In the mountains, by the stream!

Li Yan and Li Gongzi woke up faintly, he didn't know that he had been in a coma for a few days, he only knew that he was very hungry and his whole body was weak. Hearing the sound of the stream rattling in his ears, he bothered his body, but instead of holding it up, he fell down again, knocking his head on a stone with a "bump" sound.

A woman's voice sounded next to him: "Oh, this son, don't move around, I finally bandaged the wound, if you toss around, beware of your life." ”

Li Yan settled down, looked to the side, and saw a bright girl sitting by the stream not far away, she was about fifteen or sixteen years old, with an innocent smile on her face, and she was quite heroic in red clothes, which made people feel good at a glance.

Li Yan knew what was going on as soon as he thought about it, and hurriedly said: "Li Yan Xie Miss Xie for her kindness, don't you dare to ask the benefactor's name?" ”

The woman in red said goodbye: "Hmph, the reader is troublesome, he wants to ask my name, and he says, 'Don't dare to ask', what's the trouble, you just ask me, 'Hey, what's your name', isn't it over." ”

Li Yan couldn't help but blush, a little embarrassed. The little girl is reasonable, she asks if she wants to ask her name, and she says "I dare not ask", which is also a bit fake. After all, Li Yan had been with the thieves of the 36th Battalion for a long time, and he was much bolder than when he was a pure scholar before, so he asked seriously: "Hey, what is your name?" ”

The woman in red smiled: "You changed your words quickly, it seems that you are not a rigid nerd, you are better than Ma Xinyu's nerd." My name is Red Lady, you can call me Red Girl, but it's better not to, I still think Red Lady is better. ”

Ma Xiaotian always calls her Red Girl, if others call her like this, it will remind her of Ma Xiaotianlai, and she always feels weird in her heart, so she doesn't like the name Red Girl now.

"Red lady?" Li Yan frowned slightly when he heard this name, he could hear that this was a nickname. This year, he walked the rivers and lakes with a nickname on his head. It can be said that none of them are good people, either thieves or coars, or cowards or thieves, and they can't get rid of these two identities. But the red lady is still less famous. Compared with Xue Hongqi's big Kou. Her name can be said to be unheard. Li Yan didn't know that she was Zhu Jun's person.

He was vigilant in his heart, so he asked, "Under which eldest brother does the girl work?" ”

The red lady flattened her mouth, and originally wanted to say Baishui Zhuba. But when I think about it, it seems like I ran away...... That's not it. She had no choice but to say: "I didn't do anything for any big brother, I am me, the red lady!" ”

Li Yan was relieved to see that she didn't seem to be a fake, he really didn't call her a red girl, but called directly: "Red lady, the Chuang Army, Zhu Jun, Zhang Xianzhong's Army, and the officers and soldiers in this vicinity fought and became a mess, why are you here?" ”

The red lady laughed and said: "This girl is a master of art and bold, and she can go anywhere." "Actually, she got lost in the mountains, and she didn't know how to get here, and then picked up a scholar in the stream, but she herself would not admit to getting lost. He looked at Li Yan for a while, and said with a smile: "You also said it yourself, the nearby Chuang Army, Zhu Army, Zhang Xianzhong Army, and officers and soldiers fought a big shot, and you were injured and lying in the stream, it seems that you are one of them, right?" Which army do you belong to? ”

Li Yan didn't hide it, and said proudly: "I am the military advisor of the army, Li Yan." ”

"Oh?" When the red lady heard this name, she immediately remembered that she had heard Li Yan's name when she was in Zhu Bajun, and that children's song was not made up by Li Yan? She laughed and said, "I know, it's you...... Open the city gate to meet the king, and the king is coming to Li Yan and Li Gongzi, who don't pay for food, right? ”

Li Yan said: "It's just below. He admits that when he came down, he felt a sense of accomplishment, because this children's song is his proud work, not only has he gained an excellent reputation for the army, but if it is carried out, it can also make the people live a good life. Therefore, when he heard the red lady say this, he felt proud for no reason.

