More than half a month of autumn harvest farming has finally passed.

The people in Wuchang, Hanyang and other places didn't have time to notice that the warlords and feudal officials above their heads had changed a wave.

The simple farmer, on such days, only has the crops that are about to be harvested. Every time I collect and store a batch, I feel a little more stable and steady, as for who the official has changed, who cares.

It was only after the harvest that the hearts of the people began to worry about taxes and apportionments.

"After several years of water and drought in a row, this year's harvest is finally better, which is not easy, but I hope that the apportionment of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes will not be mentioned. I heard that the newcomer likes to parade around, and the incense cart is a good horse, and I don't know how many people have been looted. ”

Many squires and rich peasants are estimated to have this mentality.

The newcomer Shen Daotai likes to travel, and has recently become famous around Wuchang Mansion, and it is quite pompous, not only to bring a lot of guards, but also to accompany the concubines and maids, and they are all very beautiful.

The two maids of the Shendao platform, of course, outsiders can't see it, only occasionally when the local magistrate and the gentry invite guests, they can get a glimpse, and they are all shocked.

The other maids of a slightly lower grade may be seen by the ordinary squires of the local area from a distance during the outing, and sometimes wear veils or hats, and their posture is also good.

This kind of gossip has always been the easiest to spread, and the officials and gentry in the Wuchang officialdom quickly quickly passed the legend of Shen Shuren into a lustful and intimidating dog official in private.

"I heard it, this Shendaotai is extravagant, the family is the richest man in Suzhou, and the family has been a maritime merchant for many years, and the fleet is the most Shen family in Suzhou except for the Zheng family in Fujian. This kind of anointed son has been made an official in the rich state capital, but he does not reveal his true nature. ”

"I heard that he has made a lot of meritorious contributions, but it won't be to make the silver help stand up, right? I heard that Yang Ge Lao used him very much, and the great cause of suppressing thieves in Huguang and Henan was defeated like this, so he won all the way. Maybe it is to suck the blood of Zong Zhen and Liu Zongzhen for him to win all the way! Other roads are so miserable! ”

"But in the end, it is the richest man's house, and those beauties are really rare in heaven and hard to find in the world. I heard that the beauty surnamed Chen was originally the top brand of Suzhou Kunqu Opera, and the little lady surnamed Li was also the first brand of Nanjing Nanqu. The stunning women in Suzhou and Nanjing were taken in by him. This kind of day can be lived for a day, and it is worth dying. ”

……

Shen Shuren took a vacation during this time, and of course he secretly understood public opinion. So he knows all about how the folk legends about him, but he doesn't care.

"The Ronin Who Started from Douluo"

He is even a little proud in his heart: the identity of a rich man, he didn't expect that there would be such a wonderful use, which can make people who don't know you more inclined to understand your success as "isn't it just a credit that relies on spending money and bribing to make the elder tilt resources".

In particular, Zuo Liangyu's original business power around Wuchang was deep-rooted, even if Zuo Liangyu was designed by Shen Shuren to move to the town, pulling out the radish and carrying the mud, the remaining roots in the soil were not cleaned in a day or two.

Therefore, all kinds of public opinion that beautifies Zuo Liangyu and scandalizes Shen Shuren has not been eradicated so far. Zuo Liangyu's joke that he was cut off and took away his beautiful concubine was even more tenacious, and he was sung by many people, and everyone knew that Shen Shuren robbed a beautiful concubine who was stunning in the world.

If Shen Shuren had come from a poor background and others would not be able to find such an excuse to explain his success, perhaps they would have been even more wary of him.

Chen Yuanyuan and Li Xiangjun have accompanied him these days, and they have also deeply felt this atmosphere.

On this day, they were on an outing to persuade farmers to inspect, and several counties in the core of Wuchang had finished inspecting, and today they had arrived at Daye County, the southeasternmost corner of Wuchang Prefecture, close to Jiangxi Province, that is, the county where Daye Iron Mine is located.

