late Qing Dynasty arrest

It was still daylight and Li Guolou was already taking a walk in the yard to exercise his muscles. He nodded to Huang Kaohao, who was also up to work, and the two long-term workers to greet each other.

I thought to myself: The old landlord Huang Kaohao is really hardworking and frugal. He hired two long-term laborers and treated them as oxen and horses, and didn’t let them sleep late in winter.

If Huang Kao had arranged for two long-term workers to work, he would go to the village office with Li Guolou, because Li Guolou was in a hurry, and he had to get the household registration information of the villagers before he would eat breakfast.

Huang Yishi also got up and went to the kitchen to light the fire to make breakfast, but before Huang Yueshi came out of the room, Li Guolou nodded and greeted Huang Yishi, and did not ask Jin Erzi to get up.He left the mansion and walked towards the village office in the east. In the village, cocks were singing and dogs were barking, and people were already walking on the road. Rural people were used to getting up early. Seeing Huang Kaohao, the villagers hurriedly bowed and showed respect.

Rural people have no shortage of firewood, and as long as they go to the forest to chop firewood, they can bring back a large load, so every house has a firewood room in the yard.The rooms of these ordinary people are mostly bungalows, some of which have thatched roofs without even tiles.The courtyard walls are also made of stones, and some are surrounded by wooden fences, so that passers-by can see everything in the courtyard clearly.

Li Guolou spent a lot of time poking around every villager's yard, which made Huang Kaohao very dissatisfied.

Huang Kaohao stopped again, impatiently, and said: "Mr. Li, please hurry up. You have to ask the villagers about the situation. Let Huang Bing accompany you later. I still have to work."

Li Guolou hurriedly walked up to Huang Kaohao with a playful smile on his face, and said, "Huang Cunzheng, I'm just interested in rural life. People here raise chickens and ducks, and the living conditions are pretty good."

Huang Kaohao glanced at Li Guolou, sneered, and said, "What's the matter, Mr. Li, you don't even understand this. Most of the chickens and ducks raised by the villagers are poor. Usually, no one is willing to kill them to eat them. Eggs and duck eggs have to be handed over."

Li Guolou couldn't understand, and asked, "Why is this a business?"

Huang Kao gesticulated and said, "Mr. Li, there are still servants in the village. They will buy these things and convert them into copper coins. Every family has taxes that should be handed over. There is a book to record the numbers. You can't default before the end of the year. Otherwise, they will be punished. Only the surplus is the villagers' own, otherwise the guards will come to collect debts."

Li Guolou said: "Oh! Huang Cunzheng, you must be a loan shark."

Huang Kaohao chuckled, and said: "Mr. Li, it's disgusting to say that usury is so bad. I'm asking the folks in the village to help me. I don't want to be a big landlord. Why do I need so many lands? Raising long-term workers is very hard. Don't keep an eye on them. They will be lazy, I can't do it alone, I want my wife to take care of others, but I'm afraid they will steal men, so I can just maintain the status quo."

Li Guolou was chuckling in his stomach, he didn't expose Huang Kaohao's disguise, people are greedy, people like Huang Kaohao just want more and more land, and their lifelong dream is also on the land.There are more than 600 mu of land in the village belonged to Huang Kaohao's family, who hired villagers to farm for his family.Huang Kaohao is the village official, so he must conceal the number of acres of his own land. This kind of trick is the same everywhere, and it is easy to do things that harm the public and benefit the private.

According to the laws of the Qing Dynasty today, landlords also have to pay taxes. There is no such thing as Mengyin. The official and landlord class can only benefit from concealing the land.The official errands for land measurement are fat and short, and they can eat and drink and make a fortune wherever they go, but the country has regulations. Generally, land is measured in the whole country in five years. This is the rule set by Emperor Yongzheng. Mu, China’s population will explode (in ancient times, the poor could not afford to raise too many children, and most of them killed the newborn children. Another job of midwives is to kill children. It is a cruel reality. The book never not mentioned).In the past, the country paid taxes based on the head. After the implementation of the apportionment into the mu, the common people would have a lot of children as long as they could afford it. At the beginning, the people of the country were very rich and happy, but in the later years of Kangxi, the disadvantages appeared. , China's population tripled all of a sudden (more than [-] million people), and it became difficult to bear the pressure of such a large population in an agricultural society. There were the White Lotus Rebellion, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Rebellion, and the peasant uprising where one lang was higher than one lang, which made the Qing Empire suffer from internal and external difficulties.

Li Guolou's family is not a big landlord, they are no longer interested in the land, so Li Guolou also looks down on the village official Huang Kaohao, this kind of countryman talks about the gains and losses of the land even when drinking.How much is an acre of land worth here, at most four to fifty taels of silver, and generally between two and thirty taels of silver. In a disaster year, more than ten taels of silver can buy good land.If Li Guolou bought land and became a big landlord, he would have already become the overlord of one party.

Along the way, Huang Kaohao told him which piece of land belonged to his family, and which family was able to survive until now by virtue of his kindness, and did not go to the point of ruin. That's why the villagers loved him so much when they saw him.Li Guolou listened, nodded frequently, and praised Huang Kaohao a lot, a good man in Huangcun.

Speaking of topics that Huang Kaohao was interested in, he no longer urged Li Guolou to hurry up, but stood on the ridge with Li Guolou to enjoy the scenery of the field.

The capital has not fought a war for nearly 200 years. In the past, the soil enclosure of the village has been dilapidated, and many farmhouses have been located on the outskirts of the village. The scattered layout makes the overall appearance of Huangcun not very good.

