Chastity Layman

  Chapter 1221 Ge Congzhou

In any dynasty, a county was in charge of a large number of areas and populations, at least ten thousand households, while court officials often had three or four members, and the number of official officials in the economic system was only a few people from the recorder, Cao Zuo, and Shi district. This is impossible to manage.

   Therefore, in fact, a large number of subordinate servants outside the establishment are often used. These people have no establishment and no salary, so they often become a gray area that is neither black nor white. They can't bring their own dry food to work for the court, right? But he still has power in his hands, so of course he will seek rent.

  So not only the scribes and subordinates of the establishment have to find ways to use their power for personal gain, even the ordinary **** slaves have to find opportunities to make a profit, so they fish the common people.

Qin Lang always felt that this approach was wrong, because whether it was the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, or the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the number of subordinate officials in the county government was very large. According to historical records, there were even thousands of subordinate officials in some large counties. Not to mention the huge number of assistants of those subordinate staff.

  The method Qin Lang tried in Luzon was to put these things on the bright side. Since so many are needed, one cannot pretend not to see them.

  Directly increase the number of subordinate staff, solve their remuneration, set up some temporary positions, and solve the needs of servants through employment.

  As for the funds, one is the one that is converted into money for the service, and the other is the one that is paid for by Liuzhou County in the tax.

   "Don't know your eldest brother's name?"

"Ge Congzhou, you can just call me Lao Ge. I am originally from Fuzhou. Our place is full of mountains. It is called eight mountains, one water and one field. Life is difficult. I am exhausted all year round and can't afford food and clothing for the whole family. Since Zhenguan opened the sea, people in our area have started to go to sea, run boats, work, anyway, where can they make money and go where?"

  Ge Congzhou is also an enthusiastic person. He can be the leader of the archer team and manage ten people under him, so he is naturally a smart person.

   After a few words, I became acquainted with Wang Yanzhang.

  Lao Ge said that his family used to be poor, and their place used to be in the mountains, where they planted some crops in the crevices of the rocks, and it was hard to get enough food and clothing in good years, let alone in times of disaster.

Therefore, people in their place are old and generally unable to work, they will go to the mountains by themselves in winter, just to save some food for the family, and if there are one or two girls in the family, they will give birth to a baby girl Generally, they will drown directly, there is no other way, they cannot be raised, and the girls will be raised by other people in the future.

   Looking back now, Lao Ge also feels heartache and guilt. When he didn’t go out of the mountain before, he felt that this was a tradition in the mountains. There is nothing wrong with everyone doing this, for survival. But after coming out, I realized how heartbreaking the things they did before were.

   "Hello, Lu Song, and Duke Wei!"

Lao Ge said that he brought his family to Luzon, and first allocated more than 300 acres of land, and then bought slaves, livestock and agricultural tools, and brought the whole family to cultivate wasteland, plant rice, sugar cane, and some bananas. Linen, cotton.

  He also actively participated in archer training, and he was the first to respond when the Dudu Mansion asked him to voluntarily sign up to come to Heisha.

  He came to Heisha and became the captain of the archer team of the county government. He was in charge of ten archers. Not only did he have fixed monthly money and rations, but he was also allocated a hundred acres of land here at one time.

   "My family is still in San Francisco, and I don't have time to cultivate the land here, but the land given to us by Duke Wei must not be left unused, right? So I also hand over the land to others first."

  The entrustment that Lao Ge mentioned means that there are special people here who can help manage the fields on their behalf and be responsible for farming, from farming to management, from seeds to tenant farmers.

   "We don't need to take care of anything. We just need to sign the contract first, agree on the rent, and then collect the rent when the time comes."

  Essentially, it is a lease contract.

   "Isn't this just renting the land to others?"

   "Yes, and no." Lao Ge laughed.

  General rented land is leased to tenant farmers who have no land or little land. They cultivate and pay the rent on time. But what Lao Ge said is different, because these people are very powerful. They farmed it with slaves, and it wasn't a rent of one or two plots.

  Just like Heisha County, because it has just been occupied not long ago, a lot of land is now vacant, so there are quite a few of these reclamation merchants, they have a large number of slaves on hand, and large tracts of land are rented and planted.

  Wang Yanzhang still felt that he didn't quite understand.

   "You said that they have a lot of slaves on hand, as well as a lot of livestock, farm tools, etc., and experience in farming and management, so why don't they buy land and storehouses themselves, wouldn't it be more cost-effective?"

