Kingdom of Heaven and Han

Chapter 263 Leisure Time
Wang Xiaolie walked slowly under the willow tree with his hands behind his back and a twig.Seeing a small hole in the ground, I gently dig it out with a branch, and the hole becomes bigger.Inside there is an earweed, dancing with two large pincers, tightly guarding the entrance of the cave.Ge Erlang strode up and stretched his hand into the hole.When the locust caught his finger, he shrank, and the locust was pulled out.

Holding it in his hand happily, Ge Erlang said: "I heard from Sun Wulang that this food is extremely delicious. I didn't even know it before!"

Wang Xiao said: "This food is delicious. Since ancient times, people have been used to eating it. In ancient times, there was a sage named Zhuang Zhou. He wrote a book called "Zhuangzi". There is a story in it. It is said that it is the sage Confucius When I arrived in Chu State, I saw an old man who caught cicadas with a bamboo pole, as if he was picking up something on the ground. I have practiced this skill hard. At the beginning, I put two round balls on the bamboo pole. If they don’t fall off, I will be very accurate in catching beetles. Then I increased it to three round balls, and practiced until I reached five round balls. It's almost impossible to miss."

Ge Erlang said: "This old man has great perseverance! This matter is difficult to practice, I don't have the patience!"

Wang Xiaolie laughed and said, "It's not just you who don't, how many people in this world do! Confucius probably never saw this old man, and Zhuangzi just wrote such a story. It shows that if a person can concentrate and concentrate, What amazing things can be done.”

Ge Erlang curled his lips: "These sages, why can't they speak well? They just want to make up these stories!"

Wang Xiaolie said: "Because of making up these stories, no matter who they are, they are attracted by the stories and love to read their books. When they grow up, they have more knowledge and understand the meaning, and they only feel that the sages are amazing."

Ge Erlang shook his head, turned around and looked down at the ground with Sun Wulang.

It has just rained, and the ground is wet and easy to loosen the soil, which is the time for the cicadas to emerge.However, Sun Wulang and Ge Erlang were inexperienced, and from time to time they regarded the nests of various insects such as ant nests as cicada nests, and they could not catch one for a long time.On the contrary, Wang Xiao kept his mind calm, stretched out the twig in his hand, and pried open the hole, there must be a cicada in it.

Cicadas are also called katydids, and they were called so in most areas in the Song Dynasty.Later, the dialects of various places were transferred, and a large number of names with similar pronunciations appeared.Such as Ji Niao, Ji Le, Ji Liu, Jie Liu, and even Cicada may also be transliterated, a large number of words with such pronunciation.

Of course, the ancients ate cicadas. There are many records in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.But in later generations, except for some areas, most places do not eat it.The reason is unclear, maybe later generations think that cicada eats wind and drinks dew, and has a noble temperament.The best time to eat, of course, is when it has just crawled out of the soil and has not yet shed its skin.Deep-fried, with some salt and pepper, it is extremely delicious.Cicadas after hatching are actually delicious, but they can only eat two pieces of meat on the back, and other places such as the stomach have to be thrown away.

The officials were discussing the next policy in the hall, and Wang Xiaolie wandered around in the mountains.Seeing many cicada holes under the big willow tree, I brought Sun Wulang and Ge Erlang together to catch them today.

Looking at the sunset on the west mountain, Wang Xiao said: "I caught a lot, enough for today. Let's go, let's go back."

After speaking, he took the two children and walked to the residence.When I arrived at the residence, I ordered the chef to clean it up, deep-fried it, and made it a snack.

Sitting under the pomegranate tree, Wang Xiaolie said to Sun Wulang: "It's been two years since I met you on the road when I went to Caizhou to buy grain. It's a pity that the young man's life was hard to come by. He lost his life before he grew up. Alas. , things in the world are really hard to say."

Sun Wulang said: "If it weren't for the observation, of course we would be dead. It is always good to live a few more years."

"It's always good to live a few more years." Wang Xiaolie raised his head, looked at the sunset in the sky, and chewed on these words.In troubled times, the demands of the people are only so low.Years of war, how many people lost their lives?Even the living do not dare to have any extravagant hopes for life.

Ge Erlang said: "The northern part of the Yellow River is actually even worse. In our villages, there are not one out of ten people, and many villages have no living people. If the observation team hadn't moved us to the south, I'm afraid we wouldn't have survived for a few years."

Looking at the two, Wang Xiaolie didn't know what to say for a while.In today's troubled times, Xiangyang has a stable society and has become a paradise instead.

After being silent for a while, Wang Xiao said: "This area is the manor of the government, which is used to grow north and south and crops. Many people who moved here were resettled here, forming a village. I remember that there are hundreds of households in this village. How about setting up schools, businesses, and restaurants?"

Ge Erlang said: "Yes, there are. All children in the village have to go to school for three years. It is said that they must learn [-] characters and also learn arithmetic. I have studied in school for several months. I also know one or two hundred characters."

