According to the geography of later generations of China, Chongming Island is the third largest island, after Taiwan Island and Hainan Island.
This island, located at the estuary of the Yangtze River, was formed by river erosion and siltation. In the Ming Dynasty, it was a flat river with occasional natural mounds. It was probably not as high as the stage in Songjiang Prefecture.
Therefore, the most majestic part of Chongming Island, which had tens of thousands of households in the late Ming Dynasty, was the city wall of the county seat.
At this time, just after Weichu, Yao Qianhu stood on the city wall, facing the sea in the southeast.
Beside him, Yang Xian Cheng also stood with his sleeves behind his back. He squinted his eyes in the dazzling sunlight above his head and said, "These country bumpkins from the Northeast have quite a way to deal with our tidal flats in Chongming."
Yao Qianhu let out a dull "hmm".
More than half a month has passed since the woman surnamed Zheng led the Liao people to the island.
Yesterday, County Magistrate Yue came back from Suzhou and sent someone to the health office to tell Yao Qianhu that the Suzhou Magistrate, who was from the Donglin Sect, did not report the land invasion case to the Nanjing Metropolitan Procuratorate, so the matter should be over.
At the same time, the Suzhou Bingbei Road responded. The old military camp that had been downgraded from Chongming guerrillas to a military commander and was now vacant. The number of soldiers was given to the Zheng family. The Suzhou Bingbei Road reported to Yingtian Governor and was incorporated into the military camp system. However,
The imperial court will not allocate salaries for the time being. If Chongming County wants to temporarily call on local heroes, it can provide silver and grain supplies as appropriate.
Yao Qianhu rushed to the county seat from Tunbao on the north bank this morning, preparing to ask Yue Zhixian some details. However, Yue Zhixian did not see him on the grounds that county affairs were busy during the spring plowing season, and only asked Yangxian Cheng to take him up the city wall to have a look at Zheng Zheng.
Jiazhuangzi.
Yao Qianhu began to curse in his heart.
Yue Yunhong, you old cunning guy, after you figured out how much the woman named Zheng weighed, you forgot how you always flattered me, and started acting like a good bitch, pretending to be the Three True Virtue Nine Lies, and closed the door and stopped accepting guests?
Yangxian Cheng saw that Yao Qianhu was angry and sneered secretly.
It is clear that Qiu Bayi climbed up from the mud pond, relying on the smoke coming from the ancestral grave, and there was a clan brother in the family who was favored by the chief minister, so he ran rampant in Chongming, sending us a Jinshi and a Juren to occupy and defraud the land for you, you and him
My mother is worthy of a martial artist!
You deserve to have a little girl build a hilltop and plant the fields you originally took away, not to mention recruiting a new army to slap you in the face.
But for a scribe like Yang Xiancheng who was proficient in eight-legged writing and read many romantic novels, the words he spoke became a source of comfort and reason.
"Old Yao, why are you so embarrassed? Haven't you seen Mr. Yue's good intentions? Then Tang Po sued her to Suzhou. Do you think the Donglin sect is vegetarian? Hey, it's all right now, Donglin's
When the civil servants inquired about it, they found that these lands were cultivated by their own people, and that Huang Zunsu's friend Huang Zunsu was cultivating them. OK, let's stop the activities. We can't catch the mistakes of Yao Yushi or even Fang Ge Lao."
Yao Qianhu still hung his eyes and twisted his mouth: "I agree to let Tian Tian eliminate the disaster. But why did you tell that little girl that Chongming County has troops for the camp? I heard that she wanted to try it on the island.
What, what cannons? Doesn’t this force me to lead people to practice? Otherwise, some bastard will complain and say that I have neglected the military affairs of thousands of households. Will you and Lao Yue help me to stand out?"
Yangxian Cheng still smiled and said softly: "You are a guard station, and you are originally a military store. The land in Chongming is difficult to grow. If you spend more time in the fields, who can talk about it? Besides, think about it, Chongming
Restoring a battalion will actually do you a lot of good and nothing harm."
