Elegy of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 118 The Ubiquitous Association

The main room of Mrs. Wang's family is very simple, but it can be seen that their family is trying to maintain a decent appearance. The interior decorations, such as curtains, curtains, tents, screens, etc., are all available.

At this moment, Second Lady Wang drew the curtains and separated a private space in the lobby to have a secret conversation with Fang Chongyong and his party.

"I wonder if your envoy is here to advise me?"

Mrs. Wang put her hands on her clothes and wiped them subconsciously, leaving traces of flour on her waist.

Hu biscuits account for a large part of Hexi's diet, and wheat rice is firmly resisted here.Anyone who has the conditions will grind wheat grains into flour to make "dried Hu cakes", which can be stored for a long time in the dry environment of Hexi.

Here, you can see people who can eat Hubing for a month once they make it!There is even a store in Liangzhou that specializes in selling this standardized "dried hu biscuit".What Fang Chongyong eats here is similar. The biggest advantage of dried hu biscuits is that they are versatile, and they have no unique taste.

"The battle in Hexi is tense, and the rotation of the troops has been postponed. The rotation will be carried out after the war is over."

Fang Chongyong said in a deep voice and handed the documents from the court to Mrs. Wang to read.

Surprisingly, the other party just took the official document, read it at a glance, and then returned it to Fang Chongyong, then nodded silently and said: "I already know about this, so you have a heart."

Fang Chongyong didn't think she looked like the kind of petite woman who came from an official family. Instead, she had a stout figure and was obviously good at daily farm work.I couldn't help being surprised.

In ancient times, the efficiency of reading and learning was very low. If there is no special guidance, if you learn by yourself, the effect is very poor and the learning is very slow.

It's hard to imagine that Mrs. Wang, a woman of the generation, can read and write even though all the men in her family are soldiers.

Seeming to sense his doubts, Lady Wang sneered and said: "There is a textile club in Ganzhou. Only women are allowed to join. The main purpose is to discuss weaving skills together. There are many carefree parents and boring officials and women. Teach us how to read and write. I learned Braille there and can barely read documents."

Textile company?
What is this stuff?
Fang Chongyong remembered that he had heard a similar word before, which seemed to be called...qushe!
Putting these distracting thoughts aside, Fang Chongyong continued to explain: "The battle in Hexi is tense, and the rotation of soldiers is not up to me, the governor, to decide. I hope you can understand."

The Second Lady Wang breathed a sigh of relief and said: "I understand very well and have become accustomed to it. The imperial court's failure to rotate garrison troops on time is no longer a matter of a day or two. What choice do we have besides enduring it? It's better for you to do so." It is very rare to love people as one’s own children at such a young age.”

This is the truth.

The assassin came to explain, and his posture was already very low.Complimenting each other with a few words of politeness is enough, and blaming each other will not change anything.

In any case, the postponement of the rotation of soldiers is a foregone conclusion. To give face to others is to give face to oneself. Fang Chongyong understands the helplessness of the people at the bottom.

"Uh, by the way, what are these people in the house and yard doing...?"

Suddenly thinking of this incident, Fang Chongyong asked doubtfully.

Mrs. Wang was stunned, as if she didn't understand that such a common sense question would be asked by Fang Chongyong, the governor.

However, she looked at Fang Chongyong's figure and childish face, then patted her forehead and replied angrily:
"Look at the memory of the slave family. You may have just arrived in Hexi and don't know about the association here.

My family and those families contributed money and effort to build a canal to bring black water to our farmland.In order to repair the canal, we formed a canal society. In addition to mandating the maintenance of the canal, we also help each other according to the rules of the canal.

They have wheat but no stone mill, my family has stone mill but no strong labor force, so other commune members will help my family harvest rice and wheat during the autumn harvest, and they will send the wheat regularly, and I will return it after grinding it for them part of the remuneration. "

Mrs. Wang Er explained patiently. Fang Zhongyong discovered from these words that the family had tens of acres of paddy fields, and the family's strong laborers joined the army, but there was no secret of going bankrupt because of this!

