Gu Shuigen is an old military householder who has lived in Taoyuan (now Siyang) for generations. It is said that his ancestors also have some 50 acres of rice fields that Taizu gave him. The military households do not have to pay the imperial taxes. In addition to collecting two dou and four liters per mu of land for military pay and rations, the other income of the land they cultivate is their own. It sounds like the ancestors' lives are pretty good.

However, the water damage in the two Huaihe River areas was constantly affected, and the population grew, the military households often failed to make ends meet. After several generations, their own fields were finally sold to the military chiefs. By his generation, they had no land at all and had completely become tenants who farmed for the military chiefs.

Some people may ask: The population has grown, why don’t you engage in other professions? Sorry, the household registration system of the Ming Dynasty does not allow it! You are a military household, and your descendants will always be military households. Although the eldest son continues to serve, they are called soldiers, but the second son and other sons are called Yu Ding, which is the soldiers who fill the gap, and they cannot leave the military households at will.

As the population of descendants increased, the fifty acres of land of their ancestors gradually became divided, and each descendant had less and less land and less income. In the end, all military households became tenants.

Sadly, military households cannot leave or engage in other professions, unless you have the ability to pass the imperial examination, or have war, and make military achievements and get promoted. Apart from these two paths, the military households have no hope at all. And these two paths are not easy, so the imperial examination is so easy? Not to mention Jinshi or Juren, you can pass the scholarship and get one in a hundred or even one in a thousand. Relying on military merits? How was the military household in the middle of the Ming Dynasty a rotten? Thousands of people could not defeat dozens of Japanese pirates, so it would be fine if they didn’t go to give up their heads, and they still wanted to make military merits?

A few years ago, the Jiannu of Liaodong rose, and the imperial court selected soldiers from the military households to Liaodong. This was a good opportunity to make meritorious contributions, right? However, in the Battle of Sarhu, nine out of the ten who went to Liaodong lost their lives there and were defeated in a miserable situation. Where did the military achievements come from?

At the end of last year, a rebellion of the White Lotus Sect sect broke out in Shandong, and Gu Shuigen's son was also mobilized. However, the little contribution of the bandit suppression was divided up by superior officers and civil servants, and there was no inch of his contribution to his son. Later, two months ago, Sun Baihu, who was a grain resident in Huai'an, came to the door and said that he would absorb his son to be a salt resident.

Gu Shuigen was naturally overjoyed and went to be a salt diced person. That was a huge news for a military household. But judging from the name, salt diced person is a private salt suppression, but no one knows that salt diced person is actually a private salt dealer.

For military households living at the bottom of society, being a salt resident or a salt resident is a good job. They have a good income and no problem subsidizing their family income. They can still get married. Gu Shuigen's son is already thirty years old, but he still can't get married. Someone took him to be a salt resident. For Gu Shuigen, his son has hope of marrying his grandson.

Who knew that his son went to be a salt dynasty, but not to suppress the private salt dealers, but to fight with the Jinyiwei! Isn’t this a rebellion? When Gu Shuigen heard about this, he was so scared that he lived in fear every day.

Although Sun Baihu has always comforted the military households in the military office and fought with the Jinyiwei in order to defend justice, the Jinyiwei framed loyal and kind people and harmed the people. The upright officials in the court stood up, pleaded for the people, and organized the people to resist. This time the court's hawks were coming to capture Li Qingtian and Li Futai's son, so the upright officials from the Lianghuai, together with the military officers, resisted the atrocities of the Jinyiwei.

Li Sancai was both in Lianghuai and Jiangnan, and had the reputation of Li Qingtian. At that time, tax envoys were rampant in all places. Under the jurisdiction of Li Sancai, the eunuch Chen Zeng, Yizhen was collected from eunuch Ji Lu, the eunuch Lu Bao collected salt responsibilities in Yangzhou, and the eunuch Xing Long collected taxes in Lu along the river, which spread thousands of miles. The mine tax envoy appointed traitors, forged seals, and openly robbed wherever they went, and local officials were afraid to avoid it. Only Li Sancai stood up, and served the people with righteousness, set up traps, captured the minions of the tax envoys, attacked the arrogance of the eunuchs, and won benefits for the people of the two Huaihuai.

