Hanzhu Academy, Library Building.

As expected, after the debate ended, many people came to borrow books in the first two days, and they all borrowed Zhu Xi's various works.

But from the third day onwards, fewer teachers and students read books.

Five days later, there were only a handful of people left.

Carefully returning the "Zhu Zi Language", Liu Ziren put away the content of the copy, hugged his fists and said: "Fellow students, I will leave first, I will harvest sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes) at home today, and I will rush to work in the fields." ”

"If you have agricultural work, you can't delay," Zhao Han also put down his book and said, "It's just that I'm idle, so I'll go down the mountain to help." ”

Liu Ziren repeatedly excused himself: "No need, no need." ”

If Zhao Han wants to have more contact with farmers, he naturally has to learn to do farm work first, otherwise he can't really communicate at all.

At Zhao Han's strong request, Liu Ziren could only take him to work in the fields.

The two left together, Fei Ruyi didn't want to read alone, so he returned "Dream Creek Writings" and left.

Books are not allowed to be borrowed in any library, so you can either read them in the library or copy the contents of the books.

Zhao Han asked as he walked: "How is this year's sweet potato harvest?" ”

Liu Ziren explained in detail: "Last year, we started to try planting, and this year we will know its nature. I heard that sweet potatoes must be turned over the vines to control the prosperity, otherwise, the better the potato vine grows, the worse the sweet potato will bear. I didn't know this last year, but I just planted a blind crop, maybe I can have a bumper harvest this year. ”

"I see, if you really have a specialization in the art industry." Zhao Han really hasn't touched farming.

Sweet potatoes were introduced to China in the twenty-first year of Wanli.

Chen Zhenlong, a talented talent from Fujian, bribed the indigenous people to obtain potato vines when he was doing business in the Philippines. The potato vine was twisted into the water rope to avoid the inspection of the Spanish colonists, and then the sweet potato vine was brought back to Fujian for insertion.

In the same year, several more businessmen brought back potato vines from Japan and planted them in the temple fields of Putuo Mountain in Zhejiang.

In the past 30 years, due to the promotion of local officials, sweet potatoes have spread all over Fujian and Guangdong.

In Zhejiang, the spread is relatively slow, and it is only planted in a small area in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Jiangxi is sandwiched between these three provinces, how can it not be affected?

Sweet potatoes imported from Guangdong have now spread throughout the southern Gan region.

A few years ago, it was transmitted from Fujian to Leadshan County. Almost every year, the town is spread to the common people, and some farmers make a lot of money by selling potato vines.

The sweet potatoes planted by Liu Ziren's family were planted by going to a neighboring town to buy potato vines and come back to insert them.

The two descended the mountain together and soon arrived at their destination.

Liu Ziren, like Xu Ying's family, also has a few acres of private land. But it was not enough to feed his family, so he worked as a tenant farmer to learn the field, and after failing in the two township tests, he personally spent more and more time in the field and cultivated the land.

"This is my family's tenant farm." Liu Ziren pointed ahead and said.

There are already people working in the fields, Liu Ziren's parents, wife, younger brother and sister-in-law. Even Liu Ziren's six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter are helping to pick up the missing sweet potatoes.

Zhao Han knew his family in the past, and after some persistence, he finally rolled up his trouser legs and rolled up his sleeves to help.

The number of hoes was not enough, and Zhao Han had no chance to dig the soil.

Liu Ziren said: "The potato vine still has a few young leaves, which can be picked to make vegetables. The old vine can not be discarded, it can be fed poultry and livestock, and there are pig farmers who buy it at the entrance of the town. If you want to work, let the virtuous brother go and pick the young leaves. ”

Zhao Han was as good as a stream, squatting in the ground to pick potato leaves.

The young leaves of sweet potatoes can indeed be used for cooking, but they are long past the season, and no matter how Zhao Han chooses, he can't find them tender and delicious.

Turning her head, Liu Mu had already picked a basket, all of which were the kind of old leaves that were difficult to swallow.

