Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 16 Listen to Me
Liujia Village is not big, with just over 100 households.Basically they are thatched houses.Most of the brick-and-tile houses were hardest hit by military disasters, and the entire family was often wiped out.

However, in the ninth year of Hongwu, because the world was settled and every household was assigned fields, life was of course getting better day by day.

After the supplies purchased from Nanjing city yesterday were distributed, people from every household came to Zhang Yifan's house one after another. Naturally, they wanted to help with the construction and expansion of the house.

When Zhang Yifan saw that there were more people, he called the villagers to the door. Then he climbed up the willow tree at the door. From a high position, he said to the villagers below: "Uncles, please be quiet and listen to me! "

Although they didn't know what he was going to do, everyone in the village knew that he rejected the solicitation from the wealthy family yesterday and wanted to stay in the village to help everyone live a good life. Regardless of whether he could live a good life or not, at least in their opinion, He is already a capable person in Liujia Village, this is their current consensus.

Therefore, when they heard him speaking, they all gathered around the willow tree and fell silent.

Zhang Yifan glanced at their faces and said loudly: "Yesterday, the girl gave me some money. I want to repair the houses and roads in our village. In addition, I also have ideas for planting fields for each family in the village. If you If you can listen to me, I will arrange things in the village. If you follow me, my caregivers will have new clothes to wear every year, and their lives will get better and better every year. How about that?"

If Zhang Yifan had said this three days ago, no one would have ignored him, and they would have even treated him as naughty and used a broom to chase him away.

But now, if nothing else, as soon as Zhang Yifan got rich, he thought of the people in the village and spent money to buy necessary daily necessities for each household, which impressed them.

Not to mention, the big families in the city were all polite to Zhang Yifan and even wanted to recruit him. Even if they didn't see it at ordinary times, it was enough to prove that Zhang Yifan was actually capable!
No, as soon as Zhang Yifan finished speaking, Tian Dazhuang shouted loudly from below: "Okay!"

His family has always been close to Zhang Yifan, and Zhang Yifan also found a stable woman in the city to help his wife give birth to a child. Therefore, Zhang Yifan's request was unconditionally supported.

The Daniu family also supported him.

Most of the other villagers were smiling, not very supportive, but not opposed either, and mainly participated in the chat happily.

"Old Liutou, Zhang Wazi is going to steal your job!"

"Haha, Lao Liutou, what are you going to do? You're not as rich as Xiao Fan!"

"..."

Old Liutou, whose real name is Liu Wu, is in his 40s. He is Li Zheng of Liujia Village, which is also the village chief in later generations. He is not an official, but when the officials come to the village, they first contact Li Zheng.

As soon as he heard these words, he immediately laughed and said: "That's great, I wish someone would do the honest work for me!"

"No, no!" Zhang Yifan heard this and said quickly, "Uncle Liu, you continue to be your upright person. I don't like to deal with the government. I just want to lead my uncles to live a good life!"

If you don't have power, dealing with officials is the most difficult thing.After all, the king of hell is easy to talk about, but the kid is difficult to deal with. This is the truth.

Liu Wu also watched Zhang Yifan grow up. When he heard him speak, he immediately laughed, then raised his head and asked: "Xiaofan, what do you want to do with the big guy?"

After hearing this, Zhang Yifan knew that Liu Wu had probably agreed, but he still wanted to see his proposal to weigh it.So, he immediately announced: "The first thing I want to do is to repair all the houses and roads in our village. After all, the rainy season is coming. Then the fields in the village will also be gathered together to make a unified plan for water conservancy facilities." Let’s do it together, there is strength in numbers, get these done first, and then we can move on to other things!”

At this time, it was still a period of post-war recovery, and the policy implemented by the court was also a recuperation policy.But in other words, this is also a stage of low productivity. If you work alone, your results will be limited.

It was based on this understanding that Zhang Yifan wanted to make overall arrangements and establish a collective system first.

In fact, there was actually a collective system at this time, which played a great role in restoring productivity.That is the Weisuo system that Zhu Yuanzhang began to implement in the third year of Hongwu.With the army as a unit, part of it performs military responsibilities and part of it works in the fields.Among them, there is a gap between the north and the south in proportion.This kind of practice still had a positive effect in the early Ming Dynasty.

Liu Wu was more knowledgeable than the others. Hearing Zhang Yifan's words, he frowned and said, "I don't object to you doing this, but you have to know that if you have to do so many things, even though everyone has You have a lot of energy, but it still costs a lot of money, right?”

When other villagers heard this, they also agreed.

"Yes, we have plenty of strength, but no money!"

"Do you think we want to live in thatched cottages all the time? We all want to marry a wife!!"

"That's right, at the kiln in Zhangjiacun, I heard that the price of bricks is increasing, and I don't know when I can save money!"

"..."

Zhang Yifan looked at these uncles, all of whom were wearing patched clothes. The only difference was the number of patches. He smiled and said: "Uncles, you don't have to worry about money. I have it and I will pay for it. But I have only one request. What do I say?" What, I divide the work, you have to listen to me!"

As long as you twist the village into a tightrope and build cement, glass, etc., you won't be afraid of those officials coming to rob you.

Because in the Hongwu Dynasty, people could complain to the emperor. This was not just a window-dressing, but a serious matter. In other words, it could be said that only the Hongwu Dynasty had real people's complaints against officials.

Zhu Yuanzhang even decreed that if there are corrupt officials, the people can arrest them and go to the capital for trial, without any obstruction along the way.

Moreover, a large drum was set up outside Zijin City, and the people beat the drum to complain to the emperor.

If the public opinion of one or two people can be ignored, the public opinion of hundreds of people in a village, or a village outside Nanjing, will definitely make a fuss to the heavens.

And today's emperor will definitely stand on the side of the people.

This is also an important reason why Zhang Yifan decided to twist the village into a single rope, so that he could free his hands and feet, improve his own life, and lead the villagers to get rich together.

When he heard that he had given money, although some people advised him not to spend it frivolously and keep the money to marry a wife, most people smiled happily, and the cheers drowned out these people's suggestions.

While they were busy, Zhu Di arrived.

Mainly because the two stable women he brought could not ride a horse and had to come in a carriage, so it was slow.

Seeing the commotion here at the head of the village, he suddenly became worried: Isn't it that Zhang Yifan has money in his hands and is being coveted?

Although he had not seen how much money Zhu Jingjing gave, based on his understanding of Zhu Jingjing, he could guess that there was definitely a lot of money in the brocade box.

Thinking this, he immediately became serious. With a wave of his hand, he urged his war horse to speed up. Surrounded by his guards, he rushed towards the village with a battlefield aura.

(End of this chapter)