Chapter 177： collect taxes

Chapter 177 Taxation

177 tax collection

With the arrival of this heavy snow, the tax collectors also arrived as scheduled.

After several days of heavy snowfall, on the third day, when it finally stopped, the village head began to go door-to-door to inform them to prepare for going to Lizheng’s house to pay taxes.

There are special tax collectors in the county seat who are responsible for collecting and managing taxes, but in small villages like them, Lizheng is mainly responsible for collecting taxes and then handing them over.

After listening to the notice from the village chief, Zhao Zhitong was very puzzled, and asked with a blink of an eye: "Uncle village chief, haven't we just paid the tax? Why do we have to pay it~"

Indeed, not long after this year's autumn harvest, they have already paid a tax, and Zhao Zhitong still remembers it clearly.

Because what happened that day left a deep impression on her.

Going to pay taxes at Lizheng’s house that day, Zhao Zhitong happened to be at home, so he followed Zhao Dong to bring food.

After they arrived, Zhao Zhitong found that many villagers had bitter looks on their faces after paying their taxes.

Zhao Zhitong didn't understand very well, so he chased those people and asked, and then he found out that the land rent tax in the Great Zhou Dynasty was as high as one fortieth.

That is to say, one-quarter of the output of one mu of land has to be handed over to the grain.

The productivity in this period was not high, and the yield of wheat per mu was about 360 catties. This was an era of good weather.

If the weather was bad that year, an acre of land would only produce two hundred catties of wheat. Those people said that after all kinds of taxes were removed, the remaining food was barely enough to make ends meet.

So, what they are most afraid of is paying taxes.

But at that time, Grandpa Bai said that the tax was already relatively light. He had checked that the dynasty before the Great Zhou Dynasty was the Han Dynasty, and their people had to pay one-third of their grain. The tax paid is even higher, some even as high as two-thirds!

Then, Zhao Zhitong counted with his fingers. Based on one-third of the tax, this year's weather will be smooth and the harvest will be very good. One mu of land will be 360 ​​catties of wheat.

After paying the tax, there are still more than 200 catties of wheat left, and indeed there is still a lot of grain left, but why did the people who paid the tax at that time have bitter expressions on their faces?

At that time, Zhao Zhaotong couldn't figure it out, but now, he finally had an answer.

The village chief sighed inaudibly and said: "After the autumn harvest, we pay the land rent tax. Now, we have to pay the poll tax."

Head tax, that is, calculated tax, is paid according to the number of heads in a family.

Zhao Zhitong couldn't help but fell into deep thought. After Zhao Dong sent the village chief away, she still hadn't recovered.

After paying the taxes before, Grandpa Bai started to learn about this dynasty, and now he has learned a lot about it. Now, he started to educate Zhao Zhitong: "Girl, what is the most basic tax of the Great Zhou Dynasty?" There are three kinds, Tian Zu Tax, Head Tax, and Heyong Tax, that is, Exemption Tax."

Zhao Zhitong already knew about Tian Zu tax and poll tax, but she didn't know much about the exemption tax, so she asked, "Grandpa Bai, what is the exemption tax?"

Grandpa Bai thought for a while and said: "It means exempting the service fee. There are many types of service at this time, such as "Gengzu", "Zhengzu" and "Wuzu". "Gengzu" means labor for the country, such as road construction. , digging rivers, repairing dams, etc. And "Zhengzu" only needs to serve once in his life, and that is to go to the capital to serve as a soldier for the imperial court."

"As for the "Wu Zu", it is the worst kind, that is, they have to go to the border for three days every year. Due to the inconvenience of transportation in ancient times, it is good to be close, but it will take several months to go back and forth if they are far away. ?So as long as this "five soldiers" are far away, they will basically pay money."

Zhao Zhitong's eyes widened when he heard this, and he asked in surprise: "Then, then, my father and elder brother and second brother, are they also going to serve various kinds of military service?"

Grandpa Bai nodded: "In theory, yes, but your father's legs and feet are inconvenient, so he will definitely have to pay taxes and be exempted. Serving in the military is tiring and ruthless. It is a very laborious thing. Like the second generation of the Sui Dynasty The emperor, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, Yang Guang, was too impatient and wanted to dig the Grand Canal, which led to complaints from the people. Although his original intention was for the national economy, he still lost the hearts of the people."

Zhao Zhitong listened very seriously. She liked that Grandpa Bai told her short stories about various dynasties. It was very interesting to listen to.

Next, Grandpa Bai told her about all kinds of strange taxes in ancient times, such as besides the population tax, there was also a "household tax" based on the family, and each household had to pay two hundred dollars.

There is also the so-called "contribution fee", which means the money dedicated to the "emperor", which means that the emperor is always working hard for the world, and each person has to pay sixty-three qian per year.

She even knew for the first time that the country would force women to marry early. If a woman never married from the age of fifteen to thirty, the tax would be doubled, up to the average tax. Five times as many people!

Of course, there are many particularly strange taxes among them, which are not often collected when the country is prosperous and the people are safe. Generally, when the country needs money, it will start to collect some strange taxes.

This is why, in ancient times, the land was vast and sparsely populated, and an adult man could be allocated 20 acres of Yongye land, but when natural disasters and man-made disasters occurred, so many ordinary people were displaced and even forced to rebel.

While Zhao Zhitong was chatting with Grandpa Bai, Zhao Dong had already started to calculate the money they had to pay, tidied up, and was about to go to Lizheng's house.

"Dad! I'm going too, I'm going too!"

Zhao Zhitong yelled, bounced off the bench, and ran after him.

Seeing this, Sun Mei hurriedly took her the small cloak and put it on, and Zhao Dong carried her to Lizheng's house.

Because Li was about to collect taxes from their five villages, Zhaozhai Village, Xiaoyi Village, Sunzhuang Village, Zhangjia Village, and Liujiazhuang Village, there were quite a few people queuing at this time.

After Zhao Dong arrived, he took Zhao Zhitong and lined up behind the crowd, and slowly moved forward with the team.

Zhao Zhitong was not mischievous either, so he obediently followed Zhao Dong in line.

At this moment, there was a sudden noise in front, which attracted Zhao Zhitong's attention.

She let go of Zhao Dong's hand, trotted over, and squeezed into the crowd.

Now they are all villagers in the surrounding villages, and most of them are familiar with each other, so Zhao Dong also rest assured that Zhao Zhitong is playing around, just pay attention to her figure.

After Zhao Zhitong squeezed in, he saw an old man showing a smile that was uglier than crying, he waved his hands in a panic and said, "No, I'm not looking for trouble, Li Zheng, an adult usually pays 120 a year. For money, children aged eight and above need to pay twenty-three qian, and elderly people aged 56 don’t have to pay. My mother is already 56 years old this year. Last year she said it was because her birthday was not counted, but this year it’s already It's fifty-six, why, why are there still as many as last year?"

He was lowering his head and thinking about the abacus, looked up at him, and said coldly: "You mean I made a mistake?"

The old man quickly waved his hand: "No, that's not what I meant. I, I'm just afraid that Lizheng you misjudged your age. I paid 505 yuan last year. This year, shouldn't it be less... less than last year?"

(end of this chapter)