Wild North America 1846

A small town with Chinese architectural characteristics

This small town is called Wuli Town. It is a town formed by a large farm covering an area of ​​42 acres, with a population of more than 600 people.

Most of the town's population is surnamed Li, and there is also a rather spectacular Li family ancestral hall, a village temple and a kitchen temple with a lot of incense.

At first glance, it is basically the same as the remote villages and towns in North America.

Wuli Town was originally called Wuli Town. This is because there are too many surnames of Li in the cities below Dahe Province. In order to distinguish them, there are Lijia Town, Dali Town, Xiaoli Town, Old Li Town, Erli Town, and Sanli Town. Town, Wuli Town, Qili Town and so on.

Similar situations exist in Wangjia Town, Zhangjia Town, Chenjia Town, etc. Dawang Town and Xiaozhang Town are everywhere. This is also the name that the Chinese armed militias all over the country insisted on at the beginning, and it contains a deep clan concept.

And these Erli Towns, Sanli Towns, and Wuli Towns have been passed down by word of mouth for a long time, and gradually evolved into Erli Towns, Sanli Towns, and Wuli Towns, which sound more intuitive and clear.

Emperor Li Cha and his entourage came out of the Li family ancestral hall, surrounded by a large circle of elders of the Li family, but they couldn't get close to His Majesty, and were separated by more than a dozen royal guards.

Only Mayor Li, who is over 60 years old, can follow His Majesty, bending over with a respectful demeanor, waiting for His Majesty's inquiries at any time.

"In addition to the agricultural tax of "ten taxes and three taxes", are there any other taxes or fees allocated by the government?"

"If the little old man returns to His Majesty, from the harvest in the field to the sale, it is basically an agricultural tax. It is divided into two tax standards for pastures and farmland. It has not changed for more than 30 years."

"How do you feel, is the burden heavy?"

"Thanks to the good policy of the empire, as long as those who have land are not afraid of hard work, the annual harvest can be enough to eat and wear warmly, and they can still have a surplus. It doesn't matter if there are seven or eight children in the family, or a dozen children, basically There is no case of starvation."

"Well, the policy of the empire is to achieve the goal of prosperity for the whole people. This is true for urban worker families, as well as farmers and herdsmen. Hmm... When the farmland is rushing to harvest, what measures does the town generally take?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, our Wuli Town is half-grazing and half-farming. Every year when the rice fields are harvested, the town will arrange young grazing boys to form a farming team, and the farmers will also pay a little commission to help harvest and plant. There are hundreds of people in our area. It’s been like this for kilometers, it’s become a routine.”

"That's good. There's no reason to help the farm team in vain. Properly collecting some compensation can be considered as an extra income. What about the security in the town?"

"It was a bit chaotic in the early years, but it has been much more stable in the past 20 years. It is usually a trivial matter of some parents, which can be solved in the town, and there is no need to fight a lawsuit. If it spreads, it will make people lose their lives."

"Well, as the older generation who came from the old continent, you usually have to tell the young people more about those difficult years and cherish the good days now. You should promote the ethics of propriety, righteousness, honesty and shame, and form good folk customs. Play a leading and supervisory role." Emperor Li Cha said as he walked, and naturally there were officials who recorded daily notes behind him, writing down His Majesty's oracle.

These words are not just addressed to an old mayor of Wuli Town, but have universal practical significance. They will be systematically sorted out and handed over to the cabinet to form a complete rural policy and distribute it to the entire empire for implementation.

these years
His Majesty the Emperor has seldom been involved in actual policy making. After his imperial edicts are compiled, they will become the guiding policies of the Tang Empire, including in the fields of industry, commerce and agriculture.

A group of people stopped and walked, and there were a large number of people in the town to watch along the street, with expressions of fanatical worship on their faces. After His Majesty appeared, they all knelt down and bowed to the ground, a large area of ​​black crows.

Emperor Li Cha saw an old man in his fifties in the crowd, and a middle-aged blonde woman standing beside him, so he walked over with interest.

When the old man saw His Majesty approaching, his face flushed with excitement and he kowtowed repeatedly.

"What's your name? Where do you come from?" Emperor Li Cha didn't let the old man die without courtesy, but asked with a pleasant face.

"Returning to the words of the emperor, my grass name is Li Liulang. Everyone in the town calls me Li Laoliu. I am a grassroots native of Xianghu."

"People from Xianghu Lake, there are not many fellow villagers here."

"The emperor's eyes are as bright as a torch. The grassroots fled to the coastal areas when they were young. Fortunately, they took a refugee boat and came all the way to Panama. They have lived a good life ever since."

"Oh, can you read?" Emperor Li Cha was able to say the idiom "wisdom is like a torch" from the other party, and his answer was clear and clear, and he was keenly aware of the difference.

"Returning to the words of the emperor, Caomin entered the deblinding class in Panama for half a year, and then joined the army for five years. He was a senior soldier stationed in Glory City and retired."

"It turns out that you are still a veteran. Is it convenient to go to where you live and have a look?" Emperor Richard was suddenly interested and asked casually.

Li Laoliu was hit by the happiness that fell from the sky, trembling with excitement, and replied on the ground; "My lord, this is a blessing that my old Li family can't get in dozens of lifetimes, but the grass-roots dwelling is still outside the town." , more than ten miles away from here..."

