Chapter 320 Zhao Jun Will only Become More Ruthless

The fifth round of new policies promoted by Zhao Jun was comprehensive, covering various fields such as economy, education, military, science and technology, culture, construction, transportation, etc.

The most important of these was to boost the economy by increasing government public spending, which was his large infrastructure plan.

This plan has a scientific name in later generations, called Keynesianism.

Similar to this set of doctrines are Roosevelt's New Deal, and later generations of Russia boosted the economy by increasing government military spending.

Russia's military jobs increased by 520,000.

Many laborers were taken away by the military industry, and in order to prevent the laborers from being taken away, other industries in Russia had to increase salaries to retain more people.

Therefore, as long as the government increases public construction and expands infrastructure investment, it will significantly boost the domestic economy.

This is also true for my country in later generations.

But there is a prerequisite here, that is, the treasury must have money.

Roosevelt finally achieved his goal by recovering funds through fiscal deficits, exploiting Jewish rich people, issuing a large number of government bonds, and cracking down on monopoly giants.

Russia is rich in oil and natural gas resources. If Europe and the United States don't buy them, there are plenty of people who will, so there is no worry about not being able to sell the hard currency in hand.

After the reform and opening up, my country's economy took off, and its products were sold all over the world, earning a large amount of US dollar foreign exchange.

So does the Song Dynasty have so much money to complete Zhao Jun's plan?

The answer is yes, but not much.

At present, the fiscal expenditure is only enough to complete certain indicators every year.

For example, building steel mills, cement plants, and schools.

As for building trains, railway stations, ships and shipyards, forget it.

Moreover, steel mills and cement plants must be equipped with supporting transportation facilities. Various constructions are carried out step by step, and it is estimated that it will take 20 to 30 years before they will be effective.

So why can't it be completed in one go?

Because the money required for one-time completion is too much, not tens of millions of guan, but billions of guan.

With the current fiscal situation, the annual investment of only 20 to 30 million guan is the limit.

And this may also cause problems with price fluctuations.

During the Jingyou period, the fiscal revenue of the Song Dynasty remained at around 80 million guan.

For example, in the first year of Jingyou, there were more than 78 million guan, and in the eighth year of Qingli, it reached 100 million guan.

Now, after several rounds of Qingli New Deal, fiscal revenue still remains at 80 to 90 million guan, with little change. Even in the early stage of the reform, revenue has decreased significantly.

There are many reasons for the reduction.

First of all, a large number of exorbitant taxes and levies have been cancelled, which has reduced a lot of revenue.

Secondly, the decline in grain prices has led to price depreciation.

Some people may think that price depreciation is not a good thing?

With increased income and lower prices, won’t people’s lives be better?

This is the truth, but it is also different.

At least for the Song Dynasty court, the crazy depreciation of prices must be bad news.

The reason is simple.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the fiscal revenue was tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of guan, which did not simply mean that there was so much money, but was converted through the grain collected.

For example, if you collect more than 30 million guan in agricultural taxes this year, in fact, this is not money, but the grain equivalent to the average price of grain reaching more than 30 million guan this year.

And not only food, but also cloth, gold, silver, spices, wood, copper, iron, etc., are all considered part of the tax.

For example, Guangzhou now allows people to pay a certain amount of cotton as tax.

Therefore, a large part of the fiscal revenue of the Northern Song Dynasty is not actual copper coins, but equivalent items. In terms of military expenditure, these equivalent items are also considered part of the redundant army.

If it is during the war, the price of grain soars, then the grain worth more than 30 million guan may even become 60 million guan, and when calculated into the total fiscal revenue of the court, it can instantly exceed more than 100 million guan.

But if the price of grain plummets, then the grain worth more than 30 million guan collected will depreciate to 20 million guan. Then the total fiscal revenue of the court will also fall, and the income will plummet.

Therefore, this is one of the main reasons why the Song Dynasty has been trying to raise the price of grain over the years and not allowing the price of grain to fall all the way to a few dozen coins per stone.

In this case, the actual amount of cash in the court is relatively limited, and the cash collected each year is only about 30 million guan.

