A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 173
The summer harvest in Baoan Prefecture in June of the tenth year of Chongzhen was different. This year, the drought was severe. Whether it was military households or civilian households, the output of the fields this year was much less than in previous years. The government's urging is severe, and the people are about to start fleeing again.

However, this year the prefectural city is exempted from field grain. Even if the harvest is small, the income from the field will belong to oneself. The harvested wheat grain can basically make a living, and the newly reclaimed fields will be exempted from tax for three years. Presumably starting next year, the people in the prefectural city, soldiers and civilians can eat it. I'm full.

These days, there are voices admiring the benevolence of Master Li and Lord Wang, both inside and outside the city.

In the joy, only Zhizhou Li Zhenyu was restless. The people rarely praised the government.I was worried day by day, Wang Dou promised himself many times, and finally it was time to see the real scene.

On this day, Li Zhenzhen came to visit Wang Dou in person.

At this time, Wang Dou was in the mansion of ethics, explaining to the town governor Chi Dacheng about his inspection of various places, and ordered him to severely punish anyone who dared to disobey the government order and collect grain without permission.After hearing Xie Yike's report, Wang Dou smiled slightly. In the past, the governor of the prefecture always invited him to go to the prefecture to discuss matters, but this time he couldn't help but came to visit in person.

He said: "I will go out to meet you personally."

He went out and welcomed Li Zhenzhen, the magistrate, in. Behind him was Chen Yuwen, the official, Deng Fu, the Cang ambassador, and Deng Zisheng, the deputy envoy.As for Chen Yuwen, Wang Dou had been in contact with him a few years ago. In April, because of his concubine Yang's incident, Chen Yuwen personally came to Wang Dou's door to apologize to Wang Dou.

As for the Yongxingcang ambassador Deng Fu and his deputy Deng Zisheng, they are small officials in the household department of the state city. Although their ranks are small, they are very rich.

In the towns on the nine borders of the Ming Dynasty, the person in charge of supervising the income and expenditure of food and salaries to a town is the doctor of the household department, and then the magistrates and general judges of the military towns are responsible for the food and salaries of all roads. Those who are located in prefectures and counties are the warehouse ambassadors and corresponding households. I'm a small official.The grain and rice goods in each mile and workshop need to be inspected and accepted by the warehouse ambassador. If he picks the fat and deliberately makes things difficult, you will not be able to hand over the money and grain.In order to check and accept smoothly, it is inevitable to prepare a generous gift.

However, how could this kind of household officials in prefectures and counties dare to put on airs in front of Li Zhenzhen and Wang Dou?The two followed behind Li Zhenzhen, just respectfully.

After exchanging greetings with Wang Dou for a while, Li Zhenyu impatiently asked about Xia Liang, and he signaled to Deng Fu, the ambassador of Yongxingcang.

Deng Fu understood, he took out the abacus, snapped, and said skillfully: "I am a private household in Baoan Prefecture, transporting Huailai household department summer grain, with a total of 480 stones, two buckets, nine liters, eight combinations and six spoons. In the 19th year of Wanli, I practiced a whip method, and every stone collected silver. Eight coins, a total of 380 four taels of silver, six cents, five cents and two cents. The starting price is seven taels, five cents and seven cents of silver, and a total of more than 390 one taels of silver."

"This is summer food."

"I transported 560 three stones, 26 liters, and three spoonfuls of autumn grain from Baozhou. Each stone collected eight coins, and a total of more than 240 eight taels of silver was collected. The starting price was 14 taels, three cents, and five cents. Sangsi was 16 catties. Zero one coin, 270 bolts of silk, and 550 taels, five cents, six cents and three cents of silver. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, Baozhou added [-] four taels, four cents and five cents of silver. [-] two taels."

"Also, for summer tax and autumn grain, 29 stones and four buckets of rice are kept in each prefecture in each state, and seven silver coins are collected for each stone. Two hundred stones, eight coins for each stone, a total of 20 taels of silver, which will be used for the salaries and grains of Confucian teachers and students in this prefecture."

After the calculations were over, Zhizhou Li Zhenzhen looked at Wang Dou eagerly.

