Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 428
"People make losses because of you, people judge righteousness and kindness because of you, people lose filial piety because of you, and people forget loyalty and trustworthiness because of you. Thinking about how much inhumanity is, copper stink is clearly the root of the curse... Hehe..."

"Hey yo..."

On the [-]th day of August, the paddy fields in Liaodong are golden. People on both sides of the Liaohe River sang to each other and bent over each other. With their left hands, they held the stem of the rice, aimed the cutting edge at the straw, and pulled hard to cut off the mature rice. .

Children use the straps to tie the rice and arrange them neatly.

When the number is about the same, the group of eleven or twelve-year-old children will use poles to pass through the center of the tied rice without the elders asking.

After passing through both ends, they picked up the rice with the help of adults.

After several adjustments, they felt that the weights of the two ends were about the same, and then they picked the rice and put it on the cattle, horses and mule carts on the road.

This was repeated until the rice on the cart accumulated five or six hundred catties, and the children sat on the backs of the cows, horses and mules by themselves, and drove them to the village's grain farm.

On the Liaohe River, big boats go down the current, the trackers on the shore pull the ropes, and the boatmen on the boats row the oars.

Whether they are trackers, boatmen, or people in the fields, they all keep singing.

The singing songs one after another kept ringing. Against the background of the Liaohe River, rice fields, and blue sky, everyone was showing the most simple side of the working people with their actions.

"Zhang Zhu, with seven households, 22 acres of land, fifteen stone and seven buckets of grain, should pay the grain..."

On the valley field of Dahe Village under the banner of Liaozhong County, Daning Prefecture, when the sound of "crackling" abacus sounded, some farmers who had harvested the grain and threshed the millet were looking numbly at the village officials who were making the abacus.

Two village officials, one keeping accounts and the other settling accounts, cooperated perfectly.

"Four stones, six buckets and three catties of grain!"

After finishing the calculation, the village official yelled, and the village official next to him also wrote down the food handed in by the family.

However, when writing, they deliberately added "three catties for loss, four stones and six buckets for actual payment" after the amount.

High officials have corruption laws of high officials, and small officials have corruption laws of small officials.

Although they are only village officials of the second ninth rank, these two village officials can still spend seven or eight stones of rice and wheat with this every year, which is worth three or four taels of silver.

In this way, the two can be regarded as well-known "good officials", because most village officials will choose to use larger buckets to intentionally greedy for the people's food.

In this way, the group of village officials did not embezzle the court's land tax, but squeezed more food from the people.

Compared with them, the two of them just stole from the imperial court, but they didn't oppress the people at all.

Therefore, there were no people clamoring and making troubles in the valley of the two of them, because everyone knew that if these two village officials were taken away, they would only get greedy village officials like other villages.

But the common people don't hold grudges, even if the village officials are greedy for their food, they only dare to scold them in their spare time, and forget about it when they are busy.

Perhaps it is precisely because of their weakness that the village officials dare to push forward.

"All right!"

After shouting loudly, the last household in Dahe Village also paid the land tax, and the village official tapped his abacus and shouted loudly on purpose:

"Dahe Village, this year has 730 households, 750 five people, [-] mu of land, and a total of [-] shi of grain."

The village official stopped calling here on purpose, but he didn't read out the fire consumption "seven stones, five buckets and seven catties" on the back of the ledger.

Huoshao is usually produced on the road, but now that the grain is harvested, there will be Huoshao. Everyone knows that they must be corrupt.

In fact, the more than 700 shi of land tax and grain were transported to the town, and at most they were wasted on the fodder for the one or two carriages and horses.

The village officials have nothing to do, one person is watching the imperial store, and the other person is free to go to the mountains to mow grass. If you cut more every day, the basic horse fodder is enough.

However, they will not report to their superiors, but will use the excuse of renting a carriage and buying fodder.

As for the carriage, it was actually collected from common people's homes for free, not even a catty of rice and wheat.

Although it will make the people above feel that there is so much fire consumption for a hundred miles away, the officials of the Yuma Supervisor who collect grain in the town will report the fire consumption later.

To put it bluntly, under the protection of officials and officials, no one will take the initiative to impeach them, unless they meet officials like Yang Lian, Jin Xuan, and Cheng De.

But in general, people who become officials through Enke, as long as they don't make mistakes, can be promoted to one level every three years, so even if they steal, they won't go too far.

With a head, they still have to measure after all, but if the ascending channel is gone, then many people will be free to embezzle as much as they can.