Wang Xiaolie said: "One or two hundred characters is not enough. If you can't read the article, you will lose interest in learning to read."

Ge Erlang said: "I heard from my master that learning characters is slow at the beginning, but you will get up quickly later. However, it is not easy for the government to learn [-] characters in three years. The first ones who entered the school have already been a year and a half. Twelve out of a thousand characters. No matter how hard other people learn, they will not be able to learn more characters. I heard from my master that many people will not be able to learn [-] characters in three years."

Wang Xiaolie nodded: "This kind of thing must be difficult at the beginning. You can learn more than a thousand characters now, and you can roughly understand the letters. It will be much easier when you have children. At that time, the government If you have money, you can let your children study for five years."

Ge Erlang curled his lips: "In my opinion, many people only know how to play. No matter how long the time is, they won't be able to learn more characters."

Wang Xiaolie smiled: "You have to know that if people can learn something, the entire human society will also grow. It is difficult for you to learn now, but it may not be so in the next generation. People at that time might think that fifteen hundred There are too few words."

Ge Erlang and Sun Wulang shook their heads together.how is this possible?It is difficult for children in school to learn how to read and write.

This kind of thing is indistinguishable, and Wang Xiaolie is too lazy to talk about it.Without real experience, people always look at things from a linear perspective, and human society does not develop linearly.Just like in previous lives, although most of the people born in the 70s and 90s have gone to school, many of them cannot know a thousand words, and they can only do simple four arithmetic operations in mathematics.By the 00s and [-]s, most people could read and have basic math knowledge.And people born after [-] have almost no illiteracy.

Learning is easier, not only the influence of parents, but also the improvement of educational conditions, and the development of society.Children have played with mobile phones since elementary school, read various books, watched movies and TV, and the environment is different.Illiterate and barely able to walk.

When the children of Sun Wulang and Ge Erlang go to school, after 20 years of development, the society will definitely be different.There were more books, more places in life to be literate, and more literate people.

Wang Xiaolie said: "In the village, apart from going to school, how do you usually live?"

Ge Erlang said: "Daddy Xiao, who cooks on the road, also lives in this village now. He cooks for the village and does other chores. Wulang and I live with Father Xiao. Father Xiao is not married. We are a family."

Wang Xiaolie nodded.I vaguely remember that when I met Ge Erlang, the cook was called Xiao San, but he came here without knowing it.This place is different from ordinary villages. It is actually the property of the government, and the villagers are also regarded as employees of the yamen.

Wang Xiaolie said: "You have been in the village for several months, what's new?"

Ge Erlang said: "I grew up in the north since I was a child. When I came here, I saw many rare things. For example, citrus, yellow orange, loquat, bamboo shoots, etc., are all new. There is a lot of water here, and there are all kinds of things. Fish. By the way, the neck-necked bream is the most delicious."

Speaking of this, Ge Erlang said again: "There is more, there is more. At the beginning of the year, some sugar cane was brought from Yicheng County to the village and planted, and now it is big. I heard that this thing is the sweetest, but it is a pity that it is too small now. Can't eat it."

Wang Xiaolie's heart skipped a beat, but he forgot about sugar cane, a cash crop.

Sugar cane can be grown in many places in the south, and it is warmer than later generations, and it is the same in Xiangyang.It’s just that at this time, it’s not as good as in the Tang Dynasty. Xiangyang only has Yicheng and other places to the south, where there are mountains to block the cold current, and sugarcane can still grow normally.However, the sugarcane here is far less sweet than Mingzhou, Sichuan, Panyu and other places rich in sugarcane.Not used to extract sugar, but just eaten as fruit.

So what if it's not sweet enough?Sugar in this era is too expensive, the cost is higher, and it is also a profitable business.

Wang Xiaolie set up a manor here, the main purpose is to introduce north and south crops.Xiangyang is located in the middle of the north and the south, and the crops in the south can grow, as can the crops in the north.After planting here, some crops from the south can be planted to the north, and crops from the north can be planted to the south.

Not long after, the katydids were fried and served.Wang Xiaolie said: "This is a delicacy, but it's a pity that it can't be used as a staple food. You all come over and taste it. Later, when you are free, you can grab some and count it as a pastime."

Ge Erlang stepped forward and took one in his mouth.Praise: "It really tastes good!"

Wang Xiaolie smiled.This child has not eaten many good things, as long as there is some taste, he will praise it.

After eating for a while, Ge Erlang washed himself with water.Asked: "Observe, the officials over there are discussing lively, why are you so leisurely?"

Wang Xiaolie said: "Because I don't need to discuss with them, naturally I am free."

Ge Erlang didn't know if he understood, so he went to the side to play with Sun Wulang.

Why not join the discussion?What did Wang Xiaolie go to talk about?As long as he grasps the general direction, other things will naturally be handled by his subordinates.The specific situation is not clear, so how to govern is naturally not easy to interfere.For Wang Xiaolie, as long as he firmly grasps the army, political affairs can naturally be handled by his subordinates.After training, these officials can grow up.

(End of this chapter)