national surname chiming

Chapter 47 After I finished speaking, who is in favor and who is against
The Hungry Ghost Festival on July [-]th is coming soon.

In the county government office of Qixian County, Shen Shuren set up dozens of tables of simple banquets for county officials and prominent gentry.

Everyone knows that Mr. Tongzhi is going to talk about military ration distribution and tax reduction and exemption today.

Fortunately, those gentry have united around Yuan Zhongyi, who has a backer, and have figured out how to argue with the government and engage in "non-violent non-cooperation".

In the evening, Yuan Zhongyi and dozens of gentry arrived at the county government office on time.

"Zhao's parents, Jiangzhi County, don't come here without any problems. You two are really hardworking and caring for the people. I heard that Shen Tongzhi, the newcomer, is young, so he must worry about you."

As soon as he saw Zhao Yunfan and Jiangcheng, the county magistrates, Yuan Zhongyi didn't see him, and immediately made friends with them.

His distant uncle was the former Daotai, a member of the fourth rank, and he defeated Ma Shouying in Huangzhou.Although he has been transferred away, Yu Wei is still there.As the spokesperson of the Yuan family in Jiangxi, he didn't have to be cautious in front of the magistrates at all.

When Jiang Cheng saw this, he was a little submissive for a while, and seemed to recall the days when he was suppressed by Yuan Daotai.

Zhao Yunfan, on the other hand, obviously had more backbone, straightened his waist and said with a straight face: "Mr. Yuan, don't bully Shen Tongzhi as a young man, he is a solid top-ranked Jinshi, and he is really capable of governing, otherwise he would not be exceptionally reused by the officials.

For today's matter, please restrain all the families and put the overall situation first. I will try my best to help you deal with it, and I will take care of both of you. "

When Yuan Zhongyi heard this, he felt somewhat displeased.

But Zhao Yunfan has a good official reputation and is cautious in doing things. When Yuan Jixian was serving as a soldier in Hubei, Zhao Yunfan had a lot of hard work helping to raise logistics, so Yuan Zhongyi didn't care about him for the time being.

"It seems that Shen Shuren has some skills. He convinced Zhao Yunfan so quickly, but he can't be overwhelmed for a while. I only heard that Shen Shuren is young and has money in his family. He should be an official who throws money out of others." Yuan said. Zhongyi thought to himself.

The guests arrived almost soon, and Shen Shuren also appeared just in time, and all the officials and gentry hurriedly greeted him.

Shen Shuren said a few words on the occasion, and then announced the opening of the banquet.

Everyone was anxious, and they always hoped that Master Tongzhi would clarify the price first, so that they could eat and drink with peace of mind.But Shen Shuren insisted not to say anything, and they had no choice but to resign themselves to it.

However, Yuan Zhongyi and others soon noticed the abnormality.

Tonight's banquet looks very plain, and the drink is very thin and turbid wine, which is almost fermented glutinous rice.

The dishes are also mainly vegetables. The local lotus root and taro have been prepared in three or five different ways. The only meat dishes are only one chicken and one fish.

The number of chickens is relatively small, only one chicken per table.There are more fish, there can be several on one table, and I still cook several flavors in different ways.

In fact, in the year of the catastrophe, this is not bad, but it is quite different from the lifestyle of those high-ranking blood-sucking gentry.In the past, when other officials wanted to apportion, they would be better off.

"What kind of medicine is sold in this gourd? Could it be that we are pretending to be poor and crying poorly, forcing us to donate more and collect less rent? Well, let's pretend to be poor too, pretending that we can't even eat these chickens and fish at home!"

All the gentry headed by Yuan Zhongyi thought so, so they pretended to grab the chicken ribs and ate them deliciously, and carefully picked up the fish meat with chopsticks to taste it carefully.

In fact, they also want to pretend to eat fish and gobble it up, but they are afraid of being stabbed to death by fishbone, so they have to give up the next best thing.

"This chicken is so good and dry, and it doesn't have any chewiness. It's like eating bean dregs. How can there be such a chicken in the world?"

After Yuan Zhongyi took a bite of chicken ribs, his expression collapsed involuntarily.His family has never eaten such a stupid and fiberless chicken. It is unexpected, and it will naturally show its flaws.