The two village officials nodded after finishing the work of the imperial horse inspector Tian Fu.

After one person closed the file, he took out a new file, while the other yelled:

"This year, the Royal Horse Supervisor in Liaodong collects grain for 410 yuan a stone. If anyone sells grain, hurry up and sell grain at this time."

"Didn't there be 420 papers last year? Why is there only [-] papers this year?" Some farmers hid in the crowd and asked, squatting down quickly after asking.

"Last year, there was no import of foreign grain. This year, Yingzhou transported 600 million shi of grain to Liaodong. Naturally, the price of Liaodong's grain will be cheaper!"

Perhaps the village official was used to seeing this kind of person, so he didn't care about it, but continued to yell:
"If no one is there, then Village Officer Han and I will close the stall and go back to the shop!"

"Yes, yes!" After all, they are farmers, and there are too many people. Even though most of them can wait and see, a small number of people can't stand the scare, and immediately raised their hands and shouted to sell grain.

The few old farmers who walked out were also very helpless. There was no oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar at home, and it was really impossible not to sell grain.

"My house sells four stones!"

"Sishi? Li Mangui, are you crazy? Are the eight members of your family not eating?"

When a thin old farmer raised his hand and called out the amount of grain sold, some people immediately stopped him.

Although Zhu Youjian divided the fields so that most of the people who moved into Liaodong could live a life full of food, in fact, each of them could only sell two or three buckets of rice when they were satisfied with food and clothing.

For a family like Li Mangui, who has eight members and only 25 mu of land, it is exaggerated to sell at most two shimi at most, but selling four shimi means that the family will be hungry for a few days this year.

"I can't help it if I don't sell it, right? This baby has to eat oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, and Russia has to teach her to read, right..."

Old man Li was also helpless, and what he said made village officials Han and Ma village a little embarrassed.

After all, the two have passed the Enke, and they still know some basic subjects. In addition, the villagers only need to learn arithmetic and literacy, so they charge the villagers one tael of silver every year as tuition fees.

Of course, this is only tuition fees, and the villagers have to pay for other paper, pen, ink, ink and books, which is another three or four hundred wen.

One, two, three, four hundred wen, for this group of farmers facing the loess and their backs to the sky, it is not a small expense while filling their stomachs.

This is the result of Zhu Youjian's allocation of land to them. If they wanted their children to read and write, they would have to borrow money from rich peasants and gentry in the village.

This money is often returned nine out of ten, and it takes more than ten years for a family to pay it off.

Right now they are very satisfied with their current life, not because they don't have to worry about food and clothing, but because they can at least have enough to eat compared to being squeezed out of breath before.

Just three simple words are already their greatest wish.

According to old man Li, if each of the eight members of the family eats less than four taels of rice every day, the four stones of rice will be saved.

"Four stones of rice, one, two, six, eight cents..."

After calculating the account with embarrassment, the Han village official took out a piece of silver the size of a fingernail from the drawer of the table and weighed it, then took out a hanging copper coin, counted 32 Wen from it, and put the silver with the hanging coin. The copper coins were distributed to Old Man Li.

As soon as Old Man Li got it, he pushed the money back in embarrassment:
"Master Han, please help the old man exchange these silvers for two catties of oil, three catties of salt, one catty of sauce, and one catty of vinegar. The rest is tuition fees, books, paper pens and inkstones."

The money went around and around, but finally it was left on the table, and the village official Han could only take out the one or two tuition fees that belonged to himself and the village official Ma, and bought the remaining 680 Wen for Old Man Li.

Seeing that the things were sold, old man Li also turned around and took his wife carrying bags of rice into the official bucket, back and forth four times.

"It's alright..."

Village official Han confirmed that he had four stones of rice, and after nodding, he signaled Old Man Li to pack the rice.

Seeing this, old man Li had no choice but to put the rice back, and then moved four stones of rice into the granary of the village official's office. Finally, he brought the few catties of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, two textbooks, a bag of paper, pens and inkstones. left the crowd.

Walking to the edge of the valley, he put his own rice on the donkey cart, and drove the donkey cart away from the valley.

His back is a bit hunched, which makes people sigh, and even the village officials Han and Ma village have a little conscience.

It can be seen from the fact that the two would rather cheat the court than the people in the land tax, although the two are greedy for money, they still have a bottom line, and it is normal to have a bad conscience.

But then, several other families sold their rice and did the same thing as Old Man Li.