Daye is the county under the rule of Wuchang Prefecture, the mountainous and hilly terrain is the most, the lake wetland and other low-lying terrain is the least, so in the future it is also the most suitable to promote the planting of corn and potatoes, and it is necessary to focus on exploration before the government releases seed loans - it is precisely because there are many mountains and hills that it is suitable for mining, if they are low-lying wetlands, there is no way to find mineral deposits at all.

At this moment, taking advantage of Shen Shuren's work in the field, Chen Yuanyuan couldn't help but be a little unwilling for him: "Son, it's enough to pretend to be a dog and horse to secretly visit the people, you are always despised by others, aren't you uncomfortable?" ”

"Uncomfortable for what? When others look down on you, if it's the truth, you will feel bad. If you know they just don't have a vision, you're a bad fart? ”

Shen Shuren patted the soil on his hands and said with relief, "It's rare that this year is a good year, I really didn't expect it." It's not a bumper harvest, at least it's a normal year.

I remember that since the tenth year of Chongzhen, for four consecutive years, at least half of the provinces in the world have taken turns to run droughts, Henan, Shaanxi, and Hebei, in addition to floods and droughts, there are also three years of locust plagues, which affect at least two provinces every year.

This year, there are neither locust plagues nor floods and droughts, and it is rare for God to open his eyes. However, it is also necessary to be prepared, take advantage of the availability of food, and do a good job of water conservancy in winter, so that if there is another flood and drought in the coming year, it will be easy to carry it through. ”

Chen Yuanyuan listened to him divert the topic, so she was silent, she didn't care much about the general trend of the world, and she didn't know much about the situation in various places.

Among the eight Yanans of Qin Huai, Bian Yujing and Gu Mei are the ones who like to talk about history and understand current affairs the most, followed by Li Xiangjun and Liu. The others don't care about the world.

Li Xiangjun, who was on the side, often read the newspaper of the imperial palace, and added with a sad expression: "Although there are no floods, droughts and locust plagues reported this year, there are plagues in Henan and Hebei, and there are also many plagues in our Huguang and near Nanyang." ”

The fourteenth year of Chongzhen is the only year in the last eight years of Chongzhen that there is no record of large-scale flood and drought locust plague, and the remaining seven years are every year.

But even in such a good harvest year, plague is inevitable, Chongzhen fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, are all plague years.

This year, it is estimated that one-third of the population around Beijing is infected, and Henan is even worse, at least more than half of the population is infected.

After a year and a half, from the second half of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen to the beginning of the seventeenth year, when the epidemic struck again, it directly killed nearly half of the population of the capital.

However, the Shenshu people are not very afraid of the plague, because he has scientific knowledge, he knows that the flood and drought cannot be resisted, and the locust plague is slightly easier to manage, and the great plague is mainly related to war, and there are too many people to bury the corpses, of course there will be a plague.

In addition, there were so many people who died of starvation due to the four consecutive years of floods and droughts, and there was no one to bury the starving dead, which would also become a source of infection.

The plague that began in Henan this year is obviously related to the previous famine and this year's massacre. In the second half of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, it was related to Li Zicheng's excavation of the Yellow River to flood Kaifeng City and create the Yellow Flood Area, which eventually affected most of the North China Plain.

Shen Shuren pondered for a long time: "The main source of the plague is caused by the dead people not dealing with it in time. Guarding Jianghan and preventing the northerners from becoming sick and displaced from flowing south on a large scale, and burning and burying the local war dead and starving dead in time can be controlled.

Alas, it's just one more errand that requires government expenses. If there is not enough money to spend, you have to find a way to draw it out of the gold. Use this money to organize the soldiers to collect and burn their bodies. ”

Shen Shuren spoke indifferently, unable to hear the fluctuation of his tone.

It's not that he doesn't take the dead seriously, but in his position, he no longer has the energy to pity the dead, it's just a number, what he has to do is to use scientific means and management to keep this number down. Sentimentality doesn't help anything.

……

Under the banner of an outing, Shen Shuren inspected the last township and dined at the home of the largest gentry in Daye County that afternoon.

The family's surname is Qin, and there is a cousin in the family, Qin Riguang, who is a pusher in Wuchang Mansion. Because of the great power of the family, there are many local officials to accompany today's banquet, and even the magistrate and chief secretary of Daye County are also here.

