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

Chapter 272 One Person Holding Six Positions

A day's work was only paid one liter of millet. In peaceful times, people would be called "skin-stripping ghosts." But now, even if it was only one liter of millet a day, the refugees were scrambling to get it.

They were originally refugees. Some came from Shuofang Yanxia, and some came from Longyou Hexi. They were all from places poorer than Guanzhong. When faced with war and famine, they had no choice but to leave their homes and flee to the rich and stable Guanzhong.

Many people used to come to Guanzhong to work as wheat pickers.
Every summer, the wheat in Guanzhong ripens first, while the wheat in Longyou and Shuofang ripens later. Many poor people come to Guanzhong together to harvest wheat and earn some food.

When a famine occurs, the first thing people think of is to escape to Guanzhong.

"Old Zhao, you said only one liter of millet a day, isn't that too little?"

"They provide two meals a day. These days, for these refugees, just two meals a day is a big deal. Giving them this liter of millet is so that they can support their families."

What family can you feed with one liter of millet?
The recruitment site was crowded with people.

Soon, 1,300 coin minters were recruited, and they were provided with two meals a day and two liters of millet. In the eyes of all the refugees, this was the best treatment.

Then, they recruited another two thousand woodcutters and charcoal burners. This work was done in the mountains and was not as easy as minting money in a workshop, but they were quickly filled up because they were provided with two meals a day and received two liters of millet as wages.

The last 700 odd jobs, who were only given two meals a day and paid one liter of millet, were also filled.

Four thousand people,
When it was announced that the enrollment was full, countless people who had not yet reached the front were already beating their chests and stamping their feet.

If there weren't a thousand imperial guards standing there with spears and shields, these people would probably want to cause trouble.

Just got surrounded and attacked by Crown Prince Li Jiancheng,
Now facing Li Yi who has thousands of imperial guards, these people can only sigh and sigh, but dare not act recklessly.

"The Mint only needs this many people for now. Don't worry about those you haven't recruited yet. There's a lot of land in this mountain that has been reclaimed.
Now you can replant it.

It's spring now, I can get some seeds, farm tools, etc., and you can form teams to cultivate the land.
Before the grain is harvested, the court will lend you food rations without interest."

Five households form a bao, five bao form a jia, and four jia form a tun.

Five households form a group, forming a production team, reclaiming wasteland and farming together, helping each other. The five households in the group also have the responsibility to supervise each other's illegal activities. Those who collude with thieves and bandits will be held collectively liable, and they even need to take turns to send people to participate in joint defense patrols.

This is because these are all refugees who have no means of production, no food or money, and they have no ability to produce and save themselves.

The lack of large livestock such as cattle and horses made it difficult to reclaim land for farming, so several households had to unite to produce, especially when many refugees lacked strong labor.

One hundred households form one village.
While providing relief, Li Yi also organized them to reclaim wasteland and cultivate land, and to produce for self-help. He lent them food and farm tools without interest to prevent them from being unable to afford it.

The families of coin minters, charcoal burners, and handymen could also be registered as settlement households.

Originally, there were countless refugees in Nanshan, who were called bandits by Li Jiancheng. Their huts and wooden houses were burned down and they were driven out of the mountain. Now Li Yi wanted to arrange for them to settle and reclaim land.
After all the trouble, the people are the ones who suffer in the end.

Li Yi also arranged for the one thousand imperial guards who were guarding here to cultivate some land next to the Yishou Palace, so that they could be self-sufficient.

For several days in a row,

Zhao Feng and other craftsmen were busy making the ancestral thread, while Li Yi was busy organizing the militia.

Finally, in the area of Heishui Valley where Yishou Palace is located, Li Yi organized 72 villages and built 72 small villages in the valleys.

Provide them with food and farm tools,
So these people cut down trees and built huts, erected fences and walls, and established villages in the selected places. Then they reclaimed wasteland in the valleys and cultivated land. In fact, many valleys had been reclaimed and cultivated by refugees, but last time they were indiscriminately treated as bandits and suppressed.
Every ten days,
The headmen of the baojia (military) units in each village came to Yishou Palace to collect their rations.

