A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 453

"Master!"

"Miss."

As the sun was setting and it was evening in late spring, Fan Xuanfu nestled in her husband's arms, calling out to her husband.

"I knew you would have this day, but I didn't expect it to be so soon."

Huaiyu held her in his arms, the breeze blew by, the peach tree above his head swayed, and the pink peach petals fluttered down one after another.

Fallen flowers.

The news of Wu Huaiyu Xuanma worshiping the Prime Minister was transmitted back to Duke Yi's mansion early on, and everyone in the mansion was overjoyed, especially Mrs. Fan Xuanfu of Yi State, who almost lost himself in the voice of Mrs. Xiang.

Mrs. Xianggong is even rarer than Mrs. Guo.

There are so many dukes in the Tang Dynasty now, but the prime ministers can count them with two hands.

"When we first met in front of your house in Huaiyuanfang, didn't I tell you that if you have dragon eyes and phoenix eyes, you must eat your salary, and your lips are like Zhu Dan, so you must be rich. If you have a clear voice, you must be prosperous.

I'm all spoiled for choice. "

Fan Xuanfu felt extremely sweet when she heard this, she grabbed Huaiyu's hand and placed it on her belly, "Yuanbao is already half a year old, I want another one."

"So fast?"

"I'm fine now."

As the mistress of the house, although she gave birth to the eldest son of the Wu family, Fan Xuanfu was still a little anxious to see her husband's concubines scrambling to get pregnant.

It's not that he is afraid that they will threaten his status, but that he wants to have more descendants.

How can brothers and sisters of the same father and half mother compare with brothers and sisters of the same mother?

"This sunset is so beautiful, and the red glow is like fire," Huaiyu said in no hurry. Although it would be no problem to conceive a child half a year after the natural delivery, it was too hard.

"It's not too late to have a second child when Chengsi is two years old. You can also take a good rest."

"ah."

Fan Xuanfu suddenly exclaimed,
"Are there any bugs?"

"No, it's my husband and I watching the sunset and the rosy clouds here. We chatted so much that we forgot to breastfeed Yuan Bao, and it overflowed."

Sure enough, a large piece was wet.

Maybe it was someone who practiced martial arts, with a strong body. Mrs. Fan had a lot of milk, and the house had prepared wet nurses, but they were useless in the end. Fan Xuanfu didn't want the child to drink other people's milk.

Even when she returned to her natal home, her aunts told her that breastfeeding would affect her body shape, etc., and she would be easily rejected by her husband, but she still insisted.

"Too much, I can't even eat the ingots, and I often waste a lot."

"How about I eat a little?"

"Yeah." Fan Xuanfu was still shy, got up quickly and ran away.

Wu Huaiyu continued to sit on the carpet watching the sunset.

At dinner time, it was still the old custom that when Huaiyu was at home, the whole family ate together.

Although it is still a traditional meal-sharing system, one small table, each person has a few dishes, but after all, the whole family sits together, and it is quite lively.

Having too many wives and concubines has some disadvantages, especially for a busy person like Wu Huaiyu, who is basically busy outside during the day, and occasionally stays at home during the day off, and even has to entertain guests and friends. He doesn't spend much time with wives and concubines, let alone get together.

So when he was at home, he tried his best to ask everyone to have dinner together, chat about homework while eating, and have a small tea party after dinner.

He feels that this can improve the family atmosphere, especially now that he has children, it is not easy to be too reserved when we often get together like this.

Otherwise, the house in Xuanyangfang is so big, every wives and concubines have their own yard, and they will bring their own children, so they must be unfamiliar after a long time.

The level of cooks of the Wu family is getting higher and higher.

Today I made sweet and sour pork ribs, steamed sea bass, and a few fresh wild vegetables, which are even more appetizing.

There are a lot of wild vegetables in this season, and Malan head, shepherd's purse, Chinese toon buds and even elm money leaves can also be picked.

Today's two wild vegetables are fragrant dried Malantou and steamed elm money leaves.

The elm money leaves are mixed with flour and steamed in a pot. The flour-coated elm money leaves are very tender and delicious.

