To Rule in a Turbulent World

Chapter 156 Volume 4 Subtracting Word Magnolia

In April in Yangzhou, the catkins are flying and the scenery is fine.

When You Miao returned to Jiangbo Villa, he first asked You Hange to write a post and report to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and then even took over the military affairs of the Military Defense Department. , Presumably everyone knows what they are doing.

And You Miao is not idle, on the one hand, he is running the army for Li Zhifeng, and on the other hand, he is reorganizing the affairs of the villa.Qiao Jue is good at doing business, but not good at managing villas.During the year when You Miao went to Beijing, Qiao Jue could only keep her capital.

The first thing to do is to replace all the fields with grain.In the next few years, You Miao can almost foresee the future situation: the grain output of a place in the south of the Yangtze River must feed at least three times as many people as before.

Among these people are refugees fleeing from the north to the south, the newly formed army, and the resources needed for trade in the south.Before the fall of the north and the spread of the war to the south, many tenants who were afraid of death ran away. You Miao reorganized the land in the villa and recruited nearly a thousand tenants from Yangzhou.At the same time, he also took advantage of the trend to encircle the official land around Jiangbo Villa, and the total amount reached [-] mu.

In this way, all the land south of Guozhuang belongs to Jiangbo Villa.

In the past, in Yangzhou, it would have been difficult to enclose such a large piece of land, but now that I am my brother-in-law, how much wasteland I want is simply a matter of one sentence.

Of course, You Miao didn't dare to be too arrogant. Knowing this well, he took advantage of the Ministry of War's loopholes. First, he handed over a piece of paper to Li Zhifeng to the Ministry of War, saying that the east and west lines of Jiangbo Villa were due to the conflict with the Hu people. In the event of war, a reserved area must be circled for turning around.Pingxi approved the document, and then handed it over to Qin Shaonan from the household department to seal it. In this way, a large area of ​​unclaimed wasteland was under the control of You Miao.

After the battle is over, the place will be re-planned, half of which will be included in Jiangbo Villa, and the other half will be surrounded by Li Zhifeng outside. This land all belongs to You Miao.

You Miao and Li Zhifeng spent two days riding horses to inspect all the land, including the hilly areas, which were originally reserved by the Yangzhou government.After the northerners fled to the south, a few courageous ones reclaimed the open land and tried to farm.

A few scattered farmers were farming in the fields, and when they looked up to see You Miao, they couldn't help but feel a little nervous.You Miao knew that these people could not be driven away, so she showed them the government documents, telling them that these fields were under her control.But if you want to cultivate, you can still plant.Just need to pay a tax of four cents.

Li Zhifeng was stationed on the border of Ma, facing a large area of ​​mountains.

"You can grow some tea." Li Zhifeng said.

You Miao slowly shook her head and said: "There is not enough food to grow tea, but to grow food and open terraces."

Li Zhifeng hummed. He has never had any idea about farming. You Miao said what you said. Next, You Miao went back to rectify the lease and divided the fields into upper, middle and lower. The tenants who have not escaped still pay taxes as in previous years.

When the news of the Hu people's invasion of the south came, nearly [-]% of the tenants had fled, and a large number of fields were vacant. You Miao took away their leases and recalculated.

For the newly recruited tenants, You Miao gave them farm tools and let them choose independently. Those who are willing to stay in the villa and plant high-quality fields will have to pay seven cents of the land tax.You Miao will only charge six cents for planting unowned new fields.And those who are willing to enter the mountains to cultivate terraced fields will be charged a five-cent tax, and the lease will be for three years, with an additional increase, and the grain plantation villa will be paid.

It took nearly half a month for Ji Tian and Naren. You Miao finished everything, and then specially invited two housekeepers from Yangzhou to take care of the chores in Xinzhuang.The money was spent like flowing water, to support the tenants who opened up wasteland, and to build a new village in the northwest and northeast, it was simply too busy.

But Li Zhifeng couldn't stop his military training, he was almost outside during the day, and occasionally had to eat and live with the soldiers at night. He was used to fighting at night, so You Miao was alone in the villa and started to deal with affairs.

During the day, You Miao got up very early, and wrote and drew in the study after breakfast.

Changyuan came in, bowed and said: "Master, there is a visitor."

"Who?" You Miao was a little surprised.

Chang Yuan said: "Four people came outside, they are said to be young master Liu Zhou's cousin..."

You Miao knew that it was not a trivial matter, and hurried out, saying: "Please have tea in the living room, and I will come right away!"

Youjia has been entrenched in the south of the Yangtze River for many years, and has become a force that cannot be ignored. Although there are few officials, they already have the potential to be wealthy.Among them, there are two big clans, one in Liuzhou and the other in Yangzhou.You Miao had been friends with his cousins ​​in Liuzhou in the past, and was very happy when he heard this, so he rushed out to greet him.

There were four people sitting in the hall, and Qiao Jue greeted them with a smile. When the four of them saw You Miao, they got up one after another. You Miao smiled and cupped her hands, saying, "What wind brought you here?"

An uncle named You Deming was the youngest, about the same age as Qiao Jue, and he hung out with nephews and juniors on weekdays, jokingly said: "The autumn wind is blowing towards you, uncles can't hang out in Yangzhou anymore. "

You Miao laughed so hard that she went into the living room to make tea herself. Qiao Jue said with a smile, "I saw your business on the street a few days ago. Isn't the business still doing well?"

Another person sighed, it was cousin You Miao, who was usually unsmiling, he was the most stable one in the third generation, named You Shu, he took a sip of tea and shook his head in silence.

You Deming said: "To tell you the truth, Miaozi, Brother Qiao, the clan moved here from Liuzhou years ago, and they all wanted to go back, so they didn't come up to you. I'm afraid I will see Jiangbei for a while. They say that the new emperor will ascend the throne, and I don’t know what will happen in the future, so I come to ask you, there are no errands in the new dynasty..."

You Miao smiled and said, "I'm not an official myself, do you think I have?"

Everyone thought the same thing, there have been a lot of rumors in recent days, but they are all quite complicated. Sometimes they say they want to call back, and sometimes they say they want to settle down in Jiangnan.There was no confirmation, and after a while, You Shu interjected: "I heard that there will be a war? Do you have to take back Liuzhou?"

You Miao knew about Nie Dan's military plan, but if this battle went on, Pei County would be recovered at most, and even Biyu Villa was hard to say, let alone Liu and the large tracts of land in northern Suzhou.

"I'm afraid in the past few years." You Miao said: "It's difficult."

Several cousins ​​nodded slowly, and You Miao's heart moved, secretly thinking that it was just in time, and asked, "What do you guys do for a living in Yangzhou City?"

"How can I make a living?" You Deming laughed and said, "The second and third houses, the sixth and twelve houses, these few houses collected some money and donated two officials to the Ministry of Industry. Do you remember your sixth uncle's son? The one who summoned Youfa, and your third uncle's son Youxi..."

"I remember." You Miao couldn't stop thinking about it, remembering that the Tuntian doctor of the Ministry of Industry seemed to be vaguely named Ji Guang, who was escorted by the Tatars all the way north when he fled years ago, and he even protected him once.He asked again, "What about Yangzhou?"

"Grandpa didn't hurt his muscles or bones." You Shu said, "The seven children of the family all joined the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Punishment as officials."