"Since Liu Bei can give birth to Liu Chan, it is also reasonable for me to give birth to this kid."

Looking at his youngest son, who is thirty-four years old but still looks like a "stupid son of a landlord", Hu Jichen comforted himself in his heart.

"Father, the king of the country's eunuch called us over today, saying that there is a will in the palace and allowing us to officially set off to Jiangnan together."

This matter is not a secret, but because there were too many things a year ago, and all the troubles after the year, it was postponed until now, but since Hu Hancang was so elated, there was naturally a reason.

Hu Jichen thought about it for a while, and then understood, but smiled and said: "My son is blessed." ”

Hu Hancang was stunned, but Hu Yuancheng looked thoughtful.

Hu Jichen didn't bother to say anything, but wiped Hu Hancang's body and sprayed perfume, and then put down the handkerchief and said, "Dong Beizhou passed away a while ago." ”

"Recently, my body and bones have not been very refreshed, and I thought it would be fine after winter, but this spring, it has resurfaced."

Seeing that the two sons wanted to say something of concern, Hu Jichen waved his hand and said: "In this life, birth, old age, sickness and death, that's it, I have made great contributions to the country and made big mistakes, but in any case, I have a clear conscience in my own heart. So I didn't think about anything else, what happened to Annan in the future, it has nothing to do with our Hu family, understand? ”

Seeing the two sons nodding, Hu Jichen continued: "I can't rest assured, it's actually the two of you." ”

"Since ancient times, there are very few people who can live as comfortable as us, this is not only the mind of the Ming Dynasty, but also the people who really disdain to wait for me, so now that I have become the people of the Ming Dynasty, I will think about the future I gave birth to a son late, both of you are only in your thirties, and there is still a long way to go."

"I thought that you enjoyed all the power and wealth in the first half of your life, and you would not be able to stand the gap between coming to Daming, but now it seems that you are too worried, although the life is not so good, but the style and humanity of Daming are incomparable to Annan after all, and it is not a good thing for you to change the environment."

"If one day I am gone, the future will depend on you after all."

Hu Jichen sighed, looked at Hu Yuancheng and said, "Do you remember the poem I wrote to you back then?" ”

Hu Yuancheng nodded and said: "The sky is also covered, and the earth is also loaded, how can the two brothers not love each other?" ”

Hu Jichen took his eldest son's hand, patted the back of his hand, and only said, "I'm sorry for you." ”

"In the future, everything in the Hu family will have to be re-struggled, but for my father, I believe that you must have a way to change these conditions."

"Hmm."

Hu Yuancheng bowed slightly, with a solemn expression: "Father, please rest assured, leave it to me." ”

"It's good if you have faith."

"What about me?"

Hu Hancang waited for a long time, and when he saw that his father didn't speak, he took the initiative to ask.

"You just have to do it."

Hu Jichen said meaningfully: "Liu Chan can live well because he has no heart or lungs, whether he pretends to be or not. ”

"Let's go to Jiangnan, just marvel more, don't hide it in your heart, cut your heart and liver to show people, and the emperor can rest assured of us."

——————

Xie Jin, who had already gone north, naturally couldn't have rushed over from Honglu Temple.

Guo Jin, who failed to get off duty and went home, was halfway through the road, and suddenly suddenly felt a shock.

Damn, no!

Jiang Xinghuo was confused, he was also confused, and he forgot to understand that Jin was no longer in Nanjing.

So, Guo Jin turned around halfway again, and as soon as he returned to the yamen, he saw Jiang Xinghuo waiting for him.

Obviously, Jiang Xinghuo also realized that he subconsciously asked people to find Xie Jin's order and gave a mistake.

"Is there anything wrong with you two at night?"

Guo Jin, who had just come back, and the firewood cart who was about to lock the door of the house, heard this, first looked at each other for a short time, and then shook their heads in unison.

Just kidding, since the national teacher asked so, then it's okay to have something.

"Go back to the house and change your clothes."

The duty room of the yamen is equipped with a wardrobe as standard, and there are naturally civilian clothes and spare official clothes that can be replaced. In addition, in addition to the official uniforms provided by the imperial court, they have to spend their own money to buy them, so some officials can only rent official uniforms.

