According to the geography of later generations of China, Chongming Island is the third largest island, after Taiwan Island and Hainan Island.
This island, located at the estuary of the Yangtze River and formed by river erosion and siltation, was even more flat in the Ming Dynasty, with occasional natural mounds rising up. It was probably not as high as the stage in Songjiang Prefecture.
Therefore, the most majestic place on Chongming Island, which had tens of thousands of households in the late Ming Dynasty, was the city wall of the county seat.
At this time, just after the first day of the new year, Yao Qianhu stood on the city wall, facing the sea in the southeast.
Beside him, Yang Xiancheng also stood with his sleeves behind his back. He squinted his eyes in the dazzling sunlight above and said, "These rural villagers from the northeast have quite good methods for dealing with our tidal flats in Chongming."
Yao Qianhu said "Yeah" in a dull voice.
More than half a month has passed since the woman surnamed Zheng led the Liao people to the island.
Yesterday, Magistrate Yue came back from Suzhou and sent someone to the guard station to tell Yao Qianhu that the Magistrate of Suzhou, who was from the Donglin Sect, did not go to the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate to report the trespassers. This should have ended the matter.
At the same time, the Suzhou Bingbei Road responded. The Chongming guerrillas had been downgraded from Chongming guerrillas to generals. The old military barracks that were now vacant were given to the Zheng family. The Suzhou Bingbei Road was appointed as the governor of Yingtian and incorporated into the military camp system. However, The imperial court will not allocate salaries for the time being. If Chongming County wants to temporarily call on local heroes, it can provide silver and grain supplies as appropriate.
Yao Qianhu rushed to the county seat from Tunbao on the north bank this morning, ready to ask Yue Zhixian some details. However, Yue Zhixian did not see him because the county affairs were busy during the spring plowing season, so he only asked Yangxian Cheng to take him up the city wall to take a look at Zhengjiazhuangzi.
Yao Qianhu began to curse in his heart.
Yue Yunhong, you old cunning guy, once you figured out how much the woman surnamed Zheng weighed, you forgot how you had been currying favor with me all along, and started acting like a good person, pretending to be the Three True Virtue Nine Lies, and closed the door and stopped accepting guests. ?
Yangxian Cheng saw that Yao Qianhu was angry and sneered secretly.
It is clear that a man who climbed up from the mud pond, taking advantage of the smoke coming from his ancestral grave and having a clan brother who was favored by the chief minister, ran rampant in Chongming and sent us a Jinshi and a Juren to occupy and defraud the land for you, you and him My mother is worthy of a martial artist!
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He breathed a few sighs of relief, and said with a smile on his face: "You just treat me as brothers and I'm one of our own. Let's not talk about those miserable old women. Lao Yang, go back and ask Magistrate Yue if you want to Join me as a salt and cotton dealer and go to a new land."
Yang Xian Cheng asked curiously: "Where?"
"Liaodong," Yao Qianhu said with a mysterious look, "I caught up with a merchant from Liaodong, walked to Liaodong Private Port, then walked south to several guardhouses, collecting goods all the way to our Yaopi Port in Chongming .”
Yangxian Cheng was a little nervous: "Aren't you a smuggler?"
Yao Qianhu sneered: "Old Yang, you may not be an official for the first day? How many people in the Ming Dynasty are not smugglers? Don't worry, those generals in the guard are also my brothers. Besides, Songjiang can turn on and off , there are so many ships boarding and running to Nanzhili, who the hell is checking you all day long to see if you have a ship guide."
Yangxian Cheng thought about it and felt that it was indeed not that dangerous.
"Well, just stop at Chongming. Don't go further south to the vicinity of Wusong. The people in Songjiang Mansion are very strict in anti-smuggling."
…
Four miles away from Chongming County, there is a busy farming scene in Zhengjiazhuang.
The land of more than a thousand acres is even more vast because it is not blocked by hills and is adjacent to rivers and seas.
But upon closer inspection, the manor’s fields are actually divided into three parts: salt fields, dry fields, and paddy fields.
Salt is boiled in salt fields, wheat and cotton are grown in dry fields, and rice is grown in paddy fields.
The Liao people who escaped from the slaves outside the customs knew how to grow wheat. They grew spring wheat in the cold Northeast and winter wheat in the relatively warm Chongming.
