Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 33 0032 [Cornucopia]

(PS: I found that the time of the story is wrong. The rain during the tea picking has been changed to the vernal equinox. The birthday of Mrs. Bai was also moved one month earlier.)
With the help of a servant, the old white man stood up on crutches, and personally sent the father and son out of the courtyard.

Leave Bai's house and walk for a while.

Zhu Ming gave a thumbs up and said, "Okay, Dean Zhu, the heat is just right. You didn't put on airs on purpose, and you sat there like a leader. It's the first time I've seen you like this since I was a child."

"What does it mean to look like a leader? I am a leader, and I pretend to be the same as I pretend," Zhu Guoxiang began to teach his son, "What kind of airs to use depends on the occasion. It is too tiring to hold it at home, and hold it in front of the students." Too much, pretending to be too pretentious in front of colleagues, and pretending to be too much in front of leaders is courting death. The state just now was designed for specific groups of people to see."

"Um……"

Ju Ming thought carefully and said sincerely: "In this respect, I have to learn a lot from you."

Zhu Guoxiang warned: "Don't learn it. If you don't have enough experience, you will look deliberate when you learn it. Painting a tiger is not a kind of anti-dog, and you end up looking like a clown. You just need to be more stable, and don't act like a psycho from time to time. "

"My true nature is to mingle with the people." Ju Ming said.

Zhu Guoxiang exposed it in one sentence: "You lacked discipline since childhood, and you have developed a whole body of bad habits, and you can't change it no matter what!"

Zhu Ming curled his lips, he knew it very well, but he didn't want to admit it.

Inside the Bai family mansion.

The old white member had already returned to the study, and quickly called the housekeeper: "You go and look for any married women in the village, and matchmaking for the Zhu family father and son."

The butler was an absolute confidant, and immediately asked: "Master, it is a great kindness to sell them a lot of mountain land. Now that you are helping matchmakers, isn't it giving them too much face?"

"What do you know?"

The old white member scolded, but still explained: "The father and son are not easy to save money. You have to arrange family members for them. With family members, you will have care. With care, you will be able to handle it!"

The housekeeper instantly understood and admired the old white man.

He knew the situation in the village very well, and thought about it: "Ordinary village girls, I'm afraid they will look down on them. The third sister of the shopkeeper Sun's family in Mipu is quite suitable. Third sister Sun can read a few words. She is still fifteen this year. get married."

The old white member nodded and said: "Shopkeeper Sun is not bad. He has been a servant of our family, so he must be trustworthy."

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the slavery system was at a critical point of transformation.

Unlike the early and middle Song Dynasty, it completely regarded slaves and maidservants as the private property of their masters.It has not completely converted to the slave servant employment system like the Southern Song Dynasty, and even stipulated that the employment contract should be signed for a maximum of ten years.

Speaking of the Huizong Dynasty alone, the number of official slaves was already extremely scarce.

And private slaves who have completely lost their freedom only exist in the homes of certain dignitaries.

Rural wealthy landowners like the old Bai Yuanwai basically hired slaves to work, and all slaves belonged to the good family.However, many servants and servants have the status of customers, and they live in the main household of the Bai family.

Shopkeeper Sun of Baishitou Rice Shop was born as a hired servant.Because of his cleverness, he was admitted to the Baijia private school for free, and was trained as a shop assistant, and gradually he was promoted to be the shopkeeper of the rice shop.Now he has got rid of his identity as a client and has become the main household in the government. His descendants can even take the imperial examination to become officials, because the three generations of ancestors are all good citizens.

It has to be admitted that from the late Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, it was the period when the status of slaves and maidservants was the highest in ancient Chinese feudal society.none of them.

The butler continued to search for candidates, and said, "The youngest daughter of Bai Wuye's family is 14 years old and still unmarried."

The so-called Bai Wuye is the cousin of the old white member. The family has been separated for decades, and he is considered a small fortune in the village (between small landlords and rich peasants).

The old white member said: "Whether it is fourteen or fifteen, it is appropriate to ration the little Zhu Xiucai. Is there any other, a little older? It is okay to be younger, but the seniority is higher, so that the father and son will not marry women of the same generation." .”

