Chapter 68: Planting Blessings (VIII)
"Master Huo, as long as you are willing to pay taxes on time, I will say a word. In Linzi County, you can open any cattle pen you want." Captain Liu of Linzi County showed an expression that said, "I have the final say."
"Brother Liu, are you using this tax to slaughter me like a fat sheep?"
Captain Liu shook his head repeatedly, "Master Huo, you are looking down on me by saying that! The taxes I am talking about are the taxes set by the government. How dare I do anything to Master Huo?"
When Huo Chong heard this, he felt that it was a bit like soliciting investment from the local government. However, this era is definitely not that simple.
After some discussion, Huo Chong said that he wanted to open a cattle pen in Linzi. However, in order to meet the needs of the cattle pen for fodder, Huo Chong had to buy more land.
"Can't buy fodder?" Captain Liu was puzzled.
"What should I do if the other party refuses to sell fodder to me? Will I let the livestock starve?" Huo Chong said with a smile.
Captain Liu still didn't quite understand, so Huo Chong could only explain, "Captain Liu, I have to buy fodder and other things. But I have my own fodder farm, so others won't easily attack me. I'm leaving myself a backup plan."
Captain Liu finally understood and stopped questioning it.
Huo Chong did what he said and went straight to the brother who was lending money. When he heard that Huo Chong wanted to buy land, the brother immediately became excited and said, "Master Huo, I just happen to know someone who wants to sell land. It's very nearby."
"Whose land separates them?" Huo Chong asked directly. Since he wanted land, it would be best if it was contiguous. Although contiguous land would attract attention and become the focus. But Huo Chong had figured out one thing half an hour ago and gave up the idea - "Master Huo, let me make it clear first. These pieces of land were originally wanted by Xu Juren from Zibo County. But after the court tried to implement the land tax per mu in Shandong, the annual land tax for these pieces of land was 8.2 cents. Including the fire consumption, one coin of silver per mu of land per year."
Yang Youfang was shocked by this figure. "One coin of silver is required for one mu of land per year. How big are these plots of land?"
"We have fifty acres now. If we can buy all the land together, we will have one hundred and twenty acres. Mr. Xu wants to buy more. According to his idea, if we buy all the land around it, we will have about two hundred acres."
"Ghost, for two hundred acres of land, doesn't that mean you have to pay twenty taels of silver a year?" Yang Youfang sighed.
"How much does one mu of land cost?" Huo Chong got straight to the point. Nowadays, a donkey must be sold for five taels at least. Two mu of land can feed one donkey. According to the highest efficiency, two hundred mu of land means two hundred donkeys, which is one thousand taels of silver. Twenty taels of silver is nothing.
The brother who lent the money was also a little surprised, but he didn't ask any more questions: "Since Mr. Huo is so straightforward, I will help you contact him."
After the lender left, Yang Youfang asked in confusion, "Master Huo, I see you didn't do things this way before."
"Brother Yang, I figured out one thing."
"What's up?"
"It's useless to be afraid of things." Huo Chong answered frankly.
Recently, Huo Chong has found that people around him are inexplicably kind to him. After arriving in Linzi County, he finally understood that this is not good for Huo Chong at all. Instead, everyone has misunderstood one thing, that Huo Chong has a deep relationship with the Fourteenth Master.
Of course, Huo Chong couldn't explain what kind of subordinate relationship he had with the Fourteenth Master. At a time when the Fourteenth Master was at the height of his fame, Huo Chong's words would have been a recipe for his own death.
In fact, those people don’t care about the relationship between Huo Chong and the Fourteenth Master. What they care about is whether the Fourteenth Master could be the heir to Kangxi. Based on recent events, many people believe that the Fourteenth Master is the heir that Kangxi has set his sights on.
Too many people looked down on Huo Chong because of their misunderstanding of the matter. As the saying goes, the higher you stand, the harder you fall. If Huo Chong took advantage of the situation, the result would be that the Fourteenth Old Man would be finished, and Huo Chong would be in trouble.
Huo Chong knew the historical results, so he didn't think that the Fourteenth Prince could win under this normal historical situation.
