Zhu Ming didn't know anything about the bad things in Kaifeng. He was busy studying fried tea with his father.
"The tea stove in the video seems to be built so high." Zhu Ming gestured towards his crotch.
Zhu Guoxiang bent down to experience the feel: "No need to guess, just get it as you like. Just adjust the height slowly in the future."
Ju Ming recalled the video of tea frying he saw online and said: "I remember that the pot used to fry tea seems to be shallower than the wok."
Zhu Guoxiang has never operated it, and only knows a few theories. He guessed: "Shallow pots may be more susceptible to heat, and the tea leaves in the pot are heated more evenly."
In fact, that kind of shallow pot is called "Guangguo" and was only invented during the Anti-Japanese War. Moreover, deep pots and shallow pots have their own advantages. For example, Longjing tea is not suitable for frying in shallow pots.
A mason is building a stove.
The three frying tea pots need to be put together. The pot has not been finished yet and has been customized by a blacksmith.
After watching for a while, Ju Ming walked to the steaming tea house next to him, and there were already tea pickers coming back with tea leaves.
"You can also pick such tender tea leaves?" Zhu Ming couldn't help but reach out and touch them.
The tea worker quickly stopped: "Village chief, you can't touch it. If you touch it, you won't be able to sell it at a high price. These are wax tea buds, and you can only pick a small amount every year. The price of one pound of wax tea can be worth more than ten pounds of first-class tea. Hands
You can't touch it, so you can only pick it with your fingernails, and then throw it into water to soak it."
Ju Ming didn't do anything anymore. The tea workers were professionals.
Zhu Guoxiang also came to watch the steamed tea, and while watching, he said: "Last year, I planned to tidy up the waste tea mountain because of the delay in building water conservancy. But you can also pick tea from the waste tea mountain. You can just pick some and specially use it for tea frying experiments. As for the tea in Daming Village
For tea production, we still use the old method of steaming. Once the fried tea method is effective, we will slowly expand the production of fried tea. We cannot change everything at once, and we must leave time for the tea craftsmen to hone their skills."
"This is for sure, otherwise if we mess up, our funds will definitely be in trouble." Although Zhu Ming is impatient, he also knows that some things cannot be rushed.
After staying in the village until the Lantern Festival, Zhu Ming took Bai Sheng and Shi Biao down the mountain.
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, he had gone down the mountain to have a drink with Bai Sanlang, who had gone home to celebrate the New Year. The two made an appointment and set off on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, taking a boat to Yangzhou City together.
The boat ride didn't take long. At the intersection of the Han River and the Yang River, we went ashore directly and started walking.
Ahead is the turbulent Golden Gorge, with a total of 24 dangerous shoals. The helmsman of the Bai family is unable to pass through, and the boat will be destroyed if he is not careful.
"This place is dangerous," Ju Ming observed the situation of the mountains and rivers and said to Bai Chongyan. "If there is a war, we can build a fort at the intersection of the two rivers to block water and land transportation. Even a hundred thousand soldiers and horses will not be able to get through."
Bai Chongyan said with a smile: "Da Lang knows how to fight, no wonder he can break through the bandits' stronghold."
They advanced under the cliffs along the river. The cliffs on both sides of the river stood towering, and from time to time they could hear the cries of apes.
Ju Ming kicked the weeds under his feet: "There is actually a road here."
Bai Chongyan explained: "These paths were made by trackers. Without trackers pulling the boat, no matter how good the helmsman is, he would not dare to cross the Golden Gorge."
Not far away, they encountered a group of trackers.
Wearing tattered clothes, some were also wrapped in linen blankets. They were lying or sitting, resting in a relatively open area, waiting for a ship to arrive to pick up the work.
There is little arable land here, so we can't grow a few grains of food, so we have to rely on fiber pulling to survive.
Ju Ming couldn't stop, so he took out some dry food from his bag and immediately gave it to the trackers.
The trackers were quite surprised and happily stood up to take the food.
A man in his forties or fifties with gray hair seemed to be the leader of this group of trackers. He bent down and cupped his fists and said, "My name is Gong Da. Thank you for the favor."
Although Bai Sheng didn't know Ju Ming's intention, he helped boast: "This is Zhu Dutou of Xixiang County. In addition to killing the traitor Zhu Zhu and the bully Xiaobai, he also broke the black wind that had been entrenched for decades.
