The late Ming Dynasty in the living room

Chapter 125 Malicious hanging and land annexation

At the east end of the village, the Zhong family has also received the news.

The head of the Zhong family, named Zhong Shangshang, was a chubby fat man. At this time, he stood in front of his house and looked out, and saw that the fire at Hong Yonggui's house had become bright.

Alas, it would be better not to cause any trouble. Master Zhong was very nervous.

Because he was nervous, he had a lot of sweat on his forehead, and he couldn't help but keep mumbling: "...Hong Yonggui is so cruel! He only started to urge food in the afternoon, and he killed himself before evening He went up, he deliberately wanted to make my Zhong family miserable... Sigh, now that the matter has become so big, everyone in the village has rushed over, and if there are a few more troublemakers... Sigh!"

His words not only condemned Hong Yonggui for hanging himself maliciously, but also meant that he was dissatisfied with his second son for urging him too hard.

Second Young Master Zhong stood aside. He was a little impatient and interrupted: "Oh dad, don't worry! What can a bunch of poor tenants get together? They will definitely not make trouble."

Hearing that Second Young Master Zhong still had a disapproving tone, Master Zhong felt quite angry.

He scolded Second Young Master Zhong: "It's okay if you say it's okay! Laishui County is not a messy place like Henan. If something big happens, no matter how good your second uncle is, he won't be able to deal with it!"

The "big event" that Zhong Shangshang called was, of course, the villagers gathering to rebel.

Although they can't make a big splash (there are too many officers and soldiers around them, they will be wiped out before they leave the village), but a rebellion is a rebellion. Once the news spreads, let alone his small official room. The second uncle is dead, and even the county magistrate Min Wengong will suffer.

Min Wengong himself was going to suffer. Before that, he couldn't pull off the head of the superior Zhong and play with it? (If Zhong Shangshang has not been beaten to death by the villagers)
Senior Zhong made the situation very serious, but Second Young Master Zhong only found it a little funny.

Not only did he understand the villagers in Hongjia Village, but he also understood his chubby father. To put it bluntly, he could be described in eight words: greedy and timid as a mouse.

In order to prevent his father from being worried any longer, Second Young Master Zhong comforted him and said, "Okay, okay, I'll find more people to come over and ask them to go to the village to watch the tenants and make sure they don't cause trouble."

However, Zhong Shang was still worried and kept chattering.

There was even a hint of abolishing the "Loan from the King of Hell" in his words... It seemed that the idea of ​​turning the three-cent profit (no profit) originally promised to the villagers into "Loan from the King of Hell" into a "Loan from the King of Hell" was not his own idea. Similar.

Second Young Master Zhong was also speechless. He blocked his father's mouth with just one sentence: "Dad, don't you want those fields?"

Yes, the Zhong family used the excuse of paying back the grain to force the villagers of Hongjia Village, not just to scrape a few more stones of grain, but more importantly, for the remaining free fields.

Although most of the villagers have now de facto become tenants of his Zhong family, the total of one and a half acres in their hands is enough to make the superior Zhong jealous.

Farmers regard their fields as life, and it is absolutely impossible for them to hand over their fields without forcing them to a desperate situation.

Er Shao Zhong then said: "Dad, I don't object if you want to reduce their accumulated debts, but you have to think about it. Now the water in the Juma River has risen. From now on, the crops will have a bumper harvest every year if there is no shortage of water. If you don't It would be extremely difficult to harvest their fields.”

As the saying goes, there will be no shop like this after passing this village... After listening to his son's words, the fat on Mr. Zhong's face trembled.

He was worried that something might happen, but he also really couldn't bear to give up this best opportunity to "unify Hongjia Village". After struggling for a long time, he finally walked back with "heavy" steps.

As he walked, he said covertly: "...We can't force it too much. After all, we are all fellow villagers...Oh, this Hong Yonggui is really serious. He won't come to me if he doesn't have food." Let's discuss it, there are three people in the family, and the children are still so young..."

What happened in Hongjiacun is the most typical microcosm of land annexation in the late Ming Dynasty. The more severe the natural disaster, the more the landlords went to annex land.

Landowners from all over the country do not need to form groups to communicate or buy courses online, but they all use the same methods: big landowners (gentry, and only gentry can become big landowners) eat meat by colluding with the government, and small landowners "help" villagers Duhuang sips the soup.

The pain brought by land annexation to farmers far exceeded that of natural disasters and wars, and it was called the number one disaster in the late Ming Dynasty.

Because more and more farmers are losing their land, they can only be forced to become tenant farmers. As a result, the tenant rent begins to involute crazily.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the rent in the northern region once reached 75%, or even more than 80%. How could this harvest be enough to support a family?
I have worked hard for a whole year, but in the end I can only watch my wife, children and parents starve to death. Can this be tolerated? Is this fair?

So Li Zicheng and others climbed up and shouted, and the people from all over the world gathered in response.

So the Qing Dynasty's iron hooves trampled through Shenzhou, but they had no will to resist... because apart from their half-dead lives, they had nothing to defend.

As Mr. Zhong expected, the villagers were sad for a while, but nothing "big" happened.

Although they are about to be forced to a dead end by the Zhong family, but... "immediately" means that they are not at a dead end yet. There are still very few people who are as determined as Hong Yonggui, and most of them are willing to wait for another day. .

Who knows what miracle will happen within this day?

Hong Qi got up before dawn, and decided to go to the county town to exchange for grains.

To go to the county seat, you need to pass through Xincheng, where the owner of Xincheng lives. Although Hong Qi has nothing, he is too embarrassed to pass by empty-handed.

Together with his little naughty boy, he searched hard by the river.

Nowadays, fish and shrimps in the Juma River are no longer accessible, but with his rich experience, the two of them spent a whole morning searching and finally found five gray northern loaches in the ditches and gullies by the river.

Then he put the loaches into a basket, called a few fellow villagers with whom he had made friends, took some fairy rice, and pushed a chicken cart toward the county seat.

The mother-in-law was still chasing after her and scolding her, but Hong Qi ignored her. (She feels that it doesn’t matter whether she changes it or not, she might as well eat two more meals of white rice porridge)

Hong Qi also knew that the grain exchanged could not cover the Zhong family's accumulated debt, but...how to put it, he believed that it was a fact that he owed the Zhong family one stone plus seven dou of grain. As for how the Zhong family calculated the accumulated debt, and what it was like It was all the Zhong family's business to force him to do anything, and all he wanted was peace of mind.

(End of this chapter)