In the afternoon, the two brothers Zhang Yanling and Zhang Heling left drunkenly on horseback. After the unpleasant conversation at the beginning, the atmosphere became more harmonious. Several young men expressed their willingness to sincerely associate with the Zhang brothers.
Never mention those things that shouldn't be said in the future. They are both young people. In fact, the previous serious estrangement was quickly eliminated. Xu Yande and Zhang Heling also shook hands and apologized to each other. At least on the surface, they reached an agreement.
.Although the change in the heart may take more time, once the words are spoken, it is a good start. Since the three young gentlemen have expressed their sincerity, there is no need to say anything more.
Zhang Yanling knew that in order to truly gain their acceptance and recognition, he had to do something. The Zhou family was Zhang Yanling's testing ground to prove his abilities.
Although Zhang Yanling said that he was not going to deal with the Zhou family in order to gain their approval, Zhang Yanling actually knew that if he could stop the Zhou family from purchasing land this time, it would have very good results. Maybe the young father-in-laws are rooting for the problem.
What people despise is not their identity, but their abilities. If you can prove yourself in terms of abilities, you will naturally be respected and accepted.
Zhang Yanling does not insist that they accept him, but for the sake of the long-term future, in order to reverse the tragic fate of the future, he must unite the Xunqi Group and integrate into it, so that he can quickly and effectively improve his strength and become stronger.
of help and assistance.
Moreover, based on Zhou Shou's previous words and deeds, threatening him in the name of advice, and asking Zhang Heling to send a message to him after receiving benefits, Zhang Yanling has already decided to deal with them.
"Yanling, are you really going to stop the Zhou family from purchasing the property? The emperor allowed them to acquire it. Besides, if you insist on quarreling with the Zhou family, wouldn't it really make things difficult for the emperor? The Zhou family is afraid
He is also willing to give up." When they were saying goodbye in front of Xuanwu Gate, Zhang Heling couldn't help but ask.
"Brother, do you want to take the fertile land in Baodi into your pocket? Since the land in Baodi County can be bought and sold, why should it be easier for the Zhou family? Four hundred hectares, and forty thousand acres of fertile land." Zhang Yanling played with one in his hand.
The black fire gun was taken from Zhang Lun when he was drunk and his ears were hot.
Zhang Lun's Fenwu Camp was under the jurisdiction of the Shenji Camp, so he was equipped with such firearms just to show off. Zhang Yanling wanted to make firearms, so he asked for them. Zhang Lun didn't value this thing at all, but Zhang Yanling said, he
He gave it to Zhang Yanling along with the gunpowder, blunderbuss and belt.
"Ah? You mean...not to stop...but to snatch it away? Give it to us? Isn't that going to cause a big dispute?" Zhang Heling said with wide eyes in shock and excitement.
Zhang Yanling put the blunderbuss into his belt and hung it on the saddle. He looked at Zhang Heling and nodded: "Of course, it is better to benefit us than to benefit the Zhou family. Since the emperor has agreed to the Zhou family's purchase and sale of the land in Baodi County, others can also buy it.
Even if we buy it, it's not a violation. I can't wait to get into a dispute. As long as we get into a dispute together, even if the emperor decides who owns the property, won't we suffer a loss? At least the family will get half of it, right? There isn't any good property near the capital.
Now, if we grab this piece of land in Baodi, we will have an additional income of tens of thousands of taels of silver every year."
Zhang Heling rubbed his hands and nodded: "You're right, I stole his mother's property. If I don't steal it, I won't steal it. But what should I do?"
Zhang Yanling said: "I will take care of the details. Brother, please prepare some silver. It will cost a lot of money to get 40,000 acres of land. I can even spare more than 20,000, but that is still far away. Brother needs to prepare 100,000.
Two, preferably more. There is 150,000 to 60,000 taels of silver, I think I can win it."
Zhang Heling almost fell off his horse and shouted: "You can kill me. A hundred thousand taels? Do you think it's dirt? That's money."
