Chapter 217 The First Legislative Assembly Ended Unhappily

A large blue brick and tile house with a side length of 100 meters and an area of ​​15 acres is located ten miles outside Tongyuan Gate.

The entire building has a multi-story courtyard structure. The two outermost floors are the largest and are accommodation rooms. From the third floor onwards, there is only a roof but no walls, forming a corridor shape. Each floor is ten meters wide, and the floors are progressively larger until they reach the core, with a total of nine floors.

The seats are a bit crowded, but it is large enough to accommodate tens of thousands of people for meetings at the same time.

At that time, the entire Sichuan Province had nine states and twelve prefectures, more than one hundred counties and departments. Three people from each county would naturally not be enough for such a large area, but Chen Ju was thinking about more than one thousand counties across the country.

Although after Chen Kaige unifies the country, he may not choose Chongqing as the capital, but after he conquers Yunnan and Guizhou regions in the early stage, there will be no shortage of people screaming in the Legislative Assembly, so he might as well just make the place bigger.

Led by Chen Gu, everyone came to the gate of this giant courtyard. There were two steles at the gate. On the left was inscribed: "People-oriented, equal distribution of land and low taxes"; on the right was inscribed: "Great unity of all Chinese ethnic groups!"
The eight characters on one side and the seven characters on the other are not neat, but the meaning is clear and simple, which is enough.

Chen Gu raised his head, looked at the words "Great Hall of the People of China" on the door lintel, walked in, and the others followed him in one after another.

Arriving at the core area of ​​the ninth floor, Chen Gu naturally took the main seat, but did not sit down. Others took their seats one by one and stood solemnly.

The sour scholar walked to the podium with the manuscript.

"The birds are gathering in their nests. The king is busy with his work and cannot grow millet. To whom can our parents turn? What can the vast heavens do for us?

The bustards fly in the air, gathering on the thorns. The king is too busy to grow millet. What do our parents eat? How can the vast heavens have an end?
The birds are walking in a solemn manner, gathering at the mulberry trees. The king is too busy with his work to plant rice and wheat. How can parents care for us? How can the vast heavens be constant? "

The sour scholar first recited a passage from the Book of Songs. By the Qing Dynasty, this stuff was not understandable to ordinary people, even some so-called scholars might not be able to understand it.

If Chen Gu had not been explained to him in advance by the sour scholar, he would still be confused. Even now he still had a feeling of being incomprehensible.

To be precise, the lyrics of the Book of Songs are most enjoyable when sung with music, and it would be even better if there is dancing accompaniment.

Like lyrics of later generations, the Book of Songs also contains a large number of repetitive words and phrases. The name of the poem recited by Suan Xiucai is "Bustud Feather", which means wild goose.

The general meaning of the lyrics is: Looking at flocks of wild geese flying in various ways and landing on various trees, I thought of my parents at home. Because I am working for the royal family and cannot go home to farm, what should my parents eat?

In the end, I can only ask God, when will these things be completed and when will these days end.

And in this moment and situation, the Huaxia tribe’s answer to the ancients is that those things will not happen again, and those days are completely over.

The sour scholar on the podium continued, "The laws of the ancient pre-Qin period were nothing more than restrictions imposed by the kings and nobles on the people. The laws of the subsequent dynasties were also nothing more than those made by the powerful and wealthy, and they were ultimately biased towards the common people.

Since the establishment of the law, the people's demands have never been heard, nor have their feelings been considered, ~!" The sour scholar read for more than ten minutes, which was neither long nor short. The core idea was that the Huaxia Ministry was different from all previous dynasties. Even when formulating the most important laws, it would respect the opinions of ordinary people and let them participate.

After the sour scholar finished his speech, Chen the Judge did not say anything else. He asked everyone to sit down and went straight to the point, bringing out the first law that needed to be discussed today: property tax.

When people heard the word "property tax", they didn't react much at first, because property tax actually existed in that era.

Because every house must have a title deed, and in addition to recording basic information such as the boundaries of the house, property area, transaction amount, etc., the title deed of the Qing Dynasty must be able to become an officially recognized certificate. The homeowner must also pay the deed tax in accordance with regulations after the house is appraised, and stamp it with a red official seal before it can become a valid real estate title certificate.

So everyone is familiar with property tax. It is normal that there are taxes for every transaction. But when everyone knows that Chen Gui’s so-called property tax is actually collected every year, they immediately become uneasy.

There are not many people attending the Legislative Assembly today. Apart from more than one hundred officials from various departments of Chongqing Prefecture, there are some representatives from nearby states and counties, basically all of them are officials from large families.

Chen Gu's tax exemption quota of three square meters per person is totally meaningless to them. Every courtyard house covers an area of ​​dozens or hundreds of square meters!

Although only one percent of the estimated value of the house is charged per year, it is still a considerable expense, because houses in this era are meant to be passed down from generation to generation, and are built to be lived in for hundreds or thousands of years.

Therefore, these people's houses are very valuable, and the larger the family, the more houses they have and the larger the area they occupy. Add to that the shops, workshops and other things in the city. If you add them all together, the money they need to pay each year will be enormous.

So as soon as Chen Ke finished talking about the details of the property tax collection, there was a commotion below. No one dared to oppose it openly, but you can't punish people for making a little noise to express their inner dissatisfaction, right?
There were bursts of buzzing sounds in his ears, and Chen Ju's eyes gradually turned cold. Finally, he picked up the gavel on the table and slammed it twice, then stood up and said, "The meeting is adjourned. Everyone collect your travel expenses and go back. The second legislative meeting is tentatively scheduled to be held on the 18th day of the first lunar month next year!"

After Chen Gu finished speaking, he turned around and left. In a situation like this, there was no need to hold a vote. It was obvious that it would not pass.

Bai Yunqing and the others showed playful smiles on their faces after watching Chen Gu leave, while Suan Xiucai and Zhang Haomin from the Buddhist Treasure Department showed playful smiles on their faces when they looked at Bai Yunqing and the others.

After the two sides' eyes met, Bai Yunqing and others frowned instantly.

Chen Gu left the Great Hall angrily, and immediately sent someone to find Chen Qi, Wu You and Dai Changjiang.

Chief Wu Youxuan, Chief Dai Changjiang, Chief of Public Opinion, and Chief Chen Qi are in charge of the joint defense team. It's a pity that the Ministry of Education belongs to the Bian family, otherwise with the cooperation of the Ministry of Education, things would be much easier.

But Chen Qi and three others are enough.

“I need to let the people know what happened in the Great Hall today, and I need the people to understand the various details of the property tax and what the formulation of the property tax means.

The Legislative Assembly on the 18th of the first lunar month next year will be an enlarged meeting. Each town will need to send three representatives to attend. I hope they are real people who dare to speak out and resist. "

(End of this chapter)