"Master, there are a total of eighteen farmers in this village, all of them are tenants. The land that the previous owner's family and they were tenants of were all rented by Sanqi. This time Zheng Zhuang came to see the owner first, and then asked about the future.
How to give rent to tenants."
Fang Lei handed the account book in front of Shi Jiang. It said how many acres of land there were in the village, and below it was the rent owed by these farmers.
"Three-seven?"
Shi Jiang looked at this number and was speechless.
This figure must not have been 30% taken by the previous owner.
No wonder these farmers are so hungry that they are skin and bones.
It's just that much better than the person who fled the famine!
When Zheng Zhuangtou saw Shi Jiang looking like this, he was beating a drum in his heart.
Thinking about the life of my family and the farmers below, I almost burst into tears.
If the new owner raises the rent of the tenant farm again, it will really force everyone to die!
However, if he did not share the land of his new owner, he would definitely die.
Everyone is dead, but at least Tsukuda has a chance to survive.
Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for them not to share the land.
"Are you Mr. Zheng Zhuangtou?"
Shi Jiang closed the account book in his hand and looked at Zheng Zhuang who looked anxious.
When Zheng Zhuangtou heard the question, he knelt down with a thud.
"The villain's surname is Zheng."
"Get up and talk. I heard Fang Lei talk about you. I also read this account book. Many farmers in Zhuangzi owe a lot of rent. Is it because the rent is too high or the output of the fields is too low?
The reason?”
When Zheng Zhuangtou heard his master's words, he stood up, bent over and whispered back carefully.
"Going back to the master's house, the fields here are not fertile enough, so the output is not very high. The 30% left is not enough to live on, so I owe so much rent. Please forgive me for a little more time, master.
, as long as the weather goes well this year, we will definitely be able to pay off the rent we owe."
Shi Jiang listened and nodded, knowing that Zheng Zhuangtou was not telling lies.
"In this case, then change the rent to 46. However, in addition to the original rice, I will also give you other seeds to sow. You can't take out these sown crops except for your own consumption.
.If you can't do it, then leave this village and go wherever you like. Anyway, I won't stay here."
Hearing the owner's words, Zheng Zhuangtou and the farmers below felt happy at first, and then looked at each other in confusion.
Fortunately, the new owner has actually lowered the rent. Even if the rent is 10% more, if the harvest is good, each household will be able to harvest several more bushels of grain.
But they were very uneasy when they heard that the new owners told them to grow other things besides rice.
After all, if you want to grow things, you will definitely occupy farmland, which will result in a lot less food being grown.
Shi Jiang didn't say anything. If the farmers were unwilling, she wouldn't force them.
Anyway, she was ready to break up the team that Marquis Xuanping gave her and let them settle here.
At that time, farmland will also be needed for cultivation.
Therefore, she is not afraid that no one will help her grow things.
When Zheng Zhuangtou saw his new master looking at him calmly, his heart suddenly trembled. He knew that if he hesitated any longer, he might make the new master feel disgusted.
He quickly knelt down again and kowtowed to Shi Jiang in response.
After all, he had planned before that even if the new owner raised the rent, he would still have to share the land.
Seeing that Zheng Zhuangtou was so aware of current affairs, Shi Jiang nodded and asked them to go down first.
The farmland here is not fertile enough, so the best way is to plant sweet potatoes and potatoes.
After all, these two crops do not have high requirements on farmland.
Moreover, with these two crops, at least she can make the farmers in her village full.
However, Shi Jiang does not want to promote these two crops now, nor does he want farmers in Zhuangzi to stop planting rice.
You know, the taxes collected by the court were mainly based on rice.
Of course, Shi Jiang didn't want to sit back and rest.
Although Shi Jiang obtained two private treasuries from Marquis Xuanping, which contained eight million taels of silver, Jiang was not prepared to touch the money in the private treasury for daily use.
After all, the cost of secretly raising a useful team is not cheap.
Moreover, if you only rely on this little money, you will eventually run out of money.
Therefore, the best way is to treat the excuse she used to do business as a real one.
Doing business definitely requires someone to protect you along the way, and this can also be a good way to conceal the existence of the team she has raised.
To others, Shunan may be too poor to have anything to do business with.
But from the information collected by Shi Jiang, he felt that Southern Shu was actually full of treasures, but no one could detect the business opportunities in it.
"Find a way to lure those mountain people down the mountain to exchange for things. As long as their goods are good, the prices they offer don't have to be very low."
There are many mountains in southern Sichuan, and there are also many mountain people.
In Shi Jiang's opinion, those chicken fir trees and bamboo fungus picked from the mountains can be sold at high prices after being dried and sold in the south of the Yangtze River or the north.
Moreover, Shi Jiang was surveying near Zhuangzi during this period.
The soil from the mountain behind Zhuangzi can be used to make ceramics.
In addition, the jade mines here are also rich, but most people don’t understand it.
After all, jade can be covered with a layer of stone. In the eyes of ordinary people in southern Sichuan, raw stones are no different from ordinary stones.
Shi Jiang discovered this when he passed by a farmer's house and saw a rough stone that had been used as a stone to build a wall.
Shi Jiang spent ten copper coins to buy the rough stone from the farmer.
After returning to his yard, Shi Jiang took sandpaper to wipe it.
After wiping a little more than one centimeter, green came out.
It can be seen that although the jade in this rough stone is not imperial green, it is definitely a good piece of sapphire.
After polishing it into a finished product, you can sell it in a store. For such a large piece, a few hundred taels of silver is the minimum.
However, after Shi Jiang learned the origin of the rough stone from the farmer's account, he was not in a hurry to mine it.
After all, she had to decide on the business route first and make sure it was stable before planning anything else.
Fang Lei was sent by her to teach farmers how to grow sweet potatoes and potatoes, and Cao Jian was sent by her to guide people in building cave dwellings for making ceramics.
After the sweet potatoes and potatoes were planted, Fang Lei took his people to the places where the mountain people were and began to harvest those mountain products.
When a certain quantity is received, they will take these goods and transport them to the north.
Shi Jiang also went with him, leaving Cao Jian behind in Zhuangzi.
Those goods were in Shi Jiang's hands, and he sold them along the road, and also collected some items produced in passing towns at low prices.
As soon as he entered and exited, there were still several carts full of goods, but Shi Jiang could earn a lot of money almost every time he passed through a town.
Not to mention that Shi Jiang also has a cheating tool like a bag, because sometimes Shi Jiang goes to negotiate business with people, and the people in the team don't know the true quantity of the items Shi Jiang sells.