Today they had organized countless registers, transcribed innumerable household registration names, calculated the data reported by each ward, and figured out the taxes each household needed to pay this summer. This way, during formal tax collection, they only needed to match names, fill in the taxes paid, and check them off.
The entire county yamen was busy with this. Fan Lianyin and Zu Daozhong, because of their good arithmetic scores and low seniority, were constantly being borrowed. In three days, Fan Lianyin had been borrowed by the education official of the rites department five times. Zu Daozhong was even worse. The people in the constable office generally weren’t good at arithmetic. Not only did he have to help the county captain, but various constable heads also patted his shoulder calling him brother, and then he would sacrifice himself for his brothers, working late into the night.
The two had been consuming too much mental energy recently and were somewhat dazed at the moment.
Zhao Mingming sympathetically glanced at them and said, “Every year when collecting taxes, the county yamen doesn’t have enough manpower. They also have to borrow outstanding students from schools, and able-bodied men from the county are also called up.” She lowered her eyes in thought, pondering. “In the end, it’s because what’s being paid is grain. Moving and verifying it requires a large number of people. After putting it in storage, it has to be taken out again and escorted to the capital. Here we have smooth routes to Luoyang. We can first go by water then by land, and return in two months. But places farther away like Jiangdong and Lingnan, escorting to the provincial inspector office and Luoyang requires a very long time and large numbers of corvée laborers.”
Escorting grain tax was composed of three parties: yamen guards, garrison soldiers, and corvée laborers called up from the people.
All had to provide their own provisions. Yamen guards and garrison soldiers also received travel allowances. Although it was hard, the loss wasn’t great. But corvée laborers were different. When they escorted grain tax, they also needed to bring considerable provisions. Going for two or three months not only consumed large amounts of grain but also delayed farm work at home.
Transporting grain was also troublesome. It feared water, feared fire, and had low value, so the weight and volume were very large.
Zhao Mingming said, “It would be good if we could simplify the tax system.”
Zu Daozhong asked dazedly, “How to simplify? Collect even less tax? Or have the court handle all the escorting?”
Fan Lianyin glanced at him disdainfully. “Fool. Wouldn’t court escorting also cost manpower and money? To simplify, just collect money.”
Zhao Mingming slapped her thigh. “Lianyin, my kindred spirit! I was thinking the same thing.”
Fan Lianyin grinned.
Zu Daozhong came to his senses, eyes widening. “That would require so much money! For the common people, it’s not a good thing, right?”
He frowned. “They’d have to first exchange grain for money. If in any year grain prices are low, wouldn’t they need a lot of money to gather enough for grain tax? Besides grain, there’s also cloth and other goods. Would these all also need to be exchanged for money?”
If so, there would be too many things to consider, overly complicated. For the common people, it probably wouldn’t be a good thing.
Zhao Mingming said, “Grain prices have always been under the court’s control. The silver the treasury spends every year to stabilize commodity prices and the granary is not spent in vain. If one day the court cannot control grain prices, then the country is not far from destruction.”
“Changing taxes from physical goods to silver has two purposes: one is to facilitate collection and accounting, and two is to facilitate transport,” Zhao Mingming said. “Every year the court reduces and exempts taxes and corvée. Mother, to benefit the people, exempts quite a bit of miscellaneous corvée every year. Even so, common people among the people still worry about regular corvée and ward corvée. Especially some families with only one adult male—once he’s called up for corvée, farm work at home will be delayed. In the long run, family circumstances become increasingly poor, and there are even cases of families going bankrupt and scattering.”
Yes, permanent estate land couldn’t be bought or sold, but if the only adult male was constantly called up for corvée and couldn’t work, leaving weak mothers and orphaned children unable to produce enough for taxes and survival, they could only abandon the land and flee.
This created new refugees.
Zhao Mingming was not a Crown Princess ignorant of people’s suffering. She had followed her mother from childhood and learned many things from her. Every year she also traveled incognito with her mother. There were various problems among the people.
The court had good policies, and those who formulated policies had good initial intentions, but implementation was another matter.
One person differed from another. Interpretations of policy, clashes between public interest and private interest—and private interests differed from each other.
