It was time to collect rent during the twelfth lunar month. Due to the repeated increase in taxes in the court in successive years of war, almost all the money, grain and other goods accumulated by the Xu family in various fields in the south were paid. However, this year, they rushed to Beijing during the autumn harvest. However, due to the decrease in farmers, the wages for hiring farming increased sharply. In addition, in order to make up for the old debts owed in recent years, the managers in the farm were unable to make up for the deficit. They could not force the tenants to sell their children, right? They all came to make up for the bitterness.

Without thinking, Xu Hao ordered all the money and food that had been in the past few years to be exempted, and all the output this year should be kept. It is necessary to let the tenants and the people have a good New Year, and even paid thousands of taels of silver.

To be honest, Xu Hao really didn't see the output in the land. The total profit of the south of the year is far inferior to the profit of Hongye's shops in a quarter.

Compared with Hongye’s shops, Xu Hao’s annual output of gold, silver and iron ore in various places has an astonishing 400,000 taels of silver.

Xu Hao is not a good person. Pleasing the tenants below is what most landlords in this era must do. Everyone understands the principle of fishing when they are exhausted. There must be a limit for being rich and unkind. Who will farm for you after you run away?

In the study, Xu Hao frowned and played with the small hand stove of red gold and gossip used by Yu Shi, and sat watching the three red, yellow and green sky bamboo and wintersweets in the vase, as well as pine and cypress, and the daffodils were replaced in the daffodil basin.

There were several large wooden boxes on the ground. Qingwen and other maids took out all kinds of gold and silver utensils and jade bowls and cups one by one, and wiped them carefully.

Zhulan came in with Qiuxiang, and saw two arms-thick red candles on the silver wax table, burning a furnace of benzoin. Two large candles on the altar on one side were burning, and a stick of incense stick was inserted into the incense burner.

Xiao Yushi wore a pink and green satin Yuan fox velvet jacket. She had a snow-white fur lingering rabbit with a snow-white color, and was dressed in pink and jade, and arranged each piece of decoration.

Xu Hao smiled and said to Zhulan: "The Peking masters were thinking of me and specially created a batch of sacrificial tools to deliver them."

When Zhulan saw the young master who had not seen for many years, her eyes turned red again. She hurriedly said, "Then I will help the top leader."

"Yeah!" Xu Hao did not refuse. Zhulan was excited and turned around and walked over to pick up the silver wire cover of the big three fruit stand on the table, putting oranges, apples, and watercolors, and the small three fruit stand was filled with hazel chestnuts, ginkgo and almonds; three dried fruit pots, whole chicken, suckling pigs and carp.

The little girls kept sending things to the ancestral hall. Zhulan was used to doing this in previous years, so he slowly directed everyone to put mushrooms, winter bamboo shoots, shark fins, white wood, fungus, indica rice, bird's nest, dried bamboo shoots, sea cucumbers, bear's paws, elm meat, flat tips and so on.

On the small table on one side, there was a maid who put a bowl of pork on it. Zhulan said softly: "It is said that Marshal Zhao is a man who is semen and Hui Hui. He does not eat pork and changes to mutton."

Soon, I put on the white chop chicken, smoked duck, fish, jelly, coriander, etc. I quickly poured a plate of soy sauce, a plate of vinegar and a plate of fine salt, and poured a cup of sorghum wine. There were three animals on the plate, all of which were made of flour, and there were five or six kinds of vegetarian dishes such as gluten.

Seeing this, Xiao Yushi whispered: "After all, it's Sister Zhulan, Qingwen and Musk Moon are far inferior to her in this regard."

Xu Hao sighed and said, "Liu Zhulan is the inner steward, and his husband's divorce letter is coming soon."

Qiuxiang said dissatisfiedly: "Why don't you let Zhulan go to bed? Xue Zhen? Just a word from Master, Zhulan still has someone to rely on?"

"Two things." Xu Hao looked helpless, "Zhulan Hugh was a man who knew that it was me who did it behind the scenes, so maybe some gossip would be heard."

"That's true." Qiuxiang nodded and said angrily: "It's because Xue Zhen is cheap, she's afraid that she will spend all the benefits and come to entangle him again. Once such a villain gives up everything, it's as uncomfortable as a maggot in the bones."