There are also paddy fields in the Northeast, and the families with rice and horses even know that a lot of land in the south of the Yangtze River can be planted with rice and wheat.
When preparing to reclaim Chongming, Zheng Haizhu had estimated that the Liao people were proficient in composting soil and other tasks, but were unfamiliar with boiling salt in the sea and growing cotton.
So she invited salt workers from the base area where Yan Siqi stayed on Daishan Island in Zhejiang early and lived in Songjiang.
During these days, several salt workers came to Chongming Island to demonstrate to the Liao people how to dig polders with wide, deep and smooth bottoms and build embankments. When the tide rises, the dike is opened to introduce seawater. After the tide ebbs, the gate is closed again, allowing the seawater in the pit to be gradually dried by the sun and precipitate rough sea salt. Then scoop up the sea salt, dissolve it in clean water, cook it over fire, and use the characteristics of different solubility of different components in sea salt to filter continuously to finally obtain fine salt.
In the dry fields where winter wheat had been sown last fall, veteran farmers from the Han family's cotton fields in Songjiang were also teaching Liao people how to sow cotton seeds.
Chongming Island in the late Ming Dynasty was similar to the Susong area. Due to the prosperity of the silk cloth and textile industry, there was far more land for growing cotton and mulberry trees than for growing food. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the saying was "If Suhu is cooked, the world is sufficient". After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it had been changed to "Huguang is cooked, the world is sufficient", because in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in Jiangnan, most of the food was shipped in from other places.
But Zheng Haizhu's plan for his small estate at this initial stage still pays equal attention to food crops and cash crops.
At this moment, she took Wu Bondang and Xu Yilong around the manor, not only to observe the busy farming situation, but also to observe which of the more than one hundred Liao people and the descendants of thirty or forty Chongming veterans were suitable to develop into the first batch of battalion soldiers, and which ones were suitable Become a secret service agent trained by Bond Wu.
As soon as the three of them turned into a polder, they heard Granny Tang's loud and powerful voice.
"Wang Tai, your wife worked so hard to deliver food to you, but you still hurt others with your words. Do you still have a conscience? Please apologize to your wife!"
Beside the polder filled with sea water, Wang Tai, a young Liao citizen, bowed his head and listened to the instructions. Standing next to him was his wife, holding a bamboo basket with an embarrassed look on her face. Several other Liao citizens who were learning to cook salt gathered around and watched with playful smiles. lively.
Wu Bangdang murmured softly behind Zheng Haizhu: "The Bodhisattva you worshiped, um, what did you call her? The leader of the Women's United Society is really dedicated to his duties and is more diligent than the Bodhisattva."
Zheng Haizhu also felt slightly black lines on her forehead and speechless in her heart.
After she negotiated with Tang Po about accepting the descendants of the veteran, she thought that since the old lady was so highly respected in Chongming, had never married and lived alone in the county, she might as well invite her to Zhuangzili.
I live here and teach literacy to a group of white people on weekdays.
Tang Po, who is very pursuing the realization of self-worth, happily accepted the invitation. Zheng Haizhu got excited again and decided to establish a women's federation organization in Zhuangzi. According to the common saying in Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty, it was named Women's United Society. Tang Po served as the leader of the society, and the secretary was a clever and intelligent Liao girl Hua Er.
Zheng Haizhu calculated that with the golden name of Tang Po, the Chongming natives from the neighboring villages might be more daring to marry their daughters over.
Unexpectedly, after listening to Zheng Haizhu briefly talk about the purpose of the Women's Federation, Tang Po became as interested as a spring river. Whenever she saw a man scolding his wife while going from house to house, she would sternly criticize her, and she even scolded her twice. She asked the man to put his fingerprints on a piece of paper she had written promising not to bully his wife.
Several disgraced Liaodong men did not dare to complain to Zheng Haizhu, so they went to Wu Bangdang to ask Mrs. Zheng to take care of the old lady and not interfere in the couple's housework.
At this time, Wang Tai's wife saw Mrs. Zheng appearing and said to Granny Tang with a look of mercy: "Mother-in-law, the weather is getting hot, and I sweat a lot when doing strenuous work. I put less salt in this dish today." If it’s too much, it’s okay for him to get angry.”
Zheng Haizhu caught a glimpse of Wang Tai's expression, which was on the verge of explosion, so he stepped forward and said with a smile: "Mother-in-law, Brother Wang asked me yesterday how to get to the county seat and where the makeup shop is. He actually loves his wife very much."
