Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

This is Shen Yourong's second brother, his name is Shen Guangxiu, and his courtesy name is Maoshi.

He has a rather soft appearance and is clean-shaven. He belongs to the type of handsome guy in ancient puppet shows.

Judging from the literati of the Song Dynasty whom Ju Ming came into contact with, shaving was quite common, which was a change in social aesthetics.

Comparing the portraits of emperors in the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties, we can see a pattern. From the founding of the country to the fall of the country, the emperor's beard became less and less. Moreover, the era when beards suddenly became thinner must be the period of prosperity for this dynasty. Looking at the folk paintings at that time, we also see the same pattern. It is very likely that they were influenced by the folk to the court.

"You don't need to be polite to be successful," Shen Guangxiu held Ju Ming's hand with a very enthusiastic attitude, "Successful talents are like thunder to my ears!"

Ju Ming said modestly: "I don't dare to take it seriously. My uncle is praising me unreasonably."

Shen Guangxiu said: "You deserve it. Cheng Cheng's eight poems are being copied in every town and county. Who among Xixiang scholars doesn't know about them? Someone has given Cheng Cheng a nickname, and they call him Zhu Bazhu."

Damn it, Zhu Bashu is not as good as the winged tiger from before.

Most of them were scholars who accompanied Lu Ti to study and spread the news on their own initiative after returning home.

Wu can lead troops to suppress bandits, and literature can write poems and preach scriptures. It is estimated that Zhu Dalang will become a household name in Xixiang County within a few months.

Shen Guangxiu held Ju Ming's hand and never let go. She said with increasing enthusiasm, "I came here specifically to seek success."

Zhu Ming wanted to pull his hands away, but when he saw Shen Guangxiu shaved off his beard, he thought, this guy must be made of glass, right?

Shen Yourong brought a bowl of tea, and Zhu Guoxiang took it smoothly, handed it to his son and said, "Your uncle just came back from the county town and was hired as a teacher by the primary school professor there."

Shen Guangxiu smiled and said: "It's thanks to success."

It turned out that he was just here to express his gratitude, not because he had any ill intentions toward him. Ju Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The principal of the county primary school acted very quickly. He knew that the Zhu family and his son were being rewarded for improving their education, and he didn't know where he got the news, so he actually recruited Shen Guangxiu.

County-level government primary schools do not have high requirements for teachers. Principals can hire them on their own and have little to do with the county magistrate.

Shen Guangxiu has always wanted to be a teacher, but failed to get hired after many applications. This time, his dream came true.

Ju Ming's focus was obviously not here, so he asked instead: "What is the situation of the scholar in my uncle's village now?"

Shen Guangxiu said in detail: "This man's surname is Meng, his given name is Zhao, and his courtesy name is Daguang. He is my childhood classmate. He has never been able to pass the imperial examination, and his father fell ill and passed away. His brother did not want to support his education, so he simply divided the property and divided the family. . He was only allocated twenty or thirty acres of land, and he even went to Yangzhou Academy to become a disciple. How could his family's financial resources support him? After a few years, all the land was sold out, and now his life is quite poor."

"Daming Village is the former Heifeng Village. He wants to come to this remote place?" Zhu Ming asked.

Shen Guangxiu said: "The family has been unable to solve the problem. I often help out on weekdays, but I am not very rich. He still owes me two kilograms of rice and more than 800 yuan. There are also twins in the family. If we don't find a way out, it will be really difficult." He's starving to death. What's more, he is still determined to take the imperial examination, and success is recognized as having mastered the three classics."

Well, I still want to take Ju Ming as my teacher for free, which is a very good plan.

Zhu Ming is now in need of someone who can write and do calculations. As long as Meng Zhao comes over, he can manage the village's account books - the autumn harvest will be in two months.

After chatting for a few more words, Ju Ming took his father to the toilet.

Quickly unpacking the box, Zhu Guoxiang took out a huazi and lit it, puffing on the clouds and feeling extremely intoxicated: "Have you taken out everything in the car?"

"There's only one car left." Zhu Ming also lit one, "Dean Zhu, do you think the sweet potatoes and corn could mutate?"

Zhu Guoxiang smiled and said: "Become an elixir and eat immortality?"

Ju Ming said: "For example, the yield will be higher, the growth will be stronger, and so on. Aren't grain seeds all taken to the space station for radiation? Traveling through the time and space tunnel should also have an impact on the seeds. Anyway, it will have a big impact on both of us, and our bodies will be affected." Reverse growth has been achieved.”

