I

Before Chongzhen ascended the throne, the north was already rotten.

In the seventh year of the Apocalypse, Wu Yingji once recorded what he saw and heard. The general content is as follows——

Out of Zhenyang County, Henan Province, I walked for forty miles in a row, and all the fields along the way were abandoned, and the fields were full of weeds.

Wu Yingji asked the coachman, "How much land in this county is abandoned like this?"

The coachman replied, "It's likely to be nine out of ten. Xixian County is much better, and only [-] to [-]% of the land is abandoned."

When he came to the station, Wu Yingji asked the postman again: "Why don't the people in this county farm the land?"

The postman replied: "There are many horse households in this county, and the horse administration is strict. Those who serve can't afford it, so they can only flee to other places. The people are gone, but the taxes and labor are still there. The government implements the law of continuous sitting. One household sits ten households in a row, and neighbors sit in a row. It’s over, and even sit with relatives. The rich pay for the service, and the poor can only run away, and the whole county has almost escaped.”

Wu Yingji felt very strange: "Why didn't you sell the land before you ran away?"

The postman replied: "The corvée of the horse government will be transferred to the landlord. No one dares to buy the acres in this county, so they can only be abandoned."

Then he talked about other tyranny, and then talked about local officials.From magistrates to magistrates, many of them were not Jinshi, and most of them came to buy officials for tribute, and they were exploited immediately after taking office, otherwise it would be difficult to recover the cost of buying officials.

In a large and wealthy county, more than [-]% of the land has been abandoned!

Not only the tenants could not survive, but the owner farmers and small landowners had to flee.And those big landlords did not dare to occupy the land, and the grain harvest was not enough to bear the horse government corvee.

Therefore, when the northwestern rogues entered Henan, many Henan people spontaneously revolted.

Not coerced, but a spontaneous uprising!

The same is true for Shanxi.

After the Shaanxi rogues entered Shanxi, in just half a year, the number of local rebels in Shanxi far exceeded that of Shaanxi.

How could Li Banghua not know about this situation?

Many officials in the imperial court know it!

Li Banghua took out a letter, handed it to Zhao Han and said, "Send someone to Jishuigu Village and give the letter to my father."

Zhao Han said happily: "It must be done!"

"Tell me, let me do something." Li Banghua said straight to the point.

"It happens to be a tricky matter," Zhao Han explained the shortage of food, and he cupped his hands and said, "I will ask you to borrow food from rich households, sir. They don't trust me for the time being, so it should be no problem for me to get involved."

Li Banghua said with a smile: "Smart people will believe it. If you don't want to return the food, why do you borrow it? Just grab it."

In addition to borrowing grain from the landlord, Zhao Han also wanted to borrow grain from the government.

In Taihe and Anfu counties, there are bandits and refugees, and officials and gentry are walking on eggshells.

Then let them raise money and food, and Zhao Han is responsible for taking the refugees away——Zhao Han got food and people, the refugees can live and work in peace, and the government and gentry no longer have to worry about it.

Not a win-win, but a win-win, what a deal!

Chapter 122 [Borrowing Grain]

Li Banghua's influence is astonishing among the local scholars.

Once he stated his position, many scholars and children who were unwilling to follow the thief also stood up to follow him.

Anyway, Li Banghua is famous, and he is the one who will stand up for the sky falling!

In a few days, the grain team was formed, mainly consisting of Li Banghua and local scholars.Of course, Fei Chun also participated in the whole process, mainly following the study, and at the same time responsible for supervising the accounts.

Entrusting such an important matter to a group of local scholars is really a helpless move due to the shortage of talents.

When Zhao Han cultivates his own people, he can start killing at that time.The exact number of kills depends entirely on Li Banghua's restraint, and how many people will act recklessly after eating the bear's heart and leopard.

"Oh, Mr. Meng An's presence really makes the humble house luxuriant." Xiao Wanquan greeted him with a big smile.

Li Banghua clasped his fists and said: "My friend Xiao is too famous, I'm just an old man."

"Where, where, Mr. Meng An, please come in." Xiao Wanquan said with a smile.

Compared with the past, Xiao Wanquan's family is very deserted, only a few maids and women are left.Not to mention all the changes to the employment contracts, the wages have to be raised, because the previous wages were too low.

The two exchanged a few pleasantries, and Li Banghua explained his intentions.

Xiao Wanquan said: "Dare to ask, what is the annual profit of storing grain in this grain store?"

"One profit." Li Banghua said.

