A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 601

"There are [-] households in the country who have been granted the title of Duke Yi. Now the landowners in the countryside are so happy that they don't want to go home. They have forgotten all us women and children."

Wu Huaiyu stayed in the countryside for so long that even Fan Xuanfu couldn't help but lead his team to the countryside to find her husband.

Previously, Wu Huaiyu went to Shuofang and Yanyun to serve as foreign ministers. They were thousands of miles away and there was nothing he could do about it. But now that he is only thirty miles away from Beijing, Wu Huaiyu can stay in the countryside and forget about home. This is unbearable.

"But you hired another child in Fanchuan?" Mr. Fan joked.

Women such as Chen Runniang, Gao Hui'an, Qiu Derou, and Duan Wan immediately looked around as soon as they arrived at Zhuangzi, and even refused to stop until they found out the vixen.

"I've been busy in the countryside recently to observe the people's sentiments, so I don't have time." Huaiyu said with a smile. In this countryside, most people still don't have enough to eat. They either have yellow faces or are skinny. Or maybe he is dark and thin,
Fifteen or sixteen are girls in their prime, but most of them are stunted. Not to mention decent clothing, many girls don’t even have neat and well-fitting clothes.
It’s hard to think of words like flowers and jade in the state presented. Many of them are even infested with lice, fleas and other parasites, not to mention that many people have never been outside their homes for more than twenty miles and have no experience or knowledge.

So it is really difficult to fall in love with a village girl.

Why did people in the Tang Dynasty like plump women? Wu Huaiyu felt that plumpness represented health and wealth in this era when most people did not have enough to eat. Even the people at the lowest level knew that to marry a wife, you must marry someone with a big butt. Because of health and fertility, being as thin as a firewood stick will never be regarded as a kind of beauty in this era, it will only be regarded as a disease.

The times created the aesthetics of the Tang Dynasty.

As for women, even those in their 30s and 30s have been devastated by life in the countryside. People in their 40s look like they are in their forties or fifties, and even those in their [-]s have gray hair and are hunched over.

"Humph, we don't believe it,"

Even when Pei Xingnu came to the countryside, he still held the pipa in his arms. She was born in a small official's family in Chang'an, and later married a merchant's daughter, and was snatched as a concubine by Li Yuan. She was even considered by Li Shimin to enter the palace, but Being criticized by Prime Minister Wang Gui and Wei Zheng, he had no choice but to give the beautiful pipa to Huaiyu.

After looking around, I really didn’t see any beauties.
"I heard that there is a village called Nanzhuang in the upper reaches of Fanchuan, on the east bank of the Jianhe River, and to the south of Niujiawan?"

"Well, let's go to Wubao and go upstream to the south along the Yan River. After passing Guazhou Fort, we will go two villages past and we will reach Nanzhuang. What?"

"I heard that Nanzhuang was renamed Taoxi Castle, also called Wuxi Castle, because of a poem. How did you write that poem?" Duan Wan said with a smile,
Cao Shisanniang answered, "Sister, I remember, last year today in this door, the human faces and peach blossoms reflected each other's beauty. I don't know where the human faces have gone, but the peach blossoms still smile in the spring breeze. It's so well written, the peach blossoms are still the same, and the human faces are still there. No, I just don’t know what kind of girl can make Wu Erlang miss her so much."

A group of women started making noises and asking questions, suggesting that there would be three trials.

Wu Huaiyu looked at these jealous women and had no choice but to surrender.

"I made such a poem,"

"Wow, indeed there is such a thing, then let that girl come and see her quickly."

Huaiyu spread his hands helplessly, "I have written in my poems that the human face has disappeared without knowing where it is."

"Erlang's poem is now popular in Chang'an. Many people are talking about how many beautiful women there are in Fanchuan Nanzhuang that Erlang can never forget."

"That's it, so many of us sisters have now made Erlang disgusted and despised?"

Three women perform a play, and these dozen women can become a big stage.

"Let me explain it to you."

"Explanation is a cover-up, but we would like to hear how Erlang covers it up."

"Well, it's actually like this. A few years ago, in June of the ninth year of Wude, I came down from Taiyi Peak and happened to meet my brother who went into the mountain to look for Xue Wanche who was injured."

The women all listened very seriously.

