Great Wei Overlord

Chapter 783: Clan Ant Thief
Chapter 788: Clan Ant Thief

The old man looked at the vehicles and attendants behind Ran Ming, as well as the large amount of goods, and asked in puzzlement, "You young man, why did you come to Zhouzhuang?"

"Wansheng sold some goods with my father to earn some food." Ran Ming pointed to Ran Min and said, "That's my father."

The old man looked at Ran Min's calm and prestige, especially Jin Nu and Tie Nu, these three were murderous and very scared, and then the two boys were about to leave.Ran Ming smiled and took the old man's hand and said: "Don't be afraid, old man, we are not bad people. My father joined the army in his early years, and quit the army after being disabled."

After hearing this, the old man said again: "May I ask which dynasty's military master?"

At this moment, Ran Min stepped forward and said, "Now I am going to the Master of the Great Wei King."

Hearing what Ran Min said, the old man's face softened.

Ran Ming suddenly heard the stomachs of the two boys growling, and knew that the children were hungry.Just ask someone to bring two pancakes.The old man said: "Young man, little old man has no money."

"No money, no money." Ran Ming said with a smile: "Children are growing up, so they must not be hungry."

The old man refused, and Ran Ming said: "The old man is a good handicraft, this bucket is really solid, why don't you sell it to me."

Hearing this, the old man accepted Ran Ming's gift.The old man said: "This barrel is thirty yuan a piece."

Ran Ming was stunned when he heard this. He is not a person who does not touch the sun with his hands. Although Ran Ming has never bought a barrel, he also knows that although a wooden barrel is simple, it takes a long time to make it. It seems that all the wood is picked. It is pressed and fixed when it is wet, and after polishing and grinding, it is all handmade, and then brushed with tung oil to dry in the shade. Even if it is cheap, it will cost more than [-] yuan.

Seeing Ran Ming's hesitation, the old man hurriedly said: "If you feel that 25 renminbi is too expensive, then [-] renminbi can't be less."

Ran Ming said: "It's not too expensive, but too cheap. How about it, fifty yuan a piece, and you make me a hundred."

The old man didn't agree with Ran Ming to give fifty dollars a piece, but instead killed him for thirty dollars a piece.Ran Ming had no choice but to agree.

Seeing that Ran Ming became the old man's big customer, Ran Ming and the old man started talking.

"How many people are there in my husband's family?"

The old man said: "The old man has three sons and four daughters. The eldest son passed away last year, and the second and youngest sons are farming at home. The four daughters are all married." The old man thought for a while and said: "Old man, I have a son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and grandson in my family. Daughter-in-law, great-grandson, there are more than twenty people!"

"You always have four generations living under the same roof?"

"Of course, these two are the great-grandchildren of the old man." Saying this, the old man's face was brimming with happiness and complacency.

Ran Ming asked: "But you are too poor here."

"Who says it's not." The old man said: "Zhouzhuang has a lot of people and little land. There's always not enough food to eat. I'm a good old man. I have a little handiwork. I can always help a little with my ancestral carpentry."

Ran Min couldn't help but said: "Nowadays there is wasteland everywhere in the Great Wei, how can there be such a situation where there are so many people and so little land? Zhouzhuang has so little land, so we can't move out!"

The old man became alert at this moment, he said: "Who are you? Are you not a merchant?"

As long as a man has power in his hands, he will have an aura.People also have a mentality that when a leader holds a meeting with his subordinates, no matter how many people are there, he will occupy a high position in his heart and will be calm.But once facing the boss, no matter how strong his psychological quality is, he will always consciously put himself in a weak position psychologically.

Ran Min couldn't help showing his aura of being an emperor, so the old man was frightened all of a sudden.Fortunately, Ran Ming spent all his time and bought another hundred wooden barrels, which dispelled the old man's doubts.

Then the old man spoke.

