Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 938, meat house and reading

"Old man, are you offering the Emperor's Longevity Card?"

Emperor Hongzhi looked at He Lin's pious appearance and asked.

"Yeah, when today's son is holy, we ordinary people have a good life. We little ordinary people can't do anything for the emperor. We can only offer the longevity card and pray for the emperor's dragon body to be healthy and long-lasting."

He Lin smiled and nodded, never thinking that the person in front of him would be the current emperor.

"Hmm~"

Emperor Hongzhi nodded with a smile on his face, while Li Dongyang, Zhang Mao, Liu Jian and others next to him touched their mustaches one by one.

"Old man, this meat is expensive, can't it be used to raise pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, etc.?"

Liu Jin thought for a while and asked He Lin again.

"Isn't it~"

"Now the price of meat has risen, but the price of food has been falling year after year. The demand for meat in this capital is very large. Butcher Zhang in the village is now collecting pigs everywhere. It is said that he kills more than ten pigs a day. Pigs, that’s not enough to sell, because there are too many people who eat meat, and there are only so many pigs.”

"Master Zhang Dizhuan of our place saw this rightly, so he built a pig farm specially to raise hundreds of pigs, and then used the land that used to grow wheat to grow sweet potatoes and corn. With this Sweet potatoes and corn to feed pigs."

"Hey, I've earned a lot of money this year, and now I'm expanding my pig farm, planning to raise more pigs next year."

When He Lin heard this, he immediately nodded and said.

"Master Zhang just said that you can't earn a few dollars from growing wheat in this land, and you can only make money from raising pigs. Next year, you won't even grow cotton."

"It takes a lot of food to raise pigs."

After Liu Jian listened, he thought about it and said.

"Of course pigs need food, but now the food is cheap. The high-quality rice from Nanyang costs a few cents a catty. If you buy a lot, there are discounts."

"Master Zhang and his son have a boat to travel between Nanyang and Tianjin. They brought rice and bran directly from Nanyang. One tael of silver can buy several stones."

"There are also sweet potatoes and corn, which are even cheaper. If you just use a few fields to plant some, you can't eat them all. It's perfect for raising pigs."

"After all, it doesn't cost much to raise a pig, but the price of this pork has been rising all the time. This two-hundred-jin fat pig can now be sold for two taels of silver."

He Lin also nodded, and then settled the accounts for everyone with his fingers.

"In that case, raising pigs can also make a lot of money?"

After hearing his calculation, Zhang Mao said with bright eyes.

"It must be able to make a lot of money. Food is very cheap, and the price of meat keeps rising. The capital and Tianjin are full of factories, workshops, and commercial firms. I heard that the population of the capital alone is several million. "

"Everyone has money in their hands, so it's nothing to eat some meat. Tell me, how many pigs does this capital eat in a day?"

He Lin nodded solemnly and said.

After hearing He Lin's words, everyone nodded their heads.

Liu Jin is more aware of this, because he cooperated with the leaders of the Naiman tribe on the grassland to open a wool textile factory, and he is also aware of the huge demand for meat in the Beijing-Tianjin area.

The Northern Grassland Province is considered an extremely important source of meat in the Beijing-Tianjin area. Every day, tens of thousands of sheep are transported from the grasslands to Tianjin and the capital city, and delivered to the dining tables of young and old in Beijing and Tianjin.

Similarly, here in Tianjin Port, thousands of fishing boats come back with boatloads of sea fish every day, and then quickly send them to the tables of people in the Beijing-Tianjin area.

"Old Zhang probably wants to raise pigs."

Liu Jin looked at Zhang Mao's pig raising, and couldn't help laughing immediately.

But after careful calculation, this pig raising is indeed a good deal.

Especially when grain prices are low and meat prices are rising, it is extremely cost-effective to raise pigs.

Of course, in the era when there was no feed, the growth of this pig was relatively slow, and it could only eat coarse grains and the like, but the taste of the pigs raised must be quite good, and it must be better than the feed pigs of later generations.

"Old man, apart from eating meat, do you have any new pursuits?"

Liu Jin took note of the price increase of meat and asked again.

"Yes, of course there is~"

He Lin nodded and said.

"Take my family as an example. I used to not have enough to eat, and I felt satisfied when I was full, but now I can not only eat enough, but also eat meat."

"This person feels dissatisfied again. My son and his wife feel that it is not enough to build such a good house in this family. They still want to buy a house here in the capital."

"But everyone also knows that the houses in this capital city can be afforded by ordinary people?"

"Any house costs several hundred taels of silver, which is just a few cement walls. It is enough to have a house in this house, and it is not very far from the capital. The cement road has been repaired to the door of the house, and it is easy to travel. convenient."

