Lu Ming

Chapter 348 Opening of Port ([-])

The story of the breach tells us that when the pressure reaches a certain level, there will always be some weak link that will burst first.

Although the surrounding areas of Gaoqiao were lucky last year, and they did not suffer from the horrible tidal disaster that drowned tens of thousands of people at one time in the Qiantang River Basin, the low temperature during the Little Ice Age was universal, and no one could escape it.

The global low temperature is not as simple as wearing more clothes.For agricultural production, the most obvious expression of climate anomalies is the unevenness of drought and flooding: the warm and humid air flow is stagnated by low temperature, and the fluidity is insufficient, so droughts and floods alternately erupt everywhere.The rain will either not come for several months at all, or it will fall in the form of heavy rain or even hail.

This alternation of drought and flood was devastating to agriculture in the Middle Ages.In the past 1628, the above scenarios appeared to varying degrees throughout the Jiangnan region.

So, the life of the Zuo family is actually not easy.Since last year, Chongzhen Liaoshang has sent an additional amount of 38 taels in Nanzhili. Exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes are accompanied by unfavorable wind and rain, which makes it even more difficult for farmers who are already burdened with heavy burdens.Needless to say, the tenants, even the lives of many rich peasants and small landlords are already spinning on thin ice.

In this situation, it is difficult for ordinary people who see huge benefits in front of them to restrain them with morality and patriarchal law.In the face of the dimensionality reduction blow of bankruptcy and loss of land, all obstacles began to appear powerless.

So immediately after the Land Acquisition Office announced the latest purchase price, insiders from the Zuo family were eager to make a move.

At the beginning, some people just "closely watched" and did not put the land sale into action.However, after the Land Acquisition Office posted the latest Weibo, someone sneaked in with the land deed to sign the contract that night.

The content of this microblog is: The preferential reward activity only lasts for seven days, and there is no waiting for expiration.

The poor people in the 17th century did not have rich experience in dealing with demolition companies, so they were easily tricked, and they were led by the nose when they were aroused by surprise.

The three self-employed households from the Zuo family who came to sell their land were all rich peasants.Like Zuo Shiqi before, they all belonged to the kind of people who didn't have much say in the clan.

They also need to work hard in the fields on weekdays, and they are also overwhelmed by various taxes.In fact, these few are a little bit better than the sharecroppers and self-cultivators. They just have more fields that are rented out in the family-tenant rich peasants.

These three people actually don't have much land, and the total amount is less than 100 mu.However, the Land Acquisition Office rushed to complete the formalities for them as soon as possible, because they represented a very important meaning: Zuo Shiqiu was considered a special case of gamblers, and these three families had pried open a large crack in the iron plate of the Zuo family clan.

Zuo Hongtang and his council of elders really sat down.

This time they can't put on the posture of three trials.After all, the three people who sold the land were all dutiful heads of the family, and they didn't have any bad deeds of gambling on weekdays.Therefore, even the suzerain cannot deprive them of their property by inciting public anger like they did with Zuo Shiqi. Therefore, they can only reason.

However, reasoning is not so easy.The three of them did not kill people, and did not break the law—the law of the Ming Dynasty did not stipulate that land could only be sold to members of the same clan.

As for the patriarchal clan, the family has already made up their minds to sell the land deed, and the conventional patriarchal clan will not be very useful at this time.Is it possible that all three of them have sunk into the pond?That's impossible: not to mention that the teacher is unknown, this is the head of the family with a large number of sons and nephews.They are all related relatives, and it is impossible for the Council of Elders to call on the clansmen to be violent against so many people.

What made Zuo Hongtang unable to move even more was that he could feel the cold gaze of an old official behind him at any time.He had a premonition: if the family got any tricks on that juncture at this juncture, the arresters might come to him the next day.

So now he is really in a state of embarrassment: these three people can't fight or scold, he can only watch them sell the land and take their family to live a good life.And this time he couldn't even get rid of the family: there are more than 20 people in three families, if we continue to get rid of them like this, there will be no one left in the Zuo family.So in the end Zuo Hongtang could only pinch his nose and let the three families leave, as if the clan had spread out.

The results of the anticlimactic parliament completely exposed the weakness of the traditional clan.

For traditional clans that live together and are always prepared to resist natural and man-made disasters, in fact, the greater the pressure, the more united and closely connected they are.

This model worked for the ancient ruling class who only plundered and plundered: if someone wants to seize the land of the clan, it will lead to the resistance of all the clans who share the same hatred.

However, when this traditional survival mode encountered ideas from later generations, it didn't work for the first time.Because everyone in Zuojia Village, including Zuo Hongtang himself, had to admit that the people from the Land Expropriation Office did not come here to steal.

