Paper Maker: This is the end of the Ming Dynasty in Liaozhai

Chapter 161
Not long after Tang Xiangjin and He Liu left, Liao Qing brought another person up.

Shao Xue, the chief internal affairs officer of Dewang Mansion.

"Qianhu, how should the rent in the mansion be collected this year?"

Shao Xue said humbly: "It's already the middle of the month, and the Chinese New Year will be in one and a half months."

Fear still flashed in the downcast eyes. It was the first time in his life that he saw a person like Su Hao, who actually slaughtered De Wang's family without leaving him any escape route.

"How was the rent of Prince De's Mansion collected before?"

Su Hao tapped the handrail lightly with his fingers. After taking over the properties of Dewang Mansion and Tong's family, the land in his hands is 140 million mu. Nearly half of the entire Jinan Mansion is in his hands. The last reward was given out. In addition, recruiting recruits only used 10,000+ acres, and now there are more than 120 million acres of land left.

Shao Xue bowed and said: "Qianhu, the previous rent was three dou for one stone for the upper field, nine dou for one stone for the second field, and seven dou for the inferior field."

"So much?"

Su Hao frowned. Ancient times were no different than modern times. There were hybrid varieties and chemical fertilizers. In this era, the yield per mu of grain was not high. Even top-quality fertile land was usually only a little more than two stones. There were rarely more than two stones and five buckets. Tian even had three or four fights with one stone.

According to the rent of Prince De’s Mansion, [-]% of the yield per mu will be collected. After a year, if you rent ten mu of land, you will leave at most about ten shi of grain. No matter how little food a normal adult eats, it will cost about three or four shi , That is to say, an adult needs to plant at least four or five acres of land to support himself.

And the common people not only pay the rent, but also serve corvee. It is often a man in his prime who goes to serve a few months of corvee. It can be said that after a year, he can’t even eat enough for himself. to survive.

"Qianhu, this is not too much. Now the only land that can be rented in the Fuzhong is the more than 40 mu of land around the Fucheng. No one dares to take the land in other counties."

Hearing this, Shao Xue said quickly.

"Don't worry about this, the official will send someone to collect it."

Su Hao calmly said, so many lands in Prince De's Mansion can't be all around the mansion, most of them are in various counties, and some are even in other mansions. Now that he is a traitor, those magistrates will naturally not let him easily The rent was received, but none of those county towns had troops stationed there, so they only needed to send some troops over there, and those county magistrates probably wouldn't dare to go out of the city to stop them.

After a pause, Su Hao continued: "You tell those tenants that if someone in the family is willing to join the Skitarii, the rent can be reduced by half. If two people join, the rent for this year will be waived."

"Let's go now, little one."

Shao Xue nodded quickly.

Watching Shao Xue leave, Su Hao narrowed his eyes slightly. Although the reduction or exemption of the rent is only a matter of his words, even if it is not impossible to collect the rent, he did not do so. Since ancient times, it is easy to show kindness to the common people. , but those ordinary people may not be grateful, because what everyone has, those ordinary people will only think that they should.

Maybe at the beginning, the common people will be grateful, but after a long time, they will gradually forget and think that everything is what they deserve.

Before the wisdom of the people is opened, the gratitude of the common people is the least valuable. This is his most profound insight in the past half month!

From ancient times to the present, all promising kings have said that the people are the most important and the king is the least. The emperors who are said to be one emperor through the ages, they also rely on the gentry class to rule the world, or it would be more appropriate to say that the community of interests is a community of the same interest class as the imperial power.

What he has to do now is to draw more people into his community of interests. As long as they enter this circle, the other party may not be loyal to him, but they will definitely be loyal to their own interests.

As for the common people, after he occupied Jinan Mansion, he had already abolished the "three salaries" and other strange salaries. He had done enough kindness, but there were not many self-cultivators and small landlords who joined the cathars. Those who joined the Skitarii were basically tenants who came for two acres of land and land tax exemption.

As for enlightening the wisdom of the people, so that ordinary people can afford to read and recognize characters, this is too far for him now.

On the one hand, the government’s policy of obscuring the people has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people for thousands of years. On the other hand, the cost of studying is too high. Children under the age of seven basically cannot learn many words, and those over the age of seven are considered a labor force.

It is very difficult for ordinary people to afford one less labor force. Not only one less labor force is needed, but also the cost of the labor force's education. Even if it is not a full-time study, part-time study is an extremely heavy burden.

More importantly, in this era, the transportation is inconvenient, and there are few opportunities to write letters. There is no other way to read and write except for the imperial examination, and there are very few people who can be other people's accountants.

Zhenlun attaches great importance to education, and Zhu Yuanzhang attaches more importance to it than any previous emperor. Sociology has been directly introduced to the villages. But now, except for the ethnology of the big family, most of the sociology has been abandoned, and the common people have no idea of ​​reading and literacy.

