A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 287

A Great Wall divides Yanzhou into north and south, with a county inside and outside the Great Wall.

Spring rains are lingering.

Eighty miles to the south of the town, Wu Huaiyu brought a battalion of Yanzhou town soldiers here to garrison the fields, and led them to Lingying Mountain.

"Come here, this is a must." Dou Lu Huairang did not know from which guide he heard that there are grottoes in Lingying Mountain. Not only are the thirteen-hole grottoes dug by the mountain, but also the statues in the grottoes are lifelike and the murals are beautiful. The pattern is generous and beautifully drawn.

And this is also a temple of Buddhism and Taoism.

"I heard that this temple is very efficacious, so it is called Lingyingshan Temple. It used to be called Qingshan, but after digging this cave and enshrining the statues of gods and Buddhas, it is very efficacious.

Those who seek medical treatment will recover from illness, those who seek children will have a noble son, those who seek wealth will make a fortune, those who seek longevity will live in their ninety years, and those who seek marriage will marry a couple.

It is said that every March [-]rd, people from hundreds of miles around come here to burn incense and worship Buddha, regardless of Han and Tibetan, the incense is strong. "

Wu Huaiyu himself is a disciple of Zhongnan Yinxian, and even the current head of the Longmen sect. When passing by the temple, he must pay homage to the mountain gate.

When I came here, I found that this Lingying Temple is close to the mountain, condescending, with a long and narrow ditch in front of the temple, with flowing water flowing all the year round. In the Wuliang Hall, there is a statue of Emperor Xuanwu, and two gods, the turtle on the left and the snake on the right, stand on both sides.

There are thirteen caves in the temple, each with a temple name, the Dragon King Temple in the first cave, the Niangniang Temple in the second cave, the Yaowang Temple in the third cave, the Ksitigarbha Temple in the fourth cave, the Baizi Guanyin Temple in the fifth cave, and the God of Wealth Temple.

The statues of gods and Buddhas are very realistic, and there are colorful murals in the cave, which are also very exquisite.

Looking at the murals of the statue, it seems that the time is not too long ago.

But such a temple full of incense was actually taken away by Master Liang, leaving an empty mountain temple.

The guide told Huaiyu that it is said that this grotto was excavated in the Northern Wei Dynasty, but it was destroyed by war and occupied by horse thieves. Later, when the Great Wall was being built in the Sui Dynasty, some monks raised money from salt merchants, and then rebuilt the temple. Statues and murals were also made at that time.

What Huaiyu is curious about is that there is a Dragon King Temple in a place like this that is relatively short of water and arid. You can understand that there are the God of Salt, the God of Wealth, the King of Medicine, and Avalokitesvara.

"Because of the lack of water and drought, the Dragon King Temple was built to pray for rain." Doulu Huairang's words made Huaiyu nod, indeed, what is lacking is what is offered.

Surrounded by green mountains on all sides, caves were dug by the mountains, but unfortunately the incense is now broken.

Huaiyu arranged for a group of soldiers to station here temporarily, not only to protect the place, but also to build a post station next to it to serve as a beacon fort. After the restoration here, it will definitely still be full of incense and popularity, and even temple fairs and markets will be formed. , schedule ahead now to order people here.

After offering incense sticks to the gods and Buddhas from all walks of life, Huaiyu returned to the camp in the north.

In the northwest, there used to be a fortress, but now there are no people there, but there are many fields there.

In fact, within the Yanzhou Great Wall, farming is still the mainstay, and there is not a lot of cultivated land here.

"Yanzhou has a total of more than 5 hectares of land, and tens of thousands of hectares of grassland. Seventy percent of the cultivated land is inside the Great Wall, and thirty percent is outside the Great Wall."

"There are so many lands?"

Zhang Chengde said that he checked the past files of Ling and Yan, and this number is not wrong.

