Twenty miles outside Jiangling City, Yuwen, dressed in a common-style market, was buying fish. Of course, he was actually chatting with the village girl who sells fish by locals as "communications". He was not having bad ideas, but was conducting a "rural investigation".

The troops stationed outside Jiangling City for nearly twenty days were to avoid the Sui army from killing the rebellion. Yuwen Wen, who was idle, could not go to the city to have fun, so he took advantage of the rare opportunity to collect information.

Collecting intelligence is naturally based on asking questions. Asking the officials of Liang State is self-inflicted. From ancient times to the present, officials' skills of deceivers and concealing subordinates have been full, so Yuwen Wen wanted to "go private visits in a private manner".

During this period, he went out casually for a trip, including fields, neighborhood alleys, cities in the city, and grass markets where farmers outside the city gathered spontaneously. When various problems gathered together, he probably thought about it.

Today, the Liang Kingdom is just a slim country, but various systems follow the Liang Kingdom of the Southern Dynasty. The tax and service system is also in line with the Southern Dynasty, which allows him to understand the living conditions of the people of the Chen Kingdom from the Southern Dynasty from the perspective of the situation.

Speaking of the tax system, this has been passed down from the Wei and Jin Dynasties and has lasted for hundreds of years. Of course, it has also undergone improvements, but it has never been separated from its sect: the various immunities of the gentry and bureaucrats are all over the head of the people.

Of course, this matter is like that between the north and the south, but it is nothing more than the severity of the severity of the Southern Dynasties. What is more tragic is that because of the great military pressure and the population is smaller than that of the Northern Dynasties, the burden on the people is not light.

Taxes and labor service are divided into land rent and household quarantine. Taking land rent as an example, the system of Liang and Chen State today follows the tradition of the Southern Dynasty. Not only does it collect physical goods, one-third or even half of them are converted into copper coins.

Yuwen Wen has heard Zhang Hua say about this issue in Jiankang, and he will not mention it. He is concerned about household registration.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang, the household transfer in the Southern Dynasty was reformed. The collection of the household transfer was changed from household transfer to Ding units. In fact, the household transfer had been changed to Ding units.

What is Ding? Men and women over 16 to 60 years old are Ding, among which 18 married women are Ding, and those who are not married are Ding.

Why change it? Because when adjusting the households with collection, the government must investigate the situation of each household, and then divide it into nine grades according to the principle of "nine ranks are the same".

The households paid by "upper" are naturally more transferable, with each household paying five pieces of silk, while the household paying the least silk, and each household paying one piece of silk.

Then under the circumstances of the administration of officials, all households with large families were low, all households with poor people were high, and all households with black and white were inverted.

Therefore, in the Xiaoliang period, the household registration was changed to the tax collection. This practice seemed to reduce the burden on farmers more than the tax collection by household registration, but in fact it was not the case at all.

What's the problem?

The landlords have many lands and many slaves, but these are all hidden households. There is a population that does not exist in the household registration of the government. When the large households buy officials, their own households still calculate Dingkou according to the "two olds, two bigs and one small".

The rich family has thousands of acres of fertile land, but there are five households in a household, while the poor family has a few acres of thin land, and there are five households in a household. In fact, the household transfer (district transfer) paid by poor farmers is similar to the amount paid by wealthy landlords.

This is true in the Liang Kingdom today, and so is the Chen Kingdom in Jiangnan.

Then there are a variety of miscellaneous taxes and miscellaneous adjustments, such as money for borrowing grain seeds, tax on ponds, city repair money, money for sending money for county and county sending, etc.

In the famine and the weather is not accepted, the government opened warehouses to provide disaster relief in name, but in fact it was borrowing loans, and the same was true for grain seeds. At that time, the people not only had to return them all, but also had to add a certain interest, which was the money for the grain seeds.

Speaking of the interest on the money for the loan of grain seeds...haha.

The so-called Tang Ding Tax is when farmers spontaneously build some small water conservancy projects, the court collects taxes, which is called "management fees". However, there is no management after collecting money, and the farmers have to do it themselves in daily maintenance.

