The first stop for going to the countryside is, of course, this city. The small Hongyuan City has only a thousand households and a population of more than 4,000, half of which are poor victims recruited from the mainland in the past two years. It can recruit two people from all the way.
Thousands of Han people came to fill their household registrations. From this point alone, Zeng Zhili did a pretty good job.
Lu Fangzhu said: "These people have rented fields outside the city and planted highland barley and millet to make a living."
While listening and wandering around, Zhao Ran did not go to the houses along the street, but walked through two lanes inward, chose a house with an adobe house, and signaled to Fangzhu Lu.
Fangzhu Lu stepped forward and called the door. An old woman came out and opened the door with her infant child in her arms. She looked at Fangzhu Lu at the door in surprise.
Master Lu said: "Old lady, our newly appointed Abbot Zhao of Baima Courtyard came to your house to take a look at the situation of your house."
The old woman was stunned and didn't know what to say. She let the two of them into the house in a panic.
Zhao Ran approached the house and saw that it was simple, without any household items. There was a straw mat spread in the corner of the floor and a rag quilt rolled up on the mat. There was a stove in the middle of the room that was boiling water. What was burning underneath was
There was some hay and dried dung, and the smell was very unpleasant. Fortunately, the only wooden window was open to allow ventilation, otherwise it would be really unbearable.
The most valuable thing in this family is probably the iron pot placed on the fire. Zhao Ran stretched his head and looked into the pot. There were several grass leaves in the pot of water. Countless grass leaves could be seen under the grass leaves.
Millet.
The old woman hurriedly asked Zhao Ran to sit across from the fire. The baby in her arms cried. She quickly took a spoonful of millet soup from the pot with a wooden spoon, blew it to her mouth to cool it, and put it into the baby's mouth in small sips.
After pouring it in, I was a little confused for a while.
Zhao Ran looked around and was stunned for a long time, a feeling of sadness welling up in his heart.
Ever since he recruited refugees in Xiaojun Mountain to open the Junshan Temple, Zhao Ran had not seen such an extremely poor family for many years. Even when he went to Lizhou the year before last, the lives of those Lizhou mountain residents were much better than this.
Fangzhu Lu asked: "Old lady, where is dad? Where is Da Zhuang? Where is Da Zhuang's wife? Why aren't you at home?"
The old woman replied: "Dazhuang and his father went to work in Beicheng, and my daughter-in-law went to Master Luo's place to wash clothes."
Zhao Ran asked: "What kind of job do you want to do?"
Lord Lu Fang answered on his behalf: "It should be to build the city wall for our White Horse Courtyard."
Zhao Ran understood. He read the documents from Baima Court two days ago and knew that it was a busy time for farming. The hospital transferred fifty shichen rice from Changpingcang to continue building the city wall of Hongyuan County. Now it should be mainly to raise the height towards the north city.
.This is the work of Yuan Hao. He builds a section every year during the slack season, which serves as a work-for-relief function.
Zhao Ran asked: "How much food can those who work get?"
The old woman said: "If you work in charge of food, you can get back two rice balls every day."
Zhao Ran frowned and said, "Too few."
The old woman said: "That's enough. It's very good. It can help the baby grow up."
Zhao Ran shook his head: "How can two millet dumplings be enough for your old man and your children to eat together?"
"I'll eat less, and the baby will eat more. That's enough."
"Who is Mr. Luo?" Zhao Ran turned to ask Master Lu.
Master Lu Fang said: "The restaurant with the 'Qianlixiang' on the main street belongs to him. He is a businessman from the capital. He has only been in Hongyuan for a year. This Mr. Luo is also kind-hearted, but his business is not doing well.
, but he hired many women to help with laundry, dishes, mending clothes, and taking care of food. I knew this man, and he once said to me that he wanted to close the restaurant after working for half a year, and he couldn’t make any money.
Money. But if he leaves, all the people who work for him will starve, so he pays some money every year and insists on opening his business, which is the right to give money."
The old woman also said a few good words about Mr. Luo and praised Yuan Hao from Baima Courtyard.
