I

The boat was about to arrive at Yongyang Town. Everyone packed up their things and walked to the bow of the boat one after another.

After passing the intersection of He River and Lu River, Fei Chun pointed forward and said: "Both sides of He River are our territory!"

Liu Ziren looked at the lush seedlings on both sides of the bank and exclaimed: "I took a boat all the way here, and the seedlings here grow best."

Fei Yuanjian was a little confused: "Why didn't I see it?"

Liu Ziren explained: "Don't just look at the areas next to the river, but look further afield. Look at the paddy fields in the distance. The rice seedlings are very green in color. Other states and counties along the way, as long as they are far away from the water source, are already dry. It must be a bit yellowish.”

"Is there no spring drought here?" Fei Yuanjian asked doubtfully.

"It's also dry. Look at the rivers on both sides." Xu Ying pointed to the shore.

The water level has dropped significantly, and dried sludge can still be seen on the river bank after the water recedes.

Soon, they witnessed a lively scene.

Because the water level in the river has dropped so much, the water tanker can no longer lift water normally. So more than ten people stood by the river, using wooden barrels to fetch water all the way to the shore, and then poured the water into the diversion canal to facilitate irrigation of the paddy fields near the canal.

The water flowed to the end of the canal, and a temporary water storage pit was dug. Villagers further away can fetch water from puddles without having to walk long distances to the river.

Liu Ziren grinned and said, "I like it here."

"The government and the people are united." Xu Ying commented.

This approach seems simple, but it requires someone with authority to organize it. Otherwise, there will be many disputes along the canals, and there may even be collective fights over water.

Coming all the way from Qianshan by boat, only Yongyang Town can do it.

"It's a shift change, it's a shift change!"

Another group of people came to the river, and those who had carried water before came ashore smiling, talking and laughing among themselves.

A half-hearted missionary said by the river: "Do you see, this is the purpose of the farmers' association. Isn't it a hundred times more convenient than you carrying water to water the fields? This farmers' association was established by the Datong Association to help us farmers... Well," the missionary suddenly Stuck, he lowered his head to flip through the small book and continued, "The farmers' association is the association of our farmers. The purpose of the farmers' association is to help the farmers do things..."

"Xiao Xianggong, please stop chanting, it's like a monk chanting sutras." Some villagers complained.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Everyone burst out laughing, mistaking the missionary officer for a storyteller.

This Mr. Xiao is a child from the Xiao family in Yongyang, and he is obviously not very skilled in business. He continued to flip through the small notebook and said: "What is the great unity of the world..."

"Everyone has fields to farm, everyone has food to eat, and everyone has clothes to wear!" A villager has learned to answer quickly, "Recite it every day, recite it every day, and I can memorize it."

There was another round of laughter.

The missionary officer named Xiao finally got angry: "Don't interrupt, I haven't finished speaking yet!"

"Xiao Xianggong, tell me." The villagers laughed.

The missionary officer held his head high and walked back and forth by the river. As he walked, he said: "What does everyone have land to cultivate? All the land in the world is occupied by the emperor's relatives, civil and military officials, and the noble gentry." If you occupy tens of thousands of acres and he occupies several thousand acres, we ordinary people will have no land to cultivate and can only be tenants to cultivate the land for the landlord. Do you think this is true?"

"yes!"

The villagers shouted in unison and stopped joking and causing trouble.

The missionary officer stopped looking at the notebook and paced the walk with his hands behind his hands: "The landlord has land in his hands, so he can bully the tenants. The land rent can be as much as agreed upon. If there is a famine and the harvest is bad, he will fight in and out. He also lets For usury, a monthly interest of five cents is considered a small amount, but a monthly interest of seven or eight cents is available. The tenants are busy all year long, and all the harvest belongs to the landlord, and they cannot even eat enough. Is this the truth? "

"yes!"

The villagers took the time to shout while carrying water.

The missionary officer continued: "The tenants are so miserable, how can those who own land live a good life? Anyone who is not a big landowner will not have a good life."

