Time flies by so fast, and we are approaching the twenty-fifth year of Yongle. During the period after the "Jieyang Conference", Zhu Heke, the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty Supervisor Guoding, was too busy. In addition to rectifying his Jinyi army, he was also worrying about the affairs of the common people!
It’s so heartbreaking!
It can be said that no one who has been in his position since ancient times loves the people more than him.
Of course, the real reason why he loves the people is not just pretending to be a former Confucian scholar these days. But...there are too few people!
Things are rare and valuable!
Of course, people also value scarcity!
Now he truly understands Mencius' principle of "the people are the most valuable and the king is the least important"... When Mencius said this, China was still in the Warring States Period! There are only about 10 to 20 million people in the whole of China, but there are a lot of countries, big and small. Therefore, there are not many people under a king, how can it not be expensive?
If this people is gone, who will take care of you?
And Zhu Heji is also in the same situation now, and the copycat court is open. However, there are only a few people under the rule of the Shanzhai court, so each one of them is as precious as the national treasure giant panda.
The people are precious, and the king Zhu Heji is naturally light... These days, whenever he has free time, he wanders around Jieyang County, and of course he takes Da Bo Ling with him. So during the day, I went to the countryside to do mobilization and beheading, and at night I had to talk hand in hand with Da Bo Ling and work hard to create people. I was so tired that I lost weight!
This is the true saying that the people are the most precious and the king is the most important!
Qiaolin, west of Jieyang County, is one of the key areas for Zhu Heji's activities these days, for three reasons.
First, Qiaolin is a large rural capital with a large population, and it also controls Beixi Water Transport, which is very important.
Second, Qiao Lindu is very close to Jieyang County. If we don't capture it, it will be difficult when Shang Kexi and others attack.
The third reason is that Qiao Lindu is located in the "vacuum zone" between the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Zhu San did not occupy Qiao Lindu, and the Qing army abandoned Qiao Lindu and ran away... Therefore, Zhu and Xie He said, if you poach people from Qiao Lin, you will make a profit! If all the Qiao and Lin clans from Qiao Lindu could be brought to Jieyang Island, the number of "noble people" under Zhu San could suddenly increase to more than 2,000 people!
However, the heads of the two major Qiao Lindu families, Master Qiao and Lin Xiucai, have both been seriously ill recently... Zhu Heji went there twice with gifts, but they both "disappeared" due to illness.
Of course, they did not let Zhu Heji go back empty-handed. They gave him thousands of stones of sugarcane bagasse - this was not what they wanted to give, but Zhu Heji did not ask for the generous gift prepared by the other party and asked for the leftover sugar pressing by name. sugarcane bagasse.
In this era, Guangdong and Fujian were the main white sugar producing areas in the world - because Chinese sugar workers invented the yellow mud decolorization method in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties to produce crystalline high-quality white sugar. And this technology hasn’t spread yet!
So white sugar is almost a specialty of China. Although Europeans and Indians can also produce white sugar through repeated purification methods, the cost is outrageously high!
Because we have mastered the unique technique of producing white sugar, and after the chaos in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the population in Guangdong and Fujian dropped sharply, and the contradiction between man and land was greatly alleviated. Therefore, a large amount of land can be used to plant sugar cane, which is used to produce products with extremely high economic value. White sugar—white sugar is much more expensive than beef these days, a complete luxury product!
The bagasse left over from the production of white sugar is of no use and can only be thrown away. Zhu Heji wanted it, so of course he gave it away...
But how many days can thousands of stones of sugarcane bagasse keep Zhu San’s grandson occupied? So before the New Year, on a certain day in mid-December, Zhu San Taisun, dressed in "Confucius clothes", carrying a long sword, a grenade hammer, and a shotgun, led dozens of similarly dressed men to persuade people with virtue. .
He first found the Lin family enclosure located by the Beixi River - this was Lin Xiucai's home. It was a newly built circular enclosure built with rammed earth and bricks. It was two stories high and had many small spaces on the second floor. The windows can be used as shooting holes, and there is a moat outside the building that leads directly to Beixi.
Two to three hundred paces south of this newly built enclosure, there is an old square rammed earth enclosure. Although it is only one story high, it is also very solidly built. The outer walls are also covered with bricks and have firing marks. hole.
Because this old enclosure is located next to the Lin family's wharf on the bank of Beixi River, it was not demolished. Instead, it was used as a warehouse and a peripheral stronghold for the Lin family's main enclosure.
