Chapter 80 The Horrible Fact
"I felt strange at first, but later after asking people on the boat, I learned that many people drowned their children because they could not afford to raise them." Gu Tingye said.
“Can’t afford it?” Zhao Xing was stunned and said, “Is it because of the Ding tax?”
Song Dynasty stipulated that a man at twenty was considered a Ding and a man at sixty was considered old. Men between the ages of ten and sixty need to pay sex money.
The Ding tax is also commonly known as the poll tax. Regardless of whether you have land or income, as long as you meet the age limit, you must pay it.
It stands to reason that at the age of twenty, you are already an adult and have the ability to be self-reliant, so your parents do not need to pay taxes.
But the actual situation is not like this. When the court is short of money, it will advance the age when it needs to pay Ding tax.
As a result, men need to pay the Ding tax when they are no longer self-reliant.
"Yes." Gu Tingye nodded, hesitated and said: "Many people have no land and rely on being tenants to make a living. They are simply unable to raise so many children, so they can only drown them."
Zhao Xing was silent when he heard this. In ancient times, there were not so many contraceptive measures. People gave birth to children one after another.
It is said that having more children means blessing, but for those people who don’t even have land, it may not be a blessing.
If you don’t have land to serve as tenants, you have to accept the exploitation of those landlords. In addition, you have to pay the court’s exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. Life is already extremely difficult, and you are simply unable to support so many children.
For those with many children, wouldn’t they just drown to death?
Humans are actually a kind of animal. They have their own civilization and know the etiquette, justice and shame.
But when in desperate situations, humans and animals are no different.
When animals are in a hurry, they will eat their own children to ensure that they can survive. When people are anxious, they will eat dirt and tree roots. In the end, when there is really no other way, they will become like animals.
However, humans are advanced animals and cannot do anything to their own children, so they choose to exchange their children for food.
When animals are short of food, they will give up their weaker children to ensure that the stronger offspring survive.
People do the same thing when they can’t make a living.
It can be said that the people are ignorant when a baby girl is drowned, but when a baby boy is drowned, how desperate must one be to make such a decision?
And are all those who drowned baby girls ignorant?
Maybe many of them are because they can’t feed themselves.
Since the number of offspring to feed is limited, men will naturally be chosen.
Zhao Xing was filled with anger when he saw someone trying to drown a baby today.
When he heard that infant drowning was common in many places, he also thought about using strict laws to prohibit this phenomenon.
But now he discovered that the root cause actually lies with the imperial court.
If the people could feed themselves, there would probably be fewer cases of infanticide.
"I know, you can go back." Zhao Xing waved his hand feebly.
"Your Highness, are you okay?" Gu Tingye asked worriedly.
"It's okay to be alone." Zhao Xing shook his head.
How could he be fine? Zhao Xing was not a Holy Mother. If he were just an ordinary person, even though he would be angry knowing this, he would not be so sad.
But he is the prince and the future emperor, and all the people in the world are his subjects. He knows that the people are living in dire straits, but he is unable to change anything.
This feeling of powerlessness made him suffocate.
Hearing this, Gu Tingye and Qi Heng stood up, bowed and retreated.
"Is Yuan Ruoqi okay?"
After leaving the East Palace, Gu Tingye looked at Qi Heng who was a little distracted.
"Zhong Huai, is what you just said true?" Qi Heng came back to his senses and asked.
This incident not only had a great impact on Zhao Xing, but also had a great impact on him. Because of his background, Qi Heng had no idea of the sufferings of the people. He could not imagine that such tragedies could happen in the world.
“The truth is even crueler than what I said.” Gu Tingye said.
"Is there no way to solve it?" Qi Heng asked.
“How to solve it? Most of the land in the world is in the hands of landlords and gentry. How difficult is it to have land for the tillers? Otherwise, why do you think His Highness didn’t continue talking just now? Because Your Highness understands that in a short time This problem cannot be solved."
Gu Tingye patted Qi Heng on the shoulder and said: "But don't worry too much. His Highness is talented and wise. I believe that His Highness will be able to solve these problems in the future. We can just assist His Highness in the future. "
"Yes." Qi Heng nodded firmly.
"It's getting dark, let's go home." Gu Tingye said.
...
After Gu Tingye and Qi Heng left, Zhao Xing ordered people to find all the land-related policies of the Song Dynasty and read them.
Watching until late at night, he discovered a terrible phenomenon. The imperial court did not have any policy to inhibit land annexation.
You must know that land annexation in ancient times was a very troublesome problem for all dynasties.
In order to suppress land annexation, successive dynasties have come up with many ways. Even so, the land annexation still could not be prevented, but the Song Dynasty let it go. One can imagine how serious the land annexation was.
At this time, most of the land in the world was concentrated in the hands of a few people, and the people had to become tenant farmers in order to survive.
Although tenants are not slaves, in this case, there is no difference between them and slaves.
The tenants worked hard for a year and received only enough food to survive. Once they were separated from the landlord, even survival became a problem.
In order to survive, we can only let the landlords exploit us.
"Your Highness, it's late at night and you haven't had your dinner yet." Sanshui reminded.
"Huh."
Zhao Xing exhaled heavily and said, "Let someone bring the food over."
"Yes." Sanshui responded to the order and went down.
After a while the food was served.
"Sanshui, how did you enter the palace?" Zhao Xing asked.
Sanshui had been following him for several years, and he was worried that he would offend Sanshui, so he never asked this question.
“Back to Your Highness, my slave’s parents were tenants. Later, they suffered a disaster, and the landlord didn’t care. So my family became refugees. Someone took the lead in the rebellion at that time, and many refugees followed in the rebellion in order to survive. Later, the slave and his family became refugees. The imperial court sent troops to quell the rebellion, and all the young men were recruited into the army, while the slaves were selected into the palace because of their young age," Sanshui said.
"What about your parents?" Zhao Xing asked.
Sanshui said sadly: "The slave's parents died when they followed the rebels to attack the county."
No wonder there were so many peasant uprisings in the Song Dynasty. Those landlords controlled a large number of fields, and there were natural and man-made disasters. time, but did not care about the tenants below.
For landlords, the most indispensable thing is tenants. Let these tenants fend for themselves and recruit more next year.
The tenants had no ability to withstand natural disasters. It would take time for the court to get the news and arrange disaster relief. By then, the people had been forced to rebel.
"Do you hate the imperial court?" Zhao Xing asked after being silent for a while.
"I don't dare. Although I was castrated and became a eunuch, at least I don't have to worry about food and drink. It's not too late for me to be grateful." Sanshui said.
Zhao Xing found that Sanshui's eyes were indeed full of gratitude when he said this, and it was not just because he was in front of him.
The people in ancient times were really simple. They were so simple that even when they became eunuchs, they never resented the imperial court. Instead, they were grateful to the imperial court for giving them a place to live and settle down, so that they could eat and drink without worries.
(End of this chapter)