Chang Sangui is a farmer in Renhe County, but the two acres of thin land are not a problem at all, he can only rely on the sea to eat the sea and make a living by fishing.

The eldest son died in a shipwreck, the second son was disabled, the eldest daughter was married, and the second daughter and the younger daughter were ...... Drowned!

Since the beginning of the Chenghua Dynasty, there has been an epidemic of drowning of female babies in the south, especially Jiangxi and Zhejiang, which are also the two provinces where the people's lives are the most difficult.

As early as the Chenghua period, there was a royal history to report to the imperial court, saying that the people of Wenzhou, Taizhou, and Chuzhou in Zhejiang often drowned after giving birth to baby girls. The emperor summoned the Metropolitan Procuratorate to play right, and the officials of the Metropolitan Procuratorate replied: "This is not only the case in these three prefectures, but also in Ningbo, Shaoxing, Jinhua in Zhejiang, and even Fujian, Jiangxi, and Nanzhili. ”

In the tenth year of Hongzhi, Wang Xun of Yongjiazhi County said: "The makeup of the married girl's house is moved to a thousand gold, and the property is sold and invested. "This is to attribute the drowning of the baby girl to the fact that the dowry is too high.

The "Wenzhou Mansion Chronicles" compiled during the Wanli period also said that although the local middle-class family, the married daughter must also give enough dowry, and give birth to a daughter and abandon it.

It is also recorded: "Vulgar married women go bankrupt, although the rich families do not raise women, and there are more than 40 people who cannot wives, although their good families also take marriage robbery as a common thing." ”

This is no longer a problem of not being able to raise it, but it is that he can't afford to marry a daughter, and even a wealthy family chooses to drown a baby girl.

This situation continued until the end of the Ming Dynasty, when the mother of the late Ming Dynasty thinker Chen Qu said: "I don't do anything negative in my life, but I gave birth to a daughter at the age of 24, and I still hate it." ”

It is no wonder that Tang Fengyi, the Zhejiang patrol we mentioned earlier, will forcibly set the marriage age of men and women in Zhejiang. If the man is 20 years old and the woman is 15 years old, he must be married, and the violator will be punished according to the law. With the government's order, families who can't give a dowry can also marry their daughters smoothly.

Chang Sangui is like this, in order to marry his daughter, he almost went bankrupt that year.

Even if the in-laws are ordinary farmers, the dowry must not be shabby, otherwise they will be laughed at and unable to raise their heads. He also sold an acre of thin fields, and went to the sea with others to catch sharks, and finally scraped together enough dowry of eight taels of silver.

Fortunately, the second daughter and the younger daughter had already drowned, otherwise it would have been Chang Sangui's turn to jump into the sea.

Unfortunately, the eldest son died in a shipwreck, and the second son was lame, and he could not recover the dowry by marrying a daughter-in-law.

"Sangui, come here and help!" The foreman shouted.

"Eh, here it is!" Chang Sangui ran quickly.

Chang Sangui's dilapidated houses and thin fields all belong to the category of demolition, not for the construction of seaports, but for the construction of warehouses and roads. He was innocent and a demolition household, so he was hired as a worker.

I don't do anything else, just help unload the goods, and then take care of the goods.

The warehouse is still under construction, and a vacant lot has been carved out, and a simple bamboo shed has been built with bamboo poles, where all the goods that are about to go to sea are stacked.

I heard that merchants from all over the country had besieged the governor's palace, because the ships promised by the governor had been delayed, and the Qiantang sailors were patrolling to combat pirates, and these merchants were afraid that their goods would not be sold.

In Chang Sangui's mind, Governor Wang is a good official.

The good official is obvious, Chang Sangui's family occupied Bo Tian is all compensated according to the price of good land, and Governor Wang also arranged work. He got his own errand at the storehouse, and his wife was called to wash the clothes of the soldiers, and the wages were paid every day, and life was much better than before.

It's a pity, my son is unconscious!

