I

Hanzhu Academy, library building.

As expected, after the end of the debate, many people came to borrow books in the first two days, and they all borrowed various works of Zhu Xi.

But from the third day, the number of teachers who read books gradually decreased.

Five days later, there were only a few people left.

Carefully returning "Zhu Zi Yu Lei", Liu Ziren put away the copied content, clasped his fists and said, "Students, I'm leaving first. I'm harvesting sweet potatoes (sweet potatoes) at home today, and I have to rush to work in the fields."

"Since we have farming work, we can't delay," Zhao Han said as he put down his books, "I just have nothing to do, so I'll go down the mountain to help."

Liu Ziren repeatedly declined: "No, no."

If Zhao Han wanted to get in touch with farmers more, he had to learn how to do farm work first, otherwise he would not be able to communicate at all.

Under Zhao Han's strong request, Liu Ziren could only take him to work in the fields.

The two left together, Fei Ruyi didn't want to read alone, returned "Mengxi Bi Tan" and left.

No matter which library, books are not allowed to be borrowed. You can either read them in the library or copy the contents of the book away.

Zhao Han asked as he walked, "How is the sweet potato harvest this year?"

Liu Ziren explained in detail: "Last year, I started to try planting, and this year I will know its nature. I heard people say that sweet potatoes must be turned over to control the vines, otherwise, the better the vines grow, the worse the sweet potatoes will bear. I didn't understand this reason last year. , just blindfolded, maybe we can have a good harvest this year.”

"So that's how it is. Sure enough, there is a specialization in the art industry." Zhao Han has never been in contact with farming.

Sweet potatoes were introduced to China in the 21st year of Wanli.

Fujian scholar Chen Zhenlong, when doing business in the Philippines, bribed natives to obtain potato vines. Then the sweet potato vines were twisted into the water rope to avoid the inspection of the Spanish colonists, and then the sweet potato vines were brought back to Fujian for planting.

In the same year, several businessmen brought back potato vines from Japan and planted them in temple fields in Mount Putuo, Zhejiang.

Over the past thirty years, due to the promotion of local officials, sweet potatoes have spread all over Fujian and Guangdong.

On the other side of Zhejiang, the spread is relatively slow, and it is only planted in a small area in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Jiangxi is sandwiched between these three provinces, how could it not be affected?

The sweet potatoes introduced from Guangdong have now spread all over southern Jiangxi.

A few years ago, it spread from Fujian to Qianshan County. It spreads to one town almost a year, and the common people are vying to plant it, and some farmers make a lot of money by selling potato vines.

The sweet potatoes Liu Ziren's family grows are planted after buying potato vines from a neighboring town.

The two went down the mountain together and soon arrived at their destination.

Like Xu Ying's family, Liu Ziren also has a few acres of private land. But it was not enough to support his family, so he started farming again. After failing the provincial examination twice, he spent more and more time working in the fields himself.

"This is the school field that my family cultivates." Liu Ziren said, pointing to the front.

There are already people working in the field, including Liu Ziren's parents, wife, younger brother and sister-in-law. Even Liu Ziren's six-year-old son and three-year-old daughter are helping to pick up the missed sweet potatoes.

Zhao Han got to know his family members in the past, and after some persistence, he finally rolled up his trouser legs and rolled up his sleeves to help.

The number of hoes is not enough, Zhao Han has no chance to dig the soil.

Liu Ziren said: "The potato vines still have a few young leaves, which can be picked for cooking. The old vines can't be discarded, they can be fed to poultry and livestock. There are pig farmers who buy them in the town. If you want to work, you can pick the young leaves. Bar."

Zhao Han practiced kindness and squatted in the field to pick potato leaves.

The young leaves of sweet potatoes can indeed be used for cooking, but the season has long passed, no matter how Zhao Han chooses, he can only find a few tender and delicious ones.

Turning her head to look, Mother Liu had already picked a basket, most of which were hard-to-eat old leaves.

It is estimated that in the next few days, the Liu family will live on potato leaves, and at most add some grains and brown rice to cook porridge.

