It's been five days since Lian Zining came back.

The official document has already been sent to the Ministry of War, and I think I will receive the news in a few days.

Come back for a few days, don't be busy dealing with the backlog of political affairs, after all, the huge territory of the six counties, although there are dozens of cadres who are old and respectful Shaoxing masters, but there are a lot of things that need him to deal with the idea, and these backlogs are also very busy.

This is said, on the plum blossom ridge.

Lian Zining was not in the house, but in a new small building on the side, which was full of flowers on all sides, blue bricks and white walls, very elegant.

This is the abode of amber.

At this time, it was already late spring, and the weather had gradually turned hotter, and on the east side of this small building, the entire wall was chiseled down, and a small bluestone was used to build a large floor-to-ceiling window, on which a lattice was built with wood, and then a large wooden barrel was placed on the roof, and then the whole roof was built into a small pool, covered with bluestone to prevent water leakage. There is a hole in the bottom of the large barrel, and the water flows out of the hole, into the pool, and then down the gap to the east to form a small waterfall.

When a fresh breeze blows, it brings a cool coolness, and the inside of the house is very cool.

This is a very spacious study room, in which there is a table made of small sandalwood, and Lian Zining is sitting in the back to review documents.

What surprised and relieved him was that several women did not get along quite well as he imagined before, probably because these girls were very smart girls, and they knew that if they were jealous, it would cause Lian Zining's disgust, so they didn't know what agreement was reached secretly, anyway, Lian Zining was divided...... That's right, it's divided.

Now Lian Zining is in the house in the morning, here in Amber in the afternoon, and then goes back to sleep in the evening...... The door was pushed open, Amber walked in with a cup of herbal tea, put it on the table in front of Lian Zining, and said with a smile: "Master, there are three people outside, Meng Fanqian, Liu Huateng, and Wang Dachun and Wang Zhenfu." ”

"Well, let them in, it looks like that's the thing." Lian Zining nodded, picked up the herbal tea and took a sip, the entrance was sweet and clear, and said with a smile: "Add ice?" ”

Amber nodded and said, "I know that the old man is not tolerant of the heat, and he likes to drink some cold." ”

She went out to report, and after a while, Wang Dachun and a few people came in.

After seeing the ceremony, the three of them sat down, and Lian Zining asked, "Old Meng, Boss Liu, how are your two horse farms running now?" ”

As soon as he said this, Meng Fanqian and Liu Huateng glanced at each other, and Meng Fanqian smiled bitterly and said: "Even my lord, you don't know that such a job as raising horses is thankless. Now the old family has opened up 10,000 acres of grassland and wasteland as a horse farm, and the three thousand foals that I claimed from you a few days ago are growing well, but these animals are pampered, and they are more difficult to serve than the uncle, and they have to eat soybeans and eggs at every meal, and if it is hay, they don't look at it. This is really a lot of money. ”

Liu Huateng also nodded frequently on the side, looking very approving.

The imperial court horse administration is to find those places where the water and grass are abundant and the war horses grow, and then distribute the foals to the local farmers, let them raise, and when they are old enough to ride and fight, they will buy them at a price. The suffering of Ma Zheng is the suffering in the growth of the usual. The age of the war horse is between three and fifteen years old, and it takes at least two years to grow from a foal to a qualified war horse, and two years, because it is the growth period, it must be fed with nutritious concentrate feed, mainly eggs and soybeans - if you are only fed hay, not to mention that the pony can't grow, even the adult war horse can't stand it.

In those days, people didn't eat eggs at every meal! It is naturally too luxurious to feed the horses, but if you don't use this to feed, the war horses will have problems, get sick or grow badly, and when the time comes, there will be a division to check, and if you find these unqualified, you will immediately be held accountable for raising horses and horses! If you run into something like Zhou Papi, you will have to toss a broken family and die.

And the silver used by the imperial court to purchase is far less than the cost of the horse households in these years, so it is said that the horse government is bitter for the people.

Lian Zining naturally couldn't watch the people suffer, but there was a title in his office that was also in charge of Ma Zheng, so this drudgery fell on his head. If it were someone else, he would definitely be unbearable, but what kind of person Lian Zining was, in the experience of later generations, he suddenly came up with a brilliant idea - apportionment!

The target of the horse administration of the four counties such as Le*ling is 20,000 war horses, and the bombing of 20,000 foals is sent here by the military department before the beginning of spring, and personal relations are personal friends, but such a court plan, Dai Zhangpu is absolutely not ambiguous with Lian Zining.

