Chapter 223 The First Supporter...

Chapter 223 The First Supporter...

On the same morning that Prime Minister Xu's posthumous title was decided, a decree reforming the grain tax was also issued. The decree stated: In order to continue the equal-field system, starting this year, the court ordered a thorough investigation of households' land holdings. Within three years, those with more than a certain amount of land could sell or give it away without being investigated; those with more than a certain amount of land after three years would be sentenced to three years of penal servitude and would also have to pay ten years' worth of grain tax in lieu of payment, based on a per-mu tax rate.

The two emperors set a three-year timeframe for this pretext: within three years, households with excessive land holdings could sell their illegally acquired land without facing criminal charges. This also provided Du Min and the officials of various prefectures and counties with a way out, allowing them to avoid direct confrontation with landlords and gentry for three years and preventing the escalation of conflicts.

After receiving the news, Du Min left Luoyang with Meng Qing and Du Li and headed back home.

Fearing trouble on the road, Du Li hired a team of bodyguards to escort him, and they arrived safely in Heqing County before dark, into Magistrate Sun's territory.

After checking into the Heqing County post station, Meng Qing, Du Li, and their companions had just finished eating when a courier reported that a man claiming to be the younger brother of the Lady of the County was outside the post station.

"Meng Chun?" Meng Qing hurried out and saw the figure outside the door. She was overjoyed: "Little brother, it really is you! What are you doing in Heqing County? When did you come back?"

“It’s been almost half a month since I landed in Luoyang,” Meng Chun replied. “Sister, you’ve been granted the title of Lady of the County? I told the postmaster that my sister was the Lady of Wu County, but he wanted to send me away, saying that there is no Lady of Wu County, only Lady of Wu County.”

“Yes, it happened a few days ago.” Meng Qing walked to Meng Chun’s side and said, “Come on, let’s go inside and talk.”

“Brother Chun, it really is you.” Du Li also came out. “You really don’t stop when we talk about you. We’ve been mentioning you every day for the past few days, and you finally showed up today.”

"Brother-in-law, it's been a long time." Meng Chun stepped forward and hugged him, then stepped back and punched him lightly. "It's been three years, and you haven't aged a bit."

"Come on, let's go inside and talk." Du Li didn't dare to reply. After three years, Meng Chun had changed a lot. Not only was his face weathered, but his voice had also changed, no longer as clear as it had been three years ago.

Du Min stood in the corridor and saw three figures enter. He greeted them, "Meng Chun, you're lucky too. You've come back at just the right time."

"Brother Du," Meng Chun called out.

As he approached, Du Min reached out and patted Meng Chun on the shoulder. "Meng Chun, your chance to take off your hempen clothes has come."

After years of waiting, Meng Chun was so excited that his hands trembled. He clenched his fists tightly and said with a smile, "Thank you, Brother Du, for taking care of everything for me."

"It's thanks to your sister," Du Min said truthfully.

"It's getting dark, let's go inside and talk," Du Li reminded them.

The four entered the house and returned to the dining table. Meng Qing asked again, "Little brother, you said you've been in Luoyang for almost half a month. Have you already gone back?"

"Yes, I arrived in Hanoi County on the evening of March 28th. I learned that you were all in Luoyang, so I left home the next day to find you. About half an hour ago, I took an oxcart to Heqing County. When I checked into the inn, the innkeeper mentioned that their previous magistrate was in Heqing County. After inquiring, I came here." Meng Chun recounted the events.

"What urgent matter do you need us for?" Du Min asked.

Meng Chun was embarrassed to say that he was worried about his household registration, so he made an excuse: "I came back with Wang Bushang, Li Bushang and Lü Bushang and others. They probably sensed something and kept asking me to help them plead their case, hoping to find a way out like me. I was worried that if I stayed in Hanoi County, I would be entangled again, so I had to sneak away."

Du Min suppressed his excitement and waited for him to finish speaking. He clapped his hands excitedly, "It's like a pillow being delivered when you're sleepy! Where are they? Are they still in Hanoi County? Meng Chun, they've taken good care of you these past three years, haven't they? I'll give you a chance to repay their kindness."

"The two sages issued a decree yesterday, ordering the court to investigate households and land ownership, and to support merchants in redeeming land from gentry, landlords, and official families and giving it to the government, which will then allocate land to landless or land-poor men," Meng Qing continued. "Those who redeem 400 hectares of land will have their descendants receive a place to study at the Imperial Academy; those who redeem 500 hectares will be allowed to wear silk; and those who redeem 600 hectares will be allowed to wear silk and ride in a horse-drawn carriage."

