Chapter 66 Planting the Treasure of Blessing (VI)
In the fifty-seventh year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi, which was the first day of December 1718, Huo Chong delivered the last batch of goods to Zibo County.
At the end of the month, Magistrate Lu invited the tax farmers to dinner again before New Year's Day, and talked about the news from the capital. The fourteenth son of the emperor, the general Wang Yinzhen, went to war.
It is said that when Yinzhen led the army to the west, Kangxi held a grand farewell ceremony for him.
"The kings, beile, dukes and others who are going to the war all wear military uniforms and gather in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The kings, beile, beile, dukes and ministers of the second rank and above who are not going to the war all wear python uniforms and gather outside the Meridian Gate.
The general Yinzhen knelt to receive the imperial seal, thanked the emperor and bowed, then followed the imperial seal out of the Meridian Gate, rode out of Tiananmen Gate and headed for Deshengmen. The kings, beile, beizi, dukes and other ministers above the second rank escorted him to the soldiers. The general Yinzhen bowed his head and bowed, and then marched in a solemn procession.
When talking about these things at the table, everyone kept glancing at Huo Chong, as if they wanted to see if Huo Chong, who was perhaps the closest to Yinzhen at the table, might have grasped some gossip.
Seeing everyone like this, Huo Chong said solemnly: "I wish the great general Wang a successful start and immediate success."
Everyone didn't expect Huo Chong to be so high-sounding, so they could only follow Huo Chong's polite words. After that, Huo Chong said nothing, just lowered his head to eat and drink.
After three rounds of wine and five kinds of dishes, Magistrate Lu laughed and said, "Haha, Brother Huo, you really haven't read any books?"
Huo Chong still said the same old thing, "I only learned to read, but I have never read a book."
Magistrate Lu was in his thirties and did not seem to believe what Huo Chong said. "From what Brother Huo said, it seems that he has never been to school. Doesn't that seem possible?"
"Prince Yong once commented on me, saying that I can make the truth sound like a lie. That's what I am like."
After hearing Huo Chong tell a joke that he had heard in Jinan Prefecture and even in the Shandong officialdom, everyone laughed out loud and the atmosphere became joyful.
Magistrate Lu laughed a few times and said, "Your Highness, you are saying that Brother Huo is a real person. Brother Huo is not very old, why don't you study and take the imperial examination?"
Huo Chong shook his head. "When I was learning to read, I copied Han Yu's On Teachers. There was a sentence in it that seemed to be, 'A boy's teacher teaches him to read and pronounce sentences.' Sentence reading is the basis of reading. I really don't have time to learn sentence reading. If you can't read and pronounce sentences, how can you understand the meaning of the book? It's okay if you can't understand it, but if you read and pronounce sentences incorrectly, then a slight mistake will lead to a huge error. I know I can't understand it, so let's forget about it."
Hearing this, the scholars all laughed and nodded. The candidates were more cultured and just smiled. Magistrate Lu put away his smile and clapped his hands on the table, praising: "Your Highness really has good vision. Brother Huo, what you just said hit the nail on the head. It turns out that you really just haven't read any books."
The scholars laughed again. However, when they saw that the Jinshi and the candidates of the Provincial Magistrate Lü had stopped laughing, they did not dare to laugh anymore after laughing a few times.
Huo Chong didn't want to leave the audience in a daze, so he laughed and said, "Haha, being praised by Mr. Lu, I actually feel that it's quite glorious that I haven't read any books. Mr. Lu, please stop praising me. If you keep praising me, I won't even know my last name or my name!"
The whole audience burst into laughter. Even Magistrate Lu laughed. After laughing for a while, everyone drank two more cups. Everyone talked about the recent repair of Xiaoqing River. Although this matter seemed insignificant compared to General Wang's expedition, it was related to everyone's vital interests.
"Prefect Li has recruited many civilians and purchased grain from various places. But this is still not enough. Now Prefect Li wants all places to donate grain for fame. Every county can do this." Prefect Lu said to everyone.
This incident made everyone look at Huo Chong again. Huo Chong lowered his head to eat, unwilling to talk to everyone about this. Huo Chong originally wanted to take the path of donating fame, but by mistake he donated an official position. It was really inconvenient to talk at this time.
When everyone stopped looking at him, Huo Chong looked at others. The group of Juren and Jinshi in front of him were all successful candidates. They were not very enthusiastic about donating their honors. Huo Chong felt that it was like the disdain of undergraduates from 985 and 211 universities for those postgraduate courses without degrees taken by working people.
Even if you have a so-called postgraduate degree, but don't have a degree, you still won't be noticed by those guys who get formal degrees on their own.
