"Young Master Li, the place is here."
Near noon, Hekou Village finally arrived. The old man who drove the cart pulled the rope to stop the cattle, jumped off the rut and turned around. Shouted inside.
Seeing that the bullock cart had come to a complete stop, Yuan Bao climbed down all at once, and Li Cheng got down after him.
During this journey, I really sat so stiff.
After arranging his clothes and asking Yuan Bao to pay for the car, Li Cheng raised his eyes to look around.
This village is not small, just now along the way, there are also villages nearby, not as large as Hekou Village.
It is said that Hekou Village has a population of about a hundred households, and it was named so because it is next to a small river.
There are rivers, water, and mountains, and because it is next to the official road, the road to the city is not far and convenient.
The paddy fields are fertile, and there are many forests and mountains, so life here is good.
At least he doesn't look sallow and emaciated.
Hekou Village is populated by mixed surnames, with seven or eight surnames, but more than half of them are surnamed Li, so the village is headed by the surname Li.
The ancestors of the Li family were from Hekou Village, until the generation of Li Baode's great-grandfather, because they were lucky enough to marry a girl from the city, the family took root in the imperial city, and the next few generations settled in the city.
Only the ancestral hall and old house of the Li family are still here. Every year during the Chinese New Year, your family members of the Li family will still come back to worship their ancestors.
The current patriarch of the Li family, in terms of seniority, Li Cheng would call him the third grandfather, and the other party was Li Chengze's cousin.
In ancient times, the clan ancestral hall was very important. There is usually no break in contact between clan relatives.
Don't talk about it on weekdays, but on New Year's Day, there are rituals.
There are more than one hundred households in Hekou Village, and the population should be around seven or eight hundred.
Because the surname Li accounts for half of the village, the current head of Hekou Village is also the surname Li, the son of the third grandfather Li Chengze.
Because of this, it is much more convenient for people surnamed Li to live in Hekou Village, and no one dares to bully them, so it is easier to do anything.
This is the power of the clan.
The Li family's ancestral house here is a large courtyard with juniors, and it is much larger than the place where they live in Beijing.
After all, it is a village, and the land is not that valuable.
Although the Li family's house looks a bit old, it is not broken, and everything inside is neat.
The house is not dirty, it is cleaned up every now and then.
This is because the tenants hired by the Li family live here to help look at the house.
They are a couple with an eight or nine-year-old son.
This tenant used to be a foreigner, but later settled down in Hekou Village.
The two had no house or land, so they could only be tenant farmers. Later, the old lady Sun saw that people were pitiful, so she recruited people to look at the house, let them live in the outermost part, and clean the house on weekdays.
When Li Cheng came here, he didn't ask someone to deliver a message beforehand, so he came suddenly, and the couple who couldn't help being hurt at the moment were in a panic.
Although the two knew that this was the young master of the master's family, but in previous years, it was Mrs. Li and the elder who came here more often. Li Chengze's sudden arrival made people flustered.
They all knew that Young Master Li was a promising man. In the spring of the first year, they heard that he had passed the examination of scholar. With fame and fame, I married a young lady from a rich family this month, which is really enviable
In their eyes, this kind of person is already superior, and they dare not climb high, let alone offend.
After a long time, Li Cheng has adapted to the ancient behavior of kowtowing and kneeling.
The sudden kowtow of the husband and wife can no longer give Li Chengze a headache. He calmly ordered Yuan Bao to wake up, and then asked about things here.
Of course, the main question was about the 100-acre mountain land of the Li family.
This couple, the man's name is Wang Hu, and the woman's neighbors call her Wang Hu's family.
They are all in their thirties, very honest, and speak with a different accent.
He was very cautious when answering in front of Li Chengze.
But finally not confused, what to ask and what to answer.
Now it's noon, and it's time for dinner.
These two people probably came back for lunch, otherwise they should be busy in the fields.
Mrs. Sun had explained many trivial matters before going out, and Yuan Bao was also very clever. Seeing the situation, he took out a string of big money the size of a wrist from his pocket, and gave it to Wang Hu's family, asking her to cut some pork or kill him. Just a chicken, come here to eat neatly.
His young master got up in the morning and hurried over, he was hungry and tired.
Wang Hu's family rubbed their hands together, heyed a few times, and said, "Let's go now."
After answering the words, he took the money carefully, served Li Chengze another pot of tea, and hurried down to the stove.
This man was quick with his hands and feet, and he worked quickly. In less than half an hour, a table of food was served.
There is a pot of chicken soup, a bowl of steamed bacon and dried vegetables, a plate of green beans, a plate of fried bamboo shoots, and a plate of scrambled eggs.
Li Chengze was alone, and no matter how you looked at it, there were only many people at this table.
He asked Yuan Bao to sit down and eat, but Yuan Bao shook his head very fast, and refused to do anything, the Wang family wanted to eat, so naturally he prepared a bite of Yuan Bao, Yuan Bao smiled and said that he would go and eat.
But Li Cheng stopped him, and he said: "Don't go rubbing against others. Just look at their poverty, and their lives must be tight. How can you eat it again? Even a bite of food is food. Come on, you Just wait for me to finish eating and then pick up the rest, such a table, do you think I can finish it?"
The tone of these words was not serious, and Li Chengze still had a calm expression on his face, but once he spoke, Yuan Bao dared not make a sound at all.
