Lu Ming

Things have developed to this point, and after feeling that the opponent has changed from a hard walnut to an iron ball full of thorns, Xu Jin is now eager to renegotiate with the rest of the alliance to formulate a strategic plan.

After the three emergency measures were issued, the Xu Mansion started emergency operations.After receiving the notice from the Xu Mansion, the alliance also expressed that they would go to the mansion tomorrow - at this time, they didn't care about the etiquette of making an appointment, saying that tomorrow is tomorrow.

However, at noon the next day, when the guests came to the door one after another, people who came from all over the place to report brought some bad news: on the plots of gentry around the port, three new mulberry gardens were destroyed last night. burn.In addition, all the fish in two fish ponds floated to the surface of the water this morning, and a fish farmer had already hanged himself.

After hearing the news, the masters sitting in the flower hall were stunned on the spot.

Chapter 399 Title Deed Alliance

Several gentry from the Land Deed Alliance arrived as promised in the afternoon of the next day.These people are as close as the county seat of Shanghai, and as far away as Songjiang, where they can reach melons on a boat a few tens of miles away.

After arriving at the Xu family's mansion in the city of Shanghai, the Qing guest entourage brought by the masters naturally formed a lively tea party in the Nuan Pavilion.And the master came to the big study to attend the meeting with his personal think tank.

At the beginning of the meeting, a clearer from the Xu family read out the latest loss report in public.

The gentlemen already knew the news yesterday, and this meeting began to discuss it.Soon, in the analysis of everyone talking about it, the consequences of the destruction of the garden and the next steps of the enemy were deduced by everyone in close agreement.

……

For the tenants of this era, heavy debts and great living pressure are standard configurations for them.Therefore, for those destroyed mulberry orchards, unless the landlord spends a lot of money to buy adult mulberry trees in the spring, if the mulberry seedlings are planted, the tenants will have no resources to survive the investment in the reconstruction of the mulberry orchards in the past few years, and they will inevitably go bankrupt and go into exile.

The same is true for the supporting fish ponds around the mulberry garden.

The mulberry fish pond is an agricultural model that combines planting mulberry and raising silkworms with pond fish farming.Plant mulberry trees around the pond, use mulberry leaves to raise silkworms, use silkworm excrement and silkworm chrysalis as fish bait, and use pond mud as mulberry tree fertilizer to form a mutually beneficial production chain to achieve the effect of both fish and silkworms.

This method was quite common in ancient times, especially in the warm Pearl River Delta Plain. It has been the main agricultural model of silkworm farmers in the Pearl River Delta until later generations.In the Yangtze River Delta in the 17th century, although mulberry fishponds were not so popular due to the cold climate, many mulberry gardens still adopted this method.

So when the farmers discovered that the mulberry trees were burned overnight and the fish turned their bellies, it was not surprising that some people hanged themselves on the spot—anyway, the next fate was that the whole family starved to death by the roadside, leaving early and being born early.

Burning mulberry orchards and poisoning fish are both very low-cost behaviors that only need a little kerosene and a little industrial waste.Of course, due to well-known reasons, the specific names of the chemicals will not be mentioned here.

This is Xiong Dao's counterattack method in the first wave of four or two: make the opponent mess up first.

The consequences of things are far from simple.

Soon the tenants will learn the truth (this is certain, because the murderer will spread the real reason for burning the mulberry field), and then the head of the gentry will be set on fire.

Realizing that their family has become the cannon fodder for the struggle between the landlord and the port, the passionate tenants must seek an explanation from the landlord.And the tenants who know the truth are not so easy to be fooled into gang fights at the port and die.

In short, no matter whether the landlord is to appease or forcefully clean up the tenants, he will have to pay a huge price.

To appease, in the days before the mulberry tree grows, the landlord not only cannot collect the debts and rent, but also has to feed these people with rice.This is a large amount, and the landlord's family has no food left!

