Chapter 108 The past of the Yu family, the tribulation of tribute tea
Chapter 108 The past events of the Yu family, the Tribulation of Tribute Tea
Author: Fat Bird Goes First
Chapter 108 The past events of the Yu family, the Tribulation of Tribute Tea
Unlike other students, Su Ze had no idea of being in the limelight.
When Su Ze was studying, he once asked his instructor why the art form of song was so popular in the Ming Dynasty.
According to the instructor, the volume of poems is not as good as that of the Tang Dynasty, and the volume of poetry is not as good as that of the Song Dynasty. The intellectuals of the Ming Dynasty can only play music.
However, this was also a joke made by the instructor. In fact, the prosperity of the citizen economy in the Ming Dynasty allowed art to return to the common people from poetry and poetry that originally belonged only to the upper class.
Opera is such an art form. Southern opera originated in Zhejiang, legend opera flourished in southern Jiangsu, and the northern and southern capitals are the places with the most opera troupes. These are economically prosperous areas, and these plays are also suitable for both refined and popular tastes. They are not only used by the upper class,
Ordinary people also like it.
It's a pity that Su Ze's literature is only Level 3, and he still doesn't know how to use the "literary" skill. Otherwise, he could just copy "The Peony Pavilion" from Tang Xianzu in the late Ming Dynasty and become famous all over the world.
It's a pity that his literature is only Level 3 now, and he doesn't have a long work like "The Peony Pavilion" in his mind.
The skill of literature is really weird. If the level cannot be improved, you cannot copy more works, but if you don’t have works, you cannot improve the level. Is there a bug in this skill?
Su Ze gave up the idea of copying dramas to become famous, and Chen Chaoyuan lowered his voice and said:
"Brother Su, do you know? The Yu family is in trouble!"
"Yanpingwei Yujia?"
"Yes, an old account of the Yanping Wei Yu family was uncovered. The Qing army censor caught the Yu family's hand. I heard that the Yu family had spent a lot of money to buy connections, but Mr. Yan was still not satisfied. This
Even if you pass the test, your vitality will be severely damaged."
Su Ze asked doubtfully: "I heard that the ancestors of the Yu family were old people who followed Emperor Hongwu to conquer the world, and were not involved in several major cases in the early years of the country. How could their family be the descendants of criminal officials?"
Yan Maoqing came to the Qing army to rid the army of those descendants who were expelled from the army for committing adultery. However, the Yu family was considered to be well established in the Ming Dynasty, so how could they be blackmailed by Yan Maoqing.
Chen Chaoyuan said: "The fault of the Yu family is not that they were not in the early generation of the country. It was something that happened to the Yu family during the time of the orthodox emperor."
The orthodox emperor? Isn’t it the Mingbao Sect?
Gossip is also human nature, and Su Ze couldn't help but ask: "Did the Yu family commit a crime during the Zhengtong Emperor's period?"
Chen Chaoyuan said: "This is a big event that shocked the world. When I was a child, I heard the teacher talk about this matter. I didn't expect that someone would turn this matter to the Qing army censor. This case was adjudicated by the Zhengtong Emperor himself.
The Yu family is going to be in bad luck this time."
Chen Chaoyuan did not show off, he said: "Brother Su is also from a military household in the Guards, so he naturally knows the rules of hereditary military positions. Only one person in a generation can inherit military positions, and the rest will not get military positions even if they join the army."
Su Zedian took the lead. This was the hereditary military service system of the Ming Dynasty. It was usually inherited by the eldest son.
For example, for the current Second Young Master Yu, as long as his father dies, his eldest brother will inherit the throne. However, Second Young Master Yu will not inherit anything except the property privately given to him by the commander.
Chen Chaoyuan said: "In the eighth year of Zhengtong, the commander of the Yanping Guards had five sons. Among them, the second son Yu Qi killed his elder brother Yu Pei in order to compete for the hereditary commander position of the Yu family."
Su Ze took a breath, killing his brother was a first-rate crime in the Ming Dynasty Laws, and it was an unpardonable death penalty.
"Originally, the facts of this case were clear. The Yanping Prefecture official had already convicted the crime and reported it to the Ministry of Punishment for trial. In order to survive, Yu Qi went to the court five times to cry out for injustice. Five times he cried out to save his life."
Su Ze was completely stupid. Can this save his life?
Chen Chaoyuan worked as a lawyer with his elder brother and was quite proficient in the laws of the Ming Dynasty. He said:
"There is an article in the Ming Dynasty law that a person who is about to cry out for injustice should be retried, so Yu Qin can be retried five times after he complained about injustice."
Su Ze said doubtfully: "How is it possible! If everyone complains about injustice before execution, can the Ming Dynasty still execute criminals?"
Su Ze's "Criminal Litigation" skill is only Level 1, he is not proficient in the Ming Law, and he does not remember the existence of this law.
Chen Chaoyuan nodded and said: "There is indeed one thing, but when ordinary officials are imprisoned, they will not pay attention to cries of injustice before execution, or prisoners will be mute before execution, and they will not be given the chance to cry out for injustice. Yu Qi can cry out for injustice five times.
