A few days later.
The atmosphere in the back hall of the Jiangning County Magistrate's office was very oppressive. Outside the window, the dreary rain continued to fall, making the room feel even more solemn.
Xu Youde slumped in his armchair, holding a yellow registry book in his hands, his brows furrowed tightly.
He flipped through it while sighing heavily, occasionally reaching up to pluck at his beard. His already sparse goatee was nearly plucked bald.
Sigh... What a sin, what are we going to do...
Filled with grief and indignation, Xu Youde slammed the ledger onto the table. The crisp smack startled the dozing advisor nearby, making him shudder.
On a rosewood soft couch on the other side of the room, Xu Qinghuan was sitting completely devoid of elegance, with her legs crossed.
She grabbed a green jujube and took a bite with a loud crunch, the sound piercing in the quiet room.
Dad, what is wrong with you now?
This old man, his daily dramatics were bigger than the sky.
Hearing this, Xu Youde was suddenly overcome with sorrow. He pointed at the mountain of ledgers on the table, his fingers trembling.
Daughter! At a time like this, you still have the mood to eat jujubes!
Xu Youde beat his chest and stomped his feet, looking utterly miserable.
Our Jiangning County might look like it is blooming with flowers and cooking with hot oil, but in reality, it is just an empty shell! It is like a piece of donkey dung that is only shiny on the outside!
Xu Qinghuan raised an eyebrow and asked casually, How is it an empty shell? The wealthy merchants outside wear gold and silver; they do not look like they lack money.
What is the use of them having money? That is their money! Not the yamen's money!
Xu Youde jumped up from his chair, grabbed a fish-scale land register, and shook it loudly.
Look at this! Look at the accounts in here!
The taxes of our Great Qian Dynasty are collected per head! As long as there is a person in the household register, even if you are a beggar, you have to pay the poll tax, and you have to go do that deadly corvee labor!
Xu Youde grew angrier as he spoke, pacing back and forth in the aisle like a restless old donkey.
Those poor commoners only have two acres of barren land in total. After paying taxes and serving their labor, they are exploited at every level. In the end, they cannot even afford a bowl of thin porridge and are forced to sell their sons and daughters!
And if that was not enough, the real problem is those local gentry and powerful families!
At this point, Xu Youde's eyes turned red. He gritted his teeth and pointed out the window in the direction of the Wang and Xie family mansions.
That Wang family has tens of thousands of acres of fertile land! The Xie family has manors everywhere! But they hold official degrees, so they do not have to pay taxes! They do not have to serve corvee!
To survive and hide from that deadly poll tax, the commoners have no choice but to take their own land and surrender it under the names of these wealthy families, becoming their servants and tenant farmers!
And the result? The land is still the same land, the people are still the same people, but on the yamen's books, the land is gone! The people are gone too!
Xu Youde slapped his thigh, grimacing in pain.
Right now, ninety percent of the land in all of Jiangning County is in the hands of those major prominent families. What is left is all barren land! We cannot collect the tax silver, daughter! The storehouses of our county yamen are so clean right now that even a mouse would cry on its way out!
These gentry are simply giant rats sucking the blood of the Great Qian Dynasty! Giant rats! Despicable! Absolutely despicable!
Xu Youde cursed, spit flying everywhere, as if trying to vent a lifetime's worth of resentment.
Xu Qinghuan, who had been leisurely munching on her jujube, froze when she heard the words cannot collect the tax silver.
In an instant, the CPU in her brain began to run at top speed.
Not being able to collect tax silver equals the yamen having no money.
The yamen having no money equals her dad having no money to pay salaries.
Her dad having no money equals her having no money either.
If I do not have money, how can I be a prodigal? How can I build infrastructure? How can I fill that bottomless pit of a system?
Furthermore, a new mission has already been issued.
This dog of a system wants me to squander eight million eight hundred and eighty-eight thousand taels of silver in one year acting as an immoral rich person.
If I cannot complete the system mission, will that one hundred million in retirement funds not go down the drain? How will I return to the modern world to enjoy air conditioning, WiFi, and watermelon?
More importantly, those hundreds of Spinning Jennys I have are already crying out for food. With no money to buy cotton and no money to hire workers, am I supposed to pedal the sewing machines myself?
How is this just failing to collect taxes?
This is clearly those prominent families cutting off my path to wealth!
Cutting off someone's path to wealth is like killing their parents!
Damn it!
Xu Qinghuan fiercely threw the jujube pit in her hand onto the ground and slammed her palm onto the rosewood side table, making the teacup lid jump wildly.
These old fogeys! Refusing the face they are given, huh?
Xu Qinghuan's eyes shot forth the ruthless gleam of a capitalist.
They even dare to welsh on the protection money this grand-aunt reserved? They are rebelling!
Xu Youde had been cursing with great enthusiasm, but was startled by his daughter's sudden murderous aura. The righteous, patriotic grief he felt a moment ago instantly vanished by half.
He shrank his neck and asked weakly, Daughter... do you have a plan?
Xu Qinghuan sneered. She stood up from the soft couch and placed one foot heroically on the edge of the armchair.
Dad, this matter is very simple.
Xu Qinghuan curled her lip in sheer disdain.
Do these people not like playing hide and seek? People can run, they can hide, and they can surrender themselves to wealthy families as servants, that is true.
But—
Xu Qinghuan extended a finger and poked the air viciously.
That land cannot run away, right? Those acres of fertile land cannot sprout legs, can they?
Xu Youde paused for a moment and nodded subconsciously, Of course it cannot run away. The land is sitting right there.
Then that settles it!
Xu Qinghuan waved her hand as if swatting a fly.
Since we cannot find the people, we just will not collect money for the people! We will switch to collecting money for the land!
Whether this land is in the hands of Bastard Wang or Turtle Xie, as long as the land is under your name, you have to pay this old lady protection money!
Whoever has more land pays more, whoever has better land pays more! This is called precision harvesting of leeks!
Xu Youde was completely bewildered, and his hand stopped flicking the abacus. Collecting money for the land? What... what kind of regulation is this?
Xu Qinghuan spat out four words, pausing after each one:
Apportioning the Ding into the Mu!
I think that is what it is called.
Xu Qinghuan recalled what the history textbooks said. As for the actual effects... who remembers that!
The abacus in Xu Youde's hand fell to the ground with a clatter, the beads rolling everywhere.
Xu Qinghuan ignored her father's shock and continued to spew her bandit logic.
We will not do that flashy, useless poll tax anymore, and we will scrap the corvee labor too.
Take all that bullshit corvee and poll tax, convert it into silver, and spread it evenly across every acre of farmland!
She added viciously, a wicked grin on her face.
From now on, do not even think about using a small family population as an excuse. Even if you are a loner, as long as you are occupying the latrine, you have to crap out gold for me!
If they are short a single copper coin, I will bring people to dig up their ancestral graves to pay off the debt!
