"All civil conflicts will be handled in accordance with Ming law."
Zheng Sen said casually, looking confident about it.
Seeing this, the magistrate and magistrate were relieved.
Obviously, the family property must be divided equally.
Of course, this is only private property, like public property, such as titles and ancestral properties inherited through generations, which are inherited by the eldest son.
If there are only two or three generations, or three or four generations, there will naturally be no accumulation of family property.
As early as the Tang Dynasty, concubines had the right to divide property. Under special circumstances, women also had the right to divide inheritance.
In the Ming Dynasty, no matter the birth of wives, concubines or maids, they were divided equally according to the number of children.
Even in the Qing Dynasty, illegitimate children had the right to divide property.
"Whenever there is a dispute, the law of the Ming Dynasty will be the main one. The national law is written there. What are you afraid of?"
Zheng Sen said casually: "This matter can be publicized, and this will be the standard in Luzon."
Sure enough, as soon as this incident was publicized, it immediately caused waves among the European community.
The parents were flustered and extremely irritable.
They are older and have broader knowledge, so they naturally understand the shortcomings of dividing family property:
As time goes by, the huge family assets will continue to be reduced, and eventually they will change from rich to poor.
In Andrew's mansion, the fireplace burned, the heat billowed, and all the moisture in the room was driven out.
A group of men with long, curly hair or wigs, wearing shirts with large lapels and baggy trousers that were pleated like bloomers.
On a long table with white cloth, there are porcelain with lotus pattern. On it are bananas, apples and other tropical fruits, which are colorful and very appetizing.
Two huge whale candles were lit, keeping the room bright.
The high stools are arranged regularly, with the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea engraved on the backrests.
"Drink tea!" The male host had a round face and personally placed several blue and white porcelain cups and poured green tea for the guests.
"Thank you, Andrew."
David Ike, who was long and thin, picked up the tea cup and drank it leisurely. When the servant passed by, he grabbed a piece of mung bean cake at every opportunity.
Everyone sitting here has no objection to this, let alone blame him for being unreasonable.
Because, this David Ike is the mayor of the entire town of New Madrid, and he is also a rich man in the town.
His family's manor is one of the best in town.
More than a dozen villages and thousands of European households were all managed by him, and he was also a ninth-rank official.
Although he is not an aristocrat, he is better than an aristocrat.
"Everyone has heard about the matter in Zhenhai County. This is handled by the Governor personally."
David looked around and said casually: "I heard that everyone is feeling uneasy, so I will invite everyone to have some tea at Andrew's place. After all, you are all respectable gentlemen in the town."
When Andrew heard this, he smiled honestly.
"Lord Ace, if the family property is divided equally in this way, it is not in line with Luzon's principle of governing according to the common people, and it will be extremely detrimental to us."
A burly man stood up suddenly, and the wig on his head fell off unconsciously, and he didn't even react.
Everyone chuckled.
"Everyone may have forgotten that in Alfonso's case, the main reason was that he did not make a will and his wife died young, so the family property was divided equally."
David said loudly: "So everyone must take this as a warning. Make a will on a daily basis and invite witnesses. Mistresses should not be treated as family members, otherwise there will be endless troubles."
"Alfonso took advantage of a loophole and violated Christ's rule of monogamy, so he could only follow the Ming law."
After this confusion was solved, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
At this time, Mayor David continued: "In the past, children in the town would be sent to the county town to study. I decided to set up a school in the town. I hope everyone will donate."
Gentlemen are naturally enthusiastic, after all, this is a matter of education for everyone.
Unexpectedly, a few days passed and the classrooms were set up. While the children were reading aloud, the priest suddenly rushed into the school with a group of men.
Mayor David was extremely angry and suppressed his anger: "My dear priest, why did you break into the children's paradise?"
The priest had Mediterranean hair and wore a priest's uniform, with the same anger on his face: "Your Excellency, Mayor, please tell me why there is no theology in the school."
"Are you asking your children to learn Confucianism to convert them? Do you know that this will send you to hell and your whole family to hell?"
The priest was panting and roaring angrily. The sound of singing before came to his face, and the spittle was visible to the naked eye.
David was confused for a while before he understood what he meant: "Father, wouldn't it be nice for the children to go to church on Sunday? That is much more important than studying."
