"Ran'er, be careful!"

"Oh! I know ......"

"Whew!"

"Crackling—"

In the sound of firecrackers, the spring breeze sends warmth into Tusu.

At the gate of the Qianqing Palace of the Beijing Imperial Palace, when Zhu Ciran lit firecrackers at the gate of the palace, accompanied by a crackling sound, the kid ran back to Zhu Youxiao's side and watched the people around him happy.

The sound of bells and drums followed the sound of firecrackers at the moment of sounding, followed by the sound of firecrackers throughout the city of Beijing.

In the next hour, there were firecrackers in the entire capital, which also heralded the passage of ten years of the Apocalypse, and the arrival of the eleventh year of the Apocalypse.

The entire Qianqing Palace was lively, and Zhu Youxiao took several of his favorite concubines, as well as Zhu Ciran and other six brothers and sisters, plus Zhu Youzhen and Yuan Xi, a total of sixteen people started a family banquet on behalf of the round.

It is still the huge round table built by Zhu Youxiao himself, sixteen people sit on it, next to Zhu Youzhen sat Yuan Xifei and Zhu Youxiao, and next to Zhu Youxiao was Zhang Yan.

Before the family banquet started, as soon as everyone sat down, Zhu Ciran, the kid, ran to Zhu Youzhen in a hurry, and asked in a tiger's head: "Uncle Wang, where is Li Dingguo?" ”

"He's gone home for the New Year, and you won't see him this year."

Zhu Youzhen, who was sitting in the position, shook his head, with a smile on his face, remembering the picture of Li Dingguo running back to Yanshan County on horseback with his schoolbag on his back as soon as he was on vacation.

It is estimated that he was entangled enough by Zhu Ciran, and he ran away without even eating.

It was also thanks to him that he ran in time, because less than two hours after he left, Zhu Ciran came to him on a bicycle.

At that time, Zhu Youzhen didn't know that Li Dingguo had already ridden away, and told Zhu Ciran that he was happy to let him go out.

It wasn't until dinner that Yang told him that Li Dingguo had run home.

No, the matter of the day before yesterday was mentioned by Zhu Ciran again on New Year's Day today.

"Home? Have you returned to Shaanxi? ”

Zhu Ciran made Li Dingguo's background clear, but Zhu Youzhen shook his head: "I went to Yanshan County." ”

"Daddy! Shall we go to Yanshan County for summer vacation?! ”

As soon as he heard his Uncle Wang's words, Zhu Ciran immediately ran to Zhu Youxiao, but he didn't know what Zhu Youxiao whispered to him, in short, he nodded but didn't make trouble.

However, after Zhu Youxiao finished speaking, he looked up at Zhu Youzhen: "Does my brother still have time to go to the summer in March this year?" ”

"I'm afraid that there is not enough time, and the younger brother will probably take the Xiao cavalry guard to Taining City in March, and then coordinate the baggage of all departments, and prepare to start the attack and construction in June."

"Although this battle is not difficult to fight, the land of Nuergan is vast, and it is nearly two thousand miles from Taining and Yidonghe City to Hudolun City behind Jianyu."

"After all, if we can't kill the captives before September, then I'm afraid we will need to stalemate until the beginning of spring."

Zhu Youzhen shook his head, rejected his brother's words, and said when the war would end.

In the battle to destroy Jianyu, Zhu Youzhen had nothing to worry about, the only thing he was worried about was the weather.

Although it has not reached the peak of the Xiaoice River at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the global temperature has actually dropped by one to two degrees.

This temperature change, maybe many people do not have a concept, if you really want to pull out a concept, that is, the snow disaster in the next 08 years.

At that time, Zhu Youzhen experienced the snow disaster, even if it happened in modern times, it still caused hundreds of deaths and 1.66 million emergency evacuations.

Such severe extreme weather, such a large natural disaster, the result is a total of 0.3 degrees Celsius.

That snow disaster spread as far as Guangdong, and the Xiaoice period that Zhu Youjian is now facing has actually begun to exert its might, and the winter climate outside the customs will be more severe than the winter climate in the future.

