Zhao Hu turned his head to look at Zhao Cheng, then shifted his gaze to his grandson, and finally, his face flushed red as he thought to himself: No, I can’t leave them too much cash, or they’ll definitely end up as spendthrift as Zhao Hanzhang in the future.
Hmm, Luoyang’s location is special, so I should acquire property there too. If we can preserve the Luoyang properties in the future, that would be good—I can leave something for my great-grandson.
These father and son will give away cash, but they won’t sell off ancestral property. In the future, I’ll designate all these properties as ancestral estates, then leave instructions that descendants are forbidden from selling ancestral property.
As long as there are properties, they won’t starve.
Zhao Hanzhang didn’t understand why Zhao Hu had suddenly come around. After the banquet that evening, the very next day he exchanged his old coins with her, then took the new coins and went all over the streets looking at shops and residences.
Luoyang now had few people. The great city that once housed nearly a million people now had only about a hundred thousand. Actually, after several months of refugees returning, Luoyang’s population had already broken through the hundred thousand mark.
But it was still sparse.
So many shops and residences in the city stood empty.
Among these residences and shops, Zhao Hanzhang kept some for herself, such as those that had originally belonged to Zhao Changyu and Zhao Zhongyu—these were their own family properties, so naturally couldn’t be touched.
Those that could be recovered for public use were divided into several tiers. The first tier was what Zhao Hanzhang wanted to keep in hand for emergencies. The second tier was for rewarding people and attracting talent. Only the third and fourth tiers were for buying and selling.
The only difference was the target audience.
The broker took Zhao Hu to see the third tier properties.
This tier of houses was mixed with the second tier, some particularly spacious, some moderately spacious, and some average or even cramped—all types were available.
Zhao Hu didn’t simply choose the spacious ones. He only planned to buy one villa in Luoyang for himself to live in; the others he would hold onto, waiting until Luoyang became prosperous again before selling them.
Zhao Hanzhang was right—houses in Luoyang were truly dirt cheap right now.
Besides the listings posted by the government office, the broker’s office also had many private listings.
For any Luoyang citizens who returned, if they originally had houses in the city and could produce property deeds, even those that had been taken into public ownership would be returned to them.
If they couldn’t produce deeds, that was fine too—as long as they had household registration. If the government office had records, it still counted as theirs. If even the government records couldn’t be found, they could only seek out the former ward chief and neighbors as witnesses, if they could find these people…
Some families, short on money, would sell their extra houses, or simply sell their own house and rent one from the government instead.
The current rent for government housing was extremely low, so low that even Zhao Hu was tempted when he heard it. He almost wanted to rent a hundred units or so, fix them up a bit, then rent them out at higher prices.
Unfortunately, the government had too many regulations, and with Luoyang’s sparse population now, he couldn’t sublease them anyway.
Zhao Hu regretted this briefly, then selected two two-courtyard compounds and one three-courtyard compound. This took up most of the money in his hands.
After wandering around for two days, it happened to be when Luoyang was harvesting millet. The city’s residents went to the fields at first light each day, making the already sparsely populated streets even emptier.
His personal attendant’s heart grew cold watching this, and couldn’t help saying, “Master, can buying shops here really make money?”
The entire street was empty and desolate with hardly anyone around.
Zhao Hu said nothing and ran to the fields to watch people harvest millet.
Having missed the farming season this year, there was no wheat in the Luoyang area this year, only millet and beans. The beans had been harvested not long ago, leaving only the grain now.
Everyone had planted quite a lot—golden waves stretching across the land. People scattered throughout the fields didn’t look numerous, but they worked with great enthusiasm, carrying or pushing the cut grain home. Of everyone Zhao Hu saw, not a single face lacked a smile.
Even though they were very tired, it couldn’t suppress the joy in their hearts.
When Zhao Hu asked around, he learned that Zhao Hanzhang had just issued an order: this year, Luoyang’s adult males only needed to pay field rent on two mu of land, adult females one mu, secondary adult males also one mu, and secondary adult females were exempt from rent.
All registered households were exempt from household tribute.
Zhao Hu’s heart skipped a beat hearing this, and he couldn’t help muttering all the way back to the city, “This is too spendthrift, too spendthrift! One mu only yields eight sheng of grain—what can that accomplish? Our Xiping still requires fifty mu per adult, so why should Luoyang pay so little?”
The attendant also felt that Luoyang people were getting a huge bargain, but still corrected Zhao Hu, “Master, this year Xiping’s field rent was also halved. Ordinary adult males only need to pay on twenty-five mu, and though our family has much land, it’s also collected at half rate.”
Currently throughout the realm, there was little population and much land. Xiping had been constantly working to gather refugees and distribute land for cultivation.
Previously, Zhao Hanzhang first didn’t have time to establish new systems, and second, changing systems required massive manpower and resources. Making the common people familiar with changed systems also required time and manpower, so she could only follow the court’s regulations, then make modifications based on the court’s rules and regulations.
For example, the court stipulated that each adult male annually needed to pay field rent based on fifty mu. This figure—it didn’t matter whether you actually had fifty mu of land or cultivated enough acreage; you had to pay tax according to this standard every year.
So to attract refugees, Zhao Hanzhang would distribute land to them according to local land and population conditions, then give them tax reductions and exemptions, such as collecting at half rate, or only collecting one-third or one-quarter of the rent tax.
As for tribute, because these past two years population had severely declined and land lay waste, let alone mulberry—even those growing hemp were few—so she generally exempted tribute, not requiring people to pay silk cloth.
This year in Luoyang was the same.
However, because Luoyang was particularly devastated—when she took over it was nearly an empty city—the rent tax she gave was especially favorable. Many families were directly exempted, and those who paid also paid very small amounts.
This even tempted Zhao Hu, who ran to find Zhao Kuan. “I want to buy some land in Luoyang.”
But Zhao Kuan refused him. “Seventh Grand-Uncle, the Commander has ordered that unless one is registered in Luoyang, one cannot buy land in Luoyang.”
Zhao Hu glared. “Why not?”
Zhao Kuan paused before saying, “Because she is the Commander?”
Zhao Hu was left speechless.
After thinking it over, he couldn’t bear to give up his Xiping household registration, so he said, “Then I’ll transfer Zhao Zheng’s registration over. You register your nephew Zheng, and I’ll buy land under his name.”
Zhao Kuan said, “Before the decree is lifted, one household cannot privately purchase good land exceeding ten qing.”
A bit too little. Zhao Hu frowned and asked, “Why did she create this restriction for no reason? She earns money, I buy land—what a good arrangement.”
Zhao Kuan said, “In the future, more and more people will definitely return to Luoyang, so we must preserve enough farmland for those who return later. Right now we need to control wealthy families from buying up large amounts of land, causing imbalance.”
He looked up at Zhao Hu with a smile. “This measure is specifically to prevent people like you, Seventh Grand-Uncle.”
Zhao Hu: “…”
—