"Name?"

"Xiangzi."

"age?"

"eighteen."

"Where did the camel come from?"

"I picked it up outside the city."

Outside the east gate of Jinan Prefecture, the imperial camp had a flagpole, and a long row of door panels was propped up with stones underneath to make a table. A group of military Chinese scribes in red military uniforms sat in the back in high spirits with pens and paper.

Register.

Xiangzi looked at this group of imperial guards with envy and admiration.

The imperial clerk behind the table was also looking at Xiangzi. He called himself eighteen, but he looked older. He was tall but thin. This seemed to be the case for all poor people in this era. There were no fat poor people.

.

The upper body is wearing a gray cloth jacket, which is still thin in the early winter. Moreover, the jacket is still covered with seven or eight patches, and some areas are still patched with patches. He wears a pair of fat pants that are also full of patches, and his buttocks and knees are also patched.

He was wearing several layers of patches, and the legs of his trousers were tied up with chicken intestine tape, revealing a pair of big feet wearing old straw sandals underneath.

His face was gray and his body was covered with mud. Such a poor boy led three camels.

Camels are not cheap. They are big animals. A good camel is equivalent to five cows or four bulls. It is also worth three ordinary horses or two high-quality horses. In today's situation, one is worth about

From more than 20 silver dollars to more than 30 silver dollars.

These three big camels are worth nearly a hundred silver dollars.

The young man was honest and told the registration document that he had picked it up.

Last night there was a panic and chaos. The soldiers and civilians in Jinan City fled. Xiangzi also ran away. He ran all night. After dawn, he couldn't run anymore. Then he stopped running at all. Later, he saw the Ming Dynasty Imperial Guard Qingqi shouting all the way, saying that there was no water in Jinan Prefecture. Daming Ming Dynasty

Jinan has been liberated and everyone is allowed to go back.

He asked those Qing troops who fled to surrender, and said they would receive additional rewards for turning over weapons, armor, horses, etc.

After hearing this, Xiangzi walked back. He had no place to go. As a result, he had a stomachache halfway through the walk. He ran into the forest to relieve himself and accidentally discovered three camels.

He saw no one around, and saw that the camel was still branded with the Jinan Qing Army, so he simply brought it back.

Xiangzi was a little nervous and a little excited.

The clerk inspected the three camels again, especially the brand marks, and finally questioned Xiangzi's identity in detail. In fact, Xiangzi was a hard-working man. He was originally from the countryside in Licheng County, Jinan Prefecture, and his family had several acres of land.

The land was so poor that my father later put the land in the name of the squire and rented some of the land tax that was due to the emperor to the squire. Later, in order to avoid the increasingly heavy labor during the Chongzhen period, the whole family simply surrendered to the squire as a slave.

They still cultivated the few acres of land they owned, but they had to pay more rent to the squire. However, compared with the land tax, labor and silver collected by the court, and even the continuous increase in the number of troops, what they paid to the squire was pretty good, at least there was no disaster.

When I was young, I worked hard to cultivate a few acres of land, and then helped the squire's family. During the slack time, I went to the city to do some work, and I could barely make ends meet.

Xiangzi was born in the first year of Chongzhen. By the time he was ten years old, the Chongzhen Dynasty was in ruins. Bandits were everywhere in the Central Plains, and there were endless levies and sects. Hou Jin invaded every year outside the customs, and the imperial court was defeated repeatedly. Natural disasters and military disasters

, life is difficult.

When he was eleven years old, the Tatars invaded Shandong, Jinan was captured, King De was captured, the governor was killed, and more than 100,000 corpses were piled outside the city. When the Tatars left, they stole countless gold and silver and took countless people captive. His mother was

died at that time.

At the age of thirteen, there was a drought of locusts, and there were two taels of wheat fighting, and the plague was prevalent, and thieves stole hair, and fathers and sons cannibalized each other, and more than half of the people died.