Yao Qianhu coughed a few times, spit out a mouthful of thick phlegm on the city wall, wiped the saliva from his mouth, and said in a loud voice: "Why?"
Yangxian Cheng endured his disgust and explained: "A family cannot be happy for a hundred days, and a country cannot be peaceful for a hundred days. The Jurchen Tatars in the northeast, the Mongolian Tatars in the north, and the Hongmao and Franji on the sea in the east can't protect themselves for a long time."
Come to attack our Ming Dynasty again. At that time, the imperial court will definitely mobilize guest troops from all over the country. County Yue and I will recommend that little girl’s camp soldiers to die. You, Lao Yao, are still in charge of your tenants, no, those hoarders
Household, live happily and peacefully in Chongming."
When Yao Qianhu heard this section, his face finally looked better.
He breathed a few sighs of relief and said with a smile: "It's fine if you guys just treat me as brothers and I'm one of our own. Let's not talk about those lousy old women. Lao Yang, go back and ask Magistrate Yue if you want to
Join me in the salt and cotton business and go to a new land."
Yangxian Cheng asked curiously: "Where?"
"Liaodong," Yao Qianhu said with a mysterious look, "I caught up with a merchant from Liaodong, walked to Liaodong Private Port, then walked south to several guardhouses, collecting goods all the way to our Yaopi Port in Chongming
.”
Yangxian Cheng was a little nervous: "Aren't you a smuggler?"
Yao Qianhu sneered: "Old Yang, you may not be an official for the first day? How many people in the Ming Dynasty sea area are not smugglers? Don't worry, those generals in the guard are also my brothers. Besides, Songjiang will turn on and off
, there are so many ships running from Denglai to Nanzhili, who the hell is checking you all day long to see if you have a ship guide."
Yangxian Cheng thought about it and felt that it was indeed not that dangerous.
"Well, just stop at Chongming. Don't go further south to the vicinity of Wusong. The people in Songjiang Prefecture are very strict in anti-smuggling."
…
Four miles away from Chongming County, there is a busy farming scene in Zhengjiazhuang.
The land of more than a thousand acres is even more vast because it is not blocked by hills and is adjacent to rivers and seas.
But upon closer inspection, the manor’s fields are actually divided into three parts: salt fields, dry fields, and paddy fields.
Salt is boiled in salt fields, wheat and cotton are grown in dry fields, and rice is grown in paddy fields.
The Liao people who escaped from the slaves outside the customs knew how to grow wheat. They grew spring wheat in the cold Northeast, and winter wheat in the relatively warm Chongming.
There are also paddy fields in the Northeast, and the families with rice fields and horses even know that a lot of land in the south of the Yangtze River can be planted with rice and wheat.
When preparing to open up Chongming, Zheng Haizhu had estimated that the Liao people were proficient in composting soil and other tasks, but were unfamiliar with boiling salt from the sea and growing cotton.
So she invited salt workers from the base area where Yan Siqi stayed on Daishan Island in Zhejiang Province early and lived in Songjiang.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In these days, several salt workers came to Chongming Island to demonstrate to the Liao people how to dig polders with wide, deep and smooth bottoms and build embankments. They will be opened when the tide rises.
The dam introduces seawater, and then closes the gate after the tide recedes, allowing the seawater in the pit to be gradually dried by the sun, precipitating rough sea salt. Then scoop up the sea salt, dissolve it in clear water, and cook it over a fire, taking advantage of the solubility of different components in the sea salt.
It also has different characteristics and is continuously filtered to finally obtain fine salt.
In the dry fields that had missed sowing winter wheat last fall, veteran farmers from the Han family's cotton fields in Songjiang were also teaching Liao people how to sow cotton seeds.
