Chapter 74: 073: The Tax Commissioner

"Everyone withdrew from the society?"

"All gone. Only the few of us are left."

"Just as well. Those who remain are true friends."

"..."

Once word spread that Zhao Han had been stripped of his child student status, of the thirty-four Great Unity Society members, all but a handful withdrew within two days: Zhu Zhiyu, Fei Ruyi, Fei Ruhe, Fei Yuanjian, Liu Ziren, and Xu Ying.

There was no other reason — they were simply ashamed to keep company with a household slave.

Of course, each of them put it rather tactfully, none falling out with Zhao Han to his face, only finding various excuses to prove they had no time.

That damned pederast Fei Ruyi had long since stopped coming to the academy, claiming he had gone home to study the Dream Pool Essays at his leisure — while reading the Classified Conversations of Master Zhu, he had been astonished by the theory that the moon emits no light of its own, and suddenly developed an interest in natural science.

Fei Ruhe had likewise vanished for half a month, now pestering his family to hire an archery and horsemanship tutor.

With the tempered-steel spearhead wrapped in cloth, Zhao Han used the long spear as a walking staff and trudged through the snow to take his leave of the academy head Fei Yuanlu.

The spear shaft was made of mulberry wood. Mulberry trees grow slowly and tend to warp, and peasants are loath to cut them down, so a spear shaft of mulberry wood is worth a fair sum.

As for white-wax wood shafts, forget it — they may do for civilian sparring, but using them in battlefield combat is pure nonsense. "Ox-tendon wood from Huizhou is best, sword-ridge wood second. Red ridge wood is strong and straight but shatters easily. White wax is soft — fit only for staves."

Truly top-grade battlefield long spears are all composite materials: a core of tough wood, wrapped in leather, then bound with copper wire and cord.

"Crunch, crunch..."

Zhao Han trudged forward through the deep snow, one step shallow, the next deep — without the staff to lean on, finding purchase would have been difficult indeed.

This year's snow had fallen exceptionally heavy; Pang Chunlai's thatched roof had collapsed under the weight of it. The teacher Pang had no choice but to move into the private school — had he insisted on living alone, he would surely have frozen to death at night.

In just a few days, quite a number of people in Yanshan County had already frozen to death.

"Dong, dong, dong!"

Zhao Han brushed the snowflakes from his clothes, leaned his long spear against the wall, and raised a hand to knock on the door.

"Come in." A voice sounded from within.

Zhao Han pushed open the door and entered. "This young one pays his respects to the academy head."

Fei Yuanlu smiled and asked, "Why no longer call yourself 'your junior'?"

"My child student status has been revoked — this young one is unworthy of such a self-reference," Zhao Han said, cupping his hands. "I have come to take my leave of the academy head."

"Ah!"

Fei Yuanlu gave a sigh and said, "I have not driven you from the academy. If you still love reading, you may continue to audit the lectures here."

Zhao Han replied, "This young one is the second manager of Dingsheng Tavern. I have been remiss in my duties for too long; from now on I must be more diligent."

"So be it," Fei Yuanlu said. "Being a tavern manager is a decent enough livelihood — only do not abandon your books and poetry."

"This young one will earnestly heed your instruction," Zhao Han said, bowing with clasped hands. "I take my leave."

Fei Yuanlu, his spirits low, waved a hand and said, "Go on, then."

Apart from his money and manuscripts, Zhao Han took nothing with him, and disturbed no one. Leaning on his long spear, he descended the mountain alone.

The wind and snow lashed his face; now and then he lost his footing and fell — yet Zhao Han's heart was light, like a bird freed from its cage and taking flight.

In another four months, he would be fifteen, or sixteen by the traditional reckoning of nominal age.

The post of second manager at Dingsheng Tavern was the fallback Zhao Han had prepared for himself. He could earn a wage while working, and at the same time make contacts among all manner of people, waiting quietly and observing the changes under Heaven.

Even in the depths of winter, Hekou Town remained bustling — so long as the Xin River and the Yanshan River did not freeze over.

"Brother, you've come!" Fei Ze (Jiandan) greeted him warmly. The fellow was now the tavern's bookkeeper.

