Between the electric light and flint, two bowls of hot soup were poured onto Li Jinglong's thighs.
"Hiss...wu..."
Li Jinglong clenched his fists with both hands and stood there with a grin on his face and a look of pain on his face.
"I'm sorry, sir, I didn't do it on purpose!" The guest was burned, and Widow Xu panicked, grabbing her apron and going to wipe it off, but the burned area was really indecent...
"Hiss! Ah!" Li Jinglong's legs shook rapidly, like noodles in a storm, and his face was ferocious.
On the side, Fu Rang, who was silent, picked up a ladle of hot water with quick hands and splashed it on.
For a moment, Zhu Yunxi seemed to see the looming white smoke.
"Ah! Hiss!" Li Jinglong gasped, spread his legs, and sat down slumped, water dripping down his trouser legs.
After a long while, Zhu Yunxi asked, "Are you okay? Is it burnt?"
Li Jinglong pulled off two pieces of mutton from his pants and flicked away the scattered green onions, "It should be fine!"
"You can cause trouble even if you just drink some soup?" Zhu Yunxi suddenly said angrily, "I'm still thinking...how can I let you go out without worrying about being so immature and careless at such a young age?
!" He said, waving his hands, "Let's talk about that later!"
Remember https://m in one second.
Li Jinglong pulled his pants with both hands to prevent them from sticking to his skin, thinking, "It's okay, it's okay! A blessing in disguise!"
Widow Xu over there was so anxious that she burst into tears. These people on the table looked like they were rich and noble people. Their clothes were all made of good materials. No matter how much mutton soup they sold, they were not enough to compensate.
"Officials, don't blame me, my slaves are ignorant!" Widow Xu cried, "If you didn't touch my hands, how could I burn you!"
"Okay, okay, no one blames you. If I cook a few more bowls, I'll give you the money!" Zhu Yunxi frowned.
"No, no, no, it's from the slave family, how can I ask for money!" As she said that, Widow Xu walked to the stall again and started to work.
I don't know whether it was because she was afraid or something else, but the busier she became, the more confused she became.
"Are you from Fengyang?" Zhu Yunxi asked softly, not wanting to scare her.
"The slave family came here by marriage. The slave family has a hard life. Just three years after marrying here, her husband died, leaving five slave families with orphans and widows!" Widow Xu said, her eyes were red, and she looked a little pitiful.
"Is the business going well on weekdays? Do you have no land?" Another bowl of soup was brought up. Zhu Yunxi broke open a pot helmet and dipped it into the soup and asked.
"If there was land, a girl from the slave family would not be willing to show her face!" Widow Xu continued to arrange the food and said, "From the official accent, she is not from this place, so she doesn't know what is going on here!"
Zhu Yunxi took a bite of the soft pot helmet and said, "Do you think there is something else going on in Fengyang's land?"
Widow Xu carefully put the soup on the table, wiped her hands and said, "Nothing else, the land here is too expensive. A slave in the family who does small business can't afford five acres of land all his life!"
"How much does one acre of land cost?" Zhu Yunxi asked.
"In this year's market, poor slope land costs five silver dollars, and good river beach land costs fifteen silver dollars!"
"So expensive?" Zhu Yunxi stopped his chopsticks, "The land around the capital is not this expensive!"
"There are many royal estates in Fengyang, and the land of the Xungui family is also large!" Widow Xu said while collecting other people's money at the stall, "There are only so many good lands, and they are all in the hands of the officials. The common people don't have them.
Of course it’s expensive!”
"Besides, this is the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Lord Hong Wu is nostalgic and has tax exemptions every now and then. Naturally, the land price is higher than elsewhere!"
Zhu Yunxi silently put down his chopsticks. The land in Fengyang City was in the hands of a few people, which meant that there were a large number of farmers without farmland.
"What do people without land do for a living?" Zhu Yunxi pondered and asked.
"They all work as tenants in various official villages or in imperial villages." Widow Xu smoothed her hair, "Hey, they all live a miserable life. When the city was being built a few years ago, there was still a man who worked hard.
The place. Now that the city is no longer under construction, there is no place to work hard!"
"In other words, the country's tax exemption has not actually benefited the people!" Zhu Yunxi sighed, "The people have no land, let alone being exempted from it. The land of the emperor's village and the nobles do not pay taxes in the first place, even if they have their own land.
The big farmers and their tenants still can’t pay less to the landowners at all!”
"It's good if you don't pay too much!" Widow Xu added from the side, "For the land in Huangzhuang and the land of nobles, there is a fixed amount of money paid every year. They don't care how much they harvest, whether God rewards them or not, Shao
Not even a grain of rice! In the early years, when my husband was still alive, I would farm the land for a year and still owe rent to others!"
"How much land does the Imperial Manor in Fengyang occupy?" Zhu Yunxi asked Gou Ren with a cold face.
