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

Chapter 67 I Really Want to Hammer You to Death
The bearded man took out a booklet from his arms, opened it, and a golden light flashed.

"This is leaf gold. There are twelve leaves in a volume. Four leaves weigh one liang, so one volume weighs three liang."

The strong man took the gold leaves out of the book. Looking at the extremely thin gold leaves, which shone so brightly, the bald man's eyes widened and he stared at the gold leaf book intently.

"As long as you agree to our conditions, this volume of gold leaves will be yours."

The bald man breathed rapidly and said in a trembling voice, "Can I touch it?"

"Of course," the bearded man laughed.

The bald man stretched out his hand, and the fat aunt beside him shouted worriedly: "Boss,"

The gold leaf is very thin and made to look like a page of a book. There are stamps and words on the four corners and the center of each page.

"What's this word?"

"The characters on the four corners read 'Dongshifangxi', and in the middle 'Chen Erlang Shifenjin'. This means that this gold leaf was made by Chen Erlang's gold shop in Chang'an's Dongshifangxi, and it is made of pure gold."

Each page was worth two cents and five cents, and when it was forged, each page was folded into five equal parts. So when using it, just fold it, and it would be five cents of gold, equivalent to four hundred Kaihuang five zhu, which was convenient for payment.

"This volume of leaf gold can be exchanged for 24,000 Kaihuang Wuzhu meat coins at any time."

"Do you keep your word?"

"As long as you agree, this gold leaf will belong to you now."

The bald man held the golden leaf book tightly and refused to let go.
"My bride works in Li Dalang's workshop. She earns seven dou of grain a month, two meals a day, and often receives bonuses. Look, today she received two more dou of rice."

The burly bearded man laughed heartily. "Our manager has told us that as long as your new wife is willing to come to us and teach us the secret recipe for bean curd sheets, we will give her two dan of rice every month. You can also come and work there, and we will also give you two dan a month. We will also provide you with food and lodging, housing, a set of spring clothes and shoes every year, and a set of winter clothes and shoes every two years."

"keep your word?"

"We can make a contract."

The bald man gritted his teeth, his eyes wide, and said, "I do."

"Boss, what secret recipe of bean curd sheets are you talking about?" Aunt Pang was so anxious that she was sweating all over.

The bald man pinched the gold leaf and said to his wife, "We have met a noble person and are going to be rich. You have seen the one who is here to bring us wealth. If you teach them how to make bean curd sheets, they will give us three ounces of gold now. In the future, if we work for them, we will have four dan of rice a month (rice, not corn), and we will also be provided with food, lodging, clothes and shoes."

Auntie Pang said anxiously, "How can that be possible? The bean curd sheets are the village chief's recipe. I'm just working for someone else. Even if I know how to make them, I can't sell them to others."

"Are you stupid? You only get seven dou of millet a month working for him, and two dan of rice a month working for others. I can also go and work for the same two dan, not to mention the three liang of gold right in front of me."

"How can this be possible? The village chief has been so kind to us."

"What's so good about that? I asked him to lend me some money to repair my cave house, but he refused to lend me the money. He makes so much money, but he's so stingy."

Auntie Fatty threw the grain bag into the bald man's arms and said, "One must have a conscience. I will never let the village chief down. That would be unscrupulous and will bring retribution."

"Bullshit, if you have gold, you'd be stupid not to want it."

The bald man got anxious and clenched his fist to hit the fat aunt. The strong man with a curly beard pulled the bald man away and said, "Don't hit me, talk to me nicely."

"Sister-in-law, look at the place you live in now. It's so dilapidated and old. I heard that the cliff collapsed once and killed many people. Aren't you worried that it will collapse again when it rains?
Look at your three children, they are pale and skinny, they look so pitiful.
Now is a great opportunity to change, you have to cherish it, such opportunities don’t come around often.”

"But we must act according to our conscience." Aunt Pang's lips were broken by her husband, but she still insisted.

"Yes, we have to be conscientious, but to be honest, this yuba is just a business. Even if you help us make yuba, it won't affect him."

"How can it not affect you?" Aunt Fat didn't believe it.

