Lu Ming

Chapter 350 Opening of Port ([-])

Zuo Baoliu stood in front of the crowd, leaning on a hoe.While pointing at the tolerance on the opposite side and cursing, he was thinking about the benefits of this "starring" in his heart.

Originally he didn't want to come.

Zuo Baoliu is a tenant of the mulberry garden in the west of the village.He and his mother-in-law are not only good at manipulating mulberry trees, but also raise silkworms by themselves when the season comes.Although the life with three children is tiring, it is still passable.

I don't want the weather to be bad last year, the weather was so cold, and there was a rain and snow in March.As a result, the mulberry trees in the garden did not grow well during the budding stage, and when the leaves were picked, the harvest was much worse than in previous years.

Misfortunes never come singly, last year's cocoon harvest was not good, and some cocoon seedlings were infected with disease, which made him worse.What Zuo Baoliu didn't know was that temperature and air humidity all have an impact on the development of silkworm eggs.

The price of reduced production is dangerous. Zuo Baoliu's family, who failed to complete the expected contract, immediately took on heavy debts.Over the past year, he not only owed rent to the owner of the mulberry garden, but also owed money from the Zuo family.

Zuo Baoliu, who was overwhelmed by the heavy burden, had no choice but to silently pray for the blessings of various bodhisattvas, hoping that the year would be better this year.

However, the reality quickly made him anxious: After the new year, from the beginning of spring to the present, there has not been a single drop of rain.The same abnormal weather as last year. This terrible omen makes Zuo Baoliu, who has been farming all his life, panic.

What followed was even more breaking news: the owner's family sold the mulberry garden and the fields in the village, together with tenants such as Zuo Baoliu and their debts, to the renter.

Zuo Baoliu, who learned that he had changed his master, was naturally calm.As a result, when he went to the Land Acquisition Office, he did not expect that his first impression was pretty good.

This group of outsiders is not only backed by officials, but also quite generous.When a shopkeeper in the rental store learned that Zuo Baoliu was a tenant of the mulberry garden, he threw a few cents of silver over and told him: go back to Ansheng to farm.

Zuo Bao Liu Insurance, who was originally nervous, put his heart back into his stomach - he was already on the verge of bankruptcy, and his fragile family could no longer withstand any twists and turns.Fortunately, the new owner's house doesn't look too bad, maybe the big family who is not short of money may be able to calculate less of last year's arrears this year?
Zuo Baoliu went back to work full of longing.There is a lot of work in the field in spring, and he doesn't have the time in the United States to spend on land acquisition.

During the days when he was immersed in his work, the news from the outside continued to reach his ears: Zuo Shiqi sold the land, Zuo Shiqi was expelled from the family, rented the warehouse, and took in someone's land official. owed.
"What? Pay off the debt!?"

Just after the conflict between the two sides and the Zuo family clan decided to resist with all their strength, within half a day, the news that the officials wanted to clear up the arrears spread from the elder meeting to the entire clan.

Now everyone, including Zuo Baoliu, was not calm.

In the Ming Dynasty, tax arrears had become a norm.

The grain households and landlords in various places owed the local government, and the local government owed the imperial court.The imperial court is basically helpless against this kind of old bad debts. The only way to deal with it is to find a reason to reduce all the outstanding debts after a period of time.For example, when Emperor Tianqi came to the throne, he decreed to exempt a considerable amount of tax arrears from various places.

So when the news came out, it was inevitable that everyone in the Zuo family would panic: if the outstanding debts were paid, although the big landlords owed a lot, the amount distributed to each family was also astronomical.You must know that these arrears have been accumulated over the years, how can you pay them back all at once?What's more, everyone is waiting for the court's grace to reduce the exemption. What the hell is this payment?

Taking advantage of the conflict in the hidden field, the big landlords distorted the facts a little, and easily incited the clansmen.

Zuo Baoliu is also unavoidable in this matter: he will be finished if he is just a little bit of arrears.So he consciously came to the big house of Zuo's family, and lined up to beg to see the speaker of his room: the old scholar Zuo Ping.

In a skilled tone, he once again confirmed that the officials wanted to pursue the debts and confiscated all the hidden fields. After cleaning up the tenants, Zuo Ping told Zuo Baoliu angrily: This time it will be impossible to stop making trouble.If the officials and the tenants behind them run amok, then everyone in the Zuo family will be finished.

Zuo Baoliu, a middle-age farmer who has absolutely no ability to collect and discriminate external information, can only trust the judgment of the clan scholars at this time.After all, scholars have been responsible for the strategic level for thousands of years. What kind of insight can he have with a muddy leg?
Of course, intimidation alone is not enough to make people work hard.Zuo Laoxiucai then told Zuo Baoliu in a pleasant manner: After everyone drives away the officials and renters together, half of the money he owed to this house last year can be exempted.If he redoubles his efforts on this matter, it is unknown that all the debts will be forgiven by then.

In addition, when the Zuo family gains the upper hand in the future, and the renter finds that they cannot receive rent from the mulberry garden, they may sell the mulberry garden back to the clan.At that time, Zuo Laoxiu immediately promised that all the debts Zuo Baoliu owed to the garden owner before will be canceled together.

