Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 693
dawn.

It will be daylight.

The village is hazy, and the distant mountains are hidden.

On the wheat seedlings in the field, there are crystal dewdrops.

The Yunshan Camp at the foot of Yunshan Mountain was built in the early Ming Dynasty. It used to be the barracks to protect the second generation Lu King’s Mausoleum. Mausoleum.

There are more than 700 mu of cultivated land, more than 800 mu of forest land, and more than 300 villagers. They used to be tenants in the Tunzhuang of Lu Wangfu, but now each household is allocated 800 mu of cultivated land. The emperor bought Yunshan Villa and reserved 600 mu of land. There is more than [-] mu of land, and more than [-] mu of land is allocated from the surrounding original Wangzhuang, which is sold to villagers at a reduced price.

More than 400 villagers form a commune with Yunshan Huangzhuang, which has four large communes and [-] small communes.

Sun Maizi is an honest farmer. He is in his 50s this year. He has three brothers. He is the second eldest. Because his family was poor in the past, he was the only one among the three brothers who found a wife. He was the one who went out to harvest wheat for others and picked it up by the river beach. A woman fleeing famine, but also a woman with an inflexible mind.

He took the woman home and took good care of him. A year later, the silly woman gave birth to a son for him, and then gave birth to seven children in succession, three sons and four daughters.

The hard work of the three brothers being fathers and mothers together brought up five,
Sun Maizi adopted his second son under the name of his eldest brother, and his third son under his third brother's name. After his eldest brother and third brother had their own children, he gave up the idea of ​​finding a wife again and helped raise the children together.Life is hard, and more than ten years have passed in a blink of an eye, the eldest son is already twenty, and the youngest daughter is almost ten years old.

The silly daughter-in-law is still stupid, and she can't even cook.

However, old man Sun didn't dislike it either. He knew it was raining and ran home, at least it brought hope to their family.

Before dawn, he woke up as early as before.

The habit developed over the years is always getting up early and working late.

In the past, he was a helper, and he had to do a good job for others. This is his simplest thought, but now the emperor Shengen gave his family six acres of land, and the money for the land can be paid back slowly, but However, the income has increased a lot. This is my own land, and there is no need to pay rent, only the land owner.

He is the same as the baby for the six acres of land.

When I went out, I saw the elder brother and the third younger brother coming out with hoes on their shoulders.

"Go and weed that peanut." The elder brother is in his 60s, with white beards and a bent waist. He has been a bachelor all his life. In fact, if he didn't want to help raise the children, the elder brother would have had the opportunity to go to a widow's house in a neighboring village. Support the door.Later, the eldest brother said that it is better to raise a baby for others than to raise it for oneself, not to mention that the second strong is also adopted under his own name.

The three brothers have never separated, and simply live in the same pot.

"Huangzhuang Liu said that the peanuts will be collected for oil extraction at that time, and the price will still be collected according to the previous agreement. Is it okay?" The third child is also in his 50s.

"There's nothing unbelievable about this. Our family has been in this Yunshan camp for generations. More than 200 years ago, it was the guard of Lu Wangfu who guarded the mausoleum here. Later, he was disbanded and became a tenant of the palace. It has been passed down to our brothers. Almost 300 years.

What's more, the emperor is the original King Lu, and he gave us land before, so there is nothing unbelievable about such a benevolent emperor. "

"I heard that the emperor had a meal at a farmer's family in Baita Temple a few days ago, and he had millet porridge and steamed potatoes and old corn. When the emperor left, he rewarded them with a heifer. At the end of the year, he will be able to teach plowing immediately, but at the end of the day, he took away his two boys and girls, saying that he would give two silver dollars a month."

"What's the matter? Then there's smoke rising from the ancestral grave."

The three brothers walked and chatted with envy in their words.

Cows are so precious now that even if you have money, you may not be able to buy them. If you have a cow, you can not only give birth to a calf and sell it for money, but also save a lot of effort in plowing the land during the busy farming season.

As for being able to give two silver dollars a month after being taken away, that is even more unimaginable. The young girl went to work in the workshop of Huangzhuang, working hard day and night, and could get about one silver dollar a month. The wind does not blow and the rain does not protect, but it takes a long time and is very tiring.

With the emperor, one month's wages can buy an acre of Zhongtian.

Sun Maizi saw a few grains of sheep manure by the roadside, and quickly picked them up in a basket, and took them to the field to make fertilizer later.

"The eldest child is twenty, should we find a wife for the eldest child?" the boss said suddenly.

"Nowadays it's hard to talk about marriage. Although our place is stable, the conditions for getting married are also high."

But the boss said, "Our family now has six acres of land, and a few big children are also working hard in the Huangzhuang workshop to make money. There is also one silver dollar a month. The big Qiangzi is already twenty. If you don't look for it, the older you are, the harder it will be." I don’t have enough money at home, so I borrow it. Isn’t there a new bank in that county? I heard that ordinary people can ask the head of the insurance company to get a note and borrow it in the past. The interest is not high. A matter of concern, the three brothers, let's come one by one."

The third child said, "You get interest on borrowing money. It is said that the interest rate is low, but I always feel uneasy. If you ask me, this girl was delayed before, and now she can find someone with better conditions. Some betrothal gifts, less dowry, and the rest will be the betrothal money of Da Qiangzi, let's borrow some more."

Although this is not a marriage exchange, it is similar.

Poor families sometimes have no choice but to use the bride price money from their daughters as the basis for their sons to marry.

