When the woman got closer, Zheng Haizhu saw clearly that she had a weathered face, a lot of white hair mixed in a bun, wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and lips, and she was at least fifty years old.

"You, the lady who came to occupy the land over there in Songjiang?"

The old woman's tone was not good when she opened her mouth, and two sharp eyes shot straight at her.

Zheng Haizhu faintly had a familiar feeling, and when he woke up, he remembered Mao Wenlong and Ma Xianglin, who were men who had a lot of power on the battlefield.

This old woman did not speak Chongming native dialect, but Su Song's official dialect like the county Cheng, and Zheng Haizhu understood it completely.

It must not be an ordinary peasant woman in Chongming.

If it is a figure like the county and township elders, it is not right, Jiangnan is not a matriarchal society like the aborigines of Taiwan, how can the patriarch and the elders have a woman to do it.

Zheng Haizhu speculated in her heart, but she did not delay her politeness, and she owed the old woman a blessing.

"To my seniors, my surname is Zheng, and I came here by boat from Wusongkou today."

After she raised her head, she kept looking at the old woman, not ruthless, but more inquiring in her eyes.

At this time, the coachman who had put the Rouge also hurried over, greeted Zheng Haizhu and Wu Bangde, and introduced him diligently: "This is Grandma Tang, the family of the Duke of Tang and Zhonggong of Guanglu Temple. ”

When Zheng Haizhu heard this, he was slightly stunned, and then his face showed a look of surprise and respect, and asked solemnly: "Tang Shu Zhonggong?" But the Tang County Order that Jiajing Ye fought against the Japanese here? At that time, the Japanese invaders bought thousands of households in Chongming, and entered the city unhindered to burn and kill, and it was Tang Gong who led the people to fight with the Japanese invaders and died heroically. ”

Tang Po Xingshi's appearance of asking sin changed suddenly: "Do you know my father? ”

In the Wu dialect, Daddy means "grandfather".

Tang Yicen, who bravely resisted the county order back then, has been martyred for 70 years, and Grandma Tang didn't expect that the young woman in front of her could tell her grandfather's deeds so clearly in a few words.

In fact, Zheng Haizhu knew that Tang Yicen, who was not a popular figure in history, also got it from Han Ximeng, who was full of poetry and books and was familiar with the old affairs of the previous dynasty.

A few years ago, when Han Ximeng and Zheng Haizhu developed tobacco bags and ukiyo-e cloth for export to Japan, they also tried their best to complete the "Anti-Japanese Chronicle", one of which is the anti-Japanese scene on Chongming Island.

Chongming Island is not under the jurisdiction of Songjiang, and Han Ximeng insisted on embroidering the war on Chongming Island because he revered the body of a scribe of Tang County, but he was loyal and fearless, and he took up the big sword and rushed to the forefront of the enemy.

At this moment, Zheng Haizhu saw that the hostility of the other party suddenly subsided, and continued to praise the relaxed atmosphere: "The deeds of Tang Gong were widely spread in Susong A few years ago, when the younger generation first arrived in Songjiang, I heard that Mr. Storyteller had told me. Later, he embroidered the "Anti-Japanese Chronicle" with the eldest lady of the Han family, and when the needle fell, he felt that his blood was full of blood. By the way, Grandma, my steward, Mr. Wu, the ancestor of his family, is a guerrilla under Qi Shaobao. ”

Wu Bangde stepped forward in response, hugged his fists and said, "The younger generation has seen my mother-in-law." ”

"Oh, so, it turns out that you and my wife and I are both loyal and good."

Grandma Tang's tone finally softened, and her gaze at Wu Bangde was much more kind than when she stared at Zheng Haizhu.

Zheng Haizhu knows that the old lady is always extra lenient to the young Sven's descendants.

At this time, Hua Er, a Liaomin girl, came over with a bench, put it on the ground, and said timidly: "Mother-in-law, please sit." ”

Grandma Tang glanced at the bench and asked curiously, "How is it a half-horse horse?" ”

The "rice horse" is a tool used by farmers to plant rice, and the four-cornered bench-like seat is fixed with a tenon on a wooden board, and it resembles a horse's back and legs, so it is called a "rice horse".

