October 2, 1645, Hanzhou, New Huai'an (now Palmerston, Australia).

Whether the Ming Dynasty collapsed in China was not a concern for Zhu Yougen, who lived in Shiba Township, New Huai'an (now Palmerston, Australia).

What he is most concerned about now is whether the fertility of the farmland is enough, whether the dozen sheep that are grazing outside will be snatched away by thylacines in the wild, whether the hens in the house can lay more eggs, and whether they can save some every year.

How much money? Although life is much better now than it was ten years ago in Ming Dynasty, and there is no need to go hungry, but life is still very difficult.

His Johor wife gave birth to another son in June this year, which is already his third child. The burden of the entire family is almost entirely on him. Although the eldest son in the family is already seven years old,

On weekdays, you can help him with some light chores around the house. But the officials in the countryside insist on forcing every school-age child to go to school, otherwise they will cancel the agricultural tax exemption on the family land.

Of course, it is not without benefits for children to go to school to study and read. At the very least, they can learn something and have lunch in the school. In addition, for farmers with many children at home, the township government will also provide some in-kind subsidies.

, grain and oil, milk, dried fish, etc.

As a traditional farmer, Zhu Yougen values ​​​​the most the forty acres of farmland that the government allocated to him. Although more than ten acres of land will be left fallow every year, he still cannot cultivate so much land by himself.

Of course, you can also ask immigrants from nearby production villages who have not yet been allocated land to help with farming, but it costs money, so they are not willing to do it.

However, he still spent all his energy and hard work on this land, served it carefully, and planned to pass it on to his descendants.

"Your family now has two sons and one daughter. Who do you plan to pass this land to?" Village Chief Yang Guangde squatted on the ground and asked teasingly.

"Of course I'll leave it to my younger son." Zhu Yougen wiped the sweat from his forehead and sat down on the ridge, frowning as he looked at the many weeds sprouting up in the ground.

"Hey, your little son is not yet one year old, and you have decided to leave the family property to him now?"

"The eldest son is doing well in studies, and maybe he will be successful in the future." When Zhu Yougen talked about his children, a look of joy appeared on his face, "Maybe he can become an official in the future."

"That's not necessarily the case!" Yang Guangde couldn't help but feel a little sour when he thought about his children's academic performance in school. "Nowadays, almost every child has to go to school for a few years. Now that the eldest child in your family can do it, maybe he will be able to do it."

By the middle school stage, my brain is no longer working well. Besides, our Hanzhou is getting better and better, and the population is increasing every year, so there must be more people studying. Who can guarantee that they have studied?

Official family?"

"Tsk, your boy is not very bright!" Zhu Yougen glanced at Yang Guangde dissatisfiedly, "Last month, the female teacher from the village school told me during her home visit that the eldest boy in our family is a good learner. From now on,

You can definitely go to middle school, and it’s also possible to go to Jianye City Tiangong College to attend a senior school!”

"Then... your boy is really going to be successful in the future, so you have to help my boy. After all, they are good friends who grew up together and studied together." Yang Guangde was depressed for a while, then came over and patted Zhu Yougen's shoulder.

, "Besides, I have taken good care of you over the past few years."

"That's for sure." Zhu Yougen said proudly.

"Hey, your mother-in-law has brought you food." Yang Guangde saw a woman from a distance, carrying a baby behind her back, and holding a four or five-year-old girl with her left hand, slowly walking towards the field.

.

Zhu Yougen looked up, and sure enough, it was his Johor wife who brought him lunch.

"Have the sheep been penned at home?" Zhu Yougen took the rice bowl from his wife's hand and gently placed it on the ground. Then he took the baby out of the sling behind his wife, held it in his arms and played with it.

"Everything is done." The wife smiled at Yang Guangde next to her and said softly: "However, there seems to be something wrong with two sheep. They may be sick."

"Did you eat something outside?" Zhu Yougen was stunned and said with some worry: "In the evening, please invite the old man from the village to come and take a look."

The family raises sheep, but they have one of the few side jobs that can earn cash. In four years, they have grown from three sheep to eleven now. If it hadn't been for the fact that they had to renovate the house and sold two of them the year before last, there might not have been any sheep.

There will be more groups.

Although it is spring in Hanzhou at this time, the temperature in Xinhuai'an in the northern region is still very hot. There are more than a dozen farmers having lunch in twos and threes in the woods at the edge of the field. The women are chatting aside, their eyes still

From time to time, I stared at the children running around. The men ate a simple lunch and talked about the spring plowing.

As the rice production in Timor Island and Weiyuan Island increases year by year, and Weihai, Yunyang, Daxing and other prefectures and counties in eastern Hanzhou gradually achieve food self-sufficiency, the grain planting area in Jianye Prefecture in northern Hanzhou has increased.

Subsequently, it decreased and turned to large-scale planting of sugar cane, soybeans, soybeans, peanuts, peppers, fruits, ramie and other cash crops.

