Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 131 The Heavens Are Dead (Thanks for your monthly votes, bonus chapter)
In fact, the Han Dynasty's tax standard has always been one-thirtieth, which is an extremely low tax amount.

But taxation, like the requisition of horses, is a matter that is delegated layer by layer.

In previous years, grain taxes could be paid in cash and silk.

In other words, remote areas could keep tax grain in county warehouses for future use, and the county would convert it into money and silk and hand it over to the imperial court; counties with convenient water transport would escort the grain to the capital to ensure the capital's consumption.

But this year, it's no longer allowed to use money or silk to offset the debt.

It may seem like this is still a normal tax collection, with no increase in tax amount, but in reality, it's a completely different matter.

Unlike paying money, if a prefecture is to guarantee the delivery of grain to the imperial court, it must at least account for transportation losses.

Not to mention remote areas, even transporting grain from Jizhou to Luoyang by land would result in losses as high as 90%.

A thousand bushels of grain, after being consumed by people and horses along the way, would only amount to one hundred bushels by the time it reached the capital. This is a normal phenomenon.

Water transport is less expensive, but even along the Luo River, there will be about 30% loss when traveling by pure waterway.

In most places, there is no waterway access, or one must first travel by land and then transfer to water, which requires many transfers.

These losses naturally had to be added to the grain tax.

Previously, grain tax could be offset with money and silk because transporting grain was too costly. After all, transporting money was more convenient than transporting grain. Ten thousand bushels of grain would require thousands of carts, but the corresponding money and silk could usually be transported in just ten carts.

This allows each prefecture to calculate only a relatively small loss standard, focusing solely on losses in storage and transportation within the prefecture. For example, in Anxi County, when Zhang He was appointed as a tax collector, only 30% of the losses were calculated.

But it can't be deducted now...

So, the original standard of one-thirtieth tax would become one-third tax in many counties, requiring a tenfold increase to cover the losses—and that's assuming the governor isn't too greedy.

At the same time, the prefect set the collection standards for the counties, and each county had to transport the goods to the prefectural capital, which also resulted in losses.

Anxi only counted 30% because it was only 30 li away from Lu Nu.

Most counties are hundreds of miles away from the prefectural seat, so on average, there will be at least a 50% loss, which means that the actual tax collection will have to double.

Therefore, once it reaches the county level, the one-third tax rate in the prefecture will become six-tenths.

Overall, the imperial court was originally only supposed to collect 3.3% of the output, but in reality, it would collect 60%, and this was not calculated based on the actual output of that year, but rather on the average production capacity.

In addition, the local powerful families and wealthy clans often interfered with grain taxes, which were often borne by poor families and commoners.

It fell to the common people...

That means collecting all the taxes wouldn't be enough.

Local officials were also required to claim that there was a famine, because if they were to actually collect grain and transport it to the capital, it would surely cause chaos throughout the country.

The emperor, of course, did not believe that all the counties and prefectures in the country were suffering from famine. He was a businessman, and businessmen have to bargain.

By refusing to accept famine reports and demanding that taxes be levied at the rate of a bumper harvest, the emperor was also trying to understand the character of local officials—if they asked for one hundred, they would only bargain down to thirty; if they asked for thirty, they would only bargain down to ten.

To ensure the supply of the palace and the army, to guarantee the salaries of the officials, and to avoid being coerced again, the emperor naturally had to collect grain. The requirement that no money or silk be used as collateral was also to ensure that the grain arrived in time.

If grain is not requisitioned, another famine will occur in the capital region, leading to chaos throughout the land.

But ultimately, all of this business will fall into the hands of ordinary people...

The world was still in chaos.

From the moment the emperor was coerced by the counties of Guandong, no matter what choice he made, this was the inevitable outcome.

……

Zuo Yuan received intelligence that grain prices were soaring in various places, and rice could no longer be bought with five-zhu coins. The Taiping Dao was also gathering believers on a large scale and engaging in widespread fraud—in order to swindle grain.

The procedure is not complicated; it involves giving talisman water to patients suffering from typhoid fever to cure their illness.

If the patient's condition improves, it is said that this is because they have been saved by believing in the Yellow Heaven, and they should pay rice to join the Taoist priesthood to thank the gods for their grace.

If the illness is not cured and worsens, it is said that the person did not believe in Huang Tian and was not sincere, and that they should pay rice to become a Taoist priest to show their sincerity...

