[Red Mansion] I want to be the chief assistant

The imperial court's call-up order came out, and the mainland that was originally called Australia in Lin Yu's impression naturally had a new name, Penglai, which means Penglai Fairyland.Compared with those convoluted words used by courtiers, this name is more widely known, and it also has a subtle effect on the propaganda of immigrants.

The first call-up order was aimed at those landless peasant households. Local factories in the south of the Yangtze River will rise up, and only people from the south of the Yangtze River will be recruited. There are still a large number of tenants in the heart of the Central Plains.Just like the group taken away by Wang Qi, these tenants suffered heavy exploitation from the landlords, and this situation was even more serious in the cultural and educational land of Shandong.

Since the establishment of the new dynasty, various household registrations such as craftsmen and farmers have been abolished and replaced by the unified Han Dynasty national household registration.At the same time as the change of household registration, according to the Han law, the distinction between good and bad originally recognized by the government was also abolished, and the legality of slavery was no longer recognized.

In other words, there is no such thing as a death contract, no family and children.If you need servants, you can sign a contract of living, but these people are still good citizens recognized by the law, and they can no longer be beaten or scolded. If someone sues, the master's family will also have to sue.

However, when such a law is promulgated, it will naturally attract dissatisfaction and even resistance from the big families.It is obvious that they dare not resist the law, but those girls and women have been living in the courtyard, so how much news from the outside world can they get in touch with.Even if the government asks those storytellers to explain the criminal law to the people, and makes up a lot of short stories for this, but the Han law is so big, even if they just explain the laws that are closely related to the people, then people will just hear about household registration. How likely is that passage.

Therefore, just like in the past dynasties, the hidden household appeared.However, unlike the previous dynasty, the hidden households in this dynasty are not for evading taxes, but for those big families who are unwilling to give up their 'property'.

Naturally, this kind of concealment is useless after all. After all, their Zhuangzi must be planted by someone, right?Could it be that the township officials to which the village belongs are all blind?Therefore, a campaign to check the registered population in the hinterland of the Central Plains was launched along with the call-up order.

There has already been a household registration check, and ordinary people who are sensible don't dare to hide anything.And big landlords like the Kong family don't know how many people they have because they are local snakes.So this time, those families who were found to have hidden households were not only charged with concealing and failing to report, but also had to be charged with deceiving the court in the previous investigation.

The latter charge does not even need to be collected. During the previous investigation, the names signed by those people on the list of a few servants written casually in order to dismiss the government were ready-made evidence.

Kong Yicheng stared at the name that he had personally signed a few months ago, wishing to vomit his painstaking effort.This means that there is no way to deny it, and the person holding this signed form is still the smiling little official.By the way, there are no small officials in this dynasty, and all positions at all levels are filled by people who have passed the imperial examination.Although these people are busy with the humble jobs of officials, they enjoy the same generous treatment as officials, but it only decreases with the level of their positions.Moreover, these people and officials had no absolute barriers before.

Unlike the previous dynasty, officials were officials, and officials were officials.In this dynasty, there is no distinction between officials and officials, and naturally there will be no such things as local poisonous snakes such as hereditary government officials.An extremely small official like the census in front of Kong Yicheng, no, not even an official, can only be regarded as a grassroots clerk, but such a person has the opportunity to climb up one level at a time.

What a gentleman!Kong Yicheng thought fiercely in his heart, but he couldn't say it out.The member Kong Wu of the branch has already folded in, and I don't know if that guy has confessed his whole family.These days, the descendants of the Kong family stayed in the house and waited tremblingly. Kong Yicheng himself had the nightmare of being arrested and imprisoned for several nights in a row.

Hundreds of years of imprisonment, even if Zi is silent and confused, if he really doesn't have any fear in his heart, then why bother to sleep every night.

"Let's invite Master Kong to go with the little ones!" The visitor was still smiling, but the words he said were extremely sarcastic.My lord, what lord?Manshan, no, who in the entire country does not know that the title of Lord Yansheng has been completely cut off in this generation.

