After everyone’s hard work throughout the day. The Prime Minister of the Cabinet, Lin Qing'er, was confirmed, and Lin Qing'er temporarily acted as the Minister of Rites. Cai Huaishui, deputy minister of the cabinet, is also the minister of the Ministry of Industry. Cai Huaishui did not expect an abandoned son who was kicked out by his own family. One day, I became the Deputy Minister of the Cabinet and the Minister of Industry. I was extremely excited. What an honor it was. I would never betray Yang Peng in my life. I secretly made up my mind. Deputy Prime Minister Zhang Xiang is also the Minister of the Ministry of War. Huang Guang is the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Huang Guang is the third batch of people rescued by Yang Peng. He is also a great scholar with high cultural foundation. He worked in the Khitan people's grass valley. At that time, the whole family was killed by the Khitan people, and they ended up working as coolies in the iron mines. They didn't expect to be rescued by Yang Peng, and they kept making suggestions for Yang Peng. Yang Peng also admired Huang Guang very much.
But what Huang Guang didn't expect was that Yang Peng would serve as his deputy prime minister and minister of household affairs. He was so excited that he burst into tears. Zhao Jinxi is deputy prime minister and minister of the Ministry of Personnel. Manage Xing Fa. Fu Jianyue, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Land and Resources, all land in Tianjing New City cannot be bought or sold. This is a fixed rule. The land lease is only for fifty years and can be inherited. There is no right to buy and sell. This is to prevent land annexation. Fu Jianyue couldn't figure it out at first. , Yang Peng did his ideological work and explained that dynasties in the past dynasties were destroyed by land annexation. Peasants who had no land and poor harvests and no food would rebel. But who would be willing to kill him if he had a bite to eat? Only then did Fu Jianyue figure it out. Fu Jianyue was also rescued by Zhang Yan and rescued from the Khitan prison in Yingzhou.
Fu Jianyue didn't expect that he would also become deputy prime minister and minister, and he was equally excited. Zhang Jimeng, deputy prime minister and minister of the Ministry of Punishment. Zhang Jimeng was also a refugee rescued by Yang Peng in the third batch. He was once the minister of the Ministry of Justice of the Song Dynasty. He was demoted to a commoner because of being framed. He was also attacked by the Khitan people. His whole family was rescued by Yang Peng, and now he has established a cabinet. Zhang Jimeng naturally became the Minister of Punishment. Zhang Jimeng hated the officialdom of the Song Dynasty. He was the number one scholar and ended up like this just because he made decisions for the people. He originally wanted to go home and work on poetry and books instead of dealing with secular affairs. I didn't expect to encounter Khitan people digging grass in the valley. At the beginning, he just wanted to repay his kindness. In the end, when Yang Peng built a new city and no longer attached to the Song Dynasty, Zhang Jimeng wanted to do something. But what he didn't expect was that he was also the deputy prime minister. Liu Yuan is the deputy prime minister and the minister of taxation. Manage all taxes in the new city, because there is no agricultural tax in Tianjing New City, only commercial tax. The current commercial tax is 10 per cent, and even Yang Peng's industry is taxed the same way. Liu Yuan can be said to be a master whom his relatives do not recognize. From the beginning, Liu Yuan was asked to be responsible for taxation, and Liu Yuan wanted to collect taxes from Yang Peng's industry. What Liu Yuan did not expect was that Yang Peng actually agreed.
Now all the officials in Tianjing New City were saved by Yang Peng, and they are all Yang Peng's die-hard fans. Yang Peng stipulated that matters decided by the Prime Minister must be decided by everyone's vote, and the minority obeyed the majority. The seven deputy prime ministers voted. The Prime Minister made suggestions. Everyone present had no objection. The Ministry of Agriculture was established. Yang Peng served as Minister of Agriculture concurrently, and Yang Guihua served as Agriculture Minister. Deputy Minister of the Ministry. Because Yang Guihua did have a way of farming, but his education was too low and there was no way. There was also corn cultivation that Yang Guihua didn't understand, so Yang Peng had to do it himself.
Boss Ni and his family are farmers in Deyuan New Village. He was kidnapped by the Khitans in Yingzhou in August last year and rescued by Zhang Xiang. He was about to be driven to the Liao Kingdom for a lifetime of hard labor, but he was rescued by the general of Tianjing New City. The general was kind and began to give him porridge. Later, the general gave Guan a good meal and organized everyone to reclaim wasteland and build irrigation canals.
