C8

Emperor Wanli's happiness did not last for long. A few days later, he personally conferred the title of Queen and passed away. Queen Wang was only one year younger than him. She had been a queen for more than four years and could be said to be the most stable and longest queen in the harem. This death made Emperor Wanli, who already had a bad body, sigh. Not long after, his body began to deteriorate.

At this moment, Second Elder Brother Zhu was too far away from the emperor. While worrying about his father's inactivity, he was also thinking about the Lee Family sisters. The big one was virtuous and the small one was quick-witted. He was reluctant to part with both of them.

Zhu Yisu resigned from his position in the Palace and focused on teaching his son to read.

After staying at home, without the teaching allowance, Zhu Yisu's family life had become a lot more prosperous. After all, in the past, the biggest expense of this family wasn't food or clothing, but the socialization of Zhu Yisu.

Second Elder Brother Zhu's performance caused Zhu Yisu to be extremely surprised and he felt extremely regretful in his heart. If he had taught this naughty and playful son of his, he might have even been able to become an Elementary Scholar.

Not to mention his understanding of the fourth book and the fifth scripture, his memorable memory would often allow him to recite the entire book once every 56 times, allowing him to paraphrase its meaning. Compared to his past self, he could not help but sigh.

In less than half a month, Second Elder Brother Zhu had memorized the Four Books and Five Classics at an average speed of two days. Zhu Yisu felt that teaching his son would mislead his son, so he let Second Elder Brother Zhu read by himself while he spent half a day a day teaching the eight pieces of essay and urging Second Elder Brother Zhu to practice.

The news of the fall of the Queen was reported by a yamen official. As a member of the Court, Second Elder Brother Zhu's family was covered with white silk. Even when he was eating, he would only be eating cold food and not hot food, not to mention meat.

On May 18th, after the father and son pair had breakfast, Second Elder Brother Zhu began to write. Zhu Yisu sat by the side, sipping a cup of tea and reading a letter from afar. His face lit up with happiness.

"Father, what is there to be happy about?"

Second Elder Brother Zhu thought that the matter of the imperial duke changing their job had gotten into his head, but he didn't know that this was extremely good news.

Putting the letter away, Zhu Yisu first gave Second Elder Brother Zhu's "Thousand Character Classic" some pointers, commenting, "The brush strokes are soft like a student's appearance, soft on the outside but firm on the inside. Rigidity and gentleness is the pursuit of the world for people, from the word know people. Although my son's calligraphy is somewhat lacking in quality and is soft and beautiful without form, it has a kind of golden lance and iron horse on it, which is very rare. However, my son should know that it is easy to break even if you are just right. "

"Erlang Shen understands. However, the first few words in the book are still reasonable, so when he finished writing, he started writing as he pleases."

Zhu Yisu smiled and said, "It's already rare for words to be able to convey meaning. My son's heart is anxious and I understand." My son does not have to worry about this imperial duke job change, Old Liu Qian Hu must be able to go to the heavens to listen. "My son needs to be on guard. This word can be written slowly every day. Practicing the word is a way to improve the body and the mind."

Nodding to show that he remembered, Second Elder Brother Zhu looked down at the letter in Zhu Yisu's hands.

"This is my good friend Sun Boya from Daizhou Town. He has entered Yongheng County in the year 47 of Wan Li, and has been in office for less than a year. He has used his ability to raise his South Zhili and return it to Guo Shangqiu, an adjunct to the De Manor."

Second Elder Brother Zhu didn't know who Sun Boya was. Boya sounded like a word, and Second Elder Brother Zhu was puzzled by his father's great admiration for Boya Sun.

But Zhu Yisu didn't say anything more, he put the letter away, put his sleeves behind his back, and muttered: "My son's martial arts practice is also a good thing, I am on good terms with Chief Flag Brother Wu, if His Majesty is generous, you and I are likely to be transferred to the City Guards Institution. Therefore, my father wanted to choose two people from the Kan family's servant to teach my son martial arts. There's no hope for the Imperial Examinations. "

Second Elder Brother Zhu was overjoyed when he heard this. He cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, Father."

