A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 743 Selling the Child to Ye Tian Without Feeling Pain

Double Ninth Festival,

The sky is high and the clouds are light; the autumn air is crisp and refreshing.

Early in the morning,
Du Shiniang then suggested to her husband that they go up to Leyouyuan, “Recently, my husband has been busy with official duties all day and rarely has a day off. It’s a good opportunity for the whole family to go out and have some fun. We don’t have much time, so let’s take a walk around Leyouyuan in the city.”

"Okay." Looking at his wife, who had become even more plump, Li Yi smiled and readily agreed.

"We can take a stroll through the cherry blossom garden and visit Xiaoyu'er. She's been with Madam Huo for a while now, and I miss her quite a bit."

"Row."

"Then I'll have someone go to Furong Garden in the south of the city and invite Li Shi over as well. She's heavily pregnant and probably bored. You haven't been to her place in a long time, have you?"

Faced with his wife's magnanimity, Li Yi could only smile and let it go.

After a while,
Li Shu then arrived with a group of her younger siblings. She brandished a wooden sword, looking like a great general charging into battle, and Li Cong and the others were all her soldiers.
"Father, Father, are we going to climb Leyouyuan today?" the little girl asked expectantly.

"Ah."

"Yay!" the girl jumped up and down.

Li Cong and Li Yan also jumped and cheered.

"Father is testing you. Do you know where Leyouyuan is?"

Li Cong, the peaceful man, answered quickly, "I know, I know! Sister Yu'er lives in the Cherry Blossom Garden on Leyou Plain. Leyou Plain is in the south of the city."

"Well, do you know the origin of the name Leyouyuan?"

Now the little ones won't know.

“Ayer told us.”

"The earliest history of Leyouyuan can be traced back to the Qin and Han dynasties. Yichun Palace and Chunlin Palace were built there. During the Former Han Dynasty, Leyouyuan belonged to the royal Shanglin Garden. The name Leyouyuan is related to Emperor Xuan of Han. Leyouyuan Garden was built on the plain, also known as Leyou Garden."

Later, people called this hill Leyouyuan (Happy Playground).

"This Leyou is originally a high place in our Chang'an city, which is most suitable for climbing up and looking far away. To the south, one can see the misty rain of Qujiang, and to the far-reaching snow of Zhongnan Mountain."

Looking east, the Chan River flows with its clear, surging waters; looking north, Chang'an is within easy reach.

At this time of year, the maple leaves on the plains have turned red, and the chrysanthemums are in full bloom.

The children listened with delight and longing.

"Everyone, go change into your spring outing clothes and shoes for hiking. I'll have the kitchen prepare picnic food and other groceries. We'll climb to a high place to enjoy the view, the red leaves, and the sunset!"

"Great!"

The wives and concubines in the family were just as excited as the children about going to climb Leyouyuan.

There are five pregnant women in the family now, and it's inconvenient to go far away. It's nice to be able to climb the hills in the city.

"My lord, recently many nobles and officials have been taking advantage of the scenic beauty of the plains to build gardens and villas. Shouldn't our family also buy a couple of plots of land, build a villa on the plains and a residence on the plains?" Ji Lingyi asked, her belly protruding.

It is said that during the Sui Dynasty, there was a regulation that prohibited the construction of residences on the plateau.

After the change of dynasties, there were not so many rules anymore.

Many newly established dynasties and their newly rich built houses on the plateaus, even competing with each other in extravagant construction.

Every year during the Shangsi Festival in March and the Double Ninth Festival in September, the people of Chang'an would come to visit, causing traffic jams.

Literati and scholars also liked to gather on the plain to climb high and compose poems. Good poems could spread throughout Chang'an the next day, making it a famous and popular place.

Leyou was originally located in Xinchangfang.

It used to be almost a ghost town, with only temples, orchards, vegetable gardens, and even large fields of wheat.
Xinchangfang, which covers an area of ​​1,000 acres, used to be very empty.

In the past two years, nobles have been vying to build villas, turning Xinchangfang into a noble villa district in Chang'an, just like Qujiang.

"Row."

Although the abandoned Linggan Temple on Leyou Plain was bought and turned into a cherry orchard, it was still the Huo family living there.

Du Shiniang and her companions didn't mind going there occasionally.

