Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 755 Reach Kunzhou
The next day, after Fan Ning participated in the brief but enthusiastic opening ceremony of Jingxian County, he went to Kunzhou with Zhao Qin, the prefect of Kunzhou.

Before leaving, Fan Ning said to Luo Ning, the first magistrate: "For Jing County, the significance of its existence is far greater than its contribution to the imperial court. Of course, Jingzhou has abundant resources, such as red pine, amber wood and even golden sand. The honey here is very rich, and the honey here is also good. You can even make pine nut mead, which will definitely sell for a good price in the capital. In a word, Jingzhou has a long winter and a cold climate. If you can make the people live and work in peace, then you A very capable county magistrate, I told the officials before that if the people in Jingzhou and Kunzhou can live and work in peace and contentment, that is the best evaluation of the county magistrate, do you understand?"

Luo Ning bowed and said, "Thank you for your Highness's instruction. I know how to be a qualified county magistrate. I will definitely live up to Your Highness's expectations and let the people live and work in peace and contentment!"

Fan Ning waved goodbye to Meng Wu and other people who saw him off one by one, and then boarded the big ship. The big ship started the steam engine, let out a long cry, and followed the official ship of the prefect of Kunzhou to Kunzhou. This time there were two Kun people Walking with Fan Ning, they really went to the distant Chu State to experience the exotic climate and environment.

The steamship was very fast, and arrived in Han County a day later. Now it is the prefecture of Kunzhou, with a population of [-] households, and it is a thriving city.

The jurisdiction of Kunzhou Prefecture includes Kunzhou Main Island, Akita City, Whale Island and the outer archipelago. At present, Kunzhou has a total population of 30 households, a population of about 3000, and a garrison of 5000 people. With [-] garrisons, the garrison in Kunzhou Prefecture will reach [-] people.

Another [-] Japanese laborers were responsible for mining, logging and gold mining all year round.

"At present, Kunzhou is still mainly engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, breeding and mining. The agriculture is Han County, Wei County and Tang County. The Jin County in the north is animal husbandry, with more than 500 million sheep. The Kunnan Peninsula in the south Qi County is mainly for logging and pearl cultivation, and Jing County is also mainly for logging.”

The prefect Zhao Qin and Fan Ning took the same boat and introduced him to the situation in Kunzhou along the way.

"At present, Kunzhou produces 420 million shi of wheat and one million shi of rice every year. Except for its own use, the other 200 million shi of grain are exported to the capital. Every year, 50 sheep, 700 cattle, 50 million taels of silver, 200 taels of gold, 70 million catties of copper, and [-] catties of sulfur. The horse breeding is directly managed by the imperial court. We don’t know the details, but the ponies are ours, and [-] horses are transported from Akita to the capital every year.”

"How's the situation in Akita?"

"It should be fairly stable! Several large silver mountains in Akita, we and the Fujiwara family jointly mine, according to the distribution of 15, we get 10,000, the Fujiwara family gets 500, the Japanese imperial family gets [-], [-] miners are provided by them, But we are responsible for the food, lodging and wages of the [-]+ miners, and the rice produced in Akita is basically consumed by the miners, but we can get back [-] million taels of silver from Akita every year.”

Fanning nodded, "This agreement is fairly fair."

"It is precisely because everyone is beneficial, so the cooperation is very stable. There will be no changes for one or two hundred years, but the silver mines should also be exhausted by then, and we can return Akita to Japan."

Fan Ning asked again with a smile: "Just now I heard you mention Qi County, how does Qi County grow pearls?"

"Your Highness does not know that the Kunnan Peninsula is completely covered by forests, and there are only a few flat lands along the coast, so the population of Qi County is only slightly larger than that of Jin County, but the sea area of ​​Kunnan Peninsula is rich in high-quality pearls. We are afraid of exhausting the lake and fishing. , so on the one hand, pearls are collected, and on the other hand, pearls are cultivated artificially.”

"How to pick, do you want to dive into the bottom of the sea?"

"Yes! Japan has special female pearl hunters, so we will recruit them to pick them."

"Since picking pearls is to recruit pearl-digging girls, what are the people of Qi County doing?"

"They are in charge of artificially cultivating pearls. First, they cultivate small shellfish, and then put them into the shallow sea. After a few years, they will be able to harvest pearls. Then they will polish the pearls with a grinding wheel, and then drill holes and inlay them. Pearl ornaments in Qi County are sold in the capital. It's very popular, it's called Kunzhu, even the Queen and Queen Mother wear it, of course, what the Queen Mother and Queen wear is the best natural sea pearl, we call it the best Kunzhu, and one piece is worth thousands of guan."

