White-robed Minister

0033 [Yang Shu's Visit]

The county exams are over, and then it's the Little New Year.

The state school entrance exam will be held after the Lantern Festival.

In fact, county exams should also be scheduled in the first month of the lunar calendar, but for counties that are far from the prefectural capital, the exam time is usually moved forward as appropriate.

The high-speed train from Qingyuan to Guangzhou takes only half an hour, but in ancient times, it would have taken two whole days to travel by boat. Moreover, boats didn't run every day, and one could spend two or three days waiting at the dock.

Xu Lai returned to his life in the mountain village.

I helped with household chores, read the Analects with Commentary, wrote down my reading notes, and took some time each day to peruse the Rhyme Dictionary of the Ministry of Rites.

Upon learning that Xu Lai might be going to study in Guangzhou, his mother and sister-in-law are making clothes and shoes for him.

The fabric used was freshly woven kudzu cloth, which was used to make short tunics and trousers for spring.

When my sister-in-law went back to her parents' home before, she had passed through the villages outside the mountains and seen scholars wearing traditional Chinese robes. But she didn't dare to look closely, as she didn't know how to sew them. If she sewed something wrong, it would only make Xu Lai a laughingstock at school.

"Third Uncle, Third Uncle, there's something good to eat!" Dou Niang came skipping over.

Xu Lai put down his book and asked with a smile, "What's good to eat?"

Second Brother Xu An carried a bamboo rat: "Second Uncle Chen dug up a nest of bamboo rats, and he specially brought this fattest one to you. He just happened to run into it on the way and gave it to me. He said it was to thank you for taking care of his eldest son."

Chen Dalang was a fellow conscript. That night, he didn't participate in the ambush of the salt bandits, but instead was responsible for bringing Yang Peng back to the village. However, he still received a reward of 600 coins.

After the second brother finished speaking, he went to the kitchen to boil water to scald and scrape the bamboo rat's fur.

The bamboo rat, already killed, was casually tossed under the eaves, while the damselfly squatted beside it, swallowing hard.

She's a little glutton.

Xu Lai's sister-in-law was sewing clothes for him, while his mother was making shoe soles for him, all in preparation for his schooling.

"Woof woof woof!"

The guard dog suddenly started barking wildly; there must be strangers entering the village.

The villagers who lived near the village entrance put down what they were doing, picked up sticks, and ran to check the situation.

"Go away, go away!"

Yang Shu drew two short spears and stomped his feet at the guard dog, scolding it.

He was followed by a follower who was repeatedly striking the ground with a spear.

The first villagers to arrive asked, "Who are you looking for?"

Yang Shu said, "My name is Yang Shu. I went to Guangzhou with Xu Sanlang. I came back from escorting the cargo and wanted to catch up with him."

The villager didn't pull the guard dog away, but turned and shouted, "He's surnamed Yang, looking for Xu Sanlang!"

Immediately, villagers joined in, shouting, "His surname is Yang, he's looking for Xu Sanlang!"

Xu Lai quickly ran to the village entrance, kicked the guard dog away with two feints, and laughed, "Brother Jie, you've come at just the right time. We'll have some wild game to eat today. Come and sit at my house."

As Yang Shu walked, he said, "The dogs in your village are fierce."

"The king of dogs in the mountains, used specifically to guard the village," Xu Lai said, turning to his entourage. "This brother seems familiar?"

Yang Shu introduced, "I invited a clansman named Yang Huan, who is the eleventh in his clan, to help with the transport. He is a stonemason and very strong. Yang Huan was also present when we first met."

Xu Lai clasped his hands in greeting and said, "So it's Yang Shiyilang. Greetings."

"You're too kind, Xu Sanlang," Yang Huan replied.

The three of them walked and talked.

Yang Shu smiled and said, "My eleventh brother is also educated."

Yang Huan shook his head repeatedly: "I only studied at the clan school for two years. Once I could write and do math, I stopped studying. My family was poor and couldn't afford to continue. The two years at the clan school were free."

Family-run two-year compulsory education?

Xu Lai found it quite interesting and casually inquired about the Yang family's clan school.

Yang Shu explained, "Our Yang clan school was founded more than 20 years ago. Any member of the Yang clan can study there for free for two years, but they need to bring their own writing materials."

These educational conditions are already quite good. Even if they don't produce any scholars or officials who pass the imperial examinations, they can still improve the overall literacy rate of the family.

They hadn't walked far when their parents, sister-in-law, and Bean Sprout came to greet them.

Xu Lai quickly introduced them, and the two exchanged greetings.

The whole family got busy, and soon there was a crowing of a rooster, and a castrated rooster was killed to serve to the guests.

Yang Shu looked around the house and the house, and realized that Xu Lai's family was poorer than he had imagined.

Even the clothes Xu Lai was wearing today were not the ones the magistrate had given him; they were covered in patches, suggesting he usually couldn't bear to wear nice clothes.

"Your name is Dou Niang, right?"

Yang Shu pulled out a bag of snacks: "Here, have some sugar rings, they have honey in them."

The damselfly hid behind Xu Lai, peeking out with half its head.

Xu Lai smiled and gently patted his niece's head: "Go and thank Uncle Thirteen."

Then the damsel stepped forward and said timidly, "Thank you, Uncle Thirteen."

The father brought out two long benches and placed them in the courtyard for the guests to sit on.

Mother poured two more bowls of cooled boiled water.

Perhaps to prevent miasma, by the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, even the common people in many places in Jiangnan and Lingnan knew not to drink raw water.

In Lingnan, the prototype of herbal tea had already appeared, and the government even inscribed the recipe on major transportation routes.

Yang Shu thanked him, took the cool boiled water, and asked, "How did the county exam go?"

Xu Lai was both amused and exasperated: "The two questions Magistrate Shen set were simply absurd. He asked the candidates to praise his educational achievements by asking them to protect the maritime trade."

Yang Shu was taken aback, then chuckled: "I took the exam twice before entering the prefectural school, and I've never encountered a question like this before. If the magistrate of Nanhai County dared to set such a question, he would surely become a laughing stock in Guangzhou's officialdom."

"Qingyuan County is quite far from Guangzhou," Xu Lai said.

Guangzhou administers six counties, and Qingyuan County is the second most remote. The first one is Huaiji County, a truly impoverished and remote area.

Yang Shu asked, "Did you pass, my brother?"

Xu Lai nodded: "I should have passed. I didn't check the list, so I don't know what place I am."

"Hahaha," Yang Shu laughed heartily upon hearing this, "My dear brother is indeed confident, he doesn't even look at the results of the county examination."

Xu Lai said, "Brother Jie, you seem so happy, the task of escorting the goods must have gone smoothly, right?"

Yang Shu said in a low voice, "The angel was on our ship, how could we dare to have any trouble? Along the way, the officials of various prefectures and counties dared not neglect us and took the initiative to provide manpower and supplies. In particular, when we abandoned ship and crossed the Dayu Mountains, the prefect of Nanxiong even sent a detachment of local soldiers to escort us."

"It seems that eunuchs are still quite effective," Xu Lai said with a smile.

"Alas, what a pity for the Luo family," Yang Shu couldn't help but sigh. "The Luo family was considered a prominent clan in Dongguan. I heard they offended the Dongguan magistrate... The three of them, father and sons, were escorting salt shipments together. Not only did they all die at the hands of salt bandits, but they also had to compensate for all the lost shipments. Even if they sold all their hundreds of acres of land, they still couldn't afford to pay for it!"

Xu Lai couldn't help but sigh, "He really is a county magistrate who ruins his family."

Yang Shu said, "It's not just the county magistrate. Guangzhou has six counties under its jurisdiction, and every year dozens of households are required to pay taxes. The county magistrate can only decide which households to pay taxes to under his jurisdiction, and the specific jobs are assigned when they arrive at the prefecture. My family secretly paid money, and we were originally assigned to guard the warehouse of the Maritime Trade Office, but because I got into trouble while drinking, we were changed to escorting the cargo."

"Didn't the Luo family spend enough money?" Xu Lai asked.

Yang Shu nodded: "It wasn't enough at first, and it was too late to add more money later."

The yamen runners were indeed harmful, but they only harmed the upper-class households and it was difficult to shift the burden to the lower-class households.

Even with Wang Anshi's later reforms, the corvée service system could not be completely abolished. Due to historical issues, the exemption law was a hodgepodge during its promulgation and its implementation was even more of a mess.

As they chatted, Yang Shu took out a silver ingot: "My family sold nearly a hundred acres of land to pay for the salt transport duties. Although we encountered salt bandits, the latter half went very smoothly, saving us a lot of money. My brother is going to the prefectural school, and there will be many expenses, so this ten taels of silver..."

"I can't take this silver ingot; it's the money from my brother's family selling land," Xu Lai quickly interrupted.

Yang Shu forced the money into Xu Lai's hand, saying, "If it weren't for your help, brother, this money would have been gone long ago. Besides, the land has already been sold, and money can't buy it back."

Land prices in ancient times were not as high as one might imagine.

Most of the time, people have money but can't buy good land because it's already been occupied and passed down through generations, with no one willing to sell.

That's why all sorts of dirty tricks are used to force landowners to sell their properties, thereby achieving the goal of merging land holdings.

Xu Lai stood up respectfully and presented the silver ingot with both hands: "A gentleman loves wealth, but he acquires it in a proper way. If your family is indeed wealthy, I will gladly accept the gift. But this is money from the sale of your land, and I cannot take it for myself, neither morally nor logically."

Yang Shu's family was indeed a first-class household, but they only had four or five hundred acres of land, and it was quite expensive to support his education.

The bailiffs bled twice during this incident.

He once bribed an official with money to arrange for his family to guard the treasury of the Maritime Trade Office.

One task was to change the route to escorting boats, recruiting brave men, purchasing weapons, paying wages to boatmen and laborers, and covering the cost of food along the way.

In order to raise money, his family's farmland was reduced by one-fifth!

It's estimated that the brothers Yang Xun and Yang Shu didn't have much cash left. This is because they had secretly bribed a eunuch to secure Yang Xun a military officer position.

Xu Lai held the silver ingot in both hands and stood there motionless.

Yang Shu solemnly retracted his statement: "It was my fault; I have humiliated my virtuous brother."

He regretted mentioning that his family had sold their land, realizing how naive he had been and how much he still needed to learn.

"Haha, don't say that," Xu Lai laughed and put his arm around Yang Shu's shoulder. "Come on, come on, let's go see my reading notes. I've already written more than twenty pages, and I've named it 'A Preliminary Discussion of the Analects'."

Yang Shu then smiled and said, "Then I will go and read your masterpiece, my worthy brother!"

The two entered the house hand in hand.

Yang Huan wasn't interested in reading; he sat in the courtyard admiring the scenery.

The second brother had already boiled water to scald the bamboo rat's skin, and he and his sister-in-law were scalding the chicken that had just been killed.

They witnessed the entire incident.

Tian Chunlan asked in a low voice, "How much is ten taels of silver worth?"

Xu An shook his head: "I don't know."

"It must be worth several strings of cash, right?" Tian Chunlan asked again.

Xu An shook his head again: "I don't know."

Tian Chunlan said, "Sanlang is a bit silly."

"He did the right thing," Xu An said, tugging at the chicken feathers. "That's money from selling someone's land. You can't take it; you'll be punished if you do."

Although Tian Chunlan felt sorry for him, she nodded and said, "That's true."

-

(Note: During the Jiayou era, the best land in Guangdong was worth more than two strings of cash per mu, with the most expensive selling for five or six strings. The price of medium-grade land was about one or two strings. The price of inferior land was less than one string, and sometimes three or four hundred coins could buy one mu.)