"Three days ago, Qiongzhou Mansion was hit by a snow disaster, the snow was thick, and the harvest in ten counties of Dan, Wan, and Ya was lost, and more than 300,000 people were affected."

"In addition, Huai'an, Yangzhou, Xuzhou, and Jining suffered heavy rains, flooding the dikes, flooding more than 30,000 houses, affecting more than 260,000 people, and losing more than 1 million acres of land to accumulate mud."

"I think it's okay for the government to ask the household department for the exemption of the summer tax."

Zhu Youzhen told some of the disasters encountered by the people of Daming before the Spring Festival, among which the blizzard in Qiongzhou Mansion can be said to have surprised Zhu Youxiao:

"It's snowing in Qiongzhou?"

"Well, this is the first time that Qiongzhou has suffered a blizzard for so many years." Zhu Youzhen responded, and Zhu Youxiao also waved his hand when he heard this:

】

"If you are affected by a disaster, you can be exempted from the whole year, and don't divide the summer tax and the autumn tax."

"Yes......" Zhu Youzhen responded, and it seemed that he had already known that Zhu Youxiao would arrange it like this.

When the two brothers settled hundreds of thousands of victims, the dishes of the family banquet began to be passed on one by one.

As Zhu Youxiao raised his glass to signal the start of the family banquet, everyone also picked up Kuaizi to prepare for dinner.

Almost at the same time, while they were eating, Li Dingguo, who had been running wildly for three days, also arrived at the house and caught up with the first meal of the new year.

"Eat Slow, Eat Slow......"

"Why are you in such a hurry? You can come back slowly. ”

In the familiar small mountain village under Yanshan County, as Li Zhang's distressed voice sounded, Li Dashou and his wife, who were sitting in the earthen wall courtyard eating, were looking at Li Dingguo, who was eating heavily, with a smile on their faces.

In the simple courtyard, there is only one main house and two side houses, plus a cowshed and firewood house in the backyard.

The floor of the front yard is a solid muddy floor, and the Li family of three sits at a wooden table with a bowl of chicken, a plate of fried pork, a pot of mutton and three vegetarian dishes.

Three people and six dishes, this is the configuration of the Li family for the New Year, although it is not as good as Zhu Youzhen and others who are also having a reunion dinner at the moment, but the taste of small families and countryside is not something that can be tasted in the palace.

The surrounding air was filled with a little smell of sulfur, and with the fragrant food, Li Dingguo ate more deliciously.

But he didn't eat all of it, and he also had a mission to go home this time.

While eating, he raised his head and said, "Father, mother, Your Highness asked me to repeat my grade for a year." ”

"Repetition? What do you mean? Li Zhang and Li Dashou were stunned and couldn't understand this.

"It's a year off and then study next year." Li Dingguo swallowed while chopping rice and explained:

"His Royal Highness wants me to go to Taining Mansion with him, so that I can see how the war is fought."

"That's too dangerous, can't we discuss whether or not to go?" As soon as Li Zhang heard that his eleven-year-old son was going to the battlefield, he immediately became anxious.

"What His Highness asked him to do, how can there be any reason to discuss?" Li Dashou also had a sad face.

"Hehe......" Looking at the appearance of his father, Li Dingguo smiled without conscience:

"You can rest assured, it is not dangerous to follow His Highness, His Highness is just commanding the Chinese army, I have seen it for a long time."

"What kind of knowledge...... What's the use of being a Qiu Ba, my mother wants you to be a Wenqu star and a champion lang. ”

Li Zhang interrupted Li Dingguo's words, and complained about Zhu Youzhen inside and outside the words, and looked down on the generals and soldiers.

Li Dingguo heard it, and he didn't refute his mother-in-law, because he had heard many people say this kind of thing.

He also asked Zhu Youzhen, and Zhu Youzhen gave him the answer that "it is a problem for the soldiers to be looked down upon by the people, and it has nothing to do with the soldiers."

Li Dingguo felt that this sentence was very reasonable, after all, in the past six years that he was sensible, he had not seen what the former Ming army looked like.

What he saw was a new generation of Ming troops reformed by Zhu Youzhen, who had money and money, and military discipline.

