"People are bad for you, people are unkind for you, people are unfilial for you, people are unfaithful for you. Think about how much unkindness there is, the copper smell is clearly the bane...... Hey......"

"Hey......"

On the 14th day of the first month of August, the rice fields of eastern Liaodong were golden, and the people on both sides of the Liaohe River sang to each other, and also bent down to each other, each holding the stem of the rice with his left hand, aiming at the straw, and pulling hard to cut off the ripe rice.

Children use the straps to tie the rice and arrange them neatly.

When the number was about the same, the eleven or twelve-year-old children passed through the center of the tied rice with a flat pole without the elders opening their mouths.

After passing through both ends, they picked up the rice with the help of adults.

After several adjustments, they felt that the weight of the two ends was about the same, and they picked up the rice and put it on the ox, horse, and mule carts on the road.

This was repeated until the rice on the cart had accumulated five or six hundred catties, and then the children sat on the backs of oxen, horses and mules and drove them to the grain field of the village.

On the Liao River, big boats go downstream, the slender man on the shore pulls the rope to walk, and the boatman on the boat rocks the oars.

Whether it was the slender man or the boatman, or the people in the fields, they were all singing constantly.

The singing voices continue to sound, and against the background of the Liao River, rice fields, and blue sky, everyone is showing the most simple side of the working people with their actions.

"Zhang Zhu, a household of seven, twenty-two acres of land, fifteen stones and seven buckets of grain, should pay the grain ......"

On the valley field of Dahe Village under the command of Liaozhong County, Daning Prefecture, when the sound of "crackling" abacus sounded, some farmers who had already harvested the grain and finished threshing the grain were looking at the village officials who were knocking on the plate with numbness.

The two village officials, one bookkeeper and the other account, complement each other well.

"Pay four stones, six buckets and three catties of grain!"

After settling the account, the village official shouted, and the village official next to him also took notes on the food handed over by the family.

However, when writing, they deliberately added "three catties of loss, and four stones and six buckets were actually paid" after the amount.

Big officials have the corrupt law of big officials, and small officials have the corrupt law of small officials.

Although they are only second-grade village officials, these two village officials can still use this to covet seven or eight stones of rice and wheat every year, and there are three or four taels of silver when counted as silver.

In this way, the two of them can be regarded as well-known "good officials", because most village officials will choose to use larger buckets to deliberately covet the people's food.

In this way, the group of village officials did not embezzle the land of the imperial court, but they squeezed the people's grain.

Compared with them, the two of them were just thieves from the hands of the court, but they didn't oppress the people at all.

Therefore, there is no noise and trouble among the people in the grain field of the two of them, because everyone knows that if these two village officials are taken away, they will only get the same greedy village officials as other villages.

However, the people do not hold grudges, even if the village officials are greedy for their food, they only dare to scold in their leisure time, and forget when they are busy.

Perhaps it is precisely because of their weakness that the village officials dare to gain an inch.

"That's it!"

As the voice was finished, the last household in Dahe Village also handed over the field endowment, and the village official knocked on the abacus and deliberately shouted loudly:

"Dahe Village, this year, there are one hundred and two households, seven hundred and thirty-five people, three thousand one hundred and seven acres of three points of land, and a total of 750 stone of grain has been paid."

The village official deliberately stopped when he shouted this, and as for the fire consumption "seven stones, five buckets and seven catties" behind the account book, he did not read it out.

Fire consumption is usually generated on the road, but now that the food is harvested, there is fire consumption, and everyone knows that they must be corrupt.

In fact, the more than 700 stone fields of grain were transported to the town, and at most the fire was consumed on the forage of one or two wagons and horses.

】

The village officials have nothing to do, one person looks at the emperor's shop, and the other person goes to the mountains to cut hay in his spare time, and he mows more every day, and the basic forage for the horses is satisfied.

However, they do not report to the higher authorities, but use the excuse of renting horse-drawn carriages and buying forage.

As for the carriage, it was actually collected free of charge from the people's homes, and not a pound of rice and wheat was spent.

Despite this, it will make the people above feel that there is so much fire consumption for hundreds of miles, but the officials who collect grain in the town will also report the fire consumption later.

To put it bluntly, under the protection of officials and officials, no one will take the initiative to impeach them, unless they meet officials like Yang Lian, Kim Hyun, and Cheng De.

But in general, people who become officials through Enko can be promoted one level every three years as long as they don't make mistakes, so even if they steal it, they won't go too far.

With Bentou, they still have to be measured after all, but if the upward channel is gone, then many people are afraid that they will embezzle as much as they can.

