Protect Our Clan Leader

Although she was daydreaming in her mind, her expression was that of extreme joy and sobbing, “Fourth Uncle, you treat me so well.”

“Our family’s Lici is very obedient. If you study hard, Fourth Uncle will have other rewards for you.” Wang Shouzhe smiled and ruffled her head, “Like those delicious little dried fish.”

Hum! Even though I, Wang Licui, am a young girl, young girls still have dignity. Don’t think that you can buy me off with just some little dried fish…

But as the words came to her mouth, they turned into glimmering eyes and salivation, “Fourth Uncle, how much can you reward?”

“The snacks brought back from this trip are yours to manage.” Wang Shouzhe generously said.

“Woo woo woo~ Fourth Uncle, you are so good to me.” Wang Licui’s eyes filled with tears, falling while looking at Wang Shouzhe. She felt that she shouldn’t have cursed Fourth Uncle in her heart, let alone have caused him to bear the brunt of it. Where else could she find such a good Fourth Uncle?

“Yes, Fourth Uncle believes that you can handle it well. You must distribute it fairly to everyone.” Wang Shouzhe added, “These snacks, everyone in our family under the age of 20 gets an equal share. You’ve learned the Nine Chapters Arithmetic and bookkeeping, right? Everyone who receives a share must sign in the ledger.”

EQUAL! DISTRIBUTION!

She had to personally hand out these precious snacks house to house. This was unbearably cruel!

Fourth Uncle, you’ve gone too far, I will fight you…

Unfortunately, after Wang Shouzhe finished speaking, he had already disappeared before her.

Leaving behind a young girl holding several books, lost in the wind.

Wang Shouzhe returned to his own courtyard and took a minor rest. The back and forth trips to the Hundred Islands Guard had left him physically and mentally exhausted.

Fortunately, the danger was over. As long as Old Ancestor Longyan recovers, the Ping’an Wang Family would have a solid foundation.

A silent night.

The next day, Wang Shouzhe met with Grandmother Gongsun Hui once. He reported what needed to be reported, and warehoused what needed to be warehoused. In general, the large family’s accounts mustn’t be chaotic; otherwise, various undesirable problems would occur.

Among all these surprising events and gains, Gongsun Hui was also shocked while doing the accounting. Why did every return of Shouzhe bring unexpected surprises?

“Grandmother, I am without a doubt the first in line.” Wang Shouzhe laughed, “As for resources, I plan to give myself a little luxury. The supply of Spirit Food each month must be double what it was before, and the Little Pei Yuan Dans would go from one a month to three a month. I also need one Cultivation Pill each month, and for now, I will use one Spirit Stone.”

With this, Wang Shouzhe’s resource consumption had reached a lavish and extravagant level. Just the Spirit Rice alone was fifteen kilograms a month, and the Spirit Fish and Spirit Meat were also fifteen kilograms each.

Adding up all the medical consumption, not counting the Spirit Stone, the cultivation resources would reach eight to nine hundred Qian Gold for one year.

Normally, after he advanced to the Qi Refinement stage, the budget for his annual cultivation resources would only be a little over two hundred Qian Gold. Now, he is directly throwing four times towards it! Four to five times the resources but it would not let Wang Shouzhe cultivate at four to five times the speed.

This involved the principle of diminishing marginal effect. At most, he could only be faster than before by a little more than double. With the aid of the Spirit Stone, at most he’d be quicker by a bit, but definitely not reaching three times the original speed.

Even a regular Profound Martial family, when training their direct-line heir who is the first in line and aiming for the Spiritual Platform Realm, would definitely not be this extravagant.

With such a request, even Gongsun Hui widened her eyes in surprise, “Generally speaking, you are entitled to that many cultivation resources given your merit, Wang Shouzhe. However, I’m afraid those elders accustomed to frugality might object. But it doesn’t matter, with the backing of Old Ancestor Longyan, nobody will dare to gossip.”

The family is everyone’s family, not solely owned by him, the clan leader, Wang Shouzhe. Therefore, the rest of the elders in the family naturally have a say.

Nevertheless, Wang Shouzhe didn’t care. Given his capabilities, this family would gradually enter a transformative phase. Besides, if they started implementing a contributory system, in terms of contributions, Old Ancestor Longyan would be the first, and he would be the second.

Moreover, he believed his future contributions would surpass that of Old Ancestor Longyan.

Taking up so many resources was not out of greed, but he simply didn’t want to have to wait until his middle-aged years to have a chance to challenge the Spirit Platform Realm. Most importantly, this mysterious magical world was too dangerous. If he kept recklessly exploring with his current cultivation level, problems were bound to occur sooner or later.

Thus, it was safer to stay in the family and hasten his cultivation progress to the Spirit Platform Realm for some self-defense capabilities.

After settling this matter, Wang Shouzhe asked again, “Mother, how is the insect pest situation coming along?”

He had left the Changning Guard for ten days and was somewhat behind in terms of intelligence. The situation over at the Hundred Islands Guard was different, very few fields had been opened up for cultivation, perhaps due to geographical isolation, and they have not suffered from a disaster.

