national surname chiming

Chapter 24 Completely revitalize the stock resources
It was the third day after Zhang Xuezeng visited Dongjia Embroidery Village in Kunshan.

In the Yamen of Susong River Road, Cao Zhende, who is also responsible for managing the river and supervising grain, has been living a really leisurely life recently, and he has completely lost the anxiety and busyness that should have been at this time in previous years.

According to the old system of the Ming Dynasty, after the autumn grain was put into storage in September, October was the key stage of grain collection. What's more, this year the imperial court added a new "training salary".

But a memorial from Yang Gelao, the governor of the six provinces, asked the emperor to postpone the transportation of grain to the north, and to transport the first batch of tax grain from the Jiangnan area to the front line of Anlu to supply military supplies.

Cao Zhende was relieved by this order, and he soon discovered that the newly recruited officials this year worked very hard in order not to make mistakes, which further reduced the pressure on the superiors.

Zhu Dadian, Cao Zhende's immediate boss, even sent a special letter to ask him to take care of one of his new subordinates named Shen Shuren. He must do business and check his business accounts with a magnifying glass.

In this way, Cao Zhende became more calm, and he was not in a hurry to rush things that he should use his energy to come forward in previous years.

He knew that even if there was a slight delay, Zhu Dadian would help him out.As long as all the mistakes are made by Shen Shuren, it will be regarded as a great contribution to Governor Zhu.

……

"After eating crab powder and tofu, the emperor is not as good as me."

Now it was lunch time again, Cao Zhende, who lived a good life, was hiding in the back hall alone, and there was no maid to serve him.

There is only a casserole charcoal stove in front of it, bubbling and bubbling, and the stewed tofu with crab powder and crab roe is tumbling in the pot, and boneless Taihu whitebait is also sprinkled.

After eating such delicacies and drinking Kuaiji rice wine, Cao Zhende couldn't help moaning in a low voice, and had an illusion of the current situation in his heart.

How can the people's life this year be as sad as it is said outside!

According to the servant who bought the vegetables, the price of fish in Suzhou has dropped a little recently, and it is not much higher than the price of white rice.

Hairy crabs, which have less meat and are less edible, have plummeted to slightly lower than white rice—white rice costs three or four renminbi a stone, hairy crabs are only two cents more than a catty, and a hundred catties are only more than two taels.Grass carp still costs three cents and five cents a catty.

Cao Zhende is not a native of Suzhou, he came from other places to make money.He has been eating habits since he was a child, and he doesn't like eating hairy crabs either.

But Suzhou was the fashion benchmark of the Ming Dynasty. Over the years, he has completely fallen, and he wants to flaunt the "Suzhou way of life" more than the locals. You must eat tofu with fried crab powder.

Cao Zhende was so full of wine and food that one of his masters suddenly rushed in and whispered some news:
"My lord, tomorrow the Zhangfutai will host a banquet for the gentry from various counties, as well as people from various yamen related to our river and water transportation. They say that some measures to benefit the people need to be promoted, and everyone is encouraged to work together to tide over the difficulties."

Cao Zhende was picking his teeth with the tip of a crab leg. He heard that Zhang Xuezeng wanted to persuade farmers to encourage them to speed up tax payment and grain payment, but he didn't know what to do.

"Forget it, let's go and listen to it. Anyway, it's a matter within our authority. If someone is willing to help, I'm happy to be free." Cao Zhende threw the crab legs away and told the master to prepare by himself.

……

The next morning, Cao Zhende went to Zhang Xuezeng's appointment with other gentry and officials.And the place where Zhang Xuezeng hosted the banquet was still at the Dong Family Embroidery Village in Kunshan.

This is the site of Shen Shuren's various technological innovation pilots, and many measures are more convenient to display.

After the guests arrived, Zhang Xuezeng just said a few words on the scene, and then went straight to the topic:
"Everyone, everyone should know about the severe drought in Zhejiang this year. It is well known that in my Susonghu three prefectures, there are many kinds of cotton and mulberry, clothes and quilts in the world, and it is difficult to support myself in food rations.

Everyone is invited to come today because Shen Shuren Shen Dianli of the Susong River Road Yamen has come up with some ways to improve the self-sufficiency of food rations in Su and Lake according to local conditions, and is willing to donate them for your reference.

