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Chapter 271 Xu Xiake's Lantian Travel Notes

Li Zicheng left in despair. Dali County, Baishui County, and the surrounding counties that were hit by the disaster immediately became the targets of Lantian County. The Weinan area is now Li Chaosheng's territory.

After the triumphant return of the army, Li Chaosheng held a grand celebration banquet in the Lantian camp. All the major armies were praised, and everyone received their due rewards for a while.

Those who have made meritorious service should be promoted, should be given bonuses, and should be commended.

After the conference, the army began to enter a period of rest, and at the same time, the entire Lantian also entered a period of rapid development.

On this day, a man came to Lantian. The man was dressed in Confucian clothing and looked like a traveler. He had a strange black box hanging around his neck. This thing was called a camera.

When the man came to Lantian, his eyes were not enough. Looking at the newly built water conservancy in Lantian along the way, and the crop called corn growing in the field, the man was full of emotion.

People in Lantian County now grow more corn than potatoes and sweet potatoes. The reason is very simple. Compared with potatoes and sweet potatoes, corn is more like grain, especially after the corn is ground into flour, the corn paste made has a better taste. It is Lantian people An important staple now.

People in Lantian are also growing sweet potatoes, but they are no longer the main crop. They are very sweet and delicious when baked, but they cannot be used as a staple food.

Moreover, the sweet potatoes are too sweet to be eaten with dishes. Therefore, except for a small amount of sweet potatoes that the big guys keep, they sell all the rest to the government.

The government buys sweet potatoes, and even allows the people to use sweet potatoes as food to pay taxes, but the amount of wheat paid is much larger than that of corn. After the government bought sweet potatoes, they began to sell them out. There is no shortage of food in Lantian, but there is a shortage of food in Shaanxi. Shanxi is short of food, and many places around it are short of food.

Although the price of sweet potatoes is not as good as that of wheat, they cannot support large quantities. Therefore, sweet potatoes have become the main food for foreign trade in Lantian County, and the price is still very cheap. Compared with wheat, rice, etc., people often buy sweet potatoes to satisfy their hunger.

In addition, in the major construction sites in Lantian, sweet potatoes are the staple food. Of course, they can eat a meal of white rice or white facial mask every seven days. This is Li Chaosheng's grace.

Looking at the scenery of Lantian all the way, the man couldn't help sighing, even the fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River is similar to this place.

The man walked all the way, and at noon, he passed a village, where the smoke was rising from the kitchen, and the man was hungry, so he came to a family who was cooking.

When the man came to the door, he saw an old man drying grain in the yard, and the plump corn kernels were so yellow that it made people fall in love.

The man stood at the gate of the courtyard, looked at the old man and said, "Old man."

The old man looked up at the man, especially the scholar's attire, and said with a smile, "What's the matter?"

The status of scholars is still very high these days. There is no way this is the habit of the common people for thousands of years. There is a mysterious worship of scholars.

At this time, the man saluted the old man and said: "My servant, Xu Xiake, passed by here, and I'm hungry, can I buy some dry food at the old man's house?"

What Xu Xiake said is very clear, it is to buy dry food, not to want it, let alone to grab a meal. It is not a big deal for anyone to come to the house to have a meal now, the big deal is to have more chopsticks, but in this era to eat?
Who has food for you? My own family doesn’t have enough food, especially in Shaanxi, Shanxi and other places. Some places have changed their food. How can there be extra food for others? It’s a big deal in this era.

It is said that even in provinces where there is no famine for the time being, the girl does not leave food when she takes her uncle home, because she is afraid that there will not be enough food. This is a helpless thing.

Xu Xiake has been walking all the way, and he sees such things very clearly.

So he wouldn't be stupid and said to the old man: "Old man, let's have a meal."

If he really said that, the other party would probably say politely: "Get lost."

Even Xu Xiake had already prepared to buy dry food and was rejected. After all, food is still very precious these days, and gold and silver are sometimes really not as good as food.

But Xu Xiake didn't expect the old man to hear this and said: "Oh, you are a passing scholar, right?"

After hearing this, Xu Xiake said, "Exactly."

The old man said: "Okay, come in, the meal is just right."

Xu Xiake was taken aback and said, "I'll just buy some dry food."

The old man said: "It's okay, come in, there are only one more set of bowls and chopsticks on the left and right, this little old man celebrates his birthday, and you come to have fun."

