A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 657 Purple Qi coming from the east
Mihara,

On the White Deer Plateau,

Wu Huaiyu took Liu Rengui to the plateau on horseback to visit his adoptive father Qin Qiong.

Qinqiong Manor is located next to Wuhuaiyu Changao Village.

Chang'ao was renamed Wanshou Plateau because Li Hu was buried there, and later renamed Bailu Plateau because Li Yuan shot a white deer here. Chang'ao is at the lowest point in the southeast corner of this plateau.

But the scenery is unique,
"The south screen is full of jingfu, looking west to the high mountains, the purple air comes from the east."

Liu Rengui was very knowledgeable about geography, and even knew about Feng Shui. On his horse, he looked at the southeast of Zhubao Zhongzhai, passing through Xiwang'ao and ending at Chang'ao. , encountered obstacles on the plateau, and collected everything here.

"The blessing of a true treasure."

Liu Rengui worked as a county magistrate in Sanyuan for two years. He visited Bailuyuan and Chang'ao more than once, but he still sighed every time he came.

"I heard that Chang'ao used to be quite poor in Bailuyuan, but in recent years, under the leadership of Mr. Wu and Mr. Qin, the place has changed a lot."

It is similar to the prosperity and bustle of Longqiao today.

Chang'ao is also an important transportation line, including Sanyuan Longqiao, Chang'ao, and Yaozhou's north-south line, or the East Road runs from Chang'an through Baqiao, Gaoling, Pixi, Qinghe, directly to Wangdian and Chang'ao, and then north to Yaozhou.
The two east-west transportation lines, from Chang'an to Yaozhou and Yizhou, all pass through Chang'ao. It has unique transportation and location advantages. In addition, two villages, Wu Huaiyu and Qinqiong, were built here, with shops, hotels and restaurants established, forming a cluster. city,
Camel teams, caravans, donkey packs and convoys went south, bringing furs and mountain products from the north, as well as coal from Tongguan, pottery from Yaozhou, ice alkali from Yulin, green salt from Yanzhou, licorice from northern Shaanxi, and various places in Weibei of medicinal materials,

Cloth, silk, daily necessities, tea, bambooware, etc. from the south have made this place the most lively town on the plateau.
Although it is not as good as Longqiao, it is already the lively town in Sanyuan County after Longqiao.

They say that when a whale falls, all things come to life.

The same towering tree can also protect a place from wind and rain.
The two prime ministers of Qin and Wu lived here, which made Chang'ao town extremely prosperous, with a forest of shops, merchants gathering, and many wealthy households moving in.

There is also a Buddhist temple built with the support of Mrs. Qin Qiong, the head of Xingtang County, and a Taoist temple built with the support of the Wu family.

"The prosperity of Chang'ao Town is due to the protection of the Qin and Wu families," Liu Rengui sighed. This is quite fair. If the two prime ministers of Qin and Wu did not protect this place, any subordinate official could make a market pornographic. .

It is precisely because of the protection and even the leadership of the two prime ministers that so many merchants have been gathering here and so many shops have been opened. Merchants and goods coming from the south and north are also willing to come here without worrying about being exploited or extorted. , even people from all over the world are willing to come to the market and bring some local products to trade.

The market can only grow if it has enough protection in the early stage. After a few years, it has truly formed a scale. With its reputation, everyone has become accustomed to it and formed a fixed route.
It would be difficult to replace or build a new market town in other places.

After all, such a market town can often only be gathered in one place within twenty or thirty miles.

"There are three key points for Chang'ao to prosper. First of all, it is located on a traffic thoroughfare and has location advantages. Second, someone must take the lead, otherwise we will not be able to gather these businesses. The third is that someone must protect it. It is not as good as today This petty official will come to collect money. Tomorrow, a powerful person from the village will block the road. The day after tomorrow, the garrison nearby will set up a card to block the road toll collection.
Even profiteers and dishonest people are extorting money, so who dares to come? "

No matter which force it is, it may make it difficult to get up here.

It is difficult to build a market and make it lively, but it is easy to become pornographic.

