Hunan, Daozhou, Meihua Town.
This is a small town located at the southern foot of Yangmingshan and on the bank of Xiaoshui River. It is an important place for entering and exiting Yangmingshan from the south. Because there are various minerals in Yangmingshan, this Meihua Town is an ideal place.
The town prospered due to mining. Before the water transportation of Xiaoshui was cut off, thousands of miners lived in shacks in the town all year round.
Because it is much easier for these miners to make money than for farmers. In addition, most of them are singles from outside the country. Most of them have no family members around them. If one person has enough to eat, the whole family is not hungry, so they have much more money to spend than farmers. Therefore.
There are many shops in the town, which are many times more prosperous than those in Etang!
To the south of Meihua Town is a large area of ​​fertile fields, including large areas of paddy fields on both sides of the Xiaoshui River. The rice and vegetables produced can be sold at a good price in Meihua Town. However, the villagers around Meihua Town did not because of Yangming
The mines in the mountains and the miners in the town became rich, but they became poorer.
There are two main reasons for this. First, there are bandits in Yangming Mountain all year round, and there are a large number of "social people" in Meihua Town - in fact, both groups come from the same place, namely Jiao Hong and Xu Yuegui.
, people like Xu Xianggui!
These people who occupy mountains and fall grass, or open gambling houses, opium dens, brothels in Meihua Town, and collect protection fees, not only target the small mine owners (who are actually Hongmen descendants), but also extend their hands into villages and towns all over the country.
, treating the local landowners as fat sheep to slaughter. Secondly, there is no tycoon like Mr. Huang Shijie and Huang around Meihua Town!
Mr. Huang's family has a great business and has not yet become extremely evil. Moreover, he wants to be like Tao Shu, Tang Peng, and Wei Yuan, his predecessors in the world of economics.
Moreover, the "big king" in Yangmingshan and the subordinate officials in Daozhou City were also quite afraid of such a wealthy and famous person as him, and did not dare to act recklessly on his land.
The "young masters" in Meihua Town don't have so many scruples. They are bullied by the "hall masters and incense masters" in Meihua Town, blackmailed by the kings in Yangmingshan, and even beaten by people from Daozhou City.
The subordinates are extorting money, and everyone is on the verge of bankruptcy. In order to save their breath, how can they care about their dignity?
So the tenant farmers and poor peasants below them suffered greatly!
For example, Mr. Huang's paddy field is rented to tenants, and he pays 50% of the rent. It looks very high, but it's actually not bad. Because the exact number of "50%" is determined based on the harvest, and there is room for fluctuation. If
If a farmer is hit by a disaster and has no harvest, then zero divided by two is zero! If the harvest is not bad, the farmer can still pretend to be pitiful and conceal the report and underreport it.
And the tenants around Meihua Town are paying "iron rent"! No matter how severe the disaster is, they will not be reduced at all! Although the harvest will not increase, Mr. Huang has reduced the disaster and concealed the harvest!
Moreover, the iron plate rent quota in the Meihua Town area is very high, almost as much as the tenants of Mr. Huang's family paid during the good years.
Another example is that although Mr. Huang's business sells tobacco, he still can't do the thing of forcing girls into prostitution...otherwise he wouldn't have accepted Wang Xi'er and sold her to Meihua Town to pick up customers. How much would it be worth?
Money? So Wang Xier can starve to death cleanly in Etang, but in the Meihua Town area, he can only die after being defiled and tortured into human form!
The landowners around Meihua Town will not only seize and sell the "Xi'er" of the farmers whose debts are not paid, but also the "little white laborers" who will be captured and sold to the surrounding mines. Do hard work.
Zhu Ba was once a sold-out "Xiao Zhu Bailao". He was from Zhuyang Village near Meihua Town. His family had some property and he was considered a middle peasant. However, his father was very brave and fierce, and he brought several members of his clan with him. A brother went to fight with a neighboring village for water and was accidentally beaten to death. Only his mother and an incompetent half-brother were left. His mother was a woman and could not manage things. His brother was older, but he He had no intention of farming, so he often gambled in Meihua Town, and got addicted to tobacco... In the end, he was so debt-ridden that he not only sold all the land at home, but also owed Mr. Yang, a big man in the village, a debt to the King of Hell, so he sent him away. He went to the mine to pay off his debt.
