Not long ago, the magnates of the Yongle Dynasty were still oppressed, and they were living in mud.

Perhaps for Fang Fei, Wu Fu, Shen Shou and other people who turned into powerful people, breaking the canal and destroying the fields is a necessary measure to increase the pressure on the government, test the strength of the official army, and delay the counterattack of the official army, but for the ordinary people whose fields and houses were destroyed, it is undoubtedly the fall of the sky.

Although he does not know the Four Books and Five Classics, Li Xiang can be regarded as a person who has seen radio and has a flexible mind in the Great Zhou. What's more, he also has the resources of Mingyuezhuang in his hands, and he has visited many places, and the breadth and height of his thinking about problems have long been extraordinary. Combined with the modern knowledge in his mind, Li Xiang recognized that the Yongle Dynasty could not succeed.

Big, the court is just a temporary difficulty. The continuous bandits, the great changes in the situation in the north, coupled with natural and man-made disasters, have caused today's predicament.

Fang La is indeed a generation of heroes, but he also has the luck to take advantage of the situation. According to Li Xiang's news in Bianjing, the income of the elderly has not decreased in the past two years, and the industrial and mining tax, commercial tax and maritime trade tax have surged!

It is hard to imagine that a huge country with an annual income of more than 60 million copper coins, a super empire with nearly two million troops on its books, and a kingdom of the Celestial Empire, which is the most powerful in economy and science and technology, can be dragged down by more than a dozen rebels and bandits.

Da Zhou was just a temporary turnover failure.

The Yongle Dynasty can't push over the Great Zhou, and it can't solve the problems of people's livelihood.

The more Fang La struggled, the more crazy he became, the more the small people suffered, this was Li Xiang's overall judgment.

Unlike the scholars of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Li Xiang was most worried about the situation in the north. The latest news from Bianjing and Mingyueji: The Jin soldiers attacked Liao again in two ways, and hit Youzhou City and Taiyuan City respectively, and Taiyuan City was in danger.

Unlike the vast and sparsely populated areas of the northern part of the country, south of the mottled and decadent Great Wall, there are many towns and passes in the Liao Kingdom. The fact that the Jurchens were able to continue to maintain a strong offensive meant that the city wall could not stop the advance of the Jurchen Iron Cavalry!

Li Xiang is not a high-ranking official, not a military general, and even has no official body and fame, just a folk hero. He can't change much, so he can only do his best to make Jiangnan less dead, and let Da Zhou invest money, food, army and energy in the north as soon as possible.

As for the Yongle Dynasty, let's fall quickly.

Xiwangmiao is just a small town behind the battlefield, which is inconspicuous on weekdays, but now it has become the hope of many hungry people to survive. I heard that anyone who has a skill, who is literate and hyphenated, and who dares to fight and fight, can seek refuge there.

Li Xiang used his military exploits to exchange the grain from the families of the big gentry and began to play a role.

A skilled craftsman, a skilled farmer, an abacus bookkeeper, a tireless teacher, and a clever man...... Mingyuezhuang is in urgent need of such people, and Li Xiang can't do without such people in Jiangnan, so these people successfully entered Xiwang Temple and could eat seven points a day.

The village soldiers who lost their families, the family members who lost their masters, and the wounded soldiers of the box army who sat on the ground and waited for death...... Blessed are the men who lick the blood at the tip of the knife, as long as they can make a few moves under Zhang Qingping and Yang Yingdong, they can immediately join the "village soldiers" team of the owner, so that it is not a problem for the family to eat a full stomach.

Li Xiang proved the combat strength of his subordinates, "friendly" met the requirements of the local forces for combat exploits, and generously divided the heads of Fang Lajun's Zhengding. The military newspaper written to Han Zhao's envoy has also been written, and every word on it has been "repeatedly discussed" by Li Xiang, the county lieutenant, the patriarch, and others.

The big local families regarded Li Xiang as a distinguished guest.

