Chapter 178: Reasonable Burden

Ancient Chinese taxation was rarely used for public services. So-called taxation was the collection of wealth to support the rule. The hardships of the people and the improvement of society were rarely considered. The social public affairs and people’s welfare undertaken by modern governments were not within their consideration.

The dynasty’s fiscal revenue was almost entirely used to support the royal family, the army, and the officials. Even so, whenever there was a slight disturbance, there would be a “shortage of national funds.” The solution was also very simple: to impose additional levies. Each additional levy was a carnival of increased income for officials at all levels, and a disaster for the common people below.

Take Lingao for example. Although the Ming government collected more than 7,000 shi of regular grain tax from here every year, it was difficult to see what these imperial taxes brought to the county. In two hundred years, there was only one water conservancy project built by the government. The Wenshui Bridge was probably a practical project undertaken by the government, but it was the only one in more than two hundred years.

The people’s taxes supported the government. Apart from the most basic “precarious peace,” this government brought no benefits to the people of Lingao. Disaster relief relied on private “righteous granaries”; defending against bandits required the common people to take up arms and serve as village braves. Although one-third of the more than 7,000 shi of grain each year was directly used as “co-pay” for the garrison on Hainan Island, when Lingao was plagued by bandits on land and sea, the people could not count on these government troops they supported to come out and “suppress the bandits.”

If the transmigrator regime wanted to win the trust of the people, it had to break this thousand-year-old model and establish a truly modernized national system. The common people might be ignorant, but they were definitely not stupid when it came to their own interests. They could see who was truly working for them and for their welfare.

At the beginning of the meeting, the county magistrate’s assistant gave a speech. It was the first time Wu Ya had encountered such a scene. He only had experience of trying cases in the public hall, where the plaintiff and defendant knelt below and dared not look at him, and at most there were some idle people watching from outside the door. Now he was sitting side by side with a group of “Kun bandits,” with several hundred local figures watching him from below.

Fortunately, the speech had already been written for him by Wang Zhaomin, and he only had to read it. This innocuous speech had been reviewed by the transmigrators to ensure that it contained no conspiracies.

There had been some haggling over the content of the speech. The transmigrators naturally hoped that the Lingao county yamen’s support for them would be “clear-cut,” while Magistrate Wu hoped that the words would be ambiguous, the vaguer the better. Thus, Wang Zhaomin’s draft was decided upon after a day of discussion between the main writers of both sides. In general, everyone was satisfied.

Wu Ya originally did not want to come and read the speech, but of course, Old Master Wu did not want to show his face on such an occasion, lest he have no excuse in the future. So the county magistrate’s assistant became the scapegoat. Originally, Wu Ya had planned to use his official rank to pressure the county registrar to be his scapegoat, but he was sternly rejected by the “Kun bandits”—the county magistrate’s assistant was, after all, the second-in-command of the county, and his persuasiveness was much stronger in the eyes of the common people than a semi-official, semi-clerical position like the county registrar.

Forced to do so, Wu Ya acted as the county yamen’s representative at the meeting. A red envelope containing eighty taels of silver given to him by the transmigrators slightly soothed his wounded heart.

After the county magistrate’s assistant spoke about the serious pirate situation facing the county and the importance and necessity of organizing a joint defense militia, he announced that the petition for a county-wide joint defense initiated by Damei Village had been approved by the county yamen with its seal. The name of the militia was “Bairen Society.” The government issued relevant documents to the Bairen Society, granting it the authority to organize, train, and command the militia.

The Bairen Society established a “public office” in East Gate Market as the office for the militia. At the same time, it could collect militia funds and grain from the villages that joined the society.

The president of the Bairen Society was, of course, Wu De. Although he was not a military leader, the head of a militia society was usually a local gentleman who specialized in dealing with the government and the villages. As the new People’s Commissar for Civil Affairs, it was more appropriate for him to hold this official position. Moreover, through this position, he could get to know all the local leading figures, which would facilitate his future work.

Wu De was not wearing his training uniform. In fact, all the transmigrators attending the meeting today were dressed more formally than usual. Of course, this formality was not a suit and tie, but they were no longer wearing the colorful various training uniforms they usually wore. Today, he was wearing a blue 87-style naval officer’s spring and autumn uniform without collar insignia. He looked very solemn.

Wu De’s speech was in Mandarin, with Xiong Buyou and a few others providing simultaneous interpretation, including the Lingao dialect, Hainan Mandarin, and Minnan dialect.

Wu De said that the Bairen Society would prioritize the interests of all the people in the county, strive to shoulder the important responsibility of maintaining peace in the county, and under the correct guidance of Emperor Chongzhen, with the care of officials at all levels of the Lingao county yamen, and with the support of the gentry and people of the whole county, the Bairen Society would unswervingly continue to adhere to the principle of “suppressing the strong and supporting the weak, protecting the border and pacifying the people,” and make new contributions to the stability and prosperity of Lingao County and the creation of a harmonious Ming society.

