Guo Shiyu is Li Chongwen's classmate and friend. The Guo family originally opened a dyeing workshop, and later the business became big, so they had business dealings with the Shu Wangfu.

Faced with his friend's sarcasm and sigh, Li Chongwen had no choice but to shake his head as if laughing at himself:

"What a majesty, vision, just a royal mansion! When the prince saw that I could neither write nor martial arts, and could only farm and cultivate the land, he sent my younger brother here. Who would have thought that this Renshou County was so badly ruined by the sacrifice thieves! Not to mention that the whole city was slaughtered, all the kings and villages were burned to the ground! The younger brother had nowhere to live, so he had to go to the city for a few days. Yesterday, the people of the whole city ran out of food, but fortunately, the palace sent 200 stone of grain at night, and the younger brother had the time to sit with Brother Yu for a while! ”

Hearing what Li Chongwen said sadly, Guo Shiyu also sighed and patted the armrest with his hand: "Hey, it's not easy to do these days!" The ancestral home of my brother is the west of this Renshou City, and I came back to see it at the order of my parents...... Unexpectedly, the ancestral mansion was burned to the ground by thieves! Fortunately, the silver cellar at home was well sealed and not looted by thieves! The parents, brothers, and dependents of the family are all in Chengdu Mansion, and they also escaped the catastrophe, but the housekeeper and a few old servants died. But all the people fled cleanly, and not even a single tenant could be found! ”

"If Brother Shiyu has no place to live for the time being, he can move to live with this county office." Li Chongwen warmly invited.

Guo Shiyu shook his head: "Brother Wei came back this time, just to take a look at the house and fields to see if there is anything left...... Now that the land is white, what can be moved? Poor, my hometown is a strange road today, and the Jinguan Ming Dynasty is my ancestral home! This time when he entered the city, his brother wanted to recover those long-term years, cultivate the fields, and return to Chengdu overnight...... Who knows, who knows that meeting Brother Chongwen, a confidant, is really unreasonable! For my brother, I had to bother Brother Chongwen to come and judge the matter......"

was misunderstood by his classmates, and Li Chongwen had no choice but to explain the origin of Miss Liu. Then he honestly said to Guo Shiyu: "It's no wonder Miss Liu for this. Your family has been registered by the younger brother for many years, and they are already the bankers of the palace. ”

Guo Shiyu was suddenly anxious: "How did my family become a royal household in a blink of an eye?" Are you being unreasonable? ”

Li Chongwen said: "The younger brother is not specifically aimed at Brother Shiyu, but the county's Wangzhuang integrated strategy. Seeing that Guo Shiyu was about to rebound again, Li Chongwen pressed him on the chair and explained in detail the order he gave to Wei Laoer.

After hearing this, Guo Shiyu suddenly realized: "I see, no wonder there is no one left in my tenants!" Isn't this world going to force us to surrender and force us to reduce our rent? ”

Li Chongwen smiled and said: "Scholars have fame, and the imperial court has tax-free grain fields, so they can change the law to avoid taxes, so Brother Shiyu still has the capital to reduce rent." If it was an ordinary landowner, just the government's tax miscellaneous faction would have to collect his life. Those tenants who have not read and do not know the ways of the sages are not all fools. Which house has a low rent, they are very well-informed! The younger brother guessed that one spread ten, ten spread hundreds, and between January, at least seventy percent of the people of this county would flow into Wangzhuang! As for landlords like Brother Shiyu, they either follow the palace to reduce the rent, or surrender the land to the king's village, otherwise...... Brother Shiyu had no choice but to go to the field and farm by himself! ”

After Li Chongwen finished speaking, he couldn't help but laugh a few times. Guo Shiyu was so angry that he jumped up from his chair and walked up and down the lobby.

"Laugh! You can still laugh! We've been classmates for years, why didn't we find out that you were a bad seed? Guo Shiyu roared, "Surrender the palace? Phew, dream! How can a scholar stoop down to slavery? This is not an insult to the ancestors! No one farms, hmph, I'll go to the human market to buy a few minions to plant! ”

"Nong, go buy it! I don't have much food here, so I won't serve dinner! Miss Liu suddenly turned out from behind the screen and said. It seems that she didn't leave at all, and kept eavesdropping behind the screen.

"You! Only villains and women are difficult to raise! Guo Shiyu was so angry that he flicked his sleeves and wanted to leave.

Li Chongwen hurriedly chased out and pulled Guo Shiyu back. Guo Shiyu saw that the young lady took the initiative to sit on the chair next to Li Chongwen, so he broke free from Li Chongwen's hand and sat on the opposite chair.

