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

Chapter 789 Thirteen Monks
Some people have exhausted all their strength just to live.

Once the preserved meat rice was ready, the villagers brought their own bowls from home and lined up to get their rice—wooden bowls, stone bowls, earthenware bowls, some with chipped edges and cracks.
The Imperial Guard soldiers looked at the bowls with some disdain, but still filled each of their bowls with a large spoonful.

Whether the bowl is big or small, it's one big spoonful.

"Sir, give me some more." An old man came with a wooden basin, holding it with both hands, wanting more.

The imperial guard rolled his eyes at him. "This one big spoonful is enough for a whole bowl, with rice, cured meat, smoked chicken, and cured fish. I'll even add another big spoonful of stewed radish and cabbage for you."
If you're still not full, come back for more later, next one.

These imperial guards were all from good backgrounds and couldn't empathize with the tenant farmers.

They just thought these people were cunning and greedy, and even looked down on those who gave their wives and daughters to monks to be abused in order to rent a good piece of land.

Li Yi also got a bowl of preserved meat rice and a bowl of radish and preserved pork rib soup.

Squatting to one side,
There weren't that many tables, and there weren't that many formalities.

Everyone squatted on the ground to eat, with a big bowl of rice and a big bowl of soup.

The meal was very simple.

But for the villagers, it was a delicacy they had never experienced before.

Even the eight dishes served at wedding banquets usually only consist of some offal such as pig liver and intestines to make a meat dish, while the rest are vegetarian or even just wooden fish for decoration.

Salty and savory cured pork,
Cut into large pieces.
Take a bite, and the fatty part sizzles with oil.

Li Yi thought the Imperial Guards' cooking skills were mediocre. These guys were at least small landlords at home, yet they didn't even know to first sear the skin off the cured meat, then boil it, and then slice it for stir-frying.

Cutting it directly and steaming it in the rice makes it too salty.

"Don't you guys find it salty?" Li Yi asked, watching the guys eat heartily.

"A saltier meal goes better with rice, and a saltier meal gives you more energy."

The Imperial Guards answered questions while eating. Although they did not do hard labor, they had to practice martial arts, which was very physically demanding and caused them to sweat a lot. Therefore, they preferred salty food and oily food.

However, the oil from steaming the cured meats in the rice makes it softer, stickier, and more fragrant.

"In the Baiguwu area, there are a total of 17,000 mu of farmland, all of which belong to the Shaolin Temple. There are also several thousand mu of mountain forests belonging to them. At the foot of the mountain, there are about 3,000 mu of medicinal gardens, where various medicinal herbs are grown."

In addition, there are three watermills and four oil presses here, all belonging to the temple.

"The income from those three mills and five oil mills alone is equivalent to the tax revenue of an entire county in a year."

Li Yi listened to Li Cunli's report while drinking radish soup.

A superior county should have more than 10,000 households and 10,000 laborers. The annual tax revenue alone should amount to 20,000 shi of millet, 5,000 bolts of silk, and 5,000 jin of cotton.

Three water mills and five oil mills—they can actually earn so much in a year.

This shows how profitable the grain and oil processing workshop was. One of the water mills was even a gift from Li Shimin to the temple after he conquered Luoyang.

However, watermills generally affect irrigation, especially during droughts, and often compete with people for water.

17,000 mu of farmland and 3,000 mu of medicinal herb fields.

The rent for each mu of grain field is six dou, and an additional dou is added for using the temple's oxen. The rent for this grain field alone is 12,000 shi of wheat and millet a year, and there is also a considerable amount of rent for the 3,000 mu of medicinal herb fields.

This is only the official rent on the surface. The monks who manage the farmland will take even more money from the tenants through various means, such as renting and lending money for goods, wine, and gifts, large and small measures, and borrowing cattle and seeds.

These 17,000 mu of farmland and 3,000 mu of medicinal herb fields require them to extract nearly 20,000 shi of grain a year. It is known that even if the tenant farmers work hard all year round, they will not have much left at the end.

When food is scarce, people have to borrow grain to survive.

