In Zuo Zongtang's study, Xiao Yungui tasted the Great Red Painting of Wuyi Mountain. Zuo Zongtang was accompanying him, and smiled and asked, "What does the King of Western thought about this tea?"

Xiao Yungui nodded and said, "This Wuyi Mountain Dahongpao is one of the top ten famous teas. Originally, it is a tribute tea. It can make you drink it brighter and more thoughtful, refresh your mind, and bring you good tea."

Zuo Zongtang stroked his beard and said, "No, but can the King of the West know how to pick this tea?"

Xiao Yungui was puzzled that he was here to ask Zuo Zongtang how to deal with those town officials tomorrow, but he was talking to him about what tea he had and shook his head immediately.

Zuo Zongtang said: "When picking this tea, you must burn incense to worship the sky, and then let the monkey wear red vests and climb onto the tea tree on the cliff to pick tea leaves. Therefore, in Cantonese, this kind of monkey tea is also called monkey sauerk. Because of the rare quantity and difficulty in picking, this kind of tea is expensive and rare."

Xiao Yunguiqi said: "What does this have to do with meeting with the township representatives tomorrow?"

Zuo Zongtang said: "The new policy of the King of the West focuses on industry and commerce. This move will inevitably break some old customs among the people. Just like this Dahongpao, it has been hundreds of years since it became a tribute tea in the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty. Does the King of the West think that no one has ever thought about expanding the production?"

Xiao Yungui was slightly stunned and touched his chin and said, "Of course, some people have thought of changing it into a method, promoting Dahongpao widely and increasing the yield. But in this way, the preciousness of this tea cannot be shown."

Zuo Zongtang nodded slightly and said, "Yes, but the production of this tea has always been limited to a certain number of gentry and people from Dahongpao origin." Speaking of this, Zuo Zongtang stood up and pointed to the Sufu Provincial map hanging on the wall and said, "The gentry and clans, and the common clans have been connected by blood since ancient times, and they have prospered and prospered, and the other ones have lost. For example, my Zuo family also has clan laws. Within the clan, individuals must protect the interests of their own clans, and the clans in turn protect their personal interests. Dahongpao is rare, so the price is expensive and precious. The local clans also intend to spread this product to ensure that this tea is unique to the minority clans."

Xiao Yunguiqi said: "This Wuyi Mountain is far away in Fujian, and Fujian is still under the rule of Qing Yao. What is the connection with our new policy in Su Fu Province?"

Zuo Zongtang smiled faintly and said, "What if we take down Fujian in the future? In terms of the new policy of Xiwang, protecting industry and commerce means that all kinds of department stores can be used as goods. The high price of Dahongpao will inevitably attract the covetousness of merchants, and the local clans are not out of the box. It will inevitably attract disputes. This is just an example given by Zuo. In order to protect their own interests, the clans will inevitably oppose the new policy. The countryside tribes have a long history, and equalizing the land will touch the interests of the clan, just as the output of Dahongpao has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. The clan forces still hope to implement the old laws as before."

Xiao Yungui frowned and said, "But the Zuo Prime Minister. The times are progressing. Take Dahongpao as an example. This tea is precious. In order to obtain a large amount, foreigners came from across the ocean. In front of them, there were many British foreign companies hiring Chinese compradors to go deep into Wuyi Mountain to buy this tea. Driven by heavy profits, I think those clan forces will also think of reforms to make Dahongpao more productive."

Zuo Zongtang smiled and said, "The Western King said this to the point. Although our equal-field system has many preferential policies, it only lacks the policies to appease the clan forces. If the new policy is to be promoted, it must be profit-for-profit, so that all the gentry and the people can see that there will be greater benefits after the new policy. If there is no profit, who will follow?"

Xiao Yungui frowned and said, "But the new policy of equalizing the fields is to benefit the people, but we are converting the interests of a few people into the interests of the majority, which is the word equal. The new policy cannot take care of every class and every person."

Zuo Zongtang nodded and said, "Yes, our new policy cannot take care of everything, but the clan forces at this moment are still a huge force in the countryside. They are different from ordinary local tyrants and evil gentry. We should treat them differently."

Xiao Yungui nodded thoughtfully, and Zuo Zongtang continued: "Although the clan's fields also have a large amount of land and are not allowed to be cultivated by people from other families, the Western King can issue another new order to supplement the clan's fields. The clan's fields should not be deserted and must be cultivated by people. For those who have no one to cultivate for more than three months, the township officials have the obligation to summon people to cultivate. At the same time, they are told that if the clans rent the clans to plant the clan's fields, the grain tax they pay can be reduced by 30%.

"As for the patriarch's inheritance, we can slowly change it and continue to implement the elective system of township officials. If the clan leader commits a crime, oppresses the people, or deals with unfair things, he can give up his power of township officials. The right to educate and transform is easier to handle. Although the new school has begun to be promoted, it has not been able to go to the countryside for the time being. The education and transformation can be followed by the old rules. However, if you want to participate in the imperial examination in our heaven, you must enter the new school." Zuo Zongtang said slowly.

Hearing this, Xiao Yungui slapped his thigh and said, "Yes, the Zuo Prime Minister is right. We can set up township officials in the countryside. In addition to being responsible for resolving rural clan affairs, we will send some township officials to the countryside to guide township officials to handle clan economic disputes, public security affairs, and civil disputes. In short, some of the power of the clan is slowly brought back to the township officials. After more than ten years, the power of the clan will always fade. At the same time, the township officials will become a bridge for the county magistrate to control the countryside, and there will be no situation like the Qing Dynasty that is inferior to the township."

