Looking at everyone's expectant eyes, Du Zhongxiao said: "Actually, I said a few days ago that you people who have many fields and many places, without Zhuangke, you will not be able to support your skills. How can you grow so much land on your own? The court tax had to be paid anyway, and there was only one way, and that was to sell the land in his hand. Now Zaoyang County can buy so much land, only the camp is the field service. To make it clear, the camp does not want to buy these lands, there are idle land outside, and there are manpower, how convenient it is to open up, why spend money to buy other land? But for your sake, such a path must be kept. After you sell your land, you can buy a property and start a small business, and you can make more money than before. ”

Ruan Degong said loudly: "Although what the officials say is reasonable, but we, who have been farming for generations, where can we do business?" ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "As long as you have money in your hands, what's so difficult to do business?" It's nothing more than hiring a few reliable supervisors to run for you. There are thousands of households in this place where the camp is located, and it is only 60 miles away from Xiangzhou District. In the future, the population will inevitably be spread out and prosperous. You buy some land here early, or use it as an inn and freight yard, or sell the local products of Zaoyang County, which is a way out. Let me tell you, this winter, the train will go to Xiangzhou. At that time, it was only one day and one night from Xiangzhou to Kaifeng Mansion, and you could make money by shipping anything. ”

Hearing this, Ruan Degong and the rest of the staff laughed: "The officials are laughing, Kaifeng Mansion is thousands of miles away, how can it arrive in one day and one night?" Besides, there is the capital, the most prosperous place in the world, there is everything, what good things can we sell in a poor and remote country? ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "There are too many local products that can be sold in the capital. Citrus, fresh lotus root, water chestnut, and all kinds of aquatic products are lacking there. ”

The crowd shook their heads again and again, not believing it at all. In such a prosperous place in the capital, will there be a shortage of these things?

Du Zhongxiao was helpless, and said to everyone: "I pointed out the road to you, how to go to your own house and think about it." If you have some leisure, you can go to Tangzhou, take a train to Yexian Iron Supervisor, and take a look there. More than a year ago, it was also a deserted place, and now it is so prosperous! What kind of business do they do to make money, and those who have the heart can learn it. However, if someone stops the dealer and causes trouble, the county must punish him severely! ”

Ruan Degong and the rest of the staff called themselves promises, talked in a low voice, and did not believe Du Zhongxiao's words very much. The purpose of their coming today is the rice after autumn, and as for the future, everyone has not thought so far.

In general, no matter how developed the land is, even if the land is sparsely populated, there are two or three percent of customers, and not all of them will become the main households dominated by homesteaders. There are all sorts of reasons, there are always people who lose their means of production and have to sell their labor. Here in Zaoyang, the big households broke their roots all of a sudden, and they couldn't even keep their fields, because the camp worked to dig up their roots and were hit by dimensionality reduction.

The land is vast and sparsely populated, there is no shortage of land, and it is also a place for cattle production, and the means of agricultural production are mainly agricultural tools. Without agricultural tools, the land could not be cultivated at all. And there is a lack of infrastructure, no roads, no ponds, dams and weirs, and it is impossible to grow rice. There are a large number of high-quality new agricultural tools provided by the iron supervisor, and there are excellent seeds provided by the field management, all of which are not a problem.

Ten or twenty years later, there will still be landlords and tenants here. By then, however, productivity had been turned upside down.

Seeing that the outsiders were grateful to Du Zhongxiao, Shi Yuanwai only felt angry and exploded his chest. On weekdays, they call each other brothers, and everyone is as good as a person, but I didn't expect to be sold so easily when I encountered something.

Ruan Degong motioned to a few powerful people, pulled the historian outside, thanked Du Zhongxiao, and left together.

Watching everyone leave, Lou Zhixian said: "Xie Yun has solved the problem for the lower officials. Then he left and dealt with Shi Daqing as soon as possible. After being sent home with a cane, the historian was unwilling to do so, and he could only accept the disposal of the yamen. ”

After speaking, he took his entourage, followed behind the big households, and hurriedly returned to the county office.

