Ming Dynasty: Tanks blocked the door and you said to me, "Long live Ming Dynasty"

Zhu Youxiao was stunned for a moment. Did the old brothel owner really bring Shancai, who was only eight or nine years old, here?

What can such a small baby do?

In later times, when I was still singing “The sun is shining in the sky, the flowers are smiling at me”, it is hard to imagine that here, I have become…

Not getting a response, Shan Caijun outside the door took it as his consent and pushed the door open and walked in.

She was about 1.45 meters tall and wore a pink dress. Although she tried her best to act like an adult, the childish look between her eyebrows could not be concealed by makeup.

The body, which has not yet fully grown, looks so thin.

This is a little loli...

She walked up to Zhu Youxiao, bent her knees and bowed, speaking in a neither humble nor arrogant manner.

"I am Shancai Jun, and I am here to pour wine for you, sir. I hope you will not abandon me."

Just as Zhu Youxiao was about to respond, he saw another woman walk in from outside the door.

This woman looks somewhat like Shancaijun, and looks to be around twenty years old.

He frowned and asked, "Who are you???"

The woman quickly replied: "In reply to your question, my name is Qinglian, and I am the mother of Mr. Shancai."

"Mr. Shancai is still young, and I am afraid that I may not be able to serve you well and cause you to be unhappy. Please allow me to stay and help you."

Zhu Youxiao:.........

Damn, they are really a mother and daughter!

As a man with very positive values, he had no interest in Shancaijun, but the green lotus in front of him looked quite pleasing to the eye.

"Then let's come together!"

He waved his hand and sat back in his chair.

Seeing this, the mother and daughter came over, one poured wine and the other served the food.

Zhu Youxiao chatted with them while eating.

It is said that men have two major hobbies, one of which is to persuade others to become good people.

After drinking a few glasses of wine, he looked at the mother and daughter and said.

"Where are you from? Why did you end up here?"

Qinglian replied as she served him: "To answer your question, sir, I am originally a singing girl from Baihua Tower in Zhangzhou, Fujian."

"It's just that Zhangzhou suffered a great disaster this year, and Baihualou has no business anymore."

"It just so happened that the manager of the Miaolan Boat was recruiting people in Zhangzhou, so I brought Mei'er to Nanjing to make a living."

Zhu Youxiao looked at Shancaijun: "Mei'er? Is that your maiden name?"

Shancai nodded and said, "Your guess is correct, my maiden name is Gu, and my given name is Mei."

Gu Mei? !

When this name came out, Zhu Youxiao was stunned.

His original name was Gu Mei, his courtesy name was Meisheng, and his pseudonym was Hengbo!

Gu Hengbo?

I go!

By chance, he ran into Gu Hengbo who had just debuted?

His eyes suddenly seemed to be fixed on Gu Hengbo and did not leave him for a long time.

This woman is a talented woman!

Unfortunately, like Liu Rushi, she trusted the wrong person and ended up marrying Gong Dingzi.

When the Ming Dynasty was destroyed, Liu Rushi and Qian Qianyi jumped into the river, but Qian Qianyi thought the water was too cold.

However, Gong Dingzi was equally afraid of death, and later told others that it was Gu Hengbo who was reluctant to let him die.

It's so shameless!

Gu Hengbo felt a little uncomfortable being stared at by him, so he stood up and said.

"Drink slowly, young master. I will dance for you to entertain you."

After saying this, without caring whether Zhu Youxiao agreed or not, she stood aside and twisted her waist.

While dancing, they sang a little tune, which was very realistic.

Zhu Youxiao then withdrew his gaze and looked at Qinglian beside him.

"With your looks, it shouldn't be difficult to marry into a good family, right?"

"Why do you have to bring your daughter here to make a living?"

Qinglian smiled bitterly when he heard this.

"Sir, why do you have to mock me?"

"No matter how beautiful I am, I am just a prostitute."

"Who would be willing to marry a prostitute, especially since I have a daughter?"

"Even if there is an ordinary family willing to take me in, I can only be a concubine after I enter the family."

"I don't mind, but I don't want Mei'er to suffer."

Zhu Youxiao frowned: "Where is her father? Does he know that he has such a daughter?"

When Qinglian heard this, the bitter smile on her face froze and she looked towards the south with lifeless eyes.

"Her father........."

"Given her father's family background, how could they allow for the existence of mother and daughter like us?"

"Sir, do you know?"

"Mei'er's surname isn't actually Gu, her surname should have been Kong!"

"If you count the generations, she is the great aunt of Duke Yansheng of this dynasty..."

"But who would have thought that the aunt of Duke Yansheng would be by the Qinhuai River..."

Chapter 115: The Great Aunt of Yanshenggong

Zhangzhou, Kong family?

These words immediately perked up Zhu Youxiao: "What is the relationship between the Kong family in Zhangzhou and the Kong family in Shandong?"

Qinglian replied: "All the Kongs in the world are one family, what other relationship could there be?"

"Mei'er's biological father is Kong Wenmiao, the younger brother of Kong Wenxiang, the head of the Kong family in Zhangzhou!"

"This lineage of theirs moved from Shandong to Zhangzhou only about a hundred years ago."

