Li Shimin also looked at the book, and the emperor's face was obviously pondering, and then he was curious that Li Yun asked, "What is this? What's so strange?"

"Household No.!"

Li Yun spoke directly, and the answer was neat and neat.

"It turned out to be a household book..."

"No wonder he took it out..."

"If this item is handed over to Your Majesty, it can be considered a great gift. But after the household registration is handed over, is Bohai still a vassal state?"

"Let's watch silently first, don't comment directly. This Bohai king has always acted strangely. He can't just look at the surface of anything he does. He needs to learn from it and apply it to others. After repeated analysis, he constantly speculates. Even if he is so cautious, he may still fall into a big pit... Hey, what do you want to do, do you have to stand out and give advice? I advise you to quickly give up your thoughts. We will only look at what we are doing today."

"Yes, yes, just look at it, don't stop it. This colleague will come back quickly. Don't get involved in the affairs of their uncle and nephew. If you can't get involved, you will easily get involved."

Taking out a household book directly caused the ministers to whisper. There was only one reason, the household book was too special.

Let’s say it is important, but it is not important. To put it bluntly, this thing is the personal population registration, which records the distribution of land among the people. This thing is not just one volume, but has many, many volumes.

For example, in the Tang Dynasty, each county has its own household books, and then the county is summarized according to its territorial area. The above state yamen has a book of state-level household books. The state yamen continues to summarize, and the level is the Taoist household books. During the Zhenguan period, the Tang Dynasty was divided into ten roads, so the entire Central Plains had ten roads.

These ten Taoist household books have been summarized again and become reference books for the Ministry of Revenue of the Tang Dynasty to grasp population changes. Because the ancient population census was extremely difficult, the data of household books was not accurate. Sometimes the household books recorded the population of five million, but the actual population may have become 10 million. If the current situation was changed to a year of turmoil and famine, the number would be in reverse decreasing. Perhaps the household books recorded the population of five million, but the actual population had declined to two or three million.

Because of this, the household book is not very important. Although this has been compiled every year in all dynasties, any dynasty regards it as a reference.

The so-called reference means to consider it by judging. Why should we consider it by judging? Because this thing is inaccurate.

If it is very accurate, do you still need to think about it? Directly formulate policies according to the numbers contained in the household registration, why do the ministers of the Ministry of Revenue have to argue endlessly every year?

But if you want to say that the household book is not important, this thing is actually very important.

This thing is the most important record of the population and people. It is an official census. The world is so big. Governing a big country is not just a small thing. People need land and food. If a natural disaster occurs in a certain place, the court needs to use the household book to calculate the number of people affected.

The most important thing is that this thing can control taxes.

In ancient times, due to inconvenient transportation, information transmission was naturally inconvenient, which led to the prone to corruption and it was easy for local governments to tamper with taxation.

For example, the Ministry of Revenue of the Tang Dynasty has a general household book, which records the population figures of the entire Central Plains. It was counted once in the sixth year of Zhenguan. The figure at that time was 28 million. But in reality, the national population was at least 40 million.

At least 1,200 people are not recorded.

Because local officials directly manage the grassroots, they can directly contact this part of the population. There has been a saying since ancient times that county magistrates who destroy their families and tax officials who destroy their families. As long as you, the common people, some local officials will not care whether you are on the list or not. They will first send tax officials to collect money and grain, and then come back to verify according to the household registration.

This verification made a problem.

The money and grain were collected, but the household registration did not have so many people.

What to do?

Put it into your pocket.

However, the Ministry of Revenue in the Tang Dynasty is not a good meal. Those who can become the tycoons of the court are all from the grassroots. The method of tucking the waist bags below is actually the ones who play the leftover summer...

At this time, the importance of the account book appears!

The national population is only 2,400, right?

You actually collected 40 million people’s money and food, right?

Humph, I want to stuff it into my waist bag privately, no!

We will calculate and refer to it based on household registration. Now it is a prosperous year, no matter how turbulent the war was when the Tang Dynasty was just established. In this era, the population will definitely increase sharply. In this case, the money and grain in various places will be paid according to the increase or decrease.

What is the increase, decrease and supplementary payment?

To put it bluntly, it is the so-called mathematical coefficients in later generations.

The wisdom of the ancients was actually higher than that of later generations. Although they did not understand modern science, they had accumulated countless experiences.

Sometimes experience is more magical than scientific means.

When the Ministry of Revenue of the Tang Dynasty formulated the addition, reduction and reimbursement, it was this experience method...

Some are high, some are low, some are over, and some are reduced, which seems unreasonable. However, based on the actual situation, the bigwigs of the Ministry of Revenue will not care about your complaints. The increase and decrease coefficients set by the bigwigs ensure that you cannot keep your pockets.

Sometimes it's really scary to experience this thing.

It is said that in the sixth year of Zhenguan, the Ministry of Revenue carried out national tax custody and put it into warehouses. Granaries in various places could not even be greedy for 100 kilograms of grain. How scary and accurate is this. It simply exceeded the imagination of later generations. The number gap between the taxes of tens of millions of people across the country was only about 100 kilograms. Even if this kind of work was placed in later generations with countless technological means, I am afraid that I can only admire the ancients.

