"Dad, what's going on there? Is it a barracks? ”

A crisp girl pointed to a huge building complex in front of her in a childish voice, which was an area of more than fifty acres, surrounded by a two-zhang high rammed earth wall, but many tall buildings inside the wall could still be seen in the distance outside.

These buildings are very tall, but they are different from ordinary houses, each of them looks like a big fence, round and short, but each one is at least six zhang high.

Between the enclosure and the enclosure, there is also a long passage with a canopy on it, making the passage like a long corridor.

A middle-aged man in his forties held his five-year-old daughter's hand in one hand, withdrew his gaze from the tulou, and replied with a smile, "This is the grain station in our county." ”

"Dad, what is the grain station?"

"It's a grain purchasing station." On the other side, a slightly older boy replied in a loud voice, the boy looked like he was eleven or twelve years old, looking a little thin but very energetic. Walking, like an adult.

He saw that his sister still didn't know much about what a grain purchasing station was, so he explained to her, "It's the grain we harvest in the field, and we will bring it here to sell it in the future." ”

The little girl nodded, not knowing if she understood.

The middle-aged man was a little nervous, and the place where they lived was not far from here, a small village less than ten miles away from the county seat. The middle-aged man turned out to be a tenant farmer who lived on tenant land. Although he faces the loess with his back to the sky all year round, the work of wearing the stars and the moon cannot mix the food and clothing of the family all year round.

If it is a normal year, diligent and thrifty, it can barely get by. They are afraid of famines, floods, droughts, insects, famines, debts, and sometimes even sell their sons and daughters in exchange for life-saving food.

The man married at the age of sixteen, again to a cousin of a relative in a neighboring village. Or a change of family. His sister married his wife's brother, so that the two poor families could save a lot of money without having to pay an extra bride price or dowry. In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult for poor people to marry wives without this way of exchanging relatives or raising children and daughters-in-law.

However, he married a wife at the age of sixteen, and in the past ten years, his wife has given birth to ten children for him, three sons and seven daughters, of which two boys and one daughter died. The remaining sons and six daughters are also raised. But now there is only one son and one daughter left around, and the remaining five daughters have no choice but to sell them in the past ten years of famine. The eldest one was sold to the palace to make a ring at the age of twelve, and the youngest one was only seven years old when he was sold, which was only a little older than the second Ni next to him now.

As soon as he thought of this, the middle-aged man couldn't help but cry.

But the world is so difficult, and it is really not easy for a family to survive until now.

But now. Seeing that the days are finally coming to an end.

Previously, the imperial court ordered that rents and interest rates should be reduced in various places.

He rented the land of the Kaifeng Zhou Palace, in fact, the land was originally his family's, and it was the twenty acres of land that his ancestors had worked hard to accumulate. Later in the hands of his father. Unable to endure those terrible taxes and labor, he finally surrendered to the palace of the king of Zhou, and since then the land of the family has become the land of the king of Zhou, and his family has become the tenant farmer of the king of Zhou. Every year, he still planted the land of his own family. But there is no longer a need to pay grain to the imperial court, nor do you have to pay those errand soldiers, although there are still a lot of taxes and fees. But it's much better than it used to be.

He planted the land for the Zhou Wangfu for decades, tended to those fields when he was young, and regularly handed in the seeds every year. If there is no disaster, it can still survive, after all, the grain of the palace is less than that of the government, and the additional apportionment is much less.

But over the years, the wind and rain have always been uneven, so he always has to borrow grain from the Zhou Wangfu in the end. This time, he borrowed five liters from three buckets, and he accumulated a lot, and he was already full of debts.

Fortunately, Zhou Wangfu will not be forced too hard, and every year he barely makes ends meet, and all the money he earns goes into Zhou Wangfu, even including his eldest girl, because she is unable to repay her debts, and finally sent to Zhou Wangfu to pay off her debts.

This year, the court changed the dynasty, and the new emperor said that he would reduce the rent and interest, and the interest should not exceed one and a half points, and if the interest paid was more than double the principal, there was no need to pay interest, and only the principal needed to be repaid. If the interest paid is more than twice the principal, then the principal and interest are eliminated and the debt is eliminated.

The rent of the fields was also reduced, and it was changed to 3/5 of the land land.

When he first heard the news, Liu Gui didn't believe it. How can there be such a good thing in the world, who is the emperor and sits in the world, isn't it still the world of those gentlemen.

Later, someone told him that King Zhou was the King of Zhou of the Ming Dynasty, and now he is the Han of the Liu family, and the King of Zhou is no longer the prince. They may be given rent and interest reductions.

