Chapter 981
No Head
Pan Yun and Xue Shao exchanged a glance, couldn't help but smile, and bowed in tacit agreement, pretending not to know each other.
Xi Jin stood to the side, his eyes darting around, but he remained silent.
Chunwang ran out to report Pan Yun's background.
The old man was very hospitable and quickly accepted that there was another guest in his home. He squatted down and used the water from washing vegetables to wash his hands and feet.
Xue Shao and Xi Jin were covered in mud on their hands and feet, so the old man invited them over to wash their hands and feet.
Pan Jun then learned that Xue Shao and his group had arrived in the afternoon, talked with the old man's family by the field, and then took off their shoes to help harvest the rice. They had been busy until now.
Therefore, the old man liked Xue Shao very much.
The old man looked at Xue Shao with eyes that almost sparkled, as he was a scholar who respected the elderly and knew how to harvest rice without minding the dirt or the hard work.
Pan Jun sat to the side, resting her chin on her hand, and listened to their conversation. She quickly figured out their situation.
Xue Shao was most likely there to conduct a land survey.
Thinking back to the conversation of the group she was following, it turns out their adversary was Xue Shao!
The old man's son and daughter-in-law, carrying rice, lagged behind and returned half an hour later.
The daylight had completely disappeared, so Chunlian took out a torch and stuck it into an earthen wall, illuminating this area.
Following the light, Pan Jun saw six bundles of rice on the ground.
It wasn't very yellow yet; the leaves were a bit greenish. She stepped forward and pressed the grains; they were still quite plump, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
The old man saw her movements and laughed, "Young lady, are you worried that the grains won't be plump enough?"
Pan Jun smiled and said, "I do have that concern, after all, there isn't enough time. But looking at it now, although the leaves aren't golden enough, the grains are plump."
The old man smiled, his face crinkling with wrinkles: "I've already peeled them. If they weren't ripe, even if I was anxious, I wouldn't have the heart to harvest them."
Harvesting rice is also a skilled job; it can't be too late or too early.
If it's too late, the millet will be overripe, and the grains will fall off as soon as you move it. After harvesting, it still needs to be bundled and transported. If it's too ripe, the grains will fall off on their own and be difficult to pick up.
If cooked too early, the rice grains won't be fully absorbed and won't be plump enough. After drying, the weight will drop drastically. After hulling, it's even worse; some grains may turn into rice milk during the hulling process, resulting in unpalatable cooked rice.
The old man squatted down and peeled open the rice grains to show Pan Jun: "Look, they're already plump, but they'll taste even better if left for a few more days."
"If that's the case, why the rush to harvest?"
The old man pointed to the sky and said, "The Double Ninth Festival is approaching. We need to prepare the land for the winter wheat sowing. After the Double Ninth Festival, it will get cold, and the wheat seedlings will need time to emerge. If we harvest too late, the land will not have rested, which may affect next year's harvest."
He frowned and sighed, "This land is just like people. If you keep working, your strength will disappear quickly, and you will age quickly."
Pan Yun then asked, "How many acres of land do you have at home? Can't you rotate crops?"
The old man said, "What you call crop rotation is something only big landlords can do. Poor families only have a few acres of land, and even planting two kinds a year isn't enough to make ends meet, let alone crop rotation."
Their family owns five mu of land, three and a half mu of which is dry land.
One mu of paddy field and two mu of dry land were reclaimed in recent years.
The old man spoke of this with pride, saying, "That place used to be a muddy, smelly mess, and nobody wanted to go there. But I saw that the land underwater was grayish-black, so I knew it was fertile land and immediately decided to cultivate it."
Pan Yun gasped, "This old man is really brave. Isn't he afraid of encountering methane gas?"
"What's wrong with you?"
Pan Yun: "It's a foul odor produced by decaying vegetation. Inhaling too much of this marsh gas can cause poisoning and lead to suffocation and death."
The old man was stunned and remained silent for a long time.
Upon hearing this, the old man's son straightened up, turned to look at his father, and after a moment of silence, asked, "Dad, so you were feeling unwell before because you were poisoned?"
The old man muttered, "I haven't eaten or drunk anything, how could I be poisoned?"
Pan Yun raised an eyebrow, looked him up and down, and asked, "Did you have a headache, dizziness, nausea, or weakness at the time?"
“Yes, yes, yes,” the old man’s son immediately replied, “He even vomited.”
The old man called out to him warningly, "Daquan!"
Daquan ignored him and stared intently at Pan Yun, asking, "Young lady, do you think my father is still poisoned? Can he be cured?"
“Mild poisoning usually subsides after resting in an open area for a while, but I’ll still take a look at you.” Pan Jun grabbed his hand and took his pulse.
The father and son stared at her blankly: "Young lady, you can even treat illnesses?"
Pan Yun smiled and said, "I am indeed a traveling doctor."
The father and son's eyes lit up even more: "So it's a doctor!"
Pan Yun examined the old man and found he was in relatively good health. However, Pan Yun didn't let go of his hand and continued to explain to them while feeling his pulse: "This marsh gas can not only poison people and even kill them, but it is also extremely dangerous to fire. Even a tiny spark can cause a raging fire or even an explosion." Da Quan nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, that's why my dad burned that mudflat to the ground. The fire even floated into the air; it was terrifying."
After a long pause, Pan Yun said, "You are quite terrifying too."
Xue Shao stood aside with his hands clasped and laughed, “I’ve been there. That mudflat hasn’t been there for long. It’s only about a palm’s width deep. It’s because the water flowing down from above couldn’t drain away, and over time it became a mud pit. Coincidentally, the vegetation there is lush, and not far from there is a large dry land, and on the other side is a large pond.”
