Li Yu had a wife in a daze.

In this matter, Brother Zhao Kuangning is more active than anyone else.

The next day, they went to Chang'an and asked the saint to marry.

Li Yu's convoy also set off for Nanyang County, and the number of troops escorted rose from 500 to 1,000.

The convoy left the inner countryside and went east along the south bank of Jushui, and camped for the night after walking forty miles.

Because the road on this road is flat, some snow is not in the way, there are not many people and horses, and the walking speed is relatively fast, if you are in the mountains, you can't walk for 30 miles a day.

The next day, we set up camp on the west bank of the turbulent water and spent the night here.

On the third day, after crossing the river, we entered the boundary of Nanyang County, went east, until it was dark, and camped here.

Along the way, it took Li Yu six days to see an ancient city from afar.

"Your Highness, there is Nanyang County in front."

Zhou Kuan pointed to a dark shadow on the horizon in front of him and said.

From Fengxiang to Nanyang, Li Yu spent a whole month.

On the twenty-eighth day of the first month of the third year, Li Yu's motorcade entered Nanyang County.

Nanyang City is three zhang high, it is made of rammed earth, there are four gates, the east gate is called Yanxi, the south gate is called Shuyang, the west gate is named Yong'an, and the north gate is named Bowang.

The moat surrounds the city, with drawbridges connecting the two ends. The water is connected with the moat, meanders in the east of the city and the south of the city, goes to the south, confluence with the turbulent water in Xinye, and then confluence with the blocked water and the white water successively, and merges with the Han water in Xiangyang.

The chief bookkeeper and the county lieutenant rushed back to the county seat a few days early, cleaned up the backyard of the county government first, and temporarily settled King De here.

As for the construction of the palace, this has to be considered in the long run.

Running all the way, people are sleepy and tired.

Everyone moved all the goods in the carriage into the backyard of the county government, and the eight beauties followed Li Yu into the house.

Li Yu's 100 private soldiers followed him to guard in the county office, and the hundreds of cavalry and 500 guards of Jingxiang Jiedu were arranged by the county lieutenant in the school yard next to it, where there were some barracks, and if it was not enough, tents were set up temporarily.

Where are these proud soldiers and warriors who came from Chang'an willing to live in tents, they are noisy and unwilling.

When Li Yu heard about this, he immediately took out a reward, three copper coins per person, which calmed them down.

Jing Xiangbing also has a part, and they can't favor one over the other under their noses, otherwise it is easy to cause a mutiny.

The next day, these cavalry drove dozens of carriages back to their respective territories, while the Jingxiang soldiers stayed in Nanyang and acted as security guards, temporarily guarding the four gates of Nanyang to maintain law and order.

The guards don't leave Wei Ai behind by Li Yu and continue to guard by his side, and he commands a hundred palace attendants, this person is recommended by his father and should be reliable.

In the county office, Li Yu and Zhou Kuan asked about some family background in the treasury.

"Your Highness, each Cao is under the jurisdiction of the county lieutenant, and you can let each Cao Sizuo report."

This is the specialization of the art industry.

It didn't take much effort, and the county lieutenant came in with two old men.

One is Sakura Sikura, who is in charge of the warehouse.

One is Si Huzuo, who is in charge of the county's household registration files.

Si Cang held the thick ledger and reported to Li Yu the number of things in the warehouse.

"Your Highness, there are still 20,000 hus of corn and 10,000 hus of rice in the granary under the charge of the lowly position."

"Why so little?"

"Alas, Your Highness, these grains are harvested from the Gongqi field, and some of them are used, so there is so much left."

"There are still 3,000 copper coins in the treasury, which is last year's household tax."

"Oh."

Li Yu didn't know much about the current taxes, so he asked for advice very humbly.

"Tell me about the current tax rate?"

Zhou Kuan excused himself and said, "Your Highness, Rong Chen will elaborate." ”

"On the eighteenth day of the first month of the fourth year of the Great Calendar, there is a division to determine the annual tax money of the people of the world and the princes. It is divided into nine classes: 4,000 for upper and upper households, 3,500 for upper and middle households, and 3,000 for upper and lower households. ”

"2,500 Wen for middle and upper households, 2,000 Wen for middle and middle households, and 1,500 Wen for middle and lower households."

