There is no free land outside Bianjing City.
This is known to everyone. Before Zhang Yue resigned from office, he personally went to Nandi. In addition to finding out that the official's late aunt's family had purchased thousands of acres of land in Nandi, he also saw farmland everywhere. The land here has long been bought by rich and powerful families, and then hired a large number of bankers to cultivate it.
The agricultural economy has always focused on self-sufficiency.
Ordinary people also eat food grown in their own fields, and the same is true for the rich and wealthy families in Bianjing City. They only pay attention to eating food grown in their own fields and silk produced by their own mulberry farmers. Silk silk.
If you go to the market to buy food or ready-made clothes, you will fall into the lower class and may be regarded as a nouveau riche or a child from a poor family who has just escaped poverty and become an official.
All in all, this is the dividing line that distinguishes New money from Old money.
For the Wu family, self is also a category of Old money.
The Zhang family's food and clothing are also provided by Shiqi Niang's farm.
Yuetai in Junyi County on the western outskirts of Bianjing City was considered to be among the best in the world during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, and the dowry field of Seventeen Niangs was purchased in Junyi County.
When Zhang Yue's family got out of the hill and looked down, they saw that it was a huge mansion.
But I saw that the manor house was surrounded by earthen walls about two people high, with watchtowers on all four corners. There were hundreds of willow trees planted outside the manor house.
Zhuangzi is backed by a mountain, and not far away is the official road, surrounded by streams.
There are about a hundred people working as servants inside and outside the farmyard. Many farmers are herding cattle and sheep on the hillside. There are flocks of ducks and geese by the stream. In the threshing field in the village, the farmers are busy drying wheat.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Yue couldn't help but smile to Qi Niang and said, "My wife has such a good place at home. If I had known, I would not have been an official."
The Seventeenth Mother rubbed her son and smiled: "Hey, the official said something wrong. It's not my wife's home, but ours."
Zhang Yue smiled and sighed that he was finally living a rural life.
When they arrived at the end of the field, Seventeenth Mother sent someone to report. Half a mile away from the village, the head of the village came up with several villagers to greet him.
Zhang Yue knew that Qi Niang would inspect her farm shop every year. According to her, she should not be overly suspicious of the managers below, but she should also not delegate power without supervision, otherwise even a kind person would have alien intentions.
Zhang Yue was deeply convinced after hearing this. From a large court to a small family, many things are connected.
The head of the village, whose surname is He, is about fifty, and his two sons are following him. It can be seen that they are sweating from working in the fields. Seeing this scene, Zhang Yue has a good impression of the three of them. .
During other Chinese New Year holidays, He Zhuangtou also visited Zhang Yue Qi Niang with special products from the account field, so this was not the first time they met.
After entering Zhuangzi, they were served tea and food. Zhang Yue and He Zhuangtou searched for Zhuangzi, but they were delighted when they saw a mountain stream behind Zhuangzi and willows in front of it. Everything was in order.
Zhang Yue said to He Zhuangtou: "What pure place does Zhuangzi have?"
"A clean place?" He Zhuangtou looked confused.
Zhang Yue said: "A place where I can study in peace."
He Zhuangtou said suddenly: "Master wants to study. There are a few houses in this village that can be cleaned. However, the people coming and going in the village may be a bit noisy. If you want a clean place, there is a place behind the mountain. There is a temple, but it’s just a little way away.”
Zhang Yue nodded and said, "It's not far."
That night the village guest killed a sheep and some chickens and ducks to give Zhang Yue a cleansing, so the family settled down in Zhuangzi.
After resting for a night, Zhang Yue asked He Zhuangtou to go to the temple.
This temple is called Xishan Temple. I heard that Li Chunfeng also stayed here when he was measuring mountains at Yuetai.
.
Zhang Yue went up the mountain with He Zhuangtou and Tang Jiuyi.
The mountain is not high, but it is quite wide. There are many trees for shade. Far from being a bare scene in the suburbs of Bianjing, the only trees are almost all cut down as firewood.
This place is sparsely populated and there are many wild animals in it.
After walking on the mountain road for about five miles, Zhang Yue arrived at Xishan Temple.
He calculated that the distance from Zhuangzi was indeed quite far, but by walking the ten-mile mountain road every day, he could not only enjoy the scenery but also keep fit, but he didn't know if there were any bandits or ferocious beasts.
Xishan Temple is a small temple, and there are no incense offerings on weekdays. Three old monks live in the temple, and they take turns fetching water from the spring at the foot of the mountain to drink.
Zhang Yue gave him a drop of incense money, saying that he was just a failed candidate, and proposed to live in a monk's room for study.
The old monks were familiar with He Zhuangtou and saw that Zhang Yue was kind. They were about to agree, but the oldest old monk stopped him.
The oldest monk asked Zhang Yue: "You said you are a scholar, I need to test you."
Zhang Yue said: "Master, please speak!"
The old monk said: "Since the donor is a scholar, how can he know what is the greatest in the world?"
Zhang Yue smiled and saw a tangerine tree outside the temple, so he asked: "The biggest tangerine tree?"
The old monk couldn't help but be stunned. Another old monk said: "Senior brother, last year there was a donor who was also a scholar. He came here and said that he has the greatest truth in the world."
The old monk who just asked the question nodded and said, "Yes, this donor is wrong."
