After looking at the situation in the city, Zhao Ran, accompanied by Fangzhu Lu, left Hongyuan City. First, he looked at the cultivated land around Hongyuan City. Sure enough, many good flat places adjacent to streams were being abandoned. On the contrary, those
In the corners of the dry fields or on the undulating slopes of the ravines, some farmers are burning straw to accumulate fertilizer for the coming year.
In addition to the more than 4,000 people in Hongyuan City, there are twenty or thirty villages scattered within ten miles of the city. Most of them are empty, with dilapidated houses, no one in sight, and completely abandoned.
Half of the villages were inhabited by party members who either had no time to escape or were unwilling to escape.
Around these villages, there are also large areas of cultivated land, but they are covered with weeds. From time to time, party members graze a few pitiful Tibetan sheep on them.
Nearly 20,000 acres of good land were left uncultivated, which made Zhao Ran feel very uncomfortable.
There is not much arable land in Hongyuan, and most of the land suitable for cultivating grains is concentrated here. Although these fields are not suitable for growing high-yielding rice and wheat, even low-yielding millet and highland barley can be grown as long as they are fully planted.
, and by properly adjusting the heaven and earth qi and making a Feng Shui layout, doubling the yield per mu is not a problem. By then, only the 28,000 acres of cultivated land will basically be able to solve the staple food consumption of 80,000 people in Hongyuan, supplemented by
Cattle and sheep, the county's food and clothing problem can be completely solved.
But now, a large area of land has been left vacant. The Han people who want to farm have no land to plant. The party members who are not engaged in production control large areas of open land to receive relief. There are more Sanbu tribesmen hiding in the mountains and unwilling to do so.
Down the mountain, the development of the entire Hongyuan fell into an endless loop.
In addition to cultivated land, the vast natural grassland covers the entire northwest of Hongyuan, but no one cares about it.
In the southeast and east direction of Hongyuan, the terrain gradually becomes higher and enters the mountainous area, among which the four major mountain systems are Dajun Mountain, Zhebo Mountain, Yanggong Mountain and Haizi Mountain.
Maharaja Mountain, which has the worst natural conditions, was occupied by Lou Guan and Zong Sheng Guan was built. The remaining three mountains were occupied by the Sanbu.
Lu Fangzhu did not recommend that Zhao Ran enter the mountain because the communication and coordination with the three tribes had not yet formed a system, including the Qionghe tribe, which was the weakest and slightly inclined to the White Horse Court.
Zhao Ran had no intention of going into the mountain at first, so he listened to Lu Fangzhu's suggestion and just took a look at the foot of the mountain from a distance, and then asked if the vast grassland at the foot of the mountain was occupied by people from the three tribes.
Master Lu Fang said: "The seventeen villages of the Baima tribe, large and small, are all located in Zhebo Mountain, with Zhebo Village as the main village; the eleven villages of the Chama tribe and the six villages of the Qionghe tribe are also the same, each living in Yanggong Mountain and Haizi Mountain.
Originally, they were still grazing in the pastures at the foot of the mountain, but since the Dangxiang people asked them to return the stolen cattle and sheep, the villages of the three tribes have retreated into the mountains, and not many came down. Especially in the first month of last year, the Ming army encircled them.
After the incident at Zhebo Village, the three tribes basically farmed and herded animals in the mountains, rarely going down the mountains. As for these pastures, no one has ever cared about them."
Zhao Ran asked again: "Lao Lu, do you think the conditions in Zhebo Mountain, Yanggong Mountain and Haizi Mountain are very favorable?"
Fangzhu Lu nodded: "I have been to all three mountains. They have gentle slopes and many valleys. The total of the three mountains is only more than 60,000 people, and some say more than 70,000 people. According to my opinion, even if there are more than 100,000 people,
It’s enough to live in.”
Zhao Ran couldn't help but sigh: "They are all good places. Why didn't Baimayuan close these pastures and register them?"
