A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 144 Li Yi's Five Hundred Episodes

A continuous autumn rain came unexpectedly,

The weather suddenly became much colder, and when he woke up in the morning, Shi Niang brought him a padded jacket.

"It's getting cold, put on this crotch-less jacket to keep warm."

Ji said, "This coat was sewed by my wife herself, the stitches are so fine and dense, Alang, come and try it on."

Li Yi put it on with a smile. This is Tangren's basic autumn and winter style.

A jacket is a double-layered garment of medium length that can be worn inside or outside. Its shape is similar to a round-necked robe.

The weather is not very cold now, so there is no need to wear a fur coat or a thick cotton robe.

"It fits really well. Thank you, madam. You are really clever and skillful." Li Yi praised Shi Niang repeatedly, making her feel a little embarrassed.

She looked at it carefully several times and said, "The weather is getting colder. I will make Ah Lang a sheepskin backpack and a sheepskin or deerskin fur coat. I will also add a coat or cloak to keep out the wind and cold."

Winter is coming,
The servants in the house also need to be given winter clothes, which is also an expense.

"Ah Lang, after discussing with Su Jun, we think we should cultivate the land in Gyeonggi Province ourselves. We need to catch up with the autumn planting now and not miss this farming season."

Li Yi now owns quite a lot of land in the capital. He initially received fifty acres from Luojiabao and later bought another fifty acres.

The Du family paid a hundred mu of land as compensation for Duqu Guabao, while the emperor awarded a thousand mu to the general camp.

In Sanyuan County, there was also a hundred acres of land awarded by the emperor, and there was another hundred acres of land in the two districts south of Chang'an City.

Not counting the land outside Yongzhou, there are 1,400 acres of land, and another 400 acres of land under the name of the society.

This adds up to 1,800 acres of land, which is not a small amount.

Outside of Yongzhou, he also had 2,500 acres of land in Qizhou, Jingzhou, Puzhou, and Shangzhou.

He is definitely a landlord.

Du Shiniang is now the eldest wife and has started to save money for the family.

After discussing with Ji, she felt that it would be more profitable to cultivate the land herself, especially at this time of changing dynasties and with so many refugees outside Chang'an City. This was a rare opportunity to recruit troops at no cost.

This method can also be used for the 2,500 acres of land outside Yongzhou.

"Now that winter has arrived and the weather is cold, many disaster victims are suffering even more. We are recruiting people to farm and provide them with food and clothing, which is also saving their lives."

Living is also simple,
They would dig holes in the fields and build straw huts, or dig earthen caves near cliffs or ditches to live in temporarily. Although the conditions were crude, they were better than the current shacks for disaster victims, and at least they could have food to eat.

"Ah Lang, now is autumn time for planting. We can hire some reliable and dedicated long-term workers, and some temporary workers to plant this season's crops first."

According to Shi Niang and her friends, it is cost-effective. They can hire a permanent worker to manage 50 acres of land. Now they can hire some temporary workers to help during the autumn sowing. After the autumn sowing, there is not much work. It is definitely enough for a family of several people to manage 50 acres of land.

"If these farmhands have children around ten years old, they can also be arranged to work as apprentices or assistants in our workshops or shops."

Li Yi felt that what they said made sense.
With only more than 4,000 acres of land, they would have to recruit 80 to 90 households of disaster victims to work as long-term laborers. They were called long-term laborers, but in fact they were recruited as subordinates and hidden population.

There are four or five people in one household, so there must be about four hundred people.

Li Yi felt that these women had big appetites and were very courageous.

"We can't support so many people now, right?"

Ji calculated the bill with him, "We try to select young and strong couples with few children. If we assume that each family has three to four people, then the daily food ration for each family is only six liters. For eighty families, the daily food ration is only four shi and eight dou, which is only one hundred and forty-four shi per month.
Although they get more than 1,700 dan of grain a year, we can only give them grain once every ten days, which means less than 50 dan each time.

Alang told us earlier that there were still more than 600 dan of grain at home, which was enough to support us for more than four months, although the summer grain harvest was still half a year away.

But our workshops and shops will also generate income, so we can definitely support it.”

"Just giving them food rations isn't enough. We also have to give them clothes and shoes, and we have to pay them wages, and that's not even counting these."

Ji said frankly, "Alang, these disaster victims are having a hard time surviving the winter. We are saving their lives by recruiting them now. They will have enough food to eat, especially if the whole family has enough food to eat. Many disaster victims will fight for it."

Li Yi admitted that this was a fact.
I just feel that the big players are taking advantage of others' misfortune, which is a bit unfair.

"I think they still need to be paid. We can't exploit and oppress them just because they are disaster victims.
We can explain it when we recruit them, give them food first, and then pay them food wages when the summer and autumn harvests come.

The wages can be reduced, but they cannot be denied."

"Alang, in the countryside, hiring a strong farmhand usually provides food and lodging, two seasons of clothing and shoes, and ten to twelve dan of wheat and millet. A farmhand's annual ration is about seven dan of rice. In other words, a farmhand's annual expenses are about twenty dan of grain."

A farmhand can only cultivate about 50 acres of land at most, which means that if you hire a farmhand, the output of 50 acres will be taken up by the farmhand's cost of more than ten acres, not to mention seeds, farm tools, oxen, etc.

