Chapter 610 The whole incident

After investigation, Yang Hui, the censor Zhongcheng, reported the whole incident to Zhao Xu.

First, hundreds of people from Dongming County went to Kaifeng Prefecture to complain, pointing out that the local officials unreasonably promoted peasant households in the process of implementing the draft exemption law, which was very unreasonable.

However, Kaifeng Prefecture did not accept the case.

The angry crowd forced their way into Wang Anshi's home, but Wang Anshi was calm and received them, saying that the Prime Minister's Office did not know that there was such a thing as raising households during the implementation of the new law.

The common people went to the Yushitai to complain again, and the Yushitai said that this was not their responsibility, but they would investigate the officials afterwards.

The people of Dongming County had no one to accept their petitions, and finally left Kaifeng.

Wang Anshi reported to Zhao Xu that Jia Fan, the magistrate of Dongming County, was Fan Zhongyan's son-in-law. He did not try his best to implement the exemption law and made the people not understand that the new law was good for them, which led to the petition incident.

So Zhao Xu ordered an investigation into the complaints filed by people in Dongming County.

Zhao Ziji was imprisoned in Kaifeng Prefecture. He resented Jia Fan for allowing the common people to complain to the capital, and fabricated some charges to impeach Jia Fan.

Yang Hui, the censor Zhongcheng, clearly pointed out that Zhao Ziji did this entirely to cater to Prime Minister Wang Anshi.

The root of the problem is not that people petition, but that we should find out whether Dongming County has raised household levels, what is the purpose of raising household levels, and whether there are any drawbacks to the exemption law.

After investigation, it is indeed true.

The original intention of the exemption law is to equalize service. In the final analysis, those who have money should contribute money and those who have strength should contribute their efforts.

However, the basis of the exemption law is that local governments must have money. The new law is very clear about this amount. People must pay it. In addition to the exemption money, there is also leftover money.

The free money is to meet the needs of local service, and the remaining money is to prepare for possible unplanned service.

As it has been implemented so far, it has become that those who contribute money must contribute money, and those who contribute money must also contribute money.

Basically everywhere, fourth and fifth class households have to pay tax exemption money, which is obviously a disguised tax increase.

So Zhao Xu personally gave instructions: Zhao Ziji's report was unreasonable, so he only punished Jia and Fan for not obeying the law and arbitrarily promoting farmers and other crimes. All other crimes were exempted from prosecution to show justice.

However, the Dongming County residents’ appeal triggered a major debate over the exemption law.

Yang Hui followed up with the impeachment of Zeng Bu and Deng Wan of Sinong Temple: "The root cause of the incident is that Sinong Temple did not collect the exemption money according to the household levels already determined by the counties.

I ordered the governor to acknowledge it, not to make any books, and to request that it be completed before the start of farming."

"In matters such as household registration, people's property should be considered based on their wealth, but this is the truth."

"Sinong Temple draws a number first and orders the county to set a book according to the number. If the amount is too high, all localities can only pay the amount to households to complete the quota collection."

"This is the essence of the matter. The judges of Sinong Temple are Deng Wan and Zeng Bu. One is to know the miscellaneous and the other is to correct the situation. Who dares to say anything other than what I have said!"

Liu Zhi, the newly-appointed supervisory censor, wrote: "Since the discussion of the young shoots, the world has begun to have doubts about the gathering. The discussion of the young shoots has not ended, but everyone has lost the law; everyone has lost the law, but the side has conspired.

move; the disaster in the border areas has not yet ended, but the campaign in Hebei is carried out; the harm in Hebei has not been eliminated, but the campaign to assist the army is in progress."

"When discussing money, all the butchers and traders in the market will be summoned to the political hall; when collecting profits, they will be sent down to the calendar day and the officials will take charge of it."

"If you push this aside, don't study it. If you use a famous instrument lightly, you will confuse whether it is a good person or not."

"Those who are loyal, honest, and experienced will be rejected as incompetent; those who are chivalrous and petty and arrogant will be regarded as incompetent;"

"Those who uphold the law and care about the country are called vulgarities; those who fail often harm the people are called Tongbian."

"Whenever the government plans to draw up a proposal, it will be settled with a group of subordinates alone, and then the pen will be written. The same people will hear the news first, but they will come later;"

"Therefore, the gates of those who run around begging are like markets."

"Today, money from Western Xia has not been received, the troops on the opposite side are not at peace, the three sides are devastated, and the flow is uncertain. There is a severe drought in Hebei, and there are floods on all roads. The people are short of labor and wealth, and the county magistrates are losing money."