The three of them each changed into the clothes of ordinary scholars, wore square scarves on their heads, and wrapped them in layers of cotton scarves.

The square scarf, also known as the "square scarf", is a kind of square soft hat that meets the official standards in the early Ming Dynasty, and is a hat worn by officials and Confucian scholars.

The reason why it is popular, in addition to the fact that this hat looks pretty good, the most important reason is that the clothing regulations in the early Ming Dynasty were strict, and the implementation was strict, and wearing a square scarf and hat, the clothing can be worn casually, not so rigid.

As for scarves, especially men's scarves, they are really a recent trend, and it seems that the imperial court does not plan to issue a separate special regulation on scarves, so it is becoming increasingly popular.

The scarf has long been known in ancient China, there are many names, the various names of the scarf are "wind collar", "neckkerchief", "embrace", "neck", "back neck" and so on, but they are basically women-oriented products, until now the large-scale rise of the cotton textile industry in the south of the Yangtze River, and the warm and decent cotton scarf appears at a price that the citizens can accept, it is more and more accepted by the society.

"Pull it up and cover your mouth and nose."

Jiang Xinghuo motioned for the two of them to be like him, covering the lower half of their faces with a scarf a little tighter, Jiang Xinghuo naturally meant to let them pay attention to keeping warm, but the two thought it was to avoid letting them be recognized.

Seeing that Jiang Xinghuo was out of the door of the duty room, he didn't say where to go, Guo Jin and Chai Che didn't ask, just studied how this scarf could be covered tightly all the way without affecting their breathing.

"Let's go."

It wasn't until they left the yamen and got into the carriage that Jiang Xinghuo asked Wang Bin to take them in the direction of the Qinhuai River, explaining: "Our current identity is the first to move, remember?" ”

In terms of economy, Jiang Xinghuo will have time to investigate these things in the future, and tonight I will take these two younger brothers to understand the recent changes in the forest and the market.

After a short time, the carriage stopped in front of a teahouse.

Wang Bin opened the curtain and asked them to get out of the car, and then they didn't care, in terms of security, naturally a few samurai dressed in ordinary clothes had already followed, since it was a randomly selected location, Jiang Xinghuo made it clear that the consumption standard should not be too high, so naturally there would be no accidents. There are several strong men stuffed in the carriage behind, but whenever there is a little wind and grass, the guards inside support for a while, and the backup will arrive, and along the Qinhuai River, it is the key patrol area of the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses, and the patrolling soldiers are everywhere.

Although Jiang Xinghuo and the three of them were dressed up as ordinary people, and the people who accompanied them did not appear at the same time as them, the welcoming servant at the door did not slack off, and took a towel and respectfully sent Jiang Xinghuo and the three into the teahouse.

Choose whether the lobby is still a private seat, but there is no intention of inducing the arrangement, and the three of them can choose by themselves.

Jiang Xinghuo sat by the window and beckoned the guy to come and order.

The guy responded attentively: "What do the sons need?" ”

"A few side dishes and a pot of wine."

When the guy figured out the menu, the three suddenly realized a problem and fell into a brief silence.

Jiang Xinghuo touched his waist, obviously, he didn't have the habit of bringing money.

Guo Jin also touched his sleeves, he brought money, but he changed his clothes, and his purse did not change.

Seeing this, the chai cart silently took on everything.

I don't know if it's a play, or if it's really not much money, in short, when the chai cart takes out the money from the purse, there is a faint twitch at the corner of the mouth.

But since the chai cart took out dozens of eldest sons and put them on the table in a timely manner, the guy's eyes brightened up a lot, and he hurriedly asked, "Okay, what kind of wine do you want?" ”

Small dishes and the like, the public taste is more consistent, even if there are individual people who don't like to eat, the average reader does not care, the guy can naturally give them casually, but the wine is different, the taste difference is too big, and the casual on the wrong one, then the theory is not only unclear, but the guy bears a lot of responsibility.

In the past, it was not that no one let it casually, but after the result, I don't know whether the price is not satisfied or the taste is not satisfied, and finally it is a big trouble, causing the boss to admit compensation, after all, for this kind of teahouse, as long as it is not a very excessive thing, then in order not to affect the popularity and business, will choose to calm down.