Kong Yicheng's face was livid, and he was even more frightened when he saw the middle-aged man from the Xu family who was also pushed out.No wonder they were so casually let go in the census at the beginning, even if they told lies with their eyes open, standing in front of the huge house and saying that there was only one old servant in the house for many years.It turned out that it wasn't the incompetence they laughed at at all, but the backhand waiting for them here!

Of course, it is not the county magistrate who has not defected under the money offensive of the local big family, but as stipulated by the law, such situations are all handled as corruption, and there is no room for change.

With all the evidence, he knew that there was no point in resisting at all, but when he opened his mouth, he still couldn't help but said: "My lord, wait a moment, and let me go back and explain the matter." He still had a faint desire in his heart. Struggling with hope.

But the man laughed and said, "Why should the lord be so panicked? It's just to go to the Yamen to explain the facts. No one can eat you." , with so many people, it is unrealistic to pull them all to do labor, Sir, just relax."

These people are already meat on the chopping board, so why does Lin Yu cut them all up with one knife, and some of the delicate and expensive ones made them do labor by accident, and a few of them died accidentally, and the rest of the crimes should be pursued.Just cut the flesh little by little, and let them use the fine to pay for the punishment of hard labor, and there is still something waiting for them later!

Among them, the Kong family is not included.

That person said so, but he also knew that after the head of the Kong family entered, he could not get out at all, but he just kept him safe.The collection and investigation of the Kong family's criminal evidence has been going on, and it has made relatively fast progress. Of course, no one in front of me needs to know about it.

It has to be said that after hearing such a sentence, Kong Yicheng felt relieved.When he saw a lot of acquaintances going out inside and outside the yamen, logically speaking, he should have felt guilty, after all, the Kong Wu members of the branch have not been released yet.However, seeing these acquaintances come out at this time, even though all of them looked ugly, Kong Yicheng was relieved in his heart.

Probably, it is a fine!The Kong family has accumulated wealth for thousands of years, so they don't care about this small loss.

A small Confucian family is not concerned, and the process of measuring the arable land again is a blow to the landlord who originally occupied a large amount of land resources.During the process this time, the officials from the household department sent by Lin Ruhai accompanied him, and they had to make up for any missed taxes.

Here I have to talk about the regulations on the agricultural tax in the Han Law. In principle, the Han Law adheres to the basic policy of reducing the agricultural tax.But there is a major premise for such a reduction, that is, the person who pays the tax is the owner-peasant.

Large landowners like the Kong family occupy more than half of Qufu's land, and their tax payment ratio increases with the increase in the number of acres.In order to avoid taxes, many clans had to distribute a large amount of land to the underground clansmen.However, the clansman got the property, and it was fine at first, but as the township officials went to the countryside, the enforcement of rural affairs became stronger. As time went by, they naturally found that the so-called clan's repressive power was getting weaker and weaker.At that time, it will be a matter of whether these properties that have already belonged to them can be sold.

The clan forces that had truly ruled the country for thousands of years disappeared in a flash.

Not only that, those big families who use servants still have to pay the small tax to the servants who serve them, which is one of the reasons why the Kong family wants to hide.

People like them have slaves and maidservants, families who have children and families who have children. There are thousands of people in total. Although the small mouth tax is very small, even children who are underage are not required to pay tax, but they pay it once a year. , Isn't it digging flesh from them?The policies of the new dynasty have been slashed at them one after another. Can these people not rebound?

In any case, they tried to resist, but it proved to be useless and they were arrested. Some people were not very clean, and they were dug up with other evidence of crimes. Not coming, let alone the dignity of scholars.

When Kong Yicheng was locked in the supervision room and was with other hooligans|hooligans, he finally realized soberly that when the new dynasty was established, the glory of Confucian scholars like them had disappeared along with the old dynasty.This made him regret more than once in the following days. When the Jing Dynasty court asked for donations, why was he not willing to take it out at all?Even if he knew in his heart that even if he went bankrupt, he couldn't resist Lin Yu's army, but it didn't stop him from fantasizing about it while he was doing hard labor.

