Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 86 Local Tyrant
The decoration inside the Qianhu House is quite grand, the windows are bright and clean, the floor is covered with gold bricks (a kind of tile with a golden yellow color, very hard), and the furniture is made of mahogany or pineapple wood, which is elegant and grand. The porcelain used here made Yang Menglong's eyes shine, and he secretly called "developed" in his heart. In modern times, which one of these things is not worth hundreds of thousands, tens of millions, or even millions?If only there was a space shuttle, it would be a matter of minutes to make these things back to modern times and sell them, and become a billionaire.

It's a pity that the space-time shuttle machine, which is too high-tech, has not yet been manufactured, so he can only look at this pile of antiques and drool madly.

There are [-] to [-] side rooms in the Qianhu House, which are where the servants live. From this, it is not difficult to see how luxurious Zhang Qianhu lives. A small Qianhu can afford to support so many slaves!The family lives in the backyard, where there are several independent attics, which are exquisite and small. The living room, bedroom, study, and piano room are all available. Once you open the window, you can see the back garden. The garden is full of colorful flowers and reds.Yang Menglong visually inspected the area, good guy, the area of ​​each attic must be at least seventy or eighty square meters, right?A rough estimate shows that the entire Thousand-Family House covers an area of ​​far more than [-] square meters. It is not so much a set of houses as it is a complex of buildings. Living in a basement that is only a little bigger than a toilet If the Beidiao family, who struggled to earn a living and even wanted to be house slaves, saw this, they would definitely cry out.

Xiao Yufang looked at the blooming peonies in the garden and said happily: "This garden is so beautiful!"

Yang Menglong said: "From now on, it will be yours!" He turned around and walked into Zhang Qianhu's study room. Oh, there are quite a lot of books in it, such as various schools of thought, Yuefu Poetry Collection, Shijing Chuci, Tang Poetry and Song Ci Yuan operas are all available, "Wei Liaozi", "36 Strategies", "Sun Tzu's Art of War", "Three Strategies", "Wu Zi's Art of War", "Warring States Policy", "Ji Xiao New Book"... a whole series of military books Neatly placed there, in a style of its own, it seems that this Lord Qianhu is also a person who likes to read military books, but... With the cleanliness of these books, he doubts whether the old man has read them seriously. through these books.

Seeing that there are so many books in the collection, Xiao Yufang was even happier: "There are so many books! Can I take a few to my room to read?"

Yang Menglong chuckled: "What's the point of taking it to your room to see it? Let's go to the study room to see it when you are free!"

Xiao Yufang said: "That's good, but let me state in advance that you can't make a mess in the study, let alone mess up the books I'm reading!"

Yang Menglong said: "No problem!" He picked up a book and opened it. Rows of exquisite traditional Chinese characters jumped into his eyes, all arranged vertically. Hong Kong and Taiwan still maintain this tradition hundreds of years later.One advantage of vertical layout is that when reading a book, the eyes follow the words, and the head moves slightly. The author must be very happy when he sees it, thinking that readers have recognized his words.As for the horizontal row, that head shakes back and forth, and no matter how well-bred the author is, he will be furious when he sees it.Yang Menglong became dizzy after reading only one page. There were too many traditional characters that he didn't know. What the hell?He couldn't help lamenting in his heart: "God, please give me a "Xinhua Dictionary"!"

"Zhang Qianhu's family was taken for questioning. They left in a hurry. They didn't have time to take away the collection of calligraphy, paintings, and books. The officials who came to fetch people did not search the house. They said they wanted to keep the Qianhu house intact and leave it to Yang Qianhu." Jiang Qianhu He was explaining, "Of course, some hands and feet are still unavoidable. Several valuable and famous paintings were taken away by them."

Yang Menglong didn't care at all: "It's fine if you take it away, this thing can't be eaten or worn, and it's useless to keep it...Jiang Zheng, how many people are there in the whole thousand households?"

Jiang Zheng knew that Yang Menglong must understand these things, and he had done a lot of hard work, so he replied without thinking: "Now there are more than 850 people in the Thousand Households Office, all of whom are military households."

Yang Menglong exclaimed in surprise: "So many people!?"

Jiang Zheng smiled wryly: "Are there many? You must know that there were more than 7000 people when Wuyang Qianhu was in its heyday!"

