national surname chiming

Chapter 137

More than half a month of busy autumn harvest has finally passed.

The people in Wuchang, Hanyang and other places had no time to notice that the warlords and frontier officials above their heads had changed.

Simple farmers, on such days, only have eyes on the crops that are about to be harvested.Every time I collect and store a batch, I feel a little more at ease in my heart. As for who the official master changes, who cares.

After the harvest, the people began to worry about taxes and apportionments.

"Floods and droughts have been alternating for several years. This year, the harvest is finally better. It's not easy. I hope that the apportionment of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes will not follow suit. I heard that the new Daotai likes to parade around. I don't know how much money I have collected from the people. .”

Many squires and rich peasants probably share this mentality.

The newcomer Shen Daotai likes to travel, and has recently become famous around Wuchang Mansion, and he is quite ostentatious, not only has to bring a lot of guards, but also has a lot of maids and concubines accompanying him, and all of them are very beautiful.

Shen Daotai's two housemaids, of course outsiders can't see them easily, only occasionally when the local magistrates and noble gentry treat guests, they can catch a glimpse, and what they see is astonishing as heaven.

Only other maids with lower grades may be seen from a distance by ordinary local gentry during outings, and sometimes they wear veils or veils, and their looks are equally good.

This kind of gossip has always been the easiest to spread. The officials and gentry in the Wuchang officialdom quickly spread the legend of Shen Shuren in private as a lustful and playful dog official.

"Have you heard, this Shen Daotai is extravagant. His family was originally from the richest man in Suzhou. His family has been a sea merchant for many years. Apart from the Zheng family in Fujian, the Shen family in Suzhou has the largest fleet. This kind of anointed son has won a wealthy state capital. As an official, you don't show your true nature."

"I heard that he has done a lot of meritorious deeds, but it is not because of the help of money, right? I heard that Mr. Yang Ge used him very much. The great cause of suppressing thieves in Huguang and Henan was defeated like this. He was the only one who won all the way. Maybe he sucked the blood of Zuo Zongzhen Liu Zongzhen for him to win the battle all the way! Only the other roads lost so badly!"

"But after all, it is the richest man's family. Those beauties are really rare in the sky and hard to find in the world. I heard that the beauty surnamed Chen was originally the top performer of Kunqu opera in Suzhou, and the lady surnamed Li was also the top performer of Nanqu opera in Nanjing. The stunning beauty of Suzhou and Nanjing The woman was picked up and used by him. If you can live a day like this, it's worth dying."

……

Shen Shuren was on vacation during this period of sensuality, and of course he also secretly learned about public opinion.So he knows all about how the folks say about him, but he just doesn't care.

He was even a little proud in his heart: the status of being a rich man did not expect to have such a magical effect, which can make people who don't know you, when interpreting your success, more inclined to understand it as "doesn't it just rely on spending money to bribe you?" , Is it the credit for letting the elders tilt the resources?"

In particular, Zuo Liangyu's original management power in the vicinity of Wuchang was deeply entrenched. Even if Zuo Liangyu was moved to the town by Shen Shuren's design, the radish was pulled out with mud, and the root system remaining in the soil could not be cleaned in a day or two.

Therefore, all kinds of public opinions that beautify Zuo Liangyu and vilify Shen Shuren have not been eradicated so far.The joke about Zuo Liangyu being intercepted and taking away his beautiful concubine was even more tenacious, and it was sung by countless people. Everyone knows that Shen Shuren robbed a most beautiful concubine in the world.

If Shen Shuren came from a poorer background, so that others could not find such an excuse to explain his success, maybe they would be more wary of him.

Chen Yuanyuan and Li Xiangjun accompanied him these days, and they also deeply felt this atmosphere.

On this day, they went on an outing to persuade farmers to inspect again, and they finished inspecting several core counties in Wuchang. Today, they arrived at Daye County, the most southeast corner of Wuchang Prefecture, near Jiangxi Province, which is the county where the Daye Iron Mine is located.

