Tian Hong patted the brocade clothes on his body and complained bitterly: "Brother, please don't waste time as a brother. Brother, I am a dog-skinned person. On the one-third acre of land on Willow Street, I might still be a little thin, but here... Don’t mention it!”
Looking at his bitter face, Shen Lie laughed loudly: "Okay, brother, I don't know how powerful your Lord Tian is?"
Tian Hong just smiled bitterly.
After some banter, Shen Lie stood up and said with a smile: "Let's go meet these tough-necked masters!"
Afternoon.
In a village not far from Shenjiazhuang.
Several horses and Ming Dynasty warriors accompanied Shen Lie and stood side by side in front of a large courtyard, looking at the closed dark door and the seven large blue brick houses in the courtyard.
The person who lives in this house is the tough one who refuses to sell the land, but he is not a big deal either.
He seems to be just a rich man.
Shen Lie said to Tian Hongqi: "How much silver did you pay to buy someone else's water to irrigate the land?"
Tian Hong looked helpless and said softly: "We have negotiated several times, and we have raised the price of one acre of land to 30% higher than the market price."
Shen Lie asked curiously: "Still unwilling to sell?"
Tian Hong nodded and said softly: "Either way, I won't sell it until the price is three times the price."
Shen Lie couldn't help but take a breath of cold air. It's a shame that this family dared to speak like this. This attitude would be a blackmail.
Looking at the dark door, Shen Lie asked again: "What is the background of this family?"
Tian Hong then said in detail with a grimace: "It's not that big of a deal..."
The only source of support for this rich family is that there is a scholar in the family. It is said that the scholar is currently studying in the Beizhili area. It is said that several of his classmates are officials.
As soon as Shen Lie heard this, he understood that this was a famous family. No wonder Tian Hong couldn't afford to offend him and didn't dare to offend him.
Don't underestimate the scholars of the Ming Dynasty. If you pass the scholar examination, you will have one foot in the privileged class of scholars of the Ming Dynasty.
Are the talents of the Ming Dynasty great?
Also score points.
Perhaps in a remote and remote frontier place, a poor scholar is no big deal, but this is the capital, and it is at the feet of the emperor.
A scholar with a slight background cannot be provoked by a member of the Jin Yiwei family, because one of the scholar's classmates is a censor in his family.
The royal guards are not afraid of the sky, and the earth is not afraid, but they are afraid of the censor.
If there is a disagreement and the scholar gets into trouble with the censor through his classmate relationship, Tian Hong, a member of hundreds of royal guards, will be left with nothing to eat!
How many acres of land does this family have? More than 100 acres of good irrigated land. In this era, this is a huge amount of property.
Of course, not all of these irrigated lands belong to the scholar's family; most of them are acres donated by relatives and friends.
What is donation?
Because in the Ming Dynasty, scholars belonged to the privileged class and did not need to pay corvee taxes, so many people had wrong ideas.
Once a descendant of a relative or friend is admitted to the scholar's examination or is elected, neighbors will flock to the scholar's home, vying to give their land to the scholar's home.
Isn't this just blatant tax evasion?
By the time of the Wanli Dynasty, the land dedicated to the privileged classes such as scholars, scholars, and Jinshi in the entire Ming Dynasty accounted for about half of the country's land area.
The remaining half of the poor, because they have no way to contribute, have become the most unlucky people in the world.
Not only did these poor people support the entire Ming Dynasty with limited acres of land, but the tax and corvee continued to increase year after year.
These are things everyone knows.
So who decided that scholars don’t pay taxes?
Naturally, it was Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
This matter is really too hasty and lack of consideration.
It was Zhu Yuanzhang's excessive preferential treatment to scholars that made the Ming Dynasty's finances never truly prosperous, and also laid the foundation for the rapid decline of the national power of the entire empire and its subsequent destruction.
Looking at the rich man's home, the corner of Shen Lie's mouth twitched slightly, and he winked at Xiaoqi, a member of Tian Hong's army.
"Knock on the door."
The flag officer quickly stepped forward and knocked on the door, only to see a black vicious dog leap out from the dog hole next to it.
The big black dog jumped up suddenly and rushed towards the little flag officer.
Fortunately, the flag officer reacted quickly and took a few steps back. Holding the handle of the knife, he slashed the vicious dog into two pieces, and the dog's blood spilled all over the floor.
Shen Lie was shocked when he saw the blood all over the place.
The dark door suddenly opened, and then a woman with disheveled hair rushed out of the yard.
Shen Lie, Tian Hong and others were stunned when they saw the woman lying down on the ground and hugged the little flag officer's legs on the spot.
Then the shrew began to act mischievously and cried loudly: "Killing people!"
Suddenly, the roar of a country shrew like a pig being killed resounded in the sky: "Come quickly, the Jin Yiwei is killing someone!"
The little flag officer was hugged by the shrew's legs. He was very embarrassed but couldn't break away. He didn't dare to actually cut her down, so he could only let out a few low shouts.
"Let go!"
"Are you seeking death?"
But the woman didn't ask anything, she just hugged the little flag official's legs and didn't let go.
The cries were so loud that Shen Lie was dumbfounded as he watched. It took him a long time to come back to his senses and thought to himself that this shrew must be a scholar, right?
Is this considered a ploy?
Do you still have some dignity as a scholar?
Seeing that the little flag officer was having trouble breaking free for a while, his face turned red with anger.
Shen Lie had no choice but to step forward and argue with the shrew: "Sister-in-law, isn't it just a few pieces of water to irrigate the ground... If you don't sell it, don't you think you'll be in trouble?"
But the shrew ignored her and screamed even more miserably: "Jin Yiwei killed someone!"
This shout made Shen Lieren numb.
Tian Hong also scratched his head and sighed helplessly: "These rich people are here."
This scene made Shen Lie angry and funny. It turned out that what was said in the book was not entirely correct. Guards in uniforms could not be tyrannical, and scholars were not at the mercy of others.
Not all of the wealthy families that can produce talented people are well-educated.
For the first time in his life, he felt the customs and customs of the Ming Dynasty. The corners of Shen Lie's lips twitched slightly.
Can such a family produce a talented person?
Who is that?
These wealthy locals value their land more than their lives. Buying land from them would be as difficult as going to heaven.
Shen Lie smiled bitterly and shook his head, and rolled his eyes when he saw that the aunt was tired of crying and still hugged the little flag officer's leg.
An idea emerged from my mind.
While talking, Shen Lie walked over leisurely, took out a silver bean from his sleeve and handed it over, saying kindly: "Sister-in-law, please get up quickly, the ground is cold, I will pay for your dog with these two coins." "
As soon as the disheveled landlady saw the silver beans, she snatched them away as if she were seeing a meaty cat, and then she slowly got up from the ground.
Shen Lie was dumbfounded, and felt confused about whether to laugh or cry again.