Twelve, Cunning Entrapment

  It was already February of the seventh year of Tianqi (1627 AD), when spring had begun and winter had passed. It should have been a time of brisk cold and renewed vitality, but for the vast majority of poor commoners, this season was also extremely difficult to endure.

  Every year at this time, the government would collect "spring taxes" from the people. The "spring tax" here does not mean "writing a poem in spring", it's not that poetic or picturesque, nor is anyone in the mood to write poetry at this time, because the "spring tax" referred to here means spring taxation.

  Some friends who are not familiar with history think that the tax burden of the Ming Dynasty is very low. In fact, these friends are not wrong, because for merchants, the tax burden of the Ming Dynasty is indeed very low. For the scholar-official class, they are completely exempt from taxes, but for ordinary people, the tax burden of the Ming Dynasty is actually very heavy.

  The Ming dynasty collected taxes twice a year, once called the spring tax and once called the autumn tax. As the name suggests, the spring tax was collected in the spring, and the autumn tax was collected in the autumn. These two taxes were very heavy, causing many common people to become homeless and destitute. Especially from the 46th year of Wanli (1618 AD), due to insufficient military rations in Liaodong, additional taxes called "Liao Piao" were imposed (later increased several times, with an additional nine cents of silver per mu of land). This surtax was retained until the fall of the Ming dynasty and was not cancelled, causing the people to suffer greatly.

  Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the upper slope, watching a big yellow cow eating grass while also watching a villager living nearby walk into the Ma family's courtyard. This villager chose to visit the Ma family during the spring tax collection, actually with only one purpose - "to lodge and hide".

  So-called "guì jì" is to put one's own property under someone else's name.

  As mentioned earlier, the gentry class was exempt from taxes, while ordinary people had to pay heavy taxes. In this situation, some commoners who were struggling to make ends meet would go to the local gentry's home and say: "Please, sir, take me as your slave, I and my land will all belong to your family..."

  Then the old gentleman would definitely smile and say, "How dare you? You're welcome to come to my house, of course. Just come on over! I won't take your land away from you, you can keep farming it yourself, just pay me a little money each year."

  The field is still the same field, and the farmer who tills it is still the same farmer. However, in the official records, that piece of land no longer belongs to a single farmer but to a scholar-official. The farmer who tills it has become a long-term laborer for the scholar-official's household, so naturally this land no longer needs to pay taxes... Originally, the state should have collected taxes and tributes, but they were instead taken by local gentry, and the national treasury became increasingly depleted day by day.

  Of course, there are people who are willing to actively go and enslave themselves to others, and they are not few. However, in the entire peasant class, they still occupy a minority. The Chinese have a very strong sense of native place, and a piece of land is a farmer's lifeblood. Generally speaking, if one is not at the end of their rope, it is impossible for them to do something that would give up their family, life, and everything to others.

  According to Zhu Ba's memory, in the past, every year there were people who came to "dodge" to Ma's house, but only three or five families a year, not too many... This year is different, Zhu Yuanzhang sat on a small hillside and watched for a while, just half a day, three peasant households came to "dodge", if this trend continues, from the beginning of "spring tax" to the end, at least 30-40 families will "dodge" to Ma's house, becoming nominal long-term workers of Ma's family. Thirty or forty families represent over a hundred hectares of land, and the Ming dynasty's tax revenue will decrease by another hundred hectares.

  "Drought is indeed more severe." Zhu Yuanzhang sighed, "The number of people who evade taxes has increased, which means that the number of people who cannot afford to pay taxes has increased. This is undoubtedly an effect brought about by the great drought. However, this was not what worried Zhu Yuanzhang the most; he was worried about the problem of the system..."

  Floating in the sky for hundreds of years as a bystander, he has seen many malpractices of the Ming Dynasty, including the financial problems brought to the country by the tax exemption of the scholar-official class. This is a serious malpractice that must be solved, but even the brilliant and farsighted Zhu Yuanzhang felt that this problem was difficult to solve!

  Why? Because revising this imperial decree would be equivalent to making an enemy of the entire scholar-official class of the Ming dynasty!

  But... if this taxation issue is not resolved, the financial situation of the Ming dynasty will not be alleviated, and the country cannot be saved...

  "If I were to become the Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty now, how would I deal with all the scholars and officials in the world? Would I order them all to be killed like during the Hongwu era? No, that's definitely not possible! The situation during the Hongwu era was different from now. At that time, I had control over the powerful army and had high prestige, so I could manipulate the troops to kill anyone who disobeyed me. Now, even if I were to become Emperor, the entire country's military would not be able to follow my orders completely. The only consequence of opposing all the scholars and officials in the world would be that some general would lead a rebellion, and then the ministers would respond, leaving me isolated and helpless... After being killed by the rebel army, another new ruler would be established."

