Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 363

Seeing Xiao Wu's concerned face, Li Jing smiled wryly and said, "Okay, let's rest now."

Xiao Wu was overjoyed when he heard the words, and immediately ordered a few girls to move the brazier to the bedroom, and then ordered the girls to make beds and put quilts.

The girls have been trained by Mrs. Cao for several days, and they are very skilled in their movements, and they quickly completed all the tasks.

Xiao Wu saw it and said to Li Jing with a smile: "Father, don't talk about it, these girls are doing their jobs very neatly."

Li Jing shook his head and sighed: "Xiao Wu, we don't have to do these things ourselves in the future, do you think it's a good thing?"

Xiao Wu was startled when he heard the words, and said after a while: "I think it's good to have someone to take care of my father after a long day of tiredness, not to mention your status, you shouldn't do such a thing yourself."

Li Jing shook his head, "It's not as simple as you think. There is an ancient saying that it is easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to frugal. If things go on like this, I will become an official."

"Hehe, Dad, if you can see this layer, then you will definitely not become like those officials." Xiao Wu laughed.

After speaking, Xiao Wu then instructed the six girls: "You guys arrange it yourself, and leave two people outside every night. The commander likes to read and sleep at night. You must watch the candles and don't catch fire. There are also fires in the brazier. The fire must not be extinguished, and don’t let the handsome man freeze. Also, the handsome man likes to drink tea when he is reading, so don’t give him that stuff. If you drink too much of that stuff, you can’t fall asleep. Even less. And the most important point, you must remember, that is the book that the commander reads, you can't move around."

"Wait, Xiao Wu, what do you mean? How can I let them sleep outside of me? Where do you sleep when they sleep outside of me? You don't care about my safety." Li Jing said with wide-eyed eyes.

Xiao Wu laughed and said, "Don't worry, I'm in the next room, and there are brothers on duty outside the house. Your safety guarantee is fine."

"You brat, if your godmother finds out about your arrangement, let's see how they scold you!" Li Jing said helplessly.

"Don't worry dad, my godmother knows that I am taking care of you, they will only praise me, not scold me." Xiao Wu smiled.

Li Jingwen was dumbfounded when he heard this, and after a while, he waved his hands and said, "Okay, you are such a filial child, go back to sleep quickly."

Xiao Wu giggled: "Don't worry, there are still things I haven't finished ordering."

"What else is there? Xiao Wu, when did you have so much trouble?" Li Jing said with widened eyes.

Xiao Wu smiled, pointed to a few girls and said, "You guys hurry up to get hot water to burn the commander's feet, and the commander is tired all day, combing his hair and beating his legs."

"You're not finished, are you? You want to torture your father to death!" Li Jing said angrily.

"What do you call that? I have been serving you to wash your feet during this time. Now that there are maids, of course they have to do this job. If you care about the maids, then come here." Xiao Wu said with a smile.

"Stinky boy, you still run on your father! Well, you can do whatever you want..." Li Jing said helplessly.

At this moment, Li Jing also saw why Xiao Wu was torturing these girls, because the girls mentioned the Jiaofang Division to him and delayed his rest, Xiao Wu was retaliation against these girls.

But Li Jing did not stop Xiao Wu's arrangement. Xiao Wu was stubborn, if he was not allowed to toss these little girls, he would not be able to vent his anger, and he might not know how to deal with these girls in the future.

Hearing Li Jing's promise, Xiao Wu was overjoyed immediately, and briefly explained a few words to the little girls, then walked out of Li Jing's room with a happy face.

Seeing Xiao Wu happily leaving the room, Li Jing smiled slightly. After all, Xiao Wu was only in his early twenties, after all, he was still a little childish.

Turning around, I saw two little girls coming with steaming copper basins. Li Jing shook his head and sat down on the chair. The little girls hurriedly put down the copper basins, and then came over to remove his boots and socks.

Then two little girls came, one of them took off Li Jing's hat, and untied his scarf, and the other combed Li Jing's hair with a wooden comb.

Seeing the other two little girls coming over and wanting to beat his legs, Li Jing smiled wryly and said, "Wait a minute, get the book next to my bed."

When the two little girls heard the words, one returned to the bed, fetched the book that was left beside the bed and handed it to Li Jing, and the other brought the candlestick and placed it beside Li Jing.

Smiling at the two little girls, Li Jing took the book, turned his body slightly, and read the book by the candlelight.

The little girl combing her hair behind her saw that there were pictures on the book in Li Jing's hand. She was a little curious for a while and asked, "Marshal, what book are you reading? Is it the knowledge of governing a country?"

"Hehe, yes, the book talks about the knowledge of governing a country." Li Jing said with a smile.

"How can there be pictures in the knowledge of governing the country?" The little girl continued.

