In April, Tianjing New City ushered in a bumper harvest of winter wheat. Although there was little rain last year and the harvest in the dry fields with poor irrigation was poor, the rivers near Fanjiazhuang did not stop flowing. Yang Peng's dry fields relied on three rivers for irrigation, and they were all well fed. After one winter, the harvest was good. Mr. Ni from Deyuan New Village also had a bumper harvest. He is a good man. He knows how deep to plow the fields and when to apply fertilizer. He can harvest one stone and two buckets of grain per acre of dry land. He and his wife rented forty acres of dry land, and by April they had harvested forty-seven shi of wheat.
The money for cotton-padded jackets and farm tools was settled with the city lord last year. This year, we only need to deduct fourteen shi and one dou of grain from the land rent to the city lord, deduct one stone and two dou of silver for the cattle, and then deduct the one stone of house money returned to the city lord. Boss Ni can leave thirty shi and seven dou. of food. The four members of Mr. Ni's family eat with open stomachs. They eat 11 shi of wheat a year, and Mr. Ni can still have a balance of 19 shi and 7 buckets of grain. Two shi of grain were left to make this year's winter wheat seeds, and Boss Ni still had a surplus of 17 shi and 7 buckets of grain.
Now that it has been nearly two years since the Khitan invaded, the price of food in Cangzhou has returned to normal, almost two taels of silver and one stone. In the city lord's cheap grain store, Boss Ni exchanged seventeen stones and seven buckets of grain for thirty-five taels of silver. This is a lot of money. When he returned home with thirty-five taels of silver, Mr. Ni was a little nervous for fear of being robbed. These days, a set of cotton summer clothes only costs four cents of silver, a set of winter coat only costs one or two or five cents of silver, and a live chicken only costs one cent of silver. Thirty-five taels of silver can allow Mr. Ni and his family to live a well-off life without any shortage of money. This income level is almost the same as that of workers in Yang Peng's workshop.
Yang Peng's waterwheels and irrigation canals changed the fate of 10,000 farmers. The Song Dynasty did not lack farmland. What it lacked was organizational ability and water conservancy projects. What it lacked was the power to defeat those who coveted it. Yang Peng had the power to repel nearby pretenders and protect his own industry. With a little organization of water conservancy projects, he helped farmers get rid of poverty and become rich.
When farmers have money, they not only buy land but also build houses. The day after Boss Ni returned after exchanging money, he went to find masons to expand his family's house. However, Boss Ni found that he was late. The two thousand masons stationed in Fanjiazhuang had long been hired by the farmers who had a great harvest. The first reaction of farmers who have had a good harvest is to expand their houses. Boss Ni wants to make an appointment with a mason, so he has to queue up. Boss Ni shook his head and returned to his yard, only to see his cousin Meng Yousan sitting in his house with his wife.
As soon as Boss Ni saw his cousin coming, he knew his purpose and said loudly: "Cousin, wait a minute while I buy a duck to entertain you!" Without saying anything, Boss Ni went to the market in the town. I bought a duck at the market to entertain Meng Yousan - since the wheat matured last spring and farmers had income, a small town has been formed two miles north of Deyuan New Village. There are vegetables, meat, chickens and ducks in the town, and services Wealthy farmers from several nearby villages.
After this year's winter wheat harvest, the farmers have become richer and the town has become more lively. The butcher in the town has to kill a pig every day, and the chicken and duck sellers are even more sinful. They don't know how many chickens and ducks they kill in a day. In the evening, in Boss Ni's house, the four members of Boss Ni and Meng Yousan and his wife had a sumptuous dinner. There are dry-fried bacon, braised duck, various vegetables, rice wine bought in the town, and plenty of rice.
Meng Yousan and his wife were used to suffering, and their mouths watered when they saw such food. They wolfed it down and howled as if they had been hungry for days. That look frightened Boss Ni's son so much that he didn't even dare to pick up vegetables. Although Mr. Ni's family of four does not eat meat every day, after this month's harvest, they still eat meat every three days. The Ni family members were much calmer when they saw a table of meat. Compared with Meng Yousan and his wife who were devouring the food, they were immediately on a par. In the end, the four members of the Ni family seemed to think that Meng Yousan and his wife were too miserable and did not compete with them for food. They only put down their chopsticks after eating a bowl of rice with a few pieces of vegetables.