Because later generations cannot do so accurately.

The reason why the Tang Dynasty was so accurate was precise was because the supplement coefficients formulated by the tycoons based on experience.

For example, Hebei Road is relatively poor. Although the road-level household registration records the population of 2 million, many people may have starved to death because of the lack of green and yellow people. Then the taxes must not match the actual situation, and the money and grain will definitely not be able to collect taxes of 2 million people.

What to do? The increase and decrease coefficient. The bigwigs of the Ministry of Revenue of the Tang Dynasty gave Hebei Road a "two percent and four" reduction with a stroke of the pen.

What does 20% and 4 mean?

It is 14% off for later generations.

Yes, everyone is right, the boss of the Ministry of Revenue has given a discount to Hebei Road.

You Hebei Road should be paid 1 million stones of grain in the state treasury, but according to the increase or decrease coefficient, you only need to pay 840,000 stones into the warehouse...

If you can have more left, that's great, just stuff yourself into your pocket.

If there is no left at all, and there is even a gap, it doesn't matter. Local officials and tax officials will pay for it out of their own pockets to fill the gap.

That's how it is.

It seems unreasonable.

But the reality is not the case. The grain paid to the court on Hebei Road will definitely be exactly the same as the actual local taxes. Note that it is the actual local taxes, not the inaccurate number recorded in the household book.

Based on the accumulation of experience every year, the Hebei Road discounts formulated by the tycoons in the court are guaranteed to be no less than 10%.

...

For example, Guannei Dao, where the Tang Dynasty is located, the political center of a country, with a lot of money and a wide crowd, and the wealthy families gathered in groups, and all the slaves and servants were not on the list. The population of the household book was 3 million, which may actually reach 4 million. Those slaves and servants who were kept in captivity could work and farm, but the wealthy families had laws stipulated that the slaves and servants did not remember the classics. What should I do? Do you watch the wealthy evade taxes?

Think beautiful!

Tax increase and decrease coefficient, plus '30% and 2'.

You understand. Hebei Road paid 14% off when paying the money and grain. Hebei Road didn’t even think about this kind of discount. Not only did he not think about it, you also had to pay extra...

The court bosses don’t care about the complaints of local officials. When you hand over the money and food, you have to follow the coefficient of 132.

Not enough?

It doesn't matter, you can make up for it with your own pocket.

Don't want to pay for it yourself?

It doesn’t matter, go to the wealthy courtyard to survey the population, and they will pay according to the actual population and replace you officials with your own pockets.

This is the ancient tax system.

It is also a technique that the Tang Dynasty has always followed.

The reference book used is a country's household book. Although the number of household book is inaccurate, the court bosses can refer to it based on their experience. Therefore, because of this, it is also said that household book is actually very important...

And now, Li Yun took out the Bohai Kingdom's household book.

...

"Is this your general account book of Bohai?"

Li Shimin suddenly spoke slowly, and the emperor's tone was a little strange for some reason.

However, Li Yun didn't seem to hear anything unusual, but Zheng Xin said: "Yes, this book is the general account book. Although it belongs to the rough and rough scriptures, it is indeed the Bohai household book."

Li Shimin smiled and asked lightly: "In other words, this book is extremely inaccurate?"

Li Yun took a breath and bowed his fists and said, "Your Majesty will atone for his sins, it is indeed not accurate. My Bohai Kingdom is a pioneer, and there is a shortage of officials under his command. Although they tried to survey the population, they lacked both manpower and material resources, so they could only roughly count the general situation and barely formulate a Bohai household book."

As he said that, he stopped slightly and suddenly raised the book, Lao Gao. Li Shimin's expression seemed even more strange. He reached out to pick up the book representing Bohai household registration in his hand.

But the emperor did not look through it, but his eyes were still looking at Li Yun and asked, "Even if it is extremely inaccurate, there is always a number. I will ask you now, how many people are in the Bohai Sea? How many people are in each city? How many people are in each county? How many men are there, how many women account for? There are also children who are tax-cut according to the law, how many are there?"

Li Yun was stunned when the emperor asked what he said.

What is the population of Bohai Sea?

He can definitely answer this question, after all, you only need to remember a general number.

but……

How many people are there in each city?

How many people are there in each county?

How to answer this!

Is there a city in Bohai now?

have!

Unfortunately, there are only two cities in Mandarin, namely Chaoyang City, which is close to Youyan Land, and Bohai City where Li Yun Kingdom is located. Bohai City is still under construction, and strictly speaking, it is not a real city.

There are only one and a half cities, and there is definitely not a single county town. He can't answer how Li Yun can answer at all.

But the problems behind the emperor are even more bizarre.

How many males are there?

How many women have?

There are also children who can reduce taxes according to the law, how many are there in total...

This is simply making things difficult for others.

How could Li Yun remember such an exact number?

He really couldn't figure out why Li Shimin asked about these things.

...
Chapter completed!