The upper part of July is full of autumn. Although the sun shines brightly, it also makes people feel chill. Cui Yu walked out of the imperial tent and couldn't help but squint his eyes. It took a while to get used to it, but his heart was as bleak as autumn. He sighed and walked out of the palace.

"Cui Zhongcheng, has the memorial been rejected again?" Buhumu walked face to face with him. He found that Cui Yu's eyes were separated and he didn't even see him. He hurriedly asked.

"Oh, where is Pingzhang?" Cui Yu felt as if he had come back to his soul at this time. He quickly bowed and smiled bitterly, "The Khan probably didn't see it, so how could he dismiss it?"

"I am going to meet the Khan. I have something important to report!" Bumu returned the favor and nodded.

"Ping Zhang Ru Wuhuo went to the room, so let's go later. The Khan was changing clothes and preparing to go out of the city to hunt. When he saw me asking, his face was unwilling, and a few words were sent out!" Cui Yu spread his hands and said helplessly.

"That's right, I'll go later, so as not to disturb the great interest of sweating!" Buhu Mu also knew Tiemur's temperament. He did not inherit the spirit of his ancestors, but learned the ability of his ancestors to ride and shoot. After arriving in Shangdu, he often went out to hunt and enjoyed it for many days, so he thought about it and didn't feel uncomfortable.

"What is important to Pingzhang? Can you tell me?" Cui Yu asked casually.

"It's not a secret matter. It's because Sui Ci, who was sent to the Southern Dynasty, was robbed by bandits in Shandong. The emperor of the Southern Dynasty sent envoys to issue a warning, threatening to send troops to Shandong to suppress bandits!" Wu said Mu Yan.

"Sui Ci was robbed by bandits. Is Shandong's public security deteriorated to this point? It's only known as brave and powerful. It's 20,000 soldiers under its command, but it's really damn!" Cui Yu said angrily after hearing this.

"In May this year, Yezanli and Chahan Timur were quarreling endlessly to control the canal. The bandits took the opportunity to grow stronger and could not be banned. Now that he was robbed, he was panicked, worried that the Southern Dynasties would really send troops into Shandong." Wu Muyan said.

"The Southern Dynasty has issued warnings repeatedly, but it only ignores the truth and only cares about fighting. Now he is afraid, so he has done something long ago. If the bandits first appeared and wiped out in time, how could they be overwhelmed and even dare to rob the court's annual gifts!" Cui Yu said angrily.

"Don't be excited, Shandong has always been a place where bandits are rampant, and it cannot be banned in all dynasties. In recent years, Shandong has become a place where our dynasty and the Southern Dynasties confront each other. People's hearts are fluctuating and natural disasters have been caused, resulting in food production. The hungry people wander around and have nowhere to settle down, and become bandits. As long as the court strictly cleans up, the refugees will be relieved soon!" Wu Mu comforted.

"This is by no means a long-term solution. Clearing out only treats symptoms but not root causes. Only by lightening taxes and expending taxes and resting with the people is the fundamental way." Cui Yu said again.

"We all know this truth, but the current situation is urgent. Although the turmoil in the northwest is quelled, the rebel kings are still ready to move and need the court to appease it. The emperor of the Southern Dynasty has been eyeing the Central Plains, so our dynasty has to hold heavy troops in Henan, Shandong to prepare for war, and defend the capital. The court is in financial difficulties, and the Khan is also in a dilemma!" Wuhu Mu explained.

"Now, the people of the Central Plains not only have to bear the taxes of the country, but also have to bear the offerings of the kings. Now they have to pay various miscellaneous taxes. The surplus of hard work is difficult to fill the rest of the year. When encountering disasters, they still have to pay taxes. The people can only sell their land, children and daughters, and their lives are unsustainable. The court is simply forcing good people to become thieves." Cui Yu refuted.

"Alas, we all talked with the Khan about clearing miscellaneous taxes and reducing taxes, and we also reported many times, but the Khan refused and they all died without a problem. What can we do?" Buhumu said with a gloomy face.

After Tiemur ascended the throne, the court quelled the rebel king in the northwest and slowed down with the Southern Dynasties. The important officials in the court submitted a memorial to reform the tax system, implement policies to reduce taxes and reduce taxes, and to rest with the people. However, they also knew that it was easy to say, but it was difficult to achieve immediate results when implemented. It took a long time to show the effect, so that the proposal was always discussed but not decided until the great knight turned a blind eye to the ear and ignored it.

"Yes, light taxes and taxes are the saying of the saints. Our ambitions have been implemented for thousands of years?" Cui Yu couldn't help but say depressedly.

He was a great Confucian scholar, and he had read the classics and history, and had been in the officialdom for many years. Of course, he was clear about the way of governing the country, the country's economy and people's livelihood, and the first priority was to pay financial taxes. The four words "light taxes and low taxes" came from "Book of Han: Emperor Zhao Ji", which means "the domestic waste is wasted, the household registration is reduced by half, and only the key to current affairs is known, the taxes and taxes are reduced, and the people can work in peace and contentment."

