Zhao Defang's road to the virtuous king

"No, my name is Zhang Si. There are more than a dozen households named Cai in this Caijia Village, all of whom are big families. They and Cai Erhuai belong to the same family. The other small households have different surnames. My mother's surname is Cui. I originally married out of the village. Yes, my parents died later, the eldest brother and the second brother were arrested and served as soldiers in the previous dynasty, and they still don’t know how to live or die to this day, the third brother also got lost during the war, and I was the youngest, so my grandfather took me back here Caijia Village, this stay will last for 40 years.”

"40 years, 40 years ago this place wasn't Song soil, it's really long enough."

"You two, please sit in the house." The old man yelled as he tied the donkey to a post in the yard, "Old woman! We have guests!"

An old lady walked out of the dilapidated house "Old man, who is here?"

"It's two distinguished guests from the city." Zhang Laosi invited Defang and Baili into the house. There was a simple square table, two benches, and a dilapidated Buddhist altar in front of which there were memorial tablets. There were three people in the house. There is an inner room, but there is no door or curtain, and one of them looks directly at a large wooden bed, which is covered with thick grass and covered with a large cloth. There are two square stones, which should be pillows, and There were two sets of thin quilts, and the other two rooms only had bare wooden beds. They were unbelievably crude. Defang asked, "Old man, why don't you have anything in your house? Could it be that in this Caijia Village, every other family except the one surnamed Cai Is it like this in every household?"

"That's not true." The old man sighed, "Both of you, sit down quickly, sit down quickly, old woman, pour water quickly."

Defang almost fell when he sat down, and Baili hurriedly helped him to steady himself. When he looked again, the stool legs were loose, and it wobbled when he sat on it. Baili shook his head, "Oh, old man Zhang, is this still a stool? Sitting for my master is no different from squatting."

"Master, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Zhang Laosi hurriedly got up, "You sit over there, please."

Baili walked over and pressed the stool with his hand, "Master, this is good, you can sit down."

Defang sat down firmly, and Zhang Laosi asked, "My lord, I don't know your surnames, how do you call me?" Lord, he is the manager of my house, his name is Baili, old man, what happened in your house?"

Zhang Laosi sighed again, the old lady brought water to De Fang, Baili also sat aside, and then Zhang Laosi slowly talked about his own affairs, "Baye Zhao, Mr. Bai, my family is not poor, I He and his wife have a son and a daughter, and they have five acres of land. After paying the grain, they can keep some for themselves to eat, and they can still have some surplus grain to sell for some money. They live a good life. The son married a wife and gave birth to a grandson, and the daughter also ordered We married each other, originally we wanted the family to live happily, but..." Zhang Laosi choked up when he said this.

"Old man, did something happen? Take it easy"

Zhang Laosi nodded, "Two years ago, Cai Erhuai from the village took over five acres of my family's land and said we owed him five taels of silver. All the food was taken away, not a single grain of rice was left..."

"What? Occupying your land? Why?"

"Cai Erhuai's family is rich and powerful. There are more than a dozen households surnamed Cai in the village who are his relatives. They bought our land deed at a low price, and then asked us to farm for him. Many households with other surnames in the village were occupied like this. If we sell it to him, we will lose ten shi of grain every year. If we don’t sell it, we will be beaten and scolded, and the crops will be destroyed. My son went to find Cai Erhuai, but he was not only beaten but also locked up. He and the old woman had no choice but to agree to sell the land to him."