The biggest local tyrant and evil gentry at the junction of Lingling, Ningyuan and Daozhou is Mr. Huang Shijie from Etang Town, Daozhou!
This Mr. Huang is not old, he is only twenty-five or six this year. The reason why he is called "Master" is because his family has a lot of land. His family is the richest man in Daozhou. All the land around Etang Town is named Huang and belongs to him!
The second reason is that Huang Shijie became a scholar in high school a few years ago and is a distinguished scholar!
Don’t think that being a “scholar” is worthless. It’s only after you take the exam that you realize how difficult it is!
Normally, the admission rate for scholars is about one percent.
Among a hundred scholars, only one can be admitted to the scholar examination, which is very difficult to pass.
Hong Xiuquan was so capable, but he only passed the county examination, which was the first test for scholars. Then he failed in the government examination in Guangzhou. He failed the exam several times. In the end, he had no choice but to rebel against the emperor.
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When Mr. Huang Shijie was 22 years old, he tried consecutively and won the first place in Yongzhou Prefecture.
There is no telling how valuable this scholar is, he is truly a top scholar.
However, "Huang Xueba" had great ambitions, so after he was selected as a scholar, he did not rush to take the imperial examination. Instead, he went to the famous Chengnan Academy in Changsha Prefecture to study and became a disciple of the famous scholar Luo Zenan.
At the door of Mr.
This School of Economics is not a school that only studies, but a school that pays attention to practical management. This is because officials who come from the School of Economics are better at doing things, and they are also better at teamwork. During the Daoguang period, there were Tao Shu, He Changling, and Wei Yuan.
Several famous officials and celebrities from Hunan have become role models for the younger students in Hunan.
Therefore, Mr. Huang Shijie also wants to follow in the footsteps of Tao Shu and He Changling, two seniors from the same province. He not only needs to learn how to write eight-legged essays, but also learn how to manage the world and apply it, so that he can rise to the top after becoming a Jinshi in high school in the future!
This ideal is of course very fulfilling, but the reality is... a bit skinny!
Mr. Huang hasn't learned all Luo Luoshan's skills yet, and he hasn't had time to pass the imperial exams or become a Jinshi, thus becoming the father of a Qing people who can reimburse the imperial court. The Taiping Army is about to attack his "doorstep"
——Almost all the land in Etang belongs to his family. Even the double-branded land in Lingtang next door has a small number of "surnamed Huang"! The Taiping Army has now arrived at Lingling in the north of Lingtang. Isn't this...
Is it like hitting him at the door?
But for Mr. Huang Shijie and Mr. Huang, the Taiping Army’s attack is not the most terrifying thing... aren’t they just a group of rebels who believe in heresy and superstition?
This area of ​​Yongzhou Prefecture has been full of rebels since the White Lotus Sect uprising decades ago!
The White Lotus Sect, the Green Lotus Sect, the Heaven and Earth Society... there will be a riot every few years. Therefore, local tyrants and evil gentry like Huang Shijie have long been used to people rebelling, and they have long been mature enough to deal with rebels.
The plan is to organize group training, which can not only protect themselves, but also cut off a few heads to earn some fame.
What really makes Huang Shijie feel upset and even deeply frightened is that there are more and more paupers in and outside Etang Town, and they are getting poorer... There are too many, too many, too many.
!
Although Huang Shijie was a young man born with a golden key, and he was also the famous "Jiangxia Huang Family Lingling Fenhuang". His ancestors had been big landowners for generations. By the middle of the Qing Dynasty, he had become an industrial and commercial landlord! Not only did he buy land and collect rent , also controlled the shipping on Xiaoshui River. At its peak, the Huang family's old ship sailed north to Changsha and south to Guangzhou!
But since he was sensible, everyone he knew...including his father, uncle, maternal uncle, and of course himself, have become poorer and poorer.
And we are getting poorer year by year, with no possibility of improvement at all.
Since the "Gengshen Incident" when the foreign devils came to attack more than ten years ago, the old Huang family, which had been making a lot of money, has become worse. The business is getting worse year by year! Except for those who sell foreign cigarettes from Guangzhou to Hunan You can still make a little profit from your business, but you can't make any profit from other businesses.
The large import of foreign cigarettes and the increasing depression of Xiaoshui shipping have made the originally prosperous Etang Town very depressed!
In this huge town, except for opium dens, teahouses, gambling houses, prostitutes, and pawn shops, there seems to be no prosperous business.
Huang Shijie's three uncles and two maternal uncles were also addicted to cigarettes. They smoked cigarettes all day long, had no intention of doing business, and could not read books well. They were ruined before their eyes, and their family business was also ruined. The defeat is faster, and now Huang Shijie needs help...