In my heart, I just feel that although the young master has a good temper and looks gentle, but the aura of his whole body is just a little bit scary.
If he lowered his expression again, it might make people's legs weaker.
Yuan Bao obediently waited outside the house, waiting for Li Cheng to finish eating, and he really followed suit.
After putting down the bowls and chopsticks, I couldn't help the aftertaste in my mouth. I felt that the taste of oil in my mouth was so good.
After lunch, Li Cheng asked Yuan Bao to follow him, and took the things he bought from the city to the patriarch's third grandpa.
If it was Li Baode who came back, there was no need to go there in person, but Li Cheng was a junior after all, and he rarely came to the countryside, so he should go there.
Li Cheng was seen by many people on the road when he came by bullock cart, and the third grandpa naturally heard about it.
Sure enough, when Li Cheng came over, the third master was very happy, but not surprised.
After talking with others for a while, and asking about the recent situation at home, Li Chengcai got up to leave.
He came here just to inspect the fields, so he didn't stay any longer.
The current paddy field of the Li family is only 100 mu, which is not a lot, and the land rent is still the same as that of previous years. The past few years have been good, and the grain harvest has been good. Now it is the official autumn harvest season, and the millet in the fields has been harvested and put in the granary.
Don't worry.
After looking at the land again, Li Cheng realized that he seemed to be wrong. He had been hearing about woodland and mountain land from Li Baode before, so he mistakenly thought that the land was high-lying, or slope-shaped, and Or the kind of ground with hard soil and gravel.
Looking at it now, I realize that's not the case at all.
Large tracts of land are actually flat, neither black soil nor hard soil. I squatted down and twisted it with my hands, only to find that it is a sandy texture, the soil is very loose, and the soil layer is still deep.
When the soil touched his hands, Li Chengze thought of something.
watermelon.
Such soft sand and deep soil seem to be very suitable for growing watermelons
Watermelon... Li Cheng searched his memory and found that there was no such fruit as watermelon in this dynasty!
He thought again whether it was called watermelon, so he thought about it again according to the appearance of watermelon, and finally confirmed that there is really no such variety of watermelon in this place.
The original body has never seen or eaten since he was a child.
Li Cheng frowned, recalling his own country, when was watermelon introduced? It seems to be five generations? Or Ming? It was probably first introduced into Xinjiang from the Western Regions, and then spread to the inland.
But this dynasty has a different history than his own, and Li Cheng is a little embarrassed, and he doesn't know if there are such things as watermelon seedlings here.
But there is also the Western Regions here, maybe, when will I find a businessman from the Western Regions to inquire about it.
If this large piece of land can really be grown into watermelons, it will be a big income in the future. The most important thing is that this is a new variety of fruit that will definitely be popular.
But it's a bit far away now, and the watermelon seedlings are gone.
But anyway, he knows the situation of this land. Whether it is planting watermelon or other things in the future, it cannot be wasted.
Watermelon seedlings are cultivated in spring and summer, but this year it will not be successful. If you can find melon seedlings, you can plant them next year. Seedlings can be cultivated in March, July, and several small and medium-sized sheds for a batch in early spring.
But even if there is a success, it is not a project that can make money immediately. The so-called distant water can't solve the near thirst.
Li Cheng observed and checked at the mouth of the river, and returned to the capital in the afternoon in an ox cart.
Entering the city, it seemed to be lively all of a sudden.
Li Cheng had already thought far ahead.
If you want a project with fast money, you need capital investment, but Li Cheng doesn't have capital. What he needs to do now is to accumulate capital and earn the first pot of gold.
Isn’t there a saying that if you have money, thousands of projects will be automatically sent to you to make you money. If you don't have money, even if you have thousands of ideas and projects, money won't come to you.
This is beyond words.
Li Cheng didn't forget that he was a scholar and a university professor, maybe he could do something in his old profession.
Of course, the old profession he mentioned does not refer to teaching, but even if he wants to teach, there are no qualified students here.
He refers to the pen.
Scholars, no matter what kind of scholars they are, can always write something with a pen.
Li Cheng had this idea a few days ago, but he still needs to investigate the market.
Maybe I can write some storybook novels and the like. There should be no shortage of market for entertaining reading materials in any dynasty.
If you really decide to start writing, you have to study the style and characteristics of such local readings.
Time passed quickly with this thought, and I arrived home in the blink of an eye.
After paying the fare. Li Cheng and Yuan Bao went to the east courtyard first.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered, Mrs. Bai came over, pulled Li Chengze and said, "Ze'er is back. A man named Su came to our house today. He said he was your friend and gave you a piece of paper. Post, what kind of poetry meeting do you invite you to attend in the future.” After finishing speaking, he took out the post and handed it to Li Chengze.
Surname Su
Li Cheng squinted his eyes and thought for a while, then opened the post and scanned it.
"It turned out to be him."
The name of the signer is Su Ziyan.
This is the person who asked Yuanshen to follow his post to go to Mingdehou's mansion.
Li Chengze had a slight sneer on his face, and thought, the many coincidences in the Hou Mansion may not be without conspiracy, and it is possible that even the original body was part of the design.
The original body has an impure mind and doesn't know it's being used by others.
Li Chengze was not a fool, he had already guessed on the day he crossed over, that it was not simple for the original body to be forced into the water to save someone. Just didn't have time to think about it.
That's good, if he doesn't look for it, people will come to him first instead.
So, he really wants to meet each other for a while.