The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 73 Are you worthy of the surname Huang? (Fourth update, please subscribe)

Next to the pier of Huangjia Village is the old house of Mr. Huang, which is a Feng Shui treasure land!
Mr. Huang’s ancestor came from here, started his business in Guangdong, and created the family business of the richest man in Daozhou.

Although Mr. Huang's family moved to Etang Town after they became rich, the old house in Huangjia Village is still well repaired and maintained. Outside the old house, the Huang family's ancestral hall was built, where the tablet of Huang Gai, the ancestor of Lingling Huang, is enshrined, and there is also a Huang family private school.

There is a large open area between the old house, the ancestral hall, the private school and the wharf. On the first and fifteenth day of every month, villagers from more than a dozen nearby villages come here to attend the market. Usually, this open area is where the Huang family of Huangjia Village gathers.

Today is not the market day, but there are about 200 members of the Huang family gathered here. They don't seem to have much money, and they are wearing tattered clothes. They have sallow complexions and thin bodies. The men have long, thin braids behind their heads - cutting off the braids is also an important part of the "land division".

First cut the braids and then divide the land, and we will all live in peace from now on!
Under the persuasion of the "kind-hearted Taiping Army", more than half of the villages around Etang Town had cut their queues, divided up land, and shared their belongings. In every village, there were some young and middle-aged people who were smart and unwilling to suffer poverty all their lives and joined the Taiping Army or the God Worshipping Society.

Those who joined the Taiping Army are now training in Etang Town and will soon become pillars of the Heavenly Kingdom.

Those who joined the God Worshipping Society became "candidate lecturers" and either went to Etang Town for training or promoted the "land distribution" in their own villages - they would become the pillars of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at the grassroots level.

However, the feudal forces in Huangjia Village were apparently a bit stubborn. Under the leadership of several Huang family elders, none of the 200 or so Huang family men cut their braids.

They were so stubborn and stubborn that Wang Yan, who led dozens of Taiping troops in, didn't know what to do.

He can't really use force to massacre the entire village, right?

They are all fellow villagers from Etang, and when Wang Yan was begging for food, he also ate Mr. Huang’s porridge!

Therefore, he was not willing to let Huangjia Village be slaughtered by the Taiping Army. After much thought, Wang Yan decided to use the method of division and disintegration to find a breakthrough from the poor, lazy, and nearly starving nerds in Huangjia Village.

In the past two days, he has been looking for a few "bottom-breaking coffins" from the "Shi" or "Shou" generations to eat and drink with him, and has also promised them some benefits. Now it depends on whether they dare to stand up and expose Huang Shijie's crimes!
Standing at an octagonal table outside the door of the Huang family's old house, Wang Yan couldn't help laughing as he looked at the group of Huang family members below who were actually in dire poverty but still thought they were a middle-class family.

"Ha ha ha ha."

Hearing Wang Yan's laughter, the Huang family members below were all stunned, and someone immediately responded: "Mr. Wang, what are you laughing at?"

Wang Yan glanced at the man. He was a skinny old man with white hair and beard, a wrinkled face, and wearing a long gown.

This man was named Huang Shicheng. He was a poor scholar who had taken the imperial examinations all his life but failed. He was so poor that his family was penniless. He had a son named Huang Shouren, who was also a poor student who had failed the examinations many times. He was already in his thirties and had not yet married.

Huang Shijie felt sorry for the father and son and let them teach in the Huang family private school.

But now Huang Shijie had run away, so naturally no one paid them salaries. They were on the verge of running out of food, but they still couldn't take off their long gowns or cut their braids.

"Old sir, what's your name?" Wang Yan's eyes widened and he asked the question even though he knew the answer.

"No need to mention my name, my surname is Huang!" said the old man Huang, sticking out his skinny chest.

"What? Your last name is Huang?" Wang Yan said with disdain, "Where are you from? You're not the same as Huang Shijie, both of you from Lingling, right?"

"What do you mean?" Old Man Huang glared, "Of course I am Lingling Huang! Our Huang family is a famous family in Yongzhou."

"Bah! You call yourself a famous family? You old man are almost starving to death!" Wang Yan cursed, "How old is your son this year? Over 30, right? Has he ever had sex with a woman? Can he still get married? Don't starve to death while still a virgin, right? If he goes to hell like this, will he still have the face to meet Huang Gai and Huang Gongfu?"

"You, you, you..." Old Man Huang was so angry that he couldn't speak clearly. "What about me?" Wang Yan laughed, "I, Wang, was close to starving to death a month ago and couldn't get married. I wanted to sell my sister to Huang Shijie, but he didn't want her!

