A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 579 Reunion after a long absence wins a new marriage
Lord Yi's Mansion, Shangfang.

Reunion after a long absence is better than a new marriage, but Wu Huaiyu underestimated Fan Xuanfu.
Wu Huaiyu rushed to Beijing all the way and had some wine at dinner just now.

"The alcohol was a bit too strong," Wu Huaiyu had to make excuses for herself.
"Miss jealous?"

"My husband is in Youzhou and my concubine is in Chang'an. They are two to three thousand miles apart. I can't be jealous even if I want to."

Huaiyu slapped it down, and Fan Xuanfu groaned, "I'm going to die."

"Then Princess Huainan taught you Gao Twelve or Lu 35 who are good at sword dancing, or the fair-haired Khitan Princess Xi?"

"Actually, not all Xi and Khitan women have fair hair. Xiao's mother is Lanling Xiao, the niece of Emperor Yang and Empress of Sui Dynasty. Xiao grew up learning Han etiquette since she was a child,"

"What about Khitan Khan's girl?"

"Most Khitan women have braided hair before marriage, but after marriage they mainly braid or tie their hair in a bun,"

Women in the Khitan Liangjia tribe all have bonnet hair, and they only wear it when they get married. Khitan bonnet hair is really ugly in the eyes of the Central Plains people, especially their bonnet hair, which is mainly done by shaving off the hair on the top of the head. They have to artificially create a Mediterranean sea and surround it. With some hair, it looks weird.

Women also need to have their hair braided, but they can keep their hair long after marriage.

The girl from Li Mohui is quite good-looking, a grassland woman who is good at horseback riding and archery. She is tall and toned, but her hairstyle is too disturbing. When Huaiyu first met her, she had a small piece of hair tied on top of her head. Start, then shave a circle around that piece, leaving another circle on the outermost edge.
The middle piece of hair is tied up and braided on all sides, which is quite eye-catching.

After Huaiyu took her as his concubine, his first request was that she should not have her hair grow back in the future. When it grew out, she would wear it in a bun in the Han style, which she happily agreed to.

Anyway, Khitan women also have to tie their hair in buns or braids after marriage.

"You are so happy in Youzhou," Fan Xuanfu opened his mouth and bit him on the shoulder.

It hurts.

"Do you have any objection to the marriage I have arranged for our Qilang?"

The second son, Wu Chengzong, was the seventh among the brothers. Huaiyu married Cheng Laomo in Youzhou and asked Chengzong to marry Cheng Chumo's eldest daughter.

"Cheng Dalang's mother passed away years ago, and he has to observe mourning for three years before he can marry Qinghe Cui's daughter." Fan Xuanfu hugged her husband. He was like a tigress just now, but now he is like a docile kitten.

Cheng Chumo is engaged to the daughter of the Cui family of Qinghe, the Wushui house of the Nanzu family in the Cui family. Among the houses of the Cui family in Qinghe, three branches of the Nanzu house claim to be the Cui family of the Nanzu, and Chumo's fiancee is one of the three branches. In Wushuifang, his ancestor Cui Kuang followed Murong Den across the Yellow River and settled in Wushui, Qi County.
Cheng Chumo's fiancée and great-grandfather's title of Duke of Qi County came from the fact that his family was Wushui, Qi County.Chumo's fiancée is the niece of old Cheng's good friend, Widow Cui.

Fan Xuanfu is optimistic about this marriage, but it will take at least two more years for Cheng Chumo to marry Cui. He doesn't know when he will give birth to an eldest daughter.

"Even if it's three to five years, it doesn't matter. Isn't it normal to be three to five years younger?" Huaiyu patted her and said,
Fan Xuanfu refused to come down like a clingy cat.

She gave birth to two sons in a row. The eldest son, Siye, was the eldest son of the Wu family. The one she was engaged to was the daughter of the Tian family. Princess Lanling, the nineteenth princess of the emperor and Yang Jieyu, would be the consort in the future.

Now the second son is the eldest granddaughter of Dingcheng Yaojin, Qilang of the Wu family. His mother's family is still the Nanzu Wushuifang of the Qinghe Cui family. The Nanzu Cui family is also one of the six families of the Qinghe Cui clan, although Wushuifang is not included in the list now. One of the 44 families with five surnames, but after all, it is Qinghe Cui who owns the house.

