Chapter 201
201
Cheng Yeran thought for a moment and felt that what Shen Yuntang said made a lot of sense. When he was a child, he saw news reports about people stealing railroad tracks. If he really named the cement road "steel road", it was possible that the road would be dug up by someone at night just after he paved it.
He did not change his name. He went back to open a factory and produce cement. He then used the cement to build the factory and pave the roads inside the factory and school. Later, he pave the streets in the city.
He was doing several things at the same time. The cement factory was still open, and other factories did not stop working. He also notified everyone and called in landlords from several villages and suburbs a few days later to hold a meeting.
After returning home in the evening, Shen Yuntang processed the wild vegetables and dried them into dried vegetables. This way, whenever Cheng Yeran wanted to eat wild vegetable meatballs, he could make them for her.
When he was done, it was already dark, and he returned
Whispering Wind
I went to the room to rest. As soon as I returned to the room, I saw Cheng Yeran dressed like a farmer, wearing a pair of coarse cloth trousers and a hairband on his head, but no shirt.
Cheng Yeran sprinkled some water on his body, pretending to be sweating from working under the scorching sun.
Shen Yuntang saw him dressed like this, frowned and asked him: "Did you go to the kid's house today and steal his father's pants?"
Cheng Yeran: "No! I asked someone to do this for me."
"Why are you doing this?" Shen Yuntang asked in confusion, "When you first crossed over, didn't you dislike the rubbing of this material on your skin? You had to secretly wear a layer of pants inside to separate it from the pants. How come now that life is better, you want to eat wild vegetables and wear pants made of this rough material? Do you have a masochistic tendency?"
Cheng Yeran lowered his eyes, looking pitiful: "Master, what are you talking about? I am a farmer working on your farm. Why did you call me here so urgently today? What do you want to do?"
Shen Yuntang was stunned, and immediately realized that Cheng Yeran was playing role-playing with him. He always liked to play such roles of unequal identities. He had played the roles of teacher and student before, and also played the role of a servant having an affair with the lady. This time he played a new role again.
They have been married for so many years, and their child is almost ten years old, but he is still not tired of playing. "I have nothing to do with you, you can go now."
Cheng Yeran knew he would say that, but he was still in the performance mode. He immediately knelt down beside Shen Yuntang's legs and hugged his legs tightly, and buried his face in his soft belly, taking advantage of him: "Master, I was wrong. In fact, I know why you called me here. I will definitely perform well. My father said before I came that as long as I serve you well, our whole family can survive."
Shen Yuntang was stunned. He acted so well that he was almost fooled by Cheng Yeran. If Cheng Yeran hadn't pinched his butt when he hugged his legs, he would have thought that Cheng Yeran was really possessed by some farmer's boy.
He frowned and pulled Cheng Yeran's hand away: "Don't touch me."
Cheng Yeran used the tip of his nose to rub his belt open, "Master, let me serve you, I know a lot."
Shen Yuntang struggled for a few times, and her face turned red because of his next action. Although she said no, her body was very honest.
It was already late at night when it was over. Shen Yuntang was groggy and wanted to sleep. He turned over and faced Cheng Yeran to sleep, but as soon as he closed his eyes, he was hugged around the waist.
Cheng Yeran leaned over to his ear and said, "Master, this is only the third time, you must still not be satisfied. I heard that you have very high demands and need a strong man to sleep with you every day. You have already drained several strong men in the manor. You don't have to feel sorry for me. I'm different from them. I have special talents. I..."
Before Cheng Yeran could finish his words, Shen Yuntang, with anger in his eyes, covered his mouth with his hands and said, "Shut up!"
…
After receiving the notification from Cheng Yeran, the landlords were very excited and scared.
They also want to curry favor with officials on weekdays, but they can't even curry favor with the county magistrate on weekdays. They have no way to give gifts, and the officials look down on their meager gifts. They have no way to ask others for favors, so naturally people with higher status and more money give them gifts.
