Chapter 40: The Turning Point of Land Reform

  It's great that King Hui is eating humble pie, but Lin Chunhong's goal isn't just this. He wants the jurisdiction over the entire Zhijiang area. After careful consideration, he plans to make a deal with King Hui, hoping to buy back the operating rights of Shuangmiao Mountain land with silver.

  After a round of explanation, Zheng Tiancheng was ordered to go to King Hui's mansion and make a thorough conclusion about the Shuangmiao Mountain case.

  The King of Hui was rebuked by the Ministry of Rites, and he scolded the Grand Scribe severely, but there was nothing he could do about it. The King of Hui had no power to appoint the Grand Scribe, so he had to make do with him. It's really pitiful for these vassal kings, although they have plenty of food and clothing, and their lives are extremely luxurious, but they can't hide the fact that they are being kept in captivity. Especially since their ancestors decreed that they were not allowed to engage in any of the four occupations, it made them idle and useless. In such an environment, it's strange if their minds didn't become abnormal. Therefore, the various strange stories about the Ming dynasty's vassal kings are not surprising at all.

  King Hui was not concerned with mundane affairs, as long as he had enough silver, he didn't care about anything else. He let the chief historian and others do as they pleased, while he indulged in his gardens and studied Buddhism. However, Lin Chunhong twice bullied him, which made him extremely angry, and he couldn't help but vent his anger on the chief historian.

  Chang Shi was extremely depressed, having lost both money and soldiers. As soon as he arrived at the gate of his small courtyard, he heard a mournful cry, which was Chen Kesin's sister weeping. Ever since Chen Kesin died, Chang Shi's concubine had been crying every day, making him feel annoyed to no end. The sound of his concubine's crying was like someone pointing at his nose and scolding him for being useless.

  "What are you yelling about? Are you not satisfied with how annoying I am? Yell again and get out of here!" Zhang Shi scolded fiercely, and while scolding, he couldn't help but slap her, knocking the concubine to the ground.

  The concubine was filled with grievances that she couldn't express, and didn't dare to cry out loud, so she buried her face in the bedding and sobbed silently.

  Looking at the concubine's pitiful appearance, Zhang Shi couldn't help but feel a little sympathy in his heart. He walked forward and said softly, "Don't cry, I will avenge your brother's death sooner or later."

  The concubine heard Zhang Shi's words and buried her head in his arms, sobbing loudly. Zhang Shi stroked her hair and comforted her, saying: "It was the master who was wrong just now, don't cry anymore... San Xiaozi is still waiting to be fed..."

  Just then, a servant reported that Zheng Tiancheng was seeking an audience. The long history heard this and became impatient, waving his hand in annoyance: "Don't see him, don't see him! Tell him to go back wherever he came from and stop bothering me."

  "But he said he wants to make a deal with the old master!" The servant, who had received not a small amount of gifts from Zheng Tiancheng, repeated Zheng's words verbatim to the long historian.

  "Huh?" Zhang Shi was greatly perplexed, he knew Zheng Tiancheng's abilities all too well. Back then, it was this kid who played the leading role in driving away Chen He, could it be that he wants to get rich together with me?

  "Tell him to wait for me in the hall!"

  ……

  "After mutual disdain and posturing, Zhang Shi got straight to the point: 'What kind of deal do you want to make with me?'"

  Zheng Tiancheng said slowly and calmly: "We want to help Huifang Manor collect rent in Shuangmiaoshan in the future."

  "Daydreaming!" Zhang Shi felt his IQ had been insulted. Damn it, Zheng Tiancheng thought he was an idiot?!

  "Wait a minute, Lord Chang Shi. Don't be in such a hurry to refuse. First take a look at the conditions I've proposed: we'll pay King Hui an annual rent of 52%, two percent more than before!"

  "A meager profit of over a hundred taels of silver, do you think King Hui would be pleased with that?"

  Zheng Tiancheng leaned in close to Zhang Shicheng's ear and whispered, "What if we give three-tenths of the annual rent to Lord Zhang?"

  Chang Shi was stunned for a moment, his mind racing. Zheng Tiancheng's words had hit the nail on the head, although he wished that Lin Chunhong and his men would be struck by lightning immediately, but who would dare to mess with Silver? Damn it, Chen Kesin's dog life is nothing, avenging what dog fart revenge! The King of Hui is nothing but a mixed eater waiting for death! Only I getting the silver is real.

  Then Zhang Fei shouted loudly: "Speak out if you have something to say, am I such a person?"

  Zheng Tiancheng understood the inner thoughts of Zhang Long, but felt that the benefits were too small. So he said: "I understand, I hope you will consider our conditions carefully!"

  Chang Shi beckoned to Zheng Tiancheng with his eyes and led him to a secret room, where they continued to discuss the price. Originally, Chang Shi hated everything about Lin Chunhong, but what did that count for in the face of silver? He had long thrown away his grievances in Java.

