Chapter 767 Confession of Wife and Son and Civilization Ethics
Chapter 767: Conferring a Wife as a Shadow and Enlightenment Ethics
Author: Middle-aged paper tiger
Chapter 767: Conferring a Wife as a Shadow and Enlightenment Ethics
Shaoming four years, 949 AD, the first day of April.
In the fourth month of the lunar calendar, the grass has already grown and orioles are flying, the earth has returned to spring, and the vast plains of Hebei Province have finally settled down. There are scenes of farmers busy in the fields everywhere.
The rebellion launched by Zhao Zaili and others at the end of last year actually did not affect many people in Hebei Province. There were only a few hundred people, and not even a single inspection department was captured.
The only sensation caused was that the emperor rewarded the old blind man Li Wulang and others who risked their lives to stop Zhao Zaili.
This allowed the old blind man, an old soldier who had wasted his whole life, to become as famous as Huangfu Yu who died refusing to submit to the Khitan in two or three months.
On the second day of April, on the way back to Tokyo with the princes and princesses, the imperial concubine Cao Yannai walked to Yanhe Fort.
The reward given by Li Cunhui that day was his personal reward as a noble of the country. The pension given by the court after that was from the court.
This time, Cao Yannai brought a reward from Emperor Zhang Gao on behalf of the royal family.
Kang'anli, Xia Lijiacun.
This is the old blind man's home, which is only six or seven miles away from Yanhe Fort.
Looking around, the village is hidden among the pink willows and green willows, with a gurgling stream and fat cattle eating young grass contentedly.
The shepherd boys gathered in groups, and went down to the river to catch some fish, shrimps and crabs, and then picked up some flowers and plants and put them in their mouths to chew.
Lady Cao Sanniang, accompanied by a group of little ones, patiently explained what wheat, millet, millet, and how to use various farm tools. The surrounding princes and princesses also nodded seriously and recorded.
In later generations, this may be because the parents are spreading grain knowledge to their children who grew up in the city, eh! Or, the parents don’t know, but the whole family came out to learn.
But at this time, farming is the most important thing in the country. There is no one. If you can't distinguish between the grains and the farming season, it is no different from a quack doctor who cares about human life. Even the prince and princess must understand it.
However, this beautiful countryside scenery with small bridges and flowing water disappeared immediately after Cao Yannai and his party appeared.
Although Lady Cao Sanniang and her entourage did not go in and out of the police like in later TV series, they were surrounded by piles of people wearing silk clothes and holding ceremonial guards.
When they left Beiping Mansion, they were escorted by the 500-strong Golden Spear Squadron of Hanshandu led by Chen Huoer, and the 500 elite cavalry of the Guard Army mobilized by Gao Xingzhou, the defense envoy of Hebei Province.
But for country people, this scale is huge enough.
And in ancient China, the power of the government generally did not go to the countryside. When it did go to the countryside, there were only two things: levying additional taxes and raising taxes.
Both of these things, no matter which one, are enough to frighten people.
The magistrate of Weinan County was so frightened that cold sweat ran down his face when he saw the villagers running around. He glared angrily at the county captain and Wuhou captain beside him, as well as Li Zheng and the elders in Kangning.
These people were scared to death, especially Li Zheng and others in Kangning. They hurriedly went around to inform the frightened people that today it was Concubine Cao who came to commend the old blind man and his family, and then they persuaded the frightened people to come back.
The old blind man Li Wulang has four sons. The eldest son, Li Dalang, is in his thirties and has not yet had a wife. He has a slight problem with one of his feet. This was caused by a fall while practicing horse riding in the past.
Although it did not affect his farm work, it made Li Dalang feel very low self-esteem, so he arranged to get married once. The woman saw that he was honest and disabled, so she refused to work.
Later, we finally managed to find one, but before they could get through, Shi Jingtang's father-in-law and his family were killed by Khitan soldiers who wandered nearby when Shi Jingtang entered Luoyang.
Li Erlang is tall and thin, and a little cunning, while Mrs. Li Erlang is not an economical person. Recently, she has been arguing with Li Dalang about supporting his mother, the old blind man's wife.
Li Sanlang was originally a prefectural and county soldier in Huazhou. He died in the battle when the Khitan people went south for the first time and left no descendants.
