Ning Xiu did not call for someone to go to open the way, but retreated left and right and walked towards the village alone.

The retinue had to follow a little behind, but they didn't dare to go too far.

Otherwise, if two blind Diao people suddenly pop out, wouldn't it collide with the official authority of the Ning County Order?

Since Ning Xiu came to Taoyuan Village on a temporary basis and did not inform the villagers in advance, what he saw was the most realistic scene.

Now that the farming is over, many people gather in the fields to chat, and some men are humming mountain songs while turning the soil.

There are also some children in the age of the horn chasing and playing.

Ning Xiu casually walked up to an old man in his fifties and asked in a harmonious voice, "Old man, is this year's harvest okay?" ”

The old man saw that Ning Xiu's bearing was extraordinary, so he naturally accompanied him very carefully.

"If you go back to the master, this year's harvest is good. But it may not be much in silver. ”

Ning Xiu nodded.

After the implementation of the whip law, the agricultural tax was changed to a uniform collection of silver taels.

There is a disadvantage of this practice, that is, the peasants will not have a large amount of silver in their hands, and the silver is in the cellars of the landlord merchants, especially the merchants on the southeast coast, because they will absorb a large amount of silver because they come into contact with the sea trade.

In order to scrape together the money, the peasants had to sell their grain to these merchants.

There are no businessmen and no treachery, and these businessmen will naturally take the opportunity to reduce prices.

Often, the more harvest years there are, the lower the price of grain is depressed, and the blood and sweat of the peasants are thus eroded by profiteers.

Zhang Xianggong's original intention of this reform was good, but in the actual implementation process, the people below took advantage of the loopholes to make a lot of money.

Ning Xiu felt the need to have a good chat with Zhang Xianggong about this matter. With his current status as the son-in-law of the Qi family, Zhang Xianggong will still listen to it.

"Uncle, have you collected all the autumn taxes this year?"

"It's all together. This year, the children went to sea twice, and they earned enough money. ”

The corners of Ning Xiu's mouth twitched slightly.

What is the relationship between agricultural taxes and going to sea? Dare to love this old man means that they use the money they earn from going to sea to fill the gap in agricultural taxes?

"Ahem, how much money can you make on a trip to the sea?"

"At least a few hundred taels at a time."

"How much is a year's harvest for some silver?"

"A few dozen taels at most."

Hiss!

Ning Xiu couldn't help but gasp.

Going to sea earns more than ten times as much as farming, and who else would be willing to farm?

"Uncle, are there many young people in our village who are going to sea now?"

"Why not much? Basically, the young people of the village have gone out. In this village, except for old bones like me, even women and children, they can't get out. ”

Ning Xiu's expression darkened, and he didn't expect that there were also left-behind elderly and children in the Ming Dynasty.

"In that case, can you keep you busy when the farm is busy?"

"If you can't be busy, you have to be busy, and sometimes the children are called back to help. If they really can't come back, the villagers will help each other. ”

Ning Xiu shook his head and said no more, turned around and walked towards the entrance of the village.

The accompanying county officials were taken aback when they saw the county leader turn back again.

"County Zun, don't you go to the village?"

A small official asked cautiously.

"Nope."

Ning Xiu waved his hand and said, "Go back to the county office." ”

He's already seen everything he wants to see, so what's the point of staying here?

However, he said that after Ning Xiu returned to the county office, he immediately called the county Cheng Huang Yidao to his side.

Huang County Chengzhi was a little confused, and when he learned that the county respected him to collect the autumn tax, he had a headache.

"Huang Xiancheng, this county just went out of the city to Taoyuan Village, guess what you saw?"

Ning Xiu asked lightly.

"I don't know."

Huang Xiancheng's eyes turned around and gave the most secure answer.

"What the county saw was that there were only old people, women and children in the village. The young men have gone to sea. ”

"This ......" Huang Yidao paused and explained: "The county respects something, our Xiangshan County has a special location, and it is very convenient to go to sea, and most of them go to Nanyang." This trip to the sea made a lot of money, so the young people are willing to go to sea. ”

Ning Xiu frowned, of course he knew that these young men went to sea to obtain economic benefits, and this did not need Huang Yidao to explain.

"What the county means is that the government was aware of this situation before? Aren't there measures in place? ”

Huang Xiancheng smiled bitterly and said, "The government naturally knows, what can be done?" You can't ban these young people from going to sea, right? ”

There is some truth in this, but since Ning Xiu is here, he naturally can't sit back and ignore this situation.

He coughed and said: "After Longqing opened the sea, the Ming Dynasty allowed the people to go to the sea, but it was only limited to Yuegang. When did Xiangshan County become an open port? ”

"This ......"

Huang Xiancheng was immediately stunned.

Of course, he knew that there was only one place in the Ming Dynasty, but there were countless private ports in various places, and there were countless fleets of smuggling sea trade, how could it be banned?

Besides, these caravans smuggling sea trade, and they will also give a very generous amount of filial piety silver to the government, Huang Xiancheng can get a few hundred taels for such a single order, but it is more than a year's Yulu, why not?

Huang Xiancheng thought that Ning Xiu didn't know the Tao, and patiently explained: "County respect, all maritime merchants who go to sea trade will send filial piety to the county government according to the rules, and you also have a ...... here."

He thought that if he talked about this, Ning Xiu would go to the Tao, and then become his own person, making a lot of money by smuggling and sea trade. This was the case for several previous prefectural orders.

Who knew that Ning Xiu was furious, slapped the table and shouted: "Huang Rudao, who do you think of this official?" ”

Huang Xiancheng was so frightened that he almost rolled to the ground.

He stammered: "The county lord is angry, angry." ”

He originally thought that Ning Xiu was a kind person, who would have thought that he would have such a great official authority.

He didn't know what to say for a while, so he had to wait for Ning Xiu to continue.

But Ning Xiu didn't say anything.

He stared at Huang Yidao fixedly, and only exhaled for a long time: "This kind of atmosphere must not be opened." The official will no longer pursue the past matters, but from now on, Hugh will let the official see you take people's money again. ”

With that, he waved his hand, and the yellow Dao fled as if he had been pardoned.

Hey, it seems that the situation in Xiangshan County is still much worse than he imagined.

Ning Xiu was still too idealistic. The smuggling of maritime trade alone is not something that can be easily handled.

The benefits are too great, even if those maritime merchants share a piece of the profits to give to the local government officials, the rest is still the majority, which is much more cost-effective than paying taxes in the port of the month.

But if everyone thinks like this and does so, the imperial court and the city will not be able to collect taxes, and where will there be money to support the border army?

In the end, it will inevitably become a situation where the country is poor, the people are poor, the businessmen are rich, and the officials are rich, and the Ming Dynasty will inevitably perish.

......

......