Prime Minister

Chapter 500
There is no idle land outside Bianjing.

This is well-known, Zhang Yue went to Nandi personally before he was dismissed from office, and besides finding out that the deceased aunt of the official family had also bought thousands of acres of land in Nandi, he also saw that there were Zhuangtian all over the place.The land here has long been bought by rich and powerful families, and then hired a large number of farmers to cultivate it.

The agrarian economy has always been about self-sufficiency.

Ordinary people also eat food from their own land, and the same is true for the rich and noble families in Bianjing City, who pay attention to food grown on their own land and silk from their own mulberry farmers Silk and satin.

If you go to the market to buy food or ready-made clothes, you will fall into the lower class, and you may be regarded as a nouveau riche or a poor family who has just escaped poverty and become an official.

All in all, this is a dividing line between New money and Old money.

For the Wu family, self is also the category of old money.

The Zhang family also has food and clothing provided by Shiqi Niang's farm.

Yuetai in Junyi County, the western suburb of Bianjing City, was considered to be in the world during Tang Xuanzong's time, and the dowry field of Shiqi Niang was bought in Junyi County.

When Zhang Yue's family came out of the hill and looked down, they saw that it was a big mansion.

But I saw that the courtyard was surrounded by earth walls about two people high, and there were hope towers at the four corners. There were hundreds of willow trees planted outside the courtyard.

Zhuangzi is backed by a mountain, not far from the official road, surrounded by streams.

There are about a hundred servants inside and outside the manor house, many of them are herding cattle and sheep by the hillside, ducks and geese are flocking by the stream, and in the wheat threshing ground in the manor, the makers are busy drying wheat.

Seeing this scene, Zhang Yue couldn't help smiling at Seventeen Niang: "My lady's house still has such a good place to go, if I knew it earlier, I wouldn't be an official here."

Seventeen Niang rubbed her son and said with a smile: "Hey, the official said something wrong. It's not my wife's house, it's ours."

Zhang Yue smiled and lamented that he had finally lived a rural life.

When they arrived at the field, Seventeen Niang sent someone in to report, and when he was half a mile away from Zhuangzi, Zhuangtou came up to greet him with several village guests.

Zhang Yue knew that Shi Qi Niang would inspect her family's Zhuangtian shop every year. According to her words, she should not be overly suspicious of the managers below, but she should not delegate power and not supervise, otherwise even the kindest people would have different opinions.

After hearing this, Zhang Yue took it for granted. As big as a court, as small as a family, many things are interlinked.

The head of the farm is surnamed He, about fifty, followed by his two sons, it can be seen that they are sweating just after working in the field, seeing this scene, Zhang Yue has a good impression of the three of them .

During the New Year's Eve, He Zhuangtou also visited Zhangyue Shiqiniang with special products from the ledger field, so it was not the first time they met.

After entering Zhuangzi, there were tea and food served. Zhang Yue and He Zhuangtou searched for Zhuangzi, but they were pleased when they saw that there was a mountain stream behind Zhuangzi and willows in front of it.

Zhang Yue said to He Zhuangtou, "Where is Zhuangzi's clean place?"

"A clean place?" He Zhuang looked confused.

Zhang Yue said: "A place where I can study with peace of mind."

He Zhuangtou suddenly said: "The master wants to study, this village has a few houses to clean, but the village is a bit noisy with people coming and going, if you want a clean place, you can find it behind the mountain." There is a temple, it's just some distance."

Zhang Yue nodded and said, "It's not far away."

That night, the farmer killed a sheep and gave Zhang Yue some chickens and ducks to wash away the dust, so the family settled down in Zhuangzi.

After resting all night, Zhang Yue asked He Zhuangtou to go to the temple.

This temple is called Xishan Temple. It is said that Li Chunfeng also stayed here when he measured the mountains in Yuetai.

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Zhang Yue went up the mountain together with He Zhuangtou and Tang Jiu.

The mountain is not high, but it has a wide range, and there are many shade trees for shade. Far from being a barren scene on the outskirts of Bianjing, the only trees are almost all chopped down for firewood.

There are few people in this place, and there are many wild animals in it.

After walking Moyue Wuli Mountain Road, Zhang Yue arrived at Xishan Temple.

He calculated that the distance to Zhuangzi was indeed a bit far away, but walking ten miles back and forth on the mountain road every day can not only enjoy the scenery but also keep fit, but he doesn't know if there are bandits and ferocious beasts.

Xishan Temple is a small temple, and there are no incense offerings on weekdays. Three old monks live in the temple, and they take turns to carry water from the mountain spring at the foot of the mountain to drink every day.

Zhang Yue gave a sling of incense money, saying that he was just a failed candidate, and proposed to borrow a monk's house here for his daily reading.

The old monks were familiar with He Zhuangtou, and seeing that Zhang Yue was kind, they were about to agree, but the oldest old monk stopped him.

The oldest old monk asked Zhang Yue: "You said you are a scholar, I need to test you."

Zhang Yue said: "Master, please tell me!"

The old monk said: "Since the benefactor is a scholar, how can we know what is the greatest in the world?"

Zhang Yue smiled and saw a natto tree outside the temple, so he said, "The natto is the biggest?"

The old monk couldn't help being taken aback, another old monk said: "Brother, last year there was a benefactor who was also a scholar, and he came here to say the most reasonable thing in the world."

The old monk who just asked the question nodded and said, "That's right, this benefactor is wrong."