"My master forgot about Erniang Shen?" the butler said with a smile, "Miss Shen is beautiful and intelligent, and she has read many books. It just so happens that there are rumors in the village, so why not make a sequel for Mr. Zhu."

The old white member thinks that this is feasible: "I will choose these three, and after the spring plowing is over, I will ask the matchmaker to come to the door. If the Zhu family and his son are not satisfied, it is also fine to find women from the neighboring villages, and they must not be single. Families can live in peace."

"I made a note of it," said the butler.

The old white member said: "That Mr. Zhu said that he can increase the rice production. I have promised to give a paddy field and let him guide the cultivation. Your Dalang can take care of it."

"Yes!"

The butler bowed to leave and called his eldest son, Lu An.

……

Lu An is over 40 years old this year, and when he learned that he was dispatched by an old white member, he didn't dare to be negligent, so he ran to Mrs. Shen's house after receiving the task.

Zhu Ming was not at home, and went into the mountains to cut grass.

The lean horse's appetite increased day by day, and the weeds that could be gnawed nearby had already been gnawed by the beast, so he had to go to the mountains to cut them back and feed them.

If you want to grow strong, you can't just feed grass, but you have to mix it with hay, especially beans and salt.

If you want to raise a military horse well, the food you consume every day is enough to feed two or three villagers!

"Mr. Zhu!"

Lu An stood outside the courtyard and shouted.

Zhu Guoxiang, who was helping Bai Qi with his homework, got up and opened the courtyard door: "What's the matter?"

Lu An bowed and saluted: "I was sent by an old man. My name is Lu An, also known as Lu Da. Mr. Zhu wants to plant rice, so please tell me if you have any errands."

Zhu Guoxiang arranged and said: "Go and pick a catty of grain seeds, and I will dry the seeds after I have a look."

"These are going to be sun-dried?" Lu An expressed his incomprehension and reminded, "The early rice was sown before the rain, and the late rice is not yet ready. When should we plant the seedlings?"

In traditional rice cultivation, seeds are sown before rain.

If it is a rapeseed rice rotation, the sowing time will be delayed by one to three months.

Zhu Guoxiang simply explained: "My method of raising seedlings takes longer to raise seedlings, so you just follow suit."

Lu An had no choice but to run back and report the news to the old white staff.

The old white member said: "You can do whatever he arranges."

"Yes!"

Lu An went to collect a catty of grain seeds, and ran to Mrs. Shen's house panting.

Zhu Guoxiang grabbed a handful and observed carefully, the grains were quite plump, and he didn't know what kind of rice it was.

More than a hundred years ago, the Song Dynasty introduced Champa rice, which was only grown in the Jianghuai, Zhejiang and Zhejiang regions at the beginning.Now it has been extended to Hanzhong, and many subspecies have been cultivated. In front of you is the Sichuan subspecies of Champa Rice.

Zhu Guoxiang ordered: "Leave the rice seeds. I will choose a sunny day to dry the seeds. Take me to see the seedling fields."

The seedling field, as the name suggests, is reserved for seedling cultivation.

Lu An brought Zhu Guoxiang to a paddy field. Before he could speak, Dean Zhu had already started to take off his shoes.

He tied the hem of his clothes around his waist, rolled up his trouser legs and stepped into the field.Although the ground has not yet been plowed and irrigated, it has been raining for the past few days, and when I step on it, the mud can cover my calves.

Zhu Guoxiang bent down and picked up a handful of mud, only glanced at it casually, and then praised: "Good field!"

It is sandy loam, very suitable for raising seedlings.

It is not a formal cultivation experiment, and there is no relevant scientific conditions, so there is no need to measure the soil composition.

Zhu Guoxiang inserted his hand hard, took out deeper field mud, and carefully observed the physical properties of the soil.Based on his decades of agricultural experience, it can be observed with the naked eye that most of these soils are slightly acidic or neutral.

The Bai family took good care of the seedling field.

Zhu Guoxiang returned to the field ridge, went to the paddy field next to him to wash his hands and feet, picked up his shoes and said, "Tomorrow, you will find cattle to plow the field. You must plow deeply. After plowing, let the sun shine for a few days."