"Why don't you just marry Qilang back to a girl with a fifth surname?"

Wu Huaiyu actually betrothed several daughters-in-law with five surnames in Youzhou. Duan Wan's son, Silang Wu Chengping, betrothed the daughter of Lu Chengqing, the head of the family of the northern ancestor of the Lu family in Fanyang, in Youzhou Zhizhong.
In Mother Lu's mind, she has already made a reservation for Li Yunjiang, the second daughter of Li Xuandao, the second son of Sima Li Xuandao of Jingzhou, the head of the aunt's house in Longxi.
For the child in Huainan Princess Yang Muyun's belly, Huaiyu also booked the second house of Cui family in Boling. Cui Dunli's cousin Cui Chengfu was the legitimate daughter. Cui Chengfu's father Cui Minling was also the legitimate son of Cui Zhongfang, the official minister of the Sui Dynasty.

If we also add the daughter of Wang Xueshi of Taiyuan Wang family whom Huaiyu's third brother Huai Liang betrothed, and Huaiyu himself married Lu Chengqing's sister of Fanyang Lu family,
The Wu family has been married to the five surnames five times, Fan Yanglu twice, Boling Cui once, Longxi Li once, and Taiyuan Wang once.

But the three sons who married women with the fifth surname were all pregnant concubines.

Fan Xuanfu felt a little unhappy. Everyone in the world wanted to marry a girl with a fifth surname, so why not marry a girl with a fifth surname for his legitimate son?

Huaiyu smiled and kissed her,
"Princess Shang, the eldest son, it would be good for the second son to marry a girl from Cheng. When you give birth to the third son, I will definitely marry him a girl from the five surnames. You can choose one from the five surnames and seven families."

"boast."

Fan Xuanfu couldn't help but laugh, "Does the five surnames and the seven families dislike me for being a Wuling barbarian?"

"Who dares? Besides, your Wuling family is from the Han Dynasty. It has been a famous family in Shannan for hundreds of years. You, Aye, are still the founding heroes of the country."

"In the eyes of the Five Surnames and Seven Families, he is still a Southern Barbarian,"

"Don't worry, even if I give birth, I promise to marry that boy to a girl with the fifth surname."

"Okay, then I'll make a note of it. I won't let you go if you can't marry a girl with the fifth surname."

"Absolutely." "By the way, the summer harvest is about to begin. Do you want to go to the countryside of Sanyuan together this year?" Fan Xuanfu was in good spirits. "The Wujia Fort in Longqiao is very lively now. You don't know the big one outside our fort." Windmills and mills are famous even in Chang'an. The big windmill you built is really powerful. It can drive the grinding without building weirs and embankments to block the water. It can even be driven by wind from all directions, day and night.

Did you know that now there is a big market outside our fort, and people nearby come to the market? Last year, I had people build some new shops and warehouses beside the windmill outside the fort, and opened some pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. , let alone business is very good, "

"Last year and this year, things were going smoothly in Guanzhong, but there were a lot of common people and merchants who came to us to borrow food and money. Don't worry, they were all based on the low interest rate you set. It was much lower than other companies, but there were still a lot of them. If someone borrows money and cannot pay back food when it is due, I will try to be as lenient as possible."

Fan Xuanfu looked at such a large family business as the Wu family. With the help of Chen Runniang, Fan Wuniang and others, he did a good job.

In the past two years, Fan Xuanfu has actually been able to purchase another [-] acres of fertile land in the eight-hundred-mile Guanzhong Plain, the most important Gyeonggi area.

"Ten thousand acres of land in Guanzhong? I haven't heard you mention it in your letters before?"

"I don't want to bother you with a little matter." Fan Xuanfu said.

"Who would easily sell the land in Guanzhong? How did you get so many lands?"

"There are still people selling land in Guanzhong, but it is relatively scattered. Unlike other places where you can buy large pieces, the land in Guanzhong is also sold in small pieces, and there are many people vying to buy it."

According to Fan Xuanfu, in fact, everyone seems to be doing well in the past few years, and things are going well. However, many ordinary people, who are also ordinary people themselves, have also been allocated some land due to the policies at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. But after all, In Guanzhong, those who are not soldiers or Yuancong will not get much share.