If it is tough, it is to seize the tenants and withdraw the rent, sweep these tenants out, and even sell their children to pay off the debts-many of them have been tenants who have worked for the landlord's family for several lifetimes. to huge losses.

And this is a temporary solution rather than a permanent solution: After driving away the old people, we must call in new people, right?When recruiting newcomers, the landlord also has to pay a huge price to rebuild the mulberry gardens and fish ponds, and also advance money to support the newcomers.

In addition, the tenants are not all lambs.To withdraw tenants on a large scale, the landlord must also organize a large number of people to fight in groups, otherwise, how could it be so easy for the tenants to leave honestly?

We must know that there is a dynamic balance between tenants and landlords. The reason why many landlords subcontract the rent collection process to renters is because the tenants are difficult to deal with and cannot collect rent.

At the moment, sitting in the Xu family's big study, called Pinming, is actually a group of gentry discussing countermeasures, and soon saw two more terrible consequences from the above-mentioned deduction.

First: If the mulberry garden and fish pond are restored in the future, what if they are set on fire and poisoned by those thieves who come and go without a trace?We can't mobilize all the tenants in the village to guard the mulberry field day and night, right?

Second: If a large number of people are mobilized to clear the field and seize the tenants, wouldn't it be bad if Xiong Dao's subordinates were mixed in among those rebellious tenants, and then a few poisonous smoke and firecrackers flew over?

These gentry, who have seized people's property all the year round, and have almost infiltrated their schemes and tricks into their bones, took less than half an hour today in the big study of Xu Zhai to deduce the situation after Zhuangzi was set on fire and poisoned. Xiong Dao's backhand also guessed nine out of ten.

However, guessing is useless, you have to find a countermeasure.

"For today's plan, Xu Tu is the worst strategy. There are still a lot of mulberry gardens and fish ponds in the villages you have in hand. If you continue to wait for death, they will be destroyed by that group of Qiu Ba one after another!"

After a collective silence for a while, the first person to speak out in support of radical policies was a chubby middle-aged man in his 40s.

This master's surname is Huang, and his name is Huang Shaozhou. He was a Jinshi in the Wanli period, and he is from Hangzhou.

In fact, Master Huang just "joined the party" and joined the Land Deed Alliance today.

As for the reason, this is a long story.

Originally, Master Huang also had a small village near the port.As it turned out, among the three mulberry gardens burnt down by Xiong Dao's men last night, one belonged to Mr. Huang.

Mr. Huang, who had his property burned inexplicably, quickly found out the reason behind this incident - the war between the alliance and the port has been widely spread in the past two days, not to mention the case in the county government yesterday, which made people Everyone knows about the burning of mulberry fields.

After that, the furious Mr. Huang immediately approached the Xu family.It is no secret that the title deed alliance is in high-end circles. As a member of the gentry, Mr. Huang easily met the rightful owner Xu Jin.

After the two sides met, Master Huang, who felt humiliated by a group of Qiu Ba, asked to join the Land Deed Alliance on the spot after scolding Xiong Dao and his group of white-bodied grassroots, and fought side by side with all the masters, striving to win Xiong Dao as soon as possible, and swallowed his Industry, everyone shares a share.

To be honest, if Master Huang asked to join the alliance before today, Xu Jin would definitely have to think about it.After all, the shares of all shareholders have been allocated before, and if newcomers are added, all the shares will be redistributed again, which is very troublesome.

However, the lawsuit yesterday and the subsequent overnight arson completely changed Xu Jin's mind.

He didn't follow the routines that the gentry had been familiar with for thousands of years. The attack was weird and ruthless, and Xiong Dao, who was backed by a big backer, made Xu Jin feel a little tired.

So Xu Jin immediately welcomed Master Huang to join: Now the distribution of benefits is not important, and it is thankful that Xiong Dao can be taken down.Xu Jin urgently needs new forces to join in, and Mr. Huang came just in time.