Selling grain, paying school fees, buying oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, paper, pen and ink, and finally, like old man Li, he left the grain farm with grain and donkey carts.

Looking at their backs, some people also thought of the growing children in their own families, and they couldn't help but feel the pressure.

Looking at them, village official Ma shook his head and said:
"Recently, the imperial court has resumed..."

The village official Ma told the story of the resumption of the relocation of grain by the imperial court, and promised that the imperial court will wipe out Jianlu next year, so that the people should not worry, if anyone is willing to move north, he can go with the army.

It's just that his words didn't move anyone, because as long as Jianlu is still there, no one is willing to go north to farm.

Looking at their appearance, the two village officials felt a little helpless, and finally collected all the land taxes in the village before dusk, and rushed to Liaohe Town early the next morning.

These two village officials are already conscientious village officials. They neither passed on the money they wanted to embezzle to the people, nor did they choose to eat at both ends of the court and the people.

Compared with them, the village officials who choose to squeeze the people and eat at both ends are the most, and their end is often the worst...

"cut!"

"don't want--"

In the square of Heshan Town, Yanshan County, when the sound of beheading was heard, more than a dozen village officials who oppressed the people and ate at both ends were ordered to be beheaded.

Dou Da's head fell to the ground, and countless people around him clapped their hands and applauded.

At the farthest point of the crowd, a group of men riding tall Hequ horses also said: "Are you satisfied, kid? Now hurry back to Beijing."

"Hmm..." Li Dingguo's voice sounded. He watched those corrupt officials who exploited the common people fall, and at the same time, he felt a bit of joy in his heart, and at the same time, he also felt the pleasure of using power.

The dozen or so village officials were all corrupt officials he had heard from his parents, and what he did was very simple.

He wrote a letter to Cao Huachun, and this letter killed more than a dozen village officials in just three days.

"drive……"

Seeing a group of corrupt officials being beheaded with his own eyes, although Li Dingguo felt happy in his heart, he also knew that the killing of corrupt officials would never end.

Maybe the next batch of village officials who come to Heshan Town will still be corrupt, but I don't know if he will choose to kill people then.

"It's a pity that I didn't see His Highness this time..."

Li Dingguo was riding on the horse, and spoke with a trace of regret, but the chief banner officer next to him sighed and said: "Don't talk about you boy, even we couldn't see it."

"You haven't been able to see it?" Li Dingguo was a little surprised, after all, the four cavalry guards are the direct descendants of Qi Wangfu.

"Your Highness seems to be in a bad mood. I heard that people with less than a thousand households are not allowed to enter the Changchun Palace."

The Chief Banner Officer said as he said, "When we returned to Dading Palace, we were stationed for half a month and we couldn't see His Highness and Long Live going out for a hunting trip."

"I don't know if something major happened. I feel that His Highness and that person are not in a good mood."

The Chief Banner Officer was a little bit embarrassed after speaking, Li Dingguo looked at him, frowned slightly, opened his mouth to speak but stopped, but finally said nothing.

All the way in silence, Li Dingguo rode his horse south with the crowd, but in the imperial palace of the capital, it was rare to usher in a day of leisure.

After four and a half months of selection, King Qi's five concubines and thirty concubines were basically selected clearly.

In one month, the female officials of Chuxiu Palace selected a total of 300 women based on the temperament, style, wisdom, ignorance and virtuousness of the hundreds of beautiful women who entered the palace.

Afterwards, Hakka took the female officials from the Palace of Compassion and Peace and Palace of Kunning to face five hundred beautiful women and screen out 100 more by probing their breasts, sniffing their armpits, and touching their skin texture.

The 100 people who were lucky enough to pass the test, under the attention of Zhang Yan and Liu Taifei, combined with Zhu Youjian's preferences, selected 50 people who were "beautiful and intelligent" as candidate concubines.

When they arrived here, Zhang Yan and Concubine Liu began to summon the fifty beautiful girls one by one.

From the first day of August to the present, all the beautiful women with lower appearances have been questioned, and the rest are Zhou Sujie, Tian Xiuying, Chen Xiangjun, Li Shaoxi, and Yuan Xipin who were selected from the beginning and have not yet been inspected.

"You go down..."

"The girl resigns..."

In the Kunning Palace, as Zhang Yan gestured to a beautiful girl, the beautiful girl got up according to court etiquette, and then retreated.

After she left, Concubine Liu, who was sitting next to Zhang Yan, said:
"This can be regarded as a better female family member selected by the nobles. You can keep her and give him the position of the two noble concubines, and give the other to Li Shaoxi from North Korea."

