A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 900 Encountering Trouble

The sun sets over the mountains,

On the drying ground in Houtun, Ludao Bay, Chun Sanniang’s mother-in-law and several children were harvesting millet. The millet was picked from the field and brought home to spread out in the sun for a day. Although it was not dry enough, it had to be harvested at night. Go home to prevent rats and birds from stealing food, and avoid getting wet from dew at night.

The millet was filled into bamboo baskets, and Brother Seng went back to pick it up again and again. The drying ground was half a mile away from home. The load weighed more than 100 kilograms, but Brother Seng felt very rich.

For that basket of grain, the cooperative contract signed with the Wu family was seventy-three cents, and he would get three cents if he paid seven cents in rent, but the straw in the field, as well as the radish and rapeseed planted after the autumn harvest, all belong to him.

One acre can yield two quintals, and the land on the island is quite fertile, especially since the rains happened to be good this year, ensuring a bumper harvest. He could keep six bushels of autumn grain per acre, and he was satisfied.

Chun Thirty Years picked up the sweat towel to wipe his sweat, "You take a break and drink some water. I've collected it here. Let's pick it up together."

"You've been working early and late these days harvesting rice. You're tired enough. You go back to cooking. I'll pick the millet."

There is still a lot of millet to pick in the drying field. Although I am tired, I am happy. What I am picking is not millet, but that is a guarantee.

"Let's pick them together. It will be in the sun for three days in a row. You can't stand it if you pick out early and pick in late." Chun Sanniang herself is also strong. Although she is a woman, she is not that delicate. She can do all kinds of work, and there are many With little effort, you can still pick up two baskets of millet, but you have to rest once in the middle.

She asked her brother-in-law and sister-in-law to carry a basket, and her three little children also carried bags to carry some, so they could share the burden.

This family is entirely supported by this man, and he cannot be used like cattle and horses. Moreover, these three sons are not his biological children, and his mother-in-law, uncle and aunt are not from the same family as him.

They also have to sift out impurities, shriveled grains, etc., and the women also spread out the threshed straw bundles to dry, which cannot be wasted.

"Next year, let's grow some glutinous rice." Spring Thirty Years will make wine, and Ludao Pier is becoming more and more prosperous. It is more cost-effective to grow some glutinous rice at home to make homemade water and sell it than to sell the excess grain directly.

Brother Seng was very moved when he heard this, and felt a little ashamed of her. She had to work in the fields even though she was pregnant. During the autumn harvest, she had to get up early every day and work until late at night.

When I come back in the dark at night, I still have to collect and pick out the millet.

Such intense autumn work will last for many days.

This will only happen if the weather is fine, the weather is always fine, and the busy autumn season lasts for at least half a month. Only then can we breathe a sigh of relief when all the grains are dried and put into the warehouse.

Under the dim fire, everyone ate in the dark. They ate rice with sweet potato chunks and a pot of vegetable soup. Because I cooked a piece of bacon today, the vegetable soup became much more delicious.

Normally, the immigrants in the village could help each other, but during the autumn harvest, they had to rush for time and weather, but everyone was busy with autumn and had no time to help each other.

It's hard work now, but I feel full of hope.

In the spring, my mother-in-law, who was in her 30s, brought out a piece of bacon to cook. In the autumn, when she was busy, she had to eat well, otherwise she would not have enough energy. When dinner was ready, Brother Seng stood by the barn and looked at the grain filled with a smile.

Brother Seng wiped his sweat and continued to pick up a load of millet and walked home. In the past, he mainly carried bags as a coolie at Jiangzhou Wharf. He has a lot of strength and can carry it to the wharf to survive. You can’t make much money from other people’s things.

"Why don't I go to the pier tomorrow to rent a car and a wheelbarrow? There will be so much corn in the sun for three days. It's really tiring to pick it out. It's much better to push it in a wheelbarrow."

A family of eight people, sitting around the fire,

The whole day is like a war. You get up before dawn and go to the fields to cut rice. When the sun comes out, you have to carry the previously recovered millet to the drying area to dry. Someone has to turn over the drying at intervals. Someone has to keep watching to prevent birds from eating it. After drying the rice, You have to go to the fields to thresh grain, which is even more strenuous work, with handfuls of rice being beaten and threshed on the threshing bucket.

Chun Nian put several large pieces of bacon into Brother Seng's bowl and then handed it to him.

That night, it was not until it was completely dark and the autumn wind brought a chill that the family finally finished their work and went home.

"You have the most energy, so eat more."

"You're pregnant with a child. You can help with the rice harvest. I can't let you carry the burden." Brother Seng quickly stopped him.

"Being pregnant with a child is not that valuable. Look at the villagers who can't carry burdens when they are pregnant. They can carry water, firewood, and grain."

This autumn has a good harvest. With so much grain, after paying the rent, the rations will be enough to last until next summer's harvest. You can sell some more. Even if the grain price is cheap, you should sell some to buy something for your family.

"Let's all eat together, don't give them all to me," Brother Seng said.

After it rains, you can plow the rice fields and plant rapeseed or radishes.

One stone of rice is worth only fifty yuan.

"It costs money to rent a car." Chun Sansanniang said. Although the harvest is good now, after all, they are working together to farm the land, and the rent accounts for the majority. What's more, nowadays, food is cheap and money is expensive.

Although the children were greedy, they were also quite sensible. Each of them had just a small piece of meat and took a small bite at a time, not wanting to finish it in several takes.