"But they refused to listen and insisted on taking out a loan to buy a house in the capital. Every month, just repaying the mortgage has to pay back three taels of silver. The couple used to be able to go to work comfortably, but now my In order to pay off the mortgage as soon as possible, my son is also planning to go to sea with others as a sailor and do business."

Speaking of this, He Lin also seemed very angry.

"It's only been a few days since this good day, I have to go to toss, as long as there is a house at home, why bother to buy a house in the city."

"However, I still support one point. Although the houses in the city are expensive, there are schools in the city. It is convenient for children to study. In our countryside, there is not even a private school for studying. There is no way for children to go to school if they want to go to school. .”

"Let's let the young people toss about it. In this day and age, those who dare to fight and dare to break through are paid off, and those who stay in the village honestly can't do it."

He Lin held his beloved little grandson in his arms, patted his head and said.

"Is your family still planning to send your children to study?"

When Li Dongyang heard this, he immediately asked in surprise.

"Of course, it's not the same now as before. In the past, it was enough to have a full meal. Reading a book is simply not something we ordinary people do."

"But the world has changed. Now people in the city and children from every household are sent to study. If you don't send them, can you do it?"

"We don't expect this child to be able to take the imperial examination and become an official, but if he is sent to study, he can read and write. Besides, it doesn't matter whether it is a factory, workshop, or business, it is better to be able to read and write. The rise is fast, there are many opportunities, and the moon is louder."

"If you want to study, you have to buy a house in the city. If you have a house, you can study nearby. Therefore, although my son bought a house, although it is expensive, it is also a loan. I agreed."

He Lin smiled and replied.

"That's it~"

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but nod their heads immediately.

At the same time, I sighed in my heart, reading was the privilege of the landlords and gentry before, how could children from ordinary families afford to read.

But now, even the children of ordinary families have to study, because everyone's life is better, and every family sends their children to study, and you must not send them.

The key is that now everyone can afford to send their children to study. Traditional private schools may be more expensive. The new school opened by Liu Jin has free enrollment and a free lunch. Naturally, everyone will send their children to study .

What's more, there are requirements and advantages in employment after they grow up, and reading has gradually spread to the children of ordinary people at the bottom.

"Reading is good. Only after reading can one be able to understand things and understand right and wrong, and then one can stand out from the crowd."

After hearing this, Emperor Hongzhi said very happily.

The whole person is full of sense of accomplishment, and being the emperor of himself is simply too good, even the common people at the bottom are thinking about sending their children to study.

"I don't dare to ask extravagantly to be famous. It is enough to be able to read and write, and to understand some principles."

He Lin smiled and hugged the grandson.

Liu Jian, Xie Qian, Li Dongyang, and Zhang Mao were slightly silent.

This reading used to belong to the privilege of the landlord and gentry class, because the cost of reading is very high, so only qualified people can send their children to study.

And studying is combined with being an official, and at the same time, along with the fame obtained in the examination, it also has corresponding privileges. If you can be admitted to Juren, you can be exempted from taxes, corvees, etc. in your family.

It can be said that they, the landlords and gentry, monopolized the study and the officialdom of Ming Dynasty.

But now, a large number of ordinary children can also study and go to school, although most of them enter the new-style schools run by Liu Jin. In the new-style schools, I can’t take the imperial examination, and they don’t have the content of the academic examination.

But after all, this is also studying and receiving education. It may not be able to produce much change in a short period of time, but after a long time, the talents from this new school will definitely have a huge impact on them, the landlords and gentry, and shake them. Monopoly status and power.

Once that time comes, the entire Ming Dynasty may undergo tremendous changes, and the imperial examination system formed over thousands of years may be destroyed.

But they are powerless to change everything in front of them. They can't say that the court will issue a law stipulating that children from ordinary families cannot study or go to school.

The last time the disturbance was extremely severe, it caused millions of people to go on strike in the Beijing-Tianjin area. If such a law is introduced again, the consequences will be disastrous.

"The status of Confucianism formed for thousands of years may be shaken!"

Xie Qian couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

He is from Zhejiang, and he knows all this very well. The reason why Jiangnan has so many talented and capable people since ancient times is not because people in Jiangnan attach importance to education, and the proportion of children studying is higher than anywhere in Ming Dynasty.

Now here in the Beijing-Tianjin area, even the children of the most low-level people are going to study, and countless talents and capable people will inevitably emerge in the future.

　As mentioned above, there are many factors for the rapid development of Ming Dynasty, the most important of which is that foreign colonization can plunder wealth, and at the same time, the germination of internal capitalism and the development of productive forces have all promoted the development of Ming Dynasty. For future generations of Huaxia, the speed of development is definitely faster, and Daming, who is at the top of the food chain, has a huge advantage.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)