The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

On the morning of the first day of September, on the road leading to Yunmeng Township, farmers were seen carrying shoulder poles and bamboo baskets. The baskets were filled with newly harvested and dried yellow grains, so heavy that they seemed to break the shoulder poles.

Compared with these soldiers and peasants who had to carry grains with great effort, Heifu's ox cart stood out from the crowd, not to mention that Heifu was riding his red horse in front of them, majestically clearing the way.

It turned out that after entering September, it was the day for the people of Qin to pay rent. As the saying goes, "Taxes and rents are collected in September", the government will collect land rent uniformly this month to prepare for the work of reporting in October, and the amount of land rent is an important indicator of the quality of the report.

As far as Heifu saw, unlike the happy faces during the harvest, most of the pedestrians on the road looked worried. After all, what they handed over were the crops they had worked so hard to grow, and it was very tiring to carry them on their shoulders and hands. People squatted everywhere on the ridges of the fields by the roadside to take a breath. They looked at the ox carts and horses of the Heifu brothers with envy in their eyes.

Only those with a certain amount of wealth and nobility could afford to buy oxen and horses. This was also the dream of many farmers who had worked hard for half their lives. If the family had these two kinds of livestock, the girls in the village would compete to marry them.

Every family has its own problems. Although when I first set out on the road, I also felt that I didn't have to carry grain for more than ten miles this year. But the closer he got to the town, the more worried he became. While pulling the ox cart, he looked back at the more than 20 stones of millet in the cart and sighed, "It's not all good to have more land. I have to pull it ten more times to pay the rent for my family."

Zhong's words were not exaggerated at all, because at the end of August, Tian Dian dragged his sick body in the sunset and read the documents from the town to all the people in the village, announcing this year's "rent schedule".

This procedure is called "writing laws on rent", which means that before collecting rent, the government will first issue various laws and orders related to rent collection this year step by step, from the county magistrate to Tian Qiangfu, from Tian Qiangfu to the village Tianbuzuo, and all the way to Tian Dian in the village.

Unlike the percentage tax in later generations, the "rent schedule" is a fixed rent amount, and each family must pay enough grain. This year's rent amount is 6 dou of grain per mu.

"6 dou? So much."

Hei Fu was a little surprised. Where is the promised tithe? Later, he finally understood that taxes were levied on commodities and had nothing to do with their family as farmers. They only had to pay land rent and annual "mouth money", which was also a considerable amount.

Zhong seemed to have gotten used to it. He said that for general "tax fields", the government would calculate an average value based on the grain output in recent years and calibrate a "reasonable" value as the rent for the year. Officials called this "calibrating a few years as normal".

Reasonable means that the burden on farmers is a bit heavy, but not to the point where they can't survive. Generally speaking, depending on the year of disaster or good harvest, the rent is between five dou and one shi, so Zhong felt that this year's six dou was already considered low.

"This is just an ordinary tax field. If it is a Yu field managed by the government, I heard that 1.5 shi per mu will be collected, and the rest will be left for the farmers and servants to eat..."

"In that case, after paying the rent, there will be basically nothing left in the land!"

Hei Fu was slightly shocked when he heard this. If you calculate it, farming on the Yu field managed by the government can only ensure that you can barely eat, and it is basically impossible to save money. It seems that the later generations said that the tax revenue of Qin was "twenty times that of the ancient times" and "collected more than half of the taxes", which is not really wrong.

In addition, after fixing the rent, the government will also collect taxes according to the amount of land owned by each family, regardless of whether you cultivate it or not. This can prevent some people from having land but not cultivating it, and idling all day long, and can also crack down on rent evaders. Collecting taxes according to the land, people can run away, but the land cannot.

So, Heifu's family was divided into three households, with a total of more than 400 mu of land. The rent that the three households had to pay was huge, as much as 240 shi...

In addition, there were 3 shi of fodder and 2 shi of drafts per hectare of land, which was enough to pull another cart.

In fact, excluding the fallow land, only more than 300 mu were planted. It was precisely because the rent and taxes were so heavy that if the Qin farmers wanted to save some money, they had to be diligent in farming and make their fields more productive through intensive cultivation.

Fortunately, after Heifu's family used the composting method, this year was a bumper harvest, with about 500 shi of millet and 250 shi of rice. After paying the rent, there was still a lot of savings. I just hope that the price of grain this year will not be too cheap. After selling the excess grain and paying the head tax, there will still be a net income of several thousand coins...

In this way, the 4,000 coins that Heifu was fined for accidentally letting the murderer go are still acceptable.

Thinking of this, Heifu looked at the peasants carrying grain on foot along the way with sympathy. His family was thriving, but most of the farmers along the way were struggling to make ends meet.

They also had to go back and forth many times to transport the rent. They didn't have to do anything in the first half of September. It was tiring enough to carry grain back and forth. The remaining grain, excluding the part used as seeds, was almost spent on food and clothing for a whole year. If there were weddings or funerals, or family members were sick, they would be busy all year long, but in the end they would end up with more expenses than income.

The two of them stopped talking, and the atmosphere was silent for a while. After a while, Heifu deliberately joked, "Brother, if you think about it this way, my family will have 500 acres of land by next year, and the rent to be paid by then will be more."

"That's right, my second brother is now a hairpin."

Zhong looked at the simple wooden crown on Heifu's bun, and the ribbon wrapped around the horse's neck, and felt very relieved.

Although Heifu accidentally let the murderer go, he was not dismissed from his post. Moreover, his method of determining the murderer's height based on his footprints was considered very useful by the county, and his title was not reduced but increased, which shocked many people who secretly speculated that Heifu would be in trouble this time.

