Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 416: Our ancestors are from the Pei family of Hedong. From today on, we all speak Chinese. [Subscription Request]

Pei Dongxian watched the green-robed official from the Ministry of Rites ride away in the first four-wheeled carriage, and then asked several servants who were brought in as adopted sons and daughters to move the luggage from the carriage.

Afterwards, he sent away the remaining dozen or so four-wheeled carriages, leaving only the one his family had bought in the city. Then he put away his smile and led his family into the house, which was actually about sixty or seventy steps away from Lijia Village.

It can be seen that this two-courtyard house was newly built, and is mainly made of blue bricks and supplemented by wood. The style is obviously different from Goryeo houses.

Although Pei Dongxian only took a few glances at Lijia Village, he could see that there were only three or four families in the village whose houses could be compared with this new house. The rest were mostly adobe and thatched houses, and a small number were brick, wood and tile houses with one entrance.

But behind Pei Dongxian, whether it was his wife Yin and three concubines, or his five sons, two daughters, three daughters-in-law, and even several servants, they all looked dissatisfied and disgusted when they looked at the house.

Because this house is so different from Pei's mansion in Goryeo, it can be said that there is a world of difference!
Entering the main hall in the backyard, Pei Dongxian glanced at the ordinary wooden stool at the main seat. Although he felt disgusted, he still sat down.

The second son, Pei Kewu, finally couldn't help himself and said, "Father, the Ming Dynasty government has settled my family in a rural area outside the city, but they only gave us a small two-story courtyard house that's not even as good as a humble home. This is too much!"

Seeing this, Yin followed up with, "Yes, Master, how can anyone live in such a shabby house? Even the distant branches of our Pei family outside the city have much better houses than this."

Pei Xuanzhu also said, "Yes, Dad, look at this place. Not only is there no flooring, there aren't even any tiles. It's all dirt. How can we even step on it?"

The other concubines and children also started complaining.

"What kind of table and chairs are these? Even our servants don't use them."

"It's too far from the city, more than ten miles away. What if thieves come to rob us?"

“There are too few rooms, not enough to live in.”

"···"

Pei Dongxian was already worried and irritable, and after hearing the complaints from his wife, concubines, and children, he immediately became furious. He slammed the square table next to him and shouted angrily, "Shut up!"

"You all complain about this and that, and you still think you're in Goryeo? Do you know that if my Pei family hadn't followed the Li family's lead, we would have been confiscated and exiled like the Cui, Jin, Yin, and Park families!"

After hearing this, no one dared to say anything.

According to what brothers Pei Kewen and Pei Kewu knew, when Goryeo surrendered, the original aristocratic families and powerful clans were secretly divided into four levels by the Ming Dynasty.

The first class is the royal Wang family and the Li family who are almost becoming a royal family.

The second class is the ten top-notch Goryeo families, namely Choi, Kim, Jeong, Ryu, Park, Yoon, Bae, Song, Lin, and Cao, which were ranked alongside the Lee family a few years ago.

The third class consists of the original thirty or so second-rate families including Zhao, Han, Shen, Quan, and Min.

As for the fourth class, they are the powerful families from various parts of the former Goryeo Dynasty.

After the beginning of spring this year, officials sent by the Ming Dynasty manipulated the situation behind the scenes, with the Wang and Li families taking down the Cui, Jin, Yin, and Park families from the second-class families, and the Shen, Quan, Min and other ten families from the third-class families. All of them had their properties confiscated and were exiled.

In some families, many male members were even beheaded.

Although there were many reasons why these fourteen companies were taken down, one of the purposes was very obvious, which was to kill the chicken to scare the monkey.

Therefore, when someone later hinted, the remaining second- and third-class families took the initiative to request to migrate to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty then established rules for the migration of the Goryeo families.

Among them, the direct lineage of the second-class aristocratic families was required to move to the capital, and the main branches were to move to the provincial capitals of various places. The direct lineage of the third-class aristocratic families was to move to the provincial capital of the designated province, and the branches were to move to the designated prefectures and counties as required.

The largest number of branches of aristocratic families were settled in the four provinces of Gansu, Liaoning, Yunnan and Guizhou.

From this perspective, the Pei family was classified as a second-class family, and their direct descendants were allowed to migrate to the capital, which made them much better off than those third-class families and branches.

