Chapter 475: There Will Be Money to Spend
Zhao Yulin shook his head and said: "It's not that simple. It's easy for us to change the appearance of Huaxi, but it's not easy to make the people there earn money for a long time. We also need to make Huaxi Village a model for our new Song Dynasty, which is another knowledge."
Yangjin said that she had nothing to do, so she took Hulan to take a look and think about how Hulan could become the chief of Huaxi Village in the future.
The title of Dubao (Baozheng) was probably the lowest level of officialdom in the Song Dynasty. Yangjin meant that Hulan would start as the lowest level of administrative chief in the new Song Dynasty, and when he entered the government, he would transform the appearance of a village.
Zhao Yulin ignored their teasing and went to work in the study.
He had just taken a sip of the tea brought by the maid when Ma Ling, Feiyan, Fenghuang and Shunzhidi came in to look for him. Everyone felt that it was inappropriate to let Hulan be a chief of the boroughs, or at most a chief borough official. It was extremely inappropriate and too degrading.
All the students sent out from Caotang Academy served as trainees for county-level officials. After the traineeship period, they would be promoted by the Ministry of Personnel to become county-level officials.
Fenghuang looked down on him and thought it was so unfair. He was discriminating against Hulan and felt that she was unreliable because she was a Mongolian. So why did she marry her if she was unreliable?
Bullying Hu Lan is bullying weak women like them. My brother always says that he wants to protect women and children, so why is he so cruel to his own woman?
Fairy Banban, the concubines in the harem have united to criticize him.
Zhao Yulin had just picked up the teacup to drink, but before he could even put his mouth to it, Fenghuang grabbed it and put it on the table, telling him to explain clearly before drinking tea, and not to worry about all the fuss.
Damn it, I really pissed off these ladies. They won’t even let me drink a sip of water.
He sat upright, cleared his throat and said: Hulan can't even be the chief steward of Huaxi Village.
Isn't this intentional attempt to make them unhappy?
Several women glared at him in anger and surprise. Zhao Feiyan was the first to shout: She disagreed and would not allow it.
Zhao Yulin then said with a smile that since he would personally be the chief security guard, Hu Lan could only be the chief steward.
The women were stunned for a moment, but then they came to their senses, surrounded him and tickled him hard, saying: tickle him hard, let him tease others, let's see if he will tease us again?
The whole family soon started having fun in the yard.
The next day, the New Song Dynasty's Spring Festival holiday ended, and the Central Council convened all officials to discuss matters.
Zhao Yulin saw that Xie Lingyun, who had fled to Liangzhe, had already taken office as Deputy Envoy of the Ministry of Rites.
Zhao Feiyan stepped forward enthusiastically and bowed, telling them generously that Xie Gong was one of the few elderly people in her family, and asked them to take good care of him.
Haha, Zhao Yulin found that Feiyan was in very good condition. After taking the throne of the king and going through this period of experience, she has sorted out her mentality and government affairs.
The group entered the meeting room and sat down. The document on supporting agriculture, helping agriculture and supporting agriculture that Shunzhidi had drafted overtime during the New Year was presented to the officials. He looked at it carefully and found that the style was no different from the No. 1 document produced in later generations.
Zhao Yulin looked at Yangjin with the document in his hand. The woman was smiling at him proudly.
Haha, the interaction between sisters helping and learning from each other is really great.
Zhao Yulin was delighted to see everyone expressing their opinions. He told everyone that he also had a proposal for discussion. He wanted to build a model to promote rural income growth in Huaxi Village, opposite Guanghua New Village.
Everyone immediately focused their attention on him.
He said: Farmers nowadays are working individually as a family, and the land is divided into large and small fields like . The roads and ditches are winding, which increases the journey time and wastes a lot of land. The ditches are too winding, and the water flow is poor, which makes floods very likely to occur.
He planned to take back all the land in Huaxi Village and make it collectively owned by the village. He would remove the ridges of the fields and redivide them into plots of uniform size. Based on the principle of "cultivating what is suitable for farming and planting trees what is suitable for planting", he would convert sloping land and depressions that were not suitable for planting into woodlands and ponds, and straighten the roads and ditches.
He has already thought of a name, let’s call it Huaxi New Village.
The Minister of Revenue Du Fan immediately asked him: It would be a bad idea to take back the land . The land in the Central Plains is still being distributed. If we take it back here, the farmers will definitely have concerns.
Zhao Yulin nodded and said that this was just an experiment, and our newspapers should not report this matter. Once it is done and the people are happy and satisfied, then we can publicize it. Du Gong's thinking should also be adjusted. The land should be returned to the village and still belong to the people. It is the land shared by all villagers.
The change is that in the past, each household was concerned with their own few acres of land; now, the skilled farmers in the village have to step forward and plan how to plant crops for the entire village. If this method is good, in the future the land of the entire county and the entire state will be managed by agricultural experts, and the income will definitely increase significantly.
We can also find skilled craftsmen in the village who open workshops to make rare things to earn money and get rich.
Zhao Yulin's speech became more and more detailed and in-depth. Everyone listened attentively, but some people were also confused by what he said.
