Chapter 39: Decisions Against the Ancestors (Part 1)

Zhang Gui's words made Zhang Bashan's teeth itch with anger.

Zhang Bashan was about to erupt, but calculating the time, his wife, who had taken a whole family of concubines, children, and maids out to burn incense, was almost back.

Not daring to waste time, he suppressed his anger, frowned, and said:

"I was also distressed when you were implicated by the rebel Zhang Yan and dismissed from your duties by the clan.

Now there happens to be an opportunity for you to make up for your crimes.

The clan has some business with the imperial merchant Shuanghu Rong family; although it is nearing the end, it still needs some capable hands to finish the tail.

So I added your name, and after wasting a lot of favors, I finally managed to get you a position as a head clerk."

"Your favors are only worth a head clerk position, and you spent them on me!

Are you talking nonsense or am I crazy?"

Zhang Gui was stunned, an expression of disbelief appearing on his face as he blurted out.

"How can my favors not be worth a head clerk position!" Zhang Bashan was finally furious when he heard this.

Being looked down upon by a mere illegitimate son, especially when such contempt was a fact, was truly too much to bear.

"I tell you, I have already submitted a letter to the government office and am about to take over the duties of the compassionate agriculture envoy for the villages around Pingyang Town.

A mere head clerk position for farm affairs in the clan can be decided in a word."

Compassionate agriculture envoy—the name sounds both compassionate and intimidating, but it's actually just a Nine Grade minor official who collects agricultural taxes.

But the current official is stronger than the county official.

Since he is in charge of the imperial grain taxes for many manors and fields in his hometown, it is only natural to stuff his idle son into the clan manor as a leader.

Things that the main branch descendants who passed the provincial exam couldn't do, the "current official" could do simply and smoothly.

The only strange thing is why Zhang Bashan would take the initiative to give this opportunity to Zhang Gui, an illegitimate son.

One must know that even if some things are natural, they can be done once or twice, but not three times, and even twice is not necessarily okay.

With Zhang Gui's brain, he could naturally understand this truth, but from the moment he heard the four words "Shuanghu Rong family," it was already impossible for him to decline this duty.

A tiger that was already thinking about stealing sheep had an opportunity to go into the sheep pen to visit; how could he not be overjoyed.

"So the scholar is going to be an official, and naturally his face value has risen.

It was my ignorance that made me say the wrong thing; please forgive me, forgive me."

"There is no illegitimate son in the world who talks to the Old Master like this; get out, get out."

Zhang Gui smiled faintly when he heard this, turned around, and walked away with big strides.

When he left, the steward Zhang Xi happened to walk into the main hall, limping.

The two brushed past each other, and Zhang Xi hurriedly bowed to Zhang Gui with a fake look.

"Zhang Xi, you are a dignified steward, why are you bowing to an illegitimate son like him." Zhang Bashan roared, taking the opportunity to make a fuss.

Zhang Xi first bowed to the Old Master, then said softly: "Old Master, Young Master Gui is your flesh and blood after all.

As long as you still recognize him, we servants must always respect him."

"You are an honest man." Zhang Bashan was speechless for a long time after hearing this, and finally sighed: "I originally couldn't bear to let this little beast add crime to crime.

Now it seems that it is a good thing for such a rebellious son to have no future and sell stinky shrimp paste for a lifetime.

Truly, it is fate!"

The Pingyang Zhang family could no longer hold on under internal strife and needed to sell land to resolve the crisis.

But the ancestors who moved the family from Pingyang Prefecture in Longjin Province to Siyang Commandery in Yuehai Province had left behind:

"Better to give up a thousand taels of wealth than half Amu of land.

Anyone who sells even a fraction of land cannot be called a descendant of the Zhang family again."

At that time, the fleeing Zhang family carried all their gold, silver, and treasures, but did not have an inch of land.

And the southerners bullied the newcomers and deliberately refused to sell land to them.

Without land, there were no roots, and they could not continue to call themselves "generations of farming and reading, virtuous family."

Every fraction of land at that time could not be taken lightly for the Zhang family.

It was only natural for the ancestors to leave behind the family instruction of "valuing land."

But it made the current Zhang family's act of selling land a decision that violated the ancestors!

Under these circumstances, the land had to be sold, and the face of the ancestors had to be maintained, so a group of "scapegoats" was needed.

And Zhang Gui, who was born to a concubine, didn't even have a "generation character."

He was also a sinner who had been implicated by the rebels in the family, so he was very suitable to carry the black pot of adding crime to crime.

Zhang Gui walked out of Zhang Bashan's old house.

He didn't go home but wandered around the countryside as if strolling.

Noble manors were built in the middle of the fields like small cities.

The servants who farmed were enclosed within, and to prevent them from escaping, there would also be servants living in the manor.

If the steward managing the manor was a descendant of the main family, most of them lived in the city.

They would go to the manor to inspect in the morning, eat, rest, and not delay returning to the city for nightlife in the evening.

Stewards from servant backgrounds had to be trapped in the manor all day like slaves.

If the manor was not just for growing grain but also some economic crops, then in addition to mills and warehouses, workshops, wineries, oil mills, etc., would be built.

It could be said that a large manor was a small city.

Zhang Gui turned around in the fields for a while and finally saw about two or three hundred young men and women in coarse cloth clothes in the distance.

Under the supervision of a team of guards riding tall horses, they appeared on the commandery road.

There were also several ox carts accompanying them.

If the women among the young men and women couldn't hold on, they might get on the ox cart to rest for a while, but the men would be met with a whip.

Fortunately, the destination was not far, and half an hour later, they finally arrived in front of a large manor with blue bricks and white walls.

They walked into it.

This manor was named "Wangbei."

It was one of the oldest and largest manors reclaimed by the Pingyang Zhang family, but now there was clearly a change.

With the precarious situation of the Zhang family now, it was impossible to transport young slaves in batches of dozens to hundreds every few dozen days like this.

Zhang Gui, who had been quietly probing for news and monitoring the ground for over ten days, calculated.

There were at least three thousand servants gathered in Wangbei Manor now.

And these were not young and old, five or six people per household of family-born slaves.

But two men per household, the most valuable young and strong.

That is to say, it was very likely that the number of servant households in Wangbei Manor had approached the accumulation of the Pingyang Zhang family's two hundred years of life.

"Imperial merchant, imperial merchant, once you touch the word 'imperial,' this scale is truly staggering.

I was afraid of not being full and wasting the opportunity, but now I'm afraid that there are too many sheep and I'll burst my stomach.

Even on the 20th of the twelfth lunar month, you are still stuffing people into the manor; how much of the Zhang family's land do you want to buy?

If you buy it empty and don't have enough for you to farm, isn't that a waste."

Thinking about this, Zhang Gui frowned, then stopped strolling, walked back home, and continued to eat the fish and shrimp paste noodles left by his mother.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 40 =====