Aslan smiled and helped Goode up, and the two began to chat. In the middle of the conversation, Wilson couldn't help but shouted angrily.
"Gude, you are looking for death."
Aslan didn't care at all.
Gude came alone this time, having handed over the entire Wood Village to Gute's responsibility, and he came to plead guilty.
From the beginning to the end, Aslan's goal was Gute, an expert in growing bract fruit. As for the already severely weakened Wood Village, as long as the town of Merlo develops and Gute is in Merlo Town, Gute will come closer sooner or later.
.
Aslan has always been very tolerant towards his subjects.
"It's okay. It's enough for Mr. Goode to come here. I've heard a long time ago that Mr. Goode has his own method of growing bract fruits, so this time my target is just you. As for Wood Village, I will let the actual actions take care of it.
They themselves surrendered to me." Aslan said boldly.
Goode glanced at Aslan in surprise, and then, under the leadership of Aslan, he came to the wasteland that was being opened up in the south of Mero Town. In a few days, dozens of acres of land had been opened up in this wasteland.
And they are all planted with bract fruit trees. Based on Gude's experience, I can make a preliminary estimate.
Once these 30 acres of land are successfully planted with bract fruit, the high yield of bract fruit should be able to alleviate the food problem that Mero Town has been facing.
Goode has put all his efforts into planting these years.
There is a small patch of bract fruit trees in the back hill of Wood Village, with only half an acre of land, but it can bring him five to six thousand kilograms of bract fruit every year. This is why he can recruit a team of people in Wood Village.
In the barren Merlot region, food is sometimes more valuable than gold coins.
Looking at the Baoluo orchard in front of me, the wasteland is still being developed. It is initially estimated that at least hundreds of acres of land will be reclaimed if all of the land is planted into Baoluo fruit.
That kind of output was something that Good couldn't even imagine. Not to mention the small town of Merlot, even if the big eaters in Wood Village and Leanning Village were included, there would be no problem in feeding them all.
From one point onwards, Goode had already seen Aslan's ambition.
"How's it going? Mr. Goode, isn't my farm nice?" Aslan asked with a smile.
Good looked at the orderly farmers and the neatly spaced buds, and couldn't help but take a breath of air.
It also took him three years to discover that if the bract fruit was planted too densely, the yield would be affected.
But here, the buds and fruits have been arranged neatly, so this is definitely not a coincidence.
Seeing more and more bud fruit trees being planted, many residents of Merlot Town couldn't help but feel excited.
Especially those adults who are assigned to open up wasteland.
If they could be allocated an acre and a half, they would no longer have to worry about filling their stomachs.
In today's Cleveland Kingdom, all land belongs to the king, nobles and lords. There is no private ownership of land, which is equivalent to the well field system during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.
It is allocated by the lord to the common people for use. The land cannot be bought, sold or transferred, and a certain tax must be paid. The lord will force the common people to farm collectively.
This is also the key reason why no lord in the Mero region is willing to come.
There are wastelands everywhere, and there are simply not enough fields for commoners to cultivate. In the kingdom, as long as the lord is in office, he must pay taxes every year, and the amount of taxes is determined by the size of the territory.
The entire territory of Merlot Town includes the entire Merlot region. The land area is no larger than that of a dukedom, but because there is not enough cultivated land, it was eventually reduced to a small town.
In such a small town, after every lord came, he could only scrape the ground and exploit the common people, otherwise there would be no way to pay the next year's taxes.
If a lord fails to pay taxes on his territory for two consecutive years, he will be beaten to the end and demoted to a commoner.
Aslan stood on a protruding hill and shouted to the onlookers: "I believe everyone knows better than me how high the yield of bract fruit is, and it is well taken care of three seasons a year.
It’s no problem to collect 20,000 to 30,000 catties a year.”
Even if Aslan didn't say it, the people knew it very well. After all, their main food has always been bract fruit.
"I am here to announce that each family can receive one acre of bud fruit field. If you serve your family loyal to the lord, you will receive one more acre of field."
Although the people around were a little excited, they didn't have too excited expressions because the most important thing was the taxes that had to be paid every year.
Maybe it's because of the other world, the food production is high, so the taxes are also horribly high.
For example, rice, the main grain in other parts of the Kingdom of Cleveland, has a yield of 5,000 kilograms per mu per mu all year round, and other grains are also between 3,000 and 6,000 kilograms. With such a high output, the field tax is naturally terrifyingly high.
For lords near the royal capital, the maximum land tax is 17%, which is equivalent to collecting 70% of the grain output.
This type of land tax has little impact on a family of five during the harvest period, but once a natural or man-made disaster occurs, coupled with the head tax, the farmer will be ruined.
Aslan had already experienced these things in his previous life and had planned them clearly.
"In my name, Aslan, all people in the territory of the Mero region can enjoy the two-tax-one treatment. At the same time, when there is a food surplus, the city lord's palace will give priority to purchasing the excess food from each household." Aslan's words immediately aroused people's attention.
Huge sensation.
Half of the harvest tax means that if you can produce 30,000 kilograms of grain in a year, you have to pay half of the grain. The family will still have 15,000 kilograms left, which is enough for a family of five to eat every day.
"Lord, what about the poll tax?" Some people have begun to accept Aslan's identity and started calling him lord.
Aslan thought about this issue for a long time, and finally said: "The poll tax is 120 copper coins per person, but if you don't have money, you can use grain as a mortgage. For example, this year's market price of Baoluo fruit is about 40 copper coins per 100 catties.
As long as you take out three hundred kilograms, it can be worth 120 copper coins."
A family of five only has 1,500 kilograms of bract fruit. Although the price fluctuates a bit, for a family with an annual output of 10,000 kilograms, it is just a drop in the bucket.
Aslan set the precedent for two kingdoms in a row, lowering the land tax and allowing the head tax to be mortgaged with grain.
In the past, when the poll tax was levied every year, the nobles and businessmen would join forces to lower the price of grain. Even if there was a bumper harvest this year, in order to pay the poll tax, the grain had to be sold at a low price. As a result, it was obviously a bumper harvest, but in the end there was not much grain left.
After the two policies were issued, Aslan gained the support of the people in the entire Merlo town.
No matter in another world or in that era.
Farmers are the foundation of a country. As for the knights and magicians who possess powerful martial arts and magic, who dares to pat their chests and say that they are from the previous generations of their family and not farmers.