Sighing, Zhu Yisu said, "My son's calligraphy is filled with the aura of a soldier. Perhaps this is a foregone conclusion. After the imperial edict had been passed down, father will go to the Lee Family to propose marriage for Erlang. "

"Huh?"

Second Elder Brother Zhu was surprised. He thought that he had hidden it extremely well. How could this father, who didn't even step through the doorstep, be able to see through it? Moreover, this father's thoughts were too different from those of the people around him. There were very few cases where he married a woman of his age.

The ancient literati were very clear on the benefits of a loli. Could it be that this father had the same thoughts as him?

Thinking that his son was surprised by the fact that he practiced martial arts, Zhu Yisu turned around and looked at the jujube tree outside the window. He said in a deep voice, "My father boasts to be smart, but I can't see through the essence of the school. Your father knows that it is already extremely difficult for the disciples of our clan to obtain the title of Elementary Scholar. Military merits are the only way out for us clan members. "

"Father understands the military?"

"What is the difficulty of military matters? It was nothing more than raising the soldiers' supplies, training the soldiers' discipline, and leading the soldiers to give them distinct rewards and penalties. Wu Yi Qi's book "New Book on the Effect of Ji" and "Soldier Practice" should be detailed and detailed. If you read them carefully, you won't be able to become a famous general. As a Commander, you should be more than enough to be a guerrilla. "

Zhu Yisu was very confident, as he talked about how he straightened his chest and said, "Grandfather Jian Dianbiao is a general under the control of the Ji Town trained by Eunuch Wu Yi using the military method. His father is currently working in the Liao Town, so if father wishes to train in the army, it would be no problem to ask for a few servant s. "

Second Elder Brother Zhu did not know that the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising Zeng Guofan was able to make a start because of Qi Jiguang's two military books. In the beginning, he was defeated repeatedly, but he slowly gathered experience before taking action.

On June 2nd, Second Elder Brother Zhu was picking wheat for Lee Family with a sickle in his hand.

The Little Ice Age began in the middle of the Thousand Calendar. In the cold weather, even Qiongzhou, also known as Hainan Island, had a thick layer of snow, shocking people who hadn't seen snow in the area. This summer, however, was frighteningly hot.

As he was not an adult yet, Second Elder Brother Zhu had always been carefree with respect to etiquette. He had long loose hair and worked in the wheat fields with Li Shoudao and Li Shouyi, the two older 'scholar failed in the imperial examinations'.

The old man under the tree at the side of the field, who was playing with Little Sun, thought of his delicate eldest grandson, then looked at the hardworking Second Elder Brother Zhu. He couldn't help but sigh in his heart that Second Elder Brother Zhu had given birth to the wrong child. He had passed Second Elder Brother Zhu's exam, and he recited the 4th book and 5th scripture like the back of his hand. Unfortunately, he was of the ancestral family.

Lee Yuvniang held a jug of slightly sour milk and added a bowl of it to her father and uncle before she went to give it to Second Elder Brother Zhu. He cut too slowly, but he was also serious and didn't leave behind any ears of wheat.

Slurry water is the water in the pickled vegetables, cooked after the summer drinking can dispel the heat of the stomach.

Wiping his sweat, Second Elder Brother Zhu sighed as he drank the sour paste: "Face to face with the earth, year after year, year after year. The peasants are really suffering. Sis Yuvniang, you see that Erlang's hands are already full of blisters. "

"Second brother is a man with a conscience, and so is Zhu husband." The matter of self-reliance had already spread far and wide. Lee Yuvniang admired the courage of Zhu Family and his son.

Even though he was in arrears, he was still a hard rations that could be harvested during the drought. Even if he was a gambler, he wouldn't starve to death because of his status as a concubine. The local officials had basically reached the end of the line when the patriarchs in the territory starved to death.

"If you don't know the hardships of the peasants, you can... Sigh, I won't say anymore. "

The Ming tax rate was truly ludicrous, with the whole country running on top of the peasants. If an Elementary Scholar came from the same farm's rich village, the tax would be exempted. The rich peasants who are exempt from taxes can amass wealth to support more scholars and maintain tax exemption for generations to come. Thus the rich get richer, and the poor remain the same.