"There is still some inside story here. First, although these people have many slaves, their slaves are actually for sale. They cannot keep them on hand forever. Second, there are some restrictions on buying land in Luzon. Land is very cheap to buy, but it is only for new immigrants, and there is a limit on the number of acres.”

"Except for the new immigrants, the normal land sales prices are not very cheap. Another thing is that now Luzon land sales have to sign a deed and pay taxes. The land price is ten and one tax is borne by the buyer. This is a lot of money. Therefore, for various reasons, these slave traders simply use the slaves on hand, taking advantage of the fact that many of us are unable to farm by ourselves, so they lower the price, lease the land from the landlord at a low price, send slaves to cultivate, and pay the agreed amount Except for the rent, the rest is his, and he doesn’t even have to pay taxes.”

  Businessmen can't get up early if they are not profitable. Any business model is because it is profitable.

Because there are a large number of slaves in the Luzon slave market, the price of slaves is not high, and merchants are not willing to dump them at a low price, but it also costs money to keep them. It just so happens that Luzon now has a large number of open land and new fields in newly conquered lands. Many landlords were unable to manage the farming for a while, so they temporarily did the work for them.

   Lower the rent and use idle slaves to farm the land, killing two birds with one stone.

   To put it bluntly, these people are actually just slave traders, not really doing business.

   "They not only rent land, but also buy and sell slaves, livestock, farm tools, etc. If you think the slaves they send are doing well, you can buy them and give them to continue farming."

   "My 100 mu of land is now handed over to them. The fixed iron plate rent is set at six buckets per mu. If there is a drought or flood, the rent will be reduced accordingly."

The iron plate rent of six buckets per mu is the fixed rent. At this time, the land rent in the Central Plains is generally divided into rents. , anyway, how much the field harvested, the landlord will collect a certain amount of rent according to the agreement.

  Even staple food or miscellaneous grains must be shared, even if you plant some radishes in winter, you must share.

  Even if the rice or wheat is planted, in addition to the grain, the wheat straw and straw also need to be rented. In addition, if the cattle of the landlord's house are used, another cattle rent has to be paid, and sometimes the canal and water tanker repaired by the landlord's house are used, and additional rent must be paid.

  Even the tenants have to undertake some extra free labor every year, such as giving the landlord’s family free replanting, or helping the landlord’s house repair and so on.

This kind of sharing rent is quite common, and the exploitation of tenants is also serious, especially in the early days when the proportion of sharing was quite large. Sometimes the people could not even afford food and clothing throughout the year. In case of a famine, they had to borrow money from the landlord. Became a slave to a landlord.

   Even what to plant in the field has to be decided by the landlord.

  Since Zhenguan, this situation has eased. The imperial court has enacted the tenancy law and set the bottom line for share rent or fixed rent. Now the common share rent is five to five, and the bottom line set by the imperial court is no more than four or six. As for the fixed rent, it also stipulates how many grades are divided according to the fatness and thinness of the field, and the rent corresponding to each grade must not exceed a certain amount, and generally four or six is ​​the minimum limit.

The 100 mu of Lao Ge's land is on the Heisha Plain, which belongs to the cultivated land cultivated by the natives. With the fertile land and good water conservancy conditions here, at least two crops a year, one stone can be harvested in a season. For six to two stones, at least three stones or more for two seasons.

But Lao Ge handed it over to those people, and he only charged six buckets of rent per mu. This rent rate was comparable to that of some official land rents in the northern part of the Central Plains. In intercropping, one has to grow miscellaneous grains for one season, and the annual yield per mu does not exceed two stones.

   "The sign is also an annual rent, and I should be able to grow it myself next year."

  Old Ge said that he couldn’t take care of it this year, so he handed it over to them for planting. It can harvest six Dou or six Dou, and there are sixty stones in one hundred mu. The Dudu Mansion is exempt from tax for one year for these new lands. Rehmannia land pays half the rent in the second year, 70% in the third year, and full tax in the fourth year.

  Newly reclaimed raw land is exempted from tax for the first three years, reduced for the next two years, and fully taxed from the sixth year onwards.

  Thus, for Lao Ge, the land is barren and there is no grain of grain. If we plant it this year, it will not affect the cultivation of next year.

   As for next year, he plans to buy some slaves.

"The two boys in my family are about the same age, and I plan to send them back to their hometown in Fujian after the spring plowing is over, to their uncle's house, and ask them to help arrange a marriage. That would add two more labors."

  Wang Yanzhang couldn't help admiring Lao Ge's abacus.

