Chapter 66: Exchanges of Gifts (6)
Hatching silkworm seeds requires preparation, and it took ten days before and after. After that, mulberry leaves are picked every day, mulberry leaves are washed, and silkworms are fed. Silkworm babies do not have human mood swings, there is no threat of natural enemies outside, bacteria are also killed, mulberry leaves are put in their mouths, and they eat and eat. After more than 20 days, the silkworm babies stopped eating. Without looking for it, they quickly found a suitable place and began to quietly spin their cocoons.
From a human point of view, bamboo strips are made like nets. Each 'mesh' can accommodate a silkworm to form a cocoon in it. When the baby silkworm stopped spinning, the villagers took off the cocoon and put it in a basket. It didn't take long for a white hill to pile up in the basket. On the second day of harvest, the staff of the Sizhou Agricultural Bureau who collected the cocoons also arrived by boat.
Zhao Qian looked at the lively trading scene with a cold expression, and the farmers had smiles on their faces. Paying money, copper coins, and silkworm cocoons in exchange for a lot of income. Even the excrement of silkworm babies such as 'silkworm sand' has been purchased. Now there is a great demand for pillow cores filled with silkworm sand in the city of Da Song.
It is not only the farmers who are selling, but there are already supply and marketing cooperatives and other small businessmen next to the trading points, and all kinds of shouts are endless. After getting the money and copper coins, the people were finally able to buy what they wanted. Farm implements, cloths, towels. On the stalls of the supply and marketing cooperatives, these things used to be piled high, and it didn't take long for only a few to be bought. Other vendors also have a lot to do.
Zhao Qian saw this enthusiastic performance, and he felt that he should have the joy of being a member. But no. At this time, Zhao Qian felt that if he didn't come to Zhujiazhuang, it wouldn't be any different if someone else came. What really belongs to Zhao Qian is the previous toss, trying to make this world a better toss, but it makes Zhao Qian look more like a fool.
Depressed, Zhao Qian turned around and returned to his residence and lay directly on the bed. Since he has become a fool in the eyes of everyone, maybe he should choose to return to Hangzhou, Zhao Qian thought while lying on the bed. I casually put my hand under the pillow and felt like I was touching the envelope. It should be a letter from his father Zhao Jiaren. Zhao Qian didn't hesitate anymore, he took out the letter and opened it, ready to pack his things and go home after reading it.
Daddy Zhao Jiaren's thin gold characters are very good-looking, even if he uses a fountain pen, the structure of the words between the characters also looks comfortable.
"Da Lang, when the young people in the city see the situation in the countryside, they must feel that something is wrong. I have heard that you think that the village chief has a major problem, and before discussing the village chief problem, I would like to ask you a question. Do you know when the village chief system was established? The earliest system of village chiefs was established when we drove the Mongols away from Jiangnan. At most, it is only ten years, and as for the village chief system in Sizhou, it is probably five or six years. I think you've forgotten that when you were five or six years old, you accidentally stepped into a manure pit and got your shoes and trouser legs dirty. I remember the last time you wet the bed was about 10 years old......"
Daddy Zhao Jiaren's words looked comfortable, and looking at the combination of comfortable words, Zhao Qianteng sat up, and Fang Cai's mood was replaced by a strong sense of shame. Even if it's your own father, you can't turn over old accounts like this! Finally excluded those unbearable memories that were awakened temporarily, Zhao Qian picked up the letter and barely read it.
"If you want to be perfect for a village chief system that has only been in existence for a few years, it is as impossible as if you wanted to reach your personal peak from birth. For example, I would never call you the person you are now by the pit pit child and the bedwetting child. Because that stage has passed. Also, if you read me mention your old stories, you feel a strong sense of shame. Then I have to say, shame is almost brave, and I am very happy with your reaction. If you think indifferently in your heart, what's the point of mentioning such old things? I'm going to be disappointed......"
Zhao Qian closed his eyes and rubbed his eyebrows with his fingers. The person who wrote the letter is worthy of his own father, this is really ...... Father's love is like a mountain, and the pressure is great.
"Because you're a newcomer to the country, you think the country you're seeing is the worst state. I can assure you that the situation in the countryside before the establishment of the village chief system was earlier than it is now. Therefore, I ask you to suppress the impulses peculiar to young people and shameful people, and continue to work hard in the countryside with a cooperative attitude. Your work is one of the many ways to increase rural productivity, which is the fundamental driving force for social development, and as long as you can stay for more than a year, you can see the change. Complete the three-year term and you'll see a huge change. Looking forward to seeing you on vacation, your mother has already begun to give you a blind date. She needs you to go back to Hangzhou often. ”
Putting down the letter, Zhao Qian didn't know how to react. Dad's letter gave Zhao Qian a different perspective. But the previous impression was too deep, and Zhao Qian's thoughts could not be fundamentally changed because of a short period of time to read the letter. In this state of mind, someone knocked on the door outside, and then someone rushed in. It turned out that the old man of the village came excitedly surrounded by several juniors.
