Chapter 45: Permanent Tenancy

Buy the land of Old Temple Village.

To most people of this era, that was probably perfectly normal.

Old Temple Village had land but no people — over five thousand mu of riverfront and non-riverfront land, middle and lower fields. The clan fields were decided by the dozen or so people left in the village. Irrigation and sowing were mostly done; buy it and you could just wait for the harvest.

Besides, you strike when a man is sick to take his life. The village had been robbed clean, the survivors clearly had no choice — give them a bit of grain and in the end you'd definitely get the land.

A godsend pie, a fantastic deal, about to land right on the head of whoever had grain. And at this critical moment, who had grain?

Looking across the northern townships of the prefectural seat, apart from them, no one else could produce nearly a hundred dan of rice and grain with just a few men.

But to Liu Chengzong's ears, it sounded a little strange — farming in northern Shaanxi at the end of the Ming dynasty?

Just hearing it sounded fantastical!

Yet when Cao Yao laid it out, it made him feel the matter might actually have room to maneuver.

"Think about it — when can one dan of millet buy twenty or thirty mu of land? Right now. Buy these fields, then lease them back. As long as you can plant two hundred mu, the grain harvested a few months later covers your cost. Anything beyond that is pure profit."

"You say the times are uncertain and buying land is useless, but do we have anywhere else to go? We don't want to join Wang Zuogua, we don't want to join Huntian King or whatever he's called. Black Dragon Mountain is already building a mountain fort — we're definitely staying here for the next year or two. So why not buy this land?"

"Besides, this is doing a good deed, Lion. Look at Lu Bin — for these people to hold on until the harvest, they'll need at least fifty dan of grain. Fifty dan, Lion! Who else around here can come up with fifty dan to help them?"

Cao Yao grew more impassioned as he spoke and thumped his chest. "Only us brothers!"

That much was true, but there was still one thing that puzzled Liu Chengzong. He raised a hand to stop Cao Yao's flattery — in his eyes, this was exploiting someone's misfortune, absolutely not charity, though it was indeed tempting.

Even if the land stayed in their hands for only one year, one year was worth it.

Just days ago, the family had discussed going to Shanxi to buy grain, going to the prefectural seat to buy grain, to get through the hard times of the latter half of the year. With this riverfront land, whatever hardships came, they could probably grit their teeth and endure.

He asked, "Brother Cao, why did you come to me?"

Hearing this question, Cao Yao grinned.

"Let me put it to you this way — I can only spare thirty dan of grain. You have grain in hand. Also, we're all military household registrations; you're the only one with civilian registration. And on top of that, you saved my life beyond the frontier. If we buy the land, I trust you."

At that, Liu Chengzong said no more. The two put their heads together and decided on the spot: Cao Yao would discuss the matter with Lu Bin of Old Temple Village, and he would return to Black Dragon Mountain to talk it over with his father and brother.

That afternoon, he told Liu Xiangyu and Liu Chengzu at home. Everyone agreed at once and decided to buy Old Temple Village's riverfront fields. How many mu and the final price would depend on what the landowner intended; all they could decide was how much grain to put up for the purchase.

Fifty dan.

For his father and elder brother, making this decision carried no psychological burden. After all, it wasn't forced sale or forced purchase. If the survivors of Old Temple Village didn't want to sell, then they would naturally drop the matter — they wouldn't go knocking on doors with blades to force anyone.

It was somewhat taking advantage of others' plight, but they were truly driven by their own desperate grain shortage. The village's grain stores were being counted by the day; by the turn of summer and autumn, the rice jar would be scraping bottom.

Now that the idea of buying land had taken hold, the whole household began joyfully calculating the autumn harvest after the fields were theirs.

Cao Yao handled the communication with Lu Bin. At noon the next day, Lu Bin and the village's sole surviving elder were brought by Cao Yao to Black Dragon Mountain.

"To be frank, my family was not too willing to sell the clan fields at first, but we truly have no other way. Even if Officer Cao hadn't come to find me, I would have had to come to Black Dragon Mountain today. The only difference is that now I'm here to sell land; originally I'd planned to come asking for a loan."