Adhering to the standard entrepreneurial philosophy of later generations, "If you want to cut leeks, you must first burn money", the people from across the world have no psychological pressure at all on buying land with money, which is relatively stupid in the eyes of the ancients.

We must know that in later generations, if a new industry such as food delivery takes over the country, if it burns less than [-] billion a year at the beginning, it will be embarrassing to say hello to people when going out.

Of course, after the country is conquered, you can enjoy cutting leeks.Take a look at how Meituan's delivery fees have risen now.

Therefore, in the face of a purchase price far exceeding the surrounding land prices, the members of the Zuo clan could not raise their desire to fight.You know, people from neighboring villages have already come to inquire about it with land deeds, just because someone here has paid a high price to take over the land.Some people came to inquire if there was a gold mine buried underground in Zuojia Village
This is the root cause of Zuo Hongtang's passive response all the time: he couldn't portray a group of seemingly stupid money masters as heinous villains, so as to call on the tribe to unite and resolutely resist everything related to the land expropriation office.No one is blind, and those who sell land in the clan voted with their feet for crossing the Congregation.

In the seven days after the three people from the Zuo family sold their land, another group of people rushed to sell their land to the land acquisition office one after another before the deadline came.

By this time, the situation became quite clear: almost all owner farmers and rich peasants were wiped out by the land expropriation office, and all of them moved out of Zuojia Village.

Among those who remained, the class status was already clearly divided: a large number of tenant farmers and a few large landlords.

Shareholders are the most numerous group of people in the village.Although they share the same surname as Zuo, they are complete proletarians, the bottom of society, and professional melon eaters—just like the workers of later generations, whether the factory boss changes or not has little effect on them, anyway, they still have to do the same thing every day live.

In ancient times, the ownership and management rights of cultivated land were separated.Landlords hold title, and in most cases tenant farmers hold management rights.In other words, the landlord actually has no right to specify the types of crops.This is what the so-called "field bone" and "field skin" are talking about.

In this situation, when the tenant farmers in Zuojia Village found out that the new boss was doing business as usual, no one would get involved in the land acquisition. Now is the time when the spring sowing is busy, and the poor people have no time to fight among the gentlemen. take care of.

Of course, all this is just a superficiality: it's not that the tenants are ignored, but the main reason is that the new boss is still unable to deal with them.

Now, everything is clear.After the land expropriation office took more than half a month to clear out the idlers, self-cultivated farmers, and rich peasants in the village, the big landowners were exposed like light bulbs.

The days that followed were not as easy as before.Stubborn big landlords would never sell their land no matter what, so it was time for a tough job.

First, a group of people entered Zuojia Village.There are action team members under Xiong Dao's command, and there are food workers under Yu Bende's command, there are a total of 100 people.

Grain poors are civil servants who go to the countryside to collect taxes during the two tax seasons of summer and autumn every year.However, they are said to be civil servants. In fact, most of these people are unemployed white servants, hooligans and rascals. The legendary temporary workers.

As the head of the county government office, Yu Bende is naturally the natural leader of the grain messengers.So when these people were in place, early the next morning, a paddy field three miles southeast of Zuojia Village was surrounded by grain messengers.

This paddy field is about [-] mu, and it is located at the bend of a small river, which is an excellent irrigated land.Several members of the Zuo family who were working in the fields were also arrested.

After hearing the news, Zuo Hongtang rushed to the scene of the incident with his staff.

"Master Yu, what do you mean?"

"What do you mean? These unscrupulous people are so bold that they dare not pay the tax. Naturally, they will be taken back to the county government and punished according to the law!"

A red-faced man standing next to Zuo Hongtang heard the words and replied loudly: "Nonsense! My Zuo family's food and tax are paid every year, so how can we resist the tax?"

Generally speaking, when paying taxes in villages and villages every year, some "grain households" are responsible for collecting tax and grain from the small people first, and then handing over the grain to the grain poor.

These food households are either big local households, or bullies and murderers.In short, they are all people who are "capable" of collecting taxes and benefiting from it.

And the person in Zuojia Village who has been responsible for all the food and taxes over the years is this red-faced man named Zuo Hongwu.He is the second wife of Zuo's family, and is of the same generation as Zuo Hongtang, with a local hat on his head.

After hearing Zuo Hongwu's words, Yu Bende shook his head with a smile: "Hehe, the words are true. But your tax covers [-] mu of registered land, and there is tax and grain for this field ?”

When Yu Bende said this, he stretched out a finger and slowly pointed to his feet.

"This..." The red-faced man suddenly became tongue-tied and speechless.

Yes, this piece of land at the creek is a legendary hidden field.

(End of this chapter)