April is the time when the weather warms up and flowers bloom.
At this time, every corner of Xinghua County.
The land acquisition work of multiple propaganda teams dispatched by Xujiazhuang has entered the final stage.
The land acquisition progress of each publicity team has been quite good, and the results are gratifying.
For example, the land acquisition progress of the first working team is 99.8%.
The progress of the second task force is 102.4%.
The progress of the third task force is 111.7%.
The land acquisition progress of other work teams is above 80%.
Only the Ninth Propaganda Task Force encountered a little trouble, which caused the land acquisition progress to be stuck at 85%, and then reached a deadlock and became a bit unable to proceed.
It's hard to keep up the progress.
It’s not because the middle- and lower-class farmers are resisting and not actively joining. These people are very enthusiastic, and the participation rate is nearly 100%.
Landlord.
In the Nanxiang area that the Ninth Working Team is responsible for, there are too many landowners, and they are all large landowners who often occupy thousands of acres.
In some villages, because of the emergence of a high-ranking official, all the land in the village was entrusted to one person's name. As a result, all the villagers in the village became tenants, and all the land belonged to the landlord.
The area of Nanxiang is a well-known place of cultural prosperity in Xinghua County. Over the past two hundred years of the Chinese dynasty, there have been many successful candidates and Jinshi. It is the hometown of poetry, etiquette and hairpins.
The eight most famous surnames in Xinghua County are Li, Wu, Jie, Wei, Wang, Zong, Fang, and Yang. Among them, there are six surnames including Wu, Jie, Wei, Wang, Fang, and Yang, which are distributed in Nanxiang.
These gentry families not only had hairpins and poems for generations, but also became big landowners and owned countless fertile fields.
As a result, in Nanxiang, a land rich in fish and rice, landlords occupy more than 80% of the annexed land. There are only a handful of owner-peasants and countless poor farmers and tenant farmers.
It also caused difficulties in the land acquisition work of the Ninth Working Group, and few surrounding gentry and landowners were willing to cooperate.
Yang Qi, the captain of the work team, tried his best to make it useless.
He offered generous conditions and proposed cooperation plans such as "land purchase at ten times the premium", "half land acquisition and half cooperation", "joint venture to establish a factory" and other cooperation plans, but they were all decisively rejected and received ruthless ridicule and ridicule.
"It's just a wealthy overseas businessman who wants to buy our land just because he has a few easy-to-sell goods and makes some money, without even looking at his status?"
"We won't sell any land, no matter how much money we offer!"
"Want to buy my land? Send me your Xujiazhuang soap, glass mirror, and sugar making method, and I will consider it again."
"The land of our ancestors is the foundation of our family. Unless there is a war or disaster, the land cannot be sold."
"You in Xujiazhuang have evil intentions and play the trick of 'big fights come out and small fights come in', and you still dare to target the Wu family's land? I didn't report to the court to report your evil intentions, so you are extremely magnanimous, and you dare to come and buy my family's land."
, are you really not afraid of death?"
Yang Qi was rejected again and again.
I was arrogantly rejected again and again.
No matter how huge the benefits were, these landlords and squires remained unmoved and became stubborn thorns.
Because land is the lifeblood of landlords and their foundation. If they lose their land, can they still be called landlords?
Soft is totally unacceptable.
Yang Qi came up with the idea of using force and struck hard at these landlords. He suggested that the village owner send a "special operations team" to teach these landlords a profound lesson and give them an "unrejectable offer" as the village owner said.
but……
The idea of applying for tough measures to solve the problem was rejected by him himself.
Because it is useless, it is extremely risky.
One, the six major landowners in Nanxiang all live in deep courtyards and are protected by servants. They all have a certain degree of force protection and cannot be easily attacked.
Secondly, these big landowners are connected with each other and have been intermarried for a long time. They are intertwined with each other. They all prosper and suffer losses. They advance and retreat together. They have long formed a community of interests. They can only be broken down one by one and cannot be overthrown in one wave.
Thirdly, almost every family of these big landowners has someone who is an official in the imperial court, with positions ranging from big to small, but even if they are the ninth grade county magistrate, it means that they have someone behind them, which means they can refuse to cooperate with confidence and are not afraid of threats at all.
Based on the above characteristics.
Using forceful means to deal with these landlords will definitely not work. Xujiazhuang currently does not have the strength to overthrow so many landlords, so it may not be able to withstand the huge counterattack caused.
There is no way.
At present, Xujiazhuang has no choice in the face of the firm rejection of these landowners.
However, on April 8th, the Fang family in Fangqiao Town took the initiative to send people to the work team station, found Yang Qi, and said that Mr. Fang had invited him.
"Master Fang?"
Yang Qi immediately remembered that in Fangqiao Town, the Fang family owned 3,000 acres of fertile land. Its head was Fang Chengxiu. Yang Qi had dealt with him several times. He was a gentle and humble elder, but he had no clue about the land issue.
An uncompromising and stubborn landowner.
Fang Chengxiu took the initiative to talk to him today. Why?
However, since it was the other party who took the initiative to ask, maybe the land acquisition matter has taken a turn for the better, and the Fang family may have figured it out.
Yang Qi immediately packed up, took a few gifts, and quickly rode his bicycle to Fangqiao Town.
…
Fangqiao Town.
Fang family mansion, in the living room.
Yang Qi once again saw Fang Chengxiu, who looked like an elder in his forties.
"Junior Yang Qi, I have met the head of the Fang family." Yang Qi bowed his hand and said.
"Sit down, please sit down, nephew Yang Xian."
Fang Chengxiu stretched out his hand to signal.
The servants served hot tea and placed it on the coffee table beside Yang Qi.
After exchanging a few words.
"Master Fang, I wonder if this time you sent someone to call the junior here, will there be room for negotiation on the land acquisition?"
Yang Qi got to the point and asked.
"No hurry, no hurry."
Fang Chengxiu smiled slightly and said calmly: "Nephew Yang, I have something I want to know. Can you answer it?"
"Master Fang, please ask. If you can answer, I will tell you the truth." Yang Qi nodded.
"Nephew Yang Xian, I heard that the owner of your Xu family village, Xu, is already in his twenties this year. He is not yet married, has not taken any concubines, and has no heirs. I wonder if this is true?" Fang Chengxiu asked.
"Uh... it's true. The owner of the village said that we should have good health and delay childbearing, and we should not get married too early, preferably after the age of twenty."
"The owner of the village is already twenty-seven years old, and other people have many children. The owner of the village has money and land. He has a net worth of tens of millions and an area of 100,000 acres. There should be no shortage of women around him, but he still has no heirs. However, the owner of the village does not love women.
Are you sexy?" Fang Chengxiu asked.
"Ahem! Master Fang, I don't understand this matter either, and I was puzzled... You'd better stop asking." Yang Qi was very embarrassed. As a subordinate, how could he tell outsiders about this kind of question? In fact, he told
Everyone in the manor was very anxious, but many people tried to persuade him to no avail, so what could he do no matter how anxious he was?
"Nephew Yang Xian, doesn't your village owner want to buy our Fang family's land and build a large manor? Yes, as long as your village owner agrees to my two conditions, all three thousand acres of fertile land can be sold to Xujiazhuang and merged into your manor.
.”
"really?"
Yang Qi was overjoyed, sat up straight, looked at him and asked: "Please tell me what conditions Master Fang has."
"First, our family's 3,000 acres of land are mostly high-quality paddy fields, and the price is at least 30 taels per acre, and your village is willing to pay five or ten times more for the land. In that case, I don't want more, just 2 taels.
One acre is worth one hundred taels of silver, and three thousand acres are sold for a total of 600,000 taels of silver. As soon as the money arrives, the land deed will be handed over immediately."
"Two hundred and twenty-one acres?"
Yang Qi thought for a moment and said: "I can't make the decision on this matter. I have to ask the owner of the village for instructions."
"Secondly, since the owner of your village is unmarried, and I happen to have a daughter, Qingyan, who is eighteen years old and is waiting to be married, if the owner of your village is willing to marry his daughter and become the wife of the whole family, the owner of your village will solve the lifelong problem.
It's a big deal, I have a good son-in-law, and you also have a mistress, isn't it a good thing?"
After twists and turns for a while, Fang Chengxiu finally revealed his purpose.
He personally acted as a matchmaker for his daughter Fang Qingyan, and wanted Xu Yuan, the owner of Xujiazhuang, to become his son-in-law.
Actually.
It was only recently that he remembered that he actually had such a daughter. She was already over 18 years old, not yet married, and had been living like a servant in the back house.
After all, she was just a concubine who was not taken seriously.
The reason why he thought of this daughter recently and considered selling 3,000 acres of farmland was because he received a letter from his cousin Fang Yizhi to him, saying that it was his daughter who had retired from office and returned home after they resumed their society.
Lin boss Qian Muzhai (ie Qian Qianyi) returned to the court, hoping that he could be re-appointed by the court.
Just making a comeback requires opening up joints, support from some courtiers, and spending a lot of money.
Ke Fushe had just been founded and had limited money, so he could only contact the gentry everywhere to see if he could borrow some money.
So Fang Chengxiu received a letter from his cousin Fang Yizhi and saw the opportunity keenly.
Qian Muzhai was an important minister who was only one step away from entering the cabinet. He was framed and squeezed out of the central government because he couldn't defeat Wen Tiren and Zhou Yanru. If he could be resurrected, he could regain the emperor's trust.
The hope of joining the cabinet is still high.
Once Qian Muzhai re-enters the cabinet, in return, all the gentry who provide help will definitely reciprocate and receive a lot of benefits, such as increasing the number of land exemptions, supporting more underachievers, etc.
As long as it is operated properly, the benefits it brings are far greater than three thousand acres of fertile farmland.
Fang Chengxiu plans to take a gamble!
What's more, after the Xujiazhuang Propaganda Team's publicity, the people in Fangqiao Town who donated their fields began to feel uneasy, and they had already considered giving up their donations and joining the collective estate, because it was more cost-effective, and the Fang family's three thousand
Two-thirds of the acres of fertile farmland are dedicated. If these fields are decommissioned and merged into collective estates, the Fang family's vitality will be greatly damaged.
Instead of doing this, before the clan members rebel, why not sell all these fields! Most of the 600,000 taels obtained will be used to run Qian Muzhai Qifu. Once successful, the benefits will be more than a thousand acres of fertile land?
Of course, if the operation fails, all the money spent will be wasted. Faced with this terrible possibility, Fang Chengxiu saw Fang Qingyan, a concubine in the back house who was being bullied by evil slaves, and saw her pretty appearance.
Then I remembered the rumor that Xu Yuan, the owner of the Xu family village, was an older single man, and suddenly I thought of a brilliant plan.
If this plan succeeds, he can marry this concubine to Xu Yuan, the owner of the Xu family village, and make her his golden turtle son-in-law. Even if the Qian Muzhai operation fails and the Fang family loses all their land, relying on this golden turtle with a net worth of tens of millions
Son-in-law, if you go to Xujiazhuang to enjoy the autumn breeze, you can also maintain the wealth and dignity of the Fang family.
Perfect.
No matter what, it's a win.
And after hearing what Fang Chengxiu said.
Yang Qi was slightly startled and did not dare to make the decision. He just asked, "I wonder what your lady looks like?"
"The beauty of the moon is charming, and the moon is shy of the flowers."
"Could it be a natural foot? The owner of my farm doesn't want foot binding."
"It's a natural foot, it's a natural foot. My feet have never been bound." Fang Chengxiu breathed a sigh of relief. That drunken and confused concubine, who was born with a maid, never had her feet bound.
"Is she a legitimate daughter or a concubine?"
"The legitimate daughter is the legitimate daughter that I love most. She was reluctant to get married until she was eighteen years old. There were countless matchmakers, but I rejected them all. I wanted to keep her under my knees to fulfill her filial piety. But now she is really old and can't delay any longer.
No matter how reluctant I am to let her go, I have to find a husband for her."
As he said that, Fang Chengxiu raised his hand to wipe the wet corners of his eyes, looking extremely reluctant. As for the lies in his mouth, they were very natural and flawless.
"Okay! I will report this matter to the owner of the village. If it can be done, it will indeed be a good thing."
Yang Qi nodded and planned to go back to Xujiazhuang to report this matter.
…
End the conversation.
After declining the invitation to stay at Fang's house for a meal, Yang Qi insisted on leaving and reported back as soon as possible.
I walked to the front yard and prepared to find my bicycle parked under a mulberry tree.
Yang Qi found that his bicycle was missing.
I quickly searched for it, and then heard a fierce argument somewhere:
"Fang Qingyan, you broke this bike, you have to pay for the guest's bike!"
"It wasn't me who broke it, it was clearly yours who broke it. I was just watching from the sidelines and didn't touch the car at all." The stubborn female voice said.
"It was you, Fang Qingyan, who rode the bad horse! We all saw it, so we said yes!" the voice said arrogantly.
"It wasn't me who broke it, it was you who broke it. It's you who have to pay for it, you can't frame it on me!" the female voice argued.
"You are just a despicable concubine, and you still dare to talk back?"
"Hurry up and confess your crime, or we will beat you to death!"
"I didn't do anything, why should I plead guilty?" The female voice was still stubborn.
"Hit! Beat this bitch to death until she confesses! It doesn't matter if she beats her to death. She broke the car anyway, and she still refuses to admit her mistake. For the sake of the Fang family's face, we beat to death this arrogant person who made the mistake.
Bitch!" This voice was so angry that she was already murderous.