This set of novel vocabulary made the attendees quite curious. The only drawback was that when Wu De mentioned Emperor Chongzhen, Wu Ya and the others on the rostrum immediately stood up and shouted “Long live the Emperor,” and the representatives of all circles below also fell to their knees in a rustle.

After this grand and righteous speech, the meeting entered the main topic: levying grain and labor.

The newly appointed People’s Commissar for Civil Affairs, Wu De, was cautious about this matter. After all, levying grain and labor was a complicated and meticulous task. The transmigrators had neither the authority of a government nor detailed information, and relied only on the deterrence of force. According to their consistent experience, any such burden would often fall on the lowest level of society. They were currently unable to change the social structure. The only way was to control the levy within an acceptable range to avoid excessive oppression.

Therefore, this grain and labor imposed by the transmigrator group on the people of Lingao was named the “reasonable burden.”

The “reasonable burden” plan was to be collected on a village-by-village basis. Each village would report the amount it could bear.

The reason for adopting the self-reporting method was that the transmigrators did not have time to conduct a complete investigation of the land and harvest situation in the entire county, and it was difficult to control the burden very accurately. Although it was not too difficult to obtain the fish-scale register data of the various villages’ taxes from the county yamen, this kind of register was actually not very accurate and was even full of errors. The reason why officials regarded it as a treasure was only because it was the only basis for collecting grain tax. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, land concealment was quite serious, and the fish-scale register did not reflect the actual production level of each village at all. Using the data provided by this kind of register would only aggravate the already unreasonable tax burden.

Although some transmigrators believed that letting the villages self-report would lead to a reduction in the reported amount, Wu De pointed out that even with a reduction and concealment, it was still better than using the fish-scale register. First, each village had a clear idea of its actual output, and the reported number would at least not exceed the level it could bear. Second, with their current authority and the legend of their “mastery of supernatural powers,” the self-reported numbers of the villages would not be too low—they would not dare to fool the transmigrators. If such a situation really occurred, they could make an example of one to warn the others. Third, Wu De believed that this method embodied the spirit of equal consultation and was beneficial to winning the hearts of the people.

As expected, as soon as this method was announced, all the villages breathed a sigh of relief. They had originally been afraid that the transmigrator group would make an exorbitant demand, but now they only had to self-report their “donations.”

Everyone understood this “donation.” Whenever the government had a major event to handle, it would also have something like a “donation” or “joyful contribution.” This was more negotiable than the imperial taxes, and with a little money to bribe the officials in charge, you could even bargain.

“Everyone, report the numbers according to the actual situation of your own village. Do what you can,” Wu De said with a pleasant expression.

The venue was immediately in an uproar. The representatives of the various villages had only been prepared to accept a number and go back. Now that they had to self-report, some people felt that they could not make the decision themselves—after all, once this number was reported, it would be the law. It was not appropriate to report too much or too little.

Huang Bingkun saw this as an opportunity and deliberately said, “This is a major event for the village. It’s not convenient for us to make the decision ourselves. It’s better to go back and discuss it.”

The people around him heard this and felt that it was reasonable. So someone stood up and requested to go back and discuss it with the village elders before coming back to report. Many people also echoed this sentiment.

This is good, Huang Bingkun thought. There are so many villages, and they are at different distances. It would take at least four or five days to go back and forth. In addition, there would definitely be a few days of wrangling in the village. By the time they had another meeting, it would be at least half a month later.

Wu De was prepared for this situation. He asked the villages to first count how many could decide on the “reasonable burden” on the spot and how many needed to go back and discuss it. The list was then reported.

According to the statistics, about eighty villages could decide on the spot, while the other two hundred or so said they had to go back and discuss it.

“Those who can decide on the spot, report the numbers later,” Wu De announced. “Those who need to go back and discuss it can go back and discuss it after the meeting is over. Report the numbers to the public office before the fifteenth of the second lunar month.”

In this way, Huang Bingkun’s original hope of adjourning the meeting first was completely shattered. The meeting continued.

After deciding on the “reasonable burden,” Wu De announced the content of the labor levy.

The problem of levying labor was far more difficult than the “reasonable burden.” Lingao did not lack land, but it lacked labor. Although there were immigrants from the mainland entering the county every year, the mortality rate was very high due to the problem of acclimatization. For small households, labor was the guarantee of their family’s survival. For large households, only with labor could they obtain more wealth. Therefore, even those who had many long-term laborers, slaves, and tenants were unwilling to send people to work.