Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 100 Double Pupils

Suzhou, Kunshan.

In the Gu's Manor in the outskirts, a young man with twin eyes looked at the contract in front of him, hesitated for a long time, and finally took a pen and wrote his name on it with a long sigh.

"Gu Yanwu."

Once the name is signed and the fingerprint is pressed, the [-] mu of ancestral land will be mortgaged to Ye Fangheng, a rich man from the same village.

"Brother Gu Jiang, if you don't want to pawn it to me or sell it, why bother?"

Ye Fangheng is also a big family in Kunshan, and he is already a man. Compared with Gu Jiang, a scholar who failed several times in the township examination, he can be said to be proud of his life. The Ye family has a prosperous business and a wealth of money in recent years. They have money to lend money to buy land everywhere.In contrast, Gu Jiang's life is very unsatisfactory.

"The country is ruined and the family fortune is in decline. From today on, a certain person will change his name to Yanwu."

"Really? But if you change your name on this pawn contract, do you suspect that you don't admit it?" Ye Fangheng waved his folding fan and chuckled. .

Gu Jiang changed his name to Yanwu to express his admiration for Wang Yanwu, a patriot in the Southern Song Dynasty.

"Although my name has been changed, the fingerprints have also been pressed. Gu has acted in an upright manner. Since I pledged the ancestral land code to you, how can I renege on it. If Fang Juren is unwilling to borrow it, then forget it."

"Yes, of course." Ye Fangheng immediately put away the pawn contract with a smile. The Ye and Gu families are both big families in Kunshan, but the background of the Ye family is much worse than that of the Gu family.

The Gu family in Kunshan moved from Wujun to Chuzhou in the Five Dynasties, then moved to Haimen in the Southern Song Dynasty, and then moved to Kunshan. It has been more than [-] years since then.

However, when it came to Gu Yanwu's father, his family fortune began to decline. His father was a supervisor of the sons of the state and had five sons.Gu Yanwu was raised by his adoptive father, Gu Ji, from his birth. He was greatly influenced by his stepfather, who was also a supervisor, but he was knowledgeable, caring about world affairs, and liked to read newspapers. He often asked Gu Yanwu to copy newspapers. When he was young, he supervised him to read historical articles such as historical records.

The stepmother, Wang Shi, the daughter of an imperial student, is also a young lady who knows Shu Dali, but her fiancée Gu Jitong died of illness before she officially entered the family, and she still married into Gu's family later on. brought up.

It is said that Wang took good care of his parents-in-law and treated his heir as if he had been born. Her mother-in-law was seriously ill. Wang even cut off one of her own fingers to make medicine for her mother-in-law according to a folk prescription, leaving a story of Wang's severed finger healing. She also set up a chastity and filial piety memorial archway for her.

Gu Yanwu had double pupils and could see ten lines at a glance. When he was young, he was even infected with smallpox and almost died. However, it may be because he read a lot of miscellaneous books since he was a child. Although he was very talented, he was not satisfied with the imperial examination. He also joined the famous Fushe in the south of the Yangtze River, but failed repeatedly in the township examination.

From the age of 14 to the age of 27, he has been studying hard in Kuxue, just to pass the exam, but there is no result for 14 years of hard study. He failed again in the imperial examination in Chongzhen for 12 years. There were thieves everywhere, and Jianlu invaded from outside, so he decided not to take the imperial examination, but started to write and compile books.

It was only two years later that after his grandfather died of illness, Congji Gaocong's brother Zhongyu and his son provoked disputes over the family property and wanted to drive back his adopted heir.

Family property lawsuits have been going on for several years, and Gu Yanwu is tired of coping, but the current situation is turbulent, Fu Yao gathers, apportions continue, floods, droughts and famines, and fields are barren. install.