Those dozens of acres of land can still provide enough food and clothing if the weather is good, but some people will always encounter some troubles, such as diseases, funerals and marriages, which cost a lot of money for ordinary people.

If you don't have money, you have to borrow, and if you borrow, you have to pay it back. If you can't pay it back, you can only sell the land.

Although the Wu family was also engaged in pawnshops and banks, Wu Huaiyu had already made a rule that no usurious loans were made and the interest rates were low. However, after all, capital was limited, so many people could only borrow usurious loans and sell their land if they could not repay them.Because Fan Xuanfu liked the land in Guanzhong and was willing to bid for it, many people were still willing to sell the land to the Wu family and then use the money to pay off their debts.

In two years, Fan Xuanfu bought ten thousand acres of fertile land in Guanzhong.

It cost a lot of money, but he felt it was worth it. After all, it was the fertile land in Gyeonggi Province. How could it compare to the wasteland on the border of Shuofang and Yanyun?

It may not be cost-effective to exchange one hundred acres for one acre.

Fan Xuanfu bought the land and added money to replace it if he could. He put the land together as much as possible and built a large piece of land by himself for planting and management. He not only grew grain but also did breeding, and the cultivation was mainly focused on growing medicinal materials and vegetables. This is also the advantage of Gyeonggi fields. It has a huge consumer market in the capital. Medicinal vegetables, even flowers, etc. are easy to sell, and the economic output is higher than that of purebred grains.

You can even grow grains, including rice and glutinous rice, which are relatively expensive in Chang'an.

Very fragmented plots of land are still mainly rented out. Some of them directly recruit men to farm the land, and the Wu family provides seeds and farming tools. If the men contribute their efforts, the Wu family can get a higher share than simply renting the land.

Large land estates are run by slaves, hiring some long-term workers, and hiring short-term workers during busy periods. They pay equal attention to planting and breeding. The Wu family raises a lot of pigs in Gyeonggi, although they are not as large as those of the Wei family in Jingzhao, but they are quite good. The scale is great and the income is good.

Raising chickens, ducks and fish can also be profitable.

This is also the advantage of large landowners after large-scale industrialization, with lower costs and higher profits.

Fan Xuanfu and Zhao Yi even built water-powered rice mills and windmills in many of Wu's large estates, and then used the people's flow to set up some small markets to purchase local products, process them, and then sell needlework, pots, bowls, and salt. Cloth and other such things, and even business loans, pawns, etc.

It seems inconspicuous, but the benefits are pretty good.

"There is a shortage of people. There is still a shortage of people now." Fan Xuanfu sighed,

Nowadays, the price of buying a Din slave is at least the annual harvest of dozens of acres of land. Even if you hire a long-term worker, the annual salary is at least the output of ten acres of land.
Planting in the manor requires a lot of manpower, a lot of cattle and horses, and a lot of farm tools. The prerequisite investment is relatively large. In the past few years, the Wu family has expanded rapidly and continued to buy fields. If it is just agricultural output, it is actually far away. Far from being able to maintain this scale,

The main thing is to continue to expand from the revenue subsidies on the industrial and commercial side to the agricultural side, buying slaves and hiring long-term workers, buying cattle, horses, farm tools, buying fields, buying seeds and fertilizers,

But if you do a careful calculation, the expansion of agriculture will actually bring high returns in the long run, even quite stable.

"I plan to build a big school in Wujiabao, Longqiao this year. Our family currently employs many people. In the future, it will be more reliable to train more by ourselves. Moreover, we can also teach some specialized students as needed. Compared with It is faster for a traditional master to lead an apprentice.”

"This year, our family's more than [-] acres of land in several counties in Weibei are all planted with medicinal materials. Next year, I plan to plant all medicinal materials in the land south of the Wei River in Gyeonggi Province. Growing medicinal materials is very cost-effective, and now food prices are getting lower and lower. , I heard that after the summer harvest, the price of grain may drop to [-] or [-] yuan per dou of rice, which is terrible. There is no profit from farming like this."

At two or three dollars per bucket of rice, this astonishingly low food price is finally coming.

This also means that Datang is truly entering a new era.

Zhenguan ruled the world.

(End of this chapter)