The government has personally inspected it for several days and found that it is indeed effective.Although the current output is not much, as long as it is popularized, it can quickly restore the confidence of the people.

You should have also seen that the more than [-] hectares of mulberry gardens around this Dongjia embroidery village were all adapted to local conditions, using the natural harbor branches and wetlands of Yangcheng Lake, and the weirs were shallow and deep, and rectified into rows of fish ponds, with dams at both ends. water, easy to harvest.

Each mu of mulberry forest can produce an additional [-] catties of fish every year, and the water and fertilizer of mulberry trees are also better. It is said that the output of mulberry leaves can increase instead of decrease.Everyone who wants to learn, Shen Dianli's family will send someone to give advice, and the government will also report this good law to ask for credit for Shen Dianli, so that it can be promoted to Huzhou next door. "

After Zhang Xuezeng finished speaking, the local gentry officials were quite surprised, and everyone didn't dare to believe it directly at first, so they learned to observe it.

Shen Shuren also asked people to dig a few more cofferdams for fish ponds, as a demonstration.Everyone saw that there were indeed a lot of fish in it, and they were all amazed when they heard that they could take shape after only two months of breeding.

Although Suzhou people are not short of fish, the fish in the Yangtze River and Taihu Lake have to be caught after all.You can directly put water in the ditch of your own mulberry garden, but it is much more stable than relying on the sky to eat.

More importantly, many people have already thought that now that the winter is coming, silkworm farmers have nothing to do, and they just use their spare labor to dig ditches, pile up ridges, and reorganize the fields, so that they can produce more fish in winter. This is for nothing. extra harvest.

For Shen Shuren, agricultural engineering experience was not protected by law in the Ming Dynasty, and he could not apply for patents, so he might as well take it out and buy a good reputation.Zhang Xuezeng's truthful request for credit might give Yang Sichang an excuse to help Shen Shuren get promoted quickly.

Among the inspectors, Cao Zhende was the most shocked.

At this moment, his mind is clear: no wonder the servant who bought vegetables recently told him that the price of fish has fallen every day, and hairy crabs are even cheaper than white rice. It turns out that a new source of supply has been added.

Cao Zhende thought to himself like this, but he didn't know that his idea was another trick.

The current pilot area of ​​the Shen family does not have that much energy and output at all.In the past few days, the Shen family just organized to win over a group of fishermen, and secretly gave them subsidies to let them ship at low prices to lower the market.

Anyway, fresh fish has a short shelf life, and I'm not afraid that others will buy it at a low price and hoard it to play with the opponent's game. If you want to temporarily lower the price, you can definitely keep it down.

To put it bluntly, Shen Shuren's move is definitely an illegal operation in future generations, and will be subject to anti-unfair competition investigations just like Bing Xixi's illegal subsidies.

But who made the Ming Dynasty not have the "Anti-Unfair Competition Law"?Relying on illegal subsidies to set off smoke bombs to create market panic, no one cares at all.

After a series of external moves, coupled with Zhang Xuezeng's high-profile announcement today, the melon eaters who don't know the truth thought that Shen Shu's new technology had been secretly suppressed for a long time, and it had been promoted thousands of times. The goods will have such great power.

The gentry looked at each other in blank dismay, Zhang Xuezeng saw that his rhetoric was effective, so he quickly took the opportunity to add fire:

"Everyone, with so much extra supply in Suhu and Lake out of thin air, the price of food will definitely not rise in the future. If you have a lot of food in stock, you can pay the tax in time and save some trouble for the court. Naturally, the government will not treat you badly. When the price of food drops a bit, you can buy some and save it, wouldn’t it be the best of both worlds?"

Soon, a few wealthy gentry who were willing to compromise let go. Anyway, they were not at a loss, so they just sold out the favor of the prefect and the Shen family.

Shen Shuren didn't have a chance to speak at first, so he also jumped out at this time. After obtaining Zhang Xuezeng's authorization, he announced a request:
"Everyone, we are all locals and know the basics. I will not hide some words. According to the law of the court, the grain chiefs of the counties and townships should deliver the grain and military grain at the water warehouses of the counties. .

However, the times have changed. At that time, there were more than [-] hectares of local rice fields in Suzhou, and the grain was harvested from everyone's fields. The food was delivered at the water sub-warehouses in various counties, which saved everyone's labor of transshipment and loading.