Following Xiao Yungui, he rubbed his hands and said, "There is also the new policy that touches the interests of some clan forces. You can also dismantle the interests of the clan by dividing the interests of the interests and continue to implement the new policy."

Zuo Zongtang smiled and nodded and said, "Yes, that's right. Although the township officials we will meet tomorrow represent different clans and have different requirements, as long as we have a general policy, we will know how to break it."

Xiao Yungui laughed and followed Zuo Zongtang to take out some official documents from the township officials from various places, and classified the difficult matters encountered in implementing the new policy in the countryside. The two of them discussed in detail one by one and gave specific solutions. The discussion lasted overnight...

Chen Tian had been waiting in the side hall of Xiwang Mansion for more than an hour. He was a township official in Dahe Township, Zuowang Town, Hangzhou. He was a brigade commander and should have the 500 rural people. Under his rule, most of them were the Chen family, namely the Chen clan. When the Taiping Army attacked Suzhou and Hangzhou last year, the Qing army fought in the countryside and plundered and donated Dahe Township. Chen Tian's father, the old leader of the Chen clan, was forced to donate a large sum of silver by the Qing army. The old man was old and could not withstand the threat. He died after a serious illness.

Chen Tian then inherited his father's position as patriarch. He deeply hated the Qing army forcing his father to death. After the Taiping Army captured Suhang, he took advantage of the Taiping Army's army to surrender to Taiping and was appointed as a village chief by the people of the countryside. Chen Tian was grateful to the Taiping Army for avenging him, so he became a township official and actively cooperated with the Taiping Army to sweep away the township brave men in other townships. Those township brave men were the minions of Qing demons, and even often occupied the power of Qing demons to invade the Chen family's tribe and mountain fields. Chen Tian once brought the Chen family's youth and strong men to work with them several times, but others had the support of the Qing demons, and the Chen family always suffered a loss. When the Taiping Army came, Chen Tian naturally led the Taiping Army to clean up the minions of the government, and he became the first batch of Taiping Army's township officials.

After the Taiping Army cleared the countryside, it left a batch of weapons to the Chen clan, and even more than ten combs. Chen Tian relied on several generals left by the Taiping Army to establish a team of soldiers in Dahe Township. He usually farmed and trained, and when there was a war, he cooperated with the main force of the Taiping Army to fight the dogs.

After several months, by the end of last year, the remaining Qing demon forces in the countryside were almost wiped out. Chen Tian also participated in several searches, searching for the remnants of the Qing army who fled to the countryside, and also received several rewards.

After the arrival of the Taiping Army, it was not like the Qing Yao's previous legend. Everything was donated to the Holy Cuthouse, men and women divided the camps, and what was believed in foreign religions. The leaders of several village soldiers were all old men of the Taiping Army. Only two of them were religious, and the others worshiped Bodhisattvas, and they did not force the people to convert. As for the Holy Cuthouse, there was, but in Chen Tian's view, it was just a tribe property. Except for the public grain and land tax that he had to pay, the rest were tribe property, and there was no difference. As for the division of men and women between men and women, it was even more invisible. The leader of the Taiping Army told Chen Tian that unless the male and female soldiers joined the Taiping Army, there would be a matter of men and women divided the camps. Chen Tian understood very well that the soldiers and horses in war were of course divided by men and women. When did he hear that men and women were in the first battalion? It is not easy to purify military discipline.

Just when Chen Tian thought that the Taiping Army had arrived, there was no government bullying and a good life would pass, the Taiping Army suddenly launched a new policy. The most important influence on the Chen clan was the equal-field system. The Chen clan's tribe had as many as thousands of acres of land. Because it was the clan's property, there were no land deeds. It was just that the family divided the number of land. When the Qing court was there, it only registered the number of land in Dahe Township, and asked the Chen clan to pay grain according to the number of land. The many levies and miscellaneous taxes made Chen Tian very troubled.

After the Taiping Army issued the new policy, the number of fields was also verified, but because the clan land had no land contract, it was included in the target of equalizing the fields, which meant that Chen Tian had to share the family land with more than 500 households under his jurisdiction. The Chen clans who were originally assigned to the fields were fine, but it was nothing more than redistribution of land. But what made Chen Tian unwilling to be willing to divide the family land with more than 100 households of foreigners. Now the Chen clan has stopped doing it, so why should the land left by the ancestors to everyone to the tenants of foreigners?

In addition, Dahe Township produces a large amount of silk, and many households of the Chen clan make a living by weaving cloth. This new policy has heard that the Taiping Military Officer will set up a textile factory. Originally, the cloth in Dahe Township was already struggling to get a hard time due to the impact of foreign cloth from Shanghai, and it could not be sold at a high price. If the textile factory run by the government rises again, many households in Dahe Township who make a living by weaving cloth will probably go bankrupt.

Other things that have issued sufficient orders and paid heavy taxes to marry a concubine are also a headache for Chen Tian. For these orders, the county masters are pressuring them above, but the people are opposing them below, making Chen Tian worry-free every day to deal with these disputes. This time, he was elected by several surrounding township officials as representatives, and came to Suzhou to meet the Western King Chen Qing, hoping to change some orders.

When Chen Tian came, he came with the belief that he would die. He always beat thirty thrones first when he saw an official, let alone a prince? Chen Tian arrived in Suzhou tremblingly, but he didn't expect that there were many township officials who came with the same purpose as him, so he felt relieved. The King of Western powers could not kill everyone. (To be continued, please search for Astronomy, novels are better and faster!
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