Chapter 146 No inquiry into business secrets

Chapter 145

In fact, Cheng Shijie was not familiar with Zhu Wannian, the prefect of Laizhou, at all, and had not even met in person.

But the problem is that Sun Yuanhua knew Zhu Wannian.

Since the last time Sun Yuanhua returned to Dengzhou from southern Liaoning, he began to pay attention to the three prefectures under the rule of Governor Denglai. He didn't know it and was shocked when he saw it.

Except for the newly reclaimed farmland in southern Liaoning where crops are growing well, in other places the vegetation is scorched, the rivers are drying up, the land is cracked, and there is almost no sign of life.

On the steamy road, countless farmers in ragged clothes and skinny bones walked in groups, staggering, not knowing where they were going.

You don't need to think about it with your head, you can tell with your knees that they must be going to Liaonan, because they can find a way to survive in Liaonan. On the road to Liaonan, people keep falling, and once they fall, they can never stand up again.

People looked at them for a second, then walked past them numbly, and their bodies were left to rot on the roadside.

The farmland is simply unsightly.

Either it is deserted, or the crops inside are sparse, with few living seedlings...

Corruption was rampant in the Ming Empire, and it had penetrated into every aspect of the aging empire, eroding its foundation. The last bit of executive power left in the empire was used to plunder the wealth and wealth of the people.

But sometimes a phoenix will fly out of the henhouse. In this bureaucratic system that exudes a strong staleness and rottenness from top to bottom, there are still some people who are willing to do something practical for the people and the country.

For example, Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, Xu Guangqi, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting, Sun Chengzong, Sun Yuanhua and Zhu Wannian, the prefect of Laizhou.

Sun Yuanhua saw that the crops in Laizhou, Dengzhou, and Qingzhou were growing very poorly. The fields owned by the powerful gentry were growing slightly better due to the convenience of irrigation. But the problem was that the powerful gentry did not know how to pay taxes. Whether the crops were good or bad did not matter to them.

has little relationship.

The most important thing is those farmers.

Sun Yuanhua summoned the three magistrates, six prefectures and thirty county magistrates under his control to Dengzhou Prefecture, and even scolded him. If it was just scolding, Zhu Wannian would not hate Cheng Shijie.

As the saying goes, there is no harm without comparison, because Cheng Shijie did so well in southern Liaoning. Sun Yuanhua also asked Cheng Shijie how to grow good crops.

Cheng Shijie’s answer is, “Irrigate in time, prevent and control pests in time, and keep up with fertilizers. If you do these things, you can generally have a good harvest!”

"Why is the yield per mu exceeding 1,000?"

"Shandong has such fertile land, but its population is smaller than that of Henan, and it rains far more than Shanxi and Shaanxi. If you want to starve to death just by guarding so much land in Shandong, you are all idiots."

According to Sun Yuanhua, in Cheng Shijie's eyes, including himself, the governor of Denglai, and all the officials in the six prefectures and sixty-five counties of Shandong were fools.

Only he himself is a wise man.

Zhu Wannian came from a poor family. When he was nine years old, his father Zhu Ruiguo became ill due to overwork, but there was no money for treatment. Zhu Wannian's eldest brother Zhu Wanli wanted to borrow a loan shark to treat Zhu Ruiguo's illness, but Zhu Ruiguo scolded him so much that his father finally

Zhu Ruiguo was pained to death.

In order to support Zhu Wannian's education, Zhu Wanli sold himself as his son-in-law, and two of his three sisters were sold to wealthy families as concubines.

Zhu Wannian was very aware of the difficulties of being a common man, and he also wanted to be a good official. He did not seek to leave a name in history, nor did he seek promotion and wealth. He just wanted the people to be able to scold him less and it was enough.

But the problem is, only after he put his ideals into practice did he realize how big the resistance was: there was no way to implement his decree, and he couldn't even leave Laizhou City. There were always so many people who were disobeying him, intentionally or unintentionally holding him back...

…

Zhu Wannian wanted to see how Cheng Shijie, a warrior, could lead countless refugees to colonize more than five million acres of land. He made a calculation. If these more than five million acres of land were planted with wheat, every day

Calculated based on one bushel of grain per mu of land, more than 500,000 stones of seed grain are needed.

