In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 215 The key to breaking tradition lies in the wife

After Lin Rui announced the reward, he left the workshop where the chariot was built and planned to go next door to see how the farm tools were being made.

Compared with the chariot workshop, which only has a hundred or ten people, the carpenters and blacksmiths next door who are responsible for making farm tools have thousands of people, but their skills are far behind.

At this moment, thousands of people were busy in the open space. The pig iron plowshares were almost piled up into a hill. If the slaves had not been evacuated this time, what would have happened to China, which was currently engaged in a large-scale construction of farmland? Said, iron material is really a tricky thing.

When Lin Rui arrived, he saw at a glance that Mrs. Lu was personally directing a group of craftsmen to load the plows they had built one after another into the carriage. Because the new plows were too big, one carriage could only hold two.

"See you, Your Majesty." Madam Lu didn't expect Lin Rui to come. She was startled and quickly paid homage. The surrounding craftsmen and cart drivers also knelt down.

"Everyone is still alive. Keep working. There is no need to kneel down in this situation in the future."

Lin Rui saw more and more people stopping their work and wanting to come over to salute, so he quickly waved his hands and said loudly.

Nowadays, the Ministry of Rites has just formulated a set of standard etiquette and has not yet had time to promote it, so ordinary people just kneel down when meeting the king.

After everyone went to work, Lin Rui asked Mrs. Lu: "Madam, why do you have to do this in person?"

"Back to the king, according to the feedback from the production teams, the new plows are effective in cultivating the land, but the quantity is too small, so I came to the workshop to see the progress of the masters."

Mrs. Lu quickly explained.

In fact, with autumn approaching, each production team hoped to allocate new plows to plow the land as soon as possible. As a result, the two field guards and each production team had a very unpleasant quarrel over the plowing matter, and Mrs. Lu came over to take a look. Can we speed up the construction process?

"Oh, have the new plows been dug in yet?"

Lin Rui didn't expect that the craftsmen would come up with the new plow so quickly and mass-produce it, so he immediately stepped forward to check it out.

I found that this newly built plow looked like two rows of curved shaft plows arranged staggered together, with four plowshares side by side in the front and three in the back, a total of seven plowshares.

Lin Rui estimated that the width of the plowed land must be at least one meter, which is equivalent to seven people using seven plows to cultivate at the same time.

"We have already tried it. How many people are needed to operate such a plow? How many horses are needed to pull it?"

"Back to your Majesty, it can be as little as three horses or as many as four horses. As for the manpower, only three people are enough. Two people will hold the plow behind and one person will lead the horse in front. Four horses and three people can plow one day. The land can be plowed in one day. At least fifteen acres. In the past, one plow per man and one ox would only plow two acres per day, so the efficiency has at least doubled."

Mrs. Lu has obviously been paying attention to this matter. She also knows that Lin Rui doesn't know much about farming, so she explained it in great detail.

"It's already very rare to double the efficiency. Let's go and see how the farmland works on the ground."

After hearing this, Lin Rui nodded with satisfaction, and then he couldn't wait to go to the production brigade to have a look.

The two of them immediately left the workshop, got into a carriage, and headed toward the southwest river bank, surrounded by mounted guards and guards.

"The tribes in Wuyuan have been settled and are migrating. Have you selected the remaining thirteen guards and managers?"

The two sat opposite each other in the carriage, and Lin Rui began to ask again. After all, the food consumed every day was like running water.

"The selection was made half a month ago, but without the king's order, those people are still burning bricks to build the city. As long as the king gives the order, they can leave for Wuyuan at any time."

Without the other people around her, Mrs. Lu lost her previous restraint when speaking. It was obvious that she had a clear understanding of Lin Rui's character and knew that he preferred to speak more casually.

"Well, that's good. Let's set off in five days. I will send a team of cavalry to escort us along the way."

Lin Rui nodded, and after thinking about it, he determined the date, and then asked: "It's almost the end of July, and it will take at least another seven or eight days to go to Wuyuan. Can we plant the food in time for next spring?" ?”

"Although time is a bit tight, I should be able to make it in time."

Mrs. Lu thought about it and replied that she planned to go together then. After all, the two guards here were already on the right track, but there was nothing on the Wuyuan side and it was far away from here. There were still thirteen guards. , she really didn’t feel at ease unless she went to see it in person.