Because the only use of reading and literacy is to take the imperial examination, but it is very difficult to pass the imperial examination, let alone a half-time, or a full-time student. In fact, the common people's desire for knowledge is not small, but the desire is in front of real life. We can only focus on the real life in front of us.

If you want to popularize education, you can only do it a little bit. First, let the common people see the future of reading and literacy. Few people will invest time and energy into things that can't open up people's wisdom. After all, they are useless.

...

On the other side, Tang Xiangjin Lima and Liang Pingping, who had returned to Dezhou, began to organize troops to assemble in Linqing Prefecture.

.........

Dongchang Mansion, government office.

"Two commanders, just now I sent spies to Linqing Prefecture to report that the rebels are already gathering, and it seems that they are preparing to attack Fucheng. The two commanders can defeat the rebels and take back Linqing Prefecture."

Jiang Renxi had an anxious expression on his face, but his heart burst into laughter. He sent someone to Jinan Fucheng to ask for help a few days ago, but the dispatch and reinforcements did not arrive. Instead, he waited for Su Hao's rebellion and the news that Jinan Fucheng was captured.

Before Shao Kun and Pan Ding both refused to send troops because there was no transfer order, but now that the opponent took the initiative to attack, Shao Kun and Pan Ding definitely had no excuse to continue to refuse to send troops.

He had already asked the spies to check that the rebels occupying Linqing prefecture took advantage of the fact that the military attaches of Dezhou Wei, Dezhou Zuowei, and Linqingwei took advantage of the surprise attack when they were at the pier and ferry.

The rebels themselves didn't have much combat power at all, and there were still many soldiers who had incorporated the three guards of Linqing, and most of the others were newly recruited. If Linqing and Dezhou can be recovered before the imperial army arrives , that is a great contribution.

"Prefect Jiang, the rebels are coming to attack. We should hold on to the city and wait for the imperial army to arrive. The best way to attack them is to destroy them in one fell swoop."

Hearing Jiang Renxi's words, Pan Ding frowned and said: "Dongchangwei has not been on the battlefield for more than a hundred years. This rash attack, if it fails, the consequences will be disastrous."

The main duty of Pingchang Guard is to ensure the safety of Dongchang Prefecture and to escort grain. At the beginning Xu Hongru made such a big fuss that the imperial court did not mobilize Dongchang Guard. Now asking him to take Dongchang Guard to counter the rebellion, isn’t that just a joke?

Once defeated, his wealth and life will be lost. It is better to defend Dongchang Mansion.

"That's right, Prefect Jiang. At this time, the imperial court should also organize troops to attack. Why should we fight for this moment?"

Shao Kun also quickly persuaded him. He also knew Jiang Renxi's thoughts. He just felt that Su Hao raised his troops in a hurry, and his soldiers didn't have much combat power at all. He wanted to take this opportunity to make a contribution. After all, Su Hao slaughtered the King De's family. , today's day must be full of anger, if he can make the first contribution, Jiang Renxi's future future will surely be smooth.

But Jiang Renxi and his civil servants don't understand military affairs. They only know that they are the regular army of the imperial court, and the opponent is a group of improvised mobs. It only needs Dongchangwei and Pingshanwei to send troops to easily defeat the opponent.

Jiang Renxi didn't want to think about it, if the guard had such a strong combat power, how could Xu Hongru's troubles have been so big.

Hearing that Shao Kun and Pan Ding were still evading, Jiang Renxi was also angry, and directly said coldly: "Two commanders, Su Hao is now stealing grain. If the other party controls the canal, the million stones in Dezhou and Linqing Prefecture will be destroyed." It’s hard to keep the grain, if you lose the grain, don’t blame me for taking a copy with you.”

"Prefect Jiang, this..."

Hearing the threats in Jiang Renxi's words, Shao Kun and the two also panicked. Now that the court is rich in culture and military, once Jiang Renxi really joins their book and charges them with the loss of grain, they will most likely be unlucky.

After thinking about it for a while, Pan Ding hurriedly said: "Prefect Jiang, although those rebels are just a mob, there are many first-class fighters in the opponent's army, and it is difficult for us to deal with so many masters. General, I'm afraid it will be a crushing defeat."

"This question is not difficult. Nowadays, there are many masters in the Jinyiwei Yamen of Dongchang Mansion. I will ask Zheng Qianhu to lead people to help out, and there are also many masters in the city. I will visit the door and ask them to work together. .”

Jiang Renxi said calmly.

"Since the prefect has made a plan, I have no other opinions."

Hearing this, Pan Ding could only sigh, Jiang Renxi had already talked about this, what else could they do, if they didn't obey the order, Jiang Renxi handed over a letter of impeachment, and they would have to bear the charge of losing grain.

"Since this is the case, I hope that the two thousand households can gather their soldiers and horses, and then give this group of rebels a head-on blow!"

Seeing the two surrender, Jiang Renxi nodded in satisfaction.

(End of this chapter)