  Both sides engaged in a war of words, neither yielding, and finally abandoned the method of calculating shares based on harvests. Instead, they calculated directly in silver taels. The previous year's harvest at Shuangmiao Mountain was equivalent to approximately 4,400 taels of silver. Zheng Tiancheng agreed to calculate it as 5,000 taels. As a result, Huiwang Fu received 2,600 taels, and Zhang Shi privately obtained 250 taels! At the same time, both sides agreed that Zhang Shi would be responsible for persuading Hui Wang to agree to the Shuangmiao Mountain matter, and gradually persuade Hui Wang to agree to operate all of Zhi Jiang's land in this way.

  Chang Shi thought it was too easy to persuade King Hui, who could get more silver and would disregard everything else. He even considered that not telling King Hui would have little impact, but Zheng Tiancheng had to let King Hui stamp his hand on the agreement, making Chang Shi think Zheng Tiancheng was stubborn and inflexible.

  Both parties were delighted, each getting what they wanted, a true win-win. Initially, Lin Chunhong came up with this plan to let some benefits go to King Hui and the Long History, directly taking on the responsibility of delivering annual rent. This idea made everyone worried, always feeling that they had lost out. Lin Chunhong did an account for everyone: although we need to pay around 3,000 taels of silver to King Hui each year, we got 2,400 mu of good land and nearly 1,100 people, with so many people and land, even 3,000 taels of silver can't be earned, I think we should also take a break! Only then did everyone's worries disappear, feeling that they could operate on King Hui's land in the same way.

  But Zheng Tiancheng did the math and made everyone give up on this idea: The land in Zhijiang owned by King Hui has more than 2 million mu, if we follow this price, the silver we pay to King Hui every year will be over 2 million liang, then afterwards, apart from paying tribute to King Hui, we don't need to do anything else.

  Lin Chunhong burst out laughing: "Sooner or later we'll all end up like this. Now we're still too weak, can't swallow this big elephant, but who knows in the future!"

  Everyone who heard about it was filled with great enthusiasm. Solving the land problem of King Hui in Zhijiang is equivalent to 70% of the land and population of Zhijiang falling under the control of the Lin family group. What can't be done? Lin Chunhong understood that the current approach is to separate land ownership and operating rights, and perhaps this method can be applied to future enfeoffments as well.

  The villagers of Shuangmiao Mountain were indeed a bit frightened and uneasy after killing Chen Kexin and several powerful slaves, fearing severe punishment from the imperial court. Later, when they heard that this disaster had been resolved by Dian Shi, they finally put their minds at ease. However, they did not know when the newly appointed official would arrive, nor whether Gu Xiangxing and Dou Shiwen would return, and for a while, everyone was in a state of uncertainty.

  Now, Gu Xingxing and Dong Shiwen not only returned but also gathered everyone near the ruins of the warehouse to discuss matters, making every villager excited and rushing to tell each other. Originally scheduled to gather at noon, the villagers arrived one after another at noon and chattered in small groups of three or five people near the warehouse.

  As more and more people arrived, the noise was like thunder, rumbling loudly along the Yangtze River.

  Everyone was almost there, regardless of whether it was time to make a declaration. He jumped onto a charred beam and shouted loudly: "Silence!"

  Unfortunately, the buzzing of mosquitoes could be heard by villagers, and the entire cargo area was still noisy. Villagers stood for a long time, some sat on the ground, some squatted, and even climbed trees, swaying back and forth, enjoying themselves.

  "Silence!……" A loud shout came, finally covering the villagers. The villagers were shocked and looked at Xiaodouzi and several archers in surprise. It turned out that this loud shout was the masterpiece of Xiaodouzi and the archers.

  After a brief silence, an even greater commotion arose, and the villagers were in hysterics over Xiaodouzi and the archer. What was even more unbearable was that there were countless little kids running around in the crowd, and in such a scene, the little kids were naturally the most excited.

  Gu Xing smiled wryly as he looked at the villagers, secretly regretting that if he had known earlier, he could have just selected a few village elders to hold a meeting and it would have been over.

  Several village elders near Gu Xiu Xin smiled secretly and said loudly, "Xiucai Gong, we are uneasy in our hearts, just want to know when the new official of King Hui will come? What should we do after he comes?"

  Gu Xing replied: "After Huai Wang, no more stewards will be sent, and everyone won't have to pay rent to Huai Wang anymore!"

  "What? How is this possible?"

  "Indeed, it is so. From now on, everyone will pay rent to Lord Dianshi!"

  Gu Xing's words were quickly passed on to the villagers behind, and soon the crowd fell completely silent, all staring at Gu Xing with puzzled eyes. Even the children who were running around everywhere were pulled back by the adults, not allowing them to make a sound.