Among the counties under Wuchang Prefecture, Daye has the most mountains and hills, and the least low-lying terrain such as lakes and wetlands. Therefore, it is also the most suitable for the promotion of corn and potatoes in the future. Before the government releases seed loans, it needs to focus on surveys—that is exactly what Because there are many mountains and hills, it is suitable for mining here. If it is all low-lying wetlands, it is impossible to find mineral deposits at all.

At this moment, taking advantage of Shen Shuren's time to go to the fields, Chen Yuanyuan couldn't help but feel a little bit unwilling for him: "My lord, it's enough to pretend to be sensual and sneaky visits to people's sentiments. Don't you feel uncomfortable being always so despised?"

"What's wrong with you? When others look down on you, if it's true, you will feel uncomfortable. If you know that they just don't have eyes, how can you feel uncomfortable?"

Shen Shuren patted the dirt on his hands, and said with relief, "This year is a rare good year, I really didn't expect it. It can't be called a bumper harvest, but at least it's a normal year.

I remember that from the tenth year of Chongzhen, for four consecutive years, at least half of the provinces in the world suffered from floods and droughts every year. In addition to floods and droughts in Henan, Shaanxi and Hebei, there were three years of locust plagues, which affected at least two provinces every year.

This year there are neither locust plagues nor floods and droughts, God is so rare.However, we must be prepared for any danger. While there is food, we should rectify the water conservancy in winter, so that we can overcome the floods and droughts in the coming year. "

When Chen Yuanyuan heard him change the topic, she kept silent. She didn't care much about the general trend of the world, and she didn't know much about the situation in various places.

Among the eight beauties of Qinhuai, Bian Yujing and Gu Mei like to talk about history and understand current affairs the most, followed by Li Xiangjun and Liu Ru.The others don't care about the world.

Li Xiangjun on the side often reads the imperial palace newspapers, and added with a sad look: "Although no floods, droughts and locust disasters have been reported this year, there are plagues in Henan and Hebei. We also have a lot of plagues on our Huguang side and the side near Nanyang."

The 14th year of Chongzhen was the only year in the last eight years of Chongzhen that there was no record of large-scale floods, droughts and locust disasters, and there were every year in the remaining seven years.

But even in such a good harvest year, the plague is inevitable. The [-]th, [-]th, and [-]th years of Chongzhen were all years of plague.

This year, it is estimated that one-third of the population around the capital will be infected. Henan is even worse, with at least half of the population infected.

After a year and a half of silence, from the second half of 16 to the beginning of 17 in Chongzhen, when the epidemic struck again, it directly killed nearly half of the population in the capital. Li Zicheng still had no strength to hold on when he fought there.

However, Shen Shuren is not very afraid of the plague, because he has scientific knowledge, he knows that floods and droughts are irresistible, locust plagues are slightly easier to manage, and the great plague is mainly related to wars. If there are too many people killed and the corpses cannot be buried, of course there will be plagues.

In addition, there were four consecutive years of floods and droughts, so many people died of starvation, and there was no one to bury them, which would also become a source of infection.

The plague that started in Henan this year is obviously related to the previous famine and this year's massacre.The incident in the second half of the 16th year of Chongzhen was related to Li Zicheng's excavation of the Yellow River, which flooded Kaifeng City and created the Yellow River flooding area, and finally spread to most of the North China Plain.

Shen Shuren pondered for a while: "The main source of the plague is caused by the dead people not being dealt with in time. Guard Jianghan, prevent the large-scale flow of diseased refugees from the north to the south, and burn and bury the local war dead and starving dead in time, so it can be controlled.

Alas, it's just one more errand that requires government expenses.If the silver is not enough to spend, you have to find a way to draw it from the lijin.Use this money to organize the soldiers to collect the corpses and burn them. "

Shen Shuren talked indifferently, unable to hear the fluctuations in his tone.

It's not that he doesn't take the dead seriously, but that in his position, he no longer has the energy to pity the dead. It's just a number, and what he has to do is to use scientific methods and management to lower this number.Sensibility doesn't help.

……

Under the banner of an outing, Shen Shuren visited the last township, and had dinner at the home of the largest gentry in Daye County that afternoon.

