Soon, the Jiangnan area entered the busy season of rice planting and cottonseed sowing.

The hundreds of battalions and reserve peasants in Zhengjiazhuang all resumed their status as farmers, stopped military drills, went into the fields, and began to work with their families to use the wisdom and skills accumulated over thousands of years to beg for a bite to eat from heaven and earth.

Yes, many of them were lonely Liaomin singles when they came, and in just a few months, they already had families - local girls in Chongming began to marry into Zhengjiazhuang.

"Hua Er, did you get into the account for the money you sent out to a few pairs of newly married dealers yesterday?"

Nearly noon, Zheng Haizhu walked into the courtyard and asked the girl Hua Er at the door.

Hua Er was weaving the reins with his back to the field, and when he heard Mrs. Zheng's voice behind him, he was frightened, and hurriedly turned his head and got up, and said in panic: "I, I forgot." ”

"Did you forget, or did you not learn to remember?"

"Yes...... It's all ...... Madam, just let Hua Er go, Hua Er is forgetful and stupid, and he really can't be a bookkeeper. Hua Er said with a central notice, "Madam, Hua Er is a woman, not as smart as men, don't talk about bookkeeping, just look at these account books, they are all lost." ”

"Nonsense," Zheng Haizhu interrupted her, "How do we train gunners in Songjiang Artillery Factory to calculate, it's a woman, isn't Grandma Tang who taught you to keep accounts also a woman?" What is not as smart as the men, and the mule carts that the men can't fix, you will, where is stupider than them? ”

Hua Er didn't dare or have no reason to refute anymore, so he just hung his head and pursed his mouth.

She hopes that Grandma Tang is still Tang Xiaomei, and her eyes are not flowered, so she doesn't have to take her apprentice to take over the account of Zhengjiazhuang.

Zheng Haizhu looked at the ledger that had not progressed, and was not really annoyed.

The nephew and Fan Poyu are about to get married, and in front of her, the juniors who are as close as the next generation, there are only Hua Er for a while.

She likes this girl who lost her mother early, but has a strong ability to survive, and always wants to let her learn a trade, instead of being a driver by her side.

Zheng Haizhu possessed herself, picked up the horsewhip on the ground and handed it to Hua Er, and said in a harmonious voice: "You sing so well, but let you learn drama, you say it's a shame." Tang Po praised me several times that you were honest and took you to keep accounts, but you said that you were dizzy. Do you want to drive me a mule cart for the rest of my life? ”

"Well, I just want to give my wife a car, and I only sing for my wife." Hua Er raised his head and stared at Zheng Haizhu very seriously.

Zheng Haizhu smiled dumbly, sighed lightly, and patted the girl's shoulder: "Come with me, don't worry, I didn't go to Tang Po to learn bookkeeping." ”

The hooves of the mule cart clicked.

The car passed through the busy paddy fields, cotton fields and salt pans to the newly widened creek in Zhuangzi.

Chongming is located at the confluence of rivers and seas, and the island's rivers and ditches are already dense, but there is a lack of dredging, and many silts have dried up.

Zheng Haizhu invited several masters from the water control craftsmen who opened up the upper and lower Huangpu in Songjiang and built a shipping wharf to dig the river, reorganize the terrain, and introduce living water.

The Xinkai River not only does not smell, but also provides some hydraulic support.

Zheng Haizhu named it "Suzhou Creek", Wu Bangde and others asked the reason, and the traversers from Shanghai in later generations smiled, only saying that they believed that Chongming Island could be as prosperous and rich as Suzhou Mansion.

At this moment, a bunch of people have gathered by the Chongming version of "Suzhou Creek".

Zheng Haizhu walked over and said to a man with a Confucian scarf beside Wu Bangde: "Mr. Song, how is this place?" Can it be leveraged? ”

……

Song Yingxing was thirty-three years old at the Chinese New Year's Eve.

It is still about 20 years before he wrote and published "Heavenly Creations".

This Jiangxi scholar, who has been brilliant and well-read since he was a child, was among the best in the township examination in Nanchang Prefecture five years ago and won the fame of being a person.

Last year, Zheng Haizhu went to Nanjing to see Lu Xiangsheng, and inquired about the scholars who had been very famous in Shilin in recent years, but Chunqiu had failed to make the list, and when he heard the name of "Song Yingxing", he almost lost his facial expression management ability.

In ancient times, it was too difficult to find someone.

Zheng Haizhu, as a traverser, plunged headlong into the Jiangnan where the humanities are gathered at the beginning, and actively and passively got acquainted with several Ming talents, and about used up the blood value of the golden finger.

When she went to Fujian to beat the red hair, she asked Yu Zhigao, Xu Xinsu and other head snakes about Song Yingxing several times, just because she suddenly remembered that this palace-level scientist was a Fujian, but the feedback from the head snakes was: "I have asked around, but there is no such person." ”

finally paid off, and Lu Xiangsheng had a clue there.

Lu Xiangsheng and Song Yingxing are both unsuccessful candidates in the last Wanli examination.

Excellent people are often attracted to each other, and these two southern candidates both love the knack of gunpowder machinery and the magic of gold, wood and hammer forging.

Zheng Haizhu decisively asked Lu Xiangsheng to take the lead, asked Song Yingxing to meet in Nanjing, and asked him to go to his base area as an expert guide.

After operating like this for half a year, in the summer, Song Yingxing finally went north from Jiangxi Bailudong Academy, came to Yingtianfu, and was received by Wu Bangde to Chongming Island.

Song Yingxing went to the island yesterday, Zheng Haizhu greeted him at the dock, and he shouted "Mr. Song", unlike Wu Bangde, who called him "Master Song", but when he mentioned Sun Yuanhua of the Songjiang Gun Factory, Zheng Haizhu used the title of "Master Sun".

Sun and Song are the same age, and they are already human beings, so they should be called the same person.

Song Yingxing had no displeasure. In his mind, although the woman in front of him was several years younger than himself, she had already been ordered by the imperial court, and she was respected by a young man like Lu Xiangsheng, she must also be a person, and calling herself "sir" is already a way of hospitality. As for the woman who has a six-grade destiny and calls Sun Yuanhua a "master", I think it is as introduced by Steward Wu, the two of them worked together to build firearms in their early years, and they only knew the habit of being a little old.

After the first detail, Zheng Haizhu also had a good impression of Song Yingxing's modest personality in entertainment and curiosity during visits.

In the evening, in Wu Bangde's neat courtyard that conquered the cleanliness patient, when a table was set up for Song Yingxing to receive the wind, Zheng Haizhu not only paid the bridal money, but also prepared a set of Suzhou Shangfeng Bookstore meeting gifts.

They are the "New Ritual Imagery Law" of Su Song of the Song Dynasty, the "Mengxi Writings" of the Song Dynasty Shen Kuo, the "Time Calendar" of the Yuan Guo Shoujing, and the "Compendium of Materia Medica" by Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty.

This gift was sent to people's hearts.

During the banquet, Zheng Haizhu mentioned from time to time that the world is vast, things have a cause, and manpower is small, but people's hearts can check the cause of everything and follow the traces of all things.

Where did Song Yingxing think of it, these views are all from a modern person hundreds of years later, from his old Song Dynasty books decades later, wholesale and wholesale.

He only felt that the Zheng daughter spoke wonderfully, and her vision was insightful, and she was not far behind her teacher in Bailu Academy.

Bosom friends are the best social lubricant.

Early this morning, Song Yingxing came to the "Suzhou Creek" with great interest, preparing to complete the tasks assigned by Mrs. Zheng.