But now I have turned over a new leaf! I am a good man of the Taiping Army, I joined the God Worshipping Society, and my sister and I were allocated ten acres of paddy fields! Ten acres, all paddy fields. The matchmakers who came to my house almost broke down the threshold of my house!"

He patted his chest, which had become stronger, and said, "I haven't been hungry this month. I eat fried rice with lard and eggs every day. It's delicious!"

He pointed at Huang Shouren, Huang's son, and said, "Huang Shouren, how many days have you not had enough to eat? Your family can't afford to eat, right? Are you still trying to hold on? Do you really deserve the surname Huang?"

"me"

Wang Yan waved at him and said, "Come here, come here, join the Taiping Army, we are brothers now, and we will eat together, wear the same clothes, and farm together! No matter how rich Huang Shijie is, he will not give you any. Not only will he not give you any, he will also eat up all your ancestral property!"

"Shut up! You're talking nonsense."

Old man Huang Shicheng was deeply touched by Wang Yan's words and immediately became furious.

"Dad, he's not talking nonsense!" Huang Shouren suddenly howled, "Dad, our family's little inheritance has long been mortgaged to Uncle Fourteen, and our family has long been penniless!"

Huang Shijie is the eldest brother in his family. He is the fourteenth brother in the Huang's Etang branch in Lingling and is known as Huang Shishilang.

"Son, what nonsense are you talking about?" Old Man Huang became even more anxious after hearing what his son said. "We still have 15 mu of paddy fields. What we mortgaged is only the ridges of the fields. The ridges are still there. We can redeem the ridges at any time!"

"Redeem it? What can I use to redeem it?" Huang Shouren yelled, "Dad, wake up! The land has been mortgaged, and the remaining land is in my hands and I can't rent it out to collect rent. If I want to grow crops myself, I have to rent the land from my fourteenth uncle. Although I can waive the mortgage, I still have to pay the rent. I also have to pay the loan with interest. Can you afford it? Can you pay it back?"

He became more and more excited as he spoke, and at the end, he simply turned around and shouted to a group of fellow clansmen: "My fellow uncles and brothers, think about it carefully. Who in the village can redeem the land bark that was mortgaged to Uncle Fourteen? Who wouldn't be sinking deeper and deeper? Instead of doing this, it would be better to sell the land with the skin and bones. At least we can get a little more money and have a few more full meals. Now the land bark has been mortgaged, and no one wants the bones. Uncle Fourteen doesn't want them either, so it's the same as having nothing! Isn't it the same as Uncle Fourteen spending 60% of the price to eat up all our family property? Do you think he has a conscience? Is he a human being?"

"Shut up! Shut up! You and I are both scholars. As long as we can pass the imperial examination, are we afraid that we won't be able to redeem these ancestral properties?" Old Man Huang became angrier and angrier as he listened. He didn't know how to refute. After all, what his son said was the truth, so he could only change the subject.

"Juren? Father, you have taken exams all your life and you can't even pass the exam for a scholar. How can you expect to pass the exam? How can it be so easy to pass the exam? Unless..." Huang Shouren suddenly said enthusiastically, "Unless the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom holds an imperial examination to recruit scholars!"

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Old Man Huang was furious. "How could the Changmao hold an imperial examination to recruit scholars? The Changmao worship the foreign God and don't read the books of sages. What kind of imperial examination did they hold?"

"I don't care!" Huang Shouren clenched his fists, tears streaming down his face. "I want to eat, I want my wife and father, I'm hungry! As long as I can have enough to eat and have a wife to carry on the family line, I can even worship God!"

"Okay, okay," Wang Yan praised, "Huang Shouren, I think you have a talent for being a lecturer. Why don't you join the lecturer class? As long as you learn the principles of the God Worshipping Society for a few months, you can take the exam. If you do well, you can become a juren, and you can also become a high-ranking official in the Southern Palace or the Angel Palace!"

Huang Shouren immediately raised his arms and shouted: "I want to eat, I want to be an official, I want to worship God"

Before he finished shouting, the old man Huang yelled, "Wait!"

Everyone looked at the old man and saw that he was holding a dagger that was sharpened to a razor-sharp edge!

"You, what do you want to do?" Wang Yan looked at him nervously, "You can't kill your son!"

"Why should I kill my son?" Old Huang lifted his braid with one hand, and then cut it off with a knife. "I also want to have enough food to eat! I also want to worship God! I also want to be an official. I have wanted to be an official all my life. Whoever gives me an official position will be my master."

(End of this chapter)