  Gu Xing was overjoyed and shouted loudly: "The steward of King Hui will not come again, from now on the village affairs will be decided by Dian Shi. Those who are willing to rent land can continue to do so, but each mu of land needs to sell two shi of grain to Dian Shi, as for the price, it's what Dian Shi said, and it will be calculated at 60% of the current market price!"

  The crowd suddenly burst into a commotion, and the villagers couldn't hide their excitement, loudly discussing this measure. Some villagers even began to calculate how much land they could rent. Gradually, the villagers all realized that such a policy would be beneficial to them, wouldn't everyone want to rent as much land as possible? But the land in Shuangmiao Village is limited, how can it be divided equally?

  Everyone may have thought of the problem of not enough land to rent. Shuangmiao Mountain has more than 2,400 mu of land, with a population of 361 people, and each person can rent up to 6 mu of land.

  Six mu of land is the limit of land that a strong laborer can manage, and the villagers nodded continuously after hearing Gu Xiangxing's words. Immediately, a man shouted: "If I don't want to farm, but want to do some small business, do I have to pay taxes?" This man was called Wang Mazzi by the villagers, who often sold them small goods.

  "Everyone from Shuangmiao Mountain has to pay one-tenth of their sales revenue to Lord Dianshi!"

  "It's so high! The imperial court stipulated a tax of only one in thirty!"

  Just as Gu Xing was about to reason with them, he was drowned out by the curses of several villagers: "You good-for-nothing Wang Ma Zi, if you think it's too high, go plant some land! Last time you sold my old man a hoe that broke right after use, and you didn't even let us return it, what kind of morals do you have?"

  The villagers' curses immediately made Wang Ma Zi shrink, his face flushed and speechless. Raising commercial taxes was Lin Chunhong's established policy, which did not allow the villagers to oppose it. In fact, Lin Chunhong thought that one percent was too low, thinking of the terrifying business tax and value-added tax in later generations, that was really high.

  "Alright, alright! After everyone goes back home, you can discuss and decide how much land to rent. Come here tomorrow to register!"

  Gu Xing finished speaking and beckoned to Xiaodouzi, indicating that it was his turn to speak.

  Xiao Douzi had never spoken in front of so many people before, his heart was racing, and before he even opened his mouth, his face turned bright red.

  "He stuttered: 'Lord Tianshi... Lord Tianshi said it before... p-participate in the guard squad and get... that rent exemption!'"

  The words spoken in a stuttering manner were naturally not loud, and many people did not hear clearly, asking Xiaodouzi what he said.

  Xiao Douzi's face turned even redder, and after holding it in for half a day, he finally shouted: "Join the guard squad and get rent-free!"

  After shouting this sentence, Xiaodouzi suddenly relaxed and put on a fearless expression, shouting: "Dianshi gentleman is preparing to recruit some people into the guard team!"

  The temptation of rent-free was quite great, and immediately several young men shouted: "I want to go!" But these young men were immediately scared back by the old man's white eyes, shrinking their heads and not speaking. The status of Da Ming's soldiers was low, and no one wanted to eat this meal unless they had to.

  Xiao Douzi saw it, his heart cooled down a bit, and he hastily said: "The guard team gets five taels of silver every month, food and drink are free, the land rented by family members is exempt from rent, if there is merit in battle, they can also be allocated several mu of land in Baili Zhou according to their merits. These few mu of land will forever belong to the individual! And oh, the adults reward and punish clearly, everyone fights bravely, and has the opportunity to become a general!"

  Xiao Douzi's words left the villagers stunned, "In this day and age, eating army rations can have such good conditions?" These words stirred up some young people's hearts, making them jump around restlessly like monkeys.

  "However, joining the guard requires strict selection, it's not just a matter of agreeing to it, remember, those who can join the guard are absolutely the best! If you're willing, come find me here tomorrow to register!"

  The little bean-like thing was like a bamboo tube pouring out beans, and as soon as it finished speaking, it jumped down from the scorched wood. For a moment, even its legs felt a bit shaky.

  "Damn it, I'm such a loser... I've killed people before, but now I'm afraid to even speak..."

  Tonight, Shuangmiao Village is destined to be a sleepless night. Every villager faces the choice of the road ahead, which will determine their fate from now on. After tonight, perhaps some people will gradually become rich and wealthy, perhaps some people will become mighty warriors who can summon the wind and rain, or perhaps some people will fall on the bloody battlefield...

  For Xiao Douzi and Gu Xiu Xing, tonight was also a sleepless night. They stared at the ruins of the warehouse and oil mill under the bright moonlight, secretly grieving. That was their hard work, that was their hope, and it was even the future of the whole village, but it was burned to ashes by a group of ignorant bandits.

  But everything has passed, and the two of them have survived. The two are destined to fill this land of Shuangmiao Mountain with passion like the morning sun!