A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 589 Wu Erniang’s Fiancé

"Fan Chuan's special industry, thousands of acres of rice fields by the Jianshui River?"

"And there are [-] acres of fertile farmland beside the Xiangji Temple on the Shenhe Plateau and our Wujiazhuangzi?"

When Fan Xuanfu heard Huaiyu mention this, his excited voice went up an octave, "Buy it, what are you waiting for? No matter how expensive it is, you have to buy it. You don't have to worry about money. We have so many properties now. I Immediately ask the stewards to allocate money and silk, even if you borrow money temporarily, you have to buy it."

"You are really a landowner now." Huaiyu said with a smile.

Fan Xuanfu said, "The family has a lot of wealth, not counting hair. Even if Erlang is now a high-ranking official, if the family wants to prosper for a long time, it must have land. Look at any big family that doesn't have thousands of acres of land." Land? Without land, where would the people come from, and how could the family prosper?"

"What you said makes sense, but these nearly [-] acres of land are not the border areas of Shuofang and Yanbei. The land of Fanchuan and Shenheyuan are all good land, and one or two gold per acre is worth it. possible."

"Then you have to buy it." Fan Xuanfu said firmly, "You don't have to worry about money. In fact, the land price in Gyeonggi is not that high now."

Nowadays, a bucket of rice only costs two or three cents.

In addition to the sharp fall in food prices, almost all prices have fallen. Generally speaking, goods are cheap and money is expensive, and money is more valuable. Although the fields in Gyeonggi are relatively expensive, they are generally relatively reasonable.

One tael of gold per acre of land is now mainly homestead land in the south of Chang'an City.

Treasure land like Fanchuan is probably worth two to three thousand yuan, which is equivalent to a hundred shi of grain, about 50 years of output. Of course, the price of grain cannot always be two or three thousand yuan, but at the current price In terms of grain prices, the yield from buying land is indeed very low.

It will take 50 to [-] years for the output to be worth the land price, but if the land is rented out and rented, it will take even longer.

"This is how the account is calculated. This is Gyeonggi Province. Fanchuan is less than thirty miles away from Chang'an. Now the population of Chang'an is increasing,"

Fan Xuanfu said that the land in Fanchuan is still irrigated, which can guarantee two harvests. Moreover, the Wu family can grow glutinous rice, medicinal materials, cotton and other crops with higher economic value. With so much land, they can also do some farming. , these cows, horses, pigs, and even slaves can be paired and reproduced, and they can also multiply.

The Wu family can also build windmills, mills, etc. In short, land is the foundation of carrying, and you will never lose money when you get land.

"Now in Gyeonggi and Jingxian, the land is about [-] to [-] acres, which is the land of the two counties of Chang'an Wannian. And in Ji County, that is, other counties in Yongzhou, such as Lantian, Sanyuan, Xianyang, Jingyang, etc., there are about [-] acres of fertile land, and the average land is [-] acres. Wen Yimu. Fan Chuan's land is considered to be three guans per acre, and a thousand acres is only [-] guans."

"There are still [-] acres in Shenhe Plain,"

"That's up to [-] strings,"

When Huaiyu heard her talk about how she was so relaxed about buying the [-] acres of land with [-] yuan, he couldn't help but ask, "Does our family really have that much money now?"

"How much is that? Do you know that there are rumors about Pei Ji's downfall now and how much money he has?"

"How many?"

"It is said that Pei Sikong served as prime minister for ten years and accumulated 3000 million pieces of silk."

Huaiyu laughed and said that Pei Ji, the prime minister in ten years, had accumulated a wealth of 3000 million bolts of silk. This must be nonsense, and the people were bragging about it.

After all, the world was in turmoil in the early Tang Dynasty and was not wealthy. The court was unable to pay salaries to officials, so it relied on dividing land, collecting rent, and even lending public money to fund office expenses.

Li Yuan was indeed very kind to Pei Ji. He even rewarded Pei Ji with a thousand hectares of land, [-] pieces of silk, and a coin furnace. Pei Ji received many rewards in ten years, and the accumulated rewards were indeed many.In addition, as the prime minister, many people gave gifts, paid tribute, etc.

The Pei family also bought, sold and annexed many fields through legal and illegal means, such as lending and borrowing grain, and using land to pay off debts that could not be repaid when they matured.

It’s not like he saved 3000 million pieces of silk in ten years.

