"Your number is wrong. I have personally visited these two townships in the past few days. They are far away from Iron Mountain and the terrain is low-lying. Even if they are improved, it will just be more polders. It is good to grow rice. How can we change to corn? ?How can there be so many local pre-received seed loans?”
"Also, I have also looked at this year's harvests in these three townships. At the end of August, late rice was already being harvested elsewhere, but it was not yet ripe locally. After asking old farmers, I found out that there was insufficient irrigation there, and the land near Tieshan was relatively barren.
Only one season of late rice is planted every year, and bean sprouts are used instead of early rice. In previous years, it was mostly recorded as a field in the fish scale book! Although potatoes can be grown on this kind of land, the growth period is not suitable! You can only plant one season first and other crops grow quickly. Vegetables or potatoes to transition!”
Chen Shu carefully looked at the statistics and atlases submitted by Daye County officials and wealthy gentry. At first, they seemed harmless and just going through the motions, but soon his eyes narrowed.
It also changed from the laxity during this period, and analyzed many things that were wrong.
It is impossible for Shen Shuren to carry out secret visits during this period to clear the land in detail and divide its uses. The workload would be too huge, and a land inspection would have to be specially organized, which may not be completed in a year.
Therefore, he could only make a qualitative and general observation instead of a quantitative verification. He used his superficial laxity to lure the thoughtful people below to figure it out on their own.
If this kind of fake account is completely accurate, but the details have been slightly changed, Shen Shuren really can't tell.
But it is obvious that the magistrate of Daye and the wealthy gentry have a huge appetite. In addition, they misjudged Shen Shuren as an impractical dog official. They involved almost the entire township, fields that were not suitable for the promotion of new crops, or land that had no time to replant during the growth cycle. , it is easy to spot the fake apportionment of seed loans.
If this kind of people were placed in the Northern Song Dynasty, they would obviously be the group of people who most actively supported Wang Anshi's forced promotion of the Qingmiao Law, because they could not only help the court reform the law, but also take advantage of the opportunity to get more oil and water.
When Chen Shuren said these words, although his tone and expression were not harsh, they also made the county magistrate Liu Minsheng and everyone in the wealthy Qin family change their minds, and they could only admit their fault and apologize:
"Lord Daotai, it's clear! Maybe I didn't check it thoroughly before, and I was in a hurry, so I made some mistakes..."
Chen Shuren's face turned cold: "Although Daye is a mining area, with more mountains and less fields than other counties in Wuchang, it still has more than one million acres of cultivated land! It involves one hundred thousand farmers! That's how you calculated the need for loans to grow grain. On a scale of common people!
Now that Zhang Xianzhong is in the west, he may invade the hinterland of Huguang at any time. If officials take advantage of this opportunity to exploit the people with interest, how many more thieves and soldiers will be created for Zhang Xianzhong!
I think you are completely ignorant of current affairs! In the final analysis, Governor Fang and I love the people too much and are too active in driving away thieves! Let you live in peace and know no pain!
Look at Henan. Before Li Zicheng fell to Luoyang, King Fu was also amassing wealth. Asking him to use some money to reward the army was like cutting his flesh! It's better now. I heard that it had been more than two months since Luoyang fell. Li Zicheng rested and regrouped to regain his strength. If you want to continue to invade Kaifeng from the east - you probably don't care about the military situation in the north to suppress bandits, right? Then you can guess, did Kaifeng be defended this time?"
Liu Zhixian and the Qin family, as well as several other chief officials from Daye County who were present, were scolded bloody by Shen Shuren's words. They were worried when they saw Shen Shuren suddenly changed the topic and mentioned the matter of suppressing thieves. Son, I couldn't help but feel a little puzzled and didn't understand the logic of this topic switch.
But Liu Zhixian also knew that saying that the imperial army could win the war must be considered politically correct. So even if he felt in his heart that Kaifeng would probably be in trouble this time, he could only say:
"The defeat of Luoyang must have been caused by cunning and cunning people. The soldiers and bandits were not aware of it for a while, and they were greedy for money and followed thieves, which led to the defeat. Kaifeng has Governor Wang of Henan personally sitting in charge, and the officers and soldiers will definitely be able to defend it..."