"1,000 Wen for the lower upper household, 700 Wen for the lower middle household, and 500 Wen for the lower household."

"When he sees the official, the first product is allowed to go to the upper household, the ninth product is allowed to go down to the lower household, and the rest of the products are allowed to be taxed according to this household. If there are several officials in a household, each of them will be taxed according to the product. ”

"If its people have residences, shops, shops, shops, and furnaces, they shall be allowed to add the second-class tax of their own households, and shall be levied according to the number of such taxes. The quasi-old example of sending households from the eighth class household tax, and the sending household from the ninth class household tax, compared to the common people, the matter is afraid of unevenness, and it is advisable to add a first-class tax to each. ”

"Its various floating guests and the right to live in the field, etc., regardless of whether there are officials or officials, each place is a two-class tax: a little Yin has a quasi-eighth-class household, and the remaining quasi-ninth-class household."

"If there are farms in several places, there is also a tax in each place."

"The soldiers of the Dao Zhuangtian, because of the diligence of defense, cannot be the same as the common people, and all taxes are from the ninth class."

"When will the taxes be collected?"

"There are two seasons a year, the summer tax does not exceed June, and the autumn tax does not exceed November"

"That's not a lot of taxes."

"Alas, Your Highness, although the law of the two taxes of the imperial court is good, the specific implementation below has slowly changed."

"How?"

"Wars are raging everywhere, and in some places, an additional 200 is levied for each of the military needs, and there are also 3,000 for one mu of autumn seedlings and 2,000 for one mu of summer seedlings."

"What's even more terrifying is the law of service."

"Originally, after the two taxes, the money was exempted. But now, not only is it unavoidable, but it has become a permanent thing for men, women, and children to serve. ”

"Therefore, people everywhere are forced to leave, who still farms with such high taxes!"

"Coupled with the monopoly of salt and iron, the price has risen in various places, and the people can't afford to eat salt."

"My lord, my family hasn't eaten salt for half a month."

Sikura said in a low voice.

Hiss~~~~

Li Yu was dumbfounded by what they said.

No wonder the people ran away, no wonder the people ran away from the thieves as soon as the Yellow Nest came. If you have to rebel yourself, what kind of life is this Nima!

"Because of the two taxes to pay copper money, how can the common people have copper money if they only have rice? The wealthy families took the opportunity to hoard copper money and sell it at a high price, resulting in the grain being sold cheaply, the price of grain was extremely low, and forty wen and one stone abounded, and the people lost the motivation to farm. With the war, the price of food rose again to the point that no one could afford it, and the wealthy families made money inside and out, and the people were forced to a desperate situation. ”

"Moreover, since the implementation of the two taxes, there has been no supervision of land sales, mergers have become more and more serious, and the good land in the county is in the hands of the big clans."

"Isn't there a lot of wasteland on our way here?"

"There is a lot of wasteland, but it is far from the river, and it is difficult to irrigate and the cost of reclamation is very high."

"Zhou Changshi, immediately send a letter to Zhao Jieshuai, borrow grain and money from him, how much is needed, you calculate, you must be able to hold on until the autumn harvest."

"Okay, I'll do it right away."

"Wait, borrow more food, anyway, he has a lot of food in Xiangyang City."

"Okay."

Zhou Kuan knew that it would be no problem for Li Yu to borrow grain, who would let the family immediately become the Zhao family's son-in-law?!

"Do we have any weapons and armor in the storeroom?"

"This ...... Your Highness, Nanyang has some weapons and armor, but they are all relatively old. ”

"Oh? Why? ”

It stands to reason that there should be a large number of weapons and armor in Nanyang's treasury. Because Nanyang has been the country's iron-smelting center since the Han Dynasty, most of the country's ironware was made in Nanyang. The weapons made in Nanyang are known as "Wanzuo", the weapons are sharp and of high quality, and they have always been the weapons sought after in the army.

