Fu Song

Chapter 704

Zhou Hong put his hands on his knees and squatted slightly, but his eyes were on the rake held by an old farmer in front of him. As he raked it down, lifted it and dragged it, the sand under the yellow vines split open, almost A red fruit stalk appeared in his eyes, the old farmer bent down, grabbed the vine, and pulled it hard, a bunch of red fruit stalks of various sizes hung in the air.The biggest one weighs at least one catty, while the smallest one is only as thick as a finger.

"Lizheng, this plant weighs at least three catties. If every plant is like this, it will be very easy for this mu of land to weigh more than one thousand catties!" The voice of the old man trembled. There is no crop whose yield per mu can exceed a thousand catties.

The most important thing is that this thing can be used as a staple food!

Old people who have lived for decades, of course know what this means.

"What are you still doing, dig!" Zhou Hong waved his hand and shouted excitedly at a group of young men standing around. "I asked you to plant it in the spring, but none of you are willing to plant it. Do you regret it now?"

"I can't say I regret it!" A young man laughed and said, "Lizheng, these lands are public lands, so it's not like I have a share of them!"

"It looks like you're smart!" Zhou Hong gave him a big thumbs-up, "Put more effort, you are young, let the old people rush ahead, what is it like!"

"Fine!" The young man waved his hoe excitedly and started digging quickly.

The women and children followed behind them, squatting on the ground, happily peeling the mud from the dug sweet potatoes and putting them in baskets.Someone took the opportunity to pick up some finger-thick ones, rub them in their hands, and stuff them into the child's mouth, but Zhou Hong just pretended not to see them.

Children can, but adults can't.

If the adult dared to put it in his mouth, Zhou Hong would tear his mouth to make him spit it out.

This is public property.

Every piece of public property has a place to go.

He, Zhou Hong, is the first in the county, because he set up public land and established public property against all opinions. Now, the seven or eight villages under his jurisdiction are built for roads, canals, or schools. All public property income can be covered.

Even in front of the county magistrate, Zhou Hong still has face.

In addition, Lizheng was often yelled at or even beaten by the county magistrate. Zhou Hong went to the county government office, but he had a chair.

The county magistrate is young and has a hot temper, but he has always respected Zhou Hong.

About one mu of land has been dug, and Zhou Hong checked with his own eyes, more than one thousand catties is more than enough.

When the new crops came out, he tried his best to take half of the public fields in the seven or eight villages under his jurisdiction to plant potatoes and sweet potatoes.

The harvest of potatoes in April has already made everyone's eyeballs almost fall off, and now the sweet potatoes will draw a perfect end to this trial planting.

Next year, there is no need to mobilize, and everyone will rush to plant.

Nowadays, the prices of potatoes and sweet potatoes are really very gratifying.

With this wave of harvest, Zhou Hong felt that he could spend another sum of money to renovate the roads connecting several villages.

Especially in several ditches, we must build strong and durable stone bridges.

A few heavy rains a month ago, these ditches, which are usually invisible, suddenly became powerful and swallowed up the lives of several people, which made Zhou Hong very distressed.

The sound of horseshoes sounded next to his ears. Zhou Hong turned around and looked at the galloping road behind him. A dozen horsemen galloped towards him.

Over the past few days, soldiers and horses have been moving forward non-stop, and large carts have hardly stopped, and dozens of them pass by here every day.

Based on Zhou Hong's experience, it is estimated that there will be a war.

The past experience made Zhou Hong very tired of war. Every time Zhou Hong thought of the tragic past, he still trembled all over his body.

He belonged to the lucky group, not only escaped with his life, but also turned out to be a person in the end.

But there were many more, never to be seen again.

I still remember that night when I was fleeing, someone fell beside me from time to time, and the sound of feather arrows swishing behind me was like Yama chasing after my life, taking away a few lives from time to time.

It's all the damned Liao Kingdom.

Everyone is living a good life, so why would they want to stir up trouble again!
Thinking of what Jiangning Weekly said, Zhou Hong now feels that it makes sense.

That is, if the Liao Kingdom is not destroyed, our Great Song Dynasty will never be stable.

Those guys who don't do production and only know how to rob, just don't want to see others living well.

Now that my family is living well again, these Liao people want to take away my happy life again.

