Chapter 71
The township examination was held in autumn, so it was also called Qiuwei. Compared with Chunwei, the weather was at least neither cold nor hot. Even so, after nine days and six nights, all the candidates collapsed. When the gate was unlocked in the last round, most of the people almost crawled out.
Zhou Yi also rested hard for two days after the exam, and then he was relieved, but from time to time, he always felt a smell of excrement on the tip of his nose.
There are too many referees for the rural examination, and it is impossible for the examiners to read so many test papers in a few days, so the list is released in September, which is the season of sweet-scented osmanthus. The admission list of the hometown examination is also called Guibang.
There was too much pressure before the exam, and now that the exam is finally over, and there are still so many days before the rankings are released, the students in Beiyuan Prefecture are like wild horses running wild, playing like crazy, and the Yishui River at night attracts these romantic scholars They linger.
Talented men and beauties have always been talked about by people, but in just a few days, there have been many "good stories" in Beiyuan Prefecture, such as a passionate man who spent a lot of money to become an oiran, and a love poem that made the girls on the bank of Yishui burst into tears.
Zhou Yi was sitting in the room writing, and Qingzhu came upstairs on the stairs, with a look of disbelief: "Young master, you don't know that the four great talents are now very famous in the city. Drinking and having fun in Yicui Garden, that Huang An wrote a poem, which is now spread all over the city, saying that he is talented and must be at the top of the list!"
Zhou Yi put down his pen when he heard this, "Whether he is talented or not? What does it have to do with us, what are you doing so angry!"
"It's none of my business at all, a group of people who are trying to catch fame, but what's hateful is that they actually got involved with you, young master!"
Zhou Yi heard it Interested: "Oh, what is it, tell me."
"Then damn Zhao Yuwen is also one of the four great talents. The four of them often go to the place of fireworks and willow lanes by the Yishui River, and they can also write good poems. Others Complimenting Zhao Yuwen, he said that poetry is not as good as you, so those scholars booed and asked you to do a poem to read, but you have been studying here, young master, those people said you were afraid, and said Zhao Yuwen exaggerated, and said that you will definitely not pass this subject..." Qingzhu snorted angrily.
Zhou Yi laughed when he heard that, what did he think, he really can't compose poetry, and he won't fight for these false names, those people say he can't pass it, so he won't pass it? If they were so clever, they would not be candidates, but examiners!
"Master, aren't you angry?" Qingzhu asked cautiously.
"There's nothing to be angry about." Zhou Yi flattened the words, blew them, and said indifferently.
Qingzhu curled her lips, wanted to say something but didn't say it.
Seeing his displeased look, Zhou Yi smiled: "Okay, let's take you out for a walk, don't frown, like a little old man!" "Master
..." Qingzhu called out, he couldn't hear others say Zhou Yi was not good, but he also knew that he didn't care about these false names, so he could only say: "Well, I heard that there will be a lantern festival in Beiyuan Prefecture tonight, it will be very lively!" The master and servant went out of the house, and happened to meet
Mao Xiaoyuan with His younger brother Mao Xiaoli was playing in the yard, and when he saw them coming out, Mao Xiaoyuan approached with a smile: "Zhou Xiucai, are you going out?" Qingzhu quickly walked
a few steps to stand in front of Zhou Yi: "Well, our young master wants to go out for a stroll."
"Really, can you take me out too?" Mao Xiaoyuan's eyes widened with longing. His younger brother Mao Xiaoli was only about four years old, and when he heard that he could go out, he looked up at Zhou Yi eagerly.
Qingzhu was taken aback by what Mao Xiaoyuan said. This Mao Xiaoyuan is a girl. Although she is only seven or eight years old, men and women do not sit at the same table in ancient times. What if someone sees his young master with this yellow-haired girl and is raped? !
He hurriedly shook his head like a rattle, and even waved his hands: "Hey, no, no, if you want to go out, let Mrs. Mao take it with you." After hearing this, Mao Xiaoyuan pursed her mouth, "My mother just won't take me out
. Well!"
