After Zhao Yingong finished this matter, he immediately asked people to return to the villa. He instructed people to immediately go to Yehang near Hangzhou to buy "shaoye". As for the 50,000 taels of silver, he also asked people to prepare a Delong banknote for him. He realized that his advice to the prefect would definitely cause an uproar in Hangzhou. However, the public's spearhead would no longer be directed at him. He would just wait to get the raw silk and cocoons from the Famine Relief Bureau.
Shen Kaibao stood on the stern of his boat, rocking the boat once or twice. It was noon, there was no wind at all, and the willow branches on the pond road hung lazily on the water.
It has already passed the Qingming Festival, and the leaves on the willow branches have just unfolded a little. The green and a little yellow leaves seem to be unable to withstand the cold air of early spring, curling and refusing to unfold.
Seeing these wilted new leaves, Shen Kaibao felt himself shivering more and more - he was wearing a tattered cotton-padded jacket, which he had made more than ten years ago when the times were good. It doesn't seem to be getting any better.
The weather is getting colder year by year. Shen Kaibao still remembers when he was young. During the Qingming Festival, the branches were already full of green leaves, and he had to wear a thin jacket to go out and rock the boat. Now it’s better, it still snows in March. After the Qingming Festival, I still can’t take off my cotton-padded jacket.
"The weather has really changed!" Shen Kaibao said in his heart, coughed, and spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm into the river. The water in the river was so cold that it gave people chills just looking at it.
The tops of the fist-shaped branches have clusters of tender green leaves not much bigger than a fingernail. Both sides of the pond road are now densely covered with mulberry trees. Last year's drought lasted from June to October, and there was no rain. Farmers Jumping anxiously. After all, there are many river ponds in the south of the Yangtze River, and only those with large labor force at home. Those with cattle can still survive by driving hard to farm. Shen Kaibao saw with his own eyes a man from a neighboring village whose thighs were thicker than tree stumps. He was so tired on the water tanker that he vomited blood and died after being helped home.
As for those whose labor force is weak, whose ditches are not well dug, or who are far away from rivers and ponds, it is really hard to cope with it every day. They can only watch the flowering rice fields withering one by one and turning into withered yellow straw. In autumn, The grain clerks and housekeepers came to the scene and forced them to pay grain and rent. They sold their houses, land, wives and children, but they couldn't pay the rent of the iron plate and the royal grain and national taxes. The family was ruined, and the whole family abandoned the rent and fled, jumping into the river. Hanged...
It's not that Shen Kaibao has never seen this kind of thing before - it's just that it's become more common and frightening in recent years. Around the Chinese New Year, every time he goes out in a boat, he often sees floating corpses in the river, including adults and children. He knows Those who couldn't survive and threw themselves into the river. Some families who he thought had a "strong foundation" have now fallen into this fate: the oil and salt shop in the town where he used to go shopping suddenly collapsed this year. When Shen Kaibao went there today, there happened to be dozens of people surrounding the boarded-up shop, crying and cursing. They were all people who had saved money on the counter in order to earn some interest. I heard that the shopkeeper in the shop was suffering from a lack of business. Well, the creditor came to the door and was forced to commit suicide.
Seeing this, Shen Kaibao always felt that he was lucky. The raw silk market last year was good. His family barely escaped disaster by relying on the income from raw silk, and they did not fall into this situation. But even so, the family's A few cents of the land were mortgaged to Mr. Cao in the town to get rid of the vicious grain man.
Mr. Cao is the "richest man" in the town. Because he was a scholar in his early years, he collects taxes in the area. He also lends money to the country people every now and then. The interest is half a penny lower than the average. It is also easy to talk to the country people.
He was kind, there were weddings and funerals, and farmers with whom he had contacts chipped in with a few small sums, and the whole family could go and "eat meat rice" - everyone said that Mr. Cao was a kind man.
Kindness comes after kindness. Over the past twenty years, I have seen his family become more and more prosperous - more and more farmers are unable to pay him back and have to sell their land to him. Mr. Cao has also become a owner of hundreds of acres.
He became the landlord of the land. In addition to planting mulberries, he also received a "Ministry License" and started a raw silk business in the town. The family business became more and more prosperous.
He was troubled when he thought that he would have to repay Master Cao's principal and interest before the Mid-Autumn Festival. If this year's "silkworm flowers" were good, he would probably be able to repay the money. If not, he could only ask Master Cao to "extend" it. But.
As these two and a half cents of monthly interest are added up month by month, it will become increasingly difficult to pay off. In the end, the only option is to give the land to Mr. Cao to pay off the debt.
Thinking of this, he could only pray to the Silkworm Goddess to open his eyes and give him a good silkworm flower so that he could smoothly pay off his debt to Master Cao and let the country people take a breather.
