He is "Second Master Guan" again, and he is "Brother Xiucai" again. This bandit boy may have confused "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin".
Wang Yuan couldn't help laughing and asked: "What is your name? Where are you from? How could you become a bandit?"
The young bandit was very articulate and answered quickly:
"The villain's name is Zhou Chong, and he is originally from Anning, Yunnan. Because he lent money to his mother for medical treatment, his father was unable to repay it, so the Yang family took the opportunity to occupy the ancestral land, and his father and eldest brother became tenant farmers of the Yang family. When the villain was ten years old, Yunnan
There was a severe drought and unable to pay the rent, so my father and eldest brother fled with the villain. My father starved to death that year, the eldest brother worked as a helper in Kunming, and the villain also worked as an apprentice in a dyeing workshop."
"When the villain was twelve years old, his eldest brother was beaten to death. The dyeing shop was afraid of causing trouble, so he expelled the villain. The villain entered the Chunhua Troupe to learn opera again. Within two years, the troupe also disbanded. The villain then and
The master and his uncle formed a small group of four or five people and traveled around the countryside, specializing in singing weddings and funerals for farmers. Last year, the master and his uncle had an uneven distribution of money, so they had a quarrel and broke up. The villain followed the master to make a living as a performer, but the master also fell ill and died.
So the villain went up the mountain and threw the bandits into Luo Cao."
This motherfucker is so unlucky, she is like a disaster. Whoever follows her will not end well.
His experience is not very clean either. His eldest brother works as a helper, but is actually a street gangster. The dye house can accept him as an apprentice because of the gangster's sake, otherwise it would never be possible to accept a refugee without household registration as an apprentice.
Wang Yuan asked casually: "The Yang family who occupies your ancestral land is a powerful person in the area?"
Zhou Chong replied: "They are the clansmen of Yang Yiqing, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu. As soon as the Yang family had a governor, they suddenly became more prestigious. Nearly half of the land in Xiaoren Village was occupied by the Yang family."
It was several years ago that Yang Yiqing became the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu. In the past two years, he was squeezed out by Liu Jin. Yang Yiqing was forced to resign and was immediately imprisoned. He was rescued by Li Dongyang and saved his life. This year, because of the death of King Anhua
After the rebellion, Yang Yiqing returned to lead the troops, and soon he was able to plan to kill Liu Jin.
Humans are very complex animals.
In terms of achievements, Yang Yiqing once reformed the bad government of the tea-horse trade, quelled internal and external troubles several times, and was even the number one contributor to the elimination of Liu Jin.
Throughout the entire Ming Dynasty, few people in the entire Ming Dynasty could compare to Yang Yiqing's literary and martial arts skills (not counting the founding ministers).
However, Yang Yiqing’s people are indeed from the fish and meat village!
Zhang Yu, who is in charge of the Yunnan Provincial Examination this year, will take action on Yang Yiqing's son. Not only did Zhang Yu severely punish his son, he also reported Yang Yiqing's murder to the public, and the two became bitter enemies.
Later, Zhang Yu was promoted to be a scholar in Guangdong, but Yang Yiqing interfered and transferred Zhang Yu to Baoding as a magistrate. There were many nobles and nobles in that place, and being a magistrate was equivalent to being a grandson. Zhang Yu went to Baoding alone and transferred many nobles to him in three months.
Too much pressure to cause trouble.
In terms of character, Zhang Yucai is truly honest and selfless.
When his father passed away, Zhang Yu had already become the county magistrate. He had been an official for thirty years and was unable to pay back the 440 taels of silver owed by three generations of his family for their studies. Zhang Yu was seventy years old.
At that time, the family was divided among the three sons. Not only did the three sons not receive any share of the family property, but each of them received an ancestral debt.
Every time Zhang Yu and his second brother were transferred, they could not afford to hire a car or boat, so the third brother drove a donkey to carry the luggage and walked to the place of duty.
Zhang Yu's second brother Zhang Chong was also an upright official. Because he was attacking the local tycoons and he had no flaws, the local tycoons had no choice but to collect money to buy an official position for Zhang Chong, hoping that he would be promoted and transferred quickly. After Zhang Chong learned the truth,
Thinking this was an insult to himself, he was so angry that he resigned and returned home.
