In late July, Zhu Youzhen braved the scorching sun and rode in the countryside of Shuntianfu. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Zhu Youzhen came to inspect the effectiveness of the implementation of the policy of giving equal fields. So this time, he still did not wear the dragon robe of the Son of Heaven, but wore a set of official robes of the imperial history, and only carried thirty "family members" with him.

Of course, in order to prevent accidents, a cavalry contingent of 500 people of the New Army was always hung half a mile away from Zhu Youzhen. If the Son of Heaven is attacked, this team of five hundred people will rush to the front at any time to protect the Son of Heaven.

At this time, it is close to the planting period of winter wheat, and the people in the fields are busy plowing and turning the soil in preparation for the next month's autumn planting. However, compared to the farmers in Tianjin who use agricultural machinery, the farmers in Shuntianfu are much poorer. Most of the cattle driven by the farmers are scrawny, and there are even some peasant women who work in pairs to drag iron plows to loosen the soil.

There are basically no irrigation facilities in the farmland, and the people are using flat poles to carry water to irrigate the dry fields, which looks very hard.

Zhu Youzhen looked all the way, and suddenly asked Zhang Guanghang, the new cabinet scholar beside him: "Zhang Guanghang, this dynasty prohibits private slaughter of cattle, why are the people still so lacking in ox power?" Or even plough the fields with manpower? ”

Zhang Guanghang arched his hand and said: "Saint, although this ploughing cattle are not allowed to be slaughtered, and there are many calves, it also takes a lot of costs to raise cattle to cultivate cattle. Although most of the time the cattle can be fed with forage, during the months when the cattle are in service, they must be fed with concentrate, otherwise the cattle will die of exhaustion. ”

"The people of Shuntianfu used to have enough to eat, and they didn't have the financial resources to feed the cattle with fine food."

"And among the people of Shuntianfu, there is another kind of ugliness. That is, whenever a farmer's family spends a lot of money to buy a ploughing ox, the local gentry will frequently send people to borrow the oxen. Cattle breeders spend money to raise ploughing cattle, but in the end they are often occupied by the gentry, so in the end no one wants to raise them. ”

When Zhu Youzhen heard Zhang Guanghang's words, he understood that in the final analysis, this matter was caused by the chaos of social order, and the cattle breeders had no power to raise cattle, so they naturally gradually gave up raising them.

Zhu Youzhen sighed: "Civil hardship! ”

Zhang Guanghang arched his hand and said: "Shengshang, this month, the 2,000 judges of the King of Tianjin to support Beizhili have been put in place, and the nine prefectures and two prefectures of Beizhili have the first batch of judges, and the court can hold court to deal with the lawsuit." If these judges can handle a few more lawsuits to help the people at the bottom keep their cattle, then more and more people will be willing to raise cattle in the future. ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and continued to ride forward.

Walking in front of a group of peasants resting on the ridges, Zhu Youzhen stopped his horse.

When those peasants saw a big official coming, they looked at Zhu Youzhen in a panic. The last old peasant walked out, trembling and arching his hand, "This official is above? What's the explanation? ”

Zhu Youzhen touched the horse's mane and asked with a smile: "Fellow villager, how was last year's harvest?" ”

Unlike the people of Tianjin, the people of Beizhili were very afraid of the gentry. Hearing Zhu Youzhen's question, the old farmer knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Zhu Youzhen first.

Zhu Youzhen jumped off the horse, helped up the panicked old farmer on the ground, and asked: "Villager elder, how much grain was harvested last year, and how much grain should be handed over to Tianfu?" ”

According to the practice of the Ming Dynasty, the field tax was divided into summer tax and autumn tax. The summer tax for fields is not more than August, and the autumn tax is not more than February next year. At this time, the deadline for paying the summer tax is approaching, and most of the peasants have already paid the tax once.

The old farmer saw that Zhu Youzhen, a big official, was amiable, and when he was helped up by Zhu Youzhen, he couldn't help but look at Zhu Youzhen a few more times, and then replied: "If you go back to your lordship, Xiaomin's family has 21 acres of thin fields, and last year's winter wheat harvested 23 stone of grain, and if the seeds are removed, it is the income of 20 stones." ”

The old farmer said with excitement on his face.

