"Yellow list adds two cents of silver per mu."

When Zhang Han went out of the city, the discussion in Ma Chaoren's mansion had just begun.

Looking at everyone, Ma Chao said: "The summer grain that should be paid by my Shanxi Tong Province is 2.8 million stones, which looks like it is not much, and it is the same as that of Suzhou, but the amount of Suzhou has never been paid, but the arrears here in Shanxi are very small, and we should supply the border army. ”

Jiang Yanhong followed: "There are many officials and fields in Suzhou, looking at the heavy amount of taxes, in fact, the field rent is counted, our summer tax here is the summer tax, and the people have to count the field rent, this burden is originally heavy, plus the acres of land are far less than Jiangnan, this time the salary is raised, and the summer tax per mu alone will pay two cents of silver, this is only the yellow list, and there is a white list at the bottom, everyone, it seems that the price of grain is going to rise sharply." ”

"Our Shanxi acres of land are only 40 million mu, only a fraction of Henan's, but the field endowment is about the same as Henan, which is also too much."

"The white list is still heavy, and the name of supplying the border army with military rations will definitely be wantonly increased."

"These benefits, but they can't fall on our heads, most of them can only be touched by the generals and the gentry, we people, we have our due, and there are no benefits, how can people be convinced."

"The people look at our scenery, but they really know that they are suffering."

"If we can't make any more money from the price of grain, we can only sell the land."

"Even if the price of grain is earned, does my brother still have to keep more acres of land? The big officials and gentry do not pay the land tax, and the old man Ma has the status of a person, and the conversion of the Ding tax is also limited, but our land tax and Ding tax cannot be less, the more land, the heavier the tax, and then you have to add the salary and discount silver, but I really can't afford it. ”

"This is really the benefit of the whip method, hehe, I can't say enough."

The people here are really a lot of grievances, and most of them are leaning on the whip method.

To be fair, the whip law is Zhang Juzheng with great courage to promote, the original Tang Dynasty's two tax law is to include the body tax into the land endowment, this is a way to reduce the burden of the people, those who have land pay taxes, and later in the Song Dynasty in addition to the two taxes on the basis, to the Ming Dynasty and the people have to serve in labor, to the Wanli years, and the miscellaneous miscellaneous fees into the field tax, this is the whip law, in addition to the true color, that is, the grain turned into silver, so that the imperial court revenue increased, is to include the miscellaneous labor into the field tax, in order to try to reduce the burden of the people.

In practice, if a clean local official is loyal to the law, the income of the court will increase, and the burden on the people will be reduced. But in most places, the field tax is still collected, and it is heavier than before, and there is a layer of trouble of being deducted from selling grain and paying taxes, and then the servants have to be the same, that is, in addition to the yellow list, there is also the white list, and the burden of the white list is ten times that of the yellow list.

Later generations always said that the tax of the dynasty was very light, and the fact is also the same, the land tax is not heavy, and the commercial tax is lighter, but the local miscellaneous expenses are exploited ten times and dozens of times the positive tax, and the local officials and gentry will include the pro-domain, these powerful silverfish are desperately knocking on the bone and sucking the marrow to squeeze the people, and even these small and medium-sized landlords are constantly complaining, from Wanli to Chongzhen, many small and medium-sized landlords in the north are also bankrupt, fortunately, industry and commerce have always been outside the system of the Ming Dynasty, Ma Chaoren and others can only look forward to business operations to reduce the pressure on Huang Baibang on themselves.

"This grain price battle, with Commander Zhang behind, and my Ma family also has a court official in Beijing to support, we must fight to the end." Ma Chaoren raised his glass to greet everyone, he has the identity of a lifter, but there are too many acres of land, and the pressure is also very high, and behind him is the entire Tianchengwei Ma family, at this moment, he can't help but say a word of retreat.

"The villain has seen the owner."

At the head of the village, Jiang Yi pulled his horse and stood on the edge of a small wooden bridge, his face was full of smiles, he turned sideways to the side, and the horse that was in the middle of the village road less than a foot wide was of course Zhang Han.

This village is called Li Zhuang, as the name suggests, most of the residents here are surnamed Li, there may be a few miscellaneous surnames, and the number of households will not be many.

According to the records of the government's yellow book, there are only 131 households here, and the number of Dingkou is 325, but the actual number of households is more than 300 households, and the number of Dings is about 700, and the total number is nearly 3,000.

According to that time, these populations can be gathered into a small town, but this Li Zhuang is located at the junction of Tianchengwei and Zhenyuwei, the boundary is eastward, and in the remaining veins of the Daliang Mountains, the specific official road of Ulzhou to Tianchengwei is very far, and it is even farther away from the large official road of Jingshi to the partial pass, but it is close to the Huamen Fort that locks Daliang Mountain, which is located in a remote area, the village road is getting narrower and narrower, and it is difficult for the two-wheeled carriage to walk, so it can only walk mules and horses and wheelbarrows.

