Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 535 Returning to Hometown
Seven days later, the boat arrived in Mudu Town in the morning. They will rest at the old house in Mudu for two days before continuing south.

The old house was closed, but it was still clean and tidy. After tidying up a little, everyone went to rest.

Fan Ning went to the family. He left home earlier and had little contact with the Fan family. It was only during Ding You's death that his father lived in Mudu that he became close to the family.

Accompanied by the patriarch, Fan Ning swept the tombs of his great-grandfather Fan Zhongyan and his father Fan Tiezhou, and invited dozens of clan members to have lunch in Mudu Town before returning home with his third uncle Fan Tieniu.

Fan Tieniu is now the No. [-] officer in Mudu Town, second only to Mr. Liu. His house is in the east of the town, covering an area of ​​more than [-] mu. Behind him is endless farmland. He now has [-] mu of farmland. In addition to his own [-] mu of land, Zhu Pei also gave him the [-] mu of land that Zhu Pei married. In addition, Fan Tieniu also runs three restaurants in the town and the medical clinic left by his brother Fan Tiezhou.

The restaurant and the clinic were reserved for Fan Ning's half-brother, Fan Mingxiao, who was adopted by Fan Tieniu. He is now Fan Tieniu's second son and is currently studying at Yanying Academy.

"How is Mingxiao now?" Fan Ning asked.

"This child is very filial and obedient, but it's a pity that his studies are a bit poor. He was admitted to Yanying Academy as an exception. He was only admitted to the county Mudu Town School. Personally, I feel that he is not suitable for the imperial examination."

Fan Tieniu said it very implicitly. After all, he is also Fan Ning's younger brother, and he cannot deprive his child of the opportunity to study.

Fan Ning nodded, "Let him finish the county school and the prefectural school, and then I will arrange for him to go to the Taixue to study medicine, and he will inherit the medical school when he comes back."

Under the Taixue of the Song Dynasty, there were not only Confucian classics, but also martial arts, law, medicine, arithmetic, calligraphy, and painting. Many specialized talents were trained, and they were generally admitted, but there were also places to take care of the children of officials.

Fan Tieniu had no objection to Fan Ning's arrangement. His eldest son Lu Min had wandered outside and probably would not return to his hometown. He hoped that his second son would stay in his hometown and continue his and his elder brother's career.

"How is grandma?" Fanning asked again.

"She is fine, eats well, sleeps well, and is in good health, but her ears are not very good."

Fan Tieniu looked at the sky, and smiled again: "She just took a nap, you can come see her later."

"Okay! Go and see what you planted."

Fan Tieniu was refreshed, and hurriedly led Fan Ning to the back house.

Other people's backyards have rockery fish ponds, flowers, plants and trees, but Fan Tieniu's backyard grows vegetables and food, but there is a two-acre fish pond, which really raises fish.

"Last winter, the soil in my pond was fertilized with mud. The soil is very loose, and the fertility must be enough. I am afraid that there are special requirements for corn and pumpkins."

"There are no special requirements, the key is sufficient sunlight."

"There is no problem with the sun, and there are no big trees in my backyard."

Walking into the backyard, I was surprised to find that the vegetable and grain fields in the backyard covered an area of ​​ten acres, and there were ditches and ridges. Fan Ning was a little speechless. How much Uncle San loves farming, Fan Tieniu said a little embarrassedly: " When I farm outside, I will be laughed at by others, so I have to hide at home and plant it for decades, and I can’t let it go!”

Came to the two acres of land in the middle, "This is a corn field. I planted one acre of land, and seedlings have grown. I come to water and fertilize every day, and the growth is very good."

Sure enough, the seedlings of corn grew neatly, with a distance of one foot, green and lush, and the growth was gratifying.

Fan Ning said with a smile: "It's so well planted! It will be harvested in summer, and all the seeds will be kept. Next year, all five thousand acres of land will be planted, and then Third Uncle will wait to be conferred a title!"

Fan Tieniu couldn't close his mouth with a grin, but Fan Ning interrupted his third uncle's longing, "What about the pumpkin?"

"The pumpkins are here!"

Fan Tieniu hurriedly took Fan Ning to a corner, where he built a few thick and low wooden frames to facilitate the pumpkins to climb the vines.

Fan Ning was relieved. He was not worried about the corn, but the pumpkin. He was afraid that it would not adapt to the water and soil here. Now it seemed that his worry was for nothing, and it was no different from the pumpkins of later generations.

"Third Uncle, these two crops are not available in the Song Dynasty. You must be careful. Beware of hail in spring. It is best to build a shelf on both sides. In case of hail, quickly cover it with tarpaulin."

"I know, I'll put on airs later, I haven't taken such good care of my grandson yet!"

Fan Ning rolled his eyes, where is your grandson?
After resting in their hometown for only two days, Fan Ning took Fan Mingxuan with them, and the group set off for the south again. They stopped in Wujiang for an hour, and Fan Ning and Zhu Pei went to visit Zhu Yuanfu who was nursing at home.

Zhu Yuanfu is indeed old, his hands and face are covered with age spots, and his spirit is not as good as before. Two months ago, Zhu Yuanjun died of illness and was buried in Hengyang. He was finally demoted to Hengyang County Captain, where he came to the end of his life. According to his last words, his descendants buried him in Hengyang, and they had purchased industrial land in Hengyang, so the Zhu family would stay in Hengyang.