Since it is a distinguished guest, of course, you can't live in a cramped courtyard. As a family that has raised people in the town, the Wang family and the Tian family each vacated two compounds, and also "found" more places to live for the hundreds of people under Li Xiang's command.

Zhuang Ding's living conditions have greatly improved.

The convoy from Guangde County had arrived at Xiwangmiao, bringing a new batch of medicinal herbs, bandages, grain, rice, salt, and swords, guns and arrows, and the road was not very peaceful.

Liu Sheng put on chain mail on the inside and a wide gray and black robe on the outside, and was about to take more people to Guangde County to deliver the next batch of supplies.

When he came to the door facing the main street, Liu Sheng stopped and impatiently said to the villagers, family members and wounded soldiers who blocked the door: "What's the matter? Hungry and still not satisfied? ”

"If our owner accepts you, of course he will treat each other well. Now that the supplies are tight, it can only keep you from starving, and the money and food promised to you will be replenished later. ”

After passing the assessment, the men who were successfully accepted by Li Xiang were not good at words, and in a hurry, they launched a broken mouth.

The young man with a broken mouth was born in Heping Town, southeast of Xiwangmiao, and his body looked very thin, and his hands were known for being too dirty. In front of Liu Sheng, he obviously felt a sense of oppression, and swallowed and spitted: "Brother Liu is polite. Although we men who are crawling and rolling can't get on the stage, we are not white-eyed wolves. ”

"I heard that Brother Liu was going to lead someone to escort the convoy, so we felt that we couldn't eat Commander Li's food in vain, and wanted to follow Brother Liu to contribute."

"In addition, I heard that the Zhuang Ding of Mingyuezhuang has money and food on weekdays, and there are pensions for casualties. Although the owner of the village did not look down on us, we also wanted to contribute as soon as possible, otherwise the owner would definitely look down on us if we always ate dry rice here. ”

Lord Zhuang, Lord Li Commander, of course, refers to Li Xiang. Zhuang Ding's team was hung under the name of Han Shizhong's cronies, and Li Xiang had the title of "Commander".

Liu Sheng rubbed his neck, looking at the newcomer with an expectant face, not knowing what to do.

Fang Weiliang walked over, whispered something in Liu Sheng's ear, and left on his own.

Liu Sheng's eyes lit up, and he raised his voice and said, "The injured person will continue to recuperate." Those who can fight, those who have heads in their hands, and men who know everything about the other party are preferred. Thirty men shall be chosen among yourselves, and you will be given half an hour. ”

Half an hour later, Liu Sheng set off with the convoy, and there were many new recruits in the guards. Late that night, Zhang Qingping led 70 people over the earthen wall of Xiwangzhuang and disappeared.

Fang Weiliang and Ding Shihang watched the whole process of the newly recruited fighting men electing thirty people, and walked towards the compound where Li Xiang lived.

At the foot are blue brick and stone slabs, and on both sides are brick walls, and you can see the carved small buildings when you look up.

Although he has seen it many times, Ding Shihang is still very envious of this exquisite and exquisite house.

Generally speaking, the Great Zhou decree was lenient and did not restrict the people's clothing and architectural styles, but the scholars and small people did not dare to mess around. In the case of the house where the owner lives, there are rules for how many entrances and exits, how many rooms, and the overall layout.

Fang Weiliang and the others came to the small garden, and happened to see Li Xiangchen finishing his practice, wiping his sweat and preparing for dinner.

In the midst of the war, Li Xiang certainly couldn't walk out of the door in two forks, and ran in front of the wounded, hungry people and gentry, so he had to do some simple push-ups, sit-ups, squats and jumps, and so on.

Seeing that Fang Weiliang and Ding Shihang had arrived, the owner of the village asked the hired cook to add two pieces of chopsticks and beckoned the two in front of him to eat together.

Ding Shi sailed through the disciple salute, Fang Weiliang made a forked hand salute, and after the owner sat down, he also sat down to eat.

