The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 50 Omen of Drought
It's October.

Originally, there was a rumor in Fujian that Xu Xueju was promoted to governor of Fujian, and Jin Xuezeng, the governor of Fujian, went to Nanjing. However, Xu Xueju was promoted to half a rank and was appointed as the right chief envoy of Fujian, while Jin Xuezeng stayed as governor of Fujian.

The only person who was truly promoted was Chen Xingxue, the former right-wing envoy.

This guy was promoted to governor of Guangdong. Needless to say, he must be related to Gao Yin.

Xu Xueju was depressed for a while, but he was promoted and took office.

There is no need to change the official office and he will continue to stay in Fuzhou. However, the government affairs he is in charge of will be transferred from finance to civil affairs, making the work more complicated.

Wang Wenlong walked up and down Xu Xueju's yamen. A group of officials and lower-level bureaucrats knew that he was Xu Xueju's staff and flattered him quite a lot.Wang Wenlong's temperament was also flexible enough, and he quickly established a good relationship with the Chief Envoy Si Yamen.

At this time, Xu Xueju had just taken office and had not been transferred out of Fuzhou. The original staff team was directly used. Someone was responsible for basic things, leaving Wang Wenlong with not much work.

In this way, Wang Wenlong's life was pretty good, and he still had time to contact Li Guangjin.

After learning that Wang Wenlong finally escaped from Gao Yin's mansion and entered Xu Fantai's mansion as a guest, Li Guangjin quickly congratulated him.

A few days later, Yu Xiangdou also came to Fuzhou and brought Wang Wenlong his share of the embroidered portrait volume of "The Scholars".

A total of 800 copies of the embroidered portrait version of "The Scholars" were printed. In just three months, they were sold out again, and Wang Wenlong received a dividend of [-] taels.

Adding in more than 500 taels of manuscript fees for "The Scholars", 480 taels of manuscript fees for "History of Portugal", the 100 taels extorted from Master Chen, and the 100 taels given by Gao Yin, Wang Wenlong's current net worth is close to 2000 taels.

The dividends for the collection of Xiong Qingbo's "History of Portugal" have not yet arrived. Although the sales of this book are hot, it is still worse than popular books such as "The Scholars".

It is estimated that more than 2000 units will be sold in the end, but it can be divided into upper and lower parts for sale, and the unit price is higher and the profit is higher.

According to the agreement between Wang Wenlong and Xiong Qingbo, the final income can be around 500 taels.

With so much money on hand, Wang Wenlong also started thinking about buying a house.

After going around the Fuzhou market, Wang Wenlong found that housing prices were unexpectedly low at this time.

There are seven houses for sale in Beijing, with five rows of top-notch mansions worth more than 300 taels, and the price per square meter is only [-], [-].

Housing prices in Fujian are far from that high. Houses in the best areas of Fuzhou Prefecture cost only four to five liang per unit. Of course, the price of a house with a facade will be higher.

Ordinary people can earn ten taels of silver a year working part-time. Nowadays, ordinary people can buy a house in the CBD of the provincial capital with only half a year's salary.

Of course, the reason behind the exaggerated income-to-house price ratio is that ordinary people cannot save money at this time. They need to spend money on firewood, rice, oil and salt. An adult man who earns ten taels of silver is not enough to support his family. The common people have no money left in their hands. Naturally, No money to buy a house.

But it’s great for Wang Wenlong. He has no pressure to live alone. As long as he doesn’t buy a palace-level mansion like Wangfu, there are almost no houses in Fujian that he can’t afford.

Under Li Guangjin's introduction, Wang Wenlong found the Yaren in Fuzhou Prefecture and prepared to view the house.

While Wang Wenlong was actively preparing to buy property in the provincial capital, Xu Xueju suddenly became busy.

The 27th year of Wanli was not a good year.

Starting from the end of September, there were reports of scarce rain in the north and south of the Ming Dynasty. On the one hand, civil servants took advantage of this celestial phenomenon and persuaded Wanli to collect the tax eunuchs.

At the same time, signs of drought have appeared in Shandong and Hebei.

The staple food of Fujian people at this time was rice, which was grown twice a year. The second season of rice could be harvested in mid-October.

Quanzhou Prefecture, Qingyuan County.Wang Wenlong stood next to the farmland. There was a ditch in front of him, and a large rice field was connected to the hook.

