Seeing the worry in Li Yue's eyes, Zhang Yang smiled and said: "I don't want to think about it anymore. I have already written to Xu Jingzong and asked him to send someone to deliver the letter to Gaochang. The cotton planting cannot be delayed. We will do it next year."
The cotton for the cotton cloth has not yet fallen.”
The carriage stopped and the family walked into the village and passed by a piece of land. Just like last year, a few acres of land were specially reserved for growing cotton. Li Yue stopped and looked at the seedlings in the field, "The cotton we planted last year was nothing."
It’s not good. There are very few cotton fibers and they are very small. They are not as good as those grown in Gaochang.”
Looking at the growth of the seedlings, Zhang Yang nodded with satisfaction, "We screen the seeds again and again, and we will cultivate them year after year."
If a few acres of land are set aside for cotton cultivation, the village's taxes will be increased.
Every land comes with a land tax, and the county magistrate of Lantian County will often come to check on the conditions of the fields here.
Spring planting has always been a top priority for the court, and the drought in the early years of Zhenguan had a lot of impact on the Tang Dynasty.
Under Li Shimin's proposition of light corvee and low taxes, taxes have been reduced again and again. This is indeed good for ordinary farmers, but it is still a huge burden for Lishan today.
The first step of transformation has just been completed, and with the factory, we have a foundation.
This foundation is hard-won.
Zhang Yang said: "Our family property needs to expand in size, but we cannot expand blindly. It will not be too late to expand when our road is more stable."
Li Yue murmured in a low voice, "Even if the road is safe, my father will pick the fruits. This is built by our family, and we cannot let my father pick the fruits easily."
"Unless your father pays a high enough price and can satisfy us, he won't even think about it."
"Yeah." Li Yue lifted the backpack on her shoulders and nodded seriously, "Don't even think about it. I don't think any of them dares to do it. At worst, they will be burned down!"
Zhang Yang said with a smile: "I can make a few big firecrackers and blast them into his palace every day until he is restless."
Li Yue said, "It would be better to blow up the Tai Chi Palace."
I don’t know how my daughter-in-law developed such domineering aura.
She was originally a rich woman who owned thousands of acres and the entire Lishan Mountain.
It doesn't hurt to be a little more domineering.
He could not give in when it came to his family's family affairs. Once he gave in, the emperor would push further. This time, Li Shimin was bloodied about Lishan Mountain and the three thousand acres of land.
The village is still very busy. After the villagers are busy with farming, they are also busy with construction.
Shangguan Yi has two jobs: taking care of Cheng Chumo's gang and taking care of the village's construction.
The couple first went to see the teacher and his wife. The teacher's health showed no signs of improvement, nor of deterioration. This was considered the best result.
Zhang Yang and Li Yue came to the accounting room to check this month's accounts.
Listening to Xiao Yu's story, the soap business has picked up again in the past month.
Zhang Yang looked at the accounts and said: "It seems that people in Chang'an City have become accustomed to soap. If the business wants to grow in the future, it will need to expand sales."
"Do I need to buy somewhere else in Guanzhong?"
Zhang Yang looked at the accounts and nodded, "Although the population of Chang'an City has increased, the growth of soap has not been much. As time goes by, this demand will become less and less."
"Xiao Yu, how is the construction of the new soap workshop going?"
Xiao Yu bowed and replied: "The foundation has only been laid in the past two days, and construction has started today. It is said that it will be built within half a month, and soap can be produced within a month at the earliest."
Li Yue nodded after listening to the words.
"One more thing, the surrounding villages have a lot of bad words for us in Lishan."
Zhang Yang asked curiously: "What words?"
"Some people say that there are monsters in our village, and the factory is a monster. After you send things in, the goods will spit out."
Hearing this, Li Yue smiled, "That's just because they don't know how the factory works."
Xiao Yu nodded, "But people outside don't know. They all think the factory is a monster. These rumors have made it difficult for the men in our village to find wives outside."
Li Yue also shook his head helplessly.
The knowledge and technology are used better and better, and in the eyes of outsiders, they look like monsters.
Send the cotton to the factory, and then take out the cotton cloth from the other end of the factory. It will look like cotton is spitting out of the monster's mouth.
It’s also strange that the simple villagers are so imaginative.
They can associate one thing with another.
Summer is about to begin, and after summer there will be a slack period for farming. At that time, the village will be able to free up more manpower for construction.