Village."
Gong Da was immediately in awe and saluted again: "I heard the name Zhu Dutou from the merchant ships passing by. They all said that there was a good man in Xixiang County, called Zhu Dutou the Winged Tiger. His subordinates
There is also a fierce general who is the former mountain patrol team member Zhang San. Zhu Dutou wants to cross the Golden Gorge by boat? We have been pulling fiber for generations and are very familiar with the dangerous shoals here."
Zhu Ming sat down next to the trackers and ate dry food together. He said, "My family used to be a sea-going ship operator. In some ports, we also needed boat pullers. When I see you, I feel very close to you."
Gong Da asked: "What kind of ship is a sea ship?"
Ju Ming said: "A sea-going ship is a ship running in the sea?"
"What is the sea?" Gong Da asked a very outrageous question.
Ju Ming said: "The sea is boundless, and everything you look at is water. Sometimes, it takes several months to get to the shore to do business."
"How many months have you been on the boat? How much water is there!" Gong Da couldn't imagine it. He had been in the mountains all his life and had never heard of the sea.
So Ju Ming started talking about ancient times and made up overseas stories again.
The trackers all gathered around, munching on the dry food and listening to their wonders, exclaiming in surprise from time to time.
After getting to know each other thoroughly, Ju Ming asked: "How is your life?"
Gong Da shook his head and sighed: "No way. In my grandfather's generation, there were so many fiber-drawing jobs, and merchant ships came every day in the Han River. Later, the government banned the private sale of tea, and there were fewer merchant ships doing business. Many.
If fiber workers can't fill their stomachs, they will stop doing this and either go to the mountains to open up wasteland for farming, or try their luck in panning for gold."
"How much can you earn in a day now?" Zhu Ming asked again.
Gong Da still shook his head: "I can't tell, I can't take jobs every day. If the ship doesn't come for a month, I have to rely on my brothers to support me. My mother-in-law and brothers are farming in the mountains, and they can't get much in a year."
A piece of food."
Ju Ming continued to inquire and roughly learned some information.
If they have work every day, these trackers are very profitable compared to farmers. Although it is hard work and dangerous, they can earn sixty or seventy penny a day.
Unfortunately, business in the Hanzhong area was in decline and the number of merchant ships dropped sharply. They often had no work for ten and a half days.
Not even the government bothers to take care of it, these trackers are all hermits.
There are so many people hiding out and running away from home these days. No wonder the registered population in the three counties of Yangzhou is less than 250,000.
After chatting for a while, Zhu Ming stood up to say goodbye, and the trackers saw him off one after another.
They were idle, but Zhu Ming gave them dry food as soon as he came and told them strange stories. The trackers liked this kind of petty official very much and thought Zhu Dutou was a good man.
The trackers didn't stop until they had gone two miles.
Ju Ming asked: "You said you can pan for gold here. Do you do it casually, or is there someone in charge of it?"
Gong Da said: "There are several leaders who have designated territories. If they cross the boundary, they will fight and kill people! There are also individual tourists who are like rats stealing rice and dare not let others know."
"Isn't the government coming to collect the gold mining tax?" Zhu Ming asked again.
Gong Da said: "We used to collect, and there was a lot of gold. Now we don't collect, and we can't find much. Those gold diggers are also miserable, they dare to fight against the officials! Twenty years ago, my eldest son was just
After they were born, some unsighted officials came to collect the gold tax. None of them could go back, they were all killed and sank into the river, and the officials were so frightened that they did not dare to come again."
Damn, that’s awesome!
Like miners, these gold diggers are born with the seeds of rebellion.
Ju Ming asked again: "Are they all panning for gold in the Han River?"
Gong Da said: "There are dangerous shoals and many shoals in the Golden Gorge. You can pan for gold in those shoals. There are several small rivers flowing out of the mountains on both sides, and you can also pan for gold in those small rivers. There is also a gold mine in the mountains. In the past,
The government was in charge of it, but later it was abandoned. It was abandoned, but it was still possible to dig for gold, but it was taken over by a good man."
It is estimated that the gold mines were exhausted and the official management organization was bloated. As a result, the gold mined was not enough to cover the administrative expenses, so it was ordered to be abandoned by the Changping Division.