When guests come to visit, they usually stay in the Lin family's old building first, and then are welcomed to the Lin family's new building.
Zhu Heji, who was visiting for the second time, was no exception. He was also waiting for Lin Xiucai to show up outside the Lin family's old building.
But this Lin Xiucai's illness... seemed to be quite serious, and he still couldn't get out of bed, so one of his brothers, named Lin Ruhai, took care of him. I saw him wearing a Ming Dynasty-style Taoist attire, a black gauze Confucian scarf hat on his head, and his braids hidden in the hat, so he came to greet him.
When Lin Ruhai arrived at his old building, he only saw Zhu and Ji Zhen standing outside the wall of the old building talking to Da Bo Ling and two hairless young men Yuan Ru. One of the young men seemed to have seen Lin Ruhai, and when he told Zhu Hesi, the "people-oriented" grandson Zhu laughed and greeted Lin Ruhai over.
"Guili Hai," Zhu Heji was as approachable as ever, calling Lin Ruhai by her "flower name" affectionately, "your Taoist attire looks pretty good, is it a new one? Your eldest brother Jiugui Jiang's Are you feeling better?"
"Huo... Your Majesty, I'd like to give you my regards." Lin Ruhai and Zhu Heji were old acquaintances, and they almost called each other by their names, but at the last moment they called him "Your Majesty" and they were respectful. He bowed respectfully.
"Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. My brother's condition is getting better," Lin Ruhai said with a sad look on his face, "I only vomited two liters of blood yesterday, half a liter less than the day before yesterday, but I still can't get out of bed."
"Oh..." Zhu Heji nodded, turned around and said to Da Bo Ling, "Sister Ling, bring me the internal medicine I prepared for Jiugui Jiang."
"Here you go."
Da Bo Ling held a small jar in her hand and handed it to Zhu Heji with both hands.
Zhu Heji took the jar, opened the mud seal on it, and handed it to Lin Ruhai.
Lin Ruhai took the jar and smelled the aroma of wine. She was surprised and said: "What a good wine! Master Shizi... My eldest brother's illness is caused by drinking. Why do you still give him wine?" "
Zhu Heji smiled and said: "This is medicine for internal use, and there is also medicine for external use! I use the medicine for external use first, and then I can take it internally."
"For external use?" Lin Ruhai was stunned, "Can I use external medicine to treat vomiting blood after drinking alcohol?"
"Yes!" Zhu Heji pointed to the wall of the Lin family's old building next to him, "Guilihai, look at these walls... take a closer look, look at the outside, and then look inside. See if there are any No one has tampered with you?"
"this......"
"Look quickly, look carefully, your brother will be cured by the medicine after reading this!"
"Yes...really?"
"Yes, yes, go and see it. You will know after you see it."
Although Lin Ruhai didn't know what kind of medicine Zhu Heji was selling in the gourd, he still followed Zhu Heji's instructions to check the earthen wall. He looked back and forth and found that it was still the original century-old wall.
When he came out of the building after looking at the inside of the century-old wall, he saw Da Bo Ling holding a cylindrical bronze vessel and pasting it on the exterior wall of the century-old wall - the bronze vessel was not big in size, and one end was It's flat, and there may be some wet glutinous rice flour stuck on it, so you can stick it to the wall. A young man wearing Confucius clothes used a wooden fork to hold the bottom of the bronze vessel.
Just when Lin Ruhai was confused, she heard Da Bo Ling say: "Okay."
At this time, Zhu Heji had already led most of his subordinates and the tribesmen brought by Lin Ruhai to stand far outside the protective trench. Hearing what Da Bo Ling said, she waved and shouted: "Sister Ling, Zhan Shan, Hong Kui, light the fire and come here quickly. Guili Hai, come here quickly too!"
Lin Ruhai didn't know what happened, but he still obeyed the advice and ran to Zhu Heji.
Da Bo Ling, Su Zhanshan, and Zhao Hongkui also followed him to Zhu Heji's side. The group of people just stood at a distance, and then stared blankly at the bronzeware stuck on the century-old wall.
There was smoke coming out of the butt of the copperware, and a match must have been lit.
"Is this a mine? This is going to explode..."
As soon as Lin Ruhai thought of this, he saw the copperware suddenly turned into a ball of smoke and fire, followed by a loud sound of the earth shaking and the mountains shaking!
Then Lin Ruhai saw that a large section of his old white wall collapsed!
