There was no tea at home, so Wan Niang found some honeysuckle, so she directly took the dried honeysuckle and soaked it in water. Honeysuckle is a kind of herb, which has the effect of clearing heat and removing fire, and it is also good to soak in water as tea, but fortunately, everyone is not particular.

Several elderly representatives of the Zhuang family took the tea bowl from Li Xiao's hand, bowed down and nodded politely, and took the cup with both hands.

"San Lang is really more and more like the old man."

"Yes, it's the same kindness as the old man."

Li Xiao's proposal for renting new fields was unanimously welcomed by the delegates, and although they had to go back and discuss the final decision with the other tenants, there was no reason to reject the proposal. In any case, Li Xiao not only reduced the land rent back to the original amount, but even gave profits to the tenants again.

When the damn Zhang Papi collected the rent, he received seventy percent of the rent, and even had to hand over some by-products every year, and the Zhang family often asked the tenants to give them free labor.

"In the future, we will fix the amount of this rent, and we will collect it according to one mu and six buckets. If you take care of the crops well, and you have an extra three or five buckets in the field, I will never charge you an extra one and a half cents in addition to the six buckets of rent. In the event of a drought or flood that affects the harvest, we will reduce the rent proportionally. Everyone is the old tenant of our Li family, and some of them have even been tenants of our family's land since my great-grandfather's time, and we have to take care of each other. ”

"Yes, yes, what San Lang said makes sense, San Lang is benevolent."

A few old men said a few words without new ideas over and over again, and it was difficult to hide the joy in their hearts. In the past, it was a split rent, so no matter how much the land received, the rent had to be paid proportionally. But now if it is a fixed rent, it will be planted well in the future, and the excess income will not need to be divided with the owner, and it will all be your own.

"In the future, the rent will be based on six buckets of millet per mu, of course, everyone is willing to pay wheat and rice, and even hemp, beans, etc., as long as it is equivalent to six buckets of millet at market prices, and even money and silk are acceptable." Li Xiao can be said to be very talkative, no matter what you plant, anyway, my rent is fixed, and I can discount the money with the market, so that everyone can pay the rent.

Some people are happy, some people are not.

The happy ones are the tenants who rented the 800 acres of land of the Li family, and the unhappy ones are those who were also tenants of the Li family in the past, but this time because the 1,000 acres of land were not returned to the Li family, and they did not become tenants of the Li family.

Their proprietor will not be as benevolent and generous as Li Xiao.

"San Lang, I used to have an acquaintance with your father, so I asked you to call you a good nephew, as an elder, I want to remind you that you do this, breaking the rules." Wang Li was looking at the smiling tenants, but his brows were furrowed, and he pulled Li Xiao aside.

"Uncle Wang, I'm just recovering our Li family's past rent today, in the past, our Li family was divided into fifty and fifty, and one mu was about six buckets of rent, but now I just became a house, and I am too troublesome, so I directly collect rent according to six buckets per mu, this is no different, right?"

Li Xiao also knew that his change in the amount and method of collecting land rent would bring some shocks. After all, his change would also have a bad impact on other landlords. But Li Xiao pretended not to understand, anyway, it didn't change much on the surface, the Li family used to be fifty-fifty, and many landlords were also fifty-fifty, and he didn't break this bottom line, so he had a four-six-point split.

"That's what I said, but since the Zhang family was here, it was mentioned that seventy-three points were completed, even if you want to change it, at most six or four, why change it back to five or five, it's difficult to go up, down to the bottom, and it's difficult to mention it in the future. Why don't you take advantage of the fact that the Zhang family has been a wicked person first, and take advantage of the situation to maintain this seventy-three rent. ”

"Uncle Wang, fifty-fifty is divided, this is a century-old example of our Li family, I, an unfilial son, can't just change the rules left by my ancestors." Li Xiao pretended to smile bitterly and helplessly.

"Hey, you, you're still too soft-hearted, these untouchable tenants, you can't be too nice to them, otherwise, you'll be on your nose and face at that time. Listen to my advice, you would rather collect rent on July 3 or June 4, and then lend them some grain at ordinary times, or even slow down their rent, so that they will remember you better. ”

However, Li Xiao will not easily change the things decided, even if he maintains a seventy-three or changes to six-four as Wang Lizheng said, it will not be beneficial to him.

Seeing that Li Xiao didn't enter, Wang Lizheng was a little annoyed, snorted and walked away without speaking.

The other Li Zheng took turns to teach, but Li Xiao was polite on the surface, but in fact he didn't pay attention to it at all.

It was a group of tenants who came to thank them happily.

"San Lang, if there is anything that needs to be done in the compound in the future, even if you say a word, we will all come over to help."

This is also an old example, basically every tenant will do something for the main family for about ten days for free every year, which is considered an unspoken rule, and a landlord like the Zhang family has to be on this ten-day old example, plus ten days and a half months, which makes everyone miserable.

"Okay, I'll call everyone when I need help in the future."

800 acres of land was almost distributed to about 20 households. At this time, the level of farming technology in Datang was relatively poor, and most of the techniques were two or two years or two years of rotational tillage, and even extensive planting and thin harvesting, low yield per mu, and extensive cultivation, resulting in more land for the people to cultivate, but the harvest was low.

Holding the honeysuckle tea cup, several old men hesitated for a while, and pushed one person out to speak.

"San Lang, we heard that a gentleman was invited to teach and give lectures in the compound, and the children of the tenant family were allowed to study for free, so we boldly asked, I don't know if the children of the same age in our family can also be sent to study?"

This matter is too important, although everyone thinks it is abrupt, but they can't help but mention it. What a rare opportunity to have the opportunity to study for free, even for many children of rich peasant and small landowners. Now there is a gentleman in the compound who teaches, and Li Xiao is willing to let the tenants send their children to study for free, who wants to miss this opportunity.

"Boys over the age of five and under the age of ten can be delivered." Li Xiao thought about it for a while, anyway, teaching one is teaching, and teaching a group is also teaching, since they are all tenants of their own family, there is no need to treat them differently, so they just accept it.

Anyway, there are only about 20 tenants here, one or two school-age children in each household, and there are only a dozen or twenty, and it is still a class matter to get together.

"If you are willing, you can send the right children, I can teach them to read and write for free, but I will talk in advance, I will study here, I will take care of food and housing, but I must learn the rules and be sensible, and I have to do things while studying, and I must be able to endure hardships. If you can't endure hardship and disobey, I will return it. ”

As soon as they heard this, everyone was overjoyed and said, "Thank you San Lang, as long as San Lang is willing to accept it, if you dare to be disobedient, San Lang will beat him with a stick until he is obedient." ”