After expressing her welcome, Xu Jin also recalled the scenes of Du Yaren’s visit, and then she couldn’t help but be thankful—Xiong Dao’s information about Zhuangtian in the hands of the gentry came from Du Yaren’s rote memory when he was looking at the land deed. back.And here lies the mistake: the mulberry garden of Mr. Huang's house was burned down by mistake.

After trying to figure out the cause and effect, a certain person felt secretly relieved, wishing that Xiongdao would burn down a few more mulberry gardens of innocent families and push those landlords to the alliance.

……

After that, other members of the alliance who came to Xu's house one after another also welcomed Master Huang... Everyone felt the difficulty of Xiong Dao, and their mentality was the same as Xu Jin's.

Master Huang quickly figured out the background of everyone in the alliance.It is really too easy for gentlemen to build relationships. All kinds of friends and relatives of the same year can always be connected.

Mr. Huang, who got to know everyone well, quickly made a hawkish statement at the next meeting: "For the current plan, Xu Tu is the worst strategy."

And Master Huang's remarks were also approved by most of the people present.

There is no way, under Xiong Dao's weird attack method, all the masters feel that the initiative of the matter is slowly slipping away from the alliance.

We must know that in the Yangtze River Delta region at the end of Ming Dynasty, in addition to the cotton fields with the most extensive planting area, there were more mulberry gardens and fish ponds.So everyone still has a lot of mulberry gardens and fish ponds in their hands. In this way, if Xiong Dao makes troubles according to the frequency of setting three fires every night, those mulberry gardens and fish ponds on hand will really appear. big problem.

Once civil unrest breaks out at that time, Xiong Dao can watch jokes or run away by boat, but these big landlords sitting here will have to jump their feet.

Seeing that most of the members agreed with the strategic choice of a quick fix, the host Xu Jin immediately organized a symbolic vote.Then, under the principle that the minority obeys the majority, Xu Jin announced that Xu Xutu's strategy had once again been overthrown, and the next step for the Land Deed Alliance was to return to the previous track: to use force to eliminate the Xiongdao gang once again.

After the announcement, Xu Jin, as the executor, began a series of assignments.

The first step is about Songjiang Prefecture.

Now that Jiading County can't do anything about it, it's Songjiang Prefecture's turn.The alliance's requirements for Songjiang Mansion are not high: as long as they can suppress Xiongdao a little in the past few days and delay for a little time.

A jinshi lord who had a good relationship with Fang Yuegong, the prefect of Songjiang, immediately took the task of serving as a lobbyist.

The second and third steps are the trump cards that really require the use of force.As for the forces that need to be used in these two steps, the alliance has communicated before, and now it is only necessary to send envoys to determine the detailed steps.

All these tasks, of course, do not need to be done by the new member, Mr. Huang - there were designated persons in charge of these tasks before.

The meeting lasted until the evening of that day, before all the teams were assigned, and all tasks were assigned to individuals.Master Huang also obtained his share in the alliance as he wished, as well as the 3000 taels of "share/war funds" he promised on the spot.

That's it.After the meeting was over, Mr. Huang walked out of the house with the help of a man who looked like a guest behind him, leaning on crutches... Mr. Huang has foot problems and cannot walk flexibly.

Chapter 400 Fang Yuegong

In the Ming Dynasty, Songjiang Prefecture was located in the ancient Huating County, with Huating, Shanghai, Jiading, Qingpu and other counties under its jurisdiction. Its jurisdiction area was quite large, covering almost the entire right half of the Yangtze River Delta.

Although Shanghai County in this era is very prosperous, its area is very small, only the area around Shiliupu.Therefore, most of the Shanghai natives of later generations, if they are based on their ancestral home, are actually Jiading, Qingpu, or Songjiang.

Songjiang Fuya, located on the original site of Songjiang No. 17 Middle School in later generations, was a large building complex in the [-]th century.After all, in terms of regulations, the government office is two circles larger than the county office.