"My ledger only shows a little over 136,000 strings of cash. I've sold a paper mill, three dye houses, and thirteen paper horse shops, which should have brought in about 100,000 strings." Meng Chun hesitated. Adding the shipload of silk he'd shipped to Luoyang, he could barely scrape together 300,000 strings. But that shipload included the 30,000 strings he'd returned to his sister, and the 30,000 strings he'd given her under this pretext. Once he could no longer make money through business, he'd have no excuse to give her any more money.

"Wait, there's only one spot for studying at the Imperial Academy? And it's for descendants? What about the others? I can't change my household registration, right?" Meng Chun realized.

“Yes, the female sage supported merchants redeeming their land in order to alleviate the conflict between people and land. She determined that once merchants were freed from their merchant status, they would become large landowners, which would exacerbate the situation of farmers losing their land. This was not in line with her original intention, so she refused to allow merchants to be freed from their merchant status,” Meng Qing explained. “Not only that, there were also requirements for the number of places available for studying at the Imperial Academy. When the places were awarded, the age of the students could not exceed five years old.”

"This..." Meng Chun didn't know whether to be sad or happy. He would continue his business, and his sister could spend money and enjoy life openly and honestly. But there was only one spot to study at the Imperial Academy, which meant that if his generation didn't have only one son, his children and grandchildren would inevitably follow in his footsteps.

“One son goes to study at the Imperial Academy, while the other goes into business. If the one who studies doesn’t amount to anything, that’s fine. But if he does, it’s inevitable that the brothers will fall out. I, as the father, will also be blamed for being biased.” Meng Chun smiled bitterly. “The female sage is brilliant. In less than two generations, the family split up. The businessmen are unwilling to support the officials, and the officials are unwilling to have anything to do with the businessmen anymore.”

Meng Qing and Du Min dared not speak. They were the ones who came up with the idea, but they hadn't considered this aspect at the time; they were only thinking about bringing this grand plan to fruition.

“Your sister asked the female saint for an extra reward. As the first person to implement the decree, she can wear silk and ride in a carriage,” Du Min said. “It’s okay if your family’s wealth is not enough to redeem six hundred acres of land. Even if you can only redeem four hundred acres of land, you can still wear silk and ride in a carriage.”

"There are over 130,000 strings of cash in the account. The paper mill, dye house, and paper horse shop are worth about 100,000 strings of cash in total. I also brought back a ship of Wu silk. If I sell it all, I can get more than 65,000 strings of cash." Meng Chun confessed everything. "The ship of silk was for my sister, including principal and interest."

"You earn so much? I thought you were doing well with a fortune of two hundred thousand guan." Meng Qing was surprised. "You must have suffered a lot, right?"

“Three years ago, I brought back tens of thousands of strings of cash. The paper horse shop in Wu County earned more than 20,000 strings of cash in two or three years. The total capital was quite substantial.” Meng Chun did not mention the hardships he had endured. He smiled and said, “I was just a little busy, but I didn’t suffer much. In the business world, the names of the Lady of Wu County and Chief Secretary Du are invincible. Later, Third Brother Du was promoted to Prefect, and your name became even more effective in Suzhou.”

"What do you plan to do? Sell your property to raise 300,000 strings of cash?" Du Min asked, worried that Meng Qing might show favoritism to his own brother. He reminded her, "Second sister-in-law, you said in front of the Emperor that you would have Meng Chun donate all his family property. If you can't keep your word, I'm afraid some officials will impeach you."

“I’ll donate it all. I can’t let it affect my sister.” Meng Chun made her choice immediately. “My parents still own shops, so I can still come back and do business… Sister, are the properties under our parents’ names considered my family property?”

"I suppose so," Du Min answered for him. "You haven't separated your family."

"I won't be the first to implement the government's orders. I'll just raise 300,000 strings of cash." Meng Qing made the decision. "I'll give up this spot and find Wang the cloth merchant to buy my younger brother's paper mill. My younger brother can buy it back later."

Du Min realized that this was buying a paper mill for 100,000 strings of cash. If the paper mill was worth 60,000 strings of cash, Wang Bu would earn 40,000 strings of cash, and Meng Chun would recoup his investment of 60,000 strings of cash.

The female saint bestowed an extra reward worth 100,000 strings of cash.

"This extra reward was clearly given to you by the female saint because of your reputation. If you resell it, won't that enrage the saint?" Du Min is currently counting on the saint to save his life and promote him, and he doesn't want anything to go wrong.

