After receiving the document, Pang Zhi, a clerk in the army, rubbed his eyes and pinched his thighs before confirming that there was Qiu Ba in the army who wanted to read and write. He was really sitting in the army, and the trouble came from the governor's house...
Pang Zhi was very depressed. He didn't know why these rough guys had to learn to read and write. Also, there were many scribes in the army, so why did this bad luck happen to him?
Indeed, Pang Zhi had reasons to complain. He originally had to do four and a half hours of work every day, but now he had to work an extra hour to teach. His salary was still the same, but his work was a lot more. No one would be happy with it. .
However, there is no labor law in Ming Dynasty, and it is impossible to complain to Lao Zhu, so just do it...
Pang Zhi was very unwilling and went to find Zhao Hailou, Wang Liang and others at noon. His originally disdainful expression suddenly trembled when he saw that Zhao Hailou and Wang Liang were from Qianhu.
Damn it, a fifth-rank official!
Pang Zhi did not dare to neglect. The words that were originally curses turned into compliments. There was nothing he could do about it. The fifth-grade thousand households and the sixth-grade hundreds of households were not comparable to the lowest-ranking military scribes...
Zhao Hailou, Wang Liang and others were respectful, changed from their rough and irritable days, and began to learn. Pang Zhi saw that this group of people were unusually rough, and he also began to become serious: "Since you are eager to learn, then start from here." From the time I learned the word "Da Ming", we are all the people of the Ming Dynasty. The sun and the moon are bright, and everything the sun and moon shine on is the earth of the Ming Dynasty. The sun and the moon shine forever, and the Ming Dynasty is mighty..."
Zhao Hailou and Wang Liang had a correct attitude. They usually only talked about whose mother-in-law had big breasts and a big butt and was good at giving birth, which widow stayed at home in the middle of the night, the fragrant stories on the Qinhuai River, and the tragic legends under the Qinhuai River. This was the first time they heard about "Japanese" Everything the moon shines on is bright earth, the sun and moon shine forever, and the Ming Dynasty is mighty." If you say these words, you can feel your spirit lifted, and a surge of pride arises spontaneously!
"Mr. Gu, we will definitely work hard!"
Zhao Hailou firmly believed.
Wang Liang's eyes were determined. Literacy and reading were not easy to achieve, but he had never taken anything seriously in his life. Now, it was time for him to take it seriously.
Outside the Taiping Gate, Jurong Yamen officer Han Qiang looked at the sun. It was already three quarters to noon, and the time for beheading had already passed.
Ding Ben picked up a stone, weighed it, and looked at Han Qiang with some depression: "Second brother Han, we are just sending a few prisoners. When they are sent to the Ministry of Punishment, they should be transferred back to Jurong. Why haven't the people here been here yet?" Let us go?"
Han Qiang was also confused: "Who knows what they are busy with. They haven't handed over the documents to us yet. They can't leave even if they want to. Let's wait a little longer."
Ding Ben was helpless.
At this moment, a war horse came closer from a distance. When he got closer, he saw a burly military general with a sword in the lead reining in the war horse. He sat on the horse's back and asked: "Jurong Yamen?"
Han Qiang saw that the other party was imposing and wearing a wild goose feather knife used by the military or guards on his waist. He did not dare to neglect and quickly stood up and replied: "Exactly."
Zhou Zong took out a document from his arms and asked, "Are you Han Qiang, the leader of the Yamen team?"
"yes."
Han Qiang was a little uneasy.
Zhou Zong looked at the guard at the gate of the Ministry of Punishment and shouted: "Order, give them the handover documents and let them return to Jurong."
After hearing this, the guards of the Punishment Department turned around and entered the Punishment Department.
Zhou Zong handed the document to Han Qiang and said seriously: "Go back and tell Mr. Gu that the prisoners will set off from the capital the next day. The person escorting the prisoners is Mao Xiang, the commander of the Yulin Left Guards. I am sincere to Liu Ji and ask Mr. Gu to do a good job." Reception matters.”
"Uncle Sincerity?"
Han Qiang's eyes widened, thinking he heard wrongly.
Han Qiang didn't know who Mao Xiang was, but Liu Ji was a household name, especially in the Jiangnan area, and few people knew his name.
How could such a big shot use Qu Cai to escort prisoners?
Han Qiang couldn't understand.
The people from the Ministry of Punishment delivered the handover documents and then left.
Zhou Zong turned his horse's head and turned sideways and said to Han Qiang: "Tell the people in the county government later that if anyone is acting cunningly and causing Mr. Gu to have an accident, hehe, we don't mind going to Jurong." "
Han Qiang looked at the general who had drawn out half of the Yanling sword, trembled all over, and quickly agreed.
Zhou Zong left.
Ding Ben and others were either sitting on the ground or wiping away cold sweat, their faces pale.
"This person is so evil."
Han Qiang was a little shocked and called everyone back to Jurong.
Ding Ben suddenly thought of something and asked: "Second brother Han, Zhao Hailou and Wang Liang called the county magistrate Mr. Gu. This military commander who just left must not be an ordinary person. He also called the magistrate Mr. Gu. This is Why?"
Han Qiang shrugged. How could he know this? Now is not the time to think about these things. He should return to Jurong immediately and tell Gu Zhixian that Liu Ji, a sincere man, is coming to Jurong!
Jurong, county government.
Gu Zhengchen finally recovered. He sat in the second hall and read "Meditation Song" with a slight twitch in his mouth: "Heaven and earth are harmonious and all things are alive. Drinking nectar every day is as sweet as honey. Immortals are Buddhas, Buddhas are immortals, and their nature is perfect." It’s not like that… I can’t understand it.”