Zhou Yi knew that this girl really wanted to go out and have a look. If it was placed in future generations, it would be nothing. Seven years old, she is still a child, but this fucking society doesn't see it that way at all. Just as she was about to talk, Madam Mao never Walking out of the room, she called Mao Xiaoyuan in disapproval, and then apologized to Zhou Yi: "Don't take offense at Zhou Xiucai, this girl is spoiled by us, she doesn't know how to behave." Zhou Yi rubbed his nose: "It's nothing
. "
Is Zhou Xiucai going out to watch the Lantern Festival? Tonight is indeed very lively, but there are also many thieves on the street at this time, Zhou Xiucai should be more careful!" Madam Mao said with a smile.
Zhou Yi thanked Mrs. Mao, and went out with Qing Zhu, Qing Zhu walked beside Zhou Yi and said, "Young Master, I think that yellow-haired girl must have some unreasonable thoughts about you, you must be more careful, don't be fooled." !" Zhou Yi couldn't help but knocked on Qing Zhu's head, he finally understood why the teacher would beat him up every now and then, it's really hard to control the violence in his body because there is a guy who always speaks out by his side: " She is still a little girl, what do you know? You arrange it like this, if outsiders hear it, it will not ruin your reputation!" Qing Zhu touched her head, and said aggrievedly: "Eight years old, not too young." Zhou Yi listened silently Yes, eight years old, in this era when you can discuss marriage at the age of eleven or twelve, this age is indeed not young, and he thought of the five girls at home. Before he left, his mother was already giving three The elder sister and the fourth elder sister searched for him, and there was no accident. After he returned, the marriage of the third and fourth elder sisters would also be finalized. Suddenly, Zhou Yi realized that he had been in this world for more than ten years without knowing it. The chick-like sisters had grown into slim young girls. He also became a scholar from a peasant boy, and maybe soon I'm about to become a Juren, how time flies! "Young master, young master..." "Hmm..." Zhou Yi came back to his senses, and saw Qingzhu stretching out his hand in front of his eyes. "What's wrong?" Zhou Yi asked. "I still want to ask the young master what's wrong. You didn't answer a single word after talking so much just now. We're already here." Qingzhu pointed to the front.
It turned out that they had already walked out of Fuju Lane before they knew it. Zhou Yi looked up and saw that this was the busiest city in Beicheng.
"Master, I have asked. This is the tradition of Beiyuan Prefecture to celebrate the autumn harvest and pray for the coming year. Every year at this time, there will be a lantern festival in Beicheng!" Qingzhu said excitedly with dizzying eyes. Zhou Yi nodded. He had heard about the Lantern Festival in Beiyuan Fucheng in Guang'an County. The original intention of this Lantern Festival was indeed the same as what Qingzhu said. It was to celebrate the autumn harvest and pray for good weather in the coming year. The tradition of Yuanfu City. The street was so lively, Zhou Yi looked over one by one, and those exquisitely crafted lanterns made him amazed. "Ah, young master, look quickly..." Qingzhu pulled Zhou Yi excitedly, and Zhou Yi looked in the direction he pointed. It turned out that a huge lighthouse had been built in the middle of the street, and countless lanterns were built together. Looking up, intuition that this lighthouse goes straight into the sky. Zhou Yi opened his mouth, unable to describe his shock. At this time, there were more men and women on the street, Zhou Yi and Qingzhu walked along the road, all kinds of people guessing riddles, dancing dragons, and singing operas emerged in endlessly. As Zhou Yi strolled, he suddenly felt dazed. Is all this real? Such a lively scene reminded him of the national treasure of later generations, "The Picture of Shanghe During the Qingming Festival". Could it be that there was also a painter standing on the heights at this time? Si is splashing ink, sealing all this on a piece of paper forever, and he may become an inconspicuous existence in this bustling street scene. Even if future generations come to study it, he will only be regarded as an ordinary person Ordinary pedestrian? Zhuang Shengxiao dreams of butterflies, is he Zhuang Sheng or a butterfly? "Master, let's go eat, I just saw a lot of delicious food on the street!" Qing Zhu suddenly said while pulling Zhou Yi's clothes, everything that seemed to be gone just now came back to him, Zhou Yi looked into Qing Zhu's bright eyes , let out a chuckle, it's him who has lost his face, it doesn't make any difference whether he's dreaming or waking up, as long as he's living a steady life. "Okay." Zhou Yi nodded.