On the second day after the tea-tasting meeting held by the Land Deed Alliance, an envoy sat in the warm pavilion in the back house of the Songjiang government office, drinking tea with Fang Yuegong, the prefect.

The emissary's surname was Lu, and the reason why he was sent to find the magistrate was because Lu Jinshen and Fang Zhifu were both Jinshi in the second year of Tianqi; both parties were of the same year and had contacts on weekdays, so they were qualified lobbyists.

Fang Yuegong, the prefect, was born in Gucheng, Hubei Province, with four long characters.This person looks mediocre, not tall, and a little rich. He is 38 or [-] years old, and he is relatively young among middle-aged cadres.

At this moment, Fang Zhifu is personally lifting the copper teapot from a clay stove with charcoal burning at his feet to refill tea for an old friend sitting next to him.

"Fourth elder brother, it's too simple, and it's not like being honest and honest. I will send someone to send an oil stove tomorrow. It's cold and humid in winter, so it's just right for me."

The intrusion of some people has affected this plane more and more deeply.

Take the furnace charcoal for heating in winter as an example. Now the big families with the least money are using kerosene stoves that can adjust the fire and are convenient and clean.The second-class rich families will use traditional silver white charcoal, and the third-class will use ordinary charcoal like Fang Zhifu.

"There are so many ministerial fees in the yamen, so what can I do?" After Fang Yuegong finished refilling his old friend's tea, his face became a little unintelligible: "You don't want to send me kerosene, I am a poor official Can't afford it."

"Where are you talking, brother can control elder brother asking for money?!" Lu Jinshen feigned anger.

"The ones who don't need money are the most expensive." Fang Zhifu said here, put away his joking face, and asked seriously: "You moth are always going to the Three Treasures Hall for nothing, what is the matter, let's be honest!"

Lu Jinshen laughed when he heard the words: "Brother Fang knows me."

The next moment, Lu Jinshen also put away his smiling face: "Recently, there are some people who are rebellious and do not follow the rules, and the situation is very difficult to control. I hope that my brother will take action to suppress it a little. My brother is very kind!"

"Hmph." Hearing this, Fang Yuegong shook his head: "Don't look for me for the business of seizing people's property."

"Oh, brother Fang already knows?"

"It's a joke, you guys have been making a fuss these days, killing people and setting fire every night, do you think I, the prefect, are dead?"

"Hehe, since the elder brother has known about it, the younger brother opened the skylight and said the truth." Lu Jinshen didn't have the slightest bit of shame on his face at this time, staring at the prefect brother and said: "This matter has already made all the gentlemen unable to step down. Now we wait Shi Cheng is riding a tiger, and I hope that my brother will take action to suppress that group of Qiu Ba for a few days, and all the gentry will be rewarded after the incident!"

Hearing this, Fang Yuegong looked out of the window with an expression that was not what I expected. He reached out and knocked on the table: "A generous report? What a generous report?"

"But if the elder brother speaks, the younger brother will obey everything!"

Before Lu Jinshen could finish his sentence, Fang Zhifu seemed to have waited for 1 years, and hurriedly said a word: "I want to build a pond."

Immediately afterwards, he added expressionlessly: "Shitang."

……

Fang Yuegong in history was actually the same type of person as Hai Rui and Wang Zunde: he only wanted fame, not money, and was shy for being an official.

When Zhang Xianzhong occupied Gucheng in the tenth year of Chongzhen, he heard that Fang Yuezong, a resident, was Fang Yuegong's younger brother, so he occupied the house of Xia Yuezong, detained him under pretext, and asked him to contribute money.

However, after Zhang Xianzhong visited Fang Yuezong's house, he found that Fang Yuezong was indeed a commoner, so he immediately respected him and released him.

The official careers of these clean and honest officials all have one thing in common: they are officials and public officials, they are not afraid of the rich and powerful, and their families have no money left.They are different from most officials - "winning their names in life and after death" is what they really pursue.

But in terms of the means of being an official, Fang Yuegong, the last scholar appointed by the Chongzhen Emperor, was undoubtedly much better than the above two.

