At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 248, Marriage and changes in Chang'an

After saying that, the two of them entered Fanyang City and saw that the streets in the city were wide and clean, bustling and lively, with merchants gathered, people living well, and a constant flow of people. This made Yingbu feel that the original Chang'an City was nothing more than this.

How is this possible? Chang'an City has a population of hundreds of thousands, while Fanyang only has a population of tens of thousands. It is a completely small county.

Yingbu shook his head, trying to get rid of this illusion, but he didn't know that this was just an illusion caused by him having been staying in a wilderness and suddenly entering a relatively prosperous city.

Then Wu Rui led Yingbu to his prince's mansion. On the way, Yingbu kept asking Wu Rui for advice on how to establish a territory.

And this Wu Rui is too experienced. In this era, Wu Rui is a rare pioneer. Almost the entire Lujiang County was developed by Wu Rui.

It can be said that Wu Rui is a hero who established a foundation for a race.

People of this era may regard Wu Rui as a hero and even try to suppress him. However, Xu Fan was influenced by later generations and respected Wu Rui very much. Even though he did not make much contribution, he still made him a marquis and acknowledged his contribution to Wu Rui. The dominance of Lujiang County.

And Xu Fan's attitude towards Wu Rui also affected Yingbu. Coupled with the hardships he had to develop Britain, with Fan Yang's comparison, he naturally became more polite to Wu Rui.

Wu Rui saw that Yingbo was so eager to learn, so he told Yingbo his pioneering experience. Using his own experience of more than ten years as an example, he told Yingbo how to hide troops from the people, how to promote agriculture and business, and how to boldly eliminate bad policies and lighten the The corvee and taxes were reduced, the burden on the people was reduced, water conservancy projects were built, and a series of measures to encourage farming were formulated, which improved the living standards of farmers.

Yingbu benefited greatly from hearing this and even found pen and ink to record Wu Rui's experience.

Yingbo decided to go all out to expand sugar cane fields, but Britain's population was increasing, and the food problem also had to be solved.

Mao Ping sighed and said, "When will the world be truly peaceful?"

Wu Rui respects his wife very much, and the relationship between them is also very good.

After three rounds of inspections, Yingbu said to Wu Rui: "Marquis Fanyang, my country in the UK is short of food. I want to order 50 shi of food in Fanyang. We in the UK can trade it with white sugar!"

At this time, Mao Ping suddenly felt a sense of unknownness in her heart, so she wrote a poem to Wu Rui, "Shangxie! I want to know you, and live forever. There are no mountains, no mausoleums, no rivers." For the sake of exhaustion, winter thunder trembles, summer rain and snow, heaven and earth are united, and I dare to be with you." Later, this poem was also widely circulated, and was later included in "Han Yuefu".

This made Wu Rui extremely happy. Although he was older than Yingbu, his title was not as high as that of Yingbu. He originally thought that Yingbu would be very difficult to get along with as a domineering general, but he did not expect that he would be so studious, which made Wu Rui lose face. satisfy.

Wu Rui said: "No problem."

Mao Ping continued: "Yingbu is a hero in the world, and he is indeed a good match. I just don't know if he will fall in love with Dan'er."

Wu Rui's wife was named Mao Ping, and she was a famous talented woman in the world. In history, Wu Rui and his wife Mao Ping were rafting on the river. After the war, the two lived a peaceful and stable life, which also ended the precarious life for many years. , so both of them were filled with emotions.

The Qin Dynasty was finally destroyed, and they had to worry about the Han Emperor cutting down the feudal vassals.

That night Wu Rui said to his wife: "I thought Yingbu was a reckless man, and his domineering general was famous all over the world. However, during today's exchange, I didn't expect that he would be so humble, studious, and respectful to me. I heard from my husband that Yingbu has not yet My husband wants to betroth Dan'er to Yingbu, what do you think?"

Wu Rui said: "When I go to Chang'an City this time, I will take Dan'er with me. If the two of them are in love, I will ask Yingbu to ask your majesty to propose marriage."

Wu Rui was extremely envious of Yingbu's ability to grow sugar cane, and the emperor also sent craftsmen to build a sugar mill for him. This was a gold mine for Yingbu.

Mao Ping frowned and said, "Why are you so anxious?"

"But after all, we are not the emperor's confidants. Who knows if the emperor has the idea of ​​annexing Fanyang. Marrying Yingbu can be regarded as building a relationship with the emperor. Even if the emperor wants to cut off the vassal, someone will help me intercede."

