"Your Majesty has questions, but you can tell them directly and I will do my best to answer them."

Sima Yu nodded slightly and said, "How many households do you think there are in this world?"

How many households?

Wang Sheng was stunned for a moment, but he immediately said: "In the first year of Taikang, there were 2.45 million households and 16,163,860 people in the country. In the third year of Taikang, there were 3.77 million households and about 24,768,900 people. There is no calculation now, and I don't know how many people there are, but

After decades of peace in the world, I estimate that there should be four to five million households."

Sima Yu nodded slightly.

"This is the list between Zhongshu Sheng and me. It is said that there are four million households and 30 million people in the world."

Wang Sheng was stunned for a moment, not knowing what Sima Yu meant by this sentence.

"What does your Majesty mean?"

Sima Yu snorted coldly and said: "There are more than five million households in the world? In the past ten years, there have been at least five million households. Now these officials say there are only four million households. There is definitely something fishy among them."

The taxes of the imperial court are all collected from the people. If there are more people, the taxes of the imperial court will naturally be more. If the common people are few, the taxes of the imperial court will naturally be less.

The reason why the emperor is so sensitive has something to do with the income of the young man.

The Shaofu is a functional agency that manages private property and daily affairs for the royal family.

His responsibilities are mainly divided into two aspects: one is responsible for collecting taxes on mountains, seas and lakes and collecting local contributions for the use of the palace; the other is responsible for all the supplies and services needed by the palace for food, clothing, daily life, hunting and entertainment, etc.

The Shaofu has a large organization and numerous subordinate officials, which exceeds the actual needs of the institutions and personnel in charge of national financial affairs.

To put it simply, the Shaofu is the emperor's private treasury.

As for the treasury, the emperor generally cannot touch it. The wealth he can control at will is the money in the young mansion.

In the Western Han Dynasty, princes and kings also had their own minor mansions, and county guards also had their own minor mansions.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty, he was still one of the Nine Qings, in charge of the royal clothes, treasures, and food in the palace, which were followed by the Wei and Jin Dynasties.

The main tax sources of the Shaofu are: the gardens and gardens under the Shaofu's control, the tax on the mountains and wilderness, private industrial and commercial business tax, customs tax, the 20 qian paid by children aged 7-14, etc.

Its financial expenses include: the expenses of the emperor and the palace, the expenses of the emperor's sacrifices and rewards, etc.

The more people there are, the more income and expenditure the young government will have, and vice versa.

"Your Majesty, you mean that people from Zhongshu Province lied about the number of households in the world?"

"It's not a lie, it's just a group of aristocratic families from all over the world who came together to deceive me."

Sima Yu snorted coldly.

He was able to discover this problem because he was inspired by Wang Sheng.

Wang Sheng said before that there were many private armies in the family.

At that time, he was very surprised, thinking that it was unheard of for the noble family to have so many soldiers.

Because of this incident, the emperor sent someone to find out more.

Among them is a complete study of Plain Fahrenheit.

This is also the reason why Sima Yu reused Hua Heng, just to facilitate the study of Pingyuan Fahrenheit.

In the end, it would have been better not to do any research. Once he did, he discovered that the Pingyuan Fahrenheit had more than a thousand clan members, including more than ten thousand slaves, and the Pingyuan Fahrenheit only needed to pay taxes to more than a hundred households.

More than 10,000 people only paid taxes that were not paid by more than 1,000 people?

According to this, there are probably tens of millions of households in this world.

Seeing the family grabbing food directly from his bowl, Sima Yu felt unhappy. That was a normal thing.

After Wang Sheng heard what Sima Yu said, he immediately understood what the emperor meant.

"Most of the tribes, tenants, slaves, military households, craftsmen households, Le households, and foreign immigrants who migrated to the country are not included in the household registration statistics. I believe that the actual population in the first year of Yongkang reached 35 million people, with more than 6 million households."

Of course, aristocratic families would hide their population secretly.

This is also the reason why the family made its fortune.

There are many people working for me, but very few paying taxes.

If the family is regarded as a business, then the business generates a profit of 100 yuan. According to the regulations, it needs to pay a tax of 50 yuan. However, because it hides the population, if it is divided equally, it may generate a profit of 100 yuan.

, you only need to pay ten yuan in tax.

And the forty yuan that was supposed to go to the court fell into the hands of the aristocratic family.

The Western Jin Dynasty was a typical big government. Although there were many people, managing the world also required costs.

Not to mention how many wars have been fought in the past few years.

This is not just something you can do if you have enough food.

Fighting is a waste of money.

The emperor is short of money.

"There are at least six million households in the world, but these households are in the hands of aristocratic families. Can you, Marquis Guangyuan, do anything to make these people pay taxes?"

This is the reason why Sima Yu asked Wang Sheng to come out. He was short of money.

"There may be a way, but it's difficult."

Grabbing food from the mouth of aristocratic families, where is the simplest thing?

