national surname chiming

Chapter 46 The Families of Loyal Officials Are Not necessarily Bad People

The busy season of farming in summer has passed so smoothly.Time has entered July in a blink of an eye, and the hottest days have passed.

Whether it is the area controlled by the imperial court or the area controlled by the thieves, they all focus on resuming production in peace, otherwise a large number of people will starve to death in winter.

The thieves in the 13th year of Chongzhen have not yet generally shouted the slogan "If the King Chuang comes, he will not pay the food", let alone the Fifth Gezuo Battalion is not considered Li Zicheng's faction.

They all know that food must be grown by the people in the occupied areas. Looting alone cannot feed so many people, and they cannot support war with war.

After more than a month of persuading farmers by Shen Shuren, there are young seedlings everywhere in Qizhou, Huangmei and other places. Lotus roots have sprouted, and taros have also begun to sprout.

Many swamps and wetlands that the locals were too lazy to take care of were also fully utilized under the guidance of the Suhu farmers brought by Shen Shuren.

Especially around Qi County, the lotus ponds and swamps managed by the Shen family directly under the tenant farmers were also put into some Southeast Asian, Indian and even East African fish fry that Shen Shuren had just obtained from Zheng Chenggong a few months ago, plus some foreign chickens and ducks from India. Variety.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the seafaring and commercial routes were already very developed. European colonists had traveled for hundreds of years to the routes from East Africa to India and then to Southeast Asia.

Although the Zheng family didn't travel much, they could find some red barbarians and a lot of money to lead them, and they could go around Southeast Asia and India.So the acquisition of these species is completely logical.

Shen Shuren also pays great attention to the rhythm of project overall planning, and arranges the priority of these breeding work to be lower than that of double grabbing in summer, and arranges them in the off-season after the busy farming season is over.

Breeding animals does not need to consider the seasonal climate like growing crops, and it can be raised all year round, so there is no missed farming time.

The number of these alien species is still very small now. Rao Zheng Chenggong sent nearly ten ships to various places to search for the sunken tree people. In the end, they were brought back alive, and there were only more than a hundred fish of each kind.

Bringing back freshwater fish across continents has always been the most challenging transportation problem in ancient times, because it is necessary to set up an additional airtight cabin in the sea ship to feed in fresh water, and it is necessary to dock every ten days at most to find a port for fresh water.Changes in water quality may also cause many deaths, so they should be removed in time and thrown away.

In short, Zheng Chenggong should have spent a lot of resources in the past half a year. Sometimes a large ship can transport thousands of fish with fresh water, and only two to three hundred fish survived in the end.

Fortunately, these fish will also produce roe on the way, and the roe can be stored for a long time in the cabin water, and some of them can be raised by breeding slowly after returning.

Compared with fish, poultry such as Indian chickens and ducks have a much higher survival rate.Those brought back after several months of sea voyage can still live a good percentage.When Zheng’s businessmen were looking for colonists to purchase, they tried their best to choose hens that could lay eggs, so that some of the eggs laid on the way back could retain their hatching activity.

Because of the scarcity of the number, Shen Shuren did not let the local poor peasants raise them, but first gave all of them to the tenant farmers of the Shen family, and let them raise them carefully——

Of course, even if you die, it is not completely hopeless.At least Zheng Chenggong has a mind. When he asked people to get these varieties back, he had already bred them himself in Fujian.

So even if all Shen Shuren are raised to death, they can go to Fujian to ask for a batch of leftover seeds in a few months.

The tilapia brought back from East Africa and pangasius from Southeast Asia, these fishes that can survive in fresh water and low-salinity brackish water, soon survived tenaciously in the lotus ponds and taro fairs around Qi County.

These two kinds of fish generally grow faster, produce more meat, and have fewer fish bones.It is also the most suitable variety that Shen Shuren can get at present.

Others, such as South Asian dragon fish, although the meat quality is better than pangasius, but they can only be raised in coastal areas, and there is no way to do it in inland fresh water.After Zheng Chenggong got the dragon fish, he mainly raised it in Fujian himself, and the part for Shen Shuren could only be raised in Chongming County along the coast of Suzhou, and Huangzhou could not popularize it.

As for Qingjiang fish, which is native to the Americas, it is temporarily impossible to transport live fish across the Pacific Ocean in fresh water, and neither can the Spaniards.