Even Wu Chengsi, who was only a little over half a year old, was very greedy for this steamed elm money leaf, and kept dancing and wanting to steal it.

"Want to eat?"

"If you want to eat Aye, I can get you a separate one."

At the age of half a year, you can also start to eat some complementary food. Steamed tender egg custard, add boiled and mashed Yuqian leaves, mix together, and it becomes Yuqian egg puree.

Huaiyu personally hugged her son and gave him the first mouthful of complementary food.

This guy didn't resist at all, he couldn't wait any longer, he yelled, and when it was brought to his mouth, he ate it right away.

"Yeah, this kid really likes to eat."

"Give some to the second child too, to see if he likes it."

Wu Yuanbao ate several big mouthfuls, danced and wanted to eat, but Wu Huaiyu didn't give any more.

"Take your time, son, just take a few bites first, and you can add more later."

"I didn't expect Alanggui to be the prime minister, and he would be so good at taking care of children." Chen Runniang said with a smile.

"Diet is also related to health preservation. I am a doctor."

Huaiyu also took advantage of the opportunity to tell his wives and concubines about the knowledge of raising babies, and what he said was so clear that Fan Xuanfu and the others admired them. Even those experienced nannies and wet nurses did not expect that young and old men like Wu Huaiyu would be a little They know more things than those who have brought children for many years.

They are all based on experience, some experience is not scientific, even some bad habits, but Wu Huaiyu has been a father before, and has systematically learned how to raise children scientifically. The experience is not as rich as theirs, but a lot of knowledge is definitely summed up by countless people. scientifically sound method.

Drinking refreshments and chatting with the children, the whole family enjoyed themselves happily.

"This year's spring plowing is finally over."

Chen Runniang told Huaiyu that Zhuangzi from all over the Wu family have reported one after another this year, and they have all completed spring plowing.

Most of the crops are auspicious, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. Even the ten hectares of land that Kang Po sold to Huaiyu were planted with corn.

"The eight water mills are really big. They were all newly built during the Wude period. They are all five rounds, and they can grind three hundred stones a day."

A few days ago, Chen Runniang personally visited all the eight mills beside the eight waters outside Beijing, and she was very satisfied.

"Remember to go to the Yongzhou Yamen to complete the formalities, and when the water consumption for farming and irrigation is large, stop the water milling and don't grab water from the people." Huaiyu specifically confessed.

"If you stop for one day, you will lose three hundred stones of rice."

The profit of water milling is too high. As a big landlord, the Wu family can use their own mill to grind grain and flour. After processing, they can sell it in the market and earn more money.Furthermore, it is processed for the nearby villagers. Even if only the bran is charged as processing fees, there are many benefits.

The Wu family now raises pigs and cattle, and these bran are good feed.

"Standardize the operation, don't be scolded by the villagers for some small profits."

The imperial court has a set of strict regulations on the construction and use of water mills, because water mills will affect the canals, cause silting of canals, and even rob water sources during the irrigation period when water is needed.

In order to ensure that the amount of water drives the grinding wheel, the water milling house needs to build dams and doumen, especially in some droughts and droughts, many nobles and tyrants don’t care about the water needs of the common people in the fields, they just want to ensure that their own milling houses can not stop, Therefore, the water was blocked and the conflict has been fierce.

Therefore, the Jianshui mill was approved by the imperial court, and there were even some regulations when it was used, and it was required to stop using the mill house during the irrigation period.

However, dignitaries and high-ranking officials can always ignore the regulations, build and use illegally, especially in the Gyeonggi area. Chang'an is surrounded by eight waters.

It's all from noble families and monasteries, so I can't control it at all.

There are more than a dozen water mills in the Wu family now, but he still hopes to be mercenary, which makes the relationship with the villagers tense.

The conflicts are getting bigger. The emperor ordered you to demolish them all. You are the one who loses. This is not unheard of. It has happened in all dynasties. There are often large-scale demolition actions for those excessive water mills in Gyeonggi. Building and building, the cycle is endless, one goes down and the other goes up.

"The manor in Sanyuan has almost been built, when shall we go back and have a look?" Fan Xuanfu mentioned another matter.

