My eunuch godfather

Chapter 42 White Cop, Red Cop

The leader of the horsemen saw that Zhang Kun and his group were dressed in fine clothes and knew that they were no ordinary people.

He stopped a few dozen paces away, dismounted, and quickly walked over to Zhang Kun, respectfully saying:

"My name is Xue Shenxing, the chief commander of Yuhe Capital. May I ask who you are?"

"I am Zhang Kun, a centurion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the supervising officer of the River Works Camp."

Zhang Kun adopted the air of an official, raised his hand to help Xue Shenxing, who was kneeling and kowtowing, up, "Chief Xue, please get up."

Then, he had Xu Xin show Xue Shenxing the letter from Shuntian Prefecture and smiled, saying:

"Today we're going to the countryside to select land for the river works camp..."

The Ming Dynasty had both travel permits and official tokens.

A travel permit was required for commoners traveling long distances, more than a hundred miles from their home prefecture or county. They had to apply for one through a village headman to the prefectural or county government.

A letter of appointment was required when officials from county or prefectural governments went to the countryside or left their assigned county or prefecture to work; they had to apply to their superior for permission.

In addition to the annual 50,000 taels from the Chongwenmen Xuanke Division, the imperial court also nominally allocated 5000 mu of farmland to the River Works Camp.

The reason it is said in name is because the imperial court could not provide 5,000 mu of official land near the capital for the river works camp.

The only option was for the river management team to find farmers, transfer their farmland to the river management team as military farmland, and pay rent to the river management team.

After being invested in the river management camp, these farmlands were exempt from many miscellaneous taxes and corvée labor, and even after paying the land rent, they still made a profit.

Zhang Kun's plan was to first use the debt from usurious loans to acquire land, and then invest it all in the name of the river engineering camp.

As for the land rent, Zhang Kun could set it however he wanted.

"I wonder how many acres of farmland the superior officer plans to allocate to Yuhedu?"

After hearing Zhang Kun's words, Xue Shenxing felt a pang of bitterness in his heart, but managed to maintain a smile.

The river work camp designated civilian farmland as military farmland, which would significantly reduce the taxes and corvée labor paid by these military farmland to Yuhedu.

Based on Xue Shenxing's experience, the county government would most likely not be lenient towards Yuhedu and would correspondingly reduce Yuhedu's tax and labor duties.

They will only demand that Yuhedu forcibly apportion this portion of taxes and corvée labor to the remaining farmland!

"I'm still looking, but I've already set my sights on this area."

Zhang Kun pointed to the fields that Master Danbagu had chosen and said to Xue Shenxing with a smile:

"I would like to trouble Chief Xue to invite all the village chiefs and elders in this area to come and discuss this matter with me."

During the Ming Dynasty, there were various wards within the city and various side streets outside the city, which were equivalent to streets in later times.

Below the wards and lanes were various signs, which were equivalent to communities in later times; below the signs were various shops, which further divided the community.

Each shop had a headman (总甲) and three to five cooks (火甲), which was called the headman system.

Each prefecture and county was further divided into various "du" (都), which were equivalent to townships in later times.

Even in cities like Yuhe, which are very close to urban areas, a general management system is implemented, and a local office is set up.

Below the capital are the various maps, which represent villages.

A village is established for every 110 households, and the village head is one of the ten households with the most male members and the most money and grain, taking turns to serve as the village head.

The remaining one hundred households were divided into ten groups, each serving as a head of a household, which was known as the Lijia system.

The Lijia system was also implemented in cities, where every ten households under each shop took turns serving as Xiaojia.

"Shangguan, it's unbearably hot here."

Xue Shenxing took out a cotton towel, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and advised Zhang Kun:

"How about we head over to Xingzikou and try some fruit tea from Xishan?"

"good,"

Zhang Kun nodded to Xue Shenxing, then shouted loudly to the farmers watching:

"Don't forget to plant medicinal herbs for me. One acre yields one bushel of grain, paid monthly!"

After Zhang Kun and his party left, the farmers began to discuss the matter.

A farmer who had come from the village asked, "What? One dou of grain per mu?"

After hearing the explanation, the farmer couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Such a good thing? It can't be real!"

"Look, Master Xue is kowtowing to him, he must be a high-ranking official, why would he lie to us?"

