lovenovelstory Chapter 002 Mutation
Chapter 002 Mutation
A large crowd had gathered in front of Li Shouyi's house, huddled together in twos and threes, whispering amongst themselves. Their faces were clouded with worry, making the surrounding air feel heavy and oppressive.
"Grandpa! What happened? Where's my brother? What's going on?" Zhou Lun, who had run back to the village in one breath, pushed his way through the crowd, followed by Wang Tieniu.
As I approached the door, I immediately saw Li Shiyan, the village elder, holding the arms of several young men, as if he were trying to persuade them about something.
Those young men were all close to Li Shouyi. The most conspicuous among them was Li Shouyi's cousin, Li Shoutian. The boy's face was flushed red, and he kept gesturing with his hands. He was talking like he was pouring out beans. It looked like he would have jumped out on the spot if Li Shiyan hadn't been holding him back.
"Lun-ge'er! You're finally back... Sigh!" Li Shiyan turned around when he heard the voice. When he saw Zhou Lun, he let out a long sigh as if he had forced it out from his chest, and his brows were furrowed into a knot.
"Brother Lun!" Li Shoutian rushed forward, his voice hoarse with anxiety, "Big Brother has been taken away by the authorities!"
"Taken away by the authorities?" Zhou Lun's mind went blank for a moment, and he asked urgently, "What exactly happened?"
Li Shoutian stomped his feet in anger, spitting as he recounted the whole story with gestures and words. Zhou Lun listened intently, his face growing increasingly grim, his fists clenching involuntarily.
The incident happened this morning.
No sooner had Zhou Lun gone up the mountain than the village head, along with two officials, entered the village to announce the imperial court's new tax policy for the year.
It's called a new policy, but it's not much different from previous years. It's just that this time the knife is being sharpened much faster.
The tax system of the Ming Dynasty was established during the reign of Emperor Taizu. Emperor Taizu came from a poor background and knew the hardships of ordinary people. The land tax set at the beginning of the dynasty was not high at all. In Shaanxi, the tax was one-thirtieth, and in the wealthy areas of Jiangnan, it was higher, but it was still only one-twentieth. At that time, it was considered a light tax.
But over the past two hundred years, the rules are no longer what they used to be. Nowadays, the land tax has risen to one-tenth of the original amount, which is many times higher than it was back then.
If it were just a matter of paying one-tenth of the taxes, the common people might be able to tighten their belts and get through it. What was truly fatal was the implementation of Zhang Juzheng's Single Whip Law decades ago. Although Zhang Juzheng's new policies were long abolished, the rule of collecting taxes in silver from the Single Whip Law was perpetuated.
There are too many tricks involved in this folded silver.
The common people grow grain, but they have to pay taxes in silver. How can they exchange grain for silver? The common people go and exchange it themselves? No way!
The government, not minding the trouble, thoughtfully devised a "discount system," designating several grain merchants in the city to collect grain, helping the people sell their grain for silver, and then pay taxes to the government.
It sounds plausible, but what's the reality? Grain merchants and government officials have long been colluding to drive down prices, adulterate grain, and pass off inferior goods as superior ones when purchasing grain. In addition, with silver being expensive and grain being cheap, and information gaps in grain prices across different regions, grain worth one tael of silver can be reduced to seven or eight tenths of a tael.
This is not finished.
When you take the silver to pay the tax, the government comes up with an extra charge called "fire loss," saying that the silver you brought is not pure enough and you have to pay more.
How much? There's no specific regulation on that; it all comes down to the officials' word. Some might add 20%, others 30% or 40%, and if you're unlucky enough to run into a greedy official with a huge appetite, the fire loss ratio could be split in half.
After all this, the official tax rate is one-tenth, but if you calculate it secretly, it's more than one-fifth or even one-third. The common people work hard all year, harvest grain and exchange it for money, and after paying this tax, they're barely left with enough to eat porridge.
In a year with favorable weather, they might be able to grit their teeth and get through it. But this year, the weather in Shaanxi has been like a madman. Since the beginning of winter last year, there have been very few rains and snows combined. The rivers have dried up, the wells are empty, and people have to be careful with their drinking water. As for the crops, the seedlings are drooping and look like there will be no harvest at all.