Before Meng Yousan could react, he stuffed meat into his mouth and said, "Eat, why don't you eat meat?" Boss Ni took a sip of rice wine and said lightly: "You eat, we ate meat in the morning, but now we don't have meat." Appetite." Meng Yousan saw Boss Ni drinking, and then he remembered that there was a bowl of wine in front of him, so he quickly raised it and took a sip. As the fragrant rice wine entered his stomach, Meng Yousan let out a sigh of satisfaction and said loudly: "Donkey Hair Ball, this is how people live. It's so bitter over there in Baodi. I didn't even eat meat during the Chinese New Year this year!"
Mr. Ni laughed, lit the cigarette with a fire sickle, and smoked slowly, waiting for Meng Yousan to finish his meal. Meng Yousan looked at Boss Ni who was smoking cigarettes with a confused expression, and secretly thought that the Ni family was so rich that they even smoked cigarettes. I have only seen this kind of dry tobacco once from the village master, and I have never smoked it.
Meng Yousan felt shocked by all the differences he saw in the Ni family. If I had seen Mr. Ni smoking in the past, he would have snatched the dry cigarette away and smoked a few puffs at the sound of Ni. But now looking at the wealthy Boss Ni, Meng Yousan felt a sense of class disparity, as if he saw the village master and did not dare to take action for a while. Meng Yousan then remembered that he was too embarrassed to eat meat, so he slowed down the chopsticks in his hands and ate slower.
Boss Ni waited while smoking. It wasn't until Meng Yousan burped and put down his chopsticks that Boss Ni said, "My cousin came to my house with my cousin, right?" Yang Peng's Ten Thousand Tenants He is very wealthy and his fame has spread to several neighboring counties. The poor tenant farmers nearby all hope to come to Tianjing New City to farm for Yang Peng. There are too many people who want to come. Therefore, the second batch of farmers recruited by Yang Peng this time required that the first batch of farmers must serve as guarantees to ensure that there were no spies involved.
Meng Yousan eagerly wanted to go to Tianjing New City to do things, so of course he had no choice but to come and ask Boss Ni to be his guarantor. Without Boss Ni as a guarantor, Meng Yousan would not be able to enter the gate of Tianjing New City no matter how much he wanted to be a tenant farmer of Yang Peng. Boss Ni licked his lips and said: "To tell you the truth, cousin, there are already five relatives who have come to beg me to be my guarantee. You are the sixth." After a pause, Boss Ni said: "But According to the rules of the city lord, I can only protect one family this year. It will be difficult to deal with whoever I protect or not!"
Meng Yousan looked at Boss Ni with longing eyes and said: "Boss Ni, we have played together since we were young, and you can't excuse me if you don't protect me from entering the village!" Boss Ni took the last puff of his cigarette, knocked on the leg of the table, and removed the cigarette. Knocked out the burned tobacco from his pocket and said, "You're right, let's play big together. From childhood to old age, although you looked down on me and called me Nerd, you never bullied me! And everyone else, because of me It’s an honest man who took advantage of me!”
Boss Ni put the dry cigarettes on the table and said: "So, I will protect your Meng Yousan family! This year, you will go to Qingyun County to plant forty acres of dry land with canals!" "Really?" "Can there be any fake ones? ? Tomorrow I will take you to the city to be a surety!" When Meng Yousan heard what Boss Ni said, he jumped up from his chair with excitement, squatted on the chair, and said loudly: "Boss Ni, you are enough Loyalty!”
Boss Ni's words changed the fate of Meng Yousan's family. How could Meng Yousan and his wife not be excited? Meng Yousan's daughter-in-law held on to Meng Yousan's pants tightly, her eyes so excited that she shed tears. "The child's father is fine now. He can have enough to eat." Meng Yousan glanced at his wife and couldn't help but shed tears. He hugged his wife's head and said, "The child's mother is now ready." Have a good life! Our two daughters won’t go hungry!”
Boss Ni looked at the excited Meng Yousan and his wife and said nothing. He took out some more tobacco from the cigarette bag, put it in the mouth of the pipe, lit it, and took a puff slowly.
