21. Anti-Book

The news of the burying of the hatchet with the Lu brothers soon reached the ears of the two masters of the Lu family.

The winter sun was warm.

Lu Taiheng, the old man, sat on a recliner basking in the sun. There were some snacks on a small stool nearby. He squinted his eyes and listened to his two grandsons. He put his lips to the pipe of the hookah and blew out the ash with a puff.

He knocked on the soft satin shoes with thousand-layer soles, with a skillful movement.

He slowly twisted the bright yellow and soft tobacco into the pipe, blew the fire paper with a puff, and two streams of thick smoke came out of his nostrils. He said: "This is the result of Mr. Xu's teaching. You see, the boy who didn't know the etiquette before has done so well now. It's inseparable from Mr. Xu's teaching. You will bring two boxes of high-quality snacks and gifts, and prepare some silver and money to send to the ancestral hall for Xu Xiucai."

"Dad? What are you talking about? Snacks are fine, but also silver and money?"

Lu Zilin was reluctant.

He couldn't spend one or two taels, and giving silver and money to Mr. Xu would have to be at least seven or eight taels. Besides, a box of snacks also costs several coins, and now ten taels of silver are wasted.

The money of the rich owner is not wasted like this.

"Huh? What do you know!"

Lu Taiheng snorted, his cloudy eyes revealed an unquestionable look. He waved his hand, asked the two grandsons to leave, and then said slowly: "Giving gifts to Mr. Xu is to show the benevolence of our Lu family! After asking around, I found out that the son of our Lu family's long-term worker followed Xu Xiucai to study. After the long-term worker resigned, he not only did not fall out with the master, but became friends..."

"What does this show? The teacher taught well, and our Lu family is also benevolent! And the children's friendship of borrowing books..."

"So that's it!"

Lu Zilin also understood a little.

Giving gifts to Mr. Xu has become world-famous, making Mr. Xu famous, and similarly, making his Lu family and his two sons famous. With this reputation of benevolence, people will look up to him wherever they go.

Bai Jiaxuan proposed to build a temple, run a school, and subsidize the son of a farmhand to go to school. These things were spread all over the place. Even the county magistrate Gu heard about it. When he was encouraging people to study, he said that many wealthy families should learn from Bai Jiaxuan. His reputation was immediately raised.

Although he followed Bai Jiaxuan and donated money and taxes, who knew him, Lu Zilin, outside of Bailu Village?

Just like the first and second place in the imperial examination, the first one is known to everyone, and the second one is just a parrot!

Now he gave gifts to Xu Xiucai to thank him for his education. Once this matter was publicized, everyone knew that Bailu Village was taught by Xu Xiucai and was a village of benevolence and righteousness. When the matter was spread, the Lu family would also be mentioned...

"In this way, I can suppress Bai Jiaxuan!"

Lu Zilin was a little happy. Buddhas fight for a stick of incense, and people fight for a breath. Bai Jiaxuan's lineage has always been the patriarch of Bailu Village. The last patriarch was Bai Jiaxuan's father Bai Bingde, and the one before that was Bai Bingde's father. It has never been the Lu family's turn...

Bailu Village is divided into two families, Bai and Lu. When the Hu family changed their name, the main family was Bai and the minor family was Lu.

The Lu family has only become rich in the past hundred years.

They are richer than the Bai family, but their status in the village is obviously inferior to that of the Bai family.

"Scared! It's not just that! You have to know that the county exam is not anonymous. If a good reputation is heard by the county magistrate, do you think the county magistrate will look at it more favorably when judging the papers?"

Lu Taiheng blew out a smoke ring and sneered.

He also participated in the imperial examination and was familiar with the traps of the county exam. During the county exam, the admission quota was secretly set at fifty taels of silver, but in order to show fairness, the county magistrate often set a small number of bribes, less than ten people.

These ten places will not be allocated to the Lu family.

But there are only so many candidates for the county exam in Zishui County. Under the same exam papers, famous candidates will definitely be at the top, while unknown candidates will be at the bottom...

"Besides, do you want Zhao Peng and Zhao Hai to be inferior to the Bai brothers for the rest of their lives?"

Lu Taiheng said faintly.

"Dad, I'll get ready now!"

