Red House Shoufu

During these days, Jia Lian was so busy that his feet never touched the ground. He went out early and returned late every day. When he got home, he was too tired to move.Wang Xifeng originally wanted to talk to him about this matter, but seeing her husband's exhausted appearance, she finally endured it.

In the past two days, the old lady has indicated to Wang Xifeng openly and secretly that Wang Xifeng still feels a little uncomfortable about taking concubines.What happened to Jia Lian outside, Wang Xifeng was sour, and it was over, but if she really brought him home, she, Wang Xifeng, would write the surname upside down without making a fuss in the house.

It's normal for a man to have three wives and four concubines these days. Two years ago, she made the decision to carry Ping'er into a concubine's room. After that, Jia Lian didn't go out to spend time and drink again, and the small courtyard was stable for a long time.I don't know what the old lady was thinking, but she suddenly became concerned about her grandson's backyard.

Of course, when Wang Xifeng told Daiyu about this, she didn't mean to ask Daiyu for an idea, but just wanted to find out from the side, why the old lady suddenly thought of this.

"It's a coincidence that my grandmother just told me a few words about this matter."

Daiyu felt a little helpless, she, a girl who had never left the court, actually got involved in this kind of thing.She sighed: "Actually, the main reason is that Lian's second brother has no children so far, and my grandmother is a little anxious..."

This made Wang Xifeng even more aggrieved. She lamented: "I can't blame me for this matter. You see, Ping'er's stomach hasn't moved yet. Last time I asked the imperial doctor Wen in the palace. I have a pulse, your second elder brother Lian, me, and Ping'er are all fine. This kind of thing depends on God's will..."

Wang Xifeng complained to Daiyu for a while, vomited bitterness, and then threw the matter aside.Since it wasn't her fault, Wang Xifeng pretended not to have heard about it. Anyway, the name of Second Grandma Lian's jealousy in Rongguo Mansion has already been spread all over the capital.

After complaining, Wang Xifeng pulled Daiyu to him and reminded him in a low voice, "I called you here because of another matter..."

Under Wang Xifeng's explanation, Daiyu finally understood the main reason why the old lady invited her to Rongguo Mansion today.

It turned out that the old lady had seen the prosperity of the Lin family among civil servants. Lin Bo, Lin Feng and Lin Gui were all successful in their studies, so they intended to get closer and marry the Lin family again.

As for the marriage law, the old lady only mentioned it during the meal, and did not mention the specific situation clearly.

"The sixth and seventh brothers are all married, and only Brother Gui in Beijing is not engaged because of his young age... Could it be that grandma wants to marry Brother Gui? Is it the fourth sister?"

Daiyu covered her mouth and said: "The fourth younger sister is a direct branch of the Ning family, a righteous daughter of the Marquis of the country. Still too young."

Among the four members of the Lin family in Beijing, Lin Bai and Lin Feng are all married, and Lin Shu's marriage is approaching, so it is impossible for the three of them to marry the Jia family.

Lin Gui, the youngest, has just passed twelve, so he and Xichun are quite suitable in age, but there is too much difference in status.Daiyu shook her head, not optimistic about this matter.

Lin Gui is third uncle's most promising youngster of the Lin family. He is a young talent in the Lin family second only to Lin Shu. Lin Jin told Lin Shu and Daiyu of his plan as early as after coming to Beijing. …

Lin Gui's future wife should be the family of Qinggui Shilin.On the one hand, it can help Lin Gui's future, and on the other hand, it also needs to strengthen the influence of the Lin family in Shilin.It is best to find a scholarly family from the Northland. After all, the influence of the Lin family in the south of the Yangtze River is large enough, but the Northland is slightly weaker.

Lin Jin's words flashed through Daiyu's mind, and she asked suspiciously, "Sister Feng thinks this is okay?"

"The old lady thinks it's a good idea, but the second uncle said that it would be best if we can get closer. The only seed in our house is Brother Lang, and we will have to rely on Cousin Lin to help. But when it comes to specifics If you plan to come, the old lady just keeps silent, making people puzzled."

Wang Xifeng looked out of the window, and whispered in Daiyu's ear: "I'm afraid that the old lady will do something wrong with good intentions... The third younger sister is about to reach her age, and the old lady had an idea before to let the third younger sister be a concubine to cousin Lin... ..."

"Ah! How is this possible!"

Daiyu screamed out, and it took a long time to come back to her senses.She quickly asked: "This can't be true, right? Even if the third sister is a concubine, she is a girl from the Duke's mansion, the sister of the imperial concubine. The second uncle is a third-rank official in the country, and this girl is the only one left in the family." , how can I give someone to be a concubine?"

"Who knows what the old lady is thinking, I tell you this just to remind you in advance, you must not dare to do this, or our two families will really be a joke!"

