Chapter 501: Bombarding Hanyang Gate

If it's government land, that would be a joke! Never mind seven dou — on average you couldn't even collect seven sheng.

If it's private land, who would rent it to you for less than one shi of rice? A truly first-rate paddy field is guaranteed against both drought and flood, and producing three shi of rice a year is no problem. You can also raise a bit of fish and shrimp in the paddy, which can at least be sold for a few coins.

To rent land like that for one shi of rice, you'd have to be a "big farmer" like Ye Jiaxin — an ordinary poor or lower-middle peasant wouldn't dare dream of it!

Because "big farmers" have a stronger capacity to bear risk, and their level of management is also higher, so they generally have no difficulty paying the land rent. In addition, they can also put up a certain amount of deposit. So landlords are all willing to rent land to them, even if they collect a little less rent.

Whereas "small farmers" have a weaker capacity to bear risk. Small capital, weak strength, after all! Moreover, a "small farmer's" level of management is generally not up to that of a big farmer, and one careless slip means farming at a loss. When the time comes to pay rent, problems arise... and small farmers generally have no means to put up much deposit either. Sometimes they even have to borrow farm tools and plow oxen from the landlord, so the rent they have to pay is naturally a bit higher.

A landlord renting out land is actually much the same as later generations of banks making loans... provided, of course, that it can truly operate on market principles.

"Government land — can you actually rent it?" Ye Jiaxin asked as he followed Yao Daqiao along.

"You can!" said Yao Daqiao. "You didn't know? The court openly rented out public land over in South Zhili... not much of it, but it could still be rented."

Ye Jiaxin was taken aback. "Openly rented out? Where did the land come from?"

"First, tenant farmers surrendering their leases... the public land now managed by the Military Farm Bureau may not be sublet; if you don't farm it, you can only give it back," said Yao Daqiao. "Second, evicting tenants!"

"What? Public land can even have tenants evicted?"

"Of course they can be evicted!" said Yao Daqiao. "If they can't pay the rent, what else can you do but evict them? If this matter were allowed any leeway, then within a few years the court wouldn't have its ten-odd million shi of annual rent!"

Evicting tenants from public land had been unimaginable in the past! But Zhu Cilang had nonetheless authorized the military farm offices below to do it... he had no choice but to do so!

Military expenditures were growing larger and larger, and more and more refugees were fleeing from the north.

If the court had no reserves at all, it wouldn't be long before Zhu Cilang had to walk the same road as the Chongzhen Emperor!

And now the court's ways of raising money were limited; the rent from government land and military farms was a major source... in a single year, what could be put into the treasury alone was sixteen million shi!

If that were gone, Zhu Cilang's court would very likely be unable to carry on.

So the matter of "evicting tenants from public land" had been talked about repeatedly since the beginning of the year. Although not a single tenant had actually been evicted yet, people's ears had already grown calluses from hearing about it.

Yao Daqiao said, "According to the Military Farm Bureau's rules, renting out public land requires bidding."

"How does the bidding work?" Ye Jiaxin was interested — what he was best at was still farming!

Yao Daqiao said, "First, it depends on who offers the highest rent. But the rent is capped — at most seven dou of rice per mu.

Second, it depends on who gives the most deposit... the deposit is not capped, so whoever gives the most gets to rent the land."

In fact, "deposit bidding" was just a disguised rent increase! Because the deposit bore no interest. It was only that Zhu Cilang was unwilling to tear off the false mask of "benefiting the people," while at the same time hoping to attract capable "big farmers" to rent the land, so he used this method.

Yao Daqiao said with a laugh, "Your elder brother here still has a bit of money, kept in the Salt Merchants' Bank, so it wasn't looted by Li Zicheng... now the boats have been taken by the Zuo family too, and the business of shipping rice southeast can't be done either, so I've been thinking of bidding on a piece of public land. But I don't know how to farm!"

"Leave it to me, leave it all to me!" Ye Jiaxin was already beaming — at last there was a little hope in his life again!

He only wondered when Zhu Cilang would begin reorganizing the government land and military farms in Huguang.

As the two were talking, they had already entered Hanyang Gate, and inside Hanyang Gate were the bustling streets and lanes of Wuchang prefectural city.

Ming-dynasty Wuchang city had a circumference of twenty li and nine gates. The area inside the walls was only a bit more than six square kilometers, and a large tract still had to be set aside for building the Prince of Chu's palace. So the space left for ordinary residents was extremely cramped, and now with three or four hundred thousand people squeezed in, the city's crowding could well be imagined.

