It will change in the future!
Nie Dong was thoughtful, chewing carefully in his heart.
By the time he came to his senses, Han Zhen was already gone.
After returning to the house and settling the deserters in the front yard for the time being, Han Zhen walked through the hanging flower gate and entered the second courtyard.
In the yard, An Niang and Fang Sansan were squatting by the well, washing clothes.
Seeing Han Zhen return safely, a smile appeared in An Niang's moist peach blossom eyes.
Fang Sansan, on the other hand, shouted in surprise: "Alang, you are back!"
"Um."
Han Zhen nodded and asked, "Where is my sister-in-law?"
Fang Sansan replied: "The eldest lady has been organizing the small warehouse these days."
"Fang Sansan, go and call the chief."
After giving instructions, Han Zhen stepped into the hall.
Zhu Zhengze still had the same meek look, and he said calmly, "I've met the village chief."
"How many runaways have been gathered during my absence?"
As Han Zhen asked, he picked up the teapot on the table and poured himself a cup of herbal tea.
As usual, he was stunned, and Zhu Zhengze handed over a stack of paper and replied: "I was about to report to Xiao Langjun that the number of fleeing households down the mountain in the past few days suddenly increased for some reason, and a total of seventy-eight households were gathered, for a total of three hundred and one households. Eleven people.”
Han Zhen's movement of drinking water stopped. This amount was a bit unexpected.
He asked curiously: "All of them were recruited by the villagers?"
"No, I asked. Most of the people who escaped from the household came down the mountain spontaneously." Zhu Zhengze shook his head and explained.
"How much wasteland is left in the village?"
"One hundred and ninety-three acres."
After drinking the herbal tea in the cup, Han Zhen muttered: "From today on, villagers will no longer receive rewards for wooing fugitives. When the wasteland in the village is distributed, if another fugitive comes down the mountain, he will only be given a bucket of rice."
Providing rewards to villagers in the early stage and providing deserted land to fleeing households are all means to attract them to come down and settle down.
Now a large number of fleeing households have come down the mountain spontaneously, which shows that the previous propaganda has had an effect.
Even if there is no allocation of wasteland in the future, the fugitives will not have to worry about survival. They can work or join the army to support their families.
If we reclaim some wasteland, our small life will definitely be countless times better than living in the mountains.
"I understand."
Zhu Zhengze responded and expressed his understanding.
While talking, the chief hurriedly stepped through the hanging flower door and walked quickly into the hall.
"I met the village chief."
"sit."
After asking the village chief to sit down, Han Zhen asked as usual: "How are you doing in the village these days?"
The head of the village replied: "The village chief is relieved, everything is as usual. It's just that due to the wheat harvest, many villagers have had some conflicts in order to compete for the use of threshers and other agricultural tools. In addition, the number of people fleeing down the mountain has increased sharply in the past few days, and they almost escaped yesterday. Make a scene."
"Please pay more attention to the escape. Keep an eye on it for me. If you find anything unusual, report it to me immediately." Han Zhen picked up the teapot and poured him a cup of tea.
"I saved it."
The chief took the tea cup and nodded solemnly.
"I am planning to set aside an open space at the end of the village to serve as a market and open several shops at the same time."
Han Zhen paused and continued: "In the future, villagers can also set up stalls in the market, but the sales income will need to pay 5 cents of commercial tax."
The five-cent tax, that is, 5%, is consistent with the commercial tax established in the Northern Song Dynasty.
However, although the court stipulated 5%, tax collectors often encountered the problem of double taxation and tax collection in different ways during the tax collection process, resulting in the final commercial tax paid by merchants as high as 30% or even 50%.
In fact, Han Zhen didn't expect the market to collect much business tax. After all, these villagers were great and they only sold some eggs, fish and shrimps they caught, and they didn't make much money in a month.
The key is to set a rule first. With this rule, it will be convenient later.
"I will inform the villagers now."
Li Chang drank the herbal tea in his cup and was about to get up when he was stopped by Han Zhen.
"Not urgent."
After the village chief sat down again, Han Zhen said: "This time I brought back a few people who can read and write, and plan to open a village school to teach children during the day and adults at night, without restraint."
Village learning?
Not practicing binding?
The village chief was stunned for a moment, then stood up and bowed: "Old man, from the village of Xiaowang Village, thank the village chief!"
Han Zhen waved his hand: "That's not necessary."
But the headmaster said with a solemn expression: "You deserve to be worshiped for your contribution to enlightenment."
After paying homage to the village chief, Han Zhen ordered: "In addition, a large number of workers have been recruited recently. If villagers want to work, they can register with Zhu Zhengze. The village chief will inform the villagers of this news."
The construction of markets, shops, village schools, blacksmith shops, and even military camps all require manpower.
Fortunately, the summer harvest has ended now, and there are still two or three months before the corn harvest. This period of time is during the slack period.
If there is work at this time, the villagers will definitely flock to it.
"Village chief, please be patient, I will go now."
After watching the chief leave, Han Zhen waved to An Niang again.
Seeing this, An Niang stood up, wiped the water drops on her hands, and walked to the hall.
"Erlang, what's wrong?"
Han Zhen asked: "Can you get used to living here during this time?"
An Niang said softly: "I'm used to living here. Run Niang treats slaves very well, but she's just a little too busy."
Hearing this, Han Zhen smiled slightly: "I happen to have an errand and I want to ask for your help."
"It doesn't matter whether you want to help or not. If Erlang has something to do, I will do my best." An Niang said in an angry tone, as if she thought he spoke too harshly.
"I'm going to set aside a market at the end of the village and open a few shops. Then you can help run it."
An Niang has experience in opening a tea shop before, so running a shop is not difficult for her.
The purpose of opening these shops is, firstly, to stimulate villagers' consumption, and secondly, to facilitate villagers.
After all, Xiaowang Village is more than twenty miles away from the county seat. In order to buy some things, it is really inconvenient to travel all the way.
If we hike, it will take us two hours to go back and forth.
Moreover, now the villagers of Xiaowang Village have no idea whether they dare to go to the county seat.
In addition, you can also use market shops to attract fleeing households in the mountains, which can be said to serve multiple purposes.
Sure enough, when she heard that she was asked to run the shop, An Niang became interested and asked hurriedly: "Which shops does Erlang plan to open?"
Han Zhen pondered: "Let's open three stores first, a grocery store selling daily necessities, a ready-made fabrics store, and finally a jewelry store."
Several large boxes of jewelry were seized in Songshanling this time. It was useless for him to keep them, so he might as well sell them.
If you open a jewelry shop in a nearby village, you may lose your pants, but Xiaowang Village is different.
Each of these villagers has a lot of money on hand, and there will be more and more money in the future, so there is no need to worry about selling.
That's how it is, people.
After taking care of food and clothing, you will start to think about other pursuits.
An Niang looked confused: "I can't manage these... three shops by myself."
"Here."
Han Zhen pointed at Fang Sansan in the yard and said with a smile: "These two little girls are very busy on weekdays. You can teach them more and then recruit a few girls from the village to help."
"That's fine."
An Niang pursed her lips and smiled.
"I'm going to the backyard to say hello to my sister-in-law."
After Han Zhen finished speaking, he stood up and walked to the backyard.
In the small warehouse, a pretty little woman wearing a cloth scarf was bending over and struggling to drag a box.
The small millstone under the skirt is round and tight.
Different from An Niang's plump figure, Han Zhang's figure is slightly petite. The beauty lies in the pure atmosphere between her eyebrows and the inconsistent feeling combined with the thin branches and fruit.
