Good luck with koi carp

Chapter 137 Autumn Harvest
Dayan County, Chijia.


In the past few days, the servants of the Chi family all know that their master is very concerned about whether there are people from the post station in front of their house to deliver letters. Every morning when they get up early, they have to send someone to the inn to ask, and he also tells the servants guarding the door to remember to pay attention at all times. .


If there is a letter from him, especially if it is sent back by his wife or young lady, it must be sent to him as soon as possible no matter what time it is.


The host's attitude of attaching great importance naturally attracted people to become more and more interested in it. For fear of delaying any important things of the host's family, they kept waiting for the letter that had not yet arrived.


In fact, some smart people have roughly guessed what news the master is waiting for, and they also have expectations in their hearts.


After all, as servants of the Chi family, only if the Chi family is better can they benefit from it. If the next generation of the Chi family can really produce another child-born scholar, they can at least continue to do this job for another few decades without any worries.


For the servants, these are the only things they care about most, and the rest is beyond their limited vision.


On this day, Chi Xiucai got up early in the morning as usual and ordered people to go to the inn. As expected, he received a reply that no letter had been sent from their family. After being slightly disappointed, he changed into a pair of stain-resistant clothes as usual. Go out to the fields to inspect the autumn harvest.


The Chi family's land is divided into two parts. One part is leased to tenants, and they benefit from rent. This so-called rent is part of the tenant's annual planting income.


Landlords generally had to take [-]% of the rent, and those who asked for a higher price could still receive [-]%. In addition to the [-]% tax stipulated by the court, the harvest ultimately fell into the hands of the tenants, less than [-]%.


It means that they have worked diligently for a whole year and can only barely feed and clothe their family. This is even when the harvest is good. If they are unfortunate enough to encounter a bad harvest year, they are destined to go hungry.


Compared with other families, the Chi family is considered a pretty good family. They only charge [-]% of the rent for renting land. The tenants under their family are generally slightly richer than other tenants.


Therefore, tenants have always been rushing to rent the Chi family's fields, and it can be said that the supply exceeds the demand.


In addition to this part of the land rented out by tenants, the other part of the Chi family's fields, especially those that are in Chi Xiucai's name and do not need to pay taxes, are cultivated by the Chi family themselves by hiring long-term workers.


This part of the field needs to be managed by the owner in particular. The Tianchi scholar who rents it out only needs to confirm that the rent collected every year is correct. However, the fields that are farmed by one's own employees need to be monitored at all times to prevent others from being lazy and failing to manage the fields well. , or the autumn harvest was not done diligently, which delayed the harvest, etc.


So Chi Xiucai was quite busy during this period. Fortunately, there were still a small number of tenants in the family who rented the Chi family's land to help take care of it, so he was able to keep busy.


It was almost noon, and Chi Xiucai was still standing in the field with a bamboo hat, supervising the long-term workers to work quickly to harvest food. Since there was a lot of land to be harvested, he was afraid that there would be insufficient manpower, so he also hired some short-term workers. Get up and work.


With the power of many people, large areas of golden rice ears have been harvested, bundled together, and piled in the open space next to them. After all the harvest is completed, they will be transported to the drying field to break out the rice grains, and then dry and store them.


These sun-dried grains will eventually be made into fine grains, part of which will be sent to Chifu as rations for the family, and the rest will be transported to Fucheng and sold in grain stores.


In the future, when the food shop at the dock opens, some of these grains may be sent there to be made into food for sale.


The rice bran left over from beating fine grains was used as pig feed to feed pigs, chickens, ducks and geese. The Chi family still had a large courtyard in their own village. The place was large and no one had lived in it for a long time. He treated it as his own small farm, raising some meat poultry for his own consumption, and hired a diligent and tidy woman from the family to help take care of it.


The meat on the Chi family's dining table also mainly comes from here. Basically, the family is self-sufficient in vegetables, meat and eggs.


"Master, master!"

"There is... there is your letter, sir!"

……


In the distance, a man dressed as a young man ran over with two letters in his hand, panting and full of excitement, stepping on the dirt all the way to Chi Xiucai.