At the same time, Indian large XIONG chickens with part of the paternal gene of later generations of white feather chickens also began to be raised and bred in the forests of farmers around Qixian County.

(It is a kind of chicken with particularly thick breast meat and high meat production rate. It is close to the white feather chicken in terms of meat structure. But it does not have the rapid growth gene of the later white feather chicken that grows up in six weeks, and it still needs to be raised for several months or even It takes half a year to grow up. At the same time, domestic native chickens need to be raised for a year.)
Seeing these strange-looking chickens, ducks and live fish, local officials and squires were skeptical at first.After a few months, seeing that Shen Tongzhi could really support himself, and that he seemed to be gaining weight really fast, he also began to be convinced.

"My lord's talent in persuading farmers is really no less than that of old Xu Ge and Song Changgeng. My subordinates admire them. They really can do anything." Zhao Yunfan and Jiang Cheng, two county magistrates, visited Shen Shuren's "demonstration farm" in person. Admire from the bottom of my heart.

Shen Shuren didn't put on airs, and expressed his kindness sincerely:
"As a parent, if you can do more things for the people, do as much as possible. This is your duty. You just need to make it clear to the noble gentry below, and work together with the official to tide over the difficulties, and don't stare at those petites. Xiaoli, everyone will be happy in the end.

I happen to have a few old hens from the first batch here, and they can no longer lay eggs.Just a few days later, I will kill and invite the gentry from the three surrounding counties to dinner, and let them know who can cooperate well with the government, and I will give them priority in distributing these good seeds. "

Although patents and biological variety protection do not exist in this era, eventually these high-quality varieties will be spread to the common people free of charge.But now the number is still small, and there is still a big difference between who gets first and who gets last.

If you can plant high-yield crops and breed high-yield poultry and fish one or two years earlier, you will be able to make a profit first. I believe anyone with a discerning eye knows what to do.

……

The day for Shen Shuren to hold the Hongmen Banquet was finally set on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, the Hungry Ghost Festival.

The gentry from all counties in Huangzhou were notified five or six days in advance, and hurried to Qi County to listen to Master Tongzhi's instructions.

Of course, these gentry will not just watch the newcomers do whatever they want to occupy the deserted land of the escaped gentry, or forcefully apportion military rations and donations.On the way to the banquet, everyone naturally formed a group and inquired about each other's news.

On the thirteenth day of the seventh month, the wharf of Huangjiakou Town at the mouth of the Qishui River.

Several teams of ships from Huangmei, Guangji and other counties in the south came to dock at the pier one after another, and many well-dressed and luxurious country gentry disembarked one after another, lingering and resting in the town, but they were not in a hurry to enter Qizhou city.

Qizhou City is on the bank of the Qishui River, about [-] miles upstream from the mouth of the Qishui River into the Yangtze River.Huangqiankou Town is a relatively prosperous trading town nearby, where all rivers and rivers are transshipped.

If it is a normal day, freight merchants will stop at Huangjiakou, waiting for loading and unloading.And tourists usually go directly to Qizhou City, which is only [-] miles away anyway, and it takes a few more steps to get there if you are tired, so there is no need to spend the night in the town.

But today's situation is quite different. Yuan Zhongyi, a gentry who had just rushed over from Jiangxi, took his congren off the boat at Huangjiakou Wharf, and noticed that the inns in the town seemed to be full, and all the passengers were stranded here. , but in no hurry to enter the city.

"It seems that the noble gentry in all counties of Huangzhou are a little undecided, and they don't dare to meet the new colleague directly. Is this a plan to meet here first and unify the rhetoric?"

After all, Yuan Zhongyi is a big non-payer who has been fighting with the government for many years, so he is very experienced in this area.Seeing that the inn in Hekou Town was full, I immediately judged everyone's timidity.

With a sneer, he rode his horse slowly through the town, and before taking a few steps, he was immediately surrounded by acquaintances who appeared one after another from the inns on both sides of the street.

"Mr. Yuan! You've come here. This year, I heard that Shen Tongzhi, the newcomer, will confiscate the estate left by the fleeing gentry and rent it to the left-behind tenant farmers for free. Everyone is counting on you to follow suit on how to deal with this matter!"