The old-fashioned old landlords are gradually walking towards their strangers, but at the large port on the other side of Songjiang Mansion, people inside and outside are ushering in their future full of vitality.

"The prosperity here is beyond my imagination." A man with light brown hair neatly combed looked at the scene in front of him and sighed, "Although it is not as good as Guangdong, it is more prosperous than the port of Thames." Prosperous." Originally, in his impression, apart from several deep and Hong Kong cities in Spain, there was no other city in the world that could compare with that of the UK.

"Dear Lord Bourne, this city has only been established for less than a year." The casual guide is a British businessman from Guangdong, and he is happy to serve the honorable gentleman of his country. "This is a great country. It's a pity that you didn't come earlier, otherwise you would have caught up with the grand ceremony of the emperor's ascension to the throne." He smacked his lips with great regret.He is just a little-known tea merchant, so naturally he is not qualified to be invited to visit the grand ceremony.However, the circle of Westerners is said to be small.A few of his friends were lucky enough to go to the capital, and even if they didn't have the status of envoys, they still had a lot of fun among the common people.

"It's only been a year!" The Baron Berne's originally casual eyes finally became serious. His Majesty the King didn't know that such a change had taken place in the East until he received a letter from the director of the East India Company.

According to the letter, the ruler of the country had just driven out the Tatars from the north and restored a more enlightened and free rule.The important thing is that the current emperor attaches great importance to trade and welcomes more countries to come.He was full of praise, and then carefully hinted at the end of the letter whether to send an official envoy.

This director was still very successful, for example, his letter attracted the attention of the king.Or it should be said that it was so successful that the king felt that letting a businessman serve as an envoy was disrespectful to such a powerful country.

"Where is that place over there?" Baron Bourne asked, pointing to a series of identical houses. The houses did not seem to have the style|style inherent in this country, but they were a bit rigid.

Angus, the guide who led the way, said with a smile: "After people from other countries land, they have to stay there for a period of time to prevent new diseases from being brought from other lands." In fact, it is an expanded isolation zone, It's just that compared to Lin Yu's financial difficulties when he was in Xinghua, now he naturally has enough capital to implement what he thinks is the correct policy.

"Do I want to live there too?" Baron Bourne frowned involuntarily, feeling that this was an insult to his identity.

"Of course you don't have to live with those sailors." Angus obviously already understood these contents, and said, "If you are willing to pay a few more silver coins, you can live in the best house with dignified maids and delicious meals At this point, he carefully glanced at Mr. Baron who seemed to be looking better, and said solemnly, "However, there are some taboos here that need to be paid attention to.

First of all, these beautiful maids cannot be touched. They are hired by the government and are free people.The emperor of this country pays great attention to protecting his citizens. This is a forbidden | area that must not be touched. "He used three prohibited words in a row, because it was not the first time he saw that prodigal sailor flirting with a woman walking on the street, and was arrested by the government.

He knew the virtues of the nobles in his country, so he solemnly warned: "There is a saying in this country that princes break the law and common people are equal crimes. They are very particular about the law and have the most complete code of laws in the world. Moreover, they The spirit of respecting the law began more than 2000 years ago." This sentence is obviously exaggerated, but it is not all wrong.For a crooked person, it is too difficult to understand the dispute between Confucianism and Legalism, and it is not easy to understand this step.

Baron Bourne, who was a little unbelievable because of the uncharacteristically solemn tone of this always humble businessman, said, "Is it so strict? I'm a baron!"

Who cares what title you are, even if the adults with titles in this country are caught, they still obey the law, Angus slandered in his heart, and then warned the baron who was trying not to believe in evil: "Actually, Whether you are a baron or not has no influence on them in this country, the letter of appointment of the envoy in your hand is your identity here."

At this moment, the ship they were on docked, and Angus had to stop to introduce and negotiate with the customs officials who came forward.Not only because the envoys of Baron Berne will have to go through layers of inspections to meet His Majesty the Emperor in the future, but on the other hand, they also carried a lot of goods on board, as well as the British King's gift to the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. His majesty's gift, all of these need to pass the inspection of the customs.

