Zhang Han and the others are dressed in outfits, which are really too far from ordinary villagers, although Zhang Han does not like brocade clothes, but the robes are still made of Ning silk, which is decently cut, and there are jade ornaments hanging on the waist, and a cool hat on the head to shade the sun, if those sons and brothers travel, they must still wear a sword at their waists, and they still hold a folding fan in their hands, Zhang Han feels that his martial arts are ordinary, and the fire gun must be brought, and there is a sharp dagger made of stainless steel hidden in the boot page, and the sword folding fan is not there, even so, his outfit is also very outstanding here, It's rare to see a countryman.

Seeing that those boys were naked, although the sun was a little sunning in May, it was far from the point where they could not wear clothes, and there were no shoes on their feet, all of them were black and thin, and they were like mud monkeys rolling on the ground, Zhang Han knew in his heart that he was afraid that the villagers of his own family would live a very tight life.

When he arrived at the village, many farmers stopped their work, and heard that it was the landlord's owner who came, and many people ran to the side of the road and knelt down to salute, Zhang Han smiled on his face and told them to get up quickly.

Ninety percent of the houses in the village are built with mud and grass, this kind of house is most afraid of snow pressure, if there is more rain, there will be a danger of collapse, the general grass house, every year need to be repaired, reinforced and replaced with new grass, the rain is very little in the past two years, Zhang Han glanced at the past, saw that the grass houses are very old, it seems that they have not been renovated in recent years.

There is an ancestral hall in the middle of the village, which is a small number of brick houses made of blue bricks, and the courtyard where Li Xiangfu lives, and there are also three tile houses in the middle.

Li Xiangfu let Zhang Han into the courtyard, the Hun family served tea, Zhang Han took a sip, this is the mountain spring water in the village bubble, the tea is average, the water is good, there is a slightly sweet feeling.

"The owner, this year's annual commission is really not good......"

Everyone sat down, Li Xiangfu began to complain, listen to him, this winter is a lot of snow, and then after the winter almost a rain has not fallen, Li Jiazhuang here is thirty percent of the land is paddy field, can barely lead water into the ground, seventy percent of the land is dry field, lack of water makes the land generally reduced, the average yield per mu of the original paddy field is three to four stones, now there is less than three stones, the original average yield per mu of the dry field is about two stones, now only more than one stone.

This Zhuangzi can harvest about 6,000 stone of wheat per season, Zhang Han's family deserves 3,000 stones, and the tenant farmers also have to provide chickens, ducks, pigs, deer and other meat to Zhangfu according to the season, as well as cloth, and the village will send strong men to Zhangfu every year to serve in turn.

This is the standard set in the purchase of Zhuangzi in the year, after the deed, it stands to reason that regardless of water and drought, the villagers need to hand over the landlord so much grain and corresponding items, if you can't afford it, the landlord can return the rent and seize the tenant, anyway, there are more people and less land, as long as there is land, do not worry about no one to plant, if the landlord and the government have a good relationship, you can call the yamen to issue a ticket, and the tenants who have escaped from the contract will be taken to play the board, in fact, there are many landlords who do this, but the Zhang family is a family heirloom, and the landlord is kinder than the general landlord, and rarely does such a thing.

There are a lot of Dingkou in this village, but the number of acres is not much, if according to the standard of land granting in the Tang Dynasty is far from the standard, each strong man only has about five acres of land, Zhang Han calculated in his heart, according to Li Xiangfu said such an average yield per mu, after handing over nearly half to himself, each family's wheat is only less than six stones, that is, less than 800 catties.

After the summer, the village will plant some millet, sorghum, beans, millet, and some people began to plant corn, this kind of foreign crops are planted more in the coastal areas, Zhang Han paid attention to it, the yield of corn is now very low, it is estimated that it will gradually become high yield after a long selection and improvement, fortunately, corn is drought tolerant, and the land requirements are not high, slopes and dry land can be planted, and gradually many people like to plant it.

Sweet potatoes are also planted by people, and the yield is also very low, but this thing is very good for fertilizing the fields, and some of the land fertility is insufficient, and some people will plant sweet potatoes to restore the soil fertility, and they do not expect to harvest much grain.

These miscellaneous grains are collectively known as millet, the yield is very low, Shanxi's summer tax is 700,000 stones, the autumn grain is 2 million stones, a total of 2.8 million stones, the two taxes have all been converted into silver, plus the errand into silver, each mu of land is converted into silver or so, this part is Zhang Han, the landlord, do not need to worry about tenants. However, the local government violates the central decree, according to Zhang Han's understanding, the whip law in the last years of Wanli in all parts of the country is in name only, Zhang Juzheng's reform, the important thing is to clear the zhang first, and then the errand and the field to fold silver, one is to increase the national income, the hidden fields of the big households to find out, the Ding silver spread into the acres of land, so that the national income has increased, the second is to reduce the burden on the peasants, now this spirit exists in name only, most of the land is still in the hands of the pro-vassal lords and gentry generals, they still occupy a large number of fields and hidden fields, Taxes were still not paid, and more of the burden was passed on to small and medium-sized landlords and peasants.

