Under Wang Xu's questioning, the little fat man told the truth. It was not him who wanted to invite Wang Xu, but his sister.
It was true that he went to see Yangzhou Shou Ma and went to Huafang to listen to music together in the evening, but his sister would accompany him dressed as a man, so listening to the music was really listening to the music.
After being exposed by Wang Xu, the little fat man still had a look of fear on his face and begged him in a low voice: "I made an agreement with my sister that I won't reveal her identity. If you know it, just pretend that you don't know. At worst, I'll invite you next time."
You go and drink wine to make amends."
Wang Xu didn't say anything. Ever since Dong Zhongshu deposed all schools of thought and only respected Confucianism, the restraint of ethics on women has become stronger and stronger.
Who is Zhang Xu's sister? She is the daughter of the water transport envoy. Zhang Minghuai, the water transport envoy, is a popular figure in the Holy Emperor today. She belongs to neither the Zhu Party nor the Han Party, but is a pure minister of the emperor.
Zhang Xiaomei came from a family of officials. She was a strange woman in ancient times who was not bound by Confucian ethics. It would be a pity not to see her.
"Does your sister look like you?"
Wang Xu suddenly thought of a question. Zhang Xu was fat and weighed at least two hundred kilograms. If his sister was like him, well, it would be better not to go.
"It's not like that. My sister follows my mother, and I follow my father. Why do you ask?"
Zhang Xu didn't know why, and looked confused.
Wang Xu felt relieved now. Although he didn't plan to have anything happen to Zhang Xu's sister, he couldn't be too scary.
It is said that a white person will cover up all the ugliness, but a fat person will ruin everything. With a height of 1.58 meters and a body of 200 pounds, it is like a bucket of water.
Wang Xu suppressed the weird thoughts in his heart, got on Zhang Xu's carriage and went straight to the Governor's Water Transport Mansion.
They took the back door instead of the main entrance to the government office. Zhang Xu originally wanted to invite Wang Xu in, but Wang Xu refused.
His identity is different after all. Even if he doesn't think about himself, he also wants to avoid suspicion for the teacher.
Nowadays, Xue Mushan is the elected assistant of the current dynasty and a veteran of the Zhu Party. As a reserve disciple of the Zhu Party, he plunges into the governor's Caoyun Mansion as a pure minister. It is inevitable that people will speculate. This is not good for the teacher and the Zhang family.
Therefore, let's play and make trouble. There are some things that should be avoided. It's better to avoid some things.
Zhang Xu entered the Governor's Water Transport Mansion, while Wang Xu waited peacefully on the carriage.
After about half a cup of tea, Zhang Xu came out with a young man.
This young man looks about fourteen or fifteen years old. His face is as white as jade and his skin is very good, giving him a gentle beauty.
Wang Xu lowered his head and glanced at the boy's neck. There was no Adam's apple. It seemed that this boy was Zhang Xu's sister disguised as a woman.
I couldn't help but look at the boy's chest again. He looked pretty similar to him. I don't know if it was due to his late development or the use of a corset. He looked no different from a man.
"Brother Wang, this is my younger brother."
Zhang Xu came over with the young man and winked at Wang Xu.
The young man took a step forward, looked at Wang Xu for a few times, his eyes were as bright as stars, and said softly: "My little brother, Zhang Weizhen, has met Brother Wang. I have admired Brother Wang's poems for a long time, and today I finally got to see the real Buddha."
"Zhang Weizhen!"
Wang Xu muttered this name, and just when the young man was a little frustrated and was afraid of being found out, he said: "Kingdom suppresses life and maintains Zhou Zhen?"
The young man's beautiful eyes lit up, his ears were dyed a bit red, and he smiled playfully: "Brother Wang's knowledge is really solid. When he heard my name, he thought of coming from Daya."
The kingdom suppresses life, maintains the Zhen of the Zhou Dynasty, aids many scholars, and brings peace to King Wen. This is the elegant saying in the Book of Songs, and it talks about the elegance of King Wen.
"It's nothing, I just read a few more books." Wang Xu said modestly, not thinking that this was anything to be proud of.
The young man didn't take it seriously, but said enthusiastically: "Brother Wang, what you said is wrong. There are very few people who can think of the Book of Songs when they hear my name. It's not that these people are not knowledgeable, but they don't think that way.
.Brother Wang can think and dares to think, which means that Brother Wang is not a stickler for rules, and he knows how to read, not just study hard."
"Aren't we going to see Shou Ma? It's getting late, let's go quickly."
Seeing that Wang Xu was chatting very well with his sister, Zhang Xu couldn't sit still and couldn't help but come up and interrupt.
Looking at Zhang Xu who was as steady as an old dog but actually panicked, Wang Xu shook his head slightly and thought to himself: "Maybe everyone with a younger sister is like this!"
