Little Scholar's Circle of Husbands

On February [-], the dragon raised its head.

Lu Fangzhou's house has been repaired, and on this day, he got a lottery and had a drink in the house.

The house had already been decorated with lanterns and festoons the day before, and a circle of firecrackers was set up on the road in front of the gate. When the auspicious time came, the firecrackers were fired, and the sound of firecrackers resounded throughout Xiaotan Village.

The villagers had been paying attention to this time when Lu Fangzhou started to build the house. Yesterday when they saw the red lanterns hanging in front of the door, they knew that there would be wine today, so they gathered around early to watch.

But seeing so many firecrackers set off together, many people were shocked, thinking that Lu Xiucai is really different now.

As soon as the sound of firecrackers stopped, the sedan chairs of Mr. Sun Ge and Er Niu had arrived, and Lu Fangzhou hurried down to greet them.

The villagers were surprised again. During the year, everyone was looking after their relatives. Few people saw Sun Ge come to Lu Fangzhou's house. Those few people who saw him told them, but not many people believed them.

This will be when everyone in the village sees Sun Ge coming to Lu Fangzhou's house, and everyone looks at Lu Fangzhou with admiration. They all know about Miss Sun's family, and they can let Sun Ge forget the past, and Lu Fangzhou The scholar's ability has grown.

Look at Erniu again, she is still the poor little girl who was always wearing patched clothes a year ago.Now the second girl is wearing clothes that they don't even know are famous, and she is wearing a beautiful bun, and there is a maid who is about the same age by her side, and she is helped when she gets off the sedan chair, just like everyone sung in the opera Ladylike.

It was only then that everyone thought of ranking according to their status. Erniu can be regarded as a decent lady. If Lu Xiucai wins the Juren in the future, he might become an official. At that time, Erniu will be a decent official lady.

Some village girls who used to look down on Erniu began to become infinitely jealous.

Erniu didn't care about Mincun's eyes, and after Cuizhu helped her out of the sedan chair, she went up to help Mrs. Sunge. Mrs. Sunge smiled happily when she saw this, and her granddaughter was more caring than anything else.

Lu Fangzhou also made a sound at the right time, welcomed Mr. Sun Ge and Er Niu and his party in, and asked Sun Tong, the housekeeper of the Sun House, to reward the bearers who came today. The red envelopes were full of solid money (one hundred copper coins).

The bearers all beamed with joy, Sun Tong also said: "There is a table in the room, come in and have dinner when the time comes."

"Good! Good! Good!" The bearers kept saying that they would not have the opportunity to eat in the master's house when they went out with their master. If they went to places with good conditions, they would set up a table in the courtyard for them to eat. Just squatting beside the sedan chair to eat, Lu Fangzhou's family ate outside the house last time, and the bearers were all happy to be able to eat inside the house this time.

This made the villagers of Xiaotan Village look envious for a while, and at the same time, they were a little bit sour. It is a big deal to enter the house in a mountain village. The whole village should be invited to eat, but Lu Xiucai's posture is obviously not for them.

I really don't understand etiquette!Many people cursed inwardly, but what's the use of scolding, Lu Xiucai doesn't like them, they just don't like, so in the end they can only comfort themselves, it's better not to invite them, saving them a red envelope to enter the house.

Lu Fangzhou was already busy inside, the menu was set a few days ago, and many ingredients were prepared yesterday, and today he and Yan Yan woke up early to prepare the food that needs to be picked or slaughtered. Once the processing is completed, steam what should be steamed, boil what should be boiled, and roast what should be baked.

Boiled goose, straw duck, distiller's lees chicken, braised pork, steamed fish, this is a big dish.

Emerald egg rolls, minced meat, winter bamboo shoots, shredded tofu, shredded mushrooms, rolled up and steamed, cooled and cut into slices; fried three delicacies: fried tofu with meat, egg dumplings, meatballs, fish balls , pork belly, pork skin, river prawns, ham, winter bamboo shoots, cabbage, fungus; stir-fried yellow chives: shredded pork, shredded winter bamboo shoots, shredded tofu, yellow chives.