Most of the other gentry are also like this. They all showed unpalatable expressions after eating, and then realized that they should pretend to be delicious and poor.

Fearing that they would reveal their flaws, they secretly raised their heads to observe Shen Shuren after tasting it.However, Shen Shuren also shared joys and sorrows with the people, and he also ate this kind of chicken and fish, and did not specialize.Moreover, when Shen Shuren ate this kind of chicken, his expression was very calm, with only a hint of relief, and he didn't seem to dislike meat at all.

"This Shen Shuren has superficial skills. I heard that he is the home of the richest man in Suzhou. He can even eat such a rotten chicken without changing his face." The impression of the gentry on him also changed slightly.

However, although the chicken was unpalatable, everyone soon discovered another advantage of this strange chicken—the meat on the chicken ribs was really thick.

Everyone hurriedly pretended to be poor in a remedial manner, and praised one after another:

"In ancient times, Yang Dezu said that chicken ribs are 'tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw them away'. These words are outdated today. The breast meat on the chicken ribs is really thick enough. How much meat does this chicken have?"

"If it weren't for Mr. Tongzhi, we would never have seen this kind of delicious meat in our life!"

As they ate and ate, everyone seemed to be trying to make up for the unpalatable expressions they showed when they ate the Indian chicken at the beginning, and the appearance of eating became more and more ugly.

After the chickens were finished eating, they began to eat fish one after another, pretending to gobble them up.

At the beginning, everyone was afraid of being caught by the fishbone, and they were cautious when acting, but after eating a few more bites, they soon discovered that the meat of this fish was thick, and there were only big spines on the ribs, unlike other crucian carp that had small spines.

As a result, everyone's acting skills were even more exaggerated, and they ate up all the tilapia on the table in a short while, and there was no fish soup left.The taste of tilapia is also really good, unlike the Indian chicken just now, it has only a portion and no taste.

Shen Shuren waited until everyone had finished eating quietly before starting to talk about business.

He first laughed, and said insinuatingly: "Everyone, you are all decent people who are ranked high in the counties of Huangzhou, and I have known for a long time that you have rich clothes and good food.

However, in the year of the catastrophe, even His Majesty saved money in the capital to let all the civil and military people tide over the difficulties, and I had to treat guests with these high-yield chickens and fish.

I also saw it just now, everyone was embarrassed when they ate this new chicken, but I would like to tell you a piece of news: the meat yield of this kind of chicken is [-]% higher than that of native chicken, the growth period is much shorter, and it can also be scattered keep.Ordinary sharecroppers raise three or five chickens, and don't have to worry about feed. It is enough for the chickens to find worms by themselves.

As for this kind of fish, everyone knows that its meat is delicious, thick with few thorns, and it takes only five months to grow into a fish roe.

These are the good breeds that I entrusted by the official to the general army of Zheng He in Haiphong, Fujian, and traded with overseas Hongyi merchants.These fish can adapt to brackish water, but they cannot fully survive in the sea for a long time.

It was a long way to get it back, but it had to be transported together with the fresh water in Zhubu. The middle way was Tianzhu and Manlajia, and the fresh water was replenished twice, and it took more than half a year. It was hard to come by.

However, today I want to raise military rations for Ping Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng, so I will give you a chance, whoever is more able to respond to the call of the court will give priority to cultivating these good seeds in the future.

In addition, the official also brought Hongyi potatoes and corn that have been introduced in many places in Fujian.I think there are very few people planting in this land of Huguang, so I will help people to the end. "

The "Zhubu" mentioned by Shen Shuren is the "Juba" city in Somalia, East Africa, and the transliteration recorded by Zheng He when he went to the West is still "Zhubu".

Master Tongzhi put forward such generous conditions, and some wealthy gentry who were more active and could understand the benefits of introducing new species were immediately shaken.

If high-yield crops can be grown in advance in the future, and some rents are given up in the past two years, or more military rations are apportioned to the government, it will still be profitable in general.

As for the crops native to Hongyi, although they are available in Fujian, most of these local gentry are unable to organize a fleet to purchase goods in Fujian. Shen Shuren saved them trouble, why not take a step back and strive for a win-win situation?

