The Weight of the Red Mansion Walks the Road of Life

Chapter 81

Corrupt officials are not made in a day.

As a matter of fact, no matter how much someone loves drilling, at least he has a heart of innocence at the beginning of his official career—even if he never thought of cultivating into Bao Gong Hai Rui, at least no one would put him in the first place in the officialdom. His ideal of life is positioned on the top of corrupt officials and cruel officials who have left a bad reputation for thousands of years.No matter how utilitarian a person is, at most they are only thinking about the so-called "one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver from the magistrate in three years". Or at least can always do a few good things.

For example, this time the Sun family actually took advantage of this opportunity to make money. At least from the results, Sun Xu still has the heart to make decisions for the people. The rather respectable Xue family took the lead, pretending not to drive up prices no matter what.Moreover, the Xue family also donated a lot of cotton, coarse cloth, food and medicinal materials to help the imperial court appease the hearts of the people, even though these things are not very valuable, and even all the things donated by the Xue family are only tens of thousands of silver at most, but But it is what the people need most in winter.

As a merchant family, the Xue family can have a bit of dignity in Jinling official circles, and in the eyes of the merchants below, it is even more dignified. Although it will not reach the point where everyone responds to it, if it is such a full-fledged business, it will cost eight thousand silver. However, many people are still happy to give the Xue family this face.After all, these things are indeed a bit of a luxury for the common people, but for many wealthy families, they are actually nothing. charges.

——Actually, the most important reason why this matter can be done beautifully is that most people donate only things, and they are all not very valuable things, so you don’t have to worry about someone taking too much from them, at least There are always more than half of the things that can really be sent.

Jinling's commerce is very developed, and wealthy households are naturally indispensable. As long as a small half of the merchants are willing to contribute a little bit, they can always make up a lot of things.Even when the division is really going on, it is inevitable that there will be various problems, but it finally appeased the hearts of the people.

The adaptability of the common people is actually very strong, and most people will not really be unable to survive just one cold winter.Sometimes the reason for panic is more caused by merchants driving up prices.

And this year in Jinling, there are officials coming forward to suppress the hoarding of prices, and there are many merchants donating things like coarse cloth and cotton. Even though the weather is indeed much colder than in previous years, it doesn't make people feel too hard.At least when the population is counted again in the spring, the population of Jinling has not decreased much because of this winter. Compared with the sharp decline in the population of many nearby areas, it is already very gratifying.

Whenever there is a natural disaster, no matter it is serious or not, there will always be a sharp drop in the population - not to say that all the subtracted population will die, for example, some people sell their children or Simply throwing the whole family into the rich households to depend on them as servants is actually reducing the population, but if the population wants to increase, there is no other way but to let the good people work hard to have children.

People's life is not easy. Unless the weather is good and everything goes well, there will inevitably be a situation of stretching. In addition, population trading is also unavoidable, and many things are not surprising.

----split line----

It can only be said that Yuan Chun has not learned much about Mrs. Wang's cruelty after all, or that after the experience in the palace, Yuan Chun has his own experience in being kind to others.

Don't look at what Aunt Xue just donated 8000 taels of silver, but it really works if you can't stand it.

The cold snap in early winter was just the beginning, and soon after the day passed, it began to snow, and it was considered heavy snow.

From Yuan Chun's point of view, the weather is still warmer than the winter in the capital, but for the people in the south, this is already an extremely difficult winter.

In fact, no matter how cold the weather is, it is still the border of the south after all, and no one cares about who goes to pick up firewood or branches to go home and light a fire to keep warm. Counting the number of people who are really frozen to death, there are always very few people, plus the weather It's already after winter when it's cold, at least the food has been returned to the warehouse, and people can't starve to death.

Most of the time people feel that they can't go on because they have lost hope.

Farmers know that bad weather often comes in succession. Although it was cold this year after the beginning of winter, which did not delay the grain harvest, but if the land does not have time to thaw in the spring of the next year, it basically means that next year's The harvest was soaked in soup.

That being the case, why not sell yourself to be a servant to a wealthy family, even if you can't control your life and death from now on, at least you have food, clothing, housing and wages.

Although there are subsidies from merchants in Jinling, it is only a drop in the bucket compared to the huge population base. In fact, it does not play a decisive role, but it can bring people full confidence.

The reason is very simple - this kind of job of inviting people's hearts is definitely impossible for merchants to come forward, and the evaluation of officials by the Ministry of officials is more or less linked to reputation, and this kind of thing that is obviously reputation must be handed over to When officials and eunuchs do it, it can be regarded as the name of the court.