"The world is so big, even if there are more people making yuba, we can't exhaust this business. Besides, our yuba can be sold in Luoyang, Taiyuan, Shandong, and Shannan. We guarantee that we won't compete with Village Chief Li for business."

Aunt Fat was skeptical.

The bald man was so anxious that he wanted to beat someone up again.

"I'll give you two ounces of gold."

As he spoke, the strong man with curly beard took out a piece of gold leaves from the book, tore off eight pieces, and handed them to the fat aunt.

Twenty pages of gold leaf, a total of five ounces of gold,

In addition, the couple was promised a monthly salary of four stone of rice, and food, lodging, clothing and shoes were provided. This treatment was indeed much higher than the current treatment.

Fat Auntie hesitated for a moment when faced with the gold handed to her, then shook her head and refused.

"That bean curd sheet recipe isn't mine. I can't do this. I have to have a conscience."

The bald man cursed and punched the fat aunt hard, leaving bruises all over her head. This time the bearded strong man just watched from the side and did not pull away.

After a while, the bald man stopped.
Aunt Pang's eyes were broken, her eye sockets were black and blue, her nose was bleeding, and her hair was disheveled.

"I have the final say in my family. This bitch deserves a beating. We will go with you now. Once we get there, we'll beat her a few times and she will be obedient." The bald man also snatched the two taels of gold.

The bearded man nodded. "Okay," he readily gave the bald man five taels of gold leaves. "Pack up quickly and come with us."

He was not worried that the bald man would take the money and not do the job. The Wei family's gold was not something a country bumpkin could covet.

"You can't do this." Aunt Fat squatted on the ground and cried.

The bald man went up and beat him up again.

"Uh, I'll beat you to death, you stupid bitch."

······
Night falls.

Li Yi brought Shitou and a few other boys out of the He River. It was quite comfortable to take a bath in this small river.

When they returned to the yard, Yu Shu took the initiative to come over again and said, "I'll dry Alang's hair." After drying his hair, he changed his clothes.

The countryside is very quiet after dark. The school in the west courtyard only has classes at noon, and the workshops also stop after dark.

Work at sunrise, and rest at sunset.

There is no entertainment to speak of.

Yu Shu has been pestering Li Yi, trying to win his favor.

"Sujun," Li Yi called Ji and asked her to come over to review the recent accounts together.

Ji lifted the curtain and entered the room. The Silla maid sat aside with a dissatisfied look on her face.

"Yu Shu, go back to your room and rest first. I'll sort out the accounts with Su Jun."

The Silla maid left reluctantly.

Looking back over the past month, Li Yi has gone from having nothing by selling pots to owning two large courtyards and several horses, mules and cows.

After a careful inventory, Li Yi was very satisfied.

He started by selling snow pans, earning eleven ounces of gold, a cow, and some grain and silk. Later, he sold stewing cups, earning 150 pieces of silk. Later, Li Shimin, Crown Prince Jiancheng, and Emperor Li Yuan also rewarded him with some silk, horses, gold and silver utensils, and so on.

The last time he sold grain in Chang'an, he earned more than 600 pieces of silk.

The main expenses during this period were buying four mules, thirty frying pans, several large pots, etc., and building two yards.

Building a house and a workshop is not a big expense.
The workshop has always been profitable. It has been profitable from the beginning and the profits are relatively high.

Because the school has donations from the school association, the accounts are kept separately, so he basically does not need to invest any more money there. Instead, he can buy land for rent and borrow money to collect interest.

"Now, my family has three horses, four mules, one cow, three maids, and two slaves. I also have thirty acres of rice fields and twenty acres of mulberry fields in Yusu Township. I also have five hundred acres of land granted to the nobility in Qianshui County, and one hundred acres of land granted by His Majesty in Sanyuan..."

"The family now has dozens of dan of soybeans, wheat, rice, millet, and other grains, 3,128 bolts of silk, 87,300 copper coins, and 17 taels of gold..."

"There are 180 mu of land in the school council, all of which has been rented out at a fixed rent of six dou per mu. There are also over 100 dan of grain and over 800 pieces of silk..."

