Zhu Nao

It was Xu Yu who guessed Zhu Nao's intention first, and asked: "When the governor said to send money, do you really mean to send money to the common people?"

Juno smiled.He just followed Xue Daoqing's words, but he didn't specifically refer to money.He said: "It doesn't have to be real money, but benevolent policies can also be given."

Xu Yu hurriedly said, "I would like to hear the details."

Zhu Nao said: "The government can issue an announcement. The current chaos is preliminarily determined. The government intends to persuade the agricultural governor Sang that anyone who has paid a certain amount of land tax can return part of the tax and food according to the corresponding ratio. Or not return the money and food directly, and give other subsidies."

He also said: "The government originally had a favorable policy. It lends cash or grain to the people every year. After the summer and autumn harvests, the people will pay back with interest. In addition, during the farming season, the government will also lend cattle and farm tools to the people for a fee. Every day the common people borrow, they have to pay the government a bucket of grain."

All the officials listened carefully.The government does have such a policy. It is said to be a favorable policy, but it is actually a means for the government to make money.Lend money to the people and earn interest.As for the common people, or their families could not afford to raise cattle or buy agricultural tools, or they did not have enough money and food to survive before the harvest, the interest rate of borrowing from the government was always lower than that of borrowing from the landlord, which was considered a benefit.

Zhu Nao continued: "In my opinion, the government's current interest rate is too high, and it can be reduced by a few points. Next, we can link these several preferential policies with the land registration. The more acres of land, the more money and food that can be borrowed; The more cattle and farm tools you can borrow from the government for free, the more time you can borrow from the government.”

"In addition, those who have no land under their name and rent land take the initiative to report the land lease status to the government, and the government can also provide a certain amount of money and food subsidies."

The officials were stunned for a while, some of them already understood, some of them were not quick enough to turn their heads and were confused.

Xue Daoqing understood it right away.Zhu Nao has already reduced the land tax since he took office, and it must not be reduced again, and any further reduction will not be of much use.So he said to return part of the money and food.This is actually a tax cut in disguise, but in the name of rebates, people in Tianduo rebate more, like giving money, which can naturally resolve the resistance of the people to resist taxes to a certain extent.

In addition, if the interest rate is lowered, the people will be more willing to borrow from the government.Poor people have to borrow when they have no money, but rich people don’t need to borrow at first. Once the interest rate drops, they will have the willingness to borrow—especially businessmen, who need money to circulate in business, and it is of course a good thing to get low-interest loans.Even wealthy households who do not engage in business borrow the money from the government and lend it to other businessmen, and they can still earn a profit.

Farm cattle and agricultural tools, the rich households did not necessarily have to borrow them.However, the government provides a period of free lease. The more land you have, the more you can borrow. The rich households can also earn a rent by subletting it to their own tenants.

As for the last one, it is more straightforward.Let the tenants take the initiative to report the fields, and the situation of the landlords will be clear?

Zhu Nao said: "These few items are just my temporary thoughts. If you have other ideas, you can also raise them."

Xu Yu understood it completely, and concluded: "The governor's intention is to use benefits to encourage the people to stop falsifying, rather than suppressing them with severe punishments."

Junao nodded.

Xu Yu was thoughtful.In the past, all the officials came up with all kinds of ideas, and the root of it was to threaten and deter them with severe measures, so that the people and evil officials would no longer dare to practice favoritism.However, Xu Yu has been an official for many years, all the way from a small official to a senior official. He knows how difficult it is to implement a government order, and if he wants to deter the people with severe punishments, the effect is often not satisfactory, and sometimes it will cause future troubles.

After all, the law does not blame the public.In terms of field measurement, if only one of ten households cheated, the punishment would be fine; but if five of ten households cheated, all of them should be punished, for fear of arousing public resentment and rebellion; , Only one household was fined, and the effect was not necessarily good.Those fraudsters looked around and saw that there were three other families who had not been punished like themselves, so they naturally took chances and didn't take the government's decree in their eyes.

In short, the severe punishment law is not invalid, but the effect will never be as prohibitive as the officials who implement it think.