Zhou Yi looked around and saw that many food stalls were full of people, green bamboo stomped his feet: "Why are there so many people!"
Zhou Yi turned around and found a chaotic stall on the corner of the street. The chaotic seller was an old man and his wife. The old lady looks to be over seventy years old, both of them are bent over and move slowly.
There were only a few people sitting in front of the stall, Zhou Yi pointed to the stall and said, "Let's go eat here."
Qingzhu looked over, his eyes paused, and suddenly became moist, "Yes, young master."
Zhou Yi knew that the two old men poked him. The sad thing about the little guy is that Qingzhu lives in the coastal area. The severe drought three years ago still affected many people. Both of his parents died when he was young, and he was brought up by his grandparents. The drought took the lives of two old people. It was also because of his fate that he fled famine with his fellow countrymen at a young age, and actually arrived at Nanyuan Fucheng, where he was bought by Zhou Yi by coincidence.
Zhou Yi patted Qingzhu on the shoulder, and led him to the stall and sat down.
Seeing that there were guests, the two old men were very busy and happy. While cooking, they asked Zhou Yi what flavor he wanted, if he wanted coriander and so on.
Zhou Yi smiled and answered yes.
The two old people are too old, and their hands and feet are very bad. The two bowls of chaos were cooked for a long time before they were served. This is probably the reason why there are few people in this small stall. Bowl of Chaos waited for a long time.
The old man brought Chaos to the table, and said fearfully: "Our old couple are slow, please don't be offended!"
Zhou Yi gave the old man a comforting smile: "It's okay, I'm not in a hurry.
" Chaos swallowed it and found it unexpectedly delicious, Qing Zhu ate one and said: "Master, this Chaos is delicious, but there are too few people!" After eating a bowl of Chaos, Zhou Yi asked Qing Zhu to pay and was about to
leave At that time, the two officials went straight to the stalls on both sides of the street, and collected the stall fees next to each other.
It can range from fifty cash to as many as a hundred cash. Those who pay obediently are fine, but if there is a slight difference, the official will overturn the stall and confiscate all the pots and pans.
People on the street are not surprised when they see it, which shows that this kind of thing often happens.
The two old men tremblingly cleaned up the kitchen utensils before the official came, but they moved too slowly, and when the official arrived at the stall, they didn't even collect half of them.
"It's you two old men again. Let me see, this time it's at the end of the street, so I'll charge you eighty renminbi." A tall official said with squinted eyes.
"What? Officer, the booth in the middle is only 80 yuan. We are almost out of North Street, why do we need so much money?" The old man said tremblingly.
"Why, as much as I say is as much, how dare you have an opinion?" Another officer pulled out his saber with a swipe, and stared at the old couple with eyes as if they were the same age. "Master, please bypass us this time. My son is sick and lying on the bed waiting to buy medicine. Today, I only sold a dozen bowls in total. Even if you give them all, it's not enough. Master, please, little old man." It's already..." Said the old man and the old lady knelt down and kowtowed to the two officials. The move drew crowds of onlookers. Hearing everyone's pointing and pointing, the tall officer let out a hey voice: "I said you are an old man, but you would plan to just kowtow a few times and get away with it. Let me tell you, there is no way. Give money, give money, if you don’t give money, you guys don’t even want anything!” As he said that, he was about to step forward to open the stall. "Officer, official, give us a way to survive. Our family is just relying on these things to live. Official, I beg you, please, my son is still waiting for this little money to buy medicine. Otherwise, he won't be able to live..." The old lady suddenly took a few steps forward, hugged the leg of an official, and cried, crying blood, which made people's eyes sore. The beginning of the Dayue Dynasty was fine, but ever since Emperor Chongzheng came to power and the elder Yang Zhiwen came to power, he imposed more and more miscellaneous taxes. Of course, because of the policy of light corvee and low tax formulated by the Ming emperor, no matter how much money the later emperor wanted, he could not I don't want to get a reputation for extorting money.
