Du Jian still has something to do, so he has to leave first. The reason why Shu Yan brought him here was to ask him to be a witness and take an open and transparent meaning. Because although the assistance fund is advocated by oneself, it is not one's own private money after all, and it must be done according to the public affairs, and each income and expenditure must be witnessed by more than two people, otherwise how can it win the trust of others? Now that the business is done, there is only Shu Yan and Wang Yidan's private chat, and there is no need for Du Jian to be present.

Shu Yan let Du Jian go back first, and then continued to chat with Wang Yidan: "My brother said that you are better off than the widow's family, but you are physically disabled, I don't know how you live on weekdays?" ”

When Wang Yidan heard the question, his face became a little sad, and he paused before saying: "How else can I live, I put the land in the name of the Shi family and became the tenant of the Shi family." ”

"What? How can you easily become a tenant of others? Shu Yan was surprised.

"I live with my wife and daughter, and I have no sons. I have become a wasted person, but the township officials have not reduced or reduced the rent because of my situation, and I still have to pay three horses of silk and three catties of cotton per year, and several yuan of land rent, but I am exempted from 20 days of hard labor every year. Although the chaff is strong and can work, it is always a woman. The two daughters are both teenagers, and they will get married in less than two or three years, and they can't be sons after all. I didn't have the top labor at home, so I couldn't cope with it. Besides, a desperate family like me doesn't need to think about how much land to leave for future generations, it is better to live in a wealthy family for the rest of your life. ”

"You put the land in the name of the Shi family, how much do you need to give the Shi family?"

"The grain obtained will be given to the Shi family for 30%, and I will get 70%, and the land will return to the Shi family after death."

"Thirty-seven points. If the yield of millet per mu is calculated according to three hundreds, it is equivalent to giving the Shi family nine buckets, right? However, if you pay the rent to the imperial court, it is only eight liters per mu; Moreover, the payment of rent to the imperial court is only within the scope of the class field, not all of your land, and you also have private land outside the class field, but the tenants who are the Shi family are apportioned according to the total yield per mu. In contrast, if you send the land to the Shi family and then share it with the Shi family, wouldn't it be much more disadvantageous than if you farmed the land yourself and paid rent to the imperial court? ”

"On the surface, it's different. Although there is no need to pay taxes on private land, my husband and wife only have 40 acres of land, and even 70 acres of class land is not enough. The most important thing is that the name of the Shi family does have to share 30% of the output, but I can borrow his family's cattle and carts. This is so important for a labor-starved family like me. Moreover, after I sent it to the Shi family, not only did I not have to pay the field tax, but I also did not have to pay the three horses of silk and three catties of cotton transferred by the household. Why don't you think I'm glad to do it? ”

Shu Yan listened to Wang Yidan's analysis, which was indeed reasonable, and couldn't help sighing: "There is really a policy and a countermeasure." The first emperor formulated the system of household adjustment and encouraged the people to occupy the land, in order to increase the tax of the imperial court and curb the wealthy and large households, but who would have thought that there would be such a collusion between the wealthy and the small households to damage the public and private interests. ”

Wang Yidan saw that Shu Yan became depressed, so he said: "Household surveys are a good thing for ordinary people. If the family is able to cultivate the land and occupy enough land, the family will have a surplus. But if you don't have enough land, or you can't cultivate it, that's a different matter. I know that my approach is unruly for the wealthy to the detriment of the imperial court's taxation. But I'm just a small citizen, unlike you, a gentleman and a husband with the world in mind, and I will never do such a thing at any time. ”

There are pros and cons to everything, and nothing in the world is the best of both worlds. Any policy should be born at the time and scrapped at the right time. Take taxation as an example, from ancient times to the Qin and Han dynasties and then to the Wei and Jin dynasties, after several changes, no tax law has been consistent since ancient times.

Shu Yan was silent for a long time, and slowly relieved.

Because of Wang Yidan's words attached to the Shi family, he suddenly remembered that the eldest princess of Yong'an entrusted him with something, and he was worried that he couldn't understand, so he just took this opportunity to listen and listen. So he tried to ask Wang Yidan: "According to what you said, there should be many tenants in the Shi family, right?" ”

"Dozens of households. There are about twenty families like me who have come with their fields; There are also about 20 households who rent and cultivate the fields of the donors without bringing their own fields. ”

"Oh? A tenant like them who simply rents the land of the donor family can't be divided into three or seven like you, right? ”

"Of course not. If the farmer rents the land of the Shi family, if he does not use the cattle of the Shi family, the harvested grain will be divided with the Shi family; If you borrow the cultivated cattle of the Shi family, you will have to divide them into four or six, four tenants, and six for the Shi family; If the seeds of the donor are used again, it may be divided into three or seven. ”

"Then according to what you say, the Shi family has so many tenants, plus it has so many fields, it is really a big business. Thinking about the Shi family's father and son, Lao Tzu is in Luoyang, and his son doesn't ask about everything, and the manager of Shi Mansion guards the property for them, which is not easy to say. ”

"It's not easy. However, they have been guarded and guarded, and they have all been guarded into their own hands. Wang Yidan thought that Shu Yan was just interested in the affairs of the wealthy family, and he was just chatting, because the two of them were familiar with each other, so there was no cover.