Because of the addition of people, the cook hurriedly put a small basket of cooking cakes and a small basket of steamed buns, and replaced the small dish containing two kinds of stir-fried food with a deep plate, and served a casserole of porridge.

Fang Weiliang looked at it with a convulsion. After living for so many years, for the first time, he felt like a rice bucket.

Li Xiang broke the cooking cakes and put them into the porridge, while constantly looking at the carved beams, stone tables and flower pots, and heard Ding Shihang's snoring and drinking porridge, before he came back to his senses and ate one bite of food.

Ding Shihang smashed his mouth, served himself another bowl of gruel, sandwiched a bun with chopsticks, and couldn't help asking: "Master is worried, there is a problem with the courtyard of the Tian family?" Do I need to check it carefully? ”

"The building is fine, I just remembered the radar kid." In Mingyuezhuang, most of the villagers don't pay much attention to certain details, and they always have something to say at the dinner table, mainly because they are too busy.

The owner of the village is naturally an outstanding representative of them.

I saw Li Xiang slowly drinking porridge and said intermittently: "That kid ...... Come early in the morning and let the owner of the village use the seal, and then sigh at the delicate ...... of these things."

Fang Weiliang paused to drink porridge, took the coarse cloth towel handed by the cook, and continued: "Did the owner of the village think of some people who opened workshops in the village, and began to pursue gorgeous carving and packaging?" ”

Li Xiang showed an approving look, pointed to the exquisite beam with chopsticks and said: "It's not that it's not good to make the objects exquisite, it's just that the advantage that our Mingyuezhuang relies on to survive is not here." ”

Ding Shihang didn't know what to do. Fang Weiliang just grabbed something, but he couldn't tell what it was.

"Why can the goods of the village workshop be sold smoothly and become famous?" Li Xiang sold it first, and then explained carefully: "Easy to use, solid leather, cheap!" ”

"Take scissors. The scissors produced by Mingyuezhuang are the same when you buy a hundred pairs, and after modifications, the grip is more convenient and not easy to hurt your hands. And our price is only one-half to one-third of the price of others. ”

"The foundation of Mingyuezhuang is built on the exquisite assembly line, on the unified commercial logo, and on the low cost brought by a large number of shipments. Other than that, Mingyuezhuang, including Mingyueji, does not have any advantages. ”

"There is no shortage of exquisite craftsmen, clever businessmen, and bold owners in the Great Zhou, who really want to work with others to carve and paint? I can't fight it......"

Fang Weiliang fell into a delusion.

is worthy of being a "relevant person" who has served as a shopkeeper in the business for a long time, Fang Weiliang quickly understood the advanced thinking of the owner: do not work with wealthy businessmen, but only talk about heroes with practicality. People who pursue carving and painting are not the current Mingyuezhuang goods that can be leveraged, and they have enough wealth to pursue better things, such as lacquerware with complicated craftsmanship to the limit and gorgeous and bright to the sky.

As long as the workshop of Mingyuezhuang gives full play to the quality and cost advantages, and takes the small rich home and the food and clothing home as the main market, it is enough to support the next development!

Ding Shihang was not interested in the way of goods, he only knew that his armed caravan was starting to make money again, and the workshop he had opened on the bank of the Han River was about to be put into operation. As long as the knife in his hand can still cut people, and the master is still the owner of the village, he doesn't need to worry too much.

Ding Shihang quickly finished eating and was called by Zhang Qingping to run errands.

The owner of the village and Fang Weiliang chewed slowly and ate for twenty-five minutes.

At the end of breakfast, Li Xiang looked at the cooking cakes and buns in the small basket, and always felt that something was missing, and he didn't eat very happily.

For nearly two years, Li Xiang always felt that it was a bad taste when he ate breakfast.

Fritters!

After exchanging ideas, Li Xiang, who was refreshed, finally thought of the fritters and felt hungry again.

Mingyuezhuang's menu soon had a new breakfast, and the villagers at the bottom had a new means of making a living.