Fu Song

"Water is coming, water is coming!" Accompanied by a voice full of joy, everyone's eyes were focused on the canal.

The clear water flowed silently from the newly built canal, and occasionally encountered some raised stones in the canal, making a rattling sound.

The sound reached the farmer's heart, and I'm afraid it was more beautiful than the sound of the sky.

As expected, last year was a warm winter, and this year it has not rained for two consecutive months. However, unlike the north, the government has invested a lot of money in the area under the control of the Song Dynasty. At the same time as the construction of water canals, a lot of experienced well diggers were organized to dig wells. Basically, every village would dig a deep well.

Above the endless fields, there is a reservoir built at intervals. The water in the canal flows over. You only need to remove a water retaining board, and the water will flow into the pond, fill the pond and plug it in again. When the water baffle is removed, the water will flow happily into the distance again.

The meandering canal swells the tens of thousands of acres of land around it.

Zhang Ren looked at the huge water truck in the distance, and then at the flowing river below his feet, and he deeply understood what is meant by forewarning, and failure.

Last winter, when they were busy helping the people build canals, the government also sent special craftsmen to build water trucks to lift water from the river. Using human or animal power, the water can be transported from a distance. Among the rivers are mentioned in the canals.

The entire investment is not a small number.

Such a waterwheel costs tens of guan, if every village in the entire area of ​​Shangqiu has such a waterwheel, that is really a big deal.

Not only waterwheels, as far as Zhang Ren knows, the government also allocated some money to build these canals.

According to the new decree, if every household does not want to serve corvee, they need to pay exemption money, which is [-] cash for upper households, [-] cash for middle households, and [-] cash for lower households.There is not much money, and even the poorest families will find a way to hand over the money.

Then the imperial court used the money to recruit personnel for construction.

Of course, compared with the past, this money is far from enough, so the court still needs money to subsidize.

In Zhang Ren's view, the imperial court was doing a loss-making business, but after thinking about it, with the shrewdness of the chief minister of the court, I am afraid that there are still things that he does not understand. Come up and see!

Frontier villages like theirs have a small population, and most of them are resettlement areas. The money is allocated from above, and other things need to be done by themselves.

Zhou Hong, the villager of Xiahe Village, is capable.

Not long after he came here, he established a relationship with the garrison.

What is the most in the local garrison?
Of course, there are the most men.

So Zhou Hong has a lot of young and strong laborers who can help him work.

Most of these soldiers came from the countryside, and when it comes to work, all of them are good hands.

Zhou Hong is also very good at being a man. With the money allocated by his superiors, he used part of it to buy pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, etc., and sent them directly to the barracks to improve the food for the soldiers. Sending altars into the barracks also made everyone in the barracks very satisfied.

Others felt that the money allocated from above was not enough, and Zhou Hong could not use it up here. He even used the remaining money to build another mill in the village, bought several large livestock, and even bought Opened a grocery store.

Of course, this is all public.

In just a few months, Zhou Hong's political achievements have made him stand out in the region.

As far as the eye can see, there is a lush greenery, and Zhang Ren suddenly feels proud.

Seeing is a bumper harvest year!
At that time, the harvested wheat will also have my own sweat!

In the past few months, I have made many trips just to push the dung truck into the village!

This is how the bottom line is broken step by step.

Zhang Ren never thought that he would be a soldier.

It never occurred to me that I would help farmers plant the land.

Not to mention that I would push a dung truck to fertilize the field.

Zhou Hong sent a portion of fresh vegetables to the military camp regularly every month, and then dragged the manure from the military camp back to compost or burn it.

Sometimes they don't have enough manpower, and the barracks will arrange people to send them there.

It is a win-win result.

During this period of time, some people were dispatched from the military camp to help build roads in the village, mainly the road from the village to the garrison camp.

Now as the village is slowly prospering, the relationship with the army is getting closer.