Li Jing smiled, pointed to the pictures on the book and said, "This is to teach people how to plant rice seedlings!"

"Teaching people to plant rice seedlings? What is that?" the little girl asked.

Li Jing was silent when he heard this, this little girl was born in a family of officials, she had never seen a farmer farming, and she didn't even know what transplanting rice seedlings was.

Shaking his head slightly, Li Jing said, "It's just farming, growing food."

The little girl then asked in amazement: "How is farming the knowledge of governing a country?"

Li Jing pondered for a moment and said, "Do you know where our food comes from?"

"It's grown by farmers." The little girl hurriedly said.

"Hehe, that's right. I actually know that it was planted by farmers. Let me ask you again, do you know how many people we have in Daming and how much land we have for cultivation?" Li Jing then asked.

The little girl shook her head and said, "I don't know."

Li Jing sighed and said, "Except for the careful statistics of the country's population and land during the Taizu period, our Ming Dynasty did not make serious statistics for nearly 200 years. It was not until the Wanli period that Zhang Juzheng took power. There is no statistics. A few months ago, I ordered the Ministry of Households to conduct a new statistics. I estimate that in a few months, the specific figures should come out. I roughly estimated that the population of our Daming should be around [-] million , the land should be around [-] to [-] million mu."

"Marshal, you are really good, you can figure it out." The little girl hastily offered a little flattery.

Li Jing smiled: "I'm just estimating, this number is inaccurate. Let's calculate it according to the number I said, which means that each person should be allocated five or six acres of land on average, but this is not the case Well, because some people have no land, and some people have a lot of land. Therefore, everything can be calculated on an equal basis, except for land and grain, which will kill people. Let me ask you again, you said that land and grain Is food related to national affairs?"

"Yes!" The little girl answered.

"Then do you know about the droughts in the northwest provinces in recent years?" Seeing the little girl shaking his head, Li Jing continued: "Let me tell you, the droughts in the northwest provinces have been very serious in recent years, and many of the land in these provinces are granulated. There is no harvest, which means that the land in these provinces is not actually responsible for the task of producing grain, so the country’s grain burden is placed on the remaining land.”

"I understand. People in these provinces with no harvest want to eat, so they have to rely on other places to send them food." A little girl who was beating her legs suddenly answered.

"Smart, but the grain produced per mu of land is limited, and the transportation process also consumes a lot of grain. In fact, the remaining land cannot feed so many people. What should I do?" Li Jing asked. .

The little girl thought for a while, then shook her head and said, "Yes! What should we do now? People will starve to death if they have nothing to eat."

Li Jing smiled, pointed to the book and said, "There is a way, this book is to teach us the way."

"What way?" The little girl asked hastily.

"Increasing the yield, as long as you follow the methods mentioned in this book, the grain yield will increase. In the past, an acre of land could only produce about [-] catties of grain, but with this method, it may be increased to [-] catties or even [-] catties." More. As long as the yield increases, our land can produce more food and feed more people," said Li Jing.

"Ah! So powerful? What's the name of this book? Who wrote it?" the little girl asked hurriedly.

Li Jing closed the book lightly, pointed to the cover and said, "This book is called "Heavenly Craftsmanship", and it was written by a person named Song Yingxing."

After finishing speaking, Li Jingchang sighed and said: "I have been waiting for this person to write this book for five years. This book was finally published a month ago, and I just saw this book the day before yesterday. Today I wanted to Take the time to read it carefully, and don’t want to be delayed by other things.”

"Ah! Marshal, it's all our fault, which delayed the Marshal's business." The little girl hurriedly said.

"I don't blame you, even if you don't tell me, I will know about the Jiaofang Division sooner or later, and I have to find a way to solve this problem. You don't have to blame yourself. This is a good thing. If you solve this problem one day earlier, your relatives will I will get out of the sea of ​​suffering one day earlier." Li Jing waved his hand and smiled.

"Thank you, Marshal, for saving our relatives." Several little girls hurriedly said.

Seeing a few little girls about to kneel and kowtow, Li Jing waved his hand to stop and said, "Don't kneel, you don't need to thank me. Speaking of which, it's because of me that you are here today. If it wasn't for my order, you wouldn't have been ransacked. "

"No way? How could such a good man, Marshal, do such a thing?" A little girl asked suspiciously.

Li Jing smiled bitterly and said: "You are still young and you are all girls. You don't even know what your elders have done. Let me tell you, your elders violated the laws of Ming Dynasty. I must Catch them and deal with them according to the law."

The girls were all silent when they heard it, they also heard about what happened to the elders in the family in the Jiaofang Division.

For these children, they didn't know how serious their elders' crimes were, and they only felt that the court was unfair to their elders. At this time, they heard Li Jing say that it was Li Jing's order, and they felt a little dazed for a while.

(End of this chapter)