"Our dynasty's Duke Yansheng, Kong Yanzhi, is their great-grandson in terms of seniority!"

(The generation was wrong earlier, it has been corrected)

Zhu Youxiao:.........

Unexpectedly!

It turns out that Gu Hengbo has another such prominent identity.

Perhaps it was precisely because of the special nature of the Kong family that the mother and daughter were not recognized, and thus had to come to Nanjing from Zhangzhou in order to make a living.

Zhu Youxiao had no good feelings towards the Kong family who had always submitted a letter of surrender.

But now is not the time to deal with them, so it’s better to just turn a blind eye to some things.

Li Chaoqin mentioned in the secret letter that he was going to go to Fujian with Zheng Zhilong and Xiong Wencan to investigate the whereabouts of the 700,000 dan of disaster relief grain, and Zhangzhou would be the first stop.

But if there is any connection between the Kong family in Zhangzhou and the disaster relief grain...

Ha ha!

Then don’t blame yourself for collecting the interest first!

"Miss Qinglian, how much do you know about the Kong family in Zhangzhou?"

"What do you want to hear, sir?"

"Their relationship with local wealthy businessmen and officials, the style of this branch of the Kong family after they moved from Shandong to Zhangzhou, and the changes in their family business."

Upon hearing this, Qinglian told him what she had learned during her years in Zhangzhou.

The status of the Kong family in the hearts of literati is naturally self-evident.

Who can blame him for having a saint in his ancestry?

All the scholars in the world consider themselves as disciples of Confucius, so when they treat the descendants of Confucius, they mostly show fawning attitude.

Not to mention the wealthy businessmen.

This was an era where scholars were respected and military men were despised, and the status of merchants was even lower.

Who doesn’t want to have a descendant who achieves honor and success?

Passing the imperial examination and becoming the top scholar may be a luxury, but being able to produce a Jinshi or even a Juren can change the family's situation!

Isn't the reason why Fan Jin continued to take the exams when he was in his seventies and eighties because of the superiority of scholars?

The contribution and tax exemption alone are enough to transform an ordinary family into a local tycoon in just a few years!

With financial resources, there will be more resources to cultivate the next generation. As long as you can ensure that every generation can pass the imperial examination or become a scholar, then the family can continue and become more and more powerful!

If a top scholar or a Jinshi can emerge, this family will undergo a qualitative change again!

Therefore, in this historical context, the businessmen’s fawning on the Kong family was even more intense than those of the literati, almost to the point of asking for whatever they wanted!

According to Qinglian, the Kong family moved to Zhangzhou only a hundred years ago, and they have grown from a meager family of just a few people, two courtyards, and over a hundred acres of land to the huge family they are today!

Now in Zhangzhou, the Kong family lives in a large mansion with hundreds of servants and maids. When they go out, they are surrounded by people, and when they come in, the room is filled with guests and friends.

Outside the city, the Kong family owned tens of thousands of acres of fertile land, and thousands of tenants depended on them.

According to the land tax regulations set by Zhu Yuanzhang in the early Ming Dynasty, the land tax for official land was five liters, three he and five scoops per mu, while the land tax for private land was reduced by two liters, that is, three liters, three he and five scoops.

Taking japonica rice as an example, one stone in the Ming Dynasty was about 153 jin, which is equivalent to 594 grams in later generations.

One shi is equal to ten dou, one dou is equal to ten liters, one liter is equal to ten he, and one he is equal to ten spoons.

The land tax for each mu of farmland is only three liters, three hectares and five spoons, which is only about four pounds.

But the fact is that there are many scholars in the Jiangnan area, and they do not need to pay land tax.

If they do not pay the land tax, then part of the land tax will be passed on to the common people.

So, three liters, three times five spoons became four liters, six liters, eight liters, and even more.

And this value has been increasing with the time of the founding of the Ming Dynasty!

Today, it has reached several buckets.

According to Qinglian, in the Jiangnan area, the place with the heaviest land tax is Suzhou. The tax per mu of land has now reached as high as eight dou!

That is about 122 kilograms!

But the yield of the rice fields at this time is only about 300 kilograms, and this is the harvest in a bumper year. If it is a disaster year, I am afraid the yield will not even be half of that. If it is a major disaster, it will be even worse.

Four catties and one hundred and twenty-two catties. In the more than two hundred years since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the land tax has almost increased by more than thirty times!

Such a heavy burden forced the people to choose to surrender!

To make a contribution means to register one's own land under the name of the gentry and pay a certain amount of land tax to them every year. This amount must be less than what is paid to the court.

But even so, if there were consecutive years of disaster, the remaining grain after paying the land tax would still not be enough for the people to live a normal life.

In the end, they could only borrow high-interest loans from the gentry. When they could not pay back the debts with compounded interest, they had to mortgage their land to pay off their debts. If even mortgaged land was not enough to pay off their debts, selling their children was not uncommon.

This branch of the Kong family moved to Zhangzhou only a hundred years ago, but they already owned tens of thousands of acres of fertile land. This also meant that every year many people lost their families and were separated from their wives and children because of the Kong family!

"boom!"

Zhu Youxiao became more and more angry as he listened, and he grabbed the wine jug and smashed it to the ground.