Zhang Yanling spent half an hour simply looking through a lot of account books, and basically figured out how many properties he owned. The house was just a residence, after all, it was a residence. The property that he really owned to generate money came from
There are two manors outside Beijing, located in the south and west of the city respectively.
The manor in the south of the city is not big, only 20 hectares, but the Xishan Manor in the west is a super large manor. When Zhang Yanling saw the area of the manor, he was really shocked. The land area of Xishan Manor was as much as 1,000 hectares. The Ming Dynasty
One hundred acres is one hectare, which means that it is one hundred thousand acres of land.
Zhang Yanling was really shocked. Sure enough, the history books were right. Land annexation after the mid-Ming Dynasty was extremely serious, and this was confirmed at this moment. He was just a newly promoted marquis, and he already owned more than 100,000 acres of land. It is conceivable that
Who knows how much land the powerful bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty will have become their private property. In this era, land is everything. If a powerful man like himself is so crazy about occupying the country's land resources, it is obviously an extremely dangerous situation.
Behavior.
Zhang Yanling learned from his memory that his brother Zhang Heling owned hundreds of hectares more land than he did. He was such a big landowner, but he was actually only at a medium level among the powerful. This shows that this was really a powerful man grabbing land like crazy.
In the age of wealth, everything seems so logical.
Of course, Zhang Yanling doesn't have any great sense of guilt. He just traveled through time and space. The bad government of the Ming Dynasty has nothing to do with him and is not caused by himself. The reason why he is interested in how much property he has is actually for the future.
In order to change that tragic fate. After all, I decided from now on to prepare for a rainy day and make changes. Even if there is no exact action plan, there is one thing Zhang Yanling knows, and that is that money must be the basis.
Specifically speaking at the moment, if you want to gain power or connections so that you have the strength to fight against fate, you can't do it without a strong foundation of wealth. Knowing how much money you have, how can you spend it in the future to create something to protect yourself, or
Making friends with people who are beneficial to you and exchanging power are all methods you can try. Therefore, the economic foundation must be solid.
However, when Zhang Yanling saw the final numerical balance on the books, he couldn't believe his eyes. The Jianchang Marquis Mansion, which owned such a huge property, only had a mere 3,200 taels of silver on its books at this moment.
"Is this... all the silver in our house?" Zhang Yanling pointed at the number and asked in disbelief.
"Reporting to the Marquis, it is indeed the case. Little people don't have the courage to embezzle and steal. Everything is accounted for and the Marquis can check the accounts." Ma Quan said hurriedly.
"Our Marquis Palace is as big as ours, and there are so many people eating and drinking, how long can these 3,200 taels of silver last?" Zhang Yanling frowned.
"Excuse me... Lord Hou! Half a year, if the Lord no longer takes money from the accountant." Ma Quan smacked his lips.
"What? Only enough for six months?" Zhang Yanling said in shock.
"Master, please give the Marquis the account book of our monthly expenses." Ma Quan said hurriedly.
The accountant hurriedly found the running account book and opened it, and read tremblingly: "The expenses in the mansion are classified according to food, clothing, housing, transportation and labor and monthly salary. Last month, the food expenses for the people in the mansion were one hundred and thirty-three taels."
Four qian, the prince of the mansion spent thirty-eight taels each to buy a set of summer clothes and the summer clothes of others. The cost of repairing the east cross-courtyard wing and the sporadic flower beds in the mansion cost eighty-seven taels. The monthly salary of the people in the mansion was three hundred and forty-nine taels.
Mr. Hou made four payments of silver, two for five hundred taels, one for eight hundred taels and one for three hundred taels. All the payments totaled two thousand seven hundred and seventy-four taels... Last month..."
Zhang Yanling waved her hand and said, "No need to read it again, I understand."
Zhang Yanling finally understood that the household expenses for the next month were actually not much, about 600 taels, so Ma Quan said that the more than 3,000 taels of silver in the account could last for half a year. Of course, the premise was that he did not go into the account.