The main reason is that Nanyang invented "ductile iron", known as replacing steel with iron, such a process was invented more than a thousand years earlier than Europe, and modern "ductile iron" is still a material for casting high-strength parts.

Although the scale of the iron-smelting official here at the end of the Tang Dynasty was much smaller, there should be a lot of weapons in the treasury.

"Ahem." Si Cang coughed.

"Your Highness, the previous inventory was looted by Zhu Quanzhong, and a lot of craftsmen in Nanyang's workshop were looted."

"In the past two years, Zhou Changshi has transferred some craftsmen from Xiangyang City to maintain the basic construction and maintenance of agricultural tools, and the weapons in the warehouse are still transferred from Xiangyang."

When Li Yu heard this, his heart was half cold.

There is no food, no money, no soldiers, and no land, and now except for 20,000 ordinary people and some wealthy families, he can be said to be poor and white.

Send the two old men away, Li Yu asked Zhou Kuan.

"Changshi, are there any bandits around Nanyang?"

"Your Highness, there is Funiu Mountain to the north of Nanyang. Two years ago, there was a gang of thieves who fell into the grass and often went south to raid the city, sometimes going deep into Nanyang. That's why I shipped some weapons from Yuxian and Xiangyang just in case. ”

Hiss~~~

Li Yu's head became big all of a sudden, he is not only poor and white now, but also a bandit.

"How many people are there?"

"It's not too much, only a thousand people, but they are well-armed and well-trained!"

"Oh? Have you ever recruited An? ”

"Jieshuai means to recruit An, the assassin thinks that it must be exterminated, spring is about to begin, and it is estimated that they will go down the mountain again."

"yes, I see."

Li Yu looked at the map hanging on the wall for a long time, and found that this group of people actually put their nest in Yinshaling.

"Changshi, is this Yinsha Ridge a place for copper smelting?"

"Yes. More than ten years ago, it was indeed a place where copper was smelted, and then the war was chaotic, and the people here were coerced into thieves many times, and some of the remaining people were also coerced to Bianzhou. ”

Li Yu had a toothache when he heard this.

This gang of thieves must be resolutely exterminated, this is a gold mine, copper is copper money, how can the thieves dominate it?

Must be taken.

"It's not enough to just borrow grain, there must be supporting measures, otherwise there will not be enough food to eat in the autumn."

"Yes, Your Highness. One is that there is too little irrigation land now, and there has been a lack of water conservancy repairs over the years, and many irrigation canals have collapsed, and there is no money to repair them. ”

"Another thing is that the big local households don't pay taxes."

"I see."

Li Yu walked back and forth a few times, and then said to Zhou Kuan: "It's about to enter February now, let's repair the irrigation canal, and let them all repair the canal." ”

"Okay."

Zhou Kuan hurriedly studied the ink and recorded what Li Yu said.

"The second point is that we have a reclamation order."

"Reclamation?"

"Yes. All those who come to Nanyang to reclaim the famine, as long as they go to the national government to register, there is no limit to household registration. ”

Li Yu said his thoughts, and Zhou Kuan brushed the records.

"Each person can reclaim 30 acres of wasteland, men, women and children have land, and the actual number of land reclamation is granted."

"No tax will be collected for three years, and twenty taxes will be one after three years."

"Seeds, farm tools, and cattle are all provided by the government."

"Encourage the purchase of cultivated cattle, and the state government will give subsidies, and each cow will be subsidized by 15 yuan."

Li Yu's words made Zhou Kuan, who recorded it, tremble.

This, this is good governance!

If this news spreads, I am afraid that the people of the surrounding states and counties will flock to it. Not only that, but who still cultivates their land among the tenants in the hands of the big families?

"In this way, you go and borrow grain first, first borrow 100,000 hu, or more, money, you tell him, we will exchange copper with him."

Li Yu knew that there was a money casting workshop in Xiangyang City, and as long as there was copper, it was a lot of money.

"Hey!"

Zhou Kuan knew what Li Yu was thinking, and he must have been eyeing Yinshaling.

"Determine the personnel of the state government and the palace, and if the original team of the county government is reliable, they will be directly transferred and used temporarily."

"Also, gather all the big families of this county, and I will feast on them."