Father-in-law Zhu Di, I am so happy to marry the disfigured princess

Chapter 156

After this dispensation is over.

Zhu Ningyun led a few people and followed behind a 12-year-old girl.

I want to find out what's going on in this village.

The little girl in front, tightly holding on to the broken silver that she begged, walked towards the house in a bouncing manner, but she didn't notice that she was being followed.

Along the way, Li Xiao found that the village is really poor, and the houses are very dilapidated.

It seems that it is poorer than the village I stayed in.

After a while, I followed the little girl to a dilapidated house.

The little girl was just about to enter the house when she realized that the person following her was Zhu Ningyun, and she smiled innocently, "My kind sister, why are you following me?"

The little girl was dressed in shabby clothes, with patches all over her clothes, especially her trousers, which looked extremely ill-fitting.

Hearing the movement, a yellow and thin woman came out from the room, looking at Li Xiao and the others vigilantly, "You are..."

The little girl smiled and said, "Mum, these are the kind-hearted people who gave us alms just now."

Hearing this, the old lady immediately thanked: "Thank you to the kind people, kind people will be rewarded."

Zhu Ningyun asked hurriedly, and the old woman stood up.

At the same time, doubts arose in his heart, since the girl hadn't handed over the silver to the old woman, how could the old woman know that we are kind people?
Zhu Ningyun asked again: "Is this the only child in your family?"

The old lady shook her head, "There are several other children, all of whom are girls, and all seven of them are in the house."

Hearing that Zhu Ningyun was facing the dilapidated house, she was drowsy inside, and asked curiously: "It's broad daylight, why can't you stay in the house?"

The old woman faltered.

The little girl pointed to her trousers and said, "Sister, it's because we only have this pair of trousers at home, and we all have to change them before going out."

The voice fell.

Li Xiao and the others were slightly startled.

The poor only had one pair of trousers left, and several children had to take turns wearing them out.
Especially Li Xiao himself, who once saw old black and white photos of ordinary people in the Qing Dynasty taken by foreigners.

Among them, there are many portrayals of poor families. The family only has one pair of trousers and can only go out casually.

But that was the Qing Dynasty, and now it is the early Ming Dynasty, how could there be such poor people?
At the same time, I also understand why there are so many children who take turns to beg.

Feelings come home after changing your pants.
"Is this the same in your other families?" Zhu Ningyun asked.

"Well, almost." The old lady nodded.

Now, everyone felt extremely sympathetic to what happened to these people.

This is too poor.

This is a prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River. Even if Li Xiao's village in Beiping is poor, he still can't afford clothes.

Zhu Gaoxu frowned and said, "Does the family have land?"

He wondered if it was because of corrupt officials or the country gentry usurped the land of the people in the village.

The woman nodded, "How many acres of land are there at home?"

"What? How many acres of land!"

Zhu Gaoxu said coldly: "Since there is land, why are you living so poorly? It's obviously lazy! Everyone in the family has hands and feet, and they don't farm the land and stay in the house. It's no wonder others are poor."

The woman sighed, but did not answer.

Answers are meaningless after all.

"Gao Xu, don't scare people."

Zhu Ningyun said in a low voice: "I don't think it's because he's lazy, maybe there are some other reasons."

Li Xiao also nodded in agreement.

Zhu Ningyun asked: "Can you tell me, since there is land, why can't you support a family? Even if you are poor, you can't be naked?"

The old woman still did not speak.

The little girl's expression became aggrieved, and she said, "We're not lazy, but we can't support ourselves even if we farm the land. My mother said that we should go out less at home and eat less, so that we can survive this spring, or we will all starve to death."

Hearing this, Zhu Ningyun squatted down, looked at the little girl and asked, "Then sister asks you, what do you usually do?"

The little girl was very simple, and replied truthfully: "My sister and I go to the town to beg every day. My sister is older and goes further to beg in a big town, because there is only one pair of trousers, and we all change into them. go."

Zhu Ningyun looked at her pants, no wonder she felt weird just now, it was because the clothes didn't fit well.

Zhu Ningyun asked again: "What about your father?"

As she spoke, the little girl's eyes turned red, and she said, "Father was beaten to death together with the uncles in the village a few years ago."

Hearing this, the faces of several people changed.

No wonder no man was seen along the way.

