Lu Xuan described in detail the circumstances of his meeting of Liu Yikang in the main hall, including Liu Yikang's appearance, approximate height, and his speculation about Liu Yikang's temperament.

"The minister thinks that the emperor of the Southern Dynasty has a straightforward temperament and does not hide his actions, but his talent is there!"

This is Lu Xuan's evaluation of Liu Yikang, to put it bluntly, he does not pay attention to strategy, does not avoid suspicion, does not know how to be flexible, the city government is not deep enough, and there are some great achievements.

Zhao Junsheng had never seen Liu Yikang, but after listening to Lu Xuan's description and evaluation, he also had a vague image in his mind, and he asked: "Does the emperor of the Southern Dynasty agree to make friends with our country?" Do you agree to completely liberalize trade between the two countries? ”

Previously, there was also trade between the Liu Song and the Northern Wei Dynasty, and it was not forbidden for ordinary people to travel between the two countries, but once there was a war, this situation would stop and the border would be blocked.

Since the last time Zhao Junsheng led his army south to fight several battles with Liu Song, which took several months, the two countries have not been able to completely resume normal state exchanges, and of course there is no way to talk about people-to-people exchanges.

Lu Xuan said: "When Emperor Song met with his ministers for the third time, he clearly expressed his agreement to resume state exchanges with our country, and agreed to relax the restrictions on commerce and trade and people's exchanges!" Later, the specific negotiations were carried out by the minister and Fan Ye, the minister of the Song State, and the Song State agreed to sell large quantities of porcelain, silk, tea, and silk cloth to China, and China also agreed to sell large quantities of blankets, sweaters, medicinal materials, and livestock to the Song State, and the two sides set up trade markets on their respective borders, and small transactions were paid in copper coins, and large transactions were paid in gold! The Southern Dynasty agreed that our country could use jewelry and jade as a means of payment! ”

In this era, gold was an extremely valuable metal in both the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but relatively speaking, the value of gold in the Northern Dynasties was much lower than in the Southern Dynasties, on the one hand, because the gold stock of the Northern Dynasties was much higher than that of the Southern Dynasties, and on the other hand, the use of gold and the degree of love for gold by the Southern Dynasties were much higher than those of the Northern Dynasties.

The same is true for jewelry and jade, the price of jewelry and jade in the Southern Dynasty is more than double that in the Northern Dynasty, the main reason is that the quantity is large, the Northern Dynasty has been fighting foreign wars all the year round, robbing countless treasures, and there are more things that are naturally worthless; Another reason is that most of the nobles of the Northern Dynasty were Xianbei and barbarians, who were far less fond of these things than the Han people, and most of them were willing to exchange these jewels and jade for cattle, sheep, horses, pastures, and fields.

"Now that the results of the negotiations have been decided, then set up a trade market at the border as soon as possible, and send special personnel to manage it, and Lone's request is to sell surplus livestock, blankets, sweaters, leather, medicinal herbs, and other goods to the Southern Dynasty as soon as possible, so as to alleviate the backlog of these goods in the country, but the price must be set reasonably! Shang Shutai is coming up with a specific strategy as soon as possible, and the responsible officials are scheduled to report it to Lonely! ”

Dongfang Chen stood up and agreed: "Yes!" ”

After the opening of border trade, the two sides strengthened their exchanges, and the backlog of goods and commodities on both sides could be transported to the territory of the other side, and they were all urgently needed by the other side, and the prices were naturally good, and a large number of livestock from the Qianguo side were also trafficked to the South Korea, which greatly eased the pressure.

In September, according to the established rules and etiquette, Zhao Junsheng took his wife and children to work in the countryside to experience the hard work of the peasants and let his children and nephews know that food was not easy to come by.

On this day, Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan took their children and some ministers to Lu County, a suburb of Qianjing, to work in person.

The work lasted three days: on the first day, a farmer who was harvesting beans was asked to help them harvest the beans; On the second day, help the farmer plough the land; On the third day, we help the farmer sow winter wheat.

The farmer where Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan settled with their two children is a middle-aged couple in their thirties, with four children under their knees, the eldest is a boy, who is already sixteen years old, the younger one is only three years old, and there is an old mother in her fifties, who looks older than the seventy years old in later generations.

The perennial work has made the couple's faces dark, but they work quickly, even Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan, two people who practice martial arts all year round, may not be able to compare with them.

Doing farm work is an endurance work, but it is not like running a 100-meter race for more than ten seconds, harvesting beans is with a sickle, grasping the beans with one hand and cutting off the roots with a sickle in the other, and piling up a pile to get up and rest for a while, otherwise the middle is always in a state of bending, and after a long time, the back hurts.

The severed soybean and orange stalks are piled up in a pile, tied up with straw ropes, and if there are four or six, they are put together into a load and carried away.

The man's name is Huang Shu, and Hua Mulan and the woman Huang Li and her eldest son Xiao Huang are responsible for cutting soybeans and oranges, while Zhao Junsheng and Huang Shu are responsible for tying and picking them home.

Zhao Junsheng and Huang Shu each carried a load of soybeans and orange poles to their homes, the weather was too hot, and the two of them carried a heavy burden, walking like the wind, and both of them were sweating on the way.

