At this time, Han Zhen asked: "Who is the chief?"
"The old man is the leader."
The white-haired old man who spoke earlier took a step forward.
"The chief stays here."
Han Zhen waved his hand: "Everyone else has dispersed. Do whatever you need to do."
The villagers dispersed in twos and threes, but there were still six or seven households standing there motionless. These people were men and women, old and young.
Han Zhen raised his eyebrows and said, "What do you want?"
The villagers looked at each other, and one of the middle-aged men stumbled and said: "Xiao... Xiaolangjun, we are tenants of Yuan Wang's wife's family. Now that Wang Yuan's wife is gone, what should we do?"
Han Zhen asked: "How many fields are there outside Wang Yuan?"
The man said, "Forty-six acres of paddy fields and one hundred and eighty-five acres of dry fields."
"Have they been rented to you for farming?"
"They're all rented to us."
"Then how was the rent calculated previously?"
The middle-aged man shook his head: "There is no rent. We help farm the fields, and Wang Yuanwai gives us a bite to eat. When the harvest is good, we will be rewarded with some extra grain."
Good guy!
This is not a tenant, isn't it a serf?
Seeing Han Zhen's expression of surprise, the chief on the side explained: "Xiao Langjun, it's like this now. In the early years, there were indeed tenants, but the tenants' relocation required a document to prove it from the owner's family. Many owners wanted to leave when they saw the tenants. The documents were deliberately not opened. The tenants could not leave, so they had to stay, and over time it became what it is now."
After listening to the chief's explanation, Han Zhen suddenly realized.
understood!
It is the landowners who are old and wealthy and deliberately prevent the tenants from leaving, forcing them to become serfs and farm for themselves for generations.
What the landlords and old wealth need to pay is just a little bit of food.
There are so many fields that must be cultivated.
Thinking of this, Han Zhen muttered: "Now I'll give you two options to choose from. The first option is to pay 50% of the rent, and the rest belongs to you, and you don't have to pay the land tax. The second option is to get wages, and every day The salary is three hundred cents a month, plus two meals."
The rent of 50% is not high, but it is not low either.
Considering that Wang Yuan's wife's farmland is fertile, the grain yield rate must be higher than that of ordinary fields. Therefore, after paying the rent, the remaining grain is enough for their family to eat, and there is still some money left.
After he finished speaking, the group of villagers immediately said in unison: "We choose the second method!"
They are not stupid. Although the first method sounds tempting, harvesting this thing depends on God's face.
God will reward you with a mouthful of food when you are in a good mood, but you will not even get shit if you are in a bad mood.
The second method is different. The harvest is guaranteed regardless of drought or flood. No matter what the harvest in the field is, there is always food to eat and monthly wages.
Three hundred coins.
That's more than five dollars a year. For these poor people who are called tenants and are actually serfs, this is a huge sum of money.
Han Zhen nodded and said, "Okay, I'll write a few deeds later and sign them when you come for dinner tomorrow."
"Thank you, Mr. Xiaolang!"
Twenty or so people all knelt down and kowtowed to Han Zhen sincerely.
After the tenants left happily, Han Zhen turned around and asked, "Are there any relatives other than Wang Yuan in the village?"
"Gone!"
The head of the village heard the meaning of his words and shook his head: "Wang Yuanwai is the eldest son in the family. He has two brothers. The third brother died of tuberculosis when he was three hours old. After the Wang family separated, Erlang moved to Yingtian Mansion. The two daughters , Judu promised to be Master Xu’s concubine.”
Han Zhen asked again: "Are there many runaway households in this mountain?"
"Why not more!"
The head of the village sighed: "In the early years, Xiaowang Village was also a large village with eight villages and ten miles apart, with more than 260 households. Over the years, exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes have become more and more heavy, and now there are only 120 households left."
Han Zhen nodded, already thinking about it.
After pondering for a moment, he suddenly asked: "How are things going at the house leader's house?"
The director smiled bitterly and said: "I can barely satisfy my hunger."
In fact, his title as village leader is just empty, he is no different from an ordinary villager. Wang Yuanwai has the final say on all matters in the village.
"From today on, the monthly salary of the village chief is five hundred wen." Han Zhen said, and ordered Ma Sangou on the side: "Go to my sister-in-law and get five hundred wen."
