The middle-aged farmer took a tael of silver and put it in his pocket. He froze in mid-air, wanting to return it but reluctant to give it back.
After all, it was the rich young man who took the initiative to give it to him.
People who are rich may be the kind of people who are stupid if they have too much money.
"Then...Young Master, just ask, and I will tell you everything I know."
The farmer quickly put the money into his bag, took out his dirty hands from his pocket, wiped them on his clothes unnaturally, and then raised his legs to go up the field.
People spend their money, so the first thing to do when answering questions is to have a correct attitude.
"Why don't you use buffaloes for farming? Is it because they are sick?"
The middle-aged farmer was a little dumbfounded when he saw that the other party's question was like this.
"Our buffaloes are not sick. They have just finished plowing the fields with the iron sledges. Once the fields are filled with water, we have to use iron rakes to make a simple leveling by hand. We will start planting rice in the afternoon."
"oh…"
Xu Qin nodded, "How many acres of paddy fields do you own? How many acres are there in total?"
"It's all mine. Our three brothers have a total of more than 40 acres of rice fields. We don't hire anyone, so we farm it ourselves."
Belong to yeoman farmers.
According to the class classification of later generations of land reform, these should be between rich peasants and small landowners.
"Then how much do you actually have to pay to pay taxes to the court for your own farmland?"
"We follow the edict of Taizu Hongwu, which states that our rice fields are two and a half buckets of rice per mu."
The middle-aged farmer replied.
"What about the annual corvee?" Xu Qin asked.
"Corvee... If you don't make money, you have to pay."
The farmer glanced at Xu Qin and said, "Our family doesn't pay for anything anyway, we only pay for it, which is about a dou of rice per acre."
After hearing this, Xu Qin nodded and suddenly asked, "Then who do you have to hand over the money and food for these corvees?"
The middle-aged farmer was really stunned for a moment.
This young master is so strange that Hua Yinzi came here specifically to inquire about these things?
But he still replied truthfully, "Generally, each village will hand over the money and food for the corvee to the village head Li Zheng, who recruits tenants or refugees to do corvee labor."
"Do you understand the new policy of this dynasty? Is it significantly different from the previous land tax system?"
This question was a bit sharp. Although the middle-aged farmer was hesitant, he didn't have too many concerns about a passing young man.
"The land tax has little impact on us homesteaders, but it is the big landowners who have the impact."
"As for the corvee tax, although the court has canceled it, the town government and Li Zheng will not exempt us from it, because these are the rules set by the clan elders for many years."
The corvee tax he mentioned refers to one of the exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes stipulated by the local government.
The ones who set the rules are the so-called gentry class and the elders of the powerful clans.
It was difficult for the imperial laws to penetrate into rural areas, not even towns.
It can be seen that the productivity of the Ming Dynasty was the ability to grow grain in the vast towns and rural areas.
To completely liberate the productive forces at the grassroots level, we must send officials to towns and villages to implement the laws of the court and liberate workers.
In other words, the town officials in the town office also need to be appointed by the imperial government.
There are specialized officers in the town office, that is, law enforcement officers, and they should all receive royal rations and salaries.
In this way, the laws of the imperial court can penetrate deeply into towns and villages. This is the real foundation.
"Build the branch in the company."
The essence of this sentence was fully developed in the land tax system in the first year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty.
During the Hongwu period, in Jiangnan, south of Zhili, the rice and wheat taxes collected accounted for 40% of the total tax revenue of the entire dynasty.
Food, salt, silk, cloth and other materials from the south of the Yangtze River need to be continuously transferred to the north, especially outside the Great Wall in northern Xinjiang.
Therefore, it is particularly important to govern Southern Zhili and the entire Jiangnan to further liberate productive forces, strengthen the country and enrich the people.
"Thank you."
Xu Qin cupped his hands, left the field, mounted his horse and left.
One tael of silver, in exchange for these few words, and a great enlightenment, worth it!
But the middle-aged farmer stared blankly at Xu Qin and his entourage leaving, and did not come back to his senses for a long time.
"Master, what does that young master want from you?"
After Xu Qin and the others mounted their tall horses and left, the farmer's wife approached timidly and asked.
"I asked a few things and gave him a couple of silver coins."
"Oh my God, one tael of silver can buy four stones of rice. Come on... take it out and let us see. Is it real silver?"
The woman yelled.
The middle-aged farmer suddenly woke up and began to have doubts. He quickly took out the small piece of broken silver from his pocket and handed it to the mother-in-law.
The mother-in-law picked it up and put it in her mouth, bit it with her teeth, and said with great joy: "Master, this is real silver."
"Mom, we made a fortune today."
"..."
The family gathered around and were very happy for a while.
By the way, Xu Qin and the others walked more than 20 miles. At nearly noon, the team stopped by the roadside, preparing to eat and drink water.
Xu Sanlang took a piece of fur from the saddle and went to a stall by the roadside to invite Xu Qin to sit down.
Xu Qin sat cross-legged on the fur, took a sip of cold water from the cowhide water bag, and then handed a sesame sesame pancake from Sanlang.
The surface of the sesame cake was white with wet bubbles, but he didn't care. He tore it off with his hands and stuffed it into his mouth before chewing it.
The guardsmen were scattered around, eating the dry food they carried with them.
Only Xiaoqiguan and Xu Sanlang followed Xu Qin.
"Master Xu, with his wealth of money, went into a dangerous place in the countryside alone. He didn't seem to panic at all."
The little flag officer held a pancake in one hand and a water bag in the other, and said while eating.
His surname is Li, and everyone calls him Li Xiaoqi.
"How can this place be called a dangerous place?"
"These are ordinary farmers here. The common people, even the local tyrants and evil gentry, are not man-eating tigers and wolves."
Xu Qin stuffed his mouth with pieces of cake and said vaguely:
"We must have a calm mind. They are our parents, our parents, and our relatives. Some people have different understandings and cannot accept new things, so they must be guided and educated correctly."
"Even if they are resisters, we still adhere to the policy of putting education first, treating illnesses and saving people, and save the vast majority of people from coming to our side."
"It's not too late to suppress the remaining stubborn elements."
How could a person of Li Xiaoqi's level understand his theories and opinions?
"Uh-huh…"
Li Xiaoqi nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.
Although he couldn't understand it, it didn't affect his admiration for this young envoy.
A ruthless person like Xu Qin has done a lot of daring things in the past six months. Going to the countryside is really nothing at the moment.
"Just relax."
He finished a large sesame seed cake, then drank some water, slowly clapped his hands and said:
"This group of civilians in the village probably don't even have a pair of cowhide armor or a standard knife. Although we are plainclothes, we all carry standard swords."
"And each of them is well-trained, has superb martial arts skills, and is a cavalryman. Not only one can be worth a hundred, but one can be worth twenty or thirty."
"These strong men are just a ragtag group. They are defeated in one blow when faced with a powerful enemy. They have no lethality at all."
"Yes, Master Xu is right."
Seeing that Master Zheng was full of confidence, Li Xiaoqi felt relieved.