The family's demolition compensation was taken by his son to lose all his money, and he owed dozens of taels of silver. How can this Chang Sangui still afford it?

The son has been detained, and he has to pay the money for three days, otherwise he will be thrown into the sea to feed the fish.

However, the other party gave a way to live. As long as Chang Sangui complied, he would not only erase the dozens of taels of gambling debts, but also get a reward of one hundred taels of silver, and even promised to arrange a marriage for his son.

"Sangui, where are you going? It's time to get paid! Former neighbor Li Si shouted.

Chang Sangui was taken aback and replied, "Here, here!" ”

Chang Sangui went out to line up to receive the completion money, and quietly turned around and went back, because there were many people and he was not discovered.

It was getting dark, and an official came to count the goods. Chang Sangui was already familiar with the terrain, listening to the footsteps and playing hide and seek with the officials, going around for a while, and finally escaped the investigation of the officials.

"Governor Wang, you are a good official, but my son must also live. I'm sorry. ”

Chang Sangui squatted in the corner and took out a fire fold and a ball of cotton wool. The surrounding goods are all covered by tarpaulins, and that thing is waterproof and not fireproof, and it will be a large piece when it burns up!

Cotton burns quickly, and as long as it is thrown on a tarp, countless goods can be burned.

Chang Sangui hesitated, squatted there in a daze, and waited for most of the cotton wool in his hand to be missing, before gritting his teeth and deciding to throw it out.

Just then, there was a commotion outside.

……

A quarter of an hour ago.

Wang Yuan was dealing with the merchants, promising that before the Qiantang tide came, countless ships would arrive in Hangzhou.

At this moment, the messenger came in and said, "Master General, there is a woman outside, who said that she has something important to report, and she can't get rid of it." ”

Wang Yuan was so annoyed by the merchants that he also wanted to go out to breathe, so he got up and said, "I'll go and see you, you guys wait a minute." ”

Outside the Land Temple, there was a peasant woman kneeling, with gray hair and a wrinkled face, who was actually in her forties.

"Lord Governor!"

When the peasant woman saw Wang Yuan, she was a little afraid, but she still knelt down and climbed forward.

Wang Yuan smiled and said, "Get up and speak." ”

The peasant woman refused to get up, but kept kowtowing: "Please spare my man's death penalty!" ”

Wang Yuan thought that he was here to make trouble again, so he frowned and asked, "What capital crime?" ”

The peasant woman kowtowed and said, "The governor agreed first, and I dare to say it." ”

Wang Yuan said casually: "Okay, I'll spare him for the death penalty, you can say it quickly." ”

Then the peasant woman said, "Please save my son's life, Lord Governor." ”

Wang Yuan became more and more curious: "Who wants to kill your son?" ”

The peasant woman stumbled and said: "Zhao Yidao from Min'an Fang in the south of the city, he lured my son to gamble, and forced my man to burn the store......"

"Someone!"

Wang Yuan was suddenly startled, and without waiting for the peasant woman to finish speaking, he shouted: "Qingshi, you take fifty sergeants to Min'an Fang in the south of the city to arrest Zhao Yidao, and send someone to notify the county government to arrest people together." The rest of you, come with me to the warehouse to put out the fire, hurry! ”

Wang Yuan beat his horse and galloped, and shouted when he met people along the way: "Come with me to fight the fire, and there will be a lot of rewards after the deed is done!" ”

By the time they arrived at the warehouse, the soldiers had been thrown away, but there were hundreds of civilians and servants along the way.

When Wang Yuan rushed to the warehouse, there was nothing unusual in the first warehouse, and there was nothing unusual in the second warehouse...... Until the third warehouse, sure enough, I saw a fire burning in the corner.

"Fuck!"

Wang Yuan couldn't help but burst into foul language, if this warehouse burned down, there would be no way to explain to those merchants, it was all things that were temporarily stored here without money.

"Fight the fire!"

"Move the goods out of the neighborhood first!"