Qingzhou.

At the foot of Fenghuang Mountain, by the Xiaofu River, Bogu County and Yanshen Ancient Town.

Zhao Xiaolou carried a gun on his shoulder, a marching backpack on his back, and leggings on his legs. He followed the team from the city and headed north along the Xiaofu River.

The autumn air is crisp and clear, and the green gauze tents are no longer visible in the fields by the river.

The autumnal equinox has passed, and large areas of summer corn have been harvested. All the mountain valleys and slopes, and the corn fields are covered with a layer of yellow. The farmers are happily harvesting corn in the fields, and the willow baskets are filled with corn cobs.

Straw bag.

The men happily picked up the heavy corns, their faces full of harvest joy.

After staying in the mountains for a long time, it was rare to come to the foot of the mountain. Zhao Xiaolou and his party felt very excited. Seeing the joy of this harvest, they also felt inexplicably happy.

"This year's corn harvest is quite good!"

"This corn cob is so big."

"It seems that the locusts have little impact."

Captain Liu said, "The corn has been harvested this late, so it's time to plant wheat."

There was so much corn harvest that even the soldiers of the Shence Army passing by felt happy.

Their trip was going to Zhangdian Town, a hundred miles away.

Zhangdian, Jinling, and Yanshen Town were the three major towns in Zichuan at this time. At this time, two of the three towns were under the control of Qingzhou Prefecture under the control of the Ming Dynasty, and only one Zhangdian Town was under the control of the Qing army in Jinan Prefecture.

Now in the autumn harvest season, Shence Town, who has been training hard at Qingshi Pass, finally got the mission to send troops, attacking Tai'an Prefecture all the way, and entering Jinan Prefecture all the way.

Zhao Xiaolou and the others headed into Jinan and headed for Zhangdian.

At the time of the corn harvest, the Ming army would begin to harvest grain. They would buy grain from the people, attack the Qing troops who went to the countryside to collect grain, and even seize some township strongholds to further squeeze the Qing army's space.

"Why is this river called the Filial Woman River? Have there been any famous filial women in the past?" Zhang Tiezhu asked.

"Didn't Vice Captain Liu say it before? If you don't listen well,"

"Vice Captain Liu, please tell me more."

At this time, the team had just left Qingshi Pass and headed north through Yanshen Town. Although they had already entered Jinan Prefecture, this area had actually always been the sphere of influence of the Ming Army. The nearby gentry and people were also protected by the Ming Army. The Qing Army

They didn't dare to come, so the people came to see the Ming army when they had anything to do, and everyone was more relaxed.

Even the armor was packed and carried on the back, and they moved forward lightly.

"Okay, speaking of the Xiaofu River, there is a myth and legend that has been circulating for a long time. This is also related to the fact that our Boshan County used to be called Yanshen Town. It is said that there used to be a woman named Yan Wenjiang in Qi.

Young and widowed, she still respected her parents-in-law, served them carefully, and fetched sweet water from far away, without being interrupted by the severe cold or the scorching heat of midsummer. Finally, God was moved, and the spiritual spring was born in Yan Wenjiang's room.

But her vicious mother-in-law became suspicious when she saw that she no longer carried water but had water every day. She found an excuse to send her daughter-in-law out of the house and went into Yan Wenjiang's room to pick up the cover of the spiritual spring.

Women's River."

Later, it became Lingquan Town. In the Tang Dynasty, someone built a Yan Wenjiang Temple in the town, which the Tang people collectively called the Xiaofu Temple. In the Song Dynasty, some people even said that she was a descendant of Yan Hui, and from then on she was honored as a saint.

, was named Lady Shunde by the imperial court, and Yan Wenjiang Temple was also inscribed as Lingquan Temple.

As time went by, Lingquan Town was gradually called Yanshen Town and became more and more lively. Our emperor specially designated it as Boshan County.

Although Boshan is a county, it is surrounded by mountains and has little and barren land. The upper and lower fourth-class land is only more than 70,000 acres, of which the upper and middle second-class land only has 17,000 acres. The agricultural income cannot even meet the people's rations, but the mountains here are

Duoye is rich in minerals, including coal, iron, lead and other minerals. In the Ming Dynasty, due to the remoteness of the mountainous area, the private mining industry was very developed. A few families, three or five pickaxes, a few lamps, a few ropes, and a wheel were enough.

Coal can be mined, so there are a large number of privately owned small mines and a large number of miners here.

The developed private mining industry has also driven the ceramic kiln industry here. The clay near the coal seam is an important material for burning porcelain, and coal is a good fuel for burning porcelain.

Yanshen porcelain is cheap and hard in texture, so it is very popular in Shandong.

After the Shence Army stationed in Yanshen Town and Qingshi Pass, the place quickly returned to its former glory. Even the move of the capital to Dengzhou made the place more prosperous. The imperial court's support for mining, porcelain kilns and other industries and commerce made this place reach a level of

new heights.

After the influx of a large number of refugees from Shandong, the imperial court recruited refugees to settle here and promoted the planting of corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sorghum, etc. Miscellaneous grains were planted all over the mountains and slopes, including Qingdao, Laizhou, Haizhou, etc.

The food that is constantly being transported from the ground has greatly made this place prosperous.

Therefore, not only Yanshen Town, but also the villages on the border with Jinan are very supportive of the Ming Dynasty.

Locusts broke out twice this year, and there were sub-heavy floods in summer. The Yellow River Flood Area was swamped, and people suffered a lot.