Also in the past two years, the several acres of land in Xiangzi's family that were in the name of the squire were completely sold to the squire, and even the dilapidated house at home was pawned off.

Xiangzi followed his father to work at the canal wharf in Jinan Prefecture. He did all kinds of hard work, including moving, pulling carts, loading and unloading, and even pulling fibers on the canal. They were all hard work, but hard work did not make money.

When he was fifteen years old, the Qing army entered Guan again and marched south to Shandong. They occupied Linqing, destroyed Jining and slaughtered Yanzhou. This time the Qing army went south and captured a total of 360,000 people, 320,000 livestock, and more than 2 million gold and silver.

two.

Xiangzi's father was kidnapped by the Tatars in this year. He luckily escaped, but he completely lost his parents and had nothing.

From then on, he stayed in Jinan City, relying on his youth, hard work, and hunger to survive.

The year before last, King Chuang came to Beijing and sent Guo Sheng to lead ten thousand cavalrymen down to Shandong and occupy Jinan. Soon after, the Qing army entered the pass and marched into Shandong. The troops withdrew from Jinan and other places.

At that time, Liu Konghe, the son of the chief assistant Liu Hongxun, spent all his family resources to recruit 3,000 people. At that time, Xiangzi enlisted in the army to eat food.

Liu Konghe raised troops in Changbai Mountain, beheaded the puppet county magistrate, and united with various rebels in Shandong to march north to King Qin. When they reached Cangzhou and Beijing had fallen, he led his army southward and then entered Jinan.

Soon after the Qing army moved south, Liu Konghe and others went south to surrender to Liu Zeqing. They were dissatisfied with Liu Zeqing's refusal to send troops and openly questioned him. As a result, Liu Zeqing sent people to assassinate him.

Liu Konghe's general Chen Wangxin and the rebel army refused to accept the offer, and Liu Zeqing surrounded and killed two thousand people. At that time, the court appointed Liu Konghe as deputy commander-in-chief, but the decree came and Liu Konghe had been killed.

Xiangzi was lucky. When Liu Zeqing killed Chen Wangxin and his two thousand troops, he was not in the army of Liu Kong and Chen Wangxin, but under the command of Liu Kong and his wife Wang.

Wang was from Zouping, good at riding and shooting, and strong in strength. At that time, she and her husband each led an army. Liu Konghe was killed, and she committed suicide by drowning. After being rescued, she became disheartened, disbanded her troops, and returned to Changbai Mountain to become a nun.

.

Xiangzi and a thousand others were dismissed and each looked for a way out. Xiangzi returned to Jinan.

Soon the Qing army went south and occupied Jinan. Xiangzi continued to do hard work such as transporting and pulling carts to make a living, and was forced to cut his hair and leave it in braids.

A few years have passed in the blink of an eye, and Xiangzi is actually twenty years old now.

Bolo went out of the city to fight, but the Ming army came to siege. Xiangzi was trapped in the city, and he was forced to recruit strong men to serve as village heroes. Fortunately, the siege took less than a month, and the Qing army collapsed without a fight. There was internal strife on a rainy night, and the soldiers and civilians fled, and Xiangzi followed.

Ran.

Finally, we brought back three camels.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Xiangzi did not want to say that he had participated in Liu Kong and the rebel army before, followed Liu Zeqing, and was captured by the Qing army before, but the clerk did not do so either

Ask more carefully.

After asking about their place of origin, name, age, etc., and after some registration, they received three camels.

"A war horse captured in our army is rewarded with ten yuan of silver. These three camels are a bit too thin. You are neither an official of the Ming Dynasty nor a soldier of the Qing Dynasty who rebelled and surrendered. If the people turn in military animals, the reward will be lower.

If these three camels are well fed and you are a soldier of the Qing Dynasty, I would normally give you twenty yuan each. Now I can only give you a total of thirty-five silver dollars. Are you willing?"

Xiangzi was a little surprised when he heard this. He also knew the price of these big animals. Twenty yuan a head was the minimum. If they were authentic, they would be worth thirty yuan.