However, Zhu Nao's approach is mainly to encourage. If the people themselves no longer have the motivation to cheat, then the number of cheating will naturally be greatly reduced.But by doing so, perhaps the goals of counting the population and measuring the land can be achieved, and the government's expenditure will increase accordingly, but the income will decrease.

Soon some officials raised questions about this: "Fu Yin, our purpose of checking the population and measuring the land is to collect taxes according to the facts and increase the revenue of the official treasury. return, and the government has lost interest on loans, and the income of the government treasury has been decreasing. Isn’t this counterproductive?”

Xue Daoqing also looked at Zhu Nao suspiciously.If Zhu Nao wants to encourage the people to register their household registration according to the facts through the policy of benefiting the people, then the benefits to the people must be greater than the taxes that the people need to pay for reporting the acres of land truthfully.Otherwise, it will not be effective in preventing fraud.

After tossing around for a long time, what is the purpose of making a loss-making transaction?If Zhu Nao can't even figure out this account, how did he get to where he is today?

Zhu Nao looked at the official who spoke: "The purpose of the government to check the population and measure the land is not to collect more taxes, is it?"

The official was taken aback.Not for tax collection, for what?

Zhu Nao said: "Isn't the purpose of knowing the people? Knowing the people is the only way to govern the people. If you don't know the people, don't you become a blind man trying to understand the elephant, and governing indiscriminately?"

Everyone present is silent.

Zhu Nao's words awakened the dreamer, and some officials almost forgot that tax collection is only one of the purposes of registration, but it is not the main purpose.Why is the household register a government secret?Because every decree issued by the government, what the government can do, what it cannot do, what it should do, what it should not do, all have to be determined according to people's livelihood.If you don't even know the people's livelihood, isn't it just a blind man trying to understand the elephant?

The value of the household register itself is indeed more important than the interest on the loan.

However, there are also officials who are distressed by the reduction of government treasury revenue: "The governor has already cut land taxes, and then cut interest rates. The revenue of the government treasury will continue to decrease. I'm afraid it will be difficult to make ends meet."

In response to such doubts, Zhu Nao said firmly: "First of all, I have calculated the accounts, and the various incomes are still able to meet the daily expenses of the government, and the government will not lose your salaries."

"Secondly..." He paused, smiled slyly, raised his fingers to make a silent finger, and said softly, "Is there anything constant in the world?"

There was an uproar!

Zhu Nao said at the beginning that this is the beginning of the chaos, and the government implemented a favorable policy to persuade the agricultural governor Sang. To put it more bluntly, this is an expedient measure.

Of course, persuading farmers to be governors is also the purpose, but the more important purpose is to encourage the people to register their household registration.In a few years, if the burden on the government is too heavy for this measure, it can be canceled on the grounds that people's livelihood has been restored.Of course, if the cost is reasonable, it can be implemented all the time.

The purpose of understanding people's livelihood is not that the government wants to exploit the people immediately, but that the government needs to know the truth.Today the world is chaotic, although the central Sichuan is safe and peaceful due to the favorable terrain, but no one knows what will happen in the future.In case of war, the government will inevitably need to increase corvee taxes, and with the correct household registration book, the government will know who to collect taxes from and how to collect them.

In the past, rich families evaded taxes in large numbers, and the government could only squeeze the poor. The poor had nowhere to go, and they gathered people to rebel, causing even more chaos in the world.

Therefore, this move by Zhu Nao seems to make more profits for the rich, and it is also because the rich have greater opportunities and abilities to evade tax litigation.As long as you have a good grasp of the situation of the wealthy households, this small profit is actually nothing.

The officials thought over and over again, and no one in the hall objected.

What Zhu Nao said was just an idea. How to formulate and implement specific decrees requires repeated calculations by officials.

There is a lot to pay attention to here: if the subsidy is too little, the people's desire to cheat cannot be eradicated; if the subsidy is too much, the people will change from under-reporting the land to over-reporting the land, which is not what the government wants.The situation of each state and county is different, and different subsidies may also be given.

However, the direction is clear, encouraging the people is the main priority, and punishment and deterrence are the second.

So the meeting was almost here, and after Zhu Nao assigned the tasks, he took Xue Daoqing and left.

