Lu Ming

Zuojia Village has a large population, with nearly [-] households. In the village, the surname Zuo is the common surname, and there are many other Zhao Qiansun and Li Xiao surnames.

After Yu Shuban came to the village with Yaren and accountants, without saying a word, he first bought a few pieces of land at a premium with money.

Chapter 345 Opening of Port ([-])

The land price of the feudal dynasty is closely related to the national destiny.Generally speaking, land prices are directly proportional to the rise and fall of dynasties, generally in the form of troughs.

In the early days of the dynasty, when the war was at an early stage of peace, ten houses were empty, and the population was far from keeping up with the needs. Therefore, the land at this time could not be sold at a price, and it could be bought very cheaply.

During this period, the government will encourage the people to open up wasteland. In fact, it is to restore the unowned cultivated land that had been abandoned before.

The reason why the early dynasty was a harmonious society was precisely because there was sufficient land supply.When resources are abundant, conflicts will naturally be less.

In the middle of the dynasty, while the population increased substantially, the supply of cultivated land gradually became tight.This period is the peak of the trough: the relationship between population and land has just reached a critical point, social productivity is the highest, internal conflicts are controllable, and everything is thriving.At the same time, land prices also began to soar.

After that, there was a slow downhill slope and a series of step-by-step collapses: the population increased, the land began to be insufficiently distributed, the total wealth of the society was diluted, social conflicts increased, the government began to increase taxes to maintain stability, and the gentry began to raise hidden households to resist tax increases. A large number of self-cultivating farmers were bankrupted by the taxation passed on to their heads, and the government lacking funds intensified its efforts to collect money. A vicious circle began. The revolution began.

In the process of the rise and fall of this dynasty, land prices obviously fluctuated accordingly.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the price of good land in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province was only one or two taels. In the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, the price of the same piece of land was two or three taels, and in Kangxi it was four or five taels. During the Jiaqing period, land prices soared to 30 taels.

Note that the above-mentioned late Ming Dynasty refers to the late Chongzhen period.At that time, Li Zicheng had completely smashed the north. In order to raise a huge amount of funds for suppressing bandits and Liaoshang, the imperial court could only continue to increase land taxes in the south.

While the landlords are struggling to deal with the government, natural disasters are still mercilessly destroying all the crops on the land.All of this caused the Jiangnan field price to collapse rapidly after 1640, to the point where there were only one or two taels of silver.

During that period of time, many places in the south of the Yangtze River were even deserted—this was unimaginable in the Taiping period.

However, this is how it happened in history: land income can no longer cope with exorbitant taxes, not to mention natural disasters, a large number of landlords went bankrupt, and land deeds became a reminder.In order to avoid the collection by the government, some people even put the land deeds on the road for others to pick up.

……

Time back to the present.

In 1629, when Mr. Xiong bought the land, it was actually not the best time for demolition.

Although the droughts and floods that started last year and other disasters have dealt a heavy blow to the people in the south of the Yangtze River, after all, this is the beginning of the Chongzhen series of catastrophes. It is impossible for the people to realize that the future will only become more and more terrifying.

In short, from the poor peasants to the landlords, everyone still has dreams: if we get through this year, we will probably get better next year.

Therefore, in this case, demolition will undoubtedly cost more resources: in a few years, the land price in Jiangnan will drop like a free fall, and then will be the best time to recover the land.

Some, however, can't wait.

It is an established national policy to insert as many pipes as possible into the Ming Dynasty to suck blood, and important nodes like Shanghai Beach that connect the north to the south must be taken down.The time-traversing people were in a race against time, wishing they could set up a stronghold in Quan Daming tomorrow. At this time, money was no longer important.

Therefore, Zuojia Village, a small village in the south of the Yangtze River that was originally unknown in history, became the first residential area to enjoy the demolition policy because it was relatively close to the planned port.

Of course, there are all kinds of people.For these people who have been farming for generations, whether this demolition policy is for enjoyment or for resistance depends on the individual.