The surname of this family is Qin, and there is a cousin in the family, Qin Riguang, who works as an official in Wuchang Mansion.Because of the great power of the family, many local officials accompanied the banquet today, even the county magistrate and head secretary of Daye County also came.

The local old patriarch is named Qin Jilie, and his clan owns thousands of hectares of land in Daye. He also helped the government run and manage the Daye Iron Mine for many years, and also ran many iron shops.But Qin Jilie is old, and now his son Qin Rixin is doing the job of helping the government run the iron mine.In the past few years, by helping Zuo Liangyu's army to deal with ordnance, it is said that he has made a lot of money.

Or say that Zuo Liangyu's starting site is actually much better than Shen Shuren's. When he became a warlord, he occupied a state capital with a large iron mine. He didn't need to buy steel from outside to make weapons. He could buy some coking coal and charcoal at most. .

It's a pity that Zuo Liangyu didn't know how to organize production. If such a site had been given to Shen Shuren two years earlier, Shen Shuren's rise would have been even faster.

The Qin family is also a little jealous of the Daotai who is new to power, and they are afraid that the Qin family will be left behind if they are in charge of the affairs of the Daotai.

Especially when they heard that the relationship between Shen Shuren and Zuo Zongzhen was extremely bad.

So this time, the number of reception etiquette is still very comprehensive, the good wine and good food are on the ground.Shen Shuren has recently been making a low-key visit under the guise of sensuality, so of course he would not refuse this kind of entertainment, and he accepted everything as he ordered, acting like a playboy.

But no matter how much he enjoys it, Shen Shuren always has a pinnacle in his heart: he uses engineering and technical talents, and mathematical account management talents, and never asks who the other party has worked for.As long as the other party does good things in the future and does not lie to him, he can continue to use him.

Of course, this treatment is also limited to science and engineering, professional and technical personnel.

Liberal arts bureaucrats must look at their service history, at least those who have been traitors must not be used. Those who have served rogues depend on the situation and what role he has played within the rogues.Anyway, there was no shortage of scholars in the Ming Dynasty. The imperial examinations have been held for hundreds of years. Even if all the traitors are killed, the remaining scholars are enough to be officials.

After a feast of entertainment and serving Shen Shuren comfortably, Liu Minsheng, the magistrate of Daye County, took the lead to help Xiao Shuren, and said good things in front of Shen Shuren:

"Lord Daotai, I heard that you value military equipment more than Zuo Liangyu did. There is Iron Mountain in Daye County, but the most important thing is to prepare military equipment, and maintaining the normal operation of Iron Mountain must not be sloppy.

It happened that you came here today, and the officials and others also took the opportunity to listen to the teachings, knowing how to manage the Daye Iron Mountain in the future, whether to follow the old law, or to carry out some reforms..."

Shen Shuren put down his wine glass and pressed the fan with his fingers, and Liu Zhixian immediately shut up, and he didn't dare to say anything nice.

Shen Shuren swallowed his drink, and said slowly: "I don't have time to worry about Tieshan's affairs right now, the autumn harvest has just finished, and I have been concerned about the matter of persuading farmers.

How is your harvest in Daye County this year? Let me report in detail first.Also, I will promote the planting of corn and potatoes in Daye next year. Has there been any re-arrangement of the floods and droughts in the fields of this county?How much land is suitable for planting those exotics in the coming year?How many seed loans will the local gentry borrow from the government? Can it be calculated? "

Liu Zhixian and Qin Rixin looked at each other, and thought to themselves that Shen Daotai was really greedy. Isn't this the same reason as Wang Anshi's young crop law and forced apportionment of seed loans in the previous dynasty?

If the loan is really given to the poor, I am afraid that they will not be able to repay it at all. In the end, should they give priority to the rich peasants who are actually not so poor and lack food, so that the rich peasants can pay back several times the interest after the autumn harvest?

Fortunately, they are also prepared, know how to please corrupt officials and superiors, and share the fat by themselves.

Under Shen Shuren's questioning, they quickly took out their newly adjusted "Corn and Potato Cultivated Land Area Atlas" for Shen Shuren to look at.

(End of this chapter)