"In the past, those poor people didn't know how to calculate, saying that my family needed to pay eight stone of land endowment. My daughter-in-law, an old farmer, has died of illness, and I have a son and a daughter-in-law under my knees, and the three of them live on 12 stone of grain, and they don't even have the money to make winter clothes. ”

Glancing at Zhu Youzhen, the old farmer said excitedly: "But now it's different, a few days ago I went to the city to pay the summer tax, and the poor master in the city suddenly changed his tone, saying that I only need to pay one stone and seven buckets of wheat this year." Three buckets of summer tax, one stone and four buckets of autumn tax! ”

"In this way, my family of three can still have more than nine stones of surplus after digging out the rations. That's more than twenty taels of silver. Twenty taels of silver is an extra piece of silver, which is really a world upside down. All three of my family have money to make winter clothes and quilts, and they have money to buy bricks and tiles to repair the leaky house! This winter will not be freezing, and in the future, it will rain and snow, and the house will not leak."

The old peasant began to cry as he spoke, wiping his tears vigorously as he spoke.

"I heard that this is all the emperor's kindness, and the emperor takes pity on us little people who don't cover their bodies, so he reduced our taxes!"

A young man next to him interjected and said, "Old man Wei, you're right. I heard from the bookkeeper in the city that this time it was really the emperor who reduced taxes for us small people. Originally, our taxes were high because the gentry did not pay the land tax. Now that all the gentry and lords have to pay the land endowment, we don't have to pay so much! ”

"It's all the emperor's benevolence and kindness!"

"The emperor is merciful and compassionate, and knows the sufferings of the people!"

A group of peasants became agitated as they spoke. They suddenly bowed collectively and saluted in the direction of the capital.

Zhu Youzhen saw that the people loved him so much, so he stroked his beard and smiled silently.

Zhang Guanghang looked a little embarrassed on the side, and shouted loudly: "You small farmers have eyes and no beads, and the emperor is right in front of you, why do you still salute to the north?" ”

More than a dozen small farmers on the ridge were stunned and looked at Zhu Youzhen in surprise.

In the past few months, rumors that the Son of Heaven likes to conduct private interviews with Weifu have also spread all over Beizhili, and the farmers all know that the Son of Heaven is a middle-aged man with a long beard in his early forties. Where do ordinary civil officials have so many tall and burly bodyguards? They looked at Zhu Youzhen, and finally realized that the Son of Heaven was not in the capital, but in front of them.

More than a dozen men turned to Zhu Youzhen and knelt on the ground and kowtowed.

"Long live the emperor!"

"The emperor is benevolent, give us tax reductions, we small farmers are grateful!"

Three men kowtowed three times, and ran excitedly towards the village. While running, he shouted loudly: "The emperor is here, the emperor is here!" The emperor who gave us tax cuts is here! ”

Zhu Youzhen took a breath and scolded Zhang Guanghang: "The old man is confused, if you tell me my identity, I won't be able to perceive the people's feelings." ”

Zhang Guanghang was stunned and turned his head to look at the village in the distance.

Sure enough, a hundred feet away, more than 100 people rushed out of the village. The villagers and women ran barefoot in the fields, shouting as they ran this way: "The emperor is here!" Emperor! ”

"The emperor who gave us a tax cut is here!"

Zhu Youzhen leveled Tianfu in Beizhili and Shanxi this time, and his personal prestige reached its peak among the people. The people regard the Son of Heaven as the Holy Son of Heaven who saves the suffering. Not only did the people of this village rush over to express their admiration for the Son of Heaven, but even the next village in the distance was provoked by good deeds, and they all rushed over one by one to kowtow to Zhu Youzhen.

Zhu Youzhen shook his head, and secretly said that this private visit to the microservice was over.

He stepped on the stirrup and got on the horse.

People poured in from all directions, knelt in the fields, and shouted long live to Zhu Youzhen, who was riding by. The sound was like a tsunami of mountains and a tsunami, resounding in the plain sky, and made those who heard it awe-inspired.