The population decline in Yangzhou is so severe that it has alerted the new governor.

This is by no means Zhu Guoxiang's business alone, but all the big landlords are fueling the troubles.

Before Cai Jing dismissed the prime minister, he made a second field order.

The big landlords colluded with the officials to reduce the amount of land they had in their own land.

And small landlords and yeoman farmers, inexplicably more paper land. They were forced to go bankrupt and flee, and the big landowners seized the opportunity to annex the land and swallow up the population as hidden tenants.

Many people fled directly into the mountains.

Even Gong Xiu, who occupied the scrap gold mine, continued to accept fugitives, and owned several villages in the ravine, with a total population of nearly 2,000.

This kind of thing is normal in the last years of the dynasty.

There are even more outrageous people, and Yangzhou can only be regarded as a small fight.

However, it was said that there was a Xu official named Du Gongcai, who gave advice to the eunuch Yang Jian and traced the land deeds of the common people.

The method is as follows: first identify a good piece of land, and confiscate it if it is unclaimed. If someone claims it, check the deed. If A can take out the land deed, he will find out where he bought it. Find out that the previous landlord is B, and then ask B to tell the previous landlord. From B to C, and from C to D......

After checking and searching, there was always a landlord who could not prove the origin of the land.

As a result, the property had to be confiscated, and the landlord was turned into a tenant head, who had to pay an additional rent every year.

The landlord not only had to pay rent, but also had to pay taxes to the government normally!

and waste embankments, waste weirs, barren mountains, and barren beaches...... All of them were determined to be official land, and the people in the vicinity were ordered to share the farm, and how much rent they had to pay each year.

In this way, a state can increase the rent of more than 100,000 yuan out of thin air.

Du Gongcai offered such good strategies, and Yang Jian appreciated him and was directly promoted to observer.

Yang Jian died of illness this year, and the eunuch Li Yan succeeded him.

Li Yan intensified his efforts to institutionalize Yang Jian's practice, set up a special institution "Xicheng Institute", and promoted it to Jingdong, Jingxi, Huaixi, and Huaibei.

And they are too lazy to pretend, but whenever they encounter good land, and the background of the landlord is not hard, they will refer to the good land as wasteland confiscation, and no longer track down who the previous landlord is.

Whoever dares to appeal is beaten to death at every turn.

Li Yan also learned from Zhu Mian and ordered the people of Jingdong and Jingxi to pay tribute, but he did not use the broken name of Huashigang.

As a result, "the fields that cannot be farmed, the cattle that cannot be cultivated, the wealth is depleted, the people die of starvation, or they are hanged in the yoke."

If a good official is unwilling to cooperate, he will be immediately dismissed.

For example, Yingchang's soldiers and horses ruled Fan Xiao, and he couldn't bear to harm the people, and he was framed and imprisoned by Li Yan without paying the full tribute, and was dismissed and disgraced.

Of course, Li Yan didn't have such great energy, but he took refuge in Prime Minister Wang Huang.

Wang Hao lacked Cai Jing's financial management methods, and when the treasury was empty, he could only rely on Li Yan's crooked ways to generate income.

Cao Zao is quite conscientious, he thinks that as long as the hidden fields are cleared, the government can pay taxes normally. With sufficient tax sources, Wang Hao does not need to engage in crooked ways.

Zhu Guoxiang is in Yangzhou, which is a typical example of the hidden land population. As long as Zhu Guoxiang is punished, he can knock on the mountain and shake the tiger, and let other big landlords pay taxes honestly!

"On the north shore are the villages of Upper White and Lower White."

"The white market is on the other side of the river, and the population was not large before. Zhu Xianggong accepted the fugitive households, reclaimed the wasteland in Dayu Bay, and turned the hillsides around Dayu Bay into tea gardens. Those new tea trees, which have been planted for more than three years, will be able to start picking tea this year. There is a small river flowing out of the mountains in Dayu Bay, and the area along the river is all cultivated land. ”

Cao Zao hired a person from Xixiang County as a guide, as long as he gave enough money, there was always someone willing to lead the way.

The area referred to at this moment is not the core of Daming Village at all.

