Chastity Layman 2

Chapter 495
The weather is getting hotter.

Although the victims are returning home one after another, worries are written on the faces of men and women in every household.Relying on the little disaster relief food pulled out by the government, combined with wild vegetables, they can barely survive.

It is impossible to eat disaster relief food all the time.

Because of the disaster, people's families have stopped marriages, and no one has concubines for birthday parties. They can't afford food, so how can there be any leftover food for dinner?

This hunger has already made the common people lose their minds of tossing after turning off the lights at night. In every village and village, there are almost no pregnant women.

No one wants to sow a seed and conceive in such a famine.

Although pregnant women can receive an extra subsidy from the government, it's not that everyone doesn't want to add trouble at this time.

The north bank of the Wei River.

Qin Lang looked at the once bustling Qin family's holiday estate, but now it was silent.

It's been a long time since I haven't seen the Zhuangtou Shi, and they all have a lot of gray hair.

The holiday huts are all idle, the farms not far from Zhuangzi are empty, and even the fertilizer plant is idle because there is no manure for fertilizer.

Qin Lang walked in Zhuangzi, inspecting his land.

"Have all the farmers returned?"

"Most of them are back." Lao Zhuangtou sighed.

Qin Lang bought more than 2 mu of marsh land here, spent a lot of effort and cost to transform it into a large manor integrating leisure vacation, ecological breeding, manual processing, and agricultural planting. There are [-] mu of paddy fields, several thousand mu of orchards and vegetable gardens, as well as wheat fields and millet fields.

There are thousands of acres of ponds and artificial lakes where fish are raised and lotus roots are planted.

With such a large property, apart from some of the Qin family's own slaves, most of the rest depend on the nearby villagers, and most of the fields are leased to the villagers for rent, not to mention that the workshops and farms also rely on the nearby villagers to work. Production.

When the famine came, all the Qin family's pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, and fish were confiscated by the government, and the grain in the Qin family's warehouse was also confiscated.

Originally, it would be no problem for Qin Lang to keep these grains, livestock, etc., to support his own family, and even to help the people of the nearby farmers, but for the overall consideration of the overall situation, he finally handed over all these.

As a result, the people of the nearby villages had to go out to flee famine, and the slaves of the Qin family had to be transferred to places such as Shannan, Huainan, Jiangnan and Lingnan.

After all this tossing, this Zhuangzi's vitality was seriously injured.

The farms are empty, the fishponds are empty, the fields are deserted, and the workshops have stopped.

Zhuangtou said that only most of them have come back, which means that they have not come back until now. In fact, many people have died.Or because they were sold in order to survive while fleeing famine.

Some sold their sons and daughters into slavery, some even sold their wives, and some sold themselves, all for a little food to survive.

The court said that the emperor and the empress used the gold and silver in the internal treasury to redeem the children of the parents who sold their children. In fact, this is just a news broadcast. Just listen to it. Less real gold and silver, but how much can actually be saved?
"Sanlang, many people come to Zhuangzi when they come back, asking when our work will start here, and some asking if they can borrow some money and food."

Another said that recently many people have asked whether they want to buy land, or whether they want to hire long-term workers or short-term workers, and some even ask whether they want to buy people.

Qin Lang's heart was heavy when he heard this.

Although the people survived, they are still struggling, and they can't hold on anymore.

Ordinary people without capital are the least able to resist risks. They are the worst group of people when encountering such a catastrophe.

In addition to selling houses and land, they can only sell their children and daughters or even their wives, but most ordinary people have only three or two dilapidated houses at home, which are worthless at all, especially in this kind of disaster year.

As for the land, how much land can they actually sell?

Originally, the implementation of the Land Equalization Order in Guanzhong was not enough. Most of the people were only allocated a very small amount of land, and most of them were sub-divided land, not Yongye land. They were not qualified to sell these sub-divided land.

But many people are still trying to find a way to sell.

If the sub-fields cannot be sold, they should be rented, and the land should be rented to the landlord. The rent can be cut off at one time or for ten or eight years, and only a very small amount of rent is charged.

Their estuary is equivalent to renting the land of the imperial court. They collect it at death and pay the rent every year, but the rent is very small, especially under the new tax law, the rent per mu is only three liters of grain.And even if it is renting official or government office land or public land, the rent per mu starts at six buckets.

These few lands are the guarantee of their lives. No matter how little land there is, some land is their own after all. When there is no disaster, at least they can have some security.And once this sub-land is also rented out, it means that there is no more assets, and in the future it can only be reduced to renting land or working for others, which is even more insecure.

But they can only take care of the present.

Many people thought that Qin Lang was kinder and more generous, and they all wanted to ask Qin Lang to borrow money and food, or simply rent the land to Qin Lang.

"Sanlang, now a lot of aristocratic families outside are taking the opportunity to acquire land, and the price is very cheap and cost-effective. The land is bought out, and one mu of land only needs two buckets of grain a year, and the rent is only three liters per year. I will give it all at once. A stone of grain will do."