And Liu Ziren, a dignified scholar, is wielding his hoe vigorously at this moment, digging out sweet potatoes one by one from the ground.

Although he was funded by Fei's family, Liu Ziren was not admitted to Linsheng, let alone Juren Master. As you get older, you get less and less funding. If you still fail to pass the Juren exam next year, you can only read books for free in the library, and other funding projects will be cancelled.

The more Liu Ziren dug, the more excited he was, and he said happily: "After turning the vines, the sweet potatoes are really fruitful, at least 20-30% more harvest than last year."

"Congratulations, congratulations, this year's harvest is bumper," Zhao Han said with a smile, "I taught Brother Liu a way to cut the sweet potatoes into strips, then dry them and bake them into dried potatoes for sale, so that they can be sold for more money."

"Is this true?" Liu Ziren said happily.

Zhao Han smiled and said, "Brother Liu, if you don't believe me, you can first make a small amount of dried potatoes and try selling them in the town."

"Then let's try." Liu Ziren said with a smile.

In a blink of an eye, two baskets of sweet potatoes had been dug up, and Liu Ziren's younger brother immediately picked them up.

Zhao Han hurriedly picked up the hoe and asked Liu Ziren to teach him the tricks of digging.

After digging for a while, my back hurts, this thing is more tiring than practicing martial arts!

Zhao Han could only grit his teeth and insist, and asked, "Brother Liu, how is your land rent?"

Liu Ziren explained: "It's okay now. After I was admitted as a scholar, I asked the head of the mountain to rent out the school field. The rent of the school field should be less. In addition, I also rented out a few acres of private land, and the rent of the private field can be as low as It’s too high. It also depends on the quality of the field, the upper and lower fields have to pay more than two shi a year in rent, and the lower and lower fields have to pay at least one shi.”

Zhao Han went to ask Liu's father again, wanting to know more general data.

Soon I learned that the level of land rent depends on whether the landlord is benevolent or not.

The land rent is not charged in proportion, but a specific amount is set in advance according to the quality of the field. The good years are good, but the bad years are particularly difficult, so we have to bite the bullet and default on the rent. People often sell their sons and daughters because of rent arrears.

Not only that, but due to the increasing frequency of natural disasters, the landlords began to collect rent in advance - it is okay to farm, and pay some rent first as a deposit.

For a benevolent landlord, the land rent is about 30% of the income.

For ordinary landlords, land rent is about 40% of their income.

Greedy landlords, the land rent is more than 50% of the income!

Moreover, almost all landlords are big fights in and small fights out. That is to say, when lending grain to farmers, small buckets are used to fill it, and when rent is collected, large buckets are used.

Even if the landlord is benevolent, the house slaves will also cheat, there is not much difference.

Of course, in order to obtain more detailed data, Zhao Han had to visit more farmers, and it would be best to write a farmer survey report.

In the middle of the afternoon, Liu Ziren called his wife aside, told her to go home and cook, and told her in a low voice: "When cooking porridge, don't just put sweet potato leaves, put two more sweet potatoes in."

"I can save it." His wife Li nodded.

Seeing that Mrs. Li stopped work suddenly, Zhao Han immediately dropped the hoe, clasped his fists and said with a smile, "Brother Liu, I still have books to read, so I won't help you dig sweet potatoes. See you tomorrow!"

Liu Ziren was both embarrassed and moved: "This...how embarrassing, why don't you go up the mountain after eating."

"Go back to the academy after dinner, it's already dark. You're busy, I'm leaving." Zhao Han left after finishing speaking, without giving the other party a chance to stay.

Liu Ziren watched Zhao Han go up the mountain, feeling very uncomfortable, so he continued digging sweet potatoes.

Walking back to the dormitory, Fei Ruhe and Fei Chun were not there, but Zhu Zhiyu was waiting for a long time.

"Brother Chu Yu!" Zhao Han greeted with cupped hands.

Zhu Zhiyu bowed his hand to return the gift, and handed over a letter: "Given to you by Supervisor Cai."

