When Zheng Yunjie and Ye Ju also came off the court, the foundation for the opposition's failure was truly laid.
One of the two is the gun in Emperor Jiacheng's hand, and the other is his confidant, which can be regarded as a side view of Emperor Jiacheng's attitude.
It is no longer ten years ago now, and perhaps Emperor Jiacheng still can't really speak a word in the court, but his majesty has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
When Emperor Jiacheng began to express his position, it was inevitable that some would hesitate.
If there is hesitation, there is an opportunity to take advantage of it. Taking advantage of this gap, the reformists rallied to attack it, and finally set a charter for trial implementation.
This is a compromise method, just like when Dinghai opened Fu, first choose a place to try it, so that even if there are omissions, there is no fear of harming the society.
On this day, how many people can't sleep at night, how many people drink and sing.
Some officials below even organized a celebration banquet and gathered them together.
Xue Tingxiang was naturally going to be there, but seeing how happy everyone was, he couldn't say that the battle had just begun.
In fact, it is really just the beginning. If it is said that the loss of coastal Kaifu is the interests of very few people, the increase of commercial tax is the loss of the interests of the wealthiest part of Dachang. Then, clearing the land and integrating taxes would infringe on the interests of tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of large and small landlords and local squires.
Dachang is a country of farming, and its foundation stone is the tens of thousands of peasants below. Since ancient times, the imperial power cannot go down to the county, and the county is only the clan and the gentry. The country gentry represented countless peasants and violated their interests and could provoke civil upheaval at any time.
Therefore, the most difficult thing is not that the imperial court issued the system, but the implementation and improvement of the system.
It's a pity that this time Xue Tingxiang couldn't take the lead and go deep into the local area, so he could only assign this matter, and he had other things to do.
Xue Tingxiang set the pilot in Kaifeng, Henan, under the rule of Zhang Sheng.
There are many considerations and concerns for choosing here.
The Henan area was first hit by drought, and a hundred wastes were waiting to be rebuilt, and Xue Tingxiang's disaster relief efforts made him quite famous in the local area. If he implements the New Deal, no matter whether it can be achieved or not, at least the local people will not hold any resistance.
And Zhang Sheng is a person who hates evil and hates evil, has a square heart, and is also a capable minister. Xue Tingxiang can rest assured that he will carry it out.
But there is still a lot of work to do before it can be implemented.
Before issuing the decree, Zhang Sheng recruited the magistrates of the counties under his control in advance, explained the new policies of the court and them in detail, and specially selected a county that he valued to focus on implementation.
Yangwu County was the place where this was implemented. The county magistrate, Sun Haiying, was an honest official and loved by the people. After receiving the order from Shangfeng, he sent his cronies to various townships and villages to advertise it and inform the people.
Although these things can be done locally, the local government is one of the squires. If they deliberately distort the government's decrees and cause panic among the people, it is time to cause chaos, and the New Deal will undoubtedly be stillborn.
Even so, there was still a lot of resistance. The people of the county government left on the front foot, and there were local squires on the back foot to confuse the public, saying that this time the Qingzhang land was due to the imperial court to increase taxes.
Farmers' taxes are already heavy. In addition to the head tax and land tax for each household, there are also various extortionate and miscellaneous taxes.
Especially in the early years, the imperial court issued decrees to show consideration for the common people and accept all grains of silver. Some local officials only allowed the common people to pay silver as taxes and not to receive grain in order to make profits.
In order to pay taxes, the people had no choice but to sell the grain for silver when they received it. But at the time of the annual harvest, which has always been the lowest time of grain prices in the whole year, there are grain merchants colluding with local officials to deliberately lower the grain price, and the common people will be exploited several layers for nothing.
At the end of the year, the food is not enough to pay taxes. Many people abandoned their farmland and became refugees, or they donated their own fields and lived under the squires and became tenants, so that they could survive.
Although the situation has improved a lot due to the change of county magistrates in the past two years, the lessons from the past are still vivid in my mind, and disasters have occurred in various places. Today, instead of tax exemptions, taxes have to be increased, and even the wasteland reclaimed by each family has to be counted.
You must know that there are almost no people in the countryside who do not cultivate a few acres of wasteland to subsidize their daily needs. Most of these fields are not good fields, and the output is very small, but even so, they can give farmers a place to breathe.
This kind of wasteland that does not have to pay taxes for a few acres of each family is an old practice in the countryside. It is now suddenly said that this kind of land also has to pay taxes.
In Daxi Village, Yangwu County, many villagers gather on the wheat field at the head of the village.
A man dressed as a peasant stood at the front, full of righteous indignation and said: "I can't live this day! Last year, there was a drought, and so many people died in various places. Only later did I hear people say that it is not the court that does not provide disaster relief, but the court that does disaster relief. The grain has been peeled off layer by layer by those corrupt officials, and when it falls into the hands of the common people, three meals a day are not enough. Now that the year of disaster has just passed, and every household has just had a harvest, the imperial court has made such a deal. I want our people to die!"
"Who knows if it is a government decree, maybe it was made by those corrupt officials, just to exploit our food."
"The autumn harvest is coming soon. At this time, the land of Qingzhang is obviously coming for the autumn grain. We can't let these corrupt officials rob us of our grain, and we can't let a family of wives, children and children starve to death!"
