Ma Dongliang was suddenly stunned, and then asked Soldier Zhangyuan: "Master Bing, is my son really an official?" ”

Zhang Yuan smiled after hearing this: "Dare to love what I just said, do you still not believe it?" ”

"How dare you believe this, you're afraid it's a joke!"

"He's a military baby, he's worse than a beggar's baby, it's good to survive!"

Ma Dongliang said with a smile.

Hearing Ma Dongliang say this, Zhang Yuan simply pointed to the name on the flagpole and said, "Look at it, is this your son's name?" ”

Ma Dongliang took a serious look and saw the words "Ma Wei stood in the thirteenth year of Wanli" engraved on the stone flagpole.

On the spot.

He froze in place.

The officials in charge of political education work of the Daming Navy Division trained Ma Dongliang and other Han people who returned to their hometowns on the boat to train their literacy skills.

Therefore, Ma Dongliang still knows a number of commonly used words, especially his son's name, which he has written silently behind his back many times.

Therefore, Ma Dongliang quickly recognized the word "Ma Wei", and really believed what Zhang Yuan said before that his son was lifted.

He burst into tears for a while, and touched the stone flagpole over and over again, and the cold and hard stone flagpole seemed to him as if it was a treasure that he couldn't put down.

"How did he get to read, and where do we have the money at home?"

Ma Dongliang hurriedly asked.

Zhang Yuan said with a smile: "Because your mansion has made a move, so I know a little about your family's situation, specifically, your son is Ling Zun picks coal, and Ling Lady weaves cloth, and now there are many textile shops in the hot spring town, which are directly sold to Japan, North Korea, and other places, as long as you are willing to save, you can save it." ”

Then, Zhang Yuan pointed to your family's new mansion and said, "This is your Ma family's new mansion, but Mrs. Ling doesn't live here, she still lives in the thatched house you used to live in and wait for you!" Only Ling Lingtang and your brother's family live here. ”

"And a new house?"

As soon as Ma Dongliang asked, he squinted and saw that in a thatched house next to the big house, a rickety old woman came out, with silver hair draped over her back, sobbing her mouth, looking at Ma Dongliang.

"Sister Yun!"

Ma Dongliang and his wife Ni Yunnai are childhood sweethearts, so they often call them Yun Mei.

And now, although Ni Yun is no longer as youthful as he used to be, his watery appearance has also become a wrinkled old face.

But he was still like Ni Yun when he first saw Cardamom, he couldn't help himself with excitement, walked towards her quickly, carefully held Ni Yun's face, and looked at it seriously.

"Old!"

Ni Yun said with a smile.

Ma Dongliang said with tears in his eyes: "Not old! Not old! ”

"You're finally back, I'm afraid that you won't recognize the new house and won't be able to find a home, so I've been living in the old house and waiting for you, and I didn't let them demolish the house."

"I don't know how many snows I've waited for, how many times I've seen the flowers bloom, and I've waited for you to come back."

Ni Yun smiled and sat back on his loom and knitted again, as if he had finished saying decades of words.

Ma Dongliang watched from the side and took the initiative to ask, "Where did this loom come from?" ”

"After you left, there were more tooth shops in the town that collected homespun cloth, even if you rented someone else's loom to weave cloth, you could earn it every year, and I also rented one, and gradually, with the money I saved, I could buy the next one, and I bought one."

Ni Yun replied.

Ma Dongliang was still overjoyed, secretly sighing that his wife was capable, and his eyes began to look at the loom seriously.

After looking at it for a while, he realized that this loom was different from the loom he had seen in the Cai family, a large family that had enslaved him in Luzon, and the shuttle of this loom could fly!

"The little nephew Ma Ren has seen his uncle."

At this time, a young student came over and bowed his hand to Ma Dongliang.

Ma Dongliang looked back and saw a young student standing in front of him in a silk dress, so he asked, "Are you really Ren'er?" ”

Ma Ren replied: "It's the little nephew." ”

Ma Dongliang was overjoyed: "You have also become a husband, when I leave home, you can't even speak." ”

"Thanks to the care of my aunt and brother, my little nephew has become a student member of the house."

Ma Ren replied.

Ma Dongliang asked again: "Why did there be two scholars in the family at once, we are military households, we can't eat enough, where can we have money to study." ”

"Uncle doesn't know that since he ascended the throne, he first cleared the acres of land and exempted the grain and silver imposed on us by the officers, and then reissued one or two silver dollars for military households, and it has not been broken since then, and it has risen every year, and now it has risen to two taels of silver dollars."

