Chastity Layman

Qin Lang first went to Qinrenfang to pay New Year's greetings to Qin Qiong who came back first, and then went to pay homage to Cui's family, and then picked up Yuxiao and waited to go home. A group of children from the family came to pay New Year's greetings and beg for lucky money. Qin Lang smiled and gave each of them six Kaiyuan gold coins and six silver coins, which symbolized the success of Liuliu Dashun.

Chang'an City is covered with silver, and the lanterns are just lit.

The snow on the street has been swept away, but the thick snow is still visible on both sides of the road.

"With such heavy snowfall, many poor people's houses collapsed." Yu Xiao sighed. Pregnant women are kinder. Qin Lang said, "The Yongzhou government has already sent people to clear the snow on the roadside, and mobilized the people to clear the snow from the roofs. Even if there is a house collapse, the Yongzhou government will provide relief and appease the disaster."

The people in the capital must be better off than other people, and it is the people outside Beijing who are really unlucky when encountering such a heavy snowstorm. Qin Lang thought of those villages in his family, and he didn't know if there were any disasters or houses collapsed. Of course, those breeding farms of the Qin family didn't know if there were any disasters and collapses, and whether the chickens and ducks raised would freeze to death.

It is estimated that there will definitely be. Fortunately, a large number of roosters, ducks, geese, etc. were slaughtered and cured years ago. Now there are not many breeds in the shed.

When he got home, Qin Lang hurriedly summoned the housekeeper.

"Immediately send people to inspect various manors, farms, and workshops, and ask them to count up the situation of each place, whether there are any disasters, the severity of the disaster, etc., we must strengthen our vigilance, and treat those affected in time. In addition, near our Zhuangzi The tenants, as well as the common people, should help as much as they can, and we must not let everyone suffer from cold and starvation!"

"Sanlang, let's take care of others now that we can't take care of ourselves?"

"Don't think it's so simple. In times of disaster, it is necessary for neighbors to help each other. What's more, our neighbors are also our tenants now, and they often come to our farms and workshops to work, so they need to help take care of them."

Those whose houses have collapsed will be placed in Zhuangzi first, and those who lack firewood and charcoal will also be sent there, especially those poor and widowed households.

Qin Lang now attaches great importance to these things. This is not only out of kindness, but it is also beneficial. Not only can he have a good name, but it is also a kind of word of mouth and credit. With these good reputation and credit, Qin Lang Doing other things at home can also bring a lot of convenience.

For example, if the Qin family wants to breed, or if they want to start a project, everyone will actively help.

Even like some shops opened by the Qin family now, the products they produce are deeply trusted by everyone. This is much stronger than simple advertising and marketing.

late at night.

Qin Lang was sitting on the kang, writing about the new tax law. If this is not resolved, the so-called Kuohu will have nothing to talk about, and Datang's finances will not be improved, and his bragging will naturally not be completed.

As long as the rent adjustment is adjusted and the burden on the people is reduced, then there will be a basis for the introduction of salt tax, a monopoly of tea and wine, a mining tax, and a basis for industrial and commercial city taxes.

While writing, Qin Lang couldn't help laughing.

When others became rich and powerful, they all thought about how to take advantage of the famine to lend money, buy people, and occupy land. They all thought about being an exploiter, but he, Qin Lang, turned his back on him.

If this new tax law is implemented, the Qin family, as a large landowner with more than 60,000 mu of land, will have to pay more than 1,000 shi and more than 60,000 cash a year from the exempt households in the past.

And this is just the beginning. In the future, the Qin family's farms will also have to pay taxes, and the Qin family's shops will also have to pay taxes.

In this era, it is unthinkable for these bureaucratic landlords to pay taxes, but Qin Lang thinks this is normal. This is the logic of nominal taxation. The rich don’t pay taxes and only pay taxes to the poor. How long can this last?

He believed that there would definitely be a lot of opposition from the court, but this kind of thing was actually nothing to these powerful bureaucrats. The family has more than 60,000 mu of land, even if one mu and one shi of grain can harvest more than 60,000 shi, even if the share of renting the crops to others is removed, Qin Lang still earns tens of thousands of shi a year. , that is only a few tenths, and the tax rate is still very low.

Expropriating thousands or eight hundred shi of grain from a big landlord who harvests tens of thousands of shi grains a year, compared to a person whose annual income may only be a few tens of shi, but who has to pay ten or twenty shi for rent first, and then leave ten or twenty shi It is completely different from the common people who have been expropriated for the grain, and then expropriated a few stones of grain from him.

The former is irrelevant, but the latter may cause the family to have insufficient rations and have to eat porridge mixed with bran and wild vegetables.

This year Li Shimin was planning to hold a Lantern Festival as well.

But the officials objected, thinking that the current famine has not passed yet, and the imperial court has been borrowing money to spend the years, so it is completely unnecessary to engage in such extravagance and waste now.

So Li Shimin had no choice but to give up this idea in the end.

Qin Lang left Beijing in the second day of junior high school, leaving Yu Xiao and Yu Xuanji at home. He took Ah Huang and left Beijing early in the morning. He first went to Changle Slope, inspected the manor beside the Chan River, and then crossed the Wei Bridge Went to Mihara.

The Qin family's manor was more or less affected by the snowstorm. Some chicken and duck sheds collapsed, crushing many chickens and ducks to death.

Fortunately, no one had any accidents. In the snow, the farmers helped each other, cleared out the unlucky houses, and repaired them again.

