Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 187 Restored Loneliness
"You see, this kind of prince-in-law is not something our He family can handle." An old man on the boat was lecturing a middle-aged man, "Let go of everything in the past and go with the flow, so that our He family can take a step forward and understand What?"

Needless to say, this old man was Dongguan He Zhen. He personally took his son to visit the prince-in-law, and happened to encounter the scene of the soldiers of Wu Beitang heading north.

After hearing this, He Rong looked at the troop carrier that was already sailing, and had no choice but to nod in response to his father: "Even our He family has never had the opportunity to show their face before the imperial court. These Xiangshan people really bumped into a good master!"

Although the He family did not become king before, they are the de facto kings of Lingnan, and everything is respected by the He family.Even so, it still didn't fall into the emperor's eyes, and the troops were directly transferred to Shandong and other places, and they never entered the capital at all.

Not to mention others, even He Rong, He Gui and others have never been to the capital.I don’t know if the emperor knows who they are!

With such a comparison, even He Rong, who was very dissatisfied with the consort in the past, could not help but sigh that the consort's hands and eyes were astonishing.

If the He family can hug the son-in-law's thigh, maybe they can also rely on the relationship of the son-in-law to make a fortune. This is He Zhen's idea.

After the noise on the dock passed, the He family's boat docked.

He Zhen went ashore, observed all the observable situations with his hands behind his back, and said emotionally to his son beside him: "Although I have always heard people say how good Xiangshan County is, but now that I have seen it with my own eyes, it is even more... Shocking! Look at this, could you have imagined it before he came?"

He Rong's face was a little bitter again, and he answered his father: "Looking at these, why do I feel that our Dongguan is in the countryside?"

Not only are there concrete houses everywhere, but even the streets and alleys have cement roads. Not to mention the roads are smooth and very clean.

In contrast to Dongguan, the Humen Port of Dongguan, which corresponds to this wharf, is not only much smaller and has a lot fewer people, but also has mud houses. Except for a section of the wharf that is paved with stone slabs, the rest are ordinary mud roads.Even the stone road is uneven because it has not been repaired all the year round.

After hearing this, He Zhen said again: "You are well aware of the disaster in Dongguan during the typhoon before the prince came. But in Xiangshan County, under the same typhoon, the loss was only one-tenth of our Dongguan." No. You were still unconvinced before, but now that you see this, you should understand that you are not exaggerating, right?"

When He Rong heard this, he couldn't help but nodded. Although he didn't speak, he was convinced in his heart.

After He Zhen looked around, he pointed at the docked boats at the port and the passers-by on the pier and said: "If it were before the prince-in-law came, if we came to Xiangshan County, we would stand out from the crowd and be very conspicuous. But now you Look, there are several boats like ours parked here; there are also many boats like ours on the pier. When we come to Xiangshan County, they are not conspicuous at all!"

When he said this, even he felt a slight sense of loss.

The development of Xiangshan County was so fast that even though he had listened to the reports from his subordinates, he was still very shocked after arriving.

After He Zhen finished speaking, he saw that his son didn't speak and just looked around blankly. He turned serious and said seriously: "The greeting gifts I prepared before were still too few. I plan to double them again, otherwise maybe they will all be lost." You can’t get into the eyes of your consort!”

After hearing this, He Rong replied: "Dad, do you know why I asked dad to come too?"

Actually, no!
But he felt that it was a bit hard to bow his head to the prince-in-law and admit defeat.In other words, I still want to save face.Therefore, although his father told him to deal with the consort and show his kindness, he kept delaying until his father also came with him.

How could He Zhen not know what his son was thinking.However, he did not tell the truth, and even felt that this matter was related to the future of the He family, and it was indeed necessary for him to go there personally.

With this in mind, he said to his son: "Let's go and look around first, and then find time to visit the prince-in-law!"

He Zhen decided to talk about it after having a comprehensive understanding of Xiangshan County.After all, it's just a place at the dock, and it still has a very different feeling than just listening to the reports from my subordinates.Now that I'm here, I naturally want to find out for myself.

So, He Zhen and his son spent two days walking all over Xiangshan County.

In the evening, He Zhen and his son stayed in the best inn in Xiangshan County, which had an independent courtyard and was convenient for talking.

