The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Many things happened in the 31st year of Jiajing, including the resumption of border provocations, and the war spreading throughout northern Xinjiang from Datong to Liaodong. Emperor Jiajing, who only wanted to cultivate immortality, had to interrupt his cultivation and stop trading again.

There has also been a complete outbreak of the Japanese pirate disaster, and it has become more and more intense. The Japanese pirates have dared to fight the official army head-on, and even killed officials and seized the city.

This year, several provinces in the entire Ming Empire suffered from severe drought, especially in Jiangxi and Huguang.

This year, Yu Long and Yu Dayou, known as "Yu Long Qi Hu" by later generations, officially appeared on the scene. His name entered the eyes of the people in power in the Ming Dynasty. He hoped that he could quickly put down the Japanese pirates based on his past achievements.

In the same year, a child with a modern soul hidden inside officially took the imperial examination and became a scholar in the Ming Empire.

His name is Wei Guangde, and his name is no longer only recorded on the household registration card, but also appears in official documents, although for the time being it only appears in local documents.

The dragon raises its head on the second day of February. This day is also known as Spring Plowing Festival, Farming Festival, Green Dragon Festival, Spring Dragon Festival, etc. It is a traditional Chinese folk festival.

In farming culture, the "dragon raising its head" signifies the growth of yang energy, increased rain, and the beginning of spring plowing.

Since ancient times, people have regarded the day when the dragon raises its head as a day to pray for good weather, to drive away evil spirits and avoid disasters, and to receive good fortune.

This day is the day when Wei Guangde's cousin Wu Dong marries his cousin-in-law. The Jiujiang Weiyoujun Qianhu House in Pengze is decorated with lights inside and outside, creating a joyful scene.

Two days ago, Father Wei took leave just after taking up the post of Jiujiang Guard and Governor, and returned to Pengze for Wu Dong's wedding.

Naturally, everyone in the entire Jiujiang Guard Command Bureau knew about the marriage of the Commander Qian family, and everyone from each family also sent people to congratulate.

People are in high spirits during happy events. Today, Wu Dong was dressed in bright red clothes. Accompanied by classmates such as Wei Guangde, Zhang Hongfu and Zeng Yuanshu, he went to marry his wife. The front of the group had already approached Pengze County, and the rear group had just walked out of the gate of Qianhusuo.

For the sake of grandeur, Wei Guangde came up with the idea to mobilize two teams of elite soldiers from hundreds of households to serve as guards of honor.

"Yes, I will do the same thing when I have a happy event later."

The eldest brother Wei Wencai was riding on the horse, looking at the stars in front and behind like holding the moon, he was very moved.

He has three months to go before his due date, and his cousin Wu Dong envies him for his reputation.

Wei Wencai was not the only one who was excited, Zhang Hongfu was also excited.

These two groups of soldiers have been carefully drilled, and their steps are in line, and their advance and retreat are measured. The newly added recruits can only go to one side and muddy.

When the welcoming procession was marching into Pengze County, in the far north, in the square on the east side of the inner court of the majestic Forbidden City, countless civil and military officials knelt down. On the steps, Prince Consort Wu Jing and his hands were spread out. The imperial edict was read out loud.

"I, the successor of Zan, have great ancestry for my ancestors and have cared for Zhaomin for twenty-two years. Now I have ordered the Grand Tutor and Crown Prince Taishi Cheng Guogong Zhu Xizhong to hold the throne, and the Shaobao and Crown Prince Taibao Shangshu Dongge University Scholar Xu Jiepeng In the book, the daughter of Li Ming, the daughter of Li Ming, the deputy of the Qianhu household, was granted the title of Princess Yu. It was the day when she accepted the levy."

After the reading was completed, Wu Jinghe carefully put away the imperial edict and, under the guidance of the eunuchs at the side, respectfully held the imperial edict and enshrined it in the Fengtian Hall.