Concubine Liu is very considerate. Compared with the nearly one hundred women who have been selected for this national honorary election, if the nobles don't even have a seat among the five concubines of King Qi, it would hurt them too much.

Besides, the beautiful girl just now was born beautiful, so she is very suitable to be a noble concubine.

But although her words were good, Zhang Yan was a little worried and said:
"Although I said that, if the daughter of Xuancheng Bowei Shichun was chosen, wouldn't it be a bit bad..."

Zhang Yan was afraid that Wei Shichun's daughter would use her father to suppress Princess Qi, but Princess Liu comforted her and said:

"You saw Wei Pingyang's temperament just now, she is a bit weak, and there is no one in Xuanchengbo's mansion currently holding military or official positions, so she will never do anything about the cholera mansion."

"That's true..." Zhang Yan nodded after thinking about the appearance of Wei Pingyang who showed his face just now.

But even though she nodded, she still had a headache and said:
"Although Wei Pingyang is weak, there are only five concubines, and the other five..."

As soon as Zhang Yan said it, Concubine Liu understood what she meant.

To put it bluntly, many things in the inner court could not be hidden. For example, the news that Zhang Yan and she wanted to choose Zhou Sujie and the other five would probably have already spread throughout the capital.

If they didn't choose the five girls, no one would dare to marry the girl who was not selected.

This is the woman who almost became King Qi's woman. Who knows if King Qi will be careful in the future...

Marrying a good girl will enrich the family, but marrying a bad girl will make the family restless.

Therefore, if the palace does not choose these five women, it will appear that the court is a bit wicked.

"It is possible to expand the five concubines to six concubines. Anyway, it is not without precedent."

Concubine Liu's words were surprising, but Zhang Yan felt that this was the best way.

If the nobles knew that the two of them chose Wei Pingyang and chose another concubine, then they would not talk too much, and the civil servants did not dare to care about King Qi's affairs, so they would not talk too much.

So as long as Xungui doesn't talk too much, things will be much easier.

"Then arrange the six people according to the position of one official, two nobles and three flat concubines?" Zhang Yan asked back, Concubine Liu nodded slightly.

Between the words of the two, the fifth concubine of Qi Wang has become the sixth concubine of Qi Wang, and the positions of the two noble concubines have been determined, and now only the position of the main concubine has been lost.

"Among the concubines of Sanping, I prefer Zhou Sujie."

Concubine Liu's aesthetics remained the same as in history, she still chose Zhou Sujie, and Zhang Yan also frowned and said the bad things like in history:
"Zhou Sujie's father, I sent someone to inquire. He seems to be a man who sells land to support noble girls, sets up a fortune-telling stall, and cheats."

"If such a person becomes His Highness King Qi's father-in-law, I'm afraid he will use His Highness's reputation to do some illegal things."

"Tian Hongyu, Tian Xiuying's father, was the General Manager of Yangzhou before His Royal Highness abolished the guards. He also wanted to recommend Tian Xiuying to the Yangzhou gentry, and Tian Xiuying was a rare commodity."

"Such a person is not qualified to be His Highness's father-in-law. Besides, Zhou Sujie and Tian Xiuying have different temperaments. Whoever becomes Princess Qi will not be able to tolerate the other."

"Also..." Zhang Yan paused, and then said with some concern:
"Tian Xiuying's uncle is Wu Aheng, who aided the Liao Dynasty. If she is chosen, the King of Qi will be unhappy..."

Zhu Youjian had explained to the inner court early on that a concubine should not be too rich, and Tian Xiuying obviously did not meet this requirement, so Zhang Yan never thought of including her as a candidate for concubine.

"..." Concubine Liu fell silent when she heard Zhang Yan's words, and Zhang Yan continued:

"On the other hand, Concubine Yuan Xi has lived among the other five concubines for the past month, and has enjoyed conversations with the five concubines. In addition, she has never been jealous of anyone, and her father, Yuan You, also served as a guard for the Hexi camp, and has a good character. , the family style is clean and honest."

"It's better to choose her as the concubine than Zhou Sujie and Tian Xiuying..."

"That's true..." After hearing Zhang Yan's words, even Concubine Liu couldn't help but nodded.

Not to mention that Yuan Xibing's father was a battalion garrison in Hexi, and he knew the hardships of the people and the suffering of the people under the military disaster. Just talking about his family style, he has already surpassed Zhou Sujie and Tian Xiuying in Zhang Yan's mouth.

