The old man was not satisfied with anything about this paradise-like village, but he only admired the diligent farmers of the village.
Zhang Baotian received the reward and became an official directly from a farmer. The natural chasm that had been insurmountable for generations in his family was bridged. Other tenants, those who raised livestock, those who grew medicinal materials in the mountains, those who kept bees, as long as the old man felt that
Not bad, with a wave of his hand he would either give out the pure silver ingots or allocate them to the fields.
The old man looked at the paddy fields and dry fields for a long time, and in the afternoon he rested by the lotus pond, which was very unpleasant to his eyes. Li Jinglong was nearby and personally prepared food and drinks for the three masters of the Zhu family.
Jin's favorite crispy fried crucian carp, Zhu Yunxi's favorite rice buns with sweet and sour radish skin, the old man's favorite white meat with garlic paste, stir-fried rooster with sweet sauce, Lin Lin set up half the table with all kinds of dishes.
Zhu Yunxi sat down next to the old man, sitting in his ancestor's arms, holding the fried fish in his hand and eating it. The old man glanced sideways at the lotus pond where the white geese were leisurely wandering, and took a bite of the cockscomb.
"Damn, you're wasting things. You dug a good land, more than an acre, and used it as a pond!" The old man scolded Li Jinglong next to him while eating, "Can lotus be used as food? What about ducks and geese?"
Are you going to eat it and keep it for breeding?”
"What you are saying is that I have forgotten my roots!" Li Jinglong carefully added wine to the old man beside him and said with a smile, "When I turn around, I will have someone fill it in..."
"Fill it in? I've already dug it out and you fill it in again. Are you free?" The old man said dissatisfiedly.
Li Jinglong choked immediately and looked at Zhu Yunxi slightly.
The latter took a bite of the cold radish skin, which was slightly sour and sweet in the mouth. It was a good dish to relieve the heat and relieve fatigue. He smiled and said, "Grandpa Huang, this Zhuangzi will be yours from now on. It doesn't look good. Please give me your orders."
!”
"You know how to speak for him!" The old man tapped Li Jinglong with his chopsticks. "The more you live, the more flexible you become. You don't have the cleverness you had when you were a child!" After saying that, he sighed again, "A good life can ruin a person's life!"
"Ancestor!" At this time, Jin in the old man's arms raised his hand and brought a fried fish head to the old man's mouth.
Zhu Yunxi frowned and scolded, "Discourteous!"
The brat ate the fish himself and gave the fish head to his ancestor?
"Shut up!" The old man also scolded Zhu Yunxi, and he took the fish head into his mouth with a smile, chewing it crispy, "We love eating this fish head, one bite is full of flavor and crispy!" He said
, he broke open another fish, weighed the body, and put the fish head into his mouth.
Jin stretched out his chubby little hands and helped the old man brush off the residue from his beard.
Pu Bucheng on the other side hurriedly handed over a handkerchief to wipe his hands, but Jin didn't even look at it, just wiped it on the old man's clothes, and then continued to eat.
"Ancestor, my grandson no longer wants to stay in the palace!" Jin raised his head and said.
The old man drank a small drink and said, "Where are you going if you're not in the palace?"
"Aren't you going to live in this village from now on?" Jin blinked and asked, "Jin will live here with you from now on and stay with you every day, okay?"
"Hahaha!" The old man laughed, "It's just a lie to accompany us, but you are serious about messing around here, right?"
Hearing this, Zhu Yunxi looked at Jin, "How do you know your ancestor wants to live here?"
Jin lowered his head to eat the fish and said, "I heard that our ancestors are going to try to grow sweet potatoes here. Our ancestors attach great importance to farming, so naturally I want to do it myself!"
The old man laughed, lowered his head and kissed Jin on the forehead, "What a good grandson of ours, you have such a good brain!"
Zhu Yunxi also had a sense of appropriateness. The brat had grown up unconsciously and could understand the thoughts of adults.
After eating for a while, the old man put down his chopsticks when he was full and said to Li Jinglong, "Where did you get the water from the lotus pond?"