"It's a pity that although there is a lot of land, there is a lack of drought and very little irrigated land. Eighty percent of the land depends on the sky for food, all depends on rainfall, and there are no canals to divert water for irrigation. In the past, millet, millet, and buckwheat were mainly planted here. Almost don't grow wheat,"

Zhang Chengde pointed to the area in front of them, "This place was called Qingshan Township in the previous dynasty. According to official records, there are 21 mu of arable land and [-] ground ditches and springs, but less than [-] mu of irrigated land.

There are more than 5 hectares of grassland and more than 3 hectares of woodland. "

Drought, little rain, sandy winds, long winter and short summer, late spring and early autumn.

In most lands, the yield per mu is only a few tens of catties.

The place chosen by the military camp is called Moon Spring, because there is a spring lake like a crescent moon, and there are more than [-] mu of land around it, of which several thousand mu of land along the ditch and spring can be irrigated.

In the past, this place was relatively prosperous, but it was also dilapidated during the war, and the remaining people were forcibly removed by Master Liang, leaving those lands behind.

Some fields have even been plowed, and some seeds have been sown.

Only the fort was set on fire.

Huaiyu stationed a regiment here.

With 200 people, [-] mu of land, and even thousands of mu of irrigated land, they couldn't reclaim so much land.

Doulu Huairang suggested that [-] mu of land be allocated to the Qingshan regiment of the frontier army in Yanzhou Town, which is equivalent to [-] mu of land for each soldier.

There were more than 1 mu left, and the town soldiers couldn't grow it, so they collected it as official land, some of which were used as public land, employment land, school land, etc., and the rest were taken out to rent out merchants, or sold directly.

Although these lands were originally owned, many of the original owners lost their families during the war, and the rest were moved away by Liang Shidu, so theoretically these lands are now unowned.

As a land within the Great Wall, it still has some value.

Doulu Huairang is very rude to these lands. There are more than 5 hectares of land in Yanzhou. Even though most of them are dry land with low yield, they can produce food after all.

There is salt in Yanzhou, and there will be a garrison in the future. There is a great need for food. The food produced here can be sold directly to Yanchi, and there is a bright future for commercial settlements.

This guy intends to sell a large amount of land, but in fact he is taking the opportunity to occupy land in disguise.

They can completely "sell" the good land and the irrigated land. At present, there are not many people here, so they can buy them at a lower price.

After buying it, set up a commercial village, hire people to grow it, or raise slaves to grow it, and the output will be given to the nearest salt pond, and then sold in exchange for salt and horses. The absolute profit is not small.

A regiment of town soldiers, garrisoning [-] mu of land, seems like a lot.

However, the land here is dry and rainless, and the yield per mu is only about half a shi. When there is no disaster, 25 mu is actually harvested at [-] shi, and the seeds have not been removed.

A frontier soldier has a yearly ration of twelve shi and seven spring and winter clothes.

This ration is actually a bit of money to support the family. In the military camp, the daily ration is usually two liters, which is only seven stones and two a year. There are twelve stone rations.

Fifty acres per person, don't worry about not being able to grow it. After all, it is not the intensive farming in the south of the Yangtze River, and the conditions here cannot be intensive.

A regiment of 200 troops allocated [-] mu of land to the military settlements, so they could be completely self-sufficient, and even had a reserve, and even the jobs of the officers and the money of the ministers in the regiment were enough for expenses.

"It's not interesting for me to sell part of the land," Wu Huaiyu knew about Dou Lu Huairang's Xiao Jiujiu, but right now he can't just think about poaching corners to take advantage.

He is the chief history of the Lingfu and the governor of Yanzhou. First of all, he has to consider the development here.

"The land can be sold, but there is a condition. After the land is bought, it must be cultivated, and it cannot be left unused. Moreover, I require that each mu of land must be sold to the government every year for a bucket of grain, and the purchase price is fair."

The addition of the public purchase of grain is also to ensure that these lands will not be bought by the rich and powerful and used for reselling or hoarding.

What Wu Huaiyu wants is that these lands can be cultivated and produced, and can produce food.

