He knew that the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty were given a lot of land by the imperial court and did not have to pay taxes, but he didn't expect Zhu Changxun to have so much.

Most of the land purchased by Guo Wendong was leased to tenants for farming, and after the land was traded, these tenants were later rented by Guo Wendong.

He then instructed Fang to wait for the tenants' crops to be harvested, and then they would no longer rent them out, but all of them would be cultivated directly on their own, and that people between the ages of eighteen and thirty would be recruited to cultivate at that time.

Fang Jieli was surprised again, the young master's decision really puzzled him. If you want to hire people to farm, it will be a lot more complicated, if you rent it to tenants, you don't have to worry about renting out, you just need to collect the rent on time.

He reminded again: "Young Master, do you want to find someone to 'contribute'?" ”

In the Ming Dynasty, people with meritorious names had a certain amount of tax-free fields, and the tax-free amount of Xiucai was not much, and the purchased fields and properties must be attached to the names of the gentry, otherwise they would pay taxes later, which was a large amount.

Guo Wendong responded: "Naturally, I will go to find a person to donate." You replied to Li Changsheng, I agreed to exchange land with him for a watch, and it is expected that there may be a new watch later this month. ”

Neither the gentry nor the merchants had to pay taxes to the imperial court, and Guo Wendong naturally did not want to pay taxes, so he first thought of the resumption of the society, which had thousands of people, many of whom were born as scholars, and their families or themselves were famous.

This solves the problem of paying taxes and makes more people from it.

For this reason, Guo Wendong began to contact people who attended the party that day, and they were in or near Nanjing.

He first wrote a letter and asked people to hand it over to Hou Fangyu.

Hou Fangyu stayed in Nanjing during this time, and after receiving Guo Wendong's notice, he happily rushed to Guo's mansion.

Seeing Guo Wendong, Hou Fangyu patted his chest and said: "Wendong, there are still many vacancies in my family, although it is in my family's name, you only need to give half of the harvest!" ”

Originally, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang set up the tax exemption amount for the gentry in order to encourage people to study, but later this system gradually deteriorated and became a means for scholars to reap benefits, and the landlord's land was attached to his own name to help avoid taxes, which is a well-known thing.

The salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty, if according to the figures on the books, the salary level is indeed the lowest in all dynasties, if you add the privilege of tax exemption, it is different.

Hou Fangyu asked again how much land Guo Wendong bought, and Guo Wendong said the corresponding figures, as well as the future land purchase plan, which surprised Hou Fangyu.

"If you have money, you have to invest it, and if you have it, you will only depreciate ...... value of your own home"

Guo Wendong said the reason, Hou Fangyu felt reasonable, and said: "Wendong, the amount of land you have purchased is too much, my family's tax-free land can not be so much, you can help contact other people in the Restoration Society, everyone will definitely thank you." ”

Contribution is not only beneficial to the landlords, but also to the gentry, which can be used to generate income, without having to work and wait for the income, everyone takes what they need.

Then, Hou Fangyu said again: "Wendong, how did you find the foreigner who owns the goods in the foreign goods store?" It's not just me who is curious, but many people at the Restoration Society are also curious. ”

Since attending the party, some people in the Restoration Society asked Hou Fangyu about the origin of Guo Wen's foreign goods.

Guo Wendong said: "Chaozong, you and I are like brothers, we shouldn't hide it, but this is my secret, even my wife hasn't revealed it, I really don't want to leak it to anyone, please forgive me!" ”

He refused to reveal it, and Hou Fangyu couldn't help it.

If he only shows a small number of "foreign goods", this will be fine, but there are more and more types of foreign goods, which have been sold for more than a month and are still available, and the curiosity of the outside world is even greater, and it is inevitable that some people will covet it.

Especially those big businessmen, hoping to find foreigners who supply to Guo Wendong, and also open foreign goods stores.

For this reason, some people did everything possible to inquire about Guo Wendong's secrets.

Since the beginning of March, some unknown people have occasionally appeared in the vicinity of Guofu, or wandered and squatted, and they closely observed the movements of Guofu and foreign goods stores to see if there were any foreigners in and out, or whether there was a cargo team from Guofu.

To their disappointment, no matter how much they looked at it, they found nothing.

A few days later, Guo Wendong went to the house in Yingtianfu with Hou Fangyu and hung part of his own land property in the name of Hou Fangyu's family, with a total of more than 1,000 acres.

This is nominally in the name of the Hou family, and there is also a private agreement that proves that the land belongs to Guo Wendong, and the land deed is also in the hands of Guo Wendong.

In late March, two members of the Guo family went out to buy goods.

After buying goods at the market, a pock-faced man accosted them, he was very eloquent, and quickly talked to Guo Fu's family.

"Your young master has a lot of foreign goods, and I don't know where he traded with foreigners and shipped them back!"

The man was deliberately expressing curiosity, in order to find out whether the people in the Guo Mansion knew the inside story.

Jia Dingjia said: "The two of us are not responsible for transporting the goods, and I don't know. I've never seen anyone come back with a foreign cargo. ”

Jia Ding Yi said: "I'm also very curious, and I have also asked people in the house who are familiar with me, but they don't know." Maybe the young master is very secretive and doesn't want people to know. ”

No matter how much the pock-faced man asked, he couldn't get any useful information.

On March 25, Li Changsheng set foot in Nanjing again.

When he came this time, in addition to exchanging watches with Guo Wendong with the land, he also had to learn about other situations.

Last month, he sent someone to find out the secret of the origin of Guo Wen's foreign goods, and he came to Nanjing City to find out how the investigation went.

In a secret place, the pock-faced man met Li Changsheng, who was sent by Li Changsheng.

"Master, I have been squatting in Guo Mansion for many days, and I have found nothing, and I have asked the people in Guo Mansion, but they don't know anything."

"Useless things, this little thing can't be done!"

couldn't find out anything, which made Li Changsheng quite disappointed, and scolded the pock-faced man.

Where did Guo Wendong meet foreigners? Where do you trade with foreigners overseas? Where is it traded? How are foreign goods transported into Guo Fuzhong?

For these problems, Li Changsheng hopes to solve them, but helplessly, it is still a mystery.

He coveted the Western watch, he often went out and walked, and he had a watch to wear on his body, so that he could check the time at any time, which was both practical and a status symbol.

He failed in the last auction, and it happened that Guo Wendong wanted to buy land and tried to ask for land in exchange for watches, and Guo Wendong agreed.

"Li Yuanwai, welcome, welcome!"

Guo Wendong greeted Li Changsheng's arrival at the door of his house, took him to the main room, and immediately took out a Rolex watch.

Li Changsheng took the watch, couldn't put it down, and said: "Guo Gongzi, my more than 4,000 acres of land are all good fields, and I lost my money to exchange for this foreign watch!" ”

He is grateful to Guo Wendong for saving his son's life, but after all, he is a businessman, and it is his nature to be mercenary.

Seeing Li Changsheng selling miserably in front of him, Guo Wendong shot back: "Li Yuanwai, I spent tens of thousands of dollars of silver to take goods from foreigners and exchange them for your mere 4,000 acres of land, but I didn't take any advantage from you." ”

After the two of them were polite, Guo Wendong took back the watch, and waited until the day after tomorrow to complete the transaction, and then gave the watch to Li Changsheng.