When Lu Jin came to the door of Lu Ren's home, which was located in the middle of the village, it was already early afternoon, and many uncles and brothers of the same clan looked at him with some strange eyes when they saw him here, but none of them came forward to say hello, which was completely different from the situation when he first entered the village yesterday.

Thinking of the behavior of these people who quickly dispersed after learning that they had been dismissed last night, and the way they came to give back gifts with shy faces this morning, Lu Zhen couldn't help but sneer in his heart. The Lu family in this village is really superb, no wonder in a place like Suzhou, there has been a talent who can be admitted to the Jinshi for decades.

However, he didn't entangle with these guys more, and in the face of their onlookers, he didn't have any reaction, but just walked into Lu Ren's home, which was half-hidden at the courtyard gate.

Lu Ren's return to home is now the highest status household in the entire Lujiagou Village, not only the yard covers an extremely wide area, but also is divided into two courtyards, which looks very different from other houses in the village. Of course, this is just a comparison with those people in the same village, in Lu Jin's eyes, this house is still shabby and shabby, and it is not worth mentioning at all.

Walking into the courtyard, facing the door is a big room that is used as a guest hall, at this time Lu Rengui and his son Lu Tang are sitting up and down, each with a cup of tea, as if they are talking about something. As soon as they saw someone coming in, the words of the two fathers and sons stopped, and Lu Tang frowned slightly.

Their father and son now have a very high status in the village, and ordinary villagers will always greet them first when they come in, and he is very unhappy with the practice of going straight to the hall like this. However, after seeing that it was Lu Jin, he didn't have a seizure, but he didn't get up to greet him, and still sat there motionless: "It turned out that Xiao Qi was here." Are you here to settle the bill? ”

Lu Jin came in the door, rushed to sit on the top first, and Lu Rengui, who didn't make any noise, hugged his fist as a salute, and then found a random place to sit down and said: "Yes, in addition, I also have something to discuss with my uncle." ”

Lu Rengui's brows furrowed slightly, both because of Lu Jin's behavior and because of his words.

In recent years, his status in the village has become higher and higher, and ordinary villagers are trembling when they see him, and they are a little helpless even when they stand, let alone dare to sit down at will. But this Lu Zhen is good, and he actually sat down directly without waiting for his polite words, which made him uncomfortable.

And the latter words are even more rude, saying that he has something to discuss with himself, isn't this directly skipping his peer Lu Tang, and being on an equal footing with himself, who is an uncle? It's really unreasonable, if he were still an official, he would just be dismissed, and now he has been dismissed, he still dares to be like this, he is really presumptuous!

Lu Tang didn't hear anything at first, but after seeing his father's face change, he faintly guessed something, and his face also changed, and he snorted in a low voice, quite dissatisfied: "Xiao Qi, if you have anything difficult, you can discuss it with me, the fourth brother, as long as I can help, I will definitely not refuse." ”

"The stakes are high, so it's safer for me to discuss with my uncle." Lu Zhen replied with a smile as if he couldn't see Lu Tang's somewhat darkened face. Then, he took out a large ingot of silver from his sleeve and put it on the table: "The fourth brother mentioned the rebuilding of my ancestral house before, and I feel that I should really thank my uncle and other villagers, and this is the money for repairing the house." ”

Looking at the silver that was shining dazzlingly in the sun, the eyes of Lu Rengui's father and son were a little dazzled. To be honest, although they are in the village and commanding, in fact, life is just passable. I've never seen such a big ingot of silver in my life.

Suddenly, a smile appeared on Lu Rengui's face: "Xiao Qi, you too, why are you doing so much?" We are our own families, and it is also appropriate to help each other, what kind of money is not money to talk about? But his hand had already reached out, and he took the ingot of silver directly.

This kind of behavior of doing one thing and saying another thing really made Lu Zhen shake his head, and he didn't know how to describe him. However, he didn't express what he thought in his heart, but just smiled: "Of course, the uncle is out of good intentions, but the fourth brother has a saying before that is very reasonable, this brother still has to settle accounts." Since it costs a lot to repair the house, I, the junior, can't let your family break the bank. ”

"It's still Xiaoqi, you are sensible, and the fourth brother admires it." Seeing this, Lu Tang also praised it with satisfaction, and at the same time breathed a sigh of relief.

When his family wanted to build a house for Lu Jin's family, he planned to make a good relationship with his clan brother who had become an official, in order to eliminate those barriers in the past. But who knew that this time Lu Jin came back with the news that he had been dismissed, which made Lu Ren feel panicked when he returned home.

