Chapter 133 132 Exemption
A lot of things happened in the 31st year of Jiajing. Altan Khan restarted the border conflict. From Datong to Liaodong, the war spread throughout the northern border, forcing Emperor Jiajing, who only wanted to cultivate immortality, to interrupt his cultivation and stop the trade again.
There was also the complete outbreak of the Japanese pirates, which became more and more serious. The Japanese pirates dared to fight against the government troops head-on, and even killed officials and seized cities.
This year, several provinces in the entire territory of the Ming Empire suffered from severe droughts, especially in Jiangxi and Huguang.
This year, Yu Long Yu Dayou, who was later called "Yu Long Qi Hu", officially appeared. His name entered the eyes of the Ming rulers. He hoped that he could quickly quell the Japanese pirates with his previous achievements.
In the same year, a child with a modern soul inside officially took the imperial examination and became a scholar in the Ming Empire.
His name was Wei Guangde. His name was no longer recorded only on the household registration card, but appeared in official documents, although it only appeared in local documents for the time being.
The Dragon Raising its Head on February 2 is also known as the Spring Ploughing Festival, Agricultural Festival, Green Dragon Festival, Spring Dragon Festival, etc. It is a traditional Chinese folk festival.
In farming culture, "dragon raising its head" indicates the growth of yang energy, the increase of rain, and the vitality of all things, and spring ploughing begins.
Since ancient times, people have also regarded the Dragon Raising its Head Day as a day to pray for good weather, exorcise evil spirits and disasters, and bring good luck and fortune.
This day is the day when Wei Guangde's cousin Wu Dong marries his cousin's wife. The gates of the Jiujiang Guard Right Army Qianhu Suo in Pengze are decorated with lights and colorful decorations, and there is a joyous scene.
Two days ago, Dad Wei took leave after taking office as the governor of Jiujiang Guard and returned to Pengze to attend Wu Dong's wedding.
The marriage of the commander's family is naturally known to everyone in the Jiujiang Guard Command, and each family also sent people to congratulate.
People are in high spirits when they are happy. Today, Wu Dong, wearing a new red suit, went to marry his wife accompanied by his classmates Wei Guangde, Zhang Hongfu, Zeng Yuanshu, etc. The front of the large group of people was close to Pengze County, and the rear group had just walked out of the gate of Qianhu.
For the sake of pomp, Wei Guangde suggested that the elite soldiers of the two teams of Baihu were transferred to serve as ceremonial guards.
"Yes, I will do the same when I hold my wedding later."
The eldest brother Wei Wencai was riding on a horse, looking at the front and back like stars supporting the moon, and he was very moved.
He had three months left before the date, and his cousin Wu Dong's appearance made him envious.
Not only Wei Wencai was moved, Zhang Hongfu was also very moved.
The two teams of soldiers were carefully trained, with a uniform pace and a measured advance and retreat. The newly added recruits could only play in the mud on the side.
When the wedding procession was marching into Pengze County, in the far north, on the square on the east side of the majestic Forbidden City, countless civil and military officials knelt on the ground. On the steps, the imperial edict was read out loudly by Wu Jinghe, the son-in-law of the emperor.
"I have inherited the great cause of my ancestors and governed the people for thirty-two years. Now I order Zhu Xizhong, the Grand Tutor and Prince Taishi, the Duke of Chengguo, to hold the imperial edict, and Xu Jie, the Minister of Rites and the Grand Secretary of Dongge, to hold the imperial edict, and confer the title of Princess Li, the daughter of Li Ming, the Deputy Thousand Household of the Jinyiwei, as the Princess of Yu. Today, the marriage will be paid."
After the reading was finished, Wu Jinghe carefully put away the imperial edict, and under the guidance of the eunuchs beside him, he respectfully held the imperial edict and placed it in the Fengtian Hall.