The Wu family's hometown in Longqiao, under Fan Xuanfu's suggestion, built a Wubao, a courtyard that occupies a large area. When it was first built, it was thought that Longqiao was the hometown after all.And Fan Xuanfu was jealous of Li Sanniang, so he insisted on building a magnificent manor to compare with the Li family's.

Fan Xuanfu was responsible for the construction of this manor, and Wu Huaiyu didn't take care of it. It was repaired in a blink of an eye. Now the Wu family is in Chang'an. The houses in Yongxingfang and Xuanyangfang are very large, and they even cultivate virtue The other courtyards in Huaifang and Huaiyuanfang are also good.

"When the weather gets hotter, let's go back to Longqiao New Manor to escape the summer heat and stay for a while,"

"Okay, then I'll let people tidy up the manor and decorate it."

The Dragon Bridge Wu family is now well-developed, and even the small village built on the banks of the Dragon Bridge had more than a dozen military officers.

The Wu family also has more than 3000 mu of land in Qinghe Township, and more than 2000 mu of land in the surrounding Bailuyuan and Fengyuan.

I think that when he first came here, he didn’t even have a cave dwelling of his own. At that time, he wanted to work as a money collector in the Sanyuan county government, and then he planned to build a few cave dwellings beside the Dragon Bridge and collect some local products. Buy some department stores, sell some food and provide accommodation with the passing merchants by the way, and you can also work part-time as a country doctor.

It is also planned to repair the three-hole abandoned cave dwelling and use it as its own small courtyard.

But these plans can't keep up with the changes.

The three-hole abandoned kiln was also repaired early, and even expanded into five holes, and a courtyard dam was filled in, and the stone mouth was even hooped.

Now even the Nawubao Manor has been repaired, but he hasn't been back for a long time. The last time the Turks invaded and attacked Longqiao, he led troops to reinforce him and wiped out five thousand Turkic wolf cubs there with Yuchi Laohei. Afterwards, he comforted and helped the villagers.

The original Sanyuan and Chiyang counties were also merged into one county.

"The spring rain this year is good, and it is estimated that there will be a bumper harvest this year."

In a few months, the millet, millet, and wheat harvested in summer will gradually mature and harvest. After the severe drought in Kanto last year, the people are looking forward to a good harvest this year.

Chen Runniang was still lamenting that after the year, the Wu family let go of those hungry people in the Kanto region and took them in for a winter in the Wu family village. Although they did a lot of things, it would be even better if they could be kept and become tenants of the Wu family. up.

But Wu Huaiyu finally let them go back to their hometown in Kanto, and even lent them a sum of money and food for travel expenses. We may never meet again.

"Well, I don't know how these hungry people are doing now after returning to their hometowns, whether they have completed the spring plowing, and whether they have settled down?" Huaiyu couldn't help but sigh when thinking of the group of victims who had such a difficult time last year.

I hope that the young crop loan from the imperial court this year can help them a bit. As for the fact that I let them go back and lent each of them a sum of money and food, that is nothing.I didn't expect them to pay it back. In Wu Huaiyu's current status, it is necessary to do some good deeds, which are normal costs.

"By the way, from now on, when our family lends money to borrow food, the interest will be the same as the court's Changping Society Youth Loan. Two cents of the interest will be paid every six months, compound interest will not be considered, and the interest will not exceed the principal."

"Then the annual interest rate is only four cents, isn't it too low? Nowadays, the nobles in Chang'an, and even the monasteries, which one is only four cents, not to mention two or three times the interest, but at least six cents and eight cents. "

"Do as I say, the imperial court has already started to rectify the matter of usury, we don't need to fight for that little interest,"

Anyway, the main income of the Wu family does not come from lending money to collect interest. In this case, it is better to simply take advantage of the opportunity of the imperial court to draw a line, and simply reduce it. This is not a bad rule, and it can also earn some good reputation.

Nine out of ten and thirteen returns are not as profitable as sugar, spices, tea and wine, and even pig raising is not much worse than this, not to mention that the Wu family has already asked Dou Luhuai to let them build a bank, which is much better than the current lending.

It doesn't sound good for a prime minister to lend usury, especially if he is still a prime minister.

(End of this chapter)