"In the beginning it was ten thousand three hundred and ten hectares!" Gou Ren bowed and said.
"Now!" Zhu Yunxi looked a little colder.
Gou Ren said, "More than 20,000!"
It turns out that the biggest landowner in Fengyang is the Zhu family themselves.
Zhu Yunxi no longer thought about eating, so he stood up and said, "Give her money!" After saying that, he put his hands behind his back and left, followed by his followers, who hurriedly followed.
"Why are there so many?" As he was walking, Zhu Yunxi suddenly turned around and asked Gou Ren, "Looking at the archives of the Household Department, isn't there only more than 300 hectares of Huangzhuang in Fengyang? Why are there so many?"
"That happened in the first year of Hongwu. At first, the imperial village was established to support the people who visited the imperial mausoleum and the imperial city." Gou Ren said, "But later, the emperor confiscated the homes of many nobles, along with many of the original rewards.
The tenants who were given to Xungui also became the tenants of Huangzhuang!"
Fengyang is the old land of Huaixi. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, many nobles had their land here. After the cases of Li Shanchang, Hu Weiyong, etc., senior ministers of the Huaixi Group were killed one after another, and naturally the land under their names also
Confiscation.
For example, Li Shanchang was from Dingyuan near Fengyang. In the early years of the Kingdom, his fiefdom in Fengyang area had 2,000 hectares of land, and he was rewarded with as many as 5,000 tenants.
Moreover, these criminal nobles often occupied civilian fields during their lifetimes, so all these fields have become imperial villages. Therefore, the Zhuangzi, which was only a few hundred hectares at the beginning, has now expanded to more than 20,000 hectares.
"What's the matter with not being able to owe rent?" Zhu Yunxi said angrily, "You have been a tenant farmer for a year, how can you still owe money?"
Gou Ren said, "The rent of the Huangzhuang is set by the Lords of Guanglu Temple. After the annual output is calculated, what is left for the imperial mausoleum and the imperial city is used, and the rest is sent to the Huaixi General Manager's Mansion for use as a garrison."
In the capital, rations for 40,000 troops!"
"Because it is used as military food, even if the year is bad, the harvest will not be less, right?" Zhu Yunxi sneered, "This is true for all royal farms, and the Xungui family's farm is probably even worse!" At this point,
, his anger was palpable, "Fengyang City, all the good land is in the hands of the emperor's village and nobles. There are also fields awarded to disabled veterans, as well as farmland for military guards. We must ensure that the warehouses are fully stocked every year."
"For the sake of the city's dignity, everything is done, but the common people suffer! If the common people don't have land, they have to work as tenants. After a year of hard work, they have to pay the land rent!"
Gou Ren did not dare to say anything and said cautiously, "Your Highness, this is the rule. Fengyang is the capital, where the imperial mausoleum is located!"
"Stop talking!" Zhu Yunxi interrupted coldly, waved his hand and moved forward.
Several people behind him looked at each other and quickly followed.
"Your Highness, my family also has a fiefdom in Fengyang, about more than 700 hectares!" Li Jinglong walked in circles and said carefully, "Your Highness has mercy on the people, I can donate it, and after verification by the Ministry of Household Affairs, it will be distributed to the people for farming!"
"A drop in the bucket!" Zhu Yunxi continued walking and said smoothly.
The trouble with Fengyang is that it is not only the hometown of the old man, but also the place where the army was launched, and it is also the hometown of the Ming Huaixi Group.
This is not a wealthy place to begin with, and if all the heroes are sealed here, it will lead to the current situation where people have no land to cultivate.
Moreover, because there were too many honorable men and nobles, the government awarded land based on population, and the fields granted to the people were not good land.
Seeing that Zhu Yunxi was unhappy, after returning to the imperial city, Li Jinglong waited until there was no one around and then said, "Your Highness, why don't you ask the court to take back the fiefdom?"
At the beginning, Zhu Yunxi asked Li Jinglong to play this trick, and united with some nobles to return many mines and fields.
"This time is different!" Zhu Yunxi sat on the throne, rubbing his temples, "The fiefdom in Fengyang is the land inherited by the nobles in exchange for their lives. This is their hometown. If they are willing to teach it back,
Grandpa Huang has already accepted it!"
"Besides, you can't take the lead in this matter. If you don't have enough prestige, you can't influence those people at all!"
Li Jinglong's heart moved, "Your Highness, Mr. Tang, the Duke of Xin, was raised in his hometown. This matter cannot be rushed anyway. Why don't you talk to Mr. Tang about it then?"
Tang He was a personal choice, but the biggest obstacle for Fengyang people to have no land to farm was actually Huangzhuang.
"The root lies with the old man, how can I convince him?" Zhu Yunxi thought to himself.
This chapter has been completed!