As long as these goods do not have the clearance certificate issued by the customs, no store here will take over these smuggled goods unless there is a way.There is also an absolute prohibition, that is, all poppies and their products from abroad are not allowed to enter the country, even in the name of medicine.As long as anyone who violates this point is counted as one, they will all be thrown out of the labor camp, and they will never think about getting out in this life.

The customs strictly inspected these boxes, and after sending out that there were no prohibited items, they wrote something on the booklet in their hands, stamped it and handed it over to them.Unlike other merchants, they leaned over and pasted a pair of long seals on the gift boxes that declared they came from another country in the past.

Baron Berne watched all this curiously, until Angus turned around and asked, "What did they just say?"

Angus smiled and said, "They are welcoming the Baron to the Han Dynasty." This was just the customary words of customs officials, but Baron Berne seemed very satisfied.Angus complained in his heart, why did His Majesty the King send such an envoy who didn't understand Chinese at all!It would be really embarrassing to make a fool of yourself in front of the emperor at that time!

After storing the goods, another clerk dressed in different clothes specially came to lead them to the house they saw just now.Sure enough, as Angus said before, they were led to the best house, which was fully furnished and beautifully carved.

To Baron Bourne's surprise, without calling for his servants, a few strong men came over carrying a large wooden bucket and several buckets of hot water, and placed them behind the screen in the house. There is no shadow of the beautiful maid that Angus said.

Angus knew it, he hurried over from his room.Originally, it was not allowed to walk casually between different houses, but people like Angus who had lived here for a period of time before the establishment of the Han Dynasty did not need to be isolated. This time, he was completely accompanied by Baron Bern. Just once.

Seeing Baron Bourne standing in the room with a dazed face and a wooden barrel of steaming water behind the screen, he said, "This is the second point I want to tell you. See the emperor." At this time, Western European countries still regarded it as ominous because they were prone to catch a cold and typhoid while bathing. In fact, Angus didn't know until he stayed here long enough that there was too much dirt accumulated on his mother tongue. , this is the root cause of the disease.Here, even ordinary people with little financial resources will find a way to clean themselves every day. It is unimaginable in this country that they do not take a bath several times in their lives.

To be honest, I have gotten used to life in the Han Dynasty, and I have come into contact with a group of businessmen who are not very high-status but rich enough. Angus himself has become used to cleaning himself, and he even feels uncomfortable if he doesn’t take a bath every day. .

When he was on the boat, it was very difficult for him to get used to the pungent perfume smell again, which made him feel that it was difficult for him to face the return journey.If it wasn't for the money, I should really settle here, Angus thought in his heart.

He explained the benefits of bathing in great detail, but Angus could still see that the sentence that was unclean and could not meet the emperor finally worked.However, he will get used to it in the end, Angus thought to himself, isn’t it like that when he first came here? It is said that those pious missionaries in the capital are also used to the life of bathing every day, and have never seen God How many punishments will be lowered.

He returned to his room in relief.

Sure enough, it didn't take long for Bourne to get used to the life here, and he really verified the saying "From frugal to extravagant, and this is just a small isolation area of ​​the customs, not even a guest house.

According to regulations, they need to stay in this isolation zone for a full 20 days before heading inland.It's the tenth day now, according to what's said here, exactly ten days.

There is no lack of entertainment here, and Angus is happy to read the newspapers such as the Capital Daily and Customs Daily provided here.The Beijing Daily often has new government orders promulgated by the country, while the customs tabloid is a little more complicated.Because it is aimed at the men on the pier and people from abroad, the words and sentences above are more approachable, that is, more down-to-earth.Angus accepted them well and watched them with relish.

Poor Baron Bourne had to wait helplessly for Angus to finish reading the book because he could not speak Chinese. During these days, he had started to learn Chinese under the guidance of Angus.He originally wanted to ask a truly learned person to teach him in the local area, but Angus told him that it was impossible.