After the ceremony of conferring the title of Princess Yu to Fengxian Hall, the Minister of Rites and the left and right assistant ministers personally welcomed her to the Wenhua Hall for the ceremony, and the various departments of the Internal Eunuchs fully cooperated to start the wedding ceremony of Prince Yu.
They had to fully cooperate, because three days later, the ceremony of conferring the title of Princess Jing to Fengxian Hall would be held again, followed by the wedding of Prince Jing. The weddings of the two princes were almost held at the same time, and the Ministry of Rites and the Internal Eunuchs would be busy for a long time.
After attending his cousin's wedding, Wei Guangde stayed in Bengshanbao for a few days, and then returned to Jiujiang Prefecture School to start studying.
To be honest, Wei Guangde at this time was more confused because he read more books and documents.
In later generations, Wei Guangde also read a lot of ancient Chinese articles when he was free. Wei Guangde was deeply impressed that in the Ming Dynasty, people with meritorious service were exempted from taxes and labor service, which was one of the reasons why Wei Guangde was obsessed with the imperial examination.
In his opinion, as long as he passed the imperial examination and got meritorious service, he could be exempted from taxes and labor service no matter what he did. It was too happy.
But now he has read all the court reports from Hongwu to Jiajing, and has not seen any legal provisions about the exemption of gentry from taxes and labor service.
In fact, Wei Guangde had doubts about this when he read the "Great Ming Law" issued by the Hongwu Dynasty and the "Ming Hui Dian" compiled by the Hongzhi Dynasty and revised by the Zhengde and Jiajing Dynasties, because there was no mention of gentry being exempted from taxes and labor service throughout the text.
However, whether it is his own father or all the scholars around him, they all said so.
Wei Guangde only found provisions for preferential exemption of miscellaneous labor service, but there should be provisions for taxes and regular labor service.
Labor service, perhaps because of some policy changes, has long ceased to exist in the later generations where Wei Guangde is, so many people know about it, but the specific details are not clear, so in the eyes of many people, in ancient times, it was mainly to pay taxes to the government.
And Wei Guangde came to this era, and he had figured out what was going on by reading books.
The "fu" in the "fuyi" is taxes, and the "yi" is labor service.
Taxes were not only collected from the output of the land, but also from the households in this era who had to pay the Ding tax, which was later called the head tax.
The same was true for labor service, which was arranged according to the amount of land held and the number of people in the family. There were three types of labor service: Lijia Zhengyi, Junyao, and Zayi.
Therefore, what Mr. Liang Fangzhong said, "There are labor service in taxes and taxes in labor service", is the essence of the tax and labor service system in the Ming Dynasty.
The records in the Ming Dynasty Code should be the real records of the rules and regulations of this era, but there are only preferential and exemption regulations in it, and there is no provision for exemption from taxes and labor service at all.
The most recent statement about exemption from taxes and labor service that Wei Guangde found was the "Preferential and Exemption Regulations" promulgated by the court in the 24th year of Jiajing, which clearly marked "The first-rank Beijing official is exempted from 30 shi of grain and 30 people, and the following are reduced gradually, and the ninth-rank official is exempted from 6 shi of grain and 6 people; the officials outside the capital are reduced by half; the candidates, supervisors, and students are exempted from 2 shi of grain and 2 people; the retired are exempted from 70% of the original rank."
What does it mean?
With Wei Guangde's current status as a student, he can enjoy the preferential treatment of exempting 2 shi of grain and 2 people.
To be more specific, it means that the labor of two people in the family except the regular labor service can be exempted, and there are also miscellaneous labors shared by the output of 2 shi of land.
The specific executor is the head of the village, so when actually assigning labor, it is inevitable that people with meritorious service will be favored, at least they cannot assign too much, otherwise if it is unfair, people can directly go to the county government to complain.
After reading a lot of books, Wei Guangde finally realized something.
In fact, during the Ming Dynasty, scholars were not given so many preferential treatments.
There were exemptions, but not many.
However, it seems that in the process of implementation from top to bottom, the court's policy was misinterpreted.