As the Emperor, Xiao Qing naturally understood that "Tanding Ru Mu" would greatly alleviate the tax burden on the common people and liberate them from the clutches of local magnates. However, it would offend the landlords and magnates, and could only be implemented when central authority reached its peak.
Even if the state implemented Tanding Ru Mu, it could only roughly ascertain how many hidden households these landlords and magnates had privately harbored. It was still impossible to investigate precisely who these hidden households were and their circumstances.
Liang Xiao smiled and said, "After Tanding Ru Mu is implemented, to manage these unregistered residents and prevent them from being exploited by the magnates, a set of improved policies can be introduced in conjunction with the current national conditions: 'Da Suo Mao Yue'!"
Da Suo Mao Yue?
Xiao Qing was taken aback, and even Ning Xuejun, who had been silent, was filled with curiosity.
After all, Liang Xiao always brought Xiao Qing fresh and practical strategies!
Liang Xiao immediately explained his improved version of Da Suo Mao Yue to Xiao Qing.
"The so-called 'Da Suo' is to take stock of the national household registration and record names, birth dates, and appearances to search for hidden populations. The so-called 'Mao Yue' is to meticulously compare the appearance of the people in various regions with the descriptions on their household registration."
"Because the Da Qian Kingdom still has poll tax, some adults, in order to evade the poll tax, falsely report their age, pretend to be old or young, or are even forced to seek refuge with local gentry and magnates. After Tanding Ru Mu is promoted, the pressure of poll tax will be lifted, and the common people will naturally be willing to accept management. However, some landlords and magnates will absolutely not hand over their hidden households obediently."
"Therefore, new regulations are needed. If any household registration is falsely reported, local officials such as Lizheng and Baozhang will be punished with exile. Furthermore, the common people will be encouraged to report on each other, and at the same time, regulations on 'three illnesses' will be stipulated..."
Xiao Qing listened to Liang Xiao speak eloquently, his eyes shining, "Those landlords and magnates, to avoid being implicated sooner or later, must carefully consider whether to continue harboring these hidden households! As long as the people's household registration is accounted for and managed, it will be extremely difficult for them to raise private troops in the future!"
Liang Xiao nodded with a smile.
Da Suo Mao Yue was a policy introduced by Emperor Wen of Sui, Yang Jian, with the aim of locating hidden populations, increasing national tax revenue, and increasing the labor force for corvée. This measure had its advantages and disadvantages.
After this rectification by the Sui Dynasty, a large number of hidden households broke free from the landlords and magnates and became taxpayers for the state. National treasury revenue increased significantly, while simultaneously striking at the landlords and magnates and strengthening central authority.
However, the Sui Dynasty implemented the equal-field system. Under conditions of general insufficient land grants, a large number of common people were incorporated into the household registration, and even forcibly "divided households" for taxation and increased corvée, which also overstrained the people's capacity, leading to widespread resentment and sowing the seeds for the short-lived Sui Dynasty. Once national development stagnated, conflict was inevitable.
However, the premise for the Da Qian Kingdom to implement Da Suo Mao Yue was Tanding Ru Mu, the abolition of poll tax, and greatly reducing the burden on the common people. The combination of the two could effectively curb landlords and magnates from harboring large numbers of domestic servants and private troops, thus eliminating this biggest hidden danger!
Coupled with屯田 (tun tian, land reclamation and farming system), with a high proportion of profit sharing for the people, allowing them to have land to cultivate. The official fields they cultivated would not require taxes, which would greatly boost the enthusiasm of the common people for屯田 and wasteland reclamation!
Here, he could not give the people a modern life and way of thinking, but he could try his best to make the people live better than before...
Xiao Qing gazed at Liang Xiao with affection, his eyes flowing. Even Ning Xuejun could not help but nod and praise.
"To serve as a general and a minister!"
Wang Canghai, after understanding the cooperation between Da Suo Mao Yue, Tanding Ru Mu, and屯田, also praised it highly.
"Do not overstrain the people's capacity."
Wang Canghai always remembered Liang Xiao's reminder and was not in a hurry to implement Da Suo Mao Yue.