"No one forced Brother Shiyu to be a slave! It's just that Tian Tu nominally entered the palace! Li Chongwen patiently explained to Guo Shiyu, "Brother Guoping and I are both scholars, how can we take the initiative to become slaves?" The prince said, in the future, he will protect us as officials, how can he let us become slaves? ”

"That's right! I don't think you look like a eunuch who doesn't know how to do it! Guo Shiyu nodded solemnly, and made Miss Liu on the opposite side red-faced.

"Brother Shiyu, you see, Wang Zhuang only accepts one percent of the donation, which is much lower than the tax of the government. Even if you are forced to reduce the rent to 40%, but without the government's taxes and miscellaneous payments, how much can your family actually lose? ”

"How many people pay taxes for scholars? The government is not afraid that the scholars will make trouble? Guo Shiyu shook his head.

"My father died at the hands of you sanctimonious scholars!" Miss Liu suddenly interjected, her voice was as cold as a thousand-year-old ice, "There is a huge county town, tens of thousands of people, and there is no money and food to recruit soldiers!" Those who died in the city were all street residents and farmers, and there were not a few scholars in sight! ”

Miss Liu's words made Guo Shiyu a little ashamed, but he didn't want to lose under a woman, so he argued forcefully: "The palace has received contributions, and I haven't seen paying taxes to the court!" ”

This really knocked Li Chongwen down, he only knew that Zhu Pingjin was building roads and protecting merchants, and he didn't know that Zhu Pingjin was training troops in Bifeng Gorge. He was convinced of Zhu Pingjin's proposition of protecting the country and the people, but he couldn't find the source of this confidence for a while: was it his status and personal favor? Or is it his wisdom and insight? It seems to be all of them, but it doesn't seem to be all of them!

Li Chongwen was silent for a long time before he said to Guo Shiyu: "The younger brother's own family has become difficult to come, and he is in the market. It is because of this that I have a lot of knowledge in agriculture and people's livelihood, and among my classmates, there is no one who is as familiar with agriculture as I am. However, ten days ago, the younger brother came to Renshou County, and before leaving, the son had a long talk with the younger brother. When the prince talks about the landforms of mountains and rivers, water and fertilizer, his knowledge is not weaker than that of an old farmer, and his younger brother is far away! The son of the world, the ancestor of the lineage, is so interested in farming, why not? ”

For several years, Guo Shiyu knows Li Chongwen very well. This person has always been unremarkable and never lies much. Seeing that Li Chongwen said solemnly, he was naturally aroused. He thought about it and shook his head, "I can't guess." ”

Miss Liu looked at him with disdain and whispered, "Idiot." Then he said to Li Chongwen: "Mr. Li, if the little girl guesses well, Nong wants to say that the son of the world is interested in the world!" ”

Li Chongwen's intention was to prove the benevolence and righteousness of the prince, and he never wanted to lead to such a high theory as Miss Liu, so he hurriedly denied it: "I didn't say it, it was your blind guess!" Brother Shiyu wants to testify for me! ”

Then Miss Liu stood up, shook her head behind her back in the lobby like a man, and said, "Ploughing and fighting, this state affair is also very big!" Both ploughing and fighting, this emperor's foundation is also! Am I right? ”

With this man here to stir up trouble, Li Chongwen couldn't go on, so he had to hurriedly end the solicitation of Guo Shiyu. He said to his friend: "You know that there is a righteous brother, and I have been very helpful to my younger brother in the past." Now that a righteous brother has also entered the Shizi Mansion, he and the Shizi and Guoping brothers have gone to Yazhou to form a caravan to protect them, and when they come back, you can ask them a question or two. Brother's field production, the younger brother can be cultivated here, but our brother settles the account, and at the end of the year, I want to collect sixty percent: one percent of the king's hard work, and fifty percent of the sweat money of the villager. ”

There was no one to farm, so Guo Shiyu had to find his own steps. He stiffened his neck and said, "It's a big deal, you can take the field skin!" My Guo family has less than 1,000 acres of land in Renshou in total, no matter how much you harvest, even if you take it all, I won't starve to death...... But self-sacrifice is not the work of scholars!"

Li Chongwen smiled, pulled Guo Shiyu and said, "Okay, let's not talk about this for now." Brother Shiyu is a guest from afar, I have nothing to entertain here, it just so happened that a horse was wasted last night, how about we eat it together? ”

This is right for Guo Shiyu's appetite. He clapped his hands and laughed, "Okay, I haven't eaten horse meat yet." I have a cook at home, and the grilled pickled dog legs are particularly fragrant......"

Miss Liu was very dissatisfied with Li Chongwen's arrangement for her to cook, but she really couldn't think of a reason to refuse, so she had to transfer the task to Xiaolan and go back to the room to freshen up. Xiaolan didn't even know where the dead horse was, so she had to go to the street to find Lu San for help......

Early the next morning, the refugees' long-awaited division of land finally began. According to the charter drawn up by Ms. Liu, the division of land among the refugees was carried out in conjunction with the reconstruction and reconstruction of Wangzhuang.

