The bearded man was also made to feel ashamed by Mr. Wu's words.
Because he was a low-ranking officer, he was very familiar with the bad things in the military camp.
Usually the superiors oppress the subordinates, and the subordinates oppress the smaller people below them.
Anyone who has a little bit of ability or a dark enough heart will go out to find ways to make money.
In this area of dozens of miles, even bandits don't come, because the people in the military camp are bandits themselves.
Fortunately, they only make money and don't harm the poor people around them.
It’s not that rabbits don’t eat the grass near their nests, but that there is no grass near their nests.
After the meal, Old Man Wu took Zhou Wuchang to walk around the village, and Zhou Wuchang even called Yingbao to come along.
As they walked, they talked about how to support their family.
Zhou Wuchang suddenly asked Yingbao: "Disciple, how do you think this village should develop?"
Yingbao blinked, not understanding why her master asked her this.
She is just a seven and a half year old girl, how can she worry about this
Seeing that his disciple didn't seem to understand, Zhou Wuchang continued, "I have been to Dongchen Village before. They live a richer life than people in the county town. People in your village also said that they can afford to build big tile houses and have no worries about food and clothing. It's all thanks to you."
Yingbao: ·······
She suddenly doubted the real purpose of her master bringing her here for training.
Zhou Wuchang sighed and continued, "If you come up with any good ideas, please tell me. I will thank you on behalf of the people here."
Yingbao twitched her skin and nodded: "Okay."
Old Man Wu didn't understand what the master and disciple were saying, and still talked to Zhou Wuchang about what had happened in the past few years with a sad face.
Every household in the village was appallingly poor, but the imperial court not only refused to reduce or exempt taxes, but also forcibly levied money and grain again and again.
Those officials don't care about the lives of the people at all. The only purpose of keeping the people alive is to grow food and make money for the officials and to provide free labor and soldiers for the powerful.
Compared with the prosperity of cities and Kyoto, people in remote villages basically have insufficient food and clothing.
In order to avoid starvation or freezing to death, people sold their children. Some were afraid that they could not pay taxes and head taxes if they had too many children, so they pushed their newborn babies into basins and drowned them alive, or simply threw them into the ravines.
The more Old Man Wu spoke, the sadder he became, and he kept wiping his eyes with his sleeves.
Zhou Wuchang remained silent, his expression becoming increasingly uglier.
Seeing this, Yingbao looked around hard, trying to figure out how to make these people rich.
There is a lack of water here and there seems to be no paddy fields. From what Mr. Wu said, the people here only grow millet and even less wheat.
How about letting them grow golden ears as well
But now frost has fallen and the weather is getting colder. It might snow soon.
Yingbao scratched her head, unable to think of any way to make money in such a poor place.
At this time, Cuihua came over with a basket in which was a ball of light yellow cloth.
Seeing Yingbao staring at her, Cuihua felt a little embarrassed and subconsciously used her arms to protect the things in the basket.
But Yingbao still saw clearly that it was the piece of cotton cloth that she asked her second brother to throw away last night.
Yingbao turned her face away and pretended to look into the distance.
Then I heard the master ask Mr. Wu: "Hasn't the pond you use for daily water been cleaned yet?"
"It was cleaned up. It was cleaned last year. Now the pond is twice as big as before." said Mr. Wu.
Zhou Wuchang nodded.
He had some connection with this village, as he had been stationed here for several years. The villagers had followed him to fight against the attacks of the Jurchens, and he had stayed in Wu Weng's house to recuperate from his injuries for several months.
Mr. Wu opened up and talked about the drought that occurred from last year to this summer: "Fortunately, we have a mountain god cave here, otherwise, people from the surrounding villages would have all fled. Alas, there was no rain for six consecutive months, and the ponds in several villages were all dry. It wasn't until June that it rained a few times, and then the ponds were filled up."
When Yingbao heard the word "immortal", her eyes lit up and she quickly asked, "Grandpa Wu, what is the Immortal Cave?"
"It's the cave on Shiquan Mountain. My grandfather told me that it is a life-saving spring bestowed by the gods in heaven. The older generation has called it this name." Mr. Wu said proudly.
Yingbao thought for a moment and asked, "Whose cave is that?"
Mr. Wu laughed: "It's nobody's. There's not even a tree growing on that mountain. Who would want a place like that?"
You have to pay taxes when you buy land, no matter if it is mountain land or gravel land, as long as you buy it, you will definitely pay taxes to the government every year.
So even if the government wanted to give someone away for free, no one would dare to accept it.
Yingbao tugged at her master's wide sleeves and whispered, "Master, I have thought of a way to make the villagers rich."
"Oh?" Zhou Wuchang was also very curious about what his little disciple could come up with: "What do you want them to do?"
Ying Bao chuckled and said, "Since there is a fairy cave here, and there is a stone spring in the cave given by the gods, why not let the villagers buy the stone cave and sell the fairy water to the people in the city, one dan for one guan."
Zhou Wuchang was stunned for a moment and shook his head: "Buying a load of water costs one tael of money? Who would be so stupid?"
Even in the provincial capital, spring water was carried into the city at no more than five or ten coins per load, and even at the time of the greatest water shortage, it did not cost more than twenty coins. But my little disciple asked for one string of coins per load. Unless the buyer of water was crazy, this deal would never be successful.
"We'll know whether it's stupid or not if we try it." Yingbao is very optimistic about this business.
If that doesn't work, just pick some flowers and plant them in the cave, creating a miracle, and then you won't have to worry about rich people in the city not coming to buy them.
Hehe, maybe this village will become famous and become another wealthy village.
The first thing to do now is to buy this hilltop and then make up a story so that people from the surrounding villages become the guardians of the Fairy Cave and others dare not touch it easily.
In this way, even if the powerful people snatch the stone spring away, they have to treat these villagers well.
Zhou Wuchang thought for a while and finally nodded: "Okay, since you are so sure, let the villagers try it. However, they don't have to buy the cave, so as to avoid disputes. I will buy it and build a Taoist temple there."
Old Man Wu was hard of hearing and did not hear clearly what the master and the disciple said. He just looked at them curiously.
Next, the master and his disciple went to Shiquan Mountain to survey and decide where to build the Taoist temple.
After that, he went to find the village head and talked about buying the hill over in Shiquan.
The head of the village and Zhou Wuchang were old acquaintances, so he immediately took them to the county government office to estimate the price.
In the end, Zhou Wuchang spent more than four hundred taels of silver to buy the entire Shiquan Mountain and the surrounding gravel land.
Zhang Min was stunned by his master's actions and asked him repeatedly: "Master, are we going to practice Taoism here?"
"I am just setting up a place for you to stay here. If you want to stay and practice Taoism, that's not impossible." Zhou Wuchang said.
Zhang Min: "I don't want to stay." This place is not fun at all. There is no food or drink, and there is not even a fruit tree.