big song poppi

Chapter 18 0017 [Tenants?serf! 】

At this time, Han Zhen asked: "Who is the head of the village?"

"The old man is the head of the village."

The white-haired old man who spoke earlier took a step forward.

"The chief stays."

Han Zhen waved his hand: "Everyone else is gone, what should I do?"

The villagers dispersed in twos and threes, but there were still six or seven households standing there motionless. There were men and women, old and young.

Han Zhen raised his eyebrows and said, "What's the matter with you?"

These villagers looked at each other, and one of the middle-aged men stammered and said: "Little... Xiao Lang, we are tenants of Wang Yuanwai's family. Now that Wang Yuanwai is gone, what should we do?"

Han Zhen asked, "How many fields does Wang Yuan have?"

The man said like a few treasures: "46 mu of paddy fields and 180 mu of dry fields."

"I rented them all to you?"

"It's all rented to us."

"How was the previous rent calculated?"

The middle-aged man shook his head: "There is no rent, we help with the farming, and Wang Yuanwai will give us a bite to eat. When the harvest is good, we will also reward some extra grain."

Good guy!
This is not a tenant, isn't this a serf?
Seeing Han Zhen's surprised expression, the head of the village explained: "Mr. Xiaolang, it's all like this now. There were indeed tenants in the early years, but the tenants' relocation required a certificate from the master's family. Many masters saw that the tenants wanted to leave, so they deliberately didn't open the paperwork. The tenants couldn't leave, so they had to stay. Over time, it became like this."

After listening to the chief's explanation, Han Zhen suddenly realized.

understood!

It is the landlord who is old and rich, deliberately preventing the tenants from leaving, forcing the tenants to become serfs, and farming for themselves from generation to generation.

And what the landlord Lao Cai needs to pay is only a little bit of food.

With so many fields, there must be people.

Thinking of this, Han Zhen murmured: "Now I'll give you two options. The first option is to pay [-]% of the rent, and the rest will go to you, and you don't have to pay the land tax. The second option is to get wages, three hundred cash per month, and two meals."

[-]% rent is not high, but it is not low either.

Considering that Wang Yuan’s family has fertile land, the grain production rate must be higher than that of ordinary land, so after paying the rent, the remaining grain is enough for their family to eat, and there is still some money left over.

After he finished speaking, the villagers immediately said in unison: "Let's choose the second method!"

They are not stupid, although the first method sounds tempting, but the harvest of this thing depends entirely on the face of God.

God rewards you with a bite of food when you are in a good mood, but you don’t even have to eat shit when you are in a bad mood.

The second method is different, guaranteeing the harvest in drought and flood, no matter what the harvest in the field is, you can have a bite to eat, and you can still receive wages every month.

Three hundred texts.

In a year, it is more than five guan, which is a huge sum of money for these poor people who are called tenants but are actually serfs.

Han Zhen nodded and said: "Okay, I will write a few contracts later, and you will sign them when you come to dinner tomorrow."

"Thank you, Mr. Xiaolang!"

Twenty or so people knelt down together and kowtowed to Han Zhen sincerely.

When these tenants left happily, Han Zhen turned his head and asked, "Are there any relatives outside the royal family in the village?"

"Gone!"

The head of the village heard what he meant and shook his head: "Wang Yuanwai is the eldest in the family, and there are two brothers under him. The eldest died of tuberculosis within three hours. Erlang of the Wang family moved to Yingtian Mansion after separating the family. Both daughters were promised to Mr. Xu as concubines."

Han Zhen asked again: "Are there many escaped households in this mountain?"

"Why not many!"

The head of the village sighed: "In the early years, Xiaowang Village was also a large village with more than 260 households. Over the years, miscellaneous taxes have become more and more heavy, and now only 120 households have left."

Han Zhen nodded, already thinking about it.

After contemplating for a moment, he suddenly asked, "Is the village chief's family doing well?"

The head of the village said with a wry smile: "Barely enough to eat."

In fact, he, the head of the village, just has a name for nothing, no different from ordinary villagers, Wang Yuanwai has the final say on all the big and small matters in the village.

"From today onwards, the monthly salary of Li Chang is [-] Wen." Han Zhen said, and ordered Ma Sangou beside him: "Go to my sister-in-law and get [-] Wen."