The ancestor who really spends money is actually himself. In the account, he spent 2,100 silver in the last month alone. Even the gold and silver at home is probably going to be spent. These things
It doesn't matter where the money was spent. It was either in the alley with fireworks or in a place where wine, meat and gambling were spent. In short, all the virtues of the former Marquis of Jianchang were probably given away like water.
Zhang Yanling knew that in fact, the living standards of ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty were only average. The average person could only save ten or twenty taels of silver a year, which was already a very good situation. Based on this comparison, for a wealthy person like him,
The expenses at home are simply too extravagant.
"According to this, isn't the government going to go bankrupt soon? Isn't this a joke? When I was in Jianchang, I owned 100,000 acres of land, but in the end I was going to go bankrupt?" Zhang Yanling curled her lips and said.
"That's not the case. Mr. Hou, don't worry about the money on the books. There are still many people in the manor who have not paid their rent. Last year's rent was denied and has not been paid this year. At least there are five or six thousand taels.
The rent arrears will last for two months after coming here. In ** month, the rent for the new year will have to be paid again. Mr. Hou doesn’t need to be too harsh on himself. Didn’t we discuss a half-percent rent increase for the tenants before this year?
"Then we should be able to get more rent this year. But we can't be too kind to them. Otherwise, the Marquis will be really tight on money in the future." Ma Quan said with a smile.
"No, I don't understand. Our Xishan Manor has 100,000 acres of land after all. Even if we charge one tael of silver for one acre of land, we still have an income of 100,000 yuan a year. It's not like the government only has such a small amount of money on its books. Do I spend money like this?
Awesome?" Zhang Yanling asked doubtfully.
Ma Quan was startled and said hurriedly: "Oh, my Lord Marquis. Why do you settle the accounts like this? It seems like there is something wrong with the accounts and we did something without telling you. That manor's 100,000 acres of land is pretty good
, isn’t that less than half of what can be planted? He can’t grow crops in the barren mountains and wilderness? Also, the harvests have not been good in the past few years, and those mud-legged people are also very cunning, finding various reasons to delay the rent.
Turn it over. Come on, Lao Huang, we must be cruel this time. Those who don’t pay the rent don’t have to talk to them anymore, and all of them will be kicked out. Otherwise, if this continues, will the Marquis drink the northwest wind? "
Huang Si nodded and said, "That's right, we are just too soft-hearted. I heard that in Qingyunhou Zhou's house, they raided the house and arrested people if they didn't pay rent. They were very ruthless. If their tenants were in arrears with rent of three
If it's only ten liang, we can just use our children and wives to pay off the debt and sign a deed of sale. Or we can do the same thing. If the rent arrears can't be paid this time, we can use their children to pay off the debt. The women sell the brothels for money, and the men work as coolies.
To pay off the debt, let’s see who dares not to pay?”
Ma Quan nodded and said: "It's a way, otherwise these mud-legged people will be very unruly. Let's bring more people with us this time. If they don't come hard, I'm afraid it won't work."
Zhang Yanling frowned and listened to the two people talking, feeling very annoyed. These two scoundrels are really cruel. They would say such things without even frowning, which is simply inhumane. If you do this, wouldn't you become Huang Shiren? Doesn't he still have a good reputation?
Can it be good?
"Shut up!" Zhang Yanling shouted in a deep voice.
Ma Quan and Huang Si were startled, seeing that the Marquis was full of anger. He was really angry, but they didn't know why the Marquis was angry.
"Listen to me, no matter what we have done before, from today on, we must set a rule. From now on, we cannot bully two people, one is the poor people, and the other is our own family. Bullying
Being weak is not a skill, and bullying one's own family is even more incompetent and shameless. I was able to escape death this time, which is God's blessing, or it may be God's punishment for me. So from now on, we must act virtuously and not act recklessly." Zhang Yanling
said in a deep voice.
Ma Quan and Huang Si hurriedly bowed and said: "What the Marquis taught me, I will remember it. The Marquis must never be angry."
Zhang Yanling nodded, thought for a while and asked: "According to you, our rent is not expensive, so why can't the people who rent the land fail to pay the rent? What's the reason?"
