Chapter 30 The ghost market
arhats are all imprisoned in the woodshed behind the ancestral temple. These guys are all idle gangsters in the county, and they are all marginalized people with no relatives or friends, such as bachelors and widowers.
Even if these people have relatives, their relatives would rather they not go home. Even if they disappear for a few days, no one will care.
The government of the Ming Dynasty has always been very particular about the people not being prosecuted and not being held accountable. Even if no one reports the crime, no one will come to ask questions even if the person dies.
Of course, Su Ze didn't have a heart attack. These Arhats injured many young men in Changning Guard. They bullied and bullied the city in the county on weekdays, so they deserved their death.
But Su Ze had some vague ideas about making money, and realizing these ideas naturally required manpower.
If he could subdue these Arhats, they might be able to help him.
After dealing with these Arhat's Feet, Changning Wei Ancestral Hall held a banquet in the square and celebrated with great enthusiasm. The old man took out a piece of paper and said to Su Ze: "Azezai, this is twenty
. The certificate of acres of Lutian was awarded to you by the ancestral hall."
Su Ze quickly took it. Lutian was not a legal land owned by the imperial court, and it was not included in the fish scale inventory in this place in Fujian.
Most of the Lutian was occupied by private gentry or large clans, so this document was just an agreement within the Changning Guard.
There are many such documents in the genealogy revised by the Seventh Uncle in the later generations. Although such agreements are not land deeds issued by the imperial court, they have a strong effect within Changning Guards.
This is why the ancestral hall is the most important institution of the entire clan, and why the grandfather has such a great reputation within the clan.
In places where the Ming Dynasty officials could not take care of, ancestral halls took over the government's control of order. Although this set of order was not very fair and reasonable, order was always better than no order.
In addition to Su Ze's reward from Ashida, the defenders who participated in the battle also received corresponding rewards in accordance with the previous agreement.
During the armed fight, they retreated without authorization and the defenders who were disadvantaged in the battle were also fined with soup and medicine money. Although these people were a little unwilling, Su Ze clearly understood rewards and punishments, and now with the power of victory, they could only lower their heads and accept the punishment, and in their hearts I secretly made up my mind to do my best in the next battle!
[Rewards and punishments, "Art of War" skill +1, Lv2, 45/200]
So comfortable!
If there were a few more weapon fights, Su Ze's "Art of War" skill would be able to reach level five.
After the banquet was over, Lin Liangjun returned to Baihusuo with his chubby belly in his arms.
Most of the people in Changningwei went to eat at the ancestral hall. Lin Liangjun walked into the empty Baihu Residence, but saw that the light in his bedroom was still on.
Sister is back?
Lin Liangjun rolled his eyes and tiptoed towards the bedroom.
The door was ajar, and Lin Mojun was sitting by the bed, holding a red wooden box in his hand with a look of reluctance on his face.
Lin Liangjun pushed the door open and said loudly: "Sister! That's the dowry my mother left for you!"
Although the Lin family has hundreds of families for generations, Changning Guard is a small guardhouse. The families of the past generations have been upright, so they don't have any frivolous wealth.
The previous Lin Baihu died in the war. In order to compensate the soldiers who died in the war, the Lin family invested a lot of the Lin family's ancestral property, so that Lin Liangjun complained every day that he didn't have enough to eat.
Lin Liangjun has seen this wooden box many times. It is the last legacy left by their mother who passed away.
Lin Mojun touched the wooden box and said, "I heard there was a big victory today?"
"Sister! Big victory! Brother Aze is so awesome. He beat those arhats to their knees and cried for their fathers!"
Lin Mojun smiled and touched the box. Lin Liangjun's head said:
"You guys have a good time. The fine for this fight with weapons is a lot of money. The ancestral hall has no money."
Lin Mojun said again: "The fight with weapons this time is to fight for the reed fields for the Changning Guards. The guards can't Now I have to pay the fine, and as a hundred households, I have to make some contribution."
"Mother left it to your sister, and left it for you to marry a wife. Just take my share and pay the fine. Come on."
Little Carrot Head hugged the wooden box and said, "Don't pawn it! This is the last thing our mother left!"
Lin Mojun was naturally much stronger than Little Carrot Head, but she was not in the mood either. He and his brother grabbed the box and just sat on the bed in a daze.
"Sister! I'm going to find Brother Aze! He is a scholar, he must have a way!"
"You can't do it!" After saying this, Lin Mojun rushed out of the Baihu House and ran towards the ancestral hall.
The banquet in front of the ancestral hall had dispersed, and Su Ze had taken Lin Cainiang back to the ancestral hall to rest. Hearing a knock on the door, he opened it and saw Lin Liangjun with tears on his face.
"I was beaten by your brother again?"
He was fine when we left the table, but why did he cry like this all of a sudden.
Lin Liangjun pulled Su Ze and said, "Brother Aze, can you get money?"
"Get money? Who do you owe money to?"
Lin Liangjun gritted his teeth and said, "It's not me, it's a matter of fines for fighting. ."
Only then did Su Ze react, thinking of the sad look that flashed across his face when he handed the county government documents to his grandfather.
"Has the Wei Institute become so poor?"
Lin Liangjun pointed to the front hall of the family temple and said, "The statue of the third master empress of our former Chang Ning Wei was gilded."
Su Ze thought of the tattered mud statue now. The statue couldn't help but become silent.
Lin Liangjun pulled Su Ze and said: "Brother Aze, you are a scholar, you must have a way."
Su Ze raised his head and asked: "Is it true that the Wei Institute has no income at all?"
Lin Liangjun sighed and said: " When my father was here, I could still get some work from Qianhu, but since my father left, the relationship has stopped." "
What's that work?"
Lin Liangjun said, "Smuggling and selling stolen goods, coastal guards Everyone does this, and as long as they don’t get caught by the court, it’ll be fine.” “
But my brother said that our father died in the hands of these Japanese pirates, and selling stolen goods to them would be a disgrace to our father, so Chang Ning Wei will no longer do these things. ."
Su Ze didn't know whether to admire the integrity of the current Baihu, or to blame her for being too straightforward. The Japanese rebellion in the southeast has not been quelled for a long time, and the corruption of the Coastal Guard Office is also a big reason.
According to Ming historical data, smuggling has been common among coastal guards since the mid-Ming Dynasty, and some guards even used patrol warships for smuggling.
What's more, some officers and soldiers from the guard station came to the shore and went out to sea to become bandits, colluding with Japanese pirates to rob merchant ships.
A health center like Changning Guard is definitely an outlier among the outliers among the southeastern guards.
However, one of the reasons why Changning Guard was able to avoid being dragged into the water was that the place was remote and the Japanese pirates simply looked down upon smuggling and selling stolen goods here.
Speaking of selling stolen goods, Su Ze asked, "Is there an underground black market near Changningwei?"
"Underground black market? Are you talking about the ghost market?"
It opens at night and closes during the day, just like a market open to ghosts.
Only then did Su Ze remember the name of the ghost market. This was the underground black market with the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty.
Merchants have to pay gate tax when their goods enter the city, and they have to pay store tax and stall tax in the city's markets. They may even be caught by tax collectors to pay special taxes such as irrelevant mineral taxes.
If merchants are unwilling to enter the city, they will find a black market outside the city to sell their goods, which forms a ghost market.
In the ghost market, there are not only legal goods, but also stolen goods stolen by Japanese pirates and then sold, and there are also some goods with shady origins, which will be traded in the ghost market.
In fact, Su Ze was also thinking about ways to make money. He said to Lin Liangjun: "Is the ghost market open today?"
Lin Liangjun clapped his fingers and said: "Yes! The ghost market is open at the end of every tenth day of the month, and today is the end of tenth day." !"
"Take me to the ghost market to see if there is any way to make money."
(End of chapter)