According to Geshan people, when the world was in chaos at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he fled to Longhu Mountain and became a Taoist priest. He found an opportunity to write the three books "Xuanji Zhizhi", "Meditation Song" and "Xuanyao Jing". He stole it out in order to ask for immortality.
Later, he changed his name to Geshanren and entered the Jurong Qingzhen Temple to become a Taoist disciple. After a few years, he became the master of the temple. He wanted to understand the way of cultivation, but in the end, he fully understood the four words of Yin and Yang Jiaotai.
"In this case, it is possible that this thing was written by Zhang Sanfeng and is a treasure of Longhu Mountain. I just don't know if the Taoist priests from Longhu Mountain are willing to exchange money for it..."
Gu Zhengchen calculated that although these three books should not be unique, Longhushan would definitely not want to let Zhang Sanfeng's things be circulated.
It is strange to say that although Zhang Sanfeng is from Longhu Mountain and claims to be a descendant of Zhang Tianshi, Zhang Sanfeng's Wudang Sect is in Wudang Mountain, nearly two thousand miles away from Longhu Mountain. How did this thing appear in Longhu Mountain?
Considering that Zhang Sanfeng often wandered around, he might have gone back to the Tianshi Mansion on a whim and left some classics by the way...
Gu Zhengchen wrote a letter. This letter was addressed to Jinling Shenping. As the "high-level" Taoist organization, the Taoist priests here have close ties with all Taoist sects such as Longhu Mountain and Wudang Mountain. It is easy to spread a message... …
The autumn harvest in Jurong has finally begun, nearly 20 days later than in previous years. The elders are worried about this, saying that the weather is abnormal and there will be a natural disaster in the coming year.
Although the elderly do not work in the Meteorological Bureau and do not understand astronomy, the decades they have lived are not in vain. The ancient elderly are not like the later generations. Many people in the later generations regard the elderly as a burden. They think that the elderly do not know more, but In ancient times, the old man was definitely a treasure. The older he got, the more precious he was. Not only did the magistrate have to speak politely when he saw him, but if he was over ninety, even the emperor had to bow his head when he saw him. Even if the old man was incontinent in the main hall, it would be a pleasure, absolutely. It won't cause disaster.
An old house where a treasure.
Their experience guides the farming and production of countless people, and their words are related to people's daily lives, such as the selection of dates for weddings and funerals, etc.
These people are probably not joking when they warn of disaster next year.
Gu Zhengchen didn't have any weather forecast above his head, so he had no choice but to trust the elders and make preparations early.
Ancient disasters were mainly floods, droughts, locust plagues, and epidemics, such as earth dragons turning over (earthquakes) and dragons sucking water across the border (typhoons, tornadoes). These are really difficult to deal with. As for locust plagues, there are generally no locust plagues in the south. .
After a major disaster, there will be a major epidemic, and the epidemic is out of the question for the time being.
After all, the biggest disaster Jurong faces is summer drought and autumn floods.
Asking elders and wealthy families in Jurong, in the past twenty years, Jurong has had seven years of summer droughts and eleven years of autumn floods.
Gu Zhengchen rubbed his eyebrows and thought about how to deal with it.
When there is a drought in summer, wells, ponds and reservoirs are dug.
In case of autumn floods, we build embankments and dams, remove dangers and reinforce rivers, and dredge rivers.
The typical approach is this.
Before the founding of the Ming Dynasty, specifically in the 18th year of Yuan Zhizheng, Lao Zhu ordered Kang Maocai to be the "Minister of Water Conservancy" to overhaul water conservancy in Yingtian and other places.
In the second year of Hongwu's reign, Kang Maocai was once again appointed to be in charge of water conservancy in the south of the Yangtze River, and countless people were mobilized.
It has to be said that although Lao Kang was not born in water conservancy, he still did a good job in this matter, and all the places in the south of the Yangtze River benefited from it.
But the problem is that Lao Kang’s work focuses on the major production counties such as Suzhou Prefecture, Songjiang Prefecture, and Hangzhou Prefecture, while Jurong is a small production county in Yingtian Prefecture. After all, it is a reality that there are many mountains and few fields. Naturally, the water conservancy here has not been achieved. How much care does Lao Kang take?
In the six years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, most of Jurong's water conservancy projects have relied on the county government to recruit people to perform corvee labor.
And those who serve in corvee service are corrupt and exploited by the county government.
In Gu Zhengchen's view, the county government's corruption and expropriation is not the worst thing. The worst thing is that these people are recruiting people's power purely for corruption and extortion. There is no reason behind this blind pursuit of "corruption and extortion". Planning, pointless waste of labor!
Just find a ditch at random and tell the people to dig it deeper. As for where the ditch connects and whether it can drain waterlogging, no one from the county government has ever asked.
Gu Zhengchen ordered his workshop Tao Zhen to take out the corvee projects over the years and found that these projects basically revolved around the Qinhuai River in Jurong, that is, the Jurong River. Only the river outside Jurong City had been built five times. .
"Does the county magistrate want to build water conservancy?"
Tao Zhen asked.
Gu Zhengchen nodded slightly: "If the people of Jurong want to have enough to eat, they can't just rely on God's reward. They have to be self-reliant. Normal droughts and floods should not reduce production. But this requires a lot of manpower and financial resources. , The county government treasury has limited money and grain, and it still needs to support the people such as textiles, backpacks, and craftsmen, so there is no money available for water conservancy."
Tao Zhen nodded.
It is true that the county government has some savings, but the county government has to recruit people to do long-term labor after the autumn harvest, and the money and food paid are generous. It is not certain how long the county government can last, let alone such a big thing as recruiting people to do corvee labor.
Gu Zhengchen threw the book aside and stood up and sighed: "How difficult it is to open up money... Tao Zhen, do you think how much money the Guo family would have if they robbed it? Can we keep some of it..."
