Outside Lao Bai Yuan, it is the sky of Shangbaicun.
This was not a joke, he shouldered the pressure from taxes directly, and it seemed as if nothing happened in the village.
At least, the villagers won't feel anything until the summer grain harvest begins.
When this matter was brought up, Bai Chongyan became furious: "It is so shameless to serve the government at the expense of the common people!"
Li Hanzhang felt a little helpless when he heard this, because his father was also a tax collector, and he was also on the line to the county magistrate.
The more the county handed over to the state, the more his father could retain, and the court had already acquiesced in this.
The only problem with Xiangzhi County is that the food looks too ugly.
"Don't talk about this, go find Zhu Dalang," Li Hanzhang avoided talking about the matter and changed the subject. "I heard many new interpretations of the scriptures yesterday. I decided to postpone my return to Yangzhou and stay for a few more days to consult with him."
Bai Chongyan said: "Zhu Dalang has mastered the Three Classics at a young age, which is simply unimaginable. I just don't know how well he wrote the classics."
Li Hanzhang said: "The rules of the times are not vulgar."
"That's not necessarily true," Bai Chongyan said. "Speaking of Brother Shoudao from Yangzhou Academy, I am as knowledgeable as him. But when it comes to writing contemporary prose, I am not as good as him."
Li Hanzhang sighed and said: "I'm the same way. I can't pass the examination, and I'm always a little behind in the Jinshi examination."
Chatting along the way, the two went out together.
As for Zheng Hong, this fat man is still sleeping in and doesn't even get up to eat breakfast.
When I arrived at Shen Yourong's house, I could smell the stench of feces from afar.
Bai Chongyan took a closer look, then immediately covered his nose and backed away.
Good guy, the compost pile was already mixed with chicken manure, but now it was poured with water. The water was not included, just like mixing cement, mix the piled manure evenly, and then directly knead the manure balls.
Xiao Zhu, a scholar who has mastered the Three Classics, is currently sitting under the eaves of a thatched house, quickly rubbing balls of excrement and soil, his hands covered with urine and excrement.
"This, this, this... is really unbecoming." Bai Chongyan exclaimed.
Ju Ming continued to work with his hands, turned his head and looked back, with a look of helplessness on his face: "I don't want to either, this is a method taught by the immortals."
Li Hanzhang said speechlessly: "Will the immortal teach you how to rub dung balls?"
"It was not taught to me, but taught to my father." Ju Ming corrected.
This magical technique is too unsightly to behold!
The two young masters retreated far away, but they still felt that the scene in front of them was unreal, and they suspected that they were not awake yet.
It was such a big mound of dung, and it all had to be rolled into dung balls.
Both father and son were rubbing the balls. After they had finished forty or fifty balls, Zhu Guoxiang poured corn seeds into the dung balls carefully, and then moved them to the vegetable bed.
The vegetable bed at Mrs. Shen's house has all been leveled.
The dung balls with corn seeds were ordered and placed neatly on the ground by Zhu Guoxiang. There was also a sieve next to it, and the fine soil was sifted out and poured on the dung balls. Then some plant ash was sprinkled on it, and then water was poured on it to wet it, and it was done.
If the climate is warm, in another twenty to thirty days, the corn seedlings grown from the dung balls can be transplanted into the mountains.
If the temperature drops, you have to wait thirty or forty days.
With Ju Ming's out-of-the-box personality, having him rub excrement balls all morning would be even more uncomfortable than killing him.
But there is no other way, you have to endure it, just exercise your willpower.
Alas, becoming an official will bring in money quickly, but farming to make a fortune is too laborious.
Bai Chongyan and Li Hanzhang have never seen this method of sowing. Although they dislike it very much, they can't help but want to see it. Moreover, it lasted for two hours, and it had the charm of grown men watching the excavator.
By noon, the poop balls were finally rubbed.
Ju Ming washed his hands again and again, but he always had the illusion that they were not clean, and he couldn't help but feel sad - his two girlfriends were so ruthlessly defiled.
Li Hanzhang came forward with Shi Wen and stopped when he was more than one meter away: "Brother Chenggong, can you take a look at Shi Wen for Brother Yu?"
Three points for asking for advice, seven points for testing.
If Ju Ming is not good at writing, Li Hanzhang is mentally balanced. It is like meeting a top student with perfect scores in mathematics, physics and chemistry, only to find that his composition is as average as mine. This can make people feel more comfortable.
"I don't know much about Shiwen, so I just took a look."
Zhu Ming took it easily, sat down on a bench, and started reading seriously.
After reading, Zhu Ming asked out of curiosity: "Do you have any fixed format for writing essays on scriptures and meanings?"
Li Hanzhang said in detail: "Broken problem, original topic, lecture, proof, and conclusion. I am very good at breaking the problem, but I am not able to do the proof. I can't do it as smoothly as the Jinshi article. My teacher Shi Wen also corrected me many times.
But... it’s easy to get confused just by writing. I went to the capital to take the exam twice, and the exam became more and more difficult, and the teacher didn’t know how to teach."
Of course, Ju Ming could not write eight-part essays, but he knew the process of eight-part essays and had appreciated some of the Ming Dynasty's marvelous essays.
