Seeing that the sun looked very bright at noon, Zhu Wentian bent over and retreated slowly in the paddy field, planting rice seedlings as he retreated.
"Working makes me happy, working is glorious, and I have the right to work..."
He muttered, beads of sweat dripping on the water.
When transplanting rice seedlings, all the people in the village, except those who are unable to work, come together to do the work.
When we retreated to the other side of the field, an older man handed us a water bowl and said, "Hanhan, take a sip of herbal tea."
"Hey!" Zhu Wentian took the bowl, drank it down, wiped the sweat with his arm, picked up a handful of rice seedlings, and continued to insert it.
He prepares the herbal tea. He directly picks the ingredients that are available in the village and surrounding areas, and buys the ones that are not available at the pharmacy.
The villagers praised it one after another and drank cool drinks to relieve the heat.
Then plant the rice seedlings in and out, and everyone has a meal at noon. Wait until the sun sets before planting the rice seedlings to avoid suffering from heatstroke and falling in the field.
Other nearby villages are doing the same work. This year, Xiaqiu Village rented livestock, saving a lot of manpower and planting rice faster than in previous years.
It's just that the people are not happy, and the water level of the river has dropped sharply.
It was a muggy day, but not a drop fell. I could see the grass wilting far away from the river.
Zhu Wentian knew that in another month, on the first day of June, Zhu Yuanzhang would go to the suburbs to pray for rain.
History books say: In the third year of Hongwu, there was a drought in summer. On the first day of the fifth lunar month in June, I walked to pray at the suburban altar.
Stepping does not mean walking casually, stepping on it makes the Big Dipper move like stars, which is called Bu Gang Step Dou.
"Brother Hanhan, I'll give you some food." The little girl brought a big bowl to her.
"Hey!" Zhu Wentian took the bowl and put it on the table, stroking the little girl's hair that was wet with sweat.
Everyone has rice noodles and cold rice noodles for lunch.
A lot of ingredients, cucumber shreds, coriander, garlic juice, aged vinegar, black bean sauce, boiled star anise water, pepper noodles, and sugar.
Served with braised mutton and haggis and half a salted duck egg, the villagers enjoyed their meal happily.
"I didn't eat such good food last year when I was transplanting rice. I cooked the rice and ate the pickles."
Some villagers expressed their feelings and said that they think the cold rice noodles are becoming more delicious.
"After plowing the ground, people are so tired that they can't recover for a long time. How can they have the strength to make rice noodles?"
The people next to him then said that since there were few animals, people would pull the plow.
"If you eat more meat, you will work faster. You will have to work hard for two days to finish planting."
The person just now said that he was licking the rice noodles in his mouth, and then smacked his mouth twice, his eyes widened with a smile.
***
In Xuancheng, it was also noon, but a group of officials had no intention of eating.
In Xuancheng, there is the Yamen of Xuancheng County and the Yamen of Ningguo Mansion.
Xuancheng County is Fuguo County, and Li Zhixian is accompanied by a group of people with higher official positions than him.
Magistrate, Tongzhi, Tongpan, Tuiguan, the lowest grade is the sixth grade, and he is from the sixth grade.
A group of officials watched in a secret workshop of the special agency, where there were strings of rock candies with cotton ropes.
The rock candy is big and the color is good. Compared with the foreign candy I bought next to me, I can tell the difference.
"Foreigners are bad! They are making money from our Ming Dynasty." A general judge gritted his teeth.
"We should prepare brown sugar, white sugar made by us, white sugar from foreigners, our rock sugar, and rock sugar from foreigners, and send a letter to the emperor."
The other judge clenched his fists, as it was written on the piece of paper, Ming Dynasty wanted to make money from foreigners in turn.
Perhaps because of the hot weather, Magistrate Song's mouth was a little dry. He licked his lips, found a small piece of rock candy and put it in his mouth, feeling instantly sweet.
"Try them all, this is Daming's own rock candy." He greeted everyone.
Everyone chooses a small piece and feels the sweetness together.
The governor of Zhengbapin asked in a low voice: "I, can I buy some? For the children at home."
