The Red Mansions

Chapter 156 Gusu Grange Income
in the tea room.

Jia Yun and Xue Pan were talking, when suddenly a little maid came outside, leaned forward and said, "Second Master Yun, there is a man named Ni Er outside the door who wants to see you."

"Um, ask him to come and talk." Jia Yun said.

The servant girl bowed and retreated.

After a while, Ni Er was led to the tea room, saluted Jia Yun and said, "I have seen the master."

Jia Yun nodded and asked, "How are you doing with the Zhen family on the farm these days?"

"Returning to the master, the young one and the steward sent by the Xue family handed over to the steward of the Zhen family on the farm. It may be that the Zhen family said hello, and the handover went smoothly, and nothing happened. .”

After Ni Er finished speaking, she took out a piece of paper from her sleeve, handed it to Jia Yun, and said, "This is the title deed for the [-] mu of land that I went to the yamen to record with the steward of the Zhen family a few days ago, and it has been transferred to the master. Named."

Jia Yun took over the title deed and looked at it, stuffed it into the sleeve, and then asked: "What about the tenants of the farm?"

Ni Erdao: "Master's fields are all farmland, with sufficient water sources, complete and stable irrigation facilities such as ditches, and high annual output. With the protection of the Zhen family these years, the tenants do not have to pay taxes to the government."

"When the farming is slack, they raise silkworms and weave cloth to subsidize their families. Although they are not rich and expensive, they are still passable."

Jia Yun nodded, the situation was similar to what he expected.

Gusu, where the land is divided into seven parts and the water is divided into three parts, is a typical water town in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is also known as a "land of fish and rice" throughout the country.

Paddy was planted in Suzhou very early, and it is one of the birthplaces of rice farming in my country.

The rice produced every year is continuously shipped to the north, and Gusu has the reputation of "Suhu is cooked, and the world is full".

Of course, for thousands of years, farmers' farming methods have not changed fundamentally. They have been living a life of "facing the loess and back to the sky", working very hard.

It is a blessing that the tenants can eat enough to eat, and at the end of the year, they can tear up a few feet of cloth and make new clothes to wear.

Jia Yun thought for a while, and then asked, "What was the rent that the Zhen family collected before?"

"Because there is no need to pay taxes to the government, the Zhen family collects [-]% of the rent, and there are still many tenants fighting for it!" Ni Er said with a smile.

After a pause, he continued: "Master, our land is in southern Jiangsu. If rice is planted twice a year, the early rice will mature in late July, and the late rice will mature in mid-to-late October. In this way, the tenant's harvest is actually Not bad."

Jia Yun smiled and said, "That's good. Have you investigated our family's land over the years, and what is the approximate yield per mu?"

"Around six to seven hundred catties, as long as there is no disaster year, the yield per mu can basically be maintained at around 650 catties." Ni Er replied.

Jia Yun was silent for a moment.

If the yield per mu is 650 catties, then 250 mu of land can harvest 500 million catties of rice per season, which is [-] million catties in two seasons.

After drying and removing the husks, if one catty of rice can produce six or two rices, the farm can harvest 900 million catties of rice every year.

Excluding 170% of the tenant households, there are 730 million catties, and there are [-] million catties left.

If a catty of rice is calculated at five Wen, the rice sold on the farm every year can get more than 11 taels of silver.

This is just rice. Tenants also have to pay rent for raising silkworms, weaving cloth, beekeeping, raising chickens, ducks and livestock.

Taken together, it is estimated that there are about [-] to [-] annual income on the farm.

"It's no wonder people in ancient times liked to buy land. Although buying land is not the most profitable business, it is the safest. It happens every year." Jia Yun thought to herself.

Of course, this is also because he is a Juren, and the tenants are exempt from taxes and part of the corvee, so they can charge such a high rent.

But even if tax and corvee are unavoidable, if only [-]% of the rent is charged, it will be very profitable.

At this time, Jia Yun thought of Jia's mansion again.

The area and output of Jia's farm are definitely larger than those of our own.

But he heard from Wang Xifeng that the annual income of Jia's farm is only 5 to 10 taels, and the total income of the two families rarely exceeds [-] taels. (original data)

One must know that the fields in Jia's mansion are all Huangzhuang, and there is no bad one.

Not to mention that they are all Shangtian, at least they are all good fields.

The combined income of so many Zhuangzi is not as much as Jia Yun's income from a piece of land.

Therefore, from this point, it can be seen how confused the people in Jia's mansion are.

To put it bluntly, the reason why Jia's treasury is empty is that a considerable part of it was embezzled by those servants...

After regaining her senses, Jia Yun continued to ask, "How is the spring plowing going?"

"The early rice has been planted." Ni Er replied.

"Forget it, since there is nothing wrong with the farm, don't rush to go, come with me in a few days!" Jia Yun nodded.

Ni Er replied, hesitantly said: "When will Master go to Zhuangzi?"

"What's the matter?" Jia Yun raised her eyebrows and asked.

Ni Erdao: "It's nothing important. If the master is going, I can inform the people in Zhuangzi and make preparations for the reception in advance."

Jia Yun glanced at him, pondered for a moment, and said, "The exact time to go is still undecided. I will notify you in advance when the time comes. You go down first and let Uncle Wen Lin arrange a place for you!"