Fertilizers are sent every month. The village will either exchange or sell fresh vegetables to the military camp. The military will also collect a lot of torn clothes and send them to the village to be repaired by women. The mud covered the insteps, and the day was sunny and dusty, making it difficult to walk.

Taking advantage of this period of time, the two sides discussed and worked hard to repair the road.

Soldiers repaired the roadbed, and the village paved and compacted the road with gravel seeds.

"Everyone, rest for a while, rest for a while!" The women came over with pots of tea, yelling as they walked.

The soldiers with bare arms and waving picks straightened up one by one, took the tea bowls handed over by the women, but swept their eyes around each other, and some even showed off their flesh on purpose, saying something Don't talk about money.

But that's about it.

Military discipline is strict.

Among them, if you commit adultery, you can basically say goodbye to your own head.

Of course, in the past three years, the sows would also regard Diao Chan as Diao Chan and dare not take action, but this did not prevent them from staring lustfully and making fun of her a few times.

These women are also very tough. Not only are they not afraid of the sharp eyes and knives, but they often have a sharp tongue, and these soldiers can be defeated with a few words.

After getting along for a long time, each other also knows who the other is.

Zhang Ren was also shirtless, and the muscles that used to be lazy in the past had long since turned into bronze-colored healthy flesh, and his eight-pack abs were moving as he gulped down the tea.

It's not a good tea, but the leaves picked from a local tree called Ningqing. After a little processing, it is dried in the sun, and then brewed in boiling water. After cooling down, there will be a sweet taste. It is the most thirst-quenching. It is everyone Favorite drink.

"Zhang Xiucai!" Zhou Hong trotted over from a distance on a little donkey, holding a roll of things in his hand: "A new newspaper is out, please read it for everyone!"

As soon as he heard that a new newspaper had come out, he gave a huff, and the people around him automatically gathered around Zhang Ren.

Whether it is in the army or in the village, people who can read and write are really rare, just like the place where Zhang Ren is. Zhang Ren has taught Lao Shi to learn their characters for half a year, but the effect But it is not obvious, learn today, forget tomorrow, come and go, can write your name neatly, it is already very good.

Taking the newspaper from Zhou Hong, Zhang Ren sat down on the stone roller that pressed the road and unfolded it.

Everyone looked at Zhang Ren eagerly.

The newspaper is already a month old, but for these people, most of the content in the newspaper is still fresh and unheard of.

Newspapers are a novelty.

It was only half a year ago that he appeared.

Nowadays, movable type printing technology is very mature, and some highly skilled printing workshops have even started to overprint some colorful pictures, but these are basically books, and the price is expensive, which is not affordable for ordinary people.

This Song Dynasty monthly report was proposed by the chief assistant and organized by the Ministry of Rites.

Basically, what is published are the major policies of the imperial court.

What is commendable is that those laws and regulations that are very awkward to most people have special explanations and explanations in this newspaper.

What does this decree want to do, what purpose it wants to achieve, how it is done, and so on.

And these things are actually written in the vernacular.

To put it bluntly, it is what the general public can understand.

In the eyes of scholars, this is really not on the table, but for people like Zhou Hong, it is easy to understand.

Such a newspaper is expensive, and a copy costs ten cents.

In addition to selling it in the city, each village will be given a free copy by the government, which is the rule of the Jiangning court.

Every time Zhou Hong went to the county, he would basically bring back such a newspaper.

But because of the distance, what he brought back was from last month.

Amidst Zhang Ren Langlang's reading, the audience below all concentrated their attention and nodded from time to time. Sometimes people like Zhou Hong would ask questions, and Zhang Ren would give some answers based on his own understanding.

With some of these things, the imperial court's decrees and policies are no longer mysterious in the hearts of ordinary people, and it is not just a random person who can interpret the imperial court's policies according to his own meaning.

And in the past, it was really like this.

This is the reason why the so-called royal power does not go to the countryside.