Here, Wang Sheng couldn't help but think of why in the Qin and Han Dynasties, a son-in-law was regarded as the same as a criminal or a merchant, and was included in the "seven subjects of banishment" and severely punished.

Except in the ancient patriarchal clan society, it was regarded as a matter of course that the emperor married twelve daughters, the princes married nine daughters, and that high-ranking officials had one wife and multiple concubines. Men were superior to women and were the backbone of the family. It was regarded as a matter of course.

However, for a man to "marry" into the woman's family as a son-in-law, his yin and yang are reversed, and he is controlled by the woman, which is extremely low-level and is despised by the world for these reasons.

The reason why the Qin, Han, and even the Wei and Jin Dynasties banned the adoption of son-in-laws was largely due to taxation.

Let’s use an analogy.

Zhang San has three daughters and Li Si has three sons.

According to the law, Li Si's three sons must establish a household after marrying, that is, they must go out independently.

If Li Si's three sons all went to Zhang San's house to become son-in-laws, then all three accounts that should have been there would be gone.

Li Si's three sons all have the same household registration as Zhang San.

In other words, no tax is required.

Meng Jiangnu cried about the Great Wall. Her husband was the son-in-law, so he was sent to build the Great Wall.

In this era, having a son-in-law is equivalent to tax evasion, and the law will naturally not tolerate it.

The current situation of the aristocratic family is roughly the same.

Servants, servants, and tenants all belong to the master's family. They only need to pay taxes to the master's family and do not need to pay taxes to the court.

And the taxes paid by the master do not include those of these slaves.

Over time, these slave tenants became black households.

As soon as he heard Wang Sheng said there was a way, Sima Yu immediately became energetic.

The palace has been in disrepair for a long time, especially the Taiji Hall, which was originally the residence of Sima Zhong, but Sima Zhong was a fool. Although he maintained the Taiji Hall, it was just maintenance.

It is far less luxurious than the original Changqiu Palace.

Sima Yu wanted to overhaul the palace and then renovate the palace on the outskirts of Luoyang.

He plans to go hunting in Mangshan this year, so this will be a big expense.

He expressed his thoughts to the young master, who settled the account for the emperor.

This account was very long and smelly, and Sima Yu didn't even finish it after listening to it for an hour.

But this long and smelly account sent him a very obvious signal.

No money.

The emperor also had times when he was short of money.

This was something Sima Yu didn't expect.

So he wants to make money.

Of course, he would not do such a thing as selling his official position.

Emperor Huan and Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty had learned their lessons first, so it was impossible for Sima Yu to dig a hole for himself.

The sources of taxation are all in the accounts. In terms of population, Sima Yu spent a lot of effort on it, just to get back the money that the aristocratic family had stolen from him.

Just imagine if there were two million more households in the world, how would the Shaofu be short of money?

How could the court be short of money?

After having money, wouldn't it be much easier to deal with the clan king?

"Ai Qing has an idea, please tell me in detail."

What the emperor has to do is to conduct a census.

But doing a census in this era is not easy.

First of all, this touches on the interests of the aristocratic family.

The aristocratic family would definitely not give their original benefits to the emperor.

Man is a very practical animal.

As the saying goes, cutting off someone's wealth is tantamount to killing their parents.

What Sima Yu wants to do is undoubtedly to kill all the parents of the aristocratic family.

How could it be easy?

Wang Sheng thought about it for a while and finally told him the method.

"Your Majesty, do you want a soft one or a hard one?"

Soft?

Hard?

Sima Yu was stunned for a moment and asked: "What is soft and what is hard?"

Wang Sheng stopped trying to be too pretentious and said directly: "It takes a longer time to soften. Your Majesty controls salt and iron. You only need to look at the amount of salt and iron used in a county in a month or a year to know how much salt and iron a county has."

When the time comes, your Majesty will report the number of people in that county and let the family decide for themselves, which is called softness."

Salt is a necessity that everyone needs.

This method can roughly solve the local population problem.

but...

The aristocratic families also need to cooperate.

In other words, the final number of people may also be uncertain.

The reason why I say soft is because the emperor can underreport the number of people, and it is easier for the aristocratic family to accept it.

Sima Yu just thought for a moment and then asked: "The soft method is so, what is hard?"

"If your Majesty uses force, I have two methods. One is to ask for the appearance and read it, and the second is to lose the record and set the pattern."

"What is a great review, and what is a loss of status?"

As soon as these two names came out, Sima Yu felt that it was very formal, and he couldn't help but become serious.

"The so-called "Dasuo Appearance Reading" is to read the appearance to verify the age. That is to check the appearance of the population to check whether there are any underreporting of age and false reporting of old age and disease. It is also stipulated that those with false household registrations will have a positive appearance.

Those who are assigned to distant places; those below the rank of Da Gong (cousins) are ordered to set up separate household registrations to prevent them from being hidden."

