Lu Ming

Page 216

In the main hall where the tablets of the ancestors of the past dynasties are enshrined, the heads of the houses are sitting. Behind them are their nephews and nephews, and outside the door are densely packed ordinary people, all the way to the courtyard wall.

The person sitting at the top of the table is naturally the head of the Chen family.

The patriarch's name is Chen Shi'ai.This man has a pointed face and thin eyebrows, with a gray beard. He is over 50 years old. He wears a scholar's scarf and a scholar's robe.

Chen Shi'ai was an old scholar during the Wanli period, the eldest son of the eldest family, and the patriarch of the Chen clan for many years, and was quite prestigious among the clan.

At this moment, Chen Shi'ai, with an angry face, was banging on the armrest of the seat vigorously: "You bastard, you are really lawless. Is this person surnamed Cao trying to rebel? Reverse, rebellious, this Qiu Ba must be rebelling!"

Following the roar of the old patriarch, there was a lot of discussion in the main room, and most of the clansmen were also full of anger, cursing that the surnamed Cao would have a bad death, and that he had a son without an ass hole.

"Okay, don't close the door and become a king. The rice is already cut, and you are still talking about it. Cursing and cursing, can someone with the surname Cao lose a hair?"

The person who said this was a fat middle-aged man in a satin robe with a jade ring on his finger.This person's name is Chen Shicai, he is the talker of the third house, and he ranks fifteenth in the world's generation.

There was a reason for Chen Shicai's disdain.Because their Sanfang's energy over the years has been mainly spent on business and business, they have some conflicts with other Fangtou who rely on farming as their main business, and they have a lot of quarrels with each other.

Sitting here today, seeing this group of clansmen sitting in a well and looking at the sky, embracing the disabled, he, who had originally made up his mind not to say anything, finally couldn't help but utter a word.

Following Chen Shicai's sarcasm, the hall fell silent.

The patriarch Chen Shiai was not happy at this moment, he would roll his eyelids at Chen Shicai, and said in a sinister way: "Old fifteen, please make it clear, what does it mean to be a king behind closed doors!? Isn't everyone discussing countermeasures?" ?”

"Countermeasures? Hmph, what a joke. Is there a countermeasure for sitting in the main room and cursing?" Chen Shicai looked helpless at this moment, turned his head and said to everyone: "The fish are dead, and the rice is gone. What countermeasures can make the fish come back to life? Before The people in Toushan Village and Weishan Village were manipulated like this, so what should those people do in the end? Just lie down and be hammered!"

"Ridiculous!" Chen Shi'ai became more and more dissatisfied when he heard this, and after casting a sidelong glance at the fifteenth old man, he stood up from his chair and said loudly: "My Chen family has been here for hundreds of years since it moved south in the late Song Dynasty. There have been countless natural disasters and man-made disasters, have you ever been afraid of anyone? Huh, as long as the township and party are united, there will be no hurdles that cannot be overcome!"

After talking about the chicken soup, Chen Shiai thought about it and said to Chen Shicai: "Old fifteen, don't stir up trouble here, I know you have dealings with Cao thief."

Pointing to the tablet behind him, Chen Shi'ai continued: "Today in this Chen family ancestral hall, in front of the ancestors, don't plan to do anything wrong. You need to know that the people sitting here are all your flesh and blood relatives. People are doing it, and the sky is watching, the clan law cannot cure you, and the ancestors will not spare you in the future!"

"It's that cliché again." Chen Shicai sneered a few times with an expression of "I knew it earlier" after hearing the threatening words with guns and sticks.

Next, Chen Shicai shook his head helplessly, and then said leisurely: "Jiaodao, everyone is fighting with someone surnamed Cao. The book office master of Laoshizi's 'Demolition Office' from the new city, not every household enters Is it? Doesn’t every household have the land acquisition regulations given by others? Here, I, Chen Shicai, also have a copy in black and white. It’s not a copper coin more than anyone else! Chen Shi’ai, don’t you want to pour dirt on my Sanfang’s head? Shui, come, take a look at the regulations of my third house, can I get an extra copper coin?"

