Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1364 Silkworm Farmer
After Zhao Yingong finished this matter, he immediately took care of people and returned to the villa.He instructed people to immediately go to Yehang around Hangzhou to buy "Shaoye".As for the 5 taels of silver, he also told people to prepare a bank note for Delong. He realized that he had given advice to the magistrate, which would definitely cause an uproar in Hangzhou.However, the spearhead of the people will no longer be aimed at him.He just needs to wait to get the raw silk and cocoons from the Famine Relief Bureau.

Shen Kaibao stood on the back of his family's boat, shaking the boat with one stroke, but without one stroke.It was noon, and there was no wind at all. The willow branches on the pond road hung lazily on the water.

It's already past the Qingming season, and the leaves on the willow branches have just unfolded a little bit. The green and yellow leaves seem to be unable to withstand the cold air of early spring, curling and refusing to unfold.

Seeing this sluggish new leaf, Shen Kaibao felt more and more chills on his body - he was wearing a tattered padded jacket, which was made more than ten years ago when the times were good. From then to now, the times seem to be different. Not good.

The weather is getting colder every year. Shen Kaibao still remembers that when he was young, the green leaves were already full of branches in Qingming, and he had to wear a thin jacket to go out and rock the boat.Fortunately, it's still snowing in March, and I can't take off my cotton-padded jacket after Qingming.

"The sky has changed!" Shen Kaibao said in his heart, coughed, and spit thick phlegm into the river.The water in the river is cold and faint.Looking at it makes people chill.

On the top of the fist-shaped twigs clusters of tender green leaves not much bigger than a fingernail have grown.On both sides of the pond road, there are now dense layers of mulberry trees.Last year's drought, from June to October, did not rain.The farmer jumped anxiously.After all, there are many rivers and ponds in the south of the Yangtze River. As long as there are many laborers in the family and those who have cattle, they can still farm the land by driving water hard. Bleeding, he went home and died.

As for those whose labor force is weak, those who have not opened ditches, or those who are far away from the river and pond, it is really unacceptable every day. They can only watch the flowering rice fields shrivel up one by one and turn into yellow straw.In the autumn, the grain messengers and the housekeepers came together to force them to pay grain, tax, and rent. Selling houses, land, wives, and children all failed to pay the iron rent and the imperial grain tax.Those who ruined their families, those who abandoned their rent and fled abroad, those who jumped into the river and hanged themselves...

It's not that Shen Kaibao has never seen this kind of thing—it's just that it's more common and frightening these years.Before and after the Chinese New Year, every time he went out in the boat, he often saw floating corpses in the river, including adults and children.He knew that he would not be able to cross and throw himself into the river.Some families that he thought had a "solid foundation" have now come to this end: the oil and salt shop in the town where he had been shopping all the time suddenly collapsed this year. When Shen Kaibao went today, there were dozens of People wailed and yelled around the planked storefront, all of them were people who had saved money in the cabinet in hopes of earning some interest.I heard that the shopkeeper in the shop committed suicide because of poor business and the creditors came to the door, but he was forced to commit suicide.

When Shen Kaibao saw this, he always felt that he was lucky. Last year's raw silk market was good, and his family barely escaped disaster by relying on the income from raw silk, and did not fall to such a point.But even so, he mortgaged some of the family's mulberry land to Mr. Cao in the town, so he could dismiss the vicious food messenger.

Mr. Cao is the "richest man" in the town. Because he was selected as a scholar in his early years, he took all the taxes in the neighborhood, and lent some money to the countrymen every now and then, with the interest rate half a cent lower than the average one.Talking to the country people is also friendly, there is a wedding and funeral, and the farmers who have contacts contribute a few small money to make a small contribution, and the whole family can go to "eat meat rice"-everyone says that Mr. Cao is a kind man.

Kindness is kindness, after more than [-] years, I have seen his family grow more and more - more and more farmers who can't pay back his money and have to sell their land to him.Master Cao has also become a landlord with hundreds of acres of land. In addition to planting mulberry, he also received a "Ministry License" and started a raw silk business in the town, and his family business became more and more prosperous.

Thinking that before the Mid-Autumn Festival, he would have to repay Mr. Cao's principal and interest. If this year's "silkworm flowers" are good, he will probably be able to repay the money. If not, he can only ask Mr. Cao for an "extension".But the monthly interest of two and a half cents is added month by month, and it will become more and more difficult to pay off.In the end, he had to give the land to Mr. Cao to repay the debt.

Thinking of this, he could only pray to Goddess Silkworm to open his eyes and give him a good silkworm flower, so that he can smoothly pay off his debt to Master Cao and let the country people breathe.