Zheng Haizhu pulled Hua Er, stroked her unkempt hair, sighed lightly, and explained: "They are all poor people who picked up a life under the knife of Liaodong Tartar, and they left their hometown to come here to beg for food, and each of them brought one or two things from their hometown. Some with hoes, others with stools for pulling down horses. Like this little girl, she brought her mother's handle to gin, and finally kept her thoughts. ”

Grandma Tang's gaze lingered for a moment on the wooden handle pinned to Hua Er's waist, and muttered, "Evil, there is no mother at such a young age." ”

He suddenly turned his head to look at the driver who sent him, and said angrily: "You still don't get out?" Standing here, is it for the county lord to listen? ”

The coachman smirked all over his face: "Let's go, let's go, grandma and Mrs. can talk about things well, and our master's heart is in his stomach." ”

……

Grandma Tang watched the mule cart go away, and snorted: "It's not proper to be an official." ”

When he turned his head, Wu Bangde was already holding a bowl of hot porridge.

"Grandma, at this hour, the cold has come up, drink some soup to warm up first."

Grandma Tang didn't show any courtesy, took the porridge bowl, drank a few big sips, wiped her mouth with her sleeve, and said, "The land you want to plant has its owner. Twenty years ago, when the Japanese attacked Korea, the Koreans asked for help from our Ming Dynasty, the imperial court transferred troops everywhere, and the Chongming Guard also sent more than 100 people to the north......"

With Grandma Tang's narration, Zheng Haizhu and Wu Bangde roughly understood.

It turned out that the hundreds of acres of land where they were located were originally the tuntian of the Chongmin military households who went north as guest troops.

The nature of the land is different between the tuntian and the private land in the Ming Dynasty. The military households that have been inherited from the system of guards at the beginning of the founding of the country cultivate the fields, which are called tuntian. What is cultivated by ordinary people is people's land.

When the Ming Dynasty sent troops to North Korea, there were nearly 1,000 registered military households in the Chongming Guard, and the hundreds of people who were sent out by President Qian were basically the lowest level of old and weak soldiers, and most of them died on the battlefield. Some of those who survived may not want to go back to Chongming to be bullied by President Qian, so they stay on the northeast border to do small business.

In the past 20 years, the descendants of several veterans returned to Chongming to inherit their father's military registration and land, but found that the land had been occupied by the latest Chongming Qianzong.

The old people in the Chongming Guard Center pointed out the children to find Grandma Tang.

"Mrs. Zheng, Mr. Wu, it's not my wife who boasts, my litigation skills, don't say Chongming County, even in Suzhou, there may not be a few litigators who can compare."

Female lawyers?

Zheng Haizhu and Wu Bangde did not hide the surprise in their eyes.

They are all thinking that they have traveled all over the Ming Dynasty and seen the world very much, and today it is the first time that they know that there is a female lawyer on the small island east of Nanzhili.

The corners of Grandma Tang's mouth showed a slight smugness: "What's strange?" My great-grandfather was a criminal scribe in Lingui, and later became a well-known local lawyer. My grandfather fought for his spirit, passed the Jinshi examination, and left his hometown in Guangxi to become an official. My grandfather died in this place, and my grandmother took my father to stay in Chongming. Fortunately, the imperial court gave my grandfather Guanglu Siqing a reward, and my grandmother also had the same fate as your Mrs. Zheng, and the gentry of Chongming did not dare to bully orphans and widows, and the conscientious military households, as well as the people who participated in the anti-Japanese war, were even more grateful for my grandfather's kindness and were very good to my family. After my father won the show, he was no longer able to be admitted to the juren, so he has been working as a lawyer and writing letters for the villagers. ”

When the old lady said this, she turned to the girl Hanaji, who was standing beside her and listened fascinated, and said, "When my father taught me to write the first form, I was as big as you. Some time ago, I went to Suzhou Mansion and submitted a petition to the descendants of veterans for land, which is the 738th petition I have written since I entered the industry 40 years ago. ”

Zheng Haizhu was dumbfounded.

The gray-haired Chinese barrister in front of her really refreshed her perception of the late Ming Dynasty.

(End of chapter)