What Wang Xifeng said was extremely reasonable. It's not that Lin Shu can't take concubines, but if he really brought Tanchun in, wouldn't that be slapping Yuanchun in the face?
Fortunately, this matter is still only Wang Xifeng's guess, and there is still a chance to save everything.The two murmured in the room for a while, and after discussing a feasible solution for the foreseeable situation, they returned to the Rongxi Hall to accompany the old lady for dinner.

……

In the capital city in mid-August, there is hardly any peace and stability.

First, the Mid-Autumn Festival was disturbed by a rebellion, and then there were quarrels between the civil and military for several days because of the reward.It wasn't until the arrival of Shuntianfu Qiuwei in late August that the atmosphere in the capital returned to normal from the tense situation.

In the land of Gyeonggi, the settlement amount of Shuntian Prefecture has always been between 150 and 250 per session.Coupled with the release of the quota for supervising students of the Imperial College, the number of people who can participate in the next year's general examination will exceed the [-] mark.

Jinqiuqiu had already made a preliminary agreement as early as June, but because of this sudden rebellion, the originally scheduled main examiner of the Shuntianfu Township Examination was involved in a rebellion, and this meeting has already been sent to prison.

When Lin Shu received the imperial decree, he was in a daze.

"I'm the main examiner? Teacher, isn't this nonsense?"

The purpose of Qian Qianli's visit in person to deliver the decree was to teach Lin Shu the experience of being the chief examiner of the provincial examination.

After Wang Yuan brought tea to the two, she walked out of the study together.

"This girl is not bad, it seems that you are a lucky person!"

Qian Qianli took a sip of tea and sighed in admiration: "Your mistress mentioned to me before that this girl from the Wang family is knowledgeable, gentle and virtuous, and she will definitely help you stabilize the inner house in the future, so that you have no worries. Seeing you today, she is a good girl." Nice kid."  …

"Teacher, the student is telling you something serious..."

"What the old man told you is the right thing!"

Lin Shu said helplessly: "Students have never had the experience of presiding over an examination. They suddenly died and were terrified. According to the principle of the township examination, it should be presided over by an academic officer from a province. For an important place like Shuntian Prefecture, the department There is nothing wrong with high-ranking officials in the hall. The students have only been in office for less than three years and have no qualifications. Why are students suddenly asked to preside over such a big test?"

Qian Qianli smiled slightly and said: "Your Majesty personally ordered this matter, and the cabinet and the Ministry of Rites have no objection. Your Majesty once ordered me to enter the palace to discuss, and before the imperial court, the old man also suggested that Your Majesty choose another person. I am worried that it will bring you trouble." It will have a bad influence, but His Majesty insists on letting you preside over the township examination in Shuntian Prefecture."

After hearing this explanation, Lin Shu was even more confused.

He murmured: "It doesn't make sense... Your Majesty is putting me on the fire!"

Presiding over a province's rural examination, just being the instructor of the rural examination with more than 100 candidates is the envy of everyone.In the official career, where can one avoid human relationships?If Lin Shu presides over this rural examination, these 150 candidates will have to call Lin Shu a teacher, which can be regarded as the embryonic form of the future "Lin Party".

I only listened to Qian Qianli's analysis: "The old man guessed that His Majesty is eager to implement the New Deal, and wants to select talents in advance in the rural examination for future use. Compared with these people in the court, the resistance of the New Deal is as strong as that in the court. People who are close to each other, but the new imperial examinations are more pure."

"The teacher is right, this possibility is extremely high."

Lin Shu's mood gradually calmed down from the panic just now, and Qian Qianli's guess was almost the same as his.

Before, because of the land reform, Lin Shu had written to the emperor, mentioning all his thoughts and preset resistance to reform.

As far as the main forces of land annexation are at present, one is the honorable clan, and the other is the people of the official family with fame.The civil and military officials in the court counted one by one, and they were all the landlord class of the Great Chu.

Of course, Lin Shu didn't plan to come to the land GM to fight the local tyrants to divide the land. His main method is still moderate, reducing rent and interest, and then reclaiming new land, renting state-owned land to landless people, and adopting family joint production. The contract responsibility system reduces the proportion of land mergers.

This can not only reduce the contradiction between population growth and land annexation, but also strengthen the imperial court's control over the local area and increase tax revenue.

far away!
Lin Shu finished his thoughts, and finally concluded: "If Your Majesty's purpose is this, then there is one more thing that needs to be prepared in advance."

"What you said earlier about the meritorious tax exemption reform?"

"That's right! The students think that the country should provide student aid in kind, rather than a simple policy of preferential treatment. The policy of student aid promulgated by the Taizu based on the experience of the previous Ming Dynasty has been ruined by local officials and gentry!"

The policy of preferential exemption, that is, granting exemption from rent, tax, forced labor, etc., to show preferential treatment.