If one wanted to know whether Yongzheng's ascension to the throne was a usurpation or an arrangement by Kangxi, Huo Chong used the logic he learned in the training to make a logical inference.
If the Fourteenth Prince was the heir recognized by Kangxi, his failure to ascend the throne would mean that Kangxi was an incompetent person, an emperor who could not even protect his own heir.
Kangxi's ability determines whether the heir he chooses can ascend the throne. This is the logical relationship.
From historical records, it can be seen that Kangxi was not an incompetent person. Over the years, he cracked down on his sons who were fighting for the throne, especially the Eighth Prince who was nominated by the Eighth Prince Party, which had great power. He also made the Eighth Prince completely lose the opportunity to seize the throne. It can be seen that Kangxi was a capable emperor.
If it is determined that Kangxi is capable, it means that the heir chosen by Kangxi finally ascended the throne. In fact, even after a difficult process, Prince Yong succeeded to the throne. This is a logical judgment.
Since logical reasoning had led to this conclusion, Huo Chong could only accept his fate. His luck was really bad! It was so bad that it was almost impossible to describe.
No emperor would let go of his political enemies, and the elimination of political enemies always started from the periphery. Kangxi reigned for 61 years, and Huo Chong had at least heard of it. This year is the 58th year of Kangxi, and the time of his bad luck can be roughly determined. That is, three years.
Good fortune is not a disaster, and disaster is inevitable. Since things are probably going to develop in this way, it seems that there is really no other way for me except to be fully prepared.
After doing this in Linzi County, Huo Chong returned to Zichuan County immediately without caring about Yang Youfang's confusion and began to prepare for the acquisition. After spreading the news, Huo Chong returned to Zhangdian first.
As soon as he entered the room, the fellow apprentices came to greet him warmly. Qian Qing also looked very natural at first, but slowly, doubt appeared in his eyes when he looked at Huo Chong.
"Seventh Brother, you should make some plans." Huo Chong directly assigned tasks to Qian Qing. Then he asked his fellow apprentices to call all the young men who were probably apprentices. He asked them to go to the village and spread the news that Huo Chong wanted to recruit more apprentices.
A few days later, some poor people from Liujia Village had already come to Huo Chong to ask if the news was true.
Especially Hunter Liu, who asked directly: "Brother Huo, my eldest son is already thirteen years old, can he learn a craft from you?"
"Brother Liu, isn't it normal for your child to come here to learn a skill from me?" Huo Chong said with a smile.
In this way, fourteen or fifteen children were sent from various villages. Together with the children from wealthy families, the number of teenagers and young men under Huo Chong increased sharply to more than twenty.
Huo Chong immediately made a school plan and organized these children. Every morning, morning exercises began. After the early morning training, dinner was served.
After dinner, it’s time for cultural learning. Now there is no way to divide by age, just learn by whether or not you know the words.
After a few days, these children had at least heard the standard words that Huo Chong often used. Huo Chong took them to find a piece of land and personally led them to weed, clean up, and build houses.
Huo Chong used to be concerned about not disturbing everyone, but now he can't care so much. All processes are operated according to the modern model, that is, after each project is determined, participants in each work link must be assigned work. And the workload should be as equal as possible.
Huo Chong took the lead personally. Seeing that even Huo Chong was doing it himself, the group of teenagers didn't dare to say anything.
However, one boy accidentally cut his hand with hay and cried in pain. The captain of the temporary team scolded him angrily.
Huo Chong walked over, and the temporary captain complained to Huo Chong. Huo Chong ignored him, took the child's hand, took out alcohol and boiled cloth strips to disinfect and bandage the wound.
Seeing that Huo Chong was not angry, the temporary captain did not dare to say anything. After the arranged work was completed, Huo Chong asked the young people to sit down, and then said: "First, we all need to learn how to treat wounds. Second, I will select medical personnel from among you. If I am not here, the medical personnel will come to treat everyone's wounds. Third, everyone must learn how to avoid hurting themselves."
It seemed that from this day on, all kinds of bad things happened one after another. Some people got slightly injured, some sprained their ankles, some had stomach upsets, and some caught colds.