It is estimated that in the next few days, the Liu family will make a living from potato leaves, and at most add some grains and brown rice to cook porridge together.

And Liu Ziren is a dignified talent, and at the moment he is vigorously wielding a hoe to dig up sweet potatoes from the ground.

Although he received funding from Fei's, Liu Ziren was not admitted to the school, let alone the master. As I get older, I receive less and less funding. If you can't pass the exam next year, you can only read books for free in the library, and other funding projects will be canceled.

Liu Ziren became more and more excited the more he dug up, and said happily: "After turning the vine and controlling the prosperity, this sweet potato really bears better, at least two or three percent more than last year." ”

"Congratulations, congratulations, this year's harvest," Zhao Han said with a smile, "I taught Brother Liu a method, you can cut sweet potatoes into strips, and then dry and bake them into dried potatoes and sell them, so that you can sell them for more money." ”

"Is that true?" Liu Ziren said happily.

Zhao Han smiled and said, "If Brother Liu doesn't believe it, you can make a small amount of dried potatoes and take them to the town to try to sell them." ”

"Try it over there." Liu Ziren said with a smile.

In the blink of an eye, two baskets of sweet potatoes had been dug up, and Liu Ziren's younger brother immediately picked them up.

Zhao Han hurriedly picked up the hoe and asked Liu Ziren to teach him the tricks of digging the soil.

After digging for a while, my back hurts, this thing is more tiring than practicing martial arts!

Zhao Han could only grit his teeth and insist, and asked, "Brother Liu, how is your family's land rent?" ”

Liu Ziren explained: "It's okay now, after I was admitted to Xiucai, I asked the mountain chief to plough the study field. The rent of the school field is less. In addition, he also gave people a few acres of private land, and the rent of private land was high. It also depends on the quality of the field, the upper field pays more than two stone of rent every year, and the lower field has to pay at least one stone of rent. ”

Zhao Han went to ask Liu's father again, wanting to know more general data.

I soon learned that the level of land rent depends on whether the landlord is benevolent or not.

The land rent is not charged on a pro-rata basis, but is set in advance according to the quality of the field. The good year is good, but the disaster year is particularly difficult, so I can only bite the bullet and default on the rent, and there are often people who sell their children and daughters because of rent arrears.

Not only that, but as natural disasters became more frequent, landlords began to collect rent in advance - tenant farming could, and pay some rent first to make a deposit.

For the benevolent landlord, the land lease is about 30% of the income.

For the average landlord, the land rent is about 40% of the income.

Greedy landlords, land rent at more than 50% of income!

Moreover, almost all landlords are big buckets in and small buckets out. That is, the peasants were lent grain, which was filled with small buckets, and large buckets were used when collecting rent.

Even if the landlord is merciful, the house slave will cheat, there is not much difference.

Of course, in order to get more detailed data, Zhao Han also had to visit more farmers, preferably to write a farmer survey report.

In the middle of the afternoon, Liu Ziren called his wife aside, asked her to hurry home to cook, and whispered: "When cooking porridge, don't just put sweet potato leaves, put two more sweet potatoes in it." ”

"I'll save it." His wife, Lee, nodded.

Seeing that Li suddenly called it a day, Zhao Han immediately threw down his hoe, hugged his fists and said with a smile: "Brother Liu, I still have books to read, so I won't help you dig sweet potatoes." See you tomorrow! ”

Liu Ziren was embarrassed and moved: "This ...... How embarrassing is this, why don't you eat and then go up the mountain. ”

"When I went back to the academy after eating, it was already dark. You're busy, I'm leaving. Zhao Han left after speaking, not giving the other party a chance to stay at all.

Liu Ziren saw Zhao Han go up the mountain, and felt very uncomfortable, so he continued to dig sweet potatoes.

Walking back to the dormitory, Fei Ruhe and Fei Chun were not there, but Zhu Zhiyu waited for a long time.

"Brother Chuyu!" Zhao Han greeted him.