As soon as the foal came, Lian Zining gathered the merchants of the six counties and said, "Everyone, these more than 8,000 Wu Yi soldiers have food, clothing, weapons and clothing, and they are all purchased from you, and you are really stained with a lot of light, and now, even if I encounter a little trouble, you won't sit idly by, right?"

Everyone naturally said that they were willing to share their worries for Master Lian, and Lian Zining said, since this is the case, then I am not welcome. It's this, the court wants us to raise horses, there is a shortage of 20,000 war horses, but what, the horse politics is hard! You can also see it clearly, because Ma Zheng is harsh, he has already provoked the white-robed uprising in turn, presumably you don't want to provoke another uprising, right? Then we're all going to be finished! So, for the sake of the official's black yarn, for your surname, and for the well-being of the people of our six counties, the official came up with an idea.

Everyone basically understood what he meant, but there was no way, just bite the bullet and ask, "What clever plan did Lord Lian come up with?" ”

Lian Zining said, the common people, small households, can't afford the loss of raising horses, everyone is rich, and they don't care about this little money, right? Everyone, today you will each take a batch of foals back, for the officials, for the court, for the long live lord to share the worries!

A big hat was buttoned down, and the merchants in the six counties were smashed with seven meat and eight vegetables, but the matter has come to this point, and there is nothing to be done. Meng Fanqian has benefited a lot from Lian Zining, and he is the largest household in the six counties, and Lian Zining has already communicated with him, so he first claimed 3,000 foals, and Liu Huateng followed closely behind, also claiming 2,000 horses. These two have solved the shortage of Ma Zheng by two and a half, and the remaining businessmen have seen that the leader has appeared, let's admit it! So according to the size of the financial resources, some were claimed, and 20,000 war horses were apportioned.

Although these businessmen don't take the money from raising horses to heart, after all, no one is willing to spend money indiscriminately, so they are a little resistant to this apportionment, but they don't dare to say more because of Lian Zining's majesty. However, after Lian Zining returned from Fusang with a large amount of wealth, this resistance weakened a lot. After all, it's a real benefit.

Lian Zining said with a smile: "Old Meng, if someone else says that I still believe it, if you say it, I really don't believe it!" Not to mention anything else, this trip to Fusang, what happened to your goods, you also made a net profit of 300,000 taels! What's that money? ”

"However, this official will not let Meng Lao suffer!" Lian Zining said with a smile.

"Oh? What do you mean by that? Meng Fanqian's eyes lit up, he knew that this Lord Lian was well-read and had a lot of ideas, and he didn't know what to do this time.

Lian Zining beckoned: "Amber, bring me my precious corn!" ”

Amber chuckled and mumbled, turned and went into the inner room, where she soon pulled out a box and opened it on the table.

There are two corn cobs in the box, and some corn kernels.

Meng Fanqian and Liu Huateng looked at each other, and the two of them stared at each other, neither of them knowing what this thing was.

"Dare to be an adult, what is this? But it's called corn? Is it food or what? Liu Huateng asked.

Lian Zining said: "Let's not be busy talking about this question first, let me ask, Meng Lao, Boss Liu, how many fields do you have in your family?" ”

The two didn't know what his idea was, they all told each other the truth, Meng Fanqian said: "119,000 acres." ”

Liu Huateng said: "There are fewer in the bottom, only 50,000 acres. ”

Lian Zining nodded: "The two of you already have a lot of land, even on the ground in Shandong, I'm afraid you can count it!" What do you plant in your fields after the annual wheat harvest? ”

"Half of them are idle, so they leave the wheat straw in the field and wait until the summer rains heavily, and the wheat straw rots and is used to fertilize the land. The other half is planted with soybeans and cotton, and then rotated the next year to maintain the fertility. Meng Fanqian said.

Liu Huateng's rhetoric is similar.

Lian Zining smiled: "Two, I'm here to show you a way!" ”

He pointed to the corn and said: "This thing is called corn, and it is a crop from a continent tens of thousands of miles away from the sea in the far east, and it can be steamed and eaten directly, or it can be ground into flour and steamed into steamed bread or pancakes like wheat, and it can also be used as porridge." Is what the official said right, you can taste it later when you go back. ”

"It likes heat and humidity, and the growing period is very short, only three or four months, and it is most suitable for planting after the wheat harvest. Our Shandong ground, in the summer, the weather is extremely hot, the next rain is to be hot for a few days, like a steamer, the most suitable for this kind of corn growth. ”

The two of them have basically understood what Lian Zining meant, they are all a little strange, even the adults called us just to grow this thing, a little fuss, right?

(To be continued)