However, before he finished this thought, he thought about having to organize a happy event for Sanqing next year. Sanqing was already twenty-three, and he would be laughed at in the countryside if he didn't have a wife at this age. The matchmaker had said
He and his wife also like a suitable girl from a neighboring village - but where will the betrothal gift and wedding expenses come from?
After thinking about it like this, endless burdens came to his mind one by one. The life of being a farmer was really hard. He sighed, and he could not relax for a moment. He was already in his early fifties - at this age
Although I can still rock the boat and go to the ground, I am already half buried in the ground. Farming is a hard life, and living over fifty is already a good life span. After a few more years, I will be able to stand upright and not listen.
I asked. But Ah Qing and San Qing’s days are still long.
Some places in the rice fields have been plowed over, exposing dry and cracked mud. However, there are still large areas of rice fields that are not moving. The farmers who cultivated these fields have either fled or have died of starvation. There are still many people who want to plant them, but they are unable to do so.
There are no seeds and no cattle. I can only look at the fields and sigh.
Compared with this withered and desolate rice field, the large mulberry forest looks vibrant. Although the young leaves are only the size of a fingernail at the moment, it won't take long for a large number of new leaves to sprout on these mulberry trees. Waiting for the white silkworms to sprout
After going up the mountain, he could breathe again. The silk market has been good these years, and his family has mulberry trees. If he can raise silkworms peacefully, he might be able to pay off Master Cao's debt.
There is still some money left. As for Sanqing's marriage, let's take it one step at a time - if it doesn't work out, just buy a fleeing woman as a wife. Although it is not decent and there is no uncle's house, it is cheaper than getting married.
Shen Kaibao considered shaking his hand all the way and turned onto a branch river - the village was there, a cluster of houses in the distance, which was the village where his family had lived for several generations. The rice fields scattered between the vertical and horizontal rivers outside the village had been plowed
Some have planted cereals. The village where he lives is mostly sericulture farmers who raise silkworms and reel silk, so the damage caused by last year's drought was not serious, and it can barely cope with it.
White smoke is now rising from those houses. Shen Kaibao's boat is tied to the river pier of his house. In the yard in front of his door, the women and children at home, his wife, daughter-in-law and grandson are all busy scrubbing the "group" "Plaque" and "Silkworm Trap".
These sericulture equipment that have been hidden in the woodshed for a year must be taken out, cleaned and repaired before they are greened. Not only their home, but also at the door of every house in the village, there are women and children doing the same thing. Let’s talk and laugh. Laughter seems to add a touch of joy to this cold spring.
However, their faces are all gray - they haven't had a full meal since last autumn. Some people can't survive on two thin porridges a day, and they have to eat some unpalatable bran cakes. To fill his belly, he was also dressed in rags - not much better than a beggar.
However, everyone's spirit is not bad. The village was not completely destroyed by the disaster last year. The villagers are grateful and are more determined to pursue the path of raising silkworms and reeling silk. As long as the silkworms are ripe, this unbearable life will One year will pass again - in today's world, it is lucky to be able to live a peaceful life as a family.
As soon as Shen Kaibao returned home, people from the village came one after another - because he had a decent boat and was a relatively "popular" figure in the village, he also drove a "boat" on weekdays. That is, every few days Tianyao went to town on the boat to sell vegetables and specialties to the villagers, and bought oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and farm tools that the village cannot be self-sufficient in. If someone wants to go to town, they can also take a boat.
Due to the disaster last year, the villagers were very tight on money and did not buy anything unless they had to buy anything. His "business" was also very light. But this time he went to town to buy "necessities" for raising silkworms. "Paper paper" is an indispensable item for every household. Everyone also wanted to hear the latest news, so a lot of people came. A circle was formed in the yard of Shen Kaibao's house.
This is also the time when Shen Kaibao is most proud. He is the person with the widest eyelids and the most knowledge in the village. Everyone wants to listen to him. But this time I didn’t hear much news in the town because of the need to save money. He did not dare to go into the teahouse to ask for a bowl of the cheapest tea powder and listen to the chats of the "educated" people around him like he did before. He just walked around the street a few times and talked to the shopkeepers he had business with on weekdays.
The news he brought back was not good: the market was not good, the price of rice had risen to three taels of silver per dou, and even grains were almost one taels of silver. A few more shops in the town were selling out. Even at such a low price, he still couldn't sell a few pieces. The shopkeeper sighed - I heard that the cloth in Songjiang couldn't be sold, and the cotton growers and machinists were so hungry that they ran away...
"If you have so much money, it would be a waste to buy a few horses and leave them alone..." Shen Kaibao was very greedy.
“The farmers are starving to death, so how can they still have money to buy cloth?”
"No matter how cheap it is, we can't afford it."
"I wish I could survive with my stutter, but now I have to endure it even if my butt is bare."
"It depends on the silkworm flowers this year." Neighbor Siduo interjected, "As long as the silkworm flowers are good, it doesn't matter if you buy a few pieces of cloth after selling them."