It's a pity that although Zhu Youzhen has been improving the reputation of ordinary soldiers, most of the people of the Ming Dynasty still feel that being a soldier is "Qiu Ba", and they are not as noble as scholars.

"I heard a few years ago that there were troops moving around on the road, and after this battle, I guess it will be stable for a while, right?"

Li Dashou is a man after all, and he is still more curious about the current situation, as for Li Dingguo, he nodded:

"When the Jianyu is destroyed, Dad, you prepare some money and food, and there should be many people in the village who will migrate to slaves."

"What do you do? What are you doing in that place? "Li Dashou has been in Yanshan for so many years, and he almost knows how bad the environment of Nuergan and Liaodong is.

Anyway, if it were him, it would be impossible for him to go to the slave to do it.

"Your Highness will plough cattle according to human hair at that time, and as long as you move to slaves, you will be given a hundred acres of human head land."

Li Dingguo explained, and the head field is the upper limit of the land cultivated according to the head.

For example, Li Dashou and his family of three are in Yanshan, in fact, the upper limit of the whole family is 60 acres, unless a new child is born, it is the upper limit of 20 acres per person.

The reason for this regulation is to prevent overpopulation in some places, resulting in more people and less land.

The head field in their village was basically divided, and after Li Dingguo came back, he saw that many families had children.

According to his conjecture, after the end of the Third Northern Expedition, many families in Dongshan Village should move out.

"A hundred acres? So our family can open 300 acres of land? Do you have to get this kind of thing? ”

Li Dashou couldn't believe that everyone planted a hundred acres of land, because it was beyond his understanding.

In the case of cultivated cattle, one person can plant ten to thirty acres at most.

One person planted a hundred acres, which made Li Dashou and Li Zhang's almost bite their tongues.

"In short, the imperial court has come up with something that can make it easy for people to farm the land, and the only thing that goes is pulling weeds is more tiring."

Li Dingguo's hard words are too obvious, so I can only say this.

However, when he said this, Li Dashou was moved: "Then our family also has to ......?"

"We don't need it at home, if you go to the slave to do it, I will have trouble going to you." Li Dingguo hurriedly interrupted his father's thoughts, and patted his chest and said:

"What is a hundred acres of land, I will become a general in the future, and I will buy you ten thousand acres of land."

"10,000 acres of land, then you have to ask the tenants to help take care of it?" Li Zhang joked with a smile, obviously not believing him.

For them, 100 acres of land is already a great character, although Li Dingguo follows His Royal Highness King Qi, it is impossible to get 10,000 acres of land to plant, this is their idea.

Li Dingguo felt underestimated, but he just smiled and did not refute, but asked:

"Daddy, after the corrupt officials were killed last year, are there more officials who came later?"

"Alas......" As soon as he heard about the official, Li Dashou shook his head:

"What's the matter, I heard from the people in the next few villages that the people who came from behind were even more excessive, and their buckets could be loaded with one bucket and two grains, which was darker than the previous village officials."

Saying that, Li Dashou couldn't help but get lucky: "Fortunately, the two village officials in our village were not punished, and they basically didn't overcharge the food in the village. ”

"Confiscate the ...... in the village" Li Dingguo was a little embarrassed, because he knew that the village officials confiscated the grain in the village, and most of them were collected from the imperial court.

He originally thought that if he killed the corrupt officials and corrupt officials, he would be able to clean up by replacing them with a group of people, but the people who didn't want to come were not as good as the previous village officials.

He thought too much about governing the place.

"Wait until I go back and ask Your Highness." Li Dingguo did not make any more claims on his own, but was ready to go back and ask Zhu Youzhen.

"Apart from the village officials, is there anything unfair in the village?"

Li Dingguo wanted to know more about the affairs of the village and understand the difficulties of the people, because this was what he learned in the official school.

"Unfair?" Li Dashou didn't understand his son's words very well, after all, he was the same as most of the villagers, basically didn't care about the affairs of the village, only cared about his own fields.

In his opinion, the unfair thing in the village is estimated to be that the Zhang family picked up half of the ridge the day before yesterday, and was blocked and beaten by more than a dozen people from the Tian family, and then the Zhang family took someone to hammer the Tian family.