After all, he is the actual king of Lingnan, and his servants are all very good. After serving tea, he consciously retreats and looks around for his master, but he can come over and take orders when the master raises his voice.

He Zhen and He Rong were enjoying the shade in the yard and talking.

Just listen to He Zhen saying there: "Everything in Xiangshan County is really incredible. No wonder the prince came here and had no opinions at all. It is estimated that after returning, the emperor will pay more attention to the prince. In the future, there will be examples from Xiangshan County. No one dares to ignore the Consort’s idea. This time, we really got it right.”

He Rong was unwilling to discuss this topic. He always felt a little uncomfortable, so he said to his father: "Dad, people are already discussing that Xiangshan County will redistribute grain fields in half a year. Many people are worried that the grain fields will be redistributed. Less points!”

As he spoke, he was somewhat gloating about his misfortune.

He Zhen listened and nodded, but his expression was serious and said without any hint of schadenfreude: "Xiangshan County is really a miracle. Among them, the contribution of the public distribution of grain fields may not be missing. From the perspective of the government, He said that the problems of Hidden Field and Hidden House were solved in one fell swoop, so the population would be large and everything would be prosperous. Only with people can everything be possible!"

Having said this, he put down the tea cup in his hand on the coffee table, then looked at his son and said: "The registered population in Xiangshan County is increasing, and the newly cultivated grain fields will not be merged into public fields until three years later, so a new The grain field allocation will indeed be much less than the first time, but this is not a problem."

"Dad, I heard some people complaining that there will be less grain fields." He Rong emphasized after hearing this.

He had thought about this matter and felt that the prince-in-law had no solution.Therefore, he was very interested. When he said this, he also put the tea cup back on the coffee table and waited for his father to analyze the situation.

He Zhen listened and sneered slightly before replying calmly: "How can a few greedy and unscrupulous people complain about it and hinder the overall situation? If people's hearts are like this, nothing will happen if the general trend is good."

Perhaps in order to teach his son, he continued: "If the grain fields are allocated less, the government's land rent will naturally be less, and the burden will be less. If they feel that the family does not have enough food, in fact it is definitely not to this extent. They can If you go to open up wasteland, you can supplement your income for three years; you don't have to go to open up wasteland. There are many opportunities to make money in Xiangshan County. If you don't have a brain, you can do some physical work; if you have a brain, you can do some business or do something with a higher income. Success, in short, there is hope everywhere, as far as I can see, as long as you are not really lazy, life will get better and better."

"The general situation is like this. How can a few greedy and unscrupulous people complain about it? How can they shake things up? There is no shortage of such people. If talking is not enough, and those who want to cause trouble, the consort can just expel them from their Xiangshan household registration, and he can take away all of them. Everyone was shocked. Not to mention, it doesn’t even need to be like this, there are plenty of means!”

He Rong suddenly felt bored after hearing this.His father had always emphasized the word "situation" to him, to follow the trend, to judge the situation, to judge the situation, and so on. He could tell that what his father just said was correct.

He was thinking, but He Zhen picked up the teacup again, and said to him at the same time: "It should be almost done, let's go visit the son-in-law tomorrow!"

After hearing this, He Rong had no choice but to agree. No matter what, he would eventually meet the prince-in-law.

What they didn't expect was that the prince-in-law met with a cold butt. Although they went to ask for a meeting, the prince-in-law didn't see them. The people from the county government replied that the prince-son-in-law was unavailable for the past few days and asked them to wait.

When He Rong heard this, he immediately lost his temper and said to He Zhen: "Dad, look at it, people are so proud now that they have no need for our He family, they don't care about it anymore!"

After complaining, he asked tentatively: "How about we go back?"

"Idiot!" When He Zhen heard this, he immediately became angry and lectured, "The more this happens, the more important it is to make a good consort, you know? Things are no longer what they used to be. Believe it or not, if a consort really wants to support a consort, he might not be able to make a good one in the future. Can you compete with our He family!"

The He family's confidence lies in the past; while the confidence of the Prince Consort, or the confidence of the Prince Consort's person, lies in the future.

He Zhen saw these very clearly.

If the consort was not sure, he would not leave their He family alone.

However, He Zhen was really wrong this time. He thought the son-in-law was trying to manipulate them, but it wasn't at all, but Zhang Yifan was really busy and didn't have time.

