In the makeshift thatched cottage, Su Ze was taking the pulse of a farmer in the mountains.
Beside him, Shao Xianxue and Shao Xianxian from the Shao Family Medical Center were brewing medicine, and a group of young scholars were busy near the temporary camp.
On August 20th, Hai Rui officially received the appointment from the court. He was going to Chun'an County, Zhejiang Province as the magistrate. He had been packing his things these days.
The Shao brothers were Hai Rui's new students, so Su Ze naturally took over the responsibility of teaching them.
Su Ze simply pulled them to Wufeng Mountain to study while doing things.
For this group of young people, it is a rare experience to go out of school and camp and study on Wufeng Mountain.
Su Ze gave lectures in the morning and took them to work near the camp in the afternoon.
In addition to the students accepted by Hai Rui, the county school is also on summer vacation.
Daming School has two holidays, winter and summer. There are no classes during the two hottest months of summer and around the Chinese New Year in winter.
Several students in the county who were familiar with Su Ze also followed Su Ze to Wufeng Mountain.
Li Qiyuan is learning to measure the land with the children in the nursing home. The detailed map of Wufeng Mountain in Su Ze's house was brought by Li Qiyuan for surveying.
The Li family was originally a mathematician, and his father-in-law was also an ancestral craftsmanship passed down from his family. After receiving Su Ze's enlightenment in calculus, he has been practicing and studying these days, and his math has improved by leaps and bounds.
Chen Chaoyuan and Wang Xun took the county government scribes to compile households on Wufeng Mountain.
Su Ze submitted the proposal of reorganizing households to allocate people to the county government, and Baizhi County immediately sent officials to the mountain.
The reason is also very simple. Population growth is also an important part of officials' performance evaluation.
However, compilation of households and people is also a very complicated task. Thanks to two people, Chen Chaoyuan and Wang Xun, who have lawyers in their families and are familiar with various yamen documents and legal provisions, they can handle the matter so properly.
[Diagnose and treat patients, medical skill experience +5, Lv4, 395/400]
After prescribing the medicine for the patient in front of him, Su Ze's medical experience increased again, and he could upgrade by treating one more patient.
Han Li walked into the thatched cottage in a hurry. He picked up the sour plum soup on the table and drank it in one gulp and said:
"Brother Rulin, I've seen those places, they are indeed Feng Shui treasures!"
"Sorry, I'm used to it. The soil in those areas is soft and suitable for excavation construction."
Han Li's family was born in Yin and Yang, and he often followed his father to teach Feng Shui to people in Nanping County.
Su Ze asked him to explore the terrain and soil on Wufeng Mountain.
Han Li, a yin and yang student, is really good, and he quickly planned a labor-saving route to start construction.
"Brother Rulin, are we really going to flood this place? These are all top-quality paddy fields." Han Li asked, looking at the farmland outside.
Su Ze nodded and said: "The paddy fields cultivated by the Huang family are all soil dug from the river bed. The soil on the river bed is rich in corrosive matter and is the best soil."
"The fields behind Wufeng Mountain were reclaimed from the swamps beside the river. These natural swamps were originally the reservoirs of the Min River. They could store the river water when the water rose, so that the water in the lower reaches of the Min River would not flow. It’s gone too high.”
"But these large households have raised the river embankments, causing the upper reaches of the river to lose its reservoir. Once there is heavy rain, the lower reaches of the Minjiang River will overflow."
"I have read the county annals. In the Chenghua year, there was a record of flooding of the Minjiang River only once every ten years. But in this dynasty, it became once every five years, once every three years, and it has flooded twice in the last three years."
Han Li's family is said to be born from yin and yang, and he also learned some knowledge about kanyu. He immediately understood what Su Ze meant.
"I see. I didn't expect that the flooding of the river is related to the opening of fields."
Su Ze nodded and said:
"The floodplain is the starting point of civilization. Panyin originated from the flooding Yin River, and almost all ancient cities were built on the banks of major rivers."
Su Ze used tree branches to draw a simple map of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers on the ground, and then pointed out several cities.
Everyone put down what they were doing and gathered around Su Ze to listen to his lecture.
These days, everyone has become accustomed to Su Ze suddenly giving lectures. Although this knowledge is not tested in the imperial examination, no one wants to miss it at all. In Chen Chaoyuan's words, these are great principles that are "almost Taoist", which is why Su Ze is like this This is a great truth that can only be understood by those who have read poetry and books.
"In ancient times, our ancestors used the flooded river water to grow crops, and then they settled down from fishing and hunting. Only with farming did we have language, writing, and the fire of civilization."
"With cities, it is natural to prevent rivers from flooding. Our ancestors learned to block rivers and build dams to confine river water in their channels. But why are big rivers overflowing day by day and there are more and more records of floods?"