Chongming Island in the late Ming Dynasty was similar to the Susong area. Due to the prosperity of the silk textile industry, the land for planting cotton and mulberry trees was far more than the land for growing food. In the Song and Yuan Dynasties, there was still a saying that "if Suhu is ripe, the world is sufficient". By the middle of the Ming Dynasty,
Later, it was changed to "If it is cooked in Huguang, the world will have enough", because in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the south of the Yangtze River, most of the food eaten was shipped in from other places.
However, Zheng Haizhu’s plan for his small estate in this initial stage still paid equal attention to food crops and cash crops.
At this moment, she took Wu Bondang and Xu Yilong around the manor, not only observing the busy farming situation, but also observing the descendants of more than a hundred Liao residents and thirty or forty Chongming veterans, which ones were suitable to be developed into the first batch of battalion soldiers, and which ones were suitable
Become a secret service agent trained by Bond Wu.
As soon as the three of them turned into a polder, they heard Granny Tang's loud and powerful voice.
"Wang Tai, your wife worked so hard to deliver food to you, and you still hurt others with your words. Do you still have a conscience? Please apologize to your wife!"
Beside the polder filled with sea water, Wang Tai, a young Liao citizen, bowed his head and listened to the instructions. Standing next to him was his wife, holding a bamboo basket with an embarrassed look on her face. Several other Liao citizens who were learning to cook salt gathered around and watched with playful smiles.
lively.
Wu Bangde murmured softly behind Zheng Haizhu: "The Bodhisattva you worshiped, um, whatever did you call her? The leader of the Women's United Society is really dedicated to his duties and is more diligent than the Bodhisattva."
Zheng Haizhu also had a slight black line on her forehead and felt speechless in her heart.
After she and Tang Po negotiated the matter of accepting the descendants of veterans, she thought that since the old lady was so highly respected in Chongming, had never married, and lived alone in the county town, she might as well invite her to live in Zhuangzi, where she could live with all the white men on weekdays.
Literacy literacy.
Po Tang, who was very pursuing the realization of self-worth, gladly accepted the invitation. Zheng Haizhu was so excited that he decided to establish a women's federation organization in Zhuangzi. According to the common saying in Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty, it was named Women's United Society, with Po Tang as the leader.
The secretary is Hua Er, a clever and intelligent girl from the Liao people.
Zheng Haizhu calculated that with the golden name of Tang Po, the Chongming natives from the neighboring villages might be more daring to marry their daughters over.
Unexpectedly, after listening to Zheng Haizhu briefly talking about the purpose of the Women's Federation, Tang Po became as interested as a spring river. Whenever she saw a man scolding his wife while going from house to house, she would sternly criticize her, and even did so twice.
She asked the man to put his fingerprints on a piece of paper she had written promising not to bully his wife.
Several old men from Liaodong who had lost face did not dare to complain to Zheng Haizhu, so they went to Wu Bangdang to ask Mrs. Zheng to take care of the old lady and not interfere in the couple's housework.
At this time, Wang Tai's wife saw Mrs. Zheng appearing, and said to Granny Tang with a look of mercy: "Mother-in-law, the weather is getting hot, and I sweat a lot when doing strenuous work. I put less salt in this dish today."
If it’s too much, it’s okay for him to get angry.”
Zheng Haizhu caught a glimpse of Wang Tai's expression, which was on the verge of breaking out, so he stepped forward and said with a smile: "Mother-in-law, Brother Wang asked me yesterday how to get to the county seat and where the makeup shop is. He actually loves his wife very much."
As he spoke, he stepped forward and pulled Grandma Tang over: "When I came out just now, I saw Hua Da and Hua Er driving back to Zhuangzi. Grandma, hurry up and follow me to take a look. The number of books that have been brought is quite right."
Grandma Tang was also a little angry at Mrs. Wang Tai's ungrateful attitude. She responded coldly and followed Zheng Haizhu and the others out of the polder.