Including the salaries of officials and soldiers, they are often paid with copper coins, rice, and silk. For example, the current salary is often rice and silk, and the performance is copper coins, which motivates officials to work.

If the soldiers, officials and other government expenses are deducted, then the funds that can be used for construction will naturally be only 20 million guan.

What can be done?

Only limited industrial construction can be done.

Zhao Zhen and Lu Yijian hope to see results in a short period of time.

They want to see trains and train stations next year.

They want to see steamships next year.

Next year, the steel mills, textile mills, and schools of the Song Dynasty will be everywhere.

This is actually not impossible.

Because the steelmaking and steam engine technology has reached the standard, and the raw materials are on the way.

Although rubber may take a few years to grow.

But the fleet can harvest a large amount of rubber in South America and bring it back, and it is no problem to make hundreds or thousands of steam engines.

The human resources of the Song Dynasty are currently the richest in the world, with a population of 100 million.

If the technology, raw materials and population meet the requirements, it will not be difficult to achieve what they want to see.

The only problem is money.

This is the same as the game. Once the game is made and your character account is built, there are only two ways to become stronger.

One is to work hard and the other is to spend money.

Therefore, in order to speed up the progress, it is time for Zhao Jun to start with the landlords and rich households.

After the implementation of the new policy, the court sent out inspectors many times, and joined hands with local censors and the Imperial City Department to urge local governments to quickly complete the task of allocating land tax to each acre.

For a time, the poor people in all parts of the Song Dynasty were jubilant.

The landlords and rich households complained so much that many of them planned to sell their land to reduce costs.

Under normal circumstances, the greater the output, the thinner the cost will be.

But this refers to industrial products.

The cost of non-industrialized traditional agriculture is there.

Don’t think that the court only doubled the tax this time, bringing the tax rate to 20%, plus the commercial tax sold, it basically fluctuates between 20% and 25%.

However, the remaining 75%-80% does not mean pure profit, there are also costs such as land rent, transportation, and employment.

In addition, the continuous decline in grain prices is also a great harm to them.

The land rent alone may cost 30% to 50%, and you have to sell the harvested grain and hire long-term and short-term workers to transport it. In the end, it is considered good if you don’t lose money, let alone make money.

Therefore, those conscientious landlords who collect lower rents from tenants can’t stand it first and can only sell their land.

The government took the opportunity to buy them and turned them into official fields.

And those black-hearted landlords who collect higher rents may still be able to bear it, but the tenants will soon quit.

Because after the government took over the official fields, it lowered the rent again, for example, reducing the rent to 30% to 40%, which is much lower than the 50% to 70% collected by the landlords.

In addition, the government will also provide certain means of production, such as seeds, farm tools, etc., to attract a large number of young and strong laborers to work for the government.

In accordance with the instructions of the court, local governments would hire these young and strong laborers to cultivate the land during the busy farming season and repair water conservancy projects, open canals, and build water resource regulation facilities such as ponds, dams, and reservoirs during the slack season.

Under the national macro-control, by October, less than four months after the new policy was introduced, a large number of landlords and tenants left and threw themselves into the arms of the government.

If it were during the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, when the aristocratic families were in power, these tenants would be slaves of the aristocratic families and could not escape at all.

However, the Song Dynasty severely cracked down on slavery, did not allow restrictions on personal freedom, and even did not allow the word "slave", resulting in the landlords not only being unable to stop tenants from leaving, but even daring not to stop them.

Because the government used to stand on the side of the landlords, if the tenants wanted to escape, the government would send people to catch them, and the landlords also had lackeys under their hands, who would physically harm, confine, and even destroy the tenants.

But in the Song Dynasty, after the abolition of the effort system by Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Heng, and Zhao Zhen, not to mention beating the tenants, even if they were imprisoned, they would be sentenced by the government.

Especially in recent years, Zhao Jun has emphasized the right to personal freedom and strictly urged local governments to investigate such similar incidents.

Once they know about it but do not report it, help the landlords and rich households to conceal it, or a serious accident occurs in the jurisdiction, losing their official hat is considered a light punishment.

This has led to local officials not daring to be careless about this matter, no longer protecting the interests of the landlords and rich households, but turning to protect the interests of the tenants.