In the spring of the second year of Zhaowu, after the Taizu presided over the first palace examination of Dachu, the Ministry of Households made a statement: "From now on, except for civil servants, internal officials, and internal envoys, all will be exempted as usual. Ten dings of people are exempted, eight dings are exempted from the magistrate, three dings are exempted from the same magistrate down to the county magistrate, and three dings are exempted from each person, and the officials below the eighth rank are miscellaneous, provincial priests, listening to elections, etc., as well as supervisors, juren, students, and officials. Family, in one case each exempts two dings.”…

In fact, the imperial court has never exempted people with fame and fame. According to the regulations of the Taizu Dynasty, the imperial court never included land tax in the scope of preferential exemption, and the preferential exemption always only included miscellaneous labor in labor.

The preferential exemption is only for the service in the tax and service, and does not involve taxation. No matter what level of official residence you live in, as long as there is no imperial court specifically ordering to exempt your family from taxation, in principle, you have to pay taxes according to the tax rate strictly according to the amount of land you have. .

Moreover, preferential exemption does not mean that all labor is exempted, only the miscellaneous labor is exempted. In some places, the uniform corvee can also be exempted. After all, the uniform corvette is also separated from the miscellaneous labor.

The policy system of this dynasty is that the central government issues the highest instruction, and then each local county adjusts and interprets the highest instruction according to its own actual situation.But the regular service in the labor service, that is, the Lijia battle, has never been within the scope of exemption from preferential treatment.

Although in terms of the system, the preferential exemption has always only included miscellaneous service, excluding regular service and taxation, but at the specific implementation level based on the county, the gentry will use various means and collusion with the county magistrate to refuse full service , Do not pay taxes.

All the labor and taxes were concentrated in the hands of poor peasants who did not have a few acres of land under their names. As a result, there was a large-scale fleeing of the poor.

In many cases, policies are good policies, but after all, government orders are difficult for the Forbidden City.Greedy vested interests will eventually devour everything like gluttony, until the country is ruined and the family is destroyed.

Lin Shu discussed this matter with Qian Qianli several times. Although both of them are beneficiaries of the current land policy and preferential policies, they are extremely worried about the current situation.

It has been nearly a hundred years since the founding of the Great Chu State, and the problem of land annexation among the people has reached a critical point that must be resolved.The reason why the civil uprisings and rebellions happened in Henan because of a big flood, in essence, is that the contradiction between the land annexation in Henan and the growing population was stimulated.

This is true for a province, and so is for a country.

After hearing Lin Shu's words again, Qian Qianli couldn't help sighing: "Can't you see the princes in the court? They just don't dare to face it. How many people can do it like Fan Wenzheng or Wang Jinggong?" Lord, after death, alas!"

Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi, the sages are not far away. In fact, all the princes in the court know that if the problem of land annexation is not resolved, the country of the Great Chu will probably be the same as other dynasties.

But people stay in the comfort zone for a long time, and they often lose the courage to face the storm.For example, Wei Qinghe and Lin Shu, veterans of the three dynasties, have repeatedly reported the many shortcomings of the current policy, and even used the materials collected from various places to support their own views, but the old man just accepted the materials with a smile, and then disappeared.

With Wei Qinghe's decades of experience as an official, would he not be able to understand those materials?Doesn't he know that the New Deal reform is the only way out for Da Chu?
In fact, Wei Qinghe is not opposed to the New Deal, but according to Lin Shu's view, the old man now only wants to spend the past two years in peace, and hand over the position of chief assistant to the next one smoothly.

At least Wei Qinghe gave him strong support for Lin Shu’s several small-scale pilot new policies, such as the pilot land reform in Guanzhong, asking for people to give, and money for money.

The two masters and apprentices were sighing in the study, but the emperor in the palace was earnestly persuading Wei Qinghe, the chief minister of the cabinet, who wanted to sue his old age and return to his hometown.

"Old Wei Ge, didn't I say that? Now that the government is undergoing great changes, everything needs to be stable. Isn't it embarrassing for you to retire at this time?"

When Wei Qinghe wrote the book suddenly, the emperor was so shocked that he couldn't even eat his lunch.

From the first year of Zhide, Wei Qinghe was appointed as the chief assistant of the cabinet by the Supreme Emperor.For nine whole years, Wei Qinghe has been acting as the lubricant and blending oil between the Supreme Emperor and the emperor, so that the two saints and the monarch and ministers are always in a stable situation.

In the first two years, the emperor still felt that the old man was very annoying, and he was against him everywhere.After three years of Zhide, when Wei Qinghe gradually transferred the power in the court to himself intentionally or unintentionally, the annoying old man became an inseparable old man.

To this day, the emperor is used to Wei Qinghe's presence.However, today, there was suddenly a resignation letter on Qinzhengdian's desk, and the signature was exactly his reassurance——Wei Qinghe, Prince Taishi, Shangzhuguo, Huagaidian University scholar!