Lin Zaizhi raised his neck and took a sip of water, wiped his sweat and said: "Finally we have arrived in Peijing. The country of Tianzhu is so hot, and the Grand Master has suffered even since he was crowned king."
Lin Qicai smiled bitterly: "My dear brother, don't make fun of the Grand Master, otherwise if someone hears you, you will be beaten up."
Lin Zaizhi shook his folding fan and said: "The Grand Master is a sage through the ages, but he does not need to be placed on the altar table. Let alone the Grand Master, he is just like Confucius, so why can't he joke?"
"You are too arrogant." Lin Qicai could only sigh.
Lin Qicai, a native of Quanzhou, Fujian, in another time and space, was the second place in the Jiajing Examination in the 38th year.
Lin Zaizhi, a native of Quanzhou, Fujian Province, later changed his name to Li Zhi. After passing the imperial examination, he was too lazy to go to Beijing to take the exam.
The two are clan brothers, with Lin Qicai as the main clan member and Lin Zaizhi as a side clan member.
As in history, after Lin Zaizhi won the provincial examination, he did not want to go to the capital to take part in the general examination. He thought that traveling in Tianzhu would inevitably lead to loneliness, so he brought his brother Lin Qicai here because Lin Qicai's biological father was doing business in Tianzhu.
(Lin Qicai was adopted to his uncle as his heir).
After approaching the city wall, Lin Qicai looked at it and said: "The city wall in the capital of Tianzhu is not as tall as Quanzhou City. I don't know when the imperial master will build more."
Lin Zaizhi said: "The strength of a country does not lie in the height of its city, but in the wealth of its people."
Lin Qicai asked: "Why can't the city be high and the people rich?"
"Okay." Lin Zaizhi smiled.
The two were not blocked from entering the city, and no soldiers even came to check. Tianzhu did not have to pay city tax - it was limited to the territory under Wang Yuan's actual control.
In comparison, local princely states had heavy taxes, especially for merchants. If they had to pay taxes once in each princely state, long-distance business would be almost impossible. During the reign of Sher Shah, taxes were simplified in the north.
That is truly a British master.
Countless merchants from the north came to the south to do business. After experiencing the good governance in the south, these merchants all chose to support Wang Yuan, wishing that all the northern kingdoms would be destroyed.
If one day Wang Yuan cancels the autonomy of the north and pacifies it by force again, most merchants in the north will lead the way!
After the two entered the city, they found that the city was quite prosperous. Although it was not as prosperous as Quanzhou, it was already commendable.
About half of the people walking on the street are Han Chinese, and there are also many foreigners with dark or fair skin. But without exception, they all speak Chinese, but some people have particularly weird accents.
In fact, many of the aliens in their eyes have chosen to become naturalized, or are simply mixed Han Chinese.
Starting from the Tianzhu Cotton Fair, the first batch of mixed-race Han people are already thirty years old. Most of their fathers are Han Chinese and their mothers are high-caste white people, because when they were initially choosing wives, everyone preferred those with fairer skin.
Lin Qicai's biological father lived in Peiyang. The two drove to a large house with the words "Jinjiang Dengyinglin" engraved on the lintel.
We had no choice but to immigrate too many Lin families from Tianzhu, and there were eight Lin houses in Peiyang City alone. Therefore, when they settled down to settle down, a few more words had to be added to the lintel, otherwise it would be impossible to distinguish them.
Lin Zaizhi said: "This house has quite an exotic style."
Lin Qicai explained: "It used to be the residence of a Tianzhu noble. After my uncle (biological father) bought it, he asked a gardener from Jiangnan to renovate it. When it comes to food, clothing, housing and transportation, there is no such thing as exceeding the regulations in Tianzhu. Wearing a dragon robe
No one cares about the streets, as long as the houses don't look like castles."
"The master's abilities are so great." Lin Zaizhi admired sincerely.
Although Wang Yuan was the King of Tianzhu, he was still the Grand Master of the Ming Dynasty. This promotion was never canceled because it was just an honorary title.
Knocking on the door, an old servant asked doubtfully: "What do you two do for a living?"
Lin Qicai smiled and said: "Uncle Fu, I am a Qicai."
The old servant suddenly became excited: "It's actually the fourth young master. When I left Quanzhou with the master, the fourth young master was less than three feet tall. Now he has grown like this."
Lin Qicai asked: "Father...is uncle at home?"
"Master, come in quickly," the old servant warmly welcomed the two of them in and said as they walked, "Master was summoned by Your Majesty and is currently in the palace."
Lin Qicai asked doubtfully: "Uncle has become an official?"
The old servant smiled and said: "It's not that I'm an official anymore, but that the Lin family wants to get married to the royal family. The seventh prince is already twenty years old, and he is in love with our lady. Your Majesty is very open-minded. After knowing this, he did not beat the mandarin ducks, but
Invite the master to discuss the marriage."
Lin Zaizhi suddenly teased: "Brother, the master's son is going to be your brother-in-law."
Lin Qicai couldn't digest it. In his mind, Wang Yuan was an unattainable big shot. Now the two families were actually going to become relatives?
It was not until the afternoon that Lin Qicai's biological father, Lin Xian, finally returned, and Lin Qicai and Lin Zaizhi immediately went to visit him.
Regarding Lin Zaizhi, Lin Xian just nodded slightly and his attitude was a little lukewarm.
Although they come from the same ancestral hall, the two families have been separated for hundreds of years. At that time, they not only separated their clans, but also directly separated their surnames. Lin Zaizhi's ancestor was once changed to Li.
