On the third day of October, autumn planting has been completed for more than half a month. With the support of Yang Peng's disaster relief grain, almost all the autumn planting farming work in Shandong Province has been completed. After having enough food, the farmers work smoothly. Yang Peng is riding a horse and walking
On the field road, I saw green wheat seedlings growing in the wheat fields on both sides.
After walking for an hour, Jing Yishan pointed forward and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, our Prince is in the Crucian Carp Valley in front of us. There is still one mile to go." Yang Peng nodded and continued to ride forward.
When more than a dozen personal guards heard that their destination was approaching, they galloped forward to see if there was any danger on the Crucian Carp Ditch.
Yang Peng asked casually: "Jing Yishan, how much dry land can be irrigated after the Prince's Pei is repaired?" Jing Yishan smiled and said: "Your Majesty, don't be anxious. I will explain it to you in detail when we get to the Crucian Carp Ditch."
Yang Peng was inexplicably frustrated by Jing Yishan, and was a little speechless. These days, when Yang Peng lets other people speak, who doesn't talk respectfully and reveal everything he knows? This Jing Yishan is better, he doesn't face the real thing on the spot
Too lazy to say anything. Yang Peng looked at Zheng Hui and secretly thought that Jing Yishan was too arrogant.
Zheng Hui was a little anxious when he saw Yang Peng looking at him. He hurriedly looked at Jing Yishan, his eyes widened as if to urge Jing Yishan to speak quickly, but Jing Yishan was riding leisurely, not even looking at Zheng Hui. Zheng Hui's head was
A few drops of cold sweat broke out, but there was nothing Jing Yishan could do, and he said: "Your Majesty, when we get to Crucian Carp Valley, Jing Yishan will naturally explain it in detail."
Yang Peng frowned and secretly thought that Jing Yi could not be reused because of his good talent. In order to get a satisfactory water conservancy project, Zheng Hui could tolerate his subordinates being so unruly and really devoted himself wholeheartedly to the construction of Hsinchu. Yang Peng thought about it.
After a while, Zheng Hui's evaluation was even higher.
When he arrived at Crucian Carp Valley, Yang Peng walked to a small mound and saw tens of thousands of people digging earth and carrying burdens to fill in the channel of a small river. The busy farmers had eaten enough and worked very hard.
The scene was in full swing.
Jing Yishan jumped off the horse, took out a few drawings from under the saddle, opened one of them in front of Yang Peng, and said: "Your Majesty, look, we are going to build a hundred and one on the river channel of this small river, Crucian Carp Ditch, and in nearby low-lying areas.
The 13-foot concrete embankment, with the highest point of the embankment being 2-3 feet high, blocks the river and stores water, turning the low-lying land behind the Crucian Carp Ditch into a large reservoir that is higher than the surrounding dry land."
"The bank walls on both sides of the embankment inside and outside are made of long strips of stone that are interspersed and stacked in layers. The middle of the embankment is filled with clay, and a layer of cement is filled on top. The top surface is paved with stone slabs to form a 'Picheng'. There is one every two feet.
The embankment pier is three feet long and two feet wide, with long stones inserted into the ground for two feet. The embankment built in this way is durable, not afraid of water and fire, and is the most sturdy."
"There are ten sluice gates on the dam. In case of drought, the gates are closed to store water, and in case of floods, the gates are opened to release water to keep the water level in the reservoir at a high level."
Yang Peng asked: "How long will this dam last?" Jing Yishan said proudly: "There is a sand sluice on the dam. Even if the sediment accumulates, the sand sluice can be opened to flush away the sand. It needs to be redone every five years.
The sluice. If the entire dam is properly maintained, it will last for fifty years without any problems. If you repair it, it will probably last for a hundred and fifty years."
Yang Peng nodded and said nothing. Jing Yishan took a picture of the drawing and said: "Master Guo, answer your question. After the construction of Prince Pai, the water level of the reservoir will be raised. Seventeen irrigation inlets will be opened from the east and west sides.
Irrigating the nearby wasteland can produce 270,000 acres of farmland."
Being able to open 270,000 acres of new farmland is indeed a big project worth boasting about. Yang Peng seemed to understand why Jing Yishan was so arrogant. He smiled and said, "Jing Yishan, do your best. If the project is completed well, I will
I’ll reward you with two hundred taels of silver!”