Even when it comes to planting, they have to borrow seeds.

The temple not only collected rent and made loans, but also processed and sold grain and oil, processed medicinal herbs, and opened a pharmacy.

"The temple is famous for its medicines for sprains and bruises. They have opened pharmacies in many places, including Luoyang, Zhengzhou, and Xingyang, and even in Chang'an."

The 20,000 mu of land here accounts for only 10% of all the temple lands of Shaolin Temple. They also have a large amount of land in Henan, and even in Shannan, Huainan and Hebei, totaling more than 200,000 mu.

“Tanman confessed that the temple had a pawnshop that brought in ten thousand strings of cash every year.”

The pawnshop in the temple was called "Zhiku".

The temple not only lends money at high interest rates, but also engages in pawn and mortgage business.

Ordinary people would use land deeds, jewelry, clothing, and other items as collateral to borrow money, but if they couldn't repay, the loans would become dead loans, so the people would sell the collateral.

These pawnbroking transactions are short-term and involve small amounts, but the profits are extremely high. The items that ordinary people use as collateral are generally priced very low, so even if they don't redeem them on time, they can resell them without losing money; on the contrary, they can make a lot of money.

This type of pawnbroking is safer and more reliable than regular lending because it involves collateral.

"A quality warehouse can earn tens of thousands of coins a year; that's quite a lot of money."

Like their pharmacies, Shaolin's pharmacies also have branches in Luoyang, Kaifeng, Zhengzhou, Xingyang and other places.

The Shaolin Temple was very adept at playing the financial game, using its kitchen for lending and its pawnshop for pawning, earning 20,000 to 30,000 strings of cash a year.

This income,
Li Yi was green with envy.

How much tax revenue does a prefecture or county collect in a year, or even how much revenue does the imperial court currently have?

His temple not only collected over 100,000 guan in rent annually, but also earned 20,000 to 30,000 guan through lending.

In addition, they also make money from pharmacies.

They even collected protection money.

Tanman and the others confessed that because there were martial monks in the temple, and the Thirteen Monks who broke through the city were famous throughout the world, the King of Qin even ordered them to organize five hundred monk soldiers to protect the temple and the people.

As a result, the Shaolin monks became famous. In recent years, the surrounding counties have given the temple 300 strings of cash every year to the monks for security and defense.

The Shaolin Temple has 500 officially trained monks, which were originally appointed by Li Shimin to teach Prince Qin. However, many powerful and wealthy families sought them out, so in recent years, the temple has opened several martial arts schools in the surrounding area under the guise of training lay disciples, recruiting many lay disciples to train in fist and staff techniques while also taking on bodyguard and security jobs.

In the past few years, the world was not very stable, and there were many bandits and horse bandits. Long-distance merchants were especially unsafe. The Shaolin monks escorted goods and protected the temple, and they defeated many bandits and horse bandits, which earned them a good reputation.

The monks in the temple were also doing brisk business. They charged 300 strings of cash a year for defending the county town, and they also charged an annual fee for protecting the strongholds and manors of powerful families. Escorting goods was calculated by distance.

If you encounter thieves, you'll have to pay extra to fight them.

In Henan, the reputation of Shaolin monks has indeed grown in recent years. They are skilled in escorting goods and protecting homes, and most bandits dare not provoke them. Even if they do encounter them, these monks are very strong in terms of personnel and equipment, and they rarely fail.

Martial arts schools can earn tuition fees by taking on apprentices, and they can also make money by escorting goods and protecting property.

Li Yi couldn't help but admire the monks' shrewdness.

Do you know how many monk soldiers Shaolin has right now?

"There are only five hundred formal monk soldiers. But there are a total of six martial arts schools in the surrounding area, each with a martial monk instructor and five hundred lay disciples and students."

"Ha, that's another three thousand. A total of three thousand five hundred warrior monks. No wonder they're getting more and more arrogant. With this kind of strength, no one dares to mess with them."

