Wang Xiaolie, with his hands behind his back, slowly looked for cockroaches under the plane tree at home. Few people eat these in this day and age, now they are literally everywhere.
Life is difficult. No one eats fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs, and they are overrun in many places. In his previous life, Wang Xiaolie remembered that there was a severe drought in his hometown one year, and water was released from canals to irrigate the fields. After a few days, there was less water in the channel and crabs were everywhere. I had nothing to do and spent more than an hour picking up a snakeskin bag of crabs. After picking them up, I didn’t know what they were for, so I threw them all away.
In this era, there is still very little oil in rural areas. Although Wang Xiaolie works hard to promote soybean oil, sesame oil is still eaten in many places. Not to mention the small yield of sesame oil, it is not suitable for cooking. Many people cannot eat more than a few drops of oil a year. In addition, because they eat less meat, most people don’t have much fat or water in their stomachs. There is no oil in the stomach, so fish, turtles, shrimps, crabs, frogs, etc., including earworms, are not very delicious to eat.
Wang Qingxiu was in the yard, directing the soldiers to prepare the wine. It's a rare time for my brother to go home, so of course he has to be well prepared. Chicken, duck, fish, whatever food Wang Qingxiu can think of, he will buy some. It's just that Wang Xiaolian is weird, like a child, he likes to eat things like cockroaches and cockroaches.
The person was brought by Wang Xiaolie. There were soldiers doing chores, a few chefs cooking, and others preparing drinks, all in good order.
When a family hires people, the people hired must belong to a guild and be supervised by the government, which is very inconvenient. As time went by, wealthy families no longer bothered to hire them. No matter how big a business is, they can only hire two or three people to do chores at most. Unlike before, there were many children and servants in the house, as well as drunken prostitutes, singing prostitutes, and even cooks.
Wang Qingxiu is young and has never lived in a wealthy family since she was a child, so she has never hired anyone. Only a few of Wang Xiaolie's personal soldiers often went home to do chores, which was quite relaxing. If there is an important matter at home, such as a chef, naturally someone like Wang Xiaolie can be used.
The sun is still high in the sky, the moon in the east has peeked out, and the wine and food are ready. Wang Qingxiu called Wang Xiaolie and had dinner together.
Wang Xiaolie ordered the chef to fry the cockroaches he had just picked up, and sat down at the table. He picked up a bottle of wine and said, "This is Sangchen wine brewed by Xuanfu Division. It is very delicious after being chilled in ice. Sister, give it a try."
After finishing speaking, he poured a glass for Wang Qingxiu and another glass for himself.
The wine glass was a newly made glass, and the scarlet wine was poured into it, glowing with a strange color.
Wang Qingxiu took a sip of wine. Putting down the glass of wine, he said to Wang Xiaolie: "Is Dalang so busy now? He has been back from Hedong for a few days and has not returned home. I see people working as officials and partying every day, I don't know how comfortable it is!"
Wang Xiaolie said: "It's true that we are busy. There are only two siblings in our family. We moved from Xiangyang to Luoyang, and there were many people helping us. My sister was busy for many days. There are many things going on in the Xuanfu Division, and we moved from Xiangyang to Luoyang. Come here, how could you not be busy? It's other people's business to be an official. What's there to say? And under my rule, no official has a party every day. Other officials may not be so busy, so they won't be so busy. idle."
Wang Qingxiu said: "After being under Dalang's rule, which official has an uncomfortable life? Dalang, you have become a big official now. Let the people below do the work. Don't be too tired. There are officials in the government, not Just to share the worries of the chief?"
Wang Xiaolie smiled and said: "Sister, no one with the same official position as me has delegated power more than me, and let his subordinates do the work. The reason why they are idle is because they don't care about many things. The government doesn't care about most things, and the officials Aren’t you free now?”
Wang Qingxiu said: "Why don't you be like others? There are so many things in the world, how can you care about everything?"
Wang Xiaolie said: "I'm not in charge of everything. Living in this world, it would be boring if others were in charge of everything! What kind of things do I have to take care of more than other officials? It’s just too complicated, and there’s no need for my sister to know.”
"Alas -" Wang Qingxiu sighed, looking at the red sun in the western sky in trance. After a while, he said: "Is it really worth it for you to be so busy that you can't live your own life like you are now? I don't think this is the case when it comes to other people being officials."
"Is it worth it?" Wang Xiaolie was stunned after hearing Wang Qingxiu's words. Wang Xiaolie hasn't thought about the question of whether it's worth it.
It is said that officials are busy and have many things to deal with every day, but there are few people like Wang Xiaolie now. But compared to other officials, Wang Xiaolie really didn't have too many things to do. It’s because everything under governance starts from scratch, and attention must be paid to everything.
Wang Xiaolie's character is not one that loves to take power and never let go. If it could be given to the officials below, Wang Xiaolie would not hesitate to let it go and would not take everything into his own hands. The problem is that if Wang Xiaolie lets go of what is happening now, the people below will not know what to do.
Is it worth it to be so busy? Wang Qingxiu asked, and Wang Xiaolie had to think about it carefully.
After a while, Wang Xiaolie nodded: "It's worth it. If I can make the world a better place if I'm busy, it's worth it. If one day I'm too busy, the world won't get better." , you should be free by then.”
Wang Qingxiu said: "You think it's worth it, what else can I say? However, you are not young anymore, it's time to think about your own affairs. Since you have fallen in love with Miss Lin, let's get married this year. Then. In a month or two, I will marry into the Zhang family, and in winter you marry Miss Lin."
Wang Xiaolie didn't know what to say after hearing this.
Yes, in this era, I am not young anymore and it is time to get married. Just thinking about this matter, why do I feel a little uneasy?
Compared with other dynasties, late marriage and late childbearing were common in the Song Dynasty. Generally speaking, if a man is over 20 years old and under 30 years old, it is not considered a late marriage. As long as a woman is under twenty years old, she is not considered to be marrying late. According to the general situation in the society of the Song Dynasty, the average age of marriage for women was about nineteen years old. For example, Li Qingzhao married Zhao Mingcheng at the age of nineteen, which was not a late marriage at the time.
In the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, some people said that "the first wife to match her husband is at the age of twenty." If your family is poor and you want to marry a good family and a good wife, your age will only be delayed even later. For example, Lu You once wrote a letter, "My son is thirty, my daughter is twenty, and I haven't dared to talk about marriage yet." Please donate an official position and get the money to marry your children.
This situation is different from the Han and Tang Dynasties before the Song Dynasty, and it is also different from the Ming and Qing Dynasties after the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, marriages between men and women were calculated based on Wang Xiaolie's age in his previous life, and they did not marry late and have children later. Moreover, the higher the social status and the better the economic situation, the more common it is for late marriage and late childbearing.
Wang Xiaolie was twenty-three and Lin Xi was nineteen, which was the normal age for marriage. Moreover, in recent years, the world has been in chaos, and late marriage and late childbearing are even more common.
Wang Qingxiu urged Wang Xiaolie to get married quickly because Wang Xiaolie's status was different and he wanted to leave a good successor as soon as possible. For example, the emperors of the Song Dynasty got married much earlier than ordinary scholar-bureaucrats. If his father were still alive, Wang Xiaolie would only be the junior member of the family, and Wang Qingxiu would not rush into marriage at this age. It is even common for Wang Xiaolie to wait a few more years and have to be a Jinshi before he can talk about marriage. Just like Fu Bi, he married Yan Shu's daughter when he was almost thirty years old and became a Jinshi.
