After Zhao Yingong finished this matter, he immediately asked people to return to the villa. He instructed people to immediately go to Yehang near Hangzhou to buy "shaoye". As for the fifty thousand taels of silver, he also asked someone to prepare a Delong banknote. He realized that his advice to the prefect would definitely cause an uproar in Hangzhou. However, the public will no longer target him. All he had to do was wait for the raw silk and cocoons from the Famine Relief Bureau.
Shen Kaibao stood on the stern of his boat, rocking the boat once and for all. It was noon, there was no wind at all, and the willow branches on the pond road hung lazily on the water.
It has already passed the Qingming Festival, and the leaves on the willow branches have just unfolded a little. The green and a little yellow leaves seem to be unable to withstand the cold air of early spring, curling and refusing to unfold.
Seeing these wilted new leaves, Shen Kaibao felt more and more chills all over his body - he was wearing a tattered cotton-padded jacket, which he had made more than ten years ago when the times were good. It doesn't seem to be getting any better.
The weather is getting colder year by year. Shen Kaibao still remembers when he was young. During the Qingming Festival, the branches were already full of green leaves, and he had to wear a thin jacket to go out to rock the boat. It's a good thing now, it's still snowing in March, and I still can't take off my cotton-padded jacket after the Qingming Festival.
"The sky has really changed!" Shen Kaibao said in his heart, coughed, and spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm into the river. The water in the river is cold and quiet. It gives you chills just to look at it.
The tops of the fist-shaped branches have clusters of tender green leaves not much bigger than a fingernail. Both sides of the pond road are now densely covered with mulberry trees. Last year's drought lasted from June to October. Not a drop of rain fell. The farmers jumped anxiously. After all, there are many rivers and ponds in the south of the Yangtze River, and those who have a lot of labor and cattle at home can do it. Shen Kaibao saw with his own eyes a man from a neighboring village whose thighs were thicker than tree stumps. He was so tired that he vomited blood on the water tanker and died after being helped home.
As for those whose labor force is weak, who don’t have good ditches, or who are far away from the river pond, it’s really hard to cope with it every day. They can only watch the flowering rice fields wither one by one. Turn into withered straw. In autumn, the grain collectors and housekeepers came together and forced them to pay grain, rent, and sell their houses and land. Even if you sell your wife or children, you won't be able to pay the iron plate rent and the imperial grain and national tax. The family was ruined, the whole family abandoned the rent and ran away, some jumped into the river and hanged themselves...
It's not that Shen Kaibao has never seen this kind of thing before - it's just that it's become more common and scary in recent years. Before and after the Chinese New Year, he would row the boat out every time. Bodies are often found floating in the river. Both adults and children. He knew they couldn't cross and threw themselves into the river. Some families that he thought had a "strong foundation" have now ended up in this situation: the oil and salt shop in the town where he used to go to buy things suddenly collapsed this year. When Shen Kaibao went there today, there happened to be Dozens of people were wailing and cursing around the boarded-up store. They were all trying to get some interest and had deposited money on the counter. I heard that the shop owner’s creditors came to visit him because his business was not doing well. He was forced to commit suicide.
Shen Kaibao saw this. He always feels that he is quite lucky. The raw silk market last year was good, and his family barely escaped disaster by relying on the income from raw silk, and did not end up in this situation. But even so, he had to mortgage some of his family's land to Mr. Cao in the town to get rid of the vicious grain man.
Mr. Cao is the "richest man" in the town. Because he was a scholar in his early years, he collects taxes in the area and lends money to the country people every now and then. The interest rate is half a penny lower than the ordinary rate. He also spoke kindly to the country people, there were weddings and funerals, and farmers with whom he interacted contributed a few small sums of money to make a small contribution, and the whole family could go and "eat meat rice" - everyone said that Mr. Cao was a kind man.
Kindness comes after kindness. Over the past twenty years, I have seen his family become more and more prosperous - more and more farmers who cannot afford to repay him have to sell their land to him. Mr. Cao also became a landlord with hundreds of acres of land. In addition to growing mulberries, he also received a "ministry license" and started a raw silk business in the town. The family business became increasingly prosperous.
He was troubled by the thought that he would have to repay Master Cao's principal and interest before the Mid-Autumn Festival. If this year's "silkworm flowers" were good, he would probably be able to repay the money. If not, he would have to ask Master Cao for an "extension." But as these two and a half cents of monthly interest add up month by month, it will become increasingly difficult to pay off. In the end, I had no choice but to give the land to Mr. Cao to pay off the debt.
Thinking of this, he could only pray to the Silkworm Goddess to open his eyes and give him a good silkworm flower, so that he could smoothly pay off his debt to Master Cao and let the country people take a breather.