"It's only one cent?" Xiao Wanquan was rather disappointed. He used to lend grain to tenants, but it was all at a profit.

Li Banghua said: "It is not bad to have interest. The grain bank stores grain for you, and the storage fee is not charged for various losses."

"That is, that is," Xiao Wanquan asked again, "If the grain bank lends grain to tenants, how much interest will it be?"

Li Banghua smiled and said, "One cent and two cents."

Xiao Wanquan was extremely surprised, and said, "Does the grain business have to lose money?"

Li Banghua said: "Zhao Zongzhen opened the food store not to make money, but to leave a way for the small people in Shengdou to survive."

"Mr. Zhao is benevolent, that is..." Xiao Wan looked hesitant.

Li Banghua got up and cupped his hands: "Since friend Xiao is in trouble, then I will not bother you. Farewell!"

Xiao Wanquan stood up abruptly, and quickly said, "No embarrassment, no embarrassment."

"Friend Xiao is indeed a smart person." Li Banghua smiled.

Xiao Wanquan thought too much. He knew that Zhao Han was short of food, so he was afraid of driving Zhao Han into a hurry, so he immediately came to kill and grab food.

No matter how well-behaved an anti-thief is, he is still an anti-thief after all!

The more indifferent Li Banghua behaved, the more frightened Xiao Wanquan became, fearing that he would be lured out of the hole and stabbed at him.

Xiao Wanquan was willing to borrow food because Zhao Han held the knife.

And asking Li Banghua to come forward in person is nothing more than reassuring the landlords that the grain will not be borrowed without repayment, and Comrade Li is still very creditworthy.

Li Banghua visited several villages in a row, and most of them were willing to borrow food.

Then, Lao Li's coquettish operation came...

Since the warehouses of the grain bank are not enough, they will stay at the landlord's house for the time being.

If the people in any town lacked food, the Huke of that town would come forward and contact the grain bank personnel to go to the landlord's house together.As much as you need to borrow, you can take as much as you want from the landlord's house. Starting from the date of borrowing grain, you will issue food stamps to the landlord, and at the same time issue grain loan stamps to the farmers.

The grain store is like a white wolf with empty gloves. There is no warehouse, and only the staff are provided.

However, this middleman is very important.

If the landlord borrowed grain directly, how could the annual interest be only one cent or two per cent?A monthly interest of three cents is a benevolent price, and a monthly interest of five cents or seven cents is possible!

Why did all villages and towns in the late Ming Dynasty have money and food shops?

One is to lend usury.

The second is to exchange silver for farmers. One whip method only accepts silver, and huge profits can be made from it.

Of course, the one-whip law was not strictly enforced, and miscellaneous taxes in many places were still collecting grain directly from farmers.This is also one of the important means for officials to make profits.

Landlords hated Li Banghua for doing such a thing, and they don't even think about lending usury in the future.

"Brother, this Mr. Li is really amazing," Fei Chun said cheerfully, "I still have a headache, where can I find a warehouse to store grain. Hey, Mr. Li will directly store the grain at the landlord's house as soon as he goes out. It doesn't need so much in the first place." manpower, secondly, there is no loss of grain storage, and thirdly, it saves a lot of interest on grain storage.”

Li Banghua rectified the new army in Tianjin, and then the troops in the Beijing camp. Although he offended countless dignitaries, he managed all the troops to be submissive.

What are a few country landlords?

It's like killing a chicken with a bull's knife.

"Mr. Li does have means," Zhao Han praised, and immediately added, "but this is only a stopgap measure. When we have free hands in the future, we still have to build our own granary and money bank. No money or food."

Fei Chun said with emotion: "It would be nice to have an expedient plan. A few days ago, I was almost worried to death!"

Zhao Han took out a few letters and said, "It's the time when I am employing people. I didn't want you to go, but I don't feel relieved to send someone else to do things. This letter is given to the family of Mr. Jishui Li, and you bring back the other letters." On the Qianshan Mountain, help me and Ruhe go back and visit."

"That's great." Fei Chun also missed his parents a little.

Fei Chun took a few entourages and headed straight for Jishui by boat.

Fei Ruhe and Huang Yao also led their troops and set off by boat, going south and north to find the government to borrow food.

In order to facilitate dealing with the county magistrate, Zuo Xiaoliang followed to Taihe County, and Xiao Huan followed to Anfu County.

……

The magistrate of Taihe County is called Liu Taiyuan, and he was a third-ranked Jinshi in the fourth year of Chongzhen.