But ultimately, it's not their own.

The women then discussed what kind of atmosphere they wanted to create.
The Huo family had a cherry orchard in Leyouyuan, while the Li family had a hibiscus garden in Qujiang. Both were large-scale garden villas covering more than 100 acres.

They also wanted to build a larger one, since the nobles on and around Leyou Plain were all competing with each other.

"stop!"

Li Yi quickly called out to them.
“I support your desire to build villas in Leyouyuan, but you can’t compete with each other. Don’t build large-scale projects. Just buy 20 or 30 acres of land and build a small villa.”

"Only twenty or thirty acres? That's too small. I've heard there's still a lot of vacant land on Leyou Plain, and even more in the villages below it," Ji Lingyi said. "Other princes' families build houses that cover a hundred or eighty acres. Our family can't be too far behind, can we?"

"Listen to me, don't compare yourself to others, and don't be too extravagant. His Majesty now values ​​frugality. I think we should clear twenty acres of land on the plateau and build a small villa there, so we can easily go up to enjoy the sunset."
We could just get another thirty acres of land down the plateau and build a garden there.

Don't go for anything too extravagant.

Du Shiniang smiled and agreed, "Let's listen to Alang. I think we shouldn't go for twenty or thirty mu. Let's get eighteen mu each on the plateau and build a small villa. We'll just stay there occasionally anyway."

Choosing a spot right next to the cherry orchard would make it convenient to see cherry blossoms in spring and pick cherries in summer.

Taking advantage of Li Yi's day off and his free time at home, Luo San Niang inquired about the land sale again.

"Is Ah Lang really going to sell another thousand acres of land?"

"The notices have been posted at all the city gates of Chang'an, so how could they be false?" Li Yi said with a smile.

Luo San Niang looked distressed.
“Our family has already sold a lot of land. If we sell another thousand hectares, we will only have three thousand hectares left.”

“Three thousand hectares is not a small amount; three hundred thousand mu is quite a lot. In Chang’an, many people only have thirty mu of land per household. This is equivalent to the land holdings of ten thousand households.” Li Yi didn’t seem to care about the loss.

In previous years, he acquired land on a large scale, at one point owning tens of thousands of acres.

Now, however, they are constantly selling land, offering it up and selling it off, with 70% of the land already sold.

"People say that a son doesn't feel the pinch when selling his land, but Ah Lang feels even less of a pinch when selling his own land." "Just do as I say. This time, the land won't be sold to family members, relatives, or friends."
This time, the land will only be sold to people who have not been allocated enough land and to tenant farmers who have no land.

We prioritize selling to our own workers, laborers, and tenants.

"Same old rule as before: if you can't pay upfront, that's okay, you can pay in installments with lower interest rates. Ten mu, twenty mu, thirty mu—let's get this thousand hectares settled as soon as possible."

Luo Sanniang couldn't help but ask, "Don't sell the remaining three thousand hectares of land. If it's scattered across various prefectures, there won't be much left in each prefecture."

Li Yi thought it was quite a lot, 300,000 mu, while his title as a prince only included 5,000 mu.

Dugu asked from the side, "Our family has sold so much land, we should at least acquire some other properties, right?"

"That's for sure,"

He did not hide his plans from his wives and concubines: "Buy mines, mine coal in Weibei, Shuofang, and Hedong, and then process it. The coal can be transported to Chang'an, Taiyuan, Luoyang and other places to be sold as fuel for the people. The processed coke can be used for forging."

"Look at the countryside around Beijing now, there are hardly any trees left. Even Zhongnan Mountain is often bare. Fuel is scarce, and even the palace lacks firewood and charcoal every winter."

The officials often failed to provide enough firewood and charcoal, and every winter, noble families and relatives of high rank had to send special stewards to purchase these supplies.

Coal, also known as rock coal, has been mined and used quite early, but its use was not large-scale in the early Tang Dynasty. It was mainly used by the court, nobles, and some government-run workshops. However, Li Yi's research revealed that the cost of mining, processing, and transporting coal from northern Shaanxi to the south was not actually very high once the scale of production increased.

But the benefits will not be small.

Especially processed coke, which is a valuable resource for casting.

