By the time we attacked the southern and western Fanshe villages in the Taipei Basin, we either wet our pants or wanted to escape, or the 500 new recruits whose brains were blank had basically adapted to the battlefield atmosphere.
The last two villages did not use the help of Malin's veterans. The newly trained recruits rushed forward with rattan cards and wooden sticks wrapped in cloth strips and started fighting with the indigenous men.
Of course, not everyone can adapt. After observation, Marin found that nearly a hundred new recruits were always a little timid and could not adapt to the atmosphere of the battlefield. Although their comrades were in charge, they had no problems. But if they really encountered hard battles, something big would definitely happen.
This is a core shortcoming of the ancient conscription system, that is, some people are naturally timid and are not suitable for joining the army...
Being a soldier requires passion and courage. You cannot be timid when you encounter danger. But there are people in this world who are born to be timid. Even if you insult his wife and daughter in front of him, he will not have the courage to resist. Such a person cannot stand up to the wall. Even if you give him weapons, he can throw away the weapons and run away in fear. No matter how many military sticks you play, it will not be able to stimulate his blood. Because he is born to be ignorant of this thing.
Therefore, the army of arresting people who "don't let go of a strong man" has great hidden dangers. If they fight with the wind, the problems of these cowards will not be exposed. Once they fight against the wind, these people who are born without passion will decisively put down their weapons and run for life. Even if they know that escaping will die, they just can't help but run away.
Once these naturally cowardly people take the lead in putting down their weapons and escaping, it is easy to cause a chain reaction and lead to the defeat of the army. Therefore, although the scale of the ancient Chinese army was very large, it affected its combat effectiveness because it forced too many cowards. Such an army would either win or lose. The source of the great defeat is often those naturally timid people take the lead in putting down their weapons and escaping, which leads to the collapse of the army...
Therefore, if you want to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army, you must eliminate those who are naturally timid. In this way, you will not collapse at critical moments.
After completing the occupation of the Taipei Basin, Malin reorganized the army. The hundreds of naturally timid people were listed separately by Malin and formed a civilian team, mainly responsible for transporting and replenishing supplies for the army. The other 400 people were organized into formal troops.
...
As for the more than 6,000 indigenous people in the dozen Fanshe villages captured alive by Malin in the Taipei Basin, they were all broken up by Malin. They were rewarded with the 100 soldiers of the Beihai Kingdom brought to Kong Tai and Kong Tai, as well as the newly recruited Han soldiers, as well as the Zhang Cai family, as the serfs under their family. Kong Tai, Zhang Cai, and those soldiers were called the first group of landlords with serfs on the Dongfan Island.
However, these landlords are different from those in European estate owners. Because Marin stipulated that even senior officials like Kong Tai and Zhang Cai had to pay 10% of the harvest every year as tax.
In addition, all the people who own land on Dongfan Island must pay another 10% of the harvest as construction tax. What is construction tax? It is the cost of building infrastructure such as roads and reservoirs. As for the initial 10% of the tax, it is used to pay the government's expenses and military expenses. The construction tax is mainly used for infrastructure construction, and the government cannot misappropriately. Of course, the families of officials and active-duty soldiers can be exempted from construction tax, but the basic tax must be paid.
In addition, if there is a war, a 10% war tax can be temporarily added to subsidize huge military expenditures. However, without war, this tax is not allowed. Moreover, Marin clearly stipulates in the general outline of the Dongfan Island Law that more than 30% of taxes are never allowed, even during war periods. Once the line is crossed, the law will be taken immediately. At the same time, it is strictly forbidden for the government to extort the people. Once discovered, it will be expelled immediately.
...
In fact, the average people required to pay 20% of their income as taxes, which was relatively high in this era. For example, in the Ming Dynasty, the land tax was only 30 yuan, which means that only one thirty yuan of grain was paid as land taxes. It seems that the tax rate is very low. This is also an important reason for the low fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty.
But in fact, land tax was only one of the taxes borne by farmers in the Ming Dynasty. In addition to land tax, there was also a cap tax, which was not really abolished until the Yongzheng period. In addition, there were various corvee levies. Even some tax officials and yamen runners who were responsible for collecting taxes would commit fraudulent titles and unauthorized taxes. Then, these tax levies were all embezzled.
Therefore, the people of the Ming Dynasty had a very low tax on the surface, but in fact, the people were burdened with heavy burdens by the people below. Most of the gains had to be paid for taxes and various additional taxes and scattered levies.
However, the Ming Dynasty implemented a stupid system of "officials do not go to the countryside" and county officials just sat in the county town. When they went to the countryside to collect taxes, they were all tax collectors and local local village masters. These people colluded to bully and extort the people, and the officials had no idea. Or, some simply joined forces and shared the spoils together.
Marin obviously would not make such a mistake. He directly implemented the policy of "spending acres to acres" on Dongfan Island, spreading all taxes to the fields, and abolishing the captive tax. At the same time, he strictly stipulated three types of taxes and publicly declared that except for these three types of taxes, no other taxes exist. If a tax collector levies taxes that exceed these three types of taxes, report them directly...
...
Zhang Cai, a sophisticated official, highly praised the fixed tax rate practice of Marin, because this tax rate seems very high on the surface, but in fact, farmers pay up to 30% of the tax, but retain more than 70% of the income. With the yield per mu in the Ming Dynasty, more than 70% of the harvest will be retained, and farmers will definitely be able to live a good life.
In addition, this tax policy was also welcomed by Ming Dynasty immigrants.
These Ming immigrants who became landless refugees are actually victims of heavy taxes. If they had not encountered heavy taxes, they would not have gone bankrupt or even sold their land.
Marin clearly stipulates that no tax increase is allowed to exceed 30% of the harvest, which is equivalent to retaining at least 70% of their income. With 70% of the land income, anyone can live a prosperous life. Only those who have experienced heavy taxes will understand the happiness of not having heavy taxes.
...
In order to prevent officials from hiding disobedience, Malin even ordered a report mailbox to be set up at the county government office. The masses could send a report letter into the mailbox without coming forward, mainly to prevent tax collectors from raising taxes privately.
In addition, Malin ordered that if someone sued tax collectors for random tax collection, the government would not be allowed to kill the powerful stick (in ancient times, people beat the official first and then talk about it, which was called killing the powerful stick, so that the common people could find fault with the officials), so as to facilitate the people to report illegal taxation issues.
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Chapter completed!