"What's selling well lately?"

The guy smiled: "Naturally, it's liquor, but it's a little strong, I don't know if a few sons are used to drinking it." ”

"What are the types of liquor?"

"Xianjia Brew, Baiyun Spring, Southern Shochu, Dangkouzi, and Intestine Break are all complete."

"Then get us a pot of Baiyun Spring."

"Okay, a few sons wait a moment."

But also, in fact, Jiang Xinghuo thinks about it and knows why the liquor has been selling well recently, although the liquor was not very popular before, and it was used by the low-level river workers to keep out the cold, but after being processed by the workshop, the taste is much better, and it is not so strong, it is easier to be accepted by the public, and the more important reason is that in Daming, other drinks are not very easy to get.

In the current Ming Dynasty, private brewing is naturally not prohibited, and even up to the noble Zhumen, down to the large folk households, there are customs of comparing each other's own brewed water, but this kind of private wine is still different from the wine circulating on the market.

"Do you know why liquor sells well?"

Uncovering the scarf from below, knocking on the melon seeds that were served, Jiang Xinghuo asked.

Chai Che thought for a while and said, "Does it have anything to do with the liquor tax?" ”

"Yes."

"When Hongwu founded the country, the liquor tax policy was different from now, you know this, right?"

In fact, there is a saying here that compared with the Song Dynasty, where the wine tax accounted for about one-tenth of the total annual income, and the Yuan Dynasty, which accounted for about one-seventh of the total income, the proportion of the wine tax in the Ming Dynasty was quite low, almost negligible, because when Hongwu founded the country, in order to avoid the consumption of grain, the prohibition of alcohol was strictly enforced.

For example, in the Song and Yuan dynasties, the official koji was made and the qu was taxed, so as to collect the liquor monopoly tax, and Lao Zhu also had this idea, by restricting the raw materials of koji to avoid food being consumed in the winemaking, so that the rich drank every day and the poor did not have enough to eat.

Guo Jin recalled: "Emperor Taizu Gao decreed at that time: Yu Zi started Jiangzuo for ten years and two years, and he was afraid of being competent, but with the cost of the military state, he was not exempt from levied on the people, and my people were obedient and willing to lose, which was gratifying.

With the folk liquor liquor, the rice and wheat are frequented, so the ban on alcohol, the price of rice and wheat this spring is slightly flat, and it is quite beneficial to the people, but it is not plugged into its source and wants to curb its flow, which makes the farmers have no glutinous planting this year, in order to plug the source of winemaking, and want to make the grain abundant and the price is flat, our people have to raise, to enjoy their lives, and the truth of raising the people is also. ”

Lao Zhu's holy decree, as always, is real, starting from himself, and explaining the ins and outs of the prohibition of alcohol to the people clearly, which can be described as serious.

In fact, Lao Zhu's idea is good, but you don't have to think about the practical effect, it must not work, in any era, the official ban on alcohol is basically more and more.

There is even one more thing that was recorded in the biography of Hu Dahai in the "History of the Ming Dynasty", "At the beginning, Taizu Kewuzhou banned winemaking. Dahaizi was the first offender. Taizu was angry and wanted to practice the law. When the sea is conquering, Wang Kai should not be punished, so as to calm the heart of the sea. Taizu said: 'It is better to make the sea rebel against me than to make me unable to do so.'" Actually slashed it. and was imprisoned and killed, and the sea was left behind. ”

The authenticity of this record is doubtful, but it can also be seen from here that Lao Zhu's attitude towards abstaining from alcohol is quite resolute.

Jiang Xinghuo uncovered his scarf, tasted the hot dish that had just been served with chopsticks, and said.