"Give me the letter now."


Chi Xiucai, who had already heard his words clearly, said nothing nonsense. He grabbed the letters and opened one of the letters that was obviously written in his beloved wife's font. With trembling hands, he carefully read the content word for word.


The boy next to him watched this scene without daring to breathe, for fear that his loud voice would affect his master's ability to read the letter.


After a while, Chi Xiucai suddenly raised his head and burst into laughter. The laughter was full of joy and excitement.


"Hahahaha... My son got the third place in the Zhongfu examination. I'm so happy, so happy!"


Hearing this, the boy was stunned for a moment, then immediately became happy and congratulated his master continuously: "Congratulations, master, congratulations, master. Miss, you are ranked third in the high school examination. You will be a scholar in the future!"


If things were as usual, Chi Xiucai would definitely not let his servants be so arrogant. The daughter's college exam has not yet been taken, and it is still unknown whether she will pass. It is too early to look forward to it now, but he is really happy today, so he will not pursue it. After complimenting him, he happily rewarded the other person with half a tael of silver, which made the young man laugh so hard that he couldn't even see his eyes.


Not only did the boy get a reward, but the long-term and short-term workers who came to work in the Chi family had more meat in their meals today, and every household of the tenant farmers was given a few red eggs.


Everyone was confused at first, wondering what happy event had happened to the master's family and why he was so happy. After asking, they found out that it was Miss Chi's family who passed the third place in the government examination and got the name of Tongsheng.


This is amazing.


You know, the status of a child in the countryside is quite high. In the eyes of those farmers, he is already a respected master who can open a private school to teach and educate people, and is the teacher of many scholars!


I didn't expect that Miss Chi could pass the Tongsheng test at such a young age. This was truly amazing. No wonder the master was so happy.


Although this matter has little to do with them, everyone who got the good things still praised the hostess for oral sex. Chili was praised as a fairy in their mouths, and whoever dared to say anything about her If you say something bad, it will be attacked by these people.


This is partly due to the short-handedness of the workers, but also because some of these tenants or short-term workers are actually from the Chi family.


Strictly speaking, Chili and them are considered to be one family, so their own family members will naturally protect their own family members.


In this era, clans are valued very much. When Chi Xiucai's family became rich, they did not forget their clans. They helped their family members whenever they could. Therefore, many people in the clansmen have received their favors, and they are grateful in their hearts, and naturally they will become more and more grateful. Toward the Chi family.


People feel refreshed when happy events occur, this is Chi Xiucai's recent state.


In this state, he even felt that the busy autumn harvest was much smoother. When all the food was harvested and put into the warehouse, although he wanted to rush to Fucheng to reunite with his wife and daughter as soon as possible, he was a wife.


After the autumn harvest, not only Chi Xiucai was no longer so busy, but the students also had some free time and returned to study in private schools.


These students are different from the newly educated children. They have to take the imperial examination. The two old boys in the private school cannot teach them. Therefore, in order not to delay the students' studies, Chi Xiucai can only stay at home and continue teaching.


Over in Fucheng, Chi Li has no plans to go home.


Her parents had already planned for her. If she could pass the government examination, no matter where she got in the exam, she would simply stay in the city and continue studying until the college exam came, and then go back after completing the college exam.


Whether Chili can pass the college entrance examination is not forced by her family. After all, even if she has studied at home for many years, it will only take a few months for her to formally enter school for the purpose of taking the imperial examination. It is still difficult to catch up with those students who have been rushing to take the imperial examination from the beginning.


Therefore, Chi Xiucai’s plan for his daughter was to let her take a test first this time. On the one hand, she could experience the atmosphere of the examination room and have a good understanding of the situation. On the other hand, it was also to help her daughter learn the basics and test her own knowledge. It's good to make up for her in a targeted manner based on her problems.


The real goal Chi Xiucai set for his daughter was the next college examination, which would be held more than a year later.


There are two academy examinations every three years. If you fail this one, you will have to wait for more than a year for the next one. This period of time is just enough for Chili to study hard, and when you have accumulated enough, you can become a scholar in one fell swoop.


