"Tang Laohu~"

A cold light flashed in Liu Jin's eyes.

From the memory in my mind, I know that this old man Tang is simply a tiger who eats people and does not spit out bones, and everyone calls him Tang Tiger behind his back, which shows the notoriety of this person in the surrounding countryside.

"It seems that with this Tang Laohu, either you die or I live, but now... It's better not to mess with him first, but if you don't take the imperial examination, it seems a little difficult to protect yourself by relying on the identity of a showman. ”

Thinking of this, Liu Jin couldn't help but frown.

Since this Tang Laohu dared to kill Liu Jin, this shows that he has no fear, and he doesn't care about Liu Jin's identity as a Xiucai at all, although Xiucai's identity is not bad, he already has the power to see the official without kneeling, and he can directly send his lawsuit to the county official.

But Xiucai can't be an official, and he doesn't have the right to be exempted from taxes and forced labor, in fact, he still hasn't left the original class, but the Ming Dynasty treats scholars well, and Xiucai can be regarded as half a foot out of the identity of a mud leg.

"It's not too late for a gentleman to take revenge for ten years, let's talk about it first."

After thinking about it, Liu Jin couldn't think of any good countermeasures for a while, so he could only put this matter aside.

After waiting for about a quarter of an hour, Liu Jin's mother, Wang, walked in with a large bowl.

"Come, eat this bowl of noodles."

Wang brought his face to Liu Jin's bed and said with a smile on his face.

Liu Jin picked up the bowl, the bowl was a big and thick bowl, and there was only half a bowl of noodles in the bowl, and the rest was noodle soup.

From the memory in his mind, I know that Liu Jin's family has more than a dozen acres of land, and today's son has always been light and thin, and he can still get by hard work all year round, otherwise the Wang family would not have sent Liu Jin to study.

However, this white flour is not something that every household can eat, especially every day, and the average family, if there is no land at home, it is also a luxury to eat white flour every day.

"It's delicious, it's still good at my mother's craftsmanship."

Liu Jin is indeed hungry, eating noodles in large gulps, mouthfuls of noodles, when this person is hungry, everything he eats is fragrant.

The bowl of noodles made by the Wang family didn't put anything, just clear soup noodles, but Liu Jin ate it very fragrant, and soon even the noodles and soup were eaten cleanly.

"Looks like you're hungry, I'll go cook you another bowl."

Seeing that Liu Jin had eaten cleanly, Wang was full of smiles, and estimated that Liu Jin was not full, so he turned around and prepared to cook another bowl.

"Mother, I'm full, I don't need to cook anymore."

Liu Jin smiled and said, there is not much food at home, the Wang family has always been all the good things in Liu Jin's mouth, this white noodles, she herself is usually reluctant to eat more, often go to the beach to pick up some sea vegetables, shrimp and crabs and the like to satisfy her hunger.

Sea vegetables, shrimp and crabs belong to seafood in later generations, which are much more expensive than white noodles and the like, but in the Ming Dynasty, these things were only eaten by poor people, and people with conditions were mainly white noodles and rice.

At Wang's insistence, Liu Jin recuperated in bed for three days before he was allowed to go out.

Liu Jin's village is called Xiahetun, there is a small river at the entrance of the village, hence the name, the people of the whole village are ancestors migrated from other places, so the surnames are more mixed, unlike some other villages, the whole village is a surname, or there is a big surname dominant.

Liu Jin was wearing a robe, a square scarf on his head, dressed as a scholar, and wandered around the village very leisurely, admiring the ancient villages.

The whole Xiaohetun Village is not too big, only more than 40 households, hundreds of people, the houses in the village and so on are also some low mud houses, that is, the kind of houses built with yellow mud and thatch, although the houses of Liu Jin's family are dilapidated, but they are also houses built with bricks and wood, and they are also the best houses in the village.

"Brother Jin, are you okay?"

"It's okay, I'm not alive~"

"God bless, Brother Jin, you will not die in a great disaster, and there will be blessings in the future."

"Borrow your old good words."

"Brother Jin, study hard, get famous, and become a master in the future, so you don't have to be afraid of that Tang Laohu."

Along the way, the villagers Liu Jin met greeted Liu Jin warmly.