The factory can be built as soon as possible, but the construction of Lishan will have to be postponed for some time. According to the current construction speed of Lishan, the time to move into this new home is still far away. If the preliminary construction of Lishan can be completed this year, next year
This frees up manpower to build villages.
Xiao Yu added: "Yesterday, Dr. Sun came to the village to see it and said that five more women have had children, which will add more people to our village in the coming year."
Li Yue put down her pen and put away her account book, "Let me tell you, as long as there are pregnant women, we will give them a certain amount of money. As long as they are the population of our own village, there will be no money for education, food, clothing, housing and transportation."
Xiao Yu wrote down these words.
Zhang Yang also told: "There are a lot of rumors about us in the surrounding villages, and we also spread the word to ask the unmarried adult men in the village to find wives as soon as possible. If we can marry girls from other villages, every time a man marries a girl,
We reward women with a certain amount of money, as long as they can marry as many as they can, and our village will support them, but the women they marry must be over twenty years old, and none under twenty years old, and the men must also be twenty years old before they can get married.
.”
After talking, Xiao Yu wrote it down and went to the village to spread the word.
The village lacks manpower and needs more people.
Other villages have their own strong labor force, so naturally they are not willing to give it to Lishan.
Then start robbing women, as long as they can marry them, they will be taken care of by the village, and if they have children, the village will raise them.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! This long-term plan is also cost-effective.
Zhang Yang held Li Yue's hand and walked in the village.
Li Yue still had some doubts in her mind, "There are not many women in their twenties who are not yet married. Most women in their 20s are already married."
"Concepts need to change slowly. If the conditions in our village are good enough, some people will raise their daughters to be twenty years old and then marry them to our village. Twenty-year-old women can also provide labor, whether it is cotton business or soap business.
Most of the workers in the factory are women, while the middle-aged men in the village follow Niu Chuang to do more strenuous work. Women are a part of the construction of our village."
Li Yue walked backwards all the way, so that she could look at her husband's face while walking, "My husband's beard is getting more and more, and I can't shave it off."
Zhang Yang nodded and said, "Men should have stubble, it is a symbol of manhood."
Li Yue was still walking backwards, looking at her husband covering his mouth and smiling.
The shadows of the couple stretched very long under the setting sun.
Hearing what he said, the husband's face was still a little proud, and his eyes were as clear as ever. When he looked at the village, there seemed to be light in his eyes.
Turning around again, I looked forward and saw a different kind of scenery in front of me.
In this scenery are Li Tai and his bodyguards, and now Li Tai is yelling and beating his own bodyguards.
He held a stick in his hand, ordered his guards to line up to be beaten, and hit each of them several times with the stick.
It wasn't until all the guards were severely beaten that they were allowed to go back to protect the papermaking workshop.
Seeing that it was his imperial sister who had arrived, Li Tai threw away the stick in his hand and said, "Brother-in-law, imperial sister."
Li Yue looked up at the group of guards who had been beaten, "What is Qingque doing?"
Li Tai washed his hands with the clear water in the ditch, "I suspected that the guards in Prince Wei's palace had my father's spies, but I couldn't find out who it was, and I didn't want to cause any trouble, so I just said that they were all my father's spies.
Everyone comes and receives three strokes of the cane."
"I just saw you hit someone multiple times."
"That's because I usually don't like him."
…
Just as the sun was about to set, the couple got on the carriage back to Chang'an. When they arrived at Chang'an City, it was already dark.
In contrast, Lishan seems to be changing every day, with new things appearing every day, while Chang'an City has always remained unchanged.
Late at night, Li Shimin was practicing calligraphy, and the content he wrote was the poem that Li Tai had asked to post in front of the mansion.
"Hide in the small building and become unified, don't care about spring, summer, autumn and winter?" Li Shimin read while being very satisfied with the words he wrote.
Your Majesty has always admired his own handwriting for a long time, which makes people think that this kind of handwriting may be really good.
Ouyang Xun also praised this Feibai body, but I don't know if Ouyang Xun really praised it at the time.
Even if there is no one else to comment on these words, His Majesty will still be alone in admiring them.
Queen Changsun knew that His Majesty often practiced calligraphy to relieve his boredom, "This poem is mostly Qingque telling his own thoughts. This child is really getting bolder. How could he write such a self-deprecating poem to Your Majesty?"
Look, if the people in Chang'an City know about this, how will the civil servants and generals in the court view your Majesty."
"Guanyin Maid only knows one thing, but not the other." Li Shimin put down the rice paper in his hand, picked up another piece of paper and continued writing while talking, "This poem was read by Zhang Yang, but it's just Qingque
Written down.”