Mr. Ni's family consists of four. In addition to his wife, he also has a fifty-year-old father and a ten-year-old son. Last year, they were assigned to the newly built Deyuan New Village. They were assigned two brick houses and four houses from the city owner. Ten acres of dry land. These dry fields are all good fields with irrigation canals, and the city lord also distributed farm tools and cattle, giving Boss Ni a full set of tools to cultivate the fields.
Boss Ni is a good farmer. With cattle and irrigation water, he and his wife showed off their skills on 40 acres of dry land and grew a good season of wheat. Although spring wheat was planted, Mr. Ni cultivated it carefully and harvested eight buckets and five liters of wheat per acre. From forty acres of dry land, Mr. Ni harvested thirty-three stones and five bushels of wheat. After deducting the land rent given to the city lord and selling five shi of grain to Tianjing New City, one shi and two dou of silver for oxen were taken out, and then the one shi of house money, two taels of asbestos jacket and quilt money, and five dou of farm tools money were returned to the city lord. With the seed money, Boss Ni can leave twenty-two stones of food. Four people eat with open stomachs. They eat eleven dan of wheat a year, and Mr. Ni can still have a surplus of eleven dan of grain. Two shi of grain were left to be used as seeds for this year's winter wheat, and Boss Ni still had a surplus of nine shi. Now in the summer, the next season of rice is planted. Using the nine shi of grain, Boss Ni exchanged it for twenty taels of silver at the general's cheap grain store. A farmer can earn fifty taels of silver a year in addition to food. What kind of good life is this? With the money, Mr. Ni bought various daily necessities for his family, and he felt that he was suddenly rich.
On this day, Boss Ni's family welcomed a relative, Boss Ni's cousin Meng Yousan. Mr. Ni went back to Yanshan County during the slack period at the beginning of the year. His relatives all know that Mr. Ni is now living in Deyuan New Village, Fanjiazhuang. Yanshan County was plundered by bandits, and there were ruins everywhere. The people who were not plundered by bandits also had a hard time making a living, and many people died of starvation. Mr. Ni went back to Yanshan County for a walk, and felt that it was hard-won to have enough food and clothing in Tianjing New City.
Meng You asked around for directions and found Boss Ni's home. As soon as he walked to the door of Boss Ni's house, he said loudly: "Ni, idiot! Come out quickly! You live in such a good place now! This is a weatherproof brick house! I have never lived in such a nice house. The house!" Boss Ni heard someone shouting at the door and walked out. Only then did he see his cousin Meng Yousan and said with a smile: "My cousin is here! Zhuzi, come out and call your cousin!"
Seeing Boss Ni, Meng Yousan's eyes shone brightly, and he said: "Ni, idiot, where did your new clothes come from?" He looked at his autumn clothes that were full of patches, and then looked at the nine pieces of Boss Ni's body. Wearing a new round-neck robe, Meng Yousan felt like a beggar, and he suddenly started to speak harshly: "Ni Daizi, you are rich now!"
When he saw Boss Ni's son Zhuzi coming out with a piece of candy in his mouth, Meng Yousan became even more envious and said loudly: "Zhuzi, what kind of candy are you eating?" Ten-year-old Zhuzi was startled by Meng Yousan's loud voice. , almost spitting out the candy, and said weakly: "Cousin, what I eat is the No. 1 candy. Meng Yousan asked sarcastically: "Where do you have the money to buy the number one candy?" Zhuzi said weakly: "Daddy bought it for me!" "
Meng Yousan turned to Boss Ni and said, "Boss Ni, why are you so rich now?" Boss Ni laughed and said, "My cousin is telling a joke. You just had a full meal. How can you be considered rich? Compared with the people in Tianjing New Town. , that's even worse!" Meng Yousan spat: "Can you compare with the people in Tianjing New City? Those people's good life is famous far and wide. Don't you think about yourself? You used to be a tenant farmer in the Weng family. I have been cultivating twenty acres of dry land, but I don’t even have enough to eat, and my clothes are much worse than mine. Now that I’m wearing a brand-new crew neck, and my son still has candy to eat, can’t you raise another child?”
Mr. Ni said: "I want to raise another one!" Meng Yousan snorted and said: "Where did you get this much money?" Mr. Ni laughed and said: "The city lord gave me forty acres of dry land. He bought oxen, and the harvest this year was good. The general only collected 15% of the land rent and paid it back! In addition to the rations and various miscellaneous expenses, there was also a balance of nine shi of grain, which was all sold to the city lord's rice shop for silver. He received twenty taels of silver. ." After a pause, Boss Ni continued: "In addition to farming, when I have free time, I go to cut pig grass with my wife and sell it to the city owner's pig farm. I also made four taels of silver in a year."
