Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 98
Zhuge Xuan's funeral started to be arranged that night, and the funeral and funeral were officially announced before dawn the next day.

The so-called small mortuary is to dress and change the bedding for the dead.

Funerals in the Han Dynasty had a complete set of procedures, including more than a dozen steps such as body purification, incense burning, mourning, lingering, vigil, funeral, funeral, and burial.

In modern times, these procedures have been simplified a lot. Generally, funerals are only held for three to seven days, but in ancient times, the procedures would be very cumbersome.

Ordinary people's homes may not be that complicated, but from poor families to nobles to officials, princes, and nobles, the higher the status, the more troublesome the funeral process and the longer the processing time.

In history, the funeral of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty was held for almost two months. In the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the lack of roads, Emperor Zhou might even have to stop for a year after his death, waiting for princes from all over the country to come from thousands of miles away. Condolences.

Although Zhuge's family is not a big family, there are two thousand stones like Sili Xiaowei in the ancestors. It is slightly better than the humble and powerful. It is considered a low-level family, so the funeral process of the main family will be a little more cumbersome.

It's just that I didn't expect that there would be a little problem just after the first day of the funeral.

Before dawn the next day, Zhuge Liang, who had not rested all night, came out of his uncle's room. Last night, his uncle's friends had already left, and only Shen Chen was still with him.

Zhuge Liang went to wash up first, and when he came out from the backyard, he saw Shen Chen standing behind him at some point.

"Brother."

"Brother."

Shen Chen looked at him worriedly and said: "I haven't slept all night, and today I have to stop the coffin to report the funeral. You have to pay attention to your health, at least get some sleep."

Zhuge Liang forced himself to wave his hands and said, "It's okay, my uncle died of illness, I wanted to sleep but couldn't sleep last night."

"Ah."

Shen Chen nodded and said: "After my clan moved to Nanyang, I have held a large number of funerals for dozens of people who died in the family. I am quite experienced. If you want to rest for a while, let me help you."

"it is good."

Zhuge Liang forced a smile on his face: "Then just wait for me to receive guests when I'm tired."

"clear."

The two walked back to the room while talking.

There is a child squatting outside the door, drowsy and guarding the door.

Zhuge Liang woke him up and asked him to call some strong male servants at home.

The funeral process is strictly regulated, and the old story must be the same as the previous day, that is, the deceased must lie on his bed as he was alive and let him rest for the last night.

This custom is called "mourning", and then the "small funeral" will start in the early morning of the next day, that is, to scrub the body of the deceased and put on the funeral clothes.

After a while, six young male servants came to the room, one of them was still yawning, with a rather impatient look on his face.

Zhuge Liang ordered: "You carry uncle to the backyard hall, make a plate of hot water, scrub uncle's body, and put on new clothes. I wrote some funeral letters, and you go to the city in the afternoon, according to the name written on the letter Let’s visit the master’s house one by one, understand?”

"only."

Several servants responded one after another.

But when the yawning servant heard that he was going to wash Zhuge Xuan's body and go to Xiangyang to report the funeral, he immediately became unhappy and said, "Dalang, can I not do it?"

"Ok?"

Zhuge Liang glanced at him dignifiedly, and asked in surprise, "Are you sick?"

The servant shook his head and said, "No, it's just that when the doctor bought a meal, the contract only stated that he would look after the house, and there was no agreement to scrub the doctor's body and go to the city to send funerals."

Hearing these words, Shen Chen and Zhuge Liang looked at each other, and their brows frowned at the same time.

Met a lazy slave.

The Qin and Han Dynasties basically abolished slavery and moved towards a feudal society.But this does not mean that slaves no longer exist at all. At least until the Qing Dynasty, slaves were a symbol of the property of ancient dignitaries.

At the end of the Han Dynasty, a certain amount of slave culture was naturally retained. There were countless slaves of the Yuan family from the fourth generation and the third lord. If the top wealthy families did not have thousands of slaves, they would be ashamed to go out.It is not uncommon for ordinary aristocratic families to have hundreds or thousands of servants. Even Mi Zhu, a wealthy businessman in Xuzhou, has tens of thousands of servants.

Although Zhuge's family was in decline, Zhuge Liang's father was also a county magistrate, the second in command of Taishan County, and his basic social status and wealth were not low. Therefore, there were dozens of servants in the family, and most of them were male servants. .

Later, Zhuge Jin was in charge of the family. Considering that she was only 15 years old, and her stepmother was alone, and there were too many male servants, she feared that the master and slaves would be criticized, so she sold most of the male servants, leaving only four loyal slaves.

The rest of the remaining servants are mostly boy servants. The male servants can do some manual labor, and the boy servants accompany the two younger brothers to study, serve the lord, and do some simple chores for the master.

