"Erlang," Han Zhongyan looked at his son-in-law and began to explain to him, "In the confrontation between the Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and later the Northern Zhou and Northern Qi, the world had few people and more land, and the population was the most precious, so there was a possibility of equal land in that year. This equal land was actually to grant the unowned public land to the people without land, and the government system allowed the people who were granted land to serve in the army.

At the root of this, it is actually the country who tries every means to pull out the population from the hands of the gentry and powerful people, and transform from troops into domestic soldiers and farmers who teach fields. Do you understand?"

"Is this an offense to the powerful and powerful family?" Wu Haowen understood a little.

Han Zhongyan shook his head gently, "It's not entirely an offense to the powerful. This matter cannot be generalized... Did the powerful people in the Northern Zhou Dynasty not get benefits? Guanlong nobles, and the Guanzhong local tyrants who followed Guanlong nobles.

Oh, didn’t your ancestors also serve as the governor of Luoyang County, the Eastern Capital of the Sui Dynasty, and the Yingyang Mansion Team? Later, they raised an army with Li Yuan and became Duke Ying.”

"But that was in the Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang Dynasties," Wu Haowen shook his head, "Our dynasty values ​​culture and over military affairs. It is not so easy to ask local tyrants to hand over the strong men."

He was very clear about this. Isn’t his “second sister-in-law” Ximen Qing’s family a rich man? The “cavalry generals” of the Ximen family were willing to take the Wu Jinshi exam, but they could not even think about asking them to join the army to fight for the court.

Not to mention that they have to bring their own dry food and weapons. They are not surnamed Zhao, so why do they work so hard...unless the court is willing to give an official position or 1,500 acres of knight land! However, the military system of the palace must first make a desperate effort and then discuss the merits. If the time when fame and fortune are about to be won, everyone will fight to win the opportunity to become an official.

But now you have to take the exam to become an official. There are more than 900 Jinshi (including special titles) in one subject. Everyone has an official position, which is more than the one who beats life and death in front of the Northwest Army.

Han Zhongyan pressed his temple and smiled bitterly. How could he not understand what his son-in-law said? The Han family in Xiangzhou is actually not an imperial examination family, but a real aristocratic family! His family is a "hereditary" wealthy family in Xiangzhou. They have great power in Xiangzhou, so they naturally control a large number of Baoding.

In fact, the best place for piloting the military soldiers is Han Zhongyan’s hometown Xiangzhou! As long as the Han family in Xiangzhou is willing to cooperate fully, there will be no problem in setting up a few Zhechong Mansions in Xiangzhou.

But the Han family in Xiangzhou can really make a call, is there tens of thousands of followers? Isn’t this asking for death by itself?

So it is hard to do the government soldiers, just to be good at it. A family like the Han family should avoid suspicion and dare not attack the armed forces. A local tyrant like the Ximen family has never received the favor of the Tian family, and is well aware of the rules of the court's emphasis on culture and over military affairs. People who earn more than 100 yuan a year are not necessarily willing to take responsibility, let alone the government soldiers who do not take money and have to bring their own dry food?

Han Zhongyan looked at his good son-in-law in silence. This man had much less ideas than his brother. It seemed that he had devoted all his thoughts to the books of sages.

After a while, Mr. Han smiled bitterly: "...It's not easy, otherwise it wouldn't be an opportunity. But there is no way. This is a difficult thing to do in principle, and you can use skills to get through it. You can't just know the principles but not the power skills, do you understand?"

"Power trick?" Wu Haowen was really shocked when he heard this word from his father-in-law, who was famous for his "cowardice". "My father-in-law means..."

Han Zhongyan smiled and said, "The powerful households have illegal things, either hidden land, smuggling, fraud in the imperial examination, bullying the market, or forcing good people to become slaves. As long as you catch their handles... you are not afraid that they will not submit!"

"The handle?" Wu Haowen frowned and thought hard, "The son-in-law is not afraid of offending those rich people, but how should he catch this handle?"

Han Zhongyan smiled, "I have to ask your elder brother. He is in Cangzhou this time, so he must have trouble asking people, right?"

...

On March 19, the first year of Jianzhong Jingguo, the dilapidated small town Qingchi was shrouded in the drizzling spring rain.

Although it is March now, Qingchi County, located on Hebei East Road, is still a bit chilly. It may not be much for young people who are full of energy, but for the elderly Shi Dazhou, the chill is still very uncomfortable.

So when Wu Haogu visited, he saw a red mud stove in the inner hall of the backyard of the Zhizhou Yamen. The charcoal fire was burned in the stove, and the fire was not strong, and there was also hot wine (not white wine) on the stove. The whole house was filled with the tempting aroma of wine.

Shi Guozhong looked not very energetic, and he looked a little depressed sitting behind the desk, and couldn't help but yawn. Seeing Wu Haogu and Gao Qiu's energetic appearance, the old man smiled and sighed bitterly: "It seems that you should be an official as soon as possible. I just did it too late. I don't have the blessing to enjoy it..."

I don’t know what this old man enjoyed? Wu Haogu couldn’t help but look at his appearance and his graceful figure appeared in his mind.