So at the banquet in the evening, Wu Rui found local officials to join in. These officials said some nice words to please Yingbu, and the atmosphere was extremely lively.

And he was a foreigner. Not to mention the sugar mill, he didn't even dare to grow sugarcane, so he could only watch Yingbo get rich.

After completing the transaction, the banquet between the two parties was a joyful one for the host and the guest.

Wu Rui smiled bitterly and said: "When we were in Chang'an City, the Emperor said that he would let the people of the world recuperate and stop fighting for three years. As a result, in less than a year, Dong Chu was destroyed and Shanggu was annexed by the Emperor. Although the Emperor annexed the two forces, they each had their own reasons. The reason is that Zang Tu is seeking his own death.

Yingbu thought of Fanyang who was closest to him. Because it is close to Pengze Lake, the land nearby is flat, and Wu Rui has been repairing water conservancy facilities in the past ten years. Fanyang has extremely large grain production capacity and has become a nearby grain production center.

After Yingbu rested for a night in Fanyang, he and Wu Rui formed a fleet and continued to the Central Plains. After entering Wancheng from the Han River, their fleet was replaced by horse-drawn carriages, and then entered Guanzhong from Wuguan.

September 20th, the third year of Han Dynasty.

Maybe God has pity on the people who have experienced three years of war. Although there are minor floods and droughts in the world this year, the overall trend of the entire world is good. Chen County has a bumper harvest, Nanyang County has a bumper harvest, and many in the Central Plains have been fertilized by birds. The yield of Guan Shi's farmland exceeded 4 dan per mu. Many counties in the Central Plains had a bumper harvest. Good news of the bumper harvests spread to Chang'an City one after another, making Xu Fan, Zhou Zhang and others breathe a sigh of relief. They had food in their hands and did not panic.

Chang'an City, Zhaoli.

Fusu wore a short brown coat with a gray-black linen draped over his shoulders, a straw hat on his head, and a brand-new iron sickle in his hand, constantly harvesting his own corn.

Behind Fusu are his wife Mengshi and Fusu's three children. They also have small sickles to help their parents harvest.

At three o'clock in the morning, Fusu saw that his wife and three children were all sweating profusely and said: "Take a break, take a rest!"

"Finally I can rest!" Fusu's children heard this and happily ran to the big tree on the edge of the field.

Fusu also supported his wife and walked to the shade of a tree.

Mengshi poured out a bowl of boiled water that he had prepared and handed it to Fusu: "Husband."

Fusu drank it all in one gulp, and then said with a wry smile: "In the past, I thought I had suffered a lot. But only this year when I plowed and harvested, did I know the hardships of the people. For such hard work, half of the harvest had to be handed over, and they had to serve for several months. It is no wonder that when the Emperor of Han rebelled, the whole country rebelled. Even ordinary people would follow the King of Han in rebellion."

Mengshi said: "Husband, please stop talking about this. We will live our own stable life from now on."

"Brother, brother!" Hu Hai shouted from a distance.

Fusu frowned and looked at Hu Hai. When he came closer, Fusu scolded: "It is the autumn harvest season. If you are not harvesting in the fields, why are you running around? You can't harvest enough food. Do you want to starve to death?"

The wind and rain in Guan this year have been good, and Zhao Li's grain supply is generally about 2 dan. Only Hu Hai's field has less care, and the harvest is much worse than other brothers. It is only a little more than dan. Fusu has long been dissatisfied, but Hu Hai has never been found. .

Hu Hai said nonchalantly: "If you harvest them all, you will be full. If you want it, please help me harvest it. I will share half of it with you."

Fusu said angrily: "What the hell are you talking about? Do you think my father is still alive and can still take care of you?"

Hu Hai said nonchalantly: "I don't want to be a farmer. I have to work hard to cultivate some land and can't even have enough to eat. I found a new job in Chang'an City. I report to the school every month and my salary is thousands of dollars. This farm work is... If the eldest brother is willing to do it, you can do it yourself. I won’t do it anymore. I’ve also leased my land to you. It’s enough for you to share half of my food every year. I want to go back to Chang’an City to enjoy my life now.”

Fusu is no longer the unscrupulous young man he used to be. Jobs with a salary of thousands of dollars are not easy to find in Chang'an City. He has never heard of the monthly report to the school.