Fan Ning was very interested in what he said, and he asked, "Is there a pier in Qi County?"

"Of course, is your Highness going to take a look?"

Fan Ning nodded, "Let's go to Qi County first!"

The weather was fine, and the fleet was sailing through the waves, and there was a black line in the distance, which was the Kunnan Peninsula.

At this time, there were several small boats of [-] shi on the sea, with a black flag planted on them. Zhao Tan pointed to the small boats and said, "That is a pearl fishing boat, and each boat has more than a dozen pearl fishing girls."

"Let's lean up and have a look."

Zhao Qin suddenly showed embarrassment, and said falteringly: "Your Highness, let's go ashore and see! It's a bit inconvenient now."

"What's inconvenient?" Fanning was puzzled for a moment.

Zhao Qin said with embarrassment: "Now the pearl divers are all naked, and there are no men on board. We went wrong."

Fanning chuckled, "Is this their custom?"

Zhao Qin nodded, "When I first heard about it, I thought they were indecent, but the Japanese officials who sent them here said that this is their custom. They can't wear clothes when they are fishing for pearls, but they will put on clothes when they come back from fishing. So I specifically ordered that when the pearl fishers go into the sea, the fishing boats must not disturb her."

"Then don't bother them."

The fleet sailed far away from the pearl fishing boat, and there happened to be a few pearl fishing girls boarding the boat from the sea. They were all dark and fit, but they really didn't wear clothes. Fan Ning's followers heard that there were women who didn't wear clothes. They ran out of the cabin one after another to see the surprise, but it was a pity that all the pearl divers hid in the cabin, and they didn't see anything.

"How do they earn?" Fanning asked again.

"Their income is related to the amount of pearls they fish. Sea pearls are worthless to them. What they want is food and cloth. Now they want copper coins. When they were in Japan, they could get a catty of rice for a single sea pearl. We gave five catties. So they are all willing to pick pearls for us. Strong pearl pickers can earn ten pennies a day. Unfortunately, they generally don’t live past the age of 35, so most of them are never married. The money they earn is from adoptive parents and brothers. Pitiful."

Fan Ning nodded. If they dive like this, they will have serious lung problems. After all, they are using their lives to earn money. Many daughters of poor families on the coast of Japan will go this way.

He sighed and said, "If they don't want to go back, they can stay, and then limit the number of years they can fish for pearls, no more than ten years. After ten years, let them go to breed sea pearls. We have done our best."

"Understandable!"

The fleet soon arrived at the pier of Qi County, and a group of officials, including the county magistrate and magistrate, who had received the news in advance, were already waiting on the pier. After seeing the ceremony, they surrounded Fan Ning and walked towards the interior of the county.

Qi County is located in the southernmost part of the Kunnan Peninsula. If you come to Kunzhou from the north of Japan, the first county is Qi County.

Qi County is a small county with a small population, but the county seat is not small. The circumference of the city is about [-] miles, and there are [-] households. Most of them live in the city. Outside the city, they mainly make their living from farming and fishing.

The streets and houses in the county are very neat, basically brick and wood structure houses, each house is very large, the business is mainly concentrated in the south of the city, there is a tile house covering an area of ​​about [-] mu, inside restaurants, inns , Shops, brothels, teahouses, snack shops, basically there are, but the scale is not large.

"Wazi actually appeared in Kunzhou?" Fan Ning asked with a smile as he looked at the gate of Wazi, which had four big characters 'Kunnan Wazi' written on it.

"Now there are all counties, and there are two tiles in Han County, and the business is very prosperous."

After strolling around Wazi, Fan Ning went deep into the county again, but he found the sound of 'buzzing' coming from every household. The magistrate Jiang explained: "Your Highness, every household here has a workshop for processing sea pearls, and some of them are round and polished. Well, some of them are inlaid and made of jewellery, and half of the people in the county make a living from it, while the rest are engaged in commerce, farming, logging, farming, and fishing, and there are only so many industries in Qi County."

At this time, Fan Ning saw a pearl processing shop on the street, and a man was immersed in polishing pearls. He stepped forward curiously and carefully observed the man's operation.

The grinder is pedal-type, just like the spinning machine, the pedals are used to drive the wheels to fly, and the wheels are equipped with fine-grained grinding stones. It is a very delicate work that requires full concentration without any distraction.

(End of this chapter)