"There are already people thinking about setting up a tablet for the fourth brother......"

Tian Dayou's opening remarks made Li Shi's anger disappear, and everyone likes compliments, but Li Shi is more curious, it seems that the villagers are selling land, and they really have an inside story.

"Last year there was a drought, and most of the villages have no food left this year. If there is no fourth brother, the villagers will have to borrow grain and silver to live. This year's grain prices have risen by more than 50 percent, and with the imperial grain, in the autumn, it is estimated that they will not be able to pay it back, and most of them will have to pawn or sell their fields alive. Those who have already sold out of their fields are about to catch up with those homeless people. ”

Tian Dayou talked about borrowing in the countryside, as far as ordinary grass people are concerned, even if they have ten acres of good land, they can barely make do with food after a year, paying rent and paying imperial grain to meet the apportionment. In April and May, when the harvest is scarce, the surplus grain is gone, the autumn harvest has to be poor, and the rice seeds in the second half of the year are gone, and they must go into debt.

After hearing this, Li Xian felt a faint chill in his heart, which also means that the grass people are simply relying on debt to get by. But it is completely two extremes to go into debt with the later generations of rice countrymen, people pay attention to the quality of life, and here they only want to make a living.

At present, in the Kangxi Dynasty, on average, the annual interest of private borrowing of silver is 30%, and the annual interest of grain is 50%. The government is trying to suppress this profit-to-money ratio, after all, if usury develops too violently, it will take away the government's control over the people, and the land will not be able to collect money and grain. But the government only pushed the businessmen to make a move, and did not dare to stand up rashly, and the lessons of Wang Anshi Qingmiao's law were all kept in mind by the later dynasties, not to mention the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which was all Confucian ministers in the Manchu Dynasty. 【1】

The scenery is good, if it is not exploited too heavily by the government gentry, the grass people can still come over this debt. But God gives a little face, and the grass people can only take stock of what they can sell, and sell them one by one, and the first thing is the field.

This is the background of the separation of ownership of fields in the south, and a thing naturally has a distinction between ownership and use rights, and it only depends on how it evolves in practice. The grass people sold the ownership of the land and kept the right to cultivate, that is, the right to use, which gradually evolved into a perpetual tenant right. From this point of view, the field is not a permanent property for the grass people, and the ownership is only a turnover to ensure their survival, and in many cases, the right to use must also participate in the turnover.

Over time, grass farmers no longer have the luxury of keeping the ownership of the field, that is, the bones of the field, and it makes sense to hold the actual right to use. For the grass people who only live on the fields, three bones are not as good as one skin, and if he has ten acres of whole land in his hands, he will also think about selling the bones in the whole field, and the villagers in Fengtian Village who have received the land deed are the same idea.

"After recovering the bones, the imperial grain does not have to be paid, and for the villagers, there is no need to borrow any more. But their homes are still empty, how to survive in the summer and autumn, and where the grain in the next season will come from, which has not yet been settled, so they will naturally think about selling the fields and bones again. Even if they can cope with the past, this field is dead, and they all want to be able to sell it for some living money, ready to deal with other troubles. ”

Tian Dayou's explanation made Li Xian's heart heavy, the so-called grass people are all burdened with bottomless pits, no wonder their waists can't always be straightened.

"It's not all like this, the reason why many villagers sell their land is that they still want to exchange for some silkworm seeds and looms, and a few families want to pool money to buy cattle, in short, they all want to have living money in their hands and live a better life."

Seeing that Li Xian's face was gloomy, Tian Dayou hurriedly comforted him, compared with other villages, the changes in Fengtian Village in the past two months or so were too violent, even if he didn't consider any gold, according to the current momentum, he believed that Fengtian Village's words were definitely stronger than Liu Village next door.

Li Xi breathed a sigh of relief, and his mood gradually became cheerful, that's right, people's hearts are profit-seeking, who doesn't want to live a good life?