Jing Yishan smiled and said: "Your Majesty is more generous than General Zheng. I commanded a large dam that irrigated 500,000 acres of farmland in Hsinchu, and General Zheng only rewarded me with one hundred taels of silver." After thinking about it, Jing Yishan
He said: "My mother-in-law likes to make satin clothes and buy rouge. She comes to me for money every three days. If the Duke of Guo really rewards me with these two hundred taels of silver, I will not be short of money to spend it! It is really emergency money."
Yang Peng heard Jing Yishan's words and laughed dryly, secretly thinking that Jing Yishan really didn't have any humility as a subordinate when he spoke. Yang Peng said: "Jing Yishan, do your best, and I will reward you with so much money that you can marry a little wife!"
Zheng Hui burst out laughing when he heard this. Yang Peng looked at Zheng Hui and stopped talking to Jing Yishan. He just rode his horse and walked towards the working people below the hill. The people saw that Yang Peng's royal guard of honor had moved to
Everyone on the construction site was stunned. Looking at those golden melons and golden staffs, they all felt that this must be a high official. The common people stopped what they were doing and knelt on the construction site, not daring to look up at Yang Peng.
Yang Peng waved his hand and signaled the people to stand up. Yang Peng's personal guards shouted loudly in the crowd, calling out all the people who were kneeling on the ground. Yang Peng walked to a woman in her thirties and asked: "
This woman, is it hard for you to work here?"
The woman raised her head and said, "My lord, this is a year of hunger. Prince Yan gave us sweet potatoes to save our lives. We can't thank you enough. Now Prince Yan even gives us rice and noodles so that we can eat twice a day."
, how can we not work hard? We must be conscientious. If it were not for Prince Yan, Shandong would have been in chaos. Maybe the bandits had already come in. My two daughters and one son are still young, so they will definitely survive.
No. Prince Yan gave my three children sweet potatoes to eat. Not only did he ask us to build water conservancy projects, he also asked us to open mountains and fill the sea."
After the woman finished speaking, she looked at her husband beside her, as if asking her husband if what he said was right. Her husband was a little nervous in front of Yang Peng, and nodded cautiously. The woman received her husband's approval and smiled happily.
Get up. But in front of Yang Peng, a high official, she did not dare to be presumptuous and quickly covered her smiling face with her hands.
Yang Peng looked at the woman's husband. When the man saw Yang Peng looking at him, the man said solemnly: "Master, the crucian carp ditch floods every now and then, which is a hazard to us. Prince Yan is building a dam to control the water now. From now on, the crucian carp ditch will flood."
Now that the ditch is no longer flooded, all the people in our township will benefit. Everyone is doing this work vigorously!"
Yang Peng nodded, then looked at a thin young man next to him, and asked: "What about you, do you feel tired from doing this work?" When the young man heard Yang Peng's question, he knelt on the ground with a plop and shouted loudly.
Said: "Master, I don't feel tired at all! The officials sent by Prince Yan said that the poorest tenant farmers like me can rent the fields irrigated by the government in the future. My wife and I can share the land.
Rent 40 acres. King Yan only charges 30% of the land rent."
"With these forty acres of good land, my wife and I will have a good life. Not to mention working for a few months without getting tired, even if we work for a year, we will only be happy." After the prince's repair was completed,
The new irrigated fields will be used as Yang Peng's private fields and will be leased to local poor tenant farmers for farming.
Although Yang Peng has not equalized the land tax in Shandong, no local official dares to collect more than Yang Peng's land tax from King Yan's private land. Yang Peng has informed the local officials that the annual land tax for these new fields is six per mu.
liter of wheat. In fact, if Yang Peng equalized all the land tax in Shandong and did not increase the land tax, the land tax per mu would be about six liters per year.
In fact, even if Yang Peng did not pay the land tax, there was nothing the local officials could do against Yang Peng. But Yang Peng thought about equalizing the land tax every day, so of course he had to set an example and pay the land tax, otherwise he would have to follow his example.
Yang Peng charged 30% of the land rent to the peasants who farmed their own land. Based on the average yield of one stone of wheat per mu, excluding the land tax, Yang Peng could get two buckets and four liters of income per mu of land. Two hundred and seventy thousand acres of new land.
Tian, this works out to a net income of 65,000 shi of wheat per year, worth 160,000 taels of silver.