"When your Majesty is concerned about governance, but political affairs are like this, all the ministers misunderstand Your Majesty, and the ministers use the ones they use to mislead the ministers!"

This is simply a dagger thrown at the new party.

Wang Anshi was so angry that his hands and feet were cold, and he instructed Zhang Hong, the admonisher of the imperial court, to refute him! Refute him fiercely!

Zhang Hong said I was sorry, but I think what he said was reasonable, "Hong said it was wrong."

The judge Sinong Temple once asked him to do it, and he not only wrote "Ten Difficulties", but also impeached Yang Hui, and Liu Zhi deceived him and turned against him.

Zhao Xu issued an edict and handed it over to the two of them. You guys should take a good look at it and analyze the pros and cons. After studying it, give me a piece of your experience! "Let everyone analyze it and listen to it."

Liu Zhi was so happy that he was afraid that you wouldn't let me speak. He Fenran said: "As a minister, how can I be suppressed by power and make the emperor unaware of the true interests and harms?"

Even if the article explains something that is difficult to explain, he will also throw out ten theories on the law of exemption from military service, and the article will be whipped to the bone.

First, household registration in the Song Dynasty was divided into five levels according to the level of assets. However, the situation in different parts of the country was very different, the severity of corvee service was also different, and the proportion of households in different regions was also quite different. It was obviously unfeasible for the state to formulate unified policies on service law;

Secondly, due to the misrepresentation of households in various places, the new law is implemented and the property of each household must be re-registered to determine the amount of labor money; but since the misrepresentation has occurred before, can it be avoided by re-registering now? Obviously there is no specific

Measures, still can’t be done;

Third, there were fewer upper-class households and more lower-class households in the household registrations of this dynasty. According to the original regulations, the corvee burden was heavy on the upper-class households and light on the lower-class households. The new law stipulated that all households should pay the service money, and it was easy for the upper-class households to pay it, but

Most of the lower-class households are very poor, which obviously increases their burden and is extremely disadvantageous to the lower-class households;

Fourth, in order to collect more labor money, the new labor exemption law has a higher ratio than the old law. The local government has to forcibly upgrade some lower-class households to upper-class households. This cannot but be a heavy disaster for the lower-class households.

;

Fifth, the harvest of farmers every year depends entirely on the sky, but the number of people serving as corvees is fixed. If you want to hire people, you must have money.

In bad harvest years, the service payment can neither be postponed nor exempted, which is very harmful to farmers, especially farmers in famine years;

Sixth, most of the farmers' annual income comes from agricultural products or silk, but the aid money is required to be paid in cash. Farmers must sell their agricultural products before they can pay the cash. The term of the aid money is short, and the price of agricultural products must be significantly reduced before they can be sold.

Even if the labor money can be replaced by agricultural products, there will still be a phenomenon of excessive levies and multiple payments in places;

Seventh, the numerous excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes imposed by our country, such as the two taxes and the Kemai tax, have already overwhelmed the peasants. Even in a normal harvest year, the common people have very little left after paying rent.

After the implementation of the labor exemption law, farmers will have to pay labor service fees, which will inevitably cause farmers to flee or become customers, etc., or even take risks and gather together to become thieves;

Eighth, some cunning people can take advantage of legal loopholes, collude with local officials, and shift the burden of corvee to others;

Ninth, common people are often sent to serve the country by states and counties. Although the burden of service is heavy for the upper-class households, they can only serve once every ten years at the fastest, and for the lower-class households, they can even serve once every twenty years.

The exemption law requires these people to pay money and collect it every year. The government is responsible for recruiting servicemen.

If there is too little money provided, services cannot be carried out, and if there are too many levies, the people cannot bear it. So, will local officials care about their own political achievements first, or will they care about the lives of the people first?

Tenth, those who used to serve as corvees were farmers. They often had their own property, so they could serve with all their heart and soul. Now that people are hired to serve as corvees, it must be some cunning people who apply.

Can these people serve the country wholeheartedly? How to avoid stealing national property, fooling bureaucrats, and causing huge losses to the country?

Finally, he satirized Zhao Xu: "I was originally a royal censor, and it was my official duty to collect opinions from the scholars and the people. But now His Majesty wants me to be punished, and even asks me to analyze the pros and cons. This is not within the scope of my profession."

"But since His Majesty has said so, I will simply analyze and analyze it. It will not be an insult to His Majesty's ears and eyes!"
Chapter completed!