As expected, after the debate ended, many people came to borrow books in the first two days, and they all borrowed Zhu Xi's various works.
But starting from the third day, the number of teachers reading gradually became less and less.
Five days later, only a few people were left.
Carefully returning "Zhu Xi Yu Lei", Liu Ziren put away the copied content, clasped his fists and said, "Dear classmates, I will leave first. I have harvested sweet potatoes at home today, and I have to work in the fields."
"Since we have farm work, we can't delay it," Zhao Han also put down his book and said, "I have nothing to do, so I will go down the mountain to help."
Liu Ziren repeatedly declined: "No, no need."
If Zhao Han wants to have more contact with farmers, he must first learn to do farm work, otherwise he will not be able to truly communicate at all.
At Zhao Han's strong request, Liu Ziren could only take him to work in the fields.
The two left together. Fei Ruyi did not want to read alone, so he returned "Mengxi Bi Tan" and left.
No matter which collection it is, books are not allowed to be borrowed. You must either read them in the library or copy the contents of the books.
Zhao Han asked as he walked: "How is the sweet potato harvest this year?"
Liu Ziren explained in detail: "We started trial planting last year, and we only found out its properties this year. I heard people say that sweet potatoes must be pruned to control their growth. Otherwise, the better the vines grow, the worse the sweet potatoes will be. I didn't understand this last year."
, just planting indiscriminately, maybe we can have a good harvest this year.”
"I see, there really is a specialty in the arts." Zhao Han really has never been exposed to farming.
Sweet potatoes were introduced to China in the 21st year of Wanli.
When Fujian scholar Chen Zhenlong was doing business in the Philippines, he bribed the natives to obtain potato vines. He also twisted the potato vines into water-drawing ropes to avoid inspection by Spanish colonists, and then brought the sweet potato vines back to Fujian for planting.
In the same year, several businessmen brought back potato vines from Japan and planted them in the temple fields in Putuo Mountain, Zhejiang.
Thirty years later, thanks to the promotion of local officials, sweet potatoes have spread all over Fujian and Guangdong.
In Zhejiang, the spread is relatively slow, and it is only cultivated in a small area in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Jiangxi is sandwiched between these three provinces, how could it not be affected?
Sweet potatoes introduced from Guangdong have now spread throughout southern Jiangxi.
A few years ago, it spread from Fujian to Qianshan County. It spread to one town almost every year, and people rushed to plant it. Some farmers made a lot of money by selling potato vines.
Liu Ziren’s family grows sweet potatoes by buying potato vines from a neighboring town and planting them there.
The two of them went down the mountain together and soon reached their destination.
Like Xu Ying, Liu Ziren's family also had a few acres of private land. But it was not enough to support his family, so he farmed the school land as a sharecropper. After failing the provincial examination twice, he spent more and more time cultivating the land himself.
"This is the school field my family farmed on." Liu Ziren pointed to the front and said.
There were already people working in the fields, including Liu Ziren’s parents, wife, brother and sister-in-law. Even Liu Ziren’s six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter were helping to pick up the missed sweet potatoes.
Zhao Han got to know his family in the past, and after some persistence, he finally rolled up his trouser legs and sleeves to help.
There were not enough hoes and Zhao Han had no chance to dig the soil.
Liu Ziren said: "The potato vines still have some young leaves, which can be picked for cooking. The old vines cannot be discarded. They can be fed to poultry and livestock. There are pig farmers who buy them at the entrance of the town. If you want to work, you can pick the young leaves.
Bar."
Zhao Han followed his good example and squatted in the field to pick potato leaves.
The tender leaves of sweet potatoes can indeed be used for cooking, but the season has long passed, and no matter how Zhao Han selected them, he could not find any that were fresh and delicious.
Turning around, she saw that Liu's mother had already picked a basket full of old leaves that were hard to eat.
It is estimated that the Liu family will live on potato leaves for the next few days, and at most add some grains and brown rice to make porridge.