However, Yang Peng didn't care much about the bandits. Yang Peng was more concerned about the construction of his territory. By April, the soldiers sent by Yang Peng to Nanyang to search for sweet potato plants had returned with seedlings and two farmers who knew how to grow sweet potatoes. Yang Peng asked them to plant a season of sweet potatoes on the land where winter wheat had been harvested to test how much wheat and sweet potatoes could be harvested by rotating crops. Sweet potatoes, let’s see if rotating sweet potatoes will reduce wheat yields.
On the other hand, by the beginning of April, more than 2,000 new tenant farmers hired by Yang Pengxin were in place and began to build irrigation canals along the rivers in Qingyun County. They wanted to repair the irrigation canals before winter wheat was sown. More than 2,000 households of new tenant farmers were recruited as guarantees from old tenant farmers. Most of them were tenant farmers from Baodi and nearby prefectures and counties. They originally rented little land from the landlords and lived in poverty. After hearing that Yang Peng had a good life, these tenant farmers harvested the winter wheat of the previous season and paid the rent and then moved their families to Yang Peng. Unlike the first batch of refugees, these tenant farmers moved here with their belongings and had everything. Yang Peng did not need to distribute cotton-padded clothes and quilts, he only needed to distribute cattle and houses.
Not only are the more than two thousand new tenant farmers building irrigation canals, but the original more than two thousand old tenant farmers are also joining the army of building irrigation canals. Now is the slack period, and the old tenant farmers have nothing to do. Yang Peng gave each of them six cents of silver per day, and these old tenant farmers came over one after another to earn money and help repair canals. Yang Peng thought that the new land reclamation work would go smoothly, but who knew that Cheng Yaojin would show up halfway? Several large landowners along the river who had originally promised to build irrigation canals for Yang Peng suddenly changed their minds and said they were unwilling to take Yang Peng's high compensation. The land was given up to Yang Peng to build irrigation canals.
The newly reclaimed land by Yang Peng is a little far away from the river. To irrigate it, irrigation canals must be built on the existing fields by the river. These irrigation canals must pass through the fields along the river and occupy some existing acres. Yang Peng originally compensated the land occupied by the irrigation canal at 20 taels per mu. But if the landowners along the river don't agree to the price, Yang Peng's irrigation canal won't be built and new fields won't be cultivated.
Yang Peng was stunned when he heard the news, and secretly thought: What did these big landowners have to do to be so brave and brave that they dare to go against him? He had just killed everyone in three counties and collected business taxes. Irrigation canals are a major issue for Yang Peng. Now that Li Zhi's tenant farmers have been recruited, the situation cannot be dealt with if new fields cannot be opened. Yang Peng took Zheng Hui to the river to have a look and prepare to deal with this problem.
Zheng Hui led Yang Peng to the vicinity of the Crescent River and rode on a higher hill. I could only see the crescent river flowing from the west, passing through the interlaced farmland on both sides, and slowly flowing to the east. There are dry fields for more than 100 meters on both sides of the river. At this time, the winter wheat has been harvested and the land is idle. Zheng Hui pointed at the Crescent River and said: "Look, sir, the nearly a thousand acres of dry land from three miles to the west to four miles to the east belong to the Liu family. It is the Liu family who took the lead in not cooperating with our canal construction, and several other large families After the Liu family took the lead, they also clamored to reject our water canal construction. I have tried all my good words, but they just don't agree."
Yang Peng thought for a while and said, "How about increasing some subsidies?" Zheng Hui said, "Sir, I'm afraid this is not a matter of money. These dry fields by the river are irrigated by carrying water, and one acre is only worth more than ten taels of silver. I I have told the Liu family that I am willing to subsidize them with twenty-five taels per acre, but the Liu family still does not agree. I am afraid that the Liu family is not as simple as subsidy."
Yang Peng lowered his head and thought for a while, then asked: "What is the background of the Liu family? How dare they take the lead in stirring up trouble." Zheng Hui said: "It is said that the son of the family is the censor of Huguang." Yang Peng spat: "What a big official. , the patrol censor, the seventh rank, don’t you want to make things difficult for us and extort money?” Zheng Hui said: “It’s possible!”