The leader kneeling was Li Xiangfu, the steward of the village, who had read a book for a few days, with a square scarf on his head, a blue cloth straight embellished, a pair of cloth shoes on his feet, a square face, a big rosacea, his eyes were dull, and his mouth was still spraying wine after many steps.

There are a few people behind Li Xiangfu, most of them were hired to come and install Zhuangzi when the grandfather was there, this Zhuangzi can receive less than 3,000 stone of land rent every year, and it cost nearly 5,000 silver when he bought it that day, and most of the real estate of the Zhang family is here.

Zhang Han has seen the land deed, the Zhuangzi here is the field bones and field skins are all in one place, unlike other Zhuangzi, the field bones and field skins are mostly separated, sometimes the landlord himself can not figure out who is planting this land, the field can also be subleased according to the rules, a few hands upside down, the landlord can not recognize his tenants is also a common thing, walking in the ground, which piece of land is his own, or leased to others, or poured a few hands, the landlord himself is not clear, for a long time, passed on for several generations, there are that tenants to take a trick, and secretly do Zhang Tianqi in the yamen, There are also those who make the earth their own. Of course, this kind of thing needs to have some roots, and it is not something that an honest tenant farmer can do.

The rest of the fish catches, chickens, grass, cattle, sheep, this kind of industry, there are also the income of the Zhang family, every year need to hand over a part, when buying, rent, the price of silver, silver, color, chicken, grass, wine, painting, speak clearly, Chang and Zhang Han said, the old lady, after buying this Zhuangzi, happy for several nights did not sleep well, every day is a smile.

This kind of mood, Zhang Han can now understand, such a farming nation in China, the desire for land is seared in the bones, and the land can be heirlooms, and the so-called rise of industry and commerce, the sprout of capital, is simply a fool's dream, Suzhou area, with thousands of people in the scale of textile factories, but businessmen make money or use it to buy land, or just like the Jin merchants, dig cellars at home to store silver, capital has no way to expand, because there is no chamber of commerce, businessmen have no political discourse, no ability to protect themselves, Can flocks of fat sheep influence national politics and expand capital? That's a joke.

"Everyone, please get up, I'm still too young to accept such a big gift."

It is common for tenants to kneel down and worship the landlord, and when the landlord is unhappy, he takes the whip and takes it down to beat the board. Of course, the landlord's personality is too bad, and the tenants will also turn tenants, Zhang Han knows the reason, speaks quite gracefully, and is also very friendly, without the arrogant posture of ordinary young children, and there is no sense of domineering young landlords.

Li Xiangfu's eyelids lifted slightly, and in a short moment, there was also a feeling of shrewdness, seeing that Zhang Han was still smiling, Li Xiangfu led everyone to get up, bowed his head and said: "I said that after receiving grain for a while, I would go to the castle to meet the owner, it has been two or three years since we last met, and the owner's body has grown taller than ordinary people. ”

Zhang Han then remembered that he had really seen this old Li when he was a teenager, but he was a standard nerd at that time, and he was young, so he hastily turned around and left, I am afraid that this Li Xiangfu must have looked down on him in his heart at that time.

Zhang Han said with a smile: "When I was young, I was not sensible, and I was slow to treat Lao Li." ”

In fact, he is still a teenager now, but he has some high-level aura on his body, which makes people unconsciously awe or attach importance to it, dealing with Zheng Guochang, as well as Ma Chengen, the general army and the four-grade civil officials all attach importance to Zhang Han, although there is silver to open the way, but Zhang Han's temperament is very outstanding, which is also an important reason.

Li Xiangfu didn't dare to say anything, and then asked Zhang Han and the others to go to Zhuangzi.

After the tattered wooden bridge is the entrance of the village, a dirt road winds forward, the road is uneven, it is obvious that the road is crushed by the car in the rainy day, and no one contributes money to level it, some bamboo is planted on both sides of the village entrance, the day in May is the most suitable for the growth of bamboo, the bamboo shoots that grow out in early spring have been half a person high, the bamboo is densely cultivated, covering both sides, and the road in the middle has a little winding path and deep feeling.

Zhang Han said: "This bamboo forest is good. ”

Li Xiangfu finally smiled and said: "This is what the master called planting back then, saying that it looks elegant, and the villains also think it is good. ”

Out of the bamboo forest, the eyes suddenly opened, a large thatched house stretches into a piece, there are about five or six rows, dozens of rooms in each row, there are only dozens of steps apart, there are stone mills in front of each house to grind out of the yard, many people are basking in the wheat that has just been harvested, a smell of straw is very strong, and the smell of straw is very strong, and it comes to the nose.

There are two pavilions at the entrance of the village, both of which are dilapidated, crooked and down, a few old people who have bowed down with a group of children who can just walk are playing on the edge of the pavilion, Zhang Han swept his eyes, those old people quickly bowed their waists deeper, their faces were full of fear, and the children were also frightened together, looking at Zhang Han in fear.