A dozen elderly women or children squatted in front of the water outlet in their rice fields, staring at the water flowing from the outlet.

A small piece of bamboo is inserted into the water outlet of the rice field. The "four-person" waterwheel in the distance is spinning rapidly under the tread of a few strong men with rolled up trousers legs, pumping the waterwheel from the reservoir into the field.

The old lady squatting in the field next to him suddenly stood up, put her hands on her hips, pointed at the farmers in the local dialect, and yelled curses.

"The people who beheaded us all rented a water tanker together. Why don't we give water to my farm?"

Upon closer inspection, it turned out that the strips of bamboo strips at the water outlet of her rice field were exposed out of the water. The old man was afraid that his farmland would be short of water. After scolding her, she nimbly raised her legs and jumped onto the field bank. She rolled up her sleeves and ran to the waterwheel. He would not give up on those farmers who were driving in traffic.

The agricultural officer on the side saw that the old woman had gone too far, and was afraid that the feudal lord would see the joke, so he quickly went up and used local dialect to persuade both parties to go away.

Wang Wenlong looked back at Xu Xueju and saw a melancholy look on his face.

When Wang Wenlong walked up, he heard the landowner next to Xu Xueju whisper: "These are leaky fields. They can't survive even if they are irrigated. This amount of irrigation water is just better than nothing. If it doesn't rain again in the autumn, there will probably be a drought here this year."

Wang Wenlong and Xu Xueju fell silent upon hearing this.

Since ancient times, Fujian has been characterized by mountains and little farmland. With its large population, food has always been a critical issue.This year has been a bad year. Xu Xueju has been worried about the winter drought since he took office. In October, the signs of drought have become more obvious.

Xu Xueju frowned and said nothing. He had official duties and left early, leaving Wang Wenlong in the village to watch and take notes.

In the evening, Wang Wenlong returned to the county center post with several officials. As soon as he entered the room, he saw Xu Xueju sitting and talking with two well-dressed people.

Seeing Wang Wenlong come in, Xu Xueju pointed at the middle-aged man and introduced him:

"This is the general manager of Fujian Haitan, Shen Yourong, whose courtesy name is Shihong."

Wang Wenlong quickly heard the words and said politely, "Is this Shen Shihong who fought against Japanese pirates in North Korea?"

Shen Yourong heard this and said with a smile, "Sir, do you also know my name?"

Wang Wenlong knew it very well. Shen Yourong followed Qi Jiguang to defend Jiliao, fight against Korea, and later fight the Dutch in Fujian. He was considered a famous general in the world.

Shen Yourong was a first-class firearms talent in the Ming Dynasty. He served as a firearms instructor in Qi Jiguang's army and was familiar with naval warfare.

However, Wang Wenlong was familiar with him not because of Shen Yourong's achievements, but because Shen Yourong's descendants were so successful in their education.

Shen Yourong himself was from an ordinary background. He rose to prominence by serving in front of the battlefield. After he became rich, he took a lot of money like other generals and gave birth to many children.

According to historical records, the names of his sons in history include:
Shen Shouyue, who was a civil servant and a civil servant, was killed by the Manchus when he tried to contact Zheng Chenggong to fight against the Qing Dynasty.

Shen Shouchong, a Jinshi of Wu, stayed behind in Chengtian Mansion. Li Zicheng attacked Chengtian Mansion, but Shen Shouchong refused to surrender. Later, he was defeated and was killed by Li Zicheng.

Shen Shouyao, a famous scholar in Fushe and a Jinshi in martial arts, followed Zhu Dadian to guard Jinhua when the Qing Dynasty entered the Pass. He was defeated and killed by the Qing Dynasty.

Shen Shoumin, a famous scholar of Fushe and an official of Nanming, was one of the "Five Scholars of Fushe" and the "Three Survivors in the Country".

In addition, Shen Yourong's granddaughter Shen entered the palace as a concubine during the Chongzhen Dynasty, and it is speculated that she probably died when Li Zicheng entered the capital.

His son Qingshi alone has four names in his name, and none of them are cowards. In addition, Shen Yourong spent his whole life fighting against foreign enemies, so he can definitely be called a loyal family.

　I checked the information and failed to visit the site... This is the third update.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)