Yu Bende and Yu Shuban led a team of land expropriation working group, referred to as "Land Acquisition Office" to Zuojia Village, and immediately settled down in a house.Early the next morning, news was released here: land resumption, cash in cash.

The villagers who heard the news rushed over one after another, and rolled up their sleeves around the small courtyard of the Land Acquisition Office to watch the excitement.

The land requisition price code issued by the land acquisition office is as follows: five taels of silver per mu for bad fields, eight taels for middle fields, and 12 taels for high-quality paddy fields.

It can be seen from this price that, as the first batch of units to be demolished, Zuojia Village still enjoys preferential policies.You must know the current field price, even if it is a top-grade paddy field, the price will not exceed ten taels of silver per mu.

The land sellers soon appeared.

It's still the same sentence: there are more than one hundred people, and there are all kinds of people.In a village of thousands of people, there are always bright-minded guys.These people either knew the surrounding land prices and dared to go back and forth; or for various reasons, they originally planned to sell the land.In short, some people quickly sold their land after seeing the purchase price.

It took almost three days, and more than 200 mu of land around Zuojia Village changed owners.Most of these lands are middle fields and bad fields, and there is also a fish pond.

Compared with all the plots owned by Zuojia Village, 200 mu of fragmented land is naturally not much.But this step is the beginning after all, and it can be regarded as eliminating some people, which is a good start for the land acquisition.

Next, the Land Acquisition Office issued new conditions: In Xiaoshan, Fengxian, Jinshan, Haiyan and other areas that have been hit by floods and floods this year, there is now a large amount of land that can be replaced with Zuojia Village.The ratio of swapping both sides is 1:1.5.

That is to say, if someone from Zuojia Village can take out the title deed of 10 mu, he can exchange it for 15 mu of land in the above-mentioned area.Not only can it be changed, but it is also a contiguous piece of land.

At this moment, there was a sensation in the village.Now it is the end of the Ming Dynasty, and hundreds of years of population reproduction and trading have changed hands, resulting in the current extremely scattered fields. It is almost impossible for ordinary people to gather a large piece of land.

Now that the opportunity is in front of us, not to mention the exchange ratio of 1:1.5, people will naturally be tempted.

The tenants who accounted for the largest proportion of the population were not qualified to consider selling land for land exchange, and those who jumped out to exchange land were a few self-cultivating farmers and small landlords.These few families are all mixed surnames in the village. They have few people and are not burdened by big families, so they can leave as soon as they say it.

The next step is handover.In order to get together, several families first selected the land near Fengxian, and then went to inspect the land there overnight.

The results of inspections have been mixed.The land in Fengxian was acquired by Hangzhou Station after the August tide disaster. Although the area is large, it has passed the salt water, so the land condition is very poor, basically it is considered inferior land.

However, considering the huge benefits brought by the 1.5 times the exchange area and the truly contiguous land, these petty bourgeois families finally let out their own land deeds: if Xintian manipulates it carefully for a few years, it will become Nakata is even Ueda.But the contiguous land, based on the background of these few families, if they pass this village, they will not be able to get it together in the next life.

A few days later, under the witness of Yu Shuban, a well-known local land official, the representative of the county government, and a shopkeeper of the land expropriation office, the two parties signed and exchanged the land deed.

In this process, for the so-called "buying horse bones", the land acquisition office paid extra money, and asked Yu Shuban to stamp the official seal on the land deed of the transaction-the white deed became the red deed.

There is a saying of "red and white deeds" in ancient land transactions.A white deed is a land deed that has not been certified by the government, that is, a land deed that has not paid taxes.The red deed is a formal official deed.

Generally speaking, the daily effectiveness of the white deed is the same as that of the red deed.But once there is a land dispute that requires both parties to go to court, Bai Qi will give people an opportunity to take advantage of the loopholes: after all, tax evasion has not been certified by the government.

Several petty bourgeois families gratefully took Hong Qi and his family to live in their new homes.And the mulberry garden they left behind, as well as more than 300 mu of land in pieces, were taken into the bag by the land expropriation office.