Xu Hao smiled and thought to himself that he would come back if he had the life to say that. Xue Zhen would happily make a divorce if he got his own 500 taels of silver and go to gamble immediately. He would let him lose tonight and not even have his pants left. He was forced to sell himself as a slave by the creditor, and then arranged for him to do hard labor and go to North and South America with Zheng He. If you are lucky enough to die, let's talk about it.

A picture of the gods was posted on the screen, and the orange-colored dragon and phoenix were replaced. Not only did the ancestral hall pay homage to ancestors, but there was also a table of home-cooked sacrificial dishes in the study.

Suddenly the woman in charge came over and said, "Li Dong asked my family to pass on the message, and Lord Xia, the left minister of the Ministry of Revenue, came to visit."

"I'll go there right away."

Xu Hao gave a few instructions, and immediately came out of the inner house and went to the outer study. He saw Xia Yuanji, who was half old inscriptions, admiring the calligraphy and paintings with his hands behind his back.

Xia Yuanji's ancestral home is Dexing, Jiangxi. When his father Xia Shimin was appointed as the teacher in Xiangyin, his family moved to Guiyi, Hunan. At the age of thirteen, Xia Shimin passed away, and his orphan and widowed mother lived in extremely difficult life. It is said that Xia Yuanji studied hard while teaching elementary school to supplement his family's income, and gained a good reputation.

There were many honest and promising officials in the Hongwu Dynasty, and Xia Yuanji was one of them. Xu Hao has always respected this simple and honest official, but he has never liked to deal with the officialdom, so he had no friendship in the past.

Xu Hao smiled and said, "I am preparing three sacrifices for my ancestors. The so-called gluttonous gluttons are not blessed and full."

Xia Yuanji turned around, bowed his hand and smiled, "Long gave birth to nine sons, and was good at calling Tao, and good at eating and called Tie. Your scripture is used to use vulgarity."

"It's also a ritual, but it's not strange to have too many rituals!" Xu Hao said again: "Mr. Xia came to visit late at night. It's okay to just say anything. There is no need to be polite with Xu."

Xia Yuanji said happily: "Recently, he received a suggestion from a scholar in Jiangnan, saying that the floods in Jiangnan and western Zhejiang were severe, and asked the court to govern it. The world's wealth was half in Jiangnan, and half of the water in the world returned to Wujun, Zhejiang and Susong counties. The achievements of the Wusong River were in the country. Therefore, Xia wanted to write a letter to the imperial court and ask for an order to go to govern it personally. He took the liberty to come and hoped that lord would not be surprised."

Xu Hao said in surprise: "I will never object to this kind of thing, let alone this is a matter within the household. How can I stop it? Could it be that someone in the court opposes it?"

Xia Yuanji smiled and said, "That's not the case. It's not a day to clear rivers and build water conservancy. Maybe tens of thousands of people have to be summoned. I think the taxes in Jiangnan are now continuously reduced and the national treasury is empty. Do you want to use weapons next year?"

"So that's it." Xu Hao suddenly realized that now he was rewarding the heroes of the Jingnan Dynasty, enthroned his relatives, built imperial tombs, and added garrisons. The major shipyards spent more than tens of millions of dollars to build sea ships day and night. It was all thanks to Xia Yuanji's careful calculations and multiple efforts to make the country's use less.

After four years of war and disasters, it is a period of frequent disasters. Not to mention that Xu Hao has no ambition to expand his territory. Even if he has it, he has to recuperate for a few years.

Xu Hao said seriously: "Don't worry, except for small-scale foreign counterattacks on the border, the Governor's Office of the Five Army will never mobilize troops on a large scale to the northern expedition. As for His Majesty, it is hard to say. Most of the ministers unanimously opposed it, the Emperor should not insist on seeing you."

"Then Xia will be relieved." Xia Yuanji was very satisfied. He was very worried that the young ruler and his ministers would work together to make achievements, so he did not hesitate to make big moves, either in the north or in the south. So he came to come to study to help Xu Hao to give him an economic and livelihood class.

Xu Hao was very interested in Xia Yuanji, the butler of the Ministry of Revenue. He asked the other party to sit down and use tea and asked: "What do you think about the Ministry of Revenue's wealth gathering and using it?"