After finishing the matter of the Imperial Horse Supervisor Tian Fu, the two village officials nodded.

One of them closed the book and took out a new book, while the other shouted:

"This year, the Imperial Horse Supervisor Liaodong collects grain for 410 Wen and 1 stone, which family sells grain, take advantage of this time to sell grain quickly."

"Didn't there be four hundred and twenty last year? Why is there only four hundred and one this year? Some peasants hid in the crowd and questioned, and quickly squatted down after asking.

"Last year, there was no foreign grain, and this year Yingzhou sent 6 million stones of grain to Liaodong, and the price of grain in Liaodong is naturally cheap!"

The village official may have been accustomed to seeing this kind of person, so he didn't care, but continued to shout:

"If there is no one, then Han Village Officer and I will collect the stall and go back to the store!"

"Yes, yes!" After all, they are farmers, and there are too many people, even if most of them can wait and see, but a small number of people still can't stand the fright, and immediately raise their hands and shout to sell grain.

The old farmers who walked out were also very helpless, there was no oil, salt, sauce and vinegar at home, and it was really impossible not to sell grain.

"My family sells four stones!"

"Four stones? Li Mangui, are you crazy? Eight people in your family don't eat? ”

When a thin old peasant raised his hand and shouted the amount of grain sold, some people immediately grabbed him.

Although Zhu Youzhen divided the fields and allowed most of the people who moved to Liaodong to live a well-fed life, in fact, if they were satisfied with food and clothing, each person could sell two or three buckets of rice.

For a family of eight people like Li Mangui, with only 25 acres of land, it is already an exaggeration to sell a maximum of two stone rice, but selling four stone rice means that the family will be hungry for a few days this year.

"If you don't sell it, you can't do it, this baby has to eat oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, and Russia also has to provide for the baby's literacy, isn't it......"

Li Laohan was also helpless, and his words also made Han Village Officials and Ma Village Officials a little embarrassed.

After all, the two of them passed Enke, and they still knew some basic subjects, and the village only required to learn arithmetic and literacy, so they would charge the villagers one tael of silver every year as tuition.

Of course, this is only the tuition fee, and the other paper, pen, inkstone, and book fees have to be spent by the villagers themselves, which is another three or four hundred wen.

One, two, three, or four hundred wen, for this group of peasants facing the loess and facing the sky, while filling their stomachs, it is also a large expense.

This is still the result of Zhu Youzhen's division of land for them, if they want to let the children in the family read and write, then they have to borrow money from the rich peasant gentry in the village.

This silver is often nine out of thirteen, and it takes more than ten years for a family to pay it off.

At present, they are very satisfied with their current life, not because they don't have to worry about food and clothing, but because they can at least eat enough at least compared to the time they were once squeezed.

Just three simple words are already their greatest wish.

In Li Laohan's view, the whole family of eight, each person eats less than four taels of rice a day, and these four stones of rice will be saved.

"Four stone rice, one two, six dollars and eight cents......"

After settling the account with embarrassment, Han Village Guan took out a piece of silver the size of a fingernail from the drawer of the table and weighed it, then took out a hanging copper coin, counted thirty-two pieces from it, and sent the silver and the hanging copper coin to Li Laohan.

As soon as Li Laohan got his hands on it, he was embarrassed to push the silver money back:

"Please Lord Han, you can help the old man exchange these silver for two catties of oil, three catties of salt, one catty of sauce, one catty of vinegar, and the rest is tuition and books, paper, pen, ink, and ink."

The silver went around and around, and finally it was put on the table and did not move, and Han Village Official could only embarrassingly take out the one or two tuition fees belonging to himself and Ma Village Official, and bought the remaining 680 Wen to Li Laohan.

Li Laohan saw that the things were sold, and he also turned around and took his daughter-in-law to carry bags of rice and pour them into the official fight, back and forth four times.

"That's it......"

Han Village Officer confirmed that he had four stone rice, nodded and then motioned to Li Laohan to pack rice.

Seeing this, Li Laohan could only put the rice back, and then moved the four stones of rice into the granary of the village official's office, and finally left the crowd with a few catties of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, two textbooks, and a bag of paper, pen, inkstone, and ink.

Walking to the edge of the grain field, he put his own rice on the donkey cart and drove the donkey cart out of the grain field.

There are some sentences on his back, which makes people sigh, even Han Village Officials and Ma Village Officials also have some consciences.

It can be seen from the fact that the two would rather pit the court than the people in Tianfu, although the two are greedy for money, they still have a bottom line, and it is normal for their conscience not to go.