Logically, in such a famine, the imperial court should have exempted taxes and provided disaster relief. However, the newly enthroned Chongzhen Emperor did the opposite. Instead of reducing taxes, he issued an edict to increase the "three taxes."
The Liaodong military tax, the suppression military tax, and the training military tax—each name sounded more impressive than the last.
The Liaodong tax was used to fight the Jurchens in Liaodong. After the Battle of Sarhu, the Jurchens rose to power, and Liaodong had been at war for years. The imperial court was short of money and grain, so the Liaodong tax was levied starting in the 46th year of the Wanli reign and had never been interrupted.
The military tax for suppressing rebellions and the military tax for training troops were both centered around warfare. The former was used to suppress rebellions, and the latter was used to train troops. The total amount of these three taxes was not small, almost equivalent to the normal tax revenue of the entire Ming Dynasty.
During the Tianqi era, Emperor Tianqi and Wei Zhongxian, who held power, were still somewhat aware that simply exploiting ordinary people wouldn't achieve anything significant. The three taxes were mainly aimed at merchants and wealthy families in Jiangnan.
By increasing commercial taxes and exploiting wealthy households, Liaodong enjoyed a few years of peace, managing to repel the Jurchen invasion. However, upon ascending the throne, Emperor Chongzhen immediately executed Wei Zhongxian, completely overturning the Tianqi era's tax collection methods. He then issued an edict to reduce commercial taxes by more than half, to the delight of the upright officials in the court, who cheered and hailed Emperor Chongzhen as a wise and benevolent ruler of the Ming Dynasty. This secured his position on the throne, but how would he fill the huge hole created by the three taxes?
Chongzhen's method was simple and brutal. Since commercial taxes were no longer collected, he simply transferred them all to the land tax, making the people bear the burden.
Today, the village chief and his officials came to announce this new policy: this August, the land tax will be doubled, and the three taxes will be factored in, so the total amount will be more than double that of previous years.
The moment the decree was announced, the village erupted in uproar.
Everyone could hardly believe their ears. The crops were almost completely destroyed, and the imperial court was still raising taxes? Wasn't this driving people to their deaths?
Someone pointed to the cracked farmland, telling the village head and officials to see for themselves what a state it was. At this point, who could hold back? Several hot-tempered young men immediately jumped up and started cursing. Li Shouyi, who was highly respected in the village and a leader among the younger generation, was naturally pushed forward to argue with them. But before he could say more than a few words, the officials became angry.
The officials probably thought these peasants were ungrateful and decided to make an example of them. Without saying a word, they pulled out their weapons and arrested Li Shouyi on charges of "disrespecting the imperial decrees and inciting the people to resist the government," and were to take him to the county town.
This completely enraged the villagers. Li Shoutian, Wang Tieniu, and the other young men were so anxious that their eyes turned red, and they rolled up their sleeves, ready to rush forward and snatch the man away.
At this moment, Li Shouyi was calmer than anyone else.
He shouted at Li Shoutian and his men, his tone surprisingly calm: "Don't lay a hand on me! If you do, this matter will become unreasonable, even if you're in the right!" He straightened his clothes and glanced at the officials: "No matter where you are in the world, you have to be reasonable. I'm not afraid of anything I haven't done, even if I end up in the county government office!"
And just like that, Li Shouyi was taken away by the officials, without even having a chance to say goodbye. The village head and the officials were afraid that these farmers might really get angry and cause a big trouble, so they left a few harsh words and hurriedly took him to the county town.
After hearing this, Zhou Lun felt as if a huge rock was stuck in his chest.
He raised his head, his gaze passing over the crowd, and looked at the path leading to the county town at the village entrance. The path was long since deserted, with only a trail of yellow dust billowing in the wind, appearing hazy and indistinct.
The incident happened so suddenly that it's too late to chase after them now. And even if they did catch up, what then? Since the officials were able to take Li Shouyi away in front of the villagers, Zhou Lun wouldn't be able to get them to let him in, and might even get himself implicated.
Despite his anger, Zhou Lun remained rational. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down, his mind racing as he tried to figure out how to bring Li Shouyi back.