At the beginning of the Zhu family's father and son's crossing, the place where Zhang Guangdao took them across the river was at the ferry on the other side of the white market.

In the past, there were only 30 or 40 households, but in recent years, the population has skyrocketed to more than 500. Moreover, the new tea mountain is opened, which is the third tea mountain in Daming Village, and many tung oil trees are planted in the upper reaches of the river.

"There's ...... Dockyard? Cao Zao was a little unsure.

The guide said, "It's a shipbuilding workshop, you can build some small boats...... Hey, it's a lot bigger than the last time I visited. ”

Tayu Bay is a natural harbor with a small river flowing into the Han River, and the most open part of the bay is nearly 200 meters.

The west side is a cliff that cannot be cultivated at all, and the people live on the east and south sides.

The shipyard is also in the south, and the first two years have been building small boats to practice, and this year they began to build a "big ship" of more than ten meters, and also invited an experienced shipbuilding master from Xingyuan Mansion.

Continuing east from Tayuwan, there is a "no man's land" of two or three miles, and the mountains are too steep to live and cultivate.

The terrain slowed down slightly, and many houses appeared, but they still did not reach the core area of Daming Village.

After continuing to sail for three or four miles, Cao Zao's eyes widened suddenly.

What is the village?

It's a town!

There are four two-story buildings, and more than a dozen merchant ships are docked at the docks.

Even from a long distance, I smelled the strong smell of sake lees.

The guide said: "There is soju in Daming Village, which is clear and translucent. The gentry and merchants didn't like it much, but the poor people loved to drink it. After a day of hard work, you can go home with two taels of soju to relieve the fatigue of the whole day. Shochu is strong, like a knife cutting the throat, and the people call it burning a knife. The three counties of Yangzhou are all sold, and there are also merchants who transport them to Xingyuan Mansion. ”

The liquor in Daming Village is made from corn and sweet potatoes, and the sake lees left over from the brewing are also used to feed the pigs.

The brewing process was kept secret for two years, but it was finally leaked, and some people in Xixiang County have tried to imitate it.

Chozao did not dock and continued down the Han River.

From Dayuwan to the place where the Zhu family father and son first saw the Han River, it stretched for fourteen miles, all of which belonged to the territory of Daming Village.

Can this still be called a village?

Although the coast is mountainous, the arable land zone is relatively narrow, and most places do not even have paddy fields. But you can also grow food in the mountains, and in the steep places, you can also grow tea trees and tung oil trees.

"How many people are there?" Cao Zao pointed to the river.

The guide shook his head: "I don't know, I haven't been in." ”

Along this small river into the mountain, it is the place where the Zhu family father and son crossed, and the BMW is still lying on the mountain.

Cao Zao asked the boatmen to row into the mountains, feeling that this place should not be cleared for a long time, and the crops are not growing well, and it is estimated that the land has not yet been raised.

There was nothing to explore, so I drove back by boat and came to the central pier of Daming Village.

"Where does the river lead?" Cao Zao asked.

The guide said, "To the former Black Wind Village." ”

The further upstream of Heifeng Village is also continuing to reclaim deeply, and in order to ensure the safety of the villagers, even the village Yong is organized to kill a tiger.

The current Daming Village is no longer a "T" shape, but an inverted "Ш" shape.

One horizontal represents the Han River, and three vertical represents three small rivers. The villagers live along the river, and the rest of the place is all mountains.

There are more than 5,000 villagers, several hundred of whom were displaced people from Shaanxi when Zhang Guangdao was smuggling.

The officials of Xixiang County have long classified this large area as Daming Township, but they are still used to calling it Daming Village.

Cao Zao landed by boat, and the goods were being moved on the dock.

The most conspicuous thing is the inn, where more than a dozen people are drinking tea in the lobby, and it seems that they are all businessmen and their entourage.

A street has been formed here, with a three-metre-wide stone pavement lined with shops on both sides.

Many shops are not open, and even if they do, there are no customers, because today is not the day to go to the market.

There are also several warehouses, all of which are the property of village cadres (Zhu Guoxiang has absolute control, others are minority shareholders).