If soybeans are planted, it will require more than 100,000 rocks of soybeans, and these more than 5 million acres of land will require 500,000 to 600,000 people.

Is Cheng Shijie a god?

How could he have more than 500,000 young men?

As for what Cheng Shijie said about twenty or thirty shi of grain per mu of land, he didn't believe it. He was not a mediocre official who didn't like the fireworks of the world, nor was he a corrupt scholar who became stupid through reading.

It is a matter of basic common sense. Almost officials in three prefectures, six states and thirty counties understand this truth.

These officials were very angry and hated Cheng Shijie very much. You are a martial artist who has done such a good job in farming, but you still don't want people to live?

Isn’t this a case of a dog stopping a mouse and meddling in its own business?

When these officials came to Liaonan, they saw the fields in Liaonan. At this time, most of the fields in Liaonan were almost invisible, especially the sweet potato fields.

Sweet potato seedlings are treasures. These seedlings can be cut and fed to pigs, cattle, or horses. Nothing should be wasted. As for the wheat fields, although the wheat in southern Liaoning is growing well, it is very gratifying to see the heavy wheat ears.

But the problem is that they, the officials' staff, have already done the calculations.

The yield of these wheat is at most two or three shi, which is four to five hundred kilograms per mu. As for the soybean fields, after calculation, it is only about two kilograms at most, which is more than three hundred kilograms. Although the yield per unit mu is higher than that in Shandong, the problem is

, not much higher, and still within their understanding.

They wanted to see how Cheng Shijie could produce more than a thousand kilograms of grain per mu, as much as ten or twenty shi.

Some staff members have recognized that Cheng Shijie planted a large number of sweet potatoes, but the problem is that the Ming Dynasty people are now mature in sweet potato planting technology. The farmers in the Ming Dynasty have developed the habit of growing traditional crops such as rice, wheat and beans.

Inertial thinking.

They still planted sweet potatoes according to the pattern of planting wheat, but since then, the sweet potato seedlings have grown wildly, but the sweet potatoes have not grown very well. In fact, the yield of the sweet potatoes introduced to the Ming Dynasty was not high.

Now almost all Shandong officials are ready to see Cheng Shijie's joke. Of course, if Cheng Shijie was just the original Ning Navy Chief Officer, they would dare to laugh at him.

However, Jimo County Magistrate Liu Xuemin kept saying that officials were disrespectful to Cheng Shijie, and the soldiers and civilians of southern Liaoning did not care about him. When Liu Xuemin stayed at the inn, the clerk accidentally knocked over Liu Xuemin's chamber pot while cleaning, and the urine

It also sprinkled on Liu Xuemin's boots and trouser legs.

What can he do?

After scolding the blind boy and kicking him several times, the shopkeeper rewarded the beaten boy with five taels of silver.

This is just the beginning.

Liu Xuemin had many misfortunes. When he ate fish, he would eat fish hooks. When he ate mutton, he was so hot that he broke into a cold sweat. When traveling in a car, the axle of the car broke and the dog ate mud.

After passing the septic tank, a deaf-mute old farmer came towards him carrying a pole. Someone called the old farmer, and the old farmer turned around and knocked Liu Xuemin into the septic tank.

After Liu Xuemin was fished out with a hook, he was cleaned and had a cold. There were also several cuts on his arm. The doctor who was invited said directly: "This requires amputation..."

Even a fool knows that Liu Xuemin is being targeted.

Some people did not believe in evil and said that Cheng Shijie was running a girls' school. As a result, several women chased and beat the official, insisting that the official watched them take a shower...

Looking at four or five strong women, who is watching them take a bath?

Not afraid of burning your eyes?

This official had a hard time talking about it, so he just let it go if he was scolded. When he was traveling, he was directly splashed with feces. The key is that the man was talking eloquently...

This scene is so exciting.

Cheng Shijie did not arrive at Maqiao Town in Zhenhai City, so everyone could only wait.

Among the crowd were not only Huizhou businessmen, but also Fan Yongdou, an upstart from Liaonan.

When two thousand iron hoofs were delivered to southern Liaoning, Cheng Shijie and Fan Yongdou called themselves brothers and said bluntly that from now on, there would be no need to send a message to the Ning Navy General Mansion.