"What about Mr. Chen Xiang?" Concubine Liu couldn't help asking, after all, Mr. Chen Xiang looked as good as the first two daughters.

"Chen Xiangjun's family is too rich..." Zhang Yan shook her head:
"This girl is too young, her waist is too narrow, she might be suspected of giving birth..."

Zhang Yan was not wrong this time. Although Chen Xiangjun was the No.1 in the draft after Chongzhen succeeded to the throne in history, he was indeed too young to cause dystocia and died in history.

"Since this is the case, I think we can tentatively designate Yuan Xipin as the princess, Wei Pingyang and Li Shaoxi as noble concubines, and Tian Xiuying, Shen Xiangjun, and Zhou Sujie as concubines."

After listening to Zhang Yan's words, Concubine Liu also had an idea in her heart, and no longer wanted to promote Zhou Sujie.

After the two simply decided that the six girls would be the six concubines, they began to have a headache about Zhu Youjian's marriage.

According to the "Daming Huidian" set by Zhu Yuanzhang's etiquette, it is recorded: "The prince's betrothal gift is only 50 taels of gold and [-] taels of pearls."

This was definitely not bad in the early Ming Dynasty, but more than 260 years have passed since that era.

If Zhang Yan and Concubine Liu really hold Zhu Youjian's wedding according to this etiquette, they may be drowned by the saliva of the ruling and opposition parties.

"Why don't we follow the wedding rules of King Lu?" After all, Concubine Liu has experienced the era of the two brothers, Emperor Wanli and King Lu.

Although it was said that Wanli spoiled King Lu too much because of Queen Mother Li, in fact, even without Queen Mother Li, he himself spoiled King Lu quite a lot.

To prepare for King Lu's wedding that year, the court used nearly 4000 taels of gold of various colors, nearly 10 blue rubies, [-] taels of silver, and nearly [-] coral pearls.

Due to the extravagant expenses, the Ministry of Households couldn't stand it, and reminded Emperor Wanli with the etiquette "Da Ming Hui Dian" that the cost of King Lu's wedding exceeded the standard.

But even so, Emperor Wanli didn't stop, but embezzled a full 90 yuan in military pay from both sides to organize King Lu's wedding.

Of course, Emperor Wanli's move is not desirable, but it is enough to show his favor to King Lu.

"There are still more than 230 million taels of internal funds, and 130 million can be used to hold a wedding for His Royal Highness Qi Wang."

Although Zhang Yan is always worried about the relationship between the two brothers Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youjian, and also worried about Zhu Youjian's threat to his son Zhu Ciran, but generally he admires Zhu Youjian very much, even a little adoring.

Zhu Youjian's behavior, no matter in ancient times or modern times, can be regarded as a "sage". Except for some exaggerations in diet and travel, everything else is worthy of the word "sage".

While asking Zhu Youxiao not to misappropriate the Yuma Jianyin and the treasury silver, Zhu Youjian took the lead in cutting off all money and food exchanges with the Yumajian and the treasury.

With the blessings of his various positions and titles such as General Xiaoqi, Commander-in-Chief of the Five Armies, King Qi, You Guozhu, Special Jin Guanglu Doctor, and Commander-in-Chief, his annual salary is tens of thousands of taels.

In Zhu Youjian's view, if he only maintains the expenses of the palace, then one-tenth of the money is more than enough, so he never embezzles money and food from the Imperial Horse Supervisor and the national treasury.

This kind of behavior is unbelievable in the late Ming Dynasty, when the princes and emperors in Beijing embezzled the treasury at will.

Although Zhu Youxiao is also doing this, it is probably under the supervision of Zhu Youjian. If Zhu Youxiao is the only one, then he may still spend a lot of money building palaces.

Therefore, Zhang Yan is more grateful to her fifth uncle many times, and it is not too much to spend 130 million taels of silver to hold a wedding for this fifth uncle.

Even Concubine Liu didn't think it was too much after hearing her words, but nodded slightly:

"The money goes to the internal funds, and the household department can't say anything."

Concubine Liu's approval strengthened Zhang Yan's mind, so she stood up and said:

"In that case, then I will pass the memorial to Wansui, and after Wansui agrees, I can order Wang An to purchase it."

"The meeting between Zhou Sujie, Tian Xiuying and the other five girls will bother the concubine."

"Go, go..." Concubine Liu smiled and motioned her to leave, and Zhang Yan also saluted respectfully, and then walked out of Kunning Palace...

(End of this chapter)