Chen Dexing and Chen Huaiqing, father and son, did not go all the way to Shenjiamen Port, they came to Weifu for a private visit, and they took Xiao Ai with them on the surface, and let Yang Po'er lead people to protect them in secret. After the father and son walked around the gate of Changguo County, they temporarily hired a restaurant named Bai Zhanji as a guide and went to the countryside of Changguo County.

As you walk along the official road, the various buildings along the road are gradually replaced by reclaimed fields. Patches of farmland are connected, and there is no edge in sight. At this time, it is already summer, and the rice in the fields is growing well, and the sea breeze is blowing, and the green crops move with the wind, as if they are green waves. In the sea of rice, there are a number of villages, most of which are thatched huts with straw roofs. There are also some tall tiled houses. Occasionally, there are a few deep mansion compounds, standing imposingly near the intersection or the river. Apparently the mansion of a legendary large landowner.

"Whose land is this?" Chen Dexing asked casually.

"It's the land of the Deng family in Changguo." The running hall named Bai Zhanji replied respectfully.

Chen Dexing has asked this question three times. And Bai Zhanji's answer is the same - the land of the Deng family in Changguo!

It is the current prefect of Mingdu, a famous man in Changguo, and Mr. Deng Mingchao of Tingtao's land!

Of course, these lands do not necessarily belong to Deng Mingchao's private person, the Changguo Deng family is a strong clan, and there are many branches and veins, and Deng Mingchao is just one of them.

"Or the land of the Deng family? It's been a long time. Chen Dexing asked, "Bai Zhanji, are you not mistaken?" ”

"Can't be wrong," the very flattering-looking little white face replied in a flattering tone, "There are two big families on Zhoushan Island, Changguo Deng." The door of the house is Shen. The Deng family is a family of poetry, and the Tingtao Academy on the edge of the south sea of the city turned out to be their family study. Their Deng family admits that they usually have until today. In every generation, there are people who are among the jinshi. The clan naturally prospered, and seventy percent of the fields on Zhoushan Island belonged to the Deng family! ”

One clan has seventy percent of the cultivated land on Zhoushan Island!

"Then the remaining thirty percent are all from the family?" Chen Dexing asked hesitantly.

"Of course not. The family of Shen is a maritime family, and the Shen family is built by their family. Bai Zhanji's tone showed envy. The family is really rich! For generations, they have traded with Dongyingguo, and the entire Shenjiamen commercial port is theirs, and half of the county seat of Changguo is also owned by the Shen family. However, the Shen family is not interested in the fields, and only 20% of the fields on Zhoushan Island are located. There is a saying in Zhoushan, called seventy percent Deng, two percent Shen, and one percent of ten thousand people. ”

In other words, the two clans occupy 90% of the fields on Zhoushan Island! Such a concentration of land is dù. I'm afraid it's even stricter than the evil old society of later generations!

"It's all like this," Chen Huaiqing saw his son frowning and was silent, laughed, and said, "It's like this everywhere in Jiangnan...... I don't have a rent of tens of thousands of stone rice a year, and I am embarrassed to say that I am a strong clan! ”

Tens of thousands of stone rice...... Even if there are no tens of thousands of acres of land in the south of the Yangtze River, it cannot be planted, and this is only a rent, not all the output. In other words, owning 100,000 acres of land is the threshold for a strong clan.

However, the reason why these powerful clans in the south of the Yangtze River are strong is not because they own land. It's because of the Jinshi.

Deng Mingchao's brother Deng Mingen and nephew Deng Qiushan were all born as Jinshi, among which Deng Mingen was still a martial artist in the same year as his father, and now he is the general judge of any state. Deng Qiushan and Wen Wenshan are in the first department, and they are now in the county of Jiangnan West Road. ”

Chen Huaiqing talked about Deng Mingchao's two relatives. It doesn't seem to be a big official, and the general judgment and the county magistrate can be done by an eight-grade official. Then Deng Qiushan is just that. After all, Zhongjinshi doesn't have many years, and he doesn't have the opportunity like Wen Tianxiang. It's not bad to know a county now, but it's a Beijing official (the county is a Beijing official who can only do it). But Wu Jinshi, who was in the same year as Chen Huaiqing, was a bit chilling.

"Your Excellency. Why don't you promote them? Chen Dexing asked a little strangely. Deng Mingchao is his confidant, why should the people in his family pull it? Chen Huaiqing is the right prime minister, what is the difficulty in promoting a general judge and magistrate?

"Promote what?" Chen Huaiqing smiled bitterly, "They are not my people!" The father is a thief in their eyes......"

To tell the truth, Lao Chen has been quite lonely in the past two years, although he is the right prime minister and privy envoy, but there are not many Great Song officials who are willing to deal with him, and everyone regards him as a chaotic minister and thief.

"What about the door Shen?" Chen Dexing was silent for a moment and asked lightly. "What characters do they have?"

"Ah......" Bai Zhanji's running hall is not stupid, after listening to the conversation between the father and son of the Chen family, how can he not know that the two are high-ranking figures? Hurriedly took a breath, and said with a smile on his face: "Jiamen Shen is not a Shili heirloom, although there are many children studying in Tingtao Academy, but there is always no Jinshi ......."