Li Jinglong pointed to the mountain in the distance, "Behind the mountain is the Jinchuan River. When I was building the pond, I dug a canal. Just in time for the water level to rise in spring, the water was drawn in!"
"Hiss!" The old man glared again, "For the sake of a pond, you built a fucking canal, really!"
Li Jinglong said hurriedly, "The canal not only diverts water, but also diverts water to the rice fields every spring. The main reason is that for the convenience of irrigation, as for this pond, it is a matter of convenience!"
"So your pond still has running water. It's good to have a canal. You can bring the water here without fear of drought!" The old man thought about it and said, "Ask Xie Jinzhong to come over and follow us up the mountain to have a look!"
Zhu Yunxi said, "Grandpa Huang, you have been walking for a long time, please rest!"
"Can the walk make us tired?" the old man said with a smile, "Let's go up the mountain!"
The mountain next to Zhuangzi is not high, and has traces of artificial care. It is lush and green, like an ornamental garden. As a group of people walked to the foot of the mountain, there were occasionally hares running around in the grass, and tame deer in the forest looked from a distance.
"How much land does this village have?" the old man asked.
Li Jinglong followed closely, "Back to the Supreme Emperor, there are one hundred and twenty acres of paddy and dry land! There are four hundred acres of woodland, and the land on the hillside, I haven't counted it."
The old man nodded, beckoned Xie Jinzhong to come forward, and said, "The seeds you brought are enough for planting?"
"That should be enough!" Xie Jinzhong was unsure because he was not a full-time farmer.
"Enough is enough, what should you do? I don't know how many bowls of rice you can eat by yourself?" the old man said with a look on his face.
Xie Jinzhong immediately started to tremble, "Going back to the Supreme Emperor, I always asked my natives to plant the seeds in Luzon, and I watched from the sidelines. The first time I used sweet potatoes instead of red potatoes as seeds, and then
Those natives used potato vines to plant them in the ground, and they were able to take root and sprout!"
The old man thought about it and suddenly whispered, "Tell us the truth, how much have you planted in Luzon?"
Xie Jinzhong was covered in cold sweat, "About, five acres of land?" He said, tremblingly, "I really can't remember!"
It's no wonder that he couldn't remember clearly. At this time, Luzon was still in a barbaric and tribal state. As a Ming businessman living in a foreign country, he occupied a large area with a group of sailors. Don't think he was in trouble in the Ming Dynasty, but in the
The manor over there is like a local emperor.
"That is to say, those foreign natives may also have the seeds of this sweet potato?" the old man asked again.
"There are villains like Zhuangzi, but there are absolutely none outside!" Xie Jinzhong said in a trembling voice, "Actually, the villain's Zhuangzi was obtained from a chief in exchange for cotton cloth, and the villain and them are also wary of each other!"
"The reason why the villain also has Zhuangzi in Luzon is because there is nothing there. The cotton cloth and iron porcelain of the Ming Dynasty are as good as gold in their place..."
Zhu Yunxi looked at him thoughtfully. There were countless Ming Dynasty merchants like Xie Jinzhong. These people set sail and went wherever they could make more money. Moreover, most of the sailors on the ship were desperadoes. Otherwise, the chiefs of the surrounding foreign countries and the others would
Unable to be intimidated, I had already started to rob him.
Thinking about history, before the arrival of the Western invaders, it was the merchants of the Ming Dynasty who were the kings and hegemons. Even Chinese descendants from several small countries established dynasties based on the Chinese system. This shows that there were many maritime merchants in the Ming Dynasty.
These maritime merchants can be used to make them the vanguard of the country, cooperating with the navy to expand the Ming Dynasty's maritime territory infinitely. Even if they are given some sweet spots and national official positions, it doesn't matter. They have spread their branches overseas, but their roots have always remained the same.
In Ming Dynasty.
Wherever they go, they can naturally become the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
Suddenly, the old man interrupted Zhu Yunxi's thoughts with a word.
"Go back!" the old man said to Xie Jinzhong, "bring all the sweet potatoes in your village back to us, not even a vine can fall off!"