However, before he finished thinking about it, he thought that he would have to hold a wedding for Sanqing at the end of the year. Sanqing was already 23, and he didn't have a wife at this age, so he would be laughed at in the countryside.The matchmaker had told her about a suitable girl from the neighboring village, and he and his wife liked it too—but where did the bride price and the wedding expenses come from?
Thinking about it this way, endless burdens were on his mind one by one. The life of being a farmer was really hard, he sighed, there was no moment for him to relax.I am already in my early fifties—although I can still rock a boat and land in the fields at this age, I am already half buried in the soil. Farmers are hard-working people, and it is not bad to live past fifty.After a few more years, I will stand upright and ignore it.But the days of Ah Qing and San Qing are still long.

Parts of the paddy fields had been turned over, exposing dry and cracked clods.But there is still a large area of ​​rice fields without any movement.The farmers who worked the land had either fled or starved to death, and many who wanted to do so had neither seeds nor cattle.I can only look at Tian Xing and sigh.

Compared with the withered and desolate rice fields, the large mulberry forests seem to be full of vitality.Although the current young leaves are only the size of a fingernail, it will not take long for a large number of new leaves to sprout on these mulberry trees.When the silkworm baby in vain goes up the mountain, he will be able to breathe again.The market for raw silk has been good these years, and his family has mulberry trees. If they can live in peace while raising silkworms, maybe they can pay off Master Cao's debts and have some money left.As for Sanqing's marriage, let's take it one step at a time - if it doesn't work, I will buy a fleeing woman as my wife. Although it is not decent, and there is no uncle's house, it is cheaper than getting married.

Shen Kaibao planned to shake his hand all the way, turn into a branch river - the village is there, and a cluster of houses in the distance is the village where his family has lived for several generations.The rice fields distributed between the vertical and horizontal rivers outside the village have been overturned, and some of them have been planted with miscellaneous grains.Since most of the villages he lives in are sericulture households that raise silkworms and reel silk, they were not seriously damaged in last year's drought and can barely cope with it.

Now white smoke is billowing from those houses.Shen Kaibao's boat is tied to the river port of his house, and on the yard in front of the door, the women and children of the family, his wife, daughter-in-law and grandson are busy cleaning the "group plaque" and "silkworm scorpion".

These silkworm-raising utensils that have been hidden in the firewood room for a year must be taken out to be washed and repaired before being greened.Not only their family, but every door in the village, there are women and children doing the same thing.Talking and laughing, it seems to add a touch of joy to this cold spring.

However, their faces are all ashen-since last autumn, they haven't eaten a full meal, and some people can't keep up with two meals of thin porridge a day, and they have to serve it with some hard-to-eat bran cakes Fill the stomach.He was also dressed in rags. The beggar was not much better.

However, everyone's spirit is not bad.The village was not completely destroyed in the catastrophe last year, and the villagers were fortunate to be more determined in their way of raising silkworms and reeling silk.As long as the silkworm flowers are ripe, this difficult year will pass again—in today's world, it is a blessing for the family to live peacefully.

As soon as Shen Kaibao returned home, people from the village came one after another—because he has a decent boat and is a more "spectacular" person in the village, he also drives a "sailing boat" on weekdays.That is to say, the boat goes to the town every few days to sell vegetables and special products for the villagers, and buy oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, farm tools and other things that the village cannot self-sufficient.If someone wants to go to town, they can also take a boat.

Because of the disaster last year, the villagers were very tight on money, and they didn't buy anything unless it was absolutely necessary.His "business" is also very light.But this time he went to town to buy "paste paper" for silkworm rearing, which is a must-have item for every household.Everyone also wanted to hear the latest news, so many people came.A circle was formed on the courtyard of Shen Kaibao's house.

This is also the time when Shen Kaibao is most proud. He is the person with the widest eyelids and the most knowledge in the village, and everyone wants to listen to him.It’s just that he didn’t hear too much news when he came to the town this time. Because he wanted to save money, he didn’t dare to go to the teahouse to ask for a bowl of the cheapest tea powder, and listen to the chats of the “learned” people around him. I walked around the street a few times, and talked to the shopkeepers I usually deal with.

The news he brought back was not good: the market was not good, the price of rice had risen to three renminbi per bucket, and even miscellaneous grains were almost one renminbi.A few more shops in the town collapsed.The cloth shop in the town sells so cheap cloth, but still can’t sell a few bolts, the shopkeeper sighs——I heard that the cloth in Songjiang can’t be sold, and the cotton growers and mechanics are so hungry that they ran away...

"If you have so much money, it's really a calculation to buy a few horses..." Shen Kaibao was very greedy.

"The farmers are starving to death, so where is the money to buy cloth?"

"No matter how cheap it is, we can't afford it."

"It's good to have a stutter to survive, but now I have to bear it even if I have a bare butt."

"It depends on the silkworm flowers this year." Neighbor Siduo interjected, "As long as the silkworm flowers are good, it's not a big deal to buy a few bolts of cloth after selling them."

(End of this chapter)