, or because he is a descendant of the Yu family in Yanping Prefecture."
Su Ze now understood that the clause of calling out injustice before execution was basically a death clause in the law.
It is impossible to use this kind of clause in ordinary times. Prisoners are tried by local officials, and prison officials are also local judicial officials. How can they pay attention to ordinary prisoners who complain about injustice.
It was also because of the relationship between the Yu family that Yu Qi was able to claim injustice and be retried five times.
"For the first time, Yu Qi falsely accused another younger brother, Yu Xuan, of killing his brother. However, the official retrial found that the witness and material evidence did not match, and the petition was again petitioned to sentence Yu Qi to death."
"The second time Yu Qi said that his brother died in a hunter's trap, but there were no traces of the trap on the body of the deceased, so the judge upheld the original verdict."
"For the third time, Yu Qi's mother, Li, paid someone to convict someone, but some of the details of the convict did not match up. The imputed officer once again found a loophole. The convict admitted that he had been bribed by the Yu family to convict, and the original verdict was once again upheld.
.”
Su Ze was already stupid. The ancestors of the Yu family were really playing tricks.
"For the fourth time, the Yu family complained to the patrol, saying that the official had framed Yu Qi. The patrol personally sneaked into the Yanping Mansion to investigate the case and found out that the Yu family had made another false accusation. This time, the patrol wrote to the Ministry of Punishment, requesting that Qi be executed as soon as possible.
.”
A third-level commander of the capital was able to activate his energy to such an extent in order to exonerate his son who killed his brother.
If the prosecutors and patrolmen in charge of the case at that time were not honest people, then the culprit would have been executed, and this case would have become an ordinary injustice in the Ming Dynasty.
The Zhengtong Year could still be considered the early Ming Dynasty. At that time, there were upright officials such as push officials and patrol officers. Now that the officials of the Ming Dynasty are re-examining this case, I am afraid that Mr. Qi has been exonerated a long time ago.
Chen Chaoyuan continued: "The first four retrials have made the Yu family's case famous all over the world. The fifth time will be a ground-breaking shock!"
"Oh? Why did Yu Qi cry out for injustice for the fifth time?"
Chen Chaoyuan said: "Yu Qi said that his mother Li had an affair with a gangster named Zhang Long, and his brother Yu Pei discovered his mother's affair."
"In order to preserve his mother's reputation, Yu Pei did not want to publicize the matter, and planned to deceive Zhang Long alone and then kill him. However, Yu Pei was not Zhang Long's opponent, and was murdered by Zhang Long instead. He found his brother's secret
However, due to Mother's Day, she never dared to tell the truth, so she was identified as the murderer."
"Zhang Long, who Yu Qi confessed to, was also bribed by the Yu family. After the government arrested him, he confessed, and Yu Qi's mother, Li, also admitted her adultery."
Su Ze was completely dumbfounded. Yu Qi and Li were such a wise mother and son, and they even concocted such a plot in order to exonerate their son.
Mrs. Li was the official wife of a dignified third-grade military general, and she was awarded a royal title by the imperial court. Su Ze now understood what the virtues of the Ming Dynasty's guard troops were like.
Baozong is not unjust.
"What happened next?"
"Later, the case became too serious. Emperor Zhengtheng personally approved the execution of Yu Qi, Li was deprived of his royal title, and the commander-in-chief Yu was dismissed from his post and investigated by the imperial court."
"What does that have to do with the current troubles in the Yu family?"
Chen Chaoyuan said: "In the Zhengtong year, the commander-in-chief Yu was dismissed from his post and investigated. Later, he spent a lot of money to reinstate him. Later, he passed the post of commander-in-chief to the concubine of Xingsan, who is now the great-grandfather of commander-in-chief Yu.
"
"So Commander Yu's great-great-grandfather was also a prisoner. Censor Yan took advantage of this and tried his best to blackmail the Yu family."
Su Ze now understood that whether the position of commander in the Yu family can be inherited depends on how this "criminal officer" is identified.
If those who made mistakes and were punished by the court were all criminal officials, then the Yu family would also have to be dismissed from their official positions and hand over the salary they had received for generations.
As for the case of the ancestors of the Yu family, it was decided by the Zhengtong Emperor himself. Both the Si Yamen in Fuzhou City and the Ministry of Punishment have records, so it is a definite matter.
It's no wonder that Yan Maoqing no longer pursues the troubles of hundreds of households in a small guard house like Chang Ningwei. Having a third-rank official in the Yu family commanding envoys to blackmail is better than hundreds of thousands of households.
It can only be said that the Yu family is unlucky to have such an ancestor!
Yan Maoqing is eyeing Yanping Guard, which is a good thing for a small guard like Changning Guard.
Without Xu Shisheng standing in the way, it seems that we can pass the test just by handing over 200 taels of silver.
The joys and sorrows in the world are not the same. The pain of the Yu family has become the joy of Changning Wei. Su Ze silently recited "merit-1". It seems that Changning Wei will have a peaceful time for a while.
No wonder Ma Baihu is so happy selling gunpowder. It seems that the Yu family is selling off assets to raise money for management.