The answer is the word Qushe!

If you live in the suburbs of Chang'an, most of these families will have their strong labor force join the army, leaving no one to cultivate the fields, which will lead to a sharp drop in income, or even being unable to make ends meet.In order to overcome their difficulties, the family had to hire people to farm, and to spend money, they had to borrow loan sharks, or sell their land to survive, reducing the area they cultivated, and their living standards spiraled downward until they went bankrupt.

In short, life is unbearable.

There is a Qushe here in Hexi. If a strong labor force from a certain family joins the border army, other people in the Qu She will provide low-interest loans and paid labor to the members according to the rules and actual conditions.This prevents families who are in difficulty due to various accidents from borrowing loan sharks from outside.

Take Mrs. Wang's family as an example. The two male members of her family went to the Chishui Army, and there was no one to take care of the fields at home.Usually, Mrs. Wang can still do it reluctantly, but when the farming is busy, she must ask someone to help.

And when she applied to the company, the economic price she paid was far lower than asking a large local company for help!
Although it's not a problem if it goes on like this for a long time, considering that the men of Mrs. Wang's family should return home in turn this time, the help Qushe has given to their family this year cannot be underestimated.

After receiving an unexpected answer, Fang Chongyong nodded slightly, seeming to understand part of the political ecology of Ganzhou, or the Hexi Corridor.

There is a canal society for building canals.

There are textile societies for weaving.

Fang Chongyong can fully infer that there must be a Buddhist shrine in the temple.

Believers organize themselves and participate in Buddhist temple activities. It is normal to have organizations similar to Buddhist societies.

It's just that judging from the information just obtained, there is a big difference between societies.

For example, the Qushe that Mrs. Wang and a group of people in the yard joined has a strong social attribute. It organizes isolated farmers' families and belongs to a strong and close connection.

The social attributes of the Textile Club are much lower, more like a "salon" where only women participate, where they are bored and bored, learning and exchanging experience, the binding force on members is not high, and the influence is difficult to compare with Qushe .

Fang Chongyong suddenly realized when he remembered that when he was queuing up at the door of Mrs. Wang's house, someone stopped his group.

It's all "membership system" here, waiting in line for the stone mill to grind the wheat grains.The members of Qushe knew each other very well, and suddenly someone they didn't know appeared. Of course, these members of Qushe who were queuing up had to ask what was going on!

"The imperial court will increase taxes, at least ten times. Although it is not a one-off, there may be various tricks, but in general it is like this.

You know the difficulties of the people in Ganzhou, but the government's decree cannot be disobeyed. What does Second Lady Wang think? "

Fang Chongyong asked helplessly, and gave the page about taxation in the draft in the Ganzhou government office to Mrs. Wang for review.

"The saint doesn't want us to live."

After reading it word by word, Second Lady Wang asked with a sigh.

That's right, the court did not say that taxes would be increased ten thousand times!

It’s just that the other requirements, added up bit by bit, require food, cloth, and manpower.Calculating these based on the employment situation, wouldn't it mean that each household would have to increase taxes by ten dollars? This money may not be enough to survive!
Unity soldiers are not militias, they are hired, and their wages are paid daily!
Although the government government only gave them some food rations, pickles, etc., and one piece of clothing every quarter.But recruiting [-] united troops is not a small amount.

This does not include the additional cost of hiring Sogdians inside the city.

"If you don't spend money, then the government government will forcefully recruit young men in Zhangye City, and the regiment trainers will train them uniformly.

In this case, some people will no longer be able to work in the fields. "

Fang Chongyong sighed.

The Sogdians near the city were half-cultivators and half-herders, and many were engaged in business, scattered throughout the Tang Dynasty.The Sogdians "wealth is the most important thing". Although the father and son still made a contract, they "will not move without wealth."When dealing with people in the Sogdian settlement, just talk about money directly. They have no feelings to talk about with the Tang Dynasty.