Zhao Han leaned his long spear inside the counter and asked, "How has business been these days?"

Fei Ze sighed. "Business is all right, but the stall tax has gone up again."

Zhao Han laughed. "The court is short of money — what tax isn't going up?"

"It's gone up far too much," Fei Ze said, lowering his voice. "A few days ago, a eunuch came to the county to press for taxes. Even the county magistrate could do nothing about it."

"His present Majesty is showing quite the style of the Wanli Emperor," Zhao Han remarked drily.

During the Zhengde reign, the markets had been subject to stall taxes, market taxes, commodity taxes, and other levies. With imperial shops set up everywhere and eunuchs arbitrarily imposing charges, the tax categories had become a bewildering jumble.

In the early Jiajing years, reforms were vigorously pursued: all the various taxes were consolidated into a single levy called the "stall tax."

This stall tax was assessed by county, with each county assigned a fixed tax quota. The county magistrate, based on the total amount due, apportioned it among the county seat and the market towns, collected it once each quarter, and at year's end forwarded it to the tax bureau, which then passed it up through the hierarchy to the central government.

During the Wanli era, the whole thing exploded. The Emperor dispatched mine supervisors and tax commissioners, who plundered with reckless, desperate greed.

The most terrifying levy at the time was the mining tax. Whenever a eunuch spotted a particularly wealthy household, he would falsely accuse them of having a mine on their property. If they did not promptly pay the back taxes, they were arrested outright — countless families were utterly ruined.

The Chongzhen Emperor, now driven to desperation, has likewise been sending eunuchs everywhere to press for taxes.

The stall tax in Hekou Town had already been raised once at the start of the year, and now at year's end another increase was announced — and this time a eunuch went directly to the county yamen to apply pressure.

The eunuch would certainly get his fill; the county magistrate could gnaw on the bones; the clerks could sip the broth. The ones who suffered were the shops and the street vendors — the central court, in truth, saw only a limited increase in revenue, for those commercial taxes were siphoned off layer by layer.

Fei Ze pointed toward the street and said, "We're all right — the tavern just earns a bit less. It's the street vendors outside who are truly wretched."

Zhao Han walked to the tavern entrance, looked left and right, and came back. "No wonder there are fewer vendors. How much did they hike the tax?"

"I don't know exactly how it was raised, but the small stalls and shops simply can't survive," Fei Ze said quietly. "These small vendors have all been forced to join the Iron Foot Association. The several chiefs of the Iron Foot Association have been so besieged by the vendors that they dare not show their faces."

"Ha, take the money, do the job," Zhao Han said, amused.

The Iron Foot Association had by now transformed completely from a laborers' guild into a thug organization. Those street vendors, to put it nicely, had "joined" the Iron Foot Association — in reality, they were simply paying protection money to the thugs.

They'd been happy enough collecting protection fees in normal times — shouldn't they show some results now?

Zhao Han asked, "Where's the head manager?"

Fei Ze answered, "Gone to a meeting at the edge of town, to discuss how to deal with the tax collectors."

That evening, the head manager Fei Xi returned and immediately gave orders: "Prepare clubs and staves. All the tavern staff — we take to the streets tomorrow!"

"Uncle Xi, what's the plan?" Zhao Han asked.

Fei Xi pulled Zhao Han into a corner and whispered, "The gentlemen above have already coordinated with all the villages and towns. Tomorrow, everyone takes to the streets to resist the tax — we'll beat those tax collectors all the way back to the county seat!"

This was getting interesting.

The next morning, the whole town sprang into action — every peddler and shop hand readied a cudgel.

The Iron Foot Society took the lead in the tax resistance; the moment the tax clerks disembarked, they sealed off the dock.

The tax clerks, noticing nothing amiss, kept walking forward until they finally halted before the stalls.

The small peddlers gripped their clubs in silence.

The other merchants had stopped doing business too; all of them brought out their clubs.

"Y-you… what are you people going to do?"

The tax clerks at last sensed danger and turned to flee in terror, only to be blocked by the Iron Foot Society behind them.