"High-ranking officials don't lie? If you ask me, they're better at lying than low-ranking officials!"

"Tch, you only have a few acres of land and a few strings of cash, do you think a high-ranking official would dare to cheat you?"

One farmer who had rushed over was very interested, "If you don't have any debts, could you grow medicinal herbs? Would you give me an extra bushel each month?"

"Dream on! Even in your best years, your fields only yield a bushel and a half!"

"You got a bushel of grain when you were being levied for your debts, why can't I get two bushels?..."

Upon learning that the other party was an official, the boy realized he had gotten himself into serious trouble and sat there with a worried expression.

The middle-aged man didn't scold or beat the boy. Instead, he patted the boy on the shoulder and said, "The sun is too strong. Let's go home and rest."

......

Xingzikou is the most bustling market in Yuhedu, and it is very close to Liuli Canal.

The Liulichang area outside Xuanwumen is being relocated to Liuliqu, making Xingzikou even more bustling.

A private room in a teahouse.

Xue Shenxing knelt down again and kowtowed, pleading with Zhang Kun in a mournful voice:

"I beg you, sir, to show mercy and not take away too much land in Yuhe..."

Yuhedu Temple is small but has many deities, and several of them, who have achieved official rank, have protected a large amount of land.

If the river management camp were to shelter a large amount of farmland here, the remaining farmers would suffer greatly.

Xue Shenxing didn't care much about these farmers; he was more worried about trouble arising when collecting taxes and conscripting labor.

At that time, perhaps without any punishment from above, Xue Shenxing will have already been righteously executed by the angry farmers!

After listening to Xue Shenxing's complaints, Zhang Kun remained silent for a moment before speaking:

"I can allocate less land, and even supplement it with some money and grain!"

What! ?

Xue Shenxing couldn't believe it. Was he dreaming? Could such a good thing really exist? It must be fake.

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Zhang Kun was certainly not acting on a whim; he gestured for Xu Xin to bring over the maps he had drawn over the past few days.

Pointing to the plots of land marked on the map, all of which Master Danbagu had chosen, he presented Xue Shenxing with his terms:

"In these pictures, I need you to play the bad cop and promote my medicinal herb business!"

Anyone who obstructs my medicinal herb business, especially those who collude with the villagers, I will have you take them all down!

For example, how about apportioning the exempted taxes and levies to them? I don't need to teach you these things, do I?

"Once it's done, you'll definitely get a share of the profits, how about it?"

With the nearly 2400 taels of debt held by Fei Duan of Xuanbeifang, Zhang Kun could at most receive about 800 mu of land.

With further promotion through storytelling, opera singing, and other means, they should be able to swindle... 300 acres?

People in this era are different from those in future generations; they are less likely to accept new things and less likely to advocate innovation and change.

Because the productivity of the agricultural era developed too slowly, accumulated too little, and often stagnated or even regressed.

In other words, they cannot afford the costs of innovation trial and error and failed changes.

Moreover, Zhang Kun was instructing farmers to change their fields from growing grains to growing medicinal herbs, since medicinal herbs cannot be eaten as food.

Zhang Kun personally had about 7500 taels of cash, enough to buy 2500 mu of land!

However, Zhang Kun did not intend to invest so much cash in real estate, which is difficult to liquidate.

Even in Liulichang outside Xuanwu Gate, Zhang Kun only indirectly participated through Madam Cheng, receiving only 300 taels.

Moreover, the more land you buy, the higher the land price rises, and the higher the costs become.

Zhang Kun only planned to personally invest 600 taels to buy 200 mu of land, which he would then hand over to Master Danbagu as a demonstration field.

The river work camp had less than 22000 taels left in its accounts, and could only squeeze out 1500 taels to buy 500 mu of land.

The total area is only 1800 mu, while Zhang Kun's goal is more than 3000 mu.

Therefore, Zhang Kun needed the cooperation of local officials like Xue Shenxing to secure at least another 1200 mu of land:

Zhang Kun first threatened local officials by appropriating large amounts of farmland from the people for military farming, and then had the officials play the "bad cop" by threatening farmers with the imposition of taxes and corvée labor.

Then Zhang Kun would step in and play the good cop, offering generous terms to get the farmers to comply.