Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 392: Can’t I just let go of my job?
The Zhu family sent someone to Cangzhou to deliver the news of Zhu Ying's attack on Jiang Gelao in the street. A day and a night later, Zhu Tingfang saw the messenger. Although he knew that this was his sister's usual temper, he still felt very subtle, even though he knew that Zhu Ying was so ruthless to Jiang Gelao not only for Zhang Shou, but also for his father and his brother.
But, as a man and a brother, how could I let a woman and her younger sister charge into battle?
Dad is the same, doesn't he do anything? Not only does he not do anything, but he also sends out his trusted aides...
For the first time, Zhu Tingfang had some complaints about his father Zhu Jing, and he immediately wrote a letter in front of the messenger, saying that everything was fine in Cangzhou and there was no need to worry. He asked the messenger to send it back after the ink dried. However, the messenger took the letter but did not leave immediately. Instead, he asked with a smile: "Master, are Master No. 2 and Master Shou not here?"
Knowing that Zhu Er was just a guy who was asked a question in passing, and that the person he really wanted to ask was Zhang Shou, Zhu Tingfang couldn't help but feel angry and amused. However, the messenger in front of him not only represented his father, but also his grandmother and stepmother. He could only say in a calm tone, "My second brother and Zhang Shou went out to the cotton fields outside the city. I'm afraid they won't be back for a while."
Seeing the messenger's obviously surprised expression, as if he didn't know why the future uncle and uncle who had nothing to do with farming would go to a cotton field, he patiently explained: "Erlang has been a tireless farmer these days. He has become interested in seeds from overseas and cotton fields. He has brought a group of cotton farmers together to start a... cooperative?"
At this point, Zhu Tingfang thought viciously in his heart that it was impossible for his second brother to come up with such a weird name with his pig brain. It must be Zhang Shou who instigated it behind the scenes. When Zhu Er couldn't figure it out in the end, he came back with a bitter face and asked Zhang Shou to help. He was so useless! Wait until he comes back to see how he will deal with this kid!
Since Zhu Ying returned to Beijing, the Zhu family knew that the runaway Zhu Er was in Cangzhou. Since his elder brother Zhu Tingfang and future brother-in-law Zhang Shou were both here, and Zhu Ying had said a lot of good things for Zhu Er, even though Zhu Jing realized that there was something fishy about his running away from home, he did not send anyone to escort the rebellious son back, but instead sent a messenger to investigate.
But the messenger never expected that what the eldest lady said so confidently about the second young master being a good farmer... turned out to be true! After thinking about it, he finally asked with a smile: "Young master, the mistress of the capital and the master's wife are very concerned about the second young master's situation. I am not in a hurry to return to the capital to report. If possible, can you allow me to go and see the second young master?"
Zhu Tingfang knew what was going on without thinking. He rubbed his brows with a headache, and finally said in a deep voice: "Well, my second brother will take Zhu Yi and the others to calm down the situation, and let Lao Xi take you to the outside of the city to see if you can find it."
If he can't be found, he won't care! There are so many cotton fields in Cangzhou, and he doesn't know where he is! Zhang Shou, the irresponsible boss, has not even taken care of the affairs of the county government these days. There are so many lawsuits every day, and that Sun Zhubu can't handle it at all, so he can only go in person. It's a pity that he has memorized the Ming Dynasty laws for so many years but can't use them. This time he is almost Zhu Qingtian!
There is also a cheating emperor and a slow court... Is it difficult to send a county magistrate and a few subordinate officials to Cangzhou? He can use those military sons to fill the vacancies of the three shifts of yamen runners, but he can't appoint a group of temporary officials himself! If the court doesn't send people, he will have to bear it like this, he is not a local official!
When the messenger said goodbye to Zhu Tingfang and followed Lao Xi, who was assigned to him by the eldest son, out of the county government office, he remembered the name of this man that the eldest son had just introduced, and asked with interest: "Excuse me, brother, is this the warrior who once killed the assassin with the eldest son?"
When he heard the word "assassin", Lao Xi's face suddenly became a little tense. Should he say that it was mainly Zhu Tingfang who exchanged injuries and killed several assassins, or should he say that the later "Uncle Hua" came down from the sky and killed them all like chopping melons and vegetables? If so, how would he, who claimed to have followed Zhu Tingfang and fought his way out of the northern barbarians, feel?
After thinking it over, he could only say vaguely: "These are just things that are not worth mentioning."
Because his contribution in killing the assassin was indeed insignificant... Of course, he was a little better than his other two companions!
The messenger was unaware of Lao Xi's mood swings, and he complimented him a few times. Seeing the man's face almost turned green, he realized that the man in front of him was definitely not modest, so he got back to the point and said, "The dozen heads sent back by the eldest son shocked the entire capital. Those who initially criticized the eldest son's military exploits behind his back now dare not say a word."