Therefore, the regular tax of the Dai Viet Dynasty was not high. What is a regular tax? It is the land tax. The tax rate of ten to one is indeed not high. But can the brains of those who can be emperors and officials not work well? Naturally, they will make up for it in other ways.
The Chongzheng Dynasty gave birth to many items asking for money that had never been heard before. For example, if you want to do business, you have to pay "Lijin". What is Lijin? If you have just bought a batch of goods and want to load them into the car, the money collectors will come. This is called "Qidili". After paying the dili, when I arrived at a city gate, the "toll" collector came, "Ha, you have so many goods, no, no, you have to pay more and more." Well, honest people can't afford it, so pay it. Tolls, another checkpoint, "Hey, rich people, sell so many things, pay for it!!!", After going through many checkpoints and finally arriving at the destination, you think you can breathe a sigh of relief. NO, too naive, the money collector came again, this is called Luo Li, you finally couldn’t bear it anymore, greeted his old lady in your heart, said on the surface that I was not in business, but bought it for my own use, and Shui Ding pointed to the one on the car Goods, "Hey, trickster, you still dare to lie, pay the tax quickly, or you will be put in prison!"
There is no way, if you don't want to go to prison, you have to do what he says.
After layers of exploitation, the business is done, and when I go home, I'm scratching the abacus, counting my fingers, and I can't wait to cry and pass out, and my mother's half a year has been wasted again!
This is a big business. Of course, if you find a relationship, you can also avoid a lot of taxes in the middle, otherwise no one will do this business.
And those who enter the city to set up a stall will have to collect the city fee when they first enter the city gate, and then set up the stall. Just when you are enjoying your business, the money collector will come again. This is called "" Placeholder fee", these two servants came to collect "placeholder fee" tonight. Of course, there is no standard for how to charge fees. Anyway, with the two mouths of the yamen, they can charge as much as they want.
This is for businessmen, but for farmers, does less tax mean that farmers' lives are easier? NO, still too naive.
There is a thing called "donation" in the Dai Viet Dynasty, which means voluntarily donating a little money and things for the country and the nation. The common people are not fools, who would really donate money and goods voluntarily! It's voluntary, but when the time comes, people from the yamen will come from door to door, don't you want to donate? Okay, if you don’t donate, go to corvée!
The names of various donations are wonderful.
For example, if there is a famine in some place, you have to pay the famine relief donation, and you have to donate three or four times a year. There is another war in the north, and military donations have to be paid. Every spring planting and autumn harvest season, you have to pay a blessing donation, and now you even have to pay a land donation when you give birth to a child, and you have to pay a wedding donation when you marry a daughter-in-law... and there are more and more types, and it has developed to the point of one donation per event.
Of course, the emperor may not have so many projects in mind, but he took the lead in trying to deduct money from the common people, and the officials below did not have enough energy to set up various names cleverly. Whether it is a businessman, a farmer, or a craftsman, none of them can escape this heavy tax and miscellaneous taxes, and the only beneficiaries are the princes and wealthy families in the court. This is an official-based society, where the ass decides the head, and all kinds of policies are based on their interests. This is not unusual, and the same is true in modern society, but at least there must be a degree. The life of the people who collect taxes is worse than death, and the Dayue Dynasty started from worshiping Zhengzheng. The farce on the street was still going on, and the officer kicked the old lady away: "Immortal, pay the money quickly, if you don't pay, don't blame us for being rude!" " My wife, my wife..." The old lady was beaten He kicked his foot against the leg of the table and passed out. The old man rushed over and shouted anxiously, "My wife, wake up, my wife..." The officer saw that the man passed out, and his face was bruised. In a panic, she walked over and poked her, "Get up, pretend to be dead!" The old woman remained motionless. Now the onlookers couldn't see it. "I have lost my conscience, they are all raised by my mother's father, how can I be so cruel to these two old people!"