This is also good news. After all, problems that can be solved with money are not big problems.

"The slave is from a woman's family, so the government will definitely not ask for money. The family still has dozens of acres of paddy fields, so it is better to take them away. Anyway, there is no money to ask for."

Second Lady Wang said very forcefully.

Fang Chongyong's heart sank and he secretly cried out.

Mrs. Wang's family seems relatively well-to-do, and even has a stone mill.

Even her family thinks it is impossible to pay taxes, so it is even more impossible for other families.Sure enough, Fang Chongyong lifted the curtain and let other members of the Qushe come in to discuss the tax increase, and these people immediately exploded into discussions.They didn't dare to beat and insult the governor, but many people knelt down to plead with Fang Chongyong, hoping that the court would charge less.

If the tax increase is consistent, then it can still be discussed and discussed. If you bite your teeth, you can get it together.

Raising taxes by ten guan, which is equivalent to [-] yuan, is almost a desperate measure. The farmers are desperate. The sandbank terrain of the Hexi Corridor makes it impossible for people to run in the desert. It is estimated that the local people will have to revolt in Ganzhou by then!
Considering that these people have all joined the Qushe, the rebellion will not happen one by one.If a civil uprising breaks out...the consequences will be disastrous!
Fang Chongyong finally understood why the local officials in Ganzhou would rather be blind than carry out Brother Ji's autumn prevention order!

What if the bulk of military expenditures were allocated to local large households, which themselves had many branches and belonged to semi-military organizations. What if these people defected to Tibet?
The settlements beside the city are not easy to mess with. If they exceed the amount negotiated with the Datang government, they will not be able to talk.

Typical "no money no talk".

If all the pressure is put on the local farmers, who are all members of the Qushe, there will be quite a stir.

If something goes wrong and the court can't deal with it, then the only choice is to take it out on the local bureaucrats. Who would be willing to make fun of their own wealth and life?
Ten strings of money is "tax increase", which is the so-called "exorbitant miscellaneous taxes"!In addition to this, the normal taxes that the local villagers in Hexi have to pay every year are also indispensable and cannot be reduced or exempted!

The canal society has a canal owner, who is responsible for taking the lead in repairing the canals and taking the lead in formulating the rules of the canal society.Although the canal society is a "democratic system" within the canal society, and members who boycott the canal society's activities do not have to sign, the canal owners have a strong say in it.

Fang Chongyong decided to find a time to chat with the canal owner of the canal club where Mrs. Wang's second wife lives.

After appeasing many members of the Qushe, and promising that the imperial court would not raise taxes so hastily, he took Anaye and A Duan away from Second Lady Wang's house.

It seems that there is no need to visit other families, and they are probably all the same.

……

The backyard of the government office is where the governor lives.There is a karez here with a grape trellis set up next to it, making the environment very quiet.But now that it's autumn, it doesn't look lush anymore.

At sunset, Fang Chongyong, who was tired all day, leaned on the chair he specially ordered to build, while enjoying Anaye's massage service, while watching Fang Laique walking in the courtyard like a dove go.

"Lang Jun, let's go back to Liangzhou! The people here in Ganzhou are so bad, they are digging holes for Lang Jun!"

Fang Laique said indignantly.

Fang Chongyong was shaking a cattail leaf fan in his hand. He didn't seem to hear Fang Laique complaining, and he looked thoughtful.

"Does he look like a little fool to you?"

Anaye approached Fang Chongyong and whispered in Fang Chongyong's ear.

"Fool? How can you be a fool!"

Fang Chongyong suddenly realized, and blurted out a retort.

He waved to Fang Laique, gesturing for him to come over.

Soon, Fang Laique walked up to Fang Chongyong and asked, "What are your orders, Mr. Lang? Are we going to rent a carriage to go to Liangzhou?"

Fang Chongyong said nothing, but looked at Fang Laique carefully.

Slightly fatter figure.