After hearing this, Xu Xiake hurriedly cupped his hands and said, "Longevity, old man."

At this moment, the old man's mouth cracked and he said, "Two in sixty."

Xu Xiake exclaimed: "The old man has a long life."

The old man heard the words and said: "Yeah, it's time to catch up. I didn't expect that I would live to such an old age. Come and enter the hospital."

When Xu Xiake entered the yard, he saw the corn drying in the yard and asked, "Is this the corn from Lantian?"

The old man said: "That's right, it's this thing. Without this thing, I don't know how many people in Lantian will starve to death. This is a good thing. You can try it later. The pancakes made at home today."

"Then have a good taste."

As Xu Xiake said, he squatted down and picked a corn kernel off the cob and said, "What is the annual output of this thing?"

Hearing this, the old man smiled and said: "This product is high-yielding, and the year is better. The inferior fields can also produce more than a thousand catties, and the better ones can produce 890 catties. Our town is the champion of yield per mu this year, and the yield per mu It’s [-] and two catties, and the head of the village personally issued the brand of the number one per mu yield to his home, which is very impressive.”

"Oh, your lieutenant still cares about this."

Xu Xiake asked in surprise when he heard this, and the old man said: "In our Lantian County, the district chief has many things in charge of, not just this, anyone who has any difficulties can ask the district chief, and they will solve it for us. "

"You guys look so good?"

Xu Xiake was even more surprised. The old man smiled and said, "That's our county honor. If it weren't for our county honor, I would have starved to death five years ago."

After hearing this, Xu Xiake asked what was going on, and the old man said: "In the past, our place was called Chang'an County, which was no different from other places. The county officials were greedy for money, and the people were poor, so they couldn't have a full meal all year round. The folks moved the boundary markers here, and they became Lantian people."

"After becoming a native of Lantian, the government came to measure the land for us, began to build water conservancy, allocated land to us, and interviewed our previous landlords, and forcibly cut the previous [-]% of the rent to [-]%. In a few years, it was changed to [-]%, plus another [-]% to the government, we can keep [-]%, which is enough for us to eat."

"Moreover, the county lord re-planned the village chief for us. The village chief really did things for us, gave us new seeds, and the big guys rented cattle together. After that, a series of measures to benefit the people. In recent years, there have been constant disasters outside. However, our Lantian Water Conservancy guarantees irrigation, and every year we have a bumper harvest, and the days are getting better."

"No, an old man like me can live to be 62 years old. This is something I didn't even dare to think about before. All of this is thanks to our county lord."

The old man spoke very piously, with a happy smile on the corner of his mouth, Xu Xiake nodded again and again when he heard it.

Immediately after the old man invited Xu Xiake into the house, Xu Xiake looked at a painting in the north of the old man's house. On the painting was a young boy with lightning-like eyes and a tiger standing on a dragon card. An indescribable momentum.

"This is?"

Seeing this, the old man immediately cupped his hands and worshiped: "This is our county venerable. Most of the people in our Lantian County enshrine the portrait of the county venerable. I pray that God will let our county lord live a long life, and it is best to live forever. .”

Xu Xiake immediately understood that this is the Shrine of Life. Without certain achievements, it is absolutely impossible for the people to build the Shrine of Life spontaneously. You must know that when Wei Zhongxian's power reached its peak, a group of people were forced to build the Shrine of Life, but How can the shrines that are forced to be built be the same as the shrines that are actively built.

Xu Xiake asked again at this time: "Does every family have it?"

After hearing this, the old man said: "Almost every family has them."

"Is it requested by the county government?"

Xu Xiake asked, and the old man scolded angrily after hearing this: "The young people in the county government are not angry if they don't talk about it, but when they say it, I get angry. What should we do to them if we make a confession to the county magistrate? They have to come down and ask the head of the village to inform us that we are not allowed to worship like this, saying that the county priest is a mortal, how can he worship as a god."

"At that time, those young people were sprayed back by us. The county lord can feed hundreds of thousands of people. This is a mortal, and this is a god. If we don't let us worship the county lord, that is immoral, haha... Those The younger generation was scolded by us, and went back without saying a word, and we can listen to them in other matters, so this is not going to happen."

"Later the county venerable stood up and said that he was just an ordinary person and could not be enshrined by everyone, so we went to kneel at the gate of the county government office, and the county lord personally came out to bring us water to drink, and later the county lord agreed that we would offer him There are portraits, but it is not allowed to burn incense on the portraits."