"The imperial court increases taxes every year, and the county magistrates also change their methods of apportionment. There is also the whipping law, which only collects money, not grain. Tenants do not have to pay land taxes, but small landowners have to pay. Small landowners who only have a few dozen acres of land , What should I do if I don’t have money to pay the whip tax? I can only use grain to go to the Qianliang shop to exchange for money, but the big landowner will take the opportunity to cheat me.”

"This whipping method has good intentions. It takes into account land taxes and miscellaneous taxes. Once you pay a whipping tax, you should not pay other miscellaneous taxes. But now, after paying the whipping tax, there are still miscellaneous taxes. It's like paying miscellaneous taxes twice. For many miscellaneous taxes, they don't collect money, and they ask farmers to send the grain to the county government themselves. Hey, the soap official can kick you with his feet and scatter several kilograms. Again, you have no food. Man, I force you to make up for the food supply. It’s very bad!”

This missionary officer, who was probably a small landowner, gritted his teeth and was filled with anger when he talked about his own experience.

The missionary officer continued: "You are tenants, I am a small landowner, and we are both poor people. Take my family as an example, with a total of more than 30 acres of land, not counting the children in the family, we have to feed eight people, divided equally. One person only has four acres of land. How much of the four acres of land is left after paying taxes and grain? I still have to study, and sometimes I don’t even have money to buy paper. Two years ago, I went to the government to take the Taoist examination, and I had to live there. There are dozens of people in one room, all working hard. The smell of sweat and feet made me faint. When I walked into the examination room, I was confused!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The villagers burst into laughter again.

The missionary officer continued: "I only had a few cakes with me. I didn't pay attention when I was writing the article and knocked over all the cakes. I picked them up one by one, dusted them off and ate them like that. For the Taoist examination, I have to ask a local student to be my guarantor. Linbao money was another expense. On the way back, I didn’t even have enough money to take the boat, so I had to walk home. I had to cross the river in the middle, and I didn’t have enough money to cross the river. I just sat on the ferry, I sat there all afternoon. The boatman felt sorry for me and said he would send me there at half price... It’s true that I am a scholar, but is it easy for me? The boatman who was punting the boat felt that I was pitiful, ooohhhhh..."

As he talked, the missionary officer felt more and more aggrieved that he squatted by the river and started crying.

The villagers finally stopped laughing, closed their mouths, and carried water seriously.

After crying for a while, the missionary stood up again, wiped away his tears and said: "Everyone has land to farm. It does not mean that tenants can farm for the landlords, nor does it mean that small landowners can farm for their own families. We must not only farm our own fields. , and you have to pay exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes to the government. You have to have fields, and you have to have enough to eat after planting the fields, and you still have money to buy cloth and sew clothes to wear. This is how everyone has fields to cultivate, everyone has food to eat, and everyone has clothes. wear!"

"well said!"

The villagers started cheering.

The missionary officer continued: "Mr. Zhao is here to allocate fields to tenants and reduce taxes for small landowners. The government will definitely not be happy because they cannot covet our hard work. Therefore, we should send out strong men from each family to follow Mr. Zhao. Fighting. So, Mr. Zhao formed a peasant association to let farmers grow more food, so that everyone can live a better life. Everyone pays grain to Mr. Zhao, so that Mr. Zhao can raise soldiers and protect our fields. Only in this way can everyone have land to farm. , everyone has food to eat, and everyone has clothes to wear. If this is achieved, the world will be unified! Long live the world's unity!"

"Long live the great unity of the world!"

"Long live the great unity of the world!"

"Long live the great unity of the world!"

The villagers shouted along and worked harder.

The missionary officer's throat was filled with smoke as he spoke, so he sat down to drink water, and then continued to flip through the small notebook.

Fei Chun led everyone ashore, and some villagers were attending the market in the town.

In the market, there are also missionaries giving speeches. Many farmers were not in a hurry to buy anything and just gathered around to listen. The crowd burst into cheers from time to time.