Huo Chong had to solve every problem, which was like a series of troubles that were cut with a knife. Huo Chong even doubted whether he had made the wrong decision. He could only grit his teeth and persevere.
It was not until the temporary residence prepared for these people was finally completed that Huo Chong looked at the two rows of thatched houses and suddenly felt a sense of unreality.
The house was really badly built, but it was not completely uninhabitable. If the thatched walls could be slowly replaced with adobe walls, this residence would not be much different from the poor houses in the village. If there was any difference, it was that the temporary residence built by these children was a bit low. But this had exhausted all of Huo Chong's strength. In such a village, this was the only way he could do it.
As an adult, Huo Chong was doubting whether he had done well enough, but he saw teenagers and young men happily walking around in this grass and wood camp with a primitive style, looking into each house, and even began to discuss in a low voice with their close friends about living in the same house.
Seeing the young man's reaction, Huo Chong couldn't help but laugh. It seemed that he was overthinking. Not everyone was thinking too much like him. Perhaps this was the so-called "disease of civilization".
Young people do not have the knowledge and experience of Huo Chong, but because of this, they do not have as many calculations as Huo Chong. From living together with their families to living in an environment with fewer people, it can be seen that young people are very happy.
However, as an adult, Huo Chong knew that it was not easy to move into the house. In order to make everyone live more comfortably, they naturally could not let them do this. Huo Chong continued to order: "Start making hay mats. I can't let you sleep on the ground."
Qian Qing is responsible for recording the process, which means recording all the work steps and the results caused by executing the steps.
At night, the oil lamp was still on in her room. Huo Chong felt that Qian Qing was still working too hard, so he knocked on the door and said, "Seventh Brother, go to bed early."
"Yeah." Qian Qing responded, and then he opened the door. There was no one in the yard at this time, so Qian Qing asked in a low voice: "Big Brother, are you worried about something?"
"Worried?" Huo Chong was stunned for a moment, then sighed, "I don't have any worries anymore. I've figured it out."
In the past few days, Huo Chong has indeed been thinking from time to time whether his choice is correct. The result is actually very disappointing, because this result is "I am afraid it is useless."
If fear of death was useful, most people in the world would probably live forever. Because fear of death is human nature, and when thinking of death, the first reaction of humans is to reject it.
This is probably the biggest difference between the new China and the Qing Dynasty. The new China will let those who quit live no matter what, but in the Qing Dynasty, this was not possible. No matter whether you are willing or not, you have to go to the end after being involved. According to the rules set by the ruling class, going to the end means death.
It's useless to be afraid now. Huo Chong has to think about how to build his own power.
The result of calm thinking is a cold conclusion. After Huo Chong left Shandong, he could not move forward. He took the money and went to another place alone. The only question was how he would die. In other words, Huo Chong could only start to perform desperately on the stage of Shandong until death announced Huo Chong's resignation.
Thinking of this, Huo Chong felt extremely stressed, but he heard Qian Qing say, "Big Brother, I will do my best to help you."
Feeling warm in his heart, Huo Chong replied, "Thank you."
"Senior Brother saved me, and this is all I can do." There was a hint of sigh in Qian Qing's voice.
Huo Chong felt an impulse in his heart. Qian Qing was unique among this group of junior brothers, and Huo Chong didn't want Qian Qing to exist as a junior sister.
Turning to face Qian Qing, Huo Chong asked, "Qian Qing, I don't want you to be my junior sister."
"Ah?" Qian Qing was stunned, looking frightened. After a moment, Qian Qing lowered his head and replied in a small voice: "It's all up to Senior Brother to arrange."
"Qian Qing, I want to accept you as my disciple. I want to teach you everything I know!" Huo Chong said seriously.
At this moment, Huo Chong suddenly understood why so many people wanted to recruit disciples, especially excellent disciples. When a lifetime of hard work finally condensed into a certain knowledge and understanding, even if it was just for the sake of one's own treasure, one still hoped to pass on the results of one's hard work.
Blood ties are important, but spiritual inheritance is even more important. Especially when you meet an outstanding child and see that all your knowledge and understanding are likely to be inherited, the impulse and desire become even stronger.