Using ordinary coal for forging affects the quality of ironware, but coke does not. Coke can also provide higher firing temperatures, allowing for the forging of better steel.

Even ordinary coal,
Large cities like Chang'an and Luoyang have always been in short supply.

The demand for fuel is too high, especially in urban areas.

The demand for firewood and charcoal is just like the demand for food and cloth; both are necessities, and the demand increases in winter.

A city called Chang'an

Every day, countless oxcarts carrying firewood travel along the official road.

In contrast,

Coal is more efficient than firewood or charcoal, and it is also more cost-effective to transport.

It is said that one should not sell firewood for a hundred miles or buy rice for a thousand miles, because the transportation costs of firewood and rice are very high.

However, coal mining requires more technology than chopping wood and making charcoal, and it is also a labor-intensive industry, unlike chopping wood and making charcoal, which can be done by a farmer with a wood-chopping knife.

Long-distance transportation is something that ordinary people cannot do.

But for Li Yi,
Mining, processing, and transporting coal are not problems; the profits are quite high. The only constraint might be manpower.

A large number of miners are needed, which requires buying slaves and recruiting workers.

"I also plan to invest in silver and iron mines in Lingnan, copper mines in Sichuan, and gold mines in Shandong..."

Mining,
For the women in the family, this was a bit beyond their comprehension. In their eyes, having money to buy land, build estates, and open some workshops and shops was enough.

As for mining, I've never even considered it.

Not to mention that Li Yi had previously invested money to build a shipyard in Lingnan in order to form a maritime trade fleet to go to Southeast Asia.

Now they want to open coal mines and gold, silver, copper and iron mines, leaving them speechless.

"Aren't these mining and smelting operations state-run?" Dugu asked.

"The government-run mines are few and far between, so it is necessary and a very important supplement to introduce private enterprises."

Both copper for casting coins and iron for refining weapons are in short supply.

Gold and silver mining is also severely inadequate.

The imperial court is now encouraging private mining and smelting of minerals, which is naturally a promising opportunity, and Li Yi understands the policy direction.

Next, the imperial court will try to introduce a mining tax.

For private mining and iron smelting, a system of random mineral procurement and monopoly will be implemented. The government will no longer completely control mineral resources or directly control mine owners, but will allow private mining and the recruitment of miners for production.

However, one-tenth of the value of the mined minerals is subject to a mineral tax, which is levied in kind.

In the smelting and processing stage, a tax of 20% (two out of ten) is also levied in kind.

Meanwhile, for the remaining minerals, a monopoly was implemented, stipulating that 70% must be sold to the government. Only 30% was allowed to be sold on its own.

It's neither a tax-farming system nor a fixed-amount mining tax.
Instead, it involved random selection of classes and private purchases.

The mining industry operates on a purchase system, where private individuals invest in and purchase the production and operation rights of a mine or metallurgical plant from the government, while providing their own labor and expenses for mining.

The system of purchasing and collecting a percentage of the tax, and the partial monopoly system, was not a rigid and unchanging fixed tax rate. Moreover, it directly levied taxes on physical minerals, and the interests of the government and the purchasers were closely linked and protected.

Most people may still have some confusion and fear about minerals.

However, Li Yi felt that mining and smelting were more profitable than farming. Even if the imperial court took a 20% cut and then bought the remaining 70%, the imperial court's purchase was still paid for.

With private mining, the imperial court doesn't have to do anything but collect money from the purchase of minerals, levy mining taxes, and monopolize mining and metallurgy, making a profit in the process. When Li Shimin heard about this, he only hesitated whether it would consume too much of the people's resources.

But government-run enterprises still need to employ people.

Private mining is not about forcibly conscripting people to mine; it's entirely an employment system. It can employ local farmers during their off-season to earn money, as well as landless migrant workers.

Minerals such as gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, tin, sulfur, and coal are all urgently needed resources for the country.

Li Yi's willingness to take the lead in private enterprise is precisely because he is concerned about what the country urgently needs.

Du Shiniang listened for a while, then smiled and said to Luo Sanniang and Dugu Shi, "Let Ah Lang decide about things outside. We women just need to stay home and take care of these children."

Although Luo San Niang felt uncertain, she could only nod.

"Go and pack your things, we'll be heading to Leyouyuan soon."

(End of this chapter)