The most critical issues for the Da Qian Kingdom currently were not fiscal, but how to eliminate various hidden dangers and at the same time resist border enemies.
Because the Da Qian Kingdom was busy stabilizing the national situation and absorbing the results of the northern expedition, it temporarily could not spare troops for expeditions to various countries. The surrounding countries would certainly imitate Da Qian's military equipment reforms during this period, and eventually there would be a great war, so one could not be careless!
The imperial court's repurchase of national land, along with so-called "donations," was proceeding in full swing.
The Ministry of Revenue's pressure increased sharply. Fortunately, the new Minister of Revenue, Gu Hong, was dedicated and, with the prestige he had accumulated in the court, coordinated the responsibilities of everyone. With the assistance of people from the Prime Minister's office, he was still able to manage with relative ease.
In the capital and its surrounding areas, there were over four million mu of land eligible for repurchase!
A few months ago, the authorities had increased the profit-sharing ratio for those engaged in屯田, making the common people more enthusiastic about cooperating with the government. The prices of farmland owned by landlords and magnates had fallen significantly, making them eager to dispose of it as soon as possible.
Of course, some landlords and magnates were unwilling to give up their land. Instead, they used coercion and inducements to make the tenant farmers under their names sign various contracts to continue farming for them, even if the proportion of income was far lower than that of屯田.
This part of the landlords and magnates were the primary targets for Xiao Qing's future crackdowns.
Gu Hong and Mu Lingming, at their respective homes, were somewhat relieved upon learning that Xiao Qing had only symbolically collected five thousand taels of silver from the donated money, returned the rest, and granted them commendations.
Their intentions had been conveyed, and they had confirmed Xiao Qing's regard for them. As long as their entire clans did not engage in malfeasance, they could live with peace of mind.
As for land annexation and bookstores, which Liang Xiao had set as red lines, they would never cross them, and even admired Liang Xiao's boldness.
Selling books at such low prices was indeed low-profit and high-volume, purely so that the common people could have the financial capacity to read in the future.
In the capital, almost every household kept a few books from the Anguo Bookstore at home, especially the Four Books and Five Classics and literacy primers that had been on sale at reduced prices.
In the streets and alleys, discussions about stories like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Journey to the West" were constant.
Previously, if the common people wanted to read these stories, they could only collect past newspapers. Now, these updated contents were printed into books, finally allowing more people to understand the stories in detail, bringing spiritual sustenance to the hardworking people of this land.
As for the subsequent updates of these stories, once the number of chapters was sufficient, they would continue to be printed into books until completion, increasing the attractiveness of the newspapers.
According to the efficiency of the central government, by the time the repurchase of farmland in the four regions of Donghai, Dongnan, Xibei, and Xichuan was nearing October.
Most of the farmland purchased by Xiao Qing through his shadow guards were from the previous land requisition orders, and were then openly repurchased by Xiao Qing, equivalent to a transfer from one hand to the other.
What Xiao Qing needed to do now was to falsely report "fundraising" as much as possible to cover up his private treasury.
At this time, the land acquired by Liang Xiao in Yanzhou and Jiangnan had already exceeded eight million mu, with five million mu planted with new crops from last year's harvest!
The remaining three million mu were farmland of the Ouyang family acquired two months ago.
Of course, more than one million mu of this was jointly acquired by Lu Yi and the Zither Sage Gongsun Jing with their money, and was registered under Liang Xiao's name.
According to Liang Xiao's proposal, these poor-quality fields were specifically used to plant new crops. On the one hand, they could generate profits, and on the other hand, they could alleviate the state's grain pressure. Xiao Qing did not intend to repurchase them for the time being.
In just three days, the repurchase of land in the capital area was completed, to everyone's delight!
The landlords felt that they had cut their losses in time and sold at an acceptable price. Xiao Qing obtained the land he wanted, and the common people had more official fields to cultivate, alleviating the problem of land annexation.
In late July, in the capital, Yanzhou, and other places, Liang Xiao's and Liang Feng's restaurants featured several new ingredients, arousing the curiosity of the common people.