However, a shortage of food was imminent, even the Hundred Islands Guard would be affected by the food shortage.

“The situation is terrible.” Gongsun Hui said solemnly, “With the exception of a small part of the families, most of them have seen a decrease in food production. But the hardest hit are the farmers in every city, town and family power range. Their ability to resist disaster is too weak, resulting in a general reduction of around 70%.”

Wang Shouzhe frowned slightly, “Although a 70% reduction in production is a devastating loss, with the combination of stored food and new food, the farmers should be able to hold out until the next rice harvest, right? They surely can’t be worse off than the tenant farmers.”

“You do not understand, Shouzhe.” Explained Gongsun Hui, “Let me begin by talking about tenant farmers, their families usually consist of one to six or seven people. Taking a typical tenant farmer with a family of three, calculating by two labor forces of husband and wife, they should be able to cultivate twenty acres of land, the total annual value of rice and wheat is about 600 copper coins. Among which, the insecticide powder costs about 40 copper coins, oxen, farm tools, grain seeds amortization cost about 20 copper coins, the Prominent Family’s farmland levy is based on a four-tax system, i.e., each of the town, guard, county and country levies a tax, which requires 80 copper coins for 20 acres of fertile land. Thus, the remainder is about 460 copper coins, which need to be divided with the master family in a split of three to seven, meaning the tenant farmer can profit 138 copper coins.”

“For a family of three tenant farmers, their annual income is slightly over one Qian Gold, after daily expenses, not much is left.” Wang Shouzhe touched his nose, somewhat surprised. He had calculated the income from the land before, but he had not carefully calculated the income of the tenant farmers.

“The reason why the tenant farmers are stronger in risk resistance is because there is the Xuanwu Prominent Family backing them.” Said Gongsun Hui, “In order to stabilize the tenant farming operation, the master family would guarantee a minimum income for the tenant farmers, even if they harvest nothing, they would still have an income of 60 copper coins. This allows them to farm with ease.”

Of course, this income is not purely Qian Gold. But the account value of the distributed materials and Qian Gold combined.

“Furthermore, tenant farmers usually raise a small amount of poultry like chickens, ducks, geese, etc., and grow some fruits and vegetables in front of and behind their houses. These will be supplied to our prominent family, the pure income from which can add up to 20 or 30 copper coins in a year.” Gongsun Hui patiently explained, “During farming slack seasons, we would organize tenant farmers to carry out tasks such as land reclamation, river dredging, house construction, riverbank reinforcement, etc., and they will also receive about 20 copper coins for these tasks. Therefore, a normal three-person tenant farm household can earn one hundred and eighty or ninety copper coins a year, and even in a year of disaster they can still earn over a hundred copper coins.”

Having heard this, Wang Shouzhe nodded thoughtfully, “It seems that the lives of the tenant farmers are quite stable, after all, they have the backing of the master family. Even in a year of disaster, if they tighten their belts they can still get by. If it’s a bumper year, and if they are frugal, they can even save some copper coins.”

“But it’s different for the self-cultivating farmers.” Gongsun Hui said, “Like the tenant farmer family I mentioned earlier, a self-cultivating farmer with twenty acres of land would only earn 90 copper coins this season if they suffer a 70% reduction in production. One season of oxen rental and seeds would take 10 copper coins, insecticide powder would take 20 copper coins. The tax is based on a five-tax system, with the Prominent Family, town, guard, county, and state each taking a tax. Now is the summer tax season, twenty acres of land require a tax payment of 50 copper coins. How much can they have left?”

As mentioned earlier, the local Xuanwu Prominent Family has the duty to maintain peace and protect the land. They must deal with bandits, fierce beasts, and serious incidents. At the same time, they must also assist the local garrison in collecting taxes. Therefore, the tax on the fertile land within the range of power also requires 1 tax from the Prominent Family.

However, the current range of power of the Wang Family is rather small, apart from approximately six hundred households of tenant farmers in their own farms, there are just over a thousand households mostly, the total number of excellent farming lands within the jurisdiction of civilians is still far less than twenty thousand acres. The total annual tax collected is only a hundred or so Qian Golds, and there are still a lot of expenses, so it can only be said to be better than nothing.

“So, are you saying that those self-cultivating farmers have more or less no harvest this season?” Wang Shouzhe frowned slightly, “If that’s the case, should we still collect taxes?”

“Taxes are the foundation of the state. The town, guard, county, and state are all supported by tax revenues. And the land tax is the biggest source of tax. Without it, all levels of institutions would struggle to maintain themselves.” Gongsun Hui explained, “For this summer harvest, the state tax in Longzuo County might be waived. Still, inevitably, some self-cultivated farming families who have mismanaged their affairs will face significant difficulties, and at such times, some Xuanwu Prominent Families will start to monopolize the land.”

“Like the Zhao Clan and Liu Clan, they suffered terrible losses and damages this time, to the point where their eyes seem red. Various signs indicate they intend to seize the opportunity to annex some land.” Gongsun Hui sneered, “Wolves are wolves, even if they don a Prominent Family’s skin, they can never hide their insatiable greed.”