……

After leaving the lobby, Xue Daoqing followed Zhu Nao, feeling very complicated.

At the beginning, he heard that there were things in Shuzhong where the bookkeeping was unclear and the people avoided taxes, and he was quite gloating in his heart.He originally thought that such a situation existed only in the war-torn north, but he didn't expect that the Land of Abundance was also not much better.

And this question, in his eyes, was originally unsolvable.

You must know that Xie Wuji is also troubled by the same problem, and even the problem Xie Wuji faces is much more serious.The people living in seclusion in central Sichuan are just to evade taxes, while the people living in seclusion in the north may be civilians today and bandits tomorrow.In order to grasp the situation of the people, Xie Wuji and the local officials thought of many ways.

Their thinking is the same as that of the officials in Central Shu at the beginning. Severe punishments and laws, killing chickens and monkeys... But even though they have been so strict that whoever conceals his household registration will be sentenced to death, the situation is still not optimistic.In the end, before the census of the household registration of the people was completed, the resident had already mutinied.

However, Zhu Nao's way of thinking is completely different from theirs.

To be honest, Xue Daoqing was quite touched by what Zhu Nao said just now.In particular, the phrase "Only by knowing the people can you govern the people" was indeed something he hadn't realized before.

But after being touched, he became even more depressed—he believed that Zhu Nao's decree could not be carried out, and that the registration work would definitely make great progress, and the effect would be better than harsh punishments.But no matter how useful this method is, Xie Wuji couldn't learn it.

Because the reason Zhu Nao was able to do this was because he had developed the industry and commerce in central Shu very well, and the income from industry and commerce alone was enough to maintain the government's operations.To put it bluntly: he is rich!

As for Xie Wuji, on the contrary, he was so poor that a bell rang.Not to mention subsidizing the people, he even has to worry about feeding the army every day...

Therefore, it is true that Xie Wuji lacks talents.But talent alone may not be able to change his plight, because he does not have the unique conditions of Shu, nor does he have a rich family background.Perhaps the best way to change the situation is to have a wealthy and reliable ally...

Xue Daoqing walked while thinking about things, not paying attention to the pillars in front of him.Hearing a "bang", he slammed into the pillars of the corridor.

He backed away with an "ouch", grinning and rubbing his forehead, and when he turned his head, he saw Zhu Nao looking at him, and his face became hot all of a sudden.

In order to cover up his gaffe, he immediately sarcastically said with sharp teeth: "Master Zhu, I heard that you are benevolent and righteous, but now it seems that you are not as benevolent as the rumors say."

It is true that Zhu Nao promulgated the benevolent government, but his ultimate goal is to perfect the book.Once the bookkeeping is completed, the common people will be in the trap, and they will not be able to escape if they want to evade taxes.

Zhu Nao was not angry at all because of his sarcasm, he just smiled: "Really? People outside praise me like that?"

He didn't have any intention of explaining, he just smiled at Xue Daoqing, turned around and left.

On the contrary, Xue Daoqing touched his nose embarrassingly, feeling that he had said something stupid.

Whether benevolence or righteousness is good, they are not necessarily advantages.Being able to achieve your own goals is the greatest skill.Rather than saying that Zhu Nao is benevolent and righteous, it is better to say that Zhu Nao is a master who understands human nature and understands people's hearts.And to be a good official, these two skills are far more important than the so-called benevolence and righteousness...

Xue Daoqing curled his lips, and when the embarrassment subsided, he quickly chased in the direction where Zhu Nao left.

=====

It didn't take long for the officials of the Chengdu government to formulate new decrees, and these favorable policies were soon spread to all states and counties.

……

In the evening, Zheng Dajiao had just returned to the village after working in the fields, when he suddenly heard the sound of gongs at the entrance of the village.This is a signal that there is news to be announced to everyone. Zheng Dajiao hurried home to put down the farm tools and rushed to the entrance of the village.

Soon, the entrance of the village was full of people.

An official stood in the middle of the crowd and announced loudly: "Chengdu government has promulgated a new policy! The current chaos is preliminarily determined, and the governor of Zhu's government is eager to love the people. From now on, there is a new preferential policy! The government will subsidize farmers separately. Each household owns an acre of land, and the government will subsidize five buckets of grain every year, or a hundred dollars of money..."