Zhu Guoxiang became serious: "It is also possible, and we have to continue to observe."

"Going to see my father-in-law?" Zhu Ming did not discuss this anymore.

"See, he's just an ordinary village school teacher," Zhu Guoxiang said. "The one who is blind and deaf is almost seventy years old. The village school now has her eldest brother teaching the class. This second brother is quite smart, but he probably doesn't have much knowledge. Well, he never passed the exam. Because of you, he became a government primary school teacher, and this time he made a special trip to say thank you."

Ju Ming asked: "When did Fatty Zheng's servant come?"

"This morning, I also brought dozens of dollars, a jar of wine and a letter." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Ju Ming flicked the ashes of his cigarette and said, "In my village, it's difficult to irrigate halfway up the mountain, and it's also difficult to repair aqueducts. Is there any way?"

"Dig weirs and ponds." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Zhu Ming asked: "What is the difference between a weir and a pond?"

"There is not much difference," Zhu Guoxiang explained. "In the early days of the founding of New China, in order to solve the irrigation problem in the mountainous areas, the people were mobilized to dig a lot of weirs and ponds. They mainly relied on rainwater for storage. They could also raise fish and use it for farming. Water storage in weirs and ponds. Xixiang County has a lot of rainfall, so weirs and ponds are of great use."

Ju Ming asked again: "Dig in the mountain?"

Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said: "The most suitable place for digging weirs and ponds is the kind of depression in the mountains. Halfway up the mountain can also be used, but it is more laborious and requires digging to level the soil first, which greatly increases the amount of work."

"That's no problem. After the autumn harvest, we will organize the villagers to dig two holes first," Zhu Ming pondered. "It will happen that some new villagers will come in, especially those who have fled their households and have no money or food. It will be a good time to dig weirs and ponds." Work-for-relief. By the way, there are mountains everywhere here, so why can’t we build terraces?”

Zhu Guoxiang thought carefully and said: "With the soil and climate in Xixiang County, it is possible to cultivate terraces. For example, the mountain village can be cultivated at the foot of the mountain. It cannot be done higher up. The slope exceeds 25 degrees and is not suitable."

Ju Ming asked curiously: "Why is no one cultivating terraced fields here?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "First, cultivating terraced fields is time-consuming and labor-intensive, much more difficult than cultivating wasteland, and requires a large amount of labor; second, there must be one person who can absolutely control the village. Paddy fields require frequent diversion and release of water. If they are terraced fields, they will be destroyed if they are moved. Every household must cooperate with each other. Many of the terraced fields in the south are in ethnic minority areas. In ancient times, they had village owners or clan leaders who arranged full-time water officers to be responsible for irrigation and drainage. Anyone who disobeyed could be directly executed because the irrigation was delayed. They all have to starve.”

"I understand. When you come here, we can organize the villagers to cultivate terraced fields." Ju Ming said.

Zhu Guoxiang shook his head: "The results are too slow. With the labor force in your village, in a few years, at most, you can create more than ten acres of terraced fields. It is better to dig a few more weirs and ponds, and then plant corn and sweet potatoes on the hillside."

Ju Ming smiled and said: "You are the expert, you have the final say. By the way, have you made the mushrooms yet?"

"Failed." Zhu Guoxiang sighed.

"Failed?" Ju Ming said in surprise.

Zhu Guoxiang explained: "I plan to directly prepare mycelium and then plant it on a large scale quickly. I have found a substitute for potatoes as a culture medium, but I do not have autoclave equipment or air conditioning to control the temperature. I thought I could overcome it, but unfortunately I was slapped in the face by reality.”

"How did people grow mushrooms in ancient times?" Zhu Ming asked.

"A very primitive method," Zhu Guoxiang said, "cut the basswood, cover it with soil and water it to form a natural culture medium. Then chop the mushrooms into pieces and stuff them into the wounds of the basswood, allowing them to naturally form mycelium. Consume It takes a very long time, at least half a year, or even one or two years, to harvest the first batch of shiitake mushrooms. Moreover, the bacteria emergence rate is far inferior to modern cultivation. How to put it, you can understand that the cultivation on industrialized large farms is different from the cultivation by ancient small farmers. Huge difference.”

Ju Ming said: "It's primitive as long as it's primitive. We use ancient methods to eventually generate income for farmers. Can we still grow Ganoderma lucidum as big as a millstone?"