When it came to this, Lu Zilin immediately became excited. He wanted to suppress Bai Jiaxuan all his life, but it was difficult. After a long time, he no longer had the competitive spirit.

But it's not okay to let his two sons be inferior to the Bai brothers!

Just now, when Old Master Lu mentioned the county exam, it reminded him of Mr. Zhu, who was the headmaster of Bailu Academy in the county and Bai Jiaxuan's brother-in-law.

Although Mr. Zhu didn't seem to be a person who would show favoritism, it was hard to say.

Even if he didn't push the county magistrate, the county magistrate would look at Mr. Zhu's face and think that as long as the essay was not bad, the county exam would basically pass.

…

A few days have passed.

Bai Gui and Bai Youde also moved to a new house, which is an old house at the east end of the village.

Bai Youde was not a tenant or farmhand at the beginning.

From the eleventh year of Tongzhi to the twelfth year of Tongzhi, there was a severe drought in the north, which affected most of Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, and Qin provinces. The entire Yellow River basin was almost affected by drought, and even affected the Yangtze River basin. By the fifth year of Guangxu, according to statistics, the number of victims who died of hunger reached more than 13 million.

Bai Youde's father couldn't stand the hunger, so he sold several acres of dry slopes and three acres of paddy fields to the Lu family, and signed a contract with the Lu family, requiring him to hire the Bai family as a farmhand for life and not to terminate the contract without authorization. The Lu family agreed to this contract because they were jealous of the Bai family's three acres of paddy fields, which were excellent farmland and could be connected to the Lu family's more than 40 acres of paddy fields along the river.

Long-term labor is a semi-binding personal relationship. Some masters are good and eat much better than self-cultivating farmers.

However, Grandpa Bai Gui at that time was not an unworthy descendant who sold all the land.

Instead, most of the land sold to the Lu family adopted the permanent tenancy system.

The so-called permanent tenancy system means that there are two owners for one field, and the ownership and use rights of the land are permanently separated. The land is divided into two parts: the bottom of the field and the surface of the field. The landlord owns the bottom of the field and his power is to collect rent from the tenant. The tenant owns the surface of the field and his power is to use the land permanently.

The land was sold, but not completely sold...

While Zhou Yuan was heating rice on the stove, he saw that there was no one around, closed the door, took out a few books from his arms mysteriously, and said to Bai Gui with excitement: "Brother Bai, I went back home for vacation a few days ago, and asked the servants at home to collect some new current affairs in Xi'an City, you see..."

After Bai Gui said that the situation had changed dramatically in three thousand years, Zhou Yuan felt that he was shallow-minded, so after the wolf disaster subsided for a while, he went back home for vacation at noon and asked the servants to collect some current affairs articles.

"Really?"

Bai Gui held a steamed bun, which was made with white sugar and some lard. It was much more delicious than the previous steamed buns, fragrant and sweet.

After moving to a new home, he didn't want to wrong himself.

He walked to Zhou Yuan's side and flipped through a few of them. Most of these so-called current affairs articles were compiled by newspapers in the south, which compiled some recent major events into books. There were "Zhongwai Jiwen", "Qiushi Bao", "Hushi Xinbao", "Shiwu Bao" and so on.

This kind of newspaper compilation and sales in books is rare in modern times.

However, the north and the south are almost two worlds now. The north is closed to information, and the Qing court deliberately curbs people's minds to prevent them from changing. Therefore, there are very few newspapers in the north and very few first-hand news materials. It is profitable to compile news into books, and it is reasonable to sell them.

"Wait, is this "Half Crying and Half Laughing Tower Poetry Collection"? "

Bai Gui flipped through it, and when he saw a collection of poems, he was shocked. This is a complete anti-poem, and the author is signed as the owner of Half Crying and Half Laughing Tower.

This is different from Li Shoumin, the owner of Huanzhu Tower who wrote fairy tales.

Very few people know the author's real name, but Bai Gui has heard of it, probably because this calligrapher is really famous in later generations. The words "Don't urinate anywhere" written in the toilet were taken away and treasured. He was a leader of the Tongmenghui and a native of Sanyuan, Qin Province. His original name was Yu Boxun, also known as Yu Youren. Later, he rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and said, "If it weren't for Guan Zhong, we would have loose hair and left-side lapel." He changed his name from then on to wear Chinese clothes with right-side lapel.