Most of the peasant households have never read a book, nor can they know how to count.When the officials finished reading all the new policies, most of them were confused and couldn't figure it out at all.But everyone understands: this is a great thing!

So the common people exploded in an instant, asking non-stop around the officials.

"Is the government giving us food and money for nothing?"

"How can there be such a good thing in the world?"

"In the future, if you ask the government to borrow food, will you really only charge three cents? It used to be five cents!"

Some people understand a little bit.It is said that the government sends money and food to the people, because it is tied to the land, but in fact, the government collects taxes first, and then refunds some of them to everyone.So someone asked: "Why doesn't the government directly give us tax cuts? Is it not a hassle to collect money first and then send money?"

The officials did not answer this question, and the people who asked the question could not understand the meaning.But it's a good thing anyway, and everyone will have no opinion on whether they understand it or not.

Soon, more people who couldn't settle their accounts still chased the officials to ask about their own conditions.

"My family has two acres of land, how much food and money can the government subsidize me every year?"

"I have three acres of land. There are eight people in my family. My family doesn't have enough to eat every winter. With my little land, how much money can the government loan for food?"

"I, me, me, help me to calculate mine first!"

"Obviously I came first..."

……

Until it was dark, many people surrounded the village entrance.Zheng Dajiao got out from the crowd and went home in despair.

As soon as he got home, his old mother asked, "I just heard from the Zhang family that the government has issued a new policy? What kind of new policy? Could it be that taxes were reduced last year, and they will be increased again this year?"

Zheng Dajiao hurriedly said: "No, no, it's not a tax increase, it's a preferential policy." After finishing speaking, he sighed sadly.

Mrs. Zheng was puzzled and said, "Huizheng? Then why are you sighing?"

Zheng Dazuo said: "The government will send money and food to everyone, and in the future, the government will manage the loan, and the interest will be reduced from five cents to three cents."

"What?!" Mrs. Zheng became excited immediately, "Is there such a good thing? Then Governor Zhu is really a once-in-a-lifetime good official!"

Zheng's family is not rich, and with just a few pieces of Susukida, they can get by in good harvest years, but in bad harvest years, they have to borrow food from the government to survive.In the past, the government officials borrowed two buckets of rice in winter, but in summer they had to pay back three buckets of rice.But it doesn’t work if you don’t borrow it. People have to eat.Now that the interest rate is reduced, that is really a great thing!

Zheng Dajiao said with a bitter face: "But these good things are all related to the fields at home. When the fields were fertile in spring, I became relatives with the official who measured the land, and gave me a few pennies, asking me to measure the land for me." I'm too young. I don't have to pay land tax, but I can't enjoy this preferential policy!"

Mrs. Zheng was stunned: "What?!"

In fact, Zheng's family doesn't have much land, and there is not much land tax to pay.It's just that Zheng Dajiao is greedy for petty gains, and it's better to be able to rely on a penny than not to be able to.In fact, if he really has no land, he is a tenant renting land for a living, and the government has another subsidy policy.But he didn't get any benefits by doing it like this. After careful calculation, he actually lost money.

Mrs. Zheng said anxiously: "You go to the government and say that you made a mistake when you measured the land earlier, and ask them to do the measurement again. Otherwise, everyone else will get it, but ours has nothing. This is not a big loss. !"

Zheng Dajiao had also thought about this, but if he really went to the government, wouldn't he also reveal the fact that he bribed officials?This is to be punished!

Zheng Dajiao didn't have the guts, and he couldn't bear to suffer, so he could only feel depressed.

……

After the new decree spread throughout the countryside, and every household had figured out what the new policy was, the officials came to every township and village again to announce new news.

After the gong was struck several times, the common people gathered at the entrance of the village, and the officials spoke.

"Last month, it rained continuously for days, flooded the city, flooded the government treasury, and damaged the household registration book in Honshu. The Chengdu government ordered that after the autumn harvest this year, each household should report its population and field conditions to the village head, and the village head would collect the number of small fields in the whole village. , hand it over to the government. Wait until next spring, the government will send people to check the population and measure the fields again. At that time, the government will compare the two figures reported by each family with the official inventory to rebuild the household registration."

"what?!"

The people immediately exploded again.

"The household registration book was destroyed??"

"What happened to the officials in charge of the official treasury? How could the household registration books be flooded?"

"I still have to report it myself? It's really troublesome..."

For a time, some people were happy and some were worried.Those honest people who have not cheated for personal gain naturally feel troubled when they hear that their household registration will be rebuilt.But a few complaints are fine.But Zheng Dajiao and his ilk are very happy.

What is it called?This is called pie in the sky!He was originally not able to enjoy the benefits of the New Deal because he concealed the land, so he was very upset.Now that the household registration book is rebuilt, he no longer has to worry about being found out for fraud.After the new book is finished, he can enjoy the subsidy from the government, which can't be better!

Zheng Dalong hurried home to report the good news.

……

the other end.

After hearing what the officials announced, the son of the Qian family rushed home to report to his father.

After Qian Dangjia heard about it, his face was full of surprise: "The household registration book has been soaked by water and rain, and it needs to be remade?"

The Qian family is much wealthier than the Zheng family, and the Qian family has read a little, so they are not as easy to deceive as Zheng Dajiao.After thinking about it for a while, Master Qian guessed what was going on.

He resolutely said: "Impossible. One copy of the household registration book is kept for each county, one for each prefecture, and the Chengdu government has to collect it together. Could it be that these three places have been flooded? It must be that the Chengdu government has discovered the officials and people from all over the country. Collusion, Qingzhang made fakes, but there are too many fakers, and they can't catch them all, so I came up with such a pretext to make a new book."

The son asked, "Father, what should we do then?"

Qian Dangjia bit his lip in confusion.

In fact, when he heard about the New Deal a few days ago, he felt a little regretful.He didn't care about the government's additional subsidies for money and food, and he didn't need to borrow cattle and farm tools from the government.But being able to borrow money from the government at low interest rates really moved him.

Of course, the Qian family is not short of money, let alone borrowing money to survive.But after Jun Nao took office, he encouraged doing business very much.It is necessary to know that the fields in central Sichuan are rich, and one person farming can support several people.Therefore, after the encouragement of the government, a large number of people did join in business.There are also workshops everywhere.Moreover, Zhu Nao's trip to Guanzhong this time has brought many business opportunities to Shu merchants, making more wealthy households willing to engage in business operations.

Once this business is prosperous, it will naturally require a lot of money and food for turnover.The Qian family does not do business themselves, but there are quite a few businessmen in the same village, and they often raise money everywhere.The Chin family will also lend them money to make a profit.

In the past, government loans were [-]% profitable, and private loans were close to this amount.But now that the government has lowered the interest rate to [-]%, the Qian family can get a lot of money with their own land, and if they lend this money out, they can earn a difference of [-]% to [-]%.Even if the land tax to be paid is deducted, there is still some money to be made.

But Qian Dangjia also has worries.Like Zheng Dajiao, what he was worried about was that the fraud would be found out. Not only would he not have to think about making money, but he would also be punished.Moreover, he is more knowledgeable than Zheng Dazuo, and he can understand the government's intentions better: the benefits are only temporary, but the household registration is permanent.Huizheng may be abolished in a few years, but the land tax will have to be paid all the time.

Now that the government said that the household registration book was destroyed, it dispelled his first doubt: the destruction of the household registration book was fake, and the government stated that it would not pursue the previous fraud.

As for the second concern?

The head of Qian struggled for a long time, finally gritted his teeth and said, "Forget it, how many fields our family has, let's report it truthfully."

The son was puzzled and said, "Father?"

Qian Dangjia explained: "The government is promulgating favorable policies and re-creating the book. It also asks the people to declare themselves, and the government checks again. This is determined to check the population and land clearly. Ji, En came first, and Wei is not far away. If there is a problem again, I am afraid that there will be severe punishment in the future. Let's not touch that bad luck."

After all, if you go to deceive the government now, the benefits you get are too small and the risks you take are too great. Smart people shouldn't take that risk.

The son also knew that his father was always wise, so he hurriedly said, "Okay, then do as father says!"