"The Ming Dynasty was able to overthrow the Yuan Dynasty because the Yuan Dynasty was seriously flooded. Yuan Xiangtuo recruited people from all over the world to build the Yellow River."
Everyone nodded. Over the years, rivers have often flooded, especially the Yellow River, which floods almost every two or three years. News of floods can be heard every year.
Su Ze drew a few more circles on the ground and said:
"There are Yunmeng Ze and Daze in the history books. The reason why these big marshes disappeared is because the ancestors surrounded the rivers and opened fields. Originally, these marshes had stored river water and served as reservoirs during flooding."
"The current situation is that the frequency of river management on large rivers is getting higher and higher, but the frequency of flooding is increasing. The root cause is that nowadays, river management is all about building river embankments. This is to drink poison to quench thirst. The higher the river embankment, the more floods will break it. Later, the damage caused became even greater. In some cities near the river, the embankments exceeded the city walls, and the rivers became suspended rivers. Once the embankments burst, a city would be destroyed."
Everyone was shocked to hear this, but when they thought about the floods in Fujian over the years, it seemed that what Su Ze said made sense.
Han Li asked: "Brother Rulin, is there any way to cure the flood?"
Su Ze shook his head and said: "Perhaps there was still a way in the early years of the Kingdom, but in this world, it is too difficult to cure floods."
Everyone quickly understood what Su Ze meant. Nowadays, the court's corvee service is already so heavy, let alone recruiting a large number of people to control the water.
The Yuan Dynasty died because of the Yellow Emperor's depletion of people's power. This lesson is vaguely understood by scholars of the Ming Dynasty.
Last year, when there was a snowstorm in western Beijing, the imperial court was unable to send anyone to provide relief, so it could only keep the victims out of the capital, let alone control the river.
Han Li asked again: "But the ancestors opened up the great swamp also to fill their stomachs."
Su Ze nodded and said: "That's natural. The ancient swamps are now fertile farmland. But the ancients had swamps to open up wasteland. Now our Fujian mountains have almost been cultivated. What will future generations want to cultivate?"
This sentence stopped everyone.
Su Ze added: "In the early Tang Dynasty, the soldiers of the government granted land to each person. Each person had one hectare, eighty acres for oral distribution, and twenty acres for permanent property. At that time, all adult men were granted land."
Everyone took a breath. Nowadays in Nanping County, those who have a hectare of land at home are considered wealthy landowners, while ordinary homesteaders often only have a few acres of land.
The land in Fujian is tight, and they work hard to cultivate it every year. Even after paying the land tax and rent, they still don't have enough to eat.
The issues of population growth and acres of land were thus placed in front of everyone. Li Qiyuan added:
"Almost all the land that can be opened up in Nanping has been opened up. Otherwise, big families like the Huang family would not come to Wufeng Mountain to open up wasteland. The population has been growing since the early years of the dynasty. There are more people but the fields remain unchanged. This is what happens when there is less land and more people. The reason for the constant famine every year.”
Su Ze nodded in approval. When all this was put in front of everyone, a heavy feeling pressed on everyone's hearts.
Han Li asked: "Brother Rulin, do you have a way to break the situation?"
Everyone looked at Su Ze, who pointed to the sea and said, "Zituo."
"Sato?"
Su Ze drew another map on the ground and said:
"This is Penghu, and this is our Fujian. Penghu is a quarter of the size of Fujian. Although there are mountains in the middle of Penghu, the land along the coast can be cultivated."
When Su Ze drew the map, everyone realized that Penghu was so big.
Su Ze went down and drew another big island: "This is Qiongzhou, Haijiaoyu's hometown. Qiongzhou is bigger than Penghu, but its population is less than the number of people in Yanping Prefecture."
Su Ze continued to draw: "Ryukyu, Luzon, Annan, Champa, Java, and Siam. Since the early years of the Republic of China, many people from Fujian and Guangzhou have immigrated. Franchi merchants said that there are many people in Luzon who manage Fujian." The people of Xiangyin.”
We are all from Fujian, and it is no secret that Fujian people immigrated to Nanyang. The reason why these people left their hometowns is also very simple, that is, there is no land for farming in their hometowns.
But banning the sea is a national policy, so everyone fell silent.
Chen Chaoyuan sighed and said: "I have poor qualifications and are not the material to study. I only hope that Rulin can pass the imperial examination and become a high school minister. If he can become a cabinet minister in the future, it would be great if the imperial court can lift the sea ban."
Su Ze disagreed in his heart. The sea ban not only prohibited maritime trade, but also prohibited overseas exploration.
Even the Longqing Switch only allowed merchant ships to trade, and the Ming Dynasty still did not engage in foreign colonization and exploration.
For a land-based country like the Ming Dynasty, stability was paramount, and overseas territories were unstable factors that escaped the control of the empire.