It's just that next, a few more families sold rice and made the same move as Li Laohan.

Selling grain, paying tuition, buying oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, paper, pen, inkstone, and ink, and finally, like Li Laohan, he left the grain field with grain and donkey carts.

Looking at their backs, some people also think of the children who are growing up in their own families, and they can't help but feel pressure.

Looking at them, Village Officer Ma shook his head and said:

"Recently, the imperial court has restored its ......"

The village official Ma told the matter of the imperial court's resumption of the relocation of grain, and promised that the imperial court would sweep away the Jianjiao next year, so that the people should not worry, if anyone is willing to move north, they can go with the army.

It's just that his words didn't move anyone, because as long as Jianyu is still there, no one wants to go north to farm.

Looking at their appearance, the two village officials were also a little helpless, and finally collected all the fields in the village before dusk, and rushed to Liaohe Town early the next morning.

These two village officials are already conscientious village officials, and they neither transferred the money they wanted to embezzle to the people, nor did they choose the court and the people to eat both.

Compared with them, the village officials who choose to squeeze the people and eat at both ends are the most, and their fate is often the worst......

"Slash!"

"Don't-"

On the square of Heshan Town, Yanshan County, when the sound of the prison beheading sounded, more than a dozen village officials who oppressed the people and ate at both ends were ordered to be beheaded.

The head of the big man fell to the ground, and hundreds of people around him applauded.

At the far end of the crowd, a group of men riding tall meandering horses also spoke: "Are you satisfied?" Now let's hurry back to Beijing. ”

"Hmm......" Li Dingguo's voice sounded, he watched those corrupt officials who exploited the people fall, and at the same time, he felt a little happy in his heart, and he actually felt the pleasure of using power.

The dozen or so village officials were all corrupt officials he had heard from his parents, and what he did was very simple.

He wrote a letter to Cao Huachun, and this letter took the lives of more than a dozen village officials just three days later.

"Driving ......"

Seeing a group of corrupt officials being beheaded, Li Dingguo was happy in his heart, but he also knew that corrupt officials could not be killed.

Maybe the next group of village officials who come to Heshan Town will still be corrupt, but I don't know if he will choose to kill people at that time.

"I didn't see His Highness this time, it's a little regrettable......"

Li Dingguo rode on horseback and spoke with a hint of regret, and the chief flag officer next to him sighed when he heard this: "Don't talk about you kid, even we haven't been able to see it." ”

"You didn't even get to see it?" Li Dingguo was a little surprised, after all, the four cavalry guards were the descendants of the Qi Palace.

"His Royal Highness doesn't seem to be in a very good mood, I heard that no one below a thousand households can enter Changchun Palace."

The chief flag officer said, and said: "When we returned to Dading Palace, we were stationed for half a month and we couldn't see His Highness and Banzai go out of the palace for a safari. ”

"I don't know if something big happened, I feel that His Highness and that person are in a bad mood."

After the chief flag officer finished speaking, he was a little embarrassed, Li Dingguo looked at him, frowned slightly, opened his mouth and stopped, but in the end he didn't say anything.

Silent all the way, Li Dingguo followed everyone to the south, but in the palace of the capital, it was rare to usher in a day of leisure.

After four and a half months of selection, the fifty concubines and thirty concubines of King Qi were basically selected.

In a month's time, the female officials of Chuxiu Palace selected a total of 300 people according to the temperament, style, wisdom and virtue of the hundreds of beautiful women who entered the palace at the beginning.

After that, the Hakka family took the female officials of Cining Palace and Kunning Palace to face the five hundred beautiful girls by probing their breasts, sniffing their armpits, and their textures, and screened out one hundred people again.

The 100 people who were lucky enough to pass the test, under the attention of Zhang Yan and Concubine Liu, combined with Zhu Youzhen's preferences, and then selected 50 people who were "beautiful and intelligent" as candidate concubines.

When they arrived here, Zhang Yan and Concubine Liu began to summon these fifty show girls one by one.

From the first day of August to the present, the show girls with lower looks have all been questioned, and the only ones left are Zhou Sujie, Tian Xiuying, Agarwood Jun, Li Shaoxi, and Yuan Xifei, who have been finalized at the beginning, have not yet been investigated.

"Go down......"

"The Folk Girl Retires ......"

In Kunning Palace, as Zhang Yan signaled to a beautiful show girl, the show girl also got up according to court etiquette, and then retreated.