Fang Yuegong is the prefect of Songjiang who took office last year.After he took office, he chose a project that is deeply popular and famous in history: building seawalls.

As mentioned earlier, since the early years of Chongzhen, the tide and wind disasters in the south of the Yangtze River have never stopped.The resulting breach of the embankment caused a large number of deaths among the people, and the victims were scattered all over the place.

It was at this juncture that Fang Yuegong began to plan to build embankments.

So why can he leave his name in history?Because it was built as a stone pond.Yes, before Fang Yuegong, all the seawalls in the south of the Yangtze River for thousands of years were mud embankments.

For the ancients with low productivity, after a large stone was excavated, trimmed and polished, and finally transported to the seaside, the pure labor cost was extremely high.In addition to consumables such as glutinous rice and egg white used as adhesives, a real stone pond built with thousands of boulders, this cost is really extremely difficult for the local government.

Therefore, it was not until Fang Yuegong in the late Ming Dynasty that the first stone pond in the Jiangnan area was successfully built.From this point, it can be seen that Fang Yuegong's official and organizational skills are completely superior to those of other honest ministers-the Jiangnan area has always been rich, why no one can handle it before?

To put it bluntly, this is a question of ability and determination.

You must know that when Fang Yuegong called the gentry to raise funds at the beginning, he also encountered a lot of resistance.

The gentry were afraid of increasing the economic burden, and emphasized that there were three difficulties in building stone ponds: first, the cost was high; second, the technical requirements of stone ponds were higher than those of earthen ponds;

However, Fang Yuegong insisted that migrating inland is equivalent to giving up the land to the sea, so he tried his best to build a stone pond.

After that, Fang Zhifu drove a small boat every day to solicit donations everywhere, and promulgated Songjiang Prefecture's embankment repair policy: "rich households with a hundred acres of land will be persuaded to lose [-]% of silver per mu."

All of the above reflects Fang Yuegong's brilliant governance ability: money is not so easy to collect, and if the wrist is not high, how can the gentry submit to it just by rafting to collect donations and put on a show?

Then there is project management. Fang Yuegong is also very strong in this aspect, even much stronger than many projects in later generations.

Not only did he look around for skilled craftsmen, but after the construction started, he eliminated the disadvantages. He did not allow the yamen and tolerances to be deducted layer by layer, and visited the supervisors at any time to check whether all the silver coins issued were in place. Finally, the Shitang project was successfully completed.

After the completion of Shitang, the common people specially built the "Rewarding Gong Temple" to thank Fang Yue for his tribute, which has been worshiped by villagers until later generations.

The above events prove that although Fang Yuegong is an honest official, he is a very scheming and honest official who is well versed in the world.

So the lobbyist Lu Jinshen who came today left in a hurry after visiting Fang Zhifu - he took away the donation conditions proposed by Fang Zhifu.This condition is too harsh, the lobbyist has no right to make decisions, and has to go back and discuss with everyone.

After sending away the Tong who had been planning to seize other people's property all day long, Fang Dazhi shook his head, sighed, left the Nuan Pavilion, and walked to another side courtyard of the back house.

Fang Yuegong in history did not really settle all parties until a few years later and started the formal construction of Shitang.But this matter has been planned since he took office last year: such a huge project, under the social conditions of the Middle Ages, it is normal for several years of preparation in advance.

So when he met Lu Tonghou just now, he unceremoniously threw a big problem to him... Anyway, he didn't want to care about those messy things, so the lion opened his mouth.

While thinking about what happened afterwards, Fang Zhifu walked hurriedly, and soon he entered an inconspicuous room in the side courtyard.

After pushing open the door, Fang Zhifu stepped into the room, hurried to the desk, put his hands on the table, looked at the picture scroll on the table, and turned his head to the person beside him and said, "What did you just talk about?"

The person next to him smiled and said, "It's about cement."

"Oh yes, cement!"

……