"Besides, if you don't have the Four Books and Five Classics when you go to school, how can you study? There are no gods in Confucianism, and children do not believe in strange gods."
Facing David's explanation, the priest was full of disbelief: "Universities throughout Europe are seminaries, and there is no exception in Luzon, even for children."
"Father, do you know the meaning of what you do?"
David looked cold: "The parents of the children studying here are rich, not those poor shorts. Once you prevent their children from studying, the entire Simon Town and God's believers will suffer bad things."
thing."
The priest's expression changed, and he immediately hesitated.
After staring at David for a long time, the priest led the believers and left the school.
"A bunch of damn mine believers."
David muttered: "If you keep messing around, I will convert to Lutheranism."
After a while, the gentlemen couldn't wait to arrive at the school. They were relieved to see that the children were fine.
However, the Catholic faith was deeply rooted in people's bones, and everyone was suspicious, so they couldn't help but explore the teaching materials.
The Three-Character Classic, Hundred Family Surnames, Thousand-Character Classic, Four Books and Five Classics, etc. basically all use the Chinese character model, and there is no Latin at all.
At this time, although the language in Europe was not unified, Latin was basically used for writing. However, with the religious wars, German, French, English, etc. gradually evolved, that is, localization.
"Your Excellency, the mayor, you don't even have a word of Latin?" A gentleman said dissatisfied: "How will the children go to Europe in the future?"
"Europe?" David shook his head and said with a wry smile: "Europeans are all learning Chinese characters. If you go back to Europe, aren't you just messing around?"
"And you have to know that only when you learn Chinese characters can you be an official. Only then can you be an official."
"In Europe, even if you learn Latin, ordinary civilians can only go to church or write plays, otherwise they will starve to death."
After an explanation, these gentlemen gave up.
David shook his head: "How many years have you immigrated? The priest is nothing! The county magistrate is the biggest -"
He was naturally prepared for the situation in this new town and made arrangements in an orderly manner, and nothing went wrong now.
In the center of the town, there is a newly built church that is less than a year old. Although it is not comparable to cathedrals like Paris and Madrid, this Church of Our Lady is also majestic.
Father Cohen was worried, but the believers were at a loss as to what to do.
"You all go back to farming!"
Seeing this group of civilian believers leaving, Father Cohen sighed: "The richer the people, the dirtier their hearts are. Only the poor will believe in our Lord devoutly."
The sun shines through the glass, bursting out with colorful rays of light, but it makes his eyes confused.
No matter how expensive this church is, if no believers come to pray, what will it be?
He knelt before the cross and prayed devoutly:
"My Lord, although this Luzon is rich and beautiful, power has taken away your glory. Believers would rather kneel down to worship a Chinese than come to worship you..."
"I'm afraid it won't be long before this church will be deserted. I really regret not listening to others' advice and coming here to preach..."
He clearly remembered that when this church first took shape, men, women and children from all over the town would come to pray. By last year, there were only two to three hundred people.
This year, there are only 200 people, and the number is getting smaller and smaller.
Half an hour later, he climbed up to the high-rise building, opened the window, and saw a burst of smoke, his nose was filled with the smell of paper ash, and the glass outside the window was smoked black.
I saw that in the cemetery behind the church, the cross tombstones that once were there have also become rectangular.
The fonts on tombstones are mostly Chinese characters, with Latin characters becoming increasingly rare.
What is outrageous is that in front of the tombstone, there are many strange pieces of paper cut out, which the villagers call paper money, and then set on fire.
The villagers told him that this was a gift sent to his family in heaven.
There is also a lot of alcohol smell that lingers for a long time and can be smelled even in the window.
"Will there be no wine in heaven? There is everything there."
Father Cohen said disdainfully. He looked at it. Not far away was the school where the Chinese characters were taught.
"The Europeans here have lost their nature and seem not to be Europeans."
There is no God in the textbooks, just like there is no cross in the church. This is an insult to the saints. Those people dared to stop it. It was simply audacious.
"Archbishop of the Eastern Diocese? I want to write a letter to complain——"
…
Jiangxi, Pengze County.
As the summer harvest comes to an end, farmers have no time to spare. They need to hurriedly plow the rice fields, weed, and then raise seedlings in preparation for the upcoming late rice.
Because the late rice seedlings must be planted around the beginning of autumn and harvested in October. If the season is late, the harvest will be greatly reduced or even lost.