Moreover, since Mencius advocated that "the people are the most important, the country is the next, and the king is the least", dynasties have advocated the concept of "people-oriented" and pursued the policy of light taxes and low taxes. However, the ideals are full and the reality is very skinny. Although the tax ideas of all dynasties tend to light taxes and low taxes, they often go against the rules in the operation of the tax system. It can be said that they have been repeatedly changed and failed, and there were not many results. In the end, light taxes and low taxes became a paper policy, and the burden on the people is still quite heavy.

And what are "carai" and "ti"?

The so-called "联" means labor. These two words are often used in conjunction. Vehicle service is the free labor assigned by the government by the ancient civilians. Moreover, since the Zhou Dynasty, there has been a difference between taxes and service and duty.

Taxation and service are labor provided by people for certain matters within a certain period of time, such as opening canals, building cities, building palaces, building roads, embankments, and transporting military supplies, which are the so-called "forced service".

Office service refers to the rotation of rural main households to serve as public officials of prefectures and counties and grassroots rural organizations according to the level of households, which means that they assume free public office for local administrative agencies at all levels. It lasts longer than taxes and service.

Fu is tax, but the appearance of tax is earlier than tax. It was originally based on "tribute" including land tax. Gong means the obligation of dedication that the tribute payer must fulfill. Fu is the word "Fu" and originally refers to the collection of military chariots, horses, military and manpower. After the Warring States Period, taxes and taxes gradually mixed, and often refer to taxing land and used it as taxes.

According to literature records, the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties were all fixed quota tribute system, and the collection standard was the average of agricultural harvests in several years. Historians generally believed that the amount collected should be one tenth, which is the famous "tith tax". Later, the proportion of "one-shot ten miles" lasted for a long time. With the development of social economy, taxation and corvee were regarded as the basic method of levying the tribute, and tribute retreated to the secondary position, but it was not completely lost, which was still an obligation of the people.

By the Zhou Dynasty, the burden of corvee and taxes for the people gradually increased. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the rulers of various vassal states carried out large-scale construction, and were arrogant and extravagant. They implemented harsh policies at home and significantly increased taxes and labor service; they continued to conquer the people, causing the treasury to be empty, and harsh taxes followed, causing the people to suffer in great pain.

Lao Tzu believes that why the people are hungry? Because the rulers have "a lot of food taxes". The rulers donate too many miscellaneous taxes, and the people are unable to bear the pressure, so they are unable to engage in production and improve their lives, and they cannot have continuous wealth accumulation. The reason why the rulers have "a lot of food taxes" is that their life is extravagant. They talk about pomp, enjoyment, live in gorgeous palaces, build luxurious entertainment facilities, delicacies, and sings in the house, consume a lot of people's strength and wealth, and the people are suffering.

Therefore, to save the people from hunger and poverty, we must reduce taxes and taxes, reduce taxes and labor burdens, and allow the people to rest and recuperate. The fundamental focus of light taxes and taxes should be on controlling the state's fiscal expenditure, and the focus of reducing expenditures is on the ruler's control of his own desires, frugality with himself, kindness to the people, quietness and few desires, and rest with the people.

Among the various schools of thought, the Confucian call for "short taxes and constrains" has the greatest influence, and has become a financial dogma repeatedly promoted since the Qin and Han Dynasties. Confucius advocated that "a gentleman's behavior should be to treat etiquette, to give full play to the things, to take advantage of the matters, to follow the thinness." The country should establish large-scale engineering projects in moderation, not too many, and to suit the standards of etiquette, and to achieve "security and system, not harm money or the people."

For this reason, Confucius also scolded his student Ran for asking for help from Lu's Ji family to gather and plunder the people. He said: "It's not my disciple, but a boy can beat the drum and attack him." He publicly expressed his intention to destroy his relatives for justice.

Confucius hoped that the rulers could all be like in the early years of the Zhou Dynasty. The farmers would cultivate public land for the nobles, and the income from the public land would be given to the nobles, and merchants would be taxed based on their property and income. The corvee was counted by households, exempting the elderly and children from serving the service obligations, and taking care of widows, widows, orphans and sick people. Regarding the tax rate, Confucius advocated "constraining them to the poor". It would be best to restore the tithe rate.

Mencius started from his concept of "benevolent government" and "changed the land and reduced the taxes and expenditures, and the people could make the people rich." "The king did not have the countryside and did not seek benevolence, but sought to be rich, which was rich. He also advocated levy one-tenth of agricultural tax, and he also suggested "to go to the city to collect taxes", not to collect commercial taxes, but to levy agricultural tax alone.

Xunzi believed that in order to ensure the country's stability and unity, light taxes and taxes are an effective way. "Light taxes in the fields, levys in the city, and the number of merchants in the city, rarely promote strong labor and do not seize the farming season. If this is the case, the country will be rich. This is called using government to benefit the people." This shows that Xunzi also regarded light taxes and taxes as the purpose and means to open up wealth for the country and achieve a prosperous country.

However, the Mongol Yuan started out as a nomadic people, and their financial expenses mostly came from the contribution of plunder and conquering places. It was not until Kublai Khan inherited the Khan throne that he began to accept the sinicization. However, he did not establish a "normal" tax system, but instead used Semu people to manage their finances, so that the two systems could be paralleled.
Chapter completed!