Originally, this Zhouzhuang was not considered a closed village, and they also noticed the changes in Wei State.The land of this Zhou village is all hung with the ancestral property of the Zhou clan. Most of these Zhouzhuang villagers are tenants of the Zhou clan.The Zhou family is not a noble family and does not have the privilege of tax exemption. They not only have to bear the country's taxes, but also have to pay rent to the landlords, that is, the elders of the family.There is not much left, and the rations of the family are not enough. In a good harvest year, they can often have a few full meals. In a bad year, I am afraid that they will have to beg for food or borrow food from the landlords. However, borrowing grain from landlords has high interest rates, and often the old debts are not repaid, and new debts are owed. In this way, they can't afford to repay them year after year.

Don't think that they belong to the same clan, these landlords will be soft-hearted, forced by the landlords (clan elders) to sell their sons and daughters, and there are not a few of them whose families are ruined.After the Wei State unified the north, Wei State's new policy, the policy of granting land, was also implemented.But when it got to the bottom, it couldn't go on.Zhouzhuang’s household registration reported to Luyang County is still the population of 40 years ago. There are only more than 300 households in Zhouzhuang.According to Zhouzhuang, the four thousand acres are barely enough for these people to cultivate.

Originally, these clan elders hid their population from the government because they were afraid of all kinds of miscellaneous taxes in the post-Zhao period.Also afraid of corvée.Shihu is a tyrant, and he likes to build all kinds of luxurious palaces wantonly. The civilian husbands who are conscripted are either beaten to death, starved to death, or exhausted on the construction site. tragic death.Therefore, these people who have no information do not know the national policy of Wei State.

It was too late when they found out, and they wanted to report to the government to revise the population, but the government refused to comply.Zhouzhuang is currently adopting the method of slowly increasing the population and household registration, and slowly filling this gap.However, the poverty in Zhouzhuang is still due to the impact of industrialized commodities on the small peasant economy.

Originally, they could barely survive, relying on the coarse cloth weaved by themselves, the firewood they chopped, or various handicrafts, and traded with foreign countries for food.But their backward manufacturing methods are no more than industrial production workshops.Even so, Zhou Village is still so impoverished that they can go out to work during their slack.Rely on part-time jobs to make up for the food gap in the fields.However, the benefits of part-time work are obviously better than that of farming. People seek profits, and as a result, most of the villagers have gone out to work.

However, in this way, the land of several clan elders will not be planted, and the fields will be left uncultivated, which will naturally damage their interests.So, they resorted to a desperate plan.

Zhou Chengfu, the village head of Zhouzhuang and the patriarch of the Luyang Zhou clan, severely reprimanded these villagers who wanted to go out to work, saying that they were ignoring the family law of their ancestors and asked them not to work, otherwise they would be severely punished by the family law of their ancestors.Some unbelieving villagers went out to work without authorization.As a result, when he came back, he was arrested by the thugs of the patriarch Zhou Chengfu, who beat him half to death for violating the ancestral rules.The day of the execution.They even summoned all the old and young people in Zhouzhuang to watch it, which greatly frightened the other villagers, and made them dare not go to work privately. In the eyes of these simple people, the patriarch is the biggest, and the ancestors' family law cannot be violated. Yes, no matter how hard their life is, they can only bear it silently. .
Knowing these things, not to mention Ran Min was angry, even Ran Ming was going crazy.

As for your clan and clan relatives, this is completely a way to deal with class enemies, and even resorted to tricks of extermination.In fact, Zhoucun does not need to be like this at all. Two-thirds of the population migrated out, and all of them can live a happy life.But the Chinese people are so strange, they don't worry about the few, but the unevenness, they want to go out if they want to leave, and no one wants to stay, but once the villagers move out, it will damage the interests of the clan and elders.In this way, everyone simply does not go out to work, and just starves and suffers from poverty.

Ran Min couldn't help it even more, and asked, "Using torture privately is illegal. Don't you know?"

The old man said: "That's the patriarch, he treats the clan members according to the clan rules, isn't that what it should be?"

Turning to the adult fairy tales of history, there are countless biographies of celebrities. There are only a few who are dedicated to the country, but there are countless filial sons and grandchildren.Clan law, every family has it, as long as the family has its own inheritance, it has its own family rules.Basically, the family rules of every family are that fathers are kind and sons are filial, brothers and friends are respectful, husband and wife are harmonious, friends are trustworthy, the old are respected, the young are loved, and the virtuous are smaller than me, I will respect them.Although unworthy people are higher than me, I will keep them far away.Don't boast about your own strengths, don't talk about people's shortcomings.Enemies should be solved with righteousness, grudges should be repaid directly, minor faults should be tolerated, and major faults should be punished with reason... Do not do evil because it is small, and do not do good because it is small... (Cheng's Family Instructions )

In fact, each clan is a small kingdom.In fact, the clans in China have been inherited from the country in ancient times.Many surnames are based on the original country.In the small country of the clan, the person with the greatest power is undoubtedly the patriarch.Below the patriarch is the patriarch of the clan.In fact, every clan elder is the same as a country, and has different functions. Some manage wealth, some handle rewards and punishments, some handle punishments, some manage rituals and music, and some control external relations.Above every clan, it is actually not the government, but a clan with a higher level of strength.

The small clan attached to the big gentry, the powerful gentry attached to the gentry, the gentry attached to the wealthy, and the wealthy attached to the royal family. This was the basic structure of the ruling class in ancient China.In fact, in the feudal era, the government only managed to the county level, and local autonomy below the county level.In the process of self-government, there may be conflicts between family law and national law. When this happens, family law is usually greater than national law.Unless there is a rebellion, the local cases are taught to the clan to handle internally. The patriarch has the power to deal with the life and death of the clan, so the clan patriarch has incomparable prestige.

Ran Min is the direct branch of the Ran family. From the time of Ran Min's grandfather, Ran Long, he has been the leader of the Ran family.Ran Long said that he would lead his clan to beg for work, so the Ran family followed Ran Long to join the begging army and went to various places.When Ran Min raised his troops against Zhao, the Ran family and the clans attached to the Ran family also followed Ran Min in advance and retreat.Just looking at Ran Min's credit book, one can see that among the more than 4000 marquises assigned by Ran Min, the Zhang family accounted for more than 700 at most, followed by the Su family and the Zhou family.

Although Ran Min hated the Zhou clan for oppressing them, the Zhou clan didn't sue. The so-called people don't sue, officials don't prosecute. This is an unspoken rule that has been formed since ancient times, and Ran Min is not easy to break.Ran Min said to Ran Ming: "Minger, give them our canned food, jerky and pancakes."

"It's Father." In fact, Ran Min didn't say anything, but Ran Ming also had this idea.After all, Ran Ming felt uncomfortable seeing this situation.

When Ran Ming led people to distribute the dried meat and food they brought to Old Man Zhou, "Oh, how can this be done!" They brought two plates of meat and Old Man Zhou said quickly, looking a little embarrassed.

"Old man, it's nothing, it's all given to you by our boss. Let the little ones have a tooth-beating ceremony."

"Well, then thank you all," said the old man Zhou very gratefully.

With short hands and a soft mouth to eat people, old man Zhou will repay Ran Min after eating the meat given by Ran Min. Old man Zhou's house is actually quite big. Since he didn't separate from his children and grandchildren, there are more than 40 houses in the whole courtyard , covering an area of ​​more than two acres.Old man Zhou took his sons and grandchildren to vacate a house for Ran Min and others.

The small farmyard is naturally not comfortable. Although it is the best house of Old Man Zhou, it is still a thatched cottage, neither tall nor bright, and it looks a bit stuffy.Ran Min was in a bad mood, so after dinner, he went back to sleep early.But Ran Ming couldn't fall asleep, so he took a jug of wine and went to chat with Old Man Zhou's son, Zhou Huzi.

Zhou Huzi is the second son of the old man Zhou, who is over 40 years old. This simple and honest man doesn't talk much, he just smiles.However, as he drank more and more wine, Zhou Huzi also opened up the conversation.

"Brother Zhou, isn't the government advocating immigration? If you immigrate to Jizhou, each adult of you can share [-] acres of land." Ran Ming said: "You don't have to all go, you only need to divide six people, and you can get Three hundred mu of land, one hundred mu each for the upper, middle and lower fields. Why not try it?"

(End of this chapter)