The largest reward Pei Ji ever received was 1 acres of land and 1 items, the first building of Chang'an Jia, among which 7 items were also recorded, including [-] bolts of silk, [-] pieces of cloth, and [-] Twelve thousand taels, equivalent to forty thousand sections.

In the Wude Dynasty, the national household registration was only 180 million households, with a population of more than [-] million, of which only one million were paid. Among them, the state's tax revenue was only more than [-] million shi, and the silk cloth was only a few hundred thousand pieces, plus the household tax of hundreds of thousands gu , the sum of the major incomes is very limited.

That's why in the Li Yuanwu De Dynasty, there were officials who had no salary and relied on allocating land to collect rent, and relying on household taxes to raise public funds, lend money and collect interest to finance office expenses and official salary subsidies.

Under such circumstances, it is certainly impossible for Prime Minister Pei Ji to produce 300 million pieces of silk in a year.

Of course, it is true that Pei Ji is rich.

The Pei family used to make money privately and monopolize the trade of pepper and other Tang spices from the Western Regions, and they made a lot of money.

The Wu family now mainly makes money through industry and commerce. Financial industries such as pawnshops, banks, gold and silver shops, various mining workshops, and trading firms have to spend a lot of money every year to buy land. Slaves buy livestock.

The investment is endless, like a bottomless pit.

But these are the fundamentals in the eyes of the Tang people. These are the real assets. Other mines, workshops, shops, caravans, etc. are all unstable.

No matter how profitable the Wu family's sugar industry is, Xuan Fu and the others feel that these cannot last long. No matter how secret the craftsmanship is, sooner or later it will be leaked or someone else will crack it.

The same is true for white grains, and the same is true for perfumes. Even Qianjintang's medicine shop is not a profit-free one without risks.

Forty-eight hundred acres of good land, good land that can grow rice in the suburbs of Chang'an, is definitely worth fifteen thousand gu.

As for the two other properties in Zhuangzi that occupy a large area and are well decorated, they are definitely not cheap, but since they are sold in a package, they still have to be bought.

"Have you asked Madam Gao if there is any land left? Let's buy more."

"Forget it, everyone in Chang'an is keeping an eye on the land. It's enough to buy these two pieces,"

"How about I invite Madam Gao to my house for tea?"

Fan Xuanfu didn't want to miss this opportunity. The fertile land in Guanzhong, especially the land in Gyeonggi Province, was indeed rare. The Wu family bought two pieces, so they could see if they could get some for the Fan family, or for her and her concubines. You guys, use your dowry and makeup money to buy some.

It's not bad for one person to buy a hundred acres and set up a small village.

The good thing about the land in Chang'an is that after buying it, you can even if you don't operate it yourself, you can still leave it to the original tenants for farming, and just arrange a few stewards to collect the rent. "In fact, it's better to put your rouge money in a bank, and the interest will be good."

Two or three hundred dollars is quite a lot, and you can definitely negotiate an interest rate with the bank. This is equivalent to a loan to the bank, not a deposit, and the interest rate is pretty good.

What's more, the Wu family has its own bank, and also has a bank run in partnership with some powerful families, which is always reliable.

"It's better to buy land or give it to your daughter as a dowry in the future. Money is the most important thing."

Fan Xuanfu roped in the Gao sisters to find Gao Huitong, gave them many gifts, and successfully acquired the [-] acres of land, two villages and a separate property.
Even Fan Xuanfu and his group of Wu family women actually bought some of the fields in the capital that Pei Ji confiscated through Gao Huitong. For example, Fan Xuanfu bought [-] acres for himself, and the rest may be [-] acres or [-] acres. , it was all a happy friendship, and I went to the government office to exchange the deed and register with a smile on my face.

Even the Fan Xing family bought a thousand acres.

When Pei Ji was exiled to Jingzhou this time, his fields were completely confiscated. So much land was immediately divided up by the noble officials and powerful officials as soon as it was released.

Sure enough, in the era of imperial power, land was always in demand, especially the land in the capital.Even though this is only the 12th year since the founding of the People's Republic of China, land annexation is already very intense.

Wu Huaiyu did not go through the formalities, nor was he in a hurry to go to Shenheyuan or Fanchuan to see the newly acquired land. He spent a day at home and wrote a secret memorial, telling the emperor in detail about the prince's visit to his home that day, including Why the prince didn't like the Su family, why he wanted to marry Wu Erniang, and how he responded to the persuasion all explained.

He must explain this matter clearly to the emperor.

The secret music is presented,

The emperor summoned him the next day.