"That's good. You don't have to work too hard. You have to pay attention to your health and don't do everything yourself. Don't you still have assistants? You can just let them do some things. You have to coordinate the overall situation, you know?"

Seeing that she was quite haggard, Lin Rui couldn't help but remind her. He was obviously worried that she would eventually die of exhaustion because of the princess pie she had drawn for him, which would be a huge loss.

"I know that I don't need to worry, Your Majesty. As long as the guards build the castle next year, plant the food, and get on the right track, I won't need to run around." Mrs. Lu said softly.

"Well, are you really sure you want to give it to Wan'er?"

Lin Rui saw that she was now focused on farming matters. He had hardly worried about it for a while, so he couldn't help but have a love for talents. After thinking about it, he pulled her into his arms from the opposite side and asked again. road.

Mrs. Lu almost screamed, but she quickly covered her mouth and leaned stiffly in Lin Rui's arms. She neither struggled nor answered. After a long time, she let out a soft hum.

"All right!"

When Lin Rui saw this, he didn't force himself and let go of her.

In fact, he would rather choose the older one. After all, Lin Wan'er is too young and will not be of much help to him in the future.

But Mrs. Lu is different. She is not only strong in ability, but also experienced. She is about the same age as him in his previous life, and her appearance and figure are not bad. She will definitely become his right-hand man like Zhang Xiuying in the future.

After all, he is alone in his family, with neither brothers nor friends from the same hometown, which is extremely disadvantageous for conquering the world.

The only one who can be truly reliable is his own woman. Mongolian women are unreliable, so they can only choose to recruit more capable Han women.But what he needs is a woman who can be devoted to him and never leave him as a helper, not a wishful coercion.

Mrs. Lu breathed a sigh of relief, sat back down, and adjusted her slightly crooked official hat. Although her face was calm, her heart was already in her throat.

Fortunately, they had already arrived at the nearest production brigade, and the carriage slowly stopped.

Through the curtains, Lin Rui noticed traces of burning in the surrounding wilderness. There was a small castle not far from the river bank. Many people could be vaguely seen working on the fort wall. In front of the castle were several new-type aircraft. The plows were plowing the ground, and behind each plow there was a team of people bending down to pick something up.

"Your Majesty, this is the naturalized Zuowei, A-shaped production brigade. Going west along the river are the remaining nine production brigades. Currently, the castles of the ten production brigade of Zuowei have only built fort walls, but before winter , the castle should be able to be completely repaired. As for the construction of the acropolis, we can only wait until the slack season next year. The situation on the south bank of the right guard is similar."

Mrs. Lu was not affected by what happened just now. She recovered as soon as she got off the carriage and began to introduce Lin Rui.

Lin Rui strode toward the fields, and Mrs. Lu had no choice but to follow quickly and continued: "Your Majesty, according to the efficiency of the new plows, if each production team can be equipped with two, in fact, if we double the number, we can cultivate 40 An acre is enough, and there is enough land..."

"You can't bite off more than you can chew, let's finish the 20 acres first!"

Lin Rui waved his hand and planned to wait until next year to see the situation before considering whether to increase the farming area of ​​each production team.

Mrs. Lu was actually a landowner. It was a pity to see so much empty land. Seeing what Lin Rui said, she didn't say anything more.

Lin Rui came to the field, and dozens of people who were working stopped. Apparently because there were too few plows, most of the people were building cities, and only a small number of people were clearing wasteland and cultivating land. No wonder Mrs. Lu was so anxious.

Each plow is indeed pulled by four horses, two in front and two in the back. A woman leads the horse in front, and two men hold the plow, one on the left and the other on the right, waiting for the plow to turn up the soil. Afterwards, the three or four women following behind would smash the soil into pieces, and then pick up all the grass roots and gravel in the soil.

Lin Rui looked at it for a while and found that the speed of turning over the land was similar to what he had seen in his previous life. It was just a little troublesome to turn around. Fortunately, each piece of land was one mile long, and it took about half a quarter of an hour to get down. So this kind of The plow is also suitable for plains.

At this time, a group of people also hurried over from the castle, obviously they were all managers of the castle.