However, before he finished this thought, he thought about having to hold a happy event for Sanqing at the end of the year. Sanqing was already twenty-three, and he would be laughed at in the countryside for not having a wife at this age. The matchmaker told about a suitable girl from a neighboring village, and he and his wife also liked it - but where did the bride price and wedding expenses come from?
After thinking about it like this, endless burdens came to his mind one by one. The life of a farmer was really hard. He sighed, and he could not relax for a moment. I am already in my early fifties - although at this age I can still rock a boat and walk in the fields, I am already half buried in the earth. Farming is a hard life, and living past fifty is already a good lifespan. After a few more years, I will just stand upright and ignore it. But Ah Qing and San Qing still have a long life.
Some areas of the rice fields have been plowed over, exposing dry and cracked mud. But there are still large areas of rice fields that are not moving. The farmers who cultivated these lands had either fled or starved to death, and many wanted to farm but had neither seeds nor cattle. I can only look at the fields and sigh.
Compared with this withered and desolate rice field, the large mulberry forest seems to be full of vitality. Although the young leaves at the moment are only the size of a fingernail, it won't be long before a large number of new leaves will sprout on these mulberry trees. When the white silkworm baby goes up the mountain, he can breathe again. The silk market has been good in recent years, and his family has mulberry trees. If he can raise silkworms peacefully, he might be able to pay off Mr. Cao's debt and still have some money left. As for Sanqing's marriage, let's take it one step at a time - if it doesn't work out, just buy a fleeing woman as his wife. Although it is not decent and there is no uncle's family, it is cheaper than getting married.
Shen Kaibao considered shaking his hand all the way and turned onto a branch of the river - the village was there, and a cluster of houses in the distance was the village where his family had lived for several generations. The rice fields scattered between the crisscrossing rivers outside the village have been plowed, and some are planted with cereals. The village where he lives was mostly sericulture farmers raising silkworms and reeling silk, so it was not seriously damaged by last year's drought and could barely cope with it.
Now there is white smoke rising from those houses. Shen Kaibaoba's boat is tied to the river pier of his house. In the yard in front of the door, the women and children of the family, his wife, daughter-in-law and grandson are all busy washing the "Tuan plaque" and "Silkworm baskets".
These sericulture equipment, which have been hidden in the woodshed for a year, must be taken out, cleaned and repaired before being greened. Not only their home, but at the door of every home in the village, there were women and children doing the same thing. Talking and laughing seemed to add a touch of joy to this cold spring.
However, their faces were all gray - they had not had a full meal since last autumn, and some families could hardly sustain themselves even on two thin porridges a day, which also had to be paired with some unpalatable bran cakes. Fill the belly. He was also dressed in rags - not much better than a beggar.
However, everyone's spirits are still good. The village was not completely devastated by last year's disaster. The villagers were thankful and determined to pursue their own path of raising silkworms and reeling silk. As long as the silkworms are ripe, this difficult year will be over again - in today's world, it is lucky for the whole family to live peacefully.
As soon as Shen Kaibao returned home, people from the village came one after another - because he had a decent boat and was a relatively "popular" figure in the village, he also drove a "ship" on weekdays. That is to say, the boat goes to town every few days to sell vegetable specialties to the villagers and buy things such as oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and agricultural tools that the village cannot be self-sufficient. If someone wants to go to town, they can also take a boat.
Due to the disaster last year, the villagers were very tight on money and did not buy anything unless they were absolutely necessary. His "business" is also very light. But this time he went to town to buy "paste paper" for sericulture, which is an indispensable item for every household. People also wanted to hear the latest news, so there were a lot of people coming. A circle was formed in the courtyard of Shen Kaibao's house.
This is also the time when Shen Kaibao is most proud. He is the person with the widest eyelids and the most knowledge in the village. Everyone wants to listen to him. It's just that he didn't hear too much news in the town this time. Because of the need to save money, he didn't dare to go into the teahouse to ask for a bowl of the cheapest tea powder and listen to the chats of the "learned" people around him. I walked around the streets a few times and talked to the store owners I visited on weekdays.
The news he brought back was not good: the market was not good, the price of rice had risen to three taels of silver per dou, and even grains were almost one taun of silver. Several more stores in the town were closed. The cloth in the town's cloth shop was selling so cheaply, but it still couldn't sell a few pieces. The shopkeeper sighed - I heard that the cloth in Songjiang couldn't be sold, and the cotton growers and machine workers were so hungry that they ran away...
"If you have so much money, it would be really cost-effective to buy a few horses and leave them alone..." Shen Kaibao was very greedy.
“The farmers are starving to death, and there is no money left to buy cloth.”
"No matter how cheap it is, we can't afford it."
"I wish I could survive as long as I stutter, but now I have to endure it even if my butt is bare."
"It depends on the silkworm flowers this year." Neighbor Siduo interjected, "As long as the silkworm flowers are good, it doesn't matter if you buy a few pieces of cloth after selling them." To be continued. .
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