Zhao Ran chatted for a while, then turned to the old woman and asked: "Old lady, how many acres of land does your family have allocated outside the city?"
The old woman replied: "Two cents for three acres."
Zhao Ran was a little surprised: "Only three acres and two cents?"
The old woman said: "It's already very good."
"How was the harvest? How much grain did you harvest this year?"
"I collected four stones."
The yield per mu was a little more than one stone. This yield would definitely not be able to support the old woman's family of five. Zhao Ran asked again: "How much grain was paid?"
"Pay a stone and a half."
Zhao Ran took a breath of cold air. This land tax is really not low! Especially for a farmer who has just been granted land, it should not be so heavy. He turned to look at Fangzhu Lu and waited for Fangzhu Lu to explain.
Although Fangzhu Lu was not the accountant in charge of tax collection, he still knew something about it. He quickly said: "Abbott, Baimayuan will choose one out of ten land tax this year, and all kinds of expenses will be increased by 30%. She said the payment is one stone and a half, I'm afraid there will be four
The success was not collected by White Horse Court."
The old woman interjected: "Yes, there are six buckets for the Xia people."
Zhao Ran was stunned: "Xia people?"
Lu Fangzhu was sweating profusely. Seeing that the old woman could not understand a sentence clearly, he quickly said: "They are the Dangxiang people who live in Qiongxi Town. Originally, these fields belonged to them. When Baima Courtyard was first established, they planned to rebuild it.
They measured and divided the land, but these party members refused to do it, which caused quite a scene. Later, after Zeng Supervisory Yuan took office, he said that we were new here and we should pay attention to the overall situation, so he recognized their documents on the land, and talked about it, so that they could
The newly arrived Han people rented crops at two dou per mu."
Zhao Ran became angry and said: "How dare we attract people from the mainland and serve them as tenants?"
"Uh..." Fangzhu Lu didn't know how to answer, so he could only remain silent in embarrassment.
Zhao Ran asked again: "All the 28,000 acres of cultivated land outside the city have been leased to Han people? But when I came, more than half of it was abandoned, right? And they are all near the water, which is good land. What's going on?
thing?"
Lu Fangzhu said: "For those good fields, the Dangxiang people charge too high a price, ranging from four to six bushels per mu. These Han people cannot afford to rent them."
"It's just empty? They don't plant it either?"
"They don't farm. These fields were originally farmed by Baima, Chama, and Qionghe tribesmen. These Dangxiang people were originally noble people from Hongyuan and didn't know how to work in the fields."
"Where are the three tribesmen? Why don't they go down to the mountains to farm?"
"Back then, the Dangxiang people took the people of the three tribes as slaves and forced them to farm. Now that the slaves have escaped, who is willing to come back? The Dangxiang people even approached Abbot Zeng and Yuan Jianyuan the year before last and said that they wanted our Ming army to send troops to bring them back.
Capture all the slaves from the three tribes and return them to them."
Zhao Ran couldn't believe it: "How dare they make this request?"
Fangzhu Lu smiled bitterly: "That's indeed what they mentioned, but Abbot Zeng rejected it. Abbot Zeng said that all races are equal and one race is never allowed to be a slave to another."
Zhao Ran nodded: "Then what? How to deal with it?"
Lu Fangzhu said helplessly: "But the Dangxiang people made a big fuss and once surrounded the White Horse Courtyard. Abbot Zeng personally took us to the Third Department to persuade them to go down the mountain to farm land for the Dangxiang people. The Third Department disagreed and said at that time
When they got anxious, they drove us down the mountain. Along the way down, we were spit on an unknown amount of thick phlegm. After we came down, some departments followed us and cursed us. The situation was very critical at that time. I wanted to send troops to protect us, but Abbot Zeng refused.
.”
"Oh? What did he say?"
"Abbot Zeng said that those who care about the world must have the demeanor to do what they say. Even if they are humiliated today, when the Hongyuan is peaceful and the people live a good life, they will remember us.