Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 71 The Landlord's Life Is Not Easy
I have to say that Scarface is too capable.

Song Qingshu added one piece, but gave him less than 500 taels of silver, then some sweet potatoes, potatoes and other high-yield crop seeds from South America, plus Mr. Tang Ruowang, a half-talented missionary, and six more. A dozen or so beggar tenants who were not too obedient, ended up buying an entire village for him within two months.

"These are all the maids in the house. She is the servant girl, her name is Xiaomo. It is said that her father is a teacher. But in the end, she couldn't survive the famine and died of starvation. I took her in. What's the matter?" Just tell her."

Following Song Qingshu out the door, seeing him stunned, Scarface couldn't help but introduce him triumphantly.

The girl he was pointing at was indeed juicy. She was wearing a white field dress with flowers that women of this era often wear. After listening to Scarface's introduction, Xiaomo's white oval face suddenly showed nervousness. Like a recruiting examiner, he hastily and solemnly bowed to Song Qingshu again.

"I have seen the master."

"Okay, get up!"

He waved his hand to let the maids who were close to him get up first, and then Song Qingshu turned his head and stared at Scarface with weird eyes.

Don't look at Scarface, he's ugly, he usually has a cold appearance, and his feelings are also a so-called guy who is indifferent on the outside and sullen on the inside. If he doesn't work hard and find a woman, it's enough to put his mind to it. The ten maids are really all selected Qiao, I don't know how many of these good cabbages have been beaten by this product?
Song Qingshu's eyes were strange and wretched, and Scarface was uncomfortable. He glared at him, the unscrupulous boss, and quickly changed the subject, pointing to the villagers who were still shrunk behind and introduced: "These They are all your tenants, and the whole village was bought by Lao Tzu. Eight of the beggars who brought them died, and twelve ran away. Including the newly recruited tenants, there are more than 100 households in total, more than 400 men, women and children. people!"

Song Qingshu stuck out his tongue after listening to this number. This number of employees is in later generations, and he is definitely counted as a tens of millions of entrepreneurs. Moreover, if the entire mountain village is demolished and occupied, he will post it. Unfortunately, it is still tomorrow. At the end of the year, the land in China had not yet reached the era when every inch of land was very expensive.

I came here in the middle of the night last night. There is no such light pollution as in the later generations these days. When it gets dark, you can’t see your fingers. Followed the scarred face and turned the lantern into the yard. Song Qingshu didn’t see what his yard looked like. , I just opened my eyes today.

The large courtyard with three entrances is probably left by the previous landlord. I don’t know how many generations it has been in operation. Seeing the entire village, the momentum is definitely majestic enough. Although the things inside are probably moved by the seller, it is a bit rudimentary, but the architectural layout is absolutely admirable.

Song Qingshu thought that he was lazy enough to sleep until noon, but he didn't expect Zhang Xianzhong and the others to be still snoring, so he beat the villagers who came to see the master, and went to the wing where they were staying to listen to the snoring, Song Qingshu Simply ignore them and follow Scarface to inspect his own land first.

The landlord’s courtyard is not only the tallest, but a small river flows out of the mountain, passes through Song Qingshu’s courtyard wall, and finally flows eastward along the ravine. The houses of the residents in the village are basically built on both sides of this small river. Stretching to the foot of the mountain, it looks like a scorpion, and on both sides and beyond, there are continuous mountain fields.

The impact of the catastrophe at the end of the Ming Dynasty is also fully revealed here. Looking at the traces, this small river used to have a large amount of water, but now it is as dry as a small stream. At noon, under the scorching sun, there are more than 100 farmers wearing bamboo hats. Working in dry fields, in Song Qingshu's memory, the corn fields, sweet potatoes and potato fields of later generations, where fertilizers were applied to the fields, were basically neglected for a few months. When harvesting, just use a shovel to dig the head, but now These days people are frightened of hunger, and these kinds of high-yield plants are intensively cultivated, and the heart is tight, not even a single weed is allowed in the ground.

On the hillside, a dozen or so shepherd boys watched the eight old cows and dozens of sheep grazing leisurely in the woods. Scarface's vision for selecting animals was much better than Song Qingshu's. Those cows were all high-quality farming cattle .

In this era, there is no leisure at all, and we must go all out to struggle for survival. In the village, even more than [-] gray-haired old men and women are busy weaving, sewing, or digging wild vegetables on the mountain. , drying in the sun, but the busiest ones are on the edge of the village.

It is really a huge project. More than 90 male and female farmers are casting a long wall around the whole village. The wall has been half completed. The half outline from the west surrounds the residential area in the middle, and it looks more than one meter high. On the dirt wall, four big men were sweating and carrying a millstone to ram the wall, and the villagers who came and went were also sweating profusely digging mud to fill the wall.

Looking at that thing, Song Qingshu was at a loss, just about to ask, when a thick man in a short jacket by the wall saw Scarface approaching, he ran over in a hurry and bowed respectfully Say hello.

"Mr. Qian!"

Scarface, who was addressed by this address, had an extremely complicated expression on his face, and then he shook his head helplessly and cursed: "You scum, how many times have I told you! Now there is no such thing as Mr. Xia or Scar Master can do it, and, don’t you have eyes? Why don’t you hurry up and say hello to Master!”

"Master?" The burly man was obviously stunned, but looked at Song Qingshu with some disdain, and very reluctantly clasped his fists and bowed, and reluctantly shouted: "I have seen the master!"