Su Ze did not continue to discuss this topic. All he needed was to sow a seed in everyone's hearts, and this seed would naturally take root and sprout in the future.
[Lecture in public, lecture skill experience +20, Lv3, 267/300]
Just after Su Ze finished his lecture, Eunuch Tao walked in with a smile on his face.
"Ms. Su! Let's sue!"
Eunuch Tao said excitedly:
"The news in Nanping City is that the lawsuit between the Huang family and several other large families has really started. The government official Zhang Sijing favored the Huang family and awarded some land to the Huang family. The other families have already brought the lawsuit to the prosecutor's office. The Envoy and the Inspection Envoy have sent the case to Tingzhou Prefecture for a retrial!"
Su Ze had a smile on his face. When Eunuch Tao offered to redeem the land at three times the price, many large households with land in the mountains were already preparing to withdraw.
But they didn't expect that the Huang family would run faster.
Zhang Sijing quickly made judgments on several property dispute cases and awarded the disputed land to the Huang family, hoping to cut through the mess quickly and exit the whirlpool.
But the other big players couldn't do anything anymore. Now the Huang family had no losses, but their losses were huge!
The original land registration was insufficient, and these lands were awarded to the Huang family. Everyone felt that they had been cheated by the Huang family.
Naturally, everyone couldn't swallow this breath, so they simply filed a lawsuit against Fuzhou Prefecture.
Su Ze asked in confusion: "Why didn't the Procuratorate and Envoys handle the case themselves but sent it to the Tingzhou Prefecture for a retrial?"
Wang Xun's family is a litigator. He said: "It would be tantamount to breaking up if the inspector directly overturned the judgment of Zhang Tuiguan. Moreover, if the appeal cases from various places were tried in person, the inspector would be too busy all year round. Send it to Linfu for retrial, because there is little involvement between Linfu and our local government, so as long as there are no problems in the trial, the Procuratorate will take the result of the retrial as the standard."
Su Ze smiled and said, "Does that mean the lawsuit has really started?"
Eunuch Tao smiled and said, "It's really a fight!"
Sure enough, what was originally a lawsuit in the county was now brought to the province, and the cost was even higher.
The materials have to be sent to Tingzhou Prefecture. Tingzhou Prefecture invites clerks and yamen from the government office to come to Nanping to do business, and drinking and socializing is indispensable, which is another expense.
But being caught up in this case, several families have really fought hard, and it is naturally impossible to give up. If we quit now, all the previous efforts will be in vain.
Su Ze was not idle either. Under the leadership of Monk Liao Hui of Xichan Temple, Su Ze also established a hydraulic hammer workshop in Wufeng Mountain and began to forge shovels and other equipment by himself.
By the end of August, some big players finally couldn't hold on any longer.
Huang Shixing knelt in the family ancestral hall. Looking at the family elders in the ancestral hall, Huang Shixing clenched his fists.
Although the head of the Huang family is Huang Shixing's biological father, due to the pressure from the elders of other houses of the Huang family, a visit to this ancestral hall is unavoidable.
An old man with white hair and beard is the most senior man in the Huang family and Huang Shixing's uncle.
The old man patted the armrest of the chair and said, "What!? Advocate Zhang wants to get back five hundred taels of silver? How can our Huang family get five hundred taels now!"
"Yes, yes, all the money at home has been replaced by old money, and now I can't even use it!"
"He didn't join the gang voluntarily that day, so why should he come up with the money now? We still have a whole house of money in it!"
“If you want to get this money, it’s from the big house!”
The old man did not stop everyone from talking, but looked at Huang Shixing's father, the clan leader.
Huang's father didn't say anything, but Huang Shixing said: "Dear uncles and elders, when the family used to make money together, you were all rushing to give money to my father. Why do you take the money and leave when you lose money?"
Everyone glared again: "How brave! Are you talking to your uncles and elders like this?"
"If you hadn't insisted on following the private investment, the family wouldn't be like this. Now that the lawsuit is like this, I don't know how much money I have to spend to get out!"
"enough!"
Father Huang, who had been silent for a long time, slapped the table.
"The properties in Nanping City will be handed over to the second house for management. Shi Xing, you can concentrate on the lawsuit."
As soon as Huang's father relieved Huang Shixing of managing Nanping's industry, the people in the second room immediately shut up.
"Writing a lawsuit depends on Zhang's activities. If he wants money, just give it to him. The big house will collect the money himself."
Now the other group of people also shut up.
"We have to find a way to sell off our old money, even if it is melted into copper ingots and sold."
While the Huang family was having a meeting, some big businessmen came up the mountain to contact Eunuch Tao.
Su Ze cured a She people with beriberi and finally raised his medical skills to Level 5.
(End of chapter)
