"Come on, come on, you go shallow and I go deep, Brother Yang, let's get drunk and we'll stop!"
In a small tavern in Huya Town at the foot of Huya Mountain, Wang Sihu, who was in his mid-twenties and still had no wife, poured a bowl of wine for his good brother Yang Sanbao, and then filled it for himself.
Yang Sanbao is one year older than Wang Sihu and is also a bachelor. The two went to private school together in Huya Town, and then went to Jingzhou Prefecture to attend elementary school and college together. Later, their families went bankrupt due to the same disaster caused by low grain prices that hurt farmers, and lost all their land. The homestead was reduced to a home for farm laborers... Because they had known each other since childhood and had the same experiences, the two became good friends and often got together to have wine and chat.
Yang Sanbao was relatively honest. After his family went bankrupt, he worked as a long-term laborer for Ding Papi and Ding Shixiang, the richest man in Huya Town, to pay off his debts. The Yang family had lost money in farming and was unwilling to sell the land assigned to them by Chuang Wang to repay the debts owed to the bank. , so I borrowed a loan shark from Ding, the richest man, and wanted to try again.
As a result, there was another flash flood the next year, which flooded his family's land. Although the Yang family and his son replanted timely after the flash flood, they still suffered a lot of losses... Not only was the land not saved, , and also owed Ding Papi's family an unfinished loan shark.
Although Yang Sanbao attended private school for several years, he had no skills to make a living and only knew how to farm. Moreover, he was an honest man and did not dare to venture out, so he had to work as a long-term laborer for Ding Papi's family for ten years to pay off his debts.
Wang Sihu was more active, and his family's situation was a little better. It was just dilapidated, and he did not owe loan sharks, so he went to Jingzhou City to make a living. He also found a job running a boat and traveled to many places with Jiangzhou. It is also considered well-informed. He only returns to his hometown in Huya Town before the Chinese New Year every year, and will leave after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and this year is no exception.
The day after returning to his hometown, Wang Sihu mysteriously arrived at the Ding family mansion and took Yang Sanbao, who was lying on the wall watching Miss Ding, who had returned home from Jingzhou Girls' School for the holidays, in a daze, to go out for a drink... ..The two found a tavern, got a plate of salt beans, a plate of tofu, and two pots of turbid wine, and started drinking.
They found this tavern located near the Yangtze River Pier in Huya Town. Business was good on weekdays, and passing boat captains and tourists often had a few drinks here. However, it became quiet as the New Year approached. Except for the two brothers Yang Sanbao and Wang Sihu, Zhang Xiucai, a man in his forties, was getting drunk.
This Zhang Xiucai was also a degenerate. His family was originally the richest man in Huya Town, and the richest man Ding Papi Ding was his family's housekeeper, managing thousands of acres of land for his family. Both Zhang Xiucai and his father, Zhang Xiucai, were scholars and devoted themselves to their careers. If Li Zicheng hadn't come to equalize the land, the Zhang family would not have fallen at all.
If Emperor Zhu hadn't changed the rules of the imperial examination, no longer pay attention to eight-legged essays, and canceled the honors of scholars and candidates, Zhang Xiucai's essays would probably be able to rebuild the family business.
It's a pity that Zhang Xiucai's life was really bad. The talented freshman spent half his life like this and became the drunkard Zhang hated by everyone in Huya Town.
It was already past dinner time, and apart from Yang Sanbao, Wang Sihu and the drunkard Zhang, there was no one else in the small tavern hall. Even the tavern owner and waiters were busy in the kitchen. The tavern was out of business during the Chinese New Year, but the richest man in the town, Ding, was in a good mood. He was going to hold a banquet on New Year's Eve to celebrate that his daughter, who looked like a goblin, had obtained the qualification to apply for Jinling Women's University... ...So all the taverns in the town, big and small, have received business, and some are very busy!
After drinking a few glasses of wine, Wang Sihu looked around and found that there was no one else except a drunkard, so he took out a post and handed it to Yang Sanbao.
"Brother Yang, look at this!"
Yang Sanbao took the post and glanced at it, his face suddenly changed, and he exclaimed: "What? Chuang, King Chuang is coming back?"
He spoke a little louder, and Wang Sihu quickly covered his mouth, and then glanced at Drunk Zhang nervously. Drunk Zhang seemed to be drunk and was snoring.
Wang Sihu was relieved and lowered his voice and said to Yang Sanbao: "Third brother, the Dashun Dynasty has just replaced the new King Chuang, changed the Yuan Dynasty to Dongping Daxing, and even left the Yong'an Palace... It seems that they are going to conquer the east. Ming, bring peace to the world and let us poor people have the final say!"
"Who is in charge?" Yang Sanbao asked.
"Of course we will divide the fields again!" Wang Sihu said, "We poor people here in Jingzhou Prefecture have been looking forward to this day for a long time!"
"So what if we break up?" Yang Sanbao sighed, "You can't hold on to what you should... In the past 20 years, at least half of our families under Huya Mountain have been ruined, that is, those treacherous ones, will Those who are scheming will become more prosperous by colluding with profiteers in Wuhan!"
What he said is also true!
It’s an era where there is no businessman but no treachery!
After Emperor Zhu turned farming into a business by clearing land and abolishing the tax-free privileges of scholar-bureaucrats, new problems followed - there is no guarantee of profit in business, and there is bound to be intrigue in business. Deception means that in business, there are bound to be various traps and temptations that can lead to bankruptcy... Therefore, Jingzhou Prefecture, which achieved equalization of land under the rule of King Chuang, became rich and poor again in just 20 years. Uneven, once again there is a massive concentration of land.
Taking Huya Town as an example, half of the farmers who were allocated land back then have gone bankrupt. They have either sold all or part of their land.
Among the remaining farmers, several became prosperous, and the richest among them was Ding Papi and Ding Shixiang, the former housekeeper of Zhang Xiucai's family. Although everyone started at the same starting point 20 years ago, Ding Papi had a lot of connections and a sharp mind. Not only could he farm, he also became the agent of a rice merchant in Wuhan Prefecture, and resold cloth and ironware between Hankou and Huya Town. ,salt. Because of his close cooperative relationship with rice merchants in Wuhan, Ding Papi can grasp rice price fluctuations more accurately than other farmers in Huya Town and make huge profits from them.
The business he runs, which sells cloth, ironware, and salt, not only helps him spread the risks of farming, but also gives him stronger financing capabilities.
Therefore, in the past 20 years, his family property has grown more and more, and he has swallowed up a quarter of the land in Huya Town, becoming a truly big landowner.
And Ding Papi, a big landowner, is even more hateful than his original masters, the Zhang Xiucai family. The Zhang Xiucai family are scholar-bureaucrats who inherited the Shili family. They do not know how to manage the land. They can occupy the land because their family has the privilege of tax exemption, and their family also He did not drive out tenants, but when the harvest was not good, he would give the villagers free rent and reduced interest rates, so everyone called the owner of the Zhang family Zhang Dashanren.
Ding Papi is an out-and-out profiteer. Farming is just a business to him, and land is his tool to make money. He did not even rent the land to small farmers, but used farm laborers to manage it. Because in his opinion, small farmers who rent land are usually not good at management and lack the ability to resist risks. Once he encounters operating losses, he will default on the tenant rent, and as a profiteer, it is difficult to evict the tenants. At the same time, he has to pay the land tax in full... It is better to run land insurance by himself.
So now Yang Sanbao wants to be a tenant but can't!
After all, being a tenant farmer is your own business, so there is always a chance to turn things around. And being a farmhand is just a few dead dollars, and you can't get ahead at all.
As for going to Jingzhou City to make a living, he has no skills, so he won't be able to make much more money, and he will have to bear the relatively high cost of living.
As for going to Nanyang or Xinzhou...he didn't have money to buy a ticket. If he wanted to go, he would have to work as a contract worker and work for three years for free!
In short, he doesn't see a chance to turn around now... Even if King Chuang comes again, he may not be able to keep his share of the family fortune.
"Brother Yang!" Wang Sibao drank a few more drinks. He was probably half drunk and spoke unscrupulously. "You don't care whether you can hold it or not... If King Chuang can come again, Don't we have the opportunity to make meritorious deeds? If we can make meritorious deeds and become a soldier of the Dashun Dynasty, are we afraid that we will not have a good life? "
"You, what did you say?" Yang Sanbao didn't drink that much, but he suddenly became nervous, "You want to rebel? If you catch me... But you will chop off your head!"
"What are you afraid of?" Wang Sibao smiled, "Third brother, you are bored at the foot of Huya Mountain and don't know what is going on outside... I don't know how many poor people on both sides of the Jingjiang River are looking forward to becoming king!"
