MTL - Wei and Jin Cooks-Chapter 780 Distress

  Chapter 780 The Tribulation of the Family

"My lord, the officials of the aristocratic family in Yuncheng are not short of money. You think good restaurant food is just ordinary to them, because they can often eat it. Compared with the cost of Gou Daojiang, they will not feel that you How sincere."

  In their eyes, Zhao Hanzhang and Gou Xi are the same people. They don't know Zhao Hanzhang's daily life, so they will use Gou Xi's daily life as a reference.

   Zhao Hanzhang thought it was important for him to spend a lot of money to invite them to eat out, but in their view, Zhao Hanzhang just invited them to a casual meal.

  So it is better to take the road of elegance than luxury.

Ming Yu said simply and rudely: "Your Majesty, you are now the third person in the Jin Dynasty. Except for Your Majesty and Gou Xi, you are under one person and above ten thousand people. Therefore, the things you personally brought out are priceless. Then it’s priceless.”

  Zhao Hanzhang realized, "So the tea I brought is rare in the world and is very valuable. The tea set I took out is rare and valuable. Osmanthus cake is both vulgar and elegant, and peach blossom is wild."

  Ming Yu smiled and nodded, "Exactly."

   Zhao Hanzhang was taught, "It's amazing, Mr. Ming really knows how to save money."

  The two looked at each other and smiled like a fox.

  Ting He walked in quickly, bowed and said: "Girl, Tan Shen and Zheng Xiao, whom I met in front of the General's Mansion this morning, have come to deliver the post, and they are now at the concierge."

  Zhao Hanzhang smiled, nodded and said: "Please come in, I will meet them at Mr. Ming's place."

   Ting He went away in response.

  Zhao Hanzhang and Ming Yu explained: "When I went to the General's Mansion today, it happened that the two of them were also begging to see the General. I saw that they looked haggard, as if there was something embarrassing."

   Ming Yu said: "Master, this is Yuncheng, I know you have a kind heart, but you have to be careful, not all the people who come to seek refuge are sincere."

  Zhao Hanzhang nodded, "That's why I asked Mr. Ming to distinguish it for me."

  Ting He led two middle-aged men over, and as soon as they entered the room, before Zhao Hanzhang could speak, the two of them knelt down, touching their foreheads to the backs of their hands, and respectfully said, "Meet the governor."

  Zhao Hanzhang was stunned for a moment, and quickly said: "Excuse me, please sit down and talk."

  This is the Jin Dynasty, kneeling and worshiping is a very important etiquette. Except for the king's parents and respected elders, generally no one performs this salute.

  Tan Shen and Zheng Xiao didn't get up, but raised their heads. They put their legs together, pressed their bodies back, put their hands on their knees, and knelt like this.

  Zhao Hanzhang couldn't help but glanced at Ming Yu, pointed to the mat opposite her and said, "Come and sit here, it's closer to talk."

  Tan Shen and Zheng Xiao looked at each other, then got up, and respectfully knelt down opposite her.

  Zhao Hanzhang didn't talk nonsense, and said directly: "Tell me, please."

   Seeing that Zhao Hanzhang asked them to speak directly without even a single question, both of them couldn't help but have red eyes at the same time, their hearts were sour and astringent, and they were very moved. Why didn't they meet Zhao Hanzhang in the first place?

After Tan Shen stabilized his emotions, he said: "Returning to the governor, I am Xia Tan Shen, a native of Le'an County, Le'an County. Our Tan family is a small clan in Le'an. Our ancestors are shaded. There is a school for offering sacrifices to the fields in the clan, so that the children of the clan can understand Literal, but that's all."

His face turned red, but he still said: "Our Tan family was born as a horse slave. Our ancestor was a horse slave in Hengdi Shiyuan. Later, he was lucky enough to redeem himself. By chance, he came to Le'an County and raised horses in the county government. Because With such a background, the children of the clan have never been able to be appointed officials, and when I went to the appointment banquet, Xiao Zhongzheng didn't want to see us, let alone Zhong Zhongzheng and Da Zhongzheng."

"So the most promising member of the family is my cousin Tan Jian. He works as a clerk in the county government office. Now, let him take over as the director," Tan Shen said: "For this matter, their family spent a lot of money, almost emptying their foundation, and the family felt sorry, so they took the initiative to undertake this matter."

"We spent more than 2.6 million yuan and finally got the position of the master bookkeeper. But just after he took office, the higher-ups shared the taxes. Among them, three taxes were newly added and shared equally among the people. Each person has to pay 98 Wen more than in previous years, and a family of five will pay 490 Wen more, and most families have more than this number of people.”

"This tax is too heavy, and the people can't afford it at all. Tan Jian told the county magistrate to appeal to the higher authorities to reduce this part of the tax." Tan Shen's eyes turned red when he said this, and said: "But this The three taxes were requested by the governor himself, how could the county magistrate dare to speak up?"

"The people in the county government asked every Lilizheng to collect taxes. Tan was not talented. It was Yili Lizheng who governed the people. Some people sold their daughters, and some people left overnight with their bags. The two families are really desperate, and the whole family committed suicide..." Tan Shen said: "They are all fellow countrymen, and many of them are relatives and friends of our own clan. There is really no other way, so we will hand it over for them first."

   "We have calculated the checkpoints in our village, but what about other places? I am just Li Zheng, and I can't control so much, but Tan Jian is the master, and he can't ignore it."

"He finally persuaded the county magistrate to go to the sheriff together, but the sheriff didn't want to offend the governor, so he didn't agree to reduce the exemption. It happened that the governor was hunting near Le'an County at that time, and the county magistrate took Tan Jian to find him. Inspector, after this trip, neither of them came back."

Tan Shen wept, "The governor heard from nowhere that I paid taxes on behalf of the villagers, saying that we were kind and concealed evil intentions, and wanted to confiscate our Tan family. In the end, we dispersed all our wealth and asked the people around the governor to replace us. We interceded and offered treasures to the governor on our behalf, which convinced the governor that we did not pay taxes on behalf of the villagers, but only lent money to the villagers to tide over their difficulties, and charged high interest, which did not buy people's hearts."

  Zhao Hanzhang couldn't help grinding his teeth, and asked, "And then?"

Tan Shen smiled wryly and said: "Wang Inspector and Liu Inspector attacked Qingzhou, and there were rebellions all over Qingzhou. The Inspector retreated again and again, and he just retreated to Le'an County. He was sure that our Tan family would rebel, so he sent troops to general We surrounded them and wanted to kill us as rebels."

  Zhao Hanzhang was expressionless, and asked: "How did you survive?"

"I gave Tan's land, house and shop to him. In addition, I, Tan, have two trade routes and three caravans, and can make money all the time. That's why I was 'recruited'. However, the governor did not allow us Live in Le'an again, and move my whole clan to Yuncheng."

Tan Shen said: "On the way, whenever we meet enemy troops and they fight, we try to escape, but because there are too many people, we can't escape together. After being scattered, about half of the people who escaped just didn't know whether they were alive or dead. The rest, except Eighty-two people came to Yuncheng with the governor because of fighting, illness and died on the way."

   "I wanted to ask the general to be lenient and allow us to return to our hometown in Le'an," Tan said with a deep bow, "but now, I want to ask Inspector Zhao to show mercy and allow us to move to Yuzhou."

  (end of this chapter)