Lu Xun said that the power of role models is infinite.

After watching a few families take advantage of the big advantage and not be cheated, the villagers could no longer hold back: almost all the self-cultivated farmers and rich peasants in Zuojia Village began to move around, and the small courtyard of the land acquisition office was overcrowded for a while, until It doesn't stop late at night.

At this time, Zuo Hongtang, who had been sitting firmly on the Diaoyutai and following the development of the situation coldly, couldn't sit still: when he found out that there was a bastard in the clan who wanted to change the land, he finally made a move.

Like most villages and towns with surnames in this era, Zuojia Village is naturally dominated by people with the Zuo surname.The Zuo clan, whose ancestors have lived on this land for generations, not only has many houses, but also owns thousands of acres of surrounding land, and is the largest local tyrant in the vicinity.

Originally, for the Zuo family, the action of the Land Acquisition Office was the same thing, and everyone watched it as a lively scene: the Zuo family rooted here naturally could not sell their land, nor could they be tempted by the so-called 1.5 times exchange method.

The reason is simple: those small households who cannot avoid government taxation are the same wherever they go, but a big family like the Zuo family not only has N many hidden households in the local area, but also their business relationships for generations are all in the county.

Once he went to another county, what would Yintian do?Leaving the intertwined relationship in the county, and seeing this kind of family migration by the government in other places, it is purely a sheep entering the tiger's mouth. Even if they just pay taxes in full, they can already shed several layers of skin.

Therefore, in the matter of land expropriation, the rich peasants took the initiative to acquire the small land, but the Zuo family, a big family, absolutely refused to move.

However, things have developed to this point, and some things are not so easy to say: Zuo Hongtang had just dealt with the scum in the clan, and Yu Shuban came to ask for an interview... After the Land Acquisition Office came to Zuojia Village, this was Yu Shuban's first visit. Go to the door of the left house once.

Chapter 346 Opening of Port (Twelve)

The structure of the Zuo clan is the same as that of all other clans: the patriarch is the core figure, who holds the right to distribute public property, public land, and public property within the clan.

At the same time, the most prestigious elders in each house will form a dual council with the patriarch to negotiate internal affairs of the clan.

Recently, the clan meetings have been more frequent than before.

When the Land Acquisition Office first entered the village a few days ago, the clan held a meeting. The only consensus reached at the meeting was to "wait and see what happens."However, not long after, the second emergency meeting started again.This time the topic is how to deal with Zuo Ping, the scum in the clan.

Speaking of Zuo Ping, this person is also a strange one.Among their generation, Zuo Ping is the seventeenth, so people usually call him Zuo Seventeen.

The seventeenth on the left is the second son of Liufang.When this gentleman became an adult, he was assigned the property rights of [-] mu of land from his family. He didn't want this guy to suddenly become addicted to gambling after the death of his parents.

Originally, no one cares about this kind of thing. Which big family doesn't have a few scum?Seriously, many people are watching with cold eyes, waiting for the next time this guy loses a bet and releases the title deed for everyone to continue bidding.

I don't want a thunderbolt on a sunny day: renting a warehouse...the land acquisition office is here.

With competition comes comparison.After observing for a period of time, Zuo Shiqi found that the rented house for land requisition was indeed innocent, real gold and silver, so his mind was moved.

You must know that he only has 40 mu of land left on hand, most of which are not good land, just ordinary middle and lower fields.

Then if the land is exchanged according to the conditions given by the renter, he can get 60 acres of neat farmland in other counties.In this way, the value of his assets has increased a lot invisibly. Whether he continues to rent out or split up and sell if he loses a bet in the future, he can advance and retreat or defend.

So Zuo Shiqi secretly ran to Fengxian for a walk, and after inquiring about the specific situation with the rich peasants who ate crabs, the gambler was really tempted.

However, it is not so easy to sell the land. There is a hidden problem to be solved: theoretically, he can only sell the land to the clan.

