my wonderful zoo

Chapter 12 Nitta
After listening to Chen Xun's words, Chen Fu knew that he would not be able to do anything if he didn't say something: "I heard that a Sihu came from Guangzhou to join the army. He has a great background. I don't know what son of a bitch told the new Sihu that our Chenjiazhuang is rich. They often give rice and facial oil to their long-term workers, and the clothes of those long-term workers don’t have any patches on them..." Chen Fu said while looking at Chen Xun’s expression. What he said were all the opinions of the older generation of the Chen family on Chen Xun. Where Chen Xun was dissatisfied, they were unwilling to be too nice to those mud-legged people, and they couldn't pee in the same pot as Chen Xun.

"Go on."

"Knowing that our family is rich, this Sihu joined the army and wanted to rectify our Chen family and make a lot of money." Chen Fu said.

Chen Xun understands that new officials are very hungry when they take office, but Chen Xun is not willing to target the exploiters at him.

It's not that I haven't killed officials before. Back then in Quanzhou, all civil servants of the sixth rank had been killed.

But Guangzhou is my base camp, so I can't be reckless, I have to figure out the background of this household before making a decision.

"What is this Sihu's name?"

"Wow." Chen Fu dipped his hand in tea and wrote two words on the table.

Wang Si, died in vain?What a name!Chen Xun didn't have this name in his memory, so he probably wasn't a famous person.

"What else?"

"That's all I know. ...But in the past few days, I saw Zheng Yasi arranging people to train those archers. You should pay attention." Chen Fu still has a conscience. This news is crucial.

Archers are directly subordinate to the county captains. There are dozens of archers in each county and more than 100 in many counties.Dongguan is wealthy and has 140 archers on standby.

Although these archers are just servants (labor without wages), they are responsible for catching thieves and often go to the countryside. They are often assigned to collect and supervise tax arrears together with the soldiers, and even work with the police to collect business taxes and even manage prisons. , patrolling the market are all archers wheel difference.

These positions are all lucrative positions, and they often use force, so they still have a certain degree of combat effectiveness.

The most important thing is that if the archers are involved, it means that the county captain is also involved.

Since both the boss and the county lieutenant were involved, it was impossible for the county magistrate not to know about it. This meant that the troika in Dongguan County were planning to crush him. This situation was a bit difficult. No wonder Chen Fu was scared.

"Is there anything else?" Chen Xun asked again. The more information he has, the more appropriate judgment he can make.

"No more." Chen Fu shook his head. Judging from his expression, he should have told everything he knew.

"Okay, then you can go back. I won't be looking for you during this period." Chen Xun served tea to see the guest off.

Chen Fu had some shame on his face and pursed his lips. In the end, he stood up and left without saying anything righteous.

******
The eleventh day of the first lunar month of the Gengzi year (February 1126, 2).

Chenjiazhuang.

The sun is three poles high, and the sun is warm at first, and the sun is very comfortable on people.Many officials came from the east gate of Zhuangzi, and the people in Zhuangzi who were relaxing in the sun came to watch the excitement.

Ever since Xiao Langjun came to power, it has been a long time since Chenjiazhuang had so many officials come over.Chen Lu, as Chen Xun's second uncle and the de facto person in charge of the Chen family affairs, personally stepped forward to greet him.Chen Lu had received a letter from Chen Xun yesterday. He knew that these people came today with bad intentions, so he was careful when receiving them.

"Zheng Yasi, I wonder what happened? Could you please come to this remote country in person and bring so many people with you?"

"Mr. Chen, you are being polite. If Chenjiazhuang is poor and remote, then Dongguan County can only be regarded as a wilderness." Zheng Jian hasn't been to Chenjiazhuang for a long time. When he came here today, he discovered that Chenjiazhuang has developed to this level. At first glance, there is not even a single adobe house in the whole village, only brick and tile houses.

So rich!
Chen Lu didn't know how to answer the question. After all, in this world, Chenjiazhuang was the only one with brick and tile houses, and even the prefecture city was dominated by adobe and wooden houses.

Feeling uneasy, I thought about it for a while and could only come up with an explanation: "Chenjiazhuang has little land, so we have to open a brick kiln to make a living. It is naturally cheaper for the villagers to use bricks and tiles, so it doesn't matter."

"How much land? Then let's take a look at the land in Chenjiazhuang today."

These people are here to cause trouble!

This sentence came to the minds of all the people in Chenjiazhuang present at the same time. Everyone knew that the land in Chenjiazhuang could not withstand inspection.

There were 50 archers with swords and bows following Zheng Jian this time, and the armor and muskets could not be exposed in the village. Chen Lu could only take Zheng Jian to see the fields and ask people to go to his home to get the field registers.

It is a characteristic of feudal society that imperial power does not go to the countryside.

There are four main types of taxes in the Song Dynasty: land tax, Ding tax, and other exorbitant taxes. The tune is the property tax, and the commercial tax is also included.

The land tax collection is the responsibility of the household, while the commercial tax collection in remote areas can be contracted.

With the benefit of Chen Xun, Chen Lu contracted all Chenjiazhuang's land tax, Ding tax, commercial tax and his exorbitant miscellaneous taxes, and handed them over to Dongguan Field Administration in summer and autumn.When Chen Xun levied taxes on the villagers and long-term workers, he did not send additional taxes, so the overall tax burden on the people of Chenjiazhuang was not heavy.

Naturally, basic information is needed to collect taxes, so the field registers of Chenjiazhuang are all in Chen Lu's place.

"I see there's a lot of land here. Along the way, there's very little wasteland. Even the rivers and seasides don't have reed swamps. They've all been reclaimed into farmland." Zheng Jian wandered around for half an hour before speaking. Said: "According to this scale, is your Chenjiazhuang's annual 300 liang field tax too small?"

Even with the warm spring sunshine, the weather in early spring was still very cold, but Chen Lu's forehead was already wet with sweat.He knew in his heart that Chen Xun had recruited refugees from the north in recent years and cultivated five or six times more new fields than what was listed in the field register. If the tax was calculated based on acres of land, it would be absolute tax evasion.

"Most of these lands are newly reclaimed. There was a war in the north, and many people took boats to go south. The patriarch was kind-hearted and allowed the people to live in Zhuangzi and reclaim some tidal flats to make a living. He has not yet reported it to the county government. He planned to harvest this summer. Just report it.”

The land policy of the Song Dynasty could not help but change, so by this era, most of the land had been concentrated in the hands of landlords. However, the Song Dynasty's efforts to encourage agriculture were the strongest in history. Especially for the reclamation of wasteland, they could not help but provide subsidies, agricultural tools, etc., and also duty free.In addition, land taxes were only levied on landlords, so the people could still survive.

"In the vast land of Fanzhou County, people are allowed to ask for tenants as permanent property. If you rent for three years, you will lose one-third."

In other words, when new fields are reclaimed on unowned wasteland, whoever reclaims the land will own the land forever. The land rent (land tax) will be exempted for the first three years, and after three years, the land rent will only be charged one-third.

Most of the unregistered farmland of the Chen family has been cultivated for more than three years, but no one outside the Chen family village knows that.

(End of this chapter)