Taking Li Zhuang as an example, Zhang Han, the landlord, had a much heavier burden than before, and he had to pay a tax of several hundred taels of silver, accounting for more than half of the land income, and the local government still collected another piece of errand silver, which was converted into silver according to the per capita servitude, and it still fell on every tenant farmer, and the landlord needed to further exploit his tenants in order to pass on the losses, while the government's white list still levied errand silver, which was the case everywhere, and the burden on the peasants was not only not reduced, but increased a lot.

In a place like Shanxi, where commerce flourished only in the border trade areas, wealth was concentrated in the hands of the feudal lords and big merchants, and the common people were much poorer than in the south, and the main source of income was only land, so the burden was particularly heavy.

"It's really not in it, I don't know its appearance, I don't know its appearance, I don't know its reason."

Zhang Han couldn't help but sigh in his heart, no wonder the land tax on the surface of the Ming Dynasty was very light, but the burden of the people was still very heavy, especially the northern peasants, in the last years of Wanli to the Apocalypse Chongzhen, a large number of peasants were involved in the rebellion.

"Since there is a disaster," Zhang Han looked at Li Xiangfu and said gently: "It is also inevitable to reduce some land rents." There is only one, Lao Li, you are the person in charge of the village, you can't take into account the words of the Zhuang people, blindly will be on them, come to fight with me, the landlord, if you have such a mind, do not reduce and say reduce, then I here, that is, can be reduced or reduced, this reason, do you understand? ”

Li Xiangfu's face first showed joy, and he couldn't help but have a touch of contempt in his eyes, after all, this landlord was young and soft-hearted, and he immediately agreed to it as soon as he complained bitterly, and when he heard Zhang Han's words, he was shocked, and then cold sweat broke out on his forehead...... Zhang Han's words hit his heart, and it is also an extremely serious warning, he, the head of the village, after all, is taking the Zhang family's salary, if he blindly stands on the side of the tenant farmers, then the owner is also dissatisfied, and he will definitely be replaced, thinking of the consequences of his status if it is not guaranteed, Li Xiangfu can no longer stand.

"The villain is the one who is under the head, thank the owner." Li Xiangfu kowtowed his head and said: "The owner is really benevolent, but the villain dares to pack the ticket, the owner doesn't believe it, you can go to the fields and fields to see, the commission is really small, and the villain doesn't dare to deceive the owner in order to buy a good clan." ”

Zhang Han said with a smile: "Get up and speak, you will be scared like this with one sentence...... I just tell you in vain, I will use you for more days in the future, and don't be suspicious yourself. ”

With such a dozen and a pull, Li Xiangfu's original confused appearance was swept away, his whole face was full of energy, and his eyes were full of leanness.

Zhang Han was about to say more, but when the gong sounded, Li Xiangfu's face changed, and he said, "It's off the list, and the tax will begin." ”

"You're the leader of this village, aren't you?"

Li Xiangfu smiled bitterly: "Exactly, these are villains' errands." ”

Each township will have a general A, responsible for supporting errands, urging taxes, each village also has a head A, and some powerful general A is different, these people are stuffed, can't urge to pay taxes, unlucky are these people, those county officials of the third class and the general A of various places will not lose money.

Fortunately, Li Xiangfu is still in charge of the village, and he is in control of how much land rent everyone pays, and he is an elder with status in the clan.

Zhang Han said: "Let's go, go and see." ”

Everyone went out together, at this time many people who were busy with work rushed over, seeing Zhang Han inevitably had to salute, Zhang Han's face was very pleasant, and people kept greeting each other, everyone was smiling on their faces, feeling that the young proprietor had a very good temper, only Li Xiangfu secretly wiped his sweat, knowing that Zhang Han's appearance was only on the surface, but inside was another character.

When you arrive at the entrance of the village, the crowd has gathered in a vast way, the Shenming Pavilion at the entrance of the village should still be built during the Taizu period, this is also Zhu Yuanzhang's order, the whole world is like this, and the yamen, this pavilion was built in order to promote the imperial decree, promote the good and punish the evil, of course, this idealistic approach has been useless today, the Shenming Pavilion has only been used to post the yellow list to collect taxes.

Seeing that the people in the village came out and the people who struck the gong also stopped the gong, Li Xiangfu pointed to the person and whispered to Zhang Han: "That's Jintong, the brother-in-law of Li Shuzhi in the Qing Army Hall, who has sought this idle position, urging taxes everywhere, and bribing him everywhere, otherwise he will be deliberately targeted, and the villain here has also prepared some gifts for him." ”

Zhang Han smiled: "Of course, you are in charge of these things, I just watch from the sidelines." ”

Li Xiangfu felt relieved in his heart, knowing that this young owner was really a good person, and he should be in charge, and he should not be asked and he should not be strong and troublesome.

At that moment, he confessed, hurriedly stepped forward a few steps, whispered for a moment at that Jin Tong, and stuffed something into the sleeves of the other party's robe, Zhang Han estimated that there were a few strings of copper coins or a few ingots of broken silver on the left and right, after getting the benefits, Jin Tong had a clear smile on his face, and when everyone got closer, he said loudly: "It must be paid before July 20, and those who violate the deadline will definitely be taken to play the board, which is unpredictable!" ”