The side hall of Cangyan County's government office was quite warm due to the charcoal fire. The sun gradually rose, and the warmth in the room became even greater.
The elegant middle-aged man pondered for a moment to collect his thoughts and said, "The county governor should know that there is a Luo River in our Cangyan Basin that runs from north to south, and it also passes through our Cangyan City, but maybe it is in the basin. Due to the heavy rainfall in the area, the rivers will overflow every rainy season. Our city, Cangyan City, is relatively located in the middle and upper reaches, which is fine. However, the lower river valleys are mostly affected by floods. In addition, the large area of land is flat, and once floods hit, adjacent areas The land is often not immune to disasters, and over time, the large river valley and many nearby lands are no longer inhabited."
Having said this, he couldn't help but shook his head and continued, "About ten years ago during the turmoil in Li County, an earthquake occurred in the south of Cangyan, and the Luo River changed its course. It was not as bad as imagined. When villages and towns were flooded, the rerouted river plunged into the mountainous area. Instead, it found a passage among the mountains and forest valleys and flowed down the river into the Cangjiang River, emptying out the large valley area that originally belonged to the river. Once it comes out, the adjacent land that was plagued by floods in the past will be safe."
"This is a great good thing for Cangyan. Cangyan has a large number of people and a small amount of land. The land harvests in many villages can no longer support the excessive population. Those near several towns are even better. If they are more remote, Yes, if some families really give birth to extra children, they will inevitably have the Prosthetic Hand tribe secretly throw them into the mountains..." The elegant middle-aged man's voice was a little deep, "Having this large piece of land means that it means I don’t know how much fertile farmland has been added, and a lot of people’s lives have been saved, but in the past ten years or so, not a single village has been moved here, for many reasons.”
Luo Chuan, who had been listening quietly to him, paused slightly in playing with the bronze mirror, "Don't you worry about the lack of numbers but the inequality?"
The elegant middle-aged man nodded, "This is one of the reasons. Folks in various places in Cangyan live together based on their surnames. Among them, the eighteen major surnames such as Li and Zhang have the largest population. This place is now called Xiluo Valley. The narrow strip is vast in area, and its historical development is also complicated. Seven of the eighteen major surnames have tribesmen who have lived here successively. The interlacing and crisscrossing is a confusing matter that cannot be calculated clearly. Now the Luohe River has been diverted to free up a large area. Fertile soil, these seven big surnames naturally want to fight for a big share, so I don’t know how many application letters were submitted to our county’s Chengfu, many of which were sent by high-ranking officials in the DPRK... What’s the trouble? Not only that, although other large families with surnames among the eighteen major surnames do not have much connection with this land in history, after all, they have been occupied by the river for many years. Naturally, those so-called origins are not very strong. Many of these large surnames live in If the land is so barren that it has long been unable to support the tribe, or if the population is too large and houses have begun to be built on the farmland, no matter how you look at it, there are good reasons to be given a piece of cultivated land, but there is only so much land, who can be given to it and everyone else will be fine. ?”
"In addition, it also has something to do with the local tax laws of Li County." The elegant middle-aged man glanced at Luo Chuan and sighed softly, "Li County is a border county, so Li County has a very large number of troops to support. It is difficult to supply the grain produced in just one county of Lijun. Therefore, food has become the top priority of successive governors. Directly related to food are land and tax rates. In Lijun, except for the Ganyuan Basin, A small number of land was granted to some families who had made great contributions to the county, and all the remaining cultivated land was owned by the prefect. All farmers could be considered to be agricultural servants of the prefect. Among them, the amount of cultivated land was all registered by the prefecture. Except for these In addition to cultivated land, private reclamation of wasteland is a major crime. At the same time, taxes and grains are linked to the area of cultivated land. In the past ten years, farmers in Ganyuan and Lijun basins have used ten taxes to one or even lower rates due to post-war reconstruction. Only Cangyan maintains a heavy tax of eight to one tax to this day. Not to mention that reclaiming wasteland is different from cultivating old fields. In the first one or two years, the investment is often large and the harvest is small. If the tax rate is still used to reclaim wasteland, then the first batch of The people who migrated to the Xiluo Valley are lucky to be able to feed half of them..."
"Therefore, if you want to use that piece of land smoothly, you must first register the land with the Prefecture's Mansion. After measuring it, it will be included in the official land according to the actual arable land. Then, the Cangyan Mansion will coordinate and allocate it, so that the eighteenth Everyone agrees not to do evil things secretly. Finally," the elegant middle-aged man looked at Luochuan, "we have to find a lower tax rate for at least one year for the people who reclaim the wasteland. Each of these is not simple. "
Luo Chuan lowered his head and thought for a moment before saying, "It shouldn't be difficult to have someone from the Prefect's Mansion measure the land. Has this been done before?"
"Yes, but no," the elegant middle-aged man replied, "Liu Mingzheng reported this matter before I came here, but he presided over the land enfeoffment several times, which caused a lot of resentment among the people. He also knew the importance, so he simply left it alone. Well, since I came here, I have read the document that measured the land before and went to the Xiluo Valley to see it on the spot. There is not as much farmable land as reported in the document. In some places, it is either too difficult to cultivate or the risk is extremely high. Some marginal places were also included in government land along with good land. In fact, those lands could not produce food but had to bear taxes, which invisibly increased the tax rate of good land. This was why the major surnames originally One of the reasons for the most violent commotion is that there is no way to survive in such land reclamation..."
"After I came, I reported it to the Lord Commander for another measurement. However, with Liu Mingzheng's participation, the measurement results were not much better than before, so I simply stopped the follow-up matters," the elegant middle-aged man lowered his head. "A few days ago, I learned that the county magistrate was about to take office, so I reported to the county magistrate's office for the third time to send someone to measure the land again. Now...since Liu Mingzheng has been punished, I will just measure it this time." The land thing is probably really not that difficult.”
Luo Chuan smiled and glanced at the elegant middle-aged man, but did not delve into this topic. "That's all well and good. Tell the official who will come from Licheng to Cangyan to measure the land for me, and let him do it." Do something, otherwise even if I spare him, the people of Cangyan will not be able to spare him." He played with the bronze mirror in his hand again and said, "Ze Yan, find a place with slightly higher ground next to the best piece of land in the Xiluo Valley. In some places, please invite the old men who can make decisions among the eighteen major surnames, and I will go and meet with them. I once heard Chen Shu say that this Xiluo Valley is the largest piece of uncultivated wasteland in the Cangyan Basin today. , but it is not the only one. Since I have come to Cangyan, there is no way that the wasteland here will be empty and someone's child will starve to death on the other side. I will find a way to deal with tax rates and so on. The world is already like this, so There’s no need to dwell on those bullshit things.”
The elegant middle-aged man stood up and saluted.
Bend extremely deep.