Fried bell, boiled vegetarian chicken, drunken clams, green vegetables and shiitake mushrooms, braised arrowroot; dessert is rice dumplings;

There was a full table, some of which were made by Lu Fangzhou at first, and then Grandma Sun asked about the taste Lu Fangzhou wanted, so she took over and sent Lu Fangzhou to accompany Sun Ge when he grew old.

Mrs. Sun Ge's table was set in the west room that had just been built, and accompanied by Yan Yan, the two first commented on the plantains in front of the window, and then took their seats considering that Er Niu was still hungry.

There were so many people today, Cuizhu should have shared a table with the porters, but the second girl was afraid that Cuizhu would not be full, so she begged Mrs. Sun Ge to let Cuizhu sit at this table, and Mrs. Sun nodded in agreement. There are not many people, more people are more lively.

Cuizhu is also a Mingli, and waits carefully for the second girl to sit down before she sits down. When she meets something that the second girl likes, she helps her pick up some.

Seeing this, Er Niu laughed and said, "Just take care of yourself and eat, I can catch it, this place should be your own home, don't be restrained."

Er Niu has been carefully taught by Grandma Sun during this period, and her words have become more elegant. Sun Ge looked at her and liked it even more, so she hurriedly said to Cui Zhu: "Just follow her."

Cuizhu nodded hurriedly.

Lu Fangzhou happened to come in as well, seeing that he was talking vigorously, he asked a few words with a smile, and said to Cuizhu: "Just listen to Er Niu, don't be restrained." He said and took his seat.

This time, Sun Ge left the east head seat to Lu Fangzhou. During the Chinese New Year, he let Er Niu sit: "I have heard that you have invited all the old masters of the Zhou family back, and you have decided to sit there. With the strategy of taking retreat as an advance, there is progress." Sun Ge said the reason for letting Lu Fangzhou sit at the head of the east.

Lu Fangzhou hurriedly sat down and said with a smile, "It's just a trivial matter, my father-in-law praised me absurdly." As he spoke, he glanced at Yan Yan, who must have mentioned these things.

Mr. Sun Ge said "Oh" and changed the topic: "The tea garden is settled, shouldn't it be time to come to the school to make a fuss?"

ah?Lu Fangzhou almost lost his voice. In less than a month, he just read the enlightenment books such as "Zeng Guang Xian Wen" and "San Zi Jing". Wrong, but it is far away from writing an article.

He had no choice but to agree, while secretly asking Yun Yan for help.

Yan Yan understood what Lu Fangzhou meant, so he smiled at Mr. Sun Ge and said, "Don't worry, Mr. Ge. It's entering February, and the new year's leases for Zhuangzi have not been signed. After this matter is settled, how about writing an article again?" ?”

Elder Sun Ge nodded when he heard the words: "The lease agreement is really important. It's your first year. If the beginning is not smooth, it will be difficult in the future."

Lu Fangzhou nodded hurriedly.

Elder Sun Ge said again: "Sun Tong has always been here to take care of the common affairs for me, and he is very familiar with it. How about I ask him to help you?"

Lu Fangzhou was stunned for a moment, knowing that this pot cannot be accepted, but if he didn't accept it, he would discredit Sun Ge's old good intentions, and for no reason made the other party doubtful, and said: "It's good that Uncle Sun can help, but I have to learn something. Just count."

"Do you want to know in your heart? Or hide on purpose?" Sun Ge always looked at Lu Fangzhou.

Lu Fangzhou quickly shook his head: "It's definitely not hiding on purpose." He also put on an extremely sincere smile, seeing that the effect was not good, he quietly winked at Yan Yan and Er Niu, asking for help.

"It's definitely not the meaning of releasing the boat." Yun Yan said hastily.