"They want to sell their land, so why bother with someone else? I bought it! ”

What Li Xi was thinking about was how to further detain the villagers in his box, the villagers were short of money now, and he had money. The five thousand taels of silver sent by Zhong Shangwei, Guan Tian and others resolutely asked Li Shi to accept all in his personal name, and he was not polite. He gave Pan Jinling 1,000 taels, subsidized 3,400 taels to the villagers who had no land, and distributed 7,800 taels to the miners and furnace workers in the mines.

"Ouch, that's not going to work!"

Guan Fengsheng's voice sounded, and there was a person behind him, who was too timid to enter the bedroom, so he bowed down outside the door and served, it was Liu Xingchun, the second son of Mrs. Liu.

"Fourth brother, our fields are all tax fields, you have bought them, and when the time comes, the imperial grain will be counted on you, which is not a small amount!"

Guan Fengsheng was so anxious that he didn't care to explain Liu Xingchun's intention, and waved his hand and shouted.

"Yes, fourth brother, there are too many fields under your name all of a sudden, and it's nothing for the county to have the county master to protect you, but if the field book is handed over, the bookstore in the house will also target you."

Tian Dayou said a little deeper, Li Xian sighed, this is a problem, he has no merit on him, he has to be targeted by those officials like evil wolves, and he has no ability to protect himself at all.

"The fourth brother really wants to help the villagers, you can borrow it, just lower the profit."

As soon as Guan Fengsheng said this, Li Xian laughed in his heart, okay, he is going to do this usury business.

There are outsiders present, and things are not good to talk about further, the three of them stopped talking, and Liu Xingchun outside caught the gap and knelt down with a poof.

Yo ho ...... There are a lot of kneeling on their own during this time, but what is Liu Ershao kneeling for?

"Brother Li, please be merciful and save our Liu Village!"

Li Xi gasped slightly, and then said that the evil wolf, this is a wild dog coming to the door to fight the autumn wind?

Liu Xingchun's bitter water was like a stream, and he vomited it out, which turned out to be implicated in the defeat of Zhong Shang. In the past, Liu Village had been developed by relying on Zhong Shang, and the fields of the village were all under the name of Zhong Shangwei, so he made a living from various "service industries", one of which was to lend money to farmers in more than a dozen surrounding villages, plus weddings and funerals, and various activities of buying and selling people.

Now that Zhong Shang's position is defeated, he gritted his teeth and got out of Yingde, and it is said that he moved to Guangzhou Mansion to become a duke. The land that Liu Cun had invested in was naturally sold by him as his own. It doesn't matter if there is no land, Zhong Shangwei also took away the loan capital placed in Liu's house, and asked for a large amount of interest, which immediately drained the funds of several large families in Liu Village. Of the five thousand taels of silver that Li Shi squeezed, many of them were still the meat of Liu Village.

This is not over, as soon as Zhong Shangwei left, the people of other villages vented their hatred for Zhong Shangwei to the people of Liu Village.

Liu Xingchun vomited out the bitterness, looked at Li Shi with teary eyes, Li Shi also looked at him, and replied with three words in a daze: "What else?" ”

Beggars begging for food should also say "Uncle is kind", Liu Cun said that his son is bitter, what does it have to do with Li Shi?

"Brother Li, the villagers around here are all one of them, although Ping said that he suffered a lot of sins from Zhong Shang. But when he was there, he was able to take care of everyone on a large scale, but now that he is gone, there is no one who can talk about things, and our folks will have no good time! ”

Liu Xingchun's words made Li Xian's eyes gather, and there was an article......

"In the past, our Liu Village relied on contacting the villagers of this hundred miles, and if we were defeated, it would be nothing, and the entire Huangzhai would be dispersed. Even if it is Brother Li'er's Fengtian Village, no one is taking care of him, and he may not be able to live comfortably. ”

Liu Xingchun kowtowed again.

"Brother Li, don't take it to heart about the little things that my mother offended you, I came this time to ask Brother Li to reach out and help my family and the entire Liu Village, even if it is just to say a few words to the county master, let him leave some of the fields intercepted by Zhong Shangwei. If Liu Cun and our Liu family can survive this catastrophe, they will naturally treat Brother Li as a person who talks about this capital. ”

This Liu Ershao, although he didn't speak clearly, the benefits and disadvantages were pointed out. To the top of the bell is to hold the entire Huangzhai in his hand, and Liu Cun plays a big role in it. Now that he has run away, if Li Shi is willing to reach out to help, then they Liu Cun will help Li Shi and occupy the position before Zhong Shang.