This incident dealt a great blow to Zhu Yuanfu, which meant that it was impossible for the split Zhu family to recover.

"I also want to open up. The branches and leaves are scattered. It is not impossible for the Zhu family to stay in Hengyang. After a hundred years, their descendants will come to Wujiang to find their roots!"

Compared with Zhu Yuanjun, Zhu Yuanfu cared more about his children and grandchildren. He held Fan Ning's hand and said with difficulty: "My four sons, the third and the fourth are mediocre people who don't seek to make progress. I have left them enough Wealth, let them go! Only my second son, Xiaolin, is smart and capable, understands the truth, and can make a career, Aning, please help him! This is the last thing I beg you for."

Fan Ning sighed and said, "Grandfather, don't say any more, rest well, I will definitely try my best!"

A relieved smile appeared on Zhu Yuanfu's face, and he held his granddaughter's hand and said with a smile: "The most promising person in the Zhu family is my Pei'er. It's a good job to find a gentleman, I'm really relieved!"

Zhu Pei felt that her grandfather was confessing his last words. She felt sad, and suddenly burst into tears, choked up and unable to speak.

Fan Ning let his grandfather rest, helped his wife out of the room, and said to her: "Go and get the elder brother, and meet the grandfather!"

Fan Ning had a strong premonition that this might be the last time they saw Zhu Yuanfu.

Jupe nodded and walked out quickly.

At this time, Zhu Xiaolin asked Fan Ning to sit down and talk. Zhu Xiaolin and his elder brother Zhu Xiaoyun were compatriots from the same mother, and the third and fourth children were born to two concubines respectively.

Compared with Zhu Xiaoyun's gentleness, Zhu Xiaolin is more like his father Zhu Yuanfu, he is a copy of Zhu Yuanfu. In fact, among Zhu Yuanfu's four sons, Fan Ning also prefers the second son Zhu Xiaolin. Although Zhu Xiaoyun is his father-in-law, Zhu Xiaoyun is like a book The textbook, everything is done according to the rules, meticulous, living in his house, even if he comes back later, he has to explain the situation to him, which makes Fanning very uncomfortable.

On the contrary, Zhu Xiaolin is like a popular novel full of human touch, gentle, shrewd, flexible, and down-to-earth. Not only Zhu Pei likes him, but even Fan Ning likes to chat with him.

Zhu Xiaolin asked with a smile: "I received a letter from my third uncle yesterday, saying that you persuaded him to invest in a textile workshop?"

Fan Ning asked with a smile, "Is Second Uncle interested?"

Zhu Xiaolin nodded and said with a smile: "We have already divided the family property at the beginning of the year. The third and fourth children want gold, silver and land. What your father-in-law distributes are the antique calligraphy and paintings collected by your father. The strange stones are given to the eldest grandson, and the houses and restaurants are distributed to each other. After all the grandchildren, I inherited my father's property, 48 Zhu's money shops and Zhu's fleet, Aning, I can't just sit and eat!"

"Which area is Second Uncle good at?"

Zhu Xiaolin thought for a while and said, "I have been in charge of the fleet for ten years, and what I know best is fleet transportation."

"Second uncle, let me show you a road. The imperial court has decided to designate Yangzhou as the largest overseas material distribution center. Second uncle will go to Yangzhou as soon as possible to buy a large amount of land along the Yangtze River and build warehouses; secondly, second uncle may consider building a warehouse in Yangzhou." The largest marine cargo distribution market; thirdly, the second uncle can be involved in shipbuilding and transportation, making Zhu's fleet the largest transportation fleet in inland rivers."

"Just now you said shipbuilding?"

Fan Ning smiled slightly and said, "The shipbuilding I'm talking about is the building of huge ships over [-] stone. I remember that there are several historic shipyards along the Yangtze River. It seems that some of them are not doing very well. Second Uncle can buy them. .”

"One hundred thousand shi is not possible, and the wood can't bear it. I think [-] shi is the limit for a wooden boat, and the maximum is twenty sails."

In fact, Fan Ning also knew that the possibility of [-] shi is not very likely. The load of [-] shi is [-] tons, which is impossible for a wooden ship. Like the famous treasure ship, it can only carry [-] shi, about [-] tons, with a displacement of nearly [-] tons and a load of [-] Wan Shi, that's almost an aircraft carrier.

So Fan Ning just said that, but the point is not here, Fan Ning said with a smile: "Second Uncle, I said it is a boat shop!"

Zhu Xiaolin chuckled, "You're talking about the Yang family's ancient boat house in Jingkou, which can build huge ships of ten thousand stones. After the death of the owner Yang Qing, several sons fought for the family property. At the end of last year, they found Zhu's family and wanted to pay [-] yuan. The price of the boat was sold to the Zhu family, but my father felt that the price was too high, so he countered with [-] guan, and they said they would go back and discuss it, but there has been no reply yet.”

"Second uncle can consider taking it down, and then pay a high price to dig a sea-going ship. An experienced shipbuilder must build a sea-going ship of more than [-] shi."

Perhaps Zhu Xiaolin would have to think about buying a boat, but going to Yangzhou to buy land was just what he wanted, not to mention that Fan Ning revealed such important news, he couldn't wait, and set off for Yangzhou tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)