The prosperity of Yangyang Province is impressive.

There is an endless stream of boats on the Han River, and people in and outside the city are rubbing shoulders one after another.

It is completely unimaginable that such a place with abundant water and soil and healthy people will be ravaged by Zhang Xianzhong, Zuo Liangyu, and other bandit officers and soldiers ten years later, and it will become the favorite area for officials, officials and bandits to "eat".

The so-called "food" means very simply, that is, how to get food from farmers at the lowest cost.

The official passes various taxes and collects them free of charge; The bandits took it away for free through various robberies.

In fact, the most terrible thing is not officials and bandits.

After all, officials are liuguan, except for Zuo Liangyu, who must be promoted by political performance. Bandits themselves are not bandits, they are ordinary people who can't survive.

The landlords and grain merchants, who have always been on top of the poor peasants and tenants, are the most terrible existences.

More than half of the farmers' harvest goes into their pockets.

Even so, Xiangyang did not collapse economically until the height of the war, and the people tried their best to produce and live, and it was still a place that could feed people.

People with a modicum of justice and compassion will want these people to live well, not in such a dark time.

However, the place is indeed lax.

Xiangyang, Nanyang and Jingzhou have been important military towns and battlegrounds for soldiers since ancient times, and Jingchu warriors, ploughing soldiers and excellent sailors have emerged in an endless stream in history.

Now it is a long time of peace, and people do not know soldiers.

Even the governor of Yunyang, who was in charge of supervising the soldiers and horses, and was in charge of the military affairs of the above regions, could only do a good job of maintaining law and order, and forgot the duty of recruiting and training a strong army.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were many wars, and many places had brave warriors.

However, in the history of China, the pivotal Jingxiang strong army and Huaisi warriors are absent!

Wang Hongyu sighed that he couldn't forget the bloodline of the two places because of one farming to feed the world and the other brewing the world's good wine.

Wang Hongyu wanted to use the elite of Sichuan soil in the southwest of Yunyang and the elite of Sichuan and Shaanxi in the northwest to drive the martial arts of the eastern plain, so that the Jingxiang warriors could be revived at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

He chose Yunyang as his base not to fight guerrilla attacks according to danger, but to use the border of northwest Chu, adjacent to the three provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Henan, to develop in all directions, and to develop in a low-key manner.

The governor of Yunyang has jurisdiction over the military affairs of the surrounding areas of Yunyang, Xiangyang, Nanyang, Jingzhou, and Hanzhong. At this time, the armament was lax, and as the first general of Yunyang Mansion, he could control the surrounding military potential in his own hands.

The second-in-command of Xiangyang Mansion, Fu Tongzhi is Ai Youzhi, which can naturally become an important help.

With him here to support the industry, balance the relationship between civil and military, and Xiangyang Mansion is worry-free.

The group followed the south side of the Han River, all the way to the east, and soon reached the west side of Xiangyang, next to Gu County in Yunyang Prefecture.

In this place in Gu County, Wang Hongyu came to the spirit as soon as he heard it.

Because he became famous in the late Ming Dynasty.

After Zhang Xianzhong's most famous surrender, he was arranged to be stationed in Gu County.

Here, on the one hand, he bribed Xiong Wencan and many officials, and on the other hand, he recruited troops and horses, trained soldiers, and waited for the world to change again.

During this period, he also had a "double hero meeting" with Li Zicheng, who was absconding.

Xianzhong, you don't have a chance, Gu County is taken a fancy to me~

Gu County is just in the Jingxiang Plain to the good place of the mountain, in the spring and autumn for the territory of the valley country, the county got its name.

The household registration and tax sent by Ai Youzhi show that there are more than 7,000 people in Gu County, and the annual tax tax is more than 5,000 taels.

At this time, a strong man can earn ten taels a year by working in a big city like Xiangyang, but it is lower in ordinary counties.

If there are 20 acres of land, there are no disasters and two crops a year, and more than 3,000 catties of rice and more than 2,000 catties of wheat can be obtained.

Grain for yourself and your assumed three family members to keep 300 catties of grain each, and sell the rest, at this time the price of grain is higher, theoretically it can be sold for 30 taels of silver.

But this is theoretical, after all.

In autumn, the price of grain collected by landlords and grain merchants was only half of the usual price, which became 15 taels.

There is also water for seeds to rent and buy, fodder for cattle to raise, money to rent cattle without cattle, and farm tools to rent and buy......

For farmers with good conditions, the cost is lower. If the conditions are poor, the cost will be deducted by nearly 10 taels of silver, so that only 5 taels are left.

Pay the tax, but it is clear that the total amount of land and land for 4 people is about 3 taels, and there are 2 taels left.

This is the real life of the people of Huguang, a life without disasters, tax increases, smoking, and wars.

But what about that?

What if the landlords, large households, and grain merchants collect grain at a lower price?

But take 10,000 steps back.

After all, the silver tax is less than the tax in kind, and the peasants will not pull the tax to pay 1,000 catties of grain, and the government will use the big bucket, and the peasants' 1,000 catties will only be counted as 800 catties when paying taxes, and you will have to pull more than 200 catties to make up for the 200 catties of the government.

This is not enough.

Hu didn't stabilize it, the official kicked it directly, kicked it every time, and what fell was counted as "loss". The peasants also have to replenish grain and at least 100 catties to pay taxes.

The tax is 1,000 catties, and the farmers' actual payment may be 1,300 catties.

But this excess of "1,000 catties" of grain will not be exceeded when it arrives at the warehouse, and the real value may be more than 800 catties.

Before entering the warehouse, those who were greedy for ink were pushed to the peasants to steal and play tricks.

There are more than 800 catties of grain in the warehouse, and there can be 600 catties when used, that is, the officials are excellent.

In ancient times, when the officials were poor, they directly reported that the grain depot was on fire, suffered disasters, and moldy, and finally it was 200 catties......

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Isn't this a major motivation for thousands of years to be an official~

After the silver tax, this set can't be done.

The tax quota cannot be reduced too much out of thin air, otherwise the yamen with silver will not work.

Although there are other corrupt flowers, there is no way to blatantly put thousands of catties of grain, and the embezzlement of ink is 200 catties.

The exception of the worst time of the Qing Dynasty~

The government's greed for ink has decreased, but the wealth of wealthy merchants has increased.

Originally, it was half of the greed for ink, but now the price of grain has been reduced by half.

Back here in Valley County.

The county has a total of more than 120,000 acres of land.

A plain county with a wide lake is only 120,000 acres of land? Who believes?

In ancient times, the land could make money by producing grain, but there was nothing to abandon, and they wished to cultivate more.

Gu County passed by like this, and it is simply estimated that there are more than 200,000 acres of land.

Those that were not included in the tax were naturally the lands of the local large landowners and official families.

According to the government's statistics, the population paying taxes is more than 7,000, but the actual population will never be so small, it must be tens of thousands.

I am afraid that most of these extra people are large servants and tenant farmers who are dependent on them.

This is because the big landlords are the best at using their own land and financial advantages to turn poor peasants into tenants.

The specific method is very simple: for the poor peasants who are in difficulty in paying taxes, they can borrow money in name, but in fact they can lend usury, and if they owe too much, they will have to sell their land, and if they sell their land, they can only be tenant farmers of the landlords.

As long as the landlord's land was rented, no taxes were paid, and some tenant farmers found it acceptable.

But they are at the bottom of the information gap and belong to the most exploited people.

The amount of rent paid is often more than half of the harvest, much more than before.