Xia Yuanji said: "I wrote to the court yesterday. The officials believed that the most urgent task was to cut redundant food, equip taxes and labor, strictly enforce salt laws, ban money, clear warehouses, and widely store farms to provide for the border suzhou people. And to facilitate merchants."

When the merchant heard the last sentence, Xu Hao's eyes lit up and asked, "I don't know what I have to do with the ban on the sea? I heard from Fujian officials that the people in the sea privately carried ships to foreign countries, so they were so angry. Some ministers in the court believed that civilian ships should continue to be prohibited from going into the sea, and all the original ships were changed to flat-headed ships, and the places where they were located were strictly inspected to prevent them from entering and leaving."

Xia Yuanji disagreed: "Amongst foreigners should be investigated and dealt with, but the officials believed that a complete ban on the sea was not a good idea. If you rely on the mountains to eat the sea, you cannot enter the sea without entering the sea. This would undoubtedly cut off the life of thousands of sea people. Fujian has many mountains and few fields. In the long run, the people's livelihoods are worrying, and the sea ban should be appropriately relaxed. People are allowed to go to sea to catch fish. Generally speaking, it is better to be dispersed than blockage. Since ancient times, there has been a tradition of going to sea to do business in Quanzhou, Fujian. Now the court has restored the Maritime Bureau and should advise merchants to pay taxes through the port according to the regulations. In addition, the navy commanded the navy to strictly investigate marine smuggling."

Xu Hao was surprised. Xia Yuanji was indeed not a pedantic person who was not compatible. He sighed: "The late emperor worked hard to govern for more than 20 years, resettled refugees to balance the north and south, exempted taxes and labor, and exempted people from poverty without land for three years, so that people could live in peace. I still remember the 26th year of Hongwu that the Ministry of Revenue reported that the area of ​​land reclamation in various places was about 8.55 million hectares, grain reserves were 32.789800 stones, and more than 4.124,000 ingots. At that time, it was said that the whole world was rich, and the people were envious, and the rice and millet were saved by millions of the capital. The prefectures and counties were very rich, and the red and rotten were inedible. What about today?

Xia Yuanji was shocked by Xu Hao's knowledge of the past years and said sincerely: "My lord is really concerned about the country. I will tell you that the land has not increased but has greatly decreased to this day. The grain storage has dropped sharply less than 8 million stones and less than one million ingots of money."

Xu Hao said silently: "The four years of Jingshen, the destruction of the people's livelihood has been unimaginable. Therefore, we must now adopt a strategy of rest and recuperation with the people, persuade the people to return to their land and recruit refugees from all over the country to return to their hometowns and resume their business. It is better for the court to live a life of scattered food and live a life of simplicity, and do everything possible to make refugees from all over the country safe. We must never send troops to suppress them and act against them, but instead make a list of people to safeguard them, and focus on persuasion."

Xia Yuanji said with relief: "I have to thank you for your help to the people, and I have repeatedly issued orders to provide relief for money and grain. Now there are hundreds of thousands of refugees in various places."

Xu Hao shook his head and said, "What he did is not enough. Before His Majesty ascended the throne on the first day of July, the whole country has owed all the money, grain, salt, cloth, wood plant, reed and firewood, and military, civilians, horses, livestock, etc., and those who die and owe live, all the money, grain and taxes that are abolished should be exempted; those who have been soldiers and prefectures in Shandong, Beiping, Henan Province cannot cultivate, will be exempted from three-year tax differences; those who have not been soldiers will be exempted from the tax and grain of Zhili, Fengyang, Huai'an, Xuzhou, Chuzhou, and Yangzhou this autumn and summer taxes will be exempted; the rest of Zhili Prefectures, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan will be exempted by half.

People in Shandong, Henan and other places moved to restore their hometowns and business, and used seeds together. The government paid for the lack of plowing ox, and the governments in various places had to give them official ox. Each county had its own practical difficulties, and in this regard, Lord Xia urged officials of the Ministry of Revenue to deal with them separately according to local memorials."

Xia Yuanji was stunned. It was true that this was something urgent to do at the moment, but it was a bit over the word from Xu Hao?
Chapter completed!