The old lady looked at the men who were glaring angrily at the door of the ancestral hall, then looked at Shen Ze, sighed and said: "Alas, little sixteen, it's not easy for you uncles, you look at it and give an explanation!" ”

The men standing at the entrance of the ancestral hall actually met Shen Ze and Wubo when they just entered Shenjiazhuang in a big car. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At that time, these men blocked Shen Ze at the head of the village, and they were angry at him one by one, as if they were going to eat him, and asked Shen Ze to give them an explanation. If it weren't for the old lady asking Shen Ze to come to the ancestral hall for training first, it is estimated that Shen Ze would be fed with an old fist by those angry uncles.

From the words of his uncles, Shen Ze also understood the reason for their anger. It turned out that when his house was raided, when the servants of the government came to Shenjiazhuang, they not only confiscated the fine softness brought back by their two unfilial sons, but also took away the fields of these uncles.

Because their fields fell under Shen Ze's name.

As for why their fields fell under Shen Ze's name, this matter has to start with Shen Xiucai's free food privilege after the Chinese style.

Emperor Taizu Lao Zhu was born in poverty, and he was still very sympathetic to the poor. After he sat in the world, the prescribed field tax rate was very low, only 30 taxes and 1.

The so-called thirty tax refers to the output of the field, which needs to be paid to the government as a tax for the imperial court. For example, if you have a yield of one stone and five buckets per mu, you need to pay one-thirtieth of the tax, that is, five liters.

However, although the policy is so prescribed, it is difficult to implement. It is difficult to determine how much each farmer's field produces, and the number of fields fluctuates frequently. Therefore, it is actually impossible to implement the harvest according to one-thirtieth of the yield per mu.

It is precisely because of this that in fact, local governments collect taxes on a household-by-household basis.

Local governments generally divide peasant households into three classes and nine levels according to the number of acres of land, the number of males, and the economic conditions of the family, and collect taxes according to the grade of each household. The lower class households pay five buckets of grain a year, and the rest of the households increase in turn. The higher the household level, the more taxes will naturally be paid.

As the lowest level of the Ming Dynasty's privilege hierarchy, Xiucai has the privilege of two stones of free grain, which means that a show can exempt the four lower-class families from taxes and grain.

Don't underestimate this treatment, in fact, it is already a great benefit for ordinary people. Because once you don't have to pay taxes, you don't have to pay all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous fees attached to taxes and grains!

If you have the privilege, you have to use it. Therefore, as soon as Shen Ze was admitted to the examination, Mrs. Shen naturally arranged for the clansmen of Shenjiazhuang to enjoy this benefit.

Mrs. Shen is still relatively fair, and these four families came to Shen Ze to ask for an explanation, which is the most difficult in the village, so he gave this benefit to these four families at that time.

Shen Ze signed a document with them to buy and sell the land property at that time, and the four of them transferred the land property to Shen Ze's name.

Of course, this is not a real transaction, and Shen Ze did not pay, as for those fields, they were also returned to the original owners for cultivation, but they only lived in the county yahu house, and it was actually the land of the four of them. Of course, in return, when the deed was made, it was agreed that half of the tax payable grain would be handed over to Shen Ze as rent.

Of course, this grain was really invisible to Shen Xiucai at that time, and he never asked for it.

After figuring out what happened, Shen Ze was a little speechless. From Shen Ze's highly conscious vision, this is obviously a loophole in the policy and digging into the corners of the imperial court. However, in the eyes of the people of the Ming Dynasty, this is all normal, everyone does this, there is nothing to be embarrassed about, this is a matter of course.

Although the contract with Shen Ze is just a formality, these fields have not really become his. But the officials of the government didn't care about this, and the prefect asked them to confiscate all of Shen Ze's property, which was obviously within all his property in the fields under Shen Ze's name, and they naturally wanted to take away the fields under Shen Ze's name.

These uncles are the most difficult families in the village, and some of the land can still be scavenged in the soil, and if this land is taken away, it is undoubtedly equivalent to the fall of the sky! Yes, when they saw Shen Ze, who had caused their land to be taken away, they were naturally angry.

Seeing that those uncles were so pitiful, Shen Ze was really a little unhappy!

