Let’s just say that there have been many chaotic situations in the Changningwei area.
Every one or two days, Wang Shouzhe would receive a letter from Wang Shouyi, telling him what happened in Changning Guards. The City Guards Mansion had cooperated with two heavenly and human families, as well as several top Lingtai families, including the Xu family of Changning.
, reached an agreement with Qian's Trading Company and other forces, and began to open warehouses in the city to provide disaster relief.
However, there is a large population in the Acropolis. It is a large city with a population of more than 100,000, and the food consumed every day is astronomical.
A few groups of daring businessmen actually joined forces to hoard food and secretly sold it to the people in the city at five or six times the price. As a result, they were caught by the city guards. Not only were they beheaded in public, but the food they had managed to hoard was also sold to the city.
The Wei Mansion confiscated it.
There are even rumors that this time the disaster spread outside Longzuo County. Therefore, in a short period of time, it was difficult to dispatch food from outside the county to suppress the food shortage, so that a food shortage also occurred in such a large county.
It is said that Longzuo County is a large city with a population of more than one million. A food shortage in this city must be a big deal. This also shows how corrupt the overall situation of Longzuo County has been.
Nowadays, rumors and rumors are spreading everywhere. Some say that Zifu Academy cannot raise food from outside. Others say that the county has ordered the food to be collected from the city guards under its command to ensure the food supply of the county.
The biggest rumor actually said that [Emperor Changlong] was approaching his end of life and the Daqian Empire was about to end. This insect plague was a sign. It made Wang Shouzhe break out in a cold sweat. Sure enough, the situation was in chaos, and all kinds of monsters and monsters would come out.
However, those who dared to say that Emperor Changlong was about to die were quickly caught by the City Guards, hung on the city gate and executed by Ling Chi.
In Wang Shouyi's letter, he only dared to express it vaguely. Wang Shouzhe still listened to the messenger and talked about it secretly.
In short, one word.
chaos!
And the Ping An Wang family is in this mess, so they can only act honestly on the surface. They need to collect taxes and pay taxes and pay the grain, and there are a lot of people from the garrison. In fact, even if the Wang family wants to pay less,
Food is impossible.
Even if the third uncle Wang Dingzu serves as the deputy governor in the governor's mansion, he will never dare to show any favoritism at this juncture. Just because the city guard's mansion has long sent people down to supervise the progress of food collection, who is it at this moment?
Dare to show favoritism?
This summer tax, the Wang family paid a large amount of food.
Load after load of grain was loaded onto a horse-drawn carriage and transported to Dingpu Ferry. Under the supervision of envoys from the City Guards Office, people from the Guards House weighed the grains one by one and finally loaded them onto the grain ship.
The three major farms combined have a registered total of 7,650 acres of fertile farmland, with a tax rate of 4 per acre. A total of 3,060 quintals of wheat are required to be paid in a single season. Fortunately, the overall harvest this time is good. Apart from the problem of honey bugs, the actual harvest this year is
It is a season with abundant rainfall in the early stage and good sunshine in the middle and late stages, which is very conducive to wheat filling and maturation.
Therefore, the total wheat harvest output of the three major farms actually reached more than 26,000 quintals, with an average yield of about three and a half quintals per acre, which was barely considered a bumper harvest.
Excluding the summer tax, the previous investment in the "Pest Control Tax", the amortization of seed farming cattle, and the sharecroppers' share, there is still an additional 14,000 to 5,000 tons of net income. Of course, the grain is actually more than this number. few.
Because the previous expenditures such as the insect killer powder were paid with dry gold, and I will not buy the Laoshizi insect killer powder again in the future. This is only the income for one season.
By the way, the fourth old man was deceived into hoarding a batch of insecticide powder. He also took advantage of the high price and sold it at three times the price, making a huge profit.
This made Wang Xiaozhi, the fourth old man, so proud that he would brag to everyone he met that with his outstanding vision, he had made "big money" for the family and made great contributions.
Except for the summer tax on the wheat field of my own farm, the taxes on other properties on the farm are paid before the year. And because they are not produced food crops, there is no need to use food to subscribe.
In addition, it is the jurisdiction within the Wang family's sphere of influence that collects taxes.
Because the Wang family's sphere of influence is small, there are only 16,000 acres of registered farmland for civilians in the area under its jurisdiction. These are all implemented under the five-tax system. However, the Wang family is concerned about the homesteaders in the area. Although the losses are less than those outside the outside world, they are also very damaged. big.
Therefore, it was decided to only collect four taxes on grain. The tax that belonged to the aristocratic family could be deducted with a large copper dime. This time, Wang worked hard to collect 6,400 loads of grain on his behalf, all of which were loaded into trucks and transported to Dingpu Ferry, and then shipped by large ship. Shipped one by one.
Under the protection of his family general, Wang Shouzhe stood at the busy and bustling Dingpu Ferry, and he couldn't help but be filled with emotion. These days, the Xuanwu family and the free people have worked hard to farm, but the benefits are far less than tax collection. .
According to rumors, part of this food will be transported to the Acropolis, and part of it will be used to "relieve" people from higher-level states and counties. You must know that the living conditions of the people there are far better than those in Ping'an Town.
Speaking of which, it can be considered a kind of irony.