  Old Ge even said that he would consider saving a sum of money to send his son to select samurai after two years of work. There are two basic conditions for selecting warriors, one is to have 500 mu of land, and the other is to have enough money to afford a full set of cavalry equipment.

   With these basic conditions, you can then participate in the selection of warriors in the Dudu Mansion to assess your ability.

   "If you can be a warrior, you will be able to become a Wei Gongya soldier. If you do some more meritorious service at that time, you will have the opportunity to become a knight with a title like a king's knight, and our Lao Ge family will be prosperous."

   "Why didn't Brother Ge choose the warrior himself?"

"The family just moved here. Although they have been allocated a lot of free land, they have bought livestock and farm tools and added a few slaves. The family still owes a little famine. Now that the children are grown up, they have to prepare bride price to marry their sons. Daughter-in-law, my daughter has to start saving dowries for them, and they need money everywhere." But Lao Ge didn't have much worry on his face.

   After all, Lao Ge’s family now owns more than 500 mu of land. They are a good family of small landlords, and they also have slaves for cattle and horses. During the slack season, the children can also go to work and earn some money. As long as the whole family is healthy and working hard together, good days are ahead.

  Old Ge is quite satisfied with his current position as the head of the archer team. The salary is good, the monthly money and food are not bad, and there are also benefits on New Year's Day.

  He is also getting old, so let the eldest son choose the samurai.

   "Nowadays slaves are cheap, so it's a good time to start. Brother Wang, you don't have family to help you, so you have to find a few honest and honest ones to buy and use."

  Old Ge looked at the young Wang Yanzhang, the more he looked at him, the more pleasing he was.

   "Brother Wang was young and promising, and now he has become a knight. The future is boundless. I don't know if there is a girl he likes, or has a marriage been agreed?"

  Wang Yanzhang shook his head in embarrassment.

   I really didn't have any chances since I was a child, and when I came to the martial arts hall, I also focused on training, so I didn't think about these things.

   "I'm still training in the martial arts hall."

"It's different now. You are a knight and you have your own territory. Even if you can temporarily hand over the land to others for rent, it can't be like this forever. You need someone to help take care of the family business. You can't rely on slaves alone. After all, those slaves are lowly servants, no one will see that they are not only stealing and cheating, but also stealing and even running away."

  Old Ge thinks of his two daughters, the eldest is thirteen this year, and is about to be married. Although they are still a little young, it is not just right to get married after one or two years of engagement.

  Although Wang Yanzhang has no family, he has become a knight at this age, and his future is boundless. If he has a family, with the conditions of Lao Ge's family, others will look down on his family.

  My heart suddenly became hot.

He looked at the sky, "It's getting late, I should change shifts and rest now, if Brother Wang doesn't mind, why don't you go have a cup of tea with me, and I'll make an appointment for you to talk about your rented land later." thing?"

  Although Wang Yanzhang had been an apprentice for five years and a buddy for one year, he still had little experience after all. He felt very kind to the enthusiastic Lao Ge, and couldn't stand his enthusiasm, so he nodded in agreement.

Lao Ge turned around and explained a few words to the archers under his hand, then put the spears, bows and arrows back in the Tulou Armor Warehouse, only wore a horizontal knife, took off the iron helmet on his head, and put on a Fan Yang Li .

   "There's a new herbal tea shop opened up ahead, a drink at noon is just the right time to get angry, let's go."

  Wang Yanzhang followed this brother Ge into the newly opened herbal tea shop, and the shopkeeper warmly entertained Lao Ge.

   "This is also our fellow from Fujian. The people are quite nice. This herbal tea tastes good."

While drinking herbal tea, Lao Ge began to insinuate, and slowly brought the topic to the matter of starting a family and starting a business. Finally, taking advantage of his joy, he said that he had a daughter named Da Niang, who was honest and could endure hardships. If Wang Yanzhang didn't dislike him, he would write to her The son sent his daughter over to meet her.

   "It doesn't matter if it's successful or not. If you think it's okay, then we'll get married and become a good deed. If you don't like it, we will still be called brothers in the future, how about it?"

  Wang Yanzhang blushed, but he didn't expect Lao Ge to marry his daughter to him. It was difficult to refuse for a while, and he hesitated a few words, but Lao Ge made a decision on it, and immediately asked the shopkeeper to write a letter for him and send it back to the dock ship.

  Wang Yanzhang blushed, but for a moment he was looking forward to it. The child who had no home since childhood, rarely felt the warmth of a father in Lao Ge.

  (end of this chapter)