This is really an outrageous thing.

To Zhou Hong's surprise, the galloping cavalry suddenly slowed down and stopped completely when they reached in front of him.

"Zhou Hong!" A general immediately laughed and said, "Is that you?"

Looking at the general, Zhou Hong was also stunned for a while, isn't this Zhang Ren?I haven't seen him for more than a year. Judging by the robes on his body, he has been promoted again. Now he is more like a deputy commander.

"General Zhang! You are..."

Zhang Ren got off his horse and said, "Some time ago, I went back to Xiangyang on official business, and I actually went here. I wanted to see you, but the business is urgent, so I dare not delay. The general held a meeting and was late. That's going to kill you! I didn't want to come back and run into you."

"This is the inextricable fate between you and us, General Zhang!" Zhou Hong said with a smile: "General Zhang, since we have met, someone in Zhou must do something today and treat the general to a potluck. "

"Okay, let's have a meal, but Zhou Hong, we are all big belly guys, don't blame us for eating too much." Zhang Ren said with a smile: "Besides, we can't eat poorly, You need wine and meat."

"Naturally!" Zhou Hong laughed and said, "Mr. Zhou can be considered as a person with a small family. If there were no people like the old Shizhang and General Zhang to fight and protect us, we would have to flee again if we were not sure. We would have to eat a little. Even if you are stingy, you will not be a son of man."

"Okay, Zhou Hong, you have always been a cheerful person!" Zhang Ren looked back and said: "Brothers, my military career started here. My father-in-law died in battle less than [-] miles away from here. Jiagang, a whole thing, I was the only one who survived."

"Old Shichang has a son-in-law like you, so he must be smiling!" Zhou Hong quickly comforted him, thinking of the old Shichang back then, he was still very emotional.

That's an old farmer's style. When he was stationed here, he didn't do much to help them.

At that time, Deputy Commander Zhang Renzhang was still very literate. It was almost impossible to do farm work, but he could read Jiangning Weekly for everyone, and taught Zhou Hong to recognize some simple characters. The children in the village also followed him. Benefited a lot.

But now it seems that Zhang Ren's literary spirit has faded a lot, replaced by an awe-inspiring and sturdy aura.

Zhou Hong is undoubtedly the wealthiest family here.

The Zhou family not only owns land here, but Zhou Hong himself is also Lizheng. During Xiao Cheng’s political reform, he got the imperial salary. In the Song Dynasty, as long as you entered this system, the salary was quite considerable. .Of course, the reason why the Zhou family is rich is because he has a good wife.

For some reason, the fish sauce made by her wife suddenly met the taste of the first assistant, Xiao Cheng. With the blessing of the first assistant, Zhou's fish sauce suddenly became a famous product, and it was difficult to buy in the market.And Zhou Hong's mother-in-law is also extremely smart, but she refuses to recruit more people to expand production.

Of course, there are many other brands of fish sauce, but Zhou's fish sauce firmly occupies the most cutting-edge market.They sell one can, and others sell dozens of cans, and there is no such high profit.

Zhang Ren looked at Zhuangzi who was surrounded by mountains and rivers, and couldn't help laughing. A few years ago, Zhou Hong was still a refugee!

And around Zhuangzi, there are brick-and-earth houses neatly arranged. When they were stationed here, they were still thatched houses, but now they have changed a lot.

Seeing Zhang Ren looking at the whole village with some emotion, Zhou Hong said: "It's all the benevolent government of the officials and the chief assistant! Now everyone is full of energy and rushing forward! Thinking about it is like a dream. From a few years ago There are no tiles to cover the body, no space to stand on the ground, and now we have no worries about food and clothing, and we have lived such a rich life. General Zhang, I will tell you that as long as the court needs it, Zhou is willing to donate all his family property to fight against the Liao people. .Because Zhou believes that as long as I defeat the Liao people, my current family property will be earned back in a few years, and I will earn more."

"You guy, you have never been willing to do business at a loss!" Zhang Ren laughed and said, "But as far as I know, your idea of ​​donating your family property will definitely not get the support of the first assistant."

"Why? I really want the court to have more money and build more weapons to defend the country and protect the family." Zhou Hong said passionately.