After careful comparison of the format, it can be seen that the classics and meanings at this time already have the prototype of eight parts, but they are called differently.
Sutra text: break the topic, original topic, explain the topic, prove it, and end.
Eight-legged essay: Breaking the topic, carrying on the topic, starting the story, (entering the topic, starting the strand, middle strand, back strand, ending strand), and concluding.
The biggest difference is that in the formal discussion part, the classics and meanings in the Song Dynasty can be used at will, while the eight-legged essay in the Ming Dynasty is divided into several steps.
Zhu Ming didn't know what to say, so he asked again: "Did you bring a sample essay?"
Bai Chongyan submitted the "Selected Editions of Shiwen": "The good articles of the past ten years are all in this."
Ju Ming casually turned to the middle and chose an article to read.
It is a pity that although it is very well written, it does not conform to the eight-legged format and would definitely fail in the Ming Dynasty.
Look at the second article again, the same is true.
After reading the ninth chapter, the eight-part pattern finally appeared, and Ju Ming said: "Practice the ink."
Bai Chongyan subconsciously ran to study ink, studying and studying, but felt something was wrong. Why did he listen to Zhu Dalang's words so much?
It doesn't matter, just grind the ink first and then talk about it.
Ju Ming took a child's brush and directly drew vertical lines on the article.
Underline a section and mark "Enter the title". Underline another section and mark "Starting Stock". Underline another section and mark "Middle Stock"...
After marking everything, Ju Ming handed the book back: "It may be much easier to write articles according to this format. Hmm... I am also blind, maybe I am wrong."
The two gentlemen studied the article and marks carefully, then compared it with other examples in the book, and soon realized there was something wrong.
Bai Chongyan said: "This subdivided format seems to be easier to write."
Li Hanzhang frowned and said: "It is indeed easier, but the divisions are too detailed and there is no room for improvement."
"You can't say that," Bai Chongyan retorted, "Although the sparrow is small, it has all five internal organs. No matter how detailed it is, what to write down depends on our knowledge."
To put it more bluntly, there is no format in the argumentation process of classics and meanings. Candidates can completely express themselves freely. Those with good literary talent can write brilliantly. Those with poor literary talent can hardly stand out.
As for the eight-part essay, the format is subdivided and the text requirements are not so high. The disadvantage is that it makes people constrained.
It depends on how these two choose.
In the afternoon of that day, they carefully wrote a current article based on the eight-legged essay format.
The effect can be said to be immediate, and the level of articles is visibly improving.
Li Hanzhang suddenly said: "Don't tell others."
Bai Chongyan immediately understood: "Yes, you can't tell it."
Neither of them are stupid. This routine must be hidden. If one more person knows about it, they will have one more competitor.
After putting down the article and remaining silent for a long time, Li Hanzhang asked: "I'm afraid the Zhu family and his son are not as simple as maritime merchants, right?"
"Indeed," Bai Chongyan said, "I'm afraid the scholarly family offended some powerful person and fled here from Guangnan to avoid trouble."
Li Hanzhang said: "No matter where I come from, I accept his affection. If I really pass the Jinshi examination, I will be richly rewarded in the future."
Bai Chongyan said: "I would like to see early what their seedlings can grow into."
In fact, it doesn't look very good.
The two practiced Shi Wen every day, Fatty Zheng kept asking stories every day, and the seedlings in the rice fields finally sprouted.
Occasionally, villagers passing by the rice-growing field thought that Zhu Xianggong had overturned his car.
Compared with the traditional method, Zhu Guoxiang's method of raising seedlings not only found no benefits, but the seedlings even grew very slowly.
In the eyes of villagers who are skilled in farming, these seedlings are already useless.
If it grows slowly, it means the roots are not good.
If the roots are not good, they will not be able to tolerate drought in the future, and the amount of fertilizer must be increased, otherwise they will not be able to produce full ears.
Lu An couldn't bear it anymore and ran to report the news: "Master, the person named Zhu is a liar. The seedlings he bred have shallow roots and weak seedlings!"
"Let him continue planting and wait until the rice is harvested."
The focus of the old white people is no longer on this.
Summer grain collection in Hanzhong started in May and lasted until the end of July. Land taxes owed in arrears in previous years were handed over together with the summer grain.
Asking the magistrates to apportion taxes from the landlords is tantamount to asking the landlords to collect taxes. Regardless of whether they collect enough, the landlords have to pay the promised taxes.
Member Lao Bai didn't want to be a bad guy, so he had to take action from the five Baiford brothers.
He had already asked Bai Erlang, who was serving as the superintendent, to cancel the qualifications of the Bai family brothers as long-name yamen. The next step was to turn them into luncha yamen, responsible for collecting taxes and paying compensation, so that they could charge forward and take the front line.
The accident happened again.
The five brothers of the Bai family had their errands at Changming Yamen cancelled, and heard the news that taxes owed in previous years would be collected. They, who had been assisting in tax collection for a long time, instantly understood what it meant, and then... they ran away!
He didn't want any of his family's real estate and land, but only took some extravagant money. He fled with his wife and children overnight and fled to Heifeng Village to become a bandit.