Sincerity brings results, it's an old tradition. Once you're truly sincere, you might as well pay more money; it's just a tax on your intelligence anyway.

While they were swindling, they didn't force anyone.

Moreover, believers can support each other, share meals, and resist heavy taxes together, which is to say, they unite to resist officials, and it cannot be considered as doing evil.

In fact, the Taiping Dao did not do this in previous years.

At least in the years that Liu Bei witnessed, believers were indeed mostly acquired through legitimate preaching and proper medical skills.

Of course, when treating some wealthy patients, they do say that sincerity brings results, but it's not intentional to cheat them. Rather, it's to charge a high price and avoid medical malpractice.

In fact, doctors these days all do this.

Even the imperial physicians in the palace would give nobles a similar explanation when treating them—for example, asking them to purify their minds and reduce their desires. If they were not cured, it would be because they had developed desires, anger, greed, ignorance, or evil thoughts. In any case, if they could not be cured, it would be considered a mental illness.

After all, it's impossible for a person not to have desires; wanting to recover quickly is itself a desire.

Practicing medicine is risky. There are medical disputes in every era, and in this era, such disputes can be fatal, so one must protect oneself.

Liu Bei had personally seen and heard about the Taoist temple at Shiliting. Apart from combining Taiyi and Laozi into Zhonghuang Taiyi, it was basically based on Huang-Lao thought, and revered Laozi and Xuanyuan Huangdi.

This is not much different from the official beliefs of the current imperial court, which also involves worshipping the Yellow Emperor at the foot of the mountain and worshipping Taiyi on the mountain.

Although the Taiping Jing itself does not involve medicine, its doctrines are indeed in line with Huang-Lao thought. The Huang-Lao system does study medicine and divination, and the healers of Taiping Dao are indeed skilled in medicine.

Moreover, the Way of Great Peace advocates respecting the emperor's benevolence, filial piety, and universal love, and its doctrines contain a very clear concept of loyalty to the emperor and love for the people.

Yes, the doctrine of Taiping Dao is loyalty to the emperor, not rebellion, and it is certainly not a cult.

Most of the prophecies also revered the Han Dynasty, except that they revered Emperor Wu of Han's earth element, rather than Emperor Guangwu's fire element.

The term "Huangtian" is similar to the modern terms "master" or "heaven." It is a pronoun that represents both the heavens and the supreme deity, as well as the human emperor Xuanyuan.

In the Five Elements theory popular these days, the term "Yellow Heaven" clearly carries the connotation of the Earth element.

Although Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu changed the virtue of the Han Dynasty to the virtue of fire, the official virtue of the Han Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han was the virtue of earth.

The Yellow Heaven Prophecy of the Way of Peace was actually in accordance with Emperor Wu of Han; it was not a prophecy for rebellion.

This is also the main reason why the Way of Peace was not suppressed by the imperial court for more than ten years.

This is also why the nickname 'Huang Tian' is accepted by many people.

This is why many wealthy families, including Lu Zhi's wife, had members who revered the Yellow Heaven—but not necessarily believed in the Way of Peace.

Xiuniang also believed in the Yellow Heaven, but she was not a member of the Way of Peace and never engaged in religious activities such as prayer. After all, believing in a god and believing in a religion are two different things.

Like the old ladies of later generations, they worshiped the gods, but as for the doctrines... they didn't have the time to study them.

After all, this land has its own traditions and has never supported idle gods. People believe in gods to solve problems, but religious sects are another matter...

But now, things are different.

It was already a year of plague and drought, and the taxes in the Central Plains were ridiculously high, causing countless people to go bankrupt and become refugees, while countless others struggled under the plague.

The wealthy hoarded grain in anticipation of sudden riches, leading to severe inflation. Meanwhile, local officials, aware of the impending chaos, were mostly busy making one last quick buck, trying to recoup their investment in official positions before fleeing.

In order to protect rice, the Taiping Dao began to gather people to resist taxes, recruiting a large number of common people into the religion and organizing dozens of large groups in various places—not for rebellion, but for resisting taxes.

On New Year's Day of the seventh year of Guanghe (184 AD), on the same day that Zuo Yuan took Bian Ji home.

The prophecy, "The Azure Heaven is dead, the Yellow Heaven shall rise; in the year of Jiazi, great fortune will come to the world," spread simultaneously throughout the various states of the Han Dynasty.

On that same day, a guest from afar came to visit Liu Bei.

Zhang He.

(End of this chapter)