And Liu Ziren, a distinguished scholar, was wielding his hoe vigorously at this moment, digging out sweet potatoes one by one from the ground.
Although he received Fei's financial support, Liu Ziren was not admitted to the junior college entrance examination, let alone the imperial examination. As he grew older, he received less and less funding. If he still fails to pass the imperial examination next year, he can only read books for free in Tibet.
, other funding projects will be cancelled.
The more Liu Ziren dug, the more excited he became, and he said happily: "After pruning the vines to control the growth, the sweet potatoes really produced better, at least 20 to 30% more harvest than last year."
"Congratulations, congratulations, it's a good harvest this year," Zhao Han said with a smile, "I taught Brother Liu a way to cut the sweet potatoes into strips, then dry them and bake them into dried potatoes for sale. This way you can sell them for more money."
"Is this true?" Liu Ziren said happily.
Zhao Han said with a smile: "Brother Liu, if you don't believe it, you can make a small amount of dried potatoes and try selling them in the town."
"Try it over there." Liu Ziren smiled.
In the blink of an eye, two baskets of sweet potatoes were dug, and Liu Ziren's brother immediately picked them away.
Zhao Han quickly picked up the hoe and asked Liu Ziren to teach him the secret of digging.
After digging for a while, my waist and back hurt. This thing is more tiring than practicing martial arts!
Zhao Han could only grit his teeth and insist, asking: "Brother Liu, how is your family's land rent?"
Liu Ziren explained: "It's okay now. After I was admitted as a scholar, I asked the mountain chief to rent the school field. The rent of the school field was less. In addition, I also rented a few acres of private land, and the rent of the private land was just
It’s high. It also depends on the quality of the fields. The rent for the upper fields is more than two dan per year, while the rent for the lower fields is at least one dan.”
Zhao Han asked Liu's father again, wanting to know more general data.
I soon learned that the level of land rent depends entirely on whether the landlord is benevolent and righteous.
Land rent is not charged on a proportional basis, but is determined in advance according to the quality of the land. A good harvest year is fine, but a disaster year is particularly difficult, so one has to bite the bullet and default on the rent. People often sell their sons and daughters because of the rent arrears.
Not only that, because natural disasters are becoming more and more frequent, landlords have begun to collect rent in advance - tenant farming can be done by paying some rent first as a deposit.
For benevolent landlords, the land lease is 30% of the income.
For ordinary landowners, the land lease fee is 40% of their income.
Greedy landlords, land rent accounts for more than 50% of their income!
Moreover, almost all landowners use big buckets to bring in and small buckets to go out. That is, when they lend farmers grain, they use small buckets to contain it, and when collecting rent, they use big buckets.
Even if the landowner is benevolent, the domestic slave will cheat, there is not much difference.
Of course, in order to obtain more detailed data, Zhao Han would have to visit more farmers, and it would be best to write a farmer survey report.
In the middle of the afternoon, Liu Ziren called his wife aside and asked her to go home and cook. He whispered: "When cooking porridge, don't just put sweet potato leaves, put two more sweet potatoes in it."
"I can spare it." His wife Li nodded.
Seeing that Li suddenly stopped working, Zhao Han immediately dropped the hoe, clasped his fists and said with a smile: "Brother Liu, I still have books to read, so I won't help you dig sweet potatoes. See you tomorrow!"
Liu Ziren was embarrassed and moved at the same time: "This...how can I be embarrassed? Why don't you go up the mountain after eating?"
"Go back to the academy after dinner. It's already dark. You guys are busy, I'm leaving." After Zhao Han said that, he left without giving the other party a chance to stay.
Liu Ziren watched Zhao Han go up the mountain, feeling very uncomfortable, so he continued digging sweet potatoes.
Walking back to the dormitory, Fei Ruhe and Fei Chun were not there. Instead, Zhu Zhiyu had been waiting for a long time.
"Brother Chuyu!" Zhao Han greeted with cupped hands.