"In fact, with the recovery of agricultural production, considering a large number of opposition voices from the people and repeated prohibitions on private sales, the Ming Dynasty will not cause famine because of the grain of winemaking, and there is indeed no need to continue to maintain the prohibition of alcohol, so Emperor Taizu Gao abolished the prohibition of alcohol at the time of the founding of the country, but at the same time no longer carry out alcohol monopoly, that is, the liquor system and the purchase and puff system, the tax on wine koji, each piece of wine koji is roughly levied only 100 Wen, which has caused the wine industry to be extremely developed, not only the city of restaurants and restaurants, Even the towns and villages are full of breweries and pots. ”

This is a saying, Hongwu twenty-seven years, Lao Zhu thought that the sea was peaceful, thinking and the people were happy, so the Ministry of Engineering was ordered to build ten restaurants outside the Jiangdong Gate, there are crane songs, drunken immortals, Acura, drum belly, guests and other names, edict to give civil and military hundred official banknotes, life banquet in the drunken fairy building, these official restaurants, now are operating quite well, is the first choice for high-end banquets of officials and wealthy businessmen.

"And the koji of baijiu is much cheaper than the koji of rice wine, and it is estimated that each piece of koji may be more than a dozen yuan."

This is because the koji of rice wine is mainly used to make rice wine and rice wine, usually using rice, glutinous rice and other raw materials, and the raw materials used in the koji of liquor are mainly wheat, in Daming, the price of rice and glutinous rice is higher than that of wheat, and the price of glutinous rice is much higher than that of rice.

Therefore, if it is a private brew, then the tax on koji is naturally negligible, after all, the production is small.

However, for large liquor farms, while paying taxes according to regulations, they must make as much money as possible, so the koji tax paid by liquor is much lower than that of rice wine and rice wine.

Nowadays, the people can accept liquor, so the liquor market will naturally increase its efforts to produce liquor, although it is cheap, but the tax paid is much less, and there is always a profit to be made in small profits and quick turnover, and it can also enter the "sinking market".

Guo Jin and the chai cart looked at the dishes on the table, a little anxious, but the previous order of the national teacher was really a bit strange.

The chariot asked, "Can we take off the scarf?" ”

Jiang Xinghuo was stunned for a moment, and only said:

"Pick, no one knows (you)."

“.”

Jiang Xinghuo wasn't very hungry, and the purpose of his coming out was not to eat and drink, so he watched the two of them drink and eat and browse the menu by himself.

There are indeed a lot of alcohols on the menu, such as wine, pear wine, date wine, honey wine, tree sap wine, and coconut milk wine.

"So, do you think the liquor tax is actually a problem?"

After eating two more bites, Guo Jin came back to his senses.

Jiang Xinghuo smiled and said, "It depends." ”

Many of Lao Zhu's systems, in Jiang Xinghuo's view, are suspected of overkill, or too idealistic.

In fact, no matter what era it is, it is no problem for important franchised goods to be taxed by the state.

Lao Zhu only saw the harm of the monopoly tax on commodities in the Song and Yuan dynasties, but he did not realize the benefits that these monopoly commodities could bring to the national economy, especially for a growing economy like the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, it's not nice to say, in the history of Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, why did the Ming Dynasty perish? There are many reasons, but in the final analysis, it is actually two words, no money.

If the Ming Dynasty had money, it would not have been necessary to increase the "three salaries" to scrape oil and water on the heads of poor peasants, and it would not have led to a vicious circle of "raising taxes to suppress peasant uprisings and leading to more peasant uprisings".

Why can Li Zicheng lose many times, but Sun Chuanting can't afford to lose once? Here's why.

However, whether to reinstate the franchise tax on alcohol is still under Jiang Xinghuo's consideration.

The pros and cons are actually very clear, the pros and cons of recovery are that the annual fiscal revenue can be increased by a sum of money, and the disadvantages, the private alcohol business will definitely be hit, and it will also bring about the problem of smuggling alcohol and increase the cost of supervision.

This option is optional or not, depending on whether there is such a financial need in the future.

If the fiscal situation is tight, then the resumption of the liquor franchise tax will also be restored, and the people will certainly not be happy, but the resistance will not be too great.

At this moment, another group of scholars came to the teahouse, and Jiang Xinghuo silently pulled up his scarf.

The reason why I chose this kind of teahouse with a low consumption level instead of a restaurant with a higher consumption level is because readers generally have a little consumption power, but their consumption power is not so high, and they don't have much income and mainly rely on their families.

The so-called "rely on your parents at home, and rely on your parents to pay money when you go out", which is probably the case.

