Smuggling Daming

In the northernmost part of Zhangjiazhuangzi, there is a courtyard facing south. It should have been a very important building in the village. This can be seen from the surrounding green brick walls and the remaining buildings that have not completely collapsed. It's just that most of this important building has collapsed now, and some places are even completely buried in snow.

But now that the snow has stopped, all the men in Zhangjiazhuangzi have rushed here, while cleaning the snow on the collapsed buildings, while carefully looking for something in the rubble, occasionally there will be a burst of howling, because This is the ancestral hall of Zhangjiazhuangzi, where all the tablets of the ancestors are enshrined. Fortunately, they were all collapsed by the heavy snow.

When Zhou Zhong and the others came to Zhang's ancestral hall and found Zhang Kuang, he was carrying wooden beams with the men in the village, clearing out the collapsed roof, exposing the piles of grain piled up underneath.And Zhang Kuang didn't have the gentleness of a scholar at all, his face was ashen and muddy, and the clothes on his body couldn't tell the color. It was really hard to believe that he was actually a scholar.

"Brother Fang Shi, isn't this the ancestral hall? Why is there still food?" Zhou Zhong asked a little strangely.Zhang Kuang was also very happy to see the three of them coming. He wiped his face with a handful of snow, and then dragged Zhou Zhong and the others to chat outside the courtyard. After all, there was really no room for conversation in the courtyard.

"Haha~, in fact, this is not only the ancestral hall in Zhuangzi, but also the Changping warehouse in Zhuangzi. Every time when the grain is harvested, every household in Zhuangzi has to hand over a part of the grain according to the person, and then store it in the strongest warehouse. In the ancestral hall of Zhuangzi. If there is a famine year, the whole Zhuangzi will rely on these grains to save their lives. If there is no famine, they will replace it with rice and meat at the end of the year and distribute it to the people in the Zhuangzi, so that everyone can have a good year, but This ancestral hall is really too old, and Zhuangzi has not been able to organize people to repair it, and as a result, the heavy snow fell, and the house collapsed." Zhang Kuang explained.At the end, he shook his head helplessly. Originally, the ancestral hall was the tallest and most sturdy building in Zhuangzi. Unfortunately, with the passage of time, this ancestral hall has become very dilapidated. It will definitely be rebuilt next year.

Zhou Zhong and the others nodded after listening to Zhang Kuang's explanation. The ancestral hall in front of them is not only the place of spiritual belief of Zhang Chuangzi.At the same time, it is also the place where they store life-saving food. No wonder when they entered just now, they saw many people crying while digging, and the ancestral hall collapsed. It will definitely be rebuilt next year, and the burden on them will be even heavier.

Zhang Kuang is also surnamed Zhang.Everyone in Zhangjiazhuangzi is also surnamed Zhang, but they are only of the same clan.But they are not from the same clan. The reason why Zhang Kuang came to help was to fulfill his responsibilities as the master. After all, the ancestral hall collapsed. For the people in Zhuangzi, it was like the sky falling. No matter what.Otherwise, they will be scolded by pointing at the spine.As a scholarly family, the Zhang family naturally won't ruin their reputation.Even Zhang Kuang himself went down to help, not only because he sympathized with the people in Zhuangzi, but also to earn fame for the family.

When a friend came to visit, Zhang Kuang naturally could no longer accompany the people in Zhuangzi to work, so he greeted a respected old man in Zhuangzi, and then walked to Zhang's other courtyard with Zhou Zhong and the others. I saw someone driving two fat pigs over, and when they saw Zhang Kuang, they immediately shouted: "Master, where are these two fat pigs?"

"Rush to the ancestral hall and let the fifth master find someone to slaughter. Today I will treat the people in the village to eat meat!" Zhang Kuang also responded loudly.

"Okay~" The visitor agreed, and drove the two fat pigs towards the ancestral hall.

Watching the people drive away the fat pig, Zhou Zhong, Zheng Jing, and Li Zheng all looked at Zhang Kuang with strange faces. After all, Zhang Kuang did too much, both working in person and killing pigs for the farmers Meat eaters, how does this look like what a landlord should do?

Zhang Kuang also saw the strangeness in Zhou Zhong's and the others' eyes, so he gave a helpless smile, pointed at Zhou Zhong and said, "It's not all because of you, there is a shortage of people in Taiwan, even if hundreds of thousands of disaster victims have been relocated. , there is still a severe shortage of people, so the people in your Governor's Mansion said that as long as people who are willing to move to Taiwan, they can be allocated fields like those victims of the disaster. As a result, the poor people in many places along the coast are now moved. , our Zhang family has so much land, if all the tenants below go to Taiwan, who will plant the land for us, so we can only use this method to attract people's hearts."

Hearing Zhang Kuang's helpless explanation, both Zheng Jing and Zhou Zhong laughed, but Li Zheng asked a little puzzled: "Brother Fang Shi, Wenda did this for the sake of the poor people, but since you don't want to let With the loss of the tenant farmers below, why not lower the rent, wouldn’t it be more beneficial than you to spend so much effort to earn a reputation?”