Since no one was enthusiastic, Magistrate Lu sighed, "Repairing Xiaoqing River is a major event that will benefit the people. Are you unwilling to contribute?"
Seeing County Magistrate Lu saying this, Zhang Qixian had to speak up, "Brother Lu, we asked, and the price that Magistrate Li is paying for grain is really too low. He used the grain price from a few years ago, and we really can't afford it at that price."
Huo Chong had only been back to this era for a year, so he really didn't know the grain prices in recent years, so he listened carefully. After listening for a while, he roughly understood that grain prices had been rising in recent years, and the growth was relatively fast.
The current Shandong prefect, Li Shude, used the grain prices of a few years ago as the purchase criteria and gave a discount of at least 30%. The reason was that it was a large purchase, so of course a discount was required.
Huo Chong thought it was nothing unusual to get a discount for a large quantity. Seeing that the tax farmers were very dissatisfied with this, he could not help but ask, "Brothers, I have not done much farming. I am sure you will not follow my advice. Just treat it as a lecture to a child. I just don't understand why I can't get a discount if I buy more. Brothers, I am just asking. I am not trying to say whether it is right or wrong."
Hearing this, Zhang Qixian's face darkened, but he said to County Magistrate Lu: "Mr. Jinshi, every piece of land is different. Good land near the river can be irrigated in dry days and drained in rainy days. This kind of land is top-quality land. But most land is not like this, especially the concave land, which will die of drought in drought and drown in rainy days. In a year with good weather and good harvest, you can get an extra three or five buckets of crops. But in most years, many fields have no harvest. The bigger the land, the more problems there will be. If ten people plant ten acres of land, carry water to irrigate the land, or carry water to drain water, it can be done. Ten people plant a hundred acres of land, and there will be problems..."
Huo Chong nodded repeatedly. Huo Chong had seen large-scale mechanized farming before, but he didn't understand the calculations of various infrastructure expenditures. After listening to the story of the people in the agricultural society, he suddenly understood.
Those modern agricultural reports all mentioned that one of the foundations of large-scale mechanized production is terrain transformation. At this time, Huo Chong understood the meaning of the so-called "terrain transformation".
If a piece of land cannot be transformed into a place that can be easily irrigated in dry days and easily drained in rainy days, there will be no automated control. If there is no automated control, large-scale mechanized production will be impossible.
In a farmland environment that is completely controlled by labor, the larger the farmland area, the more manual intervention is required, which leads to the problem that the price cannot be reduced even if the quantity is larger.
Looking at County Magistrate Lu again, he frowned, it seemed that he did not understand the key to the problem. Instead, he was confused by the descriptions of other candidates and tax farmers.
The candidates talked for a while, and Magistrate Lu became even more confused. Finally, Magistrate Lu asked the candidates to stop talking, frowned and thought for a while, and suddenly pointed at Huo Chong and said, "Brother Huo, Prince Yong said that you can make the truth sound like a lie. Come and tell me what's going on."
Huo Chong stacked up several plates and compared the shape of the plates to the terrain. He then told Magistrate Lu about the limit of labor input based on the terrain. Magistrate Lu suddenly understood and nodded for a while before sighing, "So that's how it is. This situation is naturally like this."
When the tax farmers saw that County Magistrate Lu, a Jinshi, actually understood the problems of farming, they quickly emphasized again the core contradiction that "more land does not mean cheaper food prices."
County Magistrate Lu ignored them and just lowered his head to think. After a while, he sighed, "Brothers, Magistrate Li promised to donate to gain fame, so our county can't be worse than other counties. Is there no one who wants to make progress?"
The scholars and scholars were silent again. It was obvious that they had little interest in donating money for fame.
Huo Chong did not dare to say anything. After donating money for an official position, he realized that there was a world of difference between donating fame and donating money for an official position.
Donating money to become an official means becoming a candidate for an official position, which is equivalent to achieving the goal in one step. There are many twists and turns in donating money to become an official.
For example, donating money to become a scholar does not mean that you will really become a nobleman. Those who donate money to become a scholar must take the exam on time, and the exam results are said to be divided into five levels. The first three levels are not considered normal performance.
As for the latter two classes, the county magistrate ordered them to have their pants pulled down and their buttocks spanked. The purpose of this was to "rectify the style of study". It was to punish those who did not want to make progress. Most of the guys who donated money for their academic achievements were frequent visitors to the latter two classes, and they were spanked every time they took the imperial examination.
Therefore, the scholars who donated money for official positions, that is, the students of the Imperial Academy, were ridiculed by the genuine scholars, "If you donate money to become a student of the Imperial Academy, you will go to prison."
Huo Chong was really thankful for his good luck, as he donated his position directly. Otherwise, with Huo Chong's strength, he would have been in trouble.