So Fusu immediately asked: "How could such a good thing happen to you? Are you being deceived?" Hu Hai smiled and said: "How is it possible? This is a position that my father-in-law helped someone get. My father-in-law It’s still amazing. He actually changed his identity and became a novelist. Many people read his articles, and the royalties are extremely high. He can earn tens of thousands of dollars a month. When his family is prosperous, there is no way he will ignore me as his son-in-law. I will go to his house to make trouble. After a few calls, he helped me arrange this position.”

Fusu continued to ask: "What do the members of the monthly newspaper school do?"

Hu Hai said: "Just check the collected articles to see if there are any typos, and then type and print them. Soon there will be tens of thousands of books. These books are called monthly newspapers. Now the scholars in Chang'an City, I already have a monthly report and it’s selling like crazy.”

During the six months Xu Fan was in Chang'an, although he did not carry out any major infrastructure projects, he was the one who invented the printing technology of living signatures and Dahan Monthly. The printing technology of living signatures was mainly used to print various books in large quantities, such as the books of Dahan. In the library, all the classics of various schools of thought have been converted into paper books. Scholars in Chang'an City can buy these books at low prices.

Of course, the emergence of printing was not very friendly to many people.

Hu Hai said angrily: "The reason why we can no longer continue our job of copying books is because of this movable type printing technology. As long as the modules of this movable type are burned, tens of thousands of books can be printed at one time, which makes our job difficult. Gone."

Hu Hai had a good time copying books for a while, but as soon as movable type printing came out, their job was wiped out. Hu Hai suffered for a long time.

After the advent of printing, Xu Fan also used it to convey the orders of the Chang'an court to the world, and also to let the county magistrates of the world know the movements of Chang'an City. Zhou Zhang was ecstatic about the arrival of the report. With the arrival of the report, it was much easier for the big man to convey information.

Then Xu Fan thought about the newspapers of later generations. Unfortunately, the price of paper is now expensive, printing is twice as expensive, and it takes a long time. Xu Fan can't make a daily newspaper, but he can make a monthly newspaper.

So Xu Fan appointed Lu Shu as the editor-in-chief of the "Han Monthly", and asked Lu Shu to collect articles from various schools of thought and publish them in the monthly newspaper. Just after the autumn harvest, the Han Dynasty was about to hold the imperial examination, and the entire city of Chang'an was in chaos. The lack of scholars made the sales of "Dahan Monthly" very good, and it was in a stage where supply exceeded demand.

Then Hu Hai said: "Brother, you shouldn't stay in the countryside forever. New things will be discovered in Chang'an City every month. With our ability, as long as we look for it, we can find a better job than farming."

Today's Chang'an City is more vibrant than Xianyang before. There are new things every day, which makes Hu Hai linger. He no longer wants to stay in the boring countryside of Zhao Li.

Fusu shook his head and said, "I just want to farm."

Hu Hai looked at his stubborn brother, shook his head and ran away. He wants to take his wife to Chang'an City to live a good life.

Fusu smiled helplessly, he was living well despite being so shameless.

It was October 2, the third year of the Han Dynasty.

Zhao Li's autumn harvest was completed, and Fusu and his family used ox carts to carry the grain to Qixiang.

Although the Han Dynasty set a 3% tax, in fact the tax was collected according to the standard of lower fields, bushels per mu. Of course Xu Fan also knew that if the upper fields were raised in this way, a lot of taxes would be reduced in the middle fields.

But there is no way. The big man does not have the organizational power to complete the detailed tax collection. If it is really divided into three levels, I am afraid that those lawless Han officials will change the lower fields to upper fields, and the tax from three to nine will be achieved. Forcing people to rebel.

Thanks to the Internet, Xu Fan didn't know how the upper class was doing.

But Xu Fan knew exactly what was going on at the bottom.

When setting the standards for farming, and adding that each household has 100 acres of land, taxation is very simple. Almost every household only needs to pay 30 shi of corn or cash crops of equivalent value, such as silk and hemp. tax deduction.

In addition to paying taxes, Qixiang is also the largest purchaser of grain in the surrounding villages. It states that the purchase price of corn is 90 yuan per stone and the purchase price of wheat is 110 yuan per stone. This price has disappointed many farmers.