Meng Yousan took a breath and said: "You actually have fifty-four taels of silver a year to spend. You are really rich! You used to be a poor tenant who was worse than me, but now you are living like a master!" Boss Ni He laughed and said: "Cousin is joking, now I am still a tenant." "You, a tenant, are richer than ordinary masters." Mr. Ni laughed and said: "Cousin, come into the house to talk and taste the new tea I bought. ." "Look, we have all the tea leaves, how can we still say that we are not rich?"
When Meng Yousan heard that Boss Ni had bought tea to entertain guests, his face became even more jealous, and he walked into Boss Ni's house. When I entered the house, I saw more than a dozen pieces of bacon hanging on the beams.
There is so much meat in Mr. Ni's house. It seems that there will be meat and meat to go with the meal at Mr. Ni's house tonight. Since the bandits plundered Yanshan County, Meng Yousan spent the money he had at the bottom of his box to buy food this year. He was hungry and satiated, and his family finally survived. He had not eaten a meat meal all year long. It was a festival when he was full. Unexpectedly, he actually ate meat at Mr. Ni's house.
However, although Meng Yousan had meat to eat, he couldn't be happy because he was full of jealousy. This idiot Ni was kidnapped by the Khitans, but he got a blessing in disguise. What kind of thing is this? "Boss Ni, will your city lord recruit people to open new fields this year?" "I don't know. If the city lord recruits people, I will go to Yanshan County to tell you right away!" "Okay!" Meng Yousan finally smiled, He nodded and said: "If you are recruiting people, you must tell me early! I will also come to Tianjing New City to be the city lord's tenant farmer!"
Yang Peng decided to expand the number of farmers in his territory. In troubled times, food is a very important key material. Although the 10,000 farmers who took in last year cost Yang Peng some money in the initial stage, Yang Peng soon reaped the benefits. After all, in the future, we can get more than 16,000 shi of wheat land rent per year, worth more than 30,000 taels of silver. Xuanran Yang Peng paid 30,000 taels of silver. This is an obvious benefit, but there are also potential benefits - Yang Peng can also collect 40,000 to 50,000 shi of surplus grain from local farmers through the grain store, allowing Tianjing New City to achieve food self-sufficiency.
In troubled times, being self-sufficient in food means stability. If you don’t have food, you won’t be able to eat enough. It’s useless to have guns and arrows. If you’re hungry, everything is empty talk. After enjoying the benefits, Yang Peng decided to carry out another large-scale reclamation and add another 100,000 acres of land. Because there is too much wasteland in Tianjing New City, nearly one million acres of land to the east of Yingzhou and to the south of Yanshan are ownerless. Because the Khitan people were clearing grass in the valley, all the landowners moved away to save their lives.
Yang Peng sent officials to survey and map rivers east of Yingzhou, plan new fields, and selected the location of 100,000 acres of new fields. These 100,000 acres of unowned wasteland are located on both sides of the Crescent River and the Guang River. As long as there are water trucks to lift water, it can be irrigated. Yang Peng prepared the land deed. He also promised to communicate with the riverside fields occupied by Yang Peng to build the canal, and persuade the local people to accept subsidies and make way for the canal.
In fact, these wastelands cannot be said to belong to the Yingzhou system. Unlike those near Tianjing New City, the fields to the east of Yingzhou and the private fields in Yingzhou County are intertwined, and the ownership is very complicated. These wastelands in Yingzhou can be said to belong to either Yingzhou or Yang Peng. But if Hezhou County purchases wasteland and turns it into civilian farmland, it will be under the jurisdiction of Yingzhou and will not be convenient for Yang Peng's management. So Yang Peng arbitrarily seized the wasteland from Yingzhou and turned it into the land of Tianjing New City.
With Yang Peng's current majesty as General Longhu, Yingzhou officials did not dare to trouble Yang Peng for these unclaimed wastelands, so they could only hold their noses and endure it. After capturing the wasteland, Yang Peng sent people to the prefectures and counties near Tianjing New City to find two thousand masons to first build houses for farmers. Yang Peng planned to let the farmers who opened up wasteland live in a room for two people to squeeze in. In the future, when these farmers make money by planting plum trees in their dry fields, they can build big houses.