Zhu Zhiyu returned the salute and handed over a letter: "Inspector Cai gave it to you." ”

"Inspector Cai is gone?" Zhao Han asked.

"Let's go," Zhu Zhiyu said with a smile, "He didn't like to alarm others when he came and went, so he only left a letter for Fei Shanchang." ”

Zhao Han opened the letter and saw that there were several pages on the letter, all of which were newly written articles by Cai Maode.

After a cursory reading, Zhao Han felt that it was not interesting, maybe it was useful for the disciples of Xinxue, but it was not helpful to him.

Zhu Zhiyu saw that Zhao Han had soil on him, and couldn't help asking, "Brother Xian went to farm?" ”

"Brother Changqing's family harvests sweet potatoes, I'll just go to help." Zhao Han said.

Zhu Zhiyu sighed: "Farming is hard, I have also tried to farm, and I will be tired after a few days of working in the busy farming season." ”

Zhao Han smiled and said, "Your Excellency is from a noble background, so you don't have to do such a despicable thing. ”

"How can farming be despicable? The world is a big thing! Zhu Zhiyu immediately retorted, and said with a mournful expression, "In the last year of Wanli, the catastrophe in Zhejiang, I saw the homeless people change their children and eat!" Do you know that such a tragedy is happening in the world? ”

Zhao Han put away his smile: "Brother Chuyu, I was once a homeless person, how could I not know about a homeless person?" ”

Zhu Zhiyu was surprised: "Isn't the virtuous brother the Fei family?" ”

Zhao Han explained: "In the first year of Chongzhen, there was a great drought in Beigi. My eldest brother was starved to death, my sister was sold for food, and my parents were plundered by bandits. I was only 10 years old at the time, and I took my six-year-old sister to wander among the victims. I am in the Fei family, and I can be called a righteous son or a house slave. Tick off my name on the household register, and I will immediately become a homeless. ”

"That's exactly what happened." Zhu Zhiyu was incredulous.

Among the people Zhao Han came into contact with, Pang Chunlai was a staunch rebel, Xu Ying was a rebel who could be cultivated, and Liu Ziren was a rebel who could be absorbed.

The Zhu Zhiyu in front of him seems to be able to test it.

Zhao Han asked, "Brother Chuyu, have you ever tasted starvation?" ”

"I've tasted it, and I couldn't eat enough every day for a while." Zhu Zhiyu replied.

"You can eat every day, why are you starving?" Zhao Han felt very funny.

Zhu Zhiyu nodded and said, "That's right, I'm not starving." ”

The family of the gentry is in the middle of the road, which is different from what ordinary people imagine.

When the Zhu family was at its worst, there were only a few dozen slaves left...... Because of the famine, they could not afford to pay their wages, and all the domestic slaves ran away.

How miserable!

In this way, the clan relatives also came to mock, pointed to their house and said: "Look, this is the home of the Qing official." ”

It's really the home of Qing officials.

Zhu Zhiyu's great-grandfather posthumously presented Dr. Rong Lu posthumously. grandfather, posthumously presented to Dr. Guanglu. father, posthumously presented Dr. Guanglu and went to the national pillar.

For three consecutive generations, they have been first-class officials, and they are in the south of the Yangtze River, so there are only dozens of domestic slaves. also couldn't pay wages due to natural disasters, causing the house slaves to run out, isn't this a clean official?

The two went to the cafeteria together, eating and chatting at the same time.

Chatting and chatting, Zhao Han felt more and more that the name Zhu Zhiyu was familiar, but he really couldn't remember that he had heard of it there.

Chekiang?

Zhao Han had a flash of inspiration and hurriedly asked, "Brother Zhu's house is in Yuyao?" ”

Zhu Zhiyu said: "Exactly. ”

"Brother Zhu's hometown, is there a river called Shunshui?" Zhao Han asked.

"Have you been to Yuyao?" Zhu Zhiyu was surprised.

Zhao Han finally laughed happily: "I haven't been there, but I've heard people talk about it." ”

Zhu Shunshui!