Lu Bin took the matter in stride. He said, "The village has discussed it. The land price can be low — eighty dan of grain for two thousand seven hundred mu of riverfront fields, as long as it's enough for us to eat. But we want seven hundred mu on permanent lease to seven tenant households. This year the land can't all be worked, so we can only give ten percent rent. Starting next year and every year after, thirty percent, dried and winnowed clean, delivered to Black Dragon Mountain along with one lamb."

"If you can agree to this, from now on Old Temple Village will be called Liu Family Village, and Second Master will be our landlord."

Lu Bin laid it out with complete candor. To be honest, it didn't sound so much like Liu Chengzong buying land to become a great landlord as it did like him and the seven tenant households of Old Temple Village becoming partners, joining hands to get through the crisis together.

In the Ming dynasty, the land system included permanent tenancy. Once permanent tenancy was chosen, the landlord had the right to sell or mortgage the land, but could not arbitrarily revoke the tenancy. Even if the land changed hands, what was sold was the ownership of the land and the ground rent.

As long as the tenant did not fall behind on rent, not only could they farm that land in perpetuity, they also had the right to inherit, sell, mortgage, pawn, and sublease the cultivation rights to the tenanted fields.

Under this form of tenancy, the tenant had to bear the ground rent, the land tax, and all other miscellaneous levies attached to the land.

In short, the survivors of Old Temple Village were carving out the land that belonged to them from the estate. In truth, in the past, these seven households combined might not have even had seven hundred mu.

Cao Yao felt his side was getting a bit of a raw deal and cut in: "Fifty mu per household is already plenty. You couldn't even work a hundred mu."

Liu Chengzong, however, felt it wasn't a big issue. In his eyes, no landholding in northern Shaanxi could hold its value through the coming chaos. Whether he fought over these three hundred mu or not, he might not be able to hold onto any of it in the future anyway.

So there was no need to squeeze people too hard over this. He smiled at Cao Yao. "This was always about mutual support. I think we can agree. We can't plant that much land this year either."

In truth, even in the latter half of the year, whether they could farm all two thousand seven hundred mu depended first on whether they could recruit forty refugee households, and second on whether they could find a way to get enough oxen and mules.

Otherwise, the land simply couldn't be plowed.

With the land deal settled, and relying on the village covenant and the elder's witness, this tract of land essentially belonged to Liu Chengzong. The Liu family was delighted; the old master even specially asked the villagers for some rice wine and poured a cup for everyone.

But at this stage, one step was still missing — they had to go to the yamen to make this land transaction legal.

No time to lose. The three Liu brothers, along with Cao Yao and Lu Bin — a party of five — led out the horses that very day and set off for Yan'an Prefectural Seat.

Because this land purchase was still subject to numerous constraints — although the traditional obstacle of the village covenant requiring inquiries of all neighbors was gone, there was still the complication of converting clan fields into private land. So to ensure things went smoothly, they brought along their cousin Chengyun, to have him seek his father-in-law to write a note.

This was Liu Chengzong's first visit to the prefectural seat since returning home from Fish River Fort. Public order in Yan'an Prefectural Seat, where the county yamen was located, was as usual — nothing like the terror of Ansai County Town.

But the refugee tents stretching endlessly outside the city walls and the gruel kitchens set up there still made the threat of famine viscerally clear.

On the official road through the northern townships of the prefectural seat, sturdy men in solid armor astride fine horses whipped past in groups of three or five from time to time. The manor retainers of powerful clans openly wore armor in defiance of the ban, and the constables outside the city could do nothing to stop them. There were also seven or eight garrison soldiers robbing famine refugees of their bundles out in the open, rifling through them right on the road, discarding what they didn't want, and swaggering off.

The law of the jungle had become the norm.

Of course, in the eyes of others, Liu Chengzong's party — carrying northern township militia tallies, wearing concealed armor with sabers at their waists — were exactly the same kind of men.