On December 15, the eighth year of Daming Shenwu, it was still cold in the north, but the snow had bloomed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places. The Spring Festival is half a month away, and the entire south of the Yangtze River is in a joyful atmosphere.

Zhu Hongsan was much stronger than his beggar ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang in the southern provinces, and Zhu Hongsan ordered to reduce the taxes of Susong Erfu to a reasonable level after occupying Nanjing, so this year ordinary people in Jiangsu Province had two spare money in their hands.

In Tongli Town, ten miles outside Wujiang County, Suzhou Prefecture, Jiangsu Province, there is a large farm, where lives the Dadi advocate family of Wujiang County, and the head of the family is Zhang Qingfang.

Zhang Qingfang was born in the Zhang family, a big family in Nanzhili, but Zhang Qingfang and the contemporary Zhang family advocate Yaofang are seventeen or eighteen generations apart, so they can only be regarded as the partial house of the Zhang family. But this is not simple, the Zhang family was definitely one of the largest families in the south at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Zhang Yaofang's father, Zhang Rulin, was a Jinshi in the twenty-third year of Wanli, and Zhang Yaofang's maternal grandfather, Zhu Geng, served as the first assistant of the cabinet in the late Wanli period. In addition, the history of the Zhang family can be traced back to Zhang Zhao in the Three Kingdoms period, and the Zhang family had big officials in the Tang, Song and Ming dynasties. With this kind of deep family background and the support of officialdom, the Zhang family is the big family of the entire Nanzhili.

At the same time, Zhang Yaofang also has a terrible son, this person is Zhang Dai, who is recognized as one of the most powerful writers in the late Ming Dynasty. There is also Zhang Yaofang's younger brother Zhang Lianfang, his two daughters married Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu who was exiled to eastern Zhejiang at that time, but in the end these two daughters fell into the hands of Zhu Hongsan, and one of them also gave birth to Zhu Hongsan. At the same time, the Zhang family was on the front line during the resistance to the Qing Dynasty, and Zhang Yaofang basically destroyed his family to relieve difficulties and supported the righteous army in eastern Zhejiang. Political correctness and Zhang Jiashu have deep roots, so after Zhu Hongsan occupied Nanjing, in order to buy people's hearts and reward meritorious deeds, Zhang Yaofang directly gave him the title of squire and served as the right squire of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites. His son Zhang Dai was also given a fellow jinshi by Zhu Hongsan, but Zhang Dai was used to being idle and did not become an official.

With this kind of family background as an endorsement, Zhang Qingfang is even more hegemonic in Wujiang County, and even the newly appointed local magistrate has to visit Zhang's family to avoid some things that cannot be advanced after taking office. Zhang Qingfang also took advantage of the power of the Zhang family to annex land here in Wujiang County, in addition to thousands of acres of paddy fields, there are thousands of acres of mulberry fields, and thousands of acres of Taihu Lake water area is also owned by Zhang Qingfang.

Zhang Qingfang has this kind of family background, and at this time he was also worried at home, because it was very simple, the team sent by the province went to Wujiang. The task of the task force is very simple: to find out how many paddy fields and mulberry fields there are in the local area, and how much tax they have to pay each year.

Zhu Hongsan's new policy has been in place in Suzhou for two years, but it has had little effect, for the simple reason that local officials are not cooperative. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the world was in turmoil, and Nanzhili did not suffer too much impact here, so the local gentry still retained considerable power. The magistrates here were also more or less bribed by the gentry, so they naturally disobeyed the new policy of the imperial court.

In the past, because Zhu Hongsan had all his thoughts on the north, he had no time to care about the affairs of Nanzhili. But now it is different, Zhu Hongsan has unified China, so it is natural to focus on the tax-paying land of South China, Susong Erfu. In the past two years, the implementation of the new policy of Su Song's second government has been slow, Zhu Hongsan is very unhappy, and in March of the eighth year of Shenwu, he found a reason to put the former Suzhou prefect in prison, and then sent Pan Zide to be the new prefect of Suzhou.

Pan Zide is Chongzhen's ten-year jinshi, is the first assistant Ma Mingyuan's classmate, to Suzhou here naturally to implement the emperor's new policy, in less than a year, the new policy of the early land survey work has been almost completed, only a few remote towns have not been done. In order to make a good impression in front of the emperor, the prefect of Pan was ready to complete all the surveying work under Suzhou before the year. Therefore, in November, he strictly ordered six counties and one prefecture to complete all the work by the end of the year.

As a big landlord in Wujiang County, Zhang Qingfang had already received a call from a friend in the prefect's yamen, asking him to make plans early, this time is different from the last time, it seems that the prefect is going to move seriously, and they don't dare to shield Zhang Qingfang.

Zhang Qingfang, who received the news, was also very anxious, it was true that he was a peripheral member of the Zhang family, but he did not have the courage to go against the imperial power. Today, I received the news that the work team would come to their house tomorrow to measure, and I hurriedly called my master to get an idea.

Zhang Qingfang's master was originally a poor talent, and he took refuge in Zhang Qingfang when he had no way out. Today, Master Liang heard the master call himself, and hurried to the master's study in the front yard.

After Master Liang heard what happened to the master's family, he didn't have any idea in his heart, and he twisted his beard and didn't speak. This is in a hurry, Zhang Qingfang, Master Zhang, this master was hired by him for ten taels of silver per month, what do you want to do when you drop the chain at the critical moment?

"Brother Liang, what should I do, you have something to say!"

