In the pavilion in the middle of the lake, the servants retreated.
The father and son chatted in standard Mandarin, taking care not to be overheard by anyone.
"What can you gain from a trip to Shandong?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.
Ju Ming took out a bamboo tube and a chart he made and said: "The rural ecology there is more in line with my stereotype of ancient Chinese rural areas. The clan power is greater than that in Hanzhong, the land annexation is more serious than in Hanzhong, and the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes are far higher than in Hanzhong."
Prefectures and counties.”
Zhu Guoxiang read those charts carefully. Compared with the proportion of customers, he was more concerned about the proportion of the main households: "Your chart is wrong. There are too many third-class households."
"There must be something wrong with the official statistics," Zhu Ming explained. "This is because the rich are dividing the property among households, and one family is divided into dozens of families. Although the household registration books have been separated and the land seems to have been divided, the land deeds are still in the hands of the clan leader.
In their hands, they can still control the entire family and at the same time legally avoid taxes. The actual situation is much more serious than official statistics."
Although the proportion of customers can also reflect the degree of land annexation, it more reflects the proportion of landless farmers.
The proportion of households reveals the social structure in more detail.
In the first year of Qingli, the famous minister Zhang Fangping estimated through a survey that the first, second and third class households must be less than 20%, and the fourth and fifth class households were probably close to 90%. Thirty years later, Zhang Fangping estimated that the fourth and fifth class households must exceed 90%.
There are many similar statistics. Officials in the Northern Song Dynasty were not fools. They could also read the data, but they were not as detailed as Ju Ming's statistics.
Looking at the entire Northern Song Dynasty, the main households accounted for about 65%, and the customers accounted for about 35%. Among the main households, the first, second and third class households accounted for about 10%, and the fourth and fifth class households accounted for about 90%.
That is, the first, second and third class households, accounting for 6.5%, own most of the land in the country.
However, the heaviest corvee burden was borne by households in the fourth and fifth classes. Wang Anshi's square field equalization tax was intended to solve this problem.
Zhu Guoxiang commented: "Such a serious polarization between rich and poor was hopeless in ancient times and was difficult to reverse with reforms. Only through war and breaking the original social class structure can social wealth be redistributed."
"Are you still afraid of dying in the war?" Zhu Ming asked with a smile.
Zhu Guoxiang shook his head and did not answer directly, but said: "In such a terrible situation, the Southern Song Dynasty was able to survive for more than a hundred years. How did the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty do it?"
“Let’s attack the rich,” Ju Ming said. “Once there is a war, we will force the rich to share their income, forcing a large number of upper-class households to go bankrupt. This can not only sustain the war expenses, but also redistribute land in local areas. Of course, the people at the bottom will definitely be more vulnerable.
Tragically, when I read the folk works of the Song Dynasty, the words "property, tax and deposit" often appeared. In other words, many fourth- and fifth-class households had been forced to sell out their land, but they were unable to obtain customer status and had to be treated as
Pay taxes as the head householder.”
Zhu Guoxiang rolled up the chart and put it back in the bamboo tube: "Who are those three people you brought back?"
Zhu Ming said: "Shi Yuan Gong was a bankrupt and promoted people. He thought about rebellion all day long and always felt that the Song Dynasty was about to end. Yang Pu was a bankrupt farmer and a rooster and dog robber. Zhang Bor was a descendant of a declining noble family. He had good swordsmanship and was good at single combat.
Come on, your battlefield skills are actually not that good."
Zhu Guoxiang said: "In just three months, you can recruit these people, which is already considered very good."
Ju Ming smiled and said: "There is also Li Bao, who has gone home. After arranging the family affairs, he will come to Tokyo to meet up. This is the real reward of this trip. Li Bao is the commander-in-chief of the Navy of the Southern Song Dynasty. He has 3,000 militiamen who can be wiped out.
The record of the 70,000 gold army."
"It is understandable that three thousand militiamen won the battle, but how did he manage to annihilate 70,000 enemies?" Zhu Guoxiang could not imagine.
Ju Ming said: "Historical records say that he rushed to Shandong from the sea. With his high civilian prestige, he recruited hundreds of Shandong Jin soldiers as soon as he landed. Although these Shandong Jin soldiers were just miscellaneous soldiers, they provided him with important
Intelligence. At that time, the Jin soldiers were camped in a bay, and hundreds of ships were docked at the port. He used fire attack unexpectedly, and the Jin soldiers had no place to escape, and the fire burned for four days and nights."
Zhu Guoxiang exclaimed: "What a great person!"
Zhu Ming shook his head and said: "At this time, Li Bao has not learned the art of war. Apart from his excellent archery and riding skills, he is not as good as Zhang Guangdao in other aspects. A famous general needs to sacrifice his life. Without the experience of blood and fire, that is,
Just an ordinary good guy."
"But he definitely has talent and potential." Zhu Guoxiang said.
Ju Ming smiled and said, "Indeed."
Zhu Guoxiang said: "I will go to the palace with you tomorrow to see the emperor. You have been away from Tokyo for too long, so you have to go and burn the cold stove."
"You're doing well, Dean Zhu. You can enter the palace if you want." Zhu Ming joked.
The father and son were chatting in the pavilion, and Yang Zhi's family was worshiping their masters, namely Yang Zhi, Li Jinyi, Lin Chong, Wang Xiong, Hua Rong, Chai Jin, Zhang Qing, Xu Ning, Li Ying, Mu Heng, Guan Sheng, and Sun Li.
They were all low-level officers, belonging to several armies, and did not know each other completely. They were chosen to escort Hua Shigang this time.
After receiving the same errand, we quickly became familiar with each other and agreed to look after each other along the way.
Everyone burned yellow paper and incense and swore an oath: "Your Majesty and Heaven, today we are twelve sworn brothers. If there is any disaster, we will each rescue each other..."
After bowing, everyone looked sad.
They are now polished officers and need to go to Taihu Lake first to make handovers with local officials, and then escort Hua Shigang back to Beijing. Gang Chuan and the civilian husband are all on the other side of Taihu Lake.
From beginning to end, there was no extra salary, not even travel expenses.
Although you can take official ships along the way, they do not depart every day. When you are in a hurry, you occasionally have to pay your own way and take private ships as soon as possible to go south.
Seeing that the brothers were not in high spirits, Yang Zhi said, "Let's go to Yuxianzheng Restaurant for a drink. I'm here to treat you!"
Hua Rong advised: "The hotel in the city is too expensive, so we should go to a bar outside the city."
"Then go to Jinming Pond!" Yang Zhi was also a little reluctant.
The wine shops in the inner city are all high-cost. Take the Yuxianzheng Store as an example, the silver bottle wine costs 72 cents and the lamb wine costs 81 cents.
A dime of wine costs about two taels, and when you raise your neck and drink, nearly a hundred pennies are gone.
The wine shops by Jinming Pond are also very high-end, but much cheaper than those in the inner city.
People walked through the city, chatting as they walked.
Zhang Qing asked: "I heard that Brother Yang recognizes Zhu Tanhua?"
Yang Zhi smiled and said, "I've seen him twice."
Sun Li boasted and said: "Zhu Tanhua thinks highly of Brother Yang very much. He also said that when encountering difficulties, he would go to Puzhou to join him."
Li Ying said: "It is quite risky to escort Hua Shi Gang. Last year, a gang ship sank, and all the commanders responsible for escorting were assassinated in Hebei Province. Since Brother Yang knows Zhu Tanhua, why not ask him to put in a nice word so that we brothers can't do anything wrong?"
This errand."
"Zhu Tanhua is in Puzhou, how can we beg him? You just want to do good things." Yang Zhi laughed and scolded.
They didn't know that Ju Ming had been transferred. They were chatting and laughing and walking along the street, just in time to miss Ju Ming who was out shopping.
Today, Ju Ming came back in a hurry, and there was nothing prepared at home. The father and son planned to go out to eat, so they called Bai Chongyan and Min Zishun over.
Bai Sheng was so talkative that he introduced his companions from Shandong along the way: "In front of you is the Tiechilou Hotel. The owner and the waiters are all foreigners."