It would be fine if the world was at peace, but with the arrival of the Little Ice Age, natural disasters were everywhere. The poor people who could not survive any longer could only gather together and rebel. Wherever they went, they destroyed the production system. Such a vicious cycle would cause even greater damage.

It was laughable that the imperial government had sent all sorts of food to the poor. 1 mu of land can produce 1 stone of food is already a rare scene, and now 1 mu of land to hand over 3 buckets of food. The peasants who could not survive had only two choices. They either fought back or sold their fields to the local gentry, willing to be their tenants.

With the gentry's tax-exempt privileges, the tenants would not have to pay the state food and salaries, but would only have to pay a hundred rent a year. As time went on, the local gentry became rich, but the taxes collected by the state became smaller. Not enough to pay for more food, and the farmers were forced to their deaths.

As for the business tax, it was 3 to 1. What's more, there was good governance later on, which exempted him from paying the transaction quota of less than 3 taels. The whole business tax was meaningless. After all, the emperor wanted to raise taxes for the official families, so the civil officials often moved out their ancestors' teachings, forcing the emperor to have no choice but to stare.

Second Elder Brother Zhu looked up at the busy farmers on the mountain fields and clenched his fists. Since he couldn't become a member of the Scholar Group, then he would just kill these guys.

He secretly made a vow that, without mentioning anything else in his life, he would definitely exempt the farmers from paying taxes.

Seeing him focus, Lee Yuvniang fanned Second Elder Brother Zhu with her fan: "Second Brother, what are you thinking about?"

"Sis Yuvniang, Erlang is thinking how great it would be if all the peasants in the world didn't have to pay taxes. "In that case, they won't have to suffer so much."

As if he was just a child dreaming, Lee Yuvniang asked with a smile, "Then has second brother ever thought about it? If farmers don't pay taxes, what about the imperial government?"

"Exempt from large families. A large local family has over ten thousand acres of land, which is enough for the imperial government to use."

"How can this be?" The imperial government specialized in collecting taxes on the food of the big families, and the big families would fall as well. Without a rich family, whose family is the imperial government taking in? "

"Sis Yuvniang is wrong, the water flows to the bottom and the people walk to the top. As long as the imperial government did not force the wealthy to a dead end, everyone would work hard to manage their businesses and become wealthy. "

With that, Second Elder Brother Zhu picked up his sickle and cut the wheat.

Lee Yuvniang tilted her head and thought for a moment. She felt that what he said was reasonable, and contrary to what she had heard, she was at a loss of words. She didn't know how to refute what he had said.

Just then, two angry horses clad in fresh clothes came over. Flag Hee Chong jumped down from his horse and shouted to someone in the field: "Second Elder Brother Zhu! Overjoyed, the imperial edict of His Majesty had arrived! State Dedicating Lieutenant has sent two of us to welcome Second Elder Brother Zhu back home to receive his royal decree.

Holding the scythe in his hand, Second Elder Brother Zhu stood up, looked up at the azure sky and let out a long breath. Finally, he came.

The village splashed water all over the place, and even the bumpy roads were refilled with dirt. The order was issued by a middle-aged eunuch with a coarse appearance but refined temperament. His name was Liu Shimin.

Zhu Yisu was bathing and changing his clothes. Since he couldn't wait for his son, he could only accept the decree first. He didn't want this Eunuch Liu to wait for too long and have a bad idea. Since the eunuch was physically handicapped, his temper was naturally not very good.

At the last moment, Hee Chong returned with a sweaty and disheveled Second Elder Brother Zhu. However, the process had already started. Second Elder Brother Zhu didn't have time to wash up and change his clothes, so he could only kneel on the ground along with Zhu Yisu with his face covered in dust.

The father and son pair stood out together, making Liu Shimin secretly unhappy. He had also heard that the descendants of the High Clans were extremely mischievous. He never thought that the son of Zhu Yisu would be so unbearable to look at and lacked any of the clan's manners.