After taking a breath, Wang Sheng said again: "In order to make the officials dispatched by His Majesty do their work seriously and to make the people willing to report, it is stipulated that if there is a falsehood in the household registration, the person will be dismissed from office; anyone who reports a strong man will be ordered to be the representative of the family of the person who was punished.

Lose taxes and servitude.”

"good idea."

Sima Yu's eyes lit up just when he thought about it.

"After using this method, I don't think this family can hide its population."

Sima Yu looked at Wang Sheng with a smile. In his eyes, the man in front of him had solved another big problem for him.

"What are the so-called rules for losing one's citizenship?"

Wang Sheng went on to say: "Although there are fixed points for the human class, and they are collected every year, there are always many notes, the senior officials are unruly (for personal gain and corruption), and the clerk's account is infested, and there is no fixed registration, so it is difficult to promote the school. So if

Your Majesty stipulates that on the fifth day of the first lunar month every year, the county magistrate sends out people to inspect, and orders five hundred or three hundred families to form a group, divide the households into upper and lower classes according to the fixed standards, re-stipulate the precession service and the amount of tax payable, and write down the fixed book. Use

This method includes searching and hiding household registrations to prevent people from evading taxes or suppressing nobles and powerfully occupying the people's population, thereby increasing the court's income and strengthening His Majesty's authority."

At this point, Wang Sheng said one more sentence, saying: "Those who originally had military status, all soldiers belong to prefectures and counties, and their farming status is the same as that of the people. Your Majesty is worried about the problem of food and grass, why don't you set up generals for farming?

The armies of the various states are divided and unified, and are always subordinate to His Majesty. The military personnel and their families are registered in the states and counties, and they are engaged in production during peacetime. They implement "integration of troops into agriculture", reduce national military expenditures, and can collect county soldiers in the hands of Your Majesty. It can be said that it kills two birds with one stone.

.”

If the previous Da Suo Mao Yue made Sima Yu's eyes light up, Wang Sheng's decision to lose his status shocked Sima Yu's heart.

He knew that if this method was adopted, the food and grass problem that was close to his heart would no longer exist.

On the contrary, those soldiers working in the fields could also bring income to the court.

What a great idea!

"What I have said is a good way to govern the country, but why did you say it was difficult before?"

Wang Sheng smiled bitterly and said the words immediately.

"The reason why I say it is difficult is not without reason."

"Whether it's losing one's official status, or asking for one's appearance, many officials are needed to do it. However, most of these officials are sons of aristocratic families. How can a son of an aristocratic family cut off his family's financial path for Your Majesty?"

After going around and around, we finally came to a situation where no one was available.

As expected, the smile on Sima Yu's face disappeared.

"It's just that Aiqing has passed the college entrance examination before, and there is no one available among the poor families. People from high-ranking families in this family are not available, so who should I use?"

This is a dead circle.

Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty was able to use Dasuo Mao Yue to determine the status of the losers because after the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the power of the aristocratic family had gradually weakened.

But at this time, in the Western Jin Dynasty, the aristocratic family was still young and developing towards the prime of life. If he wanted to compete with the aristocratic family at this time, even as the emperor, Sima Yu himself had to think carefully.

"Perhaps we can rely on relocating the country for governance, or we can use this method. Those who lose a lot of citizenship can be exempted from taxes."

In other words, for those who do good work, your servants will work for you for free, and there is no need to register independently to pay taxes.

Sima Yu's eyes brightened slightly and he nodded slightly.

"It's a good idea."

To be honest, this method is not very good.

First of all, most aristocratic families have friendships with each other.

The emperor did not benefit the family at all, but instead poached the family.

Even if these things are promised, if the aristocratic families unite, they will lose their status, or they will lose their appearance, and they will probably lose their effect.

Talent still determines everything!

"In this case, I understand that the time is almost up. I am afraid that both the Central Secretary and the Secretary are waiting for Ai Qing to go."

"promise."

Wang Sheng stood up and saluted Sima Yu.

Before exiting the palace, Wang Sheng still spoke.

"Your Majesty, competing for profits with aristocratic families will inevitably lead to conflicts with the aristocratic families. Your Majesty, please think twice before acting."

After saying this, Wang Sheng exited the palace.

He has stated the method, and it is a method that has been tested.

As for what the emperor would do, it was not up to him to consider.

After all, he has a lot of things under his control.

But from the emperor's question, we know that the current emperor finally knows that he is an emperor.

Know how to enjoy it, and know how to start taking care of your own country instead of always looking at the power in your hands.

Although the emperor's approach at this time was no different from before.

One thing to say.

In fact, Wang Sheng did not agree with the emperor and the aristocratic family breaking up.

After all, the clan king's matter has not been resolved, so let's start a family again.

The emperor seems to be in decline if he fights on a single line. If he fights on two lines, he probably has no chance of victory.
Chapter completed!