Taking people's money and eliminating disasters with people, Master Liang had no choice but to say when he heard Zhang Qingfang say this: "The proprietor, this time the prefect has given a death order, I heard that the Qian family in Changshu obediently accepts measurements according to the law, we can't stand it!" ”

Zhang Qingfang heard Master Liang say this and said angrily: "What kind of thing is he Qian Qianyi, he is just a nouveau riche, how can a guy who relies on his daughter to take the position compare with our Zhang family!" ”

After hearing this, Master Liang secretly pouted in his heart, you scolded Qian Qianyi for relying on his daughter to take the position, so what did your Zhang family rely on to get on the throne? Qian Qianyi's daughter is a noble concubine, and the two sons and daughters of your Zhang family don't even have an official status, they are just the emperor's playthings. But Master Liang thought so in his heart, but he didn't dare to say it, after all, he was going to eat Zhang Qingfang's food now.

"The proprietor, half a month ago, there was news from Dongshan, Master Huang did not cooperate with the team to measure, and was found out by the county magistrate that he had colluded with the Manchu Qing Dynasty back then, and also sent military rations to the Manchu Dynasty, and the whole family was arrested by Jinyiwei, I heard that the men were sent to Luzon to open mines, and the female dependents were sold to the Nanjing Teaching Division, which is very miserable!"

Hearing Master Liang say this, Zhang Qingfang was trembling all over, and he had also heard about it. Not only Dongshan, but also several towns and villages under the rule of Wujiang County have more or less landlords who rebelled against the New Deal, and none of these people were spared, and they were all charged with various crimes by Jinyiwei, and they were convicted and imprisoned, and the worst was directly condemned to prison.

Nanzhili here is different from eastern Zhejiang, this place originally did not have a good impression of Zhu Yuanzhang, they were not too opposed when the Manchus first occupied Nanjing, and the Manchus also reduced their taxes to normal that were much higher than those in other places, so the gentry in Nanzhili did not dislike the Manchus. As for the rebellion of Nanzhili in the future, it was because the Manchu Qing wanted to shave their heads, and in order to preserve their Han family clothes, fierce resistance broke out in various parts of Nanzhili. However, with the transfer of Hong Chengchou by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, under Hong Chengchou's soft and hard wrists, the resistance in various parts of Nanzhili gradually weakened, and the landlords in various places began to have more or less contact with the Manchu regime, which was completely different from the eastern part of Zhejiang, which had fought with the Manchus to the end from beginning to end.

Therefore, these landlords in Nanzhili have pigtails in the hands of Jinyiwei, and it is impossible to say that they are not afraid.

But not resisting means that his interests will be lost, and Zhang Qingfang knows that surveying the land is the first step, and then the tax will be collected according to the measured amount. The most recent national land survey was measured in the ninth year of Wanli when Zhang Juzheng implemented reforms, but now it is more than 80 years away, and Zhang Qingfang's land has expanded more than ten times over the years, so it is really painful for him to pay taxes according to the real number now!

"Brother Liang, can you see if there is any way for me to escape this catastrophe?" Zhang Qingfang really didn't want to take the silver, so he had to let Master Liang come up with an idea.

After all, Master Liang took other people's money, thought for a long time and said: "The proprietor, it's not that there is no way, but the Shaoxing Zhang family needs to come forward!" ”

Hearing that there was an idea, Zhang Qingfang's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked: "Brother Liang, please say, if you need my eldest brother to come forward, I will beg him!" ”

"The proprietor, as the saying goes, the law does not blame the public, tomorrow the team will come to measure the land, we can encourage the tenants to make trouble, but it is estimated that the master will be taken down by the team, and then the master Zhang of Shaoxing will come forward! When the time comes, Master Zhang will contact the squires of Nanzhili and Zhejiang, and another change in Suzhou may make the emperor's new policy return in vain! ”

Zhang Qingfang scolded in her heart when she heard Master Liang say this, what kind of good idea is your mother, isn't this to let me fill the hole? But Zhang Qingfang thought about it and thought that he no longer had any good ideas to solve his urgent needs, so he had to agree to the idea that Master Liang said. Zhang Qingfang wrote a letter to Zhang Lianfang, the second master of the Zhang family who was far away in Shaoxing, and Master Liang went to buy tenants and prepare for tomorrow.

As soon as the gate of Wujiang County was opened the next day, the team sent by the province was ready to leave the city and go to Tongli Town, ten miles outside the city.

A total of 18 people came to the provincial work team, which was composed of four yamen subordinates of the Yamen of the Political Division, namely, the Governor of the Grain Road, the Supervision of the Register, the Sub-Shou Dao, and the Experience Division. They have been in Suzhou for a full year, and today is the last stop.

The team took the lead in Yang Zongjian, a senator from Wupin, who stood at the gate of the city and said to Wang Zhang, the commander of Wujiang County, who came to see him off: "Lord Wang, please go back, this Tongli Town should be our last stop, and we will go back to Nanjing directly after five days, so we will not go back to Wujiang and say goodbye to Lord Wang!" ”

Wang Zhang is a three-year jinshi of Shenwu, a talent selected by Zhu Hongsan in the first imperial examination when he became the emperor, and naturally he is also a student of Ma Mingyuan.

As a student of Ma Mingyuan, Wang Zhang naturally knew that this Qingzhang Tianmu was a new policy implemented by his teacher, and there was no room for mistakes, so after receiving the provincial document, Wang Zhang had been conscientious and conscientious this year, for fear that the new policy would make a mistake in his own one-third of an acre. But fortunately, there is only one town left, and there are no accidents in Wujiang County in this Qingzhang land, which Wang Zhang is still very pleased with. ()

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