Of course, Fan Yongdou didn't take it seriously. It was not only Cheng Shijie's mansion, but also Ning Haijun's palace. If he made a wrong move, there would be no place to complain if he killed him.

Finally, the protagonist arrived belatedly in a four-wheeled carriage.

"Greetings to Mr. Manager!"

Even though Cheng Shijie was a military officer, and the Economic and Social Envoy was also an official in charge of the military, the problem was that he was a civilian official, even higher than the governor Sun Yuanhua.

Cheng Shijie looked at the large crowd of officials in Wuyang Wuyang and coughed: "Why haven't you started harvesting sweet potatoes yet?"

"Aren't you waiting for Mr. Manager?"

Sun Yuanhua was not embarrassed because of Cheng Shijie's high official position. In the officialdom, this was actually a normal phenomenon, just like Lu Xiangsheng, who raised his own military pay in the second year of Chongzhen and went north to Qinwang with tens of thousands of civilians.

Then, in the third year of Chongzhen's reign, he directly took the rocket position. He was first promoted to be the chief envoy to Shandong and participated in politics. He organized the military and military preparations of the famous people and had jurisdiction over the three prefectures of Daming, Guangping and Shunde. He was the second-in-command in Shandong Province.

It's just that he participated in politics against the Shandong rightists, but he was doing the work of Beizhili.

In the fourth year of Chongzhen's reign, he was appointed as the inspector of Shandong. He became the inspector of one of the three divisions, that is, he became a high-ranking official. Within two years, he completed the triple jump.

This is a height that is difficult for ordinary officials to reach in a lifetime. As for the speed of military attache promotion, it is also the speed of light. Mao Wenlong was also upgraded from the garrison to the first rank of Zuo Dudu Guanju, holding the seal of General Liao.

Of course, neither Lu Xiangsheng nor Mao Wenlong had such a dazzling record as Cheng Shijie. Who has beheaded more than 4,000 people since Nurhachi rebelled in the 47th year of Wanli?

Cheng Shijie was the only one to share the victory. Even though the victory of Haizhou was caused by Jian Nu sending people thousands of miles away, he gave Cheng Shijie a great contribution in vain. But the problem is that except for Sun Yuanhua, Xu Guangqi and a few people know the truth, and no one knows.

Cheng Shijie waved his hand and said, "Let's get started!"

Officially written in the 50 farm fields and 100 households in Zhenhai City, more than 10,000 men, women, old and young rushed to the fields that their respective 100 households were responsible for.

The cattle pulled the curved shaft plow in front and plowed it carefully. After only one plow, large and small sweet potatoes were exposed. The advantage of this is to prevent the sweet potato diggers from digging randomly with the hoe and destroying the sweet potatoes.

.

After the soil was plowed, the military household responsible for digging the sweet potatoes picked up the hoe and dug down with extra care, digging out the sweet potatoes with their roots. Naturally, someone would pick up the sweet potatoes and put them in a basket.

At the beginning, almost every tree dug out would cause a burst of exclamation: "Oh my god, it's so big, there are so many! There was a basket after digging out only a few trees!"

Slowly, no one shouted anymore, they were all numb. Those in the front were digging hard with their hoes, and those in the back were picking up. They quickly filled the baskets one by one, and then picked them up to the road and loaded them into the car. Someone shouted the slogan.

With a wave of the whip, the baskets of sweet potatoes were transported back to the field for temporary weighing.

Fan Yongdou held a sweet potato, which weighed three to four kilograms: "Can this thing be eaten?"

"Of course you can eat it!"

Cheng Shijie knew that some of the people present did not know much about sweet potato, so he had already prepared for it.

As dozens of four-wheel dining trucks drove over, a group of Ning Haijun's cooking soldiers came down and began to collect sweet potatoes.

Some peel the sweet potatoes, wash them, and cook them together with the porridge.

Some sweet potatoes are not even washed and roasted directly on the fire.

Some sweet potatoes are cut into sweet potato fries and fried in oil to make French fries.

Some sweet potatoes are made into sweet potato snacks.

Some sweet potatoes are made into sweet potato cakes, sweet potato balls, sweet potato slices, sweet potato steamed buns, sweet potato crisps, sweet potato dough cakes, shredded sweet potatoes, crispy sweet potatoes, etc., totaling more than 40 kinds of sweet potato products.
To be continued...