The emperor grabbed Mr. Zhuang's hand tightly, looked at him with bright eyes and said: "Mr. Zhuang, the crown prince will be entrusted to you in the future. The child has a quick temper and is big. What I am most afraid of is that he will not listen to people's advice in the future." .”
Mr. Zhuang was a little moved, and he held the emperor's hand tightly, "Your Majesty, it is the duty of a minister to persuade the prince."
"Sir, ah, that Your Majesty," Wu Wulang ran over sweating profusely. Seeing the emperor and Mr. Zhuang holding hands, the twenty or so people in the yard all turned their heads to look at him. He was a little nervous for a moment, stammering : "Well, the rice is cooked, I just want to ask you what kind of food to eat, I will pick it."
Mr. Zhuang came back to his senses in an instant, and immediately remembered that Zhou Man was charged with another crime. He hurriedly said: "Go and catch two chickens, a few eggs, and a few fish. There is no meat in the village, so let's make preparations like this first, you guys." If the two of you can't do it, you can go to the village to find someone to help."
After Mr. Zhuang finished his orders, he turned his head and smiled at the emperor: "Your Majesty, the village is remote and basically self-sufficient, with a lot of fruits. Would you like to go and have a look? There are a lot of melons and fruits planted by the pond. It's time to harvest."
Emperor: ...Mr. Zhuang is good at everything, but he is not as good as Wei Zhi in terms of fairness and public service.
But the emperor still nodded, and took people to visit Zhou Man's orchard.
It is said to be an orchard, but in fact there is no dividing line. It is just that several circles of fruit trees have been planted around the pond, and hemp is planted outside.
The emperor glanced at it and asked, "Don't you grow mulberry?"
Zhou Wulang shook his head and said, "It takes too much effort to raise silkworms, and the village is short of manpower, so we don't grow them."
The emperor stopped, and calculated the size of the land, and the average number of acres per household, he squinted slightly, "It's even less than the Yongye land allocated by the imperial court, so we can't even gather manpower? "
Mr. Zhuang said: "Your Majesty, they have few acres of land, but intensive farming takes a lot of time per acre of land, and the harvest should be higher,"
The emperor nodded slightly and didn't ask any more questions.
There are peach trees, pear trees, apple trees, and pomegranates planted here, and it was time to eat pomegranates. As soon as they entered, they saw three pomegranate trees, which bore a lot of fruit.
The tree was not very tall, and the emperor could pick some by raising his hand. He stretched out his hand and picked one, then lowered his head and kicked the soil under his feet, raised his eyebrows and said, "This soil..."
Mr. Zhuang just waited for him to ask, and immediately said: "This piece of dry land is thin. It has been used to grow beans before, and it can be rented out in the first year. In the second year, the tenants in the village know that Zhou Man has a good temper. I don’t want to rent this piece of land again.”
He laughed and said: "Every adult's job field will always have a few acres of low-grade fields. A large pond of sugar was dug here, which can be used for washing clothes by the villagers, as well as raising some fish and lotus roots."
"The excavated mud was piled up around, and the soil was thicker. Zhou Man had someone plant fruit trees. In order to make the fruit trees grow, he also asked people to raise chickens in it. The chicken manure can raise the soil. After five or six years like this, this With what it is now."
The emperor laughed and said, "I have heard the crown prince and Lord Wei mention that Zhou Man's career is well managed, much better than that of the household department."
Mr. Zhuang was slightly relieved. Although it was not a big mistake to dig a pond by occupying the land, but at this time of meritorious service, Mr. Zhuang still did not want this matter to affect her.
The emperor threw a pomegranate to watch Wu Lang catch fish, watching, watching, he looked up at the sky.
Wei Zhi glanced at it and said, "It's already too late, it's impossible to rush back to the capital tonight."
Yin Li also said: "Your Majesty, traveling at night is too dangerous, let's stay tonight."
Emperor: "... Didn't you say that you can't spend the night outside?"
Wei Zhi and Yin Li: ... Then safety is the top priority. If you hadn't counted the rice yourself and wandered around the fields for so long, they must be halfway by now.
The emperor didn't need them to answer, so he shook his head and said, "Let's go, let's go back and look at the rice fields. I haven't finished watching the experimental fields around the other courtyard yet."
After returning to the other courtyard, Mr. Zhuang went to arrange the emperor's residence at night.
Zhou Dalang was startled when he heard that the emperor would live here at night, "The emperor wants to live in my house?"
Mr. Zhuang reassured him, "Don't be afraid, the emperor's daughter often comes to live in other courtyards, and now it's okay for a father to come and live in the courtyard where his daughter lived for a night."
After Zhou Dalang heard Mr. Zhuang's explanation, his nervousness was instantly relieved.
At this time, the emperor was wandering on the ridge with Wei Zhi and Yin Li, and the guards followed from afar.
"Since this kind of rice can be sown in Mianzhou and Qingzhou at the same time, there will be no big problems in Jiannan Road and Hedong Road," said the emperor, "It is also cultivated here, so it should be suitable for the Central Plains. climate."
He let out a long breath and said, "Wei Qing, to be honest, I'm really happy. With this rice seed, most of the current crisis in the Central Plains and the court can be solved."
Wei Zhi also nodded in agreement.
"But there are still too many people in the Central Plains, and the land is scarce and the food is scarce. If things go on like this, there is no solution." The emperor sighed, "I wanted to ask Ji Zhuangxun to see if he wanted to move the land, but listening to him, he actually wanted to Just go with the flow."
Wei knew: "Didn't Your Majesty praise him?" He praised him so much, obviously agreeing with his point of view.
The emperor nodded slightly and said: "I really hope that the prince can be like me, and it is best to resolve the conflict between the people and the land in the Central Plains, but I also know that the prince is not me, if he does what I want to do now, my lord Jin is only afraid of danger."
"He is right," said the emperor, "for the crown prince, it is the best policy to let nature take its course and make subtle changes silently."
Wei Zhi also nodded, "This time because of the salt administration, Jiangnan is in turmoil. In fact, not only Jiangnan has suffered heavy losses, but the imperial court has also suffered a lot."
Although no one was killed in battle, there were also a lot of losses. The value that disappeared because the transaction was not completed, and the taxes that were corrupted by them were all losses.
"If it weren't for His Majesty's great prestige, I'm afraid Jiangnan would really change." But if the person sitting in this position is not the present, without the prestige and power of the present, Jiangnan will not be able to calm down like this.
The emperor turned his head and glanced at Wei Zhi, seeing that his face was tired, and the sickness on his face had not disappeared until now, so he couldn't help sighing.
Xiao Yuan had greeted him earlier, Wei Zhi's body would not last long.
So he had to leave some people for the prince.
The emperor has never considered Zhuang Xun, one is because he has no experience in foreign affairs, teaching and educating people is okay, and other things, I am afraid not;
The second is because he is too old.
Although he looks good in spirit, but at such an age, who knows when he will get sick and die
But now, the emperor is thinking about it.
Zhuang Xun's answer to his question about politics was very true to his mind. The most important thing was that he didn't feel disgusted at all when he said that the prince should be conservative and adapt to the current situation. Too much.
The emperor stroked his beard and thought for a long time, and finally said: "I want to add Zhuang Xun as Prince Shaofu."