Fight the Giants

  Not two days after the meeting of the chamber of commerce, many notices were posted outside the Yamen in Kuncheng.

   Encourage people to open up wasteland, exempt land tax for the first five years. At the same time, many measures were implemented to fill the population.

For example, young men and women require timely marriage; encourage multiple births, and provide rice and cloth subsidies to poor families who give birth; women are exempted from taxes during their childbearing years; couples with three or more children are exempted from wife taxes, and those with four or more children are exempted from handywork for their fathers. ; while protecting women and children, encourage widows, widows and lonely people to marry;

  For merchants, local miscellaneous taxes are exempted, and some goods are exempted from tariffs. Small vendors with annual sales of less than fifty taels are exempt from commercial tax.

  As soon as the notice was posted, there was a lot of discussion inside and outside the city.

  In the meeting hall, the officials and staff who heard about it for the first time kept asking the prince...

   "Allowing refugees to be naturalized on the spot, such as exile and transfer of citizenship, will indeed increase the local population, but in this way, the factors of instability will increase. Will it cause conflicts and destabilize the place?"

Mu Yan's voice was light, "The place is turbulent and unstable, which is caused by the inaction of various officials. Some exiles are not managed well, why bother to sit in that position? And naturalization is not allowed, so exiles do not exist? "

  Uh... What Shi Zi said seems to make sense.

Another official asked, "Will the birth subsidies for poor families increase the burden on government offices in various places? It also misleads the poor people, as long as they are born, they will be supported by the imperial court? , but live more, once it can’t be fed, it’s not beautiful to throw away.”

  Mu Yan raised his eyelids leisurely, "That's because the yamen's publicity is not effective. The notice only said to subsidize multiple births for poor families, did they mention helping them raise their children?"

  Uh...shut up, I can't say no to Shizi.

Another official asked: "Tariffs are originally retained by the local government. This reduction will greatly reduce the local fiscal and tax revenue. It will also completely exempt merchants from miscellaneous taxes. If the local government's taxes are insufficient next year, it may cause irreversible consequences. How should we report to the court?" explain?"

  Mu Yan turned to look at Duke Qian, "Didn't you tell them?"

say what? Duke Qian was stunned.

   Being stared at by Mu Yan, he quickly reacted. Seriously said: "Try it for a year, if there is any shortage, compare it with last year's tax, and the prince will make up for it."

  Added another sentence: "It will be made up by the prince's private account." Don't expect him to take out the treasury to help.

  Mu Yan withdrew her gaze lightly, and never thought about taking out the treasury of the Mu Mansion.

   All the officials and staff members in the hall looked at each other in blank dismay, and the prince's private account made up for it? They all opened their mouths wide, the prince is indeed rich and powerful! If it wasn't for the wrong occasion, they would all want to give Shizi a thumbs up.

   There are officials who understand money and food for a while, and the country has paid less than 30 million taels of tax every year these years. Among the thirteen provinces, Yunnan in the frontier is only a little bit better than Guizhou at the bottom, so it took the second-to-last place.

  How much tax did the province collect last year?

   Have one hundred thousand taels?

   Tsk tsk, one hundred thousand taels. Both the emperor and the Ministry of Finance looked down on this little money, and saved all of them with a wave of their hands. But even this little money is not enough to feed the 300,000 troops in Yunnan.

   One hundred thousand taels depends on the power of the eldest son's wife, and there is no burden to take it.

   It's just that letting them accept a provincial tax is not as good as Shizi's wife's business earns more in a month, so I feel a little bit sour and have a toothache. It seems that those who lead the imperial court have done nothing.

   "But my son, the province's tax collection is already low, not enough to cover military expenses. If we reduce the commercial tax collection, I'm afraid it will be even more difficult to meet."

   Can't let Shizi's wife fill in every year? Furthermore, if the trial is carried out this year and then the original state is restored next year, will it dissatisfy the merchants? If it causes turmoil, it will not be beautiful.

  Who doesn't look forward to a fixed life?

"The land of Yunnan wants to increase taxes, but relying on the collection of miscellaneous taxes is useless. We still have to increase income. The first priority is to increase the population and hoard land. When the old Hou Ye was alive, he hoarded more than 7 million mu of land. , increasing the number of acres by less than 20%!"

   One sentence made Qian Guogong and Mu Ang bow their heads.

Their old father, who took over the land of Dian, had nothing at that time, and hoarded more than seven million mu of land, but these unfilial descendants, standing on the great mountains and rivers reclaimed by the predecessors, after so many years, the amount of hoarded land is unexpectedly An increase of less than two percent.

   After being pointed out by Mu Yan, his face felt hot.

"Lao Hou Ye and Xian Hou Ye hoarded fields widely, built water conservancy projects, and vigorously developed grain cultivation, which not only solved the entire supply of the local garrison, but also increased the income of the army with surplus food. Nowadays, there are many shortages, and more than half of them have to rely on local government taxes. Subsidies, and reaching out to the court."

   Duke Qian lowered his head again.

  Mu Yan said again: "Nowadays, some guards implement double-crop grain planting, and winter wheat has been planted in the military fields. If there is a good harvest of winter wheat next spring, the whole army will immediately promote it to achieve food self-sufficiency."

   There were whispers in the hall, if the 300,000 army could achieve self-sufficiency, it would be much less constrained. They all nodded in agreement.

"In addition, the matter of filling the population requires everyone to work together and think of some good ideas. Those who are exiles should not only be encouraged to naturalize on the spot, but also strictly investigate the issue of counterfeit citizenship. If conditions permit, they are also encouraged to do so. naturalized."

  In order to show fairness in the imperial examination, the imperial court has different admission conditions. This has led to the flow of students from areas with developed education to remote areas, resulting in the phenomenon of false citizenship.

  Pretending to be from another province to take the imperial examination.

   During the Wu Dynasty, there were only five Jinshi in Yunnan in a hundred years. It was not until the ninth year of Yongkang in this dynasty that the provincial examination was implemented in Yunnan for the first time. And next door, Guizhou Province, which has the lowest taxes, students have to go to Yunnan for the provincial examination.

  In the southwestern borderlands, education is backward. According to Huo Xi's words, walking on the street and meeting a hundred people, ninety-five of them are illiterate.

  Education is backward, but the imperial court cannot always recruit students from areas with developed education in Nanzhili and other places, resulting in all officials from Jiangnan and other places in the officialdom.

  So the system of selecting officials by division and province was adopted, and each province had a fixed number of candidates. Therefore, in order to win the middle school, there are often students from other places in Yunnan who pretend to be nationals for scientific examinations.

  Provinces have different conditions for local naturalization of floating population.

  The richer the place, the stricter the restrictions. In addition to buying land and property locally, you also need to meet the time limit for how many years you have lived.

  But now that Yunnan wants to fill the population, as long as they buy land and property locally, they can be naturalized on the spot. Why do you need to live for 20 years? That is something that should be considered in the current Yunnan, where the annual tax is less than 100,000 taels of silver?

   Crowding the quota of local students?

  Mu Yan wanted to roll her eyes.

  The imperial court gave preferential treatment, and more places were given to Yunnan, but Yunnan was not up to par, and the quotas for each year were not enough. As far as Kuncheng is concerned, is there a decent academy? Is this the time to think about this?

   Strictly investigating the counterfeit citizenship is not to expel them, but to give them favorable conditions for naturalization, attract them to naturalization, let them buy land and property locally, let them prosper the local economy, and maybe also promote some academic atmosphere.

   As for other things, it should not be considered now.

  Mu Yan acted resolutely and easily persuaded a group of officials and staff.

   Huo Xi's side also started to move frequently.