Chapter 209 Granting Land
What to find out specifically needs to be discussed in detail. In the thatched cottage outside the village, where everyone usually reads and Shopkeeper Xu teaches children some business tips, not only the old and strong people from outside the village are there, but also the men in charge of the Feng, Zheng, Zhou, and Gan families also hurried over after hearing the news.
At this time, there was no need to avoid so many things in the villages outside the village. After the old and young in the valley had moved out, people like Mrs. Lu and Mrs. Xu, who rarely went out, gradually had some contact with people from the neighboring villages. Feng Liuniang found out that she was pregnant this summer, so Mrs. Lu invited her mother-in-law to come and visit. After Feng's mother came, she found that it was not what she had imagined before, and it seemed that there was nothing wrong with visiting. Later, Gan's mother and Zhou Laizi's wife would occasionally come over, and the two sides began to visit more frequently.
So several families came over, and Shen Jin and Shi Erniu, who were practicing swordsmanship with long sticks outside the village, led them into the thatched cottage.
Once they entered, they did not leave until dusk.
The next morning, Chen Lie and Shopkeeper Xu left the inner circle with some dry food and water, along with the expectations and anxieties of the people from the two villages.
…
Not far outside Shezhou City, after nearly a year and a half, Shopkeeper Xu once again met an old acquaintance, a manager from the Wang family who had a good relationship with both him and the Wei family.
The manager was about 40 years old, and he was accompanied by a boy about 20 years old. As soon as they met, he smiled and walked a few steps quickly, saying, "I guessed it was you from the handwriting."
Shopkeeper Xu also hurried forward to greet him, calling him Manager Wang. He also called the name of the boy behind Manager Wang, who turned out to be Manager Wang's son.
Steward Wang looked Shopkeeper Xu up and down and saw that he looked quite well, even better than when he saw him last year. He could not help but feel relieved and asked, "How are the Seventh Young Master, Qinghe, and your daughter?"
Wang Yunzheng is the seventh child in the Wang family, and the seventh young master refers to Wang Yunzheng.
Shopkeeper Xu smiled and nodded: "Thanks to you, everything is fine."
After a few pleasantries and an introduction to Chen Lie, they got down to business. Shopkeeper Xu took out the notices that he had asked someone to copy and handed them to Shopkeeper Wang, saying, "Manager Wang, I came out this time because I saw this. I want to ask what the situation is outside now. Is it a good time to come out?"
Steward Wang flipped through the pages and smiled, "Your information is quite accurate."
He folded the papers and handed them back to Shopkeeper Xu, saying, "This man is a capable man with a broad mind. Do you know how the King of Chu was captured?"
"how?"
"The King of Qi is so famous and popular that several generals under the King of Chu surrendered to Qi in front of the battlefield. When generals surrender in front of the enemy, the morale of the army will naturally be dispersed. It didn't take much effort to capture the King of Chu. So, how long do you think the State of Chen can hold out? The north has been fighting for almost five years, and the soldiers are not tired?"
Chen Lie raised his eyebrows: "If the King of Qi treats the surrendered general well, with the King of Qi's current momentum, the soldiers of the State of Chen may become weak before they even fight."
Manager Wang laughed, "That's right. Our King Qi really doesn't mind this when hiring people. Besides, this isn't the first two years. The overall situation will be decided soon. What's the point of resisting stubbornly? If you are destroyed, your death will be in vain. If you surrender, you can still have a future. It's not in vain that you have tied your head to your belt and fought for these years. So I think the days of peace are coming soon. With the current situation, even if there is another figure like the King Qi, I'm afraid he won't be able to stir up any waves."
Times make heroes, and this time has passed. Besides, the King of Qi is not some ordinary person, he is the son of a powerful family, he has family background, military power, courage, strategy and vision, how easy is it to produce another such person?
Chen Lie and Shopkeeper Xu looked at each other and understood what was going on.
If the State of Chen could also be conquered, the war would stop. Under the current circumstances, conscription is naturally impossible. The existing soldiers are not even busy dividing the credit, so there is no need to get more people involved.