It doesn't matter who owns the land, as long as it is bought and sold through normal procedures, even if it is cheaper, it is not a problem, but the land cannot be hoarded and not planted, it must be produced.

Now that there is land and no one in Yanzhou, the land must be cheap.

Whether it is a commercial village or a self-owned business, farming is required, whether it is renting or trading, it must be cultivated to produce food.

If you want to take the opportunity to hoard the land at a low price and sell it at a high price later, this kind of behavior is not allowed, unless you can cultivate it immediately after buying it, then it doesn’t matter whether you sell Wu Huaiyu in the future, but no matter who buys it, this land cannot be left unused with.

Otherwise, the government has the power to punish or even take it back.

Dou Lu Huairang did not expect Wu Huaiyu to have such a condition, so the cost of acquiring the land would be high.There is no shortage of land here, but there is a shortage of people.

One bucket of grain per mu must be purchased publicly. Although it is purchased at the market price, if it is a compulsory public purchase, the impact will not be small.

"Another point is that Yanzhou will set up a free warehouse to reserve for disaster relief. When you see the land, you will be charged two liters per mu."

This grain of righteous granary is not a regular rent, it is not levied by dime, but by mu. You have to pay as much as you have mu of land. Wu Huaiyu even said that no matter whether princes or officials and gentry, they are levied according to the situation, and there is no exemption from this. One said.

Because this is not a tax or tax service, but a free warehouse, which is reserved for everyone.

Of course, Wu Huaiyu did not design and invent this righteous warehouse grain. There had been righteous warehouses and social warehouses in the Sui Dynasty, and there were also in the mainland of the Tang Dynasty.

It's just that there was no place here before, and Huaiyu plans to have it in the future.

If there are not enough people, then invite businessmen to set up commercial villages. In the name of the company, recruit people from the mainland to farm or buy slaves to farm. In the future, the salt in Yanchi can be exchanged for grain first.

In this way, there are many advantages for the firm to engage in commercial settlements.

Of course, aristocratic officials are powerful and rich, and they are encouraged to buy land. As long as the purchase can recruit people or buy slaves to plant, it is warmly welcome.

As long as you are willing to sign a promise to guarantee farming and pay the grain purchased by the public, you can sell the land cheaply. You can even choose the land in Yanzhou, and you can try your best to ensure the integrity of the land.

Right now, we are giving priority to setting aside some land for the town army and state soldiers to serve as military settlements, and leaving some public land and job land for the yamen and officials, and the rest can be sold.

Whoever buys first gets priority.

Seeing Wu Huaiyu's serious look, Dou Lu Huairang laughed after thinking about it, "Mr. Shouyang's idea is not bad. Yanzhou also has tens of thousands of hectares of land. If the public buys one bushel for one mu, then there will be enough land. Food reserves."

Although Wu Huaiyu set the conditions for buying the land, Doulu Huairang still felt that the opportunity was rare and didn't want to miss it.

Huaiyu didn't hesitate, seeing that he wanted to buy it, he immediately called Zhang Chengde, Magistrate of Wuyuan County, Governor Shi Weisiren, Liu Xu, who joined the army, and asked them to have a detailed talk with Doulu Huairang.

The land in Yanzhou, in addition to the fields allocated to the army and the government, the rest of Ren Dou Lu Huairang has priority, and he can sell as much as he wants, and the price is also negotiable, as long as he can sign and guarantee that all these lands will be planted by then, and Every mu must be purchased by the government at least one bucket at a fair price.

"I'll buy [-] mu first," said Dou Lu Huairang, who had a lot of money and a big appetite.He has calculated in his mind that it is not easy to recruit people to farm in the interior, but he can directly raise slaves to plant. A slave is calculated as farming [-] mu, so [-] mu only needs [-] slaves. You can buy some pastures for cattle and sheep.

The advantage of this is that when the farming is busy, people from the ranch can go to help.During the slack season, slaves can also help herd herds, and even their Doulu family will open a salt farm in Yanchi, which also requires a lot of manpower.