But now, royal power is seeping downward bit by bit.

Zhang Ren even knew that Mr. Cen, the teacher of the first assistant Xiao Cheng, was planning to open a school. The academy, like the school, was free for people to settle in. All the expenses were collected by Mr. Cen.

Old Master Cen didn't have this worry that other people couldn't get money. Wherever he went, there were naturally rich people rushing to give money, only thinking of this old man who was over seventy years old to make connections.

Who is Old Master Cen?

The student Xiao Cheng is the first assistant, and his son Cen Zhong has now been promoted to the second assistant.

If there are more schools like this, there will be more people who can read and write, and they don't need to have much knowledge, as long as they can read such a newspaper, that's enough.

Moreover, since newspapers have already appeared, in the future, he will definitely not be like this, and there will be more.

It will definitely become more and more difficult to manage the people by taking advantage of the serious inequalities in knowledge and information.

The sky was getting dark, and the newspaper hadn't been finished yet, but Zhang Ren and others were going back to camp.

He returned the newspaper to Zhou Hong, planning to read it again tomorrow.

And Zhou Hong also handed him a jar of fish sauce, which was his reward every time he read the newspaper to everyone.

Zhang Ren naturally readily accepts the fish sauce that even the capital and ministers are full of praise for. Ten people can take care of the current meal for several days!
The night has fallen.

Zhang Ren stood on the sentry tower of the camp, staring at the bright moon in the sky.

Today, after all, it has changed.

He was able to get a glimpse of many things that would not be clearly stated in the newspapers from the family letter.

Every month, his mother would write him a letter.

When he first heard about the Suzhou Rebellion, he was terrified. His family is in Suzhou!I heard that many people died, and I was afraid that my family would be affected.

Fortunately, it's all right.

But then the assistant division Junchao got old, Luo Xin went to Suzhou to preside over the six divisions, and Zheng Qi, the prime minister of the Overwatch Council, inspected various places in the south of the Yangtze River. The family members of these people were implicated together and sent to the southwest.

My mother was always full of fluff, but Zhang Ren was able to find out what he wanted to know from these fluff.

The Jiangnan faction was defeated and defeated by the first assistant.

My father was really discerning, surrendered early, and left the circle of right and wrong early. If my father hadn't left the circle of right and wrong, even if he hadn't died in the riot, he would have appeared on the distribution list.

Right now, my father is serving as the county magistrate in Yunnan, and the family property is not missing at all, and many of his past acquaintances may become some of the controlled tattoo criminals under his rule.

What saddened Zhang Ren the most was that many of his friends were killed.

Some died during the chaotic period, some were involved in the treason case, and some even colluded with the Liao spies. Most of them had tattoos on their faces and they were assigned. It can be said that their lives have been advanced. ended.

Like being tattooed on the face can reverse one's life, after hundreds of years, only one Di Gong has been born!

Zhang Ren didn't think his friends could do it.

But can I live longer than these people?
Zhang Ren didn't know.

With the victory of Shoufu and others in the political battle, the conflict with the North has become even more certain and unchangeable.

Unlike Shi Chang and the others, they actually have a strong desire for battle.

Zhang Ren is very afraid of war.

Let alone a small soldier like him, even a lieutenant or a general, once they set foot on the battlefield, they cannot decide their own life or death, everything depends on God's will.

He doesn't want to die!

But in the army, how can life and death be up to oneself?

Apart from working hard to improve his survival skills, Zhang Ren couldn't think of any other way.

"What are you thinking?" Shi Chang beside him patted his shoulder.

"I don't know when the fight will start!" Zhang Ren whispered.

"Soon." Shi Chang said.

"What news do you have?"

"What news do you need!" Shi Chang laughed and said, "In two months, there will be no food on the other side, and it's harvest time here, can they not come and grab it?"

Zhang Ren was stunned, and felt that he was really stupid, why didn't he think of it?