"That's right, Mr. Yuan is righteous. If your family hadn't stood up to the magistrate Yan last year, our fields would have been planted for nothing by those mud legs. You have to help us decide. Whatever you say, we will do, everything It's up to you to make up your mind."

It turned out that Mr. Yuan Zhongyi was from the Jiujiang Prefecture of Jiangxi Province on the other side of the river. The local prominent families, in the three state capitals at the junction of Huguang, Jiangxi, and Nanzhili, all had tax-free farm quotas based on their family fame. The combined total area It is definitely beyond the court's law.

Of course, if there were only a few Jinshi and Juren, and the land property and family wealth were abundant, then the Yuan family would not be so favored by the gentry in Huangzhou. His family obviously has other backgrounds.

This Yuan Zhongyi has a distant uncle named Yuan Jixian.

Two years ago, when Xiong Wencan recruited thieves, Yuan Jixian was in charge of the defense of the three prefectures of Xiangyang, De'an, and Huangzhou when he was an official in Hubei.

The big cake drawn by the Ministry of Officials for Shen Shuren was that if he could eliminate Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng, he would be able to turn his Huangzhou Tongzhi into a magistrate, and he would also be awarded the Hubei military preparation.So this position happens to be on Shen Shuren's future upward path, and he is very powerful in the local area.

The current Huanggang county seat of Huangzhou Prefecture was built during Yuan Jixian's term of office. Yuan Jixian also defeated Ma Shouying, the most powerful in the Fifth Gezuo Battalion at that time, in Huanggang.

After Zhang Xianzhong rebelled and Xiong Wencan was imprisoned last year, Yuan Jixian was also implicated in the beginning.

Fortunately, after Yang Sichang took office, he realized that Yuan Jixian was available, so he was transferred to the western front to be in charge of the Yunyang and Xiangyang defense areas, resulting in the emptiness of the two prefectures of De'an and Huangzhou. The newcomer only worked for more than half a year. Yan Zhifu, who was killed by the bandits, took over to sit in Huangzhou.

In the late Ming Dynasty, those imperial examination families in Jiangxi were very powerful, because there were so many Jinshi and Juren from Jiangxi, and they were also very experienced in occupying tax-free land.

This Yuan Zhongyi is not only a gentry after the Jiujiang imperial examination, but also has a distant uncle who just served as a high-ranking official in Huangzhou and De'an two years ago. The local gentry who wants to resist taxes and collect more rents must of course follow his example.

After Yuan Zhongyi saw everyone's statements, he was also determined in his heart, and assured him very coquettishly: "Don't worry, everyone, no matter what the background of this new colleague, he must not be allowed to ruin the court's law and the gentry's dignity.

We don't cheat the imperial court, but the imperial court has allowed us, and we definitely want to get it for every penny!Otherwise, any random foreign official will think that we Jiangxi gentry are easy to bully! "

"Young Master Yuan is mighty!" Seeing the generosity of his words, everyone instantly had their backs.

All of a sudden, all the gentry either helped Yuan Zhongyi lead the horse, or bought him a drink, gave up the best guest room in the town to invite him to stay, and carefully discussed the countermeasures together.

Of course, one thing must be clarified here, what Yuan Zhongyi did was not clear to his distant uncle Yuan Jixian.According to "History of Ming Dynasty", Yuan Jixian was a loyal minister of Ming Dynasty.

At the last time in history, when Zuo Liangyu rebelled, he was sent by the Nanming court to persuade Zuo Liangyu to surrender, but in the end Zuo Liangyu died of illness, his son Zuo Menggeng surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and tied Yuan Jixian to the Qing court. Yuan Jixian did not surrender He was killed by Dorgon.

It can only be said that many ministers with integrity in the late Ming Dynasty had no choice but to be greedy for money. At that time, almost everyone was greedy.According to the salary of the Ming Dynasty, if there is no other legal source of income, it is impossible to support a large family without being greedy.

Zhu Dadian also has integrity, but in the end it is also true that he "grew millions of ink".Yuan Jixian himself has no clear evidence that he is greedy, but those Jiangxi imperial examination families have great fortunes, and their clansmen have all kinds of blessings and coercion to plunder, at least cheating and resisting taxes. They can't control it at all.

(End of this chapter)