However, these situations are not a big deal in the eyes of Huang Shijie and Huang Daxueba. What really frightens Huang Shijie is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to collect even the most basic rent and interest of the Huang family!
Yes! It’s fear!
As a scholar-bureaucrat of the school of economics, Mr. Huang could certainly find that the Qing Dynasty he loved was coming to an end step by step through the phenomenon of rent and interest becoming increasingly difficult to collect year by year.
Because those who paid rent and borrowed loan sharks were the poorest people in the Qing Dynasty... They were not only poor, but there were many of them, more and more, and they were getting poorer.
The apparent reason why it is difficult to collect rent and interest is, of course, that the rent is high and the interest is heavy!
This is not because Mr. Huang is too shady, but because there are too many poor people who want to rent land and borrow money... The rent is as high as 50% of the harvest, and there are still people rushing to rent it!
And if you put usury loans at nine out and thirteen in, you won’t have to worry about no one borrowing them!
It’s just that those tenants who rented land and borrowed loan sharks always fell into abject poverty with high debts due to poor harvests, low money, lack of money-making opportunities other than farming, etc... It was not a family. One household fell into abject poverty, but all the tenants of the Huang family fell into abject poverty!
They really can't pay the rent, and they can't pay the interest either.
But the problem is that if they can't pay the rent in full, they still have to continue renting the land!
Even if the interest is not paid, they will continue to borrow money at compound interest rates!
Mr. Huang who rented land to them and gave them usury loans was by no means a bad person who harmed them, but a great person named Huang who saved them.
Because only by renting land and borrowing debt can they struggle to survive...even if it is only temporarily!
But there are so many such people, doesn’t it mean that there are more and more poor people in Yongzhou Prefecture, even Hunan Province, and even the whole world, and they have reached the point where they are almost unable to survive!
What will happen if so many poor people cannot survive?
According to the historical experience of two thousand years, of course it is...rebellion!
Wasn't that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom the result of the poor people in Guangxi who couldn't survive?
Their God-worshiping heresy is just a cloak to cover up rebellion, just like the White Lotus Sect, Green Lotus Sect and others. If there were not so many poor people from Guangxi who could not survive joining, how could the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom be like this?
As far as Mr. Huang knows, there are more poor people in Hunan who cannot survive than in Guangxi...
"Mr. Huang, okay..."
"Master Huang, please give me someone who stutters!"
"Master Huang, just buy my son... please!"
Sitting on a sliding rod, being carried by two long-term workers, and protected by a group of regiments, Mr. Huang, who was patrolling Etang Town, suddenly heard the most terrifying sound in the world... He looked up Look, you find yourself on the most prosperous Di Street in Etang Town.
Oh, it should be said that it was the most prosperous Di Street in Etang Town in the past. Now there is no prosperity here, only abject poverty, abject poverty that cannot survive!
The so-called Dijie Street is actually a market built on the embankment beside Xiaoshui River. There are many shops on one side and pier berths on the other side. Mr. Huang vaguely remembers that when he visited Dijie Street with his father when he was young, business was booming and merchants gathered there. scene.
At that time, as long as the poor people in Etang had some strength, they could find food on Di Street.
If you have food to eat, you won’t rebel!
When they get old and lose their strength, they will naturally become immobile.
At that time, Mr. Huang quite sympathized with the hard-working coolies. He even felt that heaven was unfair and there were too many poor people. He even imagined that there would be a peaceful and prosperous age in the future where the poor could have enough to eat and drink.
Unexpectedly...it would be a time of peace and prosperity at that time!
Mr. Huang, who was concerned about the country and the people, glanced at the beggars and paupers selling their sons and daughters in the streets, and then sighed: "Why are there so many people who can't survive? There are more and more people every day... ..”
An elderly housekeeper took Master Huang's question and replied in a hoarse voice: "Master, the water transportation on the Xiangjiang River and Xiaoshui River has been suspended for almost a month. The boatmen who were still able to eat have all stopped. , wouldn’t it be impossible to survive? Now is the time of spring famine again. The poor people around Etang Town and Shuangpai Town are going out to beg for food as in previous years. However, Lingling County is besieged by Changmao again, so begging is very poor. People are crowded in our goose pond. They are selling their children and daughters because they are so hungry... Sir, you are kind-hearted, how about buying a few people?"
Huang Shijie smiled bitterly and said, "You want to buy people? Our family doesn't have much food left...the most worthless and least wanted thing these days...is people!"
The old housekeeper sighed: "Master, we don't want these people... but some people do!"
Hearing this, Huang Shijie trembled... Yes, poor people, someone wants it now, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom wants it!
Chapter completed!