Lao Zhu looked puzzled and asked Zhu Bai: "Nizi, what are you laughing at?"
Zhu Bai said: "Father, look. Ru Taisu said that the grains are plentiful and colorful. Isn't the millet yellow? It's also colorful. Old Ru is old and confused."
Lao Zhu was stunned and let out a long sigh: "Oh... what a sin, you rebellious son, you don't even know what the grains look like. The grains are rice, millet, sorghum, wheat, and soybeans. Sorghum is red, and rice is beaten. It's white, millet is yellow, and with mung beans and other miscellaneous grains, it's a little exaggerated, and it's colorful."
Zhu Bai asked: "Is sorghum red?"
Lao Zhu didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Isn't that just red? You are calling it indiscriminate. You teach people to farm. It turns out you don't understand anything and you are just giving blind orders."
Zhu Biao said: "Speaking of which, I and my father haven't visited the official granary for a long time. Droughts and floods have occurred frequently in the past two years. The official granary is closely related to the livelihood of the Ming army and civilians. I want to take advantage of the weather. It’s good to go for a walk. Also take a look at the spring plowing in the fields.”
Zhu Bai yelled in his heart: My eldest brother, I have been pretending to be stupid for so long, and you finally got to the point.
Lao Zhu nodded: "Well, as a king, you have to go out often. Otherwise, you won't be able to see the actual situation among the people. So, let's go see it too. It's better to choose a day than to hit the sun, let's take today. However, since we want to go down and see, Just tell whoever wants it and travel quietly and incognito, otherwise you won’t see anything.”
Knowing that they were going down, Yingtian officials must have made preparations in advance to whitewash the situation.
Zhu Bai was so excited: "Okay, okay. I will take my father and eldest brother to my farm to eat firewood roasted chicken."
Lao Zhu Ni tilted his gaze at him: "You just want to go out and play. The official granary is in the north of the city, and your fields are in the south of the city. If you don't follow the way, don't go."
Seeing Zhu Bai's face collapse instantly, Zhu Biao couldn't help but laugh and comforted Zhu Bai: "Next time, next time."
Zhu Bai chuckled and said in his heart: I know you won't go, but I don't mention it like this, for fear that you will find out my true purpose.
Zhang Yu and Er Hu listened outside the door and secretly exchanged glances: Zhu Bai usually just messed around alone, why did Lao Zhu and Zhu Biao join in the fun today?
Lao Zhu and his son changed into a set of casual and comfortable round-neck collars to go out.
Lao Zhu wore light gray, Zhu Biao still wore his favorite dark brown, and Zhu Bai wore dark blue.
Everyone wore hats to avoid being recognized.
They went out from Xuanwu Gate and walked slowly along the street on horseback.
It's February now, the sun is shining brightly and the spring scenery is pleasant.
From time to time, branches of peach blossoms and plum blossoms peek out from the white walls of Yingtian Mansion.
The petals fell into the gurgling, crystal clear river, and passed through the stone bridge in the distance.
Tsk, after seeing the granary, I must go out and ride a horse slowly around Yingtian City, otherwise I will live up to this spring.
Everyone was affected by the beautiful scenery, the corners of their mouths involuntarily raised, and their bodies felt much more relaxed and light.
It didn't take a stick of incense to reach the official granary in the north of the city.
The official granary was located some distance away from Purple Mountain, and the terrain was relatively high and flat.
And it can be seen that in order to prevent flooding, stones and rammed earth were specially placed on the ground to increase the height by about half a meter.
The area is well ventilated, and a large number of trees are planted around it to ensure soil stability. Large ditches were built outside the granary to divert the surrounding flood water away.
As soon as you enter the granary wall, you can see more than a dozen large houses inside. These large houses are the warehouses for storing grain.
Buried drainage ditches can be seen on the ground in the yard, which lead to large ditches on relatively low ground outside for rapid drainage.
If the flood is relatively large, sealing the gate or wall can also block the flood.
Zhu Bai pointed to a square brick-paved field and asked, "What is that for? Is it used for training?"
Lao Zhu laughed and scolded: "You bastard, you just want to play wherever you go. This is a rice drying field. The foundation is made of gravel and lime, and the ground is paved with bricks. When it rains, the rainwater can be drained quickly and no water will accumulate."
Zhu Bai nodded slightly and looked at the warehouses which were one and a half feet higher than the floor in the courtyard.
In order to prevent waterlogging, a lot of thought was put into it.
When the warehouse manager in charge of the official granary heard that Lao Zhu was coming, he was so frightened that his feet became weak and he hurriedly ran out of the nearby Yamen to salute.
Lao Zhu waved his hand: "Don't panic. We also have time to come out for a walk."
The warehouse manager hurriedly bent down and followed Lao Zhu.
Zhu Bai jumped off the horse and began to circle around a large house with his hands behind his back.
Lao Zhu waited silently for him to finish, and said to the warehouse manager: "Tell Lao Twelve about the structure of this granary."
The warehouse manager hurriedly bowed his hands to Lao Zhu, and then said to Zhu Bai: "Your Highness King Xiang, this granary is the largest granary in Yingtian Mansion. There are five granaries in total, including Guangbei, Guangheng, Guangtai, Guangji, and Guangfu. According to the emperor's order, all the granary buildings in Ming Dynasty start with the word 'Guang', which means 'wide storage of grains', and the second word is also a word that contains good harvest, good luck and other good meanings."
Zhu Bai caught a glimpse of the patched cuffs in his official uniform and was secretly surprised.
Although the salary of the granary director is low, it is easy to take advantage of him, and he actually has great power.
For example, this is Yingtiancang, where all the salary and food supplies for Beijing officials must come from.
They reported a little more loss and sold the grain without anyone noticing.
So if he hadn't deliberately pretended, this warehouse manager would be a rare honest official.
Zhu Bai took a good look at him.
His face is dark and thin, his eyes are clear and calm, neither humble nor arrogant.
If we follow the recruitment standards of the Guanya Bureau, this warehouse manager is already qualified in terms of appearance.
The warehouse manager asked someone to open the "Guangqi" brothel.
When Zhu Bai went in and took a look, he was immediately amazed by the food inside.
The warehouse manager said: "All the grain stored in this barn is rice. Generally speaking, the same kind of grain should be stored in one barn. Different barns have different shelf life and slightly different management based on the grains they store. Each barn in this barn The huts are all six feet wide and four feet deep. They are divided into five rooms. The grain piles in the huts are one foot high, and the highest point in the middle of the grain pile is about one and a half feet high. Each hut has a grain storage capacity of about one million. to 1.5 million jins. When full, it can store at least 6 million jins of grain."
Zhu Bai observed the cell carefully.
All of these buildings are civil structures, with thick and airtight walls. Only a small window is cut out near the top and supported by wooden sticks.
The roof truss is a "herringbone" beam, which is made of beams, purlins and rafters with open rivets.
The walls are built with blue bricks and laid with thick wooden boards, supported by beams and pillars underneath.
There are wooden boards laid on the ground, and there are ventilation holes under the wooden boards. Warehouse management personnel can enter the ventilation holes to clean and eliminate rats.
There is not a single iron nail in the entire building, it is all riveted.
From the design of the foundation to the beams, all aspects are considered to be strong and durable, ventilated and earthquake-resistant, moisture-proof, rodent-proof, insect-proof, mildew-proof, etc.