Soon, Ma Sangou came with a bag of copper coins.

Taking the copper money and stuffing it into the Lichang's bosom, Han Zhen said with a smile: "The five hundred wen is this month's salary, please take care of the Lichang and help me manage the village well."

"This……"

Holding the heavy cloth bag, the Li Chang had a complicated expression, and then said gratefully: "Thank you, Mr. Xiaolang, I will definitely do my best."

……

Watching the chief leave, Ma Sangou finally couldn't help it at this moment, and asked his doubts: "Second Brother Han, didn't we go up to the mountain to be bandits, why did we stay here?"

Han Zhen pointed to the three surrounding mountains: "Aren't we just occupying the mountains as kings now?"

Ma Sangou scratched his head, it was completely different from what he had imagined.

In his mind, Han Zhen should be like Li Tianwang on Montenegro, occupying a hill, building a cottage, and then gathering a group of gangsters to eat meat and drink in large bowls.

Seeing his bewildered look, Han Zhen patted him on the shoulder and said with a light smile, "There are several ways to become a bandit on the mountain. Since we want to be one, we should be at the high end."

Who would like to live in the mountains?

Snakes, insects, rats and ants, beasts run rampant.

Not only to solve the housing problem, but also to collect escaped households and reclaim the land...

How good it is now, living in a house with blue bricks and red tiles, and many steps have been saved.

More than 100 ready-made farmers, and hundreds of acres of grain that is about to mature.

Han Zhen is confident that these villagers can be dealt with, even if it is really not done, it will not be too late to run up the mountain.

The reason why he chose Xiaowang Village was after careful consideration.

One is that Xiaowang Village is located in a remote location. He noticed it when he came yesterday. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and it is more than ten miles away from the county town. There is only one rugged loess mountain road leading to the outside world.

As long as you keep the only exit, you can sit back and relax.

In case of failure to hold, there is enough strategic depth, just drill into the mountains.

The second is that Wang Yuanwai's reputation is too bad, and he has bullied the villagers too hard these years.

When Wang Yuanwai was killed, the villagers would only applaud.

You only need to give the villagers some sweetness to make their lives better, and the villagers will spontaneously support Han Zhen.

If it were another village, the ending might not be like this.

There is a third point, which is also the most critical point.

Han Zhen was sure that even if the county government knew that they had occupied Xiaowang Village, they would not dare to trouble them in the short term.

He made such a fuss in the county today, scaring many people out of their wits.

What's more, once Master Xu died, Changzhi County would definitely take advantage of the situation to take control of power, and would inevitably fight openly and secretly with the wealthy gentry in the county, so there would be no energy to trouble him.

Thinking in another way, if he were the county magistrate, after taking control of the county, he would never take the initiative to provoke him, but seize the time to make money.

When he is about to leave office, he will report to the imperial court for security.

It can not only add a political achievement to the resume, but also earn a resettlement fee from the court.

In the end, he was promoted with his achievements and money.

Of course, these are just his guesses. It is not guaranteed that Changzhi County will have a brain twitch one day and will suppress the bandits with a slap on the thigh.

However, it is conservatively estimated that Changzhi County will definitely not be able to spare a hand against him within a month.

Suddenly, Han Zhen thought of something and asked, "By the way, where is Wang Yuanwai's wife?"

"died!"

replied the monkey.

"You killed it?"

"I didn't kill her. At that time, the backyard was chaotic. Several servants rushed in to snatch the money. The wife of the king's wife wanted to stop her, but was pushed down by a servant and crashed to death on the corner of the flower bed." The monkey explained.
The servants and servants of a rich family will not take advantage of the fire to loot the master's house even if they don't rise up to resist when they see the master's house in disaster.

It can only be said that self-inflicted crimes cannot live.

Wang Yuanwai is not only cruel to the villagers, but also extremely stingy to his own servants.

The cook was slapped in public just because she put more salt in the dishes, and the other servants were beaten and scolded as well.

It is estimated that these servants have had grievances for a long time, and today they completely broke out.

Han Zhen ordered: "Monkey, the four of you dragged all the corpses out of the house, piled them up and set them on fire. Sangou, go and bring the cook and maids here."

After a while, Ma Sangou led seven or eight women over.

(End of this chapter)