Zhang Yanling said: "That's true. Otherwise, I will take part of Zhuangzi's land deed and go to the bank to mortgage it and get some money. I will pay it back slowly later."
Zhang Heling frowned and said: "Are you really determined to win? You will definitely get it?"
Zhang Yanling said: "I dare not say this. But as long as I have money, I will be able to get it. If the Zhou family wants to purchase land, the price must be extremely low. We fought out halfway, and the price was higher than theirs, and the conditions were better.
Who do you want the people to sell it to?"
Zhang Heling gritted his teeth and said: "Okay, I believe you for once. I will go back and find a way. I will borrow one hundred thousand taels here and there. There is no need to mortgage the land. If people know about it, wouldn't it be a joke? I
This is a waste of money. Don’t let me go bankrupt. Otherwise, I will suffer from the northwest wind."
Zhang Yanling nodded and said: "Brother, don't worry. If we fail to seize the land, we will still have the money, and we won't lose it by gambling. Besides, can I cheat my brother? Think about taking love from the Zhou family, and then we can
If each brother has 20,000 acres of fertile farmland, he will earn tens of thousands more taels of silver every year. Don't you want to take the risk? Even if you don't want it, you will have to double the profit if you sell it again."
Zhang Heling said nothing and nodded solemnly. Where huge profits are, taking some risks is nothing.
…
There were only two reasons why people in the Ming Dynasty lost their land, one was natural disasters and the other was man-made disasters.
I don’t know what kind of curse it was. Since the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, there have been very few good years. Either drought or floods, or insect pests and locusts. In short, God seems to have countless ways to make the people lose their harvest.
. The people have worked hard for a year, but in the end they cannot even support their families. Their only choice is to sell their land to make ends meet, and then sell their children and daughters to become refugees.
In fact, most of the taxes in the Ming Dynasty came from the yeoman farmers. The so-called yeoman farmers were the families of ordinary people who had land at home. But there were too many blood-sucking people in the Ming Dynasty. Officials did not have to pay taxes, including dignitaries, temples and Taoist temples, and relatives of the emperor and the country.
When it comes to paying taxes, these privileged classes are like vampires, enjoying their privileges. One can imagine how heavy the taxes on the peasants are.
Under this situation, even if there are no natural or man-made disasters, many farmers will go bankrupt. Their land will be purchased at a low price and become the private property of the landlord's manor. The people who lost their land will become destitute tenants or refugees. Since Yongle
After the emperor began to establish the imperial estate, the trend of land annexation was out of control. The great heroes and big landowners went crazy to annex land, and a large number of homesteaders went bankrupt and became destitute tenant farmers and refugees. This is in addition to natural disasters.
man-made disaster.
Land was originally the guarantee for people's survival, but at some point, it actually became a burden. This is really a ridiculous thing.
The people of Baodi County encountered this ridiculous dilemma.
Although Baodi County is not part of the capital, it is actually not far from the capital. It is under the jurisdiction of the Tianjin Wei Prefecture and is only more than a hundred miles away from the capital. Because it is close to the capital, the land around the capital has been occupied in various ways.
At that time, the powerful people set their sights on the surrounding areas. Baodi County was a land of Pingchou, with a dense river network and fertile land. There were large tracts of fertile farmland in the county, which they coveted.
However, Baodi County has dense rivers, droughts and floods rarely occur, and the land is fertile, so the people's lives are quite decent. Due to the decrease in fiscal revenue in recent years, the imperial court was also aware of the problem of farmers' bankruptcy, so Emperor Hongzhi held a meeting in front of the emperor at the end of last year
The government agreed to the cabinet's proposal to prohibit private acquisition of common people's land, and consciously curbed the trend of land annexation. Therefore, the land of the common people in Baodi County was not divided up by those who coveted it.
