The reason why Zhang Fangyuan was gone for so long was because the county magistrate pulled him aside and talked for a long time. The county magistrate knew that if merchants and farmers made money, the county government's tax revenue would easily increase. As a result the county magistrate was particularly very tolerant of the landlords and big families. Not only did he send people to measure the land area, he even encouraged Zhang Fangyuan to reclaim more wasteland.
After their conversation, Zhang Fangyuan realized that the court had assigned tasks to each province and county. County magistrates were instructed to encourage the common people to clear forests and reclaim wasteland in order to increase food and fodder production.
Many people struggled to make ends meet, but with limited labor force, no one was willing to reclaim wasteland. This was a concern for many county magistrates. Therefore when Zhang Fangyuan took the initiative to reclaim wasteland, the county magistrate was very happy.
Zhang Fangyuan also learned about some internal policies. However, Zhang Fangyuan knew that he shouldn't be greedy for more and chew incompletely. If he bought more land, his family's labor force would be insufficient, and he would have to spend more money.
[贪多嚼不烂 tān duō jiáo bù rán: lit. to be greedy for more and chew incompletely; fig. to take on more responsibilities or tasks than one can handle; to bite off more than one can chew]
The county magistrate refused to back down and tried to persuade him: "Let's round up the numbers. I'll allocate an additional 32 mu of wasteland to your village, making it exactly 100 mu. This way, it will be easier for the chief clerk to keep track and I'll have an easier time reporting to my superiors."
"It's not that I'm forcing you to reclaim so much wasteland. But your Jijiu Village has fallen behind in reclamation work over the years. You still need to learn from Hongshi Village in this regard."
Zhang Fangyuan said, "That's not true, sir. We also reclaimed wasteland two years ago when we planted mulberry trees."
The county magistrate scoffed, "That was only a few mu of land. Your entire village has reclaimed a mere ten or so mu of scattered land."
What the county magistrate said was the truth, the villagers were unwilling to reclaim wasteland because the cost was too high. They would rather use some of their own land to plant mulberry trees and dig fish pond, but they didn't want to buy wasteland.
Seeing that Zhang Fangyuan had fallen silent and refused to buy more wasteland, the county magistrate offered a compromise, "How about this? I'll give you 32 mu of wasteland at the price of 28 mu. This can be considered as an encouragement."
Zhang Fangyuan smiled slightly. Now that things had come to this, he couldn't reject the county magistrate's face any more, so he decided to purchase mu of land.
[驳面子 bó miàn zi: lit. to reject someone's face; fig. to refuse or reject someone's offer or suggestion, often implying a loss of face or dignity for the person making the offer]
After listening to Zhang Fangyuan's account, Xu He sighed and said, "It seems we overpaid for our land."
"I think so too, everyone in the county government is cunning man. Although the common people call the county magistrate as 'Honorable Lord of Justice', but it's true that his hand covers the sky of Siyang. If he doesn't make some extra income from land dealings, how can his meager monthly salary possibly support his large family, including his wives, concubines and children?"
[一手遮天 yī shǒu zhē tiān: lit. one hand covers the sky; fig. to have great power or influence; to dominate or control a situation.]
Xu He knew that the county magistrate had a wife and four concubines, not to mention other women without official status. He also had many children, all of whom were dressed in fine clothes and jewelry, epitomizing wealth and luxury. He also had another large mansion in the bustling streets of the east city. Naturally he couldn't support this large family with the monthly salary given by the imperial court.
Despite all this, no common people dared to interfere. The county magistrate had never harmed any innocent people, nor was he like the corrupt officials in those poor counties who wantonly exploited and oppressed the people and merchants. As long as they could still make a living, people were grateful.
"So what do you plan to do with the additional land?"
"It's not a lot, just more than 30 mu of land, but we can't choose Haitang Bay, as there's no more wasteland on that side, and further ahead is mountains and forests. It will be more troublesome to clear the forest and make way for farmland. We can just reclaim more wasteland near where we planted mulberry trees before."
Xu He nodded: "Then let's go and complete the formalities as soon as possible."
Zhang Fangyuan said, "The county government is more eager than us. They will send someone over tomorrow to measure the land and complete the formalities with the village chief for us."
Xu He couldn't help but shake his head. The county government was very efficient in making money, and the chickens and ducks were given away for free.
No comments:
Post a Comment