After the ceremony of canonizing Princess Yu and enthroning her to the first palace, the Minister of Rites and the left and right ministers personally welcomed her and took the wedding vows in the Wenhua Hall. All internal supervision bureaus cooperated fully to organize the wedding ceremony of Prince Yu.

It’s impossible not to cooperate fully, because three days later, the ceremony of canonizing Princess Jing and consecrating her to the first palace will be held again, followed immediately by the wedding of Prince Jing. The weddings of the two kings will be held almost at the same time. The Ministry of Etiquette and the Internal Supervisor will be busy for a long time. It's time.

After attending his cousin's wedding, Wei Guangde went back to Bengshan Castle for a few days, and then returned to Jiujiang Fuxue to start studying.

To be honest, at this time, Wei Guangde became more and more confused because he read too many books and documents.

In later generations, Wei Guangde also read a lot of ancient Chinese articles. A deep impression left on Wei Guangde was that in the Ming Dynasty, people with meritorious status were exempted from taxes and servitude. This was one of the reasons why Wei Guangde was obsessed with the imperial examination.

When he thought about it, as long as he passed the imperial examination and obtained a meritorious title, he could be exempted from taxes and servitude in whatever he did. He was so happy.

But now he has read through all the newspapers from Hongwu to Jiajing, and he has not seen a single legal article about the gentry's exemption from taxes and servitude.

In fact, Wei Guangde had doubts about this when he read the "Da Ming Code" issued by the Hongwu Dynasty and the "Ming Huidian" compiled by the Hongzhi Dynasty and revised by the Zhengde and Jiajing Dynasties, because there is no statement in the whole article that the gentry is exempt from taxes and servitude.

However, both my father and all the scholars around me said so.

Wei Guangde only found provisions for exemptions and exemptions from handymen, but there should indeed be provisions for taxes and regular servants.

The concept of labor service, perhaps due to some policy changes, had long since ceased to exist in the later generations where Wei Guangde lived, so many people knew about it, but the specific details were not clear. Therefore, in the eyes of many people, in ancient times, it was mainly handed over to the government. tax.

When Wei Guangde came to this era, he had already figured out what happened by reading books.

The tax in tax and service is taxation, and the service is labor service.

Taxation not only levied land output, but households also had to pay Ding tax in this era, which was also called the poll tax in later generations.

The same goes for labor service. Labor service is arranged according to the amount of land held and the number of children in the family. There are three contents: regular labor, equal labor and miscellaneous labor.

Therefore, what Mr. Liang Fangzhong said, "there is service in the tax, and there is tax in the service" is the essence of the tax and service system in the Ming Dynasty.

The records in the Ming Dynasty Huidian should be the real records of laws and regulations of this era, but there are only regulations on exemptions and exemptions, but there are no provisions on exemptions from taxes and servitude at all.

The most recent statement Wei Guangde found about exemption from tax and service was the "Regulations on Preferential and Exemption" promulgated by the imperial court in the 24th year of Jiajing. It clearly stated that "a first-class official in the capital is exempted from service for 30 shi, and for a person of 30 ding, the following decreases, to If you are a ninth-grade official, you will be exempted from serving six shi of grain and six ding of men; if you are a foreign official, you will be exempted from half of it; if you are an official, a supervisor, or a student, you will be exempted from having to pay 2 shi of grain or 2 ding; if you become an official, you will be exempted from seven-tenths of this grade."

What does that mean?

With Wei Guangde's current status as a student, he can enjoy the preferential treatment of two people free of charge.

To be more specific, it means that two people in the family can be exempted from labor other than regular labor, as well as the chores shared by the output of the two-stone field.

The specific executor is Li Zheng, so when the labor is actually distributed, it is inevitable that it will not be distributed to people with merit, at least not too much. Otherwise, if it is unfair, people can directly complain to the county government.

After reading many books, Wei Guangde finally realized something.

In fact, there was no such and such preferential treatment for scholars in the Ming Dynasty.

There are discounts, but not many.

However, it seems that during the implementation process from top to bottom, the court's policy was misinterpreted.