He just agreed, and was waiting for the red lady to say something for a long time, your children's songs are well composed, and you are a good person, but he heard the red lady laugh and said: "Your children's songs here are really demagogic, but ah...... It is wrong not to pay for food! ”

"What? Wrong? Li Yan was slightly angry in his heart: "If I let King Chuang not pay food, the people will not need to pay taxes, so that they can live a happy life, why is it wrong?" In the future, if the king wins the world, and the people of the whole world will not pay for food, what is wrong with everyone living a peaceful and beautiful life together? ”

The red lady grinned: "Oops, it's wrong anyway." She recalled some of the words she heard from Zhu Yuanzhang and Ma Xiaotian, sorted them out in her mind, and then triumphantly criticized Li Yandao: "The people of the whole country don't pay taxes, so who will repair the city wall?" ”

Li Yan said: "Of course, it is the imperial court repair. ”

The red lady smiled: "Where does the court get the money if it doesn't collect taxes?" ”

Li Yan said: "The court has money, and if you don't collect taxes, you will have money that you can't use......"

Hearing him say this, the red lady suddenly laughed: "You...... You don't really think so, do you? Laugh...... I'm laughing to death...... Hahaha...... No, I'm laughing to death......"

Li Yan's face sank and said, "Did I say something wrong?" Those princes, lords, dignitaries and nobles in the imperial court, the gold and silver mountains at home can't be used up, what happened to them spending money to repair the city wall? ”

The red lady shook her head and said, "Didn't you say that King Chuang is going to take over the world?" When King Chuang killed all the people in the court and won the world, the princes and lords also died, and then Li Guo, Liu Zongmin, and Niu Jinxing became the new princes and lords, and they also have gold and silver mountains at home, can they be used to build city walls? ”

Li Yan gasped when he said this, a cold air poured into his head, and sweat flowed down in a hurry, he had never thought about this problem before, but now that he thought about it carefully, he suddenly found a major shortcoming...... The dignitaries and nobles of the imperial court are indeed very rich, but what Li Zicheng is doing now is to kill all these rich people and use their money as his own military expenses.

And in the future, after Li Zicheng wins the world, the wealth of these dignitaries and nobles will be spent by Li Zicheng as military expenses. What money did Li Zicheng use to govern the country at that time? Without taxes, how can there be finance? Without finance, how can we govern the country?

Li Yan has always vaguely felt that there is a major flaw in his children's songs, but now he has finally suddenly understood the key to it, sweating like rain for a while, and many problems that he had never thought about were all placed in front of him. He trembled all over, and it took him half a sound before he finally regained his senses. hurriedly said to the red lady: "The girl is talented." Can you give a few more words to the students...... What can be done to save Xiaosheng's policy of not paying food? ”

When he heard what the Red Lady had just said, he was shocked that the Red Lady was a heavenly girl who came down to earth to enlighten him, so his attitude became extremely respectful. It's just that the body is immobile. Otherwise, she would have knelt down for the red lady.

The red lady smiled and said, "You can't save Luo!" A very powerful man said. The key to your plan is to 'not pay for food', but this key is already wrong and crooked. All the problems behind are crooked and completely irremediable......"

Li Yan was sweating profusely, he thought to himself: This woman may be a fairy, and that extremely powerful person is the Jade Emperor, he said that I was wrong, is it really all wrong?

The arrogance of the scholar suddenly burst out from the depths of his heart, and he asked seriously: "If that extremely powerful person wants to correct this troubled world, what plan will he use?" What is the key to his plan? He thought to himself, Li Mou is not talented, compare with the Jade Emperor, maybe I can also find a huge loophole from his plan.

The red lady tilted her head and thought carefully about what Zhu Bugling had taught her before. As soon as I thought about it, I found that Zhu Baba taught him a lot of things, because she followed Zhu Baba all day and night, often asking some funny questions, and Zhu Baba patiently explained them one by one, which made her also grow a lot of knowledge.