After she left, Concubine Liu, who was sitting next to Zhang Yan, spoke:

"This can be regarded as a better female scroll selected by the nobles, you can keep her, give him the position of the two concubines, and give the other to Li Shaoxi of North Korea."

Concubine Liu is very thoughtful, compared with nearly 100 show girls selected by the national nobles this time, if among the five concubines of King Qi, the nobles do not even have a seat, it will inevitably hurt them too much.

Besides, the show girl just now was naturally beautiful, and it is very suitable to be a concubine.

However, although her words were good, Zhang Yan was a little worried:

"That being said, if you choose the daughter of Xuancheng Bowei Shichun, won't it be a ......little bad?"

Zhang Yan was afraid that Wei Shichun's daughter would use her father to suppress the princess, but Concubine Liu comforted her and said:

"You just saw this Wei Pingyang's temperament, she is a little weak, and there is no one in the Xuancheng Bofu who currently has military and official positions, so she will not do anything about the Cholera Palace."

"That's ......" Zhang Yan thought about the appearance of Wei Pingyang who showed his face just now, and couldn't help but nodded.

It's just that although she nodded, she still had a headache and said:

"Although Wei Pingyang is weak, there are only five concubines, and the other five are ......."

As soon as Zhang Yan said it, Concubine Liu understood what she meant.

To put it bluntly, many things in the inner court can't be hidden, such as the news that Zhang Yan and she want to choose Zhou Sujie's five people, I'm afraid it has already spread all over the capital.

If they don't choose those five women, it is estimated that no one will dare to marry the woman who was defeated.

This is a woman who almost became the woman of King Qi, who knows if King Qi will be careful in the future......

Marrying a good woman enriches the family, and marrying a wicked woman is a restless house.

Therefore, if the palace does not choose these five women, it will seem that the court is a little wicked.

"It is possible to expand the five concubines to the six concubines, anyway, it is not without precedent."

Concubine Liu's words were amazing, but Zhang Yan felt that this was the best after hearing it.

If the nobles knew that it was the two of them who chose Wei Pingyang and chose one more concubine, then they would not talk too much, and Wenchen would not dare to care about the affairs of King Qi, and they would not talk too much.

Therefore, as long as Xungui doesn't talk much, things will be much easier.

"Then put the six people in a position according to one positive, two noble and three concubines?" Zhang Yan asked rhetorically, and Concubine Liu bowed slightly.

Between the words of the two, the fifth concubine of King Qi became the sixth concubine of King Qi, and the position of the two concubines has been decided, and now only the position of the main concubine is vacant.

"In Concubine Sanping, I prefer Zhou Sujie."

Concubine Liu's aesthetics have not changed as in history, and she still chose Zhou Sujie, and Zhang Yan is also the same as in history, frowning and saying the bad things:

"Zhou Sujie's father, I sent someone to inquire, it seems that he is a person who sells land to raise noble daughters, sets up a stall to tell fortunes, and cheats and abducts."

"If such a person becomes the father-in-law of His Royal Highness the King of Qi, then I am afraid that he will use His Royal Highness's prestige to do some illegal deeds."

"Tian Xiuying's father, Tian Hongyu, was the general of Yangzhou before His Royal Highness abolished the guard, and he also wanted to recommend Tian Xiuying for the Yangzhou gentry, and regarded Tian Xiuying as a strange commodity."

"Such a person is also unqualified as His Royal Highness's father-in-law, and Zhou Sujie and Tian Xiuying are not compatible with each other, whoever becomes the princess of Qi may not tolerate the other."

"Besides......" Zhang Yan paused, and then said with some worry:

"Tian Xiuying's uncle is Wu Aheng, who aided Liao, if she is chosen, then the King of Qi will probably be unhappy......"

Zhu Youzhen had already explained to the inner court that the concubine should not be too rich, and Tian Xiuying obviously did not meet this article, so Zhang Yan never thought of including her as a candidate for the concubine.

"......" Concubine Liu was slightly silent when she heard Zhang Yan's words, and Zhang Yan continued:

"It's Yuan Xi's concubine, who has lived among the other five concubines for the past month, and can talk very happily with the five concubines, plus she has never been jealous, and her father Yuan You has also been garrisoned by the Hexi battalion, with good conduct and clean manner."

"It's better to choose her as the concubine than to choose Zhou Sujie and Tian Xiuying......"

"It's also ......" After listening to Zhang Yan's words, even Concubine Liu couldn't help but nod.

Not to mention that Yuan Xifei's father served as a battalion garrison in Hexi, and knew the suffering of the people under the suffering of the people and the military disaster, just talking about his style, he had already defeated Zhou Sujie and Tian Xiuying in Zhang Yan's mouth.