As for what benefits Li Sancai gave him, Gu Shuigen certainly couldn't feel it. It seemed that after the taxes caused the mining surveillance to be arrested, the lives of the same military households were not very affected. However, the people were promoting Li Sancai's deeds. Over time, Li Sancai became Li Qingtian in the minds of the people.

Although it was to protect Li Qingtian's son to fight with the Jinyiwei, Gu Shuigen was still afraid. What is the Jinyiwei? It is the emperor's personal army! If he goes to fight the Jinyiwei, it is rebellion! Although Li Qingtian is a great master in Qingtian, no matter how big the official master is, can he be better than the emperor? Gu Shuigen is worried that once the crime of rebellion is convicted, his family will be over.

"Li Qingtian?" Gao Shixin heard the praise from the people of the two Huai Rivers to Li Sancai and sneered repeatedly, "If you want to say that Haigangfeng is Hai Qingtian, that's about the same. He said that Li Sancai is Li Qingtian. Who? Who has seen Qingtian whose family's property is higher than that of the Ming Dynasty's treasury in a year? It's a joke!"

Xu Xianchun said: "This old thief seems to be loyal, but unfortunately ordinary people don't know it at all and are blinded by gentry and civil servants."

Gao Shixin pondered for a moment and said, "It seems that we have to find a way to take the right to speak in the hands of His Majesty! Let the words of the Emperor of Ming Dynasty let the people of the world know and let the people know who is the real bad guy! Those civil servants and gentry riding on their heads bully them and blind them. These are the evil people!"

In this era, the imperial power only reached the county level, and it would not reach the county level at all. Therefore, the power to promote public opinion is in the hands of the gentry. What are the gentry? It means that people with fame and honor were born in the family. They are the foundation of the civil servant group in the Ming Dynasty! They are tools for the civil servant group to control the people.

It is precisely because the right to speak is in the hands of the civil servants, so the people think that the Dongchang Jinyiwei is a bad person who frames loyal and good people and harms the people, and there are always many treacherous people around the emperor, and the Qingtian man of the Ming Dynasty is all good people.

Therefore, Gao Shixin not only needs to improve the living standards of the people in the new imperial village, but also needs to enlighten the people. The grasp of public opinion power starts with the new imperial village.

The new imperial village was designed by Zhang Yong. The idea of ​​grasping the power of public opinion was coincidental. Gao Shixin and Zhang Yong were the same.

There are two styles of the imperial farm designed by Zhang Yong. One is the imperial farm that drives slaves to farm, that is, the prisoners of war, criminals become slaves and farm in the slave imperial farm. The slaves rely on receiving labor points to obtain monthly income. Although they are slaves, they have very little salary to provide them. They don’t have to spend money to eat. There is a special canteen to provide meals for slaves and a bathroom to provide bathing. The slaves in the slave imperial farm live in crowded slave dormitories and have dedicated people to manage slaves; the owners of the imperial farm, the accountant, supervisor, guard and the teacher have special residential areas, which are separated from the slave residential areas, and the management personnel have another canteen.

Whether it is the residential area of ​​the management personnel or the residential area of ​​the slave, there are special schools, and even the children of slaves have the obligation to receive education. During war, slaves can get the opportunity to become free people by making military achievements. Slaves can become free people by learning. Of course, these new schools do not teach the Four Books and Five Classics, but Chinese, mathematics, research on things, medicine, etc. These new schools will eventually become new schools that impact the imperial examination system.

Another type of royal farm is the military household farm. Those who cultivate land in the imperial farm are all military households, so the living conditions are naturally much better than those of slave imperial farms. However, there are also large canteens. Except for paying 40% of the income from the annual income of military households to rent land in the imperial farm, the rest are left by themselves. They eat in the canteen and pay their own food expenses. After the canteen is cold, it starts to provide hot water baths, and there is a bathroom behind the canteen.

Of course, a new school is also set up in the military royal village, and every child from the military household can enter the school. Anyway, you don’t have to spend money to go to elementary school.

"You can go to school without spending money?" Gu Shuigen was stunned, "Is this true?"
Chapter completed!