Unless they were like the emperor of Dagan, who started a war without caring about people's livelihood, but after all the years of Dagan, plus the four years of war, how could the country have the strength to fight wars? So as long as the emperor was still sane, they would have a dozen years of peace. Would there be a war in a dozen years? Who knows? Why worry about the uncertainty in advance?
Manager Xu asked, "Manager Wang, I wonder how the refugees will be resettled? I don't see any details on the notice."
Steward Wang laughed. "The decree was issued not long ago. It has only been a few days since it was posted here from the king's tent. You copied it back a few days ago, right? The specific regulations were only released a few days ago. Come with me and take a look."
While leading the two to the notice board outside the city, he said, "In fact, if you had come out two days later, there should have been special officials outside the city gate to pacify the people. We are short of people now, especially farmers. I have seen the notice. All the refugees who return will be arranged in the villages near the prefectures and counties, and they will be given rice relief, and then divided into land, and exempted from corvée and taxes for three years."
As they were talking, they had already reached the notice board. There were few people outside the city at the moment, so there were not many people at the notice board. The four of them didn't even need to squeeze over to get there. Chen Lie raised his eyes and glanced over, his gaze fixed on the latest notice that had been posted. He read a few lines at a glance, and it was just as Manager Wang said. When he saw the allocated land, the speed at which he read the notice notice obviously slowed down.
"A Ding man is granted 40 mu of land?" Shen Lie suspected that there was something wrong with his eyes, and turned his head to ask Manager Wang: "I wonder how many people are there in Shezhou City now?"
Manager Wang, who had a smile on his face before, became depressed. He lowered his eyes and said, "Less than 1,500 households."
Shopkeeper Xu looked at him in astonishment. Steward Wang sighed, "This is very good. The Qiyang County where you were originally located is now in ruins. Some of the nearby small counties probably have less than 800 or 900 households. In the past few years, there have been at least several waves of rebels in various places, killing or kidnapping. Even if the later King of Chu was still quite active, there were no fields in the city. The fields outside the city were all abandoned and no one cultivated them. After a few years, there was no food left. I don't know how many people starved to death. Our family was able to survive safely because of the blessing of the master."
There was a moment of silence.
Chen Lie looked at the notice again and asked, "It says here that there are 10 mu of permanent land and 30 mu of land for household use. Manager Wang, do you know what permanent land and household use are?"
Manager Wang said, "I heard from the yamen runner who posted the notice that the perpetual land allocated to you is yours. You can leave it to your descendants or buy and sell it. You can decide what to plant. The land allocated to you by mouth still belongs to the court. It is stipulated that you can only plant food and cannot buy and sell it. After you die, the land must be returned to the court."
Chen Lie took note and read the notice, then heard Manager Wang say, "It's best for you to come back now. In fact, not all the people living in Shezhou City are natives. Some of them were brought in by government orders from surrounding villages, and some are refugees. But you also know that some houses are ownerless. These people have occupied them for the past few years and now refuse to leave. They refuse to accept the land offered by the government outside the city, and would rather starve than give up the houses they have occupied in Shezhou City."
"That's stupid. The new government office is too busy to do anything. When it does, they will find the household registration of the previous dynasty and check it. All the land without owners will be taken back by the court. They can't just take it whenever they want. So now that no one has taken the good land outside the city, we can come out of the mountains and pick one first."
When he said this, he glanced at Chen Lie. As early as last year when he met Shopkeeper Xu, he heard that his family was hiding in the mountains relying on the care of two young men who had returned from the battlefield in the north, so he reminded him: "Those good big manors outside Shezhou City are now in the hands of the court."
Shopkeeper Xu immediately raised his eyes and looked at Manager Wang: "You mean..." He knew that the Wang family had no less than thirty large estates outside the city.
Shopkeeper Wang nodded and said, "How do you think the wealthy families in the city have managed to protect their families in recent years?"
Initially, they gave money and food. When it came to the King of Qi, these wealthy families who had previously pledged their allegiance to the King of Chu wanted to avoid being liquidated. How could they do it without sincerity? In order to protect their families and the properties in the city, I don't know how many farms outside the city had been ceded.