In recent years, they have deliberately embellished the story of the thirteen monks who helped the King of Qin into a story of the thirteen monks who saved the King of Qin, and even made it seem as if they helped eliminate Wang Shichong of Luoyang.

This year, Li Shimin ascended the throne and became emperor.
The monks became even more arrogant and domineering.

The teachings of the King of Qin that Li Shimin gave them were engraved on a huge stele and erected in the temple.

Even when the emperor nearly demolished their temple and dismissed their disciples last year, they didn't mention that it was Prince Qin, Prime Minister Xiao Yu, or Yang Gongren who intervened to save them.

They insisted that they were defying the imperial edict, and the court had no choice but to withdraw the decree.

Li Yi looked at a villager's child in the distance. The child had a big head and a round belly, but his hands and feet were as thin as sticks. After finishing his meal, he was still licking the broken earthenware bowl in circles.

He called out, beckoning him over.

The child looked at Li Yi, his gaze darting away.

"They're calling you, come quick."

The child came over nervously.

Li Yi put all seven or eight pieces of cured pork, smoked chicken, and salted fish from his bowl into his bowl, asking, "What's it called?"

"Zhang Bing".

Why is it called that?

“I say that the soldiers of the garrison are very noble. If you can be selected as a garrison soldier, you can be allocated military land. If you win a battle and make a name for yourself, you can also get a meritorious official position and be granted meritorious land. You don’t even have to bow your head when you see the warrior monks in the temple.”

A poor tenant farmer's child would normally never have the chance to become a soldier in the local militia.

Naming someone "Bing" is just like naming someone "Fugui" (meaning "wealth" or "nobility").

"Well, let's go."

Big Head Zhang Bing stared in disbelief at the seven or eight pieces of meat in his bowl. When he came to his senses, he thanked them repeatedly and even tried to kowtow.

"No need, go eat. We can have more if you want."

He took a few steps back, turned around, and quickly ran back to his father and brothers to share the meal with his family.

Looking at the child, Li Enze thought of his own past, which was even more tragic than Zhang Bing's. He was an orphan who begged everywhere, while Zhang Bing at least had a family.

After a while,
Zhang Bing's father led him to thank Li Yi.

Looking at this extremely aged tenant farmer, and the several malnourished children behind him.

Li Yi asked him, "I think your son Zhang Bing is quite clever. I'd like to take him on as a follower. Would you be willing?"

Zhang Bing's father was stunned.

"I'll provide him with food, clothing, and lodging, and give your family two shi of grain and two bolts of silk every year, with additional amounts added each year thereafter. Is that acceptable?"

When Zhang Bing's father came to his senses, he was too excited to speak. He could only nod repeatedly and then tried to kneel down.

"Don't kneel, this is also a kind of fate between me and this child."

“Enze, give Zhang Bing’s father two shi of grain and two bolts of silk, and another five bolts of silk as a settlement allowance. Zhang Bing will stay with you for now, and you will take care of him.”

Zhang Bing, who is ten years old this year, looks as thin as six or seven.

Li Yi then beckoned to the doctor in the group and asked him to examine Zhang Bing, saying, "This child may have worms in his stomach, let's get rid of them."

“He also has fleas and lice on him. He should take a good medicated bath, change his clothes, and get his hair cut.”

Zhang Bing stood there, both nervous and excited.

The sky was dark.
The wind was even colder.

The villagers, however, were all away and reluctant to go home.

Li Yi is issuing the order.

The 17,000 mu of Shaolin Temple farmland, 3,000 mu of medicinal herb garden, and several thousand mu of mountain forest in Baiguwu, along with the estates and warehouses of the Zhuangtiansi (a local government agency), and the three water mills and five oil mills,

Everything was seized, and no officials were appointed.

“Situ, a group of monks have arrived outside. The leader claims to be Huiyang, the head monk of Shaolin Temple.”

"Oh, he's here quickly." Li Yi knew Hui Yang, one of the three pillars of Shaolin Temple, responsible for managing the monks' miscellaneous affairs. He was also one of the thirteen monks who captured Wang Renzhe back then.

(End of this chapter)