But in private hands, scrap gold mines can also be profitable.
Ju Ming asked: "What's the name of the hero who occupies the gold mine?"
"It's called Gong Xiu who chopped the big tiger. I've never seen it. I only heard that he was very strong and could kill a tiger with a knife." Gong Da said.
What's the big deal?
It is obviously the Big Tiger, the common name of Pixiu!
Rumors spread throughout the world, and a hero nicknamed "Pixiu" turned out to be a tiger who had been killed by a tiger.
After asking for more information about the gold diggers, Zhu Ming resigned and said, "If you have any difficulties in the future, you can go to Daming Village to find me. Daming Village is the former Heifeng Village. If you go there, I guarantee you will not be hungry."
Gong Da said happily: "Zhu Dutou is really a righteous man!"
The trackers also waved enthusiastically, asking Zhu Dutou to come to Huanghuang Gorge often in the future.
When the two sides said goodbye, Bai Chongyan was quite puzzled: "What did the Dalang and the tracker talk about?"
Ju Ming asked: "What is the purpose of studying?"
Bai Chongyan said: "Cultivate yourself, harmonize your family, govern the country and bring peace to the world."
"How to govern a country? How to bring peace to the world?" Ju Ming asked again.
Bai Chongyan said: "Be an official in the imperial examination and carry out benevolent governance and enlightenment. Benefit one party externally and assist the emperor internally. If there is order inside and outside, the world will be peaceful and the sea will be prosperous."
Ju Ming asked: "Do you know how much grain is per acre of land? How much is the upper field? How much is the middle field? How much is the lower field? If you don't know these, how can you collect taxes? If taxes are insufficient and the treasury is empty, how can you govern the country? If taxes have been collected,
If there are many people and the people are poor, how can there be prosperity in the country?"
"To collect taxes, it is enough to have officials," Bai Chongyan said. "As an official, you only need to control the subordinate officials, so why do you need to do everything yourself?"
Ju Ming said with a smile: "You don't even know how many buckets of grain are harvested from the fields. How do you know that your officials are not secretly deceiving you? They even go to the countryside to levy and extort money in your name!"
Bai Chongyan was silent and began to think seriously.
Ju Ming asked again: "How much grain does the Sanlang family's farm produce each year?"
Bai Chongyan said: "My eldest brother is taking care of the land."
"That means you don't even know how much food there is in your own fields," Zhu Ming lamented. "If you do this, let alone rule the country and bring peace to the world, I'm afraid you won't even be able to bring your family together."
Bai Chongyan said: "If you have to ask about everything, how can you still have time to study? How can you still have time to learn?"
Ju Ming said: "Knowing things in the world is knowledge, and understanding people's feelings is writing. You don't have to find the road in the world in books. I go to suppress bandits to do learning, and talking to trackers is also doing learning."
Bai Chongyan argued: "If you are good at etiquette, the people will not dare to be disrespectful; if you are good at righteousness, the people will not dare to disobey; if you are good at trust, then the people will not dare to be unkind. If this is the case, the people from all over the world will bear their children."
Well, how can we use the crops?"
This is the original saying of Confucius. Those in power can gain the support of the people as long as they abide by etiquette, righteousness, and trustworthiness. They do not need to worry about how to farm.
Zhu Ming laughed and said, "Are you only half-read? Confucius said that he is not as good as an old farmer in farming, which means that he should let dedicated people do specialized tasks, and the superiors only need to control these dedicated people. People in government do not need to know how to farm, but they must
You know how much grain can be harvested from an acre of land. Otherwise, how can you control it? How can you prevent cheating? In addition to grain, you also need to know about industry and commerce, and you also need to know about these trackers and gold diggers."
Bai Chongyan fell into silence.
Zhu Ming added: "Confucius and Mencius said that benevolent governance should be implemented in the world. But the reality is different in different places. Good governance here is bad governance elsewhere. If you don't understand and communicate with the people, how can you know whether you are implementing good governance or not?
Bad government? You want to be kind to the people, but as soon as the government orders are issued, the people are forced to flee into the mountains. Is this what a gentleman does?"
Bai Chongyan stood there for a long time, then suddenly bowed down and said, "I have been taught!"
