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Chapter 770 Financial Situation

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    After seeing the situation in the city, Zhao Ran, accompanied by Lord Lu, left Hongyuan City.  First, I looked at the cultivated land around Hongyuan City. Sure enough, many good flat places adjacent to streams were abandoned. Instead, there were some farmers burning straw in the dry fields in the corners, or on the undulating slopes of the ravines.  I think I will gain weight in the coming year.

    In addition to the more than 4,000 people in Hongyuan City, there are twenty or thirty villages scattered within ten miles of the city. More than half of the villages are empty, with dilapidated houses, no one in sight, and completely abandoned.

    There are still half of the villages inhabited by party members who have no time to escape, or who are unwilling to escape.

    Around these villages, there are also large tracts of cultivated land, but they are covered with weeds. From time to time, party members graze a few pitiful grassland sheep on them.

    Nearly 20,000 acres of good land were left uncultivated, and Zhao Ran felt very unhappy.

    There is not much arable land in Hongyuan, and most of the land suitable for cultivation and growing food is concentrated here.  Although these fields are not suitable for growing high-yield rice and wheat, even if they are low-yield millet and highland barley, as long as they are fully planted and the heaven and earth are properly adjusted and a Feng Shui layout is made, doubling the yield per mu is not a problem.  At that time, only these 28,000 acres of cultivated land will basically be able to meet the staple food consumption of 80,000 people in Hongyuan. With the help of cattle and sheep, the county's food and clothing problem can be completely solved.

    But now, a large area of ??land has been left vacant. The Han people who want to farm have no land to plant. The party members who are not engaged in production control large areas of open land to receive relief. There are more Sanbu people hiding in the mountains and unwilling to do so.  Down the mountain, the development of the entire Hongyuan fell into an endless loop.

    In addition to cultivated land, the vast natural grassland covers the entire northwest of Hongyuan, but no one cares about it.

    In the southeast and due east of Hongyuan, the terrain gradually becomes higher and enters the mountainous area, among which the four major mountain systems are Dajun Mountain, Zhebo Mountain, Yanggong Mountain and Haizi Mountain.

    Dajun Mountain, which has the worst natural conditions, was occupied by Lou Guan, and Zong Sheng Guan was built. The remaining three mountains were occupied by Sanbu.

    Lu Fangzhu did not recommend that Zhao Ran enter the mountain because the communication and coordination with the three tribes had not yet formed a system, including the Qionghe tribe, which was the weakest and slightly inclined to the White Horse Court.

    Zhao Ran had no intention of going into the mountain, so he listened to Lu Fangzhu's suggestion and just took a look at the foot of the mountain from a distance, and then asked if the vast grassland at the foot of the mountain was occupied by the three tribes.

    Master Lu Fang said: "The seventeen villages of the Baima tribe, large and small, are all located in Zhebo Mountain, with Zhebo Village as the main village. The same is true for the eleven villages of the Chama tribe and the six villages of the Qionghe tribe, each living in Yanggong Mountain and Haizi Mountain.  . Originally they were still grazing in the pastures at the foot of the mountain, but since the Dangxiang people asked them to return the stolen cattle and sheep, the villages of the three tribes have retreated into the mountains, and not many came down. Especially in the first month of last year, the Ming army encircled  After the incident in Zhebo Village, the three tribes basically farmed and herded in the mountains and rarely went down the mountains. As for these pastures, no one has ever cared about them."

    Zhao Ran asked again: "Lao Lu, do you think the conditions in Zhebo Mountain, Yanggong Mountain and Haizi Mountain are very favorable?"

    Fangzhu Lu nodded: "I have been to all three mountains. There are many gentle slopes and valleys in them. The total of the three mountains is only more than 60,000 people, and some say more than 70,000 people. According to my opinion, even if there are more than 100,000 people,  It¡¯s enough to live in.¡±

    Zhao Ran couldn't help but sigh: "They are all good places. Why didn't Baimayuan close these pastures and register them?"