Xu Ying and Liu Ziren, both half-tenants and half-owner farmers, listened to it for a while while passing by, and then they revealed their infinite yearning.

Fei Chun said: "Yongyang Town is in the town, but the General Military Mansion is in a nearby village. It used to be the house of a big landowner. The front yard is the office of the General Military Mansion, and only Brother Han and Mr. Pang live in the backyard. Many rooms in the backyard are still vacant. We will all live in them today, and we will arrange other places for everyone tomorrow."

Zhao Han was working at the Yamen of the General Military Mansion. Fei Chun did not bother him and took him directly to the backyard.

Fei Rulan and her maid Xiyue came to the courtyard where Zhao Han lived.

"Why is it so deserted here?" Fei Rulan blamed, feeling that Zhao Han was not well taken care of.

Fei Chun explained: "Brother Han doesn't want anyone to serve him. There is only one maid and a mother-in-law in the courtyard. The maids are not called maids, they are called maids. Brother Han does not allow anyone to support the slaves. Sister Xiyue..."

Fei Rulan was stunned, and then said: "Please tell me in detail."

Fei Chun gave a brief introduction to the Datong Thought and also described Zhao Han's various policies.

Fei Rulan was silent for a long time, then called Xiyue back to the room and said, "Your body deed is with my mother, so it's not convenient to get it back. Since Brother Han has rules, just pretend that the body deed doesn't exist and I'll give it to you." Make a new work contract. From now on, instead of being a maid, you will also be a maid..."

"Miss," Xiyue knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, "This servant is born as Miss's person, and even after death, she is also Miss's ghost!"

Fei Rulan couldn't help but laugh and said: "What do I want a female ghost to do? Don't do this. Brother Han is not allowed to kneel down yet. Please get up and speak quickly."

Xiyue stood up carefully.

"When I marry a chicken, I follow the chicken; when I marry a dog, I follow the dog; when I marry a rebel, I become a wife," Fei Rulan laughed as she said it, "I have lived for almost twenty years and have always thought about my husband. He is a scholar full of knowledge, but I never thought he was a bold rebel. The rules of this rebel are very weird, but if you think about it carefully, they make sense. I can't take the lead in breaking the rules he has set, right?"

Xiyue was uneasy, but she also looked forward to it. From now on, she would no longer have to kneel down to others, and she would still be a free person without a bond of sale.

When the two maids, one old and one young, learned that the mistress was coming, they also put down their work and came to see her.

"lady!"

The two of them said blessings and couldn't help but secretly look at Madam. She was indeed handsome and dignified, worthy of our Mr. Zhao.

Fei Rulan smiled and asked, "What are your names? How long have you been following Mr. Zhao?"

The young maid said: "My name is Huang Zhaodi. I come from Wuxing Town. I have been with my husband for more than half a year."

The old woman said: "My name is Huang Li, and I have been here for more than half a year."

"Both of them are surnamed Huang," Fei Rulan asked Xiyue to get some copper coins, "This is the first time we meet, let's take them for tea."

"Thank you, Madam."

The two maids were quite happy, feeling that the lady in front of them was more generous than Mr. Zhao.

Xiyue was a little angry and almost scolded them because they didn't kneel down to thank them when they received the reward. Maybe you can do it once you get to know each other, but when you meet for the first time, you must kneel down and thank the host for a gift!

Fei Rulan still had a smile on her face, and after asking a few questions about the situation, she took them to clean up the yard.

Even the furnishings in the house are very particular.

The two maids were filled with admiration and thought the madam was so awesome. The same thing seems to look much more pleasing to the eye just by moving it.

When Zhao Han came back from get off work, his home had a completely new look, even every corner had been wiped clean.

Although Zhao Han had no requirements for this, he still felt very comfortable, and the fatigue from a tiring day disappeared instantly.

(Thanks to Xiao Miaomiao for rushing forward and the leader of Genius945 for fighting, and also to all book friends for their rewards and support. By the way, please vote for me.)