The rations were considered loans and had to be repaid later, but they were not charged interest.

Two thousand charcoal workers also went into the mountains to chop wood and make charcoal, and set up sheds in the mountains.

The bandits in Nanshan were registered as common people and all worked to save themselves through production.

As long as Li Yi can provide food for these 4,000 workers and the people in the 72 villages, then they can live in peace.

Their requirements are really low. No matter how hard or tiring it is, as long as they can have something to eat, they are willing to follow the arrangements.

Everyone rushed to do the odd jobs that paid one liter of grain a day. If they couldn't get the odd jobs, they would go into the mountains to reclaim wasteland and cultivate land. As long as they could get food rations every ten days, they would be willing to do it even if it was borrowed.

Li Yi thought about himself. He had spent seven million to buy a luxurious house with a polo field. It was a lavish expense. But after careful calculation, he realized that at today's grain prices, this amount of money could only buy a little over 1,900 dan of grain.

Each person gets one liter of food rations per day, and 20,000 people need to eat 200 dan of food a day. These 7 million rations are only enough for the refugees here to have food for about ten days.

He was minting coins here, and even if he made 3,000 yuan a month, it was still not enough to cover his losses.

But in the long run, if these 20,000 to 30,000 refugees were appeased, a lot of money could actually be saved. For example, in recent years, the Sizhuyuan bandits have been rebelling year after year, attacking the county town every year, causing enormous losses.

Even just because they occupied Sizhu Garden, the imperial court lost huge profits from this hundred-mile bamboo sea.

By pacifying these tens of thousands of people and solving the bandit problem here, the invisible benefits are enormous, and the expenses saved on banditry are huge.

If these 72 villages can be stabilized, tens of thousands of acres of new land can be reclaimed here in the future.
Not to mention that if the Mint earned 3,000 strings of cash every month, that would be 60,000 strings of cash a year, a huge sum.

After a few days,
Li Yi returned to Chang'an again with the newly carved ancestral coins made by Zhao Feng and others.

This time, a plan for post-disaster relief and comforting the refugees was also brought.

Tai Chi Palace,
Li Yuan summoned Li Yi.

"Four thousand craftsmen and seventy-two settlements of refugees?"

Li Yuan took the detailed memorial written by Li Yi and read it carefully. The more he read, the more surprised he became. This kid was decisive and efficient in his work. He had his own way.

The Sizhu bandits have been a nuisance for a long time.
He is now cutting off the source of the problem and solving it in one move?

However, seeing the refugee settlements, there are actually 72 settlements, which means 7,200 households. Regardless of the number of households, there are 20,000 to 30,000 people. With 30,000 people, the daily food rations alone would be several hundred dan.

What a big pit.

But Li Yuan had to admit that Li Yi's ability to settle them in this way was much better than Prince Jiancheng's random suppression.

If we simply suppress the refugees without providing them with proper resettlement, they will soon flee back to the mountains or even become more roving, causing even greater harm.

The ancestral coin is made of fine copper, and there is only a small square hole in the middle, which is not fully opened.

"Your Majesty, this hole is not opened, which is commonly known as the golden mouth is not opened. Your Majesty's approval is required. After the ancestral coin can be used, the golden mouth can be opened and then used to make mother coins."

"This ancestral coin is very finely carved. I am very satisfied. Then let's open the gold mouth and cast the mother coin."

Li Yuan also fully supported Li Yi's recruitment of 4,000 workers and the resettlement of 72 refugees.

"Those four thousand workers will become the Yishou Qianjian craftsmen from now on. The refugees from the seventy-two surrounding settlements will also be registered as citizens and resettled. I will exempt them from rent and taxes for three years."

Li Yi presented his difficulties to the emperor. With so many people, they needed several hundred dan of food every day, not to mention the wages of four thousand men, which also required a hundred dan a day.