The so-called buyout means that this piece of land that originally belonged to the common people can only be handed over to the landlord for operation in the future. The original landlord has nothing to do with it.

After his death, the land will be taken back by the government.

For one mu of land, the buyout price is to give one stone of grain at a time, and then rent two buckets a year, and then pay three liters of tax.And one mu of land can earn at least one stone a year, which is not counting the income from growing some miscellaneous grains in the land, which is extremely cost-effective no matter what.

After all, when landlords rent out their land, it is generally [-]% of the rent, or even [-] to [-]%.

Buying out the common people's land and renting it out, even if he collected five buckets of rent a year, the two buckets and three he paid to the original landlord would be two buckets and seven, let alone the actual income is higher.

Some people were so eager to make a move that they couldn't even get the one-time grain of stones.

Buying land at this time is really cost-effective.As for the Yongyetian in the hands of the common people, it is even more cost-effective to buy it at this time.The price is cheap, and there is no need to worry about the government taking it back.

"This is taking advantage of people's danger."

Qin Lang sighed.

"But the world is like this, and the market is like this."

The most difficult thing in a disaster year is those who owed debts before. At this time, the creditors' pursuit of debts can drive people crazy.If there is no money to repay, then use everything of value to pay off the debt. If it is really worthless, then use people to pay off the debt, whether it is children or wives.

Many people came to the Qin family because they thought that Qin Lang had a good reputation, so even if they sold it, the Qin family would probably be able to offer a better price.

A young man knelt in front of Qin Lang.

He wished to sell himself into slavery.

"You are young, even if the current famine is over, it will soon pass. If you grit your teeth and work hard for two years, you will always pass. Why sell yourself as a slave?"

Of course normal people don't want to be slaves, but the young man said it was too difficult and he couldn't bear it any longer.

The family owed a debt before, but now the interest rate is not enough. The creditor took away his dilapidated house and his land, but it is still not enough.

So he wanted to pull him to be a slave to repay the debt. The young man thought, even if he was a slave, he would rather come to the Qin family as a slave, at least the slaves here are treated well.

"Didn't the imperial court ban usury early?"

Zhuangtou told Qin Lang that the imperial court did have such a ban, but the ban was not very effective. Besides, the imperial court's ban was only a high interest in the face of the ban, but many times, those moneylenders were very smart and would try their best Take advantage of loopholes.

Besides, who can lend usury, which one doesn't have connections and backgrounds?

Nine times out of [-] out of [-] people like this are considered conscientious, and people like lambs and donkeys are not uncommon. There are thousands of ways to lend money.

Real interest rates are surprisingly high.

The problem is that even the interest rate tolerated by the imperial court is actually unbearable for ordinary people, and it will be even worse if there is a famine or something.

This famine disaster made many people who were allocated some land after the founding of the Tang Dynasty became proletarians again.

Even debtors are directly reduced to slaves.

Qin Lang didn't want to take advantage of people's dangers and look ugly to rob the people's fields and their children and wives as slaves, but he also had no ability to help others.

Qin Lang has no money now.

There should be a lot on the books, but now they are all IOUs issued by the imperial court after they expropriated his livestock and grain.

The workshop has completely stopped, and there is no income, and even many goods are still backlogged.

Even the shops in Chang'an City are almost closed, so there is no income.

Although the hunger situation has eased, the summer grains have not yet matured, and the grains in various places are still under the strict control of the imperial court. A prime minister like Qin Lang also receives grains with food stamps, but it is relaxed now. , Qin Lang can also enjoy the treatment of a prime minister.

There is no need to eat porridge anymore, there will be a supply of meat and vegetables, and you can get one or two sheep every once in a while, or a few smoked chicken and duck or dried meat, salted fish and so on.

But it's just barely enough for the family to spend, so there's no food left to lend to everyone, let alone to buy land and people.

He wondered, where did those people get the food to take the opportunity to annex the fields and buy and sell people?
"There must be a way." Zhuangtou didn't say much, but he also revealed that he did have food.

After thinking about it for a while, Qin Lang could guess that the source of the food was no different from those few. Either someone obtained more food in private through connections, or bought food on the black market, or bought it in Jiangnan or Bashu. Or Lingnan, where there are farms or grain in places that are not affected by the disaster, they are quietly transported from there.

But these avenues are illegal.

Even if it is the grain of our own Lingnan, at this stage, it is forbidden to resell it without permission.It is possible to transport grain from other places to the disaster area, but the grain can only be sold to the government’s Changping warehouse in the end. The government will increase the price to buy it at the market price, and private sales or hoarding are prohibited.

The young man in Qin Langzhong got up and said that he would guarantee his debts to prevent his creditors from pressing for debts. On the other hand, he asked the village head to arrange a job as a helper for him. At least he would stay in the village and have something to eat temporarily.

As for the others, Qin Lang really can't take care of them now, those should be the responsibility of the imperial court.

(End of this chapter)