Wang Yuan was very lucky. When he took the provincial examination, he met Zhang Yu.
By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, all the examiners of the rural examinations were appointed from outside. For example, when Wang Yangming recovered from illness and returned to the north, he went to Shandong and was invited to preside over the Shandong rural examinations.
However, the examiner is only the exam host and not the person directly responsible.
The patrol censor was the real person in charge. In the early days, he was decentralized, but by the Hongzhi period, he had everything done. Let's put it this way, if the patrol censor wanted to play tricks, he could even secretly change the rural examination ink before copying the red scrolls.
Papers and draft papers, and provincial examinations in all provinces are inevitably prone to tricks.
And with Zhang Yu's character, it is absolutely impossible for him to practice favoritism and malpractice. If Wang Yuan can get the best rank in the exam, he will definitely get the best rank!
…
After Zhou Chong told his story, he knelt on the ground and looked at Wang Yuan eagerly.
Li Ying smiled and said: "Take it, this guy is quite interesting, it's like watching a play."
Zhou Chong immediately kowtowed to Li Ying: "Thank you for your kind words, Master!"
Wang Yuan asked again: "You have already escaped, why did you come back and join us again?"
Zhou Chong said: "When the villain was learning to sing, he admired those heroes, especially the Second Master Guan. The scholar brother was so skillful that he could kill people on horseback as if he were searching for something. It was like the Second Master Guan had come down to earth and reborn! The villain cannot be regarded as the Second Master Guan.
, I just want to be Zhou Cang. As long as the scholar brother accepts the villain, the villain will follow Zhou Cang's example and be loyal. If the scholar brother dies one day... Well, the villain is not cursing the scholar brother. If... like that, the villain
I also learned from General Zhou Cang, who killed himself with a knife and followed his brother to the underworld to be happy! If the scholar brother dies, and I don’t commit suicide and follow him, the sky will thunder and my descendants will not have a good death!"
Wang Yuan was very speechless and stopped him: "Don't call me brother, it sounds like a bandit in the green forest. Are you too familiar with the drama "Water Margin"? Also, don't call yourself a villain!"
"Then how should I call a scholar...well, master?" Zhou Chong asked.
Wang Yuan thought for a while and said, "Call me second brother."
"Hey, thank you second brother for taking me in!" Zhou Chong kowtowed several times, and Ma Liu stood up and said, "I will lead the horse and knife for second brother."
"You can lead the horse, but forget about the sword." Wang Yuan would not let the weapon leave his body, there was still half the journey to go.
What really made Wang Yuan let down his guard was the question he asked casually.
Although Wang Yuan is a historical idiot, he followed Wang Yangming to meet many high officials, and he also knew some things about the court, and he had some knowledge of important ministers such as Yang Yiqing.
In the Ming Dynasty, there was a system of serving officials in other places, and Yang Yiqing could not be an official in Yunnan. If Zhou Chong could speak out about Yang Yiqing this time, he must be from Yang Yiqing's hometown, and his life experience should also be true.
The team moved forward again, and Wang Yuan gained an additional servant.
Fugitive farmers like Zhou Chong were refugees without household registration. Fortunately, by the mid-Ming Dynasty, road inspections were not very strict, otherwise he would not even be able to enter the county seat.
Wang Yuan could help Zhou Chong settle down, but he would definitely be granted a lowly status and his status would be that of a slave.
What about promoting excellence, being a hired worker, being a companion? These are all lowly statuses. Legally, they are inferior to others, and their descendants cannot take part in the imperial examinations. And when committing crimes, if the victim is from a good status, the offender with a lowly status will be punished by a higher level.
The more special ones are hired workers and tenant farmers.
Day laborers and short-term tenants have good status, but if they become long-term workers or tenant servants, and the boss has to take care of food and drink, they will be classified as a low status. Even if these people become rich, such as suddenly inheriting a relative's inheritance, the money will
They are protected by the law, but they still cannot gain freedom. Even if their owners are willing to deregister them, they still need official approval.
These were the dross left by the Meng Yuan Dynasty and were inherited by Zhu Yuanzhang.
