The reconciliation with the Lu brothers soon spread from the Lu brothers to the ears of the two masters of the Lu family.
The winter sun is warm.
Mr. Lu Taiheng, the old man of Lu, was sitting on a lounge chair basking in the sun. There were a few snacks placed on a small stool nearby. He squinted his eyes and listened to the words of his two grandsons. He pointed his pursed lips at the pipe of the hookah and puffed.
A puff of smoke blew out.
He knocked against the soft satin shoes with a thousand-layer sole, his movements were skillful.
He slowly twisted the yellow and soft tobacco and put it into the chimney. He blew the burning paper with a puff, and two puffs of smoke came out of his nostrils. He said: "This is Mr. Xu's teaching. You see, I didn't understand etiquette before."
My noble son, you are able to do this so well, and it is inseparable from the teachings of your husband. Later, you will bring two boxes of high-quality snacks, gifts, and some money, and send them to the ancestral hall for Xu Xiucai."
"Dad? What are you talking about? It's just snacks, but you also give me money?"
Lu Zilin was a little reluctant to give up.
He couldn't afford the one or two taels, so if he gave Mr. Xu some silver, it would cost at least seven or eight taels. Besides, a box of snacks cost a few taels of silver, so all of a sudden, ten taels of silver was wasted.
The rich man's money is not wasted like this.
"Huh? What do you know!"
Lu Taiheng snorted, his cloudy eyes revealed an unquestionable look. He waved his hands to ask his two grandchildren to step back, and then said slowly: "Giving Mr. Xu a gift is to show the benevolence and righteousness of our Lu family! When I asked,
The son of the long-term worker of our Lu family studied with Xu Xiucai. After the long-term worker resigned, not only did he not fall out with his master, but he actually became friends..."
"What does this mean? The teacher taught me well, and our Lu family is also benevolent and righteous! And the children's friendship with borrowing books..."
"So this is it!"
Lu Zilin also became somewhat enlightened.
Giving gifts to Mr. Xu became world-famous. It created a name for Mr. Xu. Similarly, it also created a name for the Lu family and his two sons. With this name of benevolence and righteousness, others will look up to him wherever he goes.
.
Bai Jiaxuan proposed to build an ancestral hall, run a school, and sponsor the sons of long-term workers to go to school. These things were spread all over the country. Even the county magistrate and his parents heard about it. When he once encouraged many wealthy people to learn from Bai Jiaxuan, he said
, this reputation was so high in no time.
Although he followed Bai Jiaxuan and donated money and food, after leaving Bailu Village, who knew he was Lu Zilin?
Just like the No. 2 pick in the rankings, the first one is known to everyone, but the second one is just picking on others!
Now he is giving gifts to Xu Xiucai to thank Xu Xiucai for his teachings. Once this matter is publicized, everyone knows that Bailu Village was taught by Xu Xiucai and is a village of benevolence and righteousness. When the matter is spread, the Lu family will also be mentioned...
…
"In this way, my forehead can hold down Bai Jiaxuan's head!"
Lu Zilin was a little happy. Buddhas compete for a stick of incense, and people compete for a breath. Bai Jiaxuan's lineage has always been the patriarch of Bailu Village. The last patriarch was Bai Jiaxuan's father Bai Bingde, and the previous patriarch was Bai Bingde's father. It was never his turn.
Lu family...
Bailu Village is divided into two families: Bailu. When the surname Hu was first renamed, the surname of the big clan was Bai, and the surname of the small clan was Lu.
It took nearly a hundred years for the Lu family to become rich.
He is richer than the Bai family, but his position in the village is visibly inferior to that of the Bai family.
"Scare! It's not just that! You have to know that county examinations are not anonymous. If a good reputation reaches the ears of the county magistrate, do you think the county magistrate will look down upon it when judging the papers?"
Lu Taiheng blew out the smoke ring and sneered.
He had also participated in the imperial examination and was very familiar with the traps of the county examination. During the county examination, an admission quota was secretly offered for fifty taels of silver. However, in order to show fairness, the county magistrate often set a quota for bribes.
Not many, less than ten people.
The quota of these ten people cannot be allocated to the Lu family.
But there are only so many candidates for the county examination in Zishui County. Given the same test papers, the famous candidates must be at the top, while the less famous candidates will be at the bottom...
"Besides, do you want Zhaopeng and Zhaohai to be subordinate to the Bai brothers for the rest of their lives?"
Lu Taiheng said quietly.
"Dad, uh, let's get ready now!"