Seeing his hesitation, the clerk smiled and said, "If you want to keep it for yourself, you can take it away."

Xiangzi thought to himself, where can I lead this chaotic army, and maybe if I leave now, soldiers will come back to recruit him. After experiencing too many chaos, he does not really believe in the Ming Dynasty Imperial Army.

Back then, Liu Konghe was still the son of a bachelor from the First Academy of Sciences, and he went to Liu Zeqing's camp. Liu Zeqing was also one of the four towns of Hongguang. However, because Liu Konghe accused Liu Zeqing of having a heavy army and not going north, he was killed by Liu Zeqing. Chen Wangxin could not wait.

If they were willing to be recruited by him, they would immediately kill all the two thousand rebels.

"Sell it for as much as you say."

Xiangzi gritted his teeth and made up his mind.

Thirty-five pieces of dragon silver, that's real money, is better than leading three camels around.

Register, collect money, and press fingerprints.

After everything was done, he was given thirty-five silver dollars as expected, with the portrait of Emperor Shaotian on the front and a dragon and the Great Wall on the back. It was heavy and heavy in his hand.

Thirty-five yuan a piece is quite a lot, and even the silver coins are freshly opened. They are all brand new and bright, with no wear at all.

He couldn't believe it. He looked at the smiling clerk, hesitated, and then took out two pieces and handed them over.

"You don't need this, just put it all away."

The clerk smiled and refused, "You said that you are from the countryside of Licheng County, and your family once had land, but later it was named as a squire's house, and then you borrowed a loan at usurious rates and had to pawn it to him after a disaster, right?"

"Yes." Xiangzi nodded.

"It's like this. If your situation is true, His Majesty now has a policy that can help you redeem your land. Previously, you were forced to sell the land because you couldn't repay the usurious loan. According to the current government policy,

, if you can now take out the original principal of the loan, plus one time the interest of the principal, you can redeem the land. If the original interest paid exceeds one time of the principal, you can also claim for the excess to be refunded.

"

The Shao Tian Dynasty reduced rents and interest rates in various places with the purpose of protecting the interests of the people in turbulent times and preventing more people from going bankrupt and affecting stability.

Therefore, it is stipulated that the definition standard of usury is three points of monthly interest, and it is stipulated that the interest must not exceed one time of the principal. For private loans, if the interest exceeds three points, the government will not protect it. And even if it is less than three points, the interest must not be

If the loan is higher than the principal, if you borrow one hundred yuan, the maximum monthly interest is three cents, and the maximum annual interest is thirty six yuan. The interest can roll up to one hundred yuan at most, and then no more interest can be charged.

The so-called profit per dollar means that the monthly profit is only three points.

In fact, the monthly profit is only three points, which has always been the official red line. However, there are many ways for people to take advantage of the loopholes. For example, if you borrow one hundred taels, you will only be given ninety taels, or even five or sixty taels, but the IOU states that you will borrow a full hundred taels. So if

Borrow fifty taels and write one hundred taels, and the monthly profit will be three cents, which is actually six cents.

Under normal circumstances, private loans to farmers are given at a 20% discount, and the monthly interest is calculated. In disaster years, six or seven is counted as ten, and if it is not repaid for half a year, it will be transferred to the mother. The transfer is the interest.

Rolling profits.

During the Great Famine, the high interest rate was more than ten times or even dozens of times. With the compound interest added, farmers' land was taken away from them.

The land of Xiangzi's family was taken away in this way at that time. They borrowed grain from the landlords. The price of grain was ridiculously expensive. They asked them to write an IOU. One stone of grain was calculated as three taels of silver, but the IOU was quoted as ten taels of silver.

Then it lasts for half a year, with a profit of three cents. After half a year, eleven taels of silver will be repaid with interest. The landlord will also charge some money for tea, so he will have to repay twelve taels.

But they actually only borrowed one stone of grain.
To be continued...