Chapter 886: Restructuring

Chapter 886: Restructuring

Chapter 886: Restructuring (Part )

There were many powerful aristocratic families of varying sizes in Chenliu, such as the Bian, Dong, Wang, Wu, etc., each of whom had their own land and troops.

Among them, the Bian family declined the most. After Cao Cao killed Bian Rang, the family fell into decline.

But after all, the gentry were closely connected. Bian Rang's grandson Yu Song was appointed as Sima Yi's aide when he was in his early twenties. He went on the expedition to Liaodong and later served as an official.

When Sima Shi was in power, Yu Song was his chief clerk. He eventually died as the Minister of the Central Secretariat and the Minister of Agriculture of Cao Wei.

The Chenliu Yu family actually got their start with the help of the Sima family, and they can be considered Sima's die-hard supporters.

He worked so hard, but I wonder if the reason why Cao Cao killed his grandfather Bian Rang was a factor - the aristocratic families had woven a dense web, and even Cao Cao was unable to eradicate it completely.

The Yu family claims to be a family of Chenliu. In fact, in the current administrative divisions, Donghun City where their family is located has been incorporated into Jiyang County. During the time of the previous emperor, it was under the jurisdiction of Waihuang County and later merged into Jiyang County. Today, Donghun City is the seat of Longxiang Prefecture.

Therefore, the Chenliu Yu family should now be called the Jiyang Yu family.

Sima Rui's first wife, Yu Mengmu, was from the Yu clan of Jiyang. She died of illness in the sixth year of Yongjia (312), not long after Sima Rui moved south, at the age of . She must have suffered from acclimatization and inability to adapt to the environment after arriving in Jianye.

In such a family, although there are one or two children working as low-level staff members in the general's mansion, it is not surprising that they rebelled. After all, the family is large, and it is impossible for everyone to think the same way. Sometimes when several main family members get angry, they may drag others into making irrational decisions.

However, Chenliu prefect Liu Mi decided to give them a chance. He asked the children of the Dong, Bian and Wang families to enter the manor to persuade them, while the recruited men were lined up outside.

While waiting, Liu Mi also chatted with Zhu Fei, the historian of Tian Cao of Liang State.

Zhu Fu was the younger brother of Zhu Huo, the governor of Yuzhou. He was from the Zhu family of Yangdi and joined King Liang very early, and was highly trusted.

There were rumors in Pingyang that Chu Huo might soon be transferred there to serve as a powerful senior official in preparation for replacing Yu Chen, as the latter's health was not good.

"I heard that the king wants to change the tax system. Will Yuzhou change it?" Liu Mi asked.

In fact, he didn't want to ask about Yuzhou, but wanted to find out about Jizhou indirectly. According to the current news, the new tax system should only be implemented in the 20 counties of Liang State, and the old method of collecting donations will still be used outside the 20 counties. However, the news is rather confusing and there is no certainty. He really wants to know.

"Yuzhou has not received any news." Chu Fei did not hide the fact: "My brother has lived in Xiangcheng for several years and has repeatedly cleaned up the household registration of Xiangcheng County, but there has been no movement in the four counties of Yingchuan, Qiao, Pei, and Lu. If the new system is to be implemented in Yuzhou, the land must be measured first."

Liu Mi also thought so. After hearing what Chu Fei said, he felt relieved.

To be honest, even if he was loyal to King Liang, he did not want to see the land measurement system being implemented on a large scale.

Everyone could accept this within the twenty counties of Liang State, and many Liang State scholars went outside the twenty counties to purchase land and property just to make up for the losses.

It would be really painful if all of this happened at once.

"Since you are in the agricultural department, do you know how taxes are collected?" Liu Mi asked.

"Mr. Liu, I have only been in the field for a few months." Chu Fei smiled bitterly and said, "I have only heard that the tax system is half new and half old, a mixture of new and old."

"Tell me about it." Liu Mi said.

"The rent for the land is at least one bushel of grain per mu, and it is collected by household." Chu Fei said, "In the imperial court, there are regular households and second-class households. I heard that in the new system, households will also be divided into three levels. The upper-class households will be charged 50 mu, and the middle-class and lower-class households are unknown. However, there are also rumors that the household registration in the counties is not divided into three levels. Maybe in the short term, it will only be collected by household, without classification, and it will be changed after the country is stabilized."

"Is this true?" Liu Mi asked in surprise.

"Yes." Chu Pei said, "Wang Changzi Zhang has been trying it in Shanglin Garden for more than half a year."

Liu Mi nodded and said, in fact, it was similar to the old tax system of the Ming Dynasty that had never been actually implemented.

He made a rough calculation and found that there were currently more than 67000 households and more than 33 people in Chenliu County, with an average of five people per household.

If households are divided into three categories, I have the impression that the upper category households are the majority.

If there is no classification, excluding the less than 10,000 households of the government soldiers, the rest will be levied on a household basis, less than 290,000 hu at a time. The tax burden is actually very light, probably only about 30% to 1%.

"But someone mentioned that we now have a two-year three-crop system, which is different from the one-crop system in the Han and Wei dynasties. So it is suggested to lower the rent per mu of land, but collect it once more, that is, collect a summer tax after the summer grain harvest, and collect an autumn tax after the autumn grain harvest. The summer and autumn taxes can also be collected together." Chu Fei added: "But the king rejected it, thinking that the tax burden was too heavy."

Liu Mi nodded slightly.

"This is the land rent." Chu Pei said, "Each household is required to pay three bolts of silk and three catties of cotton. This is also the old system of the country. For those who pay cloth, one-fifth more and three catties of hemp are added. This is the new system."

Under the new system, some places were not able to produce silk, so they could be offset by various colored cloths, with the price being one-fifth higher. That is, the original three rolls of silk would become three rolls and 24 feet of cloth.

