In the evening of that day, Father Li sent away the last guest of the day. He felt a little tired. After all, he had been in high spirits for several days, and his body was not strong after all. He ordered the door to be closed tonight and thanked guests, and returned to the backyard to rest.
Li You's mother, Mrs. Zhu, was just an ordinary woman. Seeing the rapid increase in her family's property today, she felt frightened and uneasy.
Seeing her husband return to the room, she held the small Buddha beads and asked anxiously: "I don't want to have such a huge windfall, and the rolling in of money will make people feel uneasy. Is the family able to bear this blessing? Xiaoer was reincarnated by a star, so she is naturally blessed with a great destiny.
Big, but you and I are both mortals, I’m afraid we can’t bear it…”
Li's father said with emotion: "I often hear people criticize scholars for being poor and poor, but I have never heard people criticize people for being poor. Today I have experienced the reason for myself. Now my family is much more popular than that old master."
It is said that since the resurgence of Emperor Gaozong, the country has taken advantage of the chaos in the world to reform the tax system. There are about two points related to the privileges of the gentry.
The first is to re-limit the scale of land exempted from taxes and servitude for officials and gentry, and further reduce the quota for Taizu. For example, the land exempted from taxes and servitude under the name of a juren shall not exceed 1,000 acres. This is also the treatment for seventh-rank officials. The cumulative increase for high-ranking officials
, the highest level is only 3,000 acres. Under the current background of nearly one billion acres of land in the country, this ratio is still tolerable as a welfare for officials.
The second is to eliminate hereditary inheritance. The land tax exemption disappears with the death of the official gentry, leaving only the right of the official gentry's family members to be exempted from taxation. Of course, if the next generation is outstanding and continues to achieve success in the imperial examination, it can regain the corresponding tax exemption
right.
In addition, Emperor Gaozong also promulgated a decree that was unbelievable to people at the time. Anyone who worked in the factory would be exempted from corvee by the government and designated as an ancestral system. This decree was very popular. For ordinary people, it was a shame to pay taxes.
You may be able to get through it by tightening your belt, but serving is more painful than paying taxes. Paying taxes costs money, but serving in the army costs your life.
With this decree, the number of domestic servants in Suzhou Prefecture almost doubled in the past few decades. Notes from contemporary people wrote, "There are 200,000 male and female domestic servants in the eastern half of Suzhou, and tens of thousands of them came from Tongling and Jiangyou."
, this is by no means a lie.
Strictly restricting the number and time of exemption from service, and new ways out of exemption, the benefits brought by the people's contributions have been relatively reduced, and sometimes we have to wait and see, unlike the short-term "" as it was more than a hundred years ago.
It also depends on the long term.
After all, donation is theoretically illegal (although it is difficult to grasp the fact). If the risk of breaking the law is not worth the loss, who is still interested?
People like Li You are not from a scholarly squire family. They don't seem to have much inheritance, so they were not very optimistic before. What if after dedicating themselves to the Li family, their privileges are cut off after Li You's death, and they have to pay food and serve when they should.
It's like giving in vain.
However, there is one more thing to note. Gaozong's decree is aimed at the civil servants and gentry, not the noble ministers and nobles of the third rank or above. The reason why the Li family is so popular nowadays, with people from near and far vying to come to invest, is all because the Li family has obtained the honorary title of the world.
.
It is not restricted by the rank of civil servants, and the privileges can be inherited from generation to generation, so there is no need to worry about breaking the inheritance. There is no risk, once and for all, the honorary relatives of the dynasty are better than the civil servants. In this regard, it is also a balance of power.
Moreover, most of the imperial concubines were heroes from seventy or eighty years ago. As the emperor lived in the capital, most of the land was in Beizhili, which was very rare in the south of the Yangtze River. Therefore, the hereditary third-rank Jinyiwei commander in Xujiang County, Suzhou Prefecture, made the Li family known as
It would be difficult for this company to be alone and without semicolons, not to become popular.