All of a sudden, many squires began to ask for prices, wanting to test Shen Shuren's request: "I don't know how to cooperate, my lord."

Shen Shuren was not polite, and finally tried to meet him.He held out two fingers:
"I don't want too much. Now that Huangzhou is still in the war zone where the bandits are fighting, the imperial court doesn't need Huangzhou to pay taxes. I only collect four buckets of military rations per acre of land according to the original national tax and salaries. Yu fought with Liu Xiyao and others.

In addition, in the past one and a half months, I have organized the Xinfu refugees to resume reclamation, and replanted the fields that had been abandoned due to the escape of the gentry.The specific number of such lands has been registered.I hope you can claim it, and you are not allowed to collect rent from farmers for two years on any registered land. These farmers only bear the government's military rations!

In addition, war requires not only food, but also military resources, gunpowder, and steel.In addition to paying food, those who are willing to apportion these military funds, the official will give them priority to chicken, fish, and good quality potatoes. "

His conditions are finished, and the rest depends on who supports and who opposes.

Some gentry from Qizhou, Qishui and other counties whispered after hearing the conditions, and soon a group of gentry succumbed, and then the squires from Huangmei County also succumbed a little, and they seemed to be defeated and disintegrated one by one.

Seeing that Yuan Zhongyi was in a hurry, he quickly spoke out:

"Master Tongzhi! This is probably against the rules. There is no reason why people cannot come back to collect rent for two years because the head of the family has left and the land is temporarily put on hold! Even according to the "Law of the Ming Dynasty" and the law established by the Ministry of Households for many years, this Can't justify it!
It's not that we don't want to donate these few buckets of grain, it's that once the unscrupulous people occupying the land don't pay the rent for two years, their backs will be hardened in the future. If they want to try to cheat, this kind of thing has happened in ancient times, so we must guard against it nah!
As for apportioning military funds, it is naturally what we should wait for, so don't worry about that! "

Yuan Zhongyi didn't dare to refuse directly and completely, so he finally blocked Shen Shuren's mouth with "willing to apportion". At any rate, they also cooperated with Master Zhi's request.

But in fact, everyone knows that the "gentry apportionment" in the late Ming Dynasty is the same as Chongzhen asking courtiers to donate, and it is enough to give a symbolic amount at the end.

Yuan Zhongyi really didn't want this little food, he was afraid that those poor people would recover and it would be even more difficult to take advantage of the famine to annex the land in the future.Moreover, once the poor gain a firm foothold, they may become a nail household, occupying the land and giving birth to other ideas, which will not be conducive to ruling in the future.

And even if Shen Shuren wanted to rank the promotion of new species according to the amount of apportioned donations, he, Yuan Zhongyi, was not afraid.

Ordinary country gentry who do not have waterway trade channels may have to rely on Shen Shuren to give them eggs, fish, and corn.

But his Yuan family in Jiujiang has a lot of strength in waterway commerce and trade in Jiangxi. Those wealthy merchants at the mouth of Jiujiang Lake have traded in the entire Ganjiang River Basin, and the southernmost commercial area is close to Fujian.

Since Shen Shuren said that he entrusted the Zheng family in Fujian to get these things back, there is no need for Yuan Zhongyi to be blackmailed by Shen Shuren!He can let his inland river merchant fleet use the Ganjiang inland river trade to get Fujian goods!

Maybe it can be sold to other gentry who are unwilling to cooperate with Shen Shuren at that time, so that they can continue to follow Yuan's lead.

Throughout the several state capitals at the junction of Huguang and Jiangxi, no one knows that the Yuan family's fleet has a military background.They can also get what Shen Shuren can get.

Shen Shuren didn't know his inner psychological activities, but after seeing his attitude, he knew that this guy was confident.

He was also really angry, but there was a fake smile on his face:
"I would like to invite everyone to discuss today. We can talk about it. Everyone can speak freely. However, Liu Xiyao is rampant now, which is not as good as in previous years. The imperial court has no money to deploy Jiang Waterproof Division in Huangzhou and Wuchang. This official raises military food and military funds for everyone's safety. , I hope you will do well on your own.”

(End of this chapter)