Wang Dou glanced at Feng Dachang, the magistrate beside him. He just listened attentively to Deng Fu's calculations, closed his eyes for a while, and nodded to Wang Dou.

Wang Doudao: "Okay, last year, I promised Lord Zhizhou that if you are willing to reduce the taxes and grains of the people in the city, this year, the summer tax and autumn grains of the households in the city will be saved and used, and all will come from me. My king Dou keeps his word, I will hand over the summer tax of 390 taels to the households in the state city, and the 180 taels of salary and food expenses. I will hand it over to the adults immediately. Last year, the officer promised to give the 500 taels of silver to Mr. Li as a surplus , I will give 180 taels of the 250 taels of salary."

"I will hand over the autumn grain and the salary for the second half of the year to Lord Zhizhou before the first month."

For the payment of summer tax and autumn grain in the Ming Dynasty, the shipment of summer grain ends in July, and the shipment of autumn grain ends in the first month.The military households and civilian households in the state city started to transport the tax money. Wang Dou had already transported the tax money from Shunxiang Fort to the warehouse in the Chengshou mansion. However, although he was capable of giving the summer tax and autumn grain to Li Zhenzhen, the prefect, he did not want to give it to him so early. .

Wang Dou ordered the official Feng Dachang to say: "Mr. Feng, you follow Mr. Fang Zhong, and take Ambassador Deng and the others to Suo Cang, and give them the summer tax and other silver that the households in the state city need."

Feng Dachang agreed with a smile, and Deng Fu, the ambassador of Nacang, and Deng Zisheng, his deputy, followed him in surprise.

Zhizhou Li Zhenzhen was sitting in the hall serving tea and chatting with Wang Dou, fidgeting.

I don't know how long it took, when Deng Fu and others came back, they whispered a few words in Li Zhenzhen's ear. Li Zhenzhen was both surprised and delighted: "The money is really brought?"

Deng Fu said affirmatively: "Yes, my lord, all those taels of silver have been put into the treasury by the lower officials, registered in the file, and there are 640 taels of silver in total."

He forced himself to accept the excitement in his heart. In addition to the summer grain, he paid 250 taels of silver to Wang Dou, which was 70 taels more than usual. These 70 taels of silver can make the officials of the state city happy.

Li Zhenyu opened his eyes wide and looked at Wang Dou in disbelief. You must know that this year, not only the summer tax and autumn grain for the households in the prefecture city, but also the tax money for the military households are all paid from him. The expenditure here is nearly 4000 Two taels of silver, Wang Dou bought another thousand cows, at least 5000 taels of silver, and built well irrigation trucks in various parts of the state city, which required a lot of money and food, so Wang Dou, so much money came ?

Li Zhenyu was fooled by Wang Dou last year and was willing to reduce taxes and grains. He was in a hothead at the time, but he regretted it afterwards. It was just that he had nothing to do when he got on the pirate ship. He was always worried, worried that Wang Dou was deceiving him, but he did not expect Wang Dou to do it. .

Li Zhenyu thought about it, but he didn't know where Wang Dou's money came from. He just vaguely heard that Wang Dou had brought a batch of silver from Shun Township Fort. , Why is there such a large source of wealth, is there any treasure there?
The tax money can really be paid. While he was excited, he was not in a good mood. Before he was in the state city, the military households, generals and officials in the city demanded him and fawned on him, because their food and rice depended on the relief of the state city households. , I didn't expect that the food and clothing parents are reversed now, do I want to live by Wang Dou's face in the future?
Thinking of this, Li Zhenzhen sighed deeply.

……

In the middle of June of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zhenzhen transported two sets of Xia tax silver from private households in Baoanzhou to the warehouse of the household department in Huailaiwei.

When receiving and disbursing money and food, and registering the printed letter book, Feng Shilei, the general judge of Baoding Prefecture, who was in charge of food and payment matters on Huailong Road East Road, Xuanfu Town, was surprised. The state and county guards on the East Road he was in charge of were paid with the summer tax of Baoan Prefecture. The earliest, the most generous share, their summer tax quota of 380 four taels of silver was actually a lot of money.