As he spoke, he stepped forward and pulled Grandma Tang over: "When I came out just now, I saw Hua Da and Hua Er driving back to Zhuangzi. Grandma, hurry up and follow me to take a look. The number of books that have been brought is quite right."
Grandma Tang was also a little angry at Mrs. Wang Tai's ungrateful attitude. She responded coldly and followed Zheng Haizhu and the others out of the polder.
Now, Zhuangzi's tile-roofed house has not yet been built, so Zheng Haizhu gave the largest thatched hut to Grandma Tang to live in.
When the two women, old and young, returned to the hut, the Hua family brothers and sisters immediately came up to them and pointed to several book boxes under the sun: "Mrs. Zheng, mother-in-law, we have brought all the papers from my mother-in-law's home in the county, and there is not a single one." remain."
Grandma Tang opened the book box and was in a good mood. She rewarded each of the Hua family brothers and sisters with a few copper coins. The Hua family brothers and sisters also thanked them happily and went to work in their fields.
Grandma Tang went into the house and made a pot of hot tea, took it out and placed it on the simple stone table, and asked Zheng Haizhu to sit down and rest.
"Miss Zheng, do you think that I, the old lady, have been too cruel to those big men?"
Zheng Haizhu took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "Mother-in-law, some of the stuff that goes into your mouth is pepper water, which hurts. Some of the stuff that goes into your mouth is just ordinary tea. It's just boiled a little and you just blow it on."
Grandma Tang showed off her lawyer's quick rebuttal qualities: "Yes, someone has to blow the whistle, otherwise, even the tea will burn your tongue."
Zheng Haizhu thought for a while and said: "Although those men from the Liao people talk about "if they don't fight for three days, they will go to the house and uncover the tiles", but after looking at it for a while, there is really no one who dares to attack the lady. The man who took his wife with him when he escaped from the slaves was probably a good person, not to mention a saint. Let's do this, mother-in-law. Later, when we take the women to the county town to pull cloth and make coats, we will tell them that we don't care about the ordinary disagreements between husband and wife. But you must come and tell us the grievances you cannot bear. "
Grandma Tang glanced at her: "Okay, old lady, I understand. If the tea burns your mouth, let them blow it by themselves. If it doesn't cool down, ask me to step in and lift the table."
Zheng Haizhu smiled and continued drinking tea.
The spring sunshine shines down generously, warming people thoroughly, and even the bones are filled with a comfortable numbing feeling.
In the peaceful atmosphere, Grandma Tang suddenly asked: "Miss Zheng, I have a bad temper. No man in this life dares to marry me. You seem to have a very docile temperament, why do you want to do this, self-combing?"
Zheng Haizhu showed a faint smile in the sunshine.
"Marrying is too tiring."
"Heh, is it more tiring than you traveling all over the country?"
"Mother-in-law, are you tired of the swallows in the sky or the parrots in the cage?"
Grandma Tang sighed: "Actually, we are all tired. Once a person comes to this world, he has to endure all kinds of hardships and suffer all kinds of misfortunes. Therefore, we have to feel sorry for ourselves even more. If we can have a cage to rest, it doesn't hurt to go in and have a rest."
Zheng Hai Zhuhao
Not hiding his approval: "My mother-in-law's words are so clear."
Granny Tang suddenly showed an inquiring expression: "Miss Azhu, my mother-in-law looks at me, that Mr. Wu is actually quite good."
Zheng Haizhu said calmly: "More than one of my elders and friends have said this, but he and I really have no affection. In his heart, there is someone he wants to let go of for the rest of his life. In my heart, there is no one at all. My mother-in-law. Don't worry about it, he is the cage where I rest."
Grandma Tang shook her head, leaned over and picked up a book from the book box, and said seriously: "It's just a while ago, how do you know it's not suitable? The big deal is, live under one roof for a few years, eat from the same pot for a few years, if it doesn't work, just go again Let's separate. You see, this storybook that my mother-in-law loves to read is about how a wealthy daughter treats her marriage."
When Zheng Haizhu heard this, he became curious and took a look at the book, "Qing Huan Ji". He didn't know, he had never heard of it.
But when her eyes continued to fall into the book box, she was attracted by a drawing.