When the others heard this, their eyes lit up.
yes! Let’s buy it at the price of brown sugar after deducting the loss.
"Why don't we sell a batch and see if others are willing to buy the new rock candy when it is put on the market?"
The first one to speak makes an idea and makes a fortune first.
Tongzhi looked at the prefect: "Before sugar was made, no one could guarantee right or wrong. I raised the money to buy brown sugar and bought four hundred kilograms of brown sugar."
"Are you competing with the people for profit?" Another judge was worried.
"Foreigners are the people? Our rock sugar is good, and we sell it at the same price as foreign sugar. This is a move to benefit the people." The promoter retorted.
"Uh..." The prefect was excited. Four hundred kilograms of brown sugar made three hundred kilograms of rock sugar and a few kilograms of white sugar.
If you give the emperor a hundred catties of rock sugar and all the white sugar, can you sell the remaining two hundred catties of rock sugar for cents?
He hesitated, hesitated, and gritted his teeth: "Leave two hundred kilograms of rock candy, send the rest, and ask the emperor if he will let you sell it. If he doesn't, we will take it home and eat it ourselves."
The officials nodded together, okay, if you are not allowed to sell it, you will take it home and then secretly ship it out.
Originally, I waited for others to pay for it, but after I succeeded in making something, I sent it to the superiors, and I was commended, and then I used the money from the yamen to give it to me.
I don’t want money from the yamen, I want candy.
"Everyone remember to keep the secret and don't make your own sugar in private." Magistrate Song warned.
"Of course I don't dare." Everyone responded one after another. Today, the emperor kills officials without blinking an eye.
“This summer has been dry, with no rain for many days, small rivers have dried up, and large rivers have become shallow.
The emperor is worried! Sending the sugar together with the rape and ramie matters in Xiaqiu Village may relieve some of my worries. "
Tongzhi reminds you to hurry up! Deliver now, quickly.
Everyone immediately went to prepare the question books. Half an hour later, a group of fast horses set off and headed straight to Nanjing, Yingtian Mansion.
…
Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and all the rice in Xiaqiu Village was planted.
The jute has not been planted yet, so we have to wait until half of the rice is heading. The jute is now growing seedlings.
Topdress the fields about ten days before the rice is harvested, and the rice is harvested first.
Two days after the rice is harvested, the confiscated jute is topdressed, and then the jute is harvested.
Right now, we are going to deal with cotton, purple groundweed, and soybeans, watering when they need to be watered, and weeding when they need to be weeded.
We will go back and plow the remaining 1,600 acres of newly opened land again, and wait for winter wheat to be planted in late autumn.
The local area is not suitable for growing spring wheat. In theory, it is feasible to plant wheat after the rice harvest and rice after the wheat harvest.
It’s actually too tiring and consumes a lot of fat.
After the winter wheat harvest, soybeans should be planted to nourish the land. You can also plant some more sorghum and keep it for eating.
If there are corn, peanuts, and sweet potatoes, then they should be planted.
Zhu Wentian was driving a donkey cart in a daze, with buckets installed on the cart. The water level in the river had dropped again, making it impossible to divert the canals to water the cotton.
Fortunately, there are many livestock, so no one is needed to carry water.
"Brother Hanhan, what are you thinking about?" The little girl sat on the side of the car and blinked her big eyes.
"When to plant what, which one can be interplanted, what is the approximate yield, how much land is consumed, how to fertilize, hey hey hey hey!"
Zhu Wentian came to his senses and explained to the little girl.
"Hehehe!" The little girl smiled with her eyes turning into crescent moons.
When the donkey cart arrived, Zhu Wentian carried the bucket directly to the ditch, letting the water soak up and flow forward along the ditch.
The villagers all do this. We don't have time to carry buckets of water to the fields and water them one by one. It will be exhausting.
If we don’t have a donkey cart, that’s probably the only way we can do it.
"After planting wheat and harvesting hemp this year, the village will make bamboo tubes, and when planting cotton again, the bamboo tubes will be inserted. I will think about what else I can do."
Zhu Wentian poured out all the water in the car and frowned as he walked back.
"Brother Hanhan, the village is in good condition now." The little girl comforted him.