Because in his eyes, Angus has learned Chinese very well, and in the eyes of these truly learned people, he is also at the level of a child who has just started, let alone a baby like him who can't even speak .

And after really starting to learn Chinese, poor Baron Bourne's face turned blue, it was really too difficult!

The first envoy officially sent by the British king to the Han Dynasty returned to England with fluent Chinese after three years of painful persistence.Since then, the only skill he learned in the Han Dynasty once became a tool for him to show off at the ball.That is, after the king's son was born, he became the prince's Chinese teacher by virtue of his Chinese without an accent.

It is not easy to not have an accent, especially for such a well-known most difficult language in the world, it is very difficult to do this without the influence of the environment.Therefore, even if the other court teachers were knowledgeable enough to get top marks in the Chinese test, the oral language made many teachers discouraged and were locked out of the palace.

At this time, Baron Bourne took a soft|soft towel and dried his wet hair.At this time, the weather is in summer, and washing your hair at noon does not invade evil spirits.He naturally didn't understand this, but Angus told him that it meant that he would not get sick.

At this time, Baron Bourne was very accustomed to the feeling of taking a bath, as he wrote in his diary: "Every time I take a bath, I feel like a new life, which I have never experienced in the first 20 years." of."

"Is there any news?" He asked as soon as he saw Angus holding a newspaper that still smelled of ink.He didn't know these square guys yet, so he could only ask people.He was thinking about how to bring people to the capital. He needed a trustworthy translator by his side, and after such a long time, Angus was undoubtedly such a suitable candidate.

Angus put down the newspaper in his hand, before the surprised expression on his face faded: "Yes, yes." He stood up and turned around twice, and then found that this matter had nothing to do with him , and sat down again, but his tone was still shocked and admiring, "That is a conscription order, calling on the people of this country to go to a new continent called Penglai to pioneer."

"New World?" This is really big news, Bourne took off the soft and warm towel from his head, and said, "Are you sure?"

"Of course, I wouldn't misjudge such a thing." Angus stood up and sat down again, and said, "Please forgive my frizz, but this news is really amazing." Witnessing this country with his own eyes Getting stronger and stronger, even a foreigner like Angus can hardly restrain his excitement.

Speaking of which, Angus felt this way because he unconsciously identified with this country psychologically after living here for a long time.He hadn't discovered this yet, but the shrewdness of the businessman made him quickly put away his excitement in front of Baron Berne.

"Do you know where this continent is?" Baron Berne asked thoughtfully. This is good news. No matter how much this news is worth to His Majesty the King, to him, it is a mission to this country. One of the results.

Angus shook his head calmly, and said, "I only know that in the south of this country, the specific newspaper didn't write about it." This is a big truth, and such detailed information about sea routes will never appear in newspapers. information.

Bourne didn't seem to care much about such content. Doesn't it mean that being in the south of the empire means that the British from the West can't reach it? He simply didn't care about this aspect, and wanted to ask some other things. , I heard a burst of lively voices from outside.

The two looked at each other, knowing that someone was coming.

After living in this isolation zone, Angus knew that the news about spending more and living in the best houses was true.But for envoys with official status in their hands, there is a place specially opened up for them to live in, and they don't need to pay more.

Therefore, it has been very clean here since this time, until today.

The two stood up and walked to the window to look.I saw a group of short men in costumes similar to those of the Han people, walking towards them behind the staff who had led them before.

"Are these people also from the Han Dynasty?" Bourne didn't know that this was a place for envoys from various countries because he couldn't speak Chinese. Angus felt that since there were only the two of them here, it was not important. He didn't tell Bourne either.

Hearing this sentence, Angus changed his face and said: "You must not say that." He already knew which country these people came from, and he also knew that if people heard this, they would be stared at. Who knows Does the clerk know English by chance?

When the imperial court conquered the Wa country before, the news spread overwhelmingly.What kind of country the Wa country is is even the editors of the newspaper have picked up the bottom of it.During that time, Angus had a great time watching the excitement, and every day he waited for the newspaper to come, pointing at this to entertain his mind and body.