The cost of city repair is also spread to the people, called city repair money, which is actually the first extortion of a new official when he takes office. If local officials want to leave office, they need to "send the old" and then the new official takes office, they need to "welcome the new", and all the money is paid by the people.

Then there is also military recruitment money, which is a temporary levy. The amount is determined by the expenses. It is said to be borrowed from the people, but in fact it is borrowed but not returned. When there is no war on weekdays, at most, the "bandit suppression" requires recruitment, but once the name becomes the "Northern Expedition"?

Is this different from the Liao sacrifice in the late Ming Dynasty?

Yuwen Wen walked into the city with a few fish, thinking about the information he collected while walking. The Liang Kingdom, which was so vicious, would be even worse for Chen Kingdom. If it were to retreat to the south of the Yangtze River in the past, but now something will happen to "explode the Central Plains in the North".

In order to protect Liaodong, the Ming court collected Liao pay, but most of them were drifted by officials and swallowed by Liaodong generals. There was no effect at all, and instead forced anti-peasants.

In order to preserve Huainan, Chen State now levies various miscellaneous taxes and imposes on duty and military service in the face of the government. Under the ruling situation, the side effects will be exponentially amplified.

According to the information collected from Jiankang before, the lives of the people of Chen State became increasingly difficult in two years. Although there was no civil rebellion in the Chen State during this period in history, the Chen State at that time did not have the burden of Huainan's ulcer.

In addition, his promotion of cheap water-woven fabrics to Jiangnan will probably worsen the situation a lot.

The wealthy families of Chen State occupied the mountains and protected the marsh, and there were countless hidden households under their name, but they basically did not have to pay taxes or rents. As the tax base of the court, there were fewer and fewer self-cultivated farmers, but more and more taxes, hard labor and military service were overwhelming these people.

The people are almost destroyed. Your family is about to break out. You still want to do something when the fire breaks out? Who is afraid of whom!

......

In the evening, Wuxing County, Wuzhou, Chen State, Wukang.

In a village, smoke was rising from cooking fires. Wu Dou hid in the grass and watched quietly as the situation in the village.

He took the risk of escaping from Huainan to escape with his family and defected to a large family to be a tenant farmer. Although the treatment was not much better, it was better than staying here and waiting to die.

The official army wanted to defend Huainan and recruit the people to serve and serve military service. Wu Dou was conscripted more than a year ago to build a city in Huainan. Finally, the city wall was repaired, but he was conscripted to serve military service.

Wu Dou was with him in the same village and his fellow villagers who were dying and fleeing. He was afraid of implicating his parents, wife and children at home, so he kept "serving" honestly, but seeing that he had no hope of going home for more than a year, he couldn't sit still.

As the only strong labor force in the family, what should I do if I stay at home all year round? My parents are old and weak, and my wife has to take care of the young and the old, and she has to do farm work to support the family. Is this possible?

Definitely not possible!

So Wu Dou gritted his teeth and took advantage of the dark moon and wind, and went south and returned to Jiangnan for a long time. He met a fellow villager in Jiankang, who also went to Huainan with him, and later ran away privately.

After asking, I found out that the man took Jia Xiaozhao to a wealthy family as a tenant farmer. In view of his fellow villager's sake, he agreed to introduce him to him. After asking for the address, Wu Douxing went south at night and waited to go home tonight, and ran away with his parents, wife and children.

It was a violation of the law of the king when he was serving, and Wu Dou did not dare to enter the village during the day. After all, he would be in charge of this matter, because he was afraid that his neighbors would be caught and went to see the officials, so he could only wait in the grass beside the village.

But after waiting, he felt something was wrong because there was no smoke coming out of his yard.

What's going on? Is there nothing to cook?

Wu Dou touched the two pancakes in his arms. This was stolen by him at the pancake stall on Zhoucheng Street. He only ate one of them all the way back, and the remaining two were left for his family.

Thinking that something might happen at home, he could no longer wait and touched his own courtyard regardless of everything.