This point is necessary and understandable: the clan is not a joint-stock company for future generations. If unworthy descendants are allowed to sell the land to outsiders, the clan will disappear in a few generations.

But Zuo Shiqi really wanted to get rid of his clan... He just wanted to stay away from those clansmen who mocked him as a waste all day long and were waiting to take advantage of him.

He is a man with dreams, he doesn't want to be trampled under his feet for the rest of his life, he has been waiting for the past few years, just waiting for an opportunity to get into the gambling house and make a killing, and get rich overnight.Then tell everyone that what he lost must be taken back!

Now that the Land Acquisition Office had appeared, Zuo Shiqi's opportunity had finally come, so he didn't hesitate any longer, and knocked on the back door in the middle of the night, intending to have a good talk with these land requisitioners.

The result of the conversation was very satisfying to him: the Land Acquisition Office agreed to relocate his land in Xiaoshan.In this case, he would have gone to Shaoxing, and the clan would not be able to do anything to him across the Qiantang River in the future.

So someone went home excitedly to prepare the title deed.

However, what Zuo Shiqi didn't expect was that he was taken into the ancestral hall early the next morning, and there were members of the Elders' Council waiting in full force.

Who betrayed him?Brother and sister separated by a wall.

Under the reminder of Jiafa (red lacquer stick), Zuo Shiqi quickly revealed everything.After that, he was given an additional board, and then ordered to stay at home to recuperate from his injuries, and he was not allowed to go anywhere.

As for his land deed... After being discussed by the clan, his brother will keep it on his behalf. If Zuo Shiqi wants to sell the land in the future, his brother will take care of everything.

To be honest, the result of this treatment is already very fair and kind from the perspective of the clan.Zuo Shiqiu didn't lose anything except being beaten with a stick. If he really wanted to sell the land, he could still get money, but it was just the internal price of the clan.

But things in the world are never that simple.The eggs are broken, can the flies be spared?

On the day Zuo Shiqi was repaired, a certain county clerk's office heard the news and rushed to the home of the injured to give condolences.After that, Yu Bende put his hands behind his back, hummed a ditty, and strolled to the door of Zuo's house, begging to see Zuo Hongtang.

Naturally, Zuo Hongtang didn't dare to neglect, so he hurriedly invited Yu to the main room to have tea.

……

From the perspective of the large class, there was a clear expression of "scholar, civilian, business and industry" in ancient times.However, this is just a rough division. Within each class, there will be many small classes according to their strength.

For the "rich" class in the Ming Dynasty, there were also several levels of division.

Excluding those royal relatives and relatives, the top of the food chain is naturally the gentry class.A real gentry refers to a "senior intellectual family" in which someone in the family is an official, or at least there are Juren and retired officials in the township.

If this kind of family is operated properly, and if there are people from generation to generation who become officials, then the clan members can engrave the high-end nameplate of "poetry and book heirloom" on their foreheads.This title sounds very elegant, but it represents the top dignitaries who cannibalize people without spit out their bones.

The government has no way to deal with this kind of family. Xu Jie is the best example: During his career as chief assistant, the Xu family kept embezzling hundreds of thousands of acres of land in his hometown.

Later, after Gao Gong made Hai Rui the governor of Yingtian (Jiangsu + Shanghai - Provincial Wei Shuji), Qing Hairui, the super anti-corruption stupefied head, planned to beat up a dozen local tyrants in the jurisdiction.When he found out that the Xu family was the biggest local tyrant in the whole of Southern Zhili, he began to confiscate the land, and also arrested Xu Jie's son by the way.

However, it was of no use: Xu Jie, an old comrade who had retired to the second line, found a relationship and spent some money to transfer Hai Rui away. There was a saying in the time: Retirement at home can drive away the court.

This is the strength of the top gentry family: even if Hai Rui was dismissed by two tricks, those officials, big and small, were even more inseparable from the shackles of their internal relations in the officialdom.

