In the blink of an eye, it was the autumn of the fifth year of Tai'an.

This year, although the Great Zhou country is not smooth, it is generally not bad.

At least, the people are doing a better life than ever.

With the further deepening of the reform, the life of the people has gradually improved, although they can only eat a meal of meat during the New Year's holidays, but there is no need to go to the previous side, even if it is a good year, there is still not enough to eat every day.

The reason for this is that reform naturally occupies the main credit, but the role played by those retired veterans is not small.

As the most basic officials of the Great Zhou Dynasty, these retired veterans who served as the head of the place and the head of the village, under the instructions of the old boss, did not do anything on the side every day, that is, they fought against the local gentry.

The reason why the gentry are called gentry, in addition to their wealthy families and countless properties, the most important thing is their influence in the local area.

In the past thousand years, the imperial power did not go to the countryside, they were the actual local emperors.

Well, now, these mound eight soldiers have come back a few years ago and started to steal their jobs, how can they be willing?

Coupled with the fact that the people were under the influence of these gentry, few people dared to come out to resist at first.

These retired veterans are fighting extremely hard.

But fortunately, the people are the brightest people in the world, and they didn't dare to come forward to help these retired veterans at first, which does not mean that they support these gentry.

On the contrary, it was these common people who were most disgusted by these gentry and big families.

After a year of observation, the local people took a look?

Ooh!

Gua Wazi, who has been a soldier for several years, went against the gentry, so there was nothing to do, and in his heart, he began to come out one after another to support these retired veterans.

As a result, these retired veterans reversed their previous disadvantages in one fell swoop.

When these gentry looked at it, this is not good!

You must know that so much of their family's land is leased to local tenants, which will make a profit.

But now, these mud-legged men are no longer tenants for them, and their fields are deserted.

It doesn't matter, after all, these gentry don't really live on those lands, and which of them doesn't have a few shops in the county?

The income of those shops is much higher than that of the fields.

Crucially, however, a commercial tax began to be levied on the shops, and a land tax was also levied on the fields.

This is not like the capitation tax that used to be levied.

After the reform, taxes were levied according to the amount of land.

Their fields were barren, but they had to pay no less in taxes.

After such calculations, after a year, they actually lost money!

Yes, the vast majority of the gentry lost money this year.

The Great Zhou Dynasty levied a land tax, but it was collected according to the agricultural tax of later generations. Ten acres per capita is naturally the lowest. Between 10 mu and 50 mu, there is another harvest, and 50 mu to 100 mu is another harvest.

Anyway, the more land you have, the heavier the taxes you charge.

In this way, the more land occupied by the gentry, the greater the loss.

Even some large households, even if all the land in the family has achieved a bumper harvest, the annual income is still not enough to pay taxes.

What to do?

Naturally, the land was sold.

But how much money can people have in their families?

Although the people are eager for land, they can take out so much money at once, and no one can take it out.

The method is always figured out by people.

In southern Henan, in order to redeem his holy family, the governor Zheng Yongji came up with a good way: that is, to buy the land of the gentry through bank loans.

In a small village called Xiawa Village in Xianping County, Kaifeng Prefecture, the provincial capital, the village chief Li Ergou summoned all the villagers to the ancestral hall of the village.

Seeing that the people arrived, Li Ergou said: "Tell the villagers a good news, our governor of southern Henan, Zheng Yongji, has communicated with the bank, we can buy land through bank loans, and when the time comes, the government will guarantee it, and we will borrow a sum of money to buy the land of the gentry." As for this loan, we can pay it off in one year, three years, or five years. ”

"Is the loan usury?" Some villagers raised questions, after all, in the eyes of the villagers, banks are the same as money banks, so there is no difference between loans and usury.

"It's not the same thing!" Li Ergou explained, "This loan is guaranteed by the government, and before the loan is paid off, everyone only needs to pay 5% interest every year." ”

"Really?" Regarding Li Ergou's words, the villagers obviously didn't believe it.

"Will I still lie to the folks?" Li Ergou hurriedly said, "Folks, maybe you don't know much, this bank was opened by our Son of Heaven, even if I will deceive you, will the Son of Heaven deceive the big guys?" ”

"That's not going to happen!" As soon as they heard that the bank was opened by the Son of Heaven, the people no longer had to worry.

Although many gentry privately said that the Son of Heaven was an unprecedented faint monarch, more brutal and mediocre than all emperors in history.

But the people naturally have rods and scales in their hearts, and they understand that the Son of Heaven is really good to them, otherwise they can eat enough and dress warmly?

After discussion, early the next morning, Li Ergou went to Xianping County to find the loan officer of the Xianping branch of the Dazhou Royal Bank and took him to Xiawa Village.

Of course, a large chest of silver followed.

According to the head of the village, the villagers each took out loans ranging from 10 taels to 20 taels.

With this money, the family can buy three or five acres of land and farm with peace of mind.

In fact, there are some bold villagers who want to borrow more, but the bank does not allow it.

First, because the risk is too great, the bank is afraid that it will not be able to recover the investment, and second, because the bank has so much money, if it lends too much, the bank will inevitably face a shortage of funds.

Several pilot projects were carried out in southern Henan Province, and Zheng Yongji saw that it was good, and began to promote it on a large scale in the province.

At the same time, Zheng Yongji wrote to Zhang Lingyang and reported this method.

Zhang Lingyang took a look, oh! This method is good, and it was immediately ordered to be promoted in all provinces.

For a time, there was a craze for people to buy land with silver in various parts of the Great Zhou.

Even if the gentry in the interior sold some land, they would not buy it all, after all, in their opinion, land was their foundation, and if there was no way to kill them, they would not want to sell their land.

Jiangnan, Guangdong, and Fujian are another scene.

Most of the gentlemen who were more intelligent and had a wider vision sold all their land, and they bought a few merchant ships and started a maritime trade business.

During this period, as long as there were no storms and pirates at sea, the maritime trade business was a sure profit.

If you go to sea once, you can earn at least three or five times the profit, which is much better than farming, so why don't they do it?

。 m.