Although he doesn't like to put on a show very much, but when his status reaches a certain position, he should show off and learn to show off.

Especially when he was going to the farm for the first time, he had to fly the score.

After receiving the order, Ni Er bowed and withdrew.

On the side, Xue Pan, who had been silent all this time, said in a daze, "Brother-in-law, according to what you mean, did you get another piece of land?"

"Well, it's in Gusu, a total of [-] mu!" Jia Yun said with a smile.

"Is it so easy for officials to hug money?" Xue Pan said dumbfounded.

Jia Yun pondered for a moment, nodded and said, "It's that easy!"

Xue Pan thought for a while, then smiled and said, "I didn't expect my brother-in-law's house to own more land than ours."

The Xue family also had a lot of land in the past.

But in the past few years, because the cash on the commercial road cannot make ends meet, a lot of them have been sold.

In addition to the several thousand mu of land that was given to Xue Baochai as a dowry, only nearly [-] mu of Jinling ancestral land remained unsold.

In fact, for the Xue family, if they can maintain the business share of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it is not cost-effective to buy land, so all along, his family has not bought too many fields.

Jia Yun will not buy too many lands in the future. He has a space to carry with him, so there is no need to spend too much energy managing the farm.

As for their children and grandchildren in the future, that is their own business. With Jia Yun's current wealth, leaving some for them will allow them to live well.

No matter how far away things are, Jia Yun can't control it. It's good for future generations to be successful, but if they are not successful, even if they leave gold and silver, they will be defeated.

After having a simple meal at the Lin Mansion at noon, Jia Yun has never had a chance to see Lin Daiyu, and she doesn't know what's going on with her now.

It wasn't until the afternoon, after Jia Yun took a nap, that Housekeeper Lin came to invite him and whispered that Lin Ruhai invited him to talk.

When they came to the bedroom, Butler Lin stood guard at the door to let the wind pass.

Seeing Jia Yun coming in, Lin Ruhai looked at the closed window, then slowly got up and sat up, arched his hands to Jia Yun, pointed inside, and signaled to follow him to talk inside.

Jia Yun remained silent, cupped her hands in return, and followed him to the secret room.

in the secret room.

After the two of them sat down, Lin Ruhai smiled and said, "You've been negligent, why did you come to Gusu all of a sudden?"

"Your Excellency, you are welcome. I came to Gusu, firstly, to visit my lord, and secondly, I got a new piece of land in Gusu, so I want to come and have a look." Jia Yun smiled and cupped her hands.

Lin Ruhai pondered for a moment, stroked his beard and asked with a smile, "Is Zizheng promoted?"

Jia Yun nodded with a smile and said, "I knew I couldn't hide it from my lord. I just got the holy finger a few days ago and was transferred to the capital as an errand."

After a pause, he asked curiously, "My lord looks haggard, how did you do it?"

"Haha, Rang Zizheng is laughing, this is made by Jin Yiwei's people, does it seem like that?" Lin Ruhai laughed.

Jia Yun nodded and said, "Jin Yiwei's methods are really subtle. If I hadn't obtained the letter from the lord, I probably wouldn't have discovered it for a while."

After the two exchanged pleasantries for a while, Lin Ruhai murmured: "Actually, last year I was going to do my best, but my son knew at that time that I was really sick."

"Later, fortunately, my illness was cured, so I postponed it for a while, and only started to implement the final plan after I made all preparations."

Jia Yun shook her head and said, "My lord, you don't need to tell me these things. I didn't participate in it. It's better not to know anything. Your lord shouldn't have sent me a letter before."

Lin Ruhai sighed and said: "Forgive me for being presumptuous, but the reason why I want to send a letter to Zizheng is mainly because I am afraid that something will happen to Daiyu, and I want to use your strength to protect her."

"Speaking of it, I'm not afraid of Zizheng's jokes. I have been in Jiangnan for many years, and I can mobilize countless troops with the brand given by the emperor, but there are very few people who can really trust me."

"It's Zizheng, because you have just come to Jiangnan, and you don't have much interest here. I trust you very much, so I want to use your strength to protect Daiyu, so that I don't have any worries."

Jia Yun was not in a hurry to answer, and after pondering for a while, she nodded in agreement.

He could imagine that Lin Ruhai's encounter with swords and swords when he wanted to fight against Jiangnan's smuggling salt gang must be extremely dangerous.

Lin Ruhai asked himself to protect Lin Daiyu, just as he wanted, the reason for hesitating was mainly to show Lin Ruhai the appearance, if the promise was too straightforward, it would arouse suspicion instead.

Seeing Jia Yun nodding, Lin Ruhai breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a smile, "How many people did Zizheng bring here this time?"

"The number of people is quite a lot, more than 300." Jia Yun replied.

Lin Ruhai was surprised and said, "You have so many personal guards already?"

Jia Yun nodded, then sighed and said: "The three adults Wen, Jiang, and Liao ordered me to form an anti-Japanese army, and all the people have been recruited. As long as I really form an army in half a year, I will be able to send my relatives to the army." The number of guards has expanded to 1000!"

"It's a pity, at this juncture, the imperial court wants to transfer me back to Beijing. It's a waste of so many good seedlings!"

(End of this chapter)