The old man smiled and showed his gums, and the vacancy of several teeth was particularly obvious. Walking in front of Zhao Qian in a few steps, the old man bowed to Zhao Qian, which startled Zhao Qian. As a young man, it was completely inappropriate for him to be treated like this by an old man. As soon as he jumped up from the bed, the old man took Zhao Qian's hand and said happily: "Section Chief Zhao, why are you still nested in the house, we are all looking for you." Come on, drink go, drink go! ”
Pulled out of the house by the old man, he saw that under the bright sky, the village names had begun to move tables and chairs outside. Others set up a cauldron and prepared to cook. Maybe it was affected by this atmosphere, or maybe it was because of reading his father's letter, Zhao Qian felt that his mood had also improved.
It's too late to kill pigs and sheep temporarily, but fortunately, there are fish in the rice fields in the village, and there are still leftovers of rice fish dried last year, plus killing chickens, and some people have taken out the bacon at home, and finally there are meat dishes. Men laughed, women laughed, and children ran back and forth.
The exploitation of loan sharks, the opportunity to rise that was closed because of illiteracy, everyone didn't seem to feel the pain that Zhao Qian thought, and everyone was immersed in joy. Seeing Zhao Qian being invited out, someone immediately stepped forward to say hello.
If it's in the city, the school popularizes the standard language, hello, thank you, goodbye. With the addition of modern Chinese, what everyone says is basically the same. In the countryside, everyone's speech is mostly a variety of slang, plus the relationship between accents, you need to be very careful to understand.
The general effect of the villagers was to thank the government, send silkworm seeds to the villagers, and also send Zhao Qian's officials. In the past, the government would only send tax collectors to the countryside to collect taxes, and it had never seen such a way to provide villagers with a way to make money.
Zhao Qian can understand these contents, and the channels provided by the government are indeed of great benefit to the people. It wasn't until he heard someone praise that since there was a village head, there was finally an official government to manage all kinds of things for the people, that Zhao Qian was surprised. Although Village Chief Zhu was not yet heinous in Zhao Qian's eyes, Zhao Qian was very surprised that such a person would be praised by the villagers.
In the Sizhou area, Zhao Qian's Zhujiazhuang is not the only one to celebrate, most of the villages there have held celebratory banquets. The villagers didn't know it was so easy to make money. Lacking social experience, Zhao Qian lacked an understanding of this, but Zhao Jiaren, who was far away in Hangzhou, knew very well that the self-sufficient agricultural system had a great deterrent effect on trade.
Although he didn't know his son's specific thoughts, Zhao Jiaren could guess some of Zhao Qian's thoughts. When you are young, you have a strong resentment towards the 'darkness of society', and it is normal for you to shout a few pills when you are young. What Zhao Jiaren is really worried about is that Zhao Qian's motivation to pursue justice and hope for progress will be eroded.
"The official, Li Yun and Zhu Hongwu both sent reports." The secretary handed over two documents. Li Yun's report recounted the news that Hao Ren's troops in Shanxi had begun to move north, and Zhu Hongwu in the Liaodong Theater recounted that after the snow melted, the Mongols began to plunder the population in Goryeo and send these people to Mongolia.
In the face of the outflow of people from enemy-occupied areas, both Li Yun and Zhu Hongwu believed that this process should not be interrupted for the time being. Li Yun's Yanyun Theater wanted to march in the direction of Zhangjiakou and establish a stronghold in the Yehuling area. Zhu Hongwu's Liaodong Theater considered completely sweeping away the local female straights.
After the fall of the Jin Kingdom, both the Mongols and the Great Song Dynasty attacked this feuding tribe. Now the female straight in Liaodong is already a title, how close are they to Wanyan Aguta, or whether they are related by blood, Da Song has no genetic testing technology, so there is no way to determine. But with the title of 'female straight', Zhu Hongwu had murderous intentions towards these people.
"What did the people who were taken captive by the Mongols to the steppe end up using?" Zhao Jiarenti couldn't help but say the doubts in his heart to himself. He did not object to the Mongols plundering the Goryeo population, and if the Mongols could really bring all the Goryeo population to the steppe, Zhao Jiaren would give the Mongols a thumbs up. He was now curious about how the captive population was being used.
After the Song army recovered Hebei, they recaptured many Han Chinese who had been captured by the Mongols. According to the survey, these Han Chinese became the 'outlets' of the Mongolian aristocracy, and in Hebei they mainly did agricultural work and handicrafts in the estates of the nobles. The Mongol capital court ruled by Kublai Khan had many handicraft bureaus. Iron Bureau, Firearms Bureau, Weaving Bureau, many craftsmen in these departments specialize in the production of these fields. The private estates of the Mongol aristocracy were like a small metropolitan court, where agricultural producers and handicrafts coexisted.
But what does the grassland look like? Agricultural areas are able to feed a large number of people through agricultural production, how can such a large number of people be fed on the grasslands.
"Does the official family want the two commanders to arrest the Mongols for questioning?" The clever secretary listened to Zhao Jiaren's question and quickly replied.
Zhao Jiaren shook his head, "The Mongolians on the border of the grassland like Yehuling are only afraid that they don't know what is going on inside the grassland. ”