I didn't expect that the prefect would summon them over now. Is he hinting at them to give gifts?
They also inquired about how much money Cheng Yeran had asked for when he gathered the wealthy businessmen in the city. They were shocked to find out that the wealthy businessmen had given tens of thousands of taels of silver. Moreover, only the well-known wealthy businessmen in the city were called, and the smaller shop owners were not qualified to visit Lord Cheng.
Last time, Lord Cheng held a banquet and there was a feast. This time they went to a meeting, but I didn't hear that they would have a meal. The level of the meeting suddenly dropped.
They guessed that Lord Cheng didn't give them food because he knew they didn't have much money and wouldn't give them too much, and he was reluctant to even give them food.
Although they had no food to eat, they had no psychological burden, and even if they gave less money, they would not be scolded by Lord Cheng.
They thought they were going to Lord Cheng's residence, but were instead informed to go to the government office. They were all frightened and their faces looked pale. That was where criminals were tried and cases were handled. Why would Lord Cheng ask them to go to such a place? Is it to see who gives the least money and then beat him in public? Or put him in jail?
They all wanted to take all their family assets with them, for fear of being beaten to death by Cheng Yeran.
There was a landlord whose surname was also Cheng. They originally felt familiar with the name Lord Cheng, but now when Lord Cheng asked them to go to the yamen, they were afraid to go as if they had seen a ghost.
Landlord Cheng was over seventy years old and in poor health. When he heard rumors that Lord Cheng liked to put people in jail and beat them with a stick, he became frightened and fell ill.
His son Xiao Cheng knelt before Lao Cheng's bed, determined to die, and said, "Dad, I will go for you this time, so you can just stay at home without worry."
Old Cheng has only this one child. He held Little Cheng's hand distressedly and said, "It's all Dad's fault. If Dad still had the strength, he would have crawled over. Bring more money this time. If Master Cheng wants to beat you, you can plead with him and say that you are also surnamed Cheng, and maybe your ancestors are relatives. Master Cheng might let you go."
Xiao Cheng nodded solemnly, "Don't worry, Dad. I will definitely come back alive."
Xiao Cheng went to the yamen with other landlords. When they arrived at the gate, they were led into a room by the police. There were two long tables in the room, and a single table in the front.
There were tea cups and a small sign on the long table. If you look closely, you can see names written on the sign. The constable told them to sit according to their names.
They sat down feeling uneasy. As soon as they sat down, they saw Lord Cheng coming in, and they all knelt down to pay their respects.
Cheng Yeran quickly stopped them, "Everyone sit down, I called you here today because I have something to inform you, don't be nervous."
He said not to be nervous, but no one dared not to be nervous. After all, he was the official. The official could make them live or die at will with just a word.
Everyone lowered their heads, not daring to look at Cheng Yeran or drink water, and waited tremblingly for Cheng Yeran to speak.
Looking at their expressions, Cheng Yeran recalled that when he was in the capital before, the people there were not so afraid of officials. Maybe there were too many officials in the capital, and anyone they bumped into on the road could be a prince or a marquis, not to mention other officials. The people were used to it. In addition, the people here had been exploited by Lord Lin for many years, and they had such a huge psychological trauma that they could not change their fear of officials in a short time.
Cheng Yeran didn't hesitate and directly expressed his thoughts, "The court wants to buy some of your land. If you don't want to sell it, you can rent it."
When Xiao Cheng heard this, he thought to himself, if you want to buy it, just say so. What are you talking about the imperial court? In the past, Lord Lin often said that the imperial court would levy taxes, and then he put these messed-up taxes into his own pocket in the name of the imperial court.
Although he complained like this in his heart, he didn't dare to say it out loud. Unless he wanted to risk his life, he didn't have the courage to do that.
The others also underestimated it. What they had the most was land. If Lord Cheng wanted their land, that would be like asking for their lives. But if he didn't give it to them, they might die on the spot.