"What is this called? According to your meaning, it seems that Shi Chang is suspected of embezzling his brother. Shu Yan asked deliberately.

"Why not? At the beginning, he was still a little fight, timid, but later found that his brother was unaware, and he became more and more greedy, and in the past two years, it has intensified, to the point of blatantness. ”

"He's so blatant, isn't he afraid of reaching the ears of the Shi family's father and son?"

"Hey, if the family business is big to a certain extent, there will be loopholes. Although Shi Hui is shrewd, he spends most of his mind on the career of the imperial court, as for the furniture business, he can only ask about the big things, and how can he cover all the small things? Not to mention his butler brother, it is the head of the manor below, the shopkeeper of the store, and the purchase in the house, who doesn't take advantage of the convenience for personal gain? In the past, they acted separately when they were petty fights, but now they are colluding with each other and complicit. Some people in the Shi Mansion are all breathing out of one nostril, with a unified caliber, even if the people below notice something and inform the young master, they are not at the beginning or the end, what can they do? ”

"According to your meaning, not only is it normal, but even the head of the village, the shopkeeper, and the purchaser are also corrupt?"

"Of course. The harvest in the field, for example, a certain field harvested 1,000 husks, and they only said that it was 700 hus, and the 300 husks belonged to them privately. The shopkeeper is basically the same. They are concealing their income, and purchasing in the government is overreporting their expenditures. For example, if the actual expenditure is only 1,000 yuan, it is said that it is 1,200 yuan when it is reported, and the extra 200 yuan is privately divided between Shi Chang and the buyer. The rest of the account offices and treasurers have their own ways of cheating, and so on. People are always selfish, whether it is farming or purchasing, it is normal to settle a small fraction in private. But it is really too much to embezzle like the people of Shifu. ”

When Shu Yan heard this, he thought to himself: I can't complain that the eldest princess of Yong'an has some suspicion of these people, it turns out that the greed of these people is the same as that of Qiu Shoutai and others.

"I just don't understand. Shi Chang is Shi Hui's younger brother, but he colluded with outsiders to harm his own family. And those subordinates are all slaves of the Shi family, and even their own net worth and lives are Shi Fu, so what is the use of them collecting wealth like this? ”

Wang Yidan shook his head with a smile and said, "If anyone is as frank as you, how can this kind of thing happen in the world?" Although Shi Chang is also the master of the Shi family, he is only a concubine, and the ancestors of the Shi family only gave him a limited amount of property, and the entire family business belongs to Shi Hui, no matter how big he is, it has nothing to do with him. ”

"That's just as well. Since ancient times, there has been a difference between the young and the young, although it is a rule, but it is indeed unfair. It is inevitable that the son of the concubine will have resentment. But what about the people? How dare you encroach on the owner's property without permission? ”

"Although those subordinates are slaves for life, they all have their own thoughts. Are there still few slaves and maids who have swept away wealth and absconded in the world? Even if you don't abscond, you want to get a little more for yourself. For example, the Shi family raised a son privately outside the Tianzhuang in Shujiazhuang. ”

"A man who is raising heirs outside?"

"I raised it secretly, and I didn't dare to say anything, but I heard about it in everyone. It is said that the head of this grange had secretly selfishness as early as when Shi Hui's family did not move to Luoyang, and had an affair with a woman outside and gave birth to a child, who was already in his twenties. But he didn't dare to let the child's surname be Tian, so he followed his mother's surname, and retained his father's surname, called Huang Tian. ”

Shu Yan had dealt with Tian Fu when he was a child, and knew that this person was very cunning, and it was not impossible to do such a thing. "In addition to Shujiazhuang, how many farms does the Shi family have?"

"Much. It is said that Shifu has more than 5,000 acres of land, and there are his family's estates in the suburbs of Ruyin City. There are thousands of acres in the northern part of our city alone, and it is also a high-quality field that can be irrigated. ”

"Oh." Shu Yan suddenly realized, "On the way here, I saw a large field by the river, in such a dry weather, all the other plots are dry, but that one is wet, it should be the Shi family, right?" ”

"Who else but his family? The Shi family took advantage of the riverside and used their own cangtou to build a canal there, regardless of whether the rain was harmonious or not, it could ensure the harvest every year in drought and flood. Of course, this was built by Shi Hui back then. ”

Speaking of floods and droughts, Shu Yan was a little worried and said: "Of course, the Shi family can guarantee the harvest in drought and flood. But what about ordinary people? I look at the situation this year, if it doesn't rain again, I'm afraid it will not be easy for the people to survive. ”

Wang Yidan didn't seem to think so: "This year's spring ploughing is very good, and the seedlings are growing well, but there has been less rain since the beginning of summer, but the rainy season is coming soon, and I hope it will be alleviated." ”

"I hope so."

The sun was already setting in the west, Shu Yan and Wang Yidan chatted here, and then went back.