In the fields, many farmers came over, and they greeted Zhang Chao and his son with a flattering voice. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info they invited Zhang Chao and his wife to their village for lunch, saying that they had already made the woman have made a meal.

The leader is the village of Zhaozhuang, and Zhaozhuang is also the family of Qi Niang's deceased husband. Qi Niang's husband had a little embarrassment on his face, and a little pitiful helplessness, and that kind of worry made people feel pitiful.

On behalf of the villagers of Zhaojiazhuang, the old man recounted his request to his father.

Many of the lands in Zhaozhuang are official fields, and they have been tenants in Guantian Zhuangzi since the Sui Dynasty. When Li Tang founded the country, the villagers of Guanzhong only had a small amount of land, and the average person had less than 20 acres of land, or 10 acres of Yongye field and 10 acres of land.

It sounds like a lot, but in these years, Juntian only gave fields to Ding Nan, and only Ding Nan who was over 21 years old could be assigned fields, and Kuanxiang would also grant fields to middle men. In those years, there was no family planning, and I began to marry a wife in my teens, and then have children, and I may still be giving birth to children in my forties and fifties.

Although medical care and nutrition are not good in these years, many children will die early and will not grow up. But a family of six or seven, or even eight or nine, is still the norm. Five or six children are common, and even the difference between the eldest son and the youngest son is thirty or forty years old, the grandson is older than the younger son, and even the great-grandchildren of some families are not much younger than the younger son.

In a large family, there are six or seven or even more than ten people, but there are often only three or four people in the adult family, but the women cannot divide the land evenly as they did in the Northern Dynasties.

In this year, the output of the land was also insufficient, and it was a war era, and if there was a drought or locust plague, the harvest might be poor. Zhaojiazhuang has insufficient land for people, so it can only cultivate official land and tenant land of the landlord's family. Hard work is hard work, but it is also to support the family.

Now that Zhaozhuang's official land has become Zhang's father's field, the original tenant farmers of these fields are naturally worried about whether this land can continue to be tenants in the future.

If you can't continue to work as a tenant, then your life will not be sustainable.

After listening to this, Father Zhang nodded and said, "Don't worry, whoever rented the original land, then continue to rent it." ”

These words made the Zhao family Zhuang all breathe a sigh of relief, and they all thanked Dade to their father.

Qi Niang's husband even said, "Zhang Yuanwai, we all agree on the matter between you and Qi Niang, and you tell Qi Niang when you go back, we don't dare to leave her ten acres of dowry field, and let her take it to Zhang's house then." ”

Old man Zhao also has several sons, Qi Niang's husband is his eldest son who died in battle, and he still has several sons under his knees. When he knew that his daughter-in-law Ke Shi and Zhang Tiegun had rumors, the old man still wanted to call his brother and son together to teach this one-eyed thief a good lesson.

Later, Qi Niang's maiden brothers let go of hard words, and Qi Niang said that she was willing to leave the ten acres of land for the marriage to the Zhao family, and was willing to take the two daughters with her, so the Zhao family did not continue to make trouble, but they did not immediately agree to Qi Niang's remarriage.

Originally, he planned to wait for Zhang Tiegun to come back from the war and interview him in person. Unexpectedly, as soon as Zhang Tiegun came back, he immediately became an official, and he was still so close to many nobles in Chang'an.

Now that his family has become a tenant of Zhang Tiegun, he has to live on Zhang's fields, and Old Man Zhao has also figured it out. Ten acres of land is precious, but they can't afford to offend Zhang Tiegun.

Zhang Chao watched from the side, and he understood the thoughts of these men in Zhaojiazhuang very well. Especially this Qi Niang's husband, he must be unhappy in his heart, but he doesn't dare to offend the Zhang family.

He stepped forward with a smile, "Old man Zhao, I don't know how you used to farm the fields here, and how much percent of the rent will be harvested?" ”

"The rent per mu is sixty percent, and the rent of official cattle is increased by one percent." The old man sighed and said, they originally rented official land, and the rent they paid was rent in kind, that is, they paid what they planted in the field, and there was no fixed amount, but directly according to the proportion of the actual harvest. The commission is very high, the rent per mu is 50%, and the rent of cattle is increased by 1%.

This meant that they worked for one year, and all the output of the fields had to be handed over to the government for seven years.

And they themselves have to bear the rent, the rent is no matter how much land you plant, anyway, if you have a few dings in your family, you have to pay a few dings of rent.

Every year he rented two stones, two zhang of silk, and three taels of cotton, and he had to serve 20 days of free labor.

If one person can average 100 acres of land, this rent is not high, but in fact, it is rare to be able to share so much land, especially in the Guanzhong area, which is more and more so. The Zhao family is only divided into 20 acres of land, and the old man Zhao's family has more than 10 people, but there are only four adults, and the whole family's field is only 80 acres.

This service is only the service time, the time spent on the road and the entangled grain, etc., are not counted.

This burden is already very heavy, relying on the Zhao family's eighty acres of land, and they have to grow mulberry hemp and grain, there is not much harvest, and there is not much left after paying the rent.

If you rent the land on the official, you have to pay a rent, which is still a high rent of three or seven cents.

There are more than ten members of the Zhao family, regardless of men, women and children, who have to work in the fields, but it is difficult to even have food and clothing all year round.

The land rent is 60%, and the cattle rent is 10%.