Zhu Zhiyu returned the gift and handed over a letter: "This is from Inspector Cai."
"Is Inspector Cai leaving?" Zhao Han asked.
"He's gone," Zhu Zhiyu said with a smile. "He doesn't like to disturb others when he comes or goes. He only left a letter to Chief Fei Shan."
Zhao Han opened the letter and looked at it. There were several pages of paper, all of which were new articles written by Cai Maode.
After roughly reading it, Zhao Han felt that it was not interesting. It might be useful to disciples of mind science, but it was of little help to himself.
When Zhu Zhiyu saw that Zhao Han had dirt on his body, he couldn't help but ask: "Brother Xian, has he gone to farm?"
"Brother Changqing's house is harvesting sweet potatoes. I'm just going to help." Zhao Han said.
Zhu Zhiyu sighed: "Farming is hard. I have tried farming, but I was exhausted after working for a few days during the busy farming season."
Zhao Han smiled and said: "Your Excellency comes from a noble family, so you don't have to do such a despicable thing."
"How can you say that farming is despicable? It's a big deal in the world!" Zhu Zhiyu immediately retorted, with a sad look on his face, "In the last years of Wanli, there was a great disaster in Zhejiang. I saw with my own eyes the refugees exchanging their children for food! Did you know that such tragic things existed in the world?"
Zhao Han put away his smile: "Brother Chuyu, I was once a refugee, how could I not know how to be a refugee?"
Zhu Zhiyu was surprised and said: "Isn't your good brother a member of the Fei family?"
Zhao Han explained: "In the first year of Chongzhen, there was a severe drought in Beiji. My eldest brother starved to death, my sister was sold for food, and my parents were robbed and killed by bandits. I was only ten years old at the time, and I took my six-year-old sister with me.
What kind of tragedy have I not seen while walking among the victims? In the Fei family, I can be called an adopted son or a slave. If my name is checked off the household registration, I will immediately become a refugee."
"It's actually like this." Zhu Zhiyu couldn't believe it.
Among the people Zhao Han came into contact with, Pang Chunlai was a staunch rebel, Xu Ying was a rebel who could be cultivated, and Liu Ziren was a rebel who could be absorbed.
The Zhu Zhiyu in front of me seems to be worthy of testing.
Zhao Han asked: "Brother Chuyu, have you ever tasted starvation?"
"I have tasted it. There was a period of time when I couldn't eat enough every day." Zhu Zhiyu replied.
"You can eat every day, how can you be hungry?" Zhao Han found it funny.
Zhu Zhiyu nodded and said: "That's right, I don't think I'm hungry."
The decline of the wealthy gentry's family is different from what ordinary people imagine.
When the Zhu family was at its worst, there were only a few dozen slaves left... Because of the famine, wages could not be paid, and all the slaves ran away.
How miserable!
Just like this, the clan relatives came to mock them, pointing at their home and saying, "Look, this is the home of an upright official."
It is truly a home of upright officials.
Zhu Zhiyu's great-grandfather was posthumously gifted to Dr. Ronglu. His grandfather was posthumously gifted to Dr. Guanglu. His father was posthumously gifted to Dr. Guanglu, Shangguozhu.
He has been a first-class official for three consecutive generations, and he is located in the south of the Yangtze River, but he only has a few dozen domestic slaves. And because of natural disasters, wages cannot be paid, causing all the domestic slaves to run away. What is this but an upright official?
The two went to the canteen together, eating and chatting.
As they chatted, Zhao Han felt more and more familiar with the name Zhu Zhiyu, but he couldn't remember where he had heard it.
Zhejiang?
Zhao Han had an idea and asked quickly: "Brother Zhu's home is in Yuyao?"
Zhu Zhiyu said: "Exactly."
"In Brother Zhu's hometown, is there a river called Shunshui?" Zhao Han asked.
"Have you been to Yuyao?" Zhu Zhiyu asked in surprise.
Zhao Han finally smiled happily: "I've never been there, but I've heard people talk about it."