He plans to set up a government-run sugar factory in Xiangshan County, and preparations are in full swing.The design, manufacture, etc. of the plant are all inseparable from Zhang Yifan's personal guidance.

Moreover, because the preservation technology of this era is so poor, the purchased sugar cane cannot be stored for too long, so we must pay more attention to efficiency.

Therefore, Zhang Yifan kept an eye on every aspect of the sugar factory.

The most profitable part of the sugar factory is that Zhang Yifan knows how to make the most common brown sugar into high-priced white sugar.This was due to a video he watched on site B later in life. He was very interested in it. After learning about it, he remembered it all.

The production of sugar originally came from ancient India and was introduced from the Tang Dynasty, but at that time it was always brown sugar, or brown sugar, the most primitive sugar.

There is a passage in many ancient farming novels where it is said that time-travelers can simply turn brown sugar into white and high-priced white sugar using the so-called "yellow mud water drenching method", thus making the first pot of gold after time-traveling.

Actually, this is nonsense.

This "yellow mud water drenching method" was originally recorded in a book by a Qing Dynasty person, saying that a man in Fujian during the Yuan Dynasty accidentally invented this method. This is just a legend.

By the Ming Dynasty, there was indeed a large amount of white sugar. Song Yingxing also recorded how to make white sugar in his "Tiangong Kaiwu".

There was a video blogger who was so idle that he followed this method and wanted to make a video to restore it. He started by buying sugar cane, and the result was that he was lonely.

According to research, in fact, the method recorded by Song Yingxing in "Tiangong Kaiwu" is also wrong. Combining local chronicles and the ancient method of making white sugar that still exists in Hainan, the blogger finally got the real method of making white sugar, which is by no means What is the "yellow mud water drench method", but the mud sealing method, which takes up to a month or more. Instead of using a funnel, it can be easily decolorized by drenching it with yellow mud water.

After Zhang Yifan sent Zhu Biao away, he had already experimented with the method of making white sugar and mastered the real production method, so he was busy designing the factory.

Now in Xiangshan County, because last year, Zhang Yifan asked the people of Xiangshan County to plant a large amount of sugar cane in non-farmland.Even Daotong, the magistrate of Panyu County next door, came over and asked Zhang Yifan to buy sugar cane from Panyu County. Zhang Yifan agreed, so sugar cane was grown there.

With the arrival of winter, the sugarcane harvest season has arrived. The Xiangshan County government-run sugar factory must be operational. This is the most important thing for Zhang Yifan at the moment.

When He Zhen's post asking for a meeting was handed over to Zhang Yifan, he was busy with a key link. Although he could find time if he really wanted to, to be honest, the He family today is not that important yet. To the point where he has to take time out specifically.It can even be said that there are very few people in the entire Guangdong, or simply the entire Ming Dynasty, who have this qualification. When Zhang Yifan is busy, he can take time out to meet him.

After three days, a batch of sugar cane was collected first, and after Zhang Yifan went through the entire process at the sugar factory and found that there were no problems, he posted a notice announcing the establishment of the Xiangshan County government-run sugar factory and officially purchased the sugar cane. Have some free time.

However, Zhang Yifan did not meet with the He family and his son immediately. Instead, he visited the He family for a day first. When he saw that the people in Xiangshan County had begun to collect sugar cane and transported it to the sugar factory, and the whole order was in order, he only came the next day. Agree to meet the He family and his son.

After receiving the notice, He Rong said with some disdain: "Dad, it seems that the prince-in-law is busy harvesting sugar cane. How much money can he make from this?"

There are also sugar workshops in Dongguan that purchase sugar cane and make brown sugar for sale.The He family naturally knows how much profit there can be.

However, after hearing this, He Zhen shook his head and said, "Don't you see? Prince Consort, this is a sugar factory run by the government of Xiangshan County, not a workshop, so there must be something different about it. You just have to wait and see, he will do it." The sugar factory will definitely make a lot of money!"

He Rong didn't believe it: "Is it different from candy? Can he still sell it at a high price?"

He Zhen said with a serious expression: "I have some doubts. If the consort is selling sugar in such a big way, it will definitely not be ordinary brown sugar or brown sugar. Maybe it will be the kind of white sugar from outside!"

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(End of this chapter)