It is winter now, and the cold weather reduces outdoor work efficiency. Two thousand masons first need to build large shacks for themselves to live in, and then build five thousand brick houses. It is estimated that the houses will not be completed until February. Yang Peng plans to go to various states and counties to hire farmers after the wheat harvest next winter, and hire another 5,000 men and strong women. The first batch of farmers in Tianjing New City have a high income and have set a good example. It is expected that hiring new farmers will go smoothly. These new farmers immediately began building canals after moving to Dagou. If there is not enough manpower, Yang Peng can also hire nearby idle farmers to build water canals. After the wheat harvest, farmers have nothing to do, and local manpower will be very cheap. After the canal is built, winter wheat can be planted directly, and the grain can be harvested the following spring.
Recruiting new farmers to farm is easier than resettling refugees - the recruited farmers will bring farm tools with them when they move, and Yang Peng will not have to provide everything. Yang Peng only needed to lend them some cattle, so they expected they would have nothing. However, these things cannot be confirmed until new farmers are hired next spring.
While he was busy opening new fields, Yang Peng sent people to collect high-yielding crops. At the end of October, Yang Peng sent five soldiers to the south to collect sweet potato seedlings in the Jiangnan area and find a few farmers who knew how to grow sweet potatoes and bring them back to Tianjing New City. If corn is grown in Tianjing New City, food production can be greatly increased. Corn can be eaten by humans. Although it will be difficult to swallow if eaten every day, it is still very useful as a backup food. Of course, the biggest use of corn is to feed corn stalks to pigs. Such high-yielding corn is very cheap, which can greatly reduce the cost of raising pigs. Yang Peng was looking forward to the return journey of these five soldiers and hoped that they would bring sweet potatoes back soon.
The demand for crucible steel is fermenting a little bit. Tao Laoer from Cangzhou County is a blacksmith. A few days ago, he got a small piece of steel ingot, half a catty, from a few outsiders. He said it was City Lord Fine Steel and asked Tao Laoer to try it out. He also said that if you use it well, you can buy more from Gaojia's shop in Donggaozhou, Cangzhou, for one, two, five, and a pound of silver.
Tao Laoer knocked the steel ingot with a hammer and felt that the quality was pretty good. On a whim, he used the steel ingot as the blade and a few kilograms of raw iron as the back to make a bone-cutting knife. Don't tell me, the quality of the bone-cutting knife produced is good. Tao Laoer asked for a pig leg bone and tried the knife: he saw that the pig leg bone was cut into two ends when he raised and lowered the knife. Looking at the bone-cutting knife again, the edge is still sharp, not blunt.
This Gaojia fine steel is indeed very good. One or two and a half cents of silver per pound is not expensive at all. Tao Laoer took this bone-cutting knife to the vegetable market and found the butcher Huang who was selling meat. "Butcher Huang, I'll sell you a bone-cutting knife!" Butcher Huang rolled his eyes and said in a rough voice, "I have a bone-cutting knife! Where can I buy it for you?" Tao Laoer said, "This is mine. The knife is good, save your time!"
The butcher Huang said loudly: "My bone-cutting knife is made by Bianjing. Is your knife steel better than Bianjing's?" Tao Laoer smiled, handed his bone-cutting knife over and said, "You try You'll know if you try it!" Butcher Huang took the bone-chopping knife, looked around, and took out a pork rib from the meat stall. He slashed the knife and saw that the pork ribs were easily cut into two pieces. Looking at the bone-cutting knife again, it was safe and sound.
Butcher Huang said: "Not bad!" He took out another pig thigh bone and placed it on the chopping board. He raised the bone-chopping knife to take aim and chopped it down. There was only a bang as the knife cut through the pig's thigh bone and cut into the chopping board. The pig thigh bone was cut in half, and the fracture was smooth and sharp.
If it were a knife made of ordinary steel, the edge would curl when the knife was struck. Even if it is a bone chopping knife made by Bianjing, the edge will be slightly blunted after this cut, and the knife needs to be sharpened. But Butcher Huang pulled out the knife and looked at the edge. He saw that there was no sign of curling or blunting on the edge. It was still sharp. He couldn't help but said in surprise: "Okay, Blacksmith Tao, your knife is good! It's better than Bian." The knives made by Jing are stronger. Where can you get the good steel?" Huang Butcher clapped his hands and said, "How much does your knife cost? It's too expensive, I can't afford it!"
Tao Laoer said with a smile: "If it's not a good knife, how can I come to you? I won't charge you much, just one tael of silver for each!" Butcher Huang was stunned when he heard Tao Laoer's words, and without negotiating the price, he took it out from under the stall. He handed a tael of silver to Blacksmith Tao and said, "Well, Blacksmith Tao, come back to me if you have any good stuff in the future!" Tao Laoer knew that Butcher Huang thought it was cheap, so he paid so happily. After all, this knife is stronger than the one made in Bianjing, and a pound of iron costs one, two, or three yuan, so the made knives are naturally more expensive. Half a pound of fine steel in Tianjing Xincheng only costs seven cents and five cents. Counting a few cents of silver for pig iron, the cost of making a knife is only eight cents. Tao Laoer can earn two cents of silver.