The document of Heifu's promotion came down yesterday, which made a sensation in the whole village, because he was the second hairpin in the village. And Heifu's family also had another hundred acres of land, and they had transformed from a small family to the largest landlord in Xiyang...

Zhong never thought that one day, he would be worried because the family's land increased too quickly, but he couldn't tell Zhongdi to take it easy and not to promote his title.

He thought to himself: "Next year, I may have to buy one more oxen and hire twice as many laborers..."

...

When the Heifu brothers arrived at the Yunmeng Township, it was already breakfast time. The "rent office" near the township warehouse became the busiest place in the township. People from all over the country came to pay rent. But don't worry about getting confused. Each village has a fixed rent payment time. From the first to the third day of the first lunar month, several villages in the eastern part of the township pay taxes.

The clerks under Tianbu Zuo held the scale and bucket and asked the farmers to come forward and weigh the grain and grass they were going to hand in one by one. There was no need to worry about the inaccurate amount. Since Shang Yang's reform, Qin State has unified the domestic weights and measures. If the scales are deviated, the responsible officials will be punished.

In addition, there were supervisors sent by the county. In addition to monitoring the quality and quantity of grain, they also had to prevent favoritism and fraud when collecting rent.

Heifu accompanied Zhong first, paid the more than 20 shi of grain he was pulling, and then left the empty cart outside and came to the rent office.

Tianbu Zuo was an official at the township level in the Tianguan system, equivalent to the director of the township grain management office in later generations. When Heifu and his team asked along the way and found the busy Tianbu Zuo, they saw that he was holding the locality list of each village, and loudly asked the clerk to copy it down according to the records sent in from outside.

"Zuili Shi Wujia, paid 4 shi and 8 dou of rent, paid in full!"

"Chengli Gongshi Yi, paid 24 shi of rent! There are still 36 shi left!"

In addition, from time to time, some people were found to have paid amounts that did not match the number of acres of land they owned. Those who concealed the number of acres of land to evade taxes were called "hiding land" crimes. Once found out, in addition to the evaded land rent, all the crops in the hidden land would be confiscated!

There were only ten clerks, many of whom were borrowed from other government offices, but they had to record the land rents paid by nearly a thousand households in the township, and they were so busy that they didn't even have time to drink water.

After finally catching a break during breakfast, Heifu immediately stepped forward and called Tianbuzuo.

Tianbuzuo had been busy all morning and his throat was almost smoking. If an ordinary person came to see him, he would probably be given a cold shoulder. But when he turned around and saw Heifu wearing a red hat and being a pavilion chief, he suppressed his anger.

After Heifu reported his name, Tianbuzuo's face changed even more, and he bowed to Heifu solemnly.

"So you are the head of Huyang Pavilion in Yushui Township. The name of Heifu has long been known throughout the county. I am sorry, sorry."

In fact, Heifu is now a well-known figure in the county, but he has long been accustomed to hearing similar words. After a few polite words with Tianbe Zuo, he pulled Zhong over and explained his purpose to Tianbe Zuo.

"What the head of the pavilion means is that after using that method, your family's per mu yield will increase by nearly one stone this year!?"

Tianbe Zuo was so busy and tired in the morning that he was shocked by what Heifu said!

"I am not lying." Heifu took out a wooden tablet and handed it to Tianbe Zuo. It recorded the grain output of Heifu's three plots of land. The grain harvested from almost every acre of the 100 acres that used compost was recorded separately.

"Could it be that the millet is not dried? Or is it that the energy of the 100 acres of land is strong this year?"

Although Tianbu Zuo was somewhat tempted, he still had some doubts. Every year, many old farmers came to him to offer "farming methods" because of the increase in grain production at home. The Qin State was established on farming and warfare, and there were rewards for the people who worked hard in farming and improved farming techniques.

Hei Fu also knew that unlike the last time he offered the treadle, which could produce immediate experimental results, farming was a very random and time-sensitive thing, and Tianbu Zuo could not be careless.

He smiled and said, "Tianbu Zuo does not need to rush to report this method to the county. It is better to mark out dozens of acres of government-run fields in the township in the early spring of next year, and let my uncle come to guide us, use the composting method to fertilize the fields, and compare the per-acre yield with ordinary fields in the autumn harvest. The authenticity will be known after a try!"

Hei Fu's idea was good, and Tianbu Zuo felt it was very safe, so he agreed.

If this matter fails, he will be considered to have done a favor to Heifu, the rising head of Huyang Pavilion; if it succeeds, Tianbu Zuo will inevitably share some of the credit...

Little did he know that Heifu also had his own little tricks in mind. In the past, he might have taken Zhong directly to the county to find the largest field official at the county level, "Tian Qiangfu", but this time, he had to take a detour and let the township official Tianbu Zuo handle it. What was he trying to do?

Because what Heifu wanted to obtain for Zhong was exactly the position with the lowest risk in the village, but with good benefits: Tiandian! And Tianbu Zuo's wishes were an important factor in determining the selection of Tiandian in each village!

...

In early September, after agreeing with Tianbu Zuo of Yunmeng Township that he would return to Huyang Pavilion to continue his post after officially testing the composting method in the fields of the township next year.

After the last incident, his enthusiasm for looking for cases everywhere also faded a lot, and he was only satisfied with controlling the public security in the jurisdiction. Fortunately, although he failed once, his influence was still there, and no one in the jurisdiction of Huyang Pavilion dared to act rashly.

After more than ten days of peace, in mid-September, a piece of news came, making Heifu's future confusing again.

His backer, the county right lieutenant Du Xian, finally received a transfer order...

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