What's more, transporting grain one by one like this will make Ping'an Town, which is already short of food, even worse. Especially since many people have invested their savings in buying farmland, or spending huge sums of money to send their children to study, or just recently... Farmer families that have experienced huge expenses such as weddings and funerals will find this crisis particularly difficult.
In theory, the conditions of owner-farmer families are not bad, but their consumption level is much higher than that of tenant farmers. The cost of oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, food, clothing, housing, transportation, weddings and funerals will also be higher.
Moreover, most self-cultivated farmers will find ways to expand their fields, build houses, and train their children to study, learn skills, etc. if they have a little savings. This consumes money, and most of them do not have much savings.
There is no problem under normal circumstances, but unexpectedly this insect plague came so violently and suddenly.
But, even so.
Except for a small number of self-cultivating farmers, most of the self-cultivating farmers find ways to survive until the next season's grain production, which is considered to be successful. But among them, there are some who can't stand the devil.
Every time there is a natural or man-made disaster, there will always be some greedy powerful people who take this opportunity to engage in mergers and acquisitions, devouring the people's wealth and anointing to strengthen themselves.
Wang Shouzhe glanced at the convoys of Liu and Zhao families that came to pay taxes from a distance, and narrowed his eyes slightly. Previously, it was just the style of the two wolf families of the Liu family and the Zhao family, and some rumors.
, to estimate their actions.
However, as the intelligence work unfolded, some conclusive information gradually reached Wang Shouzhe. He was almost certain that the other party would indeed make big moves.
…
Peaceful Liu family.
In the main hall of the Liu family's main house, the head of the Liu family, Liu Shengye, was listening to reports from several clan members on the incident, including Liu Yongzhou, a relatively outstanding member of the younger generation.
He frowned: "What happened to the Sun family of Changning? They clearly promised to lend us 15,000 dans of wheat, and we would pay back 30,000 dans of rice after the autumn harvest. Why don't we honor it now? After all this, we have doubled our profits out of thin air.
Not satisfied either?
"The Sun family in Changning said that they all rushed to buy insecticide powder and barely managed to maintain a small amount of production." A tribesman in his fifties replied, "They said that the Sun family's losses were too great."
"How much will it cost?" Liu Shengye's face looked a little gloomy. The Liu family's losses this time were too great. If they couldn't make up for it, it would be too destructive to their vitality.
The expression on that tribe's face was also ugly: "Sun said that we don't want us to repay double the grain, and also said that speculating on grain prices is illegal. It's better to barter, and she wants to exchange 1,500 acres of fertile land with us."
Fifteen hundred acres of fertile land?
Liu Shengye's face turned green and white, and he fainted out of breath: "Are they crazy? Fifteen thousand dans of grain are exchanged for fifteen hundred acres of land?" How many years has passed since the ancestors of the Liu family started to accumulate money to this day?
The current situation is just over 10,000 acres of fertile farmland.
This opening is one-seventh of the farmland. How cruel. This is a huge profit several times over.
"Master, how about forget it?" The tribesman said helplessly, "According to our original plan, we can annex about 2,000 acres of fertile land. If the Sun family does this, won't we bear the infamy and be married to others?"
clothes?"
"We can't forget it. The Liu family has suffered too much loss this time." Liu Shengye said with a fierce look in his eyes, "Then this time we will simply do nothing but annex three thousand acres. Even if the time comes, we will take out a mortgage or borrow money.
If we trade with others, we will make a lot of money."
His eldest brother Liu Shenghao was at the critical moment of attacking the Lingtai, but there were still some gaps in resources. Once he reached the Lingtai realm, he would have a double spiritual platform, and he could compete with the Sun family.
Liu Shengye has always been good at managing the economy, and he always counts every penny, never willing to suffer losses. Moreover, the family has worked hard to accumulate wealth in the past fifty years. While strengthening the family, doesn't it want to cultivate a second Lingtai ancestor?
"Master, are you afraid that such a big move will cause resentment among the people?" The clansman said with some worry, "What's more, the Wang family did not suffer any disaster because of the emergence of a spiritual insect master, so there must be a lot of surplus food left in their hands.
.Will you take advantage of the opportunity..."
"They don't dare!" Liu Shengye said confidently, "We, the Liu family and the Zhao family, are working together. How dare the weak Wang family dare to use even a paw? What's more, I have heard that the Wang family has transported excess grain to Donggang, and in exchange for high returns
A sum of cultivation resources. It is a wise move. If you keep the remaining food in your hands until the next season, it will definitely not be so in demand."
"How can the head of the family be sure of this?" The tribesman asked strangely, "According to this trend, not every family can use a double dose of insect killer powder."
"The head of this family has received the news that Zifu Academy has begun to improve the next generation of insect killer powder. And as an apology, the next season's insect killer powder will be distributed to each losing family at a loss of only 10% of the price."
This news can be considered relatively secret, but the Liu family is the core of this conference hall, so naturally they are not afraid of leaking it.
"In that case, this opportunity should not be missed." The tribesmen said one after another, "It's just that the Sun family is too dark."
Liu Yongzhou, who had been silent and holding back, suddenly raised his hands and said: "Master, uncles, Yongzhou has a way to avoid cooperating with the Sun family. Some time ago, my fishing boat was on the riverside and rescued a fisherman.
A rich young lady in distress..."
When he mentioned this rich young lady, Liu Yongzhou's eyes could not help but flash with burning passion, obsession, and even fanaticism...