"Strike!"

The crowd surged forward in a mass beating; the tax clerks wailed for their mothers, their shrieks gradually growing faint.

Two were beaten to death on the spot; the rest were all injured, but that is not our concern here.

Zhao Han witnessed the whole affair. He did not quite know how to define this operation.

The gentry formed the network, the merchants gave the orders, and the guilds, peddlers, and shop hands all took the field in person.

Violent resistance to the law?

The question was, was the tax increase lawful?

Even after raising the stall tax twice in a row, the total tax quota for all of Yanshan County still came to less than four hundred taels of silver — the Chongzhen Emperor's tax increase was truly not large.

But by the time it reached the eunuch, the actual levy could exceed ten thousand taels; the County Magistrate, the civil clerks, and the runner-clerks all took their cut along the way, and the county-wide stall tax was already approaching twenty thousand taels.

The entire county's gentry had linked up in a united, violent tax revolt, so terrifying the County Magistrate that he dared not leave his yamen.

The eunuch, however, was not afraid. He went in person, leading his household retainers straight to the Fei clan ancestral residence in Henglin.

Whip in hand, the eunuch pointed at Fei Yuanzhen and said, "In all Yanshan County, Hekou Town is the wealthiest. The annual stall tax there is raised to two thousand one hundred taels. You are the Fei clan head — I give you half a month. If the levy is not collected in full, I shall come directly to the Fei household for the silver!"

"Cough, cough, cough, cough!"

Fei Yuanzhen coughed repeatedly and said in a frail, feeble voice, "You must know, honored sir, that I am old and plagued by illness, and living here in Henglin, I truly cannot manage affairs in Hekou. I beg you, honored sir…"

"Bring it in!" the eunuch cut him off.

The household retainers the eunuch had brought were local ruffians recruited right in the county. Swaggering and flaunting their power, they actually carried in a coffin of thin planks.

Fei Yuanzhen turned ashen with terror.

"In half a month, if the stall tax is not collected in full, you can climb in yourself!" The eunuch flung down these words and left.

Fei Yuanzhen stamped his feet in fury. "This is outrageous! Absolutely outrageous!"

The gentry conferred at once but could think of no solution; they could only go and lodge complaints with the Governor and the Regional Inspector.

Those Regional Inspectors had been appointed by the Chongzhen Emperor himself — why would they bother with the trifling affairs of a tax-collecting eunuch?

The Governor of Jiangxi had by then been replaced by Xie Xuelong, a man of some ability. But with the Donglin Faction now in decline, he dared not offend the eunuchs again and was wholly occupied with rebuilding the Pavilion of Prince Teng — conveniently skimming some silver for himself along the way.

In this brief contest, the eunuch had won.

The various families pooled their silver to pay the tax. It was only two thousand one hundred taels; they could still produce it. What was more, the small peddlers would have to share the burden, so for the gentry, each household would not have to pay all that much.

But what if the tax was raised again next year?

A eunuch can never be fed full, and the County Magistrate and the runner-clerks were eyeing them like tigers!

And this was only the stall tax. Their tea factories, their paper mills… was the industrial tax not rising on every one of them?

Just pass it on to the workers and peasants!

Workers' wages fell across the board; tenant farmers' land rents rose across the board.

Even the household slaves' monthly allowances were cut in turn. A mood of discontent was quietly brewing throughout the bottom rungs of society.

As the New Year drew near, the eunuch privately set up four customs posts in Yanshan.

One was placed at Ehu Town, one at Shitang Town, one at Henglin Town, and one at Shanglu Town — sealing off every commercial waterway in Yanshan.

The eunuch dared not tax paper — a cultural commodity — so he invented a new category and collected a "cabin-occupancy tax." Every passing boat had to pay.

Now the outside merchants also suffered bitterly, but they could only grit their teeth and pay. At the same time, they raised the selling price of their goods on one hand while squeezing the boatmen's wages on the other.

Among the boatmen and the boat guilds, resentment steadily grew.

Zhao Han watched all this with cold detachment, hoping only that the eunuch would stoke the fire a few more times.

(End of Chapter)