The Ming Dynasty actively provided disaster relief, and especially issued orders to encourage people to catch locusts, dig up locust eggs, and transport food to purchase locusts and locust eggs from the victims.

You can exchange food for locusts and money.

For three catties of locusts, give one catty of grain. For one catty of locust eggs, give three catties of grain.

They also sent people everywhere to spread the methods of catching and exterminating locusts, such as digging soil in flooded riverbanks to find eggs. In the locust stage when they have just hatched, it helps them to be light-loving and unable to fly.

They are lured by digging ditches, burning fires, etc., then catching them with nets, soaking them in water, drying them in the sun, and exchanging them for food.

The Shao Tian Dynasty not only set up locust collection points on the borders of the Qing-occupied areas, but also sent people to go deep into the Qing-occupied areas of Shandong and Henan to collect locusts.

Locusts can be exchanged for food. For those people, who is not happy? Under this stimulation, it is difficult to effectively organize the eradication of locusts in the originally turbulent and chaotic Central Plains. However, in the end, this kind of locust food exchange was forced by Shao Tianchao.

Although locusts appeared sporadicly in various places, they did not form a major locust plague sweeping the Central Plains.

Otherwise, there would be no harvest from the corn connected to the Xiaofu River, because locusts like to eat these green crops.

When farmers picking corn on the roadside saw Zhao Xiaolou and the others passing by, they greeted them with a smile and asked them to pick some corn.

Li Baoquan waved his hand.

He trains every day, not only practicing martial arts, but also always emphasizing military discipline, but no one dares to take things from the common people.

When the farmer saw that they didn't pick it, he just carried the basket over and stuffed it into their arms, causing them to refuse again and again.

"Get angry and sing!" Deputy Liu led everyone in singing and continued marching.

In autumn, on the mountain road beside the Xiaofu River, the Ming army's Imperial Camp Shence Army in red military uniforms meandered like fire dragons, adding a touch of color to this golden late autumn.

When Zhao Xiaolou and others arrived at West Village, orders came from above to rest and station their battalion in West Village.

It was still early, so the officers ordered the auxiliary troops to set up camp outside the village and set up tents.

There happens to be a security chief organizing grain collection in the village. This is under Zichuan County, Jinan Prefecture. However, this security chief was appointed by the Ming Dynasty. The local Baojia and the township leagues were organized and all took orders from Boshan County.

When the autumn harvest begins, the guardians begin to go to the villages to collect grain.

Whether it is corn or wheat, etc., the grain will be harvested as soon as possible during the harvest season.

The common people also paid a small amount of silver to Boshan County, keeping enough grain and selling the remaining grain to the county.

Starting from this year, in the entire area controlled by the Shaotian Dynasty, grain will no longer be exchanged for silver, but will be levied and paid according to what is planted.

Expropriation is also very simple. First, the large and small acres of land are unified into standard acres, and then the upper, middle and lower fields, as well as land, beaches, etc. are converted into standard acres.

Every mu of land is taxed for millet, wheat, or grain. Whatever you plant, you will be taxed for it. The land tax per mu is two dou, which is divided into two liters of silver, plus the public fire cost of two liters and two pieces. The total is two dou per mu, four liters and two liters.

combine.

Different grains are converted into rice and wheat in proportion.

Apart from this, there are no other levies, donations, levies, three rates, or surcharges. They are all gone. It is very simplified. Most importantly, the actual burden is much less than in the past.

In the past, even if the official land tax was just a certain amount, the various additional benefits, especially such as floating income and consumption, were often several times the official tax, making the people more miserable.

Nowadays, all the levies are converted into dings of silver, which are collected according to the acres, and the number is still fixed. Although dings are added, no tax will be added.

Even those who grow corn or sweet potatoes can be converted into staple foods such as cereals and paid into grains, and there is still a unified conversion standard.

For people who own land, paying less than two and a half bushels per acre is actually less than one-tenth of the output, and they can still pay it in two quarters.

Tenants who do not have land do not even need to pay rent to the landlord. They do not have to worry about the landlord passing on rent to them again, because the government stipulates that the autumn harvest is divided between the landlord and the tenant 40-60, and the summer grain goes to the tenant.

.

Landowners can still retain about 30% of the harvest after turning it over to the landowners.

After working hard, the people paid 40% of the rent, but they were still able to live.

When the Tatars controlled this place before, there were many items to collect grain, such as inns, tributes, land rent, warehouses, wages, restoration of consumption, etc. The rice items also included white grain, black beans, grains, grains, etc.

Half consumption, foot fees, public funds, pond workers' donations, grain accumulation, school donations.

There are also Liao rates, suppression rates, and training rates.

The three rates already include training rates, but the local government also levies rates and donations of five cents per mu, which is said to be the township founding league. Then they also levy river fees, and other things such as self-government donations, voluntary education donations, household registration donations, and even husband-clearing fees.

There are many types of fees and charges.

These additional fees are more than twice as high as the official tax. When it comes to paying the grain, the biggest problem is still the floating fee. Ordinary people use various methods to pay one stone for grain, but in fact they have to pay more than two stone.

.

Sometimes I have to fold silver again, and as a result, I have to fold it again and again, and the burden increases.

The people have no idea how many names these additional taxes and levies have. Anyway, the yamen add them at will. No matter what they do, they just levy additional taxes on the people. Even each time they levy an additional tax, they have to collect an additional fee and fire.

Consumption.

Anyway, the final actual payment often exceeds more than half of the output.
To be continued...