I haven't seen my family for more than a year and don't know what the situation is now. Wu Dou, who was a little anxious, tiptoed to his dilapidated courtyard and climbed into the wall.

The yard was bleak, the room was dark and there was no trace of people there. Wu Dou pushed open the door anxiously, and saw that the bedding on the couch had already been covered with dust.

"Where are people, what about people..."

Wu Dou's family had no relatives elsewhere, and their parents could not move elsewhere. He felt that his uneasiness was getting bigger and bigger, and he kept flipping around in his own yard.

The kitchen seems to have not made a fire for a long time. The broken bowls used for meals are dusty, and the few worn clothes are also covered in dust. The whole house looks like it has been ruined for a long time.

"You are...A Dou?"

A sound came from the door. Wu Dou turned around and saw that it was Cheng Er next door, who was considered a playmate who grew up. Because he broke his legs with the army several years ago, he escaped the misfortune of being confiscated, but he still couldn't escape the money for exemption.

"A Er! Where is my mother! Where is my wife! Where is my son!"

"No! Don't be so loud! You're not afraid of being heard!"

Wu Dou pulled Cheng Er into the room and tried to lower his voice and asked, "What's wrong with my family? Where have people been?"

"Why are you back now!" Cheng Er stood on a crutch and felt heartbroken: "Why are you back now..."

"Say it! Where are they!!"

Wu Dou roared, and from the other party's expression, he saw ominous signs.

"Your family...ah..."

Cheng Er told the cruel fact: Wu Dou was recruited for more than a year, and the elderly, weak, women and children at home could only support themselves. In spring, they borrowed money to buy seeds. The old man and his wife pulled the plow, and the old woman carried the plow on her back with her grandson. She finally plowed the land and sowed the seeds. In summer, a heavy rainstorm that lasted for several days ruined everything.

There was a bad harvest in autumn, and when the creditor came to collect debts, there was no harvest to pay back. The land was rented and could not be mortgaged, and all the valuable items in the house were taken away.

It was raining all night long. Wu Dou's son fell ill. He died in Wu Dou's wife's arms because he had no money to treat her. The wife couldn't stand the stimulation and hanged herself, leaving behind the two old people crying without tears.

Wu Dou never came back or had no news. The two old men didn't believe that their son was dead, so they worked hard, but as they ended, there was no movement.

"We didn't see two old people coming out the first day, and we didn't notice it yet. On the morning of the next day, I felt something was wrong, so I came in and took a look..."

Speaking of this, Cheng Er burst into tears: "The two old people have starved to death..."

"I... I don't have enough food at home, but if I know this, I have to give it to the two old people...Adou, I'm sorry to you..."

Wu Dou was stunned when he heard this, and it took him a long time to come to his senses. He helped Cheng Er, who was kneeling on the ground, and asked, "Where are the people? Where are they?"

"Everyone helps to bury your parents, daughter-in-law and son together, and in the cemetery at the entrance of the village, twenty steps east of the crooked tree."

"I don't have money to buy a coffin, so I can only wrap it with the broken mat in your home..."

Before Cheng Er finished speaking, Wu Dou rushed out of the door like a madman and ran towards the village cemetery. The voice, appearance and smile of his family came to his mind. He fantasized about the scene when he returned home countless times, but never thought it would be like this.

It’s gone, the son is gone, the wife is gone, the mother is gone, the family is gone, all are gone!

A moment later, a shrill cry came from the direction of the village head. The villagers heard the noise just now. Everyone knew that it was Wu Dou who fled back, but no one had the courage to report to the official.

One person fled, three households were in charge, and Wu Dou was conscripted and his family was destroyed. If the officials reported that he fled, the clerks would use it to recruit more people to serve, which was called "shocking the young."

No, there is no need to report to the official. Once Huainan finds that Wu Dou flees, the government will immediately send people to the public and draw people from the three households to serve and serve in the military service. At that time, the experience of Wu Dou's family will repeat itself in these three families.
Chapter completed!