"In addition, now our military households in Shandong do not need to go to the river to transport grain, and now even miscellaneous duties such as conscription are exempted."

"Therefore, after you left, the family no longer owes taxes in the first place, my father can also receive salaries, my grandfather can still pick coal to earn money, and my aunt can weave cloth, and the family can send us children to study."

"Moreover, now that we are exempted from conscription, there are more migrant workers and more children of military families who can study, not just our family."

Ma Ren replied.

Ma Dongliang was stunned for a long time after hearing this.

"The squad is gone, and the grain silver is gone, which means I don't have to hide?"

After a long while, Ma Dongliang suddenly asked with a happy face.

Harsh government is fiercer than a tiger.

If it weren't for the backward military household system that squeezed ordinary military households too hard, Ma Dongliang would not have been deceived by profiteers into going overseas to Luzon as a slave.

After all, for Ma Dongliang at that time, if he didn't escape, he could only starve in his hometown, and he would have to serve, and he would even be forced by officials and soldiers, and maybe he would be exhausted to death one day.

And now, Ma Dongliang is willing to come back, because he found that he was overseas, and he was not treated as a person, and even had no human rights, no one cared about him being beaten to death like this, it was better to come back, come back tired and starved to death, and he could still die in his hometown and see his family.

What's more, he is already fifty years old, so he doesn't care even more.

Therefore, Ma Dongliang chose to go home after being rescued by the official army in Luzon.

But at this moment, Ma Dongliang learned that his hometown had already changed, the battle of the squad was gone, the grain silver was gone, and he could still see the silver, and the family also had a person who was studying.

Therefore, Ma Dongliang also asked.

Ma Ren let out a "hmm" and said, "And Your Majesty has already decreed that military households can be transferred to civilian households at will, but civilian households are not allowed to be transferred to military households at will." ”

"Did you turn around?"

Ma Dongliang asked.

Ma Ren replied: "No! ”

"What a stupidity!"

"How can you not turn it, is it because the official master wants to collect the money before he transfers it?"

"Even if it's a cashier, you have to borrow money and hand it over, and if it is converted to a private household, it will be easier for you to marry a daughter-in-law."

Ma Dongliang reproached Ma Renlai.

"Uncle doesn't know."

"The current military household is different from the previous military household!"

"Now military households can indeed see salaries every month, enrollment and selection of officials must be given priority, and joining the camp as regular soldiers is also based on voluntary recruitment, which is more noble than civilian households, so we have not turned into civilian households."

Ma Ren explained at this time.

Ma Dongliang was silent for a long time after hearing this, and then said: "That's it! ”

Then.

Ma Dongliang looked up at the blue sky and said to himself: "What kind of year have I encountered, why is the emperor so good today!" ”

Syllable!

Syllable!

Ma Dongliang suddenly slapped himself twice.

"Uncle!"

"What are you?"

Ma Ren hurriedly shouted.

Ni also stopped what he was doing.

Ma Dongliang himself laughed at this time: "It's true, I didn't dream!" ”

Ma Ren also smiled, and then said: "Uncle, go back to the house with the little nephew, only if you go, the aunt will be willing to move to the new house." ”

Ma Dongliang glanced back at his old house, which was the thatched house in front of him, and then nodded: "Okay!" ”

Ma Dongliang and Ni went back to the Ma family's new house and met their parents.

At the beginning, Ma Dongliang lived in his new home, and he still felt fresh, looking here and touching there.

He was also very happy that his nephews and nephews could accumulate such a big business because of the New Deal reform, but soon, after ten days of leisure, he felt uncomfortable, and just wanted to work and kill time.

"We really don't need to serve now?"

Ma Dongliang specially asked his nephew Ma Renlai on this day.

Ma Ren replied: "No need! The imperial court now strictly prohibits private military service and ordinary people, even if you want to let the master of the thousand households above serve you, he will not dare! ”

Ma Dongliang touched his knees in some frustration after hearing this, and then asked: "Then the family can buy a field, I will go to farm, don't use tenants." ”

"I don't dare to hide it from my uncle, the family has no property."

Ma Ren replied.

Ma Dongliang asked: "How can you not buy it, your houses are so well purchased, why don't you know that you can take advantage of your wealth now to buy some land and leave it to your children and grandchildren!" Do you only know pleasure and don't make long-term plans? It's all a loss! ”

"Uncle, you don't know, most of the money saved by the family has been bought with subscription coupons."

Ma Ren replied.

Ma Dongliang was a little surprised: "Subscription coupons? ”

"Yes, uncle, now it is more cost-effective to buy subscription coupons than to buy land and lend money, especially after Luzon was defeated, the family made a lot of money by subscribing coupons, so I bought such a big house."