Wu Huaiyu's poem suddenly spread to Chang'an, which really made them jealous, but they were also confused because Wu Huaiyu was in Youzhou last year.
"That time I met Brother Chu when I went down the mountain. Later I left Zhongnan Mountain and met Brother Chu Mo in Taiyi Palace."

"When I was returning to Chang'an via Fanchuan, I passed by Nanzhuang and thought of an old friend."

The story goes further and further,

A lie always needs another lie to cover it up.

The origin of this poem was the day the emperor came to Guazhou Fort to eat guillotine noodles. The emperor was happy after eating and was satisfied with the prince. He was so happy that he not only rewarded the prince with the eight hundred miles of field opposite Guazhou Fort, but also rewarded Wu Huaiyu, saying It was the prince who stayed in the countryside for a few days. Although he was tanned, he grew a lot.

The emperor also rewarded Huaiyu with a village called Nanzhuang. This village was located a little upstream of the Fanchuan River, covering an area of ​​[-] acres and a [-]-acre peach orchard.

Huaiyu thanked him and accompanied the emperor, prince, Qin Qiong and others to go there for a tour. Although there were no peach blossoms at this time, only peaches, Hou Junji picked a peach and insisted that Wu Huaiyu write a poem about peach blossoms.

Wu Huaiyu then recited this song: the human face and the peach blossoms complement each other in red.

The emperor liked it very much and praised Wu Huaiyu for being as talented as ever. He also gave Nanzhuang a new name, Taoxi Castle.

After the emperor returned to Beijing, this poem spread in Chang'an.

Only then did Fan Xuanfu and the others form a group to kill Fan Chuan in search of her husband.

Wu Huaiyu had already explained to Li Shimin and Qin Qiong who the girl who was missing was.

"In the past, I practiced Taoism with my master Xiaoyaozi at Taiyi Peak in Zhongnan Mountain. Every year we would go down the mountain to collect medicines and provide free medical clinics for the villagers. Once when my master and I went down the mountain, we passed Taoxi Fort. It was the time when the peach blossoms were brilliant in March. One day, I was thirsty and knocked on the firewood door under a peach blossom tree. A beautiful girl opened the door and brought water.

The next year, I passed by again, and the peach blossoms were still there. I knocked on the door again, but no one answered for a long time. Later, a neighbor in the village told me that the girl died of illness in the winter. "

"Ah, dead?"

"Um,"

For a time, Fan and other women found it difficult to accept the ending of the story.

What a beautiful story it sounds like. She should have a better ending. For example, the girl just went out.
Or maybe Wu Huaiyu left the poem on the door of the girl's house with a pen, and then when the girl came back, she found out that she went into the mountains to look for Wu Huaiyu, and finally the lovers got married, etc.
But who would have thought that the girl was actually dead. "She has a beautiful length, isn't she?"

"To put it bluntly, that was all ten years ago. I was as young as His Highness the Crown Prince at that time,"

"I have kept Erlang in my heart for ten years. This girl is extraordinary. It's a pity that beauty has such a bad fate."

The women felt sorry for the girl.

"What's her name?" Pei Xingnu asked.

"Jiang Niang,"

"I will compose a pipa song for her and record the story between Erlang and her."

The women were no longer murderous, but instead sighed sadly.

"Let's go to Taoxi Castle tomorrow and pay homage to the poor girl."

There is indeed a Jiang Niang in Taoxi Castle.
In fact, Wu Huaiyu had heard others talk about this girl, because it was said that this girl was indeed very beautiful and loved peach blossoms, but she died of illness ten years ago. Some people said she was lovesick.

"Let's plant peach trees on all the land in Peach Blossom Castle," Pei Xingnu was obviously an artistic young woman, as musicians always do.

Wu Huaiyu nodded, "Well, I think it's not bad. Plant the other [-] acres of land with peach blossoms and [-] acres of peach grove. It will be very beautiful when the peach blossoms bloom in spring."

"If you plant so many peach trees, will you eat them all?" Gao Hui'an asked a more realistic question.

Wu Huaiyu said, "Actually, you don't have to worry about this. If we can't finish all the fresh peaches, we can also make peach cakes, which use peaches as the main ingredient, sandwiched with glutinous rice flour and sugar. The texture is crispy, sweet and delicious, so there is no need to worry about no one liking it. .

You can also make peach jam and dried peaches. This place is only more than thirty miles away from Chang'an. Even if there are [-] acres of peach groves, there is no need to worry.

Medicinal materials and flowers can also be planted under the peach orchard, and even crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and peanuts can be interplanted.