"After all, the people of Cangzhou cheered. Even if someone wanted to say that the eldest son killed civilians and pretended to be an assassin, it is impossible. The eldest son was able to escape the assassination of so many assassins and killed them on the spot, which shows his bravery."
Seeing that Lao Xi remained silent, he thought that Hua Qi would not mention the specific details of the assassination in front of Zhu Jing when he returned to the capital, so he deliberately continued: "The emperor was furious and ordered the heads of these assassins to be hung on the city gate. It is said that many people were scared and did not dare to go there that day... It's a pity that these people are dead, and it is difficult to trace where the assassins came from. Later, they just pushed the blame to the Northern Tartars."
The messenger kept talking, but Lao Xi remained silent, thinking that the so-called assassination attempt by the northern barbarians was just a trick to deceive the ignorant people, and everyone knew it was a joke. When he led his men out of the county government gate, he ran into a man who jumped off his horse. It was not until he got off the horse that a burst of hurried horse hooves came from behind, and then several riders caught up.
The messenger was stunned when he saw the first person to dismount: "Master Zhang?" Didn't Zhang Chen claim to have fallen off a horse and was recuperating in the Duke of Qin's mansion? How could he be in Cangzhou? Whether Zhu Ying had returned to Beijing or Cangzhou had sent letters one after another, they had never mentioned it!
Zhang Chen looked at the person strangely, and felt vaguely familiar with him. When Lao Xi came forward and said that he was the messenger from the Duke of Zhao's Mansion in the capital, he nodded slightly and said casually: "Oh, your wife, the master's wife, and the eldest daughter know about my situation in Cangzhou. The emperor and my father know about it, and my young master knows about it. You should not spread the news to other people who should not know about it."
The messenger finally reacted. He was not angry about the fact that he was not supposed to know before, and he responded with a smile. He came out this time, on the one hand, to receive the instructions of the lady and the lady, and on the other hand, he secretly received the strict orders of Zhu Jing, the Duke of Zhao.
When Lao Xi saw Zhang Chen greet them and then walked in excitedly, he immediately said, "Mr. Zhang, are you here to see Dr. Zhang? He was dragged out by the Second Young Master early in the morning, and Ah Liu and that little Peanut followed him..."
Before he could finish his words, Zhang Chen, who had stopped walking, rushed back angrily and cursed, "Can this guy be more reliable? He comes to the young master for help every few days. Doesn't he use his brain and think of a solution? Look at me. Not only do I have my own business in order, but I have also taken care of the Jiang and Qi families. He is really useless!"
Faced with such complaints, the messenger could only smile bitterly. But Lao Xi didn't care - no matter how harshly Zhang Chen scolded, he only dared to scold Zhu Er, not Zhu Tingfang. He coughed dryly and said, "This messenger from the Duke of Zhao's mansion was ordered to see the second son, so the eldest son asked me to take him to find him. But there are so many cotton fields in Cangzhou. Although I am familiar with the city, outside the city..."
Before he could finish his words, Zhang Chen said very straightforwardly: "Alright, leave the person to me! I know where Zhu Er is best. Go and tell your eldest son, I will take people to find Zhu Er. Also, ask him to teach his younger brother a lesson. Even if the young master is his future brother-in-law, he is not so shameless as to cling to him! The young master has a lot of things to do, and many people are eager to see him!"
Last time, Boss Zhu took him and Zhu Er over and beat them up. Humph, if it wasn’t for the fact that Boss Zhu was too powerful and he couldn’t beat him, he wouldn’t have endured this!
Lao Xi laughed as if to agree, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Zhang Chen take the messenger away with an unquestionable look on his face. He didn't want to hear anything about that group of assassins anymore, because it would make him feel useless. Now that the troublesome messenger had been handed over, he could also report to Zhu Tingfang.
Although Zhang Shou wanted to be a hands-off boss, it was still difficult to make people understand the concept of cooperatives these days. After all, Zhang Shou himself only had a partial understanding of it. When he passed on these incomplete concepts... or instilled them into Zhu Er, Zhang Chen, and Jiang Da Shao, the three people's understandings were even more different.
Young Master Jiang was fine. Although Master Jiang had handed over the power, he could still advise his son personally. The Jiang family also had accountants and business experts. Zhang Chen was also fine, because he had been pretending to be the second prince's secret envoy in Xingtai for several months, and had been perfunctory with people in the officialdom and business circles. In addition, he actually performed a classic operation of transferring money from one hand to the other, and now he still had a powerful weapon in his hand.
That’s right, it was the new loom that Zhang Chen himself had just started using in Xingtai, which doubled the efficiency.
Therefore, Zhu Er, who was truly penniless, was indeed the one who had the most difficult start.