Yang Peng said loudly: "Let's go meet this Liu family member." The two of them rode horses and took their servants, holding the flag of Tianjing New City and the five-square flag, to the Liu family's house in Qingyun County Ride away. After riding for an hour, we found the Liu family's house. The Liu family house is located in the north of a village, with five entrances from the front and back. The high walls and deep courtyard are extraordinary. At the entrance of the courtyard, there is a gatehouse with three eaves and two large stone lions with teeth and claws. At first glance, it seems that it belongs to a powerful family.
Yang Peng secretly thought that the censor was very rich. Did he get this money through corruption or robbery? The side door of the house was open, and a tall servant stood guarding the door. Yang Peng asked the servant to send his name card. The servant took one look at Yang Peng and went in to report the news. After a while, the servant came out and invited Yang Peng into the yard. Yang Peng took Zheng Hui and two soldiers into the yard and saw an old man waiting in the yard with more than a dozen family members.
The old man was probably fifty or sixty years old. His beard and hair were all white. He was hunched over and leaning on a cane. The dozen or so family members around him all had serious faces when they saw Yang Peng coming in, and none of them had any intention of saluting Yang Peng. The posture was that he was not ready to invite Yang Peng into the house to drink tea, and he was very hostile.
Yang Peng was stunned, raised his hands and said, "May I ask who this is?" The old man held up his cane and said loudly, "I am Liu Jianshen, the head of the Liu family." After a pause, the old man seemed to feel that his reputation was not prestigious enough. Then he said: "Liu Bingchuan, the censor of Huguang, is my son!"
Still hoping to ease the situation, Yang Peng raised his hands and said, "It turns out to be Mr. Liu! Yang Peng from Tianjing New City came to visit Mr. Liu about the irrigation canal!" The old man snorted and said, "This irrigation canal occupies our land. It can't be repaired!" Yang Peng thought for a while and said: "I will compensate Liu Gong with thirty taels per mu for the occupied land. How about it? The current market price of those dry fields is only more than ten taels per mu!"
The old man stood up his crutches, pointed at a middle-aged man next to him, and said, "Tell me what you say!" The middle-aged man stood up and said loudly: "My second brother Liu Bingchuan said in a letter that I am famous. You must not use the land to build irrigation canals for traitors! The general wants my family to use the land to build the canals for you, so first stop the commercial tax that competes with the people for profit, and then my family will discuss with your Excellency the issue of compensation for the land occupied by the canals!"
Yang Peng said coldly: "Is it a traitor to levy commercial taxes? Farmers work hard and have to pay land tax, why can't businessmen pay commercial taxes?" Liu Jianshen heard Yang Peng's words, and excitedly said with a cane: "Collecting commercial taxes is Stealing the interests of the people and competing for wealth with the people! It shows the disaster of the tax inspectors during the emperor's time, and everyone in the world is against it!" Yang Peng said: "There are wars all over the world, and the country has no military pay to support its troops, and it is already going bankrupt. If we continue to collect land taxes, the farmers will starve to death. If you want to rebel, why can't the merchants and gentry give you a little benefit in this case? Just sit back and watch the country's difficulties without doing anything, this is the real traitor!"
Liu Jianshen couldn't defeat Li Zhi. He coughed violently several times and cursed loudly: "The traitor is arrogant! If I don't want to argue with you, leave my house quickly!" Yang Peng asked: "What about the irrigation canal?" Liu Jianshen waved his sleeves and said : "No need to talk!" Yang Peng lost his temper and said coldly: "Don't be too self-righteous!"
Liu Jianshen snorted coldly, seemingly not taking Yang Peng's warning seriously. After leaving the Liu family's house, Zheng Hui asked: "Sir, what should we do if the Liu family takes the lead and refuses to build irrigation canals for us?" Yang Peng said: "Bring people to repair it! Wherever we need to build canals, we dig them. He is so small Patrolling the censor, what are you afraid of him doing?"
Zheng Hui asked, "What if the Liu family says we are seizing private land?" Yang Peng said, "What are you afraid of? If the sky falls, I will bear it!" The next day, Zheng Hui organized farmers to gather at the Liu family's house. Irrigation canals were built on the fields. When the Liu family saw this, they were furious. After Yang Peng's men dug for three days, the Liu family took action. Dozens of Liu family servants rushed forward in a fierce manner, holding wooden sticks.
"Who dares to dig ditches on the Liu family's private fields?" "Beat to death all of you tenant farmers who farm for traitors!" "Who dares to dig up the Liu family's fields?" Those who build irrigation canals are all farmers, and they don't have weapons. How can they defeat them? A tall servant of the Liu family. Hundreds of people were beaten up by dozens of servants. Some were beaten until their noses were bruised and their eyes were swollen, and some were beaten until they were bleeding and injured. They fled in all directions. Zheng Hui was originally on site to direct the construction of the canal, but when he saw the Liu family's servants arriving, he could only run away.
When he returned to Tianjing New City the next day, Zheng Hui told Yang Peng about the beating in Qingyun County. When Yang Peng heard this, he was furious and secretly thought that the Liu family was not afraid of him at all. Didn't he know that he had a powerful army? He built a canal on his property, occupying more than 20 acres of land, and yet he was fighting with him like this! Could it be that in the eyes of the Liu family, I was really a sworn traitor?
Is he so eager to cut ties with himself? If the Liu family did not give up their land, and other Jin gentry followed suit, their own land reclamation would be empty talk. The second batch of 10,000 tenant farmers has been hired, and Yang Peng cannot stop cultivating new fields now. Now Yang Peng is riding a tiger and cannot get off, so he can only fight with the Liu family.
Yang Peng paced back and forth in the room, secretly thinking that the Liu family's network of connections was really wide, so he couldn't be rude to him, lest Qingliu find a reason to attack him. Originally, Yang Peng was planning to lead his troops directly into Liu's house to arrest people and make trouble, but now it seems that it is best to catch evidence of his corruption and bending the law.
"Zheng Hui, go get Han Jinxin!" Not long after, Han Jinxin trotted to the second hall of the city lord's mansion. "Han Jinxin has met the General!" "Han Jinxin, do you know the Liu family of Qingyun County's censor?" "I know that his family has a thousand acres of fertile land by the Crescent River."
"How could he get so many fields for a government official?" "In the third year of Dao's reign, there was a flood in Qingyun County, and the Crescent River burst its banks and flooded all the fields by the river. After the flood receded, the Liu family colluded with the then The county magistrate occupied a thousand acres of fertile land by the river on the grounds that the fertile land was terra nullius, and turned all the farmers with land by the river into tenant farmers of his family."
Yang Peng sneered and said: "Okay! The Liu family's butts are dirty! You go collect evidence and sort out the Liu family's dirty things. No matter how much money you spend, you must complete this matter!" Han Jinxin nodded and said: " Subordinates have orders!"
Han Jinxin is very efficient in his work. Twenty days later, Han Jinxin returned to Yang Peng and presented the Liu family's criminal evidence collected in the past twenty days to Yang Peng. This Liu family's butt is very dirty. His family was originally a poor family, but after his second son Liu Bingchuan became an official, he got out of hand. Not only did he rely on his power to seize a thousand acres of dry land from the common people, he also cooperated with the government officials to coerce, induce, defraud and suppress, and annexed more than a dozen households in the nearby Longshui Town. Shops, monopolizing various businesses such as grain and cloth in Longshui Town.
Three civilians hanged themselves just because their property was robbed by the Liu family. The Liu family relied on their power to look very ugly. Han Jinxin found a lot of evidence after a little collecting - Han Jinxin found these civilians who were oppressed by the Liu family and spent 200 taels of silver to buy the properties they owned before. Now because of Various original contracts and land deeds that were occupied by the Liu family and became useless. These first-hand information all point to one fact: The Liu family bullied the market, bullied the villagers, illegally annexed riverside land worth fifteen thousand taels, and made thousands of taels of profit every year by bullying the villagers.
This is a big evil gentry. After getting evidence of the Liu family's evil deeds, Yang Peng watched it repeatedly and was very happy. "Tell Zhou Dayong to bring a thousand soldiers, and follow me to the Liu family to get people!" Yang Peng rode a big horse, asked his servants to hold flags and five-square flags, and led a thousand soldiers to the Liu family in Qingyun County. Go and get someone at your door! When they arrived at the Liu family yard, the Liu family closed the door and refused to open it. The door was very heavy and covered with iron and copper nails, so most people couldn't kick it open.
Yang Peng asked the soldiers to bring a ladder and climbed in from the courtyard wall. Halfway through the climb, the servants in the yard actually shot arrows at Yang Peng's soldiers, forcing the soldiers climbing down the wall. Yang Peng was furious and asked the soldiers to open fire at will! The soldiers found twenty more ladders and climbed them with loaded rifles.
Twenty-one soldiers climbed up the wall at the same time and fired into the yard at the same time, suppressing several archers in the yard. After the gunfire rang out, only screams were heard in the yard, and several members of the Liu family fell into a pool of blood, no longer alive. Seeing the fierce firepower, the rest of the Liu family fled into the back yard in panic. The Liu family wanted to sneak out through the back door, but when they opened the back door, they saw a dense number of Fanjiazhuang soldiers standing guard, surrounding the entire yard. The Liu family, who were showing off their power yesterday, are now unable to fly.
The soldiers who climbed the ladder climbed into the yard and opened the door of the house, allowing the soldiers behind to enter the Liu family compound. Yang Peng led two hundred soldiers into the courtyard and took people in various courtyards. After killing several more Liu family servants who resisted, Yang Peng's two hundred soldiers rushed to the last courtyard and captured the old man of the Liu family and Liu Yushi's eldest brother and third brother.
The head of the Liu family, Liu Jianshen, was detained by the soldiers. He coughed violently several times and then said loudly: "Yang Peng, do you dare to take me? Do you have any royal law in your eyes? The governor of Cangzhou and the Minister of Rites have both sent you a message, you Aren't you afraid of offending them?" Yang Peng said with a smile: "Even if I offend them, what can they do to me?" Liu Jianshen's eldest son roared: "Yang Peng, don't be arrogant, my second brother Liu Bingchuan will not let you go. !”
"A small censor is not in the eyes of this city lord." After a pause, Yang Peng said: "You annexed thousands of acres of fertile land from poor farmers, annexed more than a dozen small merchants' shops, and caused three people to commit suicide in despair. The evidence is conclusive. It's irrefutable. I have a hundred reasons to kill you, but you still dare to speak harshly?" After hearing Yang Peng's words, Liu Jianshen and his eldest son looked at each other with panicked expressions. This was not the first time that Yang Peng had committed suicide. Last time, he executed three members of the magistrate's family in the county seat. But the three county magistrates were young, and their families were unable to resist after they were killed. However, the censorship was different. The censor was very powerful, and Liu Bingchuan was among the most respected. The Liu family did not expect that Yang Peng would not take Qingliu seriously, and even Liu Bingchuan's family would dare to come in.
Liu Jianshen coughed for a while, raised his head and said, "Yang Peng, City Lord, please let us go. We will let you build the canals and we won't interfere with you anymore!" Yang Peng said with a smile, "It's too late, I want a head on your neck now." Powerful!" When Liu Jianshen heard this, his face turned pale and his whole body started to tremble. On the land of Cangzhou West Road, Yang Peng did not allow hostile forces to exist. As long as Yang Peng finds a handle, he dares to kill people and execute him. In the face of the strength of Master Yang Penghu, the rules pale and the power seems weak.
Those servants who injured Yang Peng's tenant farmers could not be spared, and Yang Peng tied up all of them. Yang Peng arrested more than 30 people at Liu's house, locked them all in a wing of Liu's house, and sent soldiers with loaded ammunition to guard the outside. Next, Yang Peng began to raid Liu Jianshen's home. The Liu family has been bullying the countryside since Liu Bingchuan became an official. In the past ten years, they have collected a lot of property. Yang Peng searched various yards for a day and found various properties worth 70,000 taels of silver. In addition to the farmland by the river worth more than 10,000 taels of silver, the family of this seventh-rank censor family actually has property worth 90,000 taels of silver.
Han Jinxin said that the Liu family was originally poor, but the accumulation of money by the Liu family in the past ten years is really amazing. Pearls, ivory, spices, silk, and glass and porcelain were copied and piled in the yard. They were piled all over the floor. When Liu Jian saw that all his treasures had been searched out by Yang Peng's soldiers, he closed his eyes in despair. Yang Peng ignored all that and decided to execute all the women and children the next day in front of the villagers who had bullied the Liu family. He would leave two hundred acres of land for those women and children, and pay full compensation to those who were persecuted by the Liu family. fellow countryman.
What happened after all, let’s see what happens next.
