Prince Li You of the Great Tang Dynasty begs the noble families to their deaths!

In the past year, the Guanzhong region suffered another severe drought, resulting in a 40% decrease in tax revenue collected throughout the region.

The situation in Jiannan Road is good, with overall tax revenue increasing by 20% compared to last year.

In other regions, the tax revenue in Jiangnan Circuit remained basically the same as in previous years. Qianzhong Circuit suffered from floods, resulting in a tax revenue decrease of more than 50%. Lingnan, being sparsely populated, saw negligible tax revenue. The situation in Hebei and Shanxi remained the same as last year.

To Fang Xuanling's surprise, the taxes collected in Shandong Province were 30% higher than the previous year.

Upon closer inspection, Fang Xuanling understood the whole story.

Overall grain production did not change much, but the number of people paying taxes increased.

The reason is that the destruction of three powerful families released 130,000 hidden households.

Other people who originally had no land suddenly received land and were also included in the country's tax system.

During the early Tang Dynasty, the imperial court largely inherited the "rent, labor, and tax" system of the former Sui Dynasty.

Although the sword of the previous dynasty cannot kill the officials of the current dynasty, the system of the previous dynasty can easily be directly adopted by the current dynasty. This is the inertia of history.

The so-called "rent, labor, and tax" refer to three different ways of paying taxes.

"Rent" required each person to pay 2 shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain (land tax) to the state annually.

"Tiao" required each person to pay a certain amount of silk (money tax) to the state every year.

"Yong" required each person to perform 20 days of corvée labor per year; if you did not want to perform corvée labor, you could pay in kind according to the standard of three feet of silk per day.

The above three items are not a choice between three, but all three must be done, except that the last one can be purchased with money.

This shows that even during the Zhenguan era, the burden on the people was still quite heavy.

Although the tax system was relatively complete, the "equal-field system" that accompanied it was difficult to implement. In addition, natural disasters and man-made calamities made it difficult for the imperial court to collect taxes every year.

Looking at the overall market data for Shandong, Fang Xuanling sighed softly.

Fang Xuanling was all too familiar with why such a huge number of hidden households had suddenly appeared, because he himself came from a prominent family.

Powerful families and clans possess vast amounts of land and servants, yet they can brazenly avoid paying taxes, which has become a chronic problem in the governance of the country.

After the rebellion in Shandong, one of the most powerful aristocratic families was wiped out, and taxes in the entire Shandong region were increased by 30%, which greatly surprised Fang Xuanling.

"No, that's not right!"

Fang Xuanling suddenly realized that there might be a problem with the data submitted by the Ministry of Revenue.

"130,000 households... Xingyang, Jizhou, Gaoping, Langya, four whole places, so many people, the Zheng family in Xingyang alone has more than 100,000 households..."

It is important to know that during the Zhenguan era, there were three regions with the highest population density in the country: Guanzhong, Shandong, and Hebei. These three places have always been important tax-paying areas, and it is necessary to verify this clearly, otherwise trouble will arise.

Fang Xuanling dispatched an official to summon Li Wei from the Ministry of Revenue and inquired about the details.

Li Wei also felt wronged: "These are the numbers that are reported from below. What can I do?"

Fang Xuanling was furious: You knew the numbers were wrong, so why didn't you urge those below to verify them? This is lazy governance!

After being reprimanded by his superior, Li Wei took the documents from the Ministry of Revenue and slunk away.

A dozen days later, new figures came in.

The number of hidden households was not 130,000, but 200,000, an extra 70,000 households appearing out of nowhere.

"Minister Li, what's the deal with these extra 70,000 households?"

"Reporting to the Prime Minister, after extensive investigation, it has been found that some people with large tracts of land, in order to avoid taxes, have followed the previous practice and merged their own land into the land of powerful families for cultivation. These people number as many as 70,000 households."

Fang Xuanling stared at the new numbers, pondering for a long time.

He had a nagging feeling that the new figure might also be inflated.

However, obtaining the most accurate figures is extremely difficult.

Who knows what the Shandong aristocratic families have been doing all these years? Moreover, they have spies everywhere in the officialdom, and many things involving their interests are a complete mess.

Fang Xuanling also knew that Li Wei, the man in front of him, had connections with many scions of prominent families. Whether he had cleaned up his own mess was another matter entirely.

"Li Wei, tell me honestly, did anyone speak to you about this? How were the land registers and accounts submitted? Are you sure there are no problems?"

"Prime Minister Fang, let's not beat around the bush. You come from a prestigious family, and with such a huge mess in Shandong, those powerful families are lucky they didn't cause a major upheaval. In the end, His Majesty only allocated 50,000 mu of land to the Zheng family. How can that be of any use? Did they even need to ask me for help? Those families have already been making their own moves."

Seeing that Fang Xuanling's expression had changed, Li Wei quickly softened his tone.

"Please don't take offense at my bluntness, but that's the situation. Shandong right now is a complete mess. The common people can't figure it out, the officials can't figure it out either, and the powerful families are secretly plotting and scheming. Besides, which of those officials who submit the accounts isn't from a powerful family? Who wouldn't want to pull some strings? You should be satisfied with how much you've managed to do."

Li Wei's nonsensical and unreasonable words really angered Fang Xuanling.

The problem is, what he said actually makes a lot of sense.

Old Fang couldn't easily refute him.

As the saying goes, "A prime minister's belly can hold a boat," and Fang Xuanling's expression returned to calm. In his heart, he was calculating what excuse he should find to kick this bastard surnamed Li out of the Six Ministries and send him to serve as an official outside the capital, so that he could never return to Chang'an in his lifetime.

"Have the taxes been collected from these newly calculated 70,000 households?"

"I have already sent the notice to the local prefectures and governments, and asked them to replenish the supplies as soon as possible."

"No, this decree must be issued by me. You... never mind, you may go back!"

……

As the year drew to a close, Shandong finally collected all the land taxes. However, this final collection of land taxes unexpectedly sparked several small-scale peasant uprisings. For example, in one case, five tax collectors were beaten to death in a field by hundreds of farmers in Chengwu County.

In his anger, Fang Xuanling posted another message inquiring about the situation.

A dozen days later, a reply arrived in Chang'an, stating that the people who had taken action were the very same people who had participated in the Qi King's uprising.

Their natures had been spoiled, and they had an extreme distrust of the Chengwu government, always feeling that the government was going to harm them, which led to the tragedy.

After killing the officials, hundreds of rioters, fearing punishment, fled into the mountains and disappeared without a trace.

Fang Xuanling ordered the local government to send troops to quell the bandits and give an explanation to the five dead land officials.

There were several similar cases, although they were not as egregious as the ones mentioned above, but they were enough to make Fang Xuanling feel the fierce and valiant nature of his fellow Shandong natives.

In any case, the Ministry of Revenue's tax documents were finally completed and forwarded to the Emperor by the Secretariat.

The final figure was just the same as last year.

This pleased Li Shimin greatly.

With the tax revenue collected, the military expenses for the next year's campaign against Goguryeo will be secured.