Zhu Guoxiang said: "There is a certain chance of growing it, but it depends on luck. Because such a large Ganoderma lucidum requires multiple Ganoderma lucidum strains to grow together. I can't cultivate the mycelium of Ganoderma lucidum, so I can only use soil methods to determine when the fungi will emerge and how much will be produced. Bacteria, these are all uncontrollable. We can only try our best to meet the conditions and wait to try our luck!"

Zhu Guoxiang was a little frustrated. He had knowledge in this area, but lacked the conditions to put it into practice.

It's like a top aircraft designer. After returning to ancient times, even if he exhausted all his efforts, he could only build a primitive wooden aircraft with pedals.

Zhu Guoxiang took out a letter from his arms, which was written by the fat man Zheng Hong.

Ju Ming took it and read the letter while smoking.

The main reason was to thank Ju Ming for selling the pen. Zheng Hong had already given the pen away, and Master Zhizhou was very happy. In addition to making up the balance, he also sent a jar of fine wine and invited Ju Ming to play in Yangzhou at any time.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Reply one letter, Zheng Hong's personal entourage is still waiting."

Zhu Ming put out the butt of his cigarette, flicked it into the latrine and left, writing a reply to Zheng Hong inside.

Zhu Ming, who had not told stories for two months, told Fatty Zheng in his letter that he had been writing "Journey to the West" and would finish the novel soon, and would send someone to Yangzhou next time. At the same time, please ask Fatty Zheng to help customize weapons, a pair of bows and arrows, an iron gun, and an iron mace.

During the Song Dynasty, the armor-wearing rate was very high, and armor-breaking weapons were necessary.

In the first year of Jingkang, when the Jin soldiers went south, Prime Minister Li Gang vowed to defend the city to the death, so he specially made himself a mace. This mace was later collected in the Fujian Museum.

There was also a fierce general in the Northern Song Dynasty nicknamed "Wang Santie" who was good at using iron whips, iron spears, and iron cudgels, ranging from long to short, all of which were heavy armor-breaking weapons.

After writing a reply and giving it to Fatty Zheng's personal attendant, Ju Ming also stuffed a bunch of reward money into it: "Please pass it on to Mr. Zheng Xiaoguan."

"I will definitely bring it!" The attendant left immediately, refusing to stay for dinner.

Bows, arrows, iron spears and iron maces were all very valuable. If Ju Ming wanted to buy a complete set, he would have to bleed a lot. He planned to trick Fatty Zheng into building it first, and then gradually give him money when he got richer.

Zhu Ming said hello to Uncle Cheap and went straight out to find Mr. Bai.

Bai Zongwang received him warmly, asked him to make some good tea, and said happily: "We haven't seen you for a few days, and my successful nephew is even more energetic."

"Thanks to the old man," Zhu Ming said straight to the point, "the thieves in Heifeng Village left a lot of money, but the land in the mountains is barren and the food is not enough to eat. This time I came to see the old man to buy food."

"It's easy to say that we are all neighbors and should help each other." The situation of Bai Zongwang and Ju Ming is exactly the opposite.

Bai Zongwang spent a lot of money in order to acquire the land outside the young white member, and his family only had a few hundred cash left. He urgently needed to sell grain for money, but he had to wait until after the autumn harvest, when he would have more than enough grain.

One is willing to buy, the other is willing to sell, and the deal is quickly concluded.

No matter what the food prices are this year, last year’s food prices will be used as the standard. Two Hu pens were sold for more than 100 guan, and they are now at Shen Yourong's house. The money was immediately used as a down payment to deliver the grain after the autumn harvest.

Bai Zongwang added: "Xiangong Zhu will move away next year, and Mrs. Shen and Mrs. Yan will probably leave too. The land in their hands... is worth a lot."

Ju Ming smiled and said: "I can't decide on this. I can go talk to Grandma Yan myself."

"That's fine." Bai Zongwang nodded.

After the deal was concluded, Ju Ming finally felt at ease.

Otherwise, based on the grain reserves of Daming Village, if the population really exceeds a thousand, it will be a bit difficult when the spring season is not good.

This is the most critical year. When sweet potatoes and corn are planted throughout the village next year, there will be no need to worry about food.

You can even use excess corn to make wine.

The upper class may not like liquor, but they can try to capture the low-end market. Liquor is cheaper and easier to store and transport. These are its irreplaceable advantages.

A piece of tea and a piece of wine will be the specialties of Daming Village in the future.

Perhaps, in a year and a half, every household will be able to grow mushrooms.

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