This will give you greater certainty.


Of course, the imperial examination is not an easy thing. Chi Xiucai has also thought about the scenario of his daughter failing the exam. It is not a big problem. If you fail it once or twice, then continue to take the exam.


His pear is still very young and can afford it.


It's not that Chi Li's father has lost confidence in her and started to imagine that she will need to take several college exams in the future to become a scholar. She herself really wants to pass the exam directly this time.


After all, who would want to take the exam a second time if you can pass it once?


So for this goal, Chili just relaxed a little before releasing the results, and then immediately used the spirit of hanging his head and stabbing his buttocks, and kept reading in his hand every day. In addition to the most basic daily physiological needs, he spent the rest of his time reading. superior.


Fortunately, she still remembers that she is a human now, unlike gods who can be energetic every day even if they don't sleep, so she makes sure that she sleeps for four hours every day and reads in the most energetic state.


In order to plan her time better, Chili also followed the example of modern students and made a time schedule for herself, stipulating what things should be done at what time, and how much homework must be completed, and completed on time and in quantity every day. Basically, there is more or less homework completed.


Shocked by Chi Li's crazy involution, Xue Zhangming, who was also interested in participating in the college examination, dragged his broken leg and unconsciously started studying crazily.


It's not that he doesn't work hard every day, it's just that he worked extra hard during this period, and even squeezed some of his sleep time.


Fortunately, the two of them had been together for a long time. Chi Li thought that she couldn't have sex with someone in vain, so she found a time to give him a safety button, and also sent blessings to him, wishing him peace and a speedy recovery.


Under the influence of some mysterious and mysterious fortune, Xue Zhangming, who was squeezing all his energy into studying, not only did not feel much physical discomfort, but his legs were also recovering steadily. Judging from the situation, he was expected to get better before the hospital exam. This can't help but It made him feel relieved inside.


Although he keeps saying that he will continue to take the college examination, he is the only one who knows in his heart that if the time for the final college exam comes and his leg injury is not healed, a person with a lame leg will not be allowed to take the imperial examination. .


Then he is bound to fail again in this college examination, or lose without a fight. How can anyone be willing to accept this?


After such a long time, Xue Zhangming's son and daughter-in-law had already received the news and had returned. Chi Li had met them when she went to study at Xue's house.


Xue Zhangming's son looks nothing like him, and he doesn't look much like a southerner. He is tall and strong, with a somewhat honest face. His daughter-in-law is quite shrewd, but she is also a hard-working person in daily life. With the house in good order inside and out, not only did Xue Zhangming appear to be in much better condition, but his two children were also tidied up and no longer timid when meeting people.


The couple didn't think much of Chi Li, a rich girl who came to study every day with two little companions, and just treated her as a family friend.


As early as the first day back, they were told about Chili's existence by their father. They also knew that Chili was the daughter of their father's good friend and was temporarily entrusted to study at his house. She only came every morning, which was not too much. Disturbing their family.


Speaking of which, the couple also have to thank the Chi family. If they had not helped their family when they encountered difficulties, they would have been very distressed. Therefore, Xue Yi, who has always been filial, is very grateful to the Chi family, and he is also very fond of Chi Li. She has an attitude toward her benefactor's daughter.
Xue Yi is the name of Xue Zhangming's son.


Since his wife died early and Xue Zhangming did not remarry, he only had one son, Xue Yi, and he had two grandchildren, one boy and one girl, both of whom were very well-behaved.


Chili gets along very well with the Xue family's grandchildren. Now the two little ones will sweetly call her sister when they see her. The little girl also likes to play with Zhao Xiao, and will occasionally teach Zhao Xiao in the literacy process. she.


The two children of the Xue family are basically taken care of by Xue Zhangming. After all, his son and daughter-in-law are busy with the family's livelihood and really have no time to take care of the children, so he, the "idler" in the family, naturally takes on this job.


The two children stayed with their grandfather who read poetry and books. Naturally, they were enlightened at a young age. At this time, the