The rapid momentum of earning a thousand acres in one day has almost disappeared in Jiangnan since Jiashen. Not only Li You's parents, but also Zhang Zhixian, the local magistrate of Xujiang, was also shocked. It was really unbearable to continue like this.
Land transactions must be stamped by the county government before they can take effect. The Li family obtained the land deeds for more than a thousand acres of land in one day. The housekeepers did not dare to make the decision and quickly reported it to the county magistrate.
Zhang Zhixian couldn't sit still when he heard this. Although he was mentally prepared beforehand, he didn't expect it to be so crazy. This made him, a local official, a little anxious.
There are more than a thousand acres in one day. At this rate, if the Li family really gets carried away with the acquisition, it will be a piece of cake to create a family property of tens of thousands of acres. It is not impossible to build a family property of 100,000 acres. The entire Xujiang County only has a total of 170 acres.
Tens of thousands of acres of land is not a small proportion, which is equivalent to eliminating more than ten thousand taels of money and grain and the corvee labor of thousands of strong men.
Furthermore, after all, donating is an unspoken rule. Although everyone does it, it is illegal to say it publicly. If the Li family makes too much trouble accepting donations and causes any accidents, he, the county magistrate, must also have lax supervision.
Charges of dereliction of duty.
Immediately Zhang Zhixian got on the sedan chair and hurried to the Li family in Xishui town, and the Li family naturally opened the middle door to welcome him.
Seeing Li's father coming out, Zhang Zhixian quickly raised his hands and said: "Brother Li... you are so polite. I will welcome you from afar when you have something to do. There is no need to be like this."
Father Li dressed awkwardly in his sixth-grade imperial uniform, and met with Zhang Zhixian politely. He invited the guests into the hall and took their seats, accompanied by Mr. Song, an old scholar of ethnic studies. Since Li You's family received the title, Song
My husband lives in Li You's house, and his main tasks are to accompany guests and advise.
After a few words of greetings, Zhang Zhixian persuaded: "The second son of your house has been favored by the imperial court to guard Yangzhou at a young age. He has a bright future. The prosperity of your house depends on the two sons. If you accept and donate generously in the countryside, it will all be lost."
It's an excuse for others. I'm afraid that someone will cause trouble and impeach the Li family for wantonly usurping land, which will affect the future of the second young master, which is not good. It can be said that a small gain is a big loss, so Brother Li should think twice before doing it."
The meaning is very euphemistic, that is, to advise the Li family not to be too greedy when accepting the court's favor, so as not to cause any trouble.
Li's father sighed, "When my Li family became rich and powerful, my fellow villagers all came to express their love for me. They were disrespectful and disrespectful."
Zhang Zhixian secretly thought, after all, Li Bai was born as a subordinate official and had little knowledge. "If you don't have long-term concerns, you must have immediate worries. Does Brother Li know what happened to Xu Jie back then? How does your Li family compare to the Xu family? What you get from your contributions,
It’s good to just taste it and stop it. Don’t be immersed in it and be unable to extricate yourself. Brother Li must listen to my advice.”
Hearing the name Xu Jie, Li's father's expression changed drastically, and he bowed solemnly to Zhang Zhixian: "I would like to be taught. Listening to your words is worth ten years of reading. I will bear in mind the kindness of the county magistrate."
It was very teachable. Zhang Zhixian was very pleased. He stayed for a drink at noon and then returned to the county government office with satisfaction.
After seeing off Zhang Zhixian, Li's father turned around and asked Mr. Song with a puzzled face: "Who is Xu Jie?"
Mr. Song was about to go back to his room to take a nap. When Father Li asked, he was surprised and said: "Master Li, don't you know? Then why did Master Li suddenly look like he was taught something just now..."
Li's father said calmly: "I just guessed that the county magistrate must have given a bad example. After a few pretense, he borrowed Poxia's donkey and pretended to listen to his advice. Otherwise, it would appear that the Li family is too easy to talk to.
Moreover, I can make him happy and create friendship at the same time. I dare not say otherwise, but a big tree attracts the wind, so how can I not understand the principle of letting it go as soon as it is good?"
