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

Chapter 684 Changsun Wuji's Appetite

Li Yi sold land.
It became the hottest topic of conversation in June, even more so than the coup d'état on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year.

The palace coup on the fourth day of the sixth lunar month was rarely discussed in Chang'an, partly because the coup went too smoothly without much fanfare, and partly because, as a coup, the authorities did not want people to talk about it carelessly.

The common people knew very little about the inside story.

The news of Li Yi selling land has become the talk of the town. At first, everyone thought it was fake news, but it turned out to be true.

During the morning court session,
The Crown Prince publicly announced in the palace that Li Yi had donated 2,000 hectares of land to the court, and declared that these 200,000 hectares of land would be used to supplement the land allocation for 10,000 households in the Tang Dynasty that were short of land.

Twenty mu may not seem like much, but if thirty or forty mu of land have already been granted, an extra twenty mu can make a big difference.

Twenty acres of land can produce enough food for a family of several people.

In the Crown Prince's palace, Li Yi's third son was granted the title of Marquis of Lingqiu.

Not long after the morning court session ended, the news spread like wildfire throughout the 108 wards of Chang'an.

Two thousand hectares of land!
Moreover, I heard that Li Yi wants to offer at least another three or four thousand hectares of land for sale.

Five or six thousand hectares of farmland

Even those so-called aristocratic families might not be able to produce this much land.

Many people don't understand it.

What is Li Yi planning to do?

"Did Tian Duo burn it?"

Some people wondered, "Li Yi has only been in business for a few years, how did he accumulate such vast tracts of land?"

"Yes, in just a few years, they've acquired vast tracts of land, my goodness!"

"Did the wind blow this field into your hands? You just gave it away like that, and now you're selling it off like that?"

Some people have also set their sights on this land.

Now that the world is at peace, it is not easy to acquire land, especially in the capital region. The most expensive fertile land south of Chang'an City sells for one tael of gold, which is equivalent to eight thousand coins per mu.

In those border regions, some wasteland costs less than 80 coins per mu, a difference of a hundred times.

However, even with gold, you might not be able to buy good land in Chang'an.

Especially for large plots of land, those hundreds of acres, with a manor, cattle, horses, slaves, and workshops, very few people sell them.

Even if someone were to actually sell it, it wouldn't end up on the market; relatives and acquaintances would immediately take it over.

Now Li Yi wants to put up another 300,000 to 400,000 mu of land to sell. Even if the land sold in Luoyang, the capital region, is not much, it will still be at least 10,000 to 20,000 mu.

With such a large piece of fatty meat, who wouldn't want to take a bite?

They didn't care what crazy Li Yi was thinking about selling land; who else would complain about having too much land like Li Yi?

Li Yi didn't expect that...

The first person to come knocking was surprisingly Changsun Wuji.
Although this eldest grandson has not yet become the emperor's brother-in-law, he is already a rising star in the court. However, while the Changsun Wuji family is a long-established noble family from the Guanzhong Plain,
He also has several half-brothers.

His mother, Lady Gao, was Changsun Sheng's second wife. Although she was his wife, she was a second wife, and his first wife had left behind several legitimate sons.

After Changsun Sheng passed away, Changsun Wuji and Crown Princess Changsun were still young. As a result, the three of them were driven out of the Changsun family by their brothers and forced to live with their uncle Gao Shilian.

Although the Gao family was a prominent clan of Bohai and a member of the Northern Qi imperial family—Gao Shilian's father had been the Prince of Le'an of Northern Qi—when Changsun Niangsan was expelled from the family, Gao Shilian held a minor official position in the Sui Dynasty and was also implicated in a major treason case. He was quickly demoted to a county clerk in Jiaozhi.
Changsun Niangsan also fell into poverty.

Recalling those years, Changsun Wuji sighed deeply.

If it weren't for the fact that before his uncle was demoted to Jiaozhi, he left them a small courtyard and some money, the widow and her orphan wouldn't have been able to survive.

Fortunately, her uncle had arranged a good marriage for her younger sister in her early years, betrothing her to the second son of the Duke of Tang.