Zhu Gaoxu walked over, looked at the woman and asked, "Is there anything wrong?"

The woman nodded helplessly, "Almost half of the men in the village are dead."

Zhu Gaoxu was very shocked, and said loudly: "Why didn't you report to the official?"

The woman looked dull, and said: "Reporting to the officials, it is useless to report to the officials, those officials and lords, how can they care about the lives of our common people?"

The man in the village is dead, and it's useless to report to the official?

Zhu Ningyun was angry in her heart, stood up, walked to the woman and said, "Tell us the ins and outs of the matter, maybe we can uphold justice for you."

But the old woman shook her head and said: "Young man, don't worry about the affairs here. The year before last, a senior official said that some high-ranking official who inspected the censor came here to uphold justice for us, but Not long after, we heard that the official master died in the lake."

Inspector Yushi came to investigate this matter, died in the lake?
After hearing this, the group of people felt shocking!
This is too exaggerated.

Is this the Daming they knew? ? ?
Is this still the Daming under Grandpa's iron-blooded governance of corrupt officials? ?

Living in this affluent Jiangnan land, with no food to eat, no clothes to cover their bodies, the poor people are not as good as the people in Beiping.

What kind of world is this? ?

He was obviously still in the restaurant yesterday, where people ate delicacies from mountains and seas, wore silk and satin, and spent more than a dozen taels of silver for a meal.

Compared with here, it can be said that there is a gap like Tianhe! ! !

Why does this happen?
In an instant, Zhu Gaoxu was overwhelmed with a sense of justice. He walked over and said, "Just say it! If you say it, the gold is yours."

As he spoke, he took out a few golden beans.

Naturally, Zhu Gaoxu would not handle this matter himself.

But with his identity, it's not difficult to write a letter to grandpa, right?
When the woman saw the golden bean, her eyes were straightened, and she took it.

"Since you want to hear it, I'll tell you"

The old lady spoke slowly: "Originally, everyone in our village is doing well."

"But ten years ago, the price of silk on the market suddenly rose, and many villages made a lot of money. Everyone was a little bit moved."

"But it takes two years to plant mulberry trees before raising silkworms and producing silk. If there is no income for two years, everyone will starve to death."

"But at this time, a businessman came over and was willing to lend us the money to use it to grow rice and grow mulberry trees. The requirement was to form a large scale. After discussing it with the patriarch, he agreed, and everyone in the village planted mulberry trees instead."

"Two years later, the mulberry tree has grown and produced silk, but the sea was suddenly banned, causing the price of silk to plummet. Merchants jointly lowered the price, and the price of silk fell to the bottom."

heard here.

Zhu Ningyun stomped her feet, feeling indignant in her heart, hateful businessman, this is oppressing the common people.

The old woman went on to say: "One year's harvest is exchanged for copper coins to pay taxes, and for food to eat, and then to pay interest. We found that after a busy year, we can only eat one meal a day, and we can't even buy clothes." From our village, it has become poorer and poorer, to the point where it is today.”

Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu was puzzled and said, "Since raising silk doesn't make money, why don't you continue to grow rice instead?"

The old woman said: "We thought about it too, but the money the patriarch borrowed and the deed we signed later on we found out that it was a usury loan. The deed stated that the interest was extremely high, and we couldn't pay the interest at all, but the one who lent us the money The merchant allowed us to use silk to repay the interest, and the silver taels offset are a little higher than the price of silk on the market, but we have no choice but to keep raising silkworms for a living.”

"Loan usury? If you can't pay it back, you won't pay it back. Is it more important than life?" Zhu Gaoxu said.

The old woman said: "Two years ago, people in the village felt that they couldn't live like this, so they didn't plan to pay back the interest, and planned to forcefully cut down the mulberry trees and plant rice.
However, they sent people to beat us, saying that silk must be used to pay the interest.

After the men in the village reported to the officials that it was useless, we discussed it and joined forces to resist. We had a fight, and the men in the village died at that time.
People in the government said that it is only natural to pay back the debt, and ignored it.

What else can we do. We can only accept our fate. "

After listening.

Everyone was silent.

This is obviously a collusion between government and businessmen to squeeze the people.

First, the price of silk was raised, and then merchants provided usury to lure them to plant mulberry trees and raise silkworms, and then jointly lowered the price. This is a big routine.