This is also the reason why Lin Zaizhi was later changed to Li Zhi.
Lin Zaizhi's ancestor once wrote an article in the genealogy, insinuating that Lin Qicai's ancestor married a lustful woman for money, and even converted to the Green religion.
Lin Qicai's ancestors also insinuated in the genealogy after the family separation that Lin Zaizhi's ancestors violated ethics by marrying a wife named Lin, because in ancient times, people with the same surname could not marry.
The two families have been at loggerheads. If they weren't far away in Tianzhu, Lin Xian would have kicked him out.
Lin Qicai asked: "Uncle just came back from the palace?"
Lin Xian was quite proud of this, nodded and said: "Exactly, I was summoned by His Majesty as my father, and I also had a banquet given by the Emperor in the palace."
Lin Qicai asked: "Has the Grand Master agreed to the marriage?"
"What is the Grand Master? That's the name of the Ming Dynasty. In Tianzhu, you should call it Your Majesty," Lin Xian scolded, and then said, "The Grand Master is really simple. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty specially gave a thousand craftsmen to repair the palace for His Majesty. But His Majesty
We only repaired the leaky areas and let these craftsmen build the university. Now Peiyang University is far more magnificent than the palace!"
Lin Zaizhi clapped his hands and praised: "This is a truly wise king!"
A Sudra maid brought a cup of tea.
Lin Qicai asked: "Uncle, why are all the servants in the house, except Uncle Fu, foreigners?"
Lin Xian explained: "Your Majesty has decreed that Han people are not allowed to be slaves in Tianzhu. Even Ah Fu's personal contract has been replaced by an employment contract, and a new contract must be renewed every five years."
Lin Zaizhi asked: "Can't we accept an adopted son and adopted daughter?"
Lin Xian smiled and asked: "Do you think His Majesty is so easy to fool?"
The Ming Dynasty also prohibited slave-keeping. The number of slaves was stipulated by the third-rank and above, and slaves were not allowed to be kept below the third-rank. However, there were policies from above and countermeasures from below. Slaves were kept in various disguises. The most common one was the adoption of adopted sons and daughters.
In order to prevent this, Zhu Yuanzhang specifically stipulated that having sex with his "adopted daughter" is not a mess...
Wang Yuan started from the economic aspect and stipulated that "adopted sons and adopted daughters" have inheritance rights. Whoever dares to adopt a disguised way of keeping Han people as slaves will wait until after his death, dozens of adopted sons and adopted daughters will file inheritance lawsuits.
!
Lin Xian sighed: "Tianzhu is different from Ming Dynasty. The imperial court in Tianzhu can directly control the villages and towns. If anyone dares to violate the decree issued by His Majesty, once found out, there will be no favors. Of course, Your Majesty is also very strict about rules.
It’s just a matter of not teaching but punishing. As long as there is something not prohibited by law, even if it causes anger and resentment, His Majesty will not arrest anyone and put him in jail.”
Lin Zaizhi praised again: "According to the regulations is a sign of great governance!" Then he wondered, "Why can the Tianzhu court manage villages and towns? Do villages and towns also have officials?"
Lin Xian said: "The village has a village chief, who is a second-grade official. If he does well, he can be promoted to an official. The town has a mayor, who is a first-grade official. If he does well, he can be promoted to an official. You don't know that Tianzhu's third-ranked Jinshi
, we must start from being an official of the first grade.”
Lin Qicai and Lin Zaizhi looked at each other in confusion. The third-ranked Jinshi was released, but they actually wanted to be the mayor first? This is too cheap!
Lin Xian smiled and said: "It is much better to be a second-ranked Jinshi. After being released to the outside world, at least he will be a county magistrate, which is the same as the Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty. Also, many of the lower-level officials in Tianzhu are from the Jishi Sect. These people are the same as those in the pre-Qin Dynasty.
Mohist."
The next day, the two scholars went to visit Peiyang University, and Lin Xian invited Zhou Yuzhen to come and tell his birth date.
Daozhang Zhou is now very prosperous. All the wealthy people who believe in religion in Peiyang City are all Taoist believers without exception. Only the poor people at the bottom believe in Buddhism.
It's a pity that although Zhou Yuzhen made a lot of money, he was inferior to the king.
The annual religious funding for Buddhism is more than ten times that of Taoism.
The funding is linked to the number of naturalized Buddhists. Buddhists are naturalized one after another, and the number of naturalized Buddhists is more than 1,800 times that of Taoists.
In addition to Buddhists, another group with outstanding performance is undoubtedly the Jishi Sect.
To be precise, they are the Jishi sect who first came to Tianzhu to preach. At the beginning, there were only six saints traveling to the west, but now there are more than 300,000 believers. Moreover, these preaching Jishi sects do not serve as officials, and they belong to a very unique folk force.
It's more like...a syndicate with religious overtones.
They specialize in preaching outside the immigrant areas, absorbing large numbers of low-castes and untouchables, and establishing secular communities that compete with India's traditional religious society.
In particular, the invasion of the Northern Sultanate a few years ago caused a sharp decline in the population of central India, and many lands were abandoned and became ownerless. These guys organized low-castes and untouchables, migrated there on a large scale, and established that kind of anarchy.
Management, a utopian small society without aristocratic oppression.
But they were not true anarchists. They accepted the officials sent by Wang Yuan, but once corrupt officials appeared, they would immediately mobilize the masses to expel them.
Tianzhu is really full of demons nowadays, and various religions and ideas are spreading. Wang Yuan is practicing the Mohist method while also practicing inaction. Two sets of incompatible things can actually go hand in hand.