“No need, don’t bother, it’s not worth it.” Meng Chun made a decision. “I don’t plan to go back to Jiangnan anymore. It takes three or four months to go back and forth, which is too tiring. The paper mill will still be a problem if it stays in Yangzhou. According to my sister, if we raise 300,000 strings of cash to donate, we can also get the title of the first person to implement government orders. Maybe the Empress Dowager will be happy and remove me from the list of registered officials.”

Meng Qing was unwilling to accept it. She glared at Du Min, then at Meng Chun, and asked, "How did you manage to make so much money?"

"Isn't this a good thing?" Meng Chun laughed. "Sister, don't feel like you've lost out. We didn't lose the shops under our parents' names, but I have the capital to earn the money back. It's just that I'll have to pay you back in two years."

Meng Qing waved her hand, "I don't lack money, nor do I lack the pretext to use money."

Her younger brother can't give her money, but her parents can.

When Du Min saw that they had reached an agreement, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. This was tantamount to accepting a bribe, and he was afraid that this evidence would become a hidden arrow that would bring him down in the future.

"I'll go to Luoyang tomorrow and first transport a boatload of silk to Huaizhou to make an initial donation... No, I'll turn back tomorrow to find Wang and Li, the cloth merchants. I'll mortgage my paper mill, dye house, and paper horse shop to them so they can help me raise 300,000 strings of cash," Meng Chun said. "When they return to Suzhou, I'll go with them, return the money, transfer the ownership of the workshops and shops, and then come back."

Meng Qing nodded, "Little brother, you're getting more and more resourceful."

"I don't need you to make decisions for me anymore, do I?" Meng Chun said with a hint of smugness.

Meng Qing nodded, and said half-jokingly, "I'm a little disappointed that you don't need me anymore."

"That's good, what's there to be disappointed about?" Meng Chun picked up her chopsticks and placed a goose wing on her plate, saying, "After returning to Wu County, I found that when I had to make decisions on everything, it was very mentally taxing and exhausting. Before seeing the results of each decision, I was always on edge. You've been worrying about the Meng family for over thirty years, and you're still worrying about the Du family after you went there. Aren't you tired?"

"You want me too?" Du Min smiled. "I'll also put a piece of meat on my plate for my second sister-in-law, to thank her for taking care of me."

Du Li followed silently, and he also put a piece of goose meat on Meng Qing's plate.

Meng Qing glanced at Meng Chun, and Meng Chun smiled at her.

Meng Qing's eyes were a little swollen, but she forced a smile: "I'm just worrying about my own family, what's so tiring about that?"

“Tiredness doesn’t discriminate between close and distant relatives, it only depends on whether one is willing or not,” Meng Chun argued.

“I won’t go back to Jiangnan anymore. Let’s just travel around Luoyang. We can meet up often then,” Meng Qing said.

Meng Chun nodded; he didn't intend to stay in Jiangnan for long.

The food was reheated twice before the meal was finally finished. After the meal, the four of them chatted for a long time before going back to their respective rooms to sleep.

The next day at dawn, Magistrate Sun came to visit, and Du Min told him about the new decree issued by the imperial court. "Are you planning to just go through the motions, or to implement the decree?"

"I suspect you will forcefully implement this decree, and I am willing to follow in your footsteps." Magistrate Sun had personally witnessed how Du Min cracked down on the extravagant funeral practices. He was daring and ambitious, rising from a seventh-rank official to a fifth-rank official within six years. Who wouldn't be envious of such a rapid promotion? He was also willing to take the gamble. If he missed this opportunity, he would only be able to rely on seniority for future promotions.

“I didn’t misjudge you.” Du Minxin was delighted. “If this is done, I’ll transfer you to work under me.”

"I've been looking forward to this for a long time," Magistrate Sun said happily.

"Lend me ten constables to escort me back to Hanoi County," Du Min requested. "I will send someone to inform you of any developments in Huai Prefecture in the future."

Magistrate Sun realized that he only needed to follow Du Min's lead.

"For the next few days, I will personally guard the Heyang Bridge. Anyone whose whereabouts are suspicious will be sent to the county jail for a few days." Magistrate Sun not only lent out his yamen runners, but also set up a checkpoint for Du Min.

Du Min thanked him solemnly, "Lord Sun, I thank you."

"You're too kind, sir."

After the agreement was reached, Magistrate Sun returned to the county office to dispatch his yamen runners, while Du Min and his party of four, along with the yamen runners and the escort team, left in a carriage.

At Tongfu Inn, the six men who had checked in the previous night settled their bills and left after the carriage departed. However, gazing at the long, imposing procession, they hesitated.

"Are you still going to follow?" someone asked.

"Keep up, or we won't have a good story to tell when we get back."