"I will issue an order to have the Taifu Temple allocate grain from the granary. You will organize people to go to the granary and transport the grain back."

Li Yuan waved his hand and asked Li Yi to sit next to him.

Sitting together on the imperial couch,

"Last time Zhu Shanhai rebelled, almost all the people, merchants and businessmen in Zhouzhi County fled, leaving it a deserted city.

The magistrate and the county magistrate of Zhouzhi County were extremely negligent in their duties. I heard that all the local powerful families in Zhouzhi and Huxian counties under the Nanshan Mountains were in cahoots with bandits.

Speaking of this, Li Yuan was very dissatisfied.

"I have already dismissed all officials from the two counties. You are now in Yishou Palace, so you will also be the acting magistrate of Zhouzhi County.

You are to take charge of Yishou Palace, Yishou Money Bureau, and Zhouzhi County.

When you have time, clean up Yishou Palace. I might even go there in the summer."

The magistrate of Zhouzhi County belongs to the magistrate of Ji County, and his rank is the upper sixth rank, which is higher than the rank of ordinary county magistrates. But Li Yi is now a magistrate of the third rank, and he is also a sixth rank county magistrate?

"Although the position of county magistrate is small, it is called a local official. You should work hard and gain experience. Without experience in prefectures and counties, how can you be promoted to the provincial government in the future?"

"Although things are a mess over there right now, I believe in your ability. You can straighten things out in such a short time and you will definitely be able to revitalize it."

What else can Li Yi say?
The emperor really didn't treat him as an outsider, he treated him like a beast of burden.

One person holds several positions and still receives a salary.

His current duties include Prince's Left Guard Commander, Director of Fengyi Palace, and now he is also the Coin Minter, and concurrently the Supervisor of Yishou Palace and Yishou Money Supervisor, and acting Magistrate of Zhouzhi County.

One person holds six positions.

Even oxen and horses wouldn't dare to use it like this.

But if you think about it in history, Yang Guozhong held more than 40 positions, which is far from enough.

Even Li Shimin had more titles than him.

Li Shimin is now the King of Qin, Taiwei, Shangshu Ling, Yongzhou Mu, You Wuhou General, Shangzhuguo, Shangshu Ling of the Shaanxi East Road, and General Manager of Puzhou, guarding Changchun Palace.

"The Dali Temple Minister Lang Chu reported to the court that they had uncovered a case in which officials from the Ministry of Works colluded to sell government property at a low price and embezzled it, exchanging privately minted counterfeit coins for good official treasury currency. Among them was a clerk from the Ministry of Works named Wang Ren. Do you remember him?"

"I remember that the last time I returned to Beijing, I bought a house in Shengyefang through him."

Li Yuan smiled. "This person told me that he was willing to sell your house and golf course worth seven million for four million. You just need to give him one and a half million privately. But you actually refused."

"That house is government property. How can I harm the public and enrich myself?"

"But you didn't expose this person afterwards!"

Li Yi said helplessly, "When Wang Ren said this, it was just the two of us present. He said it out loud, and I heard it. There was no third person involved. If I were to expose him, I would have no evidence."

"Hahaha, it's great that you can reject him," Li Yuan waved his hand.

"These corrupt officials have been found by the Dali Temple. They have a Yuanwailang above them and a bunch of officials below them. I have confiscated their property and exiled them all."

When Li Yi heard that there was only a sixth-rank official above him, he knew that the matter had come to an end.

"Your Majesty is holy."

"I will send this ancestral coin back to the Yishou Mint House and have them mint mother coins based on it. I will give you three days off to go home and spend time with your wife and children."

"You spent two million to buy the polo field, but you haven't used it yet. It's a good opportunity to try it out."

Li Yi felt that he was being secretly monitored by Li Yuan. Wang Yi's accident was definitely not because he had been targeted by the court for a long time, but because he had the bad luck to find Li Yi and was discovered by his superiors, so he was uprooted.

This feeling is really bad.

It seems that I have to be more careful in the future.

(End of this chapter)