"What about Agarwood-kun?" Concubine Liu couldn't help asking, after all, Agarwood Jun looked like the first two daughters.

"Agarwood Jun's family is too good ......to hold," Zhang Yan shook her head:

"This woman is too young, her waist span is too narrow, and she is afraid that she will have a difficult birth......"

Zhang Yan is not wrong this time, although Agarwood Jun is the first place in the draft after Chongzhen succeeded to the throne in history, but in history, he did die of dystocia because he was too young.

"Since this is the case, I think we can tentatively designate Yuan Xi Concubine as the princess, Wei Pingyang and Li Shaoxi as the concubines, Tian Xiuying, Agarwood Jun, and Zhou Sujie as the Ping Concubines."

After listening to Zhang Yan's words, Concubine Liu also had an idea in her heart, and no longer thought about Zhou Sujie's promotion.

After the two of them simply finalized the six daughters as the six concubines, they began to have a headache about Zhu Youzhen's marriage.

The "Daming Huidian" recorded in the etiquette law set by Zhu Yuanzhang: "The prince set a gift for his relatives, 50 taels of gold, and 10 taels of pearls"

This was definitely good at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, but now more than two hundred and sixty years have passed since that era.

If Zhang Yan and Concubine Liu really carried out Zhu Youzhen's wedding in accordance with this etiquette, I am afraid that the saliva of the government and the opposition can drown them.

"Why don't you follow the rules of King Lu's wedding?" After all, Concubine Liu is a person who has experienced the era of the two brothers, Emperor Wanli and King Lu.

Although Wanli was overly spoiled by King Lu because of Empress Dowager Li, in fact, even if there was no Empress Dowager Li, he himself was quite spoiled by King Lu.

In order to prepare for the wedding of King Lu, the court used nearly 4,000 taels of gold, nearly 9,000 blue rubies, 100,000 taels of silver, and nearly 25,000 coral pearls.

Due to the extravagant cost, the household department couldn't stand it, and reminded the Wanli Emperor with the etiquette "Daming Huidian": The cost of King Lu's wedding was exceeded.

But even so, Emperor Wanli did not stop, but embezzled 900,000 military salaries from both sides to hold King Lu's wedding.

Of course, Emperor Wanli's move is not advisable, but it is enough to show the favor of King Lu.

"There are still more than 2.3 million taels in the internal treasury right now, and 1.3 million can be used to hold a wedding for His Royal Highness King Qi."

Although Zhang Yan is always worried about the relationship between Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youzhen, the two brothers, and Zhu Youzhen's threat to his son Zhu Ciran, he generally admires Zhu Youzhen very much, and even admires it a little.

Zhu Youzhen's behavior, whether in ancient or modern times, can be regarded as a "saint", except for some exaggerations in diet and travel, everything else is worthy of the word "saint".

While asking Zhu Youxiao not to embezzle the imperial horse supervisor and the treasury silver, Zhu Youzhen had already taken the lead in cutting off all money and grain exchanges with the imperial horse supervisor and the treasury.

With his various positions and titles such as the general, the governor of the five armies, the king of Qi, the right national pillar, the doctor of Tejin Guanglu, and the governor of Shangdu, his annual salary is tens of thousands of taels.

In Zhu Youzhen's opinion, if only the expenses of the palace are maintained, then one-tenth of the silver is more than enough, so he himself never embezzles the money and grain of the imperial horse supervisor and the state treasury.

This kind of behavior is unbelievable in the late Ming Dynasty, when the prince and emperor in Beijing embezzled the treasury at will.

Although Zhu Youxiao is also doing this, it is probably under the supervision of Zhu Youxiao, if only Zhu Youxiao himself, then he may still build a palace in a big way.

Therefore, Zhang Yan is still grateful to her fifth uncle many times, and it is not too much to take out 1.3 million taels of silver to hold a wedding for this fifth uncle.

Even Concubine Liu didn't feel excessive when she heard her words, but bowed her head slightly:

"This silver goes inside, and the household department can't say anything."

Concubine Liu's approval strengthened Zhang Yan's thoughts, so she also got up and said:

"Since this is the case, then I will hand over the note to Banzai, and when Banzai agrees, I can order Wang An to procure."

"The talks between Zhou Sujie and Tian Xiuying and the other five daughters will bother the concubine."

"Go, go......" Concubine Liu smiled and motioned for her to leave, and Zhang Yan also saluted respectfully, and then walked out of Kunning Palace......