The local old patriarch is named Qin Jilie, who has thousands of hectares of land in Daye, and has also helped the government to run and manage the Daye iron mine for many years, and has also run many iron shops. However, Qin Jilie is old, and now the errand of helping the government to run the iron mine is already being done by his son Qin Rixin. In the past few years, by helping Zuo Liangyu's army handle ordnance, I heard that he has also made a lot of money.

Not to mention that Zuo Liangyu's starting site is actually much better than Shen Shuren, when he became a warlord, he occupied a state capital with a large iron mine, and he didn't need to buy steel from the outside to build weapons, at most he bought some coking coal and charcoal.

It's a pity that Zuo Liangyu doesn't know how to organize production, if such a place is given to Shen Shuren two years earlier, Shen Shuren will definitely rise faster.

The Qin family is also a little jealous of the new Daotai in power, lest they will be left away by the Qin family.

In particular, they heard that the relationship between Shen Shuren and Zuo Zongzhen is extremely bad, and it can be said that they are on the same footing, and their own family has helped Zuo Zongzhen to run weapons and ordnance over the years, and it is inevitable that they will be liquidated.

So this time the number of hospitality gifts is still very thorough, and the good wine and good food can be on the ground. Shen Shuren has recently been making a low-key secret visit under the pretense of being a dog and horse, and of course he will not refuse this kind of hospitality, and he will accept all the orders as he looks.

But no matter how much he enjoys it, Shen Shuren always has a needle in his heart: he uses science and engineering technical talents and mathematical accounts to manage talents, and he never asks who the other party has worked for. As long as the other party does things well in the future and does not deceive him, he can continue to be retained.

Of course, this treatment is also limited to science and engineering, professional and technical personnel.

Liberal arts bureaucrats must look at their service resumes, at least those who have been traitors must not be used, and those who have served thieves must look at the situation and see what role he has played within the thieves. Anyway, there was no shortage of scholars in the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial examinations had been held for hundreds of years, even if all the traitors were killed, the remaining scholars would be enough to be officials.

After a banquet and a little comfortable serving Shen Shuren, Liu Minsheng, the county governor of Daye, helped Bao Xiao take the lead and said good things in front of Shen Shuren:

"Lord Daotai, I heard that you attach great importance to military equipment, even more so than Zuo Liangyu, there is an Iron Mountain in this Daye County, but the top priority in preparing for armaments, and it is not necessary to be careless in maintaining the operation of Iron Mountain as usual.

It just so happens that you are here today, and the lower officials and others also take the opportunity to listen to the teachings and know how to handle this Daye Iron Mountain in the future, whether to follow the old law, and what reforms to be carried out......

Shen Shuren put down the wine glass, pressed his finger with the folding fan, and Liu Zhixian immediately shut up, and didn't dare to help say good things again.

Shen Shuren swallowed his wine and said slowly: "The matter of Tieshan, I don't have time to worry about it at the moment, this is just the end of the autumn harvest, and the official has been concerned about persuading farmers.

How is the harvest in Daye County this year, let's report in detail first. Also, this official will also promote the planting of corn and potatoes in Daye next year, and the water and drought of the county's fields have been re-touched? How much land is suitable for those foreign animals in the coming year? Can you calculate how many seeds the local gentry will borrow from the government? ”

Liu Zhixian and Qin Rixin glanced at each other, secretly thinking that this Shen Daotai was really insatiable, isn't this a reason for Wang Anshi of the previous dynasty to engage in the green seedling method and forcibly apportion seed loans?

If you really lend money to the poor, I am afraid that you will not be able to repay it at all, and in the end, it is not a priority to lend to the rich peasants who are not so poor in money and lack of food, so that the rich peasants can repay several times more interest after the autumn harvest?

Fortunately, they are also prepared and know how to curry favor with corrupt officials and superiors, and by the way, they share their own fat.

Under the questioning of the Shenshu people, they quickly took out their newly adjusted "Atlas of Cultivated Land Suitable for Growing Corn and Potatoes" for the Shenshu people to see.