No, for the New Year, both families have been injured.

"Nothing." After a long time, Li Dashou could only hold back this sentence, but Li Zhang patted him: "Have you forgotten the matter of the hometown?" ”

"Oh, yes, yes!" After Li Dashou was reminded by his daughter-in-law, he immediately thought of the matter of the township, so he said:

"In this township and town, there is a problem with the wages we are given, and some villagers are halfway through the work, and they have something to leave at home, and they say that it is not a salary."

"But when I went to the construction site that day, they obviously counted the people, but on the day they said they didn't count, they wrote them with Zhu, and the others were ink pens."

"When I went to the town, some officials said that Zhu Bi was a fraudulent."

"......" Hearing his father's words, Li Dingguo couldn't believe that the people below could still do this.

"How dare they do that?" Li Dingguo was surprised.

"There is no ...... dare," Li Dashou said unaccustomedly:

"In the past, when my family was still in Yan'an, the people in the prefecture and the county were called to work, and our family handed over the food for the conscription, but it turned out that we were not called to serve the conscription."

"On the day your mother gave birth to you, I was still repairing the bridge outside Yan'an City, and I was released home after your mother gave birth to you for three days."

"Later, I went to ask, it was not conscription at all, the court gave wages, and the dog officials above did not give it to us, so we used conscription as an excuse."

"Now that the atmosphere is better, Your Highness and Long Live Rende, exempt from conscription, and those dog officials have no excuse for us to serve conscription, otherwise we won't be able to get any of the wages of this prefecture and county road."

"Don't the people of the Metropolitan Procuratorate take care of it?" Li Dingguo is still too young, and he actually pinned his hopes on the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

"When? Before? Or now? Li Dashou couldn't keep up with his son's out-of-the-box thinking.

"What's the difference between now and before?" Li Dingguo wants to know about the former Ming Dynasty and the current Ming Dynasty.

"The difference is that in the past, when the inspection of the imperial history came to the village, the village needed the villagers to take out their own chickens, ducks and geese to entertain, and now the village itself entertained."

"So the village officials in the village are greedy for money, and we won't expose them."

"As for the inspection of the imperial history, the previous inspection of the imperial history will leave after eating, and you have to ask for money before leaving."

"At that time, each household paid according to the capitation, and each person paid ten yuan, saying that it was for the travel fee to inspect the imperial history."

"We don't see them at all, we don't know when they came, we only know when the village is asking every family to pool money and prepare chickens and ducks."

Speaking of this, Li Dashou couldn't help but sigh: "Now the situation is much better, and when the inspection of the imperial history comes, he will ride a horse and walk around the village in an official robe." ”

"Can you go up and file a complaint?" Li Dingguo felt that it was a little unreal, which was different from the "incorruptible" Metropolitan Procuratorate he heard in the palace and official school.

"Then some people sue and some people don't, and the people who sue are all suing about trivial things, or some major things that can't be controlled by the inspection of the imperial history."

"There are also things that are sued to the next village, but they won't sue their own village anyway."

"That's okay, the inspector will still listen to us, counting the past, we can't even see face-to-face, and the biggest official some people have ever seen in their lives is Muramasa."

Li Dashou said while eating, Li Zhang's saw the excitement of the two fathers and sons, and couldn't help but interject:

"A few years ago, the incident of the Shaanxi people's uprising, didn't it kill a lot of officials?"

"Hmm......" Li Dingguo nodded, of course he had an impression of the Shaanxi people's uprising, although he was still young at the time.

"At that time, there was a supervisor of the imperial history in the village, and it was an official who was two grades older than the inspection of the imperial history, and I heard that it was ......."

Li Zhang paused, unable to think for a while, and Li Dashou spoke: "Zhengqipin." ”

"That's right! The official of the seventh grade! Li Zhang said excitedly: "At that time, many people who migrated from other places in the village said that they had never seen such a big official in their lives. ”

"The superintendent Yushi also said at the time, who dares to oppress us and forcibly collect taxes, let us tell them, we asked him how to tell, and he said let us tell the village officials."

