Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 771

In June of the 17th year of Chongzhen, the summer harvest season had just passed, and the wide and flat yard in Jiazhuang, Julu County, North Zhili Province was a busy and lively scene. Busy threshing the newly harvested wheat.

The joy brought by the harvest is brewing and fermenting under the high temperature. Everyone’s faces are smiling from the bottom of their hearts. Laughing and playing, the joyful atmosphere spread to all directions.

No wonder the farmers are so happy, because this year is another bumper harvest year.

Under the irrigation of the water conservancy facilities invested heavily by the imperial court, and under the guidance of the local government based on the farmland income increase manual printed by the Sinong Temple, the North China Plain has had a bumper harvest for the third consecutive year.

Take Jiazhuang, a small village with less than 4000 villages as an example, most households have an average of [-] mu of land, and the yield per mu should reach one stone and two buckets. Thirty stones and a harvest of more than [-] catties, if calculated according to the daily food intake of two catties of young and strong laborers, and one catty of food for women, children, old and weak, the summer grain alone can feed a family of five all year round. If rice is added to the harvest of autumn crops such as sweet potatoes and miscellaneous grains, it is no problem for adults and children to eat it openly.

Of course, all of this is based on the premise that there is no need to pay taxes. If the tax quota of Thirteenth is followed, the four thousand catties of grain will be taken away by the court for 1000 two hundred catties.

For the payment of taxes, the farmers have no resistance or dissatisfaction in their hearts.

Aren't the grassroots born to work for the elders?What's more, the elders have been very kind to us grassroots in the past few years. They dig wells for us, repair canals for us, and teach us how to fertilize. harvest?
Besides, in the past these jobs had to be paid by people from the village to pay for corvee, but now the imperial court hired them with money and took care of two full meals. I have never heard of such a good imperial court. The emperor's grandfather and these elders We should live a long life and be rich and honor, we grassroots can stand on such a master.I don't know how much virtue I have accumulated in my previous life.

And just when the summer crops were about to be harvested, the Julu County government issued a notice: Since the summer of the 17th year of Chongzhen, the government will receive the holy metaphor, and the tax will be reduced from thirteen to eleven. All of them can file a complaint with the censor and Jinyiwei. Once verified, the local chief official will be dismissed for the people and will never be used again.

The decree has been issued, and the world is shaken.

When the men, women and children in Jiazhuang repeatedly confirmed that the news was true, under the leadership of Li Zheng, they all came to the village entrance under the big locust tree, knelt down and kowtowed in the direction of the capital, and many old people exchanged tears. Under the initiative, the whole village spontaneously sent out people and things, and built a living shrine for Zhu Youjian in the center of the village, with incense burning continuously every day.

Taxes have been reduced by as much as [-]%, which means that the habit of being forced to eat two meals for many years can become the same as those big families eating three meals, and it is still the kind of meal that can fill you up. Great kindness.

After learning of this letter, Jinyiwei Hundred Households of Julu County specifically reported the matter to the palace. Zhu Youjian was also deeply moved when he learned about it.

Because of a certain complex, he paid special attention to Jiazhuang, a place that had never attracted much attention.

In the 16th year of Chongzhen, at the behest of Zhu Youjian, when the Ministry of Officials elected local officials, Lu Xiangguan, a Jinshi of Xinke and Lu Xiangsheng's younger brother, was placed in Julu to serve as the county magistrate.

The reason why Zhu Youjian did this deliberately is that this humble small village was once famous all over the world for one person.

In December of the 11th year of Chongzhen in history, it was on this vast land of the North China Plain that 6000 people under Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of the five provinces, were surrounded by tens of thousands of elite Qing troops. When the Wanguan Ning cavalry saw death and could not save them, Lu Xiangsheng put on his armor and held a blade and beheaded dozens of Qing army soldiers, but in the end he could not support himself.

After the war, it was Lu Xiangsheng's subordinates and Jia Zhuang's folks who collected Lu Xiangsheng's body.

"I searched all over the field, and finally found Lu Gong's body. The sackcloth and white net were still under the armor (for father's funeral). The people of the three counties heard about it, and wept bitterly, and the sound shook the world."

In the present world, every time Zhu Youjian saw Lu Xiangsheng, who had become a cabinet minister, he always felt in a daze.Unknowingly, the picture of this thin civil servant in front of him, holding a big knife and spilling blood on the battlefield will automatically appear in his mind. Under the influence of this subconscious, every time Lu Xiang ascends to the palace to perform his duties, Zhu Youjian will unconsciously Sit upright and face this national hero with the most solemn posture.

One day after the summer harvest, when the farmers were immersed in the great joy of having enough to eat, a mighty big man suddenly came to the small Jiazhuang. This person was none other than the former internal official In the 11th year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian sent Gao Qiqian to Shangyi Supervisor.

The reason why Gao Qiqian came to Jiazhuang without any reason was because he came here according to Zhu Youjian's oral order. The little eunuch who delivered the decree told Gao Qiqian that the emperor asked him to come to Jiazhuang immediately, saying that there was a " The "old friend" missed him very much and asked him to come to visit his friends.

So Gao Qiqian, full of inexplicable stomach, brought several attendants of Shangyi Supervisor, Huo Zhe, under the guard of a dozen Jinyiwei guards, and made it clear that the carriage came from the capital to Jiazhuang.

As an old man in Zhu Youjianqian's original residence, after Chongzhen ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, Gao Qiqian naturally rose and became one of the few big clangs in the inner court.

He has successively held important positions in key departments of the inner court, such as the Inner Official Supervisor, Yuma Supervisor, and Lili Supervisor. His status in the palace is second only to Cao Huachun, Wang Zhixin, Wang Dehua and others. father-in-law.

Especially in the inner court, it was the target of countless eunuchs. In its heyday, there were as many as a hundred godsons and grandsons. In daily life, he lived in eight seats and ate delicacies from mountains and seas. People put it in their eyes.

But when Gao Qiqian was proud of his spring breeze, suddenly for some unknown reason, he was knocked down by the emperor with a word of mouth, and was directly dismissed from such high positions as eunuch and ceremonial supervisor Bingbi from the internal official supervisor He fell to such a powerless department as the Shangyi Supervisor.

It didn't take long for Gao Qiqian to taste all kinds of warmth and coldness in the world.

Most of the more than a hundred godsons and grandsons severed their relationship with him very quickly. Those people who shouted at each other on weekdays, even if they walked across from him, they would not answer him, and completely forgot more than ten years ago. A few days ago, he was still washing his feet, beating his back, serving tea and water, which made Gao Qiqian extremely depressed and indignant, but also secretly puzzled.

Only the emperor treated him like this, but Gao Qiqian thought day and night and never thought that he would offend Tianyan. He knew who his power came from, so he was extremely humble to the emperor's family every day. He just wanted to maintain everything he owned, but the emperor suddenly took away most of everything he owned without warning. There must be some reason for this.

Could it be that the slander of Wang Chengen, an old man, is not working?

(End of this chapter)