  Forget it, now thinking about this is too early, I'm just a cowherd boy from the Ma family, my status is too lowly, and I haven't found a way to save the Ming dynasty yet, thinking too much is useless anyway.

  Just as Zhu Yuanzhang was thinking about this, he suddenly heard several workers shouting loudly at the foot of a small hill: "Zhu Ba, hurry back, Qi Guan Shi is looking for you with something!"

  "Ah?" Zhu Yuanchang regained his spirits, pulled up the big yellow cow, and hurried back to the Ma family's side courtyard, heading straight for Qi Guan's small hut.

  Only in the small hut of Qi Guanshi, there were still quite a few people. In addition to Qi Guanshi himself, there was Yang Chao, and three middle-aged farmers, all over 40 years old, with weathered faces, rough hands and feet, honest and simple, unable to say a single clear sentence. Zhu Yuanzhang recognized these people at a glance, they were the villagers who came to Ma's house for "lodging" this morning. Although these three people looked honest, they might not be, if they were really honest and sincere, how could they come to "lodge"?

  "Get ready, let's go to the county government office together." Qi Guan Shi said to Zhu Yuanzhang: "I want to take these few people to the government office to handle some procedures, you and Yang Chao both come with me, help me out a bit."

  Zhu Yuanzhang was so clever that he understood everything after hearing just one sentence. Qi Guan Shi was planning to take these people to openly evade taxes. He glanced at the table and found three freshly written slave contracts, with identical content, stating that Zhang Moumou, Li Moumou, and Liu Moumou voluntarily sold themselves into slavery to the Ma family, donating their land and houses... At the back of the contract were several deeds and house deeds, all ready for transfer.

  Three honest farmers still carried their own household registration cards, which listed their hometown, number of people in the household, name, age, gender, house and land, cattle and other belongings... These things were very important, in the Ming Dynasty, you had to have a household registration card, otherwise you would be caught by the government and sent to the army after walking a few miles.

  This is the system created by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, and it's extremely familiar. Since these few peasants have already signed the contract to sell themselves, their household registration must be changed, but ordinary people are not qualified to change it themselves. If this thing can be changed by oneself, what's the point? To change this, you must go to the government office, where the scribe responsible for handling documents will make the changes, and after completing the changes, the official seal of the government office must be stamped on it.

  A surge of anger rose again in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart, these people were wantonly encroaching on the interests of the Great Ming Dynasty. If it were the previous life when he held great power, he would have already ordered to behead all these people, but now he could only endure, a flash of anger in his eyes was quickly suppressed by him and turned into a calm expression.

  Next to Yang Chao saw that he seemed to have a different look in his eyes, but after a careful look, nothing could be seen again. He must have misunderstood the meaning and thought that Zhu Ba was foolish, not knowing what had happened in front of him. He was eager to show off in front of Qi Guan Shi, suppress Zhu Ba, and quickly seized this opportunity to say: "Zhu Ba, do you know what we are going to the government office for?"

  Zhu Yuanzhang said in a low voice: "These few brothers want to enter our Ma family, and work with us for Qi Guan Shi. Of course, we should help them."

  Yang Chao suddenly burst out laughing and said loudly: "Zhu Ba, you little fool, you don't even understand 'gui ji'?" He turned his head around and smiled fawningly at Qi Guan Shi: "Qi Guan Shi, look at Zhu Ba, this little fool is so stupid, he doesn't understand anything, in the future he will definitely not do things well for you."

  As soon as the words fell, Qi Guan Shi slapped Yang Chao with a loud "slap", giving him a big ear slap: "You stupid killer, can you say 'plot' out loud? This kind of thing can only be done, not spoken, you fool, follow Zhu Ba and learn from him, he understands in his heart but doesn't speak, you fool, however, don't understand in your heart and still want to speak... I think you don't know how to handle things."

  Yang Chao covered his face and retreated two steps, with his poor intelligence, he really didn't understand why he was being beaten.

  Zhu Yuanzhang thought to himself: This guy is really not good material for being a follower. What kind of follower would loudly proclaim their own misdeeds? At times like these, even if you understand, you have to pretend you don't. Anyone who doesn't play dumb is a real fool!

  His face was calm, without revealing any mocking expression towards Yang Chao. He walked to the edge of the table by himself, gathered the house deed, land deed and sale contract on the table, carefully read them over, then helped Qi Guan Shi put them in his pocket. Without being ostentatious, without being showy, without speaking nonsense, he just did what was needed at hand.

  Qiguan Shi nodded and beckoned to the three honest villagers, saying: "Let's go, we have to be back before dark. Once we enter the yamen, don't speak randomly." He turned his head and glared at Yang Chao again, coldly saying: "If you also shout loudly with your big mouth in the yamen, I'll get someone to tear it apart when we return."

  "It's... small, I don't dare anymore." Yang Chao knew he had lost another point and hastily nodded and bowed.