In the 11th year of Wanli, summer, Ningbo.

Agricultural proverb: There is rain at the beginning, and there is rain at the beginning. But since the summer solstice, there have been one or two rains in the entire south of the Yangtze River that have not even rushed into the rain to wipe their bodies, and since the ambush, there has not been a drop of rain. It's actually not bad if it doesn't rain, there is a lot of rain in Jiangnan, and there are more silkworms in Jiangnan, Sang Xiguang, this year's mulberry results are quite abundant, but after all, Jiangnan can't rely on silkworms alone, and those who plant the rest of the crops have long been unable to sit still, especially in Ningbo, which is already boiling with public resentment.

Most of the grass grass is planted in Ningbo, which likes moisture and basically grows in wetland swamps...... At this time, there were rumors among the people, saying that Taohuawu bloomed in October last year, which was auspicious from the sky, but this year's Xiucai made trouble, and a fire burned the Guozhang family and Taohuawu clean, which is God's anger.

The common people are always easy to fool, and the farmers of this era are even less knowledgeable, not to mention that the peach blossoms bloomed in October last year, it was a strange thing, and the whole Jiangnan was boiling, although most farmers forgot about it later, after all, the peach blossoms had nothing to do with them, but now that I think about it, before and after, isn't this the reason! Therefore, the people hated Xiucai to death.

Rush grass can be used in medicine, can be used as a wick, can be woven straw mats, tatami mats, and bring up a huge industrial chain. It's not just that it's on the family, Lao Tzu doesn't collect rush grass, you are all finished, not only farmers, Ningbo City is the same, although the Ming people don't know the word economic crisis, but the reason is the same.

Five hundred years later, Fuso had a movie called "Dusk Seibei", the protagonist Seibei was a samurai, but the main money-making job was to weave cricket cages every day, and the samurai master later talked to the small businessman who came to collect the cricket cages about whether the cricket cages should also rise in price, but they told him, oops! Now the world is not good, and crickets are not easy to sell!

Watching the obedient officials toss all the way back from Fusang, you must understand that the samurai has no food, and he is not a fart, in the same way, the rushes of the peasants and small citizens in Ningbo are controlled by the maritime merchants, and they are naturally not hard to speak, and they are their food and clothing parents! Although the Ningbo government has now announced that it has also begun to collect corduroy, farmers are not confident enough to run the government.

Can there be good people in office?

Who is to blame for this? blame the dead Zhang Juzheng.

Uncle Zhang's fame is really big, and countless historians believe that if there was no Uncle Zhang, the Ming Dynasty would have perished for decades, and it was he who dragged the Ming Dynasty out of the economic crisis at that time.

It's like when we watched Journey to the West when we were children and thought that Sun Monkey was invincible in the world, and when our knowledge and experience became richer and richer, we couldn't help but smile when we went back and watched it again, it turned out that the so-called genius was just one of countless geniuses, dazzling and unscrupulous, the reason was just that the stage had become broader.

Uncle Zhang, is such a person, his fame is actually discounted, not along the way, but upside down, Zhang Juzheng, who is priced at ten taels of silver, is actually only worth two taels of silver.

His ability is all on tossing the peasants, and after a whip law comes out, the court is rich, but how is this done? What you use is the index task of the later generations, Zhejiang Buzheng Division, your task this year is one million, those who can go up, those who can't, you don't have to hand over one million to the court, get out of the way for Lao Tzu.

The chief secretary said to the following governments, your task this year is 100,000, if you don't pay it, get out of the way.

The prefectures then said to the counties, your task is 10,000, if you don't pay it over, get out of the way for Lao Tzu.

The counties said to their subordinate officials, officials, etc.: Your task is 1,000 per person, and if you can't complete it, get out of the way.

Layer by layer, in the end, the grassroots officials are really like wolves, and Daming still has a huge crowd of people who do not pay taxes, who will collect it? Naturally, it is a fart who has no privileges, Uncle Zhang did not come to power before, but everyone still pays attention to the face of a fellow villager, and he can't pay it this year, so he will have a good harvest next year, let's make up for it. As an official who has been working in one place all his life, he will not go too far, and he will not look up and see him down.

But as soon as the hard indicators are pressed down, the mud horse is lying in the groove, Lao Tzu will intercede for you, who will intercede for Lao Tzu? You said you couldn't pay it? Okay! Your girl is good-looking, and if she sells it, she will have it.