Although the reports were somewhat exaggerated, people at this time were relatively simple, and generally speaking, they were more realistic.At least, after Angus looked at it for a while, he managed to connect these people with Wa Kingdom.

He hurriedly pulled Baron Berne aside, gave him a generalization about the relationship between the two countries, and then said: "This is a defeated country, how can it be compared with the Han Dynasty?"

Bourne suddenly realized, and said: "No wonder the clothes of those people are so similar, and there are such origins." Then he sighed, "In other words, has this country only experienced a foreign war?" He recalled himself What he saw and heard along the way, he said, "I can't tell at all."

Before reaching the territory of the Han Dynasty, he first went to another place that was said to be an ancient civilization, that is, the place where the East India Company had just been established.This made him think for a time that this was what the eastern country would look like, until he continued to go east, a little closer to the real east.

When he came to Guangzhou for a short stay, he realized how big a mistake his inherent impression was.

Compared with India, which is dirty and malaria-ridden, this ancient country is like another civilized world, especially after he has lived in it for a while and experienced it himself.

"This is the greatness of this country." Angus sighed, "The soldiers are fighting abroad, but behind them, the citizens are still living such a happy life, hardly affected by the huge military expenditure. .I believe this is the only country in the world that can do this."

No matter how reluctant Bourne was, he nodded in conviction, after all, he had already experienced this personally.

It is impossible to say that the war really had no impact on the people at all. Among other things, the families who sacrificed their soldiers received the greatest impact.

However, no matter in which aspect, Lin Yu has tried his best to make up for it, and strive to develop towards a better place.Not to mention the development of surrounding industries brought about by the rapid development of the military industry, Beizhou, which has suddenly jumped from a wilderness to a metropolis, is a realistic example.And the families of those soldiers have been taken care of within Lin Yu's ability, and now the orphanage near the capital has taken in a large number of orphans. These children will go directly to the Royal Academy in the future, and at least one will be a soldier. way out.

The most pitiful ones are those widows. Strictly speaking, this dynasty supports widows to remarry. This is written into the law, and the abhorrent chastity archway is abolished.However, when the system of township officials was not deep enough, or when these township officials were not deterrent enough to the villagers, there were very few cases where widows and children were robbed of their property.

Everyone knows the high treatment in the army, especially those soldiers who joined the army in the early days, many of them were assigned to the fields.Children hold gold in the market, those so-called clansmen don't care what it is, it is the property that they fought for, they only know that it is only right and proper for the same clan to accept these properties, and they have always done so.Those who were better were given some money, and the worst was like forcing widows and young children to hand over their land, almost killing people.

Fortunately, the local township officials kept watching the families who had sacrificed their comrades and rescued them immediately.This case is not a big one, but it is bad enough, especially when it happened when Lin Yu had just boarded the dragon chair. The town official was a retired soldier, and he didn't care about it, so he really made a fuss , directly to Lin Yu.

Later, those of that family who participated in the persecution were all severely punished. The leaders were directly sentenced to death for attempted murder, while the others were more or less sentenced to hard labor.Because they were worried that the widow would continue to be bullied by the villagers if she stayed in her hometown with her young son, they didn't care what the reason was, they only knew that their relatives were in bad luck because of her and were arrested by the government.

In view of this situation, Lin Yu specially allowed them to move to live in the capital.They have also arranged work for them, so that they can live without worry.

These two foreigners naturally couldn't see it, but the strong impression of the Han Dynasty in their minds was deeply imprinted.

And at this time, the Wa Kingdom, who had already experienced this personally, bowed ninety degrees and respectfully sent away the clerk who brought them over, Fang said: "As expected of the Shang Kingdom, a mere wharf is so prosperous "He stroked | the utensils around him, his heart was full of envy and the honor of being appointed as the first envoy in the country to meet His Majesty the Great Emperor.

However, when he saw Guan Yunfei and the revised, stricter and stricter contract, he probably wouldn't be able to laugh at all.