After some discussion yesterday, there was a move of Lu Tang's door to ask for an account early this morning. Originally, he was worried that Lu Zhen would not admit it, but now he actually came to the door to repay the money so quickly, and the silver he took out looked more than thirteen taels, how could this make Lu Tang not happy?

"Since it's Xiao Qi's heart, I'll accept it, uncle." Lu Rengui didn't excuse himself again, and after accepting the silver, he said: "But this big ingot of silver is more than thirteen taels, and I can't find any scattered silver at home for a while......"

"The extra ones should be honored by the little nephew." Lu Zhen smiled and said very angrily.

"What's so embarrassing?" Saying this, Lu Rengui had already put the silver into his sleeve, but he smiled.

Lu Zhen didn't see it, and continued: "In addition to coming to settle the account, the little nephew came here today to discuss two things with you, uncle. ”

"You say." The so-called short-handed man, since he received such a large ingot of silver, he naturally wanted to express his goodwill.

"The first one is that the little nephew plans to move to Suzhou City in two days, and has been in Beijing and other places in recent years, and I always feel that living in the village is a little uncomfortable, and I hope the uncle can agree." Lu Zhen smiled and said.

"Naturally, there is no problem with this. In fact, your fourth brother and several other brothers have also rented a house in Suzhou City for various reasons, if you don't dislike it, you can live with them. Lu Rengui waved his hand.

Lu Jin hurriedly thanked him, but refused the other party's arrangement. At the same time, there was a strange glint in his eyes: "As for this second matter, it may be a little difficult to do, and I hope that the uncle can help the little nephew to be the master when the time comes." ”

"You said, as long as I can do it, I will definitely help you make the decision." Lu Rengui didn't care about it.

"It has been almost five years since my nephew left the village, and during this time the rent of the fields in my name has not been paid to me. If I am right, there should be no less than 100 acres of land in my village that are hung in the name of my little nephew, and according to the rent set by the government now, there will be more than ten or twenty taels of land rent to be collected every year. For the sake of everyone being of the same clan, the little nephew suffered a loss, and only collected the rent of fifty taels of silver from the clansmen, and in the future, he will collect the rent at this price, I don't know what you think, uncle? Lu Jin's words were an understatement, but Lu Rengui's father and son in front of him completely changed their faces when they heard it!

They completely forgot that Lu Zhen had brought such a large amount of income to the village and his family, but it was ridiculous that he was still thinking about repairing the house before.

Lu Jin's family is not wealthy, since the death of his father Lu Rendong, the situation in the family has become more and more tight, and even many times he has to rely on the help of the Chu family, which is the Yue family, to survive.

However, this situation was reversed after Lu Jin's examination was lifted. Because those who have entered the ruling class have many convenient benefits in the government, such as being exempt from forced labor for themselves and several men in their families, and more importantly, there is no tax on the land in their name!

This is a great benefit of the imperial court in order to encourage the people to study diligently and take the imperial examination. However, as soon as the policy came out, it was quickly exploited by the people below. Isn't it possible to raise taxes on other people's fields? So that the people moved all the land under their names to the names of the people, so that the original landlords could be exempted from taxes as long as they paid a rent that was much lower than the government taxes, and the people got a benefit from this, but only the government really suffered. This is the famous contribution of the Ming Dynasty, often once a candidate is selected, his relatives and friends will come to the door with gifts, begging him to accept his land.

Because of this, as long as you win the examination, even if you don't have an inch on the road to the imperial examination in the future, you will live a very prosperous life. Therefore, only the poor show talent, but I have never heard of the poor people.

However, the disadvantages of this practice were also quite serious, as the government reduced the amount of taxes and allowed the land to be concentrated more in the hands of a small number of privileged people. In fact, the serious phenomenon of land annexation in the middle and late Ming Dynasty is also an important reason.

The people of Lujiagou also got a lot of benefits from Lu Jin's Zhongju and Zhongjinshi. But because of selfishness, they completely ignored this point and never thought that Lu Zhen helped everyone.

Now, Lu Jin's words are clear, and Lu Rengui's father and son suddenly don't know how to speak. Because logically speaking, they did owe Lu Zhen so much land rent to the villagers, and these can be found in the county yahu's house. Especially Lu Rengui's family, with their family's status in the clan, their family has the greatest benefits, otherwise they would not have a huge family business.

And now, Lu Zhen went directly to the door to ask for the account, and they knew that the benefits they had obtained before had to pay a price, and that dozens of taels of silver were not a small amount.

And what makes them feel even more headache is that they have talked about it before, and their brothers still have to settle accounts, can they still change their words now?