The most important thing is that in the past, I still received the goods, for example, my family couldn't pay it, so I took the grain. But Zhang Juzheng's whip only collects cash! Real? Don't, go to the grain merchant and sell it yourself.

Since ancient times, I have only heard that there are merchants, but I have not heard of a businessman, so they have been exploited by businessmen.

Of course, the actual situation is not so miserable, this time is not the end of the Ming Dynasty, the landlord's family also has surplus grain, you say that you can't farm to feed your family, you can take your wife and daughter into the city! It is definitely better to do small handicrafts, or to work for big merchants, weavers, and needlework, than to shave food in the field.

Some women gritted their teeth, and the old lady went to sell it, and then found out, hey! made a fortune, looked a little better, sold it for a few years, and the family became rich.

Therefore, the peasants are the most miserable, and the city is better, but it will also be affected, in short, this is an era when it is said that it can be lived, but compared with the other, it is always necessary to complain about the heavens and the people. Everyone is not stupid, they all rush to make more money to work, there are more and more people in the city, and there are fewer and fewer people who farm, and when it comes to the time of green and yellow, food is more and more expensive, and the cycle of evil surnames is circulating.

In the rush incident, Xiucai Wu Kaixi raised his arms and shouted, why was he able to gather thousands of people? There are too many people working for big businessmen, and the big businessmen say that Lao Tzu will not sell tatami mats this year, and countless city people who make a living by weaving tatami mats will suddenly have no food.

Now the Ningbo Mansion said that it had collected the corduroy grass, and then the Yan family, the leading maritime merchant in Ningbo, came forward to collect the straw mat tatami mats instead of the Ningbo Mansion, after all, it appeased countless people who relied on this to eat, but if there is a big drought today, your government has no rut, and there are no raw materials, and countless people will have no food to eat. At this time, the direction of public opinion has changed, and everyone scolded Xiucai:

Xiucai, lying on the mud horse. If it weren't for your tossing, Lao Tzu would have had no food.

The talents of Ningbo Fuxue used to walk with their chests and stomachs, but now they have to lower their heads, not afraid, but ashamed, walking on the street, others look at those wearing Confucian shirts, look at you like looking at the enemy, although no one pounces, but everyone is a scholar, but also to face.

Originally, at the beginning, the big head made a big fuss in Ningbo Fuxue, and discounted the legs of more than 100 shows, and many people still cared about their classmates, and went to visit from time to time, some of them were soft-hearted, and they had to bring some firewood and rice, but now, no one wants to come to the door, and even scolded in their hearts, if it weren't for you, how could we be affected like this?

As the saying goes, this time and that time!

It was at this time that the good officer's fleet of ironclad ships returned.

As soon as his ironclad ship entered the offshore sea, countless merchant ships recognized it, and to tell the truth, the maritime merchants of Fujian and Zhejiang really had a common hatred with Uncle Guo.

Cutting off people's wealth is like killing their parents!

But who would dare to go up? I know that these are the warships of the former Ningbo Wei, you want to go up to make trouble, you can't find death, I heard that the heads of the people killed in Fusang are rolling, and the fleet of the Liang family in Fujian is dead and escaped back to a ship, of course, countless people have proved that it was done by the Haikou, but who doesn't know, the Liang family was destroyed by the Haikou because of their refusal to pay taxes, this Haikou, I'm afraid the surname is Zheng!

But no one dared to say these words.

Where the Ningbo City Bosi is located, how can the Ningbo coastal sea road not be busy? It was really a sail movie, if you climbed up and peeked at it, it was like a blue field with white ears of wheat planted, and when the wind blew, the waves of wheat were like a tide.

At this time, there was a boat that dared to go up and stop the ironclad ship, for a while, I don't know how many eyes were looking, and some secretly gloated: the big fish roe (Ningbo said stupid), actually went up.

Who is so bold? The tax ship of Ningbo City Botiju Division Yamen.

The tax ship of Ningbo Bo Tiju Division is the previous war ship has been changed, when the obedient official first saw it, he was so surprised that he almost stared out of his eyes, thinking that it was too sci-fi, but he didn't expect Daming to have such a fantastical warship.