After just a few simple chats, Wang Xu discovered that Zhang Xiaomei is a person with quick thinking.
Compared with Zhang Xu, apart from being a man, he has many shortcomings. At least Wang Xu did not see in him the kind of agility that can lead to great achievements.
Along the way, Wang Xu and Zhang Xiaomei exchanged questions and answers casually. The questions and answers were quoted from classics, covering the four books and five classics. Some allusions were randomly picked up, so that Zhang Xu, who was also a scholar, was often unable to get in the conversation.
Zhang Xu saw this in his eyes and was anxious in his heart. He knew that his sister admired Wang Xu very much, but he did not expect that the two of them were so close to each other. It felt like he was shooting himself in the foot.
Wang Xu didn't think that much, he just treated Zhang Xiaomei as an equal scholar, and found that apart from being a girl, Zhang Xiaomei knew a lot about the court affairs and had great insights, so she couldn't be treated like an ordinary girl.
Taking the New Deal being abolished as an example, Zhang Xiaomei felt it was a pity because some parts of the New Deal were indeed for the benefit of the people.
Of course, she does not agree with all the New Deal. For example, she feels that the Young Crops Law in the New Deal is inappropriate.
Young Crops Law: During the lean years in February and May each year, the government would provide farmers with loans and grain loans, with an interest of two cents or three cents every six months, which would be repaid with the summer and autumn taxes respectively, thus reducing the oppression of farmers by private usury.
In the past, when people borrowed private loans and failed to pay back the money, their land would be taken away by the landlord.
With the Green Crops Law, it seems that people no longer need to borrow money from the private sector, but in fact that is not the case at all.
There are policies and measures to counter.
According to the Qingmiao Law, the interest for half a year is 2 to 3 cents, but in reality, the interest for one month is more than that.
After scraping it off layer by layer, the interest rates offered by the government were even more severe than those offered by the private sector. In order to let the court see the strength of the implementation of the Green Crop Law, there was also a phenomenon of forcing people to borrow money.
Some people don't need to borrow money themselves, but for the sake of political performance, local officials will lend you money even if they don't.
Not only did the people not enjoy the benefits, but they incurred extra expenses. In some places, they openly used the name of the government to engage in deeds that were even more ruthless than loan sharking.
With usury, you don’t have to borrow it if you don’t need it, no one is forcing you to lend it.
The Young Crops Law was a good one, but it would not work without borrowing it. It made the people complain, but there was no reason to reason.
"If you were put in charge of the cabinet and faced with land annexation below, what would you do?"
Wang Xu asked many questions that many people with lofty ideals have thought about before.
"I?"
Zhang Xiaomei was at a loss for words. Whether it was Yan Song's reform or Zhu Dang's restoration of power, the fundamental reason lay in the land.
The Wu Dynasty had been peaceful for too long. The land had long been occupied by the gentry, and less than a handful could be distributed to the people.
Any reform will affect the interests of the gentry. No reform will work until there is no power to overwhelm the gentry.
"I will promote commercial tax reform. At present, 40% of the main tax revenue of the imperial court is land tax, and the rest is mainly on salt, iron, rice, cloth, tea, boats, and other basic necessities. As long as it is increased, it can be obtained from commercial tax
If the taxes are reduced, the land tax will naturally be reduced and the price of food will be lowered, so that the people can afford to eat."
Zhang Xiaomei thought for a long time and gave this answer.
Wang Xu was noncommittal about this. Before the shift from agriculture to industry, manpower cannot be liberated from the fields and capitalism cannot recover.
Raising taxes is just a word, but it is even more difficult to implement.
Moreover, Wang Xu does not believe that by raising commodity taxes and reducing agricultural taxes, people will live a good life.
The reason why we say this is because of land annexation. In this era, farmers do not have their own land at all, and the beneficiaries are still the gentry.
These people would rather dump the surplus food into the river than sell it to the people at a low price.
On the contrary, after raising the commodity tax, prices will rise, which is the real feeling of the people.
In the past, during festivals, you might pull out two feet of cloth to make two new clothes.
After prices rose, I didn't have any money to buy clothes, so I continued to work for the landlords. I could still see some smell in the past, but now I can't see it at all.
"No?"
Seeing Wang Xu's face, Zhang Xiaomei felt worried and asked, "What do you think, Brother Wang?"
"war!"
Wang Xu gave his own opinion. He believed that the only way to end land annexation was through war.
Reclaiming another state's land externally or consuming the population internally are both good solutions.
Apart from this, any reform would only address the symptoms but not the root cause, because Kyushu is such a big land and its population has been slowly increasing.
Unless the house is pushed back and started over, the higher the house is built, the closer it is to collapse.
When one day, the foundation is not enough to support the building, that is the moment when the house collapses and everything begins again.
Set a small goal first, such as remembering in 1 second: