Wang Peng was afraid that the Huo family would move away, leaving the family's land unused. He poured cold water on the side and said: "Old man, you moved here in a hurry, don't say I didn't remind you. It's cold in the Northeast!"
Seeing that everyone was listening to him with curious eyes, Wang Peng gave an example: "I heard from the merchants in the county who went to the Northeast to collect old ginseng skins. In the winter, you have to use a stick to urinate in the Northeast."
Huolin, a fool, interjected: "What are you doing with a stick? Make circles on the ground and then pee?"
Wang Peng snorted and said happily: "That's not true. I heard that when the urine comes out of the penis, it freezes immediately. You have to use a stick to hit it while peeing. If you don't use a stick to push the penis open when you poop, The frozen tip can tear the buttocks apart."
The Huo family members in the ancestral hall felt a chill in their crotches after hearing this. Huo Laoshuan sneered and said with a smile: "Student Wang is talking nonsense. If it's so cold, how can you go out to pee? Besides, who doesn't go out to the wild fields to urinate in their own huts?"
Wang Peng was speechless by Huo Laoshuan's strange train of thought. He could only smile bitterly and say nothing.
Everyone in the Old Huo family nodded after hearing what Huo Laoshuan said was reasonable. Mrs. Huo pounded the ground with a shovel and said, "Cold?! I can't serve the land in the cold weather, so I'm just sitting at home! Let's figure out how much we can harvest from so much land. We'll have a nice winter, why don't we die happily?"
The men in Huojiazhuang were all excited when they thought about the wonderful prospects described by Old Mrs. Huo. A man with a big belly burst out crying when he thought of the suffering of being hungry for years.
So everyone agreed that they must move. After a lot of discussion, the family relocation plan was finalized as follows:
This spring, after planting the land at home, Mrs. Huo led fifty-five men to the northeast to circle half of the land and plant part of it.
This group of people will also bring two families with carpenters and bricklayers to guide the strong men to build houses and warehouses in the northeast. In autumn, this group of people first collect grain from the Northeast and store it, and then come back to help their families collect grain and survive the winter. When the rent on this land is returned next year, the whole family will go to the Northeast to live a happy life.
Mr. Huo finally mobilized: "This year, the whole clan must work hard and work hard! The land on both sides must be harvested for grain. No strong man is allowed to go out to work as a long-term or short-term laborer! The newly opened land is all raw land. How much grain can be harvested? Everyone knows it well. If we move next year, we will have to eat the leftover food here from spring to autumn. If there is no food here, we can't move!"
After hearing this, Huo Da shouted in the crowd: "What the old man said is true! Our ancestors came here with five broken bowls, and they were all scattered. We who have houses and land, how can we not survive? This year, we All use your full strength!"
...
After the Huo family's ancestral hall meeting was over, Wang Peng went back and told his mother-in-law, and ran to his home to ask for an audience with Mr. Wang.
Mr. Wang was a top three Jinshi in the 38th year of Jiajing reign. He served as county magistrate for two terms. Later, when he was appointed as magistrate, he resigned and came to live as a country squire at home. He is already over seventy years old.
He secretly admired Wang Peng in his heart when he saw that his family was generous and did not belittle him because of his poverty.
After hearing what he said about the Huo family, the old man said with emotion: "I guess all the old Huo family must leave. It's okay. I have arranged for people to go to Zhili and recruit refugees to replace them."
Seeing that Wang Peng didn't understand why, the old man said angrily: "Years ago, I asked the county officers to go to Huojia Village to talk about the Northeast in detail, and I wanted them to move away! This group of people named Huo are all bandits. ! For his grandma, other families pay 35% of the rent, but the old Huo family has been paying 30% for many years because they have many strong men and are united!"
"The grain chief dispatches missions and the district chief dispatches servants. The Huo family is always a target! Every year at the market and in the county, whenever there are fights, his family members are indispensable!"
When Old Squire Wang talked about the excitement, his hands started to shake: "You just moved to Huojia Village. I don't know what is going on with the Huo family - you charge him a little rent every year, but it's not enough money to run the government office! If you don't help his family, To seize people, there are old women lying on the floor in front of my house. I am not asking for tenants, these are my ancestors!"
Wang Peng was speechless after hearing this, and had a new understanding of his neighbors. Mr. Wang shook his hands and complained, took a sip of tea, wiped the white foam from the corner of his mouth, and said to Wang Peng with a smile: "My dear brother is here to report the news. You are serious."
Wang Peng hurriedly said that it was appropriate. Although it was a side branch and far away from the main family, it could not be written with two characters of "王" in one stroke, so it was deserved.
The old man nodded after hearing this and called the housekeeper in to give some instructions in a low voice.
Then he smiled and said to Wang Peng: "Dear brother, can you still study? This career -"
Wang Peng heard this and said: "The old man is joking. If my family can afford me to start a career, I will give it up long ago."
Mr. Wang said: "This is my fault. This is my family, but I don't move around much on weekdays. If my dear brother wants to start a career, I may be able to help him."
After hearing this, Wang Peng cupped his fists and said: "Thank you, brother, for caring about me. But I have no intention of doing this anymore. I have seen that in the two years since the emperor ascended the throne, the government has been greatly invigorated, and the signs of a prosperous age have begun to emerge. In such a world, you can't earn a family fortune!" I originally planned to sell the small farmland at home and go to Fucheng next year to do some business. Maybe I can make a way out, which is better than living in the countryside watching the sky and eating."
Mr. Wang was in awe after hearing this. He sighed: "I don't want to find a wise man at home but a wise man in the countryside! My wise brother..."
Just as he was about to say a few words of encouragement, the butler walked in, holding a wooden plate in his hand with four snowflake silver ingots on it, a total of eighty taels.
Wang Peng was taken aback and asked with anger on his face: "What do you mean, sir?"
Mr. Wang stroked his beard and smiled and said: "This family of bandits named Huo has no one who can read. When they arrive in the Northeast, they are not allowed to be bullied to death by the local subordinates? If my dear brother has some feelings for the countryside, I want you to accompany them to the Northeast. It’s a journey, and it’s a bit of an experience—this money can be used as a means of transportation. I wonder if it’s possible?”
Wang Peng's heart was burning, and he couldn't explain what he was feeling. He bowed to the ground and said, "Brother Gao Yi, do you dare to disobey your orders?"
Seeing that he agreed, Mr. Wang let go of his worries. He smiled and said: "Since my dear brother is interested in business affairs, there is a big businessman in my clan in Henan, named Wang Congyun. When my dear brother comes back from the northeast, if you don't mind, I can write a letter of recommendation and go to him to find something first. Do it, practice your skills, and feel the way. - Keep the few acres of your land for now."
After Wang Peng heard this, he was completely convinced by the family, and he patted his chest and promised: "Don't worry, brother, I won't let the Huo family suffer in the Northeast!"
...
The landowners and tenants here in Shandong looked like this, but in the first month of the third year of Wanli, Songjiang Mansion had a different scene.
In the autumn of the second year of Wanli, the Xu family also held a clan meeting. The old prime minister Xu Jie struggled to no avail, and was forced by the emperor's knife on his neck. He finally decided to withdraw from the fields!
After tidying up the family fields and being calmed down by the emperor, old Xu Jie was frightened to death, and he understood the emperor better. My heart said that if I were still in power, I would deal with things like this in my own house.
I haven't measured it carefully, I just added it in the account book. I actually have 260,000 acres of cultivated land and 110,000 acres of mulberry fields. Not to mention half of the land in Huating County is in my name, and it also occupies 13 acres of the neighboring county. Ten thousand acres!
Although Xu Jie knew that his family had a lot of land before, when Hai Rui suppressed his family, Xu Jie had just retreated, thinking that Gao Gong wanted to deal with him and prevent him from resurrecting - political disputes, he could not give in even an inch. When his influence in the court completely faded, he went to the gardens every day and didn't care about housework. Besides, he was self-reliant on his merits, and the court treated senior ministers favorably. With the examples of Hai Rui and Cai Guoxi, who could do anything to the Xu family?
However, human psychology is so strange. This year, Xu Jie was sobered by the emperor who first deposed Xu Yuanchun and then restored Cai Guoxi. No matter how you think now, it is the emperor's right to take care of his own family. When the old man became angry and ashamed, he couldn't turn around mentally. He wished he could use a crutch to beat to death the sons who had pushed the Xu family into the danger of ruining the family.
In the end, he made the final decision. According to Xu Yuanchun's suggestion, except for leaving the original 5,000 acres of land, the rest of the land dedicated to the Xu family after he came to power will be cleared.
A post arrived at the county government office. The county magistrate did not dare to neglect it and reported it to the Songjiang magistrate urgently. Wang Yixiu, the prefect of Songjiang, was from Sichuan. When he saw the submission from the prefect Yang Ruiyun, he burst into tears with excitement.
Seeing that there was no one else in the back hall, Wang Yixiu knelt down and kowtowed to the north, shouting: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" The people in the hall followed him, thinking that the old guy was crazy.
After Wang Yixiu kowtowed, he calmed down and said to himself that in the third year of Longqing's reign, the imperial court tried a whipping method in Songjiang, which almost triggered a civil uprising. Why? Because all the land belongs to the Xu family, the imperial court's annual tax burden of 1.2 million shi falls on the rest of the small landowners and ordinary people!
Not to mention 1.2 million shi now, if all the Xu family’s fields are withdrawn, I, Lao Wang, can pay off all the taxes and taxes, and the accumulated debts over the years can be paid back during my term of office! By then, no one can take away this ranking number one in the world!
...
The retreat of the Xu family from their fields was the largest, most complex, and most sensational event in the southern part of the empire in the second year of Wanli. From the beginning of November in the second year of Wanli to the first month of the third year of Wanli, which lasted more than three months, the field has not been completely withdrawn.
The first reason is that after the Xu family accepted the donated land, they dug out the dams and ridges that separated the original land and connected the land into one piece. When the land was vacated, there was no sign, and there were fights between neighboring houses, and there were a lot of lawsuits.
Second, the process of land donation lasted for many years, and some families have lost their incest, and family members with inheritance rights are fighting over the land, resulting in a large number of land rights confirmation lawsuits during the process of land withdrawal.
Third, the Xu family alone had more than 10,000 slaves. Among these people, those who were closer to the Xu family had abandoned their crops for many years. After the Xu family retired from their land and could no longer afford to support themselves, they were sent out to live in exile. Many families had no food or clothing.
Fourth, many tenants have rented the Xu family's land for many years, but many of the new landlords who took back the land now have to farm their own land, and a large number of tenants have also lost their livelihoods.
These things were mixed together in a mess, making Yang Ruiyun and Wang Yixiu's new year miserable. When spring started, half of the land would not be able to be planted, and the two of them were so frightened that they could not wear their black gauze hats properly.
With no choice but to hold on for two months, Wang Yixiu had to urgently report to the capital and ask for an imperial envoy to supervise the Xu family's retreat from the land. As a result, Wang Yixiu shed tears of regret in the future, and his official career was extremely bumpy. The imperial court reinstated Hai Rui as an imperial envoy and went to Songjiang to clean up the fields again!