Although Shen Xiucai did a sinful job, he let himself take the blame, Shen Ze felt a little wronged, but who made himself a person with noble conduct!

At that moment, Shen Ze spoke: "A few uncles, the little nephew has also earned a little silver now. It's better to do this, you each have a few acres of land, and the little nephew will compensate you at the market price, and it will be considered an explanation for you! ”

When several uncles heard Shen Ze say this, they couldn't help but feel a lot more relaxed. After the prefect Xu Gongzi received their land, he hadn't sold it yet, and with the silver, they could buy it back again.

…………

After solving the problem of the fields of several uncles, Shen Ze turned his head to look at his two sons again.

When they first entered Shenjiazhuang, these two unfilial sons followed Shen Ze's uncles to coax, asking Shen Ze to compensate for their confiscated things, and asking Shen Ze to pass them back, and they didn't plan to be Shen Ze's sons.

As for why Shen Xiucai has two sons before he gets married? This also starts with Shen Xiucai's Chinese style.

Because Shen Xiucai is Chinese, in addition to the privilege of free food and two stones, there is also a benefit, that is, in addition to being exempted from forced labor, he can also exempt two people from servitude, and this privilege Shen Lao Lady naturally cannot be wasted.

The so-called exemption means that one is exempt from forced labor.

In the Ming Dynasty, the population on the official yellow book is actually not the actual population of the Ming Dynasty. The actual population of the Ming Dynasty is far more than the population on the Yellow Book of the Official Government, because the names of many black households and people who have joined the slavery will not appear in the Yellow Book of the Official Government.

Only the people who have their names in the yellow books of the government, who have obtained household registration, and who pay taxes for the imperial court, can be considered the subjects of the Ming Dynasty and enjoy the various rights granted to their people by the Ming Dynasty.

Those who did not have a name in the Yellow Book of the government were considered black households, the so-called "exiles", while those who sold themselves into slavery were classified as "untouchables".

The Yellow Book of the Ming Dynasty is open to the people of its jurisdiction, and as long as you go to the government office of the jurisdiction to register, you can become a citizen of the Ming Dynasty. But in the Ming Dynasty, there are still many people who choose to be black households or slaves who have little security.

Of course, it's not that they're inherently cheap, but because there's a real benefit to doing so. Because in the Ming Dynasty, as long as the people were registered, they needed to pay taxes and serve the servitude for the imperial court, while the black households and slaves could evade paying taxes and did not need to serve the levy.

However, although you can escape servitude as a black household, you do not have a legal status, which means that you do not enjoy the rights granted by the Ming Dynasty. For example, if you participate in the imperial examination, such as serving as an official, or even if you are missing, the government can not accept it. Because there is no such person in the household registration file!

For the poor people, many of them are enough as long as they can make do with their lives, regardless of whether they have archives or not, they can survive at best. But wealthy households need legal status to protect their property, scholars need legal status to participate in the imperial examinations, and businessmen need legal status to go out to do business. But once he was on the official register, he had to bear a heavy burden of labor.

After the autumn harvest every year, before the spring planting, the short is one or two months, and the long is three or April, and it is necessary to work as cattle and horses for the government, and work as errands, which makes people miserable. This is the coldest time of the year, and many people who go to serve in forced labor can never return home.

Are there people who can enjoy legal status without having to serve in hard labor? Yes, such as royalty, nobles, officials, lifters, talents...... The old Zhu family gave them the privilege of tax exemption and exemption, and even more than they should be burdened in many cases. This extra privilege has naturally become the object of competition among other classes.

In order to avoid taxes and servitude, many people would join the official eunuchs as slaves. But this method is not suitable for scholars, because the status of slaves and maids is low, and three generations are not allowed to participate in the imperial examination.

Therefore, there is another way, that is, to pass on to others as sons. But for the sake of the fame of the imperial examination, he even did not recognize his ancestors, and this method was also very despicable.

The best situation is that there are officials of the same clan, and everyone is the same ancestor, the same clan and surname, so naturally there is no infamy.