Father-in-law, don't laugh at me.

It wasn't until the ninth year of the Daye era, when my younger sister married into the Tang State Duke's mansion, that our family truly lived a life free from worries about food and clothing.

In recent years, having been by the Crown Prince's side, my circumstances have improved somewhat.

They had accumulated some money and silk, but not much land.

"Father-in-law, if you're selling land, you can transfer it to me. Whether you want gold, silver, or other light goods, or silk, cloth, and grain, it's all fine."

As a newly risen nobleman and the Crown Prince's brother-in-law, Changsun Wuji indeed possessed a considerable amount of silk, as well as gold and silver.

But what's lacking is farmland.

As top nobles, how could they lack land and estates?

Li Yi wants to sell.
He just happened to want to buy it.
Isn't this a coincidence?

In the sweltering summer heat,

Watermelon chilled in the well, mung bean soup with ice.
Changsun Wuji didn't stand on ceremony and started eating the melon.

"This melon is so refreshing, it would taste even better with some frosting sugar."

Li Yi shook his head at Changsun Wuji's eating habits. No wonder he was so young but already so obese. If he continued to eat like this, he would probably get diabetes.

Changsun Wuji, however, felt that this was the luxury and elegance of the nobility.

When eating watermelon, you have to add sugar, and it has to be Indian sugar imported from the Western Regions. When eating mutton, you have to add pepper, and it has to be whole peppercorns.

The frosted sugar produced in India is yellowish and has no high-end quality whatsoever.

Li Yi originally thought,

Selling a batch of land, or even half of the land they own, to avoid being watched every day, these lands are sold first to their own employees, tenants, and then to relatives and neighbors.

His idea was to spread the business out as much as possible and sell to more people.

But Changsun Wuji's current appearance shows a huge appetite; he wants to swallow the land that Li Yi is about to attack.

The fat Changsun is a bit greedy. "How about I give the Duke of Qi ten thousand mu of land each in Guanzhong, Longyou, Shannan, and Henan?"

Changsun Wuji put down the melon rind he had finished eating, wiped his mouth, and said, "Only four hundred hectares? Didn't my father-in-law plan to give up four or five thousand hectares of land?"

"Don't worry, just let the land price go with the market, or even add a little bit."

Land prices are generally low these days, with fertile, irrigated land in the vicinity of the capital and major cities being the only scarce commodity.

Most ordinary farmland might only fetch a few hundred yuan per mu, and some remote, barren hillside dry land might fetch less than a hundred yuan.

Ten thousand mu of good land would only cost a few thousand guan, while forty thousand mu could be acquired for ten thousand guan.

For Changsun Wuji now, this amount of money is still within his means.

"Although I own a considerable amount of land, it is scattered and fragmented. This time, I will likely sell around 5,000 hectares."
Two thousand hectares have already been donated to His Highness and the Imperial Court.
They could probably still offer about three thousand hectares of land, but there wasn't much land in Guanzhong, Longyou, and south of the mountains in Henan. Giving the Duke of Qi four hundred hectares wouldn't be a small amount.
The remaining amount should also be left for other relatives and friends, and even for the household staff and helpers.

Changsun Wuji reached out and picked up another cup of chilled mung bean soup to drink.

"Two thousand hectares, give me two thousand hectares of land, whether it's in the south or the north, I don't care if it's scattered or not, just name your price, we're in-laws, let's keep the good stuff in the family."

Li Yi smiled and shook his head slightly.
"How about 800 hectares? Let's distribute them evenly across the Yangtze, Huai, and Hebei regions."

Changsun Wuji chuckled and patted his large belly, "Let's round it up, a thousand qing."

"Row."

After a moment's consideration, Li Yi agreed.

The eldest grandson, Fatty, returned home satisfied.

"When my wife marries into your family in the future, her dowry will definitely be substantial, hahaha."

"I'll have the housekeeper handle the specific arrangements."

Li Yi wasn't worried that Changsun Wuji would renege on his debts or shortchange him on the land purchase; the fat Changsun wasn't that shameless.

