Early in the morning on the second day, it rained last night. The autumn rain was bleak, and the fallen leaves all over the ground were withered and yellow. The autumn wind was cold, and the blue waves of the pool were cold with the sorrow of separation.
The road paved with bluestones was slippery, paper money was scattered, and a heavy coffin was slowly carried out from the Cao Mansion.
As soon as Fang went out, Chen Xu stumbled down from the small bridge. With his eyes red from crying, he knelt in front of the coffin and howled: "Yangshan, why did you just leave like this? What should I do? You take me away too."
Bar."
The hoarse woman's wailing sound made people's hearts tremble. This was the step before the funeral, but I didn't expect Chen Xu to be so sad. I don't know if it was really sad or because of her acting skills.
Because he was afraid of bumping into the emperor's grandson, Zhu Zhanyi did not go out until the funeral was over.
Also not going out was Cao Xinyue. Zhu Zhanzhen saw an angry Cao Xinyue who was throwing stones at a water tank and was puzzled as to why his own daughter didn't go to send her father to the funeral.
"Miss Cao."
Hearing Zhu Zhanzhen's voice, Cao Xinyue took two steps back and saluted respectfully. At this time, she was wearing mourning clothes, and her previous arrogance was gone. Her eye circles were completely red, and she had obviously just cried.
There were tears in his eyes, and his grievances were written all over his face. I felt pity for him at that look.
"Why don't you go see your father off?"
"Elder of the clan, my uncles said women can't go."
Zhu Zhanzhen looked at Cao Xinyue with pity: "Your family's family law is strange. Daughters are not allowed to send their daughters to their fathers."
"Is that a clan law? It's just that they are afraid that my daughter, who will marry outside the family, will get too much property, so they won't even let me enter the mourning hall."
The people in the Cao family didn't care about Cao Xinyue's worries, nor did they listen attentively. Instead, they prayed that she would say a few more words so that they could get the handle.
Zhu Zhanzhen smiled bitterly: "I didn't expect you still have some brains."
"If Your Highness likes to be sarcastic, I will be sarcastic." Cao Xinyue gritted her teeth slightly, with a stubborn expression on her face that she could hardly hold back.
Cao Xinyue was trained to be proficient in elegant tea art, and she probably knows many rules and etiquette. The reason why she was trained in this way is simply that she will become a victim of family marriage in the future, and marry a high-ranking official or family friend.
Because she is the legitimate daughter of the Cao family, her status determines that she cannot get married. She is a part of the future prosperity of the Cao family, and her adopted brother will be the future owner of the family.
It is estimated that the elders of the Cao family wanted to suppress Chen Xu and prevent her from taking too much power, so they deliberately did not allow Cao Xinyue to keep vigil and not allow her to see her father on his last journey.
In this era, no matter how powerful a woman is, she must be virtuous and virtuous under the pressure of family etiquette.
Because Cao Yangshan and Chen Xu only had an only daughter, they doted on Cao Xinyue and learned the etiquette and rules, but they also indulged her in play and gave her a happy childhood of laughter and play. If her father had been there all the time,
, even if she gets married in the future, the Cao family can still protect her.
It's just that her father passed away in his prime, and her mother has now become a widow. Will her adopted brother from her second uncle's family be as tolerant of her as her father in the future? I'm afraid she will have to live by the way others look at her.
Everything changed in just a few days. The attitude of the elders towards her changed. This change was subtle, making her almost carefree life full of sorrow.
"Have you ever been to your farmland, silkworm breeding, tea farm, etc.?" Zhu Zhanchang changed the topic.
"I haven't been there, but I have seen cotton fields."
"Oh? You've never been to a tea farm but to a cotton field?"
"My father planted some cotton in the yard."
"Can you take me to see it?"
Cao Xinyue took Zhu Zhanyi to her mother's yard. The small yard was fresh and elegant, with a strong scholarly atmosphere. There was a small field in the yard with cotton planted on it.
It is autumn at this time, and cotton should be growing, but the cotton in this yard is not growing well.
Cotton needs light, and it is difficult to grow well in a rainy place like the Jiangnan Water Town. The planting area in the Jianghuai Plain is larger.
"My father told me that cotton is not as delicate as silk. It is cheap and easy to grow. Our Cao family has a large cotton field in the north. If we grow more cotton, we can make cotton clothes and protect people from the cold."
Zhu Zhanzhen looked at the poorly growing cotton. Cotton needs a lot of light, but when it is planted in a large area with good light, transportation is a big problem. In ancient times, transportation costs were too high.
The emergence of steam engines could greatly solve this problem.
Cao Xinyue gently touched the moist soil on the ground, seeming to be thinking about the past: "My father said that building thousands of buildings would open up the world and make the poor people happy. If more cotton can be produced, the winter of the poor will not be so bad."
It’s so hard.”
Thinking of Chen Xuan's evaluation of Cao Yangshan, this man was too bookish and seemed to be an idealist.
"My father had a fierce quarrel with some of my uncles over the matter of growing cotton. A few years ago, some of my uncles threw a cup in the ancestral hall, pointed at their noses and scolded my father for not being able to pass the imperial examination and not being able to do business.
He has a useless and aloof attitude after studying. If he hadn't been the eldest son of the Cao family, he would have been a poor scholar begging on the roadside."
"Your uncles are very brave, they dare to scold their eldest brother and clan leader like this."
Cao Xinyue sighed helplessly: "On that day, he was deprived of all his position and money, and was expelled from the family. But the doubts about his father have not stopped since then. My father was very angry at that time, and he was ill and lying in bed.
It’s best to stay in bed for half a month.”
I have to say that as the patriarch of a large family like the Cao family, his father is indeed incompetent and has not brought enough benefits to the family.
Idealists are often ridiculous, but also admirable.
"So your family's cotton business should be quite large."
"I'm not sure. I think my mother and father talked a lot when they talked."
Compared with silk, cotton is more important to people's livelihood. Once the steam engine is completed, the transportation cost of cotton can be greatly reduced, and concentrated production areas are feasible.
The main cotton producing areas in the future are the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the lower reaches of the Yellow River and Xinjiang. The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are now economically prosperous. Although there is Zhu Yuanzhang's decree, the economic benefits of cotton are not as good as silk, tea and other products, so there is no way to develop large areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Planting in plains can be done in the plains of the lower reaches of the Yellow River.
"Do you have any industry in the north?"
"Yes, but I don't know."
"Why are you so concerned about our family's property?" Cao Xinyue asked curiously.
Zhu Zhanzhen was embarrassed: "I'm just curious,"
"You don't want to steal our family property."
"Oh no, you probably don't like it." Cao Xinyue denied it herself.
"You have a rich imagination." Zhu Zhanzhen was speechless.
The Cao family's funeral was a huge commotion, and many people came to express their condolences. Cao Xinyue was so angry that she was not allowed to accompany him or keep vigil at the funeral, so she simply hid in Zhu Zhanzhen's small yard. There was no other place to hide except here.
After returning from the coffin burial, Chen Xuan came to see Zhu Zhanchang.
"Your Highness has been delayed these past two days due to personal matters. Tomorrow I will take you to visit various trading houses in Huzhou Prefecture."