He rushed to the palace to meet the saint, but the emperor was dressed in hunting clothes and said, "Follow me to Changning Palace to offer incense."

Changning Palace is located on the bank of Shenhe Plateau, not far from Xiangji Temple. Wu Huaiyu's original village, plus the newly acquired land, are all a little north of Changning Palace.

This Changning Palace was built by Li Shimin for his late mother, Queen Taimu, after Li Shimin ascended the throne. It is said that during the Sui Dynasty, Queen Taimu once went to Sanguan Temple to offer incense and met bandits on the way. When she was in danger, she encountered a cave there. After escaping into the cave, she The thieves came after them, but huge rocks rolled down the cliff and killed several of them. They also happened to block the entrance of the cave. The thieves ran away in fear, and Dou escaped.

Li Shimin built Changning Palace here to commemorate his mother, and also hoped that the Dou family would always have peace in the underworld.

"You bring the bird thief to give you the Jade Claw Haidongqing,"

After leaving the palace, Huaiyu asked Shi Shouxin to go home quickly and ask the eagle slave to take Shanghai Dongqing, and by the way, he also brought his fat Chow Chow and thin dog.

The king and his ministers rode out of the city.

Huaiyu lags behind, followed by a horse head.

Along the way, it was obvious that the emperor was in a good mood.
"Aren't the two lands in Shenheyuan and Fanchuan pretty good?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for the gift of such fertile land."

"I just asked Yousi to sell it to you, and you spent [-] guan on it including the Zhuangzi and other industries."

“If it weren’t for His Majesty’s great kindness, even money would not be able to buy this land.”

Li Shimin smiled and said, "You have accumulated a lot of wealth in the past few years, eighteen thousand guan. You bought it as soon as you said you wanted to buy it, and you paid it off immediately."

Huaiyu quickly said, "It's all dependent on the grace of God."

"I have read your memorial,"

"I was originally going to take Cheng Qian to Changning Palace today to burn incense and do some hunting."

Huaiyu followed behind, listening carefully and not daring to talk nonsense.

"Cheng Qian is getting older, and he will have his coronation ceremony in two years. The queen and I racked our brains and thought hard to choose for him for his marriage, and finally selected the martial arts Su family.
But Chengqian actually told me that he didn't like her, that Su was not good-looking, and that he had fallen in love with the daughter of the warrior Tong, and he actually knew how to lie. "

"Your Majesty, calm down. I heard from my uncle that his three sisters are already engaged. The eldest daughter is engaged to be Ma Zai, the son of my brother-in-law Ma Zhou. The second daughter seems to be engaged to be the nephew of the Yang family of Hongnong, my aunt's family. The third daughter is Xu. It’s the Guo family from Taiyuan.”

"Oh, which one is the Hongnong Yang family that Wu Erniang promised?"

"It seems to be Yang Sijing, the second son of Yang Xianggong's brother Yang Yan."

Li Shimin turned his head and glanced at Wu Huaiyu, "Have you already officially married and given you a marriage certificate?"

"This minister is not sure. I will write to Luoyang later to ask my fourth uncle about the specific situation and then report back to Your Majesty."

Li Shimin hummed.

"I have met the three daughters of Duke Zhou's family once or twice before. They are indeed smart and lovely, but they are already engaged, and the martial arts Su family is also the one that I and the queen have chosen."

"Marriage matters should indeed be decided by the orders of the parents and the words of the matchmaker." Wu Huaiyu responded, "I also heard that Secretary Cheng Su Jin has a good upbringing and a good family tradition. Mrs. Su is a virtuous and virtuous woman..."

Li Minmin stroked his beard, "Originally, I said that Mrs. Wu was indeed good. Cheng Qian married Su as the crown princess, and then made Wu Erniang the crown prince Liangdi, which would satisfy this boy's wishes. But since Wu Erniang and Mrs. Wu Yang Gongren’s nephew is engaged, so we have to let it go.”

At the end, Li Shimin looked at Huaiyu and asked, "Do you still have a suitable girl in your Wu family? Can you recommend one to me? If I and the Queen like her, let Cheng Qian take another look. If he likes her, she can be adopted as the crown prince." Liangdi."

"There seems to be no suitable women in the subject family. Those of the right age have been promised to marry, but those who have not been promised are not of the right age..."

Li Shimin said, "That's a pity." After saying that, he kicked the horse in the belly and galloped away. Wu Huaiyu also galloped to follow.

The emperor should be quite satisfied with his answer.

(End of this chapter)