Section 82: Enlargement of the ranks

Zhao Yingong looked at the dozen or so children of different sizes sitting or standing in the courtyard in front of the foyer, all of them unkempt and unkempt, some looked healthy, and some reluctantly walked in, but they sat on the ground and couldn't get up.

I couldn't bear it, but I felt itchy all over my body - I brought the girl back a few days ago, and I also brought back fleas, lice and the like on her body, and I bit him all over that night, and got a lot of red envelopes and pimples. I had to get up and take a bath, change clothes, and take a potion, deworm with potions. Looking at the few in front of him, you don't have to think about it to know how many parasites are snooping on him under the rags.

"They all knelt down and kowtowed, and they saw the master." Cai Shi shouted loudly.

A few knelt down, while others staggered and fell directly to the ground. Zhao Yinggong couldn't bear it in his heart, and said, "No need to salute." "If you look closely, most of them are boys, but there are also a few girls. He was no more than four or five years old, and he was thirteen or fourteen years old. However, Zhao Yinggong knows that the children of the poor are malnourished and generally stunted, and their actual age is probably older.

"All orphans?" Zhao Yinggong asked, "Is it true that he voluntarily surrendered to my house as a slave?" ”

"Yes, indeed." Cai Shi hurriedly said, and hurriedly shouted to the children: "Say it yourself!" ”

"Yes, indeed." The sound was scattered, slow and long.

"Master, look at ......" Cai Shi turned his face to a dry and thin bookstore beside him - this is the household clerk of Renhe County, and today he was specially invited to file the vouchers. Generally speaking, this kind of thing does not have to be done by the government, but when they were being trained, they were warned to be very cautious about taking in people outside the power of the crossing group, because at that time, it was easy to lose both people and money by using it as a business. The intelligence agent is alone and it is inconvenient for him to directly engage in conflict with people.

"Alright, alright, I've seen it all." The book office took a big red envelope, and he was happy in his heart, of course he wouldn't come to pick his eyes, "Let's start with a coupon and draw a bet." ”

Cai Shi shook his spirits and asked the children to press their handprints on the deed of selling their bodies, and all of them were taken down to shave their heads, take a bath, and change their clothes. Zhao Yingong repaired several rooms on the abandoned garden of the mansion and temporarily used them as dormitories. I also hired a doctor to treat the children, and the full set of "purification" procedures was concocted in the same way. and he sent special people to take care of it. The dozen or so attachés he brought with him were all from the purification camp, and they were no strangers to this system, which was nothing more than specific and subtle. When the orphan's body recovered a little, he took the children to clear a vacant land in the abandoned garden to serve as a playground, do exercises and run every day, and grow vegetables and chickens in the abandoned garden, which is to exercise and supplement food. Zhao Yingong asked Fenghua to become a literacy teacher and conduct primary education according to the requirements of a type C diploma.

Zhao Yinggong knew that it was very difficult for him to make a big difference in the reception and education of the population at the moment, especially the lack of sufficient manpower. Therefore, he attaches special importance to the older children over the age of thirteen or fourteen who have been brought in, and pays attention to the cultivation of personality and knowledge -- in the future, they will be the basic cadres and talents who can be put into use soon in Hangzhou Station. As for children under the age of ten, they will have to be transferred back to Lingao in batches in the future.

Only the little girl who was sheltered from the bridge deck, he decided to stay by his side and educate him personally. She was named Hening. He also named the other children one by one. Among them, six children over the age of 12 were named Donghua, Xihua, Funing, Furong, Lizheng, and Yanhe. These names, like Fenghua and Hening, are the names of Song Dynasty palaces.

The eldest children live alone in a dormitory, and Zhao Yingong takes a certain amount of time every day to teach them in person. Although older children are more mature, most of the children who have been wandering and begging for a long time have distorted personalities and will also be infected with various vices. Lingao has a set of ways and means to manage and educate the homeless, and anyone can be useful. But here he had to be cautious, so when he took care of the children, he took special care of Cai Shi, and did not want the vagrant beggars who were kind and eloquent, and only took in those children who were about to starve to death and be abandoned for the time being.

As a result, he felt that there were fewer people now. Take care of Cai Shi and Sun Wangcai at the moment, and those who have reliable sources and are willing to sell their bodies will be accepted and kept - all of them will make a "no contract".

In addition to sheltering children and expanding the ranks of slaves, Zhao Yingong spent several days surveying the main markets and various goods markets in Hangzhou. I have a general understanding of the trade situation in Hangzhou. It seems that the easiest money to make in Hangzhou is the silk industry and the tea industry.

Since the Tang and Song dynasties, Jiangnan has been famous for growing mulberry and raising silkworms, especially in the Ming Dynasty. Especially in Suzhou and Huzhou in the lower reaches of Taihu Lake. Songjiang, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Hangzhou are important sericulture production areas, every year to produce a large amount of raw silk and silk, and Hangzhou as an important transportation hub, not only the goods of Zhejiang Province flow here, even from the south of the Zhili of Suzhou, Huzhou silk products are also distributed and traded here.