This ship is big, the mother ship to the side, the sub-ship shuttles out like a little ant, one by one to collect taxes, see the good official's ironclad ship, the mother ship above the flag, immediately open the mother ship's belly, there is a sub-ship out of it, stopped on the route of the ironclad ship.

After the official on the tax ship boarded the ironclad warship, he first straightened his hat, dusted off his blue official robe, coughed dryly, and said, "Who counts what this ship says?" ”

No one paid attention to him, his face suddenly turned white, and he was about to get angry, when he heard a voice saying that the child was childish with an old voice, "Yo! Someone dares to ask our family to collect taxes, and our family wants to take a look. ”

It was Xiao Douzi who spoke, he was castrated into the palace at a young age, and after a long time, he learned the style of those old eunuchs, but the voice was indeed like a child, coming down from the top of the tower, followed by a big man like a wolf and a tiger, and the group of tax collectors looked numb, looked at the water and fire sticks in their hands, and then looked at the waist knife on the waist of others, and the bird gun behind him, he couldn't help but swallow his saliva, they had not confiscated the tax of the warship before, but they had never seen such a fully armed man. However, even so, these tax collectors actually leaned behind their promotion master, which is surprising, when did these tax collectors organized by idle ruffians grow so long?

Wang Jue was stunned, to be honest, he grew up in the capital, and he knew all kinds of official uniform colors, complements, etc., and his wish was to be an official when he was a child, otherwise, why was he so enthusiastic about the official eunuchs, but unfortunately his father later told him to get old, and there was no way for him to move to the Guozijian, so he could only return to his hometown in Ningbo with his father.

Now he is trembling, wearing a cyan official robe, this is from the sixth grade of the city to lift the deputy promotion, as long as it is at sea, who dares not to give him Wang Jue's prince jade face?

If he had changed someone else, he would have been angry a long time ago, Ningbo Wei's warship? Ships and mud horses also have to pay taxes, who doesn't know what warships are doing now? It's not just about buying and selling.

To tell the truth, Wang Jue did a good job of the Ningbo Bo Tiju Division, although Hou Xiaobai was the brother-in-law of the political secretary, but the warship of the military guard, that was not daring to go up to collect taxes, after all, the military guard is under the jurisdiction of the governor of Zhejiang rather than the management of the Zhejiang political secretary, but Wang Jue is more bullish, he doesn't care if you are a private person or a military guard, all pay taxes, and he has a hard foundation, once he was sent up by a deputy Qianhu surname of the military guard who engaged in trading, and said in his heart that he dared to collect our taxes, Lao Tzu beat you to death, and it was an old fist to go up.

Wang Jue's guy is also bold and thick-skinned, he just sneered when he was beaten, laughed so that the thousand households were hairy, and finally scolded and scolded him and let him go, but within two days, his top boss heard it, and he didn't squeak, and the next day he directly found a reason, and cut off the head of this guy, and then put the head of the nitrate up overnight and sent it to the Yamen of the City Lift Division, and the Yamen of the Lifting Division suddenly became prestigious, this mud horse is the head of a deputy thousand households!

Some officials thought, now this promotion master is even more bullish than the previous Lord Hou! worked hard, and sure enough, the lifting division was booming. It has only been less than three months since he took office, and he actually completed the task assigned by the above, and gave his subordinates a piece of silver, saying that it was a reward for everyone from the Yamen.

Putting the facts is not as deterrent as putting the dead body, and soon the entire Zhejiang military guard will know that the newly appointed city secretary is the brother-in-law of the national abbot, and the governor is in contact, and it is also hand in hand, and he suddenly shuddered, and felt that Long Taolong's deputy Qianhu was really unjust!

But grievances are not wronged, where do they say it works, for example, Diao people make trouble, it is said that the son of the Guozhang family immediately took the brocade guard to beat Ningbo Fuxue to a scattered, so that everyone looked sideways, to be honest, some people said that some people were good and some people secretly scolded, but anyway, this prestige was immediately erected, on the ground in the south of the Yangtze River, who dared to do this for more than a hundred years? At that time, Jiang Bin, the commander of Jinyiwei, and many bullish people, did not dare to take the Yangzhou prefect who attacked Emperor Wuzong's big tent with Xiucai, not to mention anything else, none of the military attachés and nobles did not pick a thumbs up, at least they gained face.