Actually, they could have sold their houses, fields and other properties before leaving, but now all the noble families in Goryeo were going to be relocated, and the wealthy families were in a constant state of panic, so naturally no one was going to buy their properties - the common people wanted to buy them, but they didn't have the financial resources.

In addition, Li hinted that they had to migrate as soon as possible within a certain period of time, otherwise there might be changes. Therefore, the Pei family and other noble families really left with only the floating wealth in their homes.

Of course, a first-class family like the Pei family, which has been prominent since the founding of Goryeo, has accumulated a lot even if we only consider floating wealth.

As the direct descendants, although they could not take everything, they still got 60% to 70% - when they came to Ming Dynasty, they chartered two large Ming Dynasty ships; and this time when they came to Lijia Village, there were more than a dozen four-wheeled carriages to help them transport their luggage.

Even though some of the carriages were carrying people and larger objects, the remaining vehicles were carrying an astonishing amount of gold, silver and treasures.

Actually, Pei Dongxian knew that wealth should not be displayed openly, but he was still worried if these gold and silver treasures were left in Goryeo, even if they were buried - who knew if they would be found and dug up?
As for hiding it among other things during transportation, it is useless. People can tell that it is transporting gold, silver and treasures by looking at the draft, depth of the boat and the wheel tracks.

Therefore, he could only come to the capital with a large amount of gold, silver and treasures in fear and trepidation.

Fortunately, they were protected by the Ming army along the way, and the accompanying officials and soldiers were also very well-behaved, so no accidents occurred.

But now that they have arrived in Lijia Village in the countryside, without protection, leaving so much business treasure behind would probably bring disaster.

Just now he invited the green-robed official in for tea, actually wanting to ask for his advice on this matter, but the other party refused - in fact, when they were sitting in the same car on the way, he tried to bribe the official and almost made the other party angry. Otherwise, he would definitely bribe him again after getting off the car.

Thinking of this, Pei Dongxian looked around at everyone in his family and said, "Since you think the house arranged by the court is shabby, then let's go to the city and buy a better one."

"Kewen, Kegan."

"My son is here." The eldest brother Pei Kewen and the third brother Pei Kegan stood up.

"You two should go into the city right now and see if there are any suitable houses for sale, preferably in the inner city. Also, find out where you can exchange gold and silver for banknotes."

"Also, when you come back, buy some common gifts like bacon and cloth so I can use them to visit the villagers of Lijia Village tomorrow."

"Yes." The two responded and went out.

Pei Kewu couldn't help but ask, "Dad, since we're going to buy a house in the city, then we must move there. Why do we still need to visit those common people in Lijia Village?"

"Commoner?" Pei Dongxian snorted. "You are also a commoner now! In addition, since the Ming Dynasty court has settled us in Lijia Village, our household registration will be here. From now on, our lineage will become the Pei family of Lijia Village. If we don't build good relations with the people of Lijia Village, many people will be in trouble in the future." "You are also the father of two children. Do you still need me to teach you this truth?"

At this time, Yin said, "Master, I heard that housing in the capital is very expensive. Although we brought a lot of money, we shouldn't spend it so lavishly. This house is shabby, but it's still habitable."

Pei Dongxian frowned, "What a woman, long on hair but short on knowledge. We brought so much gold and silver treasures with us. If we don't spend them quickly, are we going to keep them and invite disaster?"

"In the next two days, I will not only buy a house, but also buy some land at a premium, so that I can at least become a landowner in the suburbs of Beijing."

"Also, I heard that the capital has a prosperous trade. If there are suitable shops, my family can also buy one or two."

"Only with enough land and real estate can we have a position of status here, and the Ming court will be less wary of our family."

After Pei Dongxian finished speaking, Yin, Pei Kewu and the others all looked thoughtful.

Pei Dongxian thought for a moment and then said, "I have two more things to say: First, from today on, whether outside or at home, you should try your best to speak Chinese."

Pei Xuanzhu heard this and said coquettishly, "Father, I can't speak Chinese."

"If you don't know how to do it, then learn!" Pei Dongxian said seriously, "Not only you should learn, but the servants in the house should also learn!"

"Secondly, from today on, you must tell the outside world that my Pei family's ancestors were distant branches of the Hedong Pei family during the Sui and Tang dynasties. When the Tang army conquered Goguryeo, they were exiled to the Three Han Kingdoms, which gave rise to the present-day Goryeo Gyeongju Pei family."