When Lu Zilin mentioned this, he immediately became energetic. He had wanted to overpower Bai Jiaxuan all his life, but it was difficult. As time went by, he lost his competitive spirit.
But it's not okay to let your two sons be inferior to the Bai brothers!
Mr. Lu just mentioned the county examination, which reminded him of Mr. Zhu. Mr. Zhu is the principal of Bailu Academy in the county seat and Bai Jiaxuan's brother-in-law.
Although Mr. Zhu does not seem to be a person who would show personal favoritism, it is not certain.
Even if he doesn't try hard against the county magistrate, for the sake of Mr. Zhu's face, the county magistrate will basically pass the county examination as long as the essay is not bad.
…
Several days have passed.
Bai Gui and Bai Youde also moved to a new home, which is the old house at the east end of the village.
Bai Youde was not a tenant at first, but a long-term worker.
From the 11th to the 12th year of Tongzhi, there was a severe drought in the north. The drought affected most of Jin, Lu, Henan, and Qin provinces. Almost the entire Yellow River Basin was affected by drought, and even spread to the Yangtze River Basin. By the fifth year of Guangxu, it was reported that
According to statistics, more than 13 million victims died of hunger this time.
Bai Youde's father couldn't bear the hunger, so he sold several acres of dry slope land and three-thirds of the paddy field to the Lu family, and signed a contract with the Lu family, which stipulated that he would employ the Bai family as long-term workers for the rest of his life and could not terminate the contract without authorization. The Lu family agreed.
This contract was made because the Bai family's three-quarter paddy field was coveted, which was a good crop land and could be connected with the Lu family's more than forty acres of paddy field along the river.
Long-term employment is a semi-binding personal relationship. Some owners have good families, and their food is much better than being a yeoman farmer.
However, Grandpa Bai Gui at that time was not an unscrupulous descendant who simply sold out his land.
Instead, most of the land sold to the Lu family adopted the permanent tenancy system.
The so-called permanent tenancy system means that one field has two owners, and the ownership and use rights of the land are permanently separated. The land is divided into two parts: the bottom of the field and the surface of the field. The landlord occupies the bottom of the field, and his power is to collect rent from the tenants. The tenant occupies the surface of the field, and his power is permanent.
Use land.
The land was sold, but not completely sold...
While the meal was being heated on the stove, Zhou Yuan saw that there was no one around, closed the door, mysteriously took out a few books from his arms, and said to Bai Gui with excitement: "Brother Bai, what are you doing?"
I went back from vacation a few days ago and specially asked my servants to collect some emerging current events in Xi'an. You see..."
After being told by Bai Gui that the situation was unprecedentedly changing in three thousand years, Zhou Yuan felt deeply that he had little knowledge, so after the wolf plague subsided for a while, Xiangwu returned home during the holiday and asked his servants to collect some current affairs articles.
"Yeah?"
Bai Gui held a steamed bun, which was made with sugar and some lard. It was much more delicious than the previous steamed bun, fragrant and sweet.
After moving to a new home, he didn't want to wrong himself.
He walked to Zhou Yuan's side and browsed through it a few times. Most of these so-called current affairs articles were compiled by southern newspapers that compiled some recent major events into volumes. They included "Chinese and Foreign Journals", "Qiushi News", "Qiushi News",
"Shanghai News", "Current News", etc.
This kind of organizing newspapers into books and selling them is now very rare in modern times.
However, now the north and the south are almost two different worlds. The information in the north is blocked, and the Qing government deliberately suppresses it to prevent people from changing their minds. Therefore, there are very few newspapers in the north, and there are very few first-hand news materials. It is necessary to compile the news into a volume.
It is profitable and selling is a matter of course.
"Wait a minute, is this "Half-Crying-Half-Laughing Poetry"?"
Bai Gui flipped through it, and was shocked when he saw a collection of poems. This was a proper anti-poetry, and the author signed it as Half-Crying, Half-Laughing Postmaster.
This is different from Li Shoumin, the owner of Huanzhu Tower who wrote fairy novels.
Very few people know the author's real name, but Bai Gui has heard of it. Because this later calligrapher is really famous, the words "Do not urinate anywhere" written in the toilet were taken out and used as treasures. He is the leader of the Tongmenghui and the Qin Dynasty.
A native of Sanyuan Province, his original name was Yu Boxun, also known as Yu Shaocheng. Later, he rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and changed his name from "Wei Guanzhong, my hair is left to the left" and the Chinese clothes to the right.
