Feng Yi said, "I thought that the Lord already had this thought a long time ago."
Feng Zhen glanced at his son.
Yes, this kid was no longer the good bamboo shoot he was proud of, but Xiong 'er Feng Yi!
Feng Yi asked in a low voice, "Dare I ask, father, how do you think Xia and Dongqing were destroyed?"
Feng Zhen's brows furrowed. His son's question had a deeper meaning.
"If we want the Shengshi Dynasty to survive, we can't fall on the same question again."
Feng Zhen stared at his son with a strange gaze. He was silent for a long time, making Wan Xiu 'er, a bystander, unable to sit still.
After a long time, Feng Zhen sighed and said to his son.
"What do you think? Say it."
Feng Zhen's guess was right. Feng Yi's secret letter was indeed in Jiang Pengji's hands.
Only she and Wei Ci had seen the contents of the letter.
"A bad bamboo produces a good bamboo shoot. What good things did Feng Zhen do in his past life to have such a son?" Wei Ci carefully folded the secret letter, brought over an oil lamp and lit it. The orange-red flame shot up fiercely and engulfed the secret letter in an instant. "Wen Zheng and Huaiyu's eldest wife are also impressive. Given time, they will definitely have a place in the imperial court …"
Jiang Pengji smiled. "This also shows that the Golden Scale Academy's education is successful. Feng Yi's children are the best proof."
Under the relatively open education model of the Golden Scale Academy, the students' horizons were broader than expected. They could vaguely understand the meaning of Jiang Pengji's chess game. Of course, it was due to their talent, but the education they received also played a big role.
Wei Ci said, "My lord … Is it really like what Feng Yi and the others said …"
Jiang Pengji said, "These children … Heh, they are still young. Their bold guess is only 30% correct."
Due to the limitations of the era, very few scholars dared to blame the destruction of a country on issues such as taxes, gentry, and land annexation.
Why?
Because most scholars were of noble birth. When they questioned these issues, they were also denying their social status and harming their own interests.
Feng Yi and the others were able to jump out of the fence. This kind of awareness was rare.
Wei Ci said, "How does my lord intend to respond?"
Jiang Pengji smiled. "Grant them marriage. Just let them know."
She had spent so many years plotting, now was not the time to bare her fangs.
This was because the trap she had set up was challenging the class of interests that had been deeply rooted for hundreds of years. It concerned the interests and fates of too many people.
What was the root cause of the destruction of Xia Kingdom and Dongqing Kingdom?
The distribution of benefits among different classes was uneven.
With the fewest people hogging 99% of the resources, how could society not be chaotic?
The change of dynasties was nothing more than a shuffle of resources.
If Jiang Pengji wanted the future dynasty to last longer and for the people to enjoy more peace, she had to work hard to distribute the resources more evenly. If it was divided evenly, it meant that the guy who had 99% of the resources would have to take out the things in his pocket.
No one was a saint. It was impossible for the landowning households to benefit from this.
Jiang Pengji wanted to think of a way to slow down the annexation of land. In essence, she was affecting the fundamental interests of this class. Moreover, she had also established the Golden Scale Academy and vigorously promoted education. She was challenging the aristocratic class's monopoly on education _ (: з) ∠) _
Interestingly enough, if one were to get to the bottom of it, the noble landowning families were once powerful landowners.
Through repeated political investments and gambles, they obtained political and economic privileges.
After a few generations of operation, they started from the local government and gradually got involved with the central government. They gained a firm foothold and gained more rights to speak.
They huddled together and grew rapidly. They annexed countless lands and enjoyed various privileges. Gradually, they became famous families in later generations.
The cake was limited. If they wanted to enjoy more benefits, they had to kick down those who tried to climb up to share their cake.
Therefore, the monopoly of officialdom and culture came into being.
Jiang Pengji wanted to break this monopoly. It was useless to simply rely on violence, killing people, and crushing them.
Without this group of landowning households, the poor who climbed up would also become the new nobles. It would multiply and multiply endlessly.
Don't think that the poor would represent the masses and fight for the interests of the people just because they suffered from the disdain of the landowning households.
The poor would only work hard to climb up and join the group of landowning households. They would transform into a new class of exploitation with a peace of mind.
Therefore, Jiang Pengji really had to deal with not only the landowning households but also the new nobles who were born poor.
The Golden Scale Academy and the promotion of culture and education were to break the cultural monopoly. The imperial examination to select scholars was introduced in the future to break the monopoly of officialdom. Of course, the audience in the streaming room also said that the imperial examination to select scholars had its pros and cons. Jiang Pengji still needed to do more research. She tried to integrate the examination and teaching system of the federation in her previous life and transform it into a new system that could adapt to this era …
At least, she had to let the people at the bottom see the hope of changing their fate.
As long as the source of officials was expanded, it would naturally have an impact on the monopoly of the landowning households. The new nobles would thin out the original cake of the landowning households. However, Jiang Pengji not only had to guard against the landowning households, but she also had to guard against the new nobles. Therefore, how to control them reasonably and narrow the gap between them and the ordinary people was the most important thing.
As this problem surfaced, the reform of taxes and corvee was inevitable.
The original system of taxes and corvee gave the landowning households a green light. It made them richer and the poor people poorer. The pace of land annexation was getting faster and faster. In the end, the land in the hands of the people would all be in the hands of the landowning households. The balance of resources would be completely tilted.
If it was another era, the tax rate of the rich could be increased and a high inheritance tax could be set so that the gap between the rich and the poor would not be too big. However, in this era, inheritance tax could not be counted on. It was also difficult to implement a high tax rate for the exploitative class.
After all, the people who made the laws were the evil exploitative class.
If she did that, she was afraid that more than half of her confidants would betray her. She was not that reckless, so she had to change her way of thinking. While reducing the burden of the people as much as possible, she would create income for them. At the same time, she could achieve her goal of defeating the local tyrants by cooking frogs in warm water.
The existing system of taxes and corvee was definitely not feasible. It was one of the accomplices of land annexation.
Compared to the landowning households and commoners, the ordinary people were the weak. It was difficult for them to keep the land in their hands.
Jiang Pengji made a clean cut. She made all the land belong to the state and used this to curb land annexation.
Rather than saying it belonged to the state, it was better to say that it belonged to the "royal family."
This required a firm fist.
So far, Jiang Pengji had done a good job in this aspect. She plundered wherever she went.
On this basis, the miscellaneous tax items related to the land tax would be merged into the land tax. This would reduce the workload of the government in collecting taxes and reduce the complicated links. This would also reduce the risk of tax evasion. The people would rent land of varying sizes from the government according to the number of people in their families. The land tax would be based on the people's annual harvest. The more they farmed, the more they harvested, the more taxes they paid.
"If this decision were to spread, the landowning households and commoners would collectively explode …"
Jiang Pengji thought about it and wrote a letter to Feng Zhen.
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