Zhao Feiyan had known for a long time that he was going to do this with Hu Lan, but she had not expected that there were so many hidden secrets. She wanted to support him, but like Du Fan, she was also worried that the people would have objections, and she was torn.
Yang Jin proposed that the Ministry of Revenue take the lead and organize a team of officials to gather the people for consultation. If the people are willing to do it, then we will give it a try. If the people are not willing, then don't do it.
The gentlemen immediately nodded and drank tea.
Zhao Yulin was unhappy with Yangjin.
Fairy, this woman is trying to trick him. She wants him to ask the people if they are willing or not? This is a gamble that he can't do anything to convince the people.
He was not convinced and went on to say that there was nothing urgent to do recently, so he went to Huaxi Village in person to try out the role of chief security officer and ask the people whether they wanted to do this.
The gentlemen were stunned immediately.
It was obvious that Zhao Yulin was forcing his way through and was determined to carry out this pilot project.
Mr. Fan immediately said with a smile, "Brother, why do you have to go in person? It would be fine if you could just find a little deacon to do it according to your wishes."
Zhao Yulin still insisted on going, because these concepts were too advanced. He was worried that even Hu Lan wouldn't be able to implement them well, let alone just find a deacon to do it.
The next day, Zhao Yulin and Hu Lan went to Huaxi Village. The girl was so excited looking at the fields with rolling wheat waves that she ran around on the paths in the fields, picking wild flowers to make a wreath for Zhao Yulin.
The two walked along a narrow dirt road and came to the Zhang family yard, where the chief guard Zhang Yunhai lived. This yard used to be the residence of a big landlord. During the anti-bandit campaign, it was discovered that the landlord had been murdered and beheaded, so the yard was divided equally among more than a dozen homeless people.
Zhao Yulin felt sad to see that such a good house had been changed beyond recognition due to haphazard construction, doors and holes being opened and holes being made at will. He wondered whether he should restore and preserve the house.
Zhang Dubao was stunned as he looked at Zhao Yulin and his entourage dressed in gorgeous clothes from afar. When had he ever seen a leader-level figure in the court? After he came to his senses, he ran to see him. In a panic, he fell to the ground, covered in dirt. He clasped his hands together and bowed, begging Zhao Yulin to forgive his rude behavior.
He waved his hand and asked someone to lead the way and go inside to sit down.
The third young master wanted to visit his house, and Old Zhang was flattered. He immediately took two quick steps to lead the way, shouting at the top of his voice: "Old lady, old lady, we have distinguished guests. Please bring out the stools and boil two bowls of water."
When Zhao Yulin saw that his family only had a few benches and was as poor as water, he knew there was trouble.
He asked Hu Lan to inquire about the basic situation of the village such as population and fields. Then Old Zhang's wife boiled water and brought it out in a black fish bowl. She said apologetically that the family had run out of tea and had not had time to buy more.
Zhao Yulin knew clearly that it was because he was short of money and the tea was too expensive so he couldn't bear to buy it.
He immediately asked Ke Zhenxie to fetch the tea from the carriage and give it to Old Zhang, asking him how his life was going. Was he not hungry?
Old Zhang nodded vigorously and said tremblingly: "In reply to what you said, sir, life has been much better in recent years. Every household has land, and there is still surplus grain after paying the imperial grain." The old man was very happy and pulled him to see the rice jar, and sure enough, there was grain.
He asked: Compared with the Guanghua New Village across the street, our Huaxi Village is still not that good. Looking at the houses they live in, it seems that every household is living a tight life.
Old Zhang's face turned red, and he said weakly that how could Huaxi be compared with Guanghua New Village. It was just that they were unlucky. If the court had chosen their place to build houses for migrant workers when building the imperial city, Huaxi Village would have no worries about food and clothing and would have become rich long ago.
After saying that, he helplessly uttered a long "Ai" and let out an endless sigh.
Zhao Yulin knew that his chance had come. Seeing Ke Zhenxie coming back, he took the glass tea can, opened it, took out a little tea, brewed it, and handed it to Old Zhang, asking him to take it. It was authentic Qingcheng tea.
Old Zhang quickly caught it with both hands, and asked with bulging eyes: How can this be possible? As the saying goes, one should not receive rewards without merit. Qingcheng tea is a royal tribute, he dare not accept it.
Hu Lan said with a smile that Du Bao should accept it, as it was a gift from her and her husband.
Old Zhang said he would not take it, but he was holding it tightly in his hands for fear of breaking it. After the polite words, he took his wife and carefully took the teapot back to the house and put it away. After a long time, he came out and stood firm and asked firmly: Third Young Master, what do you want me to do? Just tell me, I promise to do it properly.
Zhao Yulin and Hu Lan both laughed.
Just now, the old man came into the house and whispered to his wife that the Third Young Master must have given him such an expensive gift in order to ask him to do something. The old woman was worried that what the Third Young Master wanted them to do was too difficult or would harm the neighbors, so she was weighing the pros and cons.
However, in the end, Old Zhang still believed that the Third Young Master would not harm him, and decided to accept the tea can and go out to take orders.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said that there is no such thing as a visitor without a request. He had something to trouble his father-in-law now, and there would be more to come. He asked Old Zhang: Do you want everyone in Huaxi Village to become rich?
Everyone has money to spend?