Hearing Li Zheng's words, Zhou Zhong and Zheng Jing also stopped laughing, and at the same time looked at Li Zheng with some surprise, because they hadn't thought of this question just now, but now it was brought up by the youngest Li Zheng, which really surprised everyone. They feel a little ashamed.

However, when Zhang Kuang heard Li Zheng's question, he smiled wryly and said, "Brother Shrike, we naturally know that lowering the land rent will attract those tenants to stay, but unfortunately we dare not!"

"Why don't you dare?" Li Zheng asked. His family mainly makes a living by doing business. Although there are some fields, they are not many, and the family doesn't pay much attention to them, so he doesn't know much about land.

"Brought, Brother Fangshi's family really dare not lower the land rent. After all, they are not the only ones renting out the land. You can count how many big landlords like Brother Fangshi are in our Songjiang Mansion alone. If he is the first to lower the rent As far as the land rent is concerned, what about the other big landlords? To put it bluntly, if Brother Fang Shi’s family dares to lower the land rent, they will probably offend other landlords. It will also be isolated by others, which is not a good thing for a family!" Zhou Zhong quickly figured out the joints, and immediately opened his mouth to explain for Zhang Kuang.

"Brother Wen Da really deserves to be a governor, and he immediately touched on the key points, but in my opinion, the land rent will definitely drop in the future. After all, with the development of Taiwan, it will definitely attract more and more people. More people go to settle down, and these people will be mainly those tenants or refugees who have no land. Without these people, as landlords, we will not be able to recruit enough tenants, so we can only lower the land rent to fight for the surplus. It’s just that everyone is waiting for the first one to come out.” Zhang Kuang has a very clear understanding of the situation in front of him and is extremely confident in his own judgment.

Zheng Jing and Li Zheng nodded thoughtfully when they heard Zhang Kuang's words, Zhou Zhong also gave Zhang Kuang a very approving glance, although Zhang Kuang is still young now, and he doesn't know if he can be a good man. Officials, but this knowledge alone is enough to be a qualified counselor.

At that moment, the four of them entered Zhang's other courtyard. Because of the cold weather, Zhang Kuang didn't invite them into the living room. Instead, he went directly to the warm pavilion next to the living room. Steaming hot, Zhang Kuang took out the tea leaves and made tea for the four of them, and then sat down to warm up the fire and talk.

"Wenda, just now I saw that you seem to be hesitant to speak, do you have something to say?" After sitting down, Zhang Kuang asked after sipping a sip of tea.

Hearing what Zhang Kuang said, Zhou Zhong sighed and said, "Brother Fang, if you believe me, then quickly find a way to change the current situation of the Zhang family. Come down, sell part of the land as soon as possible, collect part of the funds and invest in other industries. The remaining land also needs to change the current planting structure, such as planting mulberry trees on the field, and hiring others to raise silkworms and weave silk. After all, with the development of sea trade If it develops, the silk industry will definitely prosper.”

"This...why is this?" Zhang Kuang was very puzzled when he heard Zhou Zhong's words. Although he felt that it would be difficult to recruit tenants for the fields in the future, he just felt that it was difficult and did not think that he would not be able to recruit tenants in the future. .Zheng Jing and Li Zheng next to him were equally puzzled, and they didn't know what Zhou Zhong's words meant?

Seeing that even Zhang Kuang and the others didn't understand what they said, Zhou Zhong sighed and said, "Brother Fang Shi, I heard Shrike said before that you and Brother Ming Lun had seen those victims who migrated from the Central Plains to Taiwan. The tragic situation must be fresh in your memory."

Zhou Zhong looked at Zhang Kuang and Zheng Jing at this point, and they both sighed and nodded, and then saw Zhou Zhong go on to say: "The biggest dilemma for my Ming Dynasty now is actually land annexation. The land is concentrated in the hands of a few people, and most of the remaining people can only rent and plant other people's land. However, these years, there have been many disasters and disasters, and these people without land will be the first to suffer By……"

Just as Zhou Zhong said this, he was interrupted by Li Zheng: "Wenda, haven't you already offered two high-yield crops to North Korea? I heard that sweet potatoes can yield thousands of catties per mu, and corn can yield hundreds of catties. , such a high-yield crop, can't it alleviate the famine?"

"Shrike, you also said that the two high-yield crops of sweet potato and corn can only alleviate land mergers, but cannot fundamentally solve this problem. Moreover, with the high yield of crops, more land will only be concentrated, so this The two crops can only delay the outbreak of the land annexation problem at most, and if you want to solve this problem completely, you need to go another way!" Zhou Zhong said here with a look of determination, he was previously concerned about solving the problem of land in Daming He didn't have much confidence in the issue of mergers, but after knowing his true identity, he began to really think about this issue. Taiwan immigration was only his first step. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)