Chen Shuren patted the back of his head with a fan and snorted coldly: "It turns out you are right, Kaifeng will not be captured by intruders so easily. However, the reason must be unimaginable to people like you -
That was the King of Zhou who was in charge of Kaifeng. He finally figured out that wherever the intruder Zhang Ni went, he would definitely kill all the vassal kings, officials and wealthy households. This time, as soon as Li Zicheng was about to attack the city, the King of Zhou rewarded him with several hundred percent of his family property. The whole army and the people who are helping the war are strong! The governor of Henan and the officials below are also very generous! I think this battle of Kaifeng is worth fighting.
Mr. Yang Ge commanded us to work hard and fight hard to ensure peace. If there are still people who don't know what is good, they are counting on Zhang Xianzhong's troops coming to the city before they are willing to stop exploiting the people!"
These people's charges of distributing seeds and lending money to the government organization were not originally serious. They were just forcibly apportioning overcharged interest, and after Chen Shuren discovered the trick, it was an attempt at best.
Therefore, it is impossible to directly remove him from his official position for some reason.
Only then did Shen Shuren need to describe the matter in a more serious light to shock people and prevent them from being too rebellious to his subsequent relatively harsh measures.
Sure enough, after he far-fetched the fallacy that "at this moment, plundering and forcing people to rebel is tantamount to collaborating with the enemy", everyone was silenced.
Chen Shuren then continued to push forward, and Tiekou announced bluntly: "Come here, call all the wealthy gentry who have been the grain director or above of a township in Daye County here, I want to personally inspect it.
County Magistrate Liu, I will send someone to check this matter. Just ask the county magistrate and Dian Shi to cooperate. You and Chief Secretary Xiao don’t need to ask! The same goes for these squires in a while!"
Master Daotai came to inspect today, and there were naturally a lot of people cheering for him. The squires from Daye County who had served as grain chief or above in a township were also among them.
However, most of them are not qualified to enter the inner courtyard and sit in the same room with Master Daotai. Only those who are summoned by Chen Shuren are qualified to enter.
So when Shen Shuren was not polite to them, he asked his personal followers to give these top squires pens and papers, and then asked them a few questions, asking them to outline the field conditions in each township and which places were suitable for promoting new crops. Write down all the original crop harvest and sowing season rhythms without going into too much detail.
It takes too much time to ask questions one by one, and it also gives people the opportunity to adjust and cover up based on previous answers. It is most convenient to write down the test directly.
No one expected that Master Daotai would suddenly change from his previous extravagant and muddled state, and make such a show of force to bypass Liu Zhixian and others, so they had no choice but to follow the instructions.
After a while, Shen Shuren looked over them one by one very diligently and found that there were indeed some who were more realistic.
The one who performed the best even wrote some suggestions based on the actual situation to encourage farmers. He said sincerely: Wuchang Prefecture has a warm and humid climate and few mountainous areas. Except for the surrounding areas of Tieshan, most of the other townships in Daye County are not suitable for planting. corn.
We also analyzed the growth cycle of corn and found that the time it takes for corn to grow is a little embarrassing. From the experiences I heard in Huangzhou and other places in the past two years, corn generally takes four to five months to grow, which is equivalent to late rice and more than one month longer than early rice. moon.
However, the planting time of corn is earlier than that of late rice, and it must be planted in April at the latest, so it is not suitable for the rice planting areas in the south. If corn is planted, rice will not be planted in the morning and evening, and it can only be planted in the beginning of spring. Next, plant fast-growing vegetables that can be harvested within two months of one season. Although the yield of corn is high, it can replace two crops of rice at once, but in the end, the yield is not much higher.
On the other hand, in the north, wheat can be planted after the autumn harvest. Winter wheat grows over the winter and takes up a shorter spring and summer growth period. It can be harvested as summer grain in March and April after spring, and then planted with corn, which can make early summer corn and winter wheat. Two seasons a year.