"After the autumn harvest is finished, rapeseed is planted in the fields, and the rent is paid, we will take advantage of our free time to earn some living money. During the Chinese New Year, we will buy more meat and marinate it. Salt is cheap here at the seaside. We will marinate more meat every now and then. Let’s cook a meal of meat.”

The children were very happy when they heard this.

"When I have free time, I can also go fishing. I heard that if you are lucky, you can pick up a lot of seafood. You can even pick up oysters, conchs, fish, shrimps, and some sea vegetables." Said, this is also a relatively strong and capable woman,

The fact that she could resolutely bring her whole family from Jiangzhou and follow Brother Seng to Ludao shows that she is not ordinary ignorant, bold and careful.

After the meal, we chatted for a while, washed our feet and went to bed. As soon as we lay down, our tired body fell asleep quickly.

The cock crows three times and Brother Seng gets up. It was still dark at this time, so he went to the pier to rent a trolley. The village was only a few miles away from the pier, and he could reach it in a short time.

It was just dawn when we arrived at the pier.

The pier is particularly lively today, with many boats parked in the harbor.

There were even many heavily armed soldiers visible on the pier.

"Xianggong Wu is here,"

When he was renting a car at a car shop, he inquired about it, and the clerk told him the news.

Hearing the news, Brother Seng was inexplicably excited. Perhaps it was because he was recruited from Ludao by the Wu family, or because he was now a tenant of the Wu family.

In fact, most of the people on this island, except for the two households of Xue and Chen who were the first ones on the island, came here this year. Most of them are people who cultivate land, build docks, ports, and open workshops and shops. They are either employees of the Wu family or slaves.

Just like this car shop, it is also one of the Wu family's industries.

Although Brother Seng is half a member of the Wu family, he has never met Mr. Wu, but has always heard of his name. In his heart, Brother Seng still respected Mr. Wu who changed his destiny. He gave himself a new life, with a wife, children, a family, and a real future wife.

"Why did Mr. Wu come to Ludao?"

"It is said that the people who came from Dengzhou were in Jiangzhou, the fiefdom, and then went to the lower reaches of the Yellow River to provide relief and condolences. They came all the way to Dengzhou, and then came by sea from there." The waiter obviously also admired Wu Xianggong. When talking about this His tone was very exciting and his face was red, "I don't know if there will be a chance to see Mr. Wu."

Brother Monk was doing business while chatting, renting a trolley.

At this time, someone came in again and started chatting loudly with the shopkeeper on the counter.

"Have you heard that after Prime Minister Wu arrived at Ludao yesterday, he had dinner with the village bosses and stewards on the island and told them good news."

"The newly reclaimed wasteland on Ludao Island can be exempted from tax for three years, and half tax for another three years. In addition, the people who come from the Central Plains to reclaim wasteland, Wu Xiang has helped everyone find a benefit, and they are registered here as Jiahe Township, Jinjiang County, Quanzhou Customers no longer need to pay two taxes in their place of origin.

Even if you register as a customer here, you can also be exempted from two taxes for three years. "

When Brother Seng heard this, he pricked up his ears and listened very carefully.

It's about yourself, it's very important.

Although he was a bachelor who had settled down in Jiangzhou before, he was actually a good citizen with household registration, but he just had no property. Now that he has come here, he has not settled down, so he is still considered a native of Jiangzhou.

Whether he should pay taxes and how to pay them, he was actually very confused.

He couldn't help but squeeze to the front of the cabinet, salute the man with folded hands, and then ask.

"That's not all the good news. Mr. Wu also said last night that the imperial court will be exempted from taxes and the Wu family will reduce rent. For those who farm and rent land with Wu guys on the island, the rent was originally 73 or 55, but now The Wu family made a concession of 10%, and it turned into 64 and 46..."

There was a lot of news, and Brother Seng was very excited when he heard it. He didn't know whether it was true or false, but he was willing to believe it in his heart.

Ludao wanted to establish a township, Jiahe Township, which was established by imperial decree. It was subordinate to Jinjiang County in Quanzhou, more than 200 miles away, but not to Longxi County, 120 miles away in the upper reaches of the Jiulong River.

Immigrants like Brother Seng, or still employed workers, can choose to temporarily register as customers in Jiahe Township, or they can choose to settle down.

If he chooses to settle down, his current status as a tenant farmer will actually be that of the lower class among the nine fixed households, and there will be no burden. After all, the labor service law is now implemented, which can be converted into ten cents, and the ten cents are divided into acres.

Brother Seng doesn’t have his own land, so he doesn’t actually have to pay land tax, and he basically doesn’t have to pay any household tax when he goes to work.

No service, no taxes, just rent.

The Wu family will also reduce rent this year.

Even if the rent is reduced by 10%, that is still a lot of food. If we harvest a hundred tons of grain this autumn, we can keep ten more tons, which will provide three more children with a year's rations.

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island,

Wu Huaiyu encountered some trouble there.

He did ask for some policies from the court this time. For example, he developed Ludao, cultivated land here, and built ports, wharves, shipyards, etc. He could get settlement, three years of exemption from land tax and three and a half years of tax, and businessmen could get the first year's tax. Tax exemption, preferential conditions for half tax for the next two years,

Of course, the preferential conditions granted by the imperial court to Wu Huaiyu were actually part of the new policy for the five states in Fujian, namely Jian'an County in the Sui Dynasty.

This place was very special before, so the treatment was basically the same as that of Lingnan. They paid some local tribute and did not have to pay rent. It was this preferential policy that allowed many Shandongxi barbarians to join the imperial court. The imperial court also established counties and villages, granting them The barbarian chiefs served as county magistrates and so on.

(End of this chapter)