Chapter Thirty-Five Planning for the Future

  After taking a bath and finishing dinner, Zhao Zhan came to the small study. Gui Hua added two more lamps in the room, making the study bright and spacious. He sat down at his desk, spread out a large piece of paper, and used paperweights to hold down the four corners. This was the combined map of the land after he had annexed Chen Tang's estate, which Zhao Zhan had ordered the household manager to redraw.

  This map was obviously drawn using the original pictorial method, without a scale, symbols represent, with mountains and rivers, it does not conform to Zhao's modern map habits, nor is it accurate, his work tonight is to redraw a map.

  Zhaoyi stretched out his hand and saw Xi hurriedly open the wooden box he had made, inside which were scattered a set of drawing tools such as straightedge, compass, and triangle board. These were all made by the craftsmen in the mansion according to the young master's instructions, using the best brass, intricately carved, with a thin layer of gold foil on top, shining brightly. He picked it up and couldn't help but shake his head, such simple things, the craftsmen had spent a lot of thought carving out floral patterns on them, it was clear that the social atmosphere emphasized luxury and extravagance.

  Zhao Zhan picked up a ruler and drew a framework on the paper, marking the direction. After several days of investigation and inspection, he had already memorized the geographical and hydrological conditions of the entire "territory". Reconnaissance and obtaining topographic information was a basic skill for a special soldier, and these things were not difficult for him. Half an hour later, a map drawn with charcoal appeared on the white paper, with rivers, villages, ditches, forests, roads, and even small paths taken by rural farmers all marked on the map.

  "Understand, can you?" Zhao asked Jianxi, wiping his hands with a towel.

  "Probably, there are some things I don't quite understand what they're painting?" Jian Xi said with a slightly embarrassed smile.

  "You've copied this onto sheepskin paper, I'm exhausted! My wrist is sore from writing!" Zhao Yan said as he took the tea cup handed to him by Gui Hua.

  "Second Master, this is such a delicate task, I'm afraid my rough hands won't be able to do it well. Why not let the steward's assistant do it tomorrow?" Xiqi said with a smile, looking embarrassed. The drawing couldn't be done with a ruler or compass, but relied entirely on skillful hands, and used the finest brushes, which made it difficult to draw without any mistakes.

  "What's difficult about it? It's simpler than drawing flowers. Let me do it!" Guifang volunteered to take on the task.

  "Look at you, aren't you ashamed? You've been boasting loudly like a drum, as if you're invincible. Today, let's have a competition with Sister Guihua and see who wins! If you lose, you'll be punished to grind ink for her!" Zhao Yan teased, scratching his face with his fingers.

  "How can I compare to the Second Master? You understand everything, and I'm just a humble sycophant who can't even keep up!" Xī said with a pout, but in his heart he was also puzzled - he had never seen the Prince learn from anyone, so how did he have so much knowledge? It's as if the Prince is a divine being sent to earth. With that thought, Xī quietly went back to grinding ink.

  Zhao Zhe took a sip of water, opened his notebook, and the records inside showed the results of his 'research' over the past few days. As he read through the text, Zhao Zhe's heart became heavy, and it was clear that the lives of the common people at the bottom of the prosperous Song Dynasty were not as happy as they seemed.

  According to the system, the Song Dynasty divided the national residents into two categories: main households and client households. Residents living in towns were called "fangguo" households, while those living in rural areas were called "xiangcun" households. Rural households were further divided into main households and client households. The main households in rural areas referred to those who owned land and paid summer and autumn taxes to the state. Client households in rural areas, also known as tenant farmers or floating clients, were those who did not own land, did not have oxen or farming tools, and rented land from landlords to farm. They were also registered in the household register, became formal registered households of the state, and paid head taxes, bore summer and autumn taxes, and undertook corvée labor. This system changed the status of tenant households, allowing them to shake off their slave status, which can be seen as a kind of progress. However, the Song Dynasty's land policy did not suppress the concentration of land ownership, and officials could freely purchase land to become large or small landlords. Through imperial examinations, landlords could also become officials at various levels. Officials and landlords became one entity, occupying the vast majority of the country's land. The royal family, nobles, bureaucrats, and landlords annexed more and more land.

  Zhao Zhan had originally planned to use the idle time at the end of the year to inspect his own "territory", investigate the soil conditions, and make some preparations for next year's spring plowing. However, what he saw shocked him: there wasn't a single landlord household on his territory, not even any upper or middle-class households. Even the lower-class households that owned 10-8 mu of self-cultivated land were extremely rare, which meant that almost all the laborers working on his 400 mu of land were tenant farmers.

  What surprised him even more was the means by which Chen Tang, the former owner of the land, had accomplished this feat in just three or four years. Like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, he had eliminated nearly a hundred big and small landlords around him, turning them all into proletarians, making these exploiting classes become poor hired farmers.