Er Niu followed suit and said, "Daddy studies hardest. I used to watch him read till late every night."

"Look, I just said one thing, and you two will help. Really, if you see your father, you won't want your grandparents anymore." Sun Ge said deliberately sourly.

Er Niu hurriedly coaxed: "How can I not want my grandfather?"

Yan Yan said with a smile: "Elder Ge may have other intentions when he said this. There are some things that he didn't understand before Fang Zhou, so let Elder Ge explain it clearly."

Elder Sun Ge nodded: "Do you know why I urged you to study? It's not because I like fame, but because my Liang Dynasty stipulated that officials and gentry do not need to pay food. All Juren, Gongsheng, and Scholars can be included, but scholars are different from the previous dynasty. Go out. If you win in Qiuwei, all the output of these Zhuangzi will belong to you in the future. If you don’t win, your name Zhuangzi can be named under my name, but if I unfortunately go west, you will have to pay taxes again. You should calculate carefully, how much energy do you need to spend to earn back the part of the tax you paid?"

"Huh?" Can it still be like this?This is something that Lu Fangzhou didn't know. He thought that everyone had to pay taxes, taxes, etc. There are also ancient stories that often tell about rich families finding or arresting people to replace them in order to avoid corvee. It turns out that they have fame Are these free?No wonder scholars were so admired in ancient times.

Uh, wait a minute, his Zhuangzi is not just land production, he also grows tea and fry tea, does that count?Lu Fangzhou hurriedly asked.

"Mulberry tea is considered a tax." Old Sun Ge nodded.

"Selling also counts?" Buying and selling should be considered a business, right?Lu Fangzhou thought.

"Selling tea is considered a merchant, and self-produced and sold is considered a farmer. Sellers must be taxed, and farmers are exempt. If the tea produced in your manor is sold locally, you are a farmer and you are exempt." Yan Yan also said.

this! ! !Lu Fangzhou's mind was spinning quickly. He asked himself that he was the only one in the world for tea, and it would be very easy to sell it in the field after becoming famous. If he wanted to develop in other places, buying an acre of tea garden would be considered as local sales.He majored in economics and took accounting as an elective. He knows that reasonable tax avoidance is a must for the development of enterprises. He planned to look for the tax laws and regulations of the Liang Dynasty to see how to avoid tax reasonably. Now it seems that there is nothing wrong with it. If you need it, you can finish it with a test.

Not only that, but feudal society had a customary law, and prosperity was followed by fierce land annexation.He didn't quite understand the devastating impact of land annexation on the country's economic lifeline before. He thought that land annexation was just the use of power by big landlords to pay less taxes, making it difficult for the treasury to receive taxes.Now it seems that it's not that there is less payment, but that there is no need to pay at all. There are not many officials in the world, but there are many famous scholars. These people do not pay taxes, and the national treasury is naturally empty.However, the operation of the country requires a certain amount of funds, and these needs will inevitably be transferred to the people, which will increase the tax pressure on the people.

Under such a big background, if you blindly specialize in farming and expand business, you will inevitably become fat meat that the taxation department will keep an eye on, and no matter how diligent you are, you will be exploited layer by layer.As for the upper bureaucratic class, it is useless to justify means alone. There must be an absolute reason that cannot be questioned.

It goes without saying that the word "fame and fame" is the best reason. If someone dares to ignore these two words and force him to tax Lu Fangzhou, then he will offend scholars all over the world.Anyone, including the emperor, knew that scholars should not be offended.

Therefore, no matter how much you struggle, it is not as economical as the word "tax-free".

It seems that this Juren has to take the exam!Thinking of this, Lu Fangzhou carefully analyzed his chances of passing the exam. Before time travel, he happened to be in his senior year, and he had made some preparations for graduation. He had read the civil service examination papers for more than half a year, and he was familiar with the strategy theory. He thought about the imperial examinations There shouldn't be much difference between the articles and policy theories.