The people in this village became slaves who provided silk to the merchant for profit.

These people are indeed not lazy, but no matter how diligent they are, they cannot support a family.

After paying taxes and usury interest, they can only hide in the house and reduce consumption to carry it through.

This is not the future. Farmers live on one-third of an acre of land. The land cannot earn money to feed them, and they have no other way to make a living.
Can only reduce exercise, reduce consumption
Zhu Ningyun's eyes were reddened at this moment, and she asked, "Can't you sell the silk to others and sell it at a higher price?"

The woman shook her head: "No one takes our silk, and all the merchants dare not come to us to collect silk."

"Then what's the price of your silk?" Zhu Ningyun asked.

The old woman replied, "Fifty Wen a catty."

"what?"

Li Xiao was taken aback.

Although he didn't know the price of silk, he felt that the price was ridiculously low.

No wonder many people in this village starved to death. This is simply a robbery.

Zhu Ningyun looked at Li Xiao, and whispered: "Xiaolang, since others dare not buy it, we buy it, don't we want to open a cloth shop? These raw silk can also be used. Help them."

"Ningyun, as I said before, I will support you unconditionally for any request you ask, let alone such a matter of acting on behalf of the heavens."

Li Xiao nodded, looked at the old woman and said, "Go, take us to meet your patriarch!"

The old woman hesitated for a moment,

He led the crowd towards the patriarch's house.

After a while.

In the patriarch's home.

"You want to buy our raw silk? Three hundred Wen a catty?"

The patriarch was very surprised when he heard the news.

Li Xiao smiled and said, "I just ask if you dare to sell it?"

"You dare to buy, why don't we dare to sell!"

As he was talking, the old patriarch's eyes turned red, he rubbed his wrinkled face with his hands, and sighed: "Speaking of which, it was all my fault at the beginning. blame me"

At the price of three hundred Wen, even if the high interest is paid off, the income is more than in previous years, and everyone can improve their lives.

He looked at Li Xiao and said, "If you dare to buy, we will dare to sell! We can't live any longer, so what are you afraid of?"

"What about us?" Li Xiao frowned.

The patriarch said worriedly: "It's not that no one accepts the raw silk here. Although the price has dropped sharply after the sea ban, it is not so low as this field. It is because the people who collect raw silk have been driven away by a big man."

"Who was driven away by the big shot?" Li Xiao asked.

"We also inquired for many years before we found out."

The patriarch looked worried and said: "It's a big man named Mr. Lan. I heard that in this Hangzhou city, no one dares to provoke him. He only covers the sky with his hands."

Mr. Lan?
Upon hearing these three words, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Gaosui burst into joy immediately.

Who do you think it is, that trash?

Zhu Gaoxu laughed, proudly said: "To be honest, three days ago."

He pointed to himself, "It's just me, Mr. Lan, the big man I told you about, who slapped you more than 30 times, and he didn't even dare to fart a single one."

Zhu Gaosui sneered from the side: "I slapped him more than 20 times, son of a bitch, if you mess with us, that's the end."

"That's impossible, you guys are bragging"

The patriarch looked at the two in disbelief, wondering if they were liars?

Li Xiao said: "I'm not bragging, the two of them slapped Young Master Lan from left to right, and I was watching from the side, and several teeth were knocked out."

"This..." The old patriarch still didn't believe it.

Zhu Gaoxu snorted, "It doesn't matter if you don't believe it, you just need to know that we bought all the raw silk here, how much is it?"

He is also very concerned about this matter. It is spring and the silkworms have already spun silk.

Now when I go back, I just follow my brother-in-law to do a textile workshop.

Unexpectedly, the other party bought them all when they opened their mouths. The old patriarch excitedly said: "If one acre of land can grow mulberry and raise silkworms and mulberry leaves, three sheets of silkworms can be raised, each sheet of paper can produce about 3 catties of silkworm cocoons, and 60 Jin raw silk, our village has a total of 30 mu of mulberry trees, last year’s harvest was good, and the entire village should have a total of [-] Jin.”

300 catties, 800 wen per catty, will cost [-] taels.

It has also been confirmed that the whole village silk is bought and sold by the patriarch.