This business is not bad. Tao Laoer can earn a tael of silver by doing a few transactions a month. If nothing else, the butchers and restaurant cooks in Cangzhou County would probably like the knives made of fine steel from Tianjing Xincheng. Tao Laoer secretly said that he was going to Gao's house in Cangzhou to buy more than ten kilograms of Tianjing Xincheng fine steel from him and make it into knives to sell.
On November 10th, the weather was already very cold. Ice had frozen in the pond at night and had not melted this morning. There was a little snow falling when it was dark in the morning, but it stopped as soon as it got light. Yang Peng was wearing a coat and was looking through the reports in the store in the official hall. In ten days, Tianjing Xincheng’s fine steel was sold for more than 1,000 kilograms. As a product that has just been launched, the sales volume is very good. However, Yang Peng hopes to sell 10,000 catties a month and is not satisfied with the current sales. Yang Peng was thinking about how to expand sales when he saw Zhang Xiang walking in with a cold breath.
"Brother, you have a heater here. It's really warm!" Yang Peng asked, "Aren't you going to train soldiers? Why do you come to see me when you have time!" "The selection team are all veterans. The battalion commander can watch the daily training. You don’t need me to keep an eye on you!” Sitting on the chair, Zhang Xiang said casually: “Brother, do you know that Uncle Han’s wife from Jingbianfang is dead!”
Yang Peng was stunned and asked: "How did he die?" "He was suffering from cold sickness and kept coughing. Later he died of the illness. He was only in his thirties! This Han Jinxin used to be a spy of the Ministry of Punishment, but now he has ended up like this. "Yang Peng thought of this Han Jinxin.
This man is a native of Cangzhou. I heard that his grandfather was a Jinshi and became the Minister of Rites. However, his father was extravagant and used up all the family's money. This Han Jinxin originally relied on Zu Yin to become a spy for the Ministry of Punishment. During the Taizong period, he got close to the eunuch and was promoted to a spy for the Ministry of Punishment. Who would have thought that as soon as Emperor Taizong died, the eunuchs fell apart, and Emperor Zhenzong vigorously liquidated the eunuchs, and Han Jinxin was kicked out.
Han Jinxin is a remnant of eunuchs and has a good reputation. The two county magistrates and governors of Cangzhou were all Qingliu, and they hated eunuchs the most. The two served as county magistrates and were in charge of Cangzhou. Both inside and outside the Cangzhou system were extremely repulsive to the eunuchs and wanted to kill them quickly. This Han Jinxin couldn't even find a job under the title of eunuch, so he relied on pawning his former belongings to make a living. At the beginning, he could still live an ordinary life with some family resources, but he never expected that the imperial court's hatred towards eunuchs would persist for ten years, and his family's life became worse and worse day by day, which was very miserable.
His wife died of illness, which was unexpected but reasonable news. In the past, Han Jinxin liked to stand in the square in a daze when he had nothing to do, and he was very kind to children. Yang Peng met him when he went to Cangzhou for business and even ate the candies he gave out. When I heard about his family's miserable situation, I couldn't help but sympathize with him.
Yang Peng thought for a while and said to Zhang Xiang: "You call Han Jinxin here, I will find something for him to do!" Zhang Xiang said: "Brother, he is a castrate! If you take him in, our people will What do you think?" Yang Peng spat: "What's wrong with that eunuch?" "You ask him to come!" Zhang Xiang had no choice but to take the order and go out. In the afternoon, Zhang Xiang brought Han Jinxin.
Han Jinxin was wearing an old cotton-padded jacket. It could be seen that the outside of the old jacket was made of silk and satin. It was probably made ten years ago. At this time, the coat was full of holes. Probably because there was no one to help, and there were no rags for patching at home. He has a long beard, and his face is sallow due to long-term malnutrition. A man in his thirties looks the same as he does in his forties or fifties. Probably because of the loss of his wife, he looked very depressed and his eyes were dull. He walked with his back hunched over and his eyes always looking at the ground. He didn't look up until he reached Yang Peng, glanced at Yang Peng, and knelt down. "The sinner Han Jinxin has met the Lord of the City!"
If you want to know what happens next, let’s look at the breakdown in the next chapter.