"Inspector Cai left?" Zhao Han asked.

"Let's go," Zhu Zhiyu said with a smile, "He doesn't like to disturb others when he comes and goes. He only left a letter for Fei Shanchang."

Zhao Han opened the letter and saw that there were several pages, all of which were newly written articles by Cai Maode.

After a rough reading, Zhao Han felt that it was meaningless. It might be useful to disciples of Xinxue, but it was not helpful to himself.

Seeing that Zhao Han had soil on his body, Zhu Zhiyu couldn't help asking, "Your brother, have you been farming?"

"Brother Changqing's family collects sweet potatoes, I'm just going to help." Zhao Han said.

Zhu Zhiyu sighed: "Farming is hard, and I have tried farming. I was exhausted after working for a few days during the busy farming season."

Zhao Han said with a smile: "Your Excellency was born in a noble family, so you don't have to do such a lowly thing."

"How can farming be said to be humble? It's the most important thing in the world!" Zhu Zhiyu immediately retorted, with a mournful expression on his face, "In the last year of Wanli, a catastrophe occurred in Zhejiang. I saw with my own eyes that refugees changed their sons and went to eat! Do you know that such a tragic thing happens in the world?"

Zhao Han put away his smile: "Brother Chuyu, I was once a refugee, how could I not know the affairs of a refugee?"

Zhu Zhiyu was surprised and said, "Isn't my virtuous brother a son of the Fei family?"

Zhao Han explained: "In the first year of Chongzhen, there was a severe drought in Beiji. My elder brother was starved to death, my elder sister was sold for food, and my parents were plundered by bandits. I was only ten years old at the time, with my six-year-old younger sister, Walking among the disaster victims, what tragedy has not been seen? I am in the Fei family, and I can be called a son or a slave. If you tick off my name on the household registration, I will immediately become a refugee."

"It's so." Zhu Zhiyu couldn't believe it.

Among the people Zhao Han came into contact with, Pang Chunlai was a staunch rebel, Xu Ying was a rebel who could be cultivated, and Liu Ziren was a rebel who could be absorbed.

Zhu Zhiyu in front of him seems to be able to test it out.

Zhao Han asked, "Brother Chuyu, have you ever tasted what it's like to be hungry?"

"I have tasted it, and I couldn't get enough to eat every day for a while." Zhu Zhiyu replied.

"You can eat every day, how can you be hungry?" Zhao Han felt amused.

Zhu Zhiyu nodded and said, "That's right, I'm not starving."

The family fortunes of the gentry and wealthy families are in decline, which is different from what ordinary people imagined.

When the Zhu family was at its worst, there were only dozens of servants left...Because of the famine, they couldn't pay wages, and all the servants ran away.

How miserable!

In this way, the relatives came to ridicule, pointing to their family and saying: "Look, this is the family of upright officials."

It is really a house of upright officials.

Zhu Zhiyu's great-grandfather, posthumously gifted to Dr. Rong Lu after his death. Grandfather, posthumously presented to Dr. Guanglu after his death. Father, posthumously gifted to Dr. Guanglu, Shangzhu Kingdom.

He has been a first-rank official for three consecutive generations, and he is in the south of the Yangtze River, so there are only dozens of domestic slaves. Also due to natural disasters, the wages could not be paid, causing the house slaves to run away completely, what is this not an upright official?

The two went to the cafeteria together, eating and chatting.

As we chatted, Zhao Han felt more and more familiar with Zhu Zhiyu's name, but he really couldn't remember where he had heard it.

Zhejiang?

Zhao Han had a flash of inspiration and hurriedly asked, "Brother Zhu's home is in Yuyao?"

Zhu Zhiyu said, "Exactly."

"Brother Zhu's hometown, is there a river called Shunshui?" Zhao Han asked.

"Have you been to Yuyao?" Zhu Zhiyu asked in surprise.

Zhao Han finally laughed happily: "I haven't been there, but I've heard of it."

Zhu Shunshui!