The only ones left are the old blind man and the youngest son Li Silang who left with Li Cunhui.
In fact, although Li Silang successfully left with Li Cunhui, the death of the old blind man in the battle still dealt a huge blow to the family.
Because it will take at least four or five years for Li Silang to grow into a qualified pro-soldier.
After this, Li Silang will still have to go through the stage of life of getting married, having children, and climbing up the ladder. It will be at least ten years before he can take care of his family. This is if Li Silang does not have any accidents.
Although the old blind man received a pension after he died in battle, this pension was definitely not comparable to the salary and rewards that a brave man could receive during the Long March.
What's more important is that before Li Silang grew up, without the old blind man who was brave in the long march, the old blind man's family's status in the clan would definitely decline.
Before Cao Yannai came, the old blind man's family was still experiencing far more painful problems than this.
That is, Li Erlang, under the instigation of his wife, wanted to sell some land and use the old blind man's pension as capital to cultivate or simply buy some good land.
This seemed like a good thing, but the place Li Erlang chose was in Zhuangzi next door.
Their plan was that in this way, they could actually separate the family, and then find an excuse to take over the mother to raise, completely get rid of Li Dalang, who was gradually regarded as a burden, and directly separate the family.
Li Dalang actually didn't react much yet, but the old blind man's wife was very happy.
This second son is not as filial as the elder, but he has a daughter-in-law who nudges him from bed and goes with them. How can he still have a good one?
Therefore, he has been stuck and refused to let go. There has been no conversation between mother and son, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law for a long time.
This is the real problem that a family faces when a big tree falls.
Perhaps to Inspector Zhang, the old blind man was just an unqualified Long March warrior, but to this family, the old blind man was a towering tree.
Not to mention anything else, Lady Cao Sanni would take some money from Cao Yuanzhong to help her son conquer the world and save a dowry for her daughter.
But that's because his father, Cao Yuanzhong, and his mother, Zhai, believe in Buddhism too much and like to give.
The family's money was basically used to dig caves in Dunhuang to support Buddha statues. I mentioned it to Zhang Yan several times, but Zhang Yan ignored it with a smile. So Sanniangzi recently began to take the initiative to help Cao Yuanzhong and his wife spend money.
But Lady Cao Sanni hated Li Erlang deeply.
And now that Zhang Yan is not around, the queen's sister Cao Yanxi is still sitting in Tokyo, so she naturally wants to enjoy the beauty of power.
So, when Cao Yannai heard about the Li family, she was furious. Although she did not have administrative power, the governor of Hua and the magistrate of Weinan did!
The two of them were so frightened by Concubine Cao's anger that they were afraid that the anger would spread to them. They immediately arrested the elder who was the head of Kangningli this year and gave him a beating.
Li Zheng, the elder, is also responsible for educating people, so this beating was not unjust.
If Cao Yannai hadn't seen that the old man was already over fifty, and only hit him five times before shouting to stop, he would probably have been beaten to death directly.
After the elder was beaten, he immediately became furious. He ran to a place where no one could see him and slapped the elders of the Li family village with loud mouths.
After the clan elder was beaten, he immediately picked up Li Erlang and used a big stick as thick as two fingers in accordance with the clan rules. The beating made Li Erlang scream like a pig.
After they finished handling it, Cao Yannai stepped forward and pointed at Li Erlang's wife who was kneeling on the ground and shivering.
"Since you haven't done any evil yet, I will only punish Li Erlang this time. If there is a next time, this stick will definitely hit you, and you will be beaten again after taking off your clothes!"
Li Erlang's wife was so frightened that she kept kowtowing. Not to mention that this beating with sticks could keep her from getting out of bed for several days, but this rule of taking off her clothes and then beating her completely made it impossible for her to live in Xia Lijiacun anymore.
Then Cao Yannai helped up the old blind man's wife, who was pleading for Li Erlang's mercy and had tears streaming down her face, and said.
"Hey, don't panic. Unfilial sons should learn a lesson so that they can learn to be filial in the future.
When the saint heard in Chengde Mansion that your husband had died for his country loyally and righteously, he was given the rank of Chengjie Lang Wu, an official of the ninth rank, and ordered the prefecture and county to build a memorial archway in Xia Lijia Village.