Zuo Baoliu, who was originally timid and didn't want to step into the muddy water at all, immediately turned into a majestic macho after he came out of the Zuo family's big house, isn't it just fighting with weapons?The country people have experienced a lot, and I was a good man when I was young.

So after the face was completely torn apart, both sides of the conflict quickly made preparations.

Three days later, Zuo Baoliu was standing at the front of the crowd, holding a hoe and yelling.

The country people can't swear any grades, it's nothing more than some foul language.These words spread through the air to the village entrance 200 meters away.

Under the big willow tree at the entrance of the village, more than 100 thugs from the Land Acquisition Office were standing on the slope, confronting thousands of members of the Zuo family on the opposite side.

Among the more than 100 people, Yu Bende's staff accounted for one-third of the food shortage.These gangsters were all pale-skinned, their legs were trembling, and they couldn't even hold the iron ruler and sticks in their hands steadily, as if they were about to run away at any time.

In fact, if it weren't for the road out of the village behind it, which can be turned in at any time, it is estimated that this group of people would have run away long ago.And standing in front of the food police, the ones who really faced the villagers were naturally Xiong Dao's action team members.

Standing at the forefront is another person from the government: Yu Bende.Yu Shuban, who was dressed in black official uniform, felt his heart beat at the moment, but he really had no choice.Up to this day, he has been completely trapped in this matter, and he has put all the old people in the family on it, so he can't retreat even if he wants to.

After glancing left and right at the thugs in variegated short robes who seemed calm and were still joking quietly, Yu Bende became more and more anxious.

During clan fights and tax resistance, it is not uncommon for a few officials to be killed or maimed.And according to what his old man has done in Zuojia Village recently, if he loses here today, he will have to be beaten to death by these rioters with a hoe.

Yu Bende, who really couldn't hold back his panic, couldn't help but turned his head and smiled apologetically and asked a black and thin man beside him, "Guye, there are too many opponents, can you brothers hold on?"

"Master Yu, don't ask any more questions. These gangsters are not opponents, you can watch the show with peace of mind."

After the middle-aged man named Gu Le comforted Yu Shuban again, he raised the Leica high-definition mini-scope in his hand and looked towards the opposite side.

At this time, the village brigade has already started the final mobilization: in the camera, the leading figures of each house are leading the elite with knives and guns, standing in the crowd and agitating loudly.Not long after, when the emotions of the villagers were mobilized to the highest point, they slowly raised the forks and hoes in their hands, and it seemed that they were ready to move forward.

Just as the villagers took their first step, Gu Le lowered his arms, turned his head and said to a strong and unattractive man beside him, "It's time to start, Squad Leader Wu."

The man named Squad Leader Wu nodded, turned around and waved his hand.When the crowd dispersed on the slope, ten men in short gray jackets stood up conveniently at the front.

Soon, the ten people squatted down, two by two, forming five groups.Then they inserted a black and bright iron pipe obliquely on the ground in their hands, aiming at the crowd 200 meters away.

With the deepening of the cross-travel forces' understanding of the Ming Dynasty, both the army and the intelligence agencies have noticed a problem that cannot be ignored in their daily operations: the gathering of villagers.

In this medieval era where bandits were rampant and the government was weak, gathering crowds was arguably the most common daily routine of the people.Otherwise, it is not enough to fight against various natural disasters and man-made disasters. Of course, fighting with neighbors for water and land is also a major purpose of gathering people.

For example, Zuojia Village this time is a typical gathering behavior.It is obvious that there will be countless more of the same scenes to be dealt with in the future.However, in this situation, the cross-traversing crowd will definitely not be able to kill thousands of tenants.

This situation is very troublesome, can't we consume the imported shock bombs every time?Therefore, at the general meeting at the end of last year, the only "localized" high-tech project jointly proposed by the Army and the Intelligence Agency was approved by the cabinet: self-made tear gas bombs.

Speaking of tear gas bombs, it is actually not difficult to do.After excluding those chemical tear gas bombs such as phenyl chloroacetophenone in later generations, anti-wolf spray and tear gas, which use capsaicin and piperine as the main raw materials, are also widely used.

For kiln district chemical factories, it is not difficult to obtain capsaicin, a simple chemical extract. The difficulty lies in how to obtain the approval to invest resources, not the production process.

There is no shortage of hot peppers and peppercorns to have on hand.The process of extracting capsaicin with alcohol or some other organic solvents is not complicated. It is nothing more than some common methods of distillation and decompression-it can be produced in the laboratory, and the demand for this thing is not too large.

After obtaining capsaicin, and adding some magnesium powder and nitrates for burning, such as barium nitrate, the materials for making tear gas bombs will be fully activated.

After having the ammunition, the next step is naturally to release it.

For the villagers whose main weapons are dung forks and hoes, the most economical and cheapest weapon to throw is the scum buster grenade.This kind of crude stuff with a range of only 200 meters was specially used by the book during World War II to bully the poor Chinese troops who lacked machine guns and artillery.

Then, after encountering the U.S. military in the Pacific Islands, Benzi immediately understood the true meaning of "Daosi"—the summoned naval guns and land artillery were used to wash the ground at any time, and he never used the grenadier with a range of only 200 meters.

(End of this chapter)