Yang Peng did the math and asked Jing Yishan: "How much labor and materials were used to develop these new fields?" Jing Yishan was promised a reward of two hundred taels of silver by Yang Peng, but he was more cooperative than before and replied: "
This prince's palace required 35,200 people to work for three months, cement, stone and other materials, and spent 87,000 taels of silver."
Yang Peng turned around and asked the ambassador of the shogunate's tax department, "Good friend, how much money is this?"
Xie Liangyou does tax statistics every day, and his calculation ability is very powerful. He handed over his hand and said: "Your Majesty, the labor cost plus material cost is 150,000 taels." Yang Peng nodded, the cost of building this irrigation reservoir, one year's land rent
It can be recovered. By the way, when building the project, the labor cost is included in the project, allowing the people to work for relief, and also reduces the cost of disaster relief.
No matter how you look at it, developing water conservancy and reclaiming new fields is a sure-profit business. However, this situation is only true for Yang Peng. The political chaos of the Song Dynasty, local bureaucrats and gentry were eyeing them, and the people even had a few acres of fertile land.
I'm afraid that others will care about me, let alone develop new fields through water conservancy.
If a person without power comes to organize a water conservancy project, I am afraid that before the project is completed, the new land will be divided up by landowners with various names. As for the powerful people, they will try their best to take away the good land from the people.
If you can go bankrupt and annex the people's fertile land, you can directly benefit, so why bother to engage in water conservancy in a big way? If you really create a lot of fertile land, other gentry and powerful people will come up to share a piece of the pie.
In a society with political corruption and disorder, interests are distributed based on power rather than contribution. In such an interest pattern, no one is willing to contribute, and everyone is focused on dividing the existing cake. In the end, the cake will only get bigger and bigger.
Coming smaller and smaller.
A person like Yang Peng who worked hard to make the cake bigger, armed with strong soldiers and defended it to the death, and did not try to snatch the cake from the powerless people, was an isolated example in a society like the Song Dynasty.
However, the seventeenth century is no longer a closed era. The Manchus, Western colonists, and even the southwest ethnic minorities are all eyeing the decadent Han society. If the Han people do not manage their cakes well and make the country bigger and stronger, they will be enslaved by aliens.
The history must be told and staged.
Whether it is for himself or for the nation, Yang Peng must persevere in his isolated case.
Yang Peng nodded and then helped the thin young man up on the ground. Xie Liangyou thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, these farmers who are tenants of our new fields can harvest fourteen shi of grain per year.
Thirty-five taels of silver. The income of these people before was only eight or nine dan a year, and their lives have suddenly changed drastically... Is the land rent we charge too low? I think even if we charge 10% more land rent, it will not make any difference.
It’s not an exaggeration.”
Yang Peng said with a smile: "Thirty-five or two years of income is nothing. It only allows a family to have food and clothing, but it is not enough to lead a well-off society. I am determined to let the people under my rule live a good life. In the future, I will let Hebei
When all the people in Shandong and Shandong become rich, of course they cannot charge high land taxes. They will charge 30% of the land rent."
Xie Liangyou raised his hands and said: "Your Majesty is kind, and the people of Shandong and Tianjin are blessed!" Yang Peng inspected the construction site for a while, and then asked Zheng Hui: "How many new fields can be cultivated in Shandong this year?"
Zheng Hui said: "We have planned eight projects like Wangyepi, but the scale is slightly smaller. After all are completed, we will have 1.1 million acres of new land. Excluding the land tax, the annual land rent income alone will be 6
More than one hundred thousand taels of silver."
More than six hundred thousand taels of silver is not a small number, and it can greatly enrich Yang Peng's finances. Yang Peng patted Zheng Hui on the shoulder and said: "Zheng Hui, after the project in Shandong is successfully completed, I will report to the imperial court and promote you to
Vice Admiral of the Sea!" When Zheng Hui heard this, his face turned red with excitement.
On the fifth day of October, all prefectures, prefectures, counties and Yanwang tax offices in Shandong opened their doors one after another.
Like the tax offices in Tianjing New City, these tax offices were purchased and renovated in the busy areas of each city. The basic principle of the tax offices is that merchants file their own taxes, and the tax offices levy taxes based on the business volume declared by the merchants.
Of course, businessmen often take desperate measures to evade taxes. Each tax office has a large number of tax accountants who serve as supervisors to randomly check the turnover of merchants.