Unless the plantation is run on an estate basis and some temporary workers are hired during the busy farming season, then one permanent worker will have to manage about a hundred acres of land on a normal basis, and the cost can be reduced.

Otherwise, it might not be better to rent out the land directly. Now some landlords collect rent in half or even 60% to 40% from the tenants.

However, it is customary for landlords to only collect rent for summer crops. In autumn, other crops are usually planted for rotation, and the yield is low, so it is customary not to collect rent.

If the landlord runs the business himself, all the profits will naturally belong to him. Ji's current proposal to recruit people from the disaster victims is not actually based on the immediate profits, but rather on the opportunity to exploit the loopholes in the government and dig into the country's corners. These disaster victims will be recruited and settled in his territory.
Many people became Li Yi's followers and became his personal vassals.

In the future, when developing the manor, as long as there are sufficient manpower, in addition to planting, you can also engage in breeding, textiles, and even some workshop processing. With enough manpower, you can also obtain more profits.

There are not many opportunities to snatch people like this. Once the world is unified and the country is stable, the court will no longer allow wealthy families to openly poach people like this.

Rather than recruiting people, it is better to take the opportunity to snatch people.

After a long discussion,
The family meeting concluded that we should recruit people, and recruit them quickly.

Priority will be given to couples in their twenties and thirties, and couples with only one are given the first priority. Then those with teenage children or parents in their forties or fifties will be given the second priority.
Those whose parents are too old and sick and whose children are too young and numerous, are not considered for the time being.

The standard of treatment was five liters of millet per household per day, and five dou of grain once every ten days.

"You cook your own food and live in your own thatched hut. That's your temporary treatment. Your wages are three dan of millet each year after the summer and autumn harvests."

In the second year, two seasons of clothing and shoes will be provided, and six shi of grain will be provided for each season."

If the wives or children of these recruited families are chosen to work in workshops or shops, they can get extra wages.

Li Yi also added that starting from the third year, these people can choose whether to plant together.

Farming together means you can get a share of the profits. Li Yi provides seeds, oxen, farm tools, etc., and the farmhand only does the labor. The final harvest is divided into 70% and 30% of the profits. If one hundred acres of land produces one dan of grain per acre, you can get 30 dan of grain. If you have 7 dan of grain for your own food, you can still have more than 20 dan left. After removing the clothes, it is definitely better than just being a farmhand.

They also changed from farmhands to tenants, and in the future they accumulated farm tools, oxen, and seeds, which could also reduce the landlord's share.

"Alang's offer is too good,"

"You have to give people some hope, otherwise there's no motivation."

On the same day,

Li Yi led everyone to recruit people.
The first stop was still Sanqiao, which Li Yi had been to several times. This time, Li Yi brought a pot, firewood, and millet in advance.

After arriving at Sanqiao, we set up a pot to cook porridge.

Raise flags and distribute porridge.

"Cook the porridge thicker so the chopsticks can stand up."

As soon as the porridge-giving banner was put up, it immediately attracted many disaster victims.

Fortunately, Li Yi brought a lot of people with him today, so order could be maintained.

Cook porridge here.

On the other side, Liu Heizi, Luo San, Luo Er, Dafu Dagui, Cao Yanxiu, Li Cunli, Xiao Shisan and others began to advertise for recruitment.

In this cold and bleak winter,

In the dark clouds and cold wind,
The situation in the Sanqiao disaster-stricken area was worse than the previous times Li Yi came. The number of disaster victims increased instead of decreased. Although the autumn harvest had just passed, there were still many hungry people fleeing famine.

The Li family is recruiting workers.

It immediately attracted countless people, just like what Ji said, no one cared about how much the wages were, whether there were good accommodation conditions, or whether clothes would be provided.

Now these disaster victims only have one thing in mind.
Can I have something to eat?

As long as there is food to eat, nothing else matters.

The scene was hot.

Many people rushed to sign up.

They were not interested in hearing about how much grain they would be paid as wages after the first year's autumn harvest, how much processing money they would receive in the second year, or even how much they could share in the third year.

They just want to find a stable job in this cold wind and have a stable meal.
Luo Er and the others were overwhelmed by the choices.
Among the crowd of people vying to register, priority is given to young and middle-aged couples, and couples are given priority over single men because of their relative stability.

In addition, women can also work in workshops.

Next year, the Li family will definitely raise silkworms and weave cloth. At that time, these women will of course be the main force in raising silkworms and weaving cloth. In the era when men farm and women weave, raising silkworms and weaving cloth cannot be underestimated. The income from them is sometimes higher than that from farming.

Furthermore, couples who have families will be more stable and will not just eat well for a few days and then suddenly run away one day.

The planned enrollment of eighty households was quickly filled up.

At this time, several large pots of porridge had just been cooked, and no one cared how thick it was. Facing the hungry people who had been waiting with their bowls and basins,
Li Yi knocked on the edge of the pot.

"Everyone lined up, the porridge is being distributed. No one is refusing to line up or cutting in line!"

Shi Niang and Ji Shi also specially set up two lines for women and children, allowing only women and children to line up to get porridge.

"Everyone, please line up. Today, the porridge is being distributed by Mr. Li, the founding Viscount of Qianshui County."

(End of this chapter)