Hearing this, his ten-year-old son, Pei Keyuan, asked in confusion, "Father, I remember you saying that our ancestor, Pei Xuanqing, was originally named Bai Yushan and was from Silla. How did he become the Hedong Pei family during the Sui and Tang dynasties?"

Pei Dongxian wanted to explain his intention, but then he thought that most of his five sons were not smart, so it would be better to make up a lie to prevent them from letting the cat out of the bag.

Then he said, "Didn't I tell you before? My ancestor wandered around the Three Kingdoms of Han and changed his surname to Bai to avoid his enemies, pretending to be a Silla person. Later, he became a founding hero of Goryeo and changed back to his original surname, Bae."

Upon hearing this, Pei Keyuan, Pei Xuanzhu and others who had simple ideas believed it, with an expression of "so that's it" on their faces, but a few shrewd people like Yin showed doubts.

Pei Dongxian thought about it and had nothing else to say for the time being, so he said: "Okay, go and ask the servants to clean up this house again - even if my family moves to the city in the future, this can be used as a separate courtyard and we will let people live here."

in the afternoon.

Pei Kewen and Pei Kegan came back in a four-wheeled carriage.

Not only did he bring back a cart of cloth, bacon, writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone, among other common gifts, he also brought back four people.

Two of them were agents of a pawnshop in the capital, and the other two were officials of the Yingtian Prefecture Treasure Bank.

Although the official was only a low-ranking deputy envoy and was very young, Pei Dongxian still took the initiative to greet him.

As for Fang Ya, he was naturally left to the eldest son Pei Kewen to entertain.

Pei Dongxian led the official and clerk to the main hall and seated them. After having the maid serve tea, he asked with a smile, "What is the name of this official?"

"Zhao Wei," the deputy envoy replied briefly, placing two items on the table. "This is my badge and my official credentials," he said. "Mr. Pei, please take a look."

Pei Dongxian was surprised and didn't understand what the other party was going to do.

"What does Deputy Envoy Zhao mean?"

Zhao Wei said, "I heard from the noble young master that Mr. Pei wants to exchange at least 10,000 taels of silver for treasure notes. This is not a small amount, so I brought people here specially."

"It's part of the procedure to have you check your badges and credentials, to prevent anyone from impersonating an official, defrauding people of their money, and damaging the reputation of the government."

Pei Dongxian was even more surprised after he understood it, and thought to himself: Are the officials of the Ming Dynasty so disciplined in doing things nowadays?

Thinking about the Deputy Envoy Zhang who had refused (or perhaps dared not?) to accept the bribe in the car earlier, Pei Dongxian suddenly understood why the Ming Dynasty had become so powerful after only twenty years of its founding.

However, the officials who came followed the rules, which made him feel more at ease.

Even though he had said before that too much gold, silver and treasures would easily bring disaster, he actually did not trust the Ming treasure notes in his heart and was only prepared to exchange more than 10,000 taels for show.

Now I am preparing to exchange more.

Therefore, he hesitated for a moment before saying, "To be honest with Deputy Envoy Zhao, we brought a lot of wealth to the capital this time, a considerable portion of which is silver."

"I heard that the Ming Dynasty now only allows transactions with treasure notes, so I want to exchange it for 100,000 taels of silver at once."

Although Zhao Wei expected that the Pei family would exchange a lot of silver this time, he was still surprised when he heard this.

He immediately felt happy - being able to exchange so much silver at one time would add to his political achievements.

Of course, it would be even better if it could be exchanged for gold.

Thinking of this, Zhao Wei smiled, "The imperial court has always encouraged the people to exchange their hoarded gold and silver for banknotes. Mr. Pei was willing to exchange so much silver when he first arrived in the capital, which shows that he supports the imperial policy."

Pei Dongxian was also a senior official in Goryeo, holding the rank of Fourth Rank. He understood something when he heard what Zhao Wei said, and immediately said, "Since this is something the court encourages, I will exchange it for another 5,000 taels of gold."

"Good!" Zhao Wei praised him generously, "Mr. Pei is truly understanding and righteous!"

After saying this, he took out a contract and said, "Mr. Pei, you can have someone bring out the gold and silver to be exchanged. As long as I check it and find it correct, we can sign the contract."

"Li Shuban, you must hurry back to the city and report this to the ambassador. Bring along 150,000 strings of precious metals and request 50 soldiers to escort the gold and silver."

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)