Chapter 175 Methods of Assistance
The two talked about the situation at the estate for a while, and then Xie Daorong took the initiative to suggest that he take Xie Wanniang out for a walk and to conduct a field investigation.
Xie Wanniang readily agreed, and as they walked out, Xie Wanniang asked Xie Daorong, "Where do you live?"
“The front yard.” As Xie Daorong said this, the two of them had just crossed the threshold. He raised his hand and pointed to the east wing, “Look, it’s the east wing that’s closest to the entrance of the yard.”
He was the head of the estate, but also Xie Wanniang's cousin, so Xie Daoheng certainly couldn't let him live with the tenants.
Xie Wanniang glanced at the south room of the east wing, which was almost next to the main house, and said, "Why don't you move to the main house? It will have better lighting there."
Xie Daorong shook his head, "I'll stay there."
Xie Wanniang: ......Okay.
She thought to herself that it was fortunate that her uncle had chosen the east wing. If he had lived in the west wing, she would have forced him to move out of her father's house.
This was a member of the Xie clan who had made great sacrifices to protect Xiejia Village. As one of the people being protected, Xie Wanniang felt it was her duty to treat her uncle with respect and kindness.
Accompanied by Haitang and a group of guards, the two toured the entire estate. Of course, they mostly traveled around the fields in a carriage.
After inspecting the fields and the nearby rivers and wells, Xie Daorong took Xie Wanniang to see the dilapidated village where the tenant farmers lived.
After leaving the village, he whispered to Xie Wanniang, "Their former employer charged them 70% of the land rent and made them pay all taxes with grain. Your father thought it was too harsh and told me to reduce the land rent to 60% next year."
Sixty percent of the rent is the highest standard charged to tenants for all the estates owned by the direct descendants of the Xie family, and they do not require tenants to share taxes and fees.
If the harvest was bad, the Xie family would reduce or waive rent to the tenants to the best of their ability, and even give them grain to help them get through the difficult times.
Fearing that Xie Wanniang was inexperienced and might not understand Xie Daoheng's good intentions, Xie Daorong carefully chose his words to explain:
“You’ve seen how difficult their lives are. I’ve heard that in the past, many people in their village would freeze or starve to death every late winter and early spring. If the harvest was bad, even more people would die.”
“If we don’t properly appease these tenants who have been driven to the brink, they will definitely cause trouble in the future.”
He paused for a moment and then said, "Although tenant farmers are not slaves, if they harbor deep resentment towards their masters, the masters will not actually get anything good out of them."
The former owner of this estate had ruthlessly exploited the tenants for seven or eight years, believing that as long as he firmly controlled the scarce resource of land, he could always keep these tenants firmly in his grasp.
He didn't value the lives of his tenants, so naturally the tenants didn't value his land and grain either.
When they realize that no matter how hard they work, they will never have enough to eat and wear, they will naturally turn against their masters in order to survive and fight for their own lives.
Thanks to their concerted efforts, the former owner of the estate not only harvested very little grain for two consecutive years, but also lost his reputation and was unable to hire new tenant farmers in the vicinity.
In the end, he had no choice but to sell the estate in a fit of anger, hoping to get the money and start over somewhere else.
“I understand what you’re saying.” Xie Wanniang had been taught the principle of not draining the pond to catch all the fish since she was a child. She nodded slightly to Xie Daorong. “Just collect the rent according to the amount my father said. In addition, you can also give them some subsidies so that most of them can get through this winter smoothly.”
It just so happens that Xie Daoheng and Madam Hu have just given her a lot of money. She can take out a portion of it to help these tenants who look numb and desperate, as thin as skeletons.
"I happen to have a batch of old grain on hand, I can allocate some to you."
She asked Chen Lizheng to help collect the grain. Chen Lizheng had extensive connections in the surrounding villages, and the local gentry and wealthy families would give him some face. Since Xie Wanniang didn't have much time herself, she simply entrusted the matter to him.
Of course, Chen Lizheng didn't help for nothing. Xie Wanniang paid him, his two sons, and some of the Chen clan members he found to help.
Xie Daorong was overjoyed. "That would be perfect."
If Xie Wanniang is willing to show kindness, then at least most of these tenants will be grateful to her in the future, if not all of them.
"Please don't rush, I haven't finished yet." Xie Wanniang smiled and looked at Xie Daorong. "You can give fifty catties of mixed grain flour to children under ten years old and elderly people over fifty years old for free. But for those between ten and fifty years old, I hope you can adopt a work-for-relief approach, so that they can exchange their labor for grain, cotton, cloth and even money."
Xie Daorong was taken aback. "But it's late autumn and early winter now, and there's not much work to be done on the estate."
Xie Wanniang reminded him, "The previous owner of this estate was too harsh. Even if the tenants can't leave, they will focus all their energy on how to outwit him in order to survive. They either don't care much about the fields or simply let them become wasteland. In short, they won't put in the same effort as before."
Although the soil in this estate was of good quality and was indeed fertile in the past, it still suffered some damage during the years when the two sides were fighting each other.
There's an old saying that goes, "A crop is like a flower, and fertilizer is the key to its growth." To survive, the tenant farmers who couldn't leave secretly used all the fertilizer they had painstakingly saved on the wasteland they had secretly cultivated in the mountains, making the farmland more and more barren year by year.
In addition, they are not taking as good care of the crops that are visible as before. If the weather is even slightly uncooperative, the crops will inevitably suffer a significant reduction in yield or even a complete crop failure.
Even if the former owner of this estate could use various means to control these tenants and prevent them from leaving on their own, he could not keep an eye on them, either personally or by sending someone, for twelve hours a day without interruption.
As long as the tenants work together, they will have plenty of opportunities to play dirty tricks. If the man can't find any fault with them, he can only watch helplessly as they head towards the worst possible outcome of mutual destruction.
When a once highly profitable estate becomes a bottomless pit of losses, the person has no other option but to sell it cheaply.
Thus, the current situation has emerged: he cut his losses in time, took the money and left, while the farmers who paid a heavy price have finally ushered in a chance to change their fate.
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