What a deal......

Li Xian's heart was churning, it seemed that the dividends from killing Zhong Shangli had not been harvested yet.

"Liu Er is right, if we don't have anything to talk to, and the other squires reach out, even if our Fengtian Village is formed alone, it will be difficult to guarantee that we will not be the target of oppression by the masters."

Tian Dayou explained on the side, which gave Li Xi another layer of understanding of the role of the squire, although Zhong Shangwei usually said that he was squeezing the township, but he still regarded this as his own territory, and many things would still come forward to deal with the government and other squires, while safeguarding his own interests, he also protected the villagers. If there were no squires, the grass people below them would have to face a group of evil spirits.

Instead of letting a group of evil ghosts squeeze it, it is better to let one evil ghost squeeze it, after all, if the latter's heart is not dark to the end, he will always be fed, and his appearance will not be too ugly, which is completely consistent with the squire's attitude towards the magistrate.

There are eight miles in Huangzhai (map), scattered and scattered nearly 20 villages, all kinds of households add up, there are seven or eight hundred households in the first book, in fact, there may be 2,000 households and tens of thousands of people, and it is not too small in the 17 capitals of Britain and Germany. 【2】

"Tens of thousands of ......"

A little devil fluttered its wings in Li Xian's heart, but then he pressed it down again.

Now that there are thousands of people in a village, they are thinking about 10,000 people, and this great leap forward will cost people's lives, and in the initial stage, everything must be cautious.

"I'm not Master Zhong, how can I have such great ability, Brother Xingchun, you look down on me."

Li Xian could only be perfunctory first, but he also had a hint of thinking about the price code. Although he doesn't care about the people who are at the mercy of this capital, he is willing to do something in advance.

"Brother Li, not to mention the relationship between you and the county master, Zhong Shangwei is gone, but Bai Zongbing's business will still be taken over, you helped Bai Zongbing build a cannon before, this is not a ......"

If it weren't for the injury on his foot, Li Xi really wanted to go over and pat Liu Xingchun on the shoulder, this kid's eyes can see through, although he is not interested in being the second on the top of the clock, but whether it is for the villagers below, or for Bai Daolong above, the position of the top of the clock, he really wants to dominate.

"They are all villagers, of course those who can help will do their best to help, the county master, I will find an opportunity to talk about other things, and I will talk about it when I am injured."

Li Shi also put on a master's posture, Liu Xingchun heard the general meaning, retired with a happy face, and left a small bag before leaving, Guan Fengsheng took it and took a look, two small gold bars with golden light! Coarsely, there are about twenty taels.

"Hey...... Give this thing back! I don't know ...... of us."

Guan Feng Shengtian Dayu laughed, but then immediately shut up, and now the secret string in their minds was tense.

Li Xi took a small gold bar and threw it to Guan Xuan as if handing meat and bones: "Take it and play!" ”

The little girl took it, tossed it from side to side twice, and threw it on the bed boringly: "Cold and hard, what's the fun?" ”

[1: The Qing court followed the practice of the Ming Dynasty in the financial field, strictly restricting the development of the financial industry. In the fields that had to be involved, they counted on the efforts of businessmen, but at the same time, they suppressed and prevented financial businessmen from growing, and the control of private usury was never effective. In the middle period, the Qing court's control over the local government weakened, local capital rose, and it was during this period that the private usury in the south gradually fell to the level of 10 to 5. But then the country opened widely, the bureaucracy and the elite dominated the financial field, Western capital also followed, local capital was suppressed again, and private usury was out of control again. 】

[2: During the period of Kangyong's communication, historians estimated that the actual population of Guangdong at that time was more than 15 million. At that time, Guangdong had 9 prefectures, 7 prefectures, 3 departments and 79 counties, and the actual population of Yingde County should be more than 200,000. 】