Entering the area controlled by the Ming army, Jiang Yueguang coiled up his braids and wore a gauze hat on his head. The servant of the Qian family smiled and said: "Master Jiang, don't worry, no one cares about the problem of shaving your head in Guangdong, His Majesty Emperor Shenwu has issued an order, those who shave their heads are refugees, and those who do not shave their heads are subjects, and they are all the people of the Ming Dynasty." So there are everyone here in Guangdong, Master Jiang, don't you see that the merchants on the ship in front of you also have braids! ”

Jiang Yueguang looked at the businessman in front of him, he really swaggered past the Ming army's outpost with braids, and the Ming army didn't ask anything. But I can't compare with a businessman, I am a jinshi, the ruling class, and I still have to have a face, so no matter how hot the weather is, I still wear a gauze hat.

When he arrived at the Ganzhou wharf, Jiang Yueguang saw that there was a dense flow of people on the wharf, most of whom were homeless. After all, there are many people who do not want to shave their heads in Jiangxi, and Guangdong has a much better life than Jiangxi, and now that the Qing army and the Ming army have stopped fighting, a large number of Jiangxi peasants have taken advantage of this vacancy, or by water, or by land, and left the Manchu control area in large numbers.

Now the Ganzhou wharf is divided into two parts, the left is the place where the displaced people are registered, and someone in the back leads the displaced people to a distance.

Jiang Yueguang looked at it and asked, "Where are they taking the displaced people?" ”

"Back to Master Jiang's words, the government will first take the displaced people outside the city to settle for a period of time, after all, many displaced people are weak, there is a homeless camp outside the city, where they will prepare meals, and after they are well recuperated, they will be transported to Zhaoqing and Qiongzhou for resettlement, and the farthest can be placed in Luzon."

Jiang Yueguang knew what kind of place Luzon was, and he heard that there were cannibals everywhere, so what did Zhu Hongsan let the Chinese people do there?

"Why go to Luzon? Is there no land in Guangdong? ”

"The villain heard that the rice in Luzon can be harvested four times a year, and each person who goes to Luzon can get 200 acres of paddy fields, and if the whole family goes, they can also get a cow, this temptation is too great, and many homeless people go to Luzon with 200 acres of land."

"Isn't Luzon a place occupied by the Franco? Can their government agree? ”

"Back to Master Jiang, Luzon was sent by His Majesty the Emperor the year before last to fight down, I heard that there were also counties set up there, and other villains don't know, please go to Guangzhou to ask my lord for details!"

Jiang Yueguang nodded, and looked at the other side of the dock, this is the place where the merchant ship pays taxes, and there is a long queue. At the front, a petty officer in a green robe sat behind a desk, and on the side stood a soldier, each of whom had the word "Tax" written on his chest and back, which seemed to be a collection of taxes.

Jiang Yueguang has been a magistrate, and he knows about the pickled things in these places, don't look at these small officials, but it is difficult to make people really experts. However, Jiang Yueguang observed for a while, and the green-robed petty official was not embarrassed by these merchants, but just looked at the slips each person took*, and then wrote down on a piece of cardboard how many taels of taxes were collected, the year, month and day, and then handed over half of the cardboard to the merchants for retention, and the other half was put into a small box, which seemed to be archived.

"What are the strips* that the merchants are taking? Why don't we? ”

"Back to Master Jiang, those are the customs bills issued by the official army, which record what the goods are pulled, how much they are, etc., and use this to pay taxes here, and the government calls it entry. After paying the tax, you can take that piece of cardboard to move freely throughout Guangdong without paying any fees. ”

"Then why don't we have that order?"

"Because Master Jiang is a jinshi, the boss of the ship has already declared to the officers and soldiers at the sentry post when he passed the customs just now, and there is also my lord's name as a guarantee, so our ship does not have to pay taxes!"

Unexpectedly, this Zhu Hongsan still treats scholars very favorably, and Jiang Yueguang, who is a scholar, can't help but nod.

When he came to the front, he saw it very clearly, Jiang Yueguang saw the servant of the Qian family come forward and say a few words to the green-robed junior official, and the junior official quickly got up and saluted Jiang Yueguangshen. Out of politeness, Jiang Yueguang nodded and was considered a return gift, which is already very good, the green-robed petty officials only have eight or nine grades, and they are generally served by Xu officials, Jiang Yueguang's identity as a second-class jinshi can nod is already very face-saving.

After a while, the servant opened the entry certificate of the Jiang family's fifteen members, Jiang Yueguang took a look, it was a red cardboard, which said Jiang Yueguang, Wanli forty-seven years Jinshi, Jiangxi Nanchang, Jiangxi Xinren, a family of fifteen, five men and ten women, went to Guangzhou, and some simple descriptions of Jiang Yueguang's appearance were written below, which can be regarded as primary anti-counterfeiting. On the back of the cardboard were written three large black characters "Temporary Residence Permit", Jiang Yueguang took it and looked at it, and asked, "What's the use of this?" ”

"Every family that enters Guangzhou has such a card, the homeless people are green, and every household can receive grain with this card, the merchants are blue, and the old man Jiang is a scholar, which is red. This card must not be lost, and it is difficult to move without this card in Guangdong. This measure was to prevent the Manchus from infiltrating the spies. ”

The servant of the Qian family looked around when he said this, and found that there were no outsiders, and said in a low voice: "In February, the Manchu Qing Dynasty attacked Guangzhou, and the empress was killed, and I heard that one of the emperor's princesses was also abducted by the Qing army. It was only after such a big event that the emperor came up with this temporary residence permit system. ”

"What about settling in Guangdong?"

