Not much land outside Tokyo has been annexed. On the contrary, a lot of it is still in the hands of local people. People in this era are not fools. Who knows that the closer the land is to Tokyo, the more expensive it will be?
Although the farmers can't explain the reason behind it, they just know that it should be like this.
At least they can make a calculation. The closer the land is to Tokyo City, the more convenient it is to transport food into the city from a distance. In fact, the more simple the thought, the harder it is for others to take advantage of it.
Therefore, the Zhuangzi outside Tokyo is expensive. As for the rich and powerful in Tokyo, these people are not stupid! They will not choose to annex land in such a high-profile place as Tokyo, which will make their own appearance look ugly.
On the contrary, their land is all in their ancestral home. For example, the Cao family is the largest landowner in Zhending Mansion, and many lands are occupied by them. As for the outside of Tokyo, there is only a symbolic manor for show.
If we want to say that there are families with a lot of land outside Tokyo, it must be the clans of Zhao and Song Dynasties. The main reason why the old Zhao family does not restrain land annexation is that they themselves are the largest landowners in Tokyo!
But even so, a manor owned by relatives like the Li family should not be underestimated. The land around Zhuangzi is full of land, and it is all fertile farmland! The so-called fertile farmland is not as simple as land, but refers to fields with fertile soil.
It is difficult to grow crops in wasteland. Compared with other plants, although crops have high yields, they are far less competitive. Problems such as weeds in the ground and insufficient nutrients in the land are all key factors.
Why did the ancients protect land? It was to make the land capable of growing crops. Slash-and-burn cultivation is the oldest method of protecting land and fertilizers.
But Ye An doesn't care about this. Not to mention hundreds of acres of fertile land, even dozens of acres of land are completely enough for his own development.
What he wants more is the population of Zhuangzi. Those tenants attached to Lijia Zhuangzi are the resources Ye An really needs. Now that Zhuangzi belongs to the Yunzhong County Marquis Mansion, these tenants will naturally become
Ye An's tenant.
Because of the low rent, the farmers in Zhuangzi were grateful to the Yunzhong Prefecture and Ye An, the Yunzhong Prefecture, but this gratitude was not enough to make them give up their land and invest in brick kiln production.
Even if they are given money, they are unwilling to come to work. The reason is very simple and ridiculous. In the eyes of farmers, they are born to farm, and taking good care of their own land is a big deal.
In their opinion, working in brick kilns is hard and tiring, and they don’t make much money. How can they be as secure as working in the fields and harvesting golden grains?
Older farmers will always say one sentence, "Every official has to go to the fields to farm. We poor people should work hard in the fields and stop thinking about those frivolous things!"
In the Song Dynasty, where filial piety ruled the world, the words of the elders were golden rules and wise sayings that could not be shaken. Even if the young tenants saw Ye An's pleasure in giving money and saw the busy brick kilns, they were unwilling to violate the "ancestors".
Ancient sayings.
Ye An was really worried! With so much productivity unable to be invested in the construction of kilns and lime plants, how could he expand his manufacturing industry?
Even though he held Uncle Wang's hand and tried to persuade him earnestly, and even patted his chest to ensure that the farm work would not be delayed, the old man still did not buy it. Instead, he smiled bitterly and shook his head and said: "Master Hou, you don't know what you are doing in the land when you say this."
It's hard work to dig for food. Not only do you have to face the loess with your back to the sky, but you also have to be patient. Where did this temper come from? Of course it is cultivated bit by bit. If all the young people go to your brick kiln
, go to the workshop, then the work in the fields will be abandoned. Anyway, they can make money, so they don’t care about their own land, right? How many good farmers went to Tokyo City and found a job and then missed it?
Busy farming? I would rather serve tea and pour water in a restaurant all day than work in the fields!"
Ye An was slightly stunned. These words were quite philosophical, but Uncle Wang didn't know that soon new food would hit the market in Tokyo and even the entire Song Dynasty. With the emergence of potatoes and sweet potatoes,
At that time, the demand for rice and wheat will continue to decrease, and of course there will be a day when it rebounds, but it will be a long process.
Seeing that Uncle Wang was still insisting, Ye An could only give up his idea and talked with him for a long time. Although he did not accept his point of view, Ye An still sighed at the old man's persistence.
Fortunately, the brick kiln does not need many manpower for the time being. He is just worried that it will be busy when the orders are full.
What is the purpose of a brick kiln? It is not to bake bricks, but to make bricks as a sideline and to calcine limestone, dolomite, and other stones to make lime!
What can limestone be used for? Of course it is to make cement. As for the role of cement, of course it is used as a simple and convenient building material.
How important is cement in this era? Even if you think about it with your buttocks, you should know that after hardening, cement not only has higher strength, but also resists water erosion. What a perfect building material it was for the ancients?
Of course, people in the Song Dynasty preferred houses built of wood, but if cement and bricks can be used for roads, yards, and walls, the answer is of course!
Except for a very small number of official homes, how many can afford to lay floors? Wooden floors are good, but their practicality is far inferior to brick floors, not to mention that ordinary people's homes don't even have brick floors.
Ye An watched the large wooden boxes on the trolley being filled, and led the convoy towards Tokyo with satisfaction. The convoy not only carried cement, but also sand and gravel...
He wanted to turn Xinlingfang into the first city in Tokyo to use cement floors, and let the people of Tokyo see with their own eyes how the streets of Xinlingfang became smoother than brick floors overnight.
The strongest advertising is that seeing is believing. No matter how good you are, others will believe it only if they see it.
The motorcade slowly arrived at the Hou Mansion in Xinlingfang. The handlebars were responsible for transporting the required materials into the Hou Mansion. At this time, old acquaintances had already arrived at the Hou Mansion.
Li Zunxu sat in Ye An's rocking chair and talked about Buddhist scriptures with Monk Kongkong in the extra-large rocking chair next to him.
"All actions are impermanent, and what is born must come to an end. If there is no birth, there will be no death. This cessation is the most blissful."
"Pure laws and pure minds, the mind is the Buddha. Apart from this King of Mind, there is no other Buddha. If you want to become a Buddha, don't be tainted by anything."
"If you want to seek Buddha, you must seek your heart. Only this heart is Buddha."
The two of them had a great time chatting with each other, and when they saw Ye An standing in front of them with a disgraced face, they also laughed, feeling very satisfied.
Ye An looked at Li Zunxu dissatisfied and said: "If Uncle Li is devoted to Buddha, he should be like a Samana. How can there be merchants who smell like copper at the city gate?"
"Emptiness is..."
As soon as Monk Kongkong opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Ye An: "Don't talk about the truth that emptiness is everything and form is emptiness. That's all lies. The monk has already used this thing as a tiger balm. You don't know how to use it, right?"
In this case, don’t eat or sleep. It’s all empty anyway! As long as you regard form as empty, then everything will be empty and you can become a Buddha!”