"Uncle, what is the price of rice noodles in Pingyang Fucheng?"

"Four coins of silver for white rice and one stone, and three coins of silver for wheat flour and one stone."

Su Tiancheng didn't know the price of rice noodles, this was normal, but when he asked about the price of rice noodles, it was a little strange, what was this for, could it be that he was going to do a grain business.

The grain business is not easy to do, the hierarchy is strict, and Su Huawen is also in the grain business.

The grain business is divided into three levels, and the existence at the bottom is the many merchants who operate ordinary shops, buy grain from the hands of large households, sell it directly to the outside world, and obtain pitiful small profits. In the middle is a large household, which has a grain store, mainly engaged in grain wholesale, providing grain to many shops, with a large grain transaction volume and not a thin profit. At the highest level, there are businessmen who control the source of food, they are the biggest bosses, and they are inextricably linked with the government, and even colluded with the government and businessmen.

"Is the young master thinking about running the grain, the master is doing it, the young master still don't think about such a thing."

Su Tiancheng shook his head, he didn't expect to do a grain business, there are too many difficulties at present.

Seeing the young master shaking his head, Su Pingyang breathed a sigh of relief.

"Uncle, how many fields are there in Su Mansion, and how are they managed?"

Su Pingyang is getting more and more strange, in the past, the young master never asked about these things, let alone cared, it is no exaggeration to say that the young master knows nothing about the farm affairs.

"Alas, in the past two years, there have been many famines, and the fields of the Su Mansion have become a burden, and they have to pay taxes to the government every year.

Su Tiancheng looked at Su Pingyang and did not speak immediately.

"The land is mainly concentrated in the suburbs, last year the lord dealt with 400 hectares, there are still 500 hectares left, years of drought, on the land, there is almost no income, tenants can not pay grain, but taxes still have to be paid. Today's taxes are all paid in silver, and no grain is collected, and a total of 225 taels of silver must be paid to the land of the 500 hectares of land in Sufu. ”

"What, do you want to hand over two hundred and twenty-five taels of silver?"

Seeing the young master's surprised expression, Su Pingyang misunderstood, sighed, and continued to explain.

"Farming and paying taxes, it is a matter of course, but the method of calculating this tax is a little unreasonable, according to the price of eight dollars of silver per stone of grain, where is there such an expensive grain price now, when I remember, it is such a standard, besides, the base of taxation is also according to the grain output of Nanzhili, the land in Shanxi is originally barren, it is the grain production of this grain, Nanzhili can reach 2.6 stone per mu, and Shanxi is at most 1.4 stone."

"Uncle, tell me, how did the tax of the two hundred and twenty-five taels of silver be calculated?"

"The five hundred hectares of land in Su Mansion are 7,500 mu in total, and the tax per mu is three cents of silver, which is so much."

"How was the tax of the three cents of silver calculated?"

Su Pingyang was stunned for a moment and began to explain.

"Young master, I have already said before, the tax is calculated according to the price of eight cents of silver per stone of grain, the fields of Sufu belong to the private land, four liters of grain are taxed per mu, and one stone of grain is one hundred liters, according to the price of eight coins of silver, each liter of grain is eight copper coins, and four liters is thirty-two, after comprehensive conversion, three cents of silver per mu of land is paid, and it is also thirty copper coins."

Su Tiancheng has quickly calculated in his mind, according to what Su Pingyang said, the tax of four buckets of grain per mu is levied, according to the grain yield of 1.4 stone per mu in Shanxi, close to 3% of the tax, if it is in Nanzhili, the yield of 2.6 stone of grain per mu is 1.5% of the tax, such a low tax, he has not seen it.

"Uncle, how much grain did the family collect last year?"

"I don't know this very well, it's all directly managed by the eldest wife, but the tenant farmers have suffered a disaster, according to the previous agreement, they pay six buckets of grain per mu, bear taxes, and the rest is their own income."