"I wrote it down." Lu An said.

Zhu Guoxiang said again: "Prepare the manure, the cooked manure that needs to be retting."

Lu An nodded again and again: "I remember."

"Come find me after the field is finished drying." Zhu Guoxiang left with his shoes in hand.

Lu An ran back to Bai's house again and explained the situation in detail.

The old white member also knows farming. After listening to it, he said to Lu An: "This Zhu, it seems that he is really good at farming. There is no abnormality now. Just follow what he said. It is not the same as my farming. The same place, come back and share with me."

in the afternoon.

Zhu Ming came back from cutting a lot of grass, and he didn't know what the horses wanted to eat, so he asked the tea farmers in the mountains to cut the grass that the cows like to eat.

This beast is really not picky. When it sees the delicious grass, it immediately steps forward to chew it.

Zhu Ming took out the hatchet again, chopped up the wheat straw, prepared hay for the horse, and complained while chopping: "I have lived for more than [-] years, and it is not so difficult to serve my girlfriend. !"

The skinny horse has gradually grown flesh, but the ribs are still protruding.

This is a characteristic of yellow pussy horses, Zhu Ming didn't understand it, he thought it was the malnutrition of the horses.

Zhu Guoxiang didn't help either, he just squatted aside and watched, and asked, "You care so much about horses, do you really think about going to war in the future?"

"Otherwise?" Zhu Ming said angrily, "If it wasn't for fighting in battle, I would have slaughtered this beast to eat meat!"

Maybe it was tired of eating grass, but the horse suddenly came over, chewed a few mouthfuls of straw, and rubbed affectionately on Zhu Ming's body.

"Go, go, go," Zhu Ming impatiently pushed the horse's head away, cursing, "Don't disturb my work!"

Zhu Guoxiang picked up a straw, brought it to the horse's mouth, and said, "This skinny horse is also the first companion we have when we cross. Think about it, and give it a name."

"How about calling it Rhubarb?" Zhu Ming said with a chuckle, and began to be indecisive again.

The farming business is about to get on the right track, Zhu Guoxiang also has the leisure to joke, and said with a smile: "It's better to call Wangcai."

Zhu Ming stood up and observed the horse carefully.

It has yellow hair all over its body, white spots on its flanks and belly, and white hairs as round as a full moon on its head.

This is a standard yellow pussy horse, commonly known as "Xiliang Yuding hay yellow".Because of the exposed ribs, it is also known as "Bone-toothed Dragon".

Touching the white hair on the horse's head, Ju Ming thought hard for a long time, but couldn't think of any popular name, so he decided to pick one randomly for the time being: "The yellow hair is gold, and the white hair is silver. It's not bad to call it 'cornucopia'."

Zhu Guoxiang couldn't laugh or cry at once, he really couldn't keep up with his son's out-of-the-box thinking.

In Zhu Guoxiang's mind, the son's name for the skinny horse is probably a colt, a dragon, or a unicorn, lightning, treading wind, etc. He never thought that it would be a "cornucopia" that doesn't touch anything.

Anyone with a normal mind would give Ma'er such a bad name?
"Zhu Dalang, I'm here, I want to hear a story!"

A little fat man with his servants shouted loudly from afar.

Zhu Ming greeted him warmly, pointed to the horse and said, "Mr. Zheng Xiaoguan, this is a horse I picked up. I just named it and called it a cornucopia."

Zheng Hong was puzzled: "Why is it called a cornucopia?"

Zhu Ming explained: "Yellow hair is gold, white hair is silver, and the body is covered with gold and silver, which means great wealth."

Hearing such a meaning, Zheng Hong clapped his hands and praised: "It's such a good name, even if I want to scratch my head, I definitely can't think of it!"

Zhu Guoxiang fell silent, he already felt that the little fat man in front of him also had a hole in his head.

(Thanks to the starting point 800 million big eagle knight head coach, Asakusa Yunfeiyang and other brothers for their rewards and support.)
(Ask for a monthly ticket, ask for a recommendation ticket, ask for a collection. The number two on the new book list for ten thousand years, I can't make it up!)

(End of this chapter)