Last year, after the establishment of Hongguang Nanjing, Gu Yanwu, who was a member of the Socialist Party, was recruited as the Secretary of the Ministry of War. Gu Yanwu was tired of family strife and intended to go to Nanjing to join the military and serve the country.Enthusiastically devoted to the Four Theories of Yiyou and Shangshu, he made suggestions for the imperial court. He went to Nanjing to take a post via Zhenjiang. As a result, before he arrived in Nanjing, Hongguang had already abandoned Beijing and fled, and then the Qing army occupied it.

Gu Yanwu had no choice but to return to his hometown, but the Qing army continued to march south.

During this period of time, Gu Yanwu has been planning with his friends Guizhuang and others, and recently he finally made up his mind to contact the righteous men to raise an army.

What prompted them to revolt was a lot of good news from the south, especially the letter from his friend Huang Zongxi, which made him very excited after reading it.

There is a Lu Jianguo in the east of Zhejiang, young and promising, and more responsible, unexpectedly in a short period of time, he has made a lot of noise, and even crossed the sea and made a northern expedition.

Gu Yanwu decided to join forces with Wu Dizhi to raise the flag to respond, and cooperated with Lu Jianguo's Northern Expedition to recover Jiangnan.

When he returned to the village again, he resolutely decided to sell the [-] mu of ancestral land left to him by his ancestors to raise money for payment and prepare for an uprising.

"Take the silver!"

Gu Yanwu looked at the contract that had been taken into Ye Fangheng's arms, expressionless. He knew that Ye Fangheng had long plotted for his family's property. In the land of Susong in the south of the Yangtze River, there are many people and little land. The land is very rare, and even formed a long time ago. The situation of two owners of land can be divided into field bone and field skin. The field bone is the property right of the field, while the field skin is the right to rent the land, which can be transferred.

It is very difficult for rich landlords and large households to buy land. If it is not a last resort, who is willing to sell this ancestral land, especially a large piece of ancestral land is even more difficult.

The Gu family was fighting among themselves, and the family property lawsuit had been going on for several years. I don’t know how many powerful landlords have been watching, so they wanted to take a bite. Gu Yanwu offered to pledge the [-] acres of ancestral land. For Ye Fangheng, this is still a golden opportunity.

In his opinion, Gu Yanwu is just a stupid guy who reads books, although he is quite famous in Fushe, but so what?The property dispute lawsuit has been fought for several years without any results, and Gu Yanwu has no ability to make a living. Right now, he is sitting on nothing, and the lawsuit is even more bottomless.

As long as this field is mortgaged, it is impossible for him to have the opportunity to redeem it again.

Gu Yanwu didn't have the heart to think about the matter of Zutian at all at this time, he was thinking about bigger things now.

After getting the money, he went home immediately.

First, I went to see my stepmother, Mrs. Wang.

"When the country is in trouble, everyone is responsible. The king of Lu in eastern Zhejiang has ascended the throne and supervised the country. Now not only is eastern Zhejiang stable, but he has personally mentioned the king's division and sent troops to the Northern Expedition. He has entered Jiaxing. My son, my friend Guizhuang, and Wu Qihang decided to respond. We must unite Yang Yongyan, the former governor of Kunshan, and Wang Yongzuo, the former governor of Xunyang, raised their troops to respond."

"A son can no longer serve his mother, it's not filial."

"My son pledged [-] acres of ancestral land to Ye Fangheng today, and I am ashamed of my ancestors."

Mrs. Wang was holding a book of senior officials, and said calmly after listening to her son's words, "When you decided to go to Nanjing to take a post, I understood your desire to save the country. I still support you with all my strength, you don’t need to worry about me, I will take care of myself.”

"I have already arranged servants to send my mother to live in Zhuangzi on the outskirts of Changshu."

He took out some silver and gave it to Wang.

"You keep the money for big things. I can grow vegetables and weave cloth for my own use in Changshu's village. It doesn't cost much. You take care of yourself."

Gu Yanwu burst into tears, "My son is not filial, maybe I won't be able to come back to serve after this trip."