Now, Zhuangzi's tile-roofed house has not yet been built, so Zheng Haizhu gave the largest thatched hut to Grandma Tang to live in.
When the two women, old and young, returned to the hut, the Hua family brothers and sisters immediately came up to them and pointed to several book boxes under the sun: "Mrs. Zheng, mother-in-law, we brought all the papers from my mother-in-law's home in the county, and there is not a single piece of paper."
remain."
Grandma Tang opened the book box and was in a good mood. She rewarded each of the Hua family brothers and sisters with a few copper coins. The Hua family brothers and sisters also thanked them happily and went to work in their fields.
Grandma Tang went into the house and made a pot of hot tea, took it out and placed it on the simple stone table, and asked Zheng Haizhu to sit down and rest.
"Miss Zheng, do you think that I, the old lady, have been too cruel to those big men?"
Zheng Haizhu took a sip of tea and said with a smile: "Mother-in-law, some of it is pepper water, which hurts people, and some of it is just ordinary tea. It's just boiled, and it'll be fine if you blow it on."
Grandma Tang showed off her lawyer's quick rebuttal qualities: "Yes, someone has to blow it, otherwise, even if it is tea, it will burn your tongue."
Zheng Haizhu thought for a while and said: "Although those men from the Liao people talk about 'if you don't fight for three days, you will go to the house and uncover the tiles', but after watching this for a while, there is really no one who dares to attack the lady. Since Jian Jian
A man who takes his wife with him when he escapes from a slave is probably a good person, not to mention a saint. Let’s do this, mother-in-law. Later, when we take the women to the county town to pull cloth to make coats, we will talk to them about the relationship between husband and wife.
We don’t care about the ordinary conflicts among you. But you must come and talk to us about the grievances that you can’t bear.”
Grandma Tang glanced at her: "Okay, old lady, I understand. If the tea burns your mouth, let them blow it by themselves first. If it doesn't cool down, ask me to step in and lift the table."
Zheng Haizhu smiled and continued drinking tea.
The spring sunshine shines down generously, warming people thoroughly and creating a comfortable numbing feeling even in the joints of the bones.
In the peaceful atmosphere, Grandma Tang suddenly asked: "Miss Zheng, I have a bad temper, and no man in this life would dare to marry me. You seem to have a very docile temperament, why do you want to be such a self-combed girl?"
Zheng Haizhu showed a faint smile in the sunshine.
"Marrying is too tiring."
"Haha, is it more tiring than you traveling all over the country?"
"Mother-in-law, are you tired of the swallows in the sky or the parrots in the cage?"
Grandma Tang sighed: "Actually, we are all tired. Once a person comes to this world, he has to endure all kinds of hardships and suffer all kinds of misfortunes. Therefore, we have to feel sorry for ourselves even more. If we can have a cage to rest, it doesn't hurt to go in and have a rest."
Zheng Haizhu made no secret of her approval: "My mother-in-law's words are so clear."
Granny Tang suddenly showed an inquiring expression: "Miss Azhu, my mother-in-law sees that Mr. Wu is actually quite good."
Zheng Haizhu said calmly: "More than one of my elders and friends have said this, but he and I really have no attachment. In his heart, there is someone he wants to let go of for the rest of his life. In my heart, there is no one at all. My mother-in-law is not the same."
Remember, he is the cage where I rest."
Grandma Tang shook her head, leaned over and picked up a book from the bookcase, and said seriously: "It's just a while ago, how do you know it's not suitable? The big deal is, live under one roof for a few years, eat from the same pot for a few years, if it doesn't work, just try again.
Let's separate. You see, this storybook that my mother-in-law loves to read is about how a wealthy daughter treats her marriage."
When Zheng Haizhu heard this, he became curious and took a look at the book, "Qing Huan Ji". He didn't know, he had never heard of it.
But when her eyes continued to fall into the book box, she was attracted by a drawing.