There are not many people in Shenjiazhuang who read, only Shen Haochen and Shen Haoxuan. Don't think that there are only two people in a village who read very little! Because without three generations of accumulation, it is impossible to provide for scholars, and there are already a lot of full-time scholars in a small mountain village.

It is said that it is poor and rich in martial arts, but this is only relative. In this era, the cost of studying, whether it is the constraints of the tutor, or the cost of pen, ink, paper, inkstone and books used for reading and studying, is very expensive, plus the various expenses of taking exams, which are not affordable for ordinary poor families.

When Shen Ze was admitted to show talent, naturally there was no suspense for the two of them to enjoy these two free places.

In fact, Shen Xiucai was not very happy with his two sons, after all, he had not yet married. However, at that time, Mrs. Shen asked Shen Haochen and Shen Haoxuan to pass on Shen Xiucai as their sons, but they just greeted Shen Xiucai and asked Shen Xiucai to sign a succession document with them, and did not ask for his opinion much.

This is because the clan concept in this era is strong, unless Shen Xiucai is ready to break with the clan, Shen Xiucai has no way to refuse.

It is precisely because of this that Shen Ze has two more unfilial sons at this time.

Shen Ze looked at Shen Haochen and Shen Haoxuan, and said, "I will redraft a succession document in a while and transfer your household registration back." In addition, I will compensate you for all the assets that have been confiscated by me! ”

Shen Ze couldn't wait to get rid of these two unfilial sons, he was still a young man in his prime, what was the matter with his two sons? Just take the opportunity to get rid of these two burdens!

"Dad, we were wrong, please don't want us!" Shen Haochen and Shen Haoxuan heard that Shen Ze had now changed into a promising county master, and they didn't see the wind making the rudder, and they resolutely didn't want to go back.

Shen Ze said earnestly: "Chen'er, Xuan'er, you can go back, and do your filial piety to the third and seventh brothers." Don't worry, when you serve as a conscriptor in the future, I will pay you to hire someone to do the work on your behalf, and I will not delay your study. Dad won't be your father in the future, and he will still be your sixteenth uncle, and we will still be a family! The third brother and seventh brother in Shen Ze's mouth are Shen Haochen's father and Shen Haoxuan's father.

"Dad, we were wrong. The so-called one day for the father, for the life of the father, we are born as the father's son, death is the father's ghost, resolutely not to be a half-hearted person! ”

, these two shameless boys are relying on Lao Tzu! The conditions that Lao Tzu gave you are good enough, what do you want to do?! No, I insisted on taking this opportunity to transfer them back.

So Shen Ze continued to persuade earnestly: "Chen'er, Xuan'er, Uncle Sixteen doesn't even have a house now, and I still live in an inn, I'm afraid that you will suffer if you follow Uncle Sixteen, so you should study and serve your parents in Zhuangzi with peace of mind!" With Uncle Sixteen, I'm afraid I won't be able to take care of you! ”

"It's okay, we are willing to share weal and sorrow with our father, as long as we can be together, we don't feel bitter about the guest house!"

When Shen Ze heard this, he couldn't help but roll his eyes: You want to be beautiful, and you don't think the inn is bitter, who the hell says that the inn is bitter? Besides, Lao Tzu can't afford to live in a guest house alone, and he has to take the two of you unfilial sons to live together, and there is no door!

At that moment, Shen Ze resolutely bit to death and wanted to pass the two unfilial sons back, while his two sons begged Shen Ze for forgiveness.

Seeing that they were at a stalemate, Mrs. Shen finally decided to let the two boys stay in Shen Ze's name for the time being, but stay in Zhuangzi to study.

Although Shen Ze did not achieve the goal of severing relations with the two unfilial sons, he could only agree for the time being and talk about it later.

On the acre and three points of land in Shenjiazhuang, the old lady spoke very well, and Shen Ze was afraid that he would not agree with his decision and be beaten with his crutch again.

In the end, the old lady couldn't help but be satisfied when she saw that the matter was successfully resolved, waved her hand to everyone in the ancestral hall, and said heroically: "Let's all go eat meat!" ”

Shen Ze was very depressed, he spent money to bring meat, and he had to be open to the old lady to eat it, what is the reason for this?! O evil old society, all evil clan stubborn forces!

……

……