Chapter Seventy-Nine: Commitment

After being appointed as the person in charge of the Weizhou Physician Academy, Chaochuan Wu showed great work ability and enthusiasm, and devoted himself to the construction of the Physician Academy with five auxiliary soldiers under Li Tianming.

After the two matters of borrowing grain and the physician's academy were resolved, Qin Zhen said goodbye to Guo Wei, and took Yang Xiaoqi and Wang Tiezhu back to Tong'an Town non-stop.

After leaving for four or five days, Qin Zhen came to Tong'an Town again, and found that the current Tong'an Town has undergone great changes, and a large number of people have begun to open up the wasteland outside the city. ”

Many of the people who have opened up the wasteland have never seen Qin Zhen, but they have been thundering to the title of Captain Qin these days, and they all know very well that they can have these fertile lands of their own in Tong'an, it is because of this Captain Qin, in the eyes of ordinary people, land is more expensive than life, especially in such a war-torn era, so now in the eyes of these people who have opened up wasteland, Qin Zhen is undoubtedly their savior, and it is their hope to live.

"Wow!" Those people who had been cultivating the wasteland all put down their work and rushed to Qin Zhen, kneeling on the ground, kowtowing, shouting various names such as "Lord Captain", "Life-saving Benefactor", "Lord Qingtian", etc., shouting one after another, and some even cried.

Qin Zhen hurriedly jumped off the horse, and while helping the people in front of him, he shouted: "Everyone get up, don't kneel, if you have something to say!" ”

When Qin Zhen shouted, the people kneeling on the ground gradually quieted down, but everyone still knelt on the ground, it seemed that only in this way could they express their greatest respect for Qin Zhen, just now those people who were helped up by Qin Zhen saw that they were standing alone in the crowd, and immediately knelt down in embarrassment, and even lowered their heads, as if only in this way could they redeem the disrespect they had just stood up.

Qin Zhen was helpless, so he had no choice but to shout loudly: "The chief and the chief A who are present, let the people in your jurisdiction stand up, everyone is kneeling, and I can't stand either!" ”

Hearing Qin Zhen's words, these security chiefs and A chiefs present basically knew that Qin Zhen was not pretending, but really didn't like everyone kneeling to him, so they all hurriedly coaxed and scared, and finally made all the people stand up.

Qin Zhen smiled: "That's right, wouldn't it be better for us to talk face-to-face like this, I'm standing here, you guys are kneeling, I can only see your big heads, it's a little unfair to me!" ”

Some happy people burst into laughter, and the atmosphere at the scene suddenly relaxed a lot.

"Lord Captain, will these lands really belong to us in the future?" Someone asked boldly.

Qin Zhen said: "Strictly speaking, the ownership of these lands belongs to the Flying Eagle Regiment of Zhechong Mansion, and you only have the right to use and the right to benefit. That is to say, these lands belong to the Flying Eagle Regiment, and you can cultivate on these lands, and all the food you grow is yours except for the taxes we have set, and if one day you no longer cultivate these lands, we will take them back and redistribute them to those who need them. ”

"We finally have land, how can we stop farming? Even if one day I can't plant, I still have sons and grandchildren. Someone shouted.

"Yes, yes!" The crowd chimed in.

"Lord Captain, you said that this land belongs to the Flying Eagle Regiment, not us, why don't you give these lands directly to us, and what if you want to take them back one day?"

Everyone looked at Qin Zhen in unison, obviously everyone was very concerned about this issue.

Qin Zhen was stared at by hundreds of pairs of eyes, his expression remained unchanged, and he said with a smile: "Let me ask you a question first, how did you all come to be in the past?" ”

"Of course I bought it!" Someone replied.

"Our family's ancestral property is in this place, and I heard my grandfather say that this land was two taels of silver a mu back then."

"Then let me ask you another question, why don't you have any land?"

This time, the crowd fell silent.

"One year there was a famine, there was no harvest in the field, in order to survive, we borrowed ten stones of grain from the Wang family, but in the second year, the ten stones of grain rolled into fifty stones, and we couldn't afford to pay it back, so we used these good fields to pay off the debt."

"It turns out that although life is tight, we can still get along with this, but in recent years, not only have the party bandits looted from time to time, but the government's taxes have also increased more and more, and our family really can't afford to pay the government's taxes, so those inhumane servants confiscated our family's land and sold it to the landlords in the town."