It also gave the people a kind of confidence that the court would not give up on them.

The things that Jinling officials used to appease the people in the name of the imperial court naturally had to be reported. At most, other people’s families just mentioned a call for merchants to donate in their brochures. Only the Sun Xu family’s brochures included the names of merchants who made contributions. Naturally, the name of the Xue family cannot be missing.

According to Yuan Chun's words, Zuo Zuo's real political achievements have already been obtained, and some benefits will be given to those merchants so that they can work harder in the future.

Logically speaking, it would be difficult for Sun Xu, a foreign official from the fifth rank, to listen to it, but the south did suffer a heavy loss this time, and Jinling, the only one who survived the disaster, naturally stood out a bit. At the same time, a letter was sent to Wang Ziteng, so it's not too surprising that Sun Xu's book can stand out.

Although Mrs. Wang is his only direct sister, Aunt Xue is also the daughter of the Wang family, so Wang Ziteng naturally didn't expect anything bad from the Xue family.The niece born of this direct sister wanted to ask for credit for her own sister who had helped her a lot, and Wang Ziteng was naturally happy to go along with it.

And to be honest, the Wang family was aware of the private errands of the Xue family. Since the death of his brother-in-law, the Holy One probably felt that the head of the Xue family was too young to be responsible, so he accepted the private errands. Not without regret.

Although as the wife of an ordinary royal merchant, she can also continuously provide financial help to the Wang family, but it is not as precious as the contacts and information provided by the previous errands led by the Xue family.If it was possible, Wang Ziteng would always want to say something good for the Xue family, and he might not let the Holy One soften his heart for a while, and then hand over those errand contacts to the Xue family.

Now the one above is still the old sage who has a good impression of his relatives and old ministers. He only sees that the Xue family is indeed remarkable in the matter of Jinling, and he also thinks about the Xue family when Xue Pan's father was alive. He can be regarded as an old man who he can use, and he couldn't help but sigh now.

Regarding the matter of privately investigating the Zhen family, the Holy Majesty did assign the work to the Xue family to drill the camp, but seeing that most of the news that the Xue family handed over was from the public, there was nothing too eye-catching, so I just briefly After knocking on the Zhen family one or two times, the matter was dismissed. At most, he planted a small seed of doubt about the Zhen family in his heart.

For example, this time, the Zhen family is also an official in Jinling, but because the Zhen family is mainly in charge of weaving, so this time, the Zhen family did not make any contribution other than exploiting a few merchants. , but in the booklet, I also wrote my own hard work and hard work.

A newcomer in the officialdom always has the benefits of a newcomer in the officialdom. Sun Xu's notes this time are extremely detailed, adding many details that his colleagues would never mention.Of course, it is definitely impossible to mention some of the gray income. It is only said that because of the cold weather in winter, the local officials in Jinling have forcibly suppressed the merchants hoarding medicinal materials and food in the name of the court. A group of benevolent and compassionate merchants headed by the Xue family took the initiative to donate rice, noodles, charcoal, cloth, cotton, etc., and distributed them to the people in the name of the court for the winter.

It not only highlights that Jinling officials are dedicated to the people, but also does not obliterate the role of merchants. In fact, it is the Xue family who takes the lead. Aunt Xue is both a close relative of Yuanchun and an elder. Madam used it like that and threw it away. If it was someone who was not relatives or relatives, even if Yuan Chun wanted to be kind to others, he might not be so dedicated.

Yuan Chun just did it conveniently, but it also made the Holy Master think about Xue's family and Zhen's family.

The Zhen family took the position of weaving, but they did not make any contribution this time. Instead, they had to be donated by the merchants. This is because most of the fabrics made by the Zhen family were tribute goods rather than rough cloth that the common people could afford. Mai, but it can also be seen that the Zhen family does not care much about the people.On the contrary, the Xue family, as an ordinary merchant, can still care about the suffering of the common people and take the initiative to share the pressure of the court. This is what the Holy One likes to see.

Of course, it is impossible for the Holy Majesty to dismiss the Zhen family's job because of this matter, at most he silently labeled the Zhen family in his heart as not good at handling civil affairs.As for the previous errands of the Xue family, the Holy Majesty was not so easy to let go. At most, he ordered to give some rewards to the merchants who participated in this time and made the most donations. It's just something enshrined inside.