I command you to be a ninth-grade child, and you will receive your own rewards and salary during the four seasons and eight festivals, and you will also be able to protect the male members of the family from having to do corvee service."
"Ah! Can an old woman from Nuyi Township also become an official?"
The old blind man's wife, who was still crying, immediately froze. In fact, she was already prepared to live a hard life after the noble man left.
Because she knows the character of this second daughter-in-law, she will definitely be blamed for this in the future. Now that she can still move, she is not afraid, but in the future it will be bad when she is so old that walking becomes inconvenient.
But now, she suddenly had the status of an official and had the right to protect her. This time, the situation immediately turned around.
No matter how old she is or whether she can walk, the second daughter-in-law will never dare to do anything to her, and she has to take good care of her. If she dies, these privileges and income will be gone.
This is officialdom and the power of privilege.
The people of Xia Lijia Village are so envious! The patriarch’s wife even gave the patriarch a hard squeeze behind his back, her eyes turned red with envy.
This is the title of wife-shadowing! The highest honor and benefit a man can bring to his family.
After the board was laid, the Weinan County Magistrate directly ordered the masons brought from the Yamen to start selecting a site at the entrance of Xialijia Village to build the archway.
Cao Sanniang then let go of the old blind man's wife, stood up and said to the officials and people present: "Since the Anshi Rebellion of the Great Dynasty, the imperial court has been too busy to take care of itself. After the overthrow of the great dynasty, neither the ruler nor the commander-in-chief has done enough to educate them.
responsibility.
Therefore, since Ben returned south from Beiping Prefecture, the sage has asked officials at all levels in Hebei Province to regard educating the people, simple customs, and rebuilding ethics such as loyalty, filial piety, justice, filial piety, and brotherhood as the most important things to do.
From today on, any family that is loyal, filial, and righteous, and has indeed performed deeds, will be reported to the prefecture and county yamen for review step by step. Depending on the situation, the court will give rewards, erect memorial arches, and even edicts."
As he spoke, Cao Yannai looked at Huazhou Governor Shi and Weinan County Magistrate and said: "If your parents separate the family and abandon your sick brother, it will be your dereliction of duty.
If you do it again, the people who come to you are the Department of Civil Affairs and the Censor of Hebei Province."
Huazhou Governor Shi and others quickly agreed, and the people around him began to talk about it. Finally, they felt that this Zhou Dynasty was different from any other court in the past.
This is actually a very important matter. The restoration of social order in ancient China often started with official education.
In the past, during the Liang, Tang, and Jin dynasties, people were talking with swords in their hands. There was no order in the countryside, and the people were uneasy. They often preferred to run to the mountains to hide, and they did not even dare to grow more food, so as not to attract plunder. Most of them even gave birth to children.
Choose to drown to avoid becoming a burden.
Now Zhang Zhou has established that rewarding loyalty, filial piety, justice, filial piety and brotherhood in the countryside will send the most direct signal of peace and order to the people, allowing them to fully mobilize their initiative to resume production and restore their confidence in having children.
For this reason, Zhang Gao not only asked Cao Yannai to appear all the way to show off, but also gave birth to the nine-level concubine who only appeared in the Song Dynasty, namely Ruren, Anren, Renren, Shuren, etc.
..
On the grasslands, the restoration of production and life is not like the scene in the Central Plains. In other words, there is no need to restore production on the grasslands. What needs to be restored is their ambition to expand outward and their habit of paying homage to the Khan.
On the seventh day of April, the angels sent by Zhang Zhi arrived at the Yanran Governor's Mansion in Yanran Mountain and the Heavenly Khan Woludo at Langjuxu Mountain.
Bai Congxin and Zhe Deyuan, who were left behind, both received orders from Zhang Gao, ordering them to immediately lead more than 500 leaders of various grassland tribes southward to Chengde Mansion.
Before the angel arrived, the heavy snow on the grassland had just lightened up, and the brutal small-scale battle had already begun.
All tribes that were unwilling to obey Zhang Gao's orders and convert to the Six Methods Sect were looted and massacred.
No matter it's Monan or Mobei, you only need one voice to speak!