When Zhuge Xuan came to Xuzhou to pick up Zhuge Liang and the others, Zhuge Jin separated and went to Jiangdong, taking the four adult male servants with him.

After arriving in Jingzhou, Zhuge Xuan hired a large number of local villagers for construction, and at the same time bought six male servants for the family to start over. Manage these things.

In ancient times, large families preferred to raise servants from a young age, so that their loyalty would be much higher, so they were called domestic slaves.

And the newly bought servant is not loyal enough, he is too easy to be spoiled and proud of him, and he may abandon his home and run away if he is not good.Therefore, during the Han Dynasty, especially at the end of the Western Han Dynasty and the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were many disputes between masters and slaves.

The original male slaves of the Zhuge family were all taken away by Zhuge Jin, and most of the current slaves are children in their teens, seven or eight years old. Only the six newly bought servants are young and strong, so they need to contribute.

It turned out that one of the servants was actually a lazy slave.

Previously, these male servants were managing Zhugexuan’s properties outside, while the inner house was mainly taken care of by Zhuge’s family’s servants. These male servants would only be called over when heavy physical work was required, so although Zhuge Liang knew about these male servants, But the relationship is not very close.

In the past, Zhuge Xuan was an official under Liu Biao all the year round. He went to work every day, left early and returned late, and had no time to manage these servants. As a result, after his death, there was a lazy dog ​​servant who wanted to shirk his duties and contradict the master. Family.

Although such things are actually very common, when the northern princes are fighting for hegemony, due to the collapse of government order, thieves and thieves, and the ruined legal system, even if the servants of the big families escape, there are few people who can control them.

Especially during the turbulent period of the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Dong Zhuo Rebellion, the conflict between master and slave broke out very intensely.

Occasionally, the old master died of illness, the new master was too young, the master was weak and the slave was strong, and the house slaves took over the property of the master's house. Even during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, there were many slaves who devoured the master and joined the rebel army to kill own home.

But this is Jingzhou.

Liu Biao's rule was fairly stable, the rule of law was strict, and the government had sufficient control.

If this servant named Ding thought that after Zhuge Xuan's death, Zhuge Liang, a ten-year-old child, would not be able to run the family, and he could bully the young master, then he was very wrong.

After hearing Ding Le's words, Zhuge Liang thought for a while, then turned to look at Shen Chen and asked, "Brother, are you short of servants?"

Shen Chen immediately understood, and said to the little boy outside the door: "Anu, go and call Shen Qi and Deng Pi in."

"only."

Anu bounced and ran outside.

Shen Qi and Deng Pi were not his servants, but distant relatives of Deng and Chen's second family, two bodyguards who specially protected Shen Chen.

Ding Liao was puzzled and asked, "Is Da Lang going to sell Ding?"

Zhuge Liang was too lazy to talk to him.

After a while, Shen Qi and Deng Pi came in and asked, "Xiao Lang, what are you calling us for?"

"Hold him down."

Shen Chen pointed at Na Ding and said.

Shen Qi Deng Pi was burly and powerful, upon hearing Shen Chen's words, he immediately rushed towards Ding Liao fiercely and knocked him down.

The other servants around did not dare to make a sound.

After all, treacherous and cunning slaves are a minority, while honest people are still in the majority.

Ding Leo immediately shouted: "Da Lang, what did Ding Leo do wrong, why did he arrest me?"

Zhuge Liang ignored him, but said to Anu: "Anu, go and get Ding's coupon."

The bond contract is the so-called master-servant contract, and it can also be called a slave contract. This contract can prove the master-servant relationship, and there are some relevant regulations in it.

For example, clarify some responsibilities of servants.

It's just that because of the limited space, the specific content will be more general. For example, Ding Liao's contract only stipulates that he should be housekeeper. There is really no requirement to scrub the body of the dead master.

But the problem is that the reason why the bond agreement is not written in detail is that it is inconvenient to record. The social rules at that time were that the master's order and servants must obey, even if it is not written in the bond agreement, they must abide by it. Therefore, Ding Liao actually wanted to exploit the law. Loopholes are lazy.

Soon Anu brought Ding Leo's contract, which was a roll of bamboo slips, and there was a copy of this bamboo slip in the local government, so he was not afraid of being stolen.

Moreover, the master can use this bamboo slip to trade with others privately, and only needs to report to the government after the transaction is completed. Therefore, the bond contract is very important for the servant, commonly known as the contract of sale.

Zhuge Liang took the bamboo slips from Anu, glanced at the content, and said to Shen Chen: "Brother, take a look."

