Chapter 18 Standards for a Well-off Society

Twenty-seventh lady rolled her eyes at Su You and took the cup away: "It's tasteless and partial. It's obviously my good looks!"

Then Ba Niang and Ba Niang exchanged a ceremonial respect and took a sip.

Ba Niang looked at Su You's dumbfounded look and said with a smile: "You are a child, you can't drink tea. You can't sleep well at night."

What are you talking about? I won’t even drink if you give me a drink, okay?

He quickly waved his hand and changed the subject: "Let's go see the mud and then go back?"

The mud was perfect. Su You asked the workers in the workshop to scrape up the last fine mud that settled on the surface. After kneading it according to their method, they rolled it into a clay tablet, cut out equal pieces, and then added different amounts of sand and mixed it evenly.

Use it to fold later.

Twenty-seven mothers and Shi Da were puzzled by this and looked at each other in shock.

Su You explained: "This is a method to test the viscosity of mud. Sand has no viscosity. By adding different amounts of sand, you can get the viscosity parameters of the mud. Look at the red clay. Add two-fifths of the sand and fold it in half.

It will break."

"The same Guanyin clay can only achieve this effect by adding half of the sand. This shows that the viscosity of Guanyin clay is higher than that of ordinary clay. In this way, the viscosity of the clay can be parameterized."

Ba Niang was smart and said to Su You: "Uncle Yao, is this knowledge obtained from "Nine Chapters"?"

Su You nodded: "Well, mathematics is very important to craftsmen. In fact, I even think that it should be used to guide manual work to obtain more sophisticated tools and products.

It is classified as a specialized subject. Eight Niangs and twenty-seven Niangs, what do you think of calling it engineering?"

Twenty-seven mothers couldn't help but reach out to touch Su You's head, but she retracted her hand halfway, stuck out her tongue and said with a smile: "Xiao You is so smart. When you come up with your engineering knowledge, remember to do a good job in my pottery workshop."

Shi Da also joined in the fun: "Well, it's better to surpass the Jun kiln and build a kiln. Then I will become a wealthy young master!"

Su You really never thought about money. With his engineering skills, work experience in the city office, and his former experience as an excavation and organizer of intangible cultural heritage in southwestern Sichuan, when he came to the Song Dynasty, there were many ways to make money.

The key issue is to study under famous teachers and take the imperial examination. This is the right way to establish a career in the Song Dynasty. Otherwise, it will be just building a tower on sand. Even the Jiangqing family may not be able to keep their property.

Nowadays, scientific examinations are still relatively primitive. In order to pass the Jinshi examination, in addition to knowledge, influence is equally important.

If you want to be influential, you have to be recommended by a big shot; if you want to be recommended by a big shot, you have to be famous; if you want to be famous, you have to be praised by someone first; if you want to be praised by others, hehehe, Su You plans to start with the four major families in Meishan.

…

In fact, even with so much effort and effort, the tower was still built on the sand. When the Mongolian army arrived decades later, they would rush to the street as soon as they should.

Thinking of the Song Dynasty, a big ship that was as leaky as a sieve, Su You felt a deep sense of powerlessness in his heart. The so-called cultivation of Qi Zhiping can only be done slowly from the small things around him. As for what kind of results can be obtained,

I dare not hope for it at all.

Or is it the final destination for the whole family to live in seclusion in Kelong?

Twenty-seven mothers waved their hands in front of Su You's eyes: "Hey! Xiao You, why do you always like to lose your mind? Do you really want to be a rich man?"

Only then did Su You come back to his senses: "Oh...it doesn't seem to be difficult to become a rich man. Anyway, I can feed myself and the whole family is not hungry. I am thinking about something more difficult."

Twenty-seventh lady rolled her eyes: "That means she wants to be an official."

Su You solemnly handed over to the northeast: "If you are poor, you can take care of yourself; if you are prosperous, you can help the world. Promote government and make things abundant, make the people rich and make the country strong. Scholars, peasants, industry, and merchants will all be safe in their positions; widows, widowers, and lonely people will all have something to support them. Yao Bing.

In the northwest, the horses and horses spread to the south. It made the territory of the Song Dynasty reach the Han and Tang Dynasties, benevolence and trust led to the far sea, and kindness spread in all directions. This is the wish of oil."

Twenty-seventh mother pursed her lips and laughed and complained: "Yo yo yo, after all, you still want to be an official, and you have to be a high-ranking official!"

The three of them laughed and joked all the way back to the city. Su You was still walking, throwing a courage pill in his hand.

The usefulness of this thing is not just as simple as Su You telling Erqi Niang to order tofu.

The main ingredient of the thing in my hand now is sodium sulfate, commonly known as Glauber's salt.

Don't ask him why he knows that, under his feet is China's largest mirabilite mine in the future, with proven mirabilite reserves of 65 billion tons!