Chen Huaiqing took over the topic and said in a somewhat proud tone: "It's not easy to take the Jinshi test!" Even if it is a big family like the Deng family of Changguo, it can barely guarantee that a generation will produce a jinshi, and it may not be literate. And in order to produce this one jinshi, the men of the Shili family such as the Deng family of Changguo are all enlightened at the age of five, and as long as they are reading materials, they will study hard until they are thirty-five to forty-five years old...... Among them, there will be people who specialize in martial arts, and there will be people who go to Taixue to try their luck. ”

This is the essence of a clan...... In this way, year after year of hard study, thirty or forty years of cold and summer like a day, just to let the clan go out of the Jinshi from generation to generation!

"After all, Jiamen Shen is a businessman, and merchants generally don't have such perseverance, and their children give up if they fail to pass the exam once or twice. Most of them will change careers to business in their twenties, and the things they have learned before are not pure, and they will mix business methods between poetry and books. Therefore, the children of merchants are miscellaneous and not sophisticated...... That Huang Zhishen is like this, he can do anything, but he is not refined. ”

When it comes to the imperial examination, Chen Huaiqing is really a belly talk, he is also an old man in the scientific field, and only he knows the bitterness of it. And after more than 20 years of exams, I naturally made some friends in the field. also knows how the so-called Jiangnan giants maintain their ranks.

Speaking of which, it's all bitter!

A man of a clan will dedicate the best years of his life to the way of Confucius and Mencius. And the vast majority of them are destined to achieve nothing.

And their status in the clan, their marriage, their future, and their qiē will all be linked to the imperial examination -- if they pass the examination, they will have a qiē, and if they fail the examination...... Life is destined to be lonely.

Therefore, behind every wealthy family in Jiangnan, there is a large group of uncles who have been delayed for life by the imperial examination, who are secretly crying...... Then wipe away your tears and continue to struggle to read.

It seems to be an inspirational story, during the Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and Qing Dynasty, the vast majority of the elites of the Chinese nation were "inspired", struggling, growing old with dreams, dying, and finally achieving nothing!

And for their clan, they are the price that must be paid for cultivating Jinshi - Jinshi is also a matter of probability, and the more people who engage in these careers, the higher the probability of winning the lottery.

As long as one Jinshi is produced in a generation, the clan can maintain its local status - Jinshi is an official, and he is a promising official, and there may be nothing in Lin'an, but on an island like Zhoushan, that is a figure like the king of heaven and Laozi. It is enough to make the people of an island look up, and it is enough to shelter the wealth and incense of a clan, so that the entire clan becomes a strong clan above others, and finally becomes a local monopoly power.

And the clan that can't get out of the jinshi, if you want to maintain and develop, you must be attached to the clan that has the jinshi.

"Since the family Shen can't get out of Jinshi, he can still maintain his current status, I think he married with Changguo Deng Daidai, right?" Chen Huaiqing can also think of a way to go out of the house and maintain the clan with his heels.

"What's more...... The strong clans of Qingyuan Mansion will have relatives with Shen in the family, and the daughters of the Shen family are all beautiful and submissive, knowledgeable, and rich in marriage......" Bai Zhanji said with a yearning face, as if he also had a chance to marry a little lady of the Shen family.

"Keiyuki, now you know, right?" Chen Huaiqing said in a solemn tone, "This moral article is the lifeblood of the Jiangnan Qiang clan, and in the past 300 years, people have developed step by step by relying on this!" Moreover, the strong clans in the south of the Yangtze River like to marry together, and they are all in-laws, and they all regard relatives and friends along the way...... Whoever wants to abolish the imperial examination, who wants to move their land tenants, is their mortal enemy! ”

In other words, as long as Chen Dexing does not abolish the imperial examination and does not emancipate the serfs, then these powerful clans will be able to tolerate his rule over Jiangnan. If King Chen Daming was willing to spit out the wealth he extracted in the sea trade, and then exempt the scholars from taxes and righteousness, then these Jiangnan clans would probably shout Long live King Ming, right?

"A mortal enemy is a mortal enemy!" Chen Dexing shook his head and didn't talk nonsense with Lao Tzu anymore. The Jiangnan Hao clan monopolized local power, population, and discourse, and had no room for concessions to them. Otherwise, nothing can be done, even if Zhao Song replaces and expels Mongolia, he still has to follow the old path of the Zhao family!

"Whose Zhuangzi is in front?" At this time, Chen Dexing suddenly found that his group had arrived at a certain beach on Zhoushan Island, and a mansion with an open door appeared in front of him. It is very magnificent, and there are black-clad families standing guard at the door.

"That's Tingtao Academy!" Bai Zhanji looked at the academy and was silent for a while, and said in a low voice, "There is no boy in Changguo County who doesn't want to go there to study...... It turned out to be the Deng family's ethnology, and there were more than a dozen Jinshi in total! It was only when Mr. Deng Tingtao was in charge of the Deng family that he persuaded the clan to let the young scholars on Changguo Island study here. But not everyone can come, you have to pass the exam...... I've been taking the exam for three years, but unfortunately I didn't pass it. (To be continued......)