Zhang Chao shook his head when he heard this, this rent is really ruthless. The court also said that the rent per mu is not more than six buckets, and seventy percent of the rent can be levied, but it is more than six buckets.

Just renting a cow, you have to pay 10% of the rent, which is too high.

Zhang Chao felt that this kind of exploitation was too heavy, it used to be an official field, of course the people had no choice, and they couldn't scold the court if they were resentful. But in the future, this land will be the Zhang family, if the rent is still so high, the Zhang family's local popularity will definitely not be good.

Zhang Chao said to his father, "I think this rent is a bit high, and we can't collect it like this in the future if we rent out our own land." ”

"How much do you say?"

"Dad, I think it's better to directly set a fixed rent, and then sign a contract with the villagers. No matter how much they harvest, we only collect rent according to the contract. Usually, we don't interfere with their farming, so it is convenient for the villagers to farm by themselves. ”

The father nodded, he was now more and more convinced of his son's words.

It turned out that the 30 acres of land of the Zhang family were entrusted to the Ke family to plant, and only 20% of the grain was harvested in a year. This is very low and rare, but it is not a normal rent, it can only be regarded as asking someone to help.

In the future, the Zhang family's hundreds of acres of land will definitely not be able to harvest only two percent, and if they really harvest two percent, it will not become a destruction of the market.

"Let's set a rent of five buckets of millet per mu every year."

The harvest of five buckets of millet per mu is considered low, and when converted, it is not even 50% of the rent in kind. Bashang is also in the Guanzhong Plain area, and the average harvest per mu is more than one stone, but it can be harvested three times in two years, and it is not all planted with millet and wheat and other grains with slightly higher prices. After conversion, Zhang Chao is equivalent to dividing the original landlord tenant into seventy-three shares, and turning it into a landlord tenant three-seven share.

Now Zhang Chao plans to sign a contract with the tenant farmers, no matter what they plant, no matter how many they have a year, they will all harvest five buckets of millet per mu.

"Wudou millet also lent them cattle to plough the land."

This is a big benefit, the tenants rent official cattle on the land, and they have to add one or two percent of the rent per mu, and Zhang Chao plans to buy some cattle by himself in the future, and usually let the tenants take turns to graze them, and when they need to farm, they will take turns to use them. They don't need to pay a penny for the cattle, and they don't need to rent the cattle for farming.

Of course, this will make Zhang Chao invest more in the early stage, but Zhang Chao has calculated it, but he is not losing money. After all, cattle are well raised, raising cows, then an average cow can give birth to a calf, if the calf is raised for a year, then it is a calf, you can start to tame the field, sell it, it can be worth a lot of money, especially now when there is a shortage of cattle.

Zhang Chao invested some money to buy cattle in the early stage, and then he didn't have to raise it himself, and the money for this calf every year was also a big return. Zhang Chao can make money by raising cattle, and he can also earn a good reputation praised by everyone. Tenants don't have to spend money on renting cattle, they just need to spend some time feeding the cattle, which is very cost-effective.

Of course, if there are disasters such as drought, labor, frost, etc., they also follow the system of the imperial court. The imperial court has a law, if there is a disaster and the harvest is damaged, then according to the serious damage of the disaster, the rent will be reduced, and the specific reduction amount has detailed regulations. Therefore, Zhang Chao also used it, in case of a disaster, a few percent of the damage at that time, and the rent was reduced proportionally.

Zhang Chao doesn't plan to be a black landlord with no conscience.

The rent per mu is five buckets of millet, and the Zhang family has more than 500 acres of land, and more than 200 stone grains can be collected a year.

Anyway, the rent collected by the Zhang family is pure income, and there is no need to pay taxes to the imperial court.

"Dad, you can announce it to the folks now." Zhang Chao didn't go out of the limelight himself, but asked his father to announce it, after all, his father is the head of the Zhang family.

Sure enough, after Daddy Zhang announced the new rent to the men in Zhaozhuang, the old and young masters in Zhaozhuang all exclaimed.

The people of Zhaojiazhuang couldn't believe it.

They have seen this change of dynasty, but no matter what dynasty is changed, this rent is also very heavy. Now the new owner of the Zhang family is going to take the initiative to reduce the rent, and even rent cattle to them for free, is this a joke?

"If you don't believe it, I'll ask the county's tolerance and Li Zheng to draw up a contract together to be a guarantor's witness, let's write what I just said on the paper one by one, we have no evidence, but the words can't be changed, right?"

"Ouch, Zhang Yuanwai is really a good person."

"Yes, Master Zhang is a good person."

Other people's families rent in kind, not only with a high commission, but also have to listen to the local supervisor of what to plant and how to plant, but the Zhang family ignores these things, only charges five buckets of corn for a year's rent, and also includes free cattle borrowing. What's more, after the white and black paper is signed, then they don't have to worry about the Zhang family collecting other rents in the future.

In recent years, in addition to regular rent, the landlords have all coincidentally levied all kinds of additional rents in the name of money, such as rice consumption, flour and tenant chickens, wheat rent, etc.

Now the Zhang family is bright and atmospheric!

In these years, it is much more difficult to meet such a good landlord than to find a virtuous daughter-in-law.

Old Man Zhao's beard trembled, and he knelt down excitedly.

The old and young masters of Zhaojiazhuang of Wuyang Yang all knelt.