A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 9
The road to Xiayuan was easy, but Huaiyu's mood was not at all easy.

The new acquisition of a hundred acres of land did not bring much joy.

"Erlang, there are people following behind."

As soon as he left Aogou, Huaiyi found that there were people following him all the time. He looked back and saw several people following him.

Zhao Shuli rode on the donkey and turned his head to take a look, "I guess he saw that Erlang was young and kind-hearted, so he wanted to send the baby to find a job."

Huaiyu was a little puzzled.

"Call over and ask." He waved his hand to the back, and those people trotted over.

A hunchbacked middle-aged man with a yellow-faced woman and four children behind him.

"What are you doing with us?" Zhao Shuli asked.

The hunchbacked man said with some fear: "I'm also from Chang'ao Fort, and I used to rent the land that Wu Erlang rented. A few years ago, I was working as a servant of the City God and injured my waist, so the land couldn't be planted anymore," he said. Pull the two older children to the front, "These two are the oldest children in my family. The girl is twelve years old and the boy is ten years old. Although they look thin, they can endure hardships and are very hardworking. Erlang is kind, so let's take this Take the two babies back."

Huaiyu looked at the two children and said that the girl was twelve, but the yellow-faced and thin little yellow-haired girl was short and thin, with bare feet and a sarong full of patches. It is correct.

The boy was only wearing a pair of shorts, with a bare back and bare feet, and his hair was disheveled like a bird's nest.The limbs are thin and thin, but the head is big and the belly is distended, obviously malnourished, and there may be parasites.

"Erlang, take these two babies. Ah Cao can bring Er Lang tea, water, laundry, cooking, and Ah Mao can herd Erlang's cattle and sheep, as long as he can feed them. No wages are required. They really can't support them." gone."

Huaiyu looked at his elder brother in surprise.

Wu Huaiyi also knew that this brother had stayed in the mountains for a long time, and he was a little ignorant of the world, so he said: "Since the end of the Sui Dynasty, there have been many wars, frequent frosts and droughts, rice is expensive in Guanzhong, rice is worth a piece of silk, the people are hungry, and some people are forced to sell their children. , and some people left their homes just to survive.”

"But didn't the Tang Dynasty establish its capital for nine years?" Huaiyu asked.

"In the past nine years, almost every year has not been fought!"

Even now, Shuofang and Liang Shi are still separatist, and the Turks are invaded every year. At the peak of the Sui Dynasty, there were nearly 900 million households, but now there are only about 200 million households, and [-]% of their household registrations have been lost.

Although many people escaped without registration, the actual number of people lost is also very large, especially in the northern region.

Guanzhong was the capital of the Tang Dynasty, but it was also directly threatened by the Turks, and the people in Guanzhong had heavy military service and labor.

The hunchbacked man was a villager in Chang’ao, who went bankrupt at the end of the Sui Dynasty. He was allocated [-] mu of land at the beginning of Wude. At that time, there was only one male in his family, so he was only allocated this land, [-] mu of land. Raise a family, and then rent some land from the landlord. When the weather is good, the men farm and the women weave, barely food and clothing.

But a few years ago when the man went to repair the city during his official service, he broke his waist and spent a lot of medical expenses. However, the house leaked and it rained all night, his mother fell ill, and he borrowed a lot of money for medical treatment. I borrowed a lot of money, but in the end I couldn't pay back the old and new debts, so I had to sell the land, and finally became a landless farmer.

Although the Tang Dynasty strictly controlled land sales, people were only allowed to sell Yongye land for burial, or sell it to others as homesteads, mansions and mills, or relocate narrow villages to wide villages. Dividing the land at the mouth requires sticks and flogging, and the land is returned to the owner's wealth.

But in fact, people will always find ways to buy and sell in disguise. After all, land may be the only remaining property of some poor people, and they will usually trade in other names, such as loans secured by land, and the land will be taken away after the expiration. The people repeatedly prohibit it.

The land of the hunchbacked man was sold in the name of debt.

The hunchback's [-] mu of land was sold, his waist was not healed, and he couldn't do heavy work. The [-] mu of land that he had originally rented was no longer leased to him. Now he has a family of six, mainly relying on his wife to weave for others to earn wages. On the other hand, she earns some rations by herding sheep for others. The four children, the eldest is twelve, and the youngest is only five years old, it is really impossible to support them.

"I beg Erlang to show mercy and take these two babies with me."

Zhao Shuli sized up the two children, "They are too thin to do much work, but at this age they are unpalatable. Half-children will eat me to death, so it's not worthwhile to take them back."

