In April, Fanjiazhuang's winter wheat ushered in a bumper harvest. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Although last year's dry fields with little rain and poor irrigation did not produce good harvests, the rivers near Fanjiazhuang did not stop, and Li Zhi's dry fields relied on three rivers for irrigation, and they were all fed with water, and the harvest was good after a winter.

Boss Ni of Deyuan New Village also got a bumper harvest. He is a good master, knows how deep to plough the field, knows when to fertilize, and harvests one stone and two buckets of grain per acre of dry land. He and his daughter-in-law rented forty acres of dry land, and by April they had harvested forty-seven stone of wheat.

The money for the cotton jacket and farm tools was settled with the general last year. This year, it is only necessary to deduct the land rent to the general of 14 stone and 1 bucket of grain, deduct 1 stone and 2 buckets of farming cattle silver, and then deduct the 1 stone house money returned to the general, and Boss Ni can leave 30 stone and 7 buckets of grain. The four members of Mr. Ni's family eat with an open stomach, eat eleven stones of wheat a year, and Boss Ni can still have nineteen stones and seven buckets of grain leftover. Leaving two stones of grain to be the seeds of this year's winter wheat, Boss Ni still has seventeen stones and seven buckets of grain to spare.

Now that it has been nearly two years since the Tatars entered the country, the price of grain in Gyeonggi has returned to normal, almost two taels of silver and one stone. In the general's cheap grain store, Boss Ni exchanged seventeen stones and seven buckets of grain for thirty-five taels and four coins of silver.

That's a lot of silver. When he went home with thirty-five taels of silver, Boss Ni was a little nervous, for fear of being robbed.

In the first few years, a set of cotton summer clothes only cost four dollars of silver, a set of winter clothes and jackets only cost one or two or five dollars of silver, and a live chicken only cost one dollar of silver. Thirty-five taels of silver can make Boss Ni's family lack nothing and live a well-off life. This income level is already about the same as that of the workers in Li Zhi's workshop.

Li Zhi's waterwheels and irrigation canals changed the fate of 10,000 peasants.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was no shortage of fields and land, what was lacking was organizational ability and water conservancy projects, and what was lacking was the strength to defeat pretenders. Li Zhi had the strength to repel the nearby pretenders, he had the strength to protect his industry, and he organized a little water conservancy project to lift the peasants out of poverty and become rich.

When the peasants have money, in addition to buying land, they are building houses. The day after Ni Boss came back from changing the silver, he went to the mason to expand the family's house, but Ni Boss found that he was late, and the 2,000 masons stationed in Fanjiazhuang had already been hired by the farmers who had a good harvest.

The first reaction of the farmers who reaped the harvest was to expand their houses. Boss Ni wants to make an appointment with a mason, so he has to queue up.

Boss Ni shook his head and returned to his yard, but saw his cousin Meng Yousan sitting in his house with his daughter-in-law.

As soon as Boss Ni saw his cousin coming, he knew what his cousin was coming to, and said loudly:

"Cousin, wait, wait for me to buy a duck to entertain you!"

Without saying a word, Boss Ni went to the town's bazaar and bought a duck to entertain Meng Yousan -- since the wheat matured last spring and the peasants had income, a small town has been formed two miles north of Deyuan New Village, and there are people in the town who sell vegetables, meat, chickens and ducks to serve the wealthy peasants in several nearby villages.

After this year's winter wheat harvest and the farmers got richer, the town became even more lively. The butcher in the town kills a pig every day, and the chicken and duck seller is even more sinful, and he doesn't know how many chickens and ducks he kills in a day.

In the evening, in Boss Ni's house, the four of Ni's family and Meng Yousan and his wife had a sumptuous dinner. There are fried bacon, braised duck, various vegetables, rice wine bought in town, and rice that is full.

Meng Yousan and his wife were used to suffering, and when they saw such a meal, they drooled and devoured it, as if they had been hungry for a few days. That look scared Boss Ni's son so much that he didn't dare to eat vegetables.

Although Ni Lao's family of four does not eat meat every day, after the harvest this month, they also eat meat every three days. The Ni family was much calmer when they saw a table of meat, and compared with Meng Yousan and his wife, who were gobbling up, the grade came out all of a sudden. In the end, the four members of the Ni family seemed to think that Meng Yousan and his wife were too bitter, so they didn't grab food from them, and only took a few pieces of vegetables and ate a bowl of rice before putting down the chopsticks.