And the scholars in Ningbo suffered such a big loss, and they actually pinched their noses and endured it, which made countless people stare at the beads of their eyes.

Therefore, the atmosphere on the ground in Jiangnan has been very strange recently, and the arrogance of reading is not as good as in the past, like in the past, the tax collectors can still stab the poor Xiucai on the street, but for the rich Xiucai who do business, where do they dare to shout, but now, these tax collectors also dare to stand up their stomachs and stretch out their hands to those wealthy businessmen who are full of brains and fat intestines, fair skin and meritorious reputation.

In fact, the tax of the city department is those few money, and the tax collection of the good official is not the same thing, pay the tax of the good official, you will ** overlap, pay the tax of the city department, you will burst into tears, at this time will feel that you were really born in the blessing and do not know the blessing! It turned out that the taxes of the imperial court were similar to those of sending Hanako.

For the time being, only the maritime merchants are qualified to feel this contrasting mood, and the rest of the merchants are not qualified to experience it.

The city ship division collects taxes, or the previous adjustment, one hundred materials and thirty taels of silver, one material of the Ming Dynasty, equal to one-third of the drainage of later generations, almost converted into one ton and one tael of silver, one ton of tax payment one tael, for the merchants of later generations, I am afraid that [***] will laugh crookedly, and at this time the businessmen feel that the price is very expensive, the court is competing with the people, and there are people who write every year, thinking that the tax system is still too strict.

Because Xiao Douzi didn't wear eunuch clothes, although Wang Jue felt a little strange, he still relied on his hard foundation, Lao Tzu is the uncle of Concubine De, who dares not to pay taxes?

He smiled at the moment, this guy is quite good, not good compared with his brother-in-law Zheng Liancheng, that is a beautiful man who gave birth to a little Guanyin and mutton fat white jade, but in general, it is also a provocation, and his official photo is written on [white and handsome, three locks of short beard. Don't underestimate these eight words, among the officials, this is characteristic, the key is the word Junyi, the official photo can be called handsome, that's really not much, generally that is, to write good facial features, the aesthetics of this era can be different from later generations, yes, men dare to call you a handsome guy is a woman called a beauty, this year, there is no room for a little sand, the facial features are correct, and Junyi has nothing to do with money.

Wang Jue and Prince Yu smiled and wanted to collect taxes, but Xiao Douzi was strange, someone dared to come to collect the taxes of his uncle, it was really bold.

Sometimes there will be such a strange thing, the maritime merchants know that this is Uncle Zheng Guo's ship, but the city boss just doesn't know, and he still comes to collect taxes.

If this is a good official, it is one thing to recognize Wang Jue or not, but the tax must be paid, this is a great opportunity, countless eyes are watching, I just want to pay the tax, tell you these businessmen, taxes, everyone has to pay, this kind of opportunity to show, how rare!

But the good official was not there, and he didn't expect such a situation, and who among the people below understood this truth? I probably want to think about it, mud horses, and dare to collect taxes from my uncle.

Where have you gone? He entered the river from the sea, entered the boundary of Nanzhili, and went straight to Taicang.

Taicang, the land of Jingshi Chugu, also known as Lou Dong, like the word dementia woman, was first put forward by Lu Rong, one of the three phoenixes of Loudong, and now the most bullish person in Taicang, it is Wang Xijue Wang Yuanyu of Jingshi Gong, this Jiajing forty-one years will be the first to test, the second person in the court test, and now the Ministry of Rites, Wenyuan Pavilion scholar, and he has a deep relationship with the current cabinet assistant Shen Shixing, when the first will try, Shen Shixing is the second, and when the court test second gets the eye, Shen Shixing is the champion, The two can be said to have been bright for a while, and they have become friends since then.

It is worth mentioning that Wang Xijue's family background was not good when he was a child, his name is the same as magpie, it is said that when he was born, there was a group of magpies in the family called on the branches, it is conceivable that if it is a big family, how can it be called magpie.

But now, the biggest landlord in Taicang is Wang Xijue, and at least half of the land in Taicang is in the name of Wang Xijue. His son is also a list of eyes, known as father and son, and his descendants have been masters of the Qing Dynasty later, known as four generations and one product.

is such a bullish character, the good official wants to step on him, not only stepping, but also stepping on it fiercely.

(To be continued)