Yang Peng has stationed 150 tax accountants in each prefecture, 100 tax accountants in each state, and 50 tax accountants in each county. The daily job of these tax accountants is to visit vendors' business locations and verify whether the vendors' actual turnover is truthful.
declare.
If a businessman is found to be evading taxes, he will be severely punished in accordance with the principle of "one evasion and a fine of five". If the tax evasion exceeds one hundred taels, the tax evader will be handed over to the Dali Temple Court for punishment. Yang Peng looked through the account books at the Jinan Tax Office and asked Xie Liangyou
He asked: "How much will the accounting staff spend this year?" Xie Liangyou sniffed and said seriously: "Your Majesty, in order to cover Shandong Province, we have hired 5,637 accountants. These
The accountant’s monthly salary, site maintenance fees and various miscellaneous expenses cost three hundred thousand taels a year.”
Xie Liangyou shook his head and said: "There is a severe drought in Shandong this year. The farmers are relying on Prince Yan's disaster relief and have no money to buy goods. Shandong's economy is very depressed. It is estimated that this year, Shandong will only receive more than 600,000 yuan in commercial taxes."
Liang." Yang Peng said: "Isn't that a net income of only more than 300,000 liang?"
Xie Liangyou nodded heavily and said: "Your Majesty, this is indeed the case. But next year the farmers will have profits, and the situation will be greatly improved. It is estimated that next year, the business tax of 1.6 million taels will be collected, and after excluding the expenses, the situation will be much better.
There can be 1.3 million taels."
On October 10th, Shen Congdao, a well-known gentry from Tianliu Town, Shouguang County, could not stand the suffocating atmosphere in Tianliu Town, so he wandered to the county town to get some fresh air. In the past few months, Shen Congdao had lost his wife again. He broke the army. The grain he collected for 5 taels and 5 cents was finally sold on the market for 1 tael and 8 cents, making a loss of 29,000 taels. After more than ten years of savings, he only had a total of more than 30,000 taels. , what is the concept of losing twenty-nine thousand taels? Even the mansion in Fucheng lost money.
However, the house in Fucheng was gone and he moved to Tianliu Town in the countryside. The matter was not over yet. Shen Congdao hoarded food to attack the King of Yan for disaster relief and lost all his wealth. This became the biggest joke in Tianliu Town and spread throughout the whole country. In villages and towns, after the people tell this joke, they always add a curse: "This thief wants to starve us to death!"
Nowadays in Tianliu Town, Shen Congdao's reputation is completely bad. When he walks in the market in the town, people spit on the ground at him from time to time. How can anyone have any respect for him as a scholar? Shen Congdao Dao rarely goes out now. Every time he goes out, he gets angry. On weekdays, he asks his servants to go out and do whatever he needs to buy or do.
But it was really uncomfortable to stay in the house for a long time. On this day, Shen Congdao let someone carry a sedan to slip out of the back door and walked quickly to the county town. Shen Congdao secretly said that there were few people in the county town who knew him, so when he arrived, Take a walk around the county town and get some fresh air.
Sure enough, no one in the county recognized Shen Congdao, and no one knew that Shen Congdao was a gentry who was against the King of Yan. Shen Congdao finally breathed a sigh of relief and walked around the commercial streets of the county with ease.
Walking to the door of the largest teahouse on this commercial street, Shen Congdao suddenly saw that the spacious teahouse was full of people. Even the aisle next to the tea stalls was full of people. When Shen Congdao saw this posture, he I know that the tea drinkers are waiting to see a big show. I guess this is a very popular show, attracting so many tea drinkers to watch.
Shen Congdao walked to the door of the teahouse and asked the waiter who was waiting for the guests: "Waiter, which song are you singing today? Is there still room to sit?" The waiter looked Shen Congdao up and down and said with a smile: "This is Master, you must not like watching this show, so don’t ask!" Shen Congdao raised his eyebrows and asked: "What are you talking about? Waiter, you must have taken advantage of others to help others reserve a seat! You are afraid of me I stole the spot you left! I must watch it!"
The waiter looked at Shen Congdao, a little embarrassed, and said: "Sir, to tell you the truth, the few gentry who watched this show quarreled with other ordinary tea guests and were beaten by a group of tea guests. Everything is there. If you insist on watching it, just make a promise not to cause trouble and leave after watching it."