The squire's final conclusion was to implore Chen Shuren to consider the actual situation as he traveled to the southern water towns, and not to forcefully promote the planting of too much corn. Instead, he could continue to promote potatoes as a supplement to the mountainous land.
After Chen Shuren read it, he didn't express his opinion immediately, and was still preparing to scare the people around him.
After all, these squires had just come in and had not had the opportunity to collude with Liu Zhixian and others in the inner hall before, so they did not know their attitude towards agricultural affairs.
Chen Shuren said: "Who wrote this answer sheet? Corn has a higher yield than rice and wheat, and I promote it to benefit the country and the people! Some people actually oppose multiple varieties of corn?"
Everyone was a bit silent and looked at each other. Finally, a middle-aged man in his thirties or forties stood up and replied: "Students do not dare to oppose Master Daotai's good governance, they just tell the truth.
Although corn is good, it does not connect well with the seasons of other crops in the south. If you want to promote it, you must carefully calculate the general ledger. Otherwise, even if there is an increase in production, it will not be as heavy as the people borrowing seeds and paying an extra 20% of the harvest interest out of thin air.
If we blindly extend more seed loans in pursuit of collecting more interest, is that any different from the previous dynasty Lu Huiqing who distorted the original intention of Wang Anshi’s Qingmiao Law?”
A bunch of squires and petty officials nearby couldn't help sweating after hearing this, but they were more gloating about his misfortune. It seemed that this guy was not a gregarious person to begin with.
Some people saw that he was only reasonable and did not report his family status, so they helped him report: "Master Daotai, don't be like this nerd. His name is Song Mingde, his ancestral home is Nanchang, he just moved here more than ten years ago, and he is with us The locals have always been out of place.”
Chen Shuren pretended to twitch his expression for a few times, as if he was angry at being disrespected. Then he returned to normal and asked Song Mingde: "Are you still a foreigner? How did you come to Wuchang Prefecture in the first place?"
Song Mingde truthfully stated: "During the Tianqi period, Wuchang Prefecture expanded production in Daye Iron Mountain, and the government spent a lot of money to find people who knew the geography of Diankanyu and could prospect for mines and dig wells.
Although I am a scholar, after I became a scholar, I had no interest in the study of saints and learned some miscellaneous knowledge from the elders in the clan. After coming to Daye, for more than ten years, I gradually saved my family fortune by working for the government, and I also worked as a villager. Grain chief."
Chen Shuren nodded and said unexpectedly: "If you can criticize me and point out that corn is inconsistent with the two seasons of the paddy fields in the south, you are seeking truth from facts. Then I will give you a chance. This year in Daye County Your family will be responsible for lending corn and potato seeds, and collecting the loan after the autumn harvest.
Each township meeting will report the loan amount. You should go and count it first. I will let people keep an eye on you, so don’t try to cheat! Otherwise, I will liquidate it after the autumn harvest, and don’t think about it next year.”
Shen Shuren would not be so stupid as to trust the other party completely just because the other party performed well in the interview. There must be follow-up verification and supervision.
When some gentry and officials nearby saw this, they also felt it was quite unreasonable. The county magistrate Liu Minsheng flapped his lips a few times, but made no sound.
But the movement in his expression caught Shen Shuren's eyes. Shen Shuren turned his head and asked kindly: "What's the matter? What do you think of Magistrate Liu's opinion?"
Liu Minsheng waved his hands quickly: "No objection, no objection! Sir, you have misunderstood!"
He said this, but he was a little worried in his heart. Although this Shen Shuren holds the title of Taotai and Qiandu censor, theoretically he does not have that much power over the civil affairs of Wuchang Mansion and Hanyang Mansion, and he cannot appoint and replace him at will. people.
Now that he is so overbearing, does Governor Fang have no objection?
Everyone decided to wait and see how other counties in Wuchang would react to Chen Shuren's arbitrary actions.
Everyone still understands the principle of shooting the first bird. If others don't make trouble, then they will tolerate it.