Ma Quan said hurriedly: "The tenants said that the harvest was not good, and it was caused by this disaster and that disaster. They said that the yield per mu we set was too high. We set the yield of three shi per mu for the top-grade paddy fields, two shi and two shi for the medium-grade paddy fields, and two shi per mu for the medium-grade paddy fields."
One stone and seven, equal to an acre of dry land or less. If we plant the land for them like this, we will only harvest 20% per acre according to the number of acres. If they can produce more food, they can keep it for themselves. If they are lazy, they may not produce much.
. In short, it is their business how to cultivate the land, and 20% of the rent is not high. Some other manors receive 30%, which is quite interesting for us."
Zhang Yanling nodded slightly. Sure enough, the big landowners ensured harvests despite droughts and floods. They set a standard to collect rent according to the number of acres of land, regardless of natural disasters such as droughts and floods. He did a quick rough calculation. According to this ratio, nearly 50,000 acres of arable land were all in accordance with the ratio.
For a medium-sized field, the rent for a season is about 30,000 taels of grain. Converted into silver at the current price of 600 taels of grain, that is about 20,000 taels of silver. It is indeed a huge number. No wonder Zhang Yanling was extravagant and wasteful in the past.
, no wonder the officials and nobles of the Ming Dynasty were crazy about grabbing land, all of which was just money.
However, in this way, it is indeed very difficult for the people who rent land. Regardless of whether the land has a harvest or not, they have to pay the rent according to the fixed amount. If there is a disaster, how can they still afford the rent? Forced rent
We are like wolves and tigers, but we are not allowed to sell our sons and daughters? Or we may simply kill people, set fires and risk our lives to rebel. It can be seen that the shortcomings of this land annexation are ultimately the cause of the demise of a dynasty.
In addition, Zhang Yanling also realized a problem. The grain yield per mu in the Ming Dynasty seemed to be too low. Even based on the yield per mu of high-quality fields, three shi more grain was only about 500 catties. Compared with later generations, this yield
The difference is almost double. This should be a problem of production technology and production technology, and has little to do with the laziness of the people.
"It seems I have to go and see for myself." Zhang Yanling said to herself.
Ma Quan said hurriedly: "That would be the best. If the Marquis goes to take charge personally, maybe the people will not dare to owe the rent."
Zhang Yanling shook his head and said: "I'm not here to press for rent. I want to see the situation in the manor and find out why the tenants can't pay the rent. Listen up, our food and drink expenses are all provided by these common people.
Yes, you have to be more polite to them. If no one is forced to farm the land, is it possible for you to farm the land yourself?"
Huang Sidao: "No one is farming? How many people are rushing to rent land to farm. If they don't farm, what will they eat? The Marquis gave them land to farm to save them. If they don't farm, they will wait for the whole family to starve to death."
Zhang Yanling felt angry and scolded: "Idiot, if you starve them to death, what benefits will you get? You will never say such stupid things again. As a tenant of my Jianchang Marquis, your whole family has no food. Isn't this honorable?" ?What did I say just now? Don’t bully the weak. It seems you didn’t listen at all.”
Huang Si was stunned, and Ma Quan scolded: "Why are you so stunned if you haven't apologized or admitted your mistake?"
Huang Si woke up and knelt down, stretched out his hand and started slapping himself, apologizing repeatedly.
Ma Quan bowed and said to Zhang Yanling: "Master Hou, please don't get angry with Lao Huang, but don't get to know him. It seems that he is quite diligent in his work, and he has served the Marquis for many years. Lord Marquis, please spare him. He still has a family to support, so Lord Marquis must not drive him away."
Zhang Yanling waved her hand and said to Huang Si: "Stop fighting, and you will be more careful in the future. You two should remember well that I will no longer bully the weak or do things that are harmful to nature and justice. If you can't change your arrogant and domineering temper, I will never bully the weak again." Just pack up and leave."
"Yes, yes, we remember it." Ma Quan and Huang Si nodded.
"Of course, I won't offend others unless they offend me. If anyone offends us, don't be polite. We don't bully others, but we can't be bullied either," Zhang Yanling added.
Ma Quan and Huang Siqi claimed that they were, but they both thought in their hearts: "Does the Marquis really want to be a good person? This is really ruining his brain."