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Yamei became a famous leather production base, which was related to the abundant underground production of Glauber's salt.

In addition to tanning leather, this thing has many uses, including cotton washing, weaving, dyeing, paper making, porcelain making, glaze making, glass making...

Meishan is extremely rich in mineral resources. According to the information Su You has seen in the government office, in addition to sodium salt, there are also gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, zinc, manganese, coal, gypsum...

Not to mention anything else, with coal, manganese and iron, Su You is confident that he can smelt high manganese steel through exhaustive methods.

Because high manganese steel has a characteristic that it is very easy to process at high temperatures, and can then be water-quenched to obtain extremely high strength and toughness. It does not even need to be forged. As long as the heat treatment is proper, even the casting process can produce high-strength wear-resistant steel.

"Three Kingdoms" records that Zhuge Liang ordered Pu Yuan to cast five hundred swords in this area. They could easily cut through bamboo tubes filled with iron sand. It was probably this kind of sword.

But don’t underestimate the surrounding ethnic groups. Today’s Xixia swords, bows and arrows are stronger than those of the Song Dynasty. This is a recognized fact.

The Xixia Qingfeng Sword is a precious collection of many famous generals in the Song Dynasty.

The divine arm bow that the Song people were proud of was actually presented by the Xixia people who defected.

The Qing Tang armor used cold forging technology, and its strength was higher than that of the Song Dynasty.

The situation of the Song Dynasty is like a scholar surrounded by a bunch of soldiers and gangsters. They will not reason with you.

Even He Zhigao in the south wanted to claim the title of king and emperor just after receiving three to five more buckets!

There is also Dali who seems to be honest, and the Tatars who defy fate many years later...

Being distracted again, Su You recovered his thoughts and looked at the Meishan Administrative Office in the distance.

The Glass River flows quietly under the setting sun, and Meishan City in the distance is bathed in gold. Residents are going in and out. Only then do they adjust their leisurely pace and speed up a little.

The lotus ponds and flower beds on both sides began to release their fragrance.

Geese and ducks come ashore, and birds return to the forest.

After school, the children in primary school came out of various academies with their recruitment bags sideways, and went back to their homes laughing.

The evening bell of the temple sounded from afar, peaceful and melodious.

This is the present Song Dynasty, delicate, gentle and elegant. This is the soul-stirring beauty developed from the condensation of the Chinese culture to its peak.

Never before! Never since!

Looking at the three big words "Civilization Gate" above the city gate, Su You secretly lamented that Chinese civilization really shouldn't have to endure so much pain and destruction!

After entering the city and returning to the bookstore, the shopkeeper informed Su You and Baniang that Mrs. Cheng asked them to go to Su's house.

So the two of them turned around, and Ba Niang led Su You to the Su family's courtyard in Shajuxing.

The courtyard was purchased by Mrs. Cheng. You can enter Su's house through the side door at the back, bypassing the street facade of Shajie Store.

Being able to cultivate three of the six great families of the Song Dynasty in this holy land, Su You didn't even dare to take a breath of air after entering, and his steps were much lighter, for fear of splashing a little bit of dust.

This is the standard courtyard for well-off families in the southwest of the Song Dynasty.

Well-off, a beautiful term, had different standards in various circles in the Song Dynasty.

In Meishan, this standard should roughly refer to a family with fixed assets worth 600 to 700 guan, plus a fixed income of 200 to 300 guan per year.

The population is not large yet. Calculated based on the calculation of a family of five, it can barely achieve a moderately prosperous life.

Later generations summarized the demise of the feudal dynasty and the violent annexation of land as one of the important reasons.

In fact, upon closer inspection, things don't seem to be that simple.

As far as the Song Dynasty is concerned, land is not expensive, and the value of an acre of good paddy field is not very high. At present, it is about the same as the value of the land in a year.

Of course, it is only cost-effective for the tax-free scholar-bureaucrats to buy it. If you are a self-cultivated farmer, it will take you several years of hard work to get your money back.

Song law has detailed regulations on the tax-free acres of land for scholar-bureaucrats. Even the prime minister cannot purchase more than fifty hectares of land, and the excess amount must also be taxed.

A major failure of the Qingli New Deal was that this ban was temporarily relaxed, but the development of public land failed to keep up.

You can imagine who the people who bought the land were.

In obvious contrast, the burden on the homesteaders is heavy. The growers in the official fields on Kuizhou Road would rather flee than continue farming.

Even so, such talk can only be regarded as a special policy in a special period and cannot be treated as a normal state. The rulers of the ancient feudal dynasties were not fools, and they had always been wary of this matter.

There are also various food towns, but that was not a real land annexation in the Song Dynasty, but an official honor, equivalent to the state taking part of the annual income as an allowance for high-ranking officials and nobles, not that they actually occupied the land.

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Chapter completed!