Having said that, Chen Shicai took out three bound white A4 papers from his pocket, and slapped them on the coffee table.

"This is the charter, everyone in the clan has a copy! Chen Shi'ai, don't talk about your ancestors and shut up about your ancestors. Let me ask you, for the past six months, the charter has been in the hands of each family. As the patriarch, you can't wait to die. Have you ever had a little coping?"

Chen Shi'ai opened his mouth to refute when he heard this, but his tone couldn't help but weakened a bit: "It's a matter of great importance, and we have to see how other families deal with it, so that we can gain advantages and avoid disadvantages, right?"

"Take advantage and avoid disadvantage? Heh heh, the rice has been destroyed. What kind of advantage is this? It's obviously a way to lure wolves into the house!"

Seeing that Chen Shi'ai was so angry that he couldn't speak, Chen Shicai walked two steps into the hall, shook his sleeves, and finally said with a sneer: "I can't resist, but I don't want to sell the land, isn't it just waiting for death? Alright, The matter has come to this point, I don’t think you can drag it on any longer. Today I will make it clear: Sanfang will sign the charter later, if you don’t want to sign, you can do whatever you want.”

After Chen Shicai said this, he waved his hand and strode out of the ancestral hall.Following behind him were three rooms and one group of people.

……

After Chen Shicai left, a new round of whispering started in the slightly awkward main room.Not long after, an old man with pure white hair and beard opened his mouth: "Shi Ai, looking at this situation, General Cao may be red-eyed, and he is bound to win. He has soldiers and horses in his hands. Looking at it in the past six months, he may be The government can't point it out."

"Other villages also resisted fiercely, and everyone knows the end. It is a lesson from the past, we can't follow in the footsteps."

"Now I can't hold back my arms, so why not just sign the document. Otherwise, the mulberry and rice would have been destroyed, not to mention that the children have no food to eat, and the autumn tax will come soon, then the gate of hell will be closed. What can we do with it?"

Hearing the speech of this senior elder of the Dexun clan, Chen Shiai did not show righteousness to others, but said bitterly: "Si Bo, it's not that Shiai is stubborn, but if you sign that document, I Chen Shiai The family is in real trouble!"

When Chen Shi'ai said this, his eyes were red: "Leaving the Tiantu family house, the clansmen scattered all over the world to do work for Cao. Who will run the clan study in the future? Who will offer incense to the ancestors? Once this pen is settled, the Chen family will be happy." It's game over."

I have to say that Chen Shi'ai, an old scholar, has a good vision.His words clearly pointed out the implicit killing of the clan by demolition and land expropriation: once the clan’s land that the clan relies on to exploit and bind the peasants is deprived, the traditional clan structure will disappear in an instant.

For a patriarch like Chen Shi'ai, the demolition was a blow to reduce his dimension—he could no longer exploit his tribe by means of "common property", "sacrifice to land", and "ethnic studies", and he couldn't use righteousness and family law in the ancestral hall. Deal with the clansmen, because the clansmen have all gone to dormitories in different places, and no one listens to him anymore.

This is the most fundamental reason why Chen Shiai would rather die than submit to the demolition office.He sees it all, knowing that if he gives in, he will lose the most precious thing: his rights.

However, seeing through is seeing through, and things must be resolved after all.The dead fish in the pond and the young crops in the rice fields are lying there, and the practical problems cannot be solved by just talking about righteousness.

So Chen Shi'ai turned his head, and said to an old man sitting beside him who had been silent all the time: "Shiqi, say a few words."

Chen Shiqi, a Jinshi during the Wanli period, served two prefects and one branch inspector. Now he is old in the village, and he is the biggest support of the Chen family.

Chen Shiqi with a clear face, dressed in a black straight dress, and with three long beards, shook his head slightly when he heard the words, frowned and said: "Now the court is in troubled times, and that person Cao is a pirate recruited by An, with a strong army, a few days ago He went to King Qin of the capital again, so if the Third Division of Guangdong Xianfan wants to give him some points, he has to let this beast go crazy for a while."

"You can't just wait to die like this?"

Chen Shi'ai stared at his only hope without blinking.