"Let's go to the county government to ask them for an explanation. If there is no answer, we will go to the government government to make trouble."
"Let's go, everyone!"
These men could not help but go home. After settling their wives, children, and children, they walked out of the house with hoes, shovels and other farm implements.
"Those yamen will beat people, we have to bring the guys, it's a big deal to fight with them!"
"It's a big deal to fight with them!"
These people gathered into a long dragon and walked out of the village.
Just then, a mule cart drove along the head of the village.
The carriage of this car is rather strange, it is lengthened, and there are grooves in the roof, which can be stacked on it. The carriages were painted with a few large characters, and the peasants were illiterate, so naturally they did not know what was written.
But they all knew this car, it was Wang Ji Caixing's car. I often go to the countryside to collect vegetables, chickens, eggs, meat, etc. from the farmhouse, and sometimes I also collect grain, and the prices are cheap, and everyone is an old friend.
Sure enough, the car stopped in front, and the driver greeted everyone.
"Wang Dashan, where are you going? Could it be that the village next door intercepted your water and went to fight with others?"
This is an old story and a joke.
"It's a big deal. It's easy to talk about it and discuss it. Everyone is a villager. If you don't look up, you can't look down. Why make such a fuss."
"Liu Xiaoge, you don't know, the imperial court wants to force us to die, the county said that we want to clear our land, and you are also from the nearby village, you know that every household must open up some wasteland to make up for the famine, and now the imperial court wants to clear our wasteland, which is equivalent to these You have to pay taxes on the land, and you can’t live this day.”
This guy surnamed Liu is indeed from the nearby village. Wang Ji Caixing has been taking the route that goes deep into the countryside. The guys in each township and county are all hired locals.
In particular, the guys who went to the countryside to collect vegetables were all villagers in the nearby villages. Because many places adhere to xenophobia, only the locals can get along with each other, so Mr. Liu knows the local customs very well.
Mr. Liu was full of surprise, and asked hesitantly, "Are you talking about the new policy implemented by the imperial court?"
"Why does Brother Liu know about this?"
Mr. Liu scratched his head and said with a smile: "If this is the case, I really know. The big boss of our Wangji Caixing is the wife of Mr. Xue who implemented this new policy. Knowing the suffering of the people, the big boss established a vegetable store to expand the livelihood of farmers in the countryside. Whichever family has unfinished vegetables, they can sell them for money through the vegetable store.
"And Mr. Xue was the imperial envoy who came to our Henan for disaster relief before. He felt the suffering of the people and spent a lot of effort to persuade the court to integrate the taxation, exempt the poll tax, clear the land, and pay the tax according to the land. In the future, everyone You don’t have to worry about paying the poll tax, how many children you want to have, how many grandchildren you want to have, how many grandchildren you want to have. This is a great thing, why are you—”
Speaking, Mr. Liu looked surprised, and some monks were puzzled.
The villagers looked at each other for a while, and someone asked, "Aren't we going to collect taxes from the wasteland?"
"I don't know this, I'm a commoner. I just listened to the steward above and said that this is an act that benefits the country and the people, and the people will be blessed in the future. Besides, you can judge, even if What are you afraid of when the land is cleared up? In the past, there was no tax on private land, but in addition to the poll tax, each family also has to pay the land tax, as well as some harsh and miscellaneous taxes. After the land is cleared, only the land tax will be paid. Pay less than before, not more."
In the crowd, some villagers asked the people around them: "The people from the county government announced the new policy before, who of you are listening there, and what did you say?"
"It is said that the poll tax will be exempted, but Li Goudan said that the imperial court is a trick to collect the tax on our own wasteland, saying that the poll tax will be exempted is all a lie to us."
"I also heard what Li Goudan said."
"Me too."
Mr. Liu interjected: "Who is this Li Goudan? Could it be the yamen in the county government office?"
"Li Goudan is a tenant of the big family of Zhao."
Since then, someone finally understood that he was being used as a gunman.
"You bunch of scumbags, what do you listen to what Li Goudan says?" In the crowd, an old peasant scolded angrily.
Mr. Liu said: "I don't know what's going on in your village, but this new policy is good for the common people, and it hurts the interests of those big households. Think about it, your family only has a few acres of land, but with a large population, how much tax do you have to pay? How much land and how many people do those big households have? I am an outsider, and it is not suitable for me to interject too much. I think it is best for you to find a few credible people and go to the county government to ask clearly. With your head and brain in your head, you go to the county office with a guy in your hand, and you go to the county office like you, you are despising the court and you will be put in jail."
After speaking, Mr. Liu left, obviously planning to not even accept the dishes this time. In fact, in this case, he couldn't accept the dishes even if he wanted to.
The group of villagers looked at each other in dismay, and someone suggested to go to Li Goudan to ask about it, and the villagers turned around and went to Li Goudan's house, just blocking him at home.
After a beating, Li Goudan told the truth. He was indeed instigated by Zhao Dahu to instigate the villagers to go to the county government office to make trouble, in order to obstruct the clear land in the county.
Not only in the village, but also in the county government where the big family of Zhao bought people.
When the villagers go, some people will deliberately cause trouble, provoking the villagers to attack the county government.
At that time, these villagers were killed and wounded, and they were imprisoned if they didn't die. When this matter caused widespread panic, the court's new policy could not go on.