He didn't want to be the top one, he just wanted to be in the middle school, and the last one would do. It shouldn't be a problem to take the imperial examination based on his ability to write policy theory. Besides, there are Yan Yan and Mr. Sun Ge, who will help him supplement his knowledge. As long as he puts his heart into it, if he doesn't hit Qiu Wei this time, it shouldn't be a problem in Qiu Wei three years later.

Lu Fangzhou thought about it and hurriedly said: "What Elder Ge said is very true. After this round of work, my son-in-law must come to ask Elder Ge for advice."

"That's right." Sun Ge said with a smile, and the people at the table continued to eat happily.

Before the lease was re-signed, Lu Fangzhou discussed with Yan Yan.

About one-third of the land in Sheng County belongs to the Lu family, and the Lu family is divided into two. Lu Fangzhou took half, accounting for one-sixth of the total land; the remaining two-thirds, half belonged to the Sun family. , half of which belonged to a few wealthy small landlord families, and there was hardly much land in the hands of the common people.Therefore, most of the mountain people in Sheng County lived on renting land, and the rents were different. The Sun Mansion was slightly lower, and the rest were similar.

The main reason for the low rent in the Sun Mansion is that Elder Sun Ge does not need to pay taxes. Now Lu Fangzhou's land is also listed in the name of Elder Sun Ge, and there is no need to pay taxes.The rent can also be lower, it doesn't matter if it is the same as the Sun Mansion or slightly lower.

As for whether the tenants should remain the same as before, Lu Fangzhou put forward his own ideas. There are two groups of people who he wants to take advantage of this time to rectify. One group is the clan members of the Lu family entrenched in his field area. , Those lands were occupied by Lu Fangzhou's mother, Mrs. Zhou, by unscrupulous means. After Zhou's death, Mr. Lu did not take back these lands.The Lu family members cultivated these lands, but as the days got better, the Lu family members began to add children. After having more children, the land was not enough, and they began to rent and plant surrounding land.

This group of people Lu Fangzhou didn't want to keep them around his Zhuangzi anymore.

The Lu family was ambivalent and swayed back and forth. At the beginning, they saw that the Zhou family was easy to bully and wantonly invaded the fields. Later, the Zhou family had an accident, and they did not help each other. When Master Lu let them go through the side door when celebrating his birthday, they have been jealous to this day. Leaving Lu Fangzhou behind, seeing that Lu Fangzhou didn't agree with them, he began to curse and waver again.

Keeping such a person is a disaster, any gentle means are useless, the best way is to expel them directly.

Yan Yan also agreed with Lu Fangzhou's thoughts: "This group of people is really hateful, and they occupy the status of the clan. If they are not dealt with properly, although they will not become a major problem in the future, they will continue to cause you small troubles, which will be very annoying. bother."

"But how can we effectively expel them directly?" Lu Fangzhou was troubled. The roots of this group of people have always been on the side of Zhou's Zhuangzi, and the Lu family was originally some tenants in Zhou's Zhuangzi.

"Of course we want to cut off their roots. Let me explain in detail." Yan Yan said, "The roots of the Lu family are simply the basis of survival, that is, they need enough land to support the family. Many people, as long as they cut off their hope of renting land and want to return to the land they maliciously invaded, the Lu family can only leave to make a living."

"But their land was already occupied more than ten years ago. I don't have the deed from back then. If they have it, they can fake it and take the fake deed as the real one." Lu Fangzhou said.

Yan Yan smiled: "The Lu clan has been bullying others for many years. There are many people who are unfair. To sign a contract, you need to meet people. Many of these people are still alive. If you look carefully, there may be surprises. There are also those masters in the Zhou family tea garden. , They must have some evidence in their hands, and they can sort out a general idea by collecting these things carefully."

"I'll go tomorrow." Lu Fangzhou nodded.

