Li Dingguo entered the mine owner's office smoothly and met Hu Wenting, the owner of the mine.
He didn't encounter any obstruction or scolding along the way. No one made things difficult for him, a young man who was less than fourteen years old. Instead, they all kindly helped and informed him.
The reason is very simple, because Li Dingguo has good appearance.
In the third year of Chongzhen's reign, Zhang Xianzhong adopted him as his adopted son because of his extraordinary appearance, which led him to sympathize with him and give him a way to survive. If he was ugly, who would care whether they lived or died.
The mine owner Hu Wenting saw the young man and looked at the tattered book in his hand. Not only did he like him, he also asked his servant to make him a cup of hot tea and invited him to sit down.
"Thank you, mine owner." Li Dingguo was a little flattered.
"My child, you are just a miner and a little older. Why do you suddenly want to study?"
After understanding the basic situation of this young man, Hu Wenting asked with a straight face and pretended to be difficult.
"Because I want to learn!"
Li Dingguo explained with a serious look: "The knowledge in the book is very useful, especially the new knowledge in Xujiazhuang. As long as you learn it, you can operate the machines and dig out more mines, which will not only bring benefits to yourself
, can also bring benefits to the world."
"Oh~"
Hu Wenting leaned back in his chair with a look of surprise on his face. He did not expect that a semi-literate fourteen-year-old boy could have such knowledge and vision, and be keenly aware of the value of Xujiazhuang's new knowledge.
In fact, in order to better operate the mine, Hu Wenting has been studying and researching the new knowledge of Xujiazhuang in the past few years. He often learns it to the point where he becomes dizzy and does not understand it. It is far more difficult to learn than poetry and poetry.
many.
But it’s useless if you don’t learn. Otherwise, no one can repair the pedal-operated human-driven generators (30kw generating power, which requires a lot of human and animal power to drive), battery devices, and some more complex mining equipment and motor equipment in the mine. If they break down, no one can repair them.
, you can only do it yourself.
After several years of study, I cannot say that I have mastered a lot of new knowledge about Xujiazhuang, but it is barely enough.
He has also taught more than a dozen apprentices, but none of them are particularly smart. Each of them can master at most two or three manipulation and repair skills. If there are more, they will not be able to do it.
If the young man named Li Dingguo in front of you has good talents and can master a lot of new knowledge, then it would be very good to focus on training him and make him a professional and technical talent - technical talents are very popular nowadays, and all kinds of talents are very popular.
Large mines are rushing to get it and offer extremely high wages, but they are still seriously insufficient.
"Son, I'm going to test you with some relatively simple questions. If you can answer most of them, I'll give you a chance. If you can't, your basic skills are too poor, then you should go back. I don't have time to teach someone who doesn't know anything.
Disciple." Hu Wenting said.
"Okay, sir, please give me a question."
Hu Wenting then spent more than half an hour specifically assessing this young man.
The questions are also very simple, including recognizing words, recognizing some long and short sentences, and doing mathematical operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division within one hundred, etc.
Li Dingguo's performance surprised Hu Wenting, as if he had seen a piece of jade.
Because Li Dingguo knew most of the words and had the ability to read and write. He was obviously a little worse in mathematics, but he could also solve most addition and subtraction problems. He could reach this level by just relying on self-study. It can be said that
It's an extraordinary talent.
It is a good seedling with great cultivation value.
"You can come and study with me from now on. You don't have to go down the mine. I'll ask the steward to arrange a job for you where you don't have to go down the mine. You can come over and study every evening until night. I'll have someone free up a room for you to study in.
"Hu Wenting said.
"Thank you, teacher, thank you, teacher!"
Young Li Dingguo knelt down and kowtowed excitedly, saying that he would be filial and repay his teacher in the future.
…
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Shangyuan Festival.
Beijing, inside the Forbidden City.
Today, all the eunuchs and maids worked together to arrange numerous lanterns, which immediately made the palace brightly lit and extremely festive.
Moreover, Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian also ordered a very grand family banquet to celebrate this year's Shangyuan Festival.
And those who attended this family dinner.
Except for all the royal family members.
He also invited dozens of relatives of the emperor and a few trustworthy vassal princes and noble representatives, but not others. After all, he always wanted to be frugal and did not have the conditions to hold a banquet for the officials at the moment.
Even so, this family dinner can be called a luxurious display.
On the self-service long table banquet with a circumference of more than 20 feet (a banquet style from Xujiazhuang), there are 108 large and hard dishes alone.
There are sea view Buddha jumping over the wall from Xujiazhuang Harbor City, big lobster, squirrel mandarin fish, boiled cabbage, crab meat lion head, nine-turn large intestine, West Lake vinegar fish, spicy beef hot pot, tuna slices, seafood soup, mutton health soup, ginseng chicken soup,
Wensi tofu soup, shark fin soup, etc.
Even Western-style bread, biscuits, cheese, cream stews, cakes and other dishes also appeared at this banquet.
It is truly a combination of Chinese and foreign cuisine, covering almost all the delicacies in the world.
