Yuyao is only a small county in the south of the Yangtze River, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Songjiang are each more prosperous than it, not to mention Nanjing City, but this prosperity does not belong to Zhu Cihuan.

He bought some flour and sesame oil in the grain and oil shop, and pulled a few feet of ordinary cotton cloth in the cloth village, preparing to make a new dress for his wife when he returned, and some shoes and hats for his son in the corners, and then cut half a pound of pork in the butcher's shop, and the copper coins on his body were spent.

In the distance, in a tile house, is telling a story, and in the theater farther away, Kunqu opera is being sung, a strong and vivid breath of life, so that Zhu Cihuan is intoxicated, he wanted to go shopping, but the scoundrel is shy, and there are things at home, so he had to leave the street with his back and return to Hujiazhuang.

The sergeant who was on guard ran back and reported to the officer the results of the day he had followed, told him what he had doubted, and asked for a hundred pennies.

The officer frowned, but he still took out a hundred Wen to the old pawn, the old pawn took the money, his face was full of smiles, he pushed it to his chest, and asked: "Boss, I think that boy is different from ordinary people, he has a noble spirit, but most of them are just a rich and noble boy who escaped from the north, why is the boss so interested?" ”

The officer sneered and glanced at the old pawn, "Li Xiancheng is a relative of Zhang Ge's hometown, you know!" ”

"Yes! It is said that the third son of Zhang Ge's hometown took Li Xiancheng's sister as a concubine, and as soon as Governor Liu's term of office arrives this year, he will be transferred to Huzhou to be the same governor, and Li Xiancheng in our county should be the master. The old pawn nodded, but he still didn't understand, "But what does this have to do with this son?" ”

When the officer heard him say this, he knocked him down, and watched him bow his head and put the counted copper coins in his arms, "You are still very well-informed, and you are also very smart, and you can do everything you explain, but you will not seize the opportunity, sir, and only see the small profits in front of you, so you are only a pawn so far." Li Xiancheng wants to straighten out, do you think I want to stammer? ”

The officer hinted that he would return the copper money to him and give him a chance to stammer, but the old man didn't know if he really didn't understand or didn't hear it, so he still put the money in his hands, and then looked puzzled, "What does this have to do with that son?" He thought that the commander said that he could only be a pawn so far, and thought that the officer in front of him entered the industry seven or eight years later than him, but mixed up with the position of inspection, and couldn't help but say: "Teach me, the boss!" ”

"The scholar fled from the north, and behaved in a way that was once bound to be a rich man, but he seemed to be deliberately hiding his identity. In this case, it is very likely that the person in the case, or the person who has not had time to withdraw to the north, and there are people whose family members are officials in the north, so they are so careful. ”

After the Ming army attacked Nanjing, the connection between Zhejiang and Fujian and the north was cut off by the Ming army, Xiao Qihui, Tan Tai, Zhang Cunren and others surrendered successively, so that the Ming Dynasty quickly took over Zhejiang and Fujian, but not all Qing Dynasty officials were willing to surrender, and some people were unwilling to surrender to the Ming Dynasty because their families were in the north, or there were relatives who served as high-ranking officials in the north.

These people are equivalent to being stranded in the area ruled by the Ming Dynasty, and they can only remain incognito, because most of them will not be polite when the Ming Dynasty catches them, and the officers are a little suspicious that Zhu Cihuan is such a person.

The old pawn nodded and agreed with his judgment, but if it was just like this, there was no need for the officers to be so concerned, whether it was their business to arrest them, and what did this have to do with Li Xiancheng?

Seeing the old man's expression, the officer deliberately paused for a moment, and then said with a hint of triumph: "You also heard it before, and the boy said that it was Hu Yuanwai's east bed." Li Xiancheng's brother-in-law, who is the weaver Zhou Yuanwai in the east of the city, fell in love with Hu Yuanwai's more than 1,000 acres of rice fields outside the city, and wanted to buy them all and plant mulberry seedlings, but this Hu Yuanwai was an old stubborn and unwilling, saying that he couldn't let the tenants have no work, no one could grow food, and said that the imperial court didn't manage, and sooner or later there would be big problems, so he didn't want to live or die. ”

Now the traditional small-scale peasant economy of the Ming Dynasty has not disintegrated, it still maintains a considerable size, the traditional power is still very strong, and there is still a shortage of raw materials and manpower in the merchant workshop.

Merchants and wealthy families acquired large quantities of land as means of production through high-priced acquisitions or collusion between officials and merchants, and improved their salaries to recruit people to work in the workshops, slowly dismantling the traditional economic model, which led to conflicts between them and small landlords and peasants.

However, judging from the current situation and the attitude of the government, the traditional economic model will inevitably disintegrate, and large-scale, large-scale, and unified planting will be formed in terms of planting, and small landlords and small farmers will definitely lose a lot of land and even go bankrupt, so as to release a large number of labor force for merchants and big landlords of the big tycoons to drive.

This is not a good thing, and it is certainly not a good thing for Xiaomin.

If the traditional economy is dissolved, there will inevitably be a large number of landless people in society, and the workshops will change from being unable to hire people and the shortage of labor to being able to hire people everywhere, and at that time, it is not yet known whether the merchants and the wealthy will hire these landless people on excellent terms, and there will inevitably be a more fierce struggle to continue.

When the old man heard the officer say this, he seemed to understand a little, and he looked shocked, "Does the boss want to find out the identity of that son, and then help Zhou Yuanwai deal with Hu Yuanwai?" But Hu Yuanwai is a well-known good person in our Yuyao, and even Governor Liu has to go over to visit him every year! ”

The officer said with a smile, "Hu Yuanwai's grandfather was Wanli Jinshi, who was killed when he broke into the north of the cholera and was the queen of loyalty, so Zhou Yuanwai and Li Xiancheng did not dare to do it, otherwise his land would have been annexed by Zhou Yuanwai." Don't you see that Li Changsheng of Li Village was put in prison by Li County? Now if I can confirm the identity of that son, I can cure Hu Yuanwai for harboring a crime and help Zhou Yuanwai a great favor. Do you think Li County will not remember me after he is straightened up? I can even pass through Li Xiancheng and catch Zhang Gelao's line, and soaring is just around the corner. ”

As the officer spoke, he was a little hopeful, he stopped, thinking that the old pawn would admire him, but when he saw the old pawn looking at him with some astonishment, he couldn't help but be slightly stunned, and then immediately suppressed his smile and said, "Pleasing Li Xiancheng, this is just a matter of incident." I did this mainly because the boy was really suspicious, if he was really a sinner, how could we let him get away with it, although Hu Yuanwai had a good reputation, but he should be punished for recruiting a sinner as a son-in-law. ”

Although the old pawn felt that what the officer said was wrong, if the boy was really a sinner, he really needed to be arrested, but that son was Hu Yuanwai's son-in-law, and there was no evidence, but it was not easy to offend, after all, Hu Yuanwai also had acquaintances in the officialdom.

After the officer finished speaking, seeing that the old man did not react, he couldn't help frowning, and regretted saying this to him, so he said: "Okay, you go to the door, don't tell anyone about this matter, understand?" ”