A month ago, the price of grain in Guanzhong was still 200 yuan per stone, but when the news of the great harvest in Chen County reached Guanzhong, the price of grain dropped by 200 yuan. Then there was a bumper harvest in Nanyang County and a bumper harvest in the Central Plains. Every time such news came from , the price of food will drop a bit, and now it has dropped to 100 yuan and is gone. For every farmer in Guanzhong, this is equivalent to reducing their income by half.

But Fusu frowned when he saw this handover and said: "In the past, the price of grain per stone in Guanzhong was 30 yuan, but now it is still 90 yuan. Could it be that the big man wanted to fight, so he bought a large amount of grain?"

Young Master Gao smiled bitterly and said: "Brother, you are no longer a young master, but a farmer. The current price of 90 yuan for grain has already reduced my income by more than half. At the price of 30 yuan, it was really a hard trip. Besides food, what else?" I’m not making any money anymore. It seems that the price of wheat is still a bit high. I’ll try planting a season of winter wheat this year.”

Fusu was dumbfounded. Indeed, the price of grain was too low. If he wanted to buy cloth, salt, and ironware, he would have to consume more grain. The low price of grain also hurt farmers.

Then Fusu saw a serious-looking man sitting next to Qiang Fu, but the headband was a Legalist crown. Fusu thought he had seen it wrong, and asked his second brother in surprise: "That person seems to be a Legalist." man of."

Young Master Gao said: "Those are the Legalists. They were sent by Wu Tingwei to supervise grain taxation. If we have any dissatisfaction, we can complain to these legal officials. It is said that every township in Guanzhong has arranged one such legal official." , just to prevent Han officials from increasing taxes and oppressing the people."

The Chang'an court attached great importance to this autumn harvest. Not only did high-level inspections take place, but Xu Fan also ordered Wu Guang to dispatch all the legal officers of the Tingwei Mansion to station in every township in Guanzhong. Whenever an illegal official was found, they would directly lock him up. Of course, because of the need for legal officers There are too many, and this is only possible in most counties in Guanzhong.

Fusu said in astonishment: "Legalism is being taken seriously again."

Young Master Gao said: "As long as the Han Dynasty wants to maintain its existence, it is impossible to have less Legalists."

Young Master Gao, this is true. Two thousand years of feudal history said that Confucianism ruled the world. In fact, Confucianism was used for the upper class, and Legalism was used for the lower class. The ordinary people were oppressed to the same extent as in the pre-Qin period.

Perhaps because of the presence of Fa Cao, the big fights and small fights Xu Fan encountered at the beginning did not happen at all, and there were no kicking fights in later generations. Everyone paid the taxes smoothly.

But after Fusu and the others paid their taxes, Qixiang Qiangfu Lu Shu said: "I have a good thing for you."

Fusu and the young master bowed their hands and said, "Mr. Lu Qiang, please speak?"

"After the autumn harvest, the imperial court's tax revenue was sufficient. Your Majesty, benevolent and righteous, issued an edict, saying that a primary school should be established in each township to teach children to read and read. We in Qixiang do not have many scholars. I remember that not all of your brothers are knowledgeable. It is said that I made a lot of money by copying books. If you are willing to stay in Qixiang and become a wife, each of you can get 100 more acres of land. This is a great thing. If you are not illiterate, I can't. I want to be a master.”

Fusu said in astonishment: "All villages?"

Lu Shu smiled and said: "Yes, it is true in all villages. Now it is popular in Guanzhong. From now on, the whole world will be scholars. That is to say, our majesty is the only one who really cares about my own people."

Fusu and Young Master Gao looked at each other and said, "Lu Qiangfu, can I discuss this with my brothers?"

"Of course, but you have to give me the answer in three days. If you don't want this job, I will go to Chang'an City to recruit some down-and-out scholars. Now Chang'an City is full of poor scholars because of the imperial examination. They should Will be willing to accept this job."

Fusu said: "I will give Lu Qiangfu an answer within three days."

After Lu Shu left, the young master said: "Brother, let me take over this job. Teaching and educating people is better than being a farmer."

But Fusu hesitated and said: "If this happens, our brothers will definitely be separated."

Fusu was still a little worried that their brothers would be bullied if they were separated, but it was better to get together now to keep each other warm.

Young Master Gao Man said indifferently: "Hu Hai goes to Chang'an City every day to fool around, but the Han Emperor still does not punish him. The Han Emperor is a great man of his generation and does not care about our brothers at all. My brother is just scaring himself now."

Fusu said helplessly: "You can go if you want."

(End of this chapter)