"It's okay, then lead the way ahead." Emperor Li Cha made a direct decision with a wave of his hand.

To visit the poor and the poor in the cities and the countryside, and to go deep into the homes of local residents is also a matter of separation.

In front of the Emperor Tianwei, most of the people were so trembling that they couldn't even utter a word, they were just as excited as they were sifting chaff, and they even spoke incoherently.

What can such a person ask?

After all, this Li Laoliu has seen a little bit of the world, knows how to read, and has been a soldier. Just look at the white wife around him and you will know that he must have killed someone when he was a soldier.

A large group of people traveled forward in chariots and horses, and in a short while, they arrived at a village with a hundred people more than ten miles outside Wuli Town.

This village is a typical agricultural village, surrounded by large rice fields, and now is the season when young crops start to turn yellow and hang ears.

December is the hottest season in South America every year, and June is the coldest, which is exactly the opposite of North America.

This village is a standard Chinese rural style. Most of the houses are built of relatively cheap logs. There are high rises at both ends of the eaves, and they are all bungalows.

Li Laoliu's home is the second one at the head of the village. There is a large yard covering an area of ​​nearly half an acre at the door. There is a large cattle pen, and 2 healthy cattle and several calves are raised.

After entering the door, there is a standard farmyard, facing four main houses, and a long row of side rooms on both sides, adding up to more than 10 rooms, and a row of unclosed inverted rooms.

There are more than a dozen pigs, more than 100 chickens, and some side stables for storing agricultural tools in the inverted house, which is roughly like this.

Emperor Li Cha took a brief look, and then strode into the main room. In the middle of the main room hung his military icon, and on the long table below was a copper stove for joss sticks, and most of the ashes were still in the copper stove.

It can be seen that this family worships devoutly every day.

Emperor Li Cha sat straight on the chair in the main hall. Once he sat down, the value of this chair would immediately become extraordinary, and it would not be surprising that the value would soar a thousand times.

The whole family of Li Laoliu came to see him. This guy actually has a wife and a concubine. The first wife is a white woman who was snatched when he served in the army. The younger concubine was bought after settling in Wuli Town. indian woman.

This wife and concubine gave birth to seven boys and nine girls for him, a total of 16 children, and 11 of them married far away. Therefore, the population of the family has not decreased but increased, and now there are more than ten grandchildren.

Among the sons and daughters who came to visit, there are obviously a few young women who are still pregnant. It seems that next year Li Laoliu will add a few more grandchildren, and the population will be prosperous!
According to understanding
There are still many farmers like Li Laoliu in the village, accounting for at least a quarter of them.

Most peasant households have only one wife, and those with a small population have three or four children, and those with a large population have seven or eight children, or a dozen or so children.

There are also a few large households with three or four wives and concubines. Under the Chinese concept of more children, more blessings, the population is more prosperous.

Emperor Li Cha was in good spirits, and he invited several parents from the same village to question him. After chatting for half a day, he basically understood the local rural situation.

From what we know
The life of the villagers is not bad. They mainly grow rice, wheat, corn and soybeans, and some surrounding areas grow sugar beets. The town is basically self-sufficient.

Field farming mainly uses cattle, and agricultural machinery is rarely used. This is mainly because the price of imported oil in this area is relatively expensive and the penetration rate of agricultural machinery is low.

In this village, every household has farming cattle, ranging from three or four to twenty or thirty. There are also large households that breed dairy cows and supply them to the villagers at a low price.

After leaving the village, there is no sales market.

There are also dairy farmers in other villages, more in pastoral areas. Milk is neither easy to preserve nor sell.

Li Laoliu's family has cultivated 182 acres of land, 55 acres of which belong to their own family, of which 32 acres are meritorious fields with "one tax out of ten", and 23 acres of land purchased with money are subject to agricultural taxes according to "three out of ten taxes".

The other fields are other people's land, reclaimed by Li Laoliu's family. In addition to paying the "10 tax 3" agricultural tax, they also have to pay [-]% more land rent.

The total tax burden on this part of the land reaches 4% and the main crops are soybeans and wheat. The rice fields are intensively cultivated by the family, so that the harvest can be more.

Around this small village, there is a lot of uncultivated wilderness land, which is taxed according to the standards of pastoral areas, which is an order of magnitude less than high-quality farmland.

Whether it's the town or the big landowners, they all welcome the newly reclaimed wasteland. The contract for cultivating the reclaimed wasteland is signed for 30 to 49 years, and the highest can be [-] years.

Such contracts are protected by imperial law, and landowners who tear up the contract will have to bear a fairly high penalty for breach of contract.

The reason for this is also to ensure the enthusiasm of farmers who open up wasteland.

Wuli Town is a half-agricultural and half-pastoral town. The proportion of farmland is less than [-]%, and most of them are pastoral areas, which can support a smaller population, and the taxation of animal husbandry is much lower.

Therefore, various policies encourage capable farmers to open up wasteland. The town will provide seeds at a preferential price, and can also buy chemical fertilizers with the wasteland opening certificate.

Only more than [-]% of the land is cultivated, and more than half of the people in Wuli Town are farmers.

The grain they produce can be easily sold to Brazil or even Europe through the town's wharf, and the price has been relatively stable over the years.

It is precisely because of such conditions that Li Laoliu's family can support dozens of people, and they have established a firm foothold here and spread their branches and leaves. (end of this chapter)