Cheng Yeran said that the court wanted to buy their land instead of himself because he wanted to use the grant given to him by the emperor last time to buy the land. That money was quite a lot, and only one-tenth of it was used to build the school. He still had a lot of money left, so it would not be a problem to buy all the land in the hands of these people.
Seeing their worried looks, Cheng Yeran added, "I will buy or rent the land from you at the market price."
He asked the lawyer beside him to help distribute the contract template to them, "Here are some details of the contract. If the land is to be rented for at least three years, how much land to rent, or how many acres of land to sell, we can discuss it in detail and draft a contract."
They looked down at the contract template and found it was indeed very reasonable, even better than the market price, because the price of each piece of land was different, and good land was sold at a higher price. Lord Cheng gave them the price according to the good land, which was very fair.
But they don't want to sell the land or rent it out. They will definitely make more money by planting sugarcane next year than by renting the land. There is no need to sell the land as it's not like they can't afford to live.
Seeing their silence, Cheng Yeran thought that it really wouldn't work, but he had a second plan. The second plan was to impose strict rules on them, requiring them to increase the wages of the hired farmers. He would set a minimum wage standard and working hours. If they did not meet the regulations and oppressed the farmers, they would be fined.
"Tell me after you've made your choice. If you want to rent or sell the land, we'll sign the contract on the spot. If you don't want to rent or sell the land, please wait aside. I'll have something else to say to you after the people who have signed the contract leave."
When Xiao Cheng heard this,
The wind
I was so scared that my heart was pounding. I misunderstood Cheng Yeran's meaning. If I didn't sell the land but rented it, I would be left alone and dealt with by Lord Cheng. Would he be beaten with a stick until he agreed, or locked up in jail until he agreed?
No matter which possibility it was, he couldn't bear it. Instead of suffering and finally agreeing, it would be better to agree directly.
The other landlords thought the same thing, and quickly nodded in agreement, and asked Cheng Yeran with a distressed look on their faces: "Can we keep some for ourselves?"
Cheng Yeran didn't understand why they asked this. "I didn't ask you to sell all of it to me. It's up to you to sell or rent as much as you want. Those who leave ten acres can sign the contract and get paid and leave. Those who leave more than ten acres have to stay. I have something to tell you separately. I have investigated you before. Ten acres of land is enough for you to farm on your own. If you have more, you will have to hire people to farm."
Cheng Yeran felt that ten acres was actually a lot. In fact, he wanted to keep only five or six acres, but he couldn't push it too hard.
But the landlords did not think so. They thought that Lord Cheng was too cruel. He actually wanted them to sell or rent out all their land. It seemed that they could not escape today.
However, Lord Cheng at least discussed with them, although it was a threatening discussion, but it was much better than Lord Lin. Lord Lin wanted their land and just snatched it away. When they disagreed, he killed their entire family. Lord Cheng not only did not kill them, he also gave them money. In comparison, Lord Cheng is better.
They thought to themselves that if they rented out all the land, it would still be theirs and there would still be hope for the future. However, Lord Cheng had already said he wanted to buy land, and it would not be right for them to not sell even a single acre. They had to sell it to a price that would satisfy Lord Cheng but not hurt them too much.
Cheng Yeran had never thought that today would be so smooth. He bought so much land and rented a lot of land in one day.
The master looked at Cheng Yeran and counted the land deeds in his hand, and asked him, "What are you going to do with these lands, sir?"
The master was not asking out of curiosity, but because he wanted to know Cheng Yeran's purpose and then help execute it.
"I will open a few farms and hire farmers to farm the land, just like running a factory. They will have to punch in every day and get paid monthly. The only difference is that unlike those landlords, the land belongs to the government. Their income will be more stable, and they will be able to support their families and have enough to eat." Cheng Yeran also plans to open a school on each farm, build a clinic and a canteen, so that their children can go to school, they can get cheap medical care when they are sick, and they can have cheap meals when they are hungry.
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