This official was not bought, but was officially appointed by the court, so there was no need to rush to repay the loan to buy an official.

Generally speaking, Liu Taiyuan's official reputation is not bad, he only embezzled a few incidentally, and did not exploit the people under his control like crazy.

Unexpectedly, there were rebels in Luling County, and the governor even went to clean them up, forcing the rebels south of Heshui into bandits, who rushed into Taihe County to plunder.

These guys killed the landlords, occupied the mansions of the landlords, robbed the money and food, and did not leave. It seems that they have a tendency to become bandits.

"The county lords, gentry and villagers, jointly request the recruitment of village braves to suppress bandits." County magistrate Zhang Huainan said.

As a novice magistrate, Liu Taiyuan didn't even invite his master.He complained endlessly: "The governor Xie suppressed the thieves, and he was defeated and killed. How can I suppress the thieves? Let's wait until the new governor arrives."

Zhang Huainan reminded: "The county lord, as long as there is money and food, the rebels can be suppressed."

Liu Taiyuan was startled and asked: "Could it be that brother Zhang is a man who knows how to fight?"

Zhang Huainan felt very tired. The novice magistrate was not experienced enough, so he had to explain things clearly: "Master, the money and food can be collected first, and the courage of the village can also be practiced first. As for suppressing bandits, you can wait for the opportunity. In case the new governor, He is also capable of suppressing thieves, the county lord has made preparations early, and he can be appreciated by the governor."

Liu Taiyuan was stunned, and suddenly realized: "So that's the case, thank you Brother Zhang for reminding me!"

After studying hard for ten years, once he became a county magistrate, and then encountered rebels and made troubles for the first time, he really needed to accumulate experience.

Money making experience!

"County Honor, it's not good, the rebels are here!" The old official ran to report in a panic.

Liu Taiyuan was so frightened that he trembled all over, he hurriedly asked: "Have the rebels left the city?"

The old official replied: "The one who came by boat was still soaking in the Ganjiang River, and sent a thief officer to call the city."

Liu Taiyuan hurried to the tower, and sure enough there was only one scholar outside the city, and there was only one rebel boat on the river.

"Hang him up!" Liu Taiyuan ordered.

Zuo Xiaoliang ascended the city in a basket, cupped his hands and said, "Late-born Zuo Xiaoliang, pay homage to the magistrate."

Liu Taiyuan cupped his hands and said, "Your Excellency is also a scholar?"

There are not many members in Zuo Xiaoliang's family, so he simply used his real name as a thief. He said, "I'm ashamed, Wansheng is just a scholar."

Liu Taiyuan grieved and said: "Since you are a scholar, why do you want to be a thief?"

Zuo Xiaoliang said, "I can't get enough to eat."

"Uh..." Liu Taiyuan didn't know what to say, the reason for being a thief was too nonsense, and at the same time it was too righteous.

Zhang Huainan, the county seat, suddenly asked, "Since you are a traitor, who is the leader of the traitor? And why have you been sent to Taihe County?"

"My lord Zhao Yan." Zuo Xiaoliang said.

"Zhao thief?"

The county magistrates were shocked.

That was the giant bandit who captured Fucheng, killed dozens of officials, and defeated the governor to death!

Liu Taiyuan felt his throat dry, swallowed his saliva and asked, "Zhao thief... What did Zhao Yan send you here for?"

Zuo Xiaoliang clasped his hands and said, "My lord heard that there are refugees in Taihe County. It's freezing in the cold today. I can't bear them to die of freezing and starving, so I want to take these refugees away and resettle them."

Liu Taiyuan and Zhang Huainan looked at each other, but they couldn't understand the situation.

And such a sensible rebel?

Liu Taiyuan couldn't help asking: "Is this really true?"

"Really," Zuo Xiaoliang said, "It's just that my lord is short of food. In order to appease the refugees, I ask the county lord to borrow 20 shi."

"How can I lend you 20 shi?" Liu Taiyuan looked like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

Zuo Xiaoliang smiled and said: "For business, ask the sky for the price, and pay back the money when you land."

Not only Liu Taiyuan was furious, but even Zhang Huainan felt it was unbelievable.

Zhang Huainan was born as a scholar, and he had been a teacher for many years, relying on his benefactor's relationship to buy an official at a discount, and finally got a post as a county magistrate.He traveled all over the world and was well-informed, and it was the first time he encountered such a rare thing. The rebels were short of food and came to the county magistrate to borrow, and they could bargain for how much they borrowed.