Zhang Yue said with a smile: "What is wrong, the truth lies in the heart, the heart lies in the heart, Naizi is rich and broad-minded, so Naizi is the biggest."

As soon as Zhang Yue said this, the three old monks all admired him endlessly.

The third old monk said: "The benefactor's reasoning is very good. If you really have the ability, it seems that given time, you will be able to be admitted to Jinshi."

He Zhuangtou couldn't help being amused, Zhang Yue glanced at Hezhuangtou, and said to the old monk: "Why do you say that, what does it matter if I pass the examination or not?"

The three of them were a little embarrassed, and the old monk who asked the question before said: "Ashamed, ashamed, if the benefactor is admitted to the Jinshi, I will wait to publicize the fact that the benefactor is studying here, and more scholars will come to the temple in the future, so the incense money will be less too much."

After hearing this, both Zhang Yue and He Zhuang laughed loudly.

Zhang Yue cupped his hands and said: "Since that's the case, then I must study hard and live up to the expectations of the three masters."

The three old monks were all happy and said, "That's good."

The three old monks each had a monk's room, and the next one vacated the room for Zhang Yue to live in, and he lived with the other monk.

Now Zhang Yue has a place to stay in the temple.

After getting settled, Zhang Yue got up every morning and had breakfast at Zhuangzi, then walked the mountain road with Tang Jiu to Xishan Temple.

Tang Jiu held a whistle stick in front of him, drinking while walking, while Zhang Yue looked at the scenery in the mountains and forests, and remembered the days when he trekked up the mountain with Guo Lin to study at Nanfeng Temple.

Although I was suffering at that time, but thinking about it now, it is the happiest and most comfortable day for me.

When they arrived at Xishan Temple, the old monks made tea for Zhang Yue.

The tea is camellia, and the water is mountain spring. Although it is very rough, it does not have the roughness of the mountains and forests. It is a bit bitter at the beginning, but it can be sweet after a long time.

The same is true for people. In the past, as a court official, it could be said that he was well-clothed and well-fed, but eating too many delicacies from mountains and seas made his mouth feel like chewing wax.

But now that there is no official and a light body, such a rough camellia actually feels a taste in it.

Zhang Yue takes a few books to the temple every day to read and cultivate inspiration. At noon (around 11 o'clock), he eats a bowl of plain noodles cooked by the old monk with bamboo shoots and mushrooms, and then goes to bed early before 12 o'clock. Take a nap, and get up at about two or three o'clock to write a book.

Writing a book is nothing else but my experience in managing government affairs for officials in the past three years.

This is an economics book like The Wealth of Nations.

Strange to say, from ancient times to the present Confucianism has produced an endless stream of books on the study of Confucian classics, and it can be said that it has come to an end in the study of personnel metabolism and renewal, but only rarely has it been mentioned in economics.

For example, the book of Guanzi mentioned some, but there is no scope system statement.

But the reason is also very simple, that is, the feudal dynasty emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, and Confucianism emphasized righteousness over profit.

Therefore, when I talked about the impossible triangle with Han Qi and Zeng Gongliang, and the relationship between quantity and price with Wang Anshi, and the theory of dividing wages, profits, and land rent into three classes, the most outstanding elites of this era were also shocked.

In fact, there are laws to be found in the rise and fall of dynasties. For example, the problem faced by the Song Dynasty was "the profit has been dredged".

To put it bluntly, the cake is only that big, and people don't know how to make it bigger, and the sharing of the cake has touched the interests of the class, and it will hurt the muscles and bones.

The common people are burdened with heavy taxes, and the imperial court can no longer distribute taxes to the people, but the country's finances have been losing money. What should we do?
How should the road of this country go in the future?
When Zhang Yue wrote these things, he didn’t rush to give a solution, because it was easy to be attacked by others. He just summed up what he had seen and heard since he was an official. At the same time, he talked about economics in a concise and concise way. Monetization of banknotes, stock exchange and stock exchange.

Zhang Yue still wrote articles with his own writing style and thorough reasoning, relics of how to combine his later knowledge with the actual situation of the Song Dynasty.

Knowing the past but not the present is called sinking; knowing the present but not the past is called blindness.This sentence has another meaning for Zhang Yue, the traveler. If you only know how to use today's methods to get the ancient rote, you are blind. You only know how to stick to the rules of the ancients, but give up the advanced thinking of today's people. sinking.

Therefore, Zhang Yue must find a way to combine the two together, and finally achieve seeking truth from facts.

Therefore, he wrote very cautiously, constantly deleting some concepts, sometimes reading and reading, without writing for two or three days, and finally fell on paper with words that had been simplified thousands of times.

This is also to read more and write less.

Two or three hours after Zhang Yue wrote the book, around four or five o'clock, he and Tang Jiu went down the mountain and returned to Zhuangzi to have a meal with his wife and children.

Sometimes when the snow is heavy, Zhang Yue simply spends the night in the temple.

Hearing the whistling north wind and the cries of night owls in the forest, Zhang Yue lit a lonely lamp and sat alone in the monk's room, wandering between the past and the present, trying his best to search up and down. In the current hopeless predicament, find a general direction.

…………

Sometimes Zhang Yue just sat like this all night, and fell asleep at his desk when he was so tired. Before he knew it, another night of wind and snow hit him.

Autumn and winter are fleeting, and in the blink of an eye it will be the third year of Zhiping.

(End of this chapter)