Yan Yan said again: "This matter must be done in secret. It means that you will go to each village to sign the lease contract one by one. The first choice of Zhuangzi should not be the Zhuangzi within the range of the Lu family. Let the news of the low rent spread and attract the attention of the Lu clan. Focus on when you signed the lease with them and ignore everything else. Then you pop out when the evidence is in place."

After hearing this, Lu Fangzhou kept saying yes, and brought out the second group of people who wanted to be punished. They were the villagers of Xiaotan Village. Zhang Facai, who was sent by the family, has a good relationship. Although Zhang Facai left, he made moves from time to time.

Lu Fangzhou was not afraid of what Zhang Facai could do, but felt that Xiaotan Village was where he lived. How could he allow others to snore and sleep on the side of the couch, let alone a group of people who didn't know that one day they would suddenly make trouble for him. People who are stumbling blocks, so it is best for this group of people to move out.

After hearing the words, Yan Yan replied: "This matter is not difficult. The villagers of Xiaotan Village only rely on Zhang Facai. Zhang Facai is a villain. He obeys Lu Xingzhou, but he is always afraid of losing his job. He will never let Xiaotan The villagers in the village are directly connected with Lu Xingzhou. It can be seen that the benefits that make these people sway are illusory and unrealistic, and they are also worried. You take good care of the Lu clan, show them the real rent benefits Give them, this group of people will definitely be subdued by you. When you stay, you will really repent, and you can just drive out those who are lucky."

Three days later, on the fifth day of February, Lu Fangzhou officially began to re-sign leases with farmers one by one.

Lu Fangzhou first chose the Zhuangzi where the old man Qiu lived. That Zhuangzi lived in the old Zhou family. On the day the signing was signed, many people from the other Zhuangzi came to see it, including some Lu family members and villagers from Xiaotan Village. Many people couldn't sit still when they heard that the rent was actually lower than that of Sun's Mansion and Zhuangzi.

What Lu Fangzhou wanted was this effect, and he was not in a hurry. While signing the contract, he explained to Er Niu in detail that he brought Er Niu on purpose.In the future, whether it is the things of the Sun family or Lu Fangzhou's things, they belong to Er Niu. Er Niu cannot be allowed to hold gold and silver mountains but cannot keep them.

His Lu Fangzhou's daughter must not be bullied by anyone.

Three or five days passed like this, the Lu family became more impatient every day, and Lu Fangzhou became more determined every day. Just as Yan Yan expected, those old masters of the Zhou family did secretly collect all kinds of things that the Lu family did back then. Bad deeds, they have all made friends with those middle-class people at that time.

When these Zhongjian people were invited by the Lu family the first few times, the Lu family treated them with extra courtesy. Later, when they realized that it was so easy to invade, they became negligent, thinking that it was their own ability, and Zhongjian people were just a show, so they didn't come. This is all possible.Therefore, among those who came later, everyone was dissatisfied with the Lu family.

What pleased Lu Fangzhou the most was that there was a master surnamed Ma. His wife had a very good relationship with the Zhou family back then. The two lived next door since they were young and played together growing up.Zhou was depressed after marriage and often sought out this childhood playmate to talk to.

Later, when the Lu family incident happened, Zhou was seriously ill. Knowing that there was no holiday, he secretly handed over the deeds signed by the Lu family and her to Master Ma's wife. Life is bitter, and I sigh that Lu Fangzhou is not up to date.

Seeing that Lu Fangzhou was secretly planning to return the fields owned by the Lu family, the couple discussed and handed over these deeds to Lu Fangzhou.

This is ironclad evidence, Lu Fangzhou and Yan Yan went through it overnight, really angry, these deeds are either extremely cheap, or tampered with the number of acres, it is really deceptive.

Lu Fangzhou immediately decided to attack tomorrow.

The author has something to say: Magistrate Ma: Lu Xiucai, why is it you again?You have come here for the third time. There is nothing serious about my yamen. Whenever there is something important, you are there!