"If you have lived in Guangdong for more than two years with a temporary residence permit, you have to report to the local inspection department every month, and after two years, you will become a full resident, and only if you become a formal resident can you get a share of the land!"

Jiang Yueguang pointed at the homeless people and asked, "Then aren't they going to cultivate their own land now?" ”

"It's not that when you are a resident, you can rent the land of the government, which is 30 acres per person, but the land rent is 50%, but after two years, when it is converted to a formal resident, it becomes a personal land, and the land rent is 10%. But there is no such restriction for those who go to Annam and Luzon, and when they go to the locality, they can be landlords, 200 acres of land per person, and if a family of five has 1,000 acres of land. ”

After listening to the servant, Jiang Yueguang was shocked, but he knew how much the land rent in Jiangxi was now, and those who received sixty percent were considered landlords to have a conscience, most of the landlords were seventy percent, and some even received eighty percent, which was also the origin of a large number of displaced people in this place, after all, the temptation of land rent in Guangdong was too great. He Jiang Yueguang's family also has more than ten acres of land, which is usually rented to local farmers to plant, and Jiang Yueguang also collects forty percent of the land rent, and in this way, he is also praised by tenants everywhere.

Jiang Yueguang thought for a while and asked, "With such a low land rent, then His Majesty the Emperor has food to feed so many displaced people?" ”

"The villain heard that it is all rice transported from Annam and Luzon, that kind of rice is not delicious, not as delicious as the local production in Guangdong, but it is better than the quantity, plus sweet potatoes, it is more than enough to feed these people. When my lord and I first came to Guangdong, there were more displaced people outside Dongguan and Guangzhou, and there were millions of them, and the scene was really shocking! ”

The servants of the Qian family talked a lot, and when they heard Jiang Yueguang ask, they talked endlessly about everything they had seen and heard when they first arrived in Guangzhou. What is the factory in Dongguan that spews black smoke, the scene of more than 100,000 workers in the factory when they get off work, the prosperity of the southern city of Guangzhou, and the daily docking of hundreds of sea ships to trade and so on.

Jiang Yueguang didn't listen to the others, but he listened to what the servants said about a large amount of grain from Annan and Luzon. Jiang Yueguang is different from others, he is an intellectual who has read poetry and books, and he knows that in this troubled world, all gold, silver and jewelry are fake, and only food is the most powerful weapon. And this Shenwu Emperor Zhu Hongsan was able to get a large amount of food, coupled with these elite Ming troops, maybe Zhongxing Daming is really not a distant goal.

Because Jiang Yueguang was anxious to go to Guangzhou to see Zhu Hongsan, the strange emperor, he didn't go to Zhang Jiayu in Ganzhou, and directly hired a few carriages in Ganzhou City, and went out of the city to Nan'an Mansion on the same day.

After Nan'an Mansion is the Meiling Ancient Road more than 30 miles long, which is the traffic artery connecting Jiangxi and Guangdong. Out of the Meiling Ancient Road is the Nanxiong Mansion in Guangdong.

If Ganzhou and Nan'an Mansion are still war zones, Nanxiong Mansion is completely a paradise. It's May, and the first rice crop will be harvested in another month, so the paddy fields outside Nanxiong are full of hard-working farmers. Although it is now the Xiaoice River period, due to the use of struvite from the sea off Leizhou, the growth trend of rice is very good, and the long ears of rice are heavy. Jiang Yueguang is considered a cultivator and heirloom, and when he sees this, he naturally knows that this year's harvest is good.

Jiang Yueguang parked the carriage on the edge of a paddy field where a man in his forties was plowing.

Jiang Yueguang got out of the carriage, took off his shoes and came to the man, and asked, "Brother, how is this year's harvest?" ”

The man was weeding, and when he heard someone asking, he got up and saw an old man in a long robe standing beside him. He didn't recognize what kind of clothes Jiang Yueguang was wearing, but he knew that those who wore long shirts were those he couldn't afford to offend, and if he was a lifter, he would have to kneel and kowtow.

"Don't dare to be called an old gentleman, just teach me a little old man!" "In ancient times, people didn't live long, and a scholar could call himself an old man at thirty, and forty years old was completely a little old man."

"Brother, don't be afraid, we are passing merchants, I am from Jiangxi, and I also have a few acres of paddy fields at home.

"Oh, back to the master, Xiao Lao'er is the first season this year, because of the use of struvite stones issued by the government, watching the rice grow very well, it is estimated that there will be a harvest of 300 catties per mu!"

Jiang Yueguang was taken aback, three hundred catties? You must know that the harvest of rice in Jiangxi is only more than 100 catties, and even in the harvest year, there is only a harvest of nearly 200 catties. Could it be that struvite is used for that?

"Brother, are there any struvite stones issued by the government?"

"I'm really sorry, but the government is all rationed, and it is only used as base fertilizer when rice is planted, but now it is gone! But that struvite stone is nothing, it is just the appearance of a stone, and it must be crushed with a mill before use! ”