Seeing that it didn't take much time for the group of people to leave, Ma Zun smiled bitterly: "I still want these people to buy some tickets, but I didn't expect that they don't even want to do business." Except for these rich country owners, their eyes are really short-sighted. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "For generations, these people have been making money from the fields to eat, and it is common for them to not be able to adapt for a while. After a while, they see the outside world, and they will think differently. However, there was no such good opportunity at that time. Judgment, we'll talk later. ”

When the two arrived at the back office, Du Zhongxiao ordered to put tables and chairs under the big loquat tree, and drink tea with Ma Zun.

After serving tea, Du Zhongxiao said: "Judgment, I thought about it just now, the money for building the railway still has to fall on the shipping department." ”

Ma Zun heard this and hurriedly asked, "How do you say this?" The shipping department has a lot of goods in hand, but not much cash. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Issuing judgments, in addition to money and grain, what are the most forbidden things in the hands of the Shipping Division?" Tea and salt. This area, including Jinghu, is to transport tea to the capital and transport salt back, yes or no? ”

Ma Zun nodded: "Yes, Jinghu Road eats salt." It has always been the tea merchant who transports tea to the north and changes the salt back. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "If you say that you are rich, who else is richer than these tea and salt merchants?" In the past few years, there was a continuous war in the northwest, and businessmen entered the middle school, and they took the opportunity to make an inflated estimate, not knowing how much money they had made. Thousands of miles of trafficking, in the past, it was difficult for the imperial court to control the whereabouts of tea and salt, and there were many omissions in tea. Although the imperial court changed the tea law many times, within a few years, the tea profits were all obtained by the merchants, and the imperial court was not profitable. With the railway, tea and salt merchants had to sell tea from the railway to the northland. The tea law was greatly simplified, and the imperial court spared no benefit. Merchants save themselves the hardships of long journeys and save money on travel. These tea merchants are all under the control of the shipping department, and sell tickets to them, will they not buy them? How much money is needed, and how many years of tickets are sold to them. Salt sellers can do the same. ”

Ma Zun thought for a while and said, "It is feasible to judge this method, but it is difficult to escape the suspicion of suppression." It was a good thing, but it was done badly. ”

Du Zhongxiao smiled: "Don't think like this. Now that the railway is not open, many people do not know its benefits, and it is difficult to sell tickets. When the world sees the benefits, businessmen gather in Xiangzhou, and it is difficult to find a ticket, the tickets that are allocated may be strange goods. ”

The area around Xiangzhou belongs to the scope of Huainan Tea Farm, and the Xinyang Army not far from it is an important production area. In addition, the Dongting Lake area to the south is also an important tea producing area. From here tea was transported to the Northland, and salt was transported back, and these two most important forbidden materials happened to become the bulk of the North-South trade.

Tea merchants, salt merchants, there has always been no shortage of people with a lot of money. However, the officials of the Song Dynasty bought and sold officials, which were not as eye-catching as those in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The purpose of the official sale is not for convenience, but for the court to obtain the benefits of tea and salt, and there is no saying that the wealth is hidden from the people. The tea tax and salt tax are less, which is not allowed by the imperial court. In recent decades, tea laws have changed again and again, precisely because of the reduction of tea taxes.

Although there are official introductions requiring tea merchants to transport tea along fixed routes, and many inspections are set up along the road, it is still difficult to control. It is undoubtedly much more convenient to reduce smuggling if it is transported by rail lines. Rail transportation can indeed greatly reduce freight costs, as long as the pricing is reasonable, merchants are still welcome.

Selling tickets to the public in bulk is difficult to do after all. Most people have not yet seen the benefits of the railway, so it is not easy to get them to voluntarily buy tickets. Then use the simplest method and distribute it to the heads of the tea and salt merchants. It can also be bound to the qualifications of tea and salt merchants, and it doesn't matter if it is sold for ten or eight years. Build the railroad first, and then slowly solve the problems later.

This is naturally suspected of suppressing the ration, but the distribution is suppressed by the shipping department to the tea and salt merchants, rather than to the people, and the impact is too small. The people who were suppressed were all big businessmen, and they did not carve the people, and the court was easy to accept.

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