Therefore, if it weren't for the kind of rich brother who was swollen and fat or really had strength in the family, he would definitely not choose Heming and Zuixian, which are government-run restaurants of the Ministry of Industry, and most of the parties would be in relatively quiet teahouses with low consumption.

After all, the difference between a teahouse and a restaurant is not "whether there is wine in the teahouse or whether there is tea in the restaurant".

If the consumption level is lower, it is the wine shop that the ordinary people in the market are more enthusiastic about, where it will be relatively noisy and chaotic, and there is a "five chiefs, six six six" everywhere The sound of the wine order, the scholars generally do not like to go to this kind of place.

Therefore, if you want to have a general understanding of the ideological dynamics and folk situation in Shilin, then it is a good choice to sit in the teahouse for a while.

Not surprisingly, with limited space to choose from, this group of scholars chose this area by the window, that is, Jiang Xinghuo's next table.

"Hurry up, the time of hospitality matters."

The shot at the table was obviously very generous, and the taxi who paid for it waved his hand and asked the guy to step back.

The guy took the money and ran to the kitchen to urge, but after a while, the guy was holding the tray and serving, and the hot small steamer, millet porridge and other food filled the whole table, Jiang Xinghuo glanced at it, and made sure that the dishes sold here were really not far from those in later generations.

Moreover, the taste is very fragrant.

The scholar at the next table moved his chopsticks to pick up a piece of tofu and chewed it slowly.

At the end, another piece of sweet and sour fish was sandwiched.

"It's easy here."

Someone reminded me unintentionally.

Hearing this, they immediately understood the meaning.

looked at Jiang Xinghuo's table, there were only three cold dishes, two hot dishes, and a pot of wine, if you had a serious dinner, it was obviously not enough.

In addition, although the clothes of the three people are not shabby, they are not very exquisite, so they naturally think that this table should be all students from poor families, and they come here to consume, just to maintain a minimum standard.

But to Jiang Xinghuo's surprise, he thought that he would be ridiculed according to the routine of the popular book he had recently read, but the scholars at the next table greeted them enthusiastically and asked if they wanted to be together.

It seems that the world style of Daming is still quite positive.

In short, this group of lively young people, even if they were politely rejected, did not appear in the so-called "annoyed and angry" and other scripted plots, but instead grinned and laughed, and then continued to eat, drink, and talk by themselves.

Jiang Xinghuo silently drank saliva to moisten his throat, and then glanced at Guo Jin and the firewood cart, asking them to continue to observe.

Although there was interference from the erhu BGM in the teahouse, after all, the adjacent table was close, and these young scholars did not deliberately control the volume when they spoke, so Jiang Xinghuo could hear it quite clearly.

"Brother Chen came out together today, I didn't expect it."

"It's rare for Brother Fang to come out for a trip, how can I not accompany him, anyway, this year will be the first."

The surname Chen didn't look boring, but more focused on reading, at this time he replied with a smile, paused, and added: "But there are a few high school compatriots, and they are much more lively than us at this time." ”

A few people were just silent, no one complained that there was any shady scene in the exam, this year, Jiashenke, published a lot of articles on the paper in "Ming Pao", from the first to the third, the hard power is there, it is indeed very fair and just, and they can't pass the exam because their level and performance, and their preparation are poor.

"Alas, I heard that there are plans to divide the north and south in the DPRK."

The one surnamed Fang was the gentleman who paid the money, and at this time he poured himself a drink and said.

As soon as the words of the scholar surnamed Fang fell, the person opposite raised his head: "If you want me to say, the person who proposed to do this is really a worm." ”

Jiang Xinghuo: "."

The soldier next to him hurriedly said, "You can't say that." ”

Although Daming did not easily get convicted for his words, and it was nothing to privately denounce the insects who stole high positions in the court, but after all, this is Nanjing City, at the feet of the Son of Heaven, and they who came to Beijing from other places to take the exam still have to pay attention to it.

Obviously, it can be heard from the accents of these people, most of them are Jiangxi people, and then there are Zhejiang people and Nanzhili (Jiangnan) people, these three regions are also the "imperial examination provinces" of the Ming Dynasty.