Before Meng Yousan could react, he stuffed meat into his mouth and said, "Eat, why don't you eat meat?" ”

Boss Ni took a sip of rice wine and said lightly: "You eat, we ate meat in the morning, and now we have no appetite." ”

Meng Yousan saw that Boss Ni was drinking, so he remembered that there was a bowl of wine in front of him, and quickly raised it up and took a sip. The mellow rice wine entered his stomach, Meng Yousan sighed with satisfaction, and said loudly: "Donkey hairball, this is the life of a person." It's so bitter in Baodi, I haven't eaten meat for the Chinese New Year this year! ”

Boss Ni smiled, lit the dry tobacco with a fire sickle, smoked slowly, and waited for Meng Yousan to finish eating.

Meng Yousan looked at Boss Ni who was smoking dry tobacco with a confused face, and secretly said that the Ni family was too rich, and even smoked dry tobacco. I have only seen this kind of dry tobacco once at the village master, and I have never smoked it.

The various differences he saw in the Ni family made Meng Yousan feel a sense of being shocked. If he saw Boss Ni smoking in the past, he would definitely snatch the dry tobacco over and smoke a few puffs as soon as Ni was a nerd. But now looking at the wealthy Boss Ni, Meng Yousan has a sense of class gap, as if he saw the master in the village, and he didn't dare to do it for a while.

Meng Yousan then remembered that he was too embarrassed to eat meat, so he slowed down the chopsticks in his hand and ate more slowly.

Boss Ni waited while smoking, until Meng Yousan burped and put down his chopsticks, and then Boss Ni said, "My cousin and sister-in-law came to my house together to ask me to be a guarantor, right?" ”

Li Zhi's 10,000 tenant farmers were very wealthy, and his fame had spread to several nearby counties. The poor tenant farmers in the neighborhood all hoped to go to Fanjiazhuang to farm for Li Zhi, but there were too many people who wanted to come. Therefore, the second batch of peasants recruited by Li Zhi this time required that the first batch of peasants must be guaranteed and that they should not be recruited if they did not mix in with the spies.

Meng You wanted to enter Fanjiazhuang to do things, of course, he could only come to ask Boss Ni to protect him. If there was no Boss Ni as a guarantor, Meng Yousan would not be able to enter the gate of Fanjiazhuang if he wanted to be Li Zhi's tenant farmer.

Boss Ni licked his lips and said, "I'll tell you the truth, cousin, there are already five relatives who have come to beg me to be a guarantor." You're the sixth. After a pause, Boss Ni said, "But according to the rules of the general, I can only protect one family this year." I don't protect anyone, it's all difficult to do! ”

Meng You looked at Boss Ni with three eyes and said, "Boss Ni, we grew up playing together since we were children, you can't say that I can't enter the village if you don't guarantee me!" ”

Boss Ni took the last puff of dry tobacco, knocked it on the table leg, knocked out the burned tobacco in the dry tobacco, and said, "You're right, let's play big together." Since I was a child, although you looked down on me and called me a nerd, you never bullied me! And everyone else, because I'm an honest person, take advantage of me! ”

Boss Ni put the dry tobacco on the table and said, "So, I'll protect you and Meng Yousan!" This year, I will go to Jinghai County to plant 40 acres of dry land with canals! ”

"Really?"

"Can there be fake? Tomorrow I will take you to the city to draw a bond as a guarantee! ”

When Meng Yousan heard Boss Ni's words, he jumped up from the chair with excitement, squatted on the chair, and said loudly: "Boss Ni, you are righteous enough!" ”

Boss Ni's words changed the fate of Meng Yousan's family, how could Meng Yousan and his wife not be excited? Meng Yousan's daughter-in-law clutched Meng Yousan's pants tightly, and tears flowed from her eyes with excitement.

"Daddy, child, it's okay now, I can eat enough."

Meng Yousan glanced at his daughter-in-law, tears couldn't help but flow, and he hugged his daughter-in-law's head and said, "Child, I'm going to live a good life now!" Our two daughters won't go hungry! ”

Boss Ni looked at Meng Yousan and his wife, who were excited, and did not speak. He took some more tobacco from his pouch, put it in the mouth of his pipe, lit it, and took a slow puff. (To be continued.) )