It's such a rush, so social studies will basically have holidays, allowing those children who are enlarged to go back to work.
Only the truly top students will stay to study and compete for the child exam.
Zhu Shichang rolled up his sleeves and trouser legs, bent over and pulled away the weeds. He had to be very focused, otherwise he would accidentally remove the seedlings.
Therefore, the children are very slow. Once they are pulled away, they will immediately leave with their heads covered with curses.
The second and third children were pulling weeds in the fields. Even though they were wearing straw hats, their necks were red from the sun, but they had to continue weeding in order to fill their stomachs.
At this time, the second child suddenly said: "Isn't that the eldest brother?"
"Nonsense, your eldest brother is studying in school. He will be a top scholar in the future. What is he doing in the fields?"
"Dad, there is Big Brother Sa!"
Zhu Shichang turned around and saw that it was indeed his precious son: "Xinya, what are you doing at the edge of the field?"
"Dad!" Zhu Chuanxin, who had received high hopes from his whole family, said at this time: "My husband said that there is fertilizer in Jiujiang, which can be used to grow Dali."
"Keeping it will ensure a good harvest of rice. I think the farm affairs at home are the most important, so I can't delay them."
"Fertilizer?" Zhu Shichang, who has been doing farm work all his life, although he has not read many books and got his name with half a bucket of rice, is naturally sensitive to this word.
He understands the importance of fertilizer very well.
Although human excrement is used to fertilize, the whole family can only survive on one acre of land.
After spreading fertilizer, the harvest in the field can increase by 10% or 20%, and three or four more buckets of grain can be harvested in two seasons a year.
On weekdays, he would like to buy fertilizer, but the night fragrance in the city has been bought by the rich men. They, a small family, have no channels at all.
"Yala, is this fertilizer expensive? Can we buy it?"
"In Nanhuzui, there is a shop selling fertilizer seeds, and people lined up in a long queue."
Pengze County, which belongs to Jiujiang Prefecture, is a hundred miles away from them. If you go there by boat, it takes two hours to go upstream and only one hour to come back, which is extremely convenient.
In the past, there would have been no road guides, but now the government does not use road guides, which is very convenient.
Zhu Shichang's face was full of surprise: "Fertilizer seeds? Are these still seeds? Can they be grown from manure?"
"Mr. Listen, this fertilizer is a kind of flower and grass called milkvetch. It can grow in the wild land regardless of the land. One acre of land can fertilize three acres!"
Zhu Chuanxin couldn't wait to say: "I heard that one acre of fertile land can yield three or four more bushels of grain. It is very popular!"
Zhu Shichang was stunned. Why did he become more and more exaggerated as he spoke?
Can you collect three or four more buckets? Is this a fairy?
Zhu Chuanxin said hurriedly: "You go with the uncles in the village. When the time comes, go directly to the boat. Go and come back quickly. The seeds are ten cents a pound. If you believe me, go and buy them quickly, otherwise they will be gone."
Although Zhu Shichang was not very good at arithmetic, he could calculate clearly due to his sensitivity to farming.
Each dou of grain sold to grain merchants was only ten yuan, so the transaction was worth it.
As for his son's teacher, he actually believed that a day's delay was nothing, as long as he could make up for it.
The next day, five or six cousins could not wait to take a boat to Nanhuzui and saw the fertilizer store.
Sure enough, there was a long queue in front of its store, which was particularly spectacular.
Zhu Shichang and others felt more and more that they had come to the right place.
He asked the people around him what was going on.
"I heard that this purple grass came from Anqing Mansion, and then crossed the river and ended up here."
The man didn't care about the lake, and said directly: "This thing is very good at fertilizing the fields. It is much better than human manure. You can just plant it and compost it to fertilize the fields. It can also feed cattle and sheep. It is very cost-effective."
"I heard from people that it seems to be something promoted by the emperor, and everyone is rushing to get it."
After waiting in line for half an hour, Zhu Shichang bought five kilograms at once and spent fifty coins, feeling uneasy and hopeful at the same time.
If you can really fertilize your land, you don't need much, just a bushel and a half, and your family's ten acres of land will be covered, and you will be able to live a prosperous year.
When the time comes, I can also buy a book for Daya, send more gifts to my husband’s house, and just hope he can be admitted as a scholar.