The Qin Family Manor also took in some victims.

Everyone scrambled to pay New Year's greetings to Qin Lang.

Qin Lang comforted everyone and asked Zhuangtou to take out the chickens and ducks that were crushed or frozen to death and distribute them to the neighbors.

A heavy snow made the land white, and also covered up some wild vegetables that had just emerged.

The rice pond that Qin Lang dug years ago is now full of water, but the fish fry have not been placed, and the mulberry trees have not been planted yet. It looks a bit barren, and now there is even thick ice on the water.

Zhuangzi went around and found that the servants of Zhuang Ding of Qin's family were not bad. This year because of the newly built kang, although it was freezing cold, they were very warm when sitting on the kang.

Even the people in the neighborhood have repaired the kang, which is not too difficult. After the repair, the whole family sits on the kang very warmly, and does not consume much firewood. Compared with the simple stove in the past, it saves firewood and is warmer. Not to mention the scalding in the front and the cold in the back, the smoky eyes are uncomfortable.

Much more comfortable now.

Sitting on the kang, making cloth shoes, weaving straw sandals or doing other handicraft odd jobs, even two meals a day are enough for such days.

Qin Lang saw that most of the common people's food was very simple.

The locust powder is mainly mixed with bran, some dried wild vegetables, and dried mulberry, etc., plus a little bit of millet, put in water, stewed in a pot, and finally sprinkled with a few grains of salt, so A pot of messy porridge is just fine.

Looking at it, there is no appetite, but everyone is very satisfied.

"It's all thanks to the locusts this year. If we hadn't caught a lot of them in autumn, this winter would have been hard."

Some older ones even started to talk about their experiences of running away from the famine in the past, and they burst into tears when they talked about it, especially in winter, every long night is long and hard to bear.

How many people go out to beg for food and end up starving to death.

Although there are wars and natural disasters this year, at least there is no need to go out to beg for food. The locust wild vegetable porridge is really not very tasty, but compared to eating nothing, when your eyes are red when you are hungry, and your stomach is full of sour water, you can be happy. Too much.

"I'm so hungry, I have to eat two handfuls of dirt, or I can't walk without a cushion."

These common people, who eat bran and swallow vegetables, are still very satisfied with their current life. They are actually grateful to the current court and the current emperor, which makes Qin Lang extremely ashamed.

In the later generations, there are many people who pick up the bowl to eat and put down the bowl to scold their mothers. , Some people are still clamoring to drink only mineral water.

Those people just haven't experienced hard times.

When I walked to a house, I found that their family was very happy. It turned out that today the man in charge of the house dug out a mouse nest, not only caught a litter of fat voles, but also took out more than ten catties of grain from the nest.

The whole family was busy boiling water and fire to roast the voles.

Seeing Qin Lang coming, he warmly invited Qin Lang to have an extra meal here.

Qin Lang waved his hands again and again.

Although he also knew that for the common people, not to mention the fat voles, even the mice caught at home would not let them go, anyway, they were still meat.

But he really can't accept this kind of food, and the farmed bamboo rats are his limit.

After chatting for a while, leaving twenty eggs behind, Qin Lang left and went to the next one.

The life of the villagers is similar, porridge with wild vegetables for locusts, cat winter on the kang.

"It's a good year this year." An old man said to Qin Lang with a smile. He said that this year, thanks to the Qin family's blessing, he exchanged various clams, snails, and insects for a lot of chickens and ducks. The male ones were sold to the Qin family, and the female eggs were also sold to the Qin family, in exchange for a lot of money and food.

The millet in the locust porridge in the pot was exchanged for these.

"Are there any chickens and ducks at home?"

"It's cold, I sold some a few years ago, and there are still a few left to lay eggs. I don't dare to keep more. There is nothing to eat in the freezing and snowy weather. When spring comes, I will raise more."

The old man is still full of hope for the new year.

They got into another family, and this family saw Qin Lang coming and gave them eggs. They were very embarrassed, saying that they raised a lot of chickens this year and sold a lot of eggs to the Qin family. Now Duke Yi returned them to them. I'm really sorry for the eggs.

As he said that, the man found a basket of bamboo shoots from his home.

"This is the winter bamboo shoots that my baby and I just dug in the forest yesterday. They are fresh."

The climate in the Tang Dynasty was warmer than that of later generations, which brought about a characteristic that there were many bamboo forests in the north at that time, such as Guanzhong, which also had many bamboo forests, and some even covered mountains and valleys, which is difficult to see in later generations.

Winter bamboo shoots are delicious, but they are not easy to dig. These winter bamboo shoots will not sprout, and they will rot in the ground when they are old.

Stir-fried pork with winter bamboo shoots is delicious, braised bacon or steamed ham are all very delicious, and the biggest feature is freshness and tenderness.

"I'll accept these two bamboo shoots, and I'll buy the others." Qin Lang didn't take them all for nothing, he took two as a token return gift, and asked others to buy the rest.

The villagers refused, but Qin Lang insisted.

"In the future, if you dig winter bamboo shoots, you can send them to my village to sell, and I will accept them all."

"Duke Yi wants to eat it, so we'll dig it up and send it over. How can we collect money?"

"It's different. Not only do I eat it myself, I also collect it and take it to Chang'an to sell."

Winter bamboo shoots are delicious and hard to find, and there is still a market in Chang'an, but this is just a small business, but Qin Lang is still willing to buy winter bamboo shoots from the people, which can be regarded as helping these villagers.