For example, the dry goods warehouse purchases dried bamboo shoots, dried shiitake mushrooms, dried sweet potatoes, dried salted fish and other dry goods, and then transports them to the state and county towns for wholesale. The villagers have a side income, and the village leader also earns money.

"Zhu Xianggong is here!" The guide whispered.

Cao Zao turned to look, but saw a middle-aged man, holding a five or six-year-old girl, followed by a fourteen or fifteen-year-old boy.

Pedestrians on the street greeted one after another, and their respect was overflowing.

Cao Zao thought for a while, stepped forward and said, "Mr. Zhu, can you take a step to speak?" ”

"Your Excellency?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Cao Zao self-reported his identity: "Yangzhou Zhizhou Cao Zao." ”

Zhu Guoxiang was a little surprised, and replied: "It turned out to be Cao Taishou, please go to the pavilion over there and sit." ”

There is a pavilion outside the town, which is specially for passers-by to rest and enjoy the coolness.

Cao Zao came to the pavilion and sat down, and went straight to the point: "Someone reported that Mr. Zhu hid land, secretly stored people, and accepted fugitives. ”

Zhu Guoxiang said unhurriedly: "Those are not fleeing households, but displaced people from the famine years, and even many of them fled from Shaanxi. They couldn't survive, and the government couldn't help them, so I lent them seeds and farm tools to reclaim the land. ”

"I say I'm hiding the land, but it's mostly wasteland. According to the imperial decree, only the earliest batch of land reclamation needs to be paid, and the rest of the land has not yet reached the tax reduction period. ”

"As for conscription, according to the imperial decree, the reclaimed vagrants can be exempted from conscription. For the displaced people who have passed the reclamation period, I have also paid them money for buying labor, and I have given it to the county government every year. ”

Hearing these words, Cao Zao was stunned for a moment, and most of the anger in his heart subsided.

He had almost forgotten that the imperial court still had such a policy, because there were no officials to implement it.

Zhu Guoxiang continued: "Those displaced people have been registered as customers in Xixiang County. The reclaimed wasteland, as long as it reaches the age limit, will also go to the county government to register for the land deed. Where did the hidden land and the private population come from? ”

Cao Zao probably understood that Zhu Guoxiang must have something to hide about the land and population.

However, in strict accordance with the policy of the imperial court, it is estimated that there is not much concealment, because a large amount of land has not yet reached the tax exemption period.

Purely a bug in the card policy.

Even so, compared to the southern wang clan, this is a fart?

Cao Zao felt that impeachment was useless, and if the impeachment could be successful, Wang Hao would definitely have to fabricate another crime. He didn't plan to completely rely on Wang Huang, he had to think about his reputation.

But he had to complete the task of tax amount, otherwise it would be difficult to pay to the imperial court, and it was also his responsibility to govern the place.

Cao Zao said: "Mr. Zhu's character is admired below, and I will never believe in such a thing. But should the gentleman lead by example and share some money? ”

Zhu Guoxiang asked, "How much?" ”

"A thousand stone of grain!" The lion opened his mouth.

Zhu Guoxiang sneered: "If Taishou has any doubts, send officials to check the land population." The mountains are barren, and it is really impossible to harvest a few grains, and it is impossible to buy grain for a thousand stones! ”

Cao Zao asked, "How much does Mr. subscribe?" ”

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Last year, it was 100 stone meters, and this year I will save face and recognize 120 stones." As for the money and buying, it was also raised to thirty times. ”

Cao Zao said: "It's better to buy 100 yuan and buy 500 stones." After being transferred from Xixiang County to Yangzhou, I converted all of it into silver, and then secretly returned seventy percent to Mr. In addition, please ask Mr. to take out 20 acres of land and go to the county government to register and receive the land deed, which can be regarded as cooperating with the government to check the acres of land. ”

This counts the squire's money as it is collected, and Dean Zhu's money is returned seventy percent?

Zhu Guoxiang said: "You want to pay me back eighty percent!" ”

"It's a deal!" Cao Zao hurriedly said.

To put it mildly, how can Zhu Guoxiang do his.

As long as Zhu Guoxiang is willing to cooperate and play a leading and exemplary role, Cao Zao can use this as a breakthrough to quickly open up the situation in the three counties of Yangzhou.

(End of chapter)