Li Guolou sighed, "Huang Cunzheng, the security protection here is too poor, no wonder two little girls were kidnapped, you should manage the roads into the village well, so that this kind of tragedy will not happen again. thing."

Speaking of this, Huang Kao broke out in a cold sweat. His position in the village was in jeopardy, and the security situation was not good. As the head of a village, he was the first to eat noodles.On such a cold winter morning, Huang Kaohao took out the handkerchief in his sleeve to wipe off his sweat.

Huang Kaohao argued: "Mr. Li, I have no choice. I don't have any money! The fences are full of loopholes, and you can get in and out everywhere. In addition, some villagers want to go in and out of their own places. I know that I didn't do my job well. Now we have set up a security team here, and there are people patrolling every day. I have already promised the officer that I will repair the earth fence by spring. I will pay for it myself. , we must repair the soil fence so that there is no water leakage."

Li Guolou warned: "Huang Cunzheng, do you know what kind of earthen buildings were built in Shandong to deal with the Nian army? The Nian army passed by like locusts, leaving nothing for you, like your bones , as long as you meet the Nian army, you have to be cannon fodder. Don't just think about buying land, you have to learn to survive, and one day there will be wars here. You have to convert your big house into an earthen building and buy guns. Forming your own militia, red-tasseled spears and big knives are outdated, so that everything you have is your own, otherwise you will be robbed one day, and you will be worse than Tian."

Huang Kao refused to accept it and said, "Mr. Li, don't scare me. Isn't the Nian Army going to end? Why should I spend so much money?"

Li Guolou pointed to the sky and said: "Huang Cunzheng, there are unpredictable things in the sky, and people have good fortune and misfortune. You don't want everything you own to become empty, so you have to become strong. Just have money hidden in the cellar, it is useless." Metal."

Huang Kao nodded and said: "Mr. Li, others have told me what you said, but what you said is not as good as you. What you said makes sense. Then I will rebuild my big house during the big construction in spring." Fan, let some trustworthy farm laborers live in my house. It’s just guns;;;;;;; Chief Li wants to help find some good guns.”

Li Guolou patted Huang Kaohao on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry Huang Cunzheng, I won't fool you with matchlock guns. I'll get you the latest flintlock guns, good guns that are not afraid of wind and rain. No one will dare in the future." If you want to play Huangcun's idea, you are a powerful man in this area."

As if seeing a bright future, Huang Kaohao no longer wants to be bound by the small land. It turned out that his hometown can be built so beautifully. He was moved by Li Guolou's rhetoric, and he was about to bleed and spend money on construction.

Li Guolou is the most inspiring, and Huang Kaohao is tossing around with some nonsense, and Sai Weng's gains and losses are just a matter of thought.As for the effect of Li Guolou's nonsense?Now I can't see it at all.

Li Guolou just wanted to make Huang Kaohao bleed a lot, build a lot in his hometown, and let the people of Huangcun have a safe place to live.I didn't expect that there are blessings and misfortunes. The "blessing" is of course the local people who have the opportunity to earn money to support their families. The "disaster" is that the labor burden of the people in Huangcun has increased.How can a stingy person like Huang Kaohao let the people of Huangcun village take advantage of them, except that labor costs have to be bought from outside, and labor costs Huang Kaohao can save as much as possible. It is only a matter of course that "relatives and friends" spend less money.

After getting Huang Village's household registration information at the village office, Li Guolou and Huang Kaohao went back to have breakfast together. It took only ten minutes to go back and forth, and the two of them walked for three quarters of an hour.We chatted happily along the way, pointing to the winter scenery of Huangcun to express our feelings, no matter how beautiful it is, it is still the beauty of hometown, and the Fragrant Hills in the distance add more beauty.

After talking for a while, Li Guolou finally switched to the main topic and asked, "Huang Cunzheng, how many families are there in your village, how many people are there in total, and are there many outsiders?"

Huang Kao didn't even need to think about it. He memorized this kind of question by heart, and blurted out: "We have a family of 230 in Huangcun. The population includes the two missing girls. There are three people with a population of 890, and the male has 490. Among them, there are 350 women, [-] and [-] of them are strong laborers, and if women who can work are included, [-] people will be added."

Huang Kaohao also talked about the conflicts between the aborigines in the village and those who moved from outside, and it was all thanks to his comfort that the whole village could live a happy life.Therefore, Huangcun cannot do without him at the helm, and the village will only be convinced if he is a villager.

Li Guolou took the household registration booklet and flipped through it casually. There were these numbers on it that Huang Kao talked about.As for whether there are hidden households?Then it's hard to say, Huang Kaohao won't tell him unless he gets evidence.

The so-called hidden households are farm laborers who work for big families. They don’t have land, and they don’t need labor or military service, but they can’t move around without household registration.There are many slaves in the homes of rich and powerful people who are also hidden households. The country cannot control such people. For the country, such people are useless. They do not contribute to the country and only serve their masters. Some are desperate another name for disciples.

Li Guolou will not offend the local snake, otherwise he will be unable to move an inch here, and dozens of militiamen in the village can stare at him to death, and no one will talk to him.Unless another brigade of yamen servants is sent to enforce the law, Li Guolou has not yet taken out the ticket.He didn't want to use the card ticket in his pocket anymore, so he gave Huang Kaohao a favor, so as not to embarrass the village official, Huang Kaohao, and get the name of the defendant or suspect written on the card ticket by the government. It is very embarrassing to say it, and it is a big stain in life.

Some yamen servants in the government would ask for bribes when they got the card tickets, and they would not escort suspects or defendants to the yamen. Li Guolou couldn't do this kind of thing, and he no longer regarded Huang Kaohao as a suspect.