There are about 280,000 mu of cultivated land in the county government archives (Note 1), of which about 150,000 mu have been identified as ownerless fields. More than 60% of them are dry fields or sloping land, and only some paddy fields near rivers are available. In addition, there are many mountains, forests, ponds, and wasteland in Renshou County, but because there are no archives, it is impossible to accurately count them. Li Chongwen and others estimated that there were at least more than 300,000 mu.

Li Chongwen redivided these lands into six wangzhuang, and the original five wangzhuang were combined into two. The jurisdiction has also been adjusted, and all the fields controlled by the royal government near the county seat are included in these two royal villages.

The north, northeast, east, south and west of the county seat, which are adjacent to the five directions of Shuangliu County, Jianzhou, Ziyang County, Jingyan County and Meizhou respectively, have added five major wangzhuang. There are several small Zhuangzi under the big Zhuangzi.

In order to speed up the reconstruction of Wangzhuang, the charter stipulates that the head of the big village is located in the township, and the small village is located in the village. Zhuangzi, which was not burned by thieves, can also be rebuilt. Although the owner of You Zhuang is a little sycophant, he has a lot of knowledge, strong ability, is willing to do things, and is in the prime of life, so Li Chongwen arranged for him to be his deputy in charge of agricultural affairs; The two Wangzhuang near the county seat were managed by Li Zhuang and Wei Laoer; The five surrounding owners waited for the eunuchs sent by the prince to take over.

The leader of the small Zhuangzi is elected by the villagers themselves, and they are re-elected every five years, and Li Chongwen has no extra cadres anyway.

As for Lu San, Li Chongwen made him the head of the county city protection team, and he was actually the boss of the third class of the county government (soap, strong, and fast three classes).

The errands of the main bookkeeper, the warden, and the six rooms (the six rooms of officials, households, rites, soldiers, criminals, and workers) were taken care of by Miss Liu. Of course, she could find someone among the refugees who could read and write to help her.

The establishment of Wangzhuang was determined, and then the number of households in Wangzhuang was determined according to the number of fields in the jurisdiction. Each farmer, regardless of gender, old or young, shall be allocated according to the standard of 5 acres of paddy fields, 6 acres of dry fields, 20 acres of reservoirs, and 50 acres of forest land. For those with half forests and half fields, the corresponding proportions of paddy fields, dry fields, ponds and forest lands shall be converted. The rent is 50%. In this way, at least 60,000 refugees could be resettled.

About 20,000 acres of land were contributed. The farmers who donate their fields do not move their own land and only pay 10% of the donation. If the land is not of standard or the location is not good, it can also apply to Wangzhuang for supplementation or replacement.

Wasteland is not allocated, and is reclaimed by the farmers themselves, with a limit of 10 acres per person and no limit on behalf of the farmer. The newly reclaimed land cannot be rented for two years. If the land has been abandoned for more than two years, Wangzhuang will be forcibly recovered.

Issues such as the sale and lease of land bones and land skins, and how to dispose of the land where a woman marries have been put on hold for the time being, and will be announced after the prince is asked.

Although Li Chongwen is honest, he is also unconcerned. When the land was divided, he personally brought hundreds of straw labels, all of which were placed in two wangzhuang near the county seat. These people are all out-of-town refugees, who are not only the slaves of the royal palace, but also the family members of the caravan. They are mixed with the original old village households and distributed around the county seat, and once something happens, they can quickly withdraw into the city. In this way, they are safe, and the county will be safer. As for the other refugees in the county, they temporarily stayed in the city to help with things. They had to wait for the food and the head of the village to arrive before they could return to their respective king's villages according to their former residence.

While the refugees were cheering and dividing the fields, dozens or hundreds of grain boats were already loaded with grain and headed for Renshou. They were transported from the 11 prefectures and counties to which the Dujiangyan Irrigation District belonged, such as Guan County and Pi County, and flowed down the inner and outer rivers of the Min River, and after passing through Jiangkou Town, Pengshan County, they merged into a single unit. Their destination is the wharf on the east bank of the Minjiang River outside Meizhou.

The wharf on the east bank of the Minjiang River outside Meizhou City is only more than 80 miles away from Renshou County. But on this road, there is the steep Longquan Mountain Range.

Note 1: There were many mountains, forests and wastelands in Sichuan during the Ming Dynasty. Before the large-scale promotion of dryland crops, Sichuan could hardly be said to be a large agricultural province.

According to the land statistics of Sichuan Province, the cultivated land area of Renshou County in the 21st century is about 90,000 hectares, equivalent to 1.35 million mu, and it has been the largest agricultural county in Sichuan for many years. In view of the fact that the county records of Renshou County have not been found, considering that Renshou County is a large agricultural county that was developed very early, Xiangmu patted his head and estimated the above data.