Qian Qing lowered his head and said nothing. Just when Huo Chong was getting a little anxious, Qian Qing raised his head and knelt down to Huo Chong, "Master, please accept my disciple's greetings."
Huo Chong calmly accepted his apprentice's kowtow, and even wondered how he could accept it so easily. But Huo Chong felt that he could accept it. If Qian Qing continued to be his apprentice sister, it would mean that Qian Qing's master was that coward Uncle Liu. This was not only an insult to Qian Qing, but also an insult to Huo Chong.
After Qian Qing bowed three times, Huo Chong pulled her up and said, "I will tell everyone about this tomorrow. From now on, you will be my disciple."
"This..." Qian Qing hesitated.
"What are you afraid of? I dare to accept a disciple, but don't you dare let others know?" Huo Chong said unhappily.
"Everything is subject to the orders of the great...master." Qian Qing quickly corrected his statement.
"As long as I am here, I will teach you some knowledge every day. Also, since you are my eldest disciple, you should be the one to supervise others in their studies."
"Master... Master, you said last time that you would teach me martial arts." Qian Qing said in a low voice.
"I was indeed busy recently, but there is another thing. To teach martial arts , you need to understand the basics. You did have a foundation before, but it was still not enough. Now that you have become my disciple, I am relieved about this matter."
The next day, Huo Chong announced that he would accept Qian Qing as his first disciple. Although the young men were very surprised, they did not show the ignorant reaction of "how can a woman be a disciple". Instead, many people directly shouted that they also wanted to be Huo Chong's disciples.
There is a difference between an apprentice and a disciple. An apprentice is a kind of slave labor. In the end, all they can get is a certificate of "education". After the apprenticeship relationship ends, Huo Chong gives the apprentice a certificate that they have received training from Huo Chong.
But being an apprentice is like having a degree. Huo Chong not only has to help his apprentices prove their abilities, but also help them gain a status that corresponds to their abilities.
Huo Chong certainly wanted to have as many disciples as possible. However, there was still a big gap between these people and Qian Qing in terms of literary and martial arts skills. Huo Chong said to everyone, "Don't think I am partial to Qian Qing. When you have learned enough words and have reached a certain level in martial arts, I will accept you as my disciples."
"I can't even read, but my martial arts skills can't be better than a girl's?" Someone complained in a low voice in the crowd.
Huo Chong pointed directly at the young man, "Liu San, come out."
Liu San was not afraid and walked out with big strides.
"Let me make it clear first. If you lose a fight, you can't bear a grudge. You can't think that you lost to Qian Qing because Qian Qing is not good enough. Do you understand?"
"Mr. Huo, do you really want me to compete with her?" Liu San immediately became excited.
"Of course. But again, you can't hold a grudge."
"It's better if she doesn't hold a grudge." Liu San said with a smile.
Huo Chong smiled and asked everyone to make way. Qian Qing and Liu San stood face to face in the circle. Liu San felt embarrassed at this time and said first: "I won't hit you hard."
After Liu San finished speaking, Qian Qing asked, "Are you done?"
"That's all." Liu San replied.
Qian Qing suddenly exerted his strength and rushed towards Liu San. With a simple wrestling move, he threw Liu San to the ground.
The young men around were all shocked and then burst into laughter.
Liu San jumped up with a red face and rushed towards Qian Qing again. Qian Qing resisted a few times, grabbed Liu San's arm, and threw him on his back. Liu San was thrown hard and it took him a while to get up.
Amid the laughter, Huo Chong shouted, "If anyone laughs again, I will hit them!"
The shouting was so loud that the teenagers and young men were all stunned, and the field was completely silent.
In such silence, Liu San's face flushed red, and he rushed towards Qian Qing. Qian Qing rushed in front of Liu San and hit him with an elbow. Liu San could no longer bear it and fell to the ground.
Huo Chong didn't want the kids to really fight. He walked into the circle and said loudly, "Qian Qing won this time! Did you see it clearly?"
The boys and young men were all from the mountain villages, and had never seen a real fight. At this moment, their faces were grim, but no one dared to say anything.
"Help him up." Huo Chong said to Qian Qingming.