A rogue temperament who is lazy because of eating too much and being lazy.

A pair of small eyes with no spirit and no emotion.

A casual and disrespectful stance.

If you also count his usual habit of speaking out... Anaye said he was a little fool, and he was really right.

However, fools have their own uses, and fools can often do things that normal people cannot do.

Fang Chongyong adheres to the idea that a piece of paper or a piece of cloth has its own magical uses. He feels that this wave of routines, with Fang Laique as the core of the routine, has a lot to do!
"Come on, although we are named master and servant, we are actually brothers..."

Before Fang Chongyong finished speaking, he heard Fang Laique patting his chest excitedly and saying, "I know! Just tell Mr. Lang if you have any orders!"

Well, just being stupid isn't enough. No matter what, you still have to package it.

Fang Chongyong circled around Fang Laique, but he was still the same as before. No matter how Fang Chongyong turned, he also followed Fang Chongyong, always facing Fang Chongyong.It was just his funny look that made Anaye's stomach burst from laughter.

Fang Chongyong was a man of action, so he immediately brought Fang Lai Que to the Xilai Temple in the south of the city, not far from the government office.After revealing his identity, Fang Chongyong successfully met Facheng, the abbot of Xilai Temple.

There are many Buddhist temples inside and outside Zhangye City, why go to Xilai Temple?
Because only Xilai Temple in Zhangye City is Tantric, and other temples are Xianzong, so Xilai Temple is an important tool used by the Tang government to restrict Xianzong Buddhist temples in Ganzhou.

A simple summary: a government-designated unit!

Facheng was from Luoyang and was good at painting Buddhist statues.When I came to Hexi, I actually created murals here. I am not a "brainless" monk, and I have a good relationship with the government.

After seeing Monk Facheng, Fang Chongyong handed over the official document draft to him for viewing, then sighed and asked:
"Master, just tell me how much money Xilai Temple plans to pay. If it's less, it won't work. If it's less, for the great cause of the saint, it can only be added to the people of Ganzhou. There will be a civil uprising by then.

You don't want to see the people of Zhangye city in ruins, do you? "

Fang Chongyong's attitude of "I will accept the order" made Facheng stunned.Then he smiled wryly and said: "If you have anything to do, you can just tell me directly, there is no need to go around the corner."

Seeing Facheng's cooperation, Fang Chongyong's next words were useless.He could only cough lightly to cover up his embarrassment, then pointed at Fang Laique and said:
"This child is the holy son in your temple and knows everything. I hope he can become a monk in Xilai Temple today.

When I leave Ganzhou, I will just let him return to secular life. "

What is the Son of God?
Fa Cheng was dumbfounded, he didn't follow Chong Yong's brain circuit.

"The so-called Holy Son is the person favored by Buddha!"

Fang Chongyong added a sentence.

understood!

Facheng was an old man in the martial arts world. He had seen many magicians in Luoyang, and he knew what Fang Chongyong wanted to do as soon as he heard them.

"If the governor is confident, it is not impossible to let him enter Xilai Temple, but this holy son..."

Facheng was a little hesitant. By the way, would this ten-year-old governor regard all the locals in Ganzhou as fools?
"Tomorrow I will send him here to become a monk. Master Facheng remember to make the etiquette more grand."

Fang Chongyong emphasized very blatantly that he would not give Facheng a chance to refuse.

The well-informed Facheng had long known the identity and background of the newly appointed governor, and had no choice but to accept the "unreasonable" request in the face of Fang Zhongyong's aggressive PUA.

At this moment, Fang Laique suddenly hugged Fang Chongyong's arm and cried loudly: "Mr. Lang! I will marry the prime minister's daughter in the future, but I can't become a monk!"

When Facheng heard this, he awkwardly echoed: "The envoy's followers are people with great ambitions."

"Without merit, how can you marry a prime minister's daughter? Now is the time for you to make merit for the country!"

Fang Chongyong patted Fang Laique on the shoulder with a smile but said.

(End of this chapter)