It is precisely under the protection of Qin Qiong and Wu Huaiyu, two prime ministers who have direct access to Tianting, that this place has almost formed a special zone. No one dares to come here to run wild, and Wu Huaiyu has long taken a fancy to the location advantage here and intends to build a nest to attract phoenixes. , take the lead in development and drive other businesses, and this is the current situation.

Qin Qiong has been recuperating here in Bailuyuan for a long time. Who dares to act wild here?

Normally, Sanyuan County officials would not dare to step into Chang'ao Town easily. The Chamber of Commerce here is managed autonomously by the Wu family. There is no need for subordinate officials from the yamen to come. The Chamber of Commerce will also take the initiative to pay a sum of money to the county yamen every year.

Even taxes are collected and paid by the Chamber of Commerce.
The undisturbed town has developed rapidly in recent years, and is advancing side by side with Longqiao.

A pearl on the plains.

Northeast of Chang'ao, by the Zhaoshi River,
The Qin Family Manor, a manor covering an area of ​​48 acres, took several years to build, planted flowers and trees, built a gatehouse, a library, a fish pond, a moon-watching tower, pavilions and pavilions. It was built on the dry plateau of Guanzhong and Weibei. It reveals the ingenuity, beauty and elegance of a Jiangnan garden.

There were even several underground cave dwellings built in the manor.

Wu Huaiyu's arrival made Qin Qiong very happy.

"My foster father looks good."

"Well, I feel much more comfortable after leaving Chang'an. I ride horses and hunt, and my mood is relaxed."

Qin Qiong led Huaiyu into the manor and visited various places. He could see that the garden was indeed suitable for rest. It was very well built and probably cost a lot of money. Compared with Chang'ao Manor where Wu Huaiyu was not located, it was really a world of difference. Don't.

The Wu family's village is very ordinary. It is in the Changaogangou. They built a row of cliff cave dwellings along the cliff, surrounded it with some yards, and built some granaries.

"You came just in time. I'm planning to start a big project here recently." The big project Qin Qiong was talking about was that he planned to work with Wu Huaiyu to intercept the Zhaoshi River at the east plateau of his manor and build a reservoir.

The Zhaoshi River is a tributary of the Ishikawa River. The valley is narrow and deep. The water source is mainly mountain torrents, so the flow is variable. During the summer and autumn rainy seasons, the amount of water is very large. Floods can also cause disasters, submerging the farmland downstream, but there is often no water in the dry season.

From the Chang'ao side of Bailu Plain, we stared at the river passing by at the foot of the plain, but there was no need for water.After passing through Chang'ao, the Zhaoshi River turned a big bend to the southeast and merged into the Ishikawa River in Fuping.

"I asked someone to do some calculations, and we decided to build a dam upstream of Chang'ao to impound the river and store water. It can prevent floods during the summer and autumn rainy seasons and provide irrigation during the dry season."

"This project is not big. It will be built during the off-season and can be completed in three years at most."

"After completion, it will be possible to irrigate the Jingshan Plateau downstream of Chang'ao and the land on the opposite side. About [-] acres of land can be irrigated."

This reservoir is built on Chang'ao, but it cannot irrigate Chang'ao. However, although Qin Qiong and Wu Huaiyu's village is built on Chang'ao, there are also many fields on the Jingshan plateau and on the east bank of the Shichuan River downstream.
Rivers are short of water during the dry season. If we can block the Zhaoshi River and build a reservoir, we can indeed alleviate this water problem.

Qin Qiong, Wu Huaiyu, and others such as Xingtang County Lord, Wu Huaiyi, Samurai Ke, Cheng Chumo, etc. all own a lot of land in the lower reaches. Each family has a total of [-] acres.

Although the Bailu Plateau and Jingyuan are relatively gentle compared to Loess Liang in northern Shaanxi, drought and water shortage have always been a big problem.

The land is barren and dry, and it depends entirely on rain, which makes it unsuitable to grow wheat. Buckwheat, soybeans, sorghum, millet, millet, millet, etc. are mainly grown here.