    Lu Fangzhu said: "Originally I thought so, but since the incident about the farmland caused by Dangxiang people, Abbot Zeng has been a lot more careful. He wants to discuss the division and ownership of the pasture with the three leaders, and wait until the negotiation is completed.  But since the first month of last year, this matter has stopped. The third department has not met with us at all. I have brought people over several times, but they are not allowed to enter the mountain. Furthermore, now we are absorbing refugees and people from the Borderlands from the mainland.  It¡¯s more difficult for farmers, as the red plains are vast and sparsely populated, so they won¡¯t be able to use these pastures for the time being.¡±

    Zhao Ran shook his head: "People traveled thousands of miles to come here, thinking that they could divide the fields, but in the end they still worked for others, and they worked for party members. Who would be willing to come here?"

    "The abbot is absolutely right."

    At the end of November, Zhao Ran, who spent nearly twenty days touring Hongyuan, returned to Baima Courtyard. After returning, he did not bother to take a break and re-recorded Baima Courtyard's records of farmland and pasture, as well as the accounting office's records for this year.  Find out the account books and review them in detail.

    The second time I read these documents, the situation became clearer.

    In the archives of Baimayuan Dianzhuang, there are 28,000 acres of cultivated land, all of which are "owned" land, that is, land registered as party members. There are also 40,000 acres of pasture recorded in the archives, of which  Twenty thousand acres were registered as owned by party members, and the remaining twenty thousand acres were confirmed to be ownerless.

    There are four incomes from Baima Court this year. The first one is the salary money allocated by Tianhe Palace., which is often referred to as capitation fee, is allocated on a per-person basis, of which more than 90% is distributed to Taoist priests, and the remaining 20% ??is used as money for services, that is, official expenses. The bulk of official expenses are still consumed on meals.  A total of three thousand two hundred taels.

    Among the salaries, the abbot and the superintendent are the first-class, with one hundred and twenty taels each; the three are the second-class, with ninety-six taels each; the eight deacons are reduced in rank, to sixty taels each; the five chiefs and eighteen heads are again, each with ninety-six taels.  Thirty-six taels; the last is the chanting Taoist boy, 24 taels each; and there are also fifty firework lay practitioners approved by Tianhe Palace, each 12 taels.

    The second payment came from the Governor's Office of Western Sichuan, six hundred and twenty taels, for the construction of the city wall.  Zhao Ran now knows that half of it has been used to "relieve" party members.

    The third payment was for land tax and miscellaneous expenses, and collected one thousand stones of millet and six hundred stones of highland barley, which in terms of silver was about five hundred taels.  All these grains were specially approved by the governor's office in western Sichuan and were all kept in the county to build Changping warehouse.  Currently, there are 2,400 shi of grain in the Changping warehouse.

    But this policy will only last for three years. Next year, the bulk of the land tax will be turned over to the Governor's Office of Western Sichuan.

    The last payment was the incense money presented by merchants and common people during this year's fasting ceremony. The total amount of bits and pieces amounted to more than ninety taels.

    This is all the income for this year, the 22nd year of Jiajing, and there is no Taoist property. This amount of money is really very cramped to maintain a Baimayuan that combines Taoism and Yamen.

    Zhao Ran had read the documents and records of Baima Yuan for the past three years, and knew that the former abbot Zeng Zhili was also trying to find a solution, but most of his energy was consumed in mediating the disputes between the Han people, the remaining party members, and the people of the three tribes.  When we have a relationship, we feel a little bit concerned about one thing and not the other.

    But in Abbot Zeng¡¯s general statement before leaving, he was still very pleased with the results of his three years of work.  Abbot Zeng's self-reported main achievements lie in two points. One is to stabilize the overall situation of Hongyuan, which is safe and peaceful without triggering a major popular uprising; the other is to increase the credibility value from scratch to 20,000 Gui.

    Zhao Ran read Abbot Zeng¡¯s ¡°duty report¡± several times and couldn¡¯t help but laugh.

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