"The prefect has been exhausted from the journey," Gao Qiu and Shi Guozhong were not familiar with each other, so they respectfully called the prefect. "It will be cured in just a few days. In addition, someone and Wudongmen brought you some nourishing food from Jiehe Shangshi. You can eat more and you will be energetic."

The nourishing items are ginseng, deer antler, tiger whip... If you really eat too much, the old man will be sad!

"That's thank you." Shi Zhizhou bowed his hand, then looked at Wu Haogu, "I won't hide it from the East Gate. Last night, the magistrate of Qingchi County welcomed me, so he invited the head of the county's large households and the manager of the wealthy countryside. At the banquet, I asked... The matter between the East Gate and Commander Gao was a bit difficult to handle."

It is not easy to be normal! However, Wu Haogu and Gao Qiu are not worried. They have a trump card in their hands and can always cut out a lot of land.

Wu Haogu asked: "Prince, what's the dilemma?"

"Someone wants to rent a large amount of land and sheep in Beicangzhou. They rented it out for 150 cents per acre every year, and paid cash and included taxes."

"One hundred and fifty cents of cash, and tax is included?" Gao Qiu was stunned. "Why is the rent in Cangzhou so high?"

One hundred and fifty cents is almost two tenths of the 100ths of wheat per acre of land in Cangzhou. It is only 100 kilograms of wheat per acre. It is sold locally in Cangzhou. Sometimes it is not even 100 kilograms of price that can be sold by profiteering. If you deduct various costs and the shortage of the waste year, you can get an average gross profit of 450 kilograms (including tax and rent). If you deduct all kinds of taxes and levies and levies, you can only burn the incense. Once you pay the rent of this 150 kilograms of land, you will only have a profit of 150 kilograms of wheat left... that is, dozens of kilograms of wheat!

Some people may think that the land rent in the Northern Song Dynasty seemed not high, not reaching the 50% harvest in the legend... In fact, this land rent depends on the place and the varieties of crops. Landlords and wealthy people also have to leave a way for poor and lower-middle peasants to survive! If they are all starving to death, who will rent the land to?

There were no high-yield crops like sweet potatoes during the Song Dynasty, so farmers needed to occupy more agricultural products to avoid starving to death. Moreover, after Sanyi returned to the river in Cangzhou, the population decreased significantly (the population of the Northern Song Dynasty was much smaller than that of the Qing Dynasty). The overall situation was that there were fewer people and more land, so the rent of the land was naturally cheap. Generally, it was very good to rent it out for dozens of cents.

"Don't you lose money if you rent a land to raise sheep with such a high rent?" Gao Qiu shook his head, "Who does such a stupid thing?"

The market for wool is not big now, and the economic value of sheep is to slaughter and eat meat, so raising sheep is not very profitable. Even if you use the method of grass field rotation, you cannot afford a land rent of 150 yuan per acre (tax included), so the loss is certain.

"Someone is deliberately causing trouble!" Wu Haogu smiled coldly, "We have put a lot of tricks on others, and it is also worth it for us to fight back."

"Do you know who it is?" Gao Qiu asked with a frown.

"Of course I'm from the new party!" Wu Haogu thought for a while, "Maybe Ji Yizhi is in charge."

"He?" Gao Qiu snorted coldly, "Zhang Dun's gangster, the official family spared him, but he still didn't know how to die? Dalang, let's jointly report to the official family and send him to Haizhou."

"In the officialdom, I can't help myself." Wu Haogu smiled indifferently and waved his hand, "Zeng Bu, An Tao, Li Qingchen, Zhao Tingzhi, and Lu Jiawen don't want us to succeed! In my opinion, let's keep him...at least we can know where the hidden arrows were shot."

Shi Guozhong saw that Wu Haogu seemed confident and asked, "Dongmen, do you have an idea?"

"Yes!" Wu Haogu nodded and told Shi Guozhong the idea of ​​"using land for knights".

Old Man Shi's brow suddenly opened, but then he frowned: "Dongmen, what is the difference between your way of doing this and selling that knight? I'm afraid the censor can't spare us, right?"

Wu Haogu waved his hand, "If you don't have any business, it's all about me and Commander Gao."

What an old fox Shi Guozhong is. As soon as he heard Wu Haogu's words, he already understood, "I am a confused Qingtian who specializes in causing trouble for others?"

"That's it," Wu Haogu nodded and smiled, "Someone must be going to cause trouble!"

Gao Qiu was confused, "Dalang, what trouble do you want Prefect Shi to cause?"

Wu Haogu looked at Gao Qiu and said two words: "Check the land!"

"What?" Gao Qiu took a breath, "This matter is offensive!"

The land inspection means to inspect the hidden land, or confiscate it, or apply for land deeds to become taxable land. That is, to seize food from the mouths of powerful people! How much such a thing offends people, you can tell by thinking about it.

Shi Guozhong patted his chest and said seriously: "For the sake of the great Song Dynasty and the government can get elite soldiers, I am not afraid of offending others!"
Chapter completed!