Sure enough, after a long delay, the steward of the Zhou Wangfu still came to inform everyone that in the future, the rent and interest would be reduced and handled according to the decree of the imperial court.

Liu Gui was very excited, he found the old gentleman in the school at the head of the village, and asked him to help him calculate the accounts and take inventory of the debts. After giving the old gentleman a pound of wine and two fish, the old gentleman helped him calculate for a long time, and finally told him that the debts he had borrowed over the years did not add up much, but more interest.

If you can't pay off your debts year after year, there will be more profits. However, he has repaid a lot over the years, especially when he sent his daughter to pay off his debts, and the interest paid is actually more than twice as much, and if you really want to calculate it, the interest is more than five or six times the principal.

Liu Gui went to the housekeeper of Wangzhuang, sent wine and fish and meat, and finally got the account room to take stock of the account for him, and finally determined that the interest was more than twice the principal, and the debt was eliminated.

After Liu Gui returned home that day, he cried excitedly, holding his wife and children and crying bitterly. Over the years, those debts have weighed on his back like a heavy mountain, and he can't breathe. He was only in his early forties, and he had already gray hair and a rickety body.

Ten children, and only one pair of children are left, and the father was sick and had no money for treatment, so he watched the pain die in bed.

Without debts, not only is he lighter, he feels that the sky is bluer, and even the wrinkles on his wife's face seem to be missing.

The debt was gone, the rent was reduced, and life gradually improved.

The new emperor and the new court, although most of the officials in the yamen are still the same people as before, Liu Gui feels that these people's attitudes are much better.

No one is going to charge this kind of fee or that kind of money every once in a while.

Some time ago, the wheat was filled, and it happened to be a long drought and no rain, but Liu Gui was not very anxious, and he saw that life was going to be better. But there is a drought again, at this time there is a drought, there is no water to fill the grout, but there is no harvest of grains.

Many landlords began to hire people to dig deep wells, but the cost of drilling wells was not cheap, and Liu Gui, who had just lost his debts, could not afford it. He could only carry water on his shoulders, but it was too far away from the river, and he had to walk five miles to carry a load of water.

Liu Gui's family went into battle, and picking a day was just a drop in the bucket. When he was going to despair. It turned out that Wang Bantou, who often went to the countryside to shout five and six drinks, came, and told them that he had come down to squat and lead everyone to fight the drought. Their village is Wang Bantou's area of responsibility.

Wang Bantou did not come alone, he also brought a group of people over, and they began to dig wells in the fields, and organized people to dig ditches, repair ditches, and erect waterwheels.

The people in the village are united like never before. Everyone was busy day and night for a few days, and the well finally came out of the water, watching the water flow into the field, Liu Gui really felt that the world had changed greatly.

Especially in the end, Wang Bantou didn't ask everyone to ask for money for drilling wells. When honoring money and the like, everyone can't believe it.

In the end, Wang Bantou told them that the money for drilling wells and water wheels was all special silver from above. Help everyone fight drought.

The wheat finally had water, the grain was filled smoothly, and this year's harvest was saved.

this day. Wang Bantou brought someone over again, and now the people in the village held a meeting and introduced that the person was from the county grain station.

The man personally introduced to everyone, and it turned out that this person was sent from above, and it was said that he was from a newly established yamen called the General Administration of Grain in the imperial court. Grain distribution has been carried out in all provinces, counties, and townships, and grain stations have been built.

He told everyone that in the future, everyone does not need to personally go to the designated provincial capital and go hundreds or even thousands of miles to Beijing to pay grain. There will be no more officials coming to the countryside to collect grain, and all kinds of fire consumption will be levied. There will not be any profiteers who will take the opportunity to exchange the income from the cheap price of the new grain that everyone has received for their silver, so that they can pay taxes in the silver.

This year, the imperial court will implement a completely new policy.

The two taxes of the imperial court were changed from summer and autumn to autumn and winter, and the two taxes were converted into silver, but the summer tax was levied after the autumn, and the autumn tax was levied again in the winter, which gave the people enough time to harvest and sell grain.

Moreover, in order to protect the interests of the people and not be exploited by profiteers, the imperial court specially set up grain deployment and set up grain stations in various places. In the future, the people will no longer pay together according to the system of Tujia, but each family will receive its own grain. There will not be a situation where one out of ten households flees, and the remaining nine households have to pay all the taxes of ten households.

At the same time, the two taxes of the imperial court were converted into silver and collected taxes.