Mrs. Wang patted his hand, "Even though I am a woman, I have received the grace of the country. You are a courtier of Ming Dynasty. Don't let down the great grace of the country for generations. Don't forget the legacy of your ancestors. If you die unfortunately, then I will Go on a hunger strike and die for the country, and meet underground."

"Mother!" Gu Yanwu felt complicated after hearing this.

"Go ahead, that's just the worst case, but it may not be the worst. The Lu Jianguo you mentioned may soon come with the Northern Expedition and regain Jiangnan."

"Yes! I will definitely." Gu Yanwu gritted his teeth and said.

After bidding farewell to his stepmother, Gu Yanwu took the money and rushed to meet his good friends Gui Zhuang and Wu Qihang. Both of them were friends of Fushe and had similar ambitions, especially Gui Qi, who had been classmates for more than ten years. .

"This is 5000 taels of silver."

When Gu Yanwu met, he pointed to the several boxes of silver brought in by the servants.

Gui Zhuang and Wu Qihang smiled and pointed to a corner of the room, "Our money has arrived earlier."

Gu Yanwu said, "Ye Fangheng deliberately lowered the price and wanted me to never sell it. In the end, I sold it live for six taels of silver per mu, and only sold [-] mu for [-] mu."

"That's a bitch." Gui Zhuang couldn't help but swear.

The land in Jiangnan is very expensive. Even in the current turmoil, Jiangnan is still relatively less affected. Another feature of Jiangnan's land sales is that the procedures and land rights are complicated. For example, there are live sales and absolute sales. After the sale, you can find the price again.

Some can still find the price several times, that is, they are all sold, or even sold out, and the contract is signed. However, after a few years, the original landlord can ask for the price again, which is to compensate for the price difference, or even make up more than once. The reason is not Land in the south of the Yangtze River is more popular.

Even now, in fact, the rural custom of needing to go through multiple price searches from live sale to absolute sale has been formed, which is regarded as the legitimate rights and interests of the landlord.Landlords could even sell the skins of the fields first and then the bones of the fields. Anyway, land sales in the south of the Yangtze River were very complicated, and even the landlords could not deprive the tenants of their tenancy rights, so the skins of the fields could also be bought and sold.

However, there are many land lawsuits in the south of the Yangtze River, and such lawsuits are likely to lead to collusion between officials, officials and landlords.

Gu Yanwu's [-] mu of land is now being sold alive, that is, it can still be redeemed. If there is no money to redeem it at the end of the term, it can be sold forever, or it can ask for a further price, but Gu Yanwu can't care about these now.

Even if the market price of the 5000 mu of land was sold alive, it would not exceed the [-] taels of silver, but he didn't care.

"Did Yang Gong reply? Is the prince willing to come out and lead everyone?" Gu Yanwu asked.

Although the three were the leaders of the uprising, their identities were not high after all. They contacted the former magistrate of Kunshan County and hoped to persuade Wang Yongzuo, who had served as the governor of Xunyang, to lead everyone. Ken stepped forward to lead the rebel army, the effect is definitely better.

"Duke Yang has already sent 5000 taels of silver, saying that he is contacting colleagues with lofty ideals, and that the prince has also agreed to lead the rebel army. They also said that they will take Kunshan first, then Suzhou, and then go south to recover Hangzhou and unite with eastern Zhejiang. "

Gu Yanwu was very excited when he heard that, "That's great."

"Brother Gu, do you have any new letters from Brother Taichong? Where is the Northern Expedition led by Lu Jianguo? Is there any good news?"

"Yes, I just received a great piece of good news. You should clap your hands and applaud loudly!"

"What great news, hurry up and tell it!" Gui Zhuang and Wu Qihang hurriedly urged after hearing this.

　It's on the shelves, please make the first order to support it.

　　There are ten more chapters today, and there are still nine chapters to come!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)