You really can pretend to understand even if you don't understand. It's not unreasonable for the Li family to prosper... Mr. Song laughed dryly and said, "Xu Jie was the chief minister of the Jiajing Dynasty. He was from neighboring Songjiang. He occupied hundreds of thousands of acres of land, but
I heard that he was investigated by the famous Hai Rui."
"The moon waxes and wanes. Since we have honored our ancestors, there is no need to ask for money. Except for the town and neighboring villages, we will not take over the fields. The boy still has a lot to do, and the family cannot drag him down." Li's father decided.
But he said that in the first few days, the people who came to the door were all neighbors or people from the same county. The level of the people was not high, so Li's father could deal with them quite easily. In the following days, when the well-dressed gentry from nearby came to make friends, Li's father would
I can't bear it anymore.
What is even more exaggerated is that there are many people with the surname Li. Within a radius of two to three hundred miles, large families with the surname Li in Su, Song, Chang, Jia, and Hu all come to the west of Xujiang County one after another as long as they consider themselves qualified.
He came to Shuizhen to talk about his love. A hereditary and irreplaceable third-grade minister is really the only miracle in the south of the Yangtze River.
Li You's father's knowledge and knowledge were ultimately limited to those at the bottom, so how could he cope with the situation of "talking and laughing with scholars but no white men"? Fortunately, Li You's good friend Xue Juren did not go out for travel and came over from time to time to help accompany the guests. Li's father urgently invited a few more
Qingke literati who were good at talking were stationed at home, so they managed to resist.
This embarrassment made Father Li feel very proud and distressed. If the family lacked a waiter, would there be no one who could stand on the stage?
A few days later, three new tombstones were made. Li Bai, the sixth-rank soldier and horse envoy, looked over them again and again, and saw that the names of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather were all prefixed with the words "Jiayi Doctor of the third rank", and then
I can't help but burst into tears as I imagine my grief and glory after death.
I lamented again, I never expected that when I was about to die, I would be able to see my ancestors honored, show my relatives and become famous in my lifetime. At this point in my life, I really have nothing more to ask for.
What was impossible for more than ten generations, Xiao Er accomplished it all within three years, and did it better than imagined. What kind of luck is this...
Li You's father has never been able to figure it out. He has always believed that God rewards hard work and that people have to work hard, but the waiter has been opportunistic, lazy and slippery, and he has despised it the most since he was a child. Why can he get ahead? Is everyone's destiny destined by God?
No, it must be that his diligence and hard work moved God, so it came true for Xiao Er...
Placing the new tombstone was another grand ceremony. After the ceremony, Father Li returned home and took off his official uniform, feeling empty.
He couldn't help but said to his wife Zhu: "On the way back, I suddenly thought, has the Li family reached its extreme point now? As the saying goes, Taoism flourishes and then declines, and the ancients said that wealth cannot last more than three generations. This is an eternal truth, and I think about it
Very worried…”
"Children and grandchildren will have their own blessings. Aren't the mistresses having official positions for generations? Can you really care about that?" Mrs. Zhu took the sixth-grade official robe and hung it on the bedside shelf.
Li's father seemed to become extremely nagging, "But his wife has been an official since he was born. He is not a serious scholar. He is afraid that he will not have the heart to study hard when he is rich. But it is not possible if there is no one in the family who has studied for the imperial examination. You know
A single tree cannot make a forest, nor can a single tree support a building. A hero also needs help. I am very worried about this..."
Li Zuo's son, Li Shao, who was six years old, was riding a wooden horse in the courtyard. Li's father's eyes lit up, and he exclaimed in his heart that it's not too late, so he waved kindly: "My dear grandson, come here!
"
The majestic grandpa who always scolded others suddenly became amiable, and Li Shao, who was so happy, couldn't help but shudder.
"Stop being playful, our Li family is now considered a famous family. You are the eldest grandson, so you should be diligent. Grandpa, I will invite five teachers for you to study. Each of them will teach you one of the four books and five classics. Grandpa will teach you one subject each.