"In order to marry a daughter-in-law for his son, he used his family's land as collateral to borrow some money from the money bank in Weizhou, but later they collected the debt, and in just half a year, the debt of our family was too high to see the end, and the money bank saw that our family could not pay back the money, so they collected the land we mortgaged. Alas, I was confused and hurt a large family. ”

......

As long as one person started up, more people complained to Qin Zhen, Qin Zhen did not show impatience, just listened quietly, and waited until everyone was almost finished, Qin Zhen said: "I basically understand that there are many reasons for you to lose your land, but there is one thing in common, that is, the land in the hands of all of you has fallen into the hands of those big families and big landlords without exception. If I give these lands directly to you and become your family's private property, will your family's land continue to fall into the hands of those big families and big landlords in the future? ”

The crowd fell silent again.

"Definitely, we are all poor and have a thin industry, if there is any natural and man-made disaster in the future, our only value is the dozens of acres of land, in order to solve the dilemma, you will definitely sell the land at a low price to those landlords, even if you don't buy it, they will try their best to get these lands away, because their family is big, rich and powerful, you can't compete with those big landlords and big families. At that time, you will be back to the situation where you have no land to plant, and what is the point of the land I have given you. ”

"Lord Captain, you can call the shots for us, I know that Lord Captain is facing us poor." Someone shouted again.

"If we really borrow money from others, and we owe money to repay the debt, which is justified, how can the captain make decisions for us?" Someone retorted.

Qin Zhen pressed his hands down a few times, waited until everyone was quiet again, and continued: "Your family's land used to be bought with money, but now I won't let you spend money to buy land, but will give these lands to you to cultivate the wasteland. Even if there are any natural and man-made disasters in the future, those landlord families will not be able to take away these lands from you, because these lands belong to the Flying Eagle Regiment of Zhichong Mansion in Weizhou, and you can still cultivate on this land, so that you have hope of turning over. I, Qin Zhen, hereby promise that as long as the Flying Eagle Regiment exists for a day, as long as you are still cultivating, these lands will never be recovered. ”

"Good!" The crowd applauded!

"Lord Lieutenant, if there are really natural and man-made disasters like the one you mentioned in the future, and we don't have the land to mortgage and borrow from those landlord families, then what should we do?"

"If that time comes, since we can't borrow money from those big landlord families, why don't we all unite and tide over the difficulties together? Our few or dozens of households may not be as rich as those landlords, but what about our hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of households united, you know, those landlords don't work, so where does their food and money come from? It is not exploited from us laborers, we work for them as tenants and long-term laborers, working day and night, until at last all the food and money go into their pockets, and we have nothing left. Now it's different, we have our own land, and all the fruits of our labor go into our own pockets, and after two or three years, we have surplus food in our hands, are we still afraid? ”

"Don't be afraid!" The passion of everyone was all ignited, and they roared in unison.

"Okay, in that case, let's all hurry up and open up the wasteland, and if there is more land, our harvest will be better next year." Qin Zhen persuaded.

Han Ruoyun walked over and asked those chief guards and chiefs to lead everyone to continue to open up the wasteland, and these people reluctantly left, and many people kept looking back at Qin Zhen while walking.

Han Ruoyun had a gray headscarf wrapped around her head, and a cloth belt was tied up to her waist, looking neat and capable, she lightly brushed away the hair stuck to her face due to sweat, and chuckled: "Although we have told them a lot about the position and policy of our Flying Eagle Regiment in the past few days, although they are convinced on the surface, I can feel that they still have a lot of doubts in their hearts, although it doesn't seem to be tight now, but it's not good after all, I'm thinking about how to dispel the doubts in their hearts as soon as possible, I didn't expect that the captain would make their doubts disappear as soon as he said a few words, but this alone, Ruoyun would never be able to do it. ”

Qin Zhen laughed: "Don't hold me too high, if you fall down one day and there is no one below to pick up, it will be a miserable fall." They were able to dispel their doubts so quickly, not because of how reasonable I said, but because of the reputation that Weizhou Zhichong Mansion has accumulated over the years and my status as a school captain, they all know that now my words are useful in the entire Tong'an Town, so what they want is a promise from me, and if I give it to them, they will feel at ease. ”