"They come to collect money every day, and sometimes they have to collect it several times a day. After a day of exhaustion, they may lose money. I see, this stall can't stand!" "What can we do if we don't do it
, We don’t have any land, so why are we starving to death..."
"These damned scumbags..."
"They beat people to death, the officials beat them to death! Beat them up!" At first people just discussed in whispers, but someone suddenly said so After shouting, the anger in everyone's hearts was suddenly ignited.
"People were beaten to death, the officials beat the people to death, beat up..." Someone yelled, and everyone rushed forward, especially those peddlers who had been forced to collect money, and they just punched and kicked the two officials. They still understand the truth that the law does not blame the public.
"Oh, stop beating, I'm going to put you all in prison!"
"Stop beating, stop beating..."
The two of them were so beaten that they cried and cried, and they no longer had the coaxing look they had before.
"What are you doing, what are you doing..." The yamen servants patrolling the city came, and the people dispersed in a hurry. The two unlucky ghosts who were beaten were limped away with the help of them. As for the "placeholder gold" of the two old people, they didn't dare to ask for it anymore. Did they faint if they didn't see anyone?
Zhou Yi stepped forward and handed a tael of silver to the crying old man: "Grandpa, please take this old woman to the clinic first." Zhou Yi felt for the old woman's pulse and found that she just fainted, not Big problem.
The old man left with a thousand thanks.
With a nervous and excited face on Qingzhu's face, he lowered his voice and said, "Young master, are you really alright?" He was the one who yelled just now under Zhou Yi's signal, and seeing the two officials being beaten, he felt very happy.
Zhou Yi smiled and said: "Why, now I know I'm afraid, I was very eager to try it at first!" "
Master, I couldn't help but vent my anger when I saw the two old people bullying me at the beginning!" road.
Zhou Yi patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry, it's okay, you screamed with your throat, who would know, besides, so many people beat them up, the law does not punish them, so how did they arrest them?"
" That's good, that's good." Qingzhu breathed a sigh of relief.
But Zhou Yi's heart was extremely heavy, what are those two official posts! It's just a young man, and it is the most powerful group of people in the world who really make the common people miserable. The superficially prosperous Dayue Dynasty is riddled with holes... "Zhou
Yi!!!" Zhou Yi was thinking about something. , A voice of surprise came from the opposite side.
Zhou Yi looked up, "Four Great Talents"! It was Zhao Yuwen who made the call.
"Zhou Yi, I haven't seen you since I arrived in Beiyuan Prefecture, but I met you here unexpectedly. Let's go for a drink together!" Zhao Yuwen may really have the surprise of meeting an old friend in a foreign land. Come forward and pull Zhou Yi to leave.
"This is Zhou Yi?" A handsome young man stepped forward and looked Zhou Yi up and down.
"Zhou Yi, let me introduce you. This is Huang An, who is also from Nanyuan Prefecture. This is Ma Yang, who is from Beiyuan. This is Ma Wencai, who is from Qianyang Prefecture." Zhao Yuwen let go. hands, and introduce them to Zhou Yi one by one.
Zhou Yi nodded and greeted each other.
Ma Wencai blinked, and looked at Zhou Yi who kept thinking, "Did I meet you somewhere?"
Zhou Yi also blinked: "It's the first time I met Brother Ma, maybe Brother Ma remembered it wrong. "Speak seriously.