"Tell me, isn't this taking off your pants and farting? It's better to tell me that it works. ”

Thinking that his son had made the heads of corrupt officials in several villages fall to the ground when he opened his mouth last year, Li Zhang's heart was proud.

It's just that what she said made Li Dingguo a little embarrassed.

Asking the villagers to find the village officials to report the corrupt officials is not the same as letting the villagers go directly to the corrupt officials and say that they want to report the other party......

"Didn't he say anything else......" Li Dingguo felt embarrassed, so he wanted to ask some good aspects.

"Got it." Li Dashou nodded, but spat and said:

"He asked us to go to the county with the "Da Ming Law" on our heads, and report it to the yamen of the Metropolitan Procuratorate."

"But at that time, the wind was tight, and the two dog officials in the previous term let us not go out of the village for five miles, and also smoked some men, exempted them from a few buckets of rice, and let them patrol the village."

"If anyone sneaks away and goes to the county to report the crime, he will be beaten half to death if he is caught."

"What about the two dog officers?" Li Dingguo didn't expect his parents to encounter such corrupt officials.

"I was found out by the people of the Imperial Horse Prison when I gave us a gift, and then I was dragged to the vegetable market in Yanshan County and beheaded."

Speaking of which, Li Dashou was a little proud, but Li Dingguo was very embarrassed.

Although he wanted to know some things in the village and the needs of the villagers, he didn't want to hear all the negative words of the imperial court......

For this reason, he could only try to make amends, but before he could speak, Li Zhang smiled and said:

"When the two dog officials died, the people in the village were happy, and every family scraped together some money, bought firecrackers and set them off at the entrance of the village for three days, and your father even asked people to kill a pig in the family."

"Hey......" Hearing Li Zhang's words, Li Dashou couldn't help but laugh a little embarrassed.

It's just that their words made Li Dingguo curious: "When the corrupt official county commander and prefect in Yan'an were arrested before, the village was also so happy?" ”

"That's not the case." Li Zhang denied: "When the prefect and the prefect of Yan'an were killed, a few people from Yan'an's hometown in the village chatted, and they felt that it had nothing to do with us. ”

"Why doesn't it matter? He's coveted us a lot of money, isn't he? Li Dingguo was puzzled, but Li Zhang was also puzzled:

"That's what I said, but after thinking about it, I feel that the two village officials are bullying us, the prefect and the prefect, although the notice says that they bullied us and embezzled us with a lot of silver, but it just feels that it has nothing to do with us."

"Those dog officials, no one in the village has ever seen them, they have never seen them, how can you hate them? It's not like scolding the dog official and it's over. ”

"But what those two village officials did, they were all bullied in front of us, do you think the people in the village can not hate them?"

Li Zhang's chattered endlessly about the bad things done by the village officials, as if in their eyes, the prefect and the prefect of the county who embezzled tens of thousands of taels of silver were ordinary people, but the village officials who embezzled dozens of taels of silver were heinous and wicked people.

To put it bluntly, for people like Li Zhang and Li Dashou, the people who directly exploited them were village officials, not prefects and prefects, so they felt that there was nothing.

This is like the people in the county, most of them scold the county magistrate for being a dog official, and they will not scold Futai at all.

Although they all know that these people will have to fight up and down after corruption, and the officials above will also benefit, they have not seen those high-ranking officials, so it is difficult for them to hate the village officials and the county.

The high-ranking officials corrupted Li Dashou and their silver, but Li Dashou and the high-ranking officials never saw each other, and they only had a relationship where their interests were embezzled.

But the village official, he not only met with Li Dashou and them, but also showed how he exploited Li Dashou's group of villagers verbally, verbally, and in his deeds, so in Li Dashou's opinion, the village officials deserve to die more than high-ranking officials.

"It's useless to say this, counting the village officials in our village have only been in office for two years, but I don't know if the village officials who come later will be so "clean" after they leave. ”

Li Dashou's words brought Li Dingguo back to reality, and he no longer asked about the affairs of his parents' village, but just buried his head and ate vigorously.

Perhaps the information he received today had made him numb with shock......