“There is a large pond for irrigation, and this side is all wasteland. They just throw the grass they pull out there. Over time, the grass rots and directly poisons all the grass that used to grow lushly in the low-lying area, turning it into a stinking, poisonous swamp.”
Because of the stench, it could only be used to throw away grass. Apart from the elderly, no one really thought of cultivating a field next to that toxic swamp.
The old man said, “Before I drove it out, they all laughed at me. But as soon as I drove it out, they became jealous. In the past two years, all the better wasteland around here has been taken over by the villagers. Everyone has cultivated some land, and that’s how things are balanced.”
Xue Shao then asked, "Have these fields been registered and have their land deeds obtained?"
“If we report it to the government, we have to pay taxes, that won’t do,” the old man said directly. “We didn’t report it. We just know where our land is.”
Xue Shao: "What if there's a dispute if there's no land deed?"
“There are clan leaders and village heads in each family, and the elders in the village are all reasonable. If it doesn’t belong to them, they can’t take it away; if it doesn’t belong to us, we won’t take it.”
Pan Yun glanced at Xue Shao and said, "When I left Quanzhou, I heard that the imperial court was conducting a land survey. When the survey comes here and they find out, they'll have to issue a deed whether they want to or not, right?"
The old man said nonchalantly, "With Master Gu here, there's nothing to be afraid of."
Pan Yun asked curiously, "Is Master Gu that formidable?"
"Impressive!" the old man said proudly. "Master Gu is a high-ranking official and my brother-in-law's cousin. My family's land was acquired by Master Gu thanks to my brother-in-law."
Pan Yun nodded slightly: "That's convenient. I wonder what percentage of the rent Mr. Gu takes?"
"That's right, I'll take 10%."
Upon hearing this, Pan Jun exclaimed in surprise, "So, Master Gu is a good man."
The old man nodded affirmatively and said, "Master Gu is a great man, a great benefactor. The road in the village and the bridge in the east of the village were all built with money from the Gu family. Because of the Gu family's protection, we have paid half of the miscellaneous taxes, anti-suppression and military training fees imposed by the higher authorities over the years. Those in the village with the surname Gu who are closer to Master Gu don't have to pay a single penny."
At this point, the old man turned to his son and instructed him, "Daquan, we must remember Master Gu's kindness. After the late rice is harvested and dried, send a small bag to Master Gu and his son so they can taste the difference between this late rice and ordinary rice."
Daquan readily agreed.
The old man talked endlessly about the Gu family. Before Xue Shao could even ask any questions in the fields, Pan Yun only gave him a hint, and he rattled off everything. The more he talked, the stronger his desire to share became.
They didn't stop while eating, and they didn't stop after finishing their meal.
It wasn't until Chunlian made their beds and urged Grandpa to take a bath and go to bed that the old man reluctantly got up.
Even after standing up, reluctant to leave, she turned back to Xue Shao and Pan Yun and said, "Young Master Gu is about your age and quite accomplished. He has already passed the provincial examination and is said to be going to the capital next year to take the imperial examination. If the officials come to measure my land, I will ask my brother-in-law to register that one or two acres of land under Young Master Gu's name..."
He said, "Master Gu is a good man, and Young Master Gu is also a kind man."
Pan Yun and Xue Shao remained silent, watching the old man mutter to himself as he happily went to take a bath.
Are Mr. Gu and Young Master Gu good people?
For their hometown and relatives, they certainly are; but for the farmers outside this land who have to pay more taxes because they don't pay or pay less, they are not.
Xue Shao said, “I checked before I came. There are more than 64,800 mu of registered cultivated land in Dehua County. This year, Quanzhou has allocated 31,350 shi of land tax to Dehua County. This is a fixed amount. So, if people here pay less, people in other parts of Dehua County will have to pay more.”
Pan Jun sat down on a small stool, poked at the fire in front of him, and said softly, "According to the tax rate set by Emperor Taizu, the taxes of the Ming Dynasty are not heavy. However, over the past seventy years, the actual population and land area have increased, but the population and land area on paper have not increased at all. Haven't the emperors and court officials of all generations thought about why?"
Xue Shao lowered his eyes and said in a deep voice, "Because the labor service is too heavy, and also because the extra miscellaneous taxes are too much."
“If the Ming Dynasty wants to increase its national tax revenue, it must solve these problems,” Pan Yun said. “Otherwise, even if industry can get off the ground, it will be dragged down by it. Moreover, industrial development requires people, but these people are not registered and are unregistered. How can they go out to work and develop industry?”
Xue Shao looked up slightly at the sky, which was covered with dark clouds. The moon was obscured, and only a few stars twinkled in the sky.
A wind picked up at some point, and the clouds in the sky kept rolling away. The moon slowly revealed half of itself, and a few more stars appeared on the other side of the sky, shining even brighter.
Xue Shao murmured, "If officials and gentry pay taxes together, without such preferential policies, there would naturally be no such thing as 'signing a name' (a form of official recognition).
Pan Yun's eyes flickered, and she asked softly, "What about the heavier labor service?"
Xue Shao turned to look at her, his eyes gleaming in the darkness. He stared at her and asked softly, "What do you think?"
“I think that since the grain tax is the same as that of officials and gentry, the corvée labor should also be abolished, or it should be incorporated into the land and collected together. Without the distinction, the situation of hidden land and hidden people will naturally no longer exist.”
Xue Shao spun around in place for a long time before saying, "It won't be easy to accomplish this. If we really do it, you and I might die. Even if you are a highly skilled cultivator, I'm afraid you won't be able to stop it."
Pan Yun chuckled, "What's done is done, there's no turning back." (End of Chapter)