Nowadays, the grain handed over by the counties in Suzhou is, to put it bluntly, bought from other places. Some are unloaded from Liujiagang, Taicang, and some are unloaded from Wujiangkou, Taihu Lake, and transported to the Shuicangkou of each county. Afterwards, it is necessary to reload the ship and concentrate, or take the canal.

Since the beginning of this year, there has been a severe drought in Zhejiang, and the grain ships that traveled from the Jiangnan River to the mouth of Wujiang almost disappeared. They were all large ships that came from southern Zhejiang to the East China Sea.Let's save a little trouble and allow all counties to go directly to Liujiagang, Taicang for unified delivery. What do you think? "

Shen Shuren's words are easy to confuse those who don't engage in water transportation at first, but a little explanation will make it clear: in the past, when buying grain, there were big ships and small boats. The big ships went along the coast, and the small boats went to the Jiangnan section of the Grand Canal.

When Caoliang went north, they also took the Yangtze River to Yangzhou, and some took the canal to Zhenjiang and then crossed the river. Now Shen Shuren asked them to unify and not take the canal.

After Shen Shuren finished speaking, the gentry in the counties were even more shaken.If the delivery is centralized, they will also save some trouble, and they can hire fewer dock workers to load and unload, which is a win-win and mutual benefit.

Only Cao Zhende, who was on the side, couldn't bear it after hearing this.He had already fully understood what would happen to Shen Shuren's series of tricks—Zhu Dadian wanted to frame Shen's family to make false accounts on transportation costs, and the biggest room for maneuver was in the dock loading and unloading fees!

If more than half of this part of the money is saved, maybe Shen Shuren will really be able to transport grain to the front line of Luzhou by only relying on "one cent and three cents per stone" to cross the river bank!

The task Governor Zhu entrusted him with to frame the Shen family failed completely!
"Wait a minute! Shen Lin, you are only an eighth-rank official in Hedao Yamen. In your eyes, do you have any superiors and court laws? Since Chenghua, the imperial court has implemented the long-term transportation method, and the delivery is at the mouth of the Shuici warehouse in each county. How dare you change the law without permission?"

Now that Shen Shuren has reached this stage, he will not be used to Cao Zhende.

Although the other party was fourth rank and he was only eighth rank, he did this for the sake of not delaying Yang Sichang's front-line military rations. He believed that as long as he did not falsify his finances, Yang Sichang would definitely help him with these flexible implementation methods.

And he won't work under Cao Zhende for long. By the end of the year, he will be promoted and leave after completing this year's military ration and water transportation errands.

He was not polite: "The subordinates dare not look down on the superior! It's just that Mr. Yang Ge is in urgent need of military rations in Anlu. I suggest this, and it is also to speed up the turnover. The military situation is like a fire.

If you ask for instructions, please forgive me!Then I will ask for instructions now. I wonder if Taiwan will approve it? "

Cao Zhende was so angry that his forehead was about to smoke, but at this time Zhang Xuezeng came out to smooth things over: "Brother Cao Xian, Xiao Shen is also eager for success. For the sake of state affairs, if there are some poor procedures and disrespect, you should treat me as a face. You I don't want Mr. Yang Ge to wait too long."

Cao Zhende's level is not as good as Zhang Xuezeng's, and he is still the top leader in the local area, so he can only bear it helplessly.

Zhang Xuezeng didn't give the other party a chance to breathe, and quickly continued with a set of combined moves: "Then this matter is settled, and the government will not hesitate to tell everyone that those who are willing to cooperate with Shen Dianli and deliver grain and military rations as soon as possible, There will be other rewards.

Shen Dianli has made a lot of achievements in craftsmanship. He once studied Xu Ge's "Nongzheng Quanshu" and Song Changgeng's "Tiangong Kaiwu". He can teach everyone the method of increasing production, not just this mulberry fish pond. one move.Whoever is diligent in state affairs will be taught first. "

With Zhang Xuezeng's official guarantee, under such tugging, the local gentry in Susong turned their backs one after another, all looking forward to cooperating with the Shen family.

If the Shen family can come up with top-secret dry goods, they absolutely believe it.Who told the Shen family to be the richest man in Suzhou, how could it be possible that they didn't have some secret tricks to make money and tricks.

(End of this chapter)