Yamen official Wang Liuzhi yelled into the room of grain chief Li Tietou at the top of his voice across the yard.
Li Tietou is the chief grain officer whose turn it is to collect autumn grain this season. The head of grain was the post set up by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty to be responsible for collecting and transporting local taxes and grains. The earliest places where grain chiefs were established were all in the Jiangnan area. At that time, those who served as grain chiefs were all selected local big households. The terminal of taxation and grain liberation was Nanjing. When the big households transported grain to Nanjing, they would be received directly by the emperor. Those who handled the errands well and decently, Zhu Hongwu would reward an official to do it when he was happy. Therefore, although the head of grain was not an official at that time, he was very prestigious in the local area, and everyone was vying to do it, and once a family became the head of grain, it would continue to do it. .
But then the situation changed. On the one hand, after Emperor Yongle, the end of the Liberation Movement arrived in Beijing, and the distance was nearly doubled. If the emperor does not meet, officials at all levels can use their hands to make things difficult for the head of grain and extort money. What's more, if the grain is lost during the process of liberation, or the deadline is delayed, the head of grain will be the one who pays and bears the responsibility. As a result, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, Liang Chang became a hot potato that no one wanted to take over. The big households naturally have ways to avoid it, so the responsibility of the food chief first fell on the middle-level households, and then it became the task of the poor and helpless ordinary people. It has also changed from the original "Yongchong System" to the "Run Chong System" in which each household takes turns and the "Peng Chong System" in which several households jointly serve as grain chiefs.
It's just that in this small village located by the lake, crossed by rivers and ports, and full of water, there is a lot of water and little land, even the "peng filling system" can no longer be maintained.
Originally, there was little land here, and many fields were so-called "lake fields", which are fields surrounded by cofferdams and embankments by the lake. Moreover, the disputes that often occur in this place are that the land is stolen. How could the land be stolen? It turns out that this is a kind of field in the lake, which is a field formed by piling up grass blocks on the lake surface and covering the grass blocks floating on the water with soil. Such a field may be stolen if you are not careful.
Looking at these lake fields and lake fields, we know that the people here love the land and farming. But if you go to this village now, you will find that both the lake fields and the lake fields have not been taken care of for a long time. They were all submerged in the lake.
This is because land annexation was serious in the late Ming Dynasty, which led to an increase in the tax burden of ordinary people, and they all fled away as a last resort. Therefore, it is very difficult to find someone to act as the grain chief to collect taxes and grain at this moment.
Speaking of Li Tietou, he was not a local at all. He came here when he fled from the famine. Nowadays, most of the people in the village who escaped are natives, but he did not escape. Abandoned fields were planted. As a result, the heavy responsibility of the food chief fell on him.
Wang Liuzhi shouted for a long time, but there was no answer from inside, and Li Tietou did not come out.
He had no choice but to push open the half-covered firewood gate, walk into the courtyard, and when he arrived at the five thatched-roofed main houses, he knocked on the window with his six-fingered right hand, "Li Tietou, get out!"
There was no movement. This is not right, in the past, as long as he shouted across the yard, he could hear Li Tietou's thick answer.
He was puzzled and pushed the wooden door of the main room, but he didn't push it. Could it be that the door was bolted from the inside? That's not right. At this time, shouldn't their family get up and prepare for a day's work? (Remember the site URL: www.hlnovel.com