In the patriarch's yard, several well-fed old men were walking around the yard. The second uncle and the fourth uncle were running in the woods nearby and had diarrhea. They are older and their intestines and stomach are not as good as those of young people. If they don't occupy the meat for a long time, they will get sick if they eat too much.

I had diarrhea, but I just vomited it and it got better. I'll be fine next time I eat it.

The third uncle pointed at the two old men and laughed loudly, mocking them for not eating meat. As soon as he finished speaking, his stomach began to grow, which also attracted the ruthless ridicule from the second uncle and the fourth uncle.

Strange to say, among this group of elders, the old patriarch and the fifth uncle are fine. Logically speaking, the old patriarch's health is not as good as that of the second and fourth uncles. After all, the old patriarch is the oldest.

But the old patriarch is fine. As for the fifth uncle, it is understandable. He is not yet fifty this year, but he just looks like an old man.

Li Chaosheng walked over and smelled the smell of farmyard manure from a distance.

When they got closer, the three old men were still a little embarrassed. After all, clan elders have dignity. Li Chaosheng didn't talk to them. After all, it would be awkward to speak. Instead, he came directly to the old clan leader.

"Uncle, are you okay?"

Li Jinli laughed at this time and said: "Haha~ What's the matter with me? The second, third, and fourth children usually look pretty strong, but they are far behind me. Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. What do you want from us, Chaosheng?"

"

"Uncle, it's like this. Didn't I tell you last time? I want to settle down in our town, and there is land to settle down, so I asked my uncle to help me with my advice. I want to buy some land."

“Buy land!”

Li Jinli's eyes widened after hearing this. Land, this is something that Chinese farmers never forget. This is the root of China. The development of Chinese civilization cannot be separated from the Chinese people's persistence in land.

Without land, you are a homeless person. If you have land, you have roots.

The old patriarch was very satisfied after listening to Li Chaosheng's words. He felt that this kid had serious business. When he got money, he would buy land first instead of spending time and drinking. He was not a prodigal son. In addition, considering his past performance, the patriarch thought that he was a prodigal son.

It's becoming more and more pleasing to the eye.

But the second uncle, third uncle, and fourth uncle here couldn't feel the diarrhea anymore after hearing this. They grabbed a handful of leaves and wiped them, then came over with their pants lifted and said, "Buying land is a good idea. We support this."

Li Chaosheng smiled politely, and at the same time moved his body to distance himself from the three of you. You are in such a hurry, and the leaves are very slippery. If you don't pay attention, ahem... don't dare to think about it.

Li Jinli thought for a moment and said, "This is our total sum."

As he spoke, the old man drew a circle on the ground with his crutch.

"This is our Tanggou Town. It is backed by the Qinling Mountains and has many mountains. There are Heishan and Huling nearby. We are in the middle of these two mountains."

"Therefore, we don't have much fertile land here, but it is occupied by three major families. The first is the Wang family, and Wang Laocai is their head. The Wang family actually came to Tanggou Town with our Li family, and they started to keep pace with each other. I don't know later.

What's wrong is that our family's land is getting less and less, and their family's land is getting more and more. In the end, our Li family became their tenant farmers."

"Besides the Wang family, there is the Fang family. The Fang family has been in our Tanggou Town for a long time. At first, they were doing business, but after losing money in the business, they came to Tanggou Town to become landlords. Their family had low prices back then.

They collected a lot of land, but their family is not prosperous, and now they only have a dozen people living in the town."

"The last one is the Qian family. The Qian family is a latecomer. They have only been here for three or four years. It is said that the family used to be officials, but then they offended someone under Jiu Qiansui, and then they came here. They

When I came here, I bought some land from the Wang family, but I was cheated by the Wang family. All I bought was low-grade farmland in the backcountry. Nothing grew, and grass grew. They hated the Wang family to death."

The old patriarch said with a smile: "By the way, a few days ago, someone from the Qian family came to me and wanted to sell their low-grade farmland, saying it could be cheaper. It really made me laugh, because wheat can't grow in that land.

, millet does not grow big, millet does not produce, the soil is hard, there are many stones in the ground, and it is also high, the high slope does not collect water, no matter what you plant, drought will occur, and one acre of land can produce less than one hundred kilograms of grain.

There’s nothing left over from taxes, why don’t our Li family cry to death when we buy it back?”

"The Qian family has never farmed before, so they bought those fields. That old boy Wang Laocai is really bad."

The old patriarch scolded, but Li Chaosheng listened with interest. In ancient times, fields were divided into three types: upper, middle and lower. Superior fields were fertile and if cultivated well, more than three hundred kilograms of grain could be obtained in a year.

The middle-grade fields have average land and the terrain is not as good as the top-grade fields. However, if the year is good, one acre of land can produce a harvest of more than 200 kilograms, or even close to 300 kilograms.

Inferior farmland refers to hillside land, saline-alkali land, sandy land, or land with various defects. The natural environment is very harsh, resulting in the main crops, wheat, millet, and millet, not growing. In a good year, a hundred kilograms of grain will not grow.

, if it's a little bit worse, maybe there will be no harvest, and they will all die from drought and floods.

Therefore, the lower-grade fields are the least valuable land. However, the Chinese have had an excellent quality since ancient times, that is, the land will not be left unused until people die. Although the output of the lower-grade fields is low, the hard-working and simple old farmers are still willing to plant it, even if it is too much.

A ration of food is also good, after all, every ration can save lives.

"So, if we want to buy land, we can only buy it from Wang Laocai and the Fang family. The land they own is medium and upper-class, and there are very few lower-class fields. After all, the lower-class fields were sold to the Qian family back then.

."

The old patriarch concluded at this time that if you want to buy land, you must buy land from Wang Laocai or the Fang family. You cannot buy land from the Qian family. The reason is also very simple. The Qian family was deceived and bought a batch of low-grade fields.

, they are all abandoned there now, there is no way, the food grown and harvested is not enough to pay the tax.

In fact, it stands to reason that taxes in the Ming Dynasty were not heavy. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Yuanzhang levied taxes on farmers all over the country. The tax was only 5%-10% per acre, which was very humane. Except of course Jiangnan. Zhang Shicheng offended Zhu Yuanzhang back then, so they taxed

It's a punitive 20%.

But that was the early Ming Dynasty, and the current taxes are surprisingly high. The number of Liaodong, the gold-swallowing cave, is increasing every year, and the scholar-bureaucrats collude with officials and businessmen, desperately trying not to pay taxes. The farmers can only continue to exploit, and the taxes are also reduced.

is constantly increasing.

But ironically, this year should be the lowest tax year for farmers, because Wei Zhongxian is still in office. Although this eunuch who was reviled by countless people has a scumbag character, he is still okay with the people.

Because he was born among the people and knew the truth behind it. How much money was there in the mud-legged people? It was thankless to exploit them. To say that they were rich, they were in business, those merchants who were inextricably linked to the scholar-bureaucrats.

So Wei Zhongxian risked the disapproval of the world and started collecting business taxes. This made the scholar-officials mad because Wei Zhongxian was taking the money for himself.

This was not bad, so everyone started to attack Wei Zhongxian crazily. Until Chongzhen came to power, they finally got angry and canceled the commercial tax again. They could no longer pay taxes. They were happy.

In fact, if Chongzhen did not rush to kill Wei Zhongxian and used Wei Zhongxian to balance the situation, maybe the Ming Dynasty could last for decades. But if not, if Wei Zhongxian died and the collar on the Donglin Party's neck was gone, they could
Chapter completed!