"I heard that someone in the imperial court proposed such an idea. They wanted to encourage the world to donate and raise more money to deal with this war, but the chief minister refused!" Zhang Ren said.

"What's the reason?" Zhou Hong was stunned, but because of his bottomless respect for the chief assistant Xiao Cheng, he felt that there must be a reason for the chief assistant.

"Shoufu said that everyone has paid the tax." Zhang Renyi spread his hands.

"Ah?" Zhou Hong didn't react at all.

Zhang Renyi smiled and said: "Actually, I am also surprised. According to the words of the first minister, the people of the Song Dynasty have paid taxes to the court and served corvee, so the court needs to protect the people when they are threatened. This is the duty of the imperial court, how can we collect money from everyone?"

"I do it voluntarily!"

"That's what you said." Zhang Ren said: "But once this opening is opened, I'm afraid that many people who don't volunteer will be forced to volunteer! It will inevitably bring disaster to the people."

"Is this what Shoufu meant?"

"I heard the general convey the meaning of Shoufu, so it's probably like this!" Zhang Ren said: "Anyway, the imperial court will not look for you until the end of the mountain. Of course, if you really want to do some good deeds, you can donate some money. Giving it to widows and widows homes, orphanages, hospitals, and schools is also to share the worries of the imperial court!"

"I donate this every year."

"That's it!"

The two walked into Zhuangzi, and what they saw was golden.

On more than a dozen bamboo mats, there are little things that look like golden balls.

Zhang Ren squatted down, grabbed a handful, and held them in his hand, clanging, as hard as a rock.

"what is this?"

"Potatoes!" Zhou Hong said.

"Why can't I recognize potatoes?" Zhang Ren couldn't believe that these golden things in front of him could be related to potatoes.

"The potatoes were harvested in April. In addition to the big ones, there were also many small potatoes like this. At first they were prepared to be cooked and fed to pigs. But by chance, I found that after being exposed to the sun, these small boiled potatoes changed. It has become something like this." Zhou Hong smiled and said, "General Zhang, can you see anything strange?"

Zhang Ren murmured: "I can't see anything else, but this thing will definitely last for many years!"

Zhou Hong patted his thigh: "That's right, that's it. In my opinion, if you put them in a dry place, these potatoes will not go bad even if they are left for many years. They are stored in good years, and once they are not good, take them out. , but it becomes a good thing.”

"Indeed, this method, have you reported it to the Shangguan?"

"I told the county magistrate," Zhou Hong said. "General Zhang, this food tastes very good."

Throwing the clinking little potatoes up and down, Zhang Ren looked at him suspiciously.

"Soaked in water for one night, it will become soft. If you boil it with waxed hoof, the taste will be perfect. Soaked small potatoes can absorb the flavor of waxed hoof into it. Take a bite, Tsk tsk, the taste is amazing, it tastes longer than fresh potato stewed pig's trotters."

"You bastard, my mouth is watering!" Zhang Ren said with a smile: "Then eat it today?"

"It just happened that I made a pot yesterday!" Zhou Hongdao, "But the cured hooves in this season, because of the weather, the flavor is a little bit worse. I use cured hooves to make a pot, and then I use fresh chicken and duck to make a pot." pot."

"Look at the arrangement!" Zhang Ren said with a smile, "Any other new tricks?"

"There are more!" Zhou Hong took Zhang Ren into a room, opened a pocket, looked at the thin shiny flakes inside: "General Zhang, these are also potatoes."

"This too?"

"That's right!" Zhou Hong said, "This is a bigger potato. I cut it into thin slices, boiled it, and then dried it. I thought it would turn golden yellow in the sun, but it turned out to be so translucent. Potato chips, these potato chips are also easy to preserve, and fried in oil, not to mention how crispy and fragrant they are!"

"How could you come up with so many tricks?" Zhang Ren looked him up and down: "It seems that it is not unreasonable for you to make a fortune."

Zhou Hong laughed: "I just thought that since the first assistant called on everyone to plant this thing, even if there were not many people planting it due to doubts in the first two years, there will definitely be more people in the future. I want to make more money Well, it has to be processed again. Just like my fish sauce, the raw materials are common things, but after deep processing once, its value will rise rapidly. General Zhang, I think this principle is actually the same."

(End of this chapter)