Hearing Yang Feng's question, Zhu Youxiao put down his chopsticks, picked up a yellow handkerchief and wiped his mouth.

His movements were slow, as if he was trying to figure out how to organize the language, and after a while he said, "Shaanxi and the mountains have always been barren, and there is little grain production. In the past, there was a tradition of escaping the famine during disaster years, but because of this, the price of land there has always been relatively cheap.

However, the situation has changed since Aiqing brought potatoes, sweet potatoes and other high-yielding seeds from overseas, and with the large-scale promotion of potatoes, sweet potatoes and other crops, the gentry there began to intensify the annexation of land, and the imperial court received less and less taxes from Shanxi and Shaanxi in the past two years.

When I realized this, I realized that it was already too much to return, and I couldn't let those people spit out the land they had already gotten out of their hands, right? ”

Yang Feng asked puzzledly: "Even if the land annexation is serious, but no matter what, those landlords always have to hire people to work and farm the land, in this case, those people always have a stutter, how can they get to the point of smoke everywhere?" ”

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao said hatefully: "Yang Aiqing, do you know how much the rent in Shaanxi is?" After a year of exhaustion, those tenant farmers need to hand over seventy percent of the rent to the landlords and gentry, and they can only keep thirty percent, and some ruthless people even want to open twenty or eight, you say, how can those tenants not rebel? ”

"Sanqi? Twenty-eight? Are they crazy? ”

Rao is Yang Feng used to seeing the world, and he can't help but be stunned by these words?

How much rent did the ancient landlords collect?

In the Ming Dynasty, both the south and the landlord collected about fifty-fifty percent of the rent, of course, according to the actual situation, the land was divided into upper, middle, and lower three.

Generally speaking, the average yield per mu is about two stones, and in the peaceful years, the price of one stone of grain is six cents of silver, assuming that a tenant has five people and three laborers to calculate, renting fifteen acres of land, and calculating with five or five cents, this tenant can harvest fifteen stones of grain every year, that is, 1,800 catties of grain.

This is just enough food for a family of five, but keep in mind that this is only in times of peace, and in the event of a natural or man-made disaster, those tenants with almost zero ability to resist risks will soon become victims or even starve to death.

The rent of five or five points is the general market, and four or six points is already a relatively black-hearted landlord, but now Yang Feng actually heard that someone actually asked for three or seven points or even two or eight points, which is simply something that has never happened since the founding of the Ming Dynasty!

Yang Feng, who was shocked, shook his head again and again: "Isn't this nonsense, how dare they, how can they be so stupid?" ”

"What's not to dare?"

Zhu Youxiao said with an angry face: "Taking Shaanxi as an example, before the introduction of high-yield potatoes and sweet potatoes to the northwest, the main crops in Shaanxi were wheat, barley, peas and lentils, and the yield per mu was only about one stone.

At that time, most of the rents were fifty-fifty cents, and the gentry and landlords were not stupid, and if they gave too little, the tenants would all starve to death and there would be no one to work for them. But since potatoes, sweet potatoes and other high-yield crops were introduced to Shaanxi a few years ago, the yield per mu has surged to six or seven stones or even eight or nine stones. Soon some people tried to raise the rent to 60%, and then to 70% or even 80%, which soon provoked a popular uprising, which became bigger and bigger under the impetus of well-intentioned people, and became more and more difficult to control, and finally caused a catastrophe. ”

"Chen understands, it turns out that this war disaster is still related to Weichen!"

Yang Feng let out a long sigh, speaking of which, this change of exile really has something to do with him.

People's hearts are greedy, and in the past, when the yield per mu was low, the landlords could naturally accept a rent of 55 cents, but after having high-yield grain seeds, it was different.

It is still an example of a family of five with three laborers renting fifteen acres of land.

Originally, only more than 100 catties of land could be produced per mu, but now it has reached thousands or even more than 1,000 catties, so if it is still 55 cents of rent, then the tenants can earn 78,000 or even 10,000 catties of grain every year.

What does this mean?

Once the peasants have endless food, the first thing they do is to sell the grain in exchange for other living materials.

Then the tenants who have money will seek to buy other goods, such as houses and land, so that these tenants will naturally follow the landlord. The gentry formed a competitive relationship.

There is another thing, that is, in the past, once the tenants encountered a disaster year, they had to borrow grain and money from the landlords to survive, and this also provided the landlords with the opportunity to control the tenants, which is why the printing money was so popular in Shaanxi.

Now who will borrow money from the landlords after the tenants are fed and clothed one by one, which undoubtedly reduces a means for the landlords to exploit the tenants, so that the landlords naturally cannot sit still.

Capital is greedy, and when the landlords found out that their tenants might turn over and become the masters, they immediately thought of a way to extract wages from the bottom of the kettle, that is, to increase rent.

Since those mud legs are too full, then raise the rent to sixty percent, and if sixty percent is still too little, then seventy percent or even eighty percent, so that the mud legs will be honest.

But they forgot that even mud legs have tempers.

It's just that Lao Tzu used to have a hard time, after all, this is how his ancestors have lived for generations. But now that you've finally lived a good life for two days, you actually want to increase the rent, which is absolutely unbearable.

In the era of agricultural civilization, for farmers, raising rent was a bigger thing than marrying a daughter-in-law. If anyone dares to increase the rent, it will be a black-hearted landlord and old wealth, and he will be scolded for a lifetime.

In modern times, the slogan of rent reduction and interest reduction has been supported and approved by countless peasants as soon as it is shouted, because this is a major event related to the livelihood of countless peasants.

Due to the serious land annexation, there were originally many displaced people in Shaanxi, and with this kind of thing, riots naturally occurred.

After thinking about this truth, Yang Feng was extremely speechless, he spent a lot of money every year to get the high-yield seeds of modern society to this time and space, originally wanted to help Daming in this time and space through this difficult Xiaoice River period, never wanted to avoid natural disasters but could not avoid man-made disasters, Shaanxi's displaced people riot finally happened, and it actually happened in this strange way.

Time passed little by little, and it wasn't until the dishes on the table began to cool that Yang Feng came back to his senses.

Zhu Youxiao asked: "Aiqing, what do you think should be done with this matter?" ”

"What else?" Yang Feng sneered, "Your Majesty, now that the Northwest is in turmoil, it is a good time for the imperial court to intervene. It is time to implement the strategy of one errand and one grain payment in Shaanxi and Shanxi. And this time, we have to re-measure the land, who dares not to cooperate, take it all, Weichen wants to see, is his neck hard or the court's knife hard? ”