Su Tiancheng gasped, the grain handed over by the tenant farmers to the landlords accounted for 43% of the total output, plus the taxes paid to the imperial court, almost half of the output, if this happened to a disaster, or the output was reduced, what could be paid could not be less, so what did the tenant farmers eat, wouldn't they wait to starve to death.

At this time, Su Tiancheng somewhat understood, why did he say that the taxes of the Ming Dynasty were low, but the peasants still couldn't survive, on the one hand, there were natural disasters, no food was received, the taxes were too low, and the government had no money to relieve the disaster, on the other hand, the land annexation was serious, and the land in the hands of the big landlords and big bureaucrats, according to the regulations of the imperial court, they all had a good reputation, and they did not pay taxes, but the total amount of taxes would not be reduced, what should I do, these taxes were distributed to the peasants, and the taxes were invisibly increased. It's a pity that the government didn't get it, and it was the individual who really got it.

Of course, this is all Su Tiancheng's conjecture, and he still needs to understand the specific situation.

"Last year, there was a disaster, how did the family deal with it?"

"The grain still has to be paid, and if you really can't pay it, lay down an IOU and make up for it next year."

"Oh, whose idea is this, what if the tenant farmers have no food to eat?"

"After farming and grain, the tenants know the way, and they have been hit by disasters for two consecutive years, and some tenants really can't survive."

Su Pingyang didn't answer the question directly, but Su Tiancheng already knew the answer.

"What are you planting in the fields?"

"The fields are barren, and the wheat is mainly grown. The yield per mu in a good year is 1.5 stones. ”

Su Tiancheng's face was already gloomy, planting wheat, the tenant farmers suffered even more, the price of wheat was lower than rice, the burden of the tenant farmers was heavier, plus the disaster occurred, you can imagine what kind of life the tenant farmers lived.

"If that's the case, what is my father's attitude?"

Su Tiancheng's tone was already a little bad, and Su Pingyang could hear it.

"What the lord means, I am going to buy land near Taiyuan Fucheng, the land here, I am ready to find a suitable time, and all of it has been disposed of, and there is not much harvest anyway."

"Uncle, what I asked was my father's attitude towards tenant farmers."

Su Pingyang lowered his head and stopped talking.

In his heart, there was a hint of relief, judging from the tone of the young master's speech, he had taken into account the difficulties of the tenant farmers, indeed, in the past two years, some tenant farmers could not survive, and even had to sell their sons and daughters.

Su Tiancheng sighed.

"Since the land is barren, why don't you grow corn?"

"Young master, what is corn, did you mean maize?"

Su Tiancheng blushed a little, corn came to China, that is, the time of the Ming Dynasty, about 1531, the tenth year of Jiaqing in the Ming Dynasty, only a hundred years ago.

"yes, why don't you plant maize?"

"Alas, I have planted it before, but unfortunately the yield is too low, and the harvest is even lower."

"Have you ever grown sweet potatoes?"

Su Pingyang felt that his brain was a little insufficient, these things, how did the young master know the Dao, it was too strange, the sweet potato, he had only heard of it, how did the young master know the Dao.

"Young master, I don't know about sweet potatoes, but I've heard of them."

Su Tiancheng was a little discouraged, the time when sweet potatoes were introduced into China was the twenty-first year of Wanli, it seems that this thing is still in Fujian, and has not spread in the north, in fact, in such a famine era, planting corn and sweet potatoes is the best choice, these things can survive, and they can also alleviate the shortage of food to a large extent.

In just a few minutes, a basic and clear plan has been formed in Su Tiancheng's mind, as long as this matter is done well, everything will be easy to say, maybe when the time comes, he can rely on these things to make a fortune. The most important thing here is that corn and sweet potatoes are resistant to drought and do not need too much rain.

In his previous life, Su Tiancheng had been sent to the countryside to familiarize himself with the cultivation techniques of corn and sweet potatoes, but he didn't expect that at this time, he would be able to come in handy.

It's October, there's not much time to delay, and there are some things that must be done right away.