So this kind of gentry family is actually the biggest moth in the country: they turn a large number of owner farmers into their own tenant farmers, and they do not pay taxes on a large amount of land they occupy, which is equivalent to putting the state finances into their own pockets.

To some extent, this is the true meaning of "ruling the world with the emperor and the scholar-bureaucrats": the emperor allowed the senior scholar-bureaucrats to share the national tax revenue.

Below the top gentry is the ordinary gentry class.This kind of official is usually only a generation, or the younger generation is not connected after the death of the older generation, but the relationship between the DPRK and China is still there, and the residual prestige is still there.

Even this kind of gentry is not something the government can handle.The family pays taxes on 500 mu of land, but there is still 1000 mu of land that does not pay taxes. The main body of tax collection is the county government. Whether it is Zhima county magistrate or a humble subordinate, there is nothing to do in front of this kind of people.

Next is the rural local tyrant who talks about "farming and studying heirlooms" every day.

This kind of family is the third level of the pyramid. There have never been any high-ranking officials in the family, but there are many small officials and small officials, which are deeply rooted in the local area. Sex is in a bargaining mode.

……

The Zuo family that Yu Bende came to talk with today is the lowest level of the pyramid: the local tyrants in the countryside.

This kind of family is the most numerous country power.This generation does not have much political energy, can dominate the local area, and owes taxes, relying on tonnage: clans with hundreds or thousands of people unite to fight wits and courage with tax collectors.

And the reason why Yu Bende chose Zuojia Village in front of Xiong Dao was because he knew himself: Zuojia Village is close to the port on the one hand, and on the other hand, because there are no political families with farming and education heirs. The subordinate staff can barely use it here.

... After entering the main room, both parties sit down and serve tea.Yu Bende was in no hurry at all, he erected the lid of the tea bowl unhurriedly, watching the water droplets on it fall into the bowl attentively.

But Zuo Hongtang with big ears doesn't have this kind of kung fu for nourishing qi.You must know that on the first day when the Land Acquisition Office came, he sent someone to invite Yu Bende in private, but he was rejected by the other party.

So he has been waiting to meet Yu Bende all these days: "Master Yu, I am looking forward to you today. Please tell me what's behind this purchase of land!"

Yu Bende nodded with a smile.Although he didn't come to Zuojia Village very often, and he didn't know Zuo Hongtang very well, but today he clearly felt that the head of the family lacked confidence.

"Country bumpkin, don't know how powerful it is." Thinking of this, Yu Bende opened his mouth and said, "Master Zuo, the matter of buying the land was entrusted to him by the big man above, and the villain is just running errands and helping out."

Zuo Hongtang saw that the old official was so determined, he couldn't help feeling tense: "Oh... I wonder if that's enough?"

"Naturally it's not enough." Yu Bende raised the corner of his mouth.For this kind of family without political power, his tone was very equal: "Counting all the land in Zuojia Village, it probably still owes some."

"Ah!?" Zuo Hongtang was shocked: "Where is the big man from? The appetite is not small!"

Yu Bende didn't bother to explain to these country bumpkins. Even if he said it, what the recruited deputy guard of Xiamen represented? clear."

After a few words, Yu Bende finally expressed his purpose: "Master Zuo, this hinders the work, isn't it like the actions of a sensible person like you?"

Zuo Hongtang still hadn't recovered from the shock just now.In his impression, it seems that only the royal relatives have the ability to uproot the people of a place, so he will not be able to concentrate, and after thinking about it, he realizes that Yu Bende is asking for guilt: "Master Yu, Please also clarify, has the Zuo family ever prevented you from doing business in the past few days?"

"Hey, Zuo Shiqi is already lying on the bed, how can I hinder him?"

When Zuo Hongtang heard this, he instantly understood, and then he was furious: "That bastard is a private matter of my Zuo family, so don't worry about it, Master Yu?"

"It's really out of the villain's business how master Zuo gets angry with his nephew. But right now, this document is the villain's business."

Having said this, Yu Bende slowly took out a contract from his pocket and put it on the table.