Several people asked to take a look at the raw silk. When they saw the raw silk, they found that the quality of the raw silk was quite good.

Zhu Ningyun immediately took out a silver note of 500 taels, "This is a deposit. The whole village will prepare the raw silk in the future, and we will come to pick up the goods, and the remaining 300 taels will be delivered faithfully."

The old village chief was very surprised when he saw the banknote.

On weekdays, the raw silk in my village can only be sold at a low price of 50 Wen a catty.

With this money, even if you pay this year's usury interest, you can get more than 500 taels
After that, everyone's life will be better!

The old patriarch thanked and said: "Thank you."

Li Xiao waved his hand, "Thank you for normal business."

In fact, Li Xiao and the others earned the three hundred Wen a catty of raw silk, but Li Xiao and the others did not know the price, because apart from Hangzhou, silk on the market costs 500 Wen per catty.

"correct."

Li Xiao asked, "Are there any other villages that have a similar situation to yours?"

The village head nodded, "The next door is Lijia Village, Rongshu Village, and Zhanger Village"

He said the names of more than a dozen villages in a row.

This surprised everyone, this is Mr. Lan's tone is really big, he has used tricks, controlled so many villages and reduced them to raw silk machines, and squeezed them crazily.

"If you don't do it, if you don't do it, buy it all!"

After leaving the village, Li Xiao made up his mind.

With their own high-end textile machines and so much raw silk, they opened their own textile factory. The first task is to drive down the price of silk and occupy the high ground in the market!

"Xiaolang, you are so kind! Then let's do this, and it will be considered a good deed."

Zhu Ningyun was very grateful, "My concubine said, do more good deeds, do good deeds and accumulate virtue, and you will accumulate blessings."

Li Xiao laughed: "Your concubine mother is right, let's do it like this!"

Next, Li Xiao and the others ran to many villages non-stop.

These villages are similar to the situation in the villages just now. They are troubled by the interest of usury, and market merchants jointly lower prices. Their life is just as difficult.

Buying, buying, buying, Li Xiao kept ordering these silks.

And asked the patriarchs of these villages to keep it secret.

Zhu Gaosui was sent out to inquire about the news.

At night.

Everyone went back to the inn to meet and rest.

After taking a sip of tea, I stopped my busy day.

Zhu Gaoxu took the lead and said: "Brother-in-law, the silk we collect for three hundred wen can make some money. I have inquired about it in private. Although the sea is banned now and the price of raw silk has dropped sharply, we still have a lot of domestic demand in Ming Dynasty. Raw silk from other places can be bought for about the same price." The price is five hundred Wen per catty."

"Understood, let's make a small profit this time."

Li Xiao reminded: "However, we have to beware of Mr. Lan."

Zhu Gaoxu curled his lips, and said: "We bought raw silk, and left immediately, let them rush to nothing! Let the eldest sister write a letter to the emperor's grandfather immediately, telling him what happened here, no matter what Mr. Lan, Mr. Playboy, The imperial grandfather will definitely kill him."

"Good idea, let's do it."

Li Xiao agreed, and said: "Such a big commotion may cause him to find out about it, so tomorrow I will continue to run to the village to fix Shengsi. Ningyun and Gao Xu, you go to the cargo ship, call all the guards down, and buy it." Raw silk, let's run away after pulling it, and return to Peiping to make a fortune!"

"That's it, cheers!"

Everyone picked up their teacups, drank a cup, and then went back to rest.

On the second day, after recuperating, I started to act according to the plan.

at the same time.

In a luxurious mansion in the city of Hangzhou.

Lan Nao'er was lying on the couch, recuperating from illness.

Since being beaten by Zhu Gaoxu, he has often had headaches recently, and his ears can't hear clearly. It should be that the eardrum was perforated and a slight concussion occurred.

So during this time, Lan Nao'er had a very bad temper.

He often beat and scolded the servants around him.

At this time, several fifteen or sixteen-year-old Yangzhou skinny horses around him were carefully serving Lan Nao'er, feeling extremely nervous.

"I'm going to spit, hetui"

Lan Nao'er coughed a mouthful of phlegm, but the woman next to her immediately caught it and swallowed it.

"Damn, can't you do this little thing?"

A maid was picking grapes for Lan Nao'er, but because she was a bit slow, she was kicked to the ground.