Su Ze thought about it again. At this time, the Yu family would definitely sell off its assets at a low price. Then could he ask Second Young Master Yu to see if he could get some more gold coins?
You can't take it back when this thought comes up. Changning Wei now has a little surplus food. The Yu family has a big business, and selling a few things at a low price is enough for Changning Wei.
Moreover, everyone knows about the misfortune of the Yu family. There must be many big families waiting to take a bite of the Yu family's flesh. Changning Wei is not willing to give up this opportunity.
I made up my mind to visit Yu Zongyuan tomorrow to see if he had returned from Fuzhou City. At this time, Xiong Yue and Lin Qingcai also arrived at the dormitory.
Su Ze told Xiong Yue about buying tea trees, and Xiong Yue naturally agreed.
However, Su Ze saw that Xiong Yue was in poor spirits and had a dejected air on his body, so he couldn't help but ask:
"Brother Xiong, is there anything going on at home?"
"I'm sorry, Brother Su, I'm worried. My family is well."
Xiong Yue said it was fine, and sighed again. This matter had been depressed in his heart for a long time, and he simply said:
"I'm worried about Cha Gong."
"Chagong?"
Xiong Yue is a tea farmer in Wuyi Mountain. His family has a tea garden in Wuyi Mountain, and he can be regarded as a landlord and rich farmer.
Xiong Yue sighed and said:
“Since the tea tribute was established in the early years of the Chinese dynasty, the Wuyi Mountain tribute tea has always been the biggest burden for our tea farmers.”
"It costs a lot of money to transport tea to the two capitals every year. Once the tribute tea is lost, it will take a lot of effort to make up for it. Wuyi Mountain Tea has been paid tribute twice in these years, and my family can hardly bear it."
Everyone was silent. The nominal taxes of the Ming Dynasty were not high, but the cost of taxation was very high.
Taking this tea as an example, the biggest cost is not producing the tea, but transporting the tea to the capital.
Maybe the imperial court only needs 100 kilograms of tea, but when transporting it, it has to prepare 300 or even 400 kilograms, and even prepare two teams for transportation, just for fear of something going wrong during the transportation of tea.
Moreover, it was not easy to transport it to the capital, and it had to be inspected by officials from Taichang. If the tea was not up to standard, the tea plantation owners in Wuyi Mountain had to raise large sums of money each time to bribe these officials from Taicang.
When Su Ze was a graduate student, the three major mountains in ancient history were the official system of the Song Dynasty, the financial system of the Ming Dynasty, and the military system of the Qing Dynasty.
If you want to know one of them clearly, you need a doctoral degree.
Those who can understand both items will start as associate professors.
If you pass all three, you will be considered a master of history!
The financial and taxation system of the Ming Dynasty was so complex that it cannot be explained clearly in a few words.
However, the biggest problem with the tax system of the Ming Dynasty was that the cost of taxation even exceeded the tax collected.
To put it simply, even if the Yanping Prefecture tribute Pu'er tea costs 500 kilograms per year, it is not that much. The highest-quality Wuyishan tea in the market does not cost more than one tael of silver per kilogram. The Wuyishan tea that troubles the Xiong family
The tribute, converted into silver, was only five hundred taels of silver.
And the five hundred taels of silver were not borne by the Xiong family alone, but by more than a dozen tea gardens under Wuyi Mountain.
This amount of money is not particularly large for the Xiong family, but the tribute tea itself is only the most insignificant expenditure on the tribute tea.
To deliver these 500 kilograms of Wuyi Mountain tea to the two capitals, the Xiong family and other tea plantation owners have to deliver it to the two capitals in person, and they must deliver it within a time limit, and if they fail to do so within the period, they will be punished.
The Xiong family had to spend money to hire people to deliver tea on their behalf, prepare more tea leaves to prevent tea loss on the road, and arrange for officials and eunuchs to collect the tea when it was delivered to the two capitals. If something happened to the people on their behalf, the Xiong family had to compensate.
Lin Zongzong came down and sent 500 kilograms of tea worth less than 500 taels of silver to the two capitals. The total cost was more than 2,000 taels of silver.
And what will happen to the five hundred kilograms of Wuyi Mountain tea sent to the two capitals?
Emperor Jiajing did not like Wuyi Mountain tea with a rich taste. After it was delivered to Taicang, it was always given to the emperor's relatives and noble officials. Moreover, there were so many types of tea as tribute that Taicang destroyed last year's old tea every year.
Lose.
Su Ze asked: "Didn't we already offer tea this year? Why is Brother Xiong still worried?"
The best tea leaves are picked and made around Qingming and Guyu. It is already June and this year's tea tribute has been sent.
Xiong Yue sighed and said: "This year's tea tribute has been concluded. In recent years, we tea farmers have also been active in the Chief Envoy's Department, requesting that the natural color collection be changed to the color silver collection, and the Ministry of Household Affairs has approved it."
"This is a good thing! Why is Brother Xiong worried?"
Xiong Yue sighed and said: "It is a good thing to change the payment method to Zese, but our Xiong family is destined to share eighty taels of silver!"