Shen Congdao was stunned, and became more and more curious about the play, and asked: "What kind of play is this? Is it so evil?" The waiter said: "Sir, this is a troupe from a small shop going to Tianjing Xincheng Opera Academy A new play I learned is called "Relief in Shandong", which tells the story of King Yan's relief work in Shandong. Standing seats cost two cents, and ordinary seats cost ten cents. They were all sold out. Only the front row seats were left. Twenty cents per person, sir, how many people can you buy?"
After hearing the waiter's words, Shen Congdao was stunned. Shen Congdao of the Opera Academy in Tianjing New City knew that this matter was published in the newspaper last month. It was said that it was because the people's cultural and entertainment activities were too single and there was no opera program for a long time. New operas, even if there are individual opera troupes launching new operas, are limited to the fact that the quality of the opera troupes varies greatly, so King Yan gathered outstanding opera masters from all over the country to set up this opera academy.
In Tianjing New Town, the best opera actors in Shandong gather at the Opera Academy to launch a new play every month. The new play closely follows current events and reflects the things that the people are most concerned about, so it will definitely attract the people. Shen Congdao saw at that time After hearing this news, he didn’t pay much attention to it. These days, most of the things the government does are failures, and nine out of ten things are left unanswered. So when King Yan wanted to establish an opera academy, Shen Congdao subconsciously felt that this matter would not cause much excitement. spray.
He didn't expect that this was done, that the song came out so quickly, and that it was so popular. Shen Congdao became more and more curious and waved to the servant next to him. The servant took out forty coins and handed it to the waiter. , said: "My master bought two seats." The waiter got forty cents and thought for a long time before taking the two of them in. After passing through the crowded audience, the three of them squeezed into the front row and found the front row. Seating.
Before the waiter left, he did not forget to say to Shen Congdao: "Master, after the play is over, you must not cause trouble. Do whatever you have to do!" Shen Congdao was too lazy to pay attention to the waiter, and started to play with a tea cup. The actors came on stage. After a while, the opera began.
"Shandong is experiencing a severe drought this year!" At the beginning of the opera, an opera actor with a white beard came onto the stage holding a hoe. The old man sang in a mellow voice, which immediately attracted thunderous applause from the tea guests. Voice.
Shen Congdao also liked to watch theater, and he cheered with the other tea guests. But as he watched, Shen Congdao realized that something was wrong. This time, "Relief to Shandong" arranged by Tianjing Xincheng Opera Academy was This time the gentry who hoarded grains were beaten to death. The whole play revolved around the problem of grain relief in Shandong, and the plot was full of ups and downs. It portrayed King Yang Peng of Yan as a great hero who did not hesitate to benefit the country and the people, and the grain hoarding The gentry who obstructed King Yan's disaster relief became despicable, stupid and ignorant villains.
At the climax of the play when the gentry was hoarding food, a silver-haired old woman walked out on crutches, holding a little girl and a broken porcelain bowl, and said tremblingly: "I am going to go there this year." Southern Zhili is fleeing famine! I just don’t know if the prosperity of Jiangnan will allow me and my granddaughter to survive until next year.”
Seeing this, the theatergoers sighed, and many felt the same and even shed tears.
In this era, the means of entertainment are extremely limited, and the people are very involved in watching the drama, let alone this kind of period drama that reflects the lives of the people in Shandong? Seeing this scene, the teagoers watching the theater shouted loudly:
"God damn the rich dog! How dare you drive up food prices!" "Chop these evil gentry and feed them to the dogs!" "Thieves kill talented people, don't let the old man meet these cheap idiots!" The people were so excited that Shen Congdao turned pale with fear. Bai was afraid that people would recognize him as the evil gentry who hoarded grain. The drama on the stage took a turn, and suddenly large ships came out from behind the scenes. It was Prince Yan who had transported a large amount of sweet potatoes from Xiaoliuqiu.
At this time, all the gentry who stocked grain were bankrupt. In the play, a sly-eyed Shandong rich man used his family's house as a mortgage to borrow money from a pawn shop in order to stock up on grain, and finally lost all his property. Seeing this, the people in the teahouse Everyone suddenly beamed with joy and burst into laughter. "These thieves are so arrogant, now they know what it means to bring it upon themselves!" Shen Congdao, who was sitting in the front row, shrank his head, not daring to be proud in the crowd of common people surrounding him from all directions. out.
What happened after all? Let’s look at the breakdown next time.