Lu Fangzhu said: "I originally thought so, but since the incident about the farmland caused by Dangxiang people, Abbot Zeng has been a lot more careful. He wants to discuss the division and ownership of the pasture with the three leaders, and wait until the negotiation is completed.
But since the first month of last year, this matter has stopped. The third department has not met with us at all. I have brought people over several times, but they are not allowed to enter the mountain. Furthermore, now we are absorbing refugees and people from the Borderlands from the mainland.
It’s more difficult for farmers. The red plains are vast and sparsely populated, so they won’t be able to use these pastures for the time being.”
Zhao Ran shook his head: "People traveled thousands of miles to come here, thinking that they could divide the fields, but in the end they still worked for others, and they worked for party members. Who would be willing to come here?"
"The abbot is absolutely right."
At the end of November, Zhao Ran, who spent nearly twenty days touring Hongyuan, returned to Baima Courtyard. After returning, he did not bother to take a break and re-recorded Baima Courtyard's records of cultivated land and pastures, as well as the accounting office's records for this year.
Find out the account books and review them in detail.
The second time I read these documents, the situation became clearer.
In the archives of Baimayuan Dianzhuang, there are a total of 28,000 acres of cultivated land, all of which are "owned" land, that is, land registered as party members. There are also 40,000 acres of pasture recorded in the archives, of which
Twenty thousand acres were registered as owned by party members, and the remaining twenty thousand acres were confirmed to be ownerless.
There are four incomes for Baima Yuan this year. The first one is the salary money allocated by Tianhe Palace, which is often called the capitation fee. It is allocated on a per person basis. More than 90% of it is distributed to the Taoist priests, and the remaining 20% is used for administrative expenses.
Silver, that is, official expenses, the bulk of official expenses was still spent on food. A total of three thousand two hundred taels.
Among the salaries, the abbot and the superintendent are the first-class, with one hundred and twenty taels each; the three are the second-class, with ninety-six taels each; the eight deacons are reduced in rank, to sixty taels each; the five chiefs and eighteen heads are again, each with ninety-six taels.
Thirty-six taels; the last is the chanting Taoist boy, 24 taels each; and there are also fifty firework lay practitioners approved by Tianhe Palace, each 12 taels.
The second sum came from the Governor's Office in Western Sichuan, six hundred and twenty taels, and was used to build the city wall. Zhao Ran knew now that half of it was used to "relieve" the party members.
The third payment was for land tax and miscellaneous expenses. One thousand stones of millet and six hundred stones of highland barley were collected. In terms of silver, it was about five hundred taels. These grains were specially approved by the governor's office in western Sichuan and were all retained in the county for accumulation.
The Changping Cang was built. Currently, there are 2,400 shi of grain in the Changping Cang.
But this policy will only last for three years. Next year, the bulk of the land tax will be turned over to the Governor's Office of Western Sichuan.
The last payment was the incense money presented by merchants and common people during the fasting festival this year, which totaled more than ninety taels.
This is the total income for this year, the 22nd year of Jiajing, without the Taoist property. This amount of money is really quite cramped to maintain a Baimayuan that combines Taoism and Yamen.
Zhao Ran had read the documents and records of Baima Yuan for the past three years, and knew that the former abbot Zeng Zhili was also trying to find a solution, but most of his energy was consumed in mediating the disputes between the Han people, the remaining party members, and the people of the three tribes.
When we got into a relationship, I felt like I was focusing on one thing at the expense of the other.
However, in his general statement before leaving, Abbot Zeng was still very pleased with the results of his three years of work. The main achievements of Abbot Zeng's self-report are two points. One is to stabilize the overall situation of Hongyuan and make it safe and sound.
Provoking a major popular uprising; secondly, increasing the credibility value from scratch to 20,000 Gui.
Zhao Ran read Abbot Zeng's "duty report" several times and couldn't help laughing.