Add Bookmark | Recommend this book | Back to the book page | My bookshelf | Mobile Reading

Free Web Novel,Novel online - All in hlnovel.com -> Wuxia -> Taoist Laws

Chapter 768 Home Visit

Previous page        Return to Catalog        Next page

    The first stop when going to the countryside is, of course, this city.  The small Hongyuan City has only a thousand households and a population of more than 4,000, half of which are poor victims recruited from the mainland in the past two years. It can recruit 2,000 Han people from afar to fill the household registration. For this reason alone  , Zeng Zhili did a pretty good job.

    Lu Fangzhu said: "These people have rented the fields outside the city and planted highland barley and millet to make a living."

    While listening and wandering around, Zhao Ran did not go to the houses along the street, but walked through two lanes inward, chose a house with an adobe house, and signaled to Fangzhu Lu.

    Fangzhu Lu stepped forward and called the door. An old woman came out and opened the door with her infant child in her arms. She looked at Fangzhu Lu at the door in surprise.

    "Old lady, our newly appointed Abbot Zhao of Baima Courtyard came to your house to take a look at the situation of your house," said Master Lu.

    The old woman was stunned and didn¡¯t know what to say. She let the two of them into the house in a panic.

    Zhao Ran approached the house and saw that it was simple, without any furniture. There was a straw mat spread in the corner of the floor and a rag quilt rolled up on the mat.  There was a stove in the middle of the room that was boiling water. What was burning underneath was some hay and dried dung. The smell was very unpleasant.  Fortunately, the only wooden window was open and allowed for ventilation, otherwise it would be really unbearable.

    The most valuable thing in this family is probably the iron pot placed on the fire.  Zhao Ran stretched his head and looked into the pot. There were several grass leaves in the pot of water, and a clear number of millet could be seen under the grass leaves.

    The old woman hurriedly asked Zhao Ran to sit across from the fire. The baby in her arms cried. She quickly took a spoonful of millet soup from the pot with a wooden spoon, blew it to her mouth to cool it, and put it into the baby's mouth in small sips.  After pouring it in, I was a little confused for a while.

    Zhao Ran looked around and was stunned for a long time, feeling a sense of sadness welling up in his heart.

    Since recruiting refugees to open the Junshan Temple in Xiaojun Mountain, Zhao Ran has not seen such a poor family for many years. Even when he went to Lizhou the year before last, the lives of those Lizhou mountain residents were much better than this.

    "Old lady, where is dad? Where is Da Zhuang? Where is Da Zhuang's wife? Why aren't you at home?"

    The old woman replied: "Dazhuang and his father went to work in Beicheng, and my daughter-in-law went to Mr. Luo's place to wash clothes."

    Zhao Ran asked: "What kind of job do you want to do?"

    Lu Fangzhu answered on his behalf: "It should be to build the city wall for our White Horse Courtyard."

    Zhao Ran understood. He read the documents from Baima Court two days ago and knew that it was a busy time for farming. The hospital transferred fifty shichen rice from Changpingcang to continue building the city wall of Hongyuan County. Now it should be mainly to raise the height towards the north city.  .  This is something Yuan Hao has been working on, and a section of it is built every year during the slack season, which serves as a work-for-relief function.

    Zhao Ran asked: "How much food can those who work get?"

    The old woman said: "If you work in charge of food, you can get back two rice balls every day."

    Zhao Ran frowned and said, "Too few."

    The old woman said: "That's enough. It's very good. It can help the baby grow up."

    Zhao Ran shook his head: "How can two millet dumplings be enough for your old man and your children to eat together?"

    "I will eat less, and the baby will eat more. That's enough."

    "Who is Mr. Luo?" Zhao Ran turned to ask Master Lu.

    Lu Fangzhu said: "The restaurant where he carries the 'Qian Li Xiang' on the main street belongs to him. He is a businessman from the capital. He has been in Hongyuan for just a year. This Mr. Luo is also kind-hearted, but his business is not doing well.  , but he hired many women to help with laundry, dishes, mending clothes, and taking care of the food. I knew this man, and he once said to me that he originally wanted to close the restaurant after working for half a year, and he couldn¡¯t make enough money.  Money. But if he leaves, all the people who work for him will starve, so if he pays some money every year and insists on opening his business, it should be considered as a charity."

    The old woman also said a few good words about Mr. Luo and praised Yuan Hao from Baima Courtyard.

