Zhu Nao also has the energy to free up his hands to take care of this matter.

And the reason for comparing the figures ten years ago and 30 years ago is that Zhu Nao just wants to have an idea of ​​the overall situation.Are there any problems with the results of this year's inventory?How big of a problem? ——Now it seems that the problem is indeed not small.

Not only Zhu Nao found the problem, but all the officials present also saw the problem.

Xu Yu said: "Compared with ten years ago and 30 years ago, the population has decreased by about one-fifteenth, but the arable land has decreased by one-fifth. This is not in line with common sense. It must be The officials in charge of measuring and compiling the books accepted bribes from the common people and deliberately concealed a lot of them.”

Some officials also said indignantly: "The governor is benevolent and caring for the people. After taking office, he has greatly reduced the land tax and miscellaneous taxes. Those hateful people don't remember the governor's Ende, and dare to deceive the government and evade the land tax. It is an unforgivable crime!"

Several other officials hurriedly followed suit, first praising Zhu Nao's merits, and then scolding the corrupt officials and troublesome people.

Xue Daoqing, who was in the corner, couldn't help but rolled his eyes when he heard what the officials said, and said with a sneer: "I'm afraid you officials have misunderstood the common people? Could it be that you think that the low taxes collected will cause the common people to Pay it honestly? Even if you only charge one grain of rice per acre of land, those who can refuse it will find ways to do so! Unless the government gives them money instead, they will stop stealing and playing tricks."

The officials didn't expect Xue Daoqing to speak so impolitely, and couldn't help but look at each other.

Xu Yu was not surprised, but only found it funny.After all, Xue Daoqing is a young man, with a kind of arrogance that the world is drunk and I am alone.In fact, what he understood, the officials present may not understand, but the reason why the officials said this was just to take the opportunity to flatter Zhu Nao and express their position.Although Zhu Nao never reused anyone because he flattered him, officials may not all like to flatter their chiefs.It's just that others have taken pictures, and if I don't follow suit, I will inevitably worry about falling behind.

Xue Daoqing choked back all the words of the officials.

Now everyone finally got to the point and discussed a solution.

Someone suggested: "It must be that the current system of clearing accounts and making books is not perfect, which has given unscrupulous officials a chance to cheat for personal gain. It is better to send people directly from the Chengdu government to re-measure the land in each state."

This proposal was quickly refuted: "This is inappropriate. If the Chengdu government sends people, one is that we don't have so many people available, and the other is that our people are not familiar with the general affairs of various places, so they are easily deceived and hindered by the local gentry and people." .”

Things like this kind of land measurement and population counting are often the responsibility of each state or even each county, and then reported layer by layer, and finally aggregated to Chengdu Prefecture.If the government of Chengdu had to do everything by itself, not to mention the high cost, in fact there are many obstacles in doing things.It is more convenient for each locality to handle affairs by itself, but favoritism and fraud are unavoidable.

This way is not going to work, and some people put forward other suggestions: "After the governor took office, he promulgated more benevolent policies. I think some unruly people don't take the majesty of the government seriously. In my opinion, this matter must be enacted and strengthened. Severe punishment. Find out a few villainous officials and thugs who have committed serious fraud, and make an example of them. Once the rogue officials are deterred, they will no longer dare to act recklessly."

The proposal has broad support from officials.

"Yes, that's right. Unruly people must be punished, and evil officials must be punished severely!"

"There are also those states with the most serious malpractice for personal gain, and state officials should also be held accountable for ineffective supervision!"

"Order all the states to re-measure and compile the books. If there is another fraud and concealment, they should be punished ten times harder! Under the strict law, the unruly people will be restrained."

After listening to everyone's suggestions, Xu Yu felt that they were all reasonable, but they were not comprehensive enough.He opened the mouth and said: "The most serious concealment is the rich and powerful gentry everywhere. I'm afraid these methods may not be able to deter them..."

Xu Yu was different from Lu Qinghui in that he did not come from a high-ranking family. He was promoted all the way to Shaoyin because of his diligence, ability and intelligence. He knew the situation of the people very well.The richer the family, the more severe the tax evasion.After all, the rich have the money to manage officials and local governments, and even if the poor have the desire, they may not have the ability.

Even if the Chengdu government orders heavy fines, it may not be able to punish these rich households.After all, with the protection of the local government, in the end, it may be possible to catch a few chickens that are actually not serious in fraud, but the monkeys are still at ease.

There was a moment of silence in the hall, no one seemed to come up with a better idea.

Xue Daoqing spoke again abruptly: "Isn't this simple? I don't believe that the land taxes of the wealthy households and gentry will not be collected by issuing a 'decree to sue'."

The officials in the hall were shocked again.

The so-called "reporting order" is to encourage the people to report those who conceal their land and evade land taxes.The government rewards the whistleblowers by taking part of the tax money collected from fines and copying, which can motivate the people to whistleblowers.

Although this plan is poisonous, it is indeed useful.Especially for the wealthy and gentry everywhere.The local government shielded them, but the Chengdu government did not.Now the biggest problem in Chengdu Mansion is that they don't know who concealed the land, and if the people report it, they won't have to worry about being kept in the dark again.

An official echoed, "That's a good idea."

Xu Yu shook her head again and again: "It's not right, it's not right. This plan hurts the people too much, and it must not be abused."

It can be seen from the calculated figures that there are probably not a few folks who conceal their fields.Once the whistle blows, the implications are too wide.As the saying goes, the law does not blame the public. Zhu Nao has only been in office for two years, and the situation is not stable enough.

Xue Daoqing didn't understand Xu Yu's worry, he only thought Xu Yu was weak, and snorted again.

When everyone was discussing the countermeasures, Zhu Nao never opened his mouth.While listening to the conversation, he looked back and forth at the comparative figures of the field population.Only then did he put down the official document in his hand, and said unhurriedly: "The wind of reporting is indeed not allowed to spread indiscriminately. But I think you might as well give it a try for Young Master Xue's previous idea."

All the officials were stunned, Xue Daoqing himself was also stunned.previous idea?Didn't he just come up with this idea?Where did the previous one come from?

Xu Yu also asked in a daze, "What does Fu Yin mean?"

Zhu Nao said leisurely: "The people colluded with the officials and concealed the land to avoid taxes. This has nothing to do with the amount of taxes, but human nature. If there are more fields, they will pay more taxes. But if the government gives them money instead, The more fields there are, the more money they will be given, so they naturally have no reason to hide it."

As soon as this statement came out, everyone was shocked!

The government sends money to the people? ?The more fields returned, the more money given away? ?Where in the world does this kind of reasoning come from? ? ?

Xue Daoqing's eyes were wide open, his face full of disbelief.

Before he came to Chengdu Mansion, he had already heard a lot about Zhu Nao's deeds. In fact, he didn't think much of Zhu Nao, nor did he think how smart Zhu Nao was, especially he didn't like Zhu Nao pretending to be a royal family member way of doing.But Xie Wuji repeatedly emphasized to him that Zhu Nao had a unique vision and extraordinary means, and ordered him to concentrate on studying, and ordered him to write down all of Zhu Nao's methods, and to teach others after returning to the army.After all, he has a photographic memory.It was only then that he reluctantly accepted the errand.

Looking at it now, it is true that this person is extraordinary, but isn't this too extraordinary?Is this still a normal person? !