Li Yi couldn't help but sigh after hearing this.
Not counting the school council's money, grain, and land,
The silk he owns is worth millions of dollars. It's only been less than two months, and he has become so successful.

It is true that gold shines wherever it goes. I couldn't help but feel a little proud.

Ji reminded Li Yi: "The 500 mu of permanent farmland in Qianshuiyuan and the 100 mu of farmland in Sanyuan County, Weibei, must be taken over as soon as possible. I suggest that Alang take advantage of the chaos and go to Sanqiao, Chang'an to select some refugees who have abandoned their land and fled the famine. Recruit them as his troops and place them in Qianshui and Sanyuan to cultivate the 600 mu of land.
A family can cultivate a hundred acres of land, so recruiting six or seven disaster victims as their base, buying some oxen and farm tools, and repairing houses is more cost-effective in the long run than directly hiring long-term or short-term workers, but it costs more money at the beginning.

It’s also more cost-effective than renting it out directly.”

Li Yi felt that it made some sense, but there was a problem that was not easy to solve. That was that he was a bachelor and had no family relatives to rely on. Qianshui County was 500 miles away, and even Sanyuan County was more than 100 miles away.
They recruited some disaster victims to farm the land, but no one cared about them, and they didn't even know when their cows and farming tools were taken away.

"Let's rent it out, even if the rent is lower. I can hire someone to run the business myself when I have the means."

Ji wrote it down.

"Now that Alang has so much silk in his hands, he should consider buying some land or lending it out. Money makes money. This is what everyone does, from the royal family to the landlords.

The Heshui River is right at our doorstep. We could consider building a weir to block the water and a mill to grind rice and flour. The profits would be quite good."

Li Yi also knew that there were no government-run banks or other financial institutions in those days, but the demand for private lending had always been great. Therefore, the incense kitchens of temples, the public funds of government offices, etc., all engaged in lending, which was quite chaotic and the interest rates were very high.

Moreover, the court's attitude has always been to follow private contracts and not to interfere with the affairs of the government.

The court's restriction on usury was only that it should not exceed 6% per month, and no matter how many days it accumulated, it could not exceed double the limit.

But in reality, the monthly interest rate on government treasury funds is 8%, while 10%, 15%, or even 20% is very common among the people. The so-called "not more than double" is just empty talk.

Li Yi discovered that private lending in the countryside is generally small amounts, with monthly interest rates generally ranging from 10 to 20 percent, and some even have compounded interest rates exceeding ten times.

Li Yi knew that there was a real demand among the people for lending money, but he was not willing to lend at high interest rates.

Loan sharking is very harmful.

"If you don't want to lend money yourself, you can deposit your money in the temple's incense kitchen. You can usually get 30 to 50 cents of interest per month."

"Ah Lang could also open a pawnshop, using silk as capital, and do pawning business."

Pawnshops are essentially monopolized by temples these days. They call them "changshengku" (longevity treasury) or "zhiku" (pawnshops), and they're also highly profitable, typically dealing in short-term mortgage loans with fast turnover and high profits. They earn interest on the mortgages and also profit from recovering unredeemed collateral.

"Let's talk about this later," Li Yi shook his head.

Ji reminded Li Yi, "Alang, you have to make plans early. Keeping this silk at home will only damage it from insects and rats, and it won't increase in value. If you lend it out, you can earn double the interest. Even if you buy land and rent it out, the rent will be considerable. Even if you put the silk in the temple's incense kitchen, you can earn 30 to 50 cents in interest."

Li Yi yawned, "I see, I'll consider it."

Ji stood up and said, "Alang, go to bed early. I will go back to my room first."

"Stay tonight." Li Yi made a request.
Ji stood there, her body stiff, her face flushed and her ears hot.

"If you don't want to, forget it."

Ji stood there biting her lip. In fact, she had been mentally prepared since the day she left the palace.

But when that day finally came, I was still a little overwhelmed.

Seeing her standing there without saying a word but not leaving, Li Yi smiled and blew out the oil lamp, then picked her up.
Ji let out a soft cry and hugged Li Yi tightly, her whole body stiff.

How is the night?

The night is still young.

(End of this chapter)