Ma Ren said that he took Ma Dongliang to his cellar and opened the cellar for Ma Dongliang to see.

After Ma Dongliang saw it, he found that there were a lot of silver dollars stored in the cellar, and he was dumbfounded for a while: "So many? ”

"If you don't invest, there will be more silver dollars in this cellar than this, but now the silver dollars are not cost-effective in the cellar, so there is not much saving, and some are still saved in case of emergency."

Ma Ren said.

After hearing this, Ma Dongliang asked Ma Ren to tell him in detail about the subscription coupon.

Ma Dongliang felt even more incredible after hearing this, and said:

"Why haven't I come back for more than 20 years, such a big change has happened, I don't want to buy land if I have money, the emperor and the officials don't need us to support us, but they also pay us by subscribing to coupons, which I can't even think of before."

Ma Dongliang said and walked out with his hands behind his back.

He still wanted to do some work, after all, he had been enslaved for decades, and he was really not used to suddenly becoming a somewhat wealthy free man.

"Are you still looking for someone to pick up coal?"

Through the memories of his old father, Ma Dongliang came to the county seat, found Xu Youjun, a businessman who sold coal, and specially asked about picking coal.

Xu Youjun, the boss of this coal merchant, met him because he reported to his family and said that he was the father of Ma Wei, who knew Donglai Tongzhi, but he didn't expect Ma Dongliang to ask about it when he saw him, so he had to cry and laugh and say: "You don't know, no one picks coal now, and it is changed to transporting coal." ”

"Transporting coal?"

Ma Dongliang asked with some curiosity.

Xu Youjun smiled slightly, and then took the initiative to take him to the place where the coal was transported, pointed to the four-wheeled carriages galloping on the railway one after another, and said, "Now they are all transported on the railway in four-wheeled carriages." ”

Ma Dongliang looked at the railways and four-wheeled carriages stretching to the horizon like a black dragon in the green poplars on both sides of the river, and said with some loss: "No wonder the old man only loves fishing now." ”

Ma Dongliang left the county seat, and returned to the hot spring town, walking in the spring of red flowers and willows, although he liked such a hometown, a hometown where everyone was rich and happy, but he had a feeling that he was useless.

"Why is this field barren?"

At this time, Ma Dongliang came to a field where he used to rent and asked.

"No tenants! There were too many military households that fled in the past years, and those who did not escape refused to rent rent, so they all did no more work. ”

Shao Zhizhong, the former chief flag officer of Weihaiwei, walked over at this time and said a word.

After hearing this, Ma Dongliang looked at Shao Zhizhong, and was busy kneeling down and kowtowing: "It turned out to be Uncle Wei." ”

Zong Zhizhong held him: "Don't kneel!" I'm not a master now. ”

Ma Dongliang didn't kneel anymore, but said: "Can I give me this field, just have a meal." ”

"Really?"

Shao Zhizhong was overjoyed.

Ma Dongliang nodded: "I'm mainly too idle, and then I don't know anything else, I will only farm, seeing that this field is barren, I am also very distressed, and I don't want this field to be abandoned." ”

"Who isn't, if I wasn't really old, I wouldn't let this field go barren."

"In this way, I don't care about your food, but I only charge you 20% of the rent, how about it?"

"Then, plant as long as you want, even if you don't plant tomorrow, and if you can plant for ten years, this field will be given to you!"

Shao Zhizhong said.

"Okay!"

Ma Dongliang hurriedly agreed, and then he really began to become a tenant of the Shao family.

Ma Dongliang also began to live a life of leaving early and returning late, focusing on spring plowing every day, and gradually, the barren land he rented was cleaned up by him.

"Your Majesty has a decree, trafficking in the population of your own clan and the crime of treason, the master and the slave are all late!"

"Your Majesty has a decree, trafficking in the population of your own clan and the crime of treason, the master and the slave are all late!"

On this day, Ma Dongliang had just finished tidying up his field and was about to go home, when he heard a soldier beating a gong on the official road and loudly preaching the new policy.

Ma Dongliang couldn't help but laugh after hearing this: "Today, the Wanli Emperor really treats our people as human beings, and now, no one should be sold far away like me." ”

……

West Garden.

When Ma Dongliang went home, Zhu Yijun was reading letters, reading letters from the people.

Unlike Ma Dongliang, who only remembered the emperor's goodness, many people would write to him directly, and let the emperor receive their words of gratitude through the secret boxes of various post stations, especially the young men and girls of the people.

(End of chapter)