"Let's think about it, the county priest can't eat incense while alive, we just need to be grateful in our hearts, so it has become a simple offering like this."

The old man said with a smile, Xu Xiake heard the words and said four words: what the people want.

"father."

Just as Xu Xiake was thinking about it, a strong young man came back with a big carp in his hand. The big carp seemed to weigh five or six catties. At this moment, the old man saw the strong young man and said, "Son, this one came from a long way away. Dear Mr. Xu, this one is staying with us for dinner today."

After hearing this, the young man said, "Mr. Xu is good."

Xu Xiake smiled and said, "Hello."

Then he looked at the carp in the young man's hand and said, "Your carp is fat enough."

Hearing this, the young man said: "Yes, I went to Chang'an Reservoir early this morning to buy it in line, and I will try it later, sir."

Xu Xiake said: "Then I'm lucky, hahaha..."

After the young man finished speaking, he carried the fish into the kitchen, and the woman in the kitchen asked, "Why did you come back?"

"Don't mention it, there are too many people releasing the fish today, and they almost didn't make it to the line."

"Okay, it's almost noon, kill the fish, let's stew it for dinner."

"Yes Yes."

The young man responded and went out to kill the fish and scrape the scales.

Xu Xiake was a little shocked at this moment, can the common people here eat fish?
"This Chang'an Reservoir?"

Xu Xiake asked the old man, and the old man smiled and said, "Chang'an Reservoir is a water conservancy project we built to irrigate farmland. Our county officials said that we must understand comprehensive development, so the reservoir can't be idle, so we raise fish."

After hearing this, Xu Xiake said: "So that's the case, is this Chang'an Reservoir?"

The old man said: "Twenty miles to the east, it's a big area."

Xu Xiake nodded, and Xu Xiake had dinner with the old man's family. The scales and viscera of five or six catties of big carp were removed, and they were put into a large iron pot with sauce. There were pancakes on the side of the pot. The pancakes were delicious and the fish was tender.

Xu Xiake swore that this was the best meal he had recently. It was so delicious. There were pancakes stewed in a fish pot, and a big bowl of longevity noodles. In addition, the young man brought out a jar of rice wine. Xu Xiake accompanied the old man to have a few drinks. Xu Xiake swears that this is the most comfortable time in his life.

After the meal, Xu Xiake took out a piece of silver, one or two pieces of silver. The old man didn't want it. Xu Xiake had no choice but to take out his pen and ink to write the old man's adverb. , frame it, and hang it on the wall.”

Xu Xiake said with a smile at this time: "Old man, read these words: Blessing is like the East China Sea, life is longer than Nanshan."

The old man said: "Okay, lucky, thank you, thank you."

After some politeness, Xu Xiake is leaving, and the young man is also going to Lantian. He works in the Lantian Steel Plant. He is taking a leave of absence to accompany the old man to celebrate his birthday. He will leave after his birthday. Recently, the workload of the steel plant has increased. Yes, the main reason is that the county is going to cast a batch of new artillery, and everyone is very busy.

So Xu Xiake and the young man walked together for twenty miles to the east, and Xu Xiake saw the Chang'an Reservoir, which was as big as a lake, with thick dams, stiff gates, and solid gray stones.

The young man said to Xu Xiake: "This is not a stone, this thing is called cement, and it is produced by our Lantian Cement Plant. Xu Xiake was amazed when he heard this, and couldn't help but marvel at the magnificence of this reservoir.

After another [-] miles, we entered the boundary of Lantian and saw the Lantian Reservoir, a huge water conservancy project not inferior to the Chang'an Reservoir. Xu Xiake asked the young man, "How many such reservoirs are there in Lantian County?"

The young man said: "There can be more than a dozen, and there are more ones smaller than this."

After hearing this, Xu Xiake said with emotion: "With such a water conservancy project, Lantian County will not be afraid of natural disasters since then."

Xu Xiake continued to move forward and finally arrived at the core area of ​​Lantian. This time, Xu Xiake was frightened because there are many tall chimneys here. Dear boy, what is this chimney for, who needs such a big chimney for cooking?"

Hearing this, the young man laughed and said, "Sir, this is not for cooking. At this time, our special blast furnace for iron smelting in Lantian is for iron smelting."

"Smelting iron?"

Xu Xiake's eyes widened.

(End of this chapter)