Shen Chen took it over and took a look. It was a very formal contract. Back then Zhuge Xuan bought Ding Liao for [-] baht. : "Does it mean that if you want to use you, you must get a coupon; if you don't write it into the coupon, you will do nothing?"

"Of course, the voucher must be used as proof."

Ding Liao bit the sentence to death.

Generally speaking, if the master's family is powerful, the slave will not be so lazy, because even if the slave is killed, the master's family will only pay some money, and there is no need to die.

The problem is that there are idiots everywhere, and there are countless stupid servants like Ding Liao in the historical records of the Han Dynasty.

Coupled with the fact that Zhuge Xuan had just died, Ding Liao felt that the new owner was too young to be bullied, so he wanted to be lazy and strike, but he didn't know that Zhuge Liang had just become the head of the family and was about to manage the family and establish his own dignity, so he hit the pole. On the other hand, if you find yourself dead, you have no one to blame.

The two looked at each other, and Shen Chen smiled and said: "In that case, I will read it first: On March [-]th of the second year of Jian'an, Shen Chen, a man from Xinye, went to the house when he bought his dead uncle from Zhuge Liang, a man from Longzhong, Xiangyang. When a strong slave is born, he will pay [-] yuan. The slave should be entrusted by hundreds of servants, and there must be no two words."

"From March [-]th, I wake up in the morning to sprinkle and sweep, eat and wash. I live in a mortar and broom, cut a bowl and chisel a bucket. Dredged canals and tied them down, and cut down the garden. Du Bibi, carved wood for the frame. Qu Bamboo Make loquats, cut and cure deer. If you finish the above in one day, if you don’t listen to the instructions, you will be punished with a hundred lashes.”

"On March [-]th, weaving the shoes thickly, sticking the sparrows and opening the crows. Weaving nets to catch fish, handing in geese and mallards. Climbing mountains to shoot deer, entering the water to catch tortoises. Raising in the back garden, there are more than a hundred geese and ducks. Chasing owls, holding shoots Herding pigs. Planting ginger, raising taro, raising porpoises and foals. Cleaning up manure and eating horses and cattle. Finish the above in one day. If you don’t listen to the instructions, you will be whipped a hundred.”

"On March [-]th, the dike was dured, and the mulberry bark and brown were fallen. I planted melons for gourds, and don't eat eggplants and scallions. I burned the chasm to grow the fields, and the ridges were broken. In the middle of the day, the fire was lit early, and the rooster crowed. Households, and three levels. If you finish the above-mentioned work within one day, if you don't listen to the instructions, you will be punished with a hundred lashes."

"March [-]"

Just finished talking about the work that Ding had to do on the third day when he bought it, and before he could say the work on the fourth day, Ding had already knelt down, kowtowed, and shouted: "Xiao Lang, don't talk about it anymore. Any one has to be done in one day, how can ten days' work be done in one day? Xiao Lang is going to kill Ding."

Shen Chen glanced at Zhuge Liang, Zhuge Liang said coldly: "Since that's the case, do you know your mistake?"

Ding Liao slapped himself several times, with tears and snot streaming down his nose, he kowtowed to Zhuge Liang and said, "Ding Liao knew he was wrong, after Ding Liao must listen to Da Lang's words, he really doesn't dare to do evil."

"Then give you ten lashes as a warning to others."

Zhuge Liang looked at the other servants and said, "You pull him down and give him ten lashes, don't neglect, I want to see blood."

All the servants felt sorry for him, knowing that although the new owner was young, he was strict in running the family and could never be bullied, so they dragged Ding out quickly, tied him up in the yard, and beat him ten times in front of Zhuge Liang. , Every whip is extremely heavy, and the whip is bloody.

On the one hand, Shen Chen admired his brother's good methods in his heart, he used both kindness and power, he said he would lash a hundred lashes, but he reduced it to ten lashes, which not only punished the lazy slave, but also did not make the lazy slave feel resentful, the method was clever.

Soon after Ding Liao was dragged back, he knelt down in front of Zhuge Liang, not only did not dare to harbor resentment, but also kept thanking him for his kindness, with snot and tears streaming down his face.

After all, Shen Chen was the one who did the bad guy, and Shen Chen's contract was to kill him completely. If Zhuge Liang really sold him to Shen Chen, he might as well die if he died, so he seemed to have come from hell. Even if he was beaten ten times, he was grateful to Zhuge Liang for saving his life.

Zhuge Liang asked him to do things immediately, Ding waited for the servants, so they didn't dare to neglect, and quickly followed his instructions. Since then, Zhuge Liang has frightened all the servants and rectified the family style on the first day he was in charge of the house.

　Going home today, may be later

　　
　
(End of this chapter)