As for the cotton farmers, Zhu Er, with his eloquent speech and the image of the righteous Zhu Erlang he had established in the palace, and with the help of Peanut, persuaded a few troublemakers and the progress was smooth at first. But when Zhu Er proposed to merge the land, unify the distribution and cultivation, and conduct assessments based on the farming performance and divide the money at the end of the year, some people began to have concerns.
The land owned by most farmers in those days was just like the land contracted by farmers in later generations, in small pieces, interlaced with each other, and it was even possible that two pieces of land owned by farmers were far apart.
Not only them, but also the wealthy families, a farm of several hundred acres was very rare, and the price was often several times more expensive than a small piece of land. A farm of several thousand acres was almost impossible to see, because even the emperor did not have so much contiguous land.
In the past, even if the emperors of all dynasties would secretly save some private money in the inner treasury, there were also emperors and even princes who bought real estates and manors privately. But because the succession struggles were too fierce, all these things would be dug out and used as evidence afterwards, so Ruizong and the emperor and his son did a very strange thing.
Ruizong announced to the world a farm he had when he was still a prince, claiming that this was all his property and he would pass it on to the current emperor when he died.
As for the current emperor, he set a greater example after he came of age and took power. The princes were not given any land when they came of age. Each was given a separate courtyard, and not even a palace. In addition, the ancestral precept of Taizu was that no title would be conferred on those without ability or merit, so the eldest and second princes were so miserable.
As for the workshops and mines directly under the imperial family, and how many prisoners on death row and prisoners of war worked there, that was another matter. It was a secret between the emperor and the Imperial Household Department... Even if some ministers had slandered him, the emperor was justified, saying, "I don't even have an imperial farm, what else do you want?"
To get back to the point, since the emperor did not have thousands or tens of thousands of acres of contiguous land, it was even more impossible for the common people. The most important thing was that Taizong issued an order that if a family owned more than a thousand acres of contiguous land, the tax would be doubled, and officials and nobles would not be exempted. The people could report to the Censorate. Although this decree was in name only for a period of time, both Yingzong and Ruizong implemented it seriously.
Therefore, the agricultural scroll that the emperor who now sits on the throne sees is that the self-cultivating farmers rely on two acres here, three acres there, to maintain food and clothing, while the big landlords and wealthy people have dozens of acres here, dozens of acres there, and even if they are rich, they can only have a few thousand acres of land, but they are all fragmented and can no longer be as rich as a country. Further down, there are farmhands and hired laborers...
However, such scattered land is not suitable for concentrated farming, let alone intensive farming... Because if a small rich peasant who owns dozens of acres of land does not hire a long-term worker, he will not be able to handle it. Just running back and forth between several plots of land is enough to exhaust him to death! As for the result of hiring a long-term worker, it may reduce his income, so the solution for a well-off family is to have as many children as possible!
More children means more labor... But after the family is divided, unless they are successful in business or imperial examinations, the originally well-off family becomes a family with enough food and clothing. If the family is divided again, the family with enough food and clothing may become a family that barely makes ends meet. In short, in the end , most cotton farmers in Cangzhou just take care of a few acres of land during the busy farming season, move goods at the dock during the slack farming season, and have a spinning machine or loom at home to survive.
After Zhu Er came to complain with the first version of the plan that could not be implemented, Zhang Shou racked his brains to recall the few details he remembered, and then he discovered the problem he had overlooked. Moreover, he found that he had forgotten one thing, which was to remind Zhu Er not to settle the accounts at the end of the year when he hired the villagers back, because that was no different from drawing cakes to appease hunger and promising hollow dumplings!
So, he was brought here by Zhu Er as a reinforcement early in the morning. When he appeared in front of several cotton farmers, Zhang Shou had his usual smile on his face, just like the reputation he had received as a gentle and amiable bamboo gentleman during his time in Cangzhou.
Sure enough, before he opened his mouth, several cotton farmers rushed to speak. Finally, it was one of the loud-mouthed cotton farmers who had followed Xian Yunhe to occupy the palace and was later released and went home who spoke .
"Dr. Zhang, we are really scared of being cheated. Most of the big families in Cangzhou have dozens or hundreds of looms and spinning machines of various kinds, and they all need cotton, especially when the price of cotton was extremely high before. They have all thought about our cotton fields. Although the second young master looks like a righteous man, you can't judge a person by his appearance. Who knows what he will do in the future!"
Zhu Er almost got his nose crooked with anger. What does it mean to know a person's face but not his heart? Is Zhu Erlang, who is a righteous man, fake?
Zhang Shou stopped Zhu Er with his eyes. Before he could explain, another person followed up and said, "That's right. When the money is divided at the end of the year, who knows how it will be divided? I planted other people's land, and others planted my land. If I work hard and others are lazy, who will get it?"