  Chen Tang's approach to dealing with these wealthy landlords was to let them take official positions. According to the Song Dynasty's laws, those who served as officials in front of the court had to be first-class large landowners with assets over 200 taels of silver. They enjoyed privileges such as exemption from corvée labor and taxation, and could be granted official titles, which would be promoted every three years, up to the highest rank of Commander-in-Chief. Additionally, village officials such as the head of the village, household heads, village scribes, even elderly officials, archers, and robust men, all had to be from second-class households, with a minimum qualification of being a third-class household. This system was actually a privilege granted by the government to the landlords, aiming to rely on them to expand the foundation of the Song Dynasty's feudal rule.

  In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, landlords competed to become yezheng (local officials) and lizheng (village heads), as they could take advantage of the opportunity to embezzle goods and get rich. However, by this time, their good days were numbered. The corvee system was becoming increasingly chaotic, and if there were any losses during the transportation of official goods, they would have to compensate for them. Similarly, if the lizheng and huozhang (tax collectors) failed to collect taxes on time, they would also have to make up for the shortfall. Chen Tang took advantage of this situation to drive many landlords to bankruptcy.

  To deal with those small-scale self-cultivating farmers, the method is even more direct and simple: collect taxes and usury, so that they have to sell their land to him due to poverty, or when encountering a year of poor harvests and insufficient tax payments, lend them money at an interest rate of two to three times, and Heaven also cooperated, with three consecutive years of locust plagues, letting them give all the land to Chen Tang.

  Their fate was the most tragic, because after selling their land to landlords and becoming tenants, they could not immediately cancel their property registration, change their household registration, and although they had lost their land, they still had to pay taxes. They had no choice but to continue borrowing, even using their children as collateral for loans, and in the end, they became "baigujing" (a term used to describe people who have lost everything). The tenant farmers were subjected to double pressure from both the government and their employers, and many of them chose desperate measures: one was to abscond, and the other was to become a "good fellow".

  Zhou Bian was thinking, now facing two serious problems. One is that the officials are busy collecting and offering to the palace, without energy or "extra" money to repair water conservancy facilities, and the canals are blocked. The big households are not willing to spend money on repairs, causing the paddy fields to become dry land, and the wheat and rice crops can only be planted for one season, resulting in a significant reduction in land utilization rate.

  Another problem is even more serious, that is, the shortage of labor force, and there are fields without people to cultivate. Originally, Chen Tang's estate had more than 800 tenant households with over 1,000 able-bodied men. After several years of his "management", the number of households has decreased by nearly half, and now it is less than 500 households. Even among those who stayed, their minds are wandering, and they have no food for the next day, fearing that they will not be able to get through the New Year's festival. Now some tenants want to take advantage of the opportunity to change landlords to leave, and do not want to renew the lease contract, and there is a possibility of loss.

  "If this problem is not solved properly, even if there is more land, it can only be abandoned. And for the time being, going to find so many tenants again is not an easy thing." Zhao Zhe got up and walked around anxiously, "Can't we solve both problems at once?" After thinking for a while, Zhao Zhe still couldn't think of any good solution. He certainly couldn't use his status as a prince to force them to stay, this kind of bullying, especially bullying those poor people who can't even afford clothes and food, was something that Zhao Zhe felt he could never do.

  "Second Master, I've finished drawing the picture!" Guifang suddenly said.

  "Oh, okay, you guys take a break first!" Zhao said absent-mindedly.

  "Second Master, if you don't sleep, how can we? Wouldn't that be too unseemly?" Jian Xi said.

  "No need, you've all been tired for a day, just leave Xiao Huangmen on duty at night, I also want to be alone for a while, you can all go to bed early, no need for so many people to stay up!" Zhao Chuai said with a wave of his hand.

  "Yes, Second Master should also get some rest and not tire himself!" Seeing that Xi and Zhao were in a bad mood, he didn't dare to say anything else. He pulled Guihua out and then instructed the little gatekeeper Huang to be more alert before returning to his own quarters.

  "The dam should be repaired first, and then the irrigation ditch should be dredged to bring water to every piece of land. With the dam in place, the water flow will increase, and the water power can also be utilized. The mill and winery can be moved to the riverbank, and more buildings can be constructed." Zhao said to himself, his finger tracing over the map as he thought deeply, ideas forming in his mind, planning for this land that belonged to him. This might just be his starting point, but he wanted to take a solid step forward from here!

  In the early morning, when Guihua quietly entered the small study, Wang Ye was asleep on the desk, making a soft snoring sound, but with a smile at the corner of his mouth, as if he had dreamed of something delightful. The candle on his desk had burned out, and the map beside him had many new marks added to it. The brazier under his feet only had a faint red glow left, with just a few sparks still struggling not to go out.