"Calculating the time, the letter from the capital is only a few days away. If you can play the book of Cao Chuan in the court at that time, it will probably be effective."

"Then what should we do now?"

"Procrastinate." Chen Shiqi said decisively: "Make some small moves, but don't overdo it. I'll talk about it after I read the letter."

"That's the case..." Chen Shi'ai walked a few steps in the hall with his hands behind his back: "I will go to the county government office tomorrow to beat the drums and complain. The County Magistrate Sun and I are usually on good terms, so they should cause some trouble to the 'Demolition Office'. "

"Good." Chen Shiqi nodded and said, "Let's wait a few days for the exchange of documents."

Chapter 493

The speed of information transmission in ancient times was very slow, especially in rural areas like Chenshi Village.So after the meeting in the ancestral hall that day, Chen Shi'ai, an old scholar, spent a few more days to contact a group of colleagues and prepare to go to the county government office.

Colleagues who can only be contacted by veterans are naturally scholars.No matter how high-level Jinshi Juren is, he is not favored, and the low-level Tongsheng is useless, so he can only be a scholar.

Fortunately, talent is enough.During the great corruption of the literati class at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the scholar was originally responsible for the charge of the charge.Scholarly taking up lawsuits, rioting in the classroom, gathering crowds to besiege government offices, and other bad things are all done by scholars.So going to the county government this time is considered routine, and everyone is very skilled in business.

Among the brave men who went to make trouble this time, except for another scholar in the clan, the rest that Chen Shiai contacted were mostly litigants and poor people from the nearby villages, and there were also two local snakes in Guangzhou city.

After receiving the asking price, this group of people geared up for it, expressing that they would help friend Chen and bring a good rhythm.

After the internal and external lineup was completed, Chen Shi'ai, an old scholar, led a group of bad scholars, and took a ticket to help the servants who were responsible for making noise, and set foot on the road to Guangzhou City in the early morning of June 6.

Before the Ming Dynasty, the city of Guangzhou was jointly administered by Panyu and Nanhai counties.The jurisdiction of these two yamen happens to divide the city of Guangzhou into two, and the area is roughly the same.

After the Ming Dynasty, due to the expansion of the land area and the urban area to varying degrees, most of Guangzhou City in this period, except for the western one-fifth of the territory, was under the jurisdiction of Panyu County.

Unlike later generations, the jurisdiction of county governments in ancient times was very large.In the Ming Dynasty, Guangzhou Prefecture covered almost the entire Pearl River Delta region, with only thirteen counties in total.In later generations, there are eleven districts in just one city of Guangzhou.

So where will the new city plots under construction be managed by the crossover crowd?Sorry, it happens to be under the jurisdiction of Panyu County.So today's matter, due to emotion and reason, even Panyu County can't escape.

When Chen Shi'ai and his group entered the city gate and came to the Panyu County Government located on the east side of Yushan Mountain, the sun was already hanging in the sky, and it was the time when the County Government issued an announcement—this group of old scholars naturally would not mistake the County Government release date.

Then Chen Shi'ai successfully submitted a complaint against Dashuai Cao.

At the same time, in Chenjiacun, Jinshi Chen Shiqi was holding a letter and shouting, "Hurry up and call the patriarch back!"

……

As the saying goes, there is no book without a coincidence.Just as Chen Shi'ai entered the city, a young man dressed as a servant also stepped into Chen Shi Village.After the young man entered the village, he found the door of Chen Shiqi's house after asking all the way, and finally handed several letters to Mr. Chen.

In ancient times, private messages were often sent by businessmen and fellow villagers.Especially for the long distance from the capital to Guangzhou, unless it is a major event, few people will send a special courier, without him, the cost is too high.

What Chen Shiqi received this time was a letter sent by his old friend in the capital more than a month ago.His old friend is also a poor Beijing official, and he can't send any express mail, let alone express it within [-] miles. It will cost his head, so he can only entrust the businessman to bring the letter.

The merchants did business all the way along the Grand Canal. After wandering around to Guangzhou, it took a few more days to settle in their carriages and horses. It was not until this morning that they sent a man to deliver the letter.