However, there are also disadvantages in doing so, that is, the daughter receives the dowry but has no dowry. After passing the door, she will inevitably be remembered or even looked down upon by her husband's family.

When the three brothers talked about this, their faces were also full of sadness.

After getting out of the peanut field, he weeded and loosened the soil without saying a word and started working.

While weeding, several young people ran over, but they were the three Qiangzi brothers of the Sun family. Their names were Daqiang Erqiang Sanqiang, and their nicknames were Goudan Ergousheng.

To put it bluntly, their mother is a stupid woman who can't do any work, but the children are born healthy. She knows nothing else, but she knows that the children need milk after birth. She gave birth to seven children. Unexpectedly, only two died young, and now the oldest is twenty, and the youngest is ten years old.

"Father, uncle, third master."

The dog Sun Daqiang came over, grabbed some sheep dung picked up on the road, and said hello, while crushing the dung into the peanut field, "Our peanut seedlings have grown so tall."

"Aren't you working in the workshop, why are you back?"

Although working in the workshop for a month can only earn one silver dollar, for them, this is already a very good way of life. They can still have one silver dollar with food and lodging included. This is the great grace of the emperor. In [-], a young man like Goudan went to the landlord's house as a helper, earning up to three or four hundred yuan a month.

The three brothers and one eldest girl can earn four yuan a month. If they can keep doing it, they don't have to worry about building a house, marrying a wife and buying land.

"Didn't you make trouble in the workshop again, you bastard? I'll beat you to death." Seeing his son smiling, Sun Erye thought he was causing trouble again. This guy is 20 years old and still single. He also likes to catch fish and catch shrimps and go up the mountain to set traps to hunt. He has two arms, but he also likes to fight and has a bad temper.

The things in this workshop were obtained with great difficulty. There is one silver dollar a month, even if you are tired, you can do what you don't.This errand is about to be lost, where can I find it again.

"You bastard, if you lose your job, you will be a bachelor for the rest of your life, and I will beat you to death..."

While pulling the second child, the uncle asked his stepson Er Qiangzi, "Ergou, what's going on, why are you here this early in the morning?"

"What's the trouble again?"

The Ergou quickly explained, "Father, it's a good thing that you didn't cause trouble."

"What good thing?"

Goudan also hurriedly explained while fleeing, "It's a good thing, but Long Live Lord is now patrolling our Yanzhou side, and he wants to recruit some Yanzhou folks from us..."

In the summer, Goudan is barefoot, wearing white shorts and shorts, and patched with patches, but he is quite strong, although he is a little thin, but he is tall and lean.

With his efforts to explain, the three brothers Sun Maizi understood.

The emperor wants to recruit some folks and children from Yanzhou. It is said that they are for the first prince Qin Wang and the second prince Han Wang to be their attendant maids.

"The king of Qin and the king of Han are the sons of heaven, do you want any guards, and you still like people like you?"

"It's true. We came back now to find the village head and Baojia to issue a bond. The workshop even took a day off today, without deducting wages."

The three brothers, Second Master Sun, were skeptical, but they didn't dare to be careless. If such a good thing really happened, they couldn't miss it. They hurriedly took the hoe and took the three of them home.

As soon as he trot back home, he didn't even have time to take a sip of water, so he hurried to find the village chief first.

Under the current Baojia system, the village head is actually equivalent to the old man established at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty. The imperial court required each village to select several respected old men by the villagers.

This old man needs to be tall and virtuous. Generally, people over 50 years old, and most of them are famous, famous gentry and patriarchs. According to the size of the village, there are usually three or five people in small villages, and eight or nine in large villages. people.

This kind of village elder system actually existed as early as the Qin and Han Dynasties.

It was also vigorously promoted in the early Ming Dynasty.

The elders in the early Ming Dynasty had the power to recommend talents, handle general lawsuits, assist in household registration management, collect taxes, and even supervise local officials.

For example, Zhu Yuanzhang clearly stipulated that the elderly can take an official's car to Beijing to file a complaint, and local officials are not allowed to stop them.

There have even been cases where the old man directly appointed the prefect of Songjiang and supervised the censor.

However, this system for the elderly was also abolished later. After Zhu Yihai proclaimed himself emperor, he implemented the Baojia system for rural governance, and at the same time restored the elderly, known as village elders.

Set up covenant halls or kiosks for the elderly in each village to allow villagers to elect elders and formulate villagers' covenants. Civil disputes between villagers will be mediated by them first, such as land, real estate, marriage, fights, debts, theft, private slaughter of cattle, etc. Civil disputes among the villagers, such as damage to farm tools and crops, are inherently complicated. There are too many such disputes in a county, and the county government can't handle them.

Therefore, the elders come to adjust and deal with the customs and customs first. If the matter is too big, or if you are not satisfied with the elders' handling, you can also sue the county government.

Another major responsibility of the village elders is to supervise the local officials. They have the right to directly report to the higher level, and even go directly to the provincial capital and the capital to file a complaint.

Ordinary people do not have the right to appeal, nor can they sue officials, but village elders can.

Villagers became the de facto village chiefs, and they had to persuade farmers and even preach edicts, etc., in conjunction with the Baojia system, which greatly strengthened local management and increased rural stability.

There are nearly [-] households in Yunshanying, and there are four village elders, each of whom is in charge of a big commune. If there are some important disputes, the four village elders will open a township court together to resolve them.

Today, the four village elders are very busy, because many young Houshan come to them to issue certificates and guarantee letters.It is proved that he is from the village, his net worth is clean, and he has not committed any crimes within three generations.

(End of this chapter)