It is also possible to transfer each other, transfer slaves to farm during busy farming seasons, and transfer slaves to salt and sell salt during slack seasons.

The price of slaves here is not high. It doesn’t cost much to have a few hundred slaves. A young and strong slave is only [-] yuan. A few thousand is enough. If you have some maidservants, you can get more lesser.

[-] mu of arable land and [-] mu of grassland, Wu Huaiyu agreed on the spot.

Sign the painting, pay the money, and write the letter of commitment, and the [-] mu of land will be his.

Doulu Huairang took a fancy to the land here in Yuequan Fort, so there were more than 2 mu of land here, [-] mu was allocated to the Qingshan regiment of the town, and [-] mu was directly allocated to Doulu Huairang to build a manor. Employment land, public land, etc., have been allocated directly.

"I'm going to ask the steward to arrange for slaves to come and replant the land immediately."

[-] mu of land, although it is a dry land in Bianzhou, after all, the whole piece of land, and some land where canals and springs can be used to divert water, the whole piece of land is directly priced at [-] guan.

The actual price is only [-] yuan per mu.

Both parties are very satisfied with this price, Wu Huaiyu directly let the Yamen realize a large sum of money, and Doulu Huairang is also satisfied because it is cheap.

In Chang'an, even in the early days of the country, those fertile fields cost thousands of dollars per mu. Even in Hedong and other places in Henan, high-quality fertile land cost one or two thousand dollars per mu.

And everyone knows that with the passage of time, the land will become more expensive.

The nobles and tycoons took the opportunity to annex the fields, and the land became more valuable as time passed.

Although this is Bianzhou, there is salt here, and it is not a loss to exchange grain for salt. One mu produces half a stone a year, and [-] mu is five thousand stones. Yanzhou, which is short of food and salt, can be exchanged for salt, no matter how it is calculated. of.

Although he had to build a village, buy slaves, and even buy cattle and farm tools and seeds, Dou Lu Huairang felt that it was a good deal. After all, it was not easy to come across a land of [-] mu.

"Do you want to buy some more?" Wu Huaiyu asked with a smile.

Dou Lu Huairang smiled, "I'll buy this first."

He wanted to buy more, but after all, one hundred hectares of land was a lot, and he wanted to check the wind direction again, in case the emperor or the court were not happy.

Huaiyu turned around and asked Zhang Chengde and Liu Xu, "Would you like to buy some, the land price is very cheap."

The two just shook their heads, "I want to buy it. The land is not expensive, but we can't afford to buy slaves and farm cattle."

One mu of land is only one hundred yuan, but a small slave can cost at least ten thousand yuan, and a cow can cost several thousand yuan. It is necessary to build a village to build a house, buy a plow and a hoe, and a village must have five or six hundred mus. Acres of land.

After all, to set up a thousand-acre farm, you have to invest hundreds of dollars in the early stage, and they, poor officials, really can't afford it.

On the contrary, Yan Governor Shi Wei Siren was quite moved. The Wei family was not short of money. Seeing that Dou Lu Huairang bought [-] mu of land and [-] mu of grassland at one time, Wei Siren also wanted to get something. Even though he was the governor of Yan Prefecture, he was a little worried that the influence would not be good. .

"Don't Shijun plan to buy some?" Wei Siren asked Huaiyu, if the governor took the lead in buying, he might consider it.

"I plan to ask the sage to buy a [-]-mu property. As long as the sage allows me to buy it, I will buy some slaves to build the village."

Wei Siren said, "Then I will also ask the saint for an order. If possible, I will also buy fifty hectares."

Zhang Chengde, Liu Xu, and the others looked at these bosses with great envy. They also wanted to buy it, but they really couldn't afford it. Just buying land is not enough, and someone has to have cattle to grow land, that's the big head.A small slave counts as a hundred mu of land, and a cow counts as tens of mu of land.

I can't afford it, I really can't afford it, I can only stare and envy.

Now they also understand why Li Daozong can occupy hundreds of hectares in Lingzhou.

(End of this chapter)