That is to say, the population of the guard is now only a little more than half of what it was in its heyday. Thinking about those military households who are dressed worse than beggars, Yang Menglong understands why there are so many fewer people, and who can stay so poor? ah?Zhu Yuanzhang established the system of guards. His original intention was to store soldiers for the people, and let the guards train while engaged in production. If you pick up a hoe, you will be a farmer, and if you pick up a weapon, you will be a soldier. Land, increase the grain harvest, his original intention is good, for this reason, he made a death rule, once enlisted in the army, all descendants will be in the army, and those who escaped from the guard may cut off their ears and noses, or even beheaded!At the beginning, the guard system really played a huge role, not to mention making a huge contribution to maintaining local security, and handing over tens of millions of shi grains to the treasury every year. These achievements proved that Zhu Yuanzhang was right. Unfortunately, he I didn't realize that nothing is static. When the two strong men Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di fell, everything slowly changed.The military fields of the guards were encroached upon by local gentry and generals bit by bit. The soldiers in the guards cultivated less and less land and shouldered heavier and heavier taxes and corvees. They were overwhelmed and eventually fled one after another. More military fields, the generals of the guards even encouraged or forced the soldiers to flee. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the guards had completely lost their original functions. There are millions of vulnerable guard officers and soldiers.There are still nearly 5000 people left in the Wuyang Thousand Households Office, which is not bad. You must know that there are only about [-] people in Wuyang County now.Of course, those refugees cannot be counted in it.

Yang Menglong counted with his fingers and said, "So, there are two or three thousand people missing! By the way, what about the land deeds of the guard?"

"Here." Jiang Zheng opened a drawer, and took out several yellowed land deeds from it to show Yang Menglong: "This is the land deed of our guard, with a total of [-] mu of military land. The households are less than six acres, and they are all thin fields; this is Zhang Qianhu's land deed, and he has [-] mu of fertile land under his name; One hundred acres; this is the land deed in the name of Mrs. Zhang Qianhu, with a total of [-] acres of fertile land... By the way, there is also this land that Zhang Qianhu bought from Mengzhai Town six years ago. He forcibly bought [-] mu of land in Macun Township, Zhai Town, at a price of three taels of silver per mu."

Yang Menglong opened his mouth wide in surprise: "Damn it, a local tyrant! The fields under his name are more than the military fields in the guard!"

Xiao Yufang said: "That's right, all the soldiers in the guard have become his tenant farmers!"

Jiang Zheng smiled wryly: "It's worse than a tenant farmer. In his eyes, us soldiers are not as important as a cow!" Handing these land deeds to Yang Menglong: "My lord, now all these fertile land are yours!" Here, he reveals a trace of longing, which is the longing for the land.

Yang Menglong took over Tian Qi and handed it over to Xiao Yufang, announcing that he would become the new local tyrant.

Xiao Yufang took the Tian Qi away preciously and seriously.She has taken care of a piece of land and knows the importance of land deeds. If these thin sheets of paper are lost, it will be a big trouble!
"How much grain is left in the grain depot of the guard?" Yang Menglong continued to ask.

Jiang Zheng smiled wryly again: "Where is there any grain left? Last year's autumn harvest has already been sold out by Zhang Qianhu! Even mice don't want to enter the current grain depot!"

Yang Menglong called: "There is no food in the grain depot!?" He found it incredible that there has been a severe drought for years, how can we not store food?You must know that in the 21st century, China has long-term reserves of enough food for the whole country to eat for several years, and it does not hesitate to lose a large amount of money every year for this!
Jiang Zheng said: "As soon as the autumn grain was harvested, it was sold by the surname Zhang, and only two to three hundred catties of raw grain were left for each military household. This grain is not enough to eat! Everyone is saving desperately, and only eats two grains a day. One meal, one meal of wild vegetables and one meal of multigrain porridge, this is still not enough, the food will be eaten up in a few days, and there are still several months before the wheat harvest, how can we pass this time!"

Yang Menglong was furious: "That bastard!"

Xiao Yufang scolded angrily: "It's really inhumane!"

Jiang Zheng said: "Your Excellency, you have to think of a way, otherwise we don't know how many people in the Thousand Households will starve to death!"

Yang Menglong said: "Don't panic, I bought a lot of food along the way, enough for everyone to eat for a while. I will let people distribute the food so that everyone can have a full meal. As for the future, let's talk about it later." !" After thinking for a while, he said, "Go to bed early tonight, get up early tomorrow and take me out to see the conditions of those fields and mines." Without investigation, he has no right to speak. He has to investigate the situation first to find out what the problem is. Where can we make a targeted plan, otherwise it will definitely make a mess.