As for tea, Zhejiang itself is a major tea-producing province, and the neighboring southern Anhui is an important production area of tea, every year a large number of Anhui tea is transported to Hangzhou through the Huihang Ancient Road, and processed and distributed in Hangzhou.

Silk and tea are both important commodities in overseas trade, and they are also popular commodities in domestic trade. If you can control a trace of tea in Hangzhou, it will not be much worse than the sugar in Leizhou in terms of profit.

However, how to meddle in these two industries, Zhao Yinggong couldn't pay attention to it for a while. He was unfamiliar with either the sericulture industry or the tea industry, let alone the conditions of the 17th century.

After thinking about it, I still have to find someone who is familiar with the industry to lead the way - just at this time, Cai Shi took in a family surnamed Shen from the outside, saying that he was willing to enter the house as a slave.

"His family is willing to join the government." Cai Shi said and handed over a post. It lists the name, age, and xing of the whole family.

Zhao Yinggong saw the new family on the post: a husband and wife in their thirties, with three children. The oldest was thirteen years old, and the youngest was only five years old.

All of them are sold for only ten taels. I can't believe it's cheap - don't say it, just their thirteen-year-old daughter can be sold for at least twenty taels if she is handed over to human teeth. Zhao Yinggong hesitated a little, what is the way this family sells themselves?

Cai Shi said that this family is a silkworm farmer in Renhe County, originally there were a few acres of mulberry land at home, not in line with the shortage of mulberry leaves when raising silkworms last year, borrowed usury, and the land and houses of the family were all taken away by the creditors, and now they are desperate and willing to sell themselves into slavery. It is only required that the deed indicate: "You cannot separate the flesh and blood" and "The main family moves away from Hangzhou and is allowed to redeem itself".

No wonder they only need ten taels of silver, Zhao Yinggong thought to himself, it turns out that there is a foreshadowing here. I have long heard that Zhejiang people are shrewd and capable, and it seems that this is due to a long historical tradition.

"Master, they were originally silkworm farmers, and they were all experts in raising silkworms, planting mulberry, and reeling silk. If the master buys a few acres of mulberry land and leaves it to them to take care of, he will not worry about not losing a hundred and ten taels of silver every year......"

Cai Shi spoke energetically—he had recently seen that the old man had often paid attention to the things of silk and raw silk, and thought that he must be interested in it, so he added this again.

Zhao Yinggong nodded in satisfaction: "Not bad." Just stay. ”

"Do you want to kowtow to the master?"

"Of course. Call them here. ”

After a while, Cai Shi brought someone over. The family crowded under the steps and kowtowed to Zhao Yingong. Zhao Yingong took a look, although it was the people who were farming in the countryside, the M was still neat. Especially the main fu, the twenty-year-old M-like, looks like Jio is small and exquisite, with beautiful eyebrows, an M-like woman in the Jiangnan Water Town, the eldest daughter has not yet developed, and the M-like is also very cute. And the mother and daughter are both Tianzu - Zhao Yinggong is very satisfied.

"Let's set aside a room in the lower room first." Zhao Yinggong instructed Cai Shi, "Do it according to the rules." The clothes and food needed are allocated in accordance with the rules, and there shall be no shortage. ”

"Yes, the little one understands." Cai Shiha said. said and scolded, "Why don't you hurry up and thank the master?" ”

Several people quickly knelt down and kowtowed again. Zhao Yinggong asked, "Are you silkworm farmers?" ”

"Yes, in the past, I used to grow mulberry and raise silkworms as a business...... the man hurriedly said.

"So you're very good at raising silkworms?"

"Little people used to do it for a living." The man said, "The little one grows mulberry, and the wife and daughter raise silkworms and reels silk." Reeling silk and selling it to silk customers for a living. ”

"Well, then tell me, what kind of sericulture is the business in this place? Tell me more about it. ”

"Yes, sir!" The man took refuge in the house, and he was originally uneasy, but now he heard that the family asked him to talk about planting mulberry and raising silkworms, and he wanted to come to the house to borrow his own place, and he started to talk about it in a steady stream of spirit.

He speaks the local dialect of Hangzhou, and the countrymen have less contact with others, so he speaks in a bad manner, and he can't help but speak upside down. Fortunately, Cai Shi was interpreting and explaining, which let Zhao Yinggong know a rough idea.

Silkworm raising must first have mulberry leaves. Therefore, all the silkworm keepers must have a few acres of land for planting mulberry and picking leaves. If you have little land or not enough mulberry leaves, you have to pre-lease or buy from others. As a result, there was a "leaf market" that specializes in trading mulberry leaves for a long time. The former is to pay a fixed amount in advance and pick it at that time; The latter went with him. After raising silkworms for three sleeps, silkworm leaves consume greatly, if the land itself is small, and the mulberry leaf market is high, silkworm farmers have to buy mulberry leaves at a high price, often have to borrow usury.

However, the income from silkworm farming is very high: if the market of dry cocoons and raw silk is still passable, the income left after the silkworm farmer pays off the principal and interest is not only enough to pay taxes, but also to cover the expenses of the whole family for a year. In terms of returns, it is much stronger than planting rice and cotton. But in case the cocoon market is not good back then, it will be reduced to the point of selling land and houses, and even selling children and daughters to pay off debts. ro@。