In other words, Chen Shi'ai and his group passed by the buddy.

But when Chen Shiqi read the letter, he was dumbfounded on the spot: the letter said that Cao thief actually made great contributions to the country on the border, beheaded more than 4000 people, and resisted a round of political tide, and was made an earl by the emperor!

"Hurry up and call the patriarch back!"

This was Chen Shiqi's only reaction after reading the letter.Unfortunately, his response was a bit late.

Sun Rishao, a native of Jiangxi, a Jinshi in the year of Tianqi, served as the county magistrate of Panyu from the first year to the fifth year of Chongzhen.

At this meeting, the county magistrate Sun, who was walking square steps and wearing official robes, turned out from the back of the hall. Accompanied by the classic shouts of "Ascension + Mighty" from the servants in the hall, Da Ma sat on the seat of the main hall with a golden sword. Official hat chair.

The next moment, the emaciated county magistrate Sun Da took a letter from the letter next to his hand and read it carefully before announcing Chen Shi'ai to court.

"Scholar under the hall, today you are suing the general of Zhangchao for abusing ordinary people and seizing people's land and houses. Do you have evidence?"

At this moment, Chen Shiai's expression was calm.

Because before that, he had asked the trustee to meet the county magistrate in private, and gave a gift, explaining his intention: to maintain a low-intensity struggle with the dog leg of Cao, and wait for the situation in the court to change in the future. A springboard can be used, and the Chen family will join the army to defeat Cao. When the time comes, there will be retribution for injustice, and the loss will always be made up.

So when he saw County Magistrate Sun appearing in the lobby as usual, he was determined: After all, this is suing a second-rank official. If the county magistrate is unwilling to cooperate, then today he can make excuses for his illness, or just answer Tell yourself to stop and don't make trouble for him.

"My lord, the general surnamed Cao sent people to Chenshi Village a few days ago to threaten to buy the land. Later, when he saw that the people refused to follow suit, he asked people to destroy my fertile land and poison my fish ponds at night, ruining the hard work of the villagers over the years."

"There are clerks and witnesses for all the above, and I hope that you will not fear the powerful and avenge the people!"

Magistrate Sun frowned slightly when he heard this.

In fact, regarding the matter of land acquisition, there has been a lot of trouble in the past six months. He has received many similar complaints, and the county magistrate naturally knows the cause and effect.

Originally, for the sake of gifts and a little friendship, County Magistrate Sun planned to fight with: Chen Shi'ai's family leader and Cao's arm wrestling. Let the conflict between the two sides intensify.

The information channel on the county magistrate's side is naturally stronger than that of these country sticks.This includes the news he got from Shangguan a few days ago, as well as some public content in the mansion newspaper-to sum up, no one in Guangdong can do anything to someone surnamed Cao, at least in a short period of time.

But now the magistrate has changed his mind.He really wanted to remind this idiot in the hall: Don't drag Lao Tzu into the muddy water.What does it mean to not be afraid of the powerful?The man surnamed Cao was calling the wind and rain in the capital a few days ago, and he was really popular. It's ridiculous that these idiots are still acting as carts.Trying to squeeze himself out by not being afraid of the powerful...

"Hey, wait whatever you want, I won't serve you anymore."

Thinking of this, County Magistrate Sun said with a bit of disinterest: "So, this case will stay in this office. After I write the document to the General Army's office, I will make a decision after reading the receipt."

"Thank you sir."

At this point, today's matter is considered to be over.Then Chen Shi'ai would go back and wait for the news—it wasn't the bullshit receipt from the general's yamen, but the one who could figure out what it was with his heels.

What Chen Shi'ai was waiting for was news that was not good for Zongbing Cao in terms of the overall situation.This news was basically his life-saving straw.If the news does not come, then the Chen clan can only admit defeat, because the remaining savings in the clan cannot be delayed indefinitely.

At the moment when Chen Shi'ai bowed out and Sun Ming's mansion reached out to get a certificate, there was chaos outside the hall of the county government office: a group of people broke in from the gate.

This team was wearing brand-new bright red mandarin duck jackets, copper basin helmets on their heads, and buffalo leather combat boots.

