Chapter 1468: Training Arc (7)

Zhao Mingming discovered issues that could be resolved independently and were unique to this small county town, she dealt with them herself.

For those that pertained to national policy, if she could think of ways to handle it from above while solving problems for the common people, she did it too.

As for the ones she couldn’t handle or couldn’t think of solutions for, she would write to her mother, seeking advice on what she should do.

What can the court do?

These were questions Zhao Mingming pondered without finding good solutions, she felt surely her mother didn’t have any answers either, and no one at court could come up with good ideas, otherwise, her mother would have resolved them as soon as someone mentioned them.

So, since the problems still existed and there were no whispers at court, it meant her mother and the ministers had no good solutions and perhaps hadn’t even noticed the issue.

Zhao Mingming felt that this time she was ahead of her mother, so she pretended to be worried, but with some boastful pride, wrote to her, saying, you—my daughter—have discovered a major problem in the country.

Zhao Hanzhang was very happy to receive the letter and immediately replied with a detailed one.

Zhao Mingming eagerly opened the letter, expecting her mother’s praise.

Zhao Hanzhang indeed praised her, but Zhao Mingming’s smug look gradually disappeared, replaced by growing seriousness.

She reread the letter three times, confirmed it was correct, and pressed it on the desk silently.

Fan Lianyin and Zu Daosheng were waiting beside her, seeing her serious expression, they asked hastily, "What’s wrong?"

Seeing her silent, the two grew anxious, cautiously guessing, "Did we upset Your Majesty, and she’s angry with you?"

Zhao Mingming slowly shook her head, "No, it’s that I realized the gap between my mother and me is too wide." She suddenly worried, worried about whether she’d be a good emperor.

Zhao Mingming touched the letter on the desk, feeling quite complex. She thought she was already approaching her mother, but this letter made her feel like a polo ball being hit far away, increasing the distance between her and her mother.

She once believed she could reach out and touch her mother’s back, only to find she couldn’t even see her mother’s silhouette.

The setback made Zhao Mingming doubt herself for the first time, questioning whether she could be a good emperor, taking over the reins of power from her mother.

Zhao Mingming was distressed all night, but the next morning she was full of energy, waking up the sleeping Fan Lianyin and Zu Daosheng from their beds, and said to them energetically, "Let’s have a talk."

The two were not fully awake and puzzled, "About what?"

"Didn’t I tell you last night? My mother has a whole set of tax reforms, let’s discuss the new tax reforms."

The two, half-asleep, rose up, and once they opened the door and saw each other and Zhao Mingming sitting spiritedly in the corridor waiting for them to freshen up, they suddenly woke up, "Crown Princess, what were you saying you wanted to talk about?"

Zhao Mingming: "New tax reforms."

Fan Lianyin and Zu Daosheng looked aggrieved, "You didn’t tell us what Your Majesty wrote in the letter last night."

So they were clueless, only knowing the Crown Princess was deeply impacted last night.

But they didn’t take it to heart, the Crown Princess was quite confident, even if she was hit, she wouldn’t take long to recover.

They hadn’t anticipated the importance of what Her Majesty wrote in the letter.

Curiously they asked, "Is the court going to conduct new tax reforms? Have the Left and Right Ministers and the discussion group approved?"

Zhao Mingming waved her hand, "No, my mother said it’s a matter requiring the efforts of two generations, tax reform is not a one-day’s work."

Zhao Mingming pulled the two into the study, "The issues that puzzled us recently, my mother’s new tax reform can basically solve them."

The two opened their mouths wide, how can this be?

Zhao Mingming took out the letter and a large piece of white paper, picked up a pen, and said to them, "My mother’s idea is similar to ours, the new taxes are to be paid in silver coins, of course, for some important main taxes, people can insist on paying with food and other material goods."

Zhao Hanzhang considered that in some remote areas, it is difficult to sell grains and cloth for silver coins, hence allowing certain states and counties to continue paying in kind, letting people freely choose.

However, within Zhao Hanzhang’s series of tax reforms, this is just a small part.

Zhao Mingming and the others originally felt that taking this step was already a big one, who would have thought Zhao Hanzhang was not just moving one step forward, but many.

"The new tax reform requires removing the Ding tax, spreading the Ding tax across the land tax, from now on, taxes will only include land tax, not Ding tax."

Fan Lianyin and Zu Daosheng opened their mouths wide, incredulously saying, "Since the Shang and Zhou dynasties, Ding tax has always been the main source of tax revenue, how can it be abolished?"

"Without Ding tax, wouldn’t the court’s tax revenue be greatly reduced? Moreover, what about merchants and craftsmen without land?"

Although Zhao Hanzhang equally distributed land, not everyone has land.

Because they have their own means of livelihood, craftsmen and merchants, under Zhao Hanzhang’s equitable distribution of land and household registration reform, they cannot buy servants, can only hire long-term and short-term workers, cultivating land requires more effort and time than before.

Hence some craftsmen and merchants weigh the pros and cons and give up land, focusing on their professions.

For these people, the court also has corresponding support policies.

Thus, urban dwellers without land are quite many.

Zhao Mingming said, "These people, like before, have to pay property tax. Such reform can achieve three objectives."

The three were not foolish, they imagined and knew the targets of the new tax reform.

Firstly, curbing land mergers, although Zhao Hanzhang strictly prohibited the sale of permanent fields, there should be some leeway left.

Thus there are stipulations, if it’s for a family’s serious illness or funeral rites, people are permitted to transfer the usage rights of permanent fields.

To put it plainly, if it’s due to serious disease or funeral rites, one can transfer land to third party usage, which is virtually equivalent to selling.

The court’s taxes have always been levied together as Ding tax and land tax.

Land tax, also called land rental, is land given free by the state for cultivation, upon death it reverts to state ownership, cannot be transferred, cannot be inherited.

Permanent fields are given to the people, similarly cannot be transferred but can be inherited, and permanent fields generally consist of quality land, thus annually a portion of land rent is paid to the court.

But the main tax collected by the court has consistently been Ding tax, i.e., poll tax.

From ancient times to present, Ding tax has been of utmost importance.

It has thus created a thousand-year problem—hidden households!

This topic is familiar to Zhao Hanzhang and Zhao Family clansmen, because during the previous dynasty, Zhao’s Fortress sheltered many refugees, most unregistered, these are hidden households.

They typically farmed lands for Zhao Family, only paying a small portion of land rent, with no Ding tax, during wartime they picked up arms to become troops, forming the Zhao Family Army.

Although the equal field system produced numerous hidden households, yet, in the vast land, there are places Zhao Hanzhang’s vision cannot reach, places beyond court’s oversight, thus hidden household issues still exist, though reduced.

The second target of the new tax reform is hidden households.

If Ding tax is abolished, leaving only land tax, how many would still be willing to become hidden households?

When land tax becomes mainstream, and the lands have been checked three times thoroughly with no hidden fields, how many landlords would still risk sheltering hidden households?

Their gains no longer reach the risks they must bear.

The third target is national unity for all people, alleviating common people’s burdens, benefiting all people, enriching both country and populace, or in other words, hidden wealth in the populace, this populace refers to all people under heaven, every person in the land.