The current Lan Nao'er is like a ball that may explode at any time, constantly losing his temper and venting his displeasure.

When he recalled the humiliation he suffered that day, he was furious.

You can only use the people around you as a punching bag.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

The one who walked in was Lan Naoer's capable subordinate.

"Go away."

Sapphire waved her hand, and the maids left immediately as if they were letting go of their heavy responsibilities.

By the side of such a lunatic, he may be killed and thrown to the dogs at any time, and he is worried all day long.
The subordinate in black came in, cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I just went to ask the generals of the various guards, as well as the thousand households of the Hangzhou Jinyi Guards, but I didn't find a few people from that day."

No wonder they couldn't find Li Xiao.

After Li Xiao and the others beat someone up, in order to prevent trouble from getting into trouble, he disguised himself almost every day.

Upon hearing this.

Lan Nao'er was instantly furious.

He overturned the table in front of him violently, and things spilled all over the floor.

"Trash! A bunch of trash!!!"

"If you can't even catch four people, what are you doing?"

"This matter can't be done well this time. When my father returns, I will definitely make them look good!"

Seeing this, the subordinate in black was so frightened that he knelt on the ground, trembling.

"You, go and tell them that if they don't get caught, I, Lan Naoer, will make them pay the price!"

"Yes, my subordinate understands."

After a long time, the subordinate stood up, bowed and said, "By the way, son, it's time to collect the raw silk this year. Do you want your subordinate to arrange for someone to collect all the raw silk?"

That's right, Lan Nao'er was responsible for those plots to oppress the villages.

Outsiders dare not accept the raw silk that he controls the village.

Therefore, those villages were almost crushed by sapphire.

Moreover, there are still unknown things.

Others' raw silk is sold domestically, earning little money.

Lan Naoer's raw silk is sold overseas.

The profit is ten times that of ordinary businessmen!
In addition, his price for raw silk is lower than that of other merchants, and his profit is [-] times higher than that of ordinary merchants!
Every year, the raw silk business can bring more than 300 million taels of profit to the Lan family.

With their power and so much wealth, the Lan family can control more power and more court officials.

It will also be able to cover your own business better, and the business will grow bigger and bigger.

This is a virtuous circle, just like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger!

This is the power of power!

Sea ban?

The sea ban is nothing to Lan Naoer at all.

The guards along the coast have long been Lan Yu's people.

In other words, people who are not Sapphire cannot sit in that position.

Lan Nao'er sat down, thought for a while, and said, "Don't be in a hurry to collect raw silk for now. Those villagers have lived frugally for so many years, and if they save some money, they may cut down the mulberry trees and replant rice for another month. To make them unable to survive, ask us for a loan and put a sum of money down, so that they will not be able to pay off the loan in this lifetime, and let me, Lan Naoer, be a sericulture farmer for the rest of my life.”

"The wisdom of the world is unparalleled!"

The subordinate in black clasped his hands in praise, and then said: "After that month, I will arrange for someone to go down to collect raw silk."

Lan Nao'er nodded, his head moved, and there was another burst of pain, thinking of the person who beat him that day.

He said angrily: "The most important thing right now is to find the person from that day. If I don't take revenge, I won't eat or drink all day!!! Since those trash can't be found, I can only find it myself. Get out and find me!"

"Yes! This subordinate will do it!"

The man in black bowed and stepped back.

at the same time.

In a certain room, a group of people in plain clothes were discussing matters.

It was the people from Beizhen Fusi.

Ji Gang frowned, "The difficulty of handling the case this time is too great. I really didn't expect that all the guards and yamen are already belonged to Mr. Lan, and we can only rely on ourselves."

When everyone heard the news, they were all silent.

At this time, Qinglong who was investigating outside came in.

"Lord Ji, I just found out. This Mr. Lan actually used a trick to ask thirty villages to produce silk for him. Those villagers live like pigs and dogs."

Hearing this news, everyone was shocked.

"There is another message."

Qinglong whispered: "At this moment, someone has already secretly beaten Mr. Lan's raw silk. Guess who is that person?"

Ji Gang asked, "Who?"

Qinglong lowered his voice and said: "If I guess correctly, it is the person who robbed Yangzhou Shouma that night!"

Ji Gang's face changed: "Not good!"

(End of this chapter)