"There is also a labor service. Each household provides one male adult to perform 1.5 days of labor service each year. They can provide silk to pay for it, feet per day. If they provide feet ( pieces), they can be exempted from this labor service."

"In addition to the rent, labor service and taxes, there is also a land tax of two liters of grain per mu, which is used for charity granaries and relief."

After Chu Fei finished speaking, Liu Mi quickly did some mental calculations.

The annual tax expenditure for a common household was: six hu of grain, four and a half pieces of silk, and three catties of cotton.

There are also expenses besides taxes, which are actually the biggest expense.

For a family of five, if they eat frugally, they need more than 60 hu of grain a year. This is the minimum number after taking into account the large amount of wild vegetables, fruits and vegetables, and cow and sheep milk. In fact, it is not enough to eat enough. If you want to eat enough, add another 30 hu. Four liters of seeds are used per mu, so 20 hu of seeds are needed for mu.

Expenses for clothes, shoes, headscarves, etc. are a set every two or three years, averaging about one piece of cloth per year.

The average annual expenditure on village collective activities, such as community festivals, is two to three hu of grain.

The expenses for daily necessities can be considered as offset against the income from family farming and working as a domestic worker during the slack season.

All in all, a household spent at least 90-120 hu of grain, five and a half pieces of silk cloth, and three catties of cotton and linen every year.

So what about income?
Assuming there are fifty mu of land, the yield of millet and wheat is three hu per mu, and the yield of miscellaneous grains is one and a half hu per mu. Under the two-year three-crop system, about 188 hu of grain and beans can be harvested each year.

In a five-acre garden, half an acre is used as a residence, and four acres are planted with mulberry trees, which can produce three rolls of silk.

Three catties of cotton was not difficult to obtain, as it was all miscellaneous silk ends, but two and a half bolts of silk were still needed. If two mu of mulberry forest could produce one and a half bolts of silk, there was still three or four mu of land to go.

This is not difficult to solve, because only eight mulberry trees can be planted per acre of land, and that is because they cannot be too dense. However, mulberry trees can also be planted on small plots of land such as in the fields and around ponds.

If it really doesn't work, just use two more acres of land. In the acres of land where mulberry trees are planted, you can also plant beans, fruits, vegetables and the like under the mulberry trees, which can also be a source of income.

In addition, when King Liang first gathered refugees from drought and locust plague in Chen County, he gave each household 30 mu of land. Those families had at most two or three people, or even a single person, and 30 mu was barely enough. After all, there were few people and little tax was collected at that time.

Later, when the population increased, each household was given twice as much land, and the tax was only collected based on 50 acres. The extra ten acres were not taxed. As long as they could be used for cultivation, the harvest belonged to them. These ten acres of land could be used to plant mulberry trees and fruit trees.

Furthermore, nowadays the land is vast and the population is sparse, with a lot of wasteland. The income from family farming is actually not low. Liu Mi feels that it is too exaggerated to offset it with the expenses of daily necessities. In fact, there can be a lot of surplus.

What to do with the rest?
In fact, farmers have other expenses. For example, when their son grows up, they need to build a house, or when the house at home needs to be repaired, are these expenses?

For example, if you want to buy a working ox, assuming that a working ox can be used for ten years, even if it is spread out over each year, it will cost about one piece of silk.

For example, offering sacrifices to temples and Taoist temples, or occasionally eating meat, drinking alcohol, and playing, are all expenses.

Generally speaking, if there was no disaster, farmers could make a living and have a surplus of dozens of hu of grain and several pieces of silk every year.

In ancient times, farming for three years would result in one year of surplus. Now, farming for two years will result in one year of surplus.

But it is impossible to avoid disasters. A small disaster is also a disaster. Even if there is no complete harvest, a certain degree of reduction in production is very likely.

But anyway, life can go on.

Before the public wasteland beyond the sixty acres was divided up by the growing population, farmers could hold on and even live quite well unless there was a disaster so severe as to wipe out their crops.

Oh, yes, there was also corvee labor - there's no way to talk about that, especially during the war years.

Taxes are not actually a big burden for a family, but corvee labor is really harmful.

Thinking of this, Liu Mi sighed.

This is the main reason why many people oppose war.

The ministers and generals defeated the enemy and left a significant mark in the history books. People in later generations praised them highly because they did not have to bear the pain of the people of their time.

But including Liu Mi himself, they are people of the time.

"Lord Liu..." As he was sighing, the gate of the manor in front opened and members of the Yu family came out crying.

Liu Mi straightened his robe, stepped forward, and said angrily: "Tell me, what is this you have done? Hey, Lord Yu is..."

"My father died of anger and worry," someone cried.

"Oh!" Liu Mi sighed, not knowing what to say.

Guerrilla General Shao Shen and Left Army General Chang Can looked at each other and sighed, but the reasons for their sighing were very different from Liu Mi's.

The Yu family is so stupid!
If you had resisted to the end, we would have looked up to you and praised you as a hero. But why did you surrender halfway?
My brothers have come from far away, and they have no military achievements at all, so they can only share a little bit of the spoils.

"Pack some personal belongings and prepare to head north to Kelan." Liu Mi said with a serious expression.

According to the order received, the army surrendered and the offenders and their families were exiled to Kelan. The land was nationalized, and half of the surplus wealth was used to reward the soldiers and the other half was used as expenses for the county government.

The farmhands were counted clearly and organized into labor households, so that they could serve as government soldiers in the future.

The Yu family, which had been rooted in Jiyang for several generations, was completely ruined except for two officials working in the shogunate.

From this we can see that the Liang Kingdom’s land rule was iron-clad and merciless.

It is clear that only after the land has been surveyed can the new tax system be implemented.

(End of this chapter)