So the moment he walked through Hanyang Gate, Ye Jiaxin felt the clamor rushing at his face.

Big Farmer Ye, who had spent most of his time in the countryside, was quite unaccustomed to it and felt dizzy and dazzled. Faintly, he could also hear people shouting something at the top of their lungs.

"Petition! Go petition His Highness the Crown Prince!"

"We must ask His Highness the Crown Prince to send troops at once, drive out the roving bandits, and recover the lost territory of Huguang!"

"We must recover the lost territory! At the very least we must recover Chengtian Prefecture..."

Ye Jiaxin cocked his ear and listened for a while, and his interest was stirred too; he wanted to go hear a bit of it, but Yao Daqiao tugged him along toward his own residence. Only when they reached a somewhat quieter lane did he lower his voice and say to him, "Don't think too much of it... the Crown Prince has grand plans of his own; why would he listen to a bunch of scholars who've lost their homes? They've lost their family property and are all frantic, so naturally they want to fight their way back. But why should the Crown Prince be in a hurry? As long as Li Zicheng hasn't been defeated and driven off, the whole south of Huguang is his to reorganize as he pleases! No matter how he reorganizes, he won't go so far as to distribute land by headcount!"

Right — Li Zicheng wanted to distribute land by headcount, and also cancel debts and interest... truly driving the gentry and unscrupulous merchants down the road to ruin!

Whereas Zhu Cilang at most would take back the government and military farm lands. It's not fear of not recognizing quality — it's fear of comparison! As long as Li Zicheng was still in Hanyang and hadn't been driven off, Zhu Cilang could reorganize Huguang to his heart's content, without worrying about anyone making trouble.

"Wuchang city is still too small. With only three or four hundred thousand people it's already this crowded — how can it serve as a river capital? It must be expanded... at least tripled in size! It must be properly laid out, with dedicated areas for people to do business and set up workshops.

By the way, the rivers and streams around Wuchang crisscross the land, no less than in Jiangnan! Many water-powered trip-hammers could be built... the Western artisans in Macao use water-powered trip-hammers for forging, drilling, and cutting, and I hear people in Shanghai are imitating them too. There will certainly be people in Wuchang doing the same, so we need to find a place where waterwheels can be built to expand Wuchang city."

Just as some Huguang gentry who had fled to Wuchang were busying themselves with a "send-troops petition," Zhu Cilang had settled himself in the Prince of Chu's palace. Far from being anxious about what the people were anxious about, he was discussing the expansion of Wuchang city with Liu Kongzhao, Qiu Yu, and Fang Gongyue.

Liu Kongzhao said, "Thousand Years, isn't it a bit early to be discussing this matter now?"

"Indeed," Qiu Yu also said, "Li Zicheng's great army is still in Hanyang Prefecture!"

Fang Gongyue said, "There are still Hongyi cannons on Turtle Mountain!"

"Not early, not early — right now is just perfect." Zhu Cilang said with a smile, "There are so many refugees in Wuchang city right now; it's exactly the time to provide relief through labor and have them help build the new city. Moreover, with Li Zicheng's army at the gates, land prices inside and outside Wuchang are all very cheap — just the time to buy low!"

This was money! Buy low now, sell high once it develops later, or only rent and not sell... one great Shanghai, one great Wuhan — if they could develop, the privy purse would be full to bursting in the future!

Zhu Cilang was calculating the accounts of real estate development, almost grinning from ear to ear. What kind of Crown Prince was this? He was plainly a profiteering real estate developer!

But this matter couldn't be blamed on Zhu Cilang — it was all Chongzhen's fault! He was now dissolute and unprincipled, spending money like a flood... if his great filial son didn't earn a few more "small targets," would he be able to support the extravagantly debauched Retired Emperor Chongzhen in the future?

Just as he was feeling that his filial piety moved heaven itself, the captain of the guard, Yan Yingyuan, suddenly came in from outside, saluted His Highness the Crown Prince, and then reported, "Reporting to Thousand Years: men from the Southern Office of the Embroidered Uniform Guard have just come to report that the gentry and scholars in Wuchang city are plotting a petition."

"Oh." Zhu Cilang nodded, noncommittal.

Yan Yingyuan said, "It is said they are going to the bank of the Yangtze to petition!"

"What?" Zhu Cilang was startled. "To the bank of the Yangtze? Are they going to drown themselves in the river?"