We can't blame Zhu Yuanzhang. During his reign, he actually made many reforms. A large number of low-income households in the Yuan Dynasty regained their freedom, and the rights of low-income households were also protected by law, but the changes were not thorough enough.
Zhou Chong held the reins, couldn't help but touch the mane, and exclaimed: "Second brother, this horse is really a horse. I saw it clearly from the slope. It jumped up from the big stone, at least one foot high from the ground."
, if it were an ordinary horse, its legs would have been broken."
"Well, remember to take good care of it from now on, brush it and feed it every day," Wang Yuan happened to pick up a coolie for free and told him, "This horse has a tricky mouth. Its staple food is tartary buckwheat, supplemented by bean cakes and grass. When drinking water,
Add ginger salt.”
Zhou Chong marveled: "He eats better than other people."
If you don't have money, you really can't raise a horse, especially a high-grade horse like this.
Wang Yuan raided the rebel baggage train at night and invested more than ten taels of the hundreds of taels of silver he got from the stolen goods on this horse.
If you sell it now, it won't cost 500 taels at all, but at least 1,000 taels. Over in the south of the Yangtze River, ordinary galloping horses used for riding can be bought for only 78 taels of silver.
If we use a car as an analogy, Wang Yuan's horse is equivalent to a Rolls-Royce, and the daily maintenance costs can impoverish the working class.
Otherwise, how do you think Wang Yuan was able to defeat the bandits single-handedly in the previous battle? If it had been replaced by a bad horse, there would be no way he could carry people up the steep slope.
The most famous Shuixi horse recorded in history is undoubtedly the one presented to Zhu Yuanzhang by Ming Sheng (son of Ming Yuzhen). It was given the name "Feiyuefeng", which means flying over the mountain peak. There is a poem praising it: "The clouds soared away with lightning.
If you don't return it, the mist and smoke will lock you up in Longshan Mountain. Once you fly over the Heavenly Stable, you will be left alone in this world for twelve hours."
This horse comes from Yanglong Pit, which is the territory of the Cai family that wants to marry Song Ling'er. It is still nominally under the jurisdiction of the Song family.
This horse is really scary. According to historical records, its head height is about 2.9 meters, and its body height is estimated to be more than two meters. The body height of ordinary water horses is only about 1.2 to 1.3 meters. Comparatively
You can tell the difference immediately.
"Feiyuefeng" is a heterogeneous breed, and Wang Yuan's horse is much shorter.
He was still a young horse when he first borrowed it. After two years of raising it, he has grown to five feet one inch, which is roughly equivalent to 1.63 meters. It is almost catching up with the average height of British thoroughbred horses.
…
The next section of the journey is relatively easy to walk, and the terrain is the same as when encountering bandits.
There are hillsides on both sides, and a valley in the middle. The official road is built along the valley bottom.
This kind of terrain is particularly suitable for ambushes. Ten years ago, Milu, a thief woman, ambushed the government troops here, blocked them in the valley and killed them all.
Guizhou's Pingyi Qianhu Station is stationed at Pingguan. If there are rebels in Yunnan, they only need to release a few hundred people at the pass. Even tens of thousands of Yunnan rebels will not be able to easily enter Guizhou from then on.
The Pingyi Guards of Yunnan are at the other end of the valley.
After advancing about seven or eight miles, Wang Yuan and others arrived at Pingyi Guard.
The officers and soldiers guarding the city were a little lazy at first, but when they saw the horses carrying more than ten heads, they suddenly became extremely cautious. They all picked up their weapons and asked Qin Qin's head: "Qin Wu, what are you doing?"
Commander Qin has been walking this road all year round and has long been familiar with the officers and soldiers guarding the city. He smiled and said: "They are all bandits, subordinates of Sanshan."
"You guys wait outside the city, I will report to the king's command!" The officers and soldiers guarding the city did not dare to neglect, and one of them quickly ran towards the city.
(ps: Regarding Feiyuefeng, the "Records of Hongwu of Ming Taizu" records that it was produced in Yanglongkeng, Shuidong. It was Zhu Yuanzhang's favorite horse, and he even asked the court painter to paint a portrait of Feiyuefeng. According to Song Lian's "Ode to the Dragon Horse",
The head of the horse flying over the peak is about 2.9 meters high, and the horse's body is about 3.5 meters long.)