Chapter Sixteen: The Poor Tenant

  Su Pingyang was preparing to go ahead and take a look, make a courtesy call. The young master had never been to the tenant's home before, if something happened, it would be hard to say. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to arrange, the young master specifically said that when going to the tenant's house to visit, don't disturb everyone.

  Before crossing over, Su Tian was familiar with many procedures, such as going to inspect the work and so on. If he had made preparations in advance, the situation he saw would definitely be very good, and that would also lose its meaning.

  Nowadays, things are different. These tenants are all farming for the Su family. If they can't see the real situation and deceive themselves, there may be huge troubles in the future.

  Early in the morning, Su Tiancheng went out, followed by Su Pingyang and Su Er Tong.

  Inside the Su residence, there were ten fine horses that had not been taken away. These were supposedly left for Su Tiancheng to train, after all, he was a young master of a wealthy family. If the residence did not have any horses, it would be embarrassing to mention.

  Of course, there were two carriages in the mansion, and Su Tiancheng could have taken one of them, but he refused.

  Unfortunately, the ten fine horses left in the mansion were all southwestern horses except for a Mongolian horse, which was good for driving carriages and transporting goods, but looked small when ridden.

  By the end of October, it was already winter weather.

  Half an hour later, Su Tiancheng and his party arrived in the suburbs.

  He finally saw his own good field.

  Five hundred hectares of good land, all connected in one piece. Su Pingyang has already explained the situation in detail. Those lands that couldn't be connected were slowly dealt with by Master long ago. The remaining lands are generally not bad.

  Five hundred hectares of land, a total of 7,500 mu, with an area equivalent to 14 Beijing Workers' Stadiums.

  The terrain around Pingyang Prefecture is mainly hills, followed by flat plains. There are not many mountains and rivers, nor are they the kind of towering mountains that people imagine. The Su family's fields are mostly flat plains. When Su Tiangong saw this vast expanse of land for the first time, he thought of a phrase: "One horse galloping across the plain."

  In his imagination, the tenant farmers of the Su family should at least live together, that is to say, the houses are at least connected. Unfortunately, he did not see such a situation. Around the fields, there were many earth-shed houses, low and humble, with their roofs covered with straw and hay.

  Su Tiancheng's face had already changed color. People often talk about the evil landlords, but many times it's just for propaganda purposes. However, what he saw with his own eyes showed that the Su family was extremely stingy towards their tenants. These tenants had been following the Su family for over ten years, and yet they couldn't even afford a decent house after working on their land for so long. At this moment, he thought of the eldest lady again. Su Pingyang had already said that the management of the tenants was entirely the responsibility of the eldest lady.

  Riding a horse to a small forest, Su Tiancheng got off the horse and walked to a small tree, tied up the reins.

  "Young master, you're not riding a horse anymore? Walking from here will take quite some distance."

  "Uncle, let's walk past and take a look, don't ride horses anymore. Second child, you wait here and take care of the horses."

  "Master, you and your father should ride horses over there."

  Su Tiancheng shook his head and slowly walked towards the nearest house. Seeing this, Su Pingyang whispered a few words to Su Er'tong.

  It's not even dawn yet, and the autumn harvest season has long since passed. The fields are bare and empty, with nothing in sight.

  Su Tiancheng found it somewhat strange. It was said that winter wheat should be sown now, but why were the fields empty?

  He walked to the side of the field, Su Tiancheng squatted down, grabbed a handful of soil with his hand, the soil was very dry and could hardly be pinched into a ball. The gentle breeze blew by, and dust could be seen.

  Su Tiancheng furrowed his brow, and it seemed that the land was severely lacking in water. On such land, it's unlikely to have a large harvest. After standing up, Su Tiancheng took a look around the field and didn't see any canals or irrigation ditches.

  "Uncle, why isn't there an irrigation ditch around this large piece of land?"

  "Sir, the harvest on the land is not good, where did you get the silver to build canals?"