If a tenant encounters such a thing, he only needs to report it to the officials, and the landlord will lose his family at best, or be imprisoned and exiled at worst, and each of these can be regarded as the official's political achievements.

Therefore, under the new policy, facing the large-scale loss of tenants, many landlords are in serious deficit.

Either transfer the land under their name to their descendants to reduce the tax payment of the land tax. Or be forced to sell land, so that the land property is decreasing day by day.

In early October, in Mudu Town, Wu County, Suzhou, Gusu Mountain is far away in the northwest of the town, and the east bank of Taihu Lake is surrounded by the southwest of the town. There are thousands of miles of fertile fields. When the late rice is harvested, the golden ears of wheat sway gently in the autumn wind.

There is a huge manor in the north of the town, which is the residence of Gong Xu, a large landlord of the Gong family, a large family in Wu County.

The Gong family in Wu County is a local prominent family. In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were seven Jinshi scholars. In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were also many officials. For example, the ancestors of Gong Mingzhi, a Southern Song official whose grandfather moved to Kunshan, Suzhou, were from Wu County.

However, the fact that the local prominent families belong to the prominent families does not mean that every member of the family has a good life. The fields within the Gong family are occupied by the elders of the family and the patriarch of the main line.

The rest of the branches and illegitimate children have a hard life. For example, Gong Mingzhi's grandfather was forced to leave his hometown and set up his own family.

Many low-level clansmen became serfs, tenants, servants, etc. of the main family.

Gong Xu was about fifty years old, wealthy and dressed in silk and satin. He had just returned from the city today and heard another bad news as soon as he got off the carriage.

Several more tenants left their family and ran to the recruitment office of the government in the city to choose to become tenants of the government.

This made Gong Xu's face look very ugly.

When he returned home and took a short rest and drank a cup of tea, he suddenly heard the servants come to report that the heads of the three big families of Pan, Wang and Zhang came to see him.

Gong Xu had no choice but to invite them in.

"Brother Gong!"

The three entered the room and bowed to him.

"Brother Pan, Brother Wang, Brother Zhang, why are you here?"

Gong Xu stood up and returned the greeting.

"What else could it be for?"

The head of the Pan family was Pan Shi, and his expression was helpless.

"Sit down and talk."

Gong Xu said.

The four of them sat down.

The slaves served tea to them one by one.

After the others left, there were only four of them left in the hall.

"Brother Gong, I heard that you went to the city this morning. What did the county government say?"

Wang Wei, the head of the Wang clan, asked.

"well."

Gong Xu sighed and said: "This is a death order from the imperial court, and even acquaintances from the county government will not use it."

"Pooh!"

Pan Shi took a breath and said, "Then Fan Zhongyan is still from our Wu County, so he is causing trouble to us."

"Have you gone to find the Fan clan?"

"Look, Fan Zhongyan paid for his own land to buy land for their poor clan members. How can they speak for us?"

"I didn't expect that the Fan family would suddenly become so prosperous. It would be better if we made friends early."

"Who could have predicted this?"

"Forget it, let's talk about what to do. This year's autumn tax, my family will have to pay more than 30,000 stone grain and rice."

"My family also has to pay more than 20,000 dan, and not only the food and rice, but also the people are gone. Seventeen households have been gone last month. If this continues, all the people will be gone."

"Isn't it true? In the past four months, more than 40 households have left here alone."

"Who isn't?"

Several people shouted at each other.

These big clan landowners are all extremely wealthy, owning tens of thousands or even more than 100,000 acres of fertile land.

The imperial court came down with a new policy and spread it among them. In an instant, there were tens of thousands more stone taxes.

Who can bear this?

And it’s not just taxes, it’s people.

Although strictly speaking, the number of people under their control is really not that many.

Because the clan regulations in the south are still relatively strict and limited by the clan system, many young people with slightly better family circumstances have not left.

Only those families who are extremely poor, so poor that they can hardly survive will choose to make a desperate move and break away from the clan to stand on their own.

This phenomenon is all too common in the South.

This happened in later generations when our army launched certain reform plans in the Soviet area. Many young people in the south were constrained by their clans and could not join the army or engage in production independently from their clans.

