She is different from the empress in the history books

Chapter 25 Usury

Xu Shu quickly explained:

"It's not his fault. Do you know how these farmers in Xiaoli Village got here?"

"Isn't it a native-born local?"

"Yes and no. Twelve households are ordinary farmers, and the other 25 households are transferred from tenant farmers."

This is the information Xu Shu and the others found from the county government's household registration documents.

Ten years ago, Xiaoli Village was still a relatively populous village, with more than [-] households and a lot of acres of land.

Although it is far from the county seat and the transportation is inconvenient, as long as you work hard, you can still be self-sufficient.

However, there was a severe drought in Chengyang County six years ago, and the rainfall in other cities in Taizhou was also low, making it impossible to support.

Xiaoli Village is the most severely affected area. Many families have planted fields for several months, but there is no harvest in autumn.

The Feng family had a village and a lot of land in Xiaoli Village, and it was the chief steward who committed the crime who was responsible for taking care of it. Although the Feng family was also affected by the disaster, after all, the property was scattered and did not rely entirely on the land.

Therefore, when the villagers were still worried about their livelihood, the Feng family had already planned their land and people.

Instigated by the Feng family, the steward took the lead and lent high-priced food to the villagers to overcome the disaster.

This is tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst—farmers borrowed grain in the autumn and winter of the first year to fill their stomachs, and borrowed grain in the spring of the second year to sow, but after the autumn harvest, they found that the harvested grain was not enough to pay off the debt.

You can only continue to postpone the repayment deadline.

Until the third year, the accumulated food and money were more, but the debts were also more, let alone repayable.

In the end, he had to use the land to repay the debt, and then rent the Feng family's land to plant.

In a village that originally had more than [-] households, a natural disaster caused several households to seek refuge with relatives and friends in other villages; several households died of starvation and illness; and several others fled and have not returned yet.

The rest are the twenty-odd families who have become tenant farmers of the Feng family and have regained their freedom, and the dozen or so families who have relatively strong financial resources and have not loaned out their land.

There are more than a dozen households, which are still in the hands of the Feng family.

Pei Peng sighed, she had heard of similar things, but the villages near the outskirts of Beijing were closer to the capital after all, and even if someone lent usury to trick the farmer's land, they would not dare to do it so obviously, killing most of the village. become sharecroppers.

"The Feng family? Is this the Feng family where the steward beat the maid to death a few days ago?"

"It's the Feng family. The county magistrate Zhou also checked the details of the steward through this incident. He found out that he was making money outside for the master's family. He did a lot of evil things. guilty and punished.”

Of course, this is actually the fault of the acting master, otherwise the Feng family would not be willing to spit out such farmers.

However, the people vomited out, but the fields would not come back. Although the Feng family granted usury, it was indeed these farmers who "sold" them according to their fingerprints.

Zhou Keping used the maid who was beaten to death to take control of the Feng family, but he couldn't control anything more.

Pei Peng nodded, complaining that they would choose this village. There was a lack of land, and the farmers did not have enough confidence to open up wasteland. This was the time when they needed someone to help them.

Presumably, if Xu Shu and the others didn't choose, Zhou Keping would have to think of a way. He couldn't just watch them starve to death.

If they really starved to death, it would undoubtedly make more farmers feel that farming land for the imperial court is far worse than being tenant farmers for the rich.

"Just think about it carefully. But for this kind of matter, just listening to people at the county government and checking the household registration documents is not enough. You still have to check on the spot to see what the specific situation is, so that we can make arrangements. Don't be afraid of hardship."

　This chapter is relatively short, and there is another chapter.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)