She said seriously to Li Yan: "The person who has done great harm said that the most critical problem is to let the people's fields harvest more grain than before, and collect more, even if they have to pay taxes, the people can still live a good life." If you don't pay for it, he will starve to death...... So, the key question is...... Productivity! ”

In fact, the red lady couldn't fully understand the meaning of the three words "productivity", she just moved according to what Zhu Yuanzhang said, but these three words fell on the ears of Li Yan, who was full of poetry and books, but it was tantamount to thunder on a sunny day, which shook his whole body.

He couldn't help but think in his heart: Yes, the people have produced a lot, and they are naturally rich. When the people are rich, what are they afraid of paying taxes? When the people are rich, will they starve? When the people are rich, how can they be evil? As the old saying goes: Cang Liao knows etiquette when he is honest, and he knows honor and disgrace when he has enough food and clothing. I read the books of the sages, how come I forgot even this teaching of the ancients and went out at the ninth night?

He hurriedly struggled to break up half of his body, and said to the red lady: "Thank you fairy sister for lighting, Li Yan has to hear the fairy sound...... I don't regret dying......"

"What? Fairy? Who are the fairies? The red lady was at a loss.

Li Yan said again: "I also asked the fairy sister to take Li Yan to meet the Jade Emperor...... Li Yan still has a lot of questions and wants to ask his old man for advice. ”

The red lady was shocked: "The Jade Emperor? I haven't seen it yet, how do you tell me to take you there? ”――

It's summer in the blink of an eye!

The summer in Sichuan is particularly hot, this place is very strange, the winter is extremely cold, the summer is extremely hot, it is completely two extremes. Under the scorching sun, Guangyuan's corn field was also ruthlessly roasted by the sun, and the corn drooped its head in the field, looking very pitiful.

At this time, it has come to the harvest season of spring corn, the people of Guangyuan have been waiting for four months of growth period, and now it is finally time to harvest corn, but seeing the hot weather, the corn is listless, I can't help but sweat in my heart, if this batch of spring corn can not be harvested, the people of Guangyuan will have a hard life.

Zhu Yuanzhang took Xia Erduo and others to inspect the edge of the field, and an old farmer came over worriedly and asked Xia Erduo about corn.

Xia Erduo has never planted such a thing, and he is a little uneasy in his heart. Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "Don't worry, it's okay, this thing looks like this in the sun, it doesn't affect the harvest, calculate the time, it's actually almost cooked, so I'm anxious to pick up a few corn cobs and verify it." ”

As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang said this, an old farmer couldn't help it and ran into his own corn field, twisting a corn in both hands. Snap it off.

In later generations, any person also knew that corn was to strip clothes, and when the corn leaves were opened, what was wrapped inside was a golden corn cob.

But the old farmer had never seen this kind of crop for the first time, and he had never even seen what the fruit of its harvest should look like, and after breaking off the corn cob, he was flustered, and he lifted the corn cob wrapped in the leaves, and tore off a leaf shell wrapped around the outside from it, and held it high and said, "General, are we just eating this leaf shell?" Boiled in water? Like eating Chinese cabbage? ”

He asked. An old farmer next to him smiled: "I think so." You see this corn cob, wrapped in several layers of leaves, a bit like cabbage...... If you peel off the layers and eat them, there will be a lot of leaves to eat. ”

Speaking of which. He suddenly frowned and said, "Oops." But vegetable leaves should not be used as a staple food...... "Chinese although it has been eaten since ancient times. But Chinese know that vegetable leaves cannot be used as a staple food, after all, things such as noodles and rice are needed to fill people's stomachs. You can't just eat the leaves.

Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile: "Can't you tear the whole corn and then talk about it?" Just looking out there is a blind toss. ”

When several old farmers heard him say this, they quickly reached out and tore the husk of the corn, and after a few clicks, they finally peeled the corn inside, only to see the golden corn in rows, neatly arranged. Of course, the two old farmers now understood what they had grown, and they looked at the neat corn grains, and their hearts couldn't help but be happy: "No wonder the general called this thing corn, this is really rice-like jade!" All of them are crystal round and beautiful. ”

Someone laughed and said: "It turned out to be wrapped in leaves, let me give this thing a nickname, it's called Baogu." ”

The farmers clapped their hands and said, "I like the name Baogu." ”

One person shouted in ecstasy, "Wow, this one is at least half a pound...... If the whole field is harvested, how many are there? ”

The people next to him were also ecstatic: "Yes, such a big lump...... Eat one to get your fill. ”

Zhu Yuanzhang interrupted the person with a smile: "Don't be in a hurry to be happy, there is a core in this thing, and you can't eat it...... So...... You can't fill your stomach with a single piece of corn, and there's not as much of this stuff as you might think. ”

The old farmers smiled embarrassedly, and quickly pulled away the corn kernels with their hands, and sure enough, the corn kernels only had a thin layer on the core surface, and below was the inedible kernel. The peasants, who were in a state of flux, hurriedly pulled down the corn kernels one by one, and in a short time completely separated the kernels from the corn kernels.

Someone took a scale over, weighed on the scale, this is almost calculated the ratio between a corn cob core and corn kernels, the improved corn cob of later generations, generally speaking, corn kernels can account for 80% of the weight of the entire corn cob, but at this time in the Ming Dynasty, corn is still a wild variety, and the seed yield is worse than that of the improved varieties of later generations, but it can also account for 50% to 60% of the proportion. That is to say, a one-pound corn cob can eat more than half a catty.

The old peasants were already very satisfied with this result, and at that moment an old farmer who lived not far away went home and carried a pot, boiled water in front of everyone, and threw the corn cob into the boiling water to boil.

Everyone sat down around the cauldron, Zhu Yuanzhang was no exception to sit by the pot, chatting with the old farmers, after a while, the corn was cooked, everyone and the old farmers picked up one in their hands, only to see Zhu Yuanzhang take the lead in moving his mouth, biting a small gap on the corn cob, and then slowly gnawing down the rows of corn kernels.

Everyone is looking at Zhu Yuanzhang, just to learn how to eat corn, don't make a joke about eating leaf shells again, seeing that he moved his mouth, everyone followed Zhu Yuanzhang's example and moved his mouth to bite down. As soon as you enter your mouth, you will feel the fragrance of your mouth, and the fragrance of corn is obvious, stronger than the fragrance of many grains, and as soon as you enter your mouth, you will immediately fascinate everyone's taste buds.

"Hmm, it's delicious!" An old farmer said happily, "It's delicious." ”

Another old farmer also said happily: "It's really delicious, I think this thing can be mixed with other grains to cook, for example, brown rice mixed with this will definitely make the rice more fragrant." The wisdom of the working people is indeed extraordinary, and this person only took the first bite and invented the famous "baogu rice" in later generations.

After the old peasants had tasted the corn, they tasted its delicacy, and without doubt, they hurried to their fields to harvest, and the villagers usually did not work alone to harvest the crops, and would call all the laborers in the family, and all of a sudden, the fields were overcrowded, and every household sent all the laborers out to harvest the corn.

When people were in full swing, a little monkey jumped out of the mountain forest, and the monkey liked to learn people's movements the most, and saw people picking corn in the fields. It also jumped into the field and reached out to pick a piece of corn, but unfortunately it didn't have a back pocket, so it had to hold it with its hands, and when it picked a piece of corn, it was sandwiched under its armpit, and then another one was sandwiched under its armpit, but where did it get so much under its armpit? Walk all the way and drop all the way...... A farmer rushed at the monkey and yelled, "You thief monkey, you have come to steal my crops......

The monkey was startled and ran into the mountains, and finally caught only one corn under his armpit......

When the farmer saw that he had not stolen much corn, he did not bother with the monkey and scolded with a smile: "The monkey breaks the grain, breaks one and throws the other, hahaha!" He walked along the path that the monkey had just walked, picked up many corn from the ground that the monkey had dropped, and said with a smile: "This monkey has saved me trouble." (To be continued.) )