(Recommended reading: "Daddy, we have too many questions, I think we can go directly to ask Ye Chen, I believe he will tell us the truth." Cai Yan has been researching with Cai Yong for more than ten days, and his impression of Ye Chen has changed from negative to positive.

Cai Yong was still thinking, and he nodded in agreement. He had a lot of questions in his heart, and if he wanted to solve them, he could investigate them himself, or he could ask Ye Chen directly, at first he didn't fully believe what Ye Chen said, so he didn't let the guides and entourage sent by Ye Chen follow him when he investigated.

After getting to know each other, he found that the farmers of all the farms of the Ye family were very supportive of the Ye family, which was very different from the indifference to the main family of some Zhuangzi he had visited.

Many things could not be explained, so Cai Yong planned to meet the young general.

"Lord Cai, I'm so offended, I've been too busy lately, and I haven't entertained the two of you well." After Ye Chen heard that Cai Yong was looking for him, he remembered that he quickly set up a banquet and invited Cai Yong and Cai Yan.

Originally, Cai Yan should not have appeared at the banquet, but Ye Chen didn't care about these etiquettes at all, and invited Cai Yan over a few times.

"General Ye doesn't need to be like this, the purpose of coming to Liaodong is just to figure out some things, the burden on General Ye's shoulders is not light, and state affairs are heavy."

"Lord Cai, you don't need General Ye's name, General Ye, I'm just a junior in front of you, just call me Youguo. The younger generation toasts Lord Cai with a cup. ”

"Okay, then the old man is not hypocritical. Youguo, I have some questions for you this time. ”

"Lord Cai is not polite, he knows everything and says everything."

"Okay, Youguo, I heard that the fertilizer made by your Ye family can increase the yield of the land a lot, and I want to ask you for this manufacturing method on behalf of all the people of Dahan to benefit the people." Cai Yong said very solemnly, and bowed to Ye Chen.

Ye Chen listened, his mind was full of black lines, he didn't expect Cai Yong to be like this, which made Ye Chen cry and laugh.

"Lord Cai, to be honest, this technology for making fertilizer is indeed a new technology, which can increase the yield of farmland by two to three percent, but my Ye family has never kept this technology secret, and also vigorously promoted it to the surrounding areas, and even gave this technology to the Xuzhou Mi family and Jizhou Zhen family.

”

Cai Yong was very puzzled and said: "Then why don't many people use this technology?" ”

"First, the landlords do not see the benefits and are unwilling to promote it, and the second is that the peasants' enthusiasm is not high, and they simply have no energy to do this."

Cai Yong listened to Ye Chen's words, and he was even more puzzled, and he thought quietly.

"General Ye, this fertilizer can increase yield, why is the enthusiasm of farmers not high?" Cai Yan couldn't help but ask.

Ye Chen had a good impression of this sweet little beauty, smiled and said, "The reason is very simple, they don't have too much energy to do this. This fertilizer should be put together with the seeds to work best. However, our Han farmers generally do not have many farming tools, let alone cattle, so they often do not have time to finish plowing the land in the agricultural season. ”

"And my Ye family, not only have a large number of farm tools, but also have ploughing cattle, they can plough the land in advance, and there is still time to make fertilizer, and although the farmers are idle during the slack time, they do not have enough to eat. So the peasants just ate one meal a day, so they didn't have the strength to do the heavy lifting. ”

Cai Yong and Cai Yan felt very incredible after hearing it, and they didn't expect it to be this answer.

Cai Yong was silent, from Ye Chen's words, he felt how hard the peasants were, obviously there were good techniques, and there were good techniques that could not be used because they did not have enough tools and not enough food to eat.

Cai Yong poured a sip of wine into his mouth, his eyes were full of tears, how sad he was, his own good country would be ruined like this, and a sense of powerlessness surged in his heart.

"Youguo, the old man still has a problem, it stands to reason that even if your farmers collect more grain, they can't make them so different from other farmers."

"Lord Cai, even if our Ye family's farmers don't make fertilizer, then they will have a better life than other farmers, and they are much better.

Ye Chen said to Cai Yong very confidently.

"Why is that, and is there any secret in it?"

"It's very simple, our Ye family doesn't make too many demands on the peasants, unlike other landlords, who try their best to exploit the people."

Cai Yong didn't understand, he was a scholar, and he didn't know anything about farming.

Cai Yong motioned for Ye Chen to continue.

"The imperial court stipulated 15 taxes and 1 tax, but most of the peasants did not have land in their own homes, and they rented the farmland of the landlord's family, and the landlord's family generally had to collect 50% of the land rent. In this way, by the time the autumn harvest comes, the peasants will not have much grain left. ”

"If this were the case, the peasants would not have lived so miserably, because their own grain was insufficient, they could only borrow from the landlord's family, and the landlord's family had to charge high interest, so after the autumn harvest, part of the grain had to be repaid to the landlord's family. The last remaining grain is usually only about 20%. ”

"At present, the land rent collected by my family is only 20%, and with the taxes of the imperial court, the peasants can keep most of the grain after the autumn harvest, which is completely enough for them to eat. Even if some families ask our Ye family to borrow food because of a large population or other reasons, our Ye family will never charge them interest, and they will not be able to make profits and make them destitute. ”

Ye Chen didn't continue to talk about this, in fact, there are more inside stories, the grain lent out by the landlord's family usually uses small buckets, and when the farmers return it, they use big buckets, and use all means to pit the peasants.

"Ah, that's how it is." Cai Yan covered his mouth in surprise and cried out.

Not only Cai Yan was surprised, but Cai Yong was also very surprised, because he didn't expect that this would be the case that the farmers were about to starve to death.

In fact, not only that, officials at all levels also have to carry out large and small exploitations, but Ye Chen doesn't need to say so much, otherwise he won't be able to talk about the suffering of the peasants for three days.

In the end, the three of them did not continue to talk in depth, because Cai Yong had already been hit, and it could be seen that he was very disappointed, deeply disappointed in this court and the officials of this big Han, otherwise he wouldn't want to be a big official, he just wanted to write his history of the Han Dynasty.

Cai Yong, who got the answer this night, drank a lot of wine, not because he was happy, but because he was depressed, and the answer he was looking for turned out to be like this.

He also knew that what Ye Chen said was true, the key was that he couldn't solve it, and he knew what kind of court the court was today, and I was afraid that the court wouldn't be able to solve it.

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