When Du Shiniang came over and heard the story, she exclaimed, "A thousand acres of land really went to the Changsun family?"

"If he wants it, give it to him; it's not like he's giving it away for nothing."

Du Shiniang still couldn't quite understand Li Yi's plan. "This land is a family business that can be passed down to future generations. Money and silk are just inanimate objects."

“Ah Lang has always forbidden our family from lending money at high interest rates, so it’s a waste to have so much money and silk piled up.”

Li Yi smiled.

"Don't just focus on that little bit of land, everyone's eyeing it. Money and silk, if used properly, can be very useful."

"With this money and silk, we can go to the frontier to set up commercial settlements and farm the land as usual. Renting land requires almost no capital. We can grow grain and sell it to the border troops, making a considerable profit. We can also engage in border market trade."

Alternatively, one could go to Lingnan (southern China) to build ships, engage in maritime trade, or even establish trading posts overseas.

Du Shiniang smiled wryly and said, "I really don't understand what you're saying, my lord. But since you've made your decision, I will support you completely."

"Having sold 5,000 acres, there are still 5,000 acres left, which is not a small amount."

Li Yi said, "We may not keep 5,000 hectares. We will try to retain only some of the better farmland and transfer the rest out."
Of course, we can also negotiate with the local government to transfer the land to them and then lease it back to the merchant settlement.

In today's agricultural era, land is extremely scarce and a precious resource that everyone desires.

Li Yi, however, wanted to sell.

The main problem is that they have too much land.

A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime; even the families of meritorious officials shouldn't have too much.

“Our workers and tenants who want to buy land will have priority. The longer they work for us and the better they perform, the more likely they are to pay only part of the land price and repay it in installments with lower interest rates.”

Shi Niang said, "If all the tenant farmers have land, who will still farm for our family?"

"Don't worry, even if tenants buy land, how many acres can they buy at once? They still need to farm the land to make a living."

Besides, there will never be a shortage of tenants in this world.

Even without tenant farmers, there will still be slaves.

The world is just that cruel.

Is land truly scarce in this world? Not entirely. What is truly scarce is the poor.

Only with poor people can there be rich people.

Selling the land to your own tenants or neighbors in installments won't result in a loss, and you can even earn interest by reselling it.

Even if the Li family doesn't lend money at exorbitant interest rates, the normal lending interest is still a good way to make money.

Extend the installment period.
Even if the original tenants had their own land, they would still have to work for the Li family for many years, or even for their entire lives.

The news that Changsun Wuji had obtained a thousand acres of land from Li Yi quickly spread among the aristocratic circles.

As a result, countless nobles flocked to the Prince of Dai's residence, hoping to get a share of the spoils.

When Xiao Diaochan, also known as Wei Tante, saw her sister-in-law come to meet her, she said that her family had prepared a dowry of 5,000 mu of land for her, as well as a lot of money and silk.

"Your brothers have prepared several estates totaling three thousand mu for you, and the Xiaoyao branch has also received an additional eight hundred mu, while the other branches have also received additional land, bringing the total to one thousand two hundred mu."
A dowry of five thousand acres—even among noble and powerful families, this was a rare sight.

Wei Sanniang listened to her sister-in-law talking nonstop.
He interrupted her with some annoyance: "Don't you and your brothers know that the Prince of Dai's mansion has no shortage of land?"

Did the King of Dai offer two thousand qing of land to the Crown Prince, and then just transfer one thousand qing to the Changsun family, the Duke of Qi?

Wei Siyan's wife, Lady Yang, smiled and said, "I've heard some of it. Today I was just thinking of asking you to help me inquire with the Prince of Dai."

Could you also transfer some land to the Wei family? The price is negotiable; we can offer a slightly higher price than the market rate, but we don't need too much.
"If all the branches of the Wei family in Jingzhao combine their assets, we only need to buy a few hundred hectares."

Wei Sanniang asked, "Does our family still lack land?"

“Who else would complain about having too much land like the Prince of Dai?” said Lady Yang.

(End of this chapter)