"Is it Zhang Yang again? With his talent, can he write such poetry?"
"He said he heard it from his teacher." Li Shimin thought about it: "I think this guy is like a Hu Nongren. He used his teacher to cover up the story again and again, such as Red Mansions, West Chamber and Butterfly Lovers, and now this article
He is really knowledgeable in poetry and prose, and I admire him very much."
"We should celebrate." After speaking, Li Shimin took a sip of wine.
Looking at Li Shimin's smile, there is even more self-deprecation in it.
Empress Changsun looked at this poem and said, "This Ruziniu tells the story of when Qi Jinggong was laughing with his son, and how he hid in a small building to form a unified family and took care of the spring, summer, autumn and winter. There was a feeling of being frustrated and helpless to persevere.
I stand firm and don’t want to face the thought of a bad world again.”
Li Shimin nodded, "It seems that Qingque doesn't want to return to Chang'an in the future."
Empress Changsun put down the poem and glanced at Li Shimin again. She had a complaint in her heart but couldn't express it. If she hadn't treated Qingque like this in the first place and punished him directly, there wouldn't have been such a trouble.
In the face of Jiangshan Sheji's interests, whether Qingque is willing to accept Qian, these royal family ties are becoming more and more alienated.
In the morning, after court, Zhang Yang was wandering around the East Market, buying some meat to take home and make barbecue.
As he walked behind him, Xu Jingzong was chattering.
"Zhang Shangshu, Dasu and Da'an have already selected the place, and our Diplomatic Academy can be opened today."
Zhang Yang nodded, "Very good."
Xu Jingzong said again: "You are the head of the Foreign Affairs Academy, so you can't ignore this matter. How about you go and preside over it yourself?"
】
The uncles and aunts in Dongshi all know Zhang Yang, and they often come to buy vegetables on weekdays, so they are all familiar with each other.
No one knows exactly what happened, but I heard that Zhang Yang’s official position is getting bigger and bigger now.
If Zhang Yang were shopping here alone, everyone could still exchange a few words in a joking manner.
But now that Zhang Yang was followed by a man in official uniform, everyone naturally did not dare to say too much.
"How about Zhang Shangshu take a trip first and take a look."
Seeing that Xu Jingzong continued to pester, Zhang Yang asked puzzledly: "What? Do you want me, the master, to cut the ribbon to celebrate by myself? Do we in the Tang Dynasty also have this kind of rule?"
"But you are a Shangguan." Xu Jingzong emphasized again.
"The three of you will make your own decisions while I'm away. If you're really undecided and can't come up with a good solution, come to me again." Zhang Yang patted him on the shoulder, "Old Xu, you and I have been working together for two years.
Yes, I believe in your ability and you can definitely handle this matter."
Seeing what Zhang Yang said, Xu Jingzong bowed briefly and left quickly.
Zhang Yang continued to pick meat at the pork stall in front of him, "Uncle, help me cut off these fat and thin pieces of meat."
The uncle who sold pork asked: "Xiao Zhang, I heard that your official position is getting bigger and bigger now?"
Zhang Yang waved his hand and said: "Why are the officials getting bigger and bigger? I am just a small official who usually organizes documents."
"The person who followed you just now must be a high official, right?"
Zhang Yang nodded and whispered: "That man's name is Xu Jingzong. He has a very high official position. He also likes to arrest people and confiscate other people's property. Everyone should stay away from this man when you meet him in the future."
Everyone looked at each other and nodded.
During the Zhenguan Dynasty, the world could not be said to be too good or too bad.
The Diplomatic Academy was finally completed, and all future diplomatic matters with other countries can be conducted in the Diplomatic Academy.
The Rites Department can also allocate its energy to handle other celebrations and ritual matters.
Li Baiyao looked at the empty etiquette department, shook his head and sighed.
Just as he sighed, there was also a long sigh behind him. Li Baiyao looked back and saw Tang Jian.
"It turns out to be the Minister of the Ministry of Finance."
Tang Jian stroked his beard and said: "It seems that you are now isolated by the Ministry of Rites. They went to celebrate the establishment of the Diplomatic Academy with such honor and left you alone in the Ministry of Rites."
"The Ministry of Rites cannot be empty all the time. It also has to deal with other matters. According to Zhang Shangshu's wishes, we should each be busy with our own affairs and not interfere with each other."
Tang Jian advised: "You should think about whether you have offended them."