Zhang Yue smiled and said: "What's wrong? The truth lies in the human heart, and the human heart lies in the heart. The Naizi is broad and the heart is broad, so the Naizi is the largest."
As soon as Zhang Yue said this, the three old monks were in admiration.
The third old monk said: "The donor's words are right. He is really capable. It seems that given time, he can be admitted to the Jinshi."
He Zhuangtou couldn't help but laugh. Zhang Yue glanced at He Zhuangtou and said to the old monk, "Why do you say that? What does it matter whether I pass the Jinshi examination or not?"
All three of them were a little embarrassed. The old monk who asked the question before said: "Ashamed, ashamed. If the benefactor is admitted as a Jinshi, I will publicize the fact that the benefactor is studying here. In the future, there will be more scholars coming to the temple, so the incense money will not be enough." too much."
After hearing this, Zhang Yue and He Zhuangtou both laughed.
Zhang Yue cupped his hands and said, "In that case, I will study hard and live up to the expectations of the three masters."
The three old monks all said happily: "That's good."
Each of the three old monks had a monk's room. When one of them vacated the room for Zhang Yue to live, he lived with the other monk.
Now Zhang Yue had a place to stay in the temple.
After settling in, Zhang Yue would get up every morning after having breakfast in Zhuangzi, and then walk with Tang Jiu on the mountain road to Xishan Temple.
Tang Jiu held a whistle stick in front of him and drank while walking. Zhang Yue looked at the scenery in the mountains and forests, remembering the days when he and Guo Lin trekked up the mountain to Nanfeng Temple to study.
Although I was suffering at that time, now I think about it, it was my happiest and most comfortable day.
When they arrived at Xishan Temple, the old monks gave Zhang Yue tea.
The tea is a camellia, and the water is a mountain spring. Although it is very rough, it is different from the roughness of the mountains and forests. It is a bit bitter when you first enter the mouth, but it will become sweet in your mouth over time.
The same is true for people. In the past, as a court official, you could be said to have fine clothes and fine food, but eating too much delicacies from the mountains and seas would feel like chewing wax in your mouth.
But now that Wu Guan is so light, such a rough camellia can actually feel a certain flavor in it.
Zhang Yue takes a few books to the temple every day to read and cultivate inspiration. At almost noon (around 11 o'clock), he eats a bowl of plain noodles cooked by the old monk with mountain bamboo shoots and mushrooms, and then goes to bed before 12 o'clock. Take a nap and get up around two or three o'clock to write a book.
The book I wrote was nothing more than my own experience in serving as an official and managing politics in the past three years.
This is an economics book like The Wealth of Nations.
It is strange to say that Confucianism has produced endless books on the study of classics since ancient times. It can be said that it has come to an end when it comes to the study of personnel and metabolism, but it only mentions very little about economics.
For example, the Book of Guanzi mentions some, but there is no scope system.
However, the reason is also very simple. It is because the feudal dynasty emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, and Confucianism valued justice over profit.
Therefore, when I talked with Han Qi and Zeng Gongliang about the Impossible Triangle, and Wang Anshi about the relationship between volume and price, as well as the theory of dividing wages, profits, and land rent into three classes of income, the most outstanding elites of this era could not help but be shocked.
In fact, there are rules to be found in the rise and fall of dynasties. For example, the problem faced by the Song Dynasty was that "profits have been dredged".
To put it bluntly, the cake is only so big, and everyone doesn’t know how to make it bigger. Sharing the cake will offend the interest groups and break their muscles.
The common people are burdened with heavy taxes. The court can no longer distribute taxes to the people, but the country's finances have been losing money. What should we do?
What path should this country take in the future?
Zhang Yue wrote these and did not rush to provide solutions, because this would easily be attacked by others. He just summarized what he had seen and heard since he became an official in a book. At the same time, he explained economics in a concise and comprehensive way, and finally talked about salt. The monetization of banknotes and the issue of treasury and quality treasury.
Zhang Yue still writes articles with his own writing style and thorough reasoning, and how he combines his knowledge of later generations with the actual situation of the Song Dynasty.
Knowing the past but not knowing the present is called falling; knowing the present but not knowing the past is called blindness. This sentence has another meaning for the time traveler Zhang Yue. He only knows how to use today's methods to copy them from ancient times, that is blindness. He only knows how to stick to the rules of the ancients, but gives up the advanced thinking of today's people. That is Falling.
Therefore, Zhang Yue must find a way to combine the two and finally achieve the goal of seeking truth from facts.
Therefore, he wrote very carefully, constantly deleting some concepts. Sometimes he kept reading and reading, and did not write for two or three days. In the end, the words that fell on the paper were simplified thousands of times.
This also means reading more and writing less, and accumulate more knowledge.
Two or three hours after Zhang Yue wrote the book, at almost four or five o'clock, he and Tang Jiu went back to Zhuangzi to have a meal with his wife and children.
Sometimes when the snow is heavy, Zhang Yue simply spends the night in the temple.
Listening to the howling north wind and the cries of night owls in the mountains and forests, Zhang Yue lit a lone lamp and sat alone in the monk's room, wandering between ancient and modern times, trying his best to search up and down, just trying to see what happened from now on. In the current hopeless predicament, find a general direction.
…………
Sometimes Zhang Yue sat like this all night, and when he was so tired, he fell asleep. Before he knew it, another night of wind and snow came.
Autumn and winter pass quickly, and in a blink of an eye, it is the third year of Zhiping.