Zhu Ba inherited his father's bad temper. When he was twelve or thirteen years old, he started fighting with people in the mine. He was beaten to a bloody head and refused to beg for mercy. As a result, he was sent down the mountain by the mine owner and ran to Goose. He went to Tangzhen to beg for food. Eight years later, Xiao Zhuba, who was sold to the mines, came back!
As a lecturer of the God Worship Association, he and his senior brother Wang Yan led ten male holy soldiers and ten female holy soldiers back to Zhuyang Village singing the song "Welcome to Peace"!...
"The rent is heavy, the interest is high, and it is difficult for poor people to survive these days. Open the door early to worship Taiping, and all the disciplines will be happy. Kill the demons and evil gentry, open the city gates to welcome Taiping, and Taiping will divide the fields..." Mr. Yang Three, known as Mr. Yang San, is the head of the Yang clan in Zhuyang Village. He is also a scholar. He has passed sixteen government examinations and failed in all of them.
Although Mr. Yang San is not good at reading books, his family business is running well.
Zhuyang Village was originally a prosperous village, surrounded by hundreds of acres of paddy fields. Half of it belonged to his Yang family, and the other half belonged to the Zhu family in the same village.
But more than ten years ago, Zhuyang Village competed with the Hakka clan surnamed Li next door for water sources, and suffered a huge defeat. Many people died. The paddy fields were turned into dry land, and the harvest was suddenly reduced! It was still possible. Villagers struggling to survive are going bankrupt one after another!
Mr. Yang took the opportunity to first lend money at usury, then colluded with the evil people in Meihua Town, and relied on their power to force the debtors to expropriate the land. In just ten years, 89% of the land in Zhuyang Village became his land. .The remaining ones belong to several members of the same clan of the Yang family with a relatively large population - he still needs the help of these clans to maintain his family's rule in Zhuyang Village!
But at this moment, Mr. Yang San has not yet realized how small his power is when the wheels of history are crushing him mercilessly...
Although he had long heard that the Taiping Army was conducting land allocation in more than a dozen towns in the Etang, Lingtang, and Shuangpai areas, the land in that area belonged to the wealthy man Huang Shijie.
Huang Shijie is a famous gentleman, he also runs a regiment training, and is the sworn enemy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he, Yang Santai, is just a small tycoon... He doesn't care whether the world belongs to the Qing Dynasty or the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he just protects his own land. Who will come to him? Just bring the tribesmen and villagers to kneel down to welcome you!
So now he led a group of tribesmen and poor people, kneeling on both sides of the road into the village, with baskets of rice, cloth, and copper coins in front of him. "Yang San, do you know your guilt?"
Just when Mr. Yang San thought that the Taiping men would soon take rice, cloth, and copper coins and leave with satisfaction, suddenly a voice from Daozhou suddenly shouted loudly. He quickly looked up and found a A strong man with a ferocious face was standing in front of him holding a simple sword, and he was followed by more than twenty Taiping troops armed with weapons.
"You, you are..."
"I am Zhu Ba!" Zhu Ba shouted, "Zhu Fangsen is my father, and my name is Kuan Yan!"
"You, you, you... weren't you sold to Yangmingshan? Why did you become a Changmao..." Mr. Yang San was so shocked that he couldn't even speak clearly.
Zhu Ba's father was seduced by him into fighting with people from neighboring villages, and his life was lost in vain. Not only did Grandpa Yang not take care of Zhu Ba's mother and son, he also added insult to injury, devoured his family's land, and sold him to mine in the mountains. ."Take it!"
Zhu Ba shouted loudly.
"Wait!" Mr. Yang San yelled urgently, "Why do you arrest me? I have nothing against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom...
Zhu Ba sneered and said: "Who cares that you are not against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? How many people in Zhuyang Village have been forced to die by your clever plundering over the years? How many farmers have taken away the land that supports their lives? How much ill-gotten wealth have been amassed? Today, we, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, We must make decisions for the people, divide your family’s land and wealth, and burn the Hell’s tent in your hands, so as to give the people of Zhuyang Town a way to survive...take it down!”
Chapter completed!