The people here have two meals a day, either millet porridge, yellow rice buns, sorghum rice, or buckwheat noodles.

Two meals a day, served with wild vegetables. Nowadays, there is auspicious food. In the past, under the leadership of the Wu family and the Qin family, people began to grow sweet potatoes, potatoes, corn, etc. We added sweet potatoes to the millet porridge, or directly added some steamed potatoes, which was better than before. Quite a few.

"Irrigation conditions on the plateau are poor, and they all depend on the weather. If this reservoir can be built, at least the [-] acres of Jingyuan below Chang'ao and the right bank can be irrigated. After hearing this, the people are all excited. Very positive and willing to work,”

Qin Qiong suggested that those with money should contribute money and those with the ability to contribute, and the people downstream who can benefit from irrigation should work together to build the reservoir. After the construction is completed in the future, there will be free water.

In other words, some large landowners in the downstream raise funds and hire people to build reservoirs. In the future, they will have to pay for water used downstream. The water money collected will be returned to the givers, and the other part will be used to maintain the reservoir.

There are two options.

"This is a good thing. The county should take the lead in organizing and asking for money and food from above, and then recruit the people to serve as slaves." Liu Rengui felt that such a major water conservancy project could actually be classified as a county project.
However, Qin Qiong felt that only the [-] acres of land in the lower reaches would benefit. If the people of Sanyuan and Fuping counties were allowed to work on the construction of the reservoir, it would inevitably disturb the people.

"Whoever benefits will contribute. In fact, it doesn't cost much food to build this reservoir. It mainly requires more manpower."

"We can call together all the landowners of the [-] acres of land downstream to discuss this matter," Huaiyu said.

I came today, firstly to visit Qin Qiong, and secondly to discuss with him the trial implementation of the new two-tax law.

"The trial implementation of the new tax law has started so soon?" Qin Qiong was a little surprised. He was very relaxed and relaxed in the countryside now, and he didn't hear about state affairs, so he didn't have to worry about it.

"This is a good thing. I live in the countryside now and have a lot of contact with civilians in Guizhou Province. I also know that it is really not easy for everyone. If the two-tax law is changed, taxes will be levied based on property and acres, instead of simply levying a headcount. Taxes are indeed more reasonable,
The burden on the common people is no longer so heavy. I support you. "

Qin Qiong said that for his manor fields in Sanyuan County, he would also take the initiative to pay two liters of land tax per mu and two liters of free grain grain to the Yamen.

"There's only so much I can do."

"My foster father understands justice well."

Qin Qiong waved her hand, "Actually, even if the grain is paid per mu, it is only two liters per mu, and the grain from the warehouse is only four liters per mu. Even if it is dry land, the yield per mu is at least seven or eight dou, even if it is divided [-]-[-] with the tenants , not only can we collect three or four dou per acre, but if we pay four liters per acre, it is at most a [-]% tax.

For us aristocratic landowners who own many fields and estates, it is nothing.

But for ordinary people, one ding, two stones of millet, two feet of silk, and three ounces of cotton are a huge burden, especially if there is no land, the burden is even heavier. "

"Father, it's actually easy to pay for the food. I would like to ask my foster father to help with another thing."

Wu Huaiyu hoped that Qin Qiong could help him get information about the fields under his name, and even the fields of Zhuangzi's neighbors, and even help supervise the county government to count the registered population, clear the land, divide the fields, etc., so that no one would take the opportunity to commit fraud. .

"For the new tax law to be implemented smoothly, the most critical thing is that the household registration population, property classification, as well as the number of acres and field divisions, etc., can be true and accurate.
If the account period is wrong, then taxing according to this is like asking for fish after a tree is planted, how can it be accurate?"

He asked Zhao Renben to take Sanyuan County officials and subordinates and local village chiefs to investigate together. He also applied to the emperor to transfer a group of capable officials and historians from the Chang'an Provincial Department to come to Sanyuan County to be responsible for supervision and verification.

But he felt that this was not enough. He also asked Qin Qiong and other local landlords, scholars and people to help supervise.

(End of this chapter)