Although Zhao Junsheng is strong in martial arts and has great strength, doing farm work is a long-lasting endurance work, and it is not so easy to pick a load of soybeans weighing two hundred catties and walk for several miles.

Huang Shu, who is in his thirties, is a veteran of farm work, his strength is only equivalent to a normal prime, far inferior to Zhao Junsheng in strength, but he can carry a burden of two hundred catties faster than Zhao Junsheng, and he is more stable, this courage is pressed on Zhao Junsheng when he walks up and down, and when he walks on him, it is as smooth as a straight line, and the center of gravity of the burden is always on the same height line, which is the difference between a veteran and a new hand.

After walking twice, Zhao Junsheng also had some experience, trying not to let it go up and down when walking with the burden, and keeping the center of gravity always in a horizontal line, so that the whole person will be much easier.

"Lao Huang, your eldest is so old, are you a relative in your teens?" Zhao Junsheng asked as he followed behind Huang Shu with his burden.

Huang Shu said with a smile as he walked: "Back to the king's words, the grass people are seventeen-year-old relatives. Our family is poor, and there is no woman to look at, until the age of seventeen before being taken by the child and his grandfather, the grass people remember that it was a heavy rain for several days in a row, grandpa took a fishing net in the river to catch more than 500 catties of fish and sold it to make up enough money for the dowry and repair the house! ”

Zhao Junsheng asked: "You men here are generally in their teens?" ”

"Wealthy men in the family generally ask for daughters-in-law at the age of twelve or thirteen, the family is poor, and there are many singles in their lives, but these years there are many wars, there are few men, and there are many women, as long as they are not so poor that they don't even have clothes and thatched houses, as long as they are not lazy, it is not difficult for men to ask for a daughter-in-law!"

Zhao Junsheng was shocked: "Asking for a daughter-in-law at the age of twelve or thirteen?" What can you understand at such a young age? ”

Huang Shu smiled: "When you grow to a certain age, you will naturally understand, and some are taught by adults, and our country children are sensible early." But a woman usually doesn't marry until she is fifteen years old, so our wives here are a few years older than their husbands."

Sensible early, Zhao Junsheng can understand, as for having adults to teach, Zhao Junsheng can only say speechless, at the age of twelve or thirteen they got married to support their families, which is simply destroying children's psychology and body.

Zhao Junsheng changed the topic: "How much land does your family have?" ”

"There are twenty-eight acres in total. There are thirteen acres of land confiscated by the government a few days ago and distributed to the grass people, and fifteen acres are opened up by the grass people themselves, in fact, there are still many wastelands around, one is too far away, and the other is that our family only has three laborers, and we can't plant it, so we haven't opened up the wasteland again! ”

Zhao Junsheng asked: "Is the food grown enough to eat?" How much surplus can you have to feed your family? ”

"Naturally it is enough to eat, and now according to the government's teaching, the method of intensive cultivation is adopted, if it is not a year of famine, the general yield is much higher than before, and each mu can be more than 100 catties higher! The output of these fields is enough for the grass people to eat, and the surplus can also buy clothes for the family, eat meat once a month, and go to fish and chop firewood in the slack season, in addition to the horses, cattle and sheep borrowed from the government, the family also raised two pigs, this day is getting better day by day, it is the benevolence of the king, I wait for the grass people to have such a good life! ”

The two of them each carried a load of soybeans and oranges and stopped in the threshing field in front of Huang Shu's house, spread the soybeans and orange stalks and exposed them to the sun, and dried the soybeans and orange stalks and carob shells.

In addition to growing wheat and soybeans, the Huang family also planted corn and millet rice, both of which are one of the main crops in the Yellow River Basin, which are relatively drought tolerant and not suitable for continuous planting, which is prone to wild seeds, diseases and pests.

Soybeans are harvested and dried for two days, and then left to worry about them after they are spread.

The next day, Hua Mulan continued to harvest soybeans with Huang Li and his eldest son, and Zhao Junsheng and Huang Shu cultivated the land.

At this time, the northerners were using the recently invented plough, which was more convenient than the long straight plow.

Zhao Junsheng and Hua Mulan were busy sweating profusely, and the ministers and officials who accompanied them were not idle, but because they had never done these things, they often made jokes.

Zhao Junsheng watched Cui Hao holding a sickle and weakly chopping soybean bellflowers, his face was pale with exhaustion, sweat was like rain, and he couldn't help asking: "Cui Qing, how does this farm work taste?" ”

Cui Hao came out of the family, where had he done such heavy physical work, he had already made his back ache and exhausted for two consecutive days, and the weather was hot, and he was a little older, which was really unbearable.

At this time, after listening to Zhao Junsheng's question, he had to tell the truth: "King, now the ministers know the hard work and hardship of the peasants, and the food in their mouths is not easy to come by!" ”

Zhao Junsheng smiled and beckoned to his son Zhao Dong, who was standing on the ridge and playing: "Son, come here!" ”

Zhao Dong ran over with his little short legs and asked, "Father, what's the matter with the child?" ”

Zhao Junsheng: "Today, my father taught you a poem, you have to remember it, listen well, on the afternoon of hoeing day, sweat drops fall into the soil; Who knows that Chinese food is hard work! ”