Newly planted peach trees can be interplanted with other crops within five years. After five years, if the planting is relatively sparse, you can still plant a few, or you can raise chickens under the forest. "

Women like Fan Xuanfu are not interested in that. They are all emotional now. They only think about the six hundred acres of peach trees and the splendid beauty of the peach blossoms in full bloom in March. They don't think about the rest.

Wu Huaiyu originally planned to use [-] acres of land to grow cotton in this new village. In the first year, he would give the tenants a minimum of two tons of rice to grow cotton.
At that time, Shangwubao and Taoxibao will grow cotton and set up textile factories together, which will also give tenants and villagers some opportunities to make money.

The core of the Wu family's management of Zhuangzi is not to blindly squeeze and grab, but to eat the meat yourself and others to follow suit. Only in this way can a virtuous cycle be achieved and sustainable development be achieved.

It is not feasible to kill chickens to obtain eggs; fattening chickens to lay more eggs is the way to go.

But since Fan Xuanfu and the others became more sensible and said that they wanted to plant peach trees on the [-] acres of land outside the [-] acres of peach grove in Zhuangzi, he agreed without hesitation.
It's not that I'm afraid that the story will be exposed.

I just think there is no problem with diversified operations. It is close to Chang'an. When the peach blossoms bloom in the spring, it can attract Chang'an people who go on an outing. It would also be good to sell some peach cakes and peaches.

Or maybe set up a small papermaking workshop there, mix fat with water, add some dried peach blossoms, make paper paper in Taoxi, name it Peach Blossom Paper, and package and hype the poem "Human Face Peach Blossom" and the story ,
By then, the peach blossom paper had become an instant hit, and it is estimated that the literati, poets, scholars and ladies in Chang'an would all rush to buy it.
You can't even create it.

It's a pity that the peach blossoms have no nectar. Otherwise, if we raise some bees in the six hundred acres of peach grove, it would be very profitable to produce peach blossom nectar. But it's a pity that the peach blossoms have no nectar and the bees won't collect it.

Fan Xuanfu and the other women began to study about growing peach blossoms in Taoxi Castle, but no one paid any attention to him.

Hey, women.

However, the original plan to go to Sanyuan Longqiao Wubao to harvest summer wheat cannot be done this year. The harvest of summer wheat and rice has been completed.
In Longqiao, Lao Wu and his wife had been looking forward to Huaiyu taking his wife, concubines and children to the countryside for vacation. Unfortunately, Wu Huaiyu was fascinated by him in Fanchuan.

Fanchuan Shangwu Fort, Taoxi Fort, Shenhe Plateau's Xiawu Fort, Shaolingyuan and Bailu Plateau each built two new villages of [-] acres each.

This Duke of Yi, the Governor of Youzhou, and the Governor of Youzhou has been back in Chang'an for a while, but he spends his days in the countryside, neither going to court nor participating in the affairs of the court, although he still has a right The title of leading general and bachelor of Chongxian Palace.

But no one cared about him. Everyone knew that the emperor gave the prince to Wu Shaobao and took him to the countryside of Fanchuan for training and teaching. They all said that the teaching was very good. The emperor went to Fanchuan every two days and praised the prince and Wu Shaobao. The rewards keep coming.

This kind of life continued until an autumn rain fell and the weather suddenly turned cold.

The emperor's envoy arrived from Chang'an,

Wu Huaiyu and the prince will eventually leave Fanchuan.

One is going back to the East Palace.

One is going back to Youzhou.

One autumn rain and one cold, ten autumn rains require wearing cotton. The Northern Expedition is about to begin. Wu Huaiyu, the deputy commander of the Northern Expedition and the general manager of the East Road, will also return to the front line.

"I really can't bear to leave here, teacher." Cheng Qian looked at Guazhou Castle with reluctance in his eyes.

"You can come and take a look when you have time," Huaiyu said.

"The time I spent with my teacher in the countryside was the most relaxing and happiest time I have had in recent years,"

"Teacher, if you capture Jieli during the Northern Expedition and destroy the Turks, come back quickly,"

"Okay." Huaiyu agreed with a smile, put on the stirrups and mounted his horse, but he knew in his heart that even if the Northern Expedition wiped out the Eastern Turks, he would still have to stay in Youzhou for ten or eight years. At least three to five years would be temporary. Can't come back.

(End of this chapter)