After the elites broke in, they quickly waved their whips and short sticks to drive aside the melon-eaters surrounding the hall gate.After clearing the road, the group of people formed a human wall from the gate to the main hall in groups of two.

Next, a small group of personal guards with short guns pinned to their waists walked into the county government office surrounded by a man in a red robe. There were even guards holding Remington five-shots at the front and back of the team.

At the same time, the guards who rushed into the lobby shouted out a long title at the top of their voices: "Uncle Zhongyong, Doctor Ronglu, Zhu Guo, Minister of the Ministry of War, Zuo Dudu of the Governor's Mansion of the Rear Army, Zhangchao of the Ming Dynasty, etc." Commander General, Master Cao Chuan has arrived..."

After hearing this series of titles, Chen Shixiu, who was already dumbfounded, jumped up in the hall.

I didn't want another person, but I really jumped up: Sun Rishao, the main hall of Panyu County, Guangdong, Ming Dynasty.

After a Jiling jumped up from the seat, Sun's parents hurriedly bypassed the case and stepped forward: "The next official, Sun Rishao, went to see Mr. Cao, but he didn't know that Mr. Cao was coming. He was far away to welcome him, and he hoped to make amends.".

Even at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the culture was noble and the military was cheap, but a seventh-rank county magistrate still had to practice etiquette honestly in front of the Earl of Chaopin.In fact, the county magistrate still has to kneel in theory, and it is not bad to just salute.

"Haha, I am an uninvited guest, what is the fault of Sun Mingfu?"

Dashuai Cao came to the Panyu county office today, not to annoy the county magistrate, so he didn’t bother the county magistrate, but explained with a smile: “I just came back from the capital a few days ago, and I originally came out of He Zongbing’s mansion today. Passing by the county government office, I heard that someone is suing me...Magistrate Sun, may I listen in?"

"Yes, yes!" When Marshal Cao entered the Yamen before, Sun's parents saw the arbitrariness that no official in Guangdong dared to put on, and knew that this was a general who turned his back on the battlefield, so he would not make trouble. , hurriedly nodded in agreement.

"Haha, thank you grandparents." After Cao Dashuai finished speaking, he turned around and swaggered up to the official case, and sat on the official hat chair of the parent officer, ignoring the embarrassment of his grandparents.

After sitting on the county magistrate's position, Marshal Cao picked up the case, shook his hands and threw the paper down, and then asked with a smile, "Who is suing me?"

Chen Shixin groaned secretly in his heart, but he was already on the verge of riding a tiger, so he couldn't say that he didn't hand in the certificate?

So Chen Shi'ai lowered his head and came out, coughed, bent down and bowed his hands habitually, and planned to say something.

The next moment, as Marshal Cao said faintly, "Take it down", Chen Shi'ai was instantly pushed to the ground by two bodyguards with big arms and round waists.

Chen Shiai was shocked: "Ah!? Master Cao, why did you arrest me? What crime did you commit?"

"I yelled at Shangguan just now, can't I catch you?"

Not only Chen Shi'ai, but everyone in the hall was shocked at this moment: Can a cough count as a roar Shangguan?

"I don't accept it, this is an attempted crime!"

"A mere scholar, not only roaring at the court, but also condescending to the superior officials, the earl didn't kneel when he saw me."

Marshal Cao pulled out the magistrate's order and threw it down: "Come here."

"Big guy!"

"Take off this person's square scarf and green robe, and put him in a cage for public display."

"Order!"

"More." Marshal Cao snapped his fingers at this moment: "Take down all the party members that this person arranged outside the hall, and put them all in the cage. By the way, take my post to the Guangdong Xuezheng Yamen, and pick up this Partner's reputation as a scholar."

"Order!"

Chapter 494

Judging from the fact that Cao Dashuai accurately pointed out that Chen Shi'ai was in the same party, the so-called "passing by happened to hear someone suing me" is not valid.

This was an unquestionable, premeditated move.

As for at which link the Chen family leaked the news, it cannot be verified.Maybe it's the county government, maybe it's our own people who are eager to demolish, no one can say.