So when a policy was implemented locally, various problems arose.
For example, corvée.
Corvée was divided into many types. Besides major corvée like building bridges, paving roads, and digging water conservancy projects, there were also miscellaneous corvées like carrying sedan chairs for the county yamen, night watch duty, and even sweeping floors. Previously, escorting grain tax was also listed under miscellaneous corvée.
Except for major corvée where the court set the number of people and the county yamen called up corvée laborers according to regulations, other miscellaneous corvées were assigned by village heads.
So village heads had considerable operational space.
Most village heads throughout the realm were fair. Even if they had selfish motives, they didn’t dare go too far. But one feared the “what if.”
With so many village heads in this world, there were always some who were bold and ruthless.
If they wanted to destroy someone, they just needed to constantly assign him miscellaneous corvée.
If a family with one able-bodied man spent most of the year freely carrying sedan chairs, keeping night watch, sweeping floors, and escorting grain tax for the county yamen, the family couldn’t last long before falling apart.
So in the seventh year of Yuanzhen, when the state treasury became increasingly wealthy, commerce among the people flourished, handicraft industry also developed vigorously, and local county yamens gradually had money, she ordered that escorting grain tax be moved out of miscellaneous corvée, designated as regular corvée, and then all other miscellaneous corvées be completely exempted.
That is to say, starting from the seventh year of Yuanzhen, common people throughout the realm no longer had miscellaneous corvées like carrying sedan chairs, night watch duty, and sweeping floors.
If the county yamen needed sedan chair carriers or night watchmen, they had to pay to hire people.
After that, the court also successively reduced some regular corvées, basically taking turns.
For example, if this year the court exempted Xuzhou from regular corvée, then Xuzhou’s bridge building, road paving, and a series of other matters would receive a sum of silver from the state treasury, letting them hire laborers to do these things—special funds for special purposes.
Next year it would be Yuzhou’s turn…
Rotating like this, exempting two or three provinces each year, so every few years each province’s common people could be exempted from regular corvée once. Each year there were also different degrees of corvée reduction, mainly reducing time.
Originally requiring twenty-one days of service, sometimes the court showed compassion and only required fifteen days of service.
As a result, escorting grain tax became the most difficult, most troublesome, and most time-consuming regular corvée each year.
Zhao Mingming’s thinking was the same as her mother’s. Having corvée laborers escort grain tax still cost too much of the common people’s manpower and financial resources. They needed to find a way to resolve this matter.
But she had thought for a long time. Besides changing grain tax to silver, which could greatly reduce the manpower for escorting taxes, she couldn’t think of any other better method.
However, she always felt this method wasn’t good enough either.
She gazed anxiously at the sky. After thinking for a long time without any ideas, looking at the bright stars in the sky, she seemed thoughtful. “Just because I can’t think of a solution doesn’t mean others can’t.”
Fan Lianyin asked, “Do you know who can think of one?”
“I don’t know, but I can search,” Zhao Mingming said. “There are so many talented people throughout the realm. I don’t believe no one can think of it.”
“I’ve decided. When I return to Luoyang, I’ll petition Mother. I want to personally oversee the national examination, set the questions myself. I don’t believe I can’t find people.” Zhao Mingming hummed. “Once I find the people, am I still worried about not finding methods?”
Fan Lianyin looked at Zhao Mingming with starry eyes. “Crown Princess, you’re amazing.”
Then she eagerly asked, “When will you return to oversee the national examination? Tell me in advance so I can take the provincial examination ahead of time.”
Zu Daozhong looked at her with shock. “You, you’re actually stealing the exam questions on the spot.”
Zhao Mingming glanced at the two of them and said, “I’ll issue an order that you two are not allowed to participate in the national examination at that time. If I’m overseeing the national examination, you should at least avoid suspicion, right?”
Zu Daozhong: …
He turned to glare at Fan Lianyin. It’s all your fault for being talkative. Couldn’t you make a fortune in silence?
Fan Lianyin was still fighting for it. “Your Highness, only relatives like parents and siblings should avoid suspicion, right? I’m just your study companion. The relationship isn’t that close.”
“Still no. I say no means no.”
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