This incident is too rare. At present, the state and county guards on the East Road are not paying enough taxes and defaulting on silver taels?If there were suspicions of deliberately delaying taxes and grains in various places before the Chongzhen Year, then in the Chongzhen Period, officials who dared to deliberately default on taxes and grains were purely courting death.It's not that they don't want to pay enough, but they have no choice.

Seeing such a generous payment of taxes and grains once, Li Zhenzhen left a deep impression on Feng Shilei. He took a long breath: "This governor of Baoan Prefecture is a talent."

On Wang Dou's head, the summer tax of Baoanzhou military households was calculated as 490 taels of silver. In mid-June, Wang Dou also shipped the silver to the warehouse in the Acropolis. At that time, everyone in Acropolis was surprised.

The two commanders of the Acropolis, Wen Shiyan, the officer in charge, and Wang Xiaowei, the battalion officer, were even more surprised. They heard that Wang Dou was exempt from taxes in Baoanzhou City. Let's see where the summer tax and autumn grain will come from when he arrives.

Unexpectedly, when Wang Dou was exempt from tax, he actually escorted the full amount of the state and city tax money, 490 taels, a lot of money.Both of them couldn't believe it, they just thought blankly: "How is this possible, where did Wang Dou get the money from?"

Xu Zucheng, the defender of the Acropolis Department, was extremely happy. Wang Douchu was exempt from taxes and food in the state city. Xu Zucheng was extremely worried.Sure enough, as Wang Dou said, he escorted the tax money. It doesn't matter how Wang Dou raised the money, the key is that he paid it in full.

Since Xu Zucheng was transferred to the Acropolis, he assisted Li Yi'an in the defense of the Acropolis to manage various matters. However, under the constraints of all parties, he felt powerless and distressed. Wang Dou's performance gave him great face. With Wang Dou around Zhoucheng has strong support, and he is more handy in the Acropolis.

In the study room guarding Li Yi'an, Li Yi'an and his son were also discussing this matter.

Li Yi'an's condition was even more serious. Although it was hot weather, he was still lying on the brocade couch wrapped in several quilts. Seeing his father's appearance, Li Shouqin was extremely worried. What do you think of Wang Dou?"

Li Shouqin said: "The boy is also strange. Wang Dou is tax-free and grain-free in the state city, and he is vigorously reclaiming wasteland. Where does he get the money and grain?"

Li Yi'an sighed lowly: "Wang Dou is a father, and he can't figure it out. He must have his own way. What he did in the state city is not simple. The land is divided and no grain is given. In time, he can harvest the hearts of the army and the people of the state city. .He is so young, he has such a scheming method, and he is a formidable young man."

Li Shouqin said in a low voice: "I heard the news, that Wang Dou once sent soldiers under his command to suppress bandits everywhere, confiscating a lot of money and food. He sent troops out of the country privately..."

Li Yi'an sneered: "So what, Daming's age... as long as he pays taxes and food in full every year, has money to honor the superiors, and is brave and able to fight, he will be the treasure in the hearts of the superiors. You haven't heard of soldiers. Do Xian and the ministers appreciate him? My son, this king is courageous and resourceful, you should learn more from him."

Li Shouqin respectfully accepted orders, and there was a long silence in the study. After a long time, Li Yi'an sighed: "It's a pity that I don't have much time to be a father, otherwise Wang Dou will be used by me..."

……

In June of the tenth year of Chongzhen, after the harvest of summer grain in various parts of Zhoucheng, the production of water trucks for irrigation wells in various parts of Baoan Prefecture was in full swing. The waterwheel is ready.

The number of irrigation wells and water trucks to be built is not a small amount. According to statistics, there are more than 20 military households in the whole prefecture, and more than [-] mu of newly cultivated fields. , Wang Dou also promised that Li Zhenzhen, the prefect, would assist them in drilling wells.

On this day, when Wang Douzheng and Zhang Gui, the officer in charge of the Tunnel, were busy working in the field, Feng Dachang, the official, hurried over to report to him: "My lord, I just received news from the Weicheng that the new East Road Counselor, Mr. Mao Bin, will come to our security guards." State inspection."

(End of this chapter)