On the contrary, it doesn't matter in the north. The clan's binding force in the north has long been ineffective and almost non-existent under the many attacks of the Five Husties and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

Therefore, the clan reform plan introduced by Zhao Jun a few years ago has been implemented smoothly in the north, but has not been implemented at all in the south.

But just because there aren't many people under his command doesn't mean that their interests haven't been harmed.

After they spread their land, the taxes they had to pay increased. This made these large landowners with tens of thousands of acres unbearable, and they began to discuss solutions.

"Brother Gong, when you went to the county government office this morning, didn't you find out anything?"

Zhang Ruohai, the head of the Zhang clan, asked.

Gong Xu said: "The county government gave us some advice, saying that we should sell the land under our hands to the court and let us build cement plants, steel plants, and textile factories."

"What is this?"

Everyone was puzzled.

"The devil knows."

Gong Xu scratched his head and said: "Besides, it's hard to say whether this thing can be profitable. I've also inquired a little bit about it. The initial investment alone is huge. If it doesn't make money, won't it mean that it will go bankrupt?"

"Forget it, this land is left by our ancestors, I won't sell it even if you kill me."

Others shook their heads.

"The problem now is that we have to come up with a charter. The county government can't do anything about it. The state government, the Censorship Department, and the Imperial City Department are investigating everywhere."

Wang Wei spread his hands and said: "If it is found that the county magistrate is covering up, he will be dismissed from office. They will not go against the court for us. No matter how much money they send, it will be useless."

"Is the imperial court trying to force us to death now?"

Pan Shi was very angry.

In fact, the court's tax was higher than it is now in the past few years, reaching 30% at the highest level. But at that time, although they were severely exploited, they could barely survive.

The reason is that the price of food was relatively high at that time, especially during the war with the Xixia and Liao Kingdoms. Even if taxes were high, they still relied on the remaining food in their hands and still made a lot of money through the high food prices.

The second year of Qingli was the best era. Not long after the war, food prices did not fall much, even higher than usual. The imperial court also significantly reduced agricultural taxes. If they continue to squeeze the tenants, all three will take advantage of it, and it can be said that they have made enough profits.

Until last year and this year, the price of food dropped from more than 300 yuan per dan in normal years to more than 200 yuan per dan now. But because tax revenue has dropped, they still have sufficient profit margins. No one will starve to death like them. Big landowner.

But when food prices fell and the court increased taxes, they felt a little uncomfortable. Although the tax rate has still not reached the highest point, but after living a good life, who wants to go back to being charged high taxes like before?

So everyone looked sad and jumped up and down.

In fact, the imperial court had given them a choice at this time, which was to force them to become businessmen, invest in steel plants, textile plants, cement plants, and join the trend of the times.

If you join in it at this time, it is the critical moment of Zhao Jun's reform, then a pig can take off even if it stands on the wind.

But there are always short-sighted people who miss this opportunity.

He even went the wrong way.

I heard Zhang Ruohai suddenly say: "Everyone, if this continues, we will have to sell our land. For the current plan, I think there is only one way."

"any solution?"

Everyone looked at him.

Zhang Ruohai said in a deep voice: "All our fields are just a corner of Suzhou. The Taihu Lake and Jiangsu and Zhejiang are so big. I don't know how many rich families have become poor because of this. If we can unite them and protest to the court, maybe the court can take back the reputation."

"Are you crazy?"

Wang Wei was surprised and said: "Aren't you afraid that the court will arrest you and punish you?"

"Don't forget, everyone, the law does not punish the masses."

Zhang Ruohai said: "If it's just one or two, the court will definitely hit hard. What if it's thousands or tens of thousands? The victims are more than just a few of us. If we connect them together, it will be a huge force!"

The law does not punish the masses?

Several people looked at each other, thinking.

Yes.

If they unite together, maybe they will really make the court take a step back.

But what they don't know is.

In the fourth year of Yongzheng in the later generations, the gentry of Jiangsu and Zhejiang protested against the land tax at the Zhejiang Governor's Office, and were strongly suppressed by the then Zhejiang Governor Li Wei.

And Zhao Jun.

Of course, he would be more cruel than Li Wei.