"The north-south sub-list is not without benefits, at least, the kind of thing that happened in the past will not appear, as long as for us, there is no major change in the number of people on the list, so even if the north-south sub-list, what does it matter?"

"There are more than 400 people on the list of Jiashenko this year, which is needed by the dynasty to employ people, if it is an ordinary year, it is not surprising that it is two or three hundred, if the north and south are on the list, they can still give the south a quota of two or three hundred people, it really doesn't matter, I'm afraid."

"What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid that there are two or three hundred in total, and the north accounts for half, so it will be difficult."

"That's not it, you don't know how difficult it is to pass the exam in Jiangxi."

The lifters of Zhejiang and Jiangnan actually know the difficulty of hell in Jiangxi.

Let's put it this way, in Zhejiang, you can be admitted to the level of lifting people in nine years (three township examinations), and you may overturn if you are a talent in Jiangxi.

It is precisely because of Jiangxi's high level of culture and education and its large reading population base that it will be involved in this kind of perversion.

However, this kind of involution, in fact, has advantages and disadvantages under the current imperial examination system.

The number of people admitted to the township examination in the Ming Dynasty is usually distributed by the imperial court according to the population and cultural and educational situation of the political envoys, usually ranging from dozens to more than 100, and the total number of people admitted to each township examination is about 1,000 to 12,300 people, according to statistical analysis, the admission rate of the national township examination in the middle of the Ming Dynasty was maintained at around 4%, and after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, that is, the Jialong Wanda reform in order to control redundant officials, the admission rate was further reduced, to about 3.1% (because the examination of the Jinshi was more than one session, After a long time, a considerable number of people who can't get into the Jinshi but have been taking the Jinshi exam, by increasing the admission rate of the entrance examination, reducing the admission rate of the township examination, and then dying naturally, you can slowly digest this group of people), in terms of the admission rate alone, the lifting of people can be said to be the most difficult level in the imperial examination, so the folk also have the saying of "gold and silver".

For the scholars in Jiangxi, sometimes it is not difficult to take the Jinshi examination

There are so many candidates in Jiangxi, and there are only about 100 people who can be admitted every year.

But Jinshi doesn't, and in principle, Jinshi doesn't look at your origin.

Therefore, the north-south division will inevitably touch the interests of Jiangxi candidates.

Young people always like to talk about these things, and the scholars at the next table talked about this topic again, basically "If I were Jiang Xinghuo, how would I make the North and South list".

Jiang Xinghuo at the next table silently wrote it down.

The scholars may not have much knowledge, and what they say is basically taken for granted, but this kind of feedback from real stakeholders is indeed a necessary examination for policy implementation.

The reason why we do not dare to move the imperial examination lightly is because it is a matter that concerns the entire contingent of officials, and the involvement is too great, and we must make complete preparations before we can do it.

Moreover, even if it is moved, it is necessary to take into account the current and clear north-south division, as well as the practical interests of the southern scholars.

But in any case, since the north-south division is clearly implemented in the previous life, and the policy of hundreds of years has been implemented as soon as it is implemented, it shows that it is indeed necessary and effective, but in terms of the specific "degree", it needs to be carefully considered.

And then, as the meal was almost finished, the next table began to drink again.

After a few glasses of wine, the topic opens up a lot.

"You said that the "Royal System" is being discussed quite lively, will the next imperial examination be used as an exam question?"

"I think this kind of popular one, everyone can guess it, it will definitely not be used as an exam question, but the study of "The Royal System" is supported by the national teacher, which has a deep meaning."

"What does it mean?"

"What other meaning can there be? Naturally, Togu was restructured. ”

Jiang Xinghuo quietly pricked up his ears and thought, "Yo, I understand everything." ”

When he was guessing, the person opposite suddenly turned his head to him and asked, "This friend seems to have heard it, isn't he also interested in "The Monarchy"?" ”

Hearing this, Guo Jin and the chai cart, who were sitting around Jiang Xinghuo, showed surprised expressions one after another, and then cast their eyes over in unison.

"This."

Guo Jin hesitated, he wanted to block Jiang Xinghuo.

Jiang Xinghuo just waved his hand and said in a low-key manner: "I understand a little, I understand a little." ”

(End of chapter)