Jiang Zheng bowed and said yes.He is down-to-earth and honest, Yang Menglong is very satisfied with him.

With so many people arriving at once, Qianhu Station would definitely not be able to accommodate them. Han Peng directed his troops to camp outside Qianhu Station and set up tents. Many refugees were milling around their camp, looking at the cowhide tents. Peng's eyes turned green.In their eyes, these cow hides are rare delicacies. If they can steal a piece and cook it while Han Peng and the others are not paying attention, tonight's dinner will be secured.A long truck drove into Qianhu Station. Qi Hu directed the pretended men to put the bile alum and sulfuric acid into the warehouse. Yang Menglong valued these things very much. If something went wrong, he would kill someone.In addition to bile alum and sulfuric acid, there are also many good things. For example, Yang Menglong bought dozens of carts of grain from unscrupulous grain dealers through "fair trade". Wang Tiechui took the lead in unloading the bags of grain. , carried into the granary, Chen Baihu followed Yang Menglong's instructions to pull a few carts to the grain drying field, and shouted at the military households who were watching the excitement around the convoy to see if any grain had leaked out so that they could pick up some and take it back: " Listen, every household, the Lord of Qianhu has ordered to distribute grain to each household, ten pounds per household, come and get it quickly!"

The military households wondered whether there was something wrong with their ears and whether they were losing food?The first thing Yang Qianhu did when he took office was to teach them a lesson and establish his authority. Why did he turn into giving out food?The soldiers who had fought with Yang Menglong kept silent, picked up the rice bags and ran towards the grain drying field. They were used to queuing up naturally, waiting to receive the food. If they were late, they would be gone.Some timid peasant women rushed over to pull their men: "You don't want to die? Lord Qianhu is so kind..." The military household who was almost dragged out of the team was not polite, and pushed his wife away, staring The eyes shouted: "You know what a fart! I have been with General Yang for two or three months, and wandered around before the gate of hell several times. He has always said what he said, and there has never been a time when his words are not counted! Hurry up and call the old Wang next door!" Come here to get the food, it will be gone if it is too late!"

The soldier at the front opened the mouth of the rice bag happily, and shouted at Chen Baihu: "Master Baihu, we have such a good relationship, please give me more!" Chen Dahu picked up a rice bucket and poured it into the rice bag : "Just shut up, it's good to have some hair, and you want more? Be careful that General Yang is going to kill you, get out, get out!" The soldier who was scolded was not angry, holding a rice bag and shouting: "Ten catties, no more, no less, how many taels will you give me to die?" Dodging Chen Baihu's big kick, he ran home with a smile.Seeing that there were indeed food distributions, and that acquaintances were in charge of distributing them, all the military households' eyes lit up, and they rushed over to line up with rice bags. If someone wanted to jump in line, they would be kicked immediately.Just kidding, such a good thing may not happen once in ten years, who knows if there is enough food, if it happens to be gone after you receive the food, who will I cry to!Those who received the food even opened the rice bag, grabbed a handful to see, yes, it was white rice with no sand mixed in it, they were not willing to eat such good rice during the Chinese New Year!Don't talk about it, go back and make a fire to cook, eat the food first and then talk.Even if Yang Qianhu turned his back on him and wanted to return the food, he couldn't let them spit out what they ate, right?Soon, smoke was coming out of the chimneys of every household, and the hands and feet were really fast.

Until the rice was cooked, those honest peasant women still couldn't believe such a good thing, and while they were talking about what the adults of Qianhu were worried about, they served rice to the children who were drooling at the pot.They were all used to being bullied, and suddenly there was such a good thing, they were a little scared instead.Just as he was about to start eating, the sound of clappers rang again. Chen Baihu's broken voice was so amazing that the entire guard could hear it: "Listen, every household, don't be busy eating, there is still meat to send! Every household A catty of meat, hurry up and send someone over to get it!"

Is there any more meat to send?
The military households who had never experienced the battle of Dingxing County felt incredible, and they all opened their mouths and looked at each other.After the distribution of food and meat, it seems that this Qianhu adult is very sick!After being dazed, he picked up the guy and rushed out the door, three steps at a time and two steps towards the grain drying field, his movements were more than ten times faster than when he was picking up the grain!
No matter how short the food is, there is still a little bit of it, but this meat may not be eaten once a year!There is free meat to eat, whoever is slow is an idiot!
(End of this chapter)