But the people no longer have to worry about the lack of silver available, do not worry about the situation that the price of grain falls sharply and the price of silver rises sharply after the grain harvest every year, and do not have to worry about the lack of silver quality when paying taxes, and the need to add more silver to the silver ingots. Because now two taxes are levied, and the cash coupon is unified. There will be no defective fineness of the silver dollar coupons, and there is no need to add fire consumption.

The man at the grain station also brought good news that day, and he proposed to everyone to order food. The wheat was still in the field, and it would take more than a month and a half to harvest, but after seeing the grain in the field, he expressed his willingness to pre-purchase and pay a deposit in advance.

Again, this is something that has never happened before.

But when they heard that they could really get the advance money, and they were willing to give a protective purchase price that everyone was very surprised and satisfied with, the people in the village couldn't wait to sign a pre-purchase contract with the people of the county grain station under the witness of the county clerk's office.

Liu Gui has 20 acres of wheat fields, and according to estimates, his 20 acres of land will not be successful this year, and it is estimated that he will be able to have a harvest of about one stone and five per mu. Twenty acres of land is thirty stones of wheat, and the rent of the palace is thirty into five, that is, ten stones and five buckets. He still had nineteen stones and five buckets left.

Liu Gui calculated in his heart, he, his wife and two children plus the old mother of five, if they save some food, then the family has 1,000 catties of food a year.

In this way, he can at least take out eleven or twelve stones of wheat to sell.

The people at the grain station told them that in the future, when the grain station collects grain, it will no longer be measured according to the stone bucket, but calculated by catties, and 100 catties will be a load. The price of wheat given by the grain station was two silver dollars per quintal, which was equivalent to two and a half yuan per stone.

According to the people at the grain station, this year is not a bumper year, and the imperial court has no reserves, and in recent years, soldiers have been used in various places, plus immigrants, etc., and a lot of food is needed.

Therefore, the pre-purchase price given for grain deployment has been raised on the basis of the current price, which is a fair price. The price of grain is even higher, reaching two yuan five, and the price of rice can even reach about three yuan five to three yuan seven. This is the expected food price for the second half of this year and the first half of next year for food deployment.

Therefore, the pre-purchase price this time is given a protective price, which fully protects the interests of the people.

Liu Gui finally signed a 12-stone grain purchase contract, which stipulated that after the summer grain was harvested, the grain station would buy their family's 12-stone wheat at a price of 2 silver dollars per 100 catties, with a total grain payment of 24 yuan, and pay a deposit of 20% in advance, that is, four pieces of anise. After Liu Gui handed over the wheat to the grain station, the grain station paid it off immediately, and it was never in arrears. ”

Holding his own contract, as well as the four-yuan octagonal silver dollar coupon he received after pressing his handprint, Liu Gui really felt like a dream.

The people at the grain station even told him that after the summer harvest and after the wheat was threshed and dried, the grain station would personally drive over to pull the grain, and they would not need to send it to the grain station, even if it was only ten miles away, and they would not have to bother them. All the grain is weighed, and there will be no big fights. Moreover, it will be a unified and fair scale, and there will never be a shortage of catties or two, and the people can supervise the test.

The people at the grain station also promised them that when the grain station arrived, they would collect the grain with one hand and pay the rest of the grain with the other, and they would never be in arrears, and they would never let the people from the yamen withhold any taxes or the like.

Since that day, everyone has been waiting for the day when the grain is ripe, hoping that the wheat will be handed over to the grain station as soon as possible, and the rest of the grain will be paid as soon as possible, otherwise everyone will always be a little unsure, for fear that something will change.

The wheat in the field has been yellow, the weather has been good recently, and the sickle will be opened in a few days, taking advantage of the best few days, Liu Gui came to the county with a pair of children today, and he has a few yuan of silver dollar coupons in his hand, which is a rare sight, and he has almost never saved money in his hands in the past.

This time, he plans to tear some cloth and take it back to ask his wife to make new clothes for the family.

Moreover, he also wanted to rush into Kaifeng City, go to King Zhou's mansion, and buy something to see his eldest daughter.

By the way, he also wanted to come and see this grain station.

"This is the great kindness of the emperor, you two must remember the emperor's kindness to us." Liu Gui looked at the newly built grain station and said to the two children around him with emotion.

"Without the Son of Heaven, there would be no good life we have now, we must remember."

The youngest daughter Nizi nodded and said in a crisp voice, "Well, Nini remembers, without the emperor, there will be no good life." ”

"Yes, that's good, dad will buy you a sugar gourd in a while." Liu Gui laughed happily. (To be continued.) )