Although Liu Jin is a scholar, he has no shelf of a scholar, and the relationship with the big guys in the village is very good, and the people in the village are also kind people, and they have always taken good care of the orphans and widows of Li Jin's family, and they help plant the land when they are busy with farming, otherwise it is difficult to plant more than ten acres of land by the Wang family alone.

Of course, this is also inseparable from Liu Jin's cheap father, when Liu Jin's father was in the past, who was in a little difficult in the village, Liu Jin's father would also help, and everyone remembered it.

Xiahetun is not big, Liu Jin spent more than ten minutes to finish, the young and strong people in the village are busy in the fields, now is the time to plant winter wheat, a little older children also have to pick up hoes, work in the field.

In the whole village, there are only some old people who are very old and can no longer work in the fields, as well as some women with babies, running around and walking around.

"It's really poor enough, and the so-called ZTE is nothing more than that."

After visiting the village, Liu Jin couldn't help but shake his head again and again.

The whole Xiahetun is very poor, every family is poor, the dilapidated thatched houses, mud houses, the clothes worn by everyone are very tattered, there are not even a pair of shoes on the feet, straw shoes are luxuries, Liu Jin even saw some children walking around with bare buttocks.

Everyone I saw was black and thin, and some were even skinny and skinny, as if they were seriously ill, but in fact, it was only because they had not eaten enough and had not been warmly dressed for a long time.

You must know that this is the tenth year of Hongzhi, and the Hongzhi Emperor is a very good emperor, who has always been diligent and thrifty, and is very opposed to extravagance.

It should be said that under such a rule, the life of the common people should be good, but at this time, it belonged to the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and the land annexation became more and more serious.

In the whole of Xiahetun, only half of the more than 40 families have their own land, and the remaining 20 or so families all have no land, and can only rely on farming for the landlord to make a living, which is also the most miserable in the village.

There are more than 20 families with land, and there are not too many fields at home, at most three or four acres, but there are not seven or eight people in each family, and there are even more than a dozen or twenty people.

The output of the field is very limited, and it is conceivable that only a few acres of land can support such a large family.

Liu Jin's family has more than a dozen acres of land, and there are only two people, Wang and Liu Jin, which are considered to be a wealthy family in Xiahetun, relying on more than a dozen acres of land to send Liu Jin to study, otherwise, he can't afford to study at all.

In the final analysis, it is really a matter of land.

With each change of dynasty, the most important land will undergo a huge change, and with the passage of time, the phenomenon of land annexation will slowly become more and more serious.

It has been more than 100 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and land annexation has been quite serious, and more and more people have lost the fields they rely on for their livelihood and become hired farmers of wealthy families.

As for those families who have a little land, in fact, life is not easy, because all kinds of taxes and so on will eventually fall on these people.

As for those big landlords and gentry, they often have the privilege of tax exemption and sit on a large amount of fertile land, but they do not have to pay taxes and grain, but if the imperial court wants to maintain its operation, it is naturally impossible to do it without taxes.

So as time went on, the more and more privileged gentry had more and more land, and the taxes were slowly transferred to the peasants who owned a small amount of land, and the tax pressure only became heavier, which eventually intensified the land annexation.

People are seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, farmers with land will dedicate their land to the gentry who have tax-free privileges, and eventually the taxes collected by the imperial court will be less and less, a huge Ming Dynasty, and now the tax silver collected a year is only more than 3 million taels, and no one believes it.

Under such circumstances, the common people can barely survive in a good year, but once there is a natural or man-made disaster or something, it will be difficult for the people to survive at all, so there will be a chaotic scene of hooligans and countless Chen Sheng and Wu Guang.

As Liu Jin walked, he also kept thinking about the situation in Xiahetun.

Liu Jin has read a lot of historical novels, there are many historical novels about the Ming Dynasty, the most fundamental reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty is the same as the previous dynasties, it is the problem of land annexation, as for the Xiaoice period, internal worries and external troubles, party disputes, factory guards and so on are just external causes, all dynasties and dynasties are indispensable.

"If you want to do this, you should think about your own things first."

Soon, Liu Jin also shook his head, he is a flat-headed ordinary person, there is no need to worry about salty radishes, it is true that he still has to find a way to make himself live well first.

After visiting the village, Liu Jin also walked towards the seaside, Xiahetun is close to the sea, very close to the sea, only a few miles away, this sea is the Bohai Sea in later generations.