Gu You

In Shiba Township, Xinhuaian, where Zhu Yougen and others were located, they began to plant ramie on a large scale according to the guidance of the county agricultural staff.

Ramie may be the plant with the best fiber quality in the world. This economic crop originates in the southwestern region of the Ming Dynasty and has the longest cultivation history in China, dating back more than 4,700 years. Ramie bones can be used as raw materials for papermaking or manufacturing

Fiber board is used for various purposes such as furniture and siding. Hemp bone can also be used for wine making and sugar making.

More importantly, the ramie husks can be degummed to extract fiber, which can be used for textiles, papermaking or ship repair fillers. The ramie husks scraped from the fresh ramie bark can be used to extract furfural, which is a refining solution in the chemical industry.

It’s resin plastic. Also

, Ramie can also be used as animal feed. Ramie leaves are rich in plant protein, with a crude protein content of more than 20%. In ancient China, ramie leaves have been used to feed cattle, sheep, pigs, etc. for a long time, and they have good feed properties.

Use effect.

Among the various medical books collected from the Ming Dynasty, there are many traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions stating that ramie root is a diuretic and antipyretic drug and has an antifetal effect, and ramie leaves are hemostatic and can treat trauma and bleeding. The roots and leaves are used together.

It is used to treat acute stranguria, urethritis and bleeding. The seeds can be squeezed for oil, which can be used for making soap and eating.

It can be said that ramie is full of treasures and has extremely high economic value. In terms of income per mu, it is far higher than ordinary grain and oil crops. Moreover, northern Hanzhou, as a typical subtropical climate type, is also very

Suitable environment for growing ramie.

After ten years of agricultural development in Hanzhou, agriculture basically follows the overall macro guidance and small-scale independent choices of ordinary farmers, and arranges agricultural production according to local climate and environmental attributes.

This is because the immigrants who come to Hanzhou every year will not be divided into fields and households immediately. Instead, they will implement farm-style centralized management in newly created areas or original mature areas. According to the different difficult conditions and personal characteristics of each place,

Based on their labor performance, new immigrants will be assigned fields and personnel will be redistributed within two to three years.

After two or three years of farm-style centralized management, it can be said that all immigrants were highly obedient and disciplined when they first came to Hanzhou. In addition, most of the immigrants who came to Hanzhou were hungry people with nothing, or

War refugees are deeply grateful for all the production and living materials provided by the Qi government. Therefore, they can also obey and respond to the government's arrangements to a certain extent.

In the evening, farmers who had been tired for a day, either carrying farm tools or holding a few bundles of collected firewood, hurriedly walked to their respective homes in the village.

"Father, mother, the food is ready. You can wash it quickly and then you can eat it." Zhu Chongjin, the seven-year-old eldest son of Zhu Yougen's family, heard the movement outside the courtyard, opened the door curtain and walked out. He walked out from his mother's arms.

He hugged his six-month-old brother and greeted his family.

"What did you learn in school today? Have you reviewed the courses?" Zhu Yougen's eyes couldn't help but shine when he saw the boss, but he said seriously.

"I already reviewed it on the way home in the carriage." Zhu Chongjin shook his head and said softly. Even if he told his father what he learned in school, he would probably not understand it, but as a father, he still has to show his

majestic and in control of everything.

"Well, it's a good time to study. From now on, my old Zhu family will have to rely on you to keep the front door open."

"Well." Zhu Chongjin heard his father say this for at least a thousand times, "Dad, I want to shave my hair."

"Why do you want to shave your hair?" Zhu Yougen was stunned.

"Many students in the school have shaved their hair and they look very energetic... I want to shave too."

"You...you kid is studying!...Why do you want to shave your hair?"

"Dad, didn't you shave your hair too?" Zhu Chongjin glanced at his father and said softly: "Many uncles in the village have shaved their heads."

"I have to do farm work and sweat profusely all day long, so of course I have to shave my hair to make it smooth." Zhu Yougen said anxiously: "You are a scholar, how can you shave your hair casually? We have hundreds of thousands of years of tradition.

The fact that we have hair buns proves that we are Han people, that...the Chinese Miao people are completely different from those indigenous barbarians!"

"Sir, he said that the heritage of the Han people is in the heart, not in the form." Zhu Chongjin said: "We only need to speak Chinese, practice Han etiquette, inherit the Han system, inherit the Han family's civilization, and show the Han family's majesty. As for whether we have a head

Hair doesn't matter. Maybe thousands of years ago, our ancestors left their hair in a bun because they couldn't shave it."

"Ah?" Zhu Yougen was so confused by his son's rhetoric that he didn't know what to say, but he always felt that parents should not damage their bodies and skin easily, and this was a tradition that had been passed down for thousands of years. His own

I came to Hanzhou with nothing and not enough to eat, so I naturally didn’t care about the bun on my head.

However, my son is a person who is studying in a school, and my husband also praised him for his future prospects, so he should not be like him. Scholars should not be like the scholars and talents of the Ming Dynasty in our past, wearing feather fans, silk scarves, crowns and so on.
Chapter completed!