  "Uncle, don't try to fool me. If you say the harvest is not good, it's just in recent years. Does that mean the previous harvests were also bad? According to what you said, such a large piece of land indeed has no irrigation canals."

  Su Pingyang was very attentive to the young master's every move, because the young master had changed too much and he needed to pay special attention. Originally, he thought the young master was just going to take a look at the outskirts and would return soon, but it was just a cursory glance. However, the young master's series of actions made him start to feel surprised. He could actually squat down, manipulate the soil, and determine that the land lacked water. This was not simple at all, and people who were not familiar with farm work could not make such movements.

  The key is that the young master has never worked in the fields for a day.

  "Uncle, be honest with me, does our family only care about collecting rent and doesn't ask about anything else?"

  Su Pingyang nodded, how could he say such things, it's all decided by Master and Madam.

  Su Tiancheng stopped talking and walked straight towards a house.

  The door of the house was ajar, to be exact, it couldn't even be called a door, just two door panels that didn't quite fit together. When Su Tiancheng knocked on the door, the hinges creaked with a faint squeak.

  "Is anyone home?"

  A rustling sound came from inside, and after a while, a man came to open the door.

  The man saw Su Tiancheng and was greatly surprised. He couldn't help but notice that Su Tiancheng was wearing brocade, had a fair complexion, and an elegant demeanor, indicating that he was definitely not an ordinary person.

  Su Tiancheng was also surprised. This man, who didn't look very old, had dry hair and a dark face, clearly a long-time farmer.

  Hair is dry and brittle, obviously malnourished.

  The man's body was wrapped in a cotton-padded jacket, with several large patches on it that were particularly eye-catching. He wore a coarse linen garment with an open front and had no shirt underneath, clearly having not gotten out of bed yet.

  "Who are you looking for?"

  "This is the young master of the Su Mansion, he has come here today specifically to take a look."

  The man looked very frightened, and Su Tiancheng still found out that there was resentment in the man's eyes.

  "Old sir, our family's rent is really overdue and we're almost out of food at home."

  "I'm not here to collect rent, I've come to visit your home."

  The man was extremely surprised, the young master of the Su family came to his own home to take a look, what does this mean?

  "Old master, please wait a moment, the people at home have not gotten up yet, don't get angry."

  Farmers are supposed to be diligent, even if there's no farm work, they wouldn't sleep in this late. Besides, nowadays there's not much entertainment, people go to bed with the sunset and get up with the sunrise. According to the time calculation of several hundred years ago, it's already bedtime after 7 o'clock, but you're still sleeping at 8 o'clock the next morning, that's a long enough sleep.

  It's supposed to be the busy farming season now.

  Perhaps seeing the young master's confusion, Su Pingyang behind him spoke up.

  "Young master, the tenant farmers are all like this, they won't get up until after noon. It's not that they want to sleep in, it's just that this way they can save as much food as possible."

  Su Tiancheng felt heartache and used sleep to save food, he had heard of it but never seen it before, now he finally saw it, and it was his own tenant.

  The man finally opened the door, a little girl was pulling on his hem, with her finger in her mouth, and when she saw Su Tiancheng, there was also fear in her eyes. The woman following behind the man had a slightly swollen face.

  "Hurry up and kneel down, the master has come to see our family."

  Seeing the thin and gaunt little girl, Su Tiancheng finally couldn't hold back his anger. His own mother-in-law was simply ruthless in her pursuit of money, and all the tenant farmers were treated this way. What he thought about in his heart was still the tenant farmers paying their grain taxes, but when they rose up in revolt, she would finally realize the severity of the situation.

  But this anger could only be endured silently, and it was impossible to lose temper in front of the tenant.

  Su Tiancheng took a step forward and grabbed the little girl.

  "Don't kneel, I just came to take a look."

  Because of the anger in his heart, Su Tiancheng's tone was somewhat off when he spoke. The man was at a loss, looking at Su Tiancheng, while the woman lowered her head. As for the little girl, she was pulled by Su Tiancheng and didn't dare to move.