    Zhao Ran chatted for a while, then turned to the old woman and asked, "Old lady, how many acres of land does your family have allocated outside the city?"

    The old woman replied: "Two cents for three acres."

    Zhao Ran was a little surprised: "Only three acres and two cents?"

    The old woman said: "It's already very good."

    "How was the harvest? How much grain were harvested this year?"

    "Four stones collected."

    The yield per mu is a little more than one stone. This yield will definitely not be able to support the old woman's family of five. Zhao Ran asked again: "How much grain was paid?"

    "I paid one and a half stones."

    Zhao Ran took a breath of cold air, this land tax is really not low!  Especially for farmers who have just transferred their fields, it definitely shouldn't be that heavy.  He turned to look at Fangzhu Lu, waiting for Fangzhu Lu to explain.

    Although Fangzhu Lu was not the accountant in charge of tax collection, he still knew something about it. He quickly said: "Abbott,Baimayuan will choose one of the ten land gifts this year, and the cost of each will be increased by 30%. She said that the grain payment is one and a half, but I am afraid that 40% of it is not collected by Baimayuan.  "

    The old woman interjected: "Yes, six buckets are for the Xia people."

    Zhao Ran was stunned: "Xia people?"

    Fangzhu Lu was sweating profusely. Seeing that the old woman could not understand a sentence clearly, he quickly said: "They are the Dangxiang people who live in Qiongxi Town. Originally, these fields belonged to them. When Baima Courtyard was first established, they planned to re-establish it.  They measured and divided the land, but these party members refused to do it, which caused a lot of trouble. Later, after Zeng Supervisory Yuan took office, he said that we were new here and we should pay attention to the overall situation, so he recognized their documents on the land and talked about it.  The newly arrived Han people rented crops at a rate of two dou per mu."

    Zhao Ran became angry and said: "How dare we attract people from the mainland and serve them as tenants?"

    "Uh" Fangzhu Lu didn't know how to answer, so he could only remain silent in embarrassment.

    Zhao Ran asked again: "All the 28,000 acres of cultivated land outside the city have been rented to Han people? But when I came, more than half of it was abandoned, right? And they are all near the water, which is good land. What's going on?  thing?"

    Lu Fangzhu said: "For those good fields, the Dangxiang people charge too high prices, ranging from four to six bushels per mu. These Han people cannot afford to rent them."

    "It's just empty? They don't plant it either?"

    "They don't farm. These fields were originally farmed by people from Baima, Chama and Qionghe tribes. These Dangxiang people were originally noble people from Hongyuan and didn't know how to work in the fields."

    "Where are the people of the three tribes? Why don't they go down to the mountains to farm?"

    "Back then, the Dangxiang people took the people of the three tribes as slaves and forced them to farm. Now that the slaves have escaped, who is willing to come back? The Dangxiang people even approached Abbot Zeng and Yuan Jianyuan the year before last and said that they wanted our Ming army to send troops to put them away.  Capture all the slaves from the three tribes and return them to them.¡±

    Zhao Ran couldn¡¯t believe it: ¡°Do they dare to make this request?¡±

    Fangzhu Lu smiled bitterly: "That's indeed what they mentioned, but Abbot Zeng rejected it. Abbot Zeng said that all races are equal and one race is never allowed to be a slave to another."

    Zhao Ran nodded: "Then what? How to deal with it?"

    Lu Fangzhu said helplessly: "But the Dangxiang people made a big fuss and once surrounded the White Horse Courtyard. Abbot Zeng personally took us to the Third Department to persuade them to go down the mountain to farm land for the Dangxiang people. The Third Department disagreed and said at that time  When we got anxious, they drove us down the mountain. Along the way down, we were spit on by a lot of thick phlegm. After we came down from the mountain, there were some people following behind us and abusing us. The situation was very critical at that time. I wanted to send troops to protect us, but Abbot Zeng didn¡¯t.  let."

    "Oh? What did he say?"

    "Abbot Zeng said that those who care about the world must have the demeanor to do what they say. Even if they are humiliated today, when the Hongyuan is peaceful and the people live a good life, they will remember us.  .¡±

    If you like Taoist Law, please collect it: Taoist Law is updated the fastest.  (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com
Didn't finish reading? Add this book to your favoritesI'm a member and bookmarked this chapterCopy the address of this book and recommend it to your friends for pointsChapter error? Click here to report