"My concubine pays homage to the king!"

"The last general pays homage to the king!"

"Well, no need to be polite."

Looking at the two delicate-looking young women in front of him, one large and one small, and a tall and thick-looking military commander with a sinister face, Lin Rui felt helpless and forced a smile at such a combination.

In fact, he also knew that in ancient times, imperial power did not go to the countryside, and rural power was generally in the hands of the gentry. Even if he unified the world in the future, it would be impossible to change this pattern.

The imperial power does not go to the countryside, and the gentry is the foundation of the country. This is not without purpose, but it is the most appropriate and advanced ruling model for thousands of years.

Because of the conditions of communication and transportation supervision in ancient times, if the imperial power went to the countryside, it would only get worse and the people would suffer even more. I am afraid that the dynasty would not last even a hundred years.

If you look at the serfdom systems around the world at the same time, you can see how advanced the ancient Chinese model of farming, studying and passing down family traditions was.

First of all, the Confucian idea of ​​loyalty to the emperor and the imperial examination system in which those who excel in learning lead to official positions made the local gentry become vested interests and absolute supporters of the dynasty, allowing the emperor to effectively rule a huge territory.

Furthermore, the gentry still had to care about reputation and prestige after taking the imperial examination. Most of the gentry still cherished their feathers very much. As long as the court did not bother them and natural disasters were not too serious, ordinary people's lives could be barely tolerable.

After all, the relationship between the gentry and the tenant farmers can be said to be one where both suffer losses and gain both. The landlords and gentry cannot push the tenant farmers to death, nor can they make the countryside a hell on earth, because if everyone is dead, who can return the favor? They farm and pay rent, but how do they select good-looking girls to train and train them into maids?
Therefore, there is no doubt that this model of country gentry ruling the local area, farming, studying, and passing on family members, and becoming officials through the imperial examination is definitely the most advanced.

But this is only relative to the ancients who could not find a more advanced model.

But for Lin Rui, a person with modern vision and knowledge, this country squire model is absolutely backward and unacceptable.

However, if we want to completely change this model, we must have a large number of literate and experienced literati to manage the people of the world instead of the squire.

Otherwise, even if he forcibly distributes the land to the people of the world without anyone to manage and teach it, or just randomly sends some illiterate bosses to manage it, the result will probably be even more chaotic than this squire system.

Lin Rui has a deep understanding of the ignorance and ignorance of the people in this era. In the end, I am afraid that cults will rise, swindlers will run rampant, and countless people will be instigated and deceived by careerists to rebel and cause chaos.

And if you want to rely on the scholars of this era to break this pattern, reform and manage the countryside according to their ideas, I am afraid that the first thing they will do is to encourage the people to rebel.

Because this is completely asking them to kill themselves, just like digging out their own flesh. Isn't this a big joke?
As for putting a knife on the neck, can you put a knife on the necks of all readers?Doesn’t the person holding the knife want to be a big landowner, collecting rents, cultivating, studying and passing down family traditions?

Therefore, if we want to completely break this model and replace it with Lin Rui's own new model, we must re-train a large number of scholars who share his philosophy.

But this takes time, at least ten to twenty years, and it cannot be cultivated by scholars of this era, otherwise it is not certain who will train the talents. This kind of teaching, solving doubts, and preaching cannot be prevented at all. live.

This model of using helpless wives of wealthy families as farmers and veterans as assistants is a new model that Lin Rui wants to explore, and it is also an attempt to break the squire model of this era.

Because first of all, these ladies don't care about Confucianism or not. They will teach whatever Lin Rui asks them to teach. Secondly, these ladies will not resist land reform like the scholars of this era.

Furthermore, these ladies are literate, knowledgeable, have the experience and ability to manage the people, and can at least see through some common sense deceptions and cults.

The most important thing is that while managing the people, these ladies can also teach children cultural knowledge. After more than ten years, they can teach a group of scholars to replace them, and then start education for all.

As for the disadvantages of big pot rice, there will still be no problems in the short term. In two or three years, we can go back to big lump sums.

So after trying to use Mrs. Lu and the three hundred maids, Lin Rui did not hesitate to use the Jurchen brats, but also wanted to exchange all the robbed ladies back.

(End of this chapter)