Soon, Ma Sangou came carrying a bag of copper coins.
Taking the copper coins and stuffing them into the chief's arms, Han Zhen said with a smile: "These five hundred coins are this month's salary. I hope the chief will take the trouble to help me manage the village."
"this……"
Holding the heavy cloth bag, Li Chang had a complicated expression, and then said gratefully: "Thank you very much, young man. I will do my best."
…
Watching the leader leave, Ma Sangou finally couldn't bear it anymore and asked what he was wondering: "Brother Han, why didn't we go up the mountain to become bandits? How can we stay here?"
Han Zhen pointed to the three surrounding mountains: "Aren't we the king of the mountains now?"
Ma Sangou scratched his head, this was completely different from what he imagined.
In his mind, Han Zhen should be like Li Tianwang on the Black Mountain, occupying a mountain top, building a fortress, and then gathering a group of gangsters to eat meat and drink wine.
Seeing his confused look, Han Zhen patted his shoulder and chuckled: "There are several types of gangsters in the mountains. Since we want to be gangsters, let's be high-end."
Who wants to live in the mountains if they have nothing to do?
Snakes, insects, rats, ants, wild beasts are rampant.
Not only do we have to solve the housing problem, we also have to collect the fleeing households and reclaim the land...
How nice it is now to live in a house with blue bricks and red tiles, and save a lot of steps.
There are more than a hundred ready-made farmers and several hundred acres of grain that is about to mature.
Han Zhen was confident that he could handle these villagers. Even if he really couldn't, it wouldn't be too late to run up the mountain.
The reason why he chose Xiaowang Village was after careful consideration.
One is that Xiaowang Village is in a remote location. He noticed it when he came yesterday. It is surrounded by mountains on three sides and is more than ten miles away from the county seat. There is only a rugged loess mountain road leading to the outside world.
As long as you guard the only exit, you can sit back and relax.
In case of failure to defend, there is enough strategic depth and all one has to do is drill into the mountain.
The second reason is that Wang Yuanwai's reputation is too bad and he has bullied the villagers too hard in recent years.
When Wang Yuanwai was killed, these villagers could only applaud and cheer.
As long as the villagers are given some sweetness to make their lives better, the villagers will spontaneously support Han Zhen.
If it were another village, the ending might not be like this.
There is a third point, which is also the most critical point.
Han Zhen was certain that even if the county government knew that they had occupied Xiaowang Village, they would not dare to trouble them in the short term.
He made such a fuss in the county today, which scared many people out of their wits.
Moreover, once Master Xu dies, Changzhi County will definitely take advantage of the situation and take control of power. There will inevitably be open and covert fights with the wealthy gentry in the county. Who will have the energy to cause trouble for him.
Putting it into perspective, if he were Changzhi County, after taking control of the county, he would never take the initiative to provoke himself, but would seize the time to make money.
When he is about to leave office, he will report to the court for recruitment.
It can not only add a political achievement to the resume, but also earn a settlement fee from the court.
In the end, he was promoted with political achievements and money.
Of course, these are just his guesses. There is no guarantee that one day Changzhi County will have a brain attack and suppress the bandits with a slap on the thigh.
However, it is conservatively estimated that Changzhi County will definitely not be able to spare its hands to target him within a few months.
Suddenly, Han Zhen thought of something and asked, "By the way, where is Yuan Wang's wife?"
"died!"
replied the monkey.
"Did you kill him?"
"I didn't kill her. There was chaos in the backyard. Several servants rushed in to snatch money. Wang Yuanwai's wife tried to stop her, but was pushed down by a servant and hit to death on the corner of the flower bed." Monkey explained.
When the servants of a wealthy family see that the master's house is suffering from a disaster, even if they do not rise up to resist, they will not take advantage of the situation to rob the master's house.
It can only be said that it is your own fault and you will not survive.
Wang Yuanwai was not only cruel to the villagers, but also extremely stingy to his own servants.
The cook was slapped in public just because she added too much salt when cooking. I think other servants were also beaten and scolded on a daily basis.
It is estimated that these servants have been grudges for a long time, and today they completely exploded.
Han Zhen ordered: "Monkey, the four of you drag all the corpses out of the house, pile them up and burn them on fire. Sangou, go get the cook and the maids."
After a while, Ma Sangou led seven or eight women over.