Manager Xu understood and said, "The government won't let a manor like this go easily, right?"
These are all top-notch resources, and any team will try to keep them in their hands as much as possible.
Manager Wang looked at Manager Xu and Shen Lie and asked, "I wonder how many people are there in your mountain?"
Without waiting for the two to reply, he said, "I'm not asking, but you probably don't know that the top officials are most concerned about the resettlement of refugees, which is related to the performance evaluation of officials. If there are a lot of people, I can actually ask you to negotiate with me."
For their master, this was also a way to deal with the new team and do favors, and he would probably be happy to do it. However, this was a bit presumptuous for a servant, so he did not say it out loud.
Although Shopkeeper Xu's status was different from his, there was no way anyone who could be a shopkeeper was stupid. He understood it with just one look. Both he and Shen Lie's eyes lit up.
There are quite a lot of people.
Shopkeeper Xu said, "Thank you for letting me know. Whether we can come out or not depends on everyone's opinion. We will go back now. If we really want to come out, I hope you can help me pass on a message to the master. I will meet the master and ask him to speak for us."
Steward Wang laughed and said, "That's easy."
After saying goodbye to each other, Chen Lie and Shopkeeper Xu hurried back.
…
"Forty acres of land?"
A group of farmers stood up at once, and Old Man Chen's lips trembled: "How many acres?"
He thought there was something wrong with his ears.
Chen Lie said it again: "Forty acres, it is said that ten acres are permanent land, and thirty acres are allocated to each household."
It also talked about what permanent land is and what household land is.
Old Man Lu's hands trembled: "This is impossible? Forty acres for one adult male?"
He counted his own family, he counted as one, the second son counted as one, the third son counted as one, if nothing happened to the eldest son, the eldest son could also count as one, their family alone had 160 acres???
Chen Lie said, "Don't think too highly of yourself. There are many mountains in our area. I'm afraid that the so-called fields are mostly occupied by mountains. Moreover, even if you are exempt from corvée and taxes for three years, you still have to pay taxes after three years. You will have to pay taxes based on the amount of fields you get."
Sang Luo believed it, because in the time and space where she originally lived, such a situation really existed, in the Tang Dynasty, and the number of acres of land granted was an even more incredible one hundred acres.
But the people who actually received 100 mu of land were actually only in the initial period of war when the population dropped sharply and a large amount of land was abandoned. With the subsequent development, the population of the Tang Dynasty increased rapidly, and it was difficult for people in the later period to get 100 mu of land. However, the land tax was still collected according to the 100 mu of land. It is understandable...
But that is a matter for the future. For now, the fact that Ding Nan could get 40 acres of land would be a great pleasure for farmers like the Chen, Lu, and Shi families who only have a few acres of land at home and have to rent land from large households every year.
I was so happy that I couldn't believe it.
It was not until Chen Lie told them the number of people left outside that everyone finally quieted down and believed it.
After listening to this for a long time, Shen Jin asked, "Brother, what about our family, where there are three children who are not yet adults? Do we have any land?"
Chen Lie smiled and said, "Yes, if you are the head of the household, you will also be given land according to the male adult rate."
When Shen Jin, Shen Yin and Shen Tie heard that their family would also be allocated land, the three brothers immediately laughed.
After asking all the information I had heard from outside, the question of whether to leave or not became very clear.
Walk!
The war outside is about to end. A male adult owns 40 acres of land. If he goes out now, he can still find a way to get better land and a better location. If he doesn't leave now, he'd be a fool.
Feng Liuniang stroked her belly, looked at Lu Erlang beside her, and the couple both laughed.
She had been very restrained at first, but after a long time, she could no longer bear it, especially after the whole family moved out. Although several old ladies in the village could deliver babies, living in the mountains, there were few doctors and medicines. Feng Liuniang had been worried since she got pregnant. Now she was fine and could go out.
Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Lu called their sons almost at the same time: "Go, deliver a message to the village over there!"
Shi Dalang smiled and said, "I'll come too."
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