However, last year there was a raging insect plague, and many people lost their income. Forced by taxes and the pressure of the whole family's life, some people had to sell part of their land to tide over the difficulties. So, in fact, from last year
From the beginning, some people in Baodi County have been forced to sell off their land. And private sales have already been in full swing. Many wealthy officials have been eyeing this place like bloodthirsty flies. However, there is a ban from the imperial court.
, they did not dare to openly make large-scale acquisitions, and no one wanted to stand out. They only made tentative transactions, not wanting to attract attention.
Zhou Shou had also been eyeing this place for a long time, but he was unable to carry out large-scale mergers, so he had been itching. However, the opportunity suddenly came. Even he did not expect that a conflict with Jianchang Hou gave him
This opportunity. After he was blackmailed by Zhang Yanling that day, he got more and more angry when he returned home. Finally, he went back to the palace to find his old sister, the Queen Mother Zhou, hoping to use the old face of the Queen Mother Zhou to get compensation for himself.
The Empress Dowager Zhou was helplessly entangled by Zhou Shou, and what happened during the day really made her angry. The Jianchang Marquis didn't give her any face at all, and blackmailed the Zhou family a large sum of money in front of her, leaving her with nothing to lose in front of the Empress.
There is no dignity, even a clay figure is still angry, let alone such an irritating thing.
That night, the Queen Mother Zhou invited Zhu Youtang. The Queen Mother Zhou started from the events of that year, talked about Concubine Wan Gui, Zhu Youtang's biological mother Ji, talked about Concubine Wu, and talked about Zhu Youtang.
Youtang's father, Emperor Xianzong, said what she said so deeply that she burst into tears. Zhu Youtang was a sentimental person, and he cried when he heard the old things she told her. Thinking of the time when he grew up in the cold palace,
As a prince, he was full of hunger and never saw the light of day, and his heart felt even more pity. At that time, the old queen mother left him by her side to raise him personally after the death of his biological mother, so that he could grow up and succeed to the throne. The old queen mother was
He has great kindness to himself.
Seeing that the fire was coming, the Empress Dowager Zhou asked to leave the palace and live in the Royal Taoist Temple. Hongzhi was shocked and asked why. The Empress Dowager Zhou said that she was old and just wanted to be clean. But her mother-in-law's family always came to bother her.
She made some unreasonable demands and used her name to speak out when she had conflicts with others. She didn't like it very much. It didn't matter whether she wanted to help or not, so she simply left the palace to have some peace and quiet.
Zhu Youtang heard something in the words, and after some questioning, he learned about the conflict between Zhang Yanling and Zhou Shou, as well as what happened in the afternoon. Empress Dowager Zhou said that Zhou Ying was at fault first, and Jianchang Marquis was not at fault.
Her brother Zhou Shou felt embarrassed and had lost a lot of money, so he kept muttering that he couldn't stand it anymore and she didn't want to listen to their nagging anymore.
Didn't Zhu Youtang not know the purpose of the Empress Dowager Zhou calling him here? When he heard this, he understood that the Empress Dowager Zhou wanted to save face for his Zhou brothers, but he couldn't open his mouth because they had fallen into the trap of the Queen's natal brother.
In my hand. That’s why I said so many things.
Zhu Youtang was a good man, a person who valued emotions and knew how to be grateful. After he came to the throne, he did not even take revenge on Concubine Wan Guifei who wanted to kill him. He did not even remove his posthumous title and did not embarrass the Wan family. How could he let the once-blessed concubine
Her own Empress Dowager Zhou was sad and embarrassed. But on the other hand, Zhang Yanling was the empress's brother, so she made no big mistake in this matter and could not be blamed. So after thinking about it, she decided to give some compensation to the Zhou family to calm the matter.
It's over.
The next day, Zhu Youtang called Zhou Shou and comforted him with gentle words. He asked Zhou Shou what he wanted and could satisfy his request. Zhou Shou seized the opportunity and offered to allow him to purchase 400 hectares of wasteland in Baodi County.
Zhu Youtang actually agreed to the request, completely forgetting that he had issued an order prohibiting the sale of self-cultivated farmland.