Naturally, the cost of this banquet is also very staggering. Many high-end ingredients, such as seafood, beef, black dolphin, etc., are imported from Xujiazhuang. They are shipped quickly by sea to ensure freshness, so the cost remains high.
However, in order to satisfy his appetite and show that he must not lag behind the merchants, Zhu Youjian spent more than 50,000 silver dollars on such a family dinner, which is equivalent to the annual income of a thousand medium-sized families.
If it had been left to previous years, there would have been no need for the rain of remonstrances and impeachment memorials from civil servants. Even Chongzhen himself could not forgive such extravagant and extravagant behavior and would have impeached himself.
Moreover, it has only been three or four months since the slaves entered the country last September. The traces of destruction around the capital have not yet disappeared, and the wounds suffered by the people have not yet healed. The royal family has begun to be so extravagant.
Not suitable.
This is really inappropriate.
But Zhu Youjian still had people organize this luxurious family banquet, and tried his best not to make it public.
Because he has money in his internal funds, most of the 3 million silver dollars obtained after raiding the eight Shanxi merchant families are still there, and not much has been spent. He has money, and he has money.
Secondly, although the past six years of Chongzhen were full of disasters and ups and downs, there were still two most significant achievements.
One is that the rogue bandits in the Central Plains have finally been completely wiped out, and there is almost no possibility of their resurgence.
The second is that the Jiannu in Liaodong suffered unprecedented heavy losses, losing 100,000 troops and horses, and more than 30,000 elite members of the Eight Banners in Manchuria. It can be said that more than half of them were damaged, as if two legs were broken, and the possibility of strategic attack was lost.
If you still dare to enter the pass, your entire army will be destroyed.
That is to say, two of Zhu Youjian's serious concerns have been basically solved, or are in a state of passive waiting for death.
There is only one Xujiazhuang left - currently the court has no choice but to deal with Xujiazhuang. Fortunately, Xujiazhuang is greedy, but the businessmen only focus on making money, are not so aggressive, and have not so strong desire to own land, and they also abide by contracts and rules.
, so the threat level is slightly lower. In the short term, there should be no plans to destroy the Ming Dynasty, otherwise it would have been done long ago.
This made Zhu Youjian relax his vigilance a little and feel a little lucky - which made him feel angry and ashamed.
But all in all!
Two of the three major problems have been eliminated. For Ming Dynasty, the pressure has been significantly reduced, and the severe situation faced has been greatly improved.
As long as everything goes smoothly in the coming Ming Dynasty.
As long as the people of Ming Dynasty can take a good rest for a few years.
As long as the "Royal Farm Plan" that Fang Yizhi is responsible for will expand again this year, the number of royal farms will increase to about a thousand, striving to bring greater harvests and more food.
The future must be extremely bright, embracing a new prosperous age.
By then it will be Xujiazhuang, and the court will not be unable to deal with it.
So in the face of such an optimistic and bright future, Zhu Youjian relaxes a little and enjoys it with his family. What's wrong? Is this really too much?
"I only do it once a year. I spend tens of thousands of silver dollars at most. I usually focus on frugality."
"Last time in Qichunnian, didn't you argue in front of me that only when there is consumption can there be production, and large amounts of consumption can bring about economic activity, increased employment, and the prosperity of the people. The more money buried in the cellar, the more depressed the Ming Dynasty's economy will be.
…Now that I think about it carefully, it seems to make some sense.”
"Don't think too much, eat well, drink well, enjoy today, and tomorrow you will be full of energy to fight for the rejuvenation of the Ming Dynasty!"
Zhu Youjian quickly figured it out, moved quickly, and greeted his family members to eat and drink well and not to be too restrained.
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Everyone at the big dining table was also excited.
Soon there were all kinds of compliments.
"It's delicious. This lobster meat is so delicious. I like it." Prince Zhu Cixiang, who has always been picky about food, specifically focused on lobster.
"Old concubine, try this Buddha Jumping over the Wall with sea view. I heard that Buddha would jump over the wall when he smelled the smell. It is not only delicious, but also very nourishing." Empress Zhou served a bowl of Buddha Jumping over the Wall soup to Concubine Liu, and the old concubine took a sip.
, his eyes couldn't help but squint, and it took him a long time to say, "It tastes good."
"Sister Yuan, try this sweet treat called cake, which is very good. I wonder how to make it?" Concubine Tian liked the cake and recommended it to Concubine Yuan next to her.
"Wow, this spicy beef hot pot is so delicious, I can't stop eating it." This concubine from Sichuan has never eaten spicy food, but she is addicted to spicy beef hot pot. She rolled up her skirt sleeves and ate it.
Specially eating, one sentence after another comes out in dialect.
Emperor Zhu Youjian couldn't help but smile when he saw every member of his family devouring their food and eating quickly.
However, when he glanced at the historian who was writing notes on daily life behind a golden nanmu pillar, Zhu Youjian was moved in his heart and asked the eunuch to call the historian and said to him: "This is my family banquet."
There is no need to record it, you can go back and rest early."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The historian nodded, and then quickly made a few sketches on the book: On the night of the Yuan Dynasty, the emperor held a family banquet, and the dishes were extravagant. The emperor was ashamed and ordered the historian not to record it.