Wudi now has [-] mu of land, except for the newly acquired [-] mu that is still rented out, and the [-] mu of my own land is also rented out a lot. Have to hire short-term labor.

But these two children are indeed too thin.

Seeing his hesitation, the hunchback knelt down directly, and his wife also pulled the child and knelt down to beg.

Huaiyu felt uncomfortable watching it.

"Brother, I think they are quite pitiful. Why don't you take their family back to do long-term work? Women and girls can help raise silkworms, weave cloth, wash clothes and cook, and boys can herd sheep, cattle and pigs. Although this uncle I hurt my back and can’t do heavy work, but it’s okay to do some light work, it’s not easy, and our family is short of manpower, a few more people, Aye, Niang and the others can relax.”

Huai Yi reminded him softly, "Although this family has lost their land, they are still registered households. If you take them back, you will not only have to provide food and clothing, but also wages, otherwise they will not be able to complete the rent and transfer. Although there is a disability, but the disability can only be exempted from regular service, and this miscellaneous service is inevitable."

Rent two stones a year, two zhangs of silk and three taels of cotton, and serve the country for [-] days free labor. The sex service, that time is even longer.

Clerk Zhao wanted to curry favor with the brothers of the Wu family, so he made a suggestion, "It's better to let them abandon their nationality and escape, and join the Wu family as slaves, so that they will be free from the burden of school duties, and it will be more convenient for you to use."

"The imperial court strictly forbids the good to be cheap, the good to be slaves, and the good to escape from school and sell themselves as slaves." Huaiyi reminded the brothers that doing so is also risky and unnecessary.

There are six members of this family, only the hunchback woman can do some work, the hunchback has a back injury and can't do heavy work, and has to go to the government to serve dozens of days a year. If counting round trips, he may be gone in two months.

Those four children can't do much, but it's not easy to raise four mouths.

It would not be worthwhile to have to bear the tax for them, and it would not be worthwhile to bear the risk and income as a slave for them.

Huai Yi didn't think it was necessary to get into this trouble.

The hunchback's ears seemed to have heard Zhao Shuli's words very sensitively, and he kowtowed to them a few times, "As long as Erlang is willing to accept us, we are willing to abandon our citizenship and become slaves."

Huaiyu couldn't bear it.

"If I hire someone to do things for my family, how much will it cost?"

The hunchback thought without even thinking about it: "If Erlang is willing to use us, as long as he can give us a stutter, he will pay us the two stones of millet, two feet of silk and three taels of cotton, and then give me a fake to serve in Yaoyao." It’s enough, you don’t need extra wages, you can do whatever you want.”

Huai Yi felt that this was a burden and not worthwhile.

But Huaiyu saw how pitiful this family was, and thought about it for a while. The conditions of employment were not high. He was also thinking about how to improve the conditions just now. Farming or collecting rent by himself would not be any better. Where did he go, he planned to use his ability to do something else, such as dispensing and selling medicine.

Cheng Chumo asked him for two medicines, but gave him five gold coins, which inspired him a lot.

To do things by himself, he still needs manpower, and he also found that it is not easy to hire people in this era.

"Okay, you come with us."

Although this family is old, weak, sick and disabled, at least they are manned, so let's do a good deed by the way.

Huaiyu found out that the location of Longqiao Fort is actually quite good. It is on an important traffic line in the north of Weibei, especially their house, which is the only way to cross the Qingyu River.

There is no one who is always begging for a golden rice bowl, set up a shed at the end of the bridge to open a shop, do some business with passing merchants, or buy some agricultural products and medicinal materials from neighboring towns and villages, and even use his medical skills as a selling point Seeing a doctor for medicine can always improve the current condition.

"Xie Erlang!"

When the hunchback saw that Huaiyu was willing to take his family away and pay him taxes, he kowtowed excitedly, and the whole family kowtowed violently on the ground.

Huaiyu quickly helped them up one by one.

People who are so humble to the dust.

"Hurry up and pack your things, we'll wait for you here."

In fact, there is nothing to clean up. The Tuozi’s family has long been empty, and even the three-hole broken cave dwelling was sold to the same village. up.

Just a few tattered clothes and a few broken bowls.

When the neighbors heard that Wu Erlang had taken them in, they were still very envious. This meant that they would no longer have to worry about making a living after finding an iron rice bowl.

The hunchbacked man is Zhao Cheng, who is actually only in his thirties this year, his wife Guo Abai is not yet thirty, the eldest daughter Ah Cao is twelve, and Amao is ten.The second daughter, Alan, is seven years old, and the youngest son, Aliang, is five years old.

Each member of the family carried a broken burden, happily following behind Huaiyu and the others.

(End of this chapter)