Yang Pu asked curiously: "Why is the hotel called Tiechilou? Could it be that the owner used to be a blacksmith?"
"How do I know? That's the name anyway." Bai Sheng said.
Ju Ming said: "Iron filings are the name of an ancient foreign country."
Iron chips, that is, Israel, also translated as iron snow, falling chips.
Those Jews were so financially powerful that they were able to open a restaurant in the inner city of Tokyo. It was also located in a prime location, with Panlou just one square away to the north.
Continuing to move forward, Bai Sheng added, "That's Zheng's fried cake shop. I've eaten their fried cakes before and they tasted very good."
Shi Biao did not follow him to Puzhou and stayed in Tokyo to protect Dean Zhu. Today he reunited with his old friend and became talkative: "I have eaten too. Last month my husband went to see the emperor and he didn't even bother to eat breakfast.
I got off the car and bought some pancakes on the way. I ate them too, and there was meat filling in the pancakes."
Only Deng Chun said nothing, silently observing the situation around him.
Yang Pu, a little thief in Puzhou, has been dazzled by the prosperity of Tokyo. He even wants to buy a few pieces of meat pie on the street.
Zhang Boring pressed his hand on the hilt of the sword but remained silent, his thoughts racing.
His ancestor Zhang Yong lived in Tokyo back then and was close friends with Prime Minister Kou Zhun.
The idiom "without learning and without skills" comes from Zhang Yong's advice to Kou Zhun to study more.
One coin can kill an official, a rope can cut a tree, and a drop of water can penetrate a stone. These three idioms also come from Zhang Yong.
The county government treasury was often stolen. Zhang Yong was secretly guarding and caught the treasury official taking a penny. At first, he just stole a penny, but the treasury official refused to accept it and said that he had only stolen a penny. He also shouted that he would be beaten at most, but Zhang Yong did not dare to kill him for this
.
Zhang Yong was contradicted in person, and he planned to rectify the officialdom, so he wrote the verdict: "One coin a day, a thousand coins a thousand days, a rope will cut the wood, and a drop of water will penetrate the stone."
The treasury officials were beheaded in public display and did not wait until the autumn. From then on, the officials became honest and obedient, and even theft in the county was suppressed.
How could Zhang Bor not miss such a famous ancestor? He always wanted to restore the glory of his ancestors.
There are also descendants of the Zhang family in Tokyo, and they separated a hundred years ago.
Zhang Bor's grandfathers still had some contact with the same people in Tokyo, but now they don't even worship their ancestors together.
Suddenly, Zhang Boring felt that he should study hard. Didn't our ancestors only start studying when they were twenty?
Shi Yuangong's mood was different. He had been to Tokyo before.
At that time, he was very high-spirited and rushed to take the exam with his fellow villagers. Unfortunately, he failed the exam several times, and he was so short of money that he couldn't even go around Tokyo. He and his family did not dare to enter restaurants in the city.
Passing by high-end places, Shi Yuangong's expression began to twist.
The dignitaries here are all a bunch of bastards. One day, I will lead troops into the city and kill everyone wearing silk and silk.
The streets of heaven trampled all the bones of the prince, and the inner treasury was burnt to ashes!
Zheng Yuanyi sat in the car, chatting with Zhu Guoxiang's maid An Niang, and talked about many interesting things she encountered in Puzhou.
They don't eat in the inner city either. It's too expensive. It's okay to buy breakfast. But if you want to have a big meal, you have to go to the outer city.
Arriving at the place where Bai Chongyan and Min Zishun rented, they waited for more than half an hour before the two of them went home from get off work one after another.
"Sanlang, brother Min, go have a drink!" Zhu Ming said with a smile from afar.
Bai Chongyan was extremely surprised: "Da Lang has returned to Beijing!"
Ju Ming said: "I am going to Jinzhou to take office, and I will pass by Yangzhou on the way. I can help you bring home letters."
"Don't say too much, just eat and drink!" Bai Chongyan laughed.
He was going crazy in the capital, and there was intrigue among his colleagues. Today he was finally able to have a drink with his old friends.
(The afternoon update will be postponed. My dad is celebrating his 60th birthday and needs to play with guests during the day.)
This chapter has been completed!