Liu Haojia simply explained what happened just now. Zhang Qiang was furious after hearing this. He rushed to Li Li in a few steps, raised his hand and slapped him hard! While beating him, he cursed: "You are such a bastard, but you still dare to take advantage of me in front of the second young master. Who are you? You..."
Liu Haojia knew that this was Zhang Qiang's reassertion of power, but he didn't want Zhang Qiang to succeed, at least not in the early stage. Because he needs the cooperation of all bankers in the early stage. So he said: "Okay, don't beat him yet! This kind of person will be directly convicted. Beating him will make your hands dirty!"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Qiang immediately turned back and said, "It all depends on the Second Young Master's instructions."
Liu Haojia turned around and said loudly to the villagers: "Dear fellow villagers, I have been ordered to take over the entire Liuzhuang. I thought it was a very simple matter, but I didn't expect that there are still people doing evil here! So today, I will do this for everyone. Helping to cause trouble! If you accepted the bullying in the past, tell me today that I am the one who decided to deal with them!"
After Liu Haojia finished speaking, he looked at the surrounding villagers, hoping that they could provide evidence of these people's crimes, but the villagers still looked at him numbly, and no one spoke.
At this time, Zhang Qiang was anxious! It turned out that he was just an ordinary eunuch in the palace, and he was only sent here because he did things properly! If this errand is not done well, wouldn’t it mean that the opportunity to climb up is lost? So he also shouted loudly: "You mud-legged people are so ignorant. The second young master is working for Long live the Lord. The second young master is making the decision for you. Why don't you speak quickly? There is no such shop after passing this village." !”
At this time, an old man in the crowd asked in a trembling voice: "My father-in-law, I would like to ask, are you really here on behalf of His Majesty?"
Zhang Qiang said loudly: "That's natural! Who else but your majesty would dare to order our family? We are the eunuchs in the palace!"
Liu Haojia beside him thought to himself, there are many people who can drive low-level eunuchs like you! But he didn't want to make this matter clear, and he wanted to use Zhang Qiang's advantage as a eunuch to break the villagers' fear and suspicion.
Sure enough, Zhang Qiang's status as eunuch gave the villagers great courage, because they knew that eunuchs had always made the final decision in Huangzhuang. So the old man who just spoke came out and pointed at Li Li and said: "This evil thief broke one of my son's legs because of harvesting grain. He raised him for half a year before he was forced to go to the ground! I wonder if you can make the decision for me?"
Liu Haojia took a step forward and said, "You are all tenants here, and paying rent is a matter of course. They beat you and your son. Didn't you pay enough for the rent?"
When the old man heard this, he was so frightened that he knelt on the ground with a thud. He thought that the other party, Liu Haojia, was looking for trouble with him, so he hurriedly said: "It's not that they don't pay the food, but that they collect it too harshly! They actually want 70% of the interest." !Can’t live anymore!”
Liu Haojia had been in Daming for a long time and was somewhat familiar with the situation of rent collection. He frowned and said, "Seventy percent is a bit high, but it's not like you can't afford it, right?"
The old man cried loudly and said: "This noble man doesn't know that he only charges 70% of all interest rates!"
Liu Haojia said in shock: "What? All 70%! Is this bastard crazy?"
Before the Republic of China, and even during the Republic of China, some areas in China continued the ancient tradition of rent collection, which was to only collect one season's rent from the main grain production!
This means that if a farmer rents land from a landlord this year, and he mainly grows rice this year, he will have to share the rice this season with the landlord. Generally speaking, conscientious landowners are divided into 50% or 40%, but there are also 70% or 80%!
But after collecting the land rent for rice, farmers do not charge rent for other crops they plant on the land! In other words, in addition to rice, this farmer also grows beans and other things, and all the harvest belongs to the farmer and has nothing to do with the landowner!
There are many explanations for land rent in China, including iron plate rent, head rent, etc., so I won’t go into details one by one. And when he takes office in this imperial estate, he collects seven levels of land rent from all the farmers' output. This is a waste of money! Because only 30% of the harvest is barely enough to keep people from starving to death! That's why Liu Haojia said he was crazy!
Liu Haojia stepped forward and pulled off the rag from Li Li's mouth and asked, "Is what the old man said the truth?"
Li Li stared and said, "Everyone in the Imperial Mansion collects rent like this, not just my family!"
Liu Haojia kicked him to the ground, threw the rag in his hand, and said to his family: "Gag his mouth, I don't want to listen to him anymore!"
After saying that, he turned back to him and said, "Is what this old man said true?"
Seeing that Liu Haojia had expressed his attitude, everyone became more courageous and stepped forward to confirm that what the old man said was true! There was so much noise for a while that I couldn’t even hear the voices clearly!
Liu Haojia shouted loudly: "Every household head comes out to speak, and everyone else steps back!"
Zhang Qiang also screamed: "Didn't you hear what the second young master said? Everyone, step back, everyone, step back!"
Several servants also came up to help maintain order, and the crowd was quickly controlled. Many bold bankers stayed where they were, and many who were timid and dared not speak retreated to the outskirts with their families. Then Liu Haojia asked his servants to bring a table, and he brought paper and pen to call up the farmers who were left behind one by one for questioning.
With the bonus of anger, Liu Haojia had a big explosion at this time! He called the master to interrogate various information one by one, and kept taking notes in his hands, just like Pang Tong asking questions in the county. Everyone was stunned!
In just over an hour, Liu Haojia memorized a thick stack of paper! It records all the evil deeds of the previous manager and his thugs!
Among these records, beating and cursing others, stealing from others, and bullying of men and women are common occurrences! In the past few years, as many as five daughters-in-law and eldest girls have committed suicide after being bullied! Not to mention that there are still some people who have suffered a loss without speaking out! In addition, it was recorded that they beat several people to death for collecting grain!
After Liu Haojia asked the last person, he rubbed his sore wrist and said to the servants beside him: "Arrange for these villagers to come forward and identify the person, and the charges will be confirmed!"
The few servants are all capable of literary and military skills. They can handle such a small matter easily and put it into effect quickly. Then the servant who led the team came over with a stack of papers and said angrily: "If these bastards didn't say goodbye, they would have done all the bad things! Except for seven or eight of them, the charges were smaller, and the rest would have been beheaded! If you didn't say goodbye, it would be enough." Yes, they have killed and crippled seven or eight bankers in the past few years, and almost half of them participated!"