"This kid's name is Li Tiezhu. He was... used to be my subordinate, a deserter from Sarhu. He fled back to his hometown and didn't dare to return to the army. He became a local thief in Jia County. I thought he was too disappointing, so I sent him Call them, and there are a few others in the village who are similar to him, now is the time to employ people, I also called them all, except for the one who followed the bright film this time, there are a total of 20 people in the village guard team."

Scarface stumbled when I introduced this person. Although there are thieves everywhere in Shaanxi now, and the wave of peasant uprisings is in full swing, it is not good to have the name of a thief after all. It's still a brainstorm and the beans generally say it out.

"Very good, Zhuzi, get up!" Listening to nodding, seeing Li Tiezhu's unconvinced face, Song Qingshu had already made a plan in his heart, and when he went back, he would punish Erlenzi, who was still reliable. The family team was sent over to change this product, and the security captain messed with him, the president, so what should I do?
Seeing that Song Qingshu didn't say much, Scarface simply asked Zhao Tiezhu directly: "I've been away for a few days, Zhuangzi is still peaceful, right?"

"It's not fair!" As soon as this was mentioned, Zhao Tiezhu's naive face suddenly revealed a look of anger, shaking his head like a rattle.

"Just the night before yesterday, a few local thieves came to rob, and I asked my brothers to drive them out. The gang of bastards from Funiu Village on the mountain also sent people. The tone was quite loud, and they asked us to hand over a thousand catties of wheat. If you are not here, the younger ones dare not kill them directly, and they will be dragged on first, the wall casting is still too slow, and at this speed, it is estimated that it will not be finished before the autumn harvest."

Listening to the two singing together, Song Qingshu was confused and couldn't help asking in astonishment: "Why, there are still robbers in the place?"

"There are more than just robbers?" Hearing Song Qingshu's question, Scarface couldn't help but sighed, but he didn't explain, but told Zhao Tiezhu again: "Keep watching carefully!" He led Song Qingshu to continue patrolling outside Zhuangzi coming.

There are lots of fields outside Zhuangzi, which is indeed a high-yield crop. The potato seedlings are growing green now, and they are extraordinarily lush under intensive cultivation. Those who could harvest something, those who worked on both sides of the road, and the old farmers who didn't know each other all bowed and saluted when they saw Scar's face and called "Master Scar".

Although I corresponded with Song Qingshu a while ago, but Scarface had limited ink in his stomach, so he told Mai Zhuangzi that he was successful, but he didn't say how. Now that he caught the opportunity, he agreed and reported the account to Song Qingshu.

"Including the sale, the total is 420 taels of silver. It cost 100 taels to buy the cattle, and the land plus the house. A total of more than 70 mu was contracted, and a total of 240 taels was spent..."

"so cheap?"

Song Qingshu couldn't help but screamed. His shop cost more than 100 taels even for the package and decoration. The ancients said that the rich often said that there are thousands of hectares of fertile land. In fact, the whole country only has 1000 million acres of land. Twenty hectares is already considered quite rich, and one plot of land is one hundred mu. Even if the price of cabbage, the first batch of Song Qingshu gave Scarface five or six hundred taels of silver, he would be satisfied if he could buy more than 600 mu of land. It took less than half of the land, but the land was more than four times as much as expected, and there was a house with it. No wonder Song Qingshu screamed out.

But the scarred face frowned when he heard this, and turned around helplessly and waved at a small village: "You don't know what it was like when I first came here! Originally, the village with more than 200 households and more than 800 people fled from famine. There are less than 100 left, and the land is barren. The whole village is a clan, and the clan that dragged down these poor relatives is also ruined. In this severe drought, one mu of land yields less than 100 catties of wheat, and the government collects taxes. More than [-] catties had to be collected, and the rest was not even enough for rent, and the people in the shortage starved to death."

"Most of the 200 taels of silver are for buying a big house on the mountain. If you can get rid of this hot potato, the landlord of Xingzhao will give it away for nothing. If you don't dare to buy too much, the barren village next to it can buy it for you. come down."

Heaving a sigh of relief, Scarface spread his hands to Song Qingshu with a sad face again: "Now that this hot potato is in our hands, I hope you believe that the foreign monk's words are true, and these things will really produce a good harvest in the autumn harvest, otherwise the government will come down and urge you to die. Not to mention that the 1000 taels of silver are all in vain, we have to fall into it!"

Although he was quite confident in sweet potatoes and potatoes, but Scarface spoke heavily, and Song Qingshu felt guilty when he heard it, looking back at the long wall that was still being built, he couldn't help asking: "Why do you want to build a wall? Are there many robbers around here?"

"A lot?"

Hearing this, Scarface couldn't help a sneer.

"There are a total of 26 villages in Shangnan, now including us, there are only four left. More than half of them died of starvation, and the rest were all fleeing famine and becoming thieves. The village, the head of the village, has more than 200 minions, more than a thousand people, and Longhu Village at the back of our village. I heard that the nephew of the village chief, Mrs. Li, is the county magistrate, and it is black and white. , both sides sent people here, let us call him rent and tribute, I have been delaying, as for the local thieves, I have come here, I have killed 30 No. [-]! You say too much!"

Scarface's explanation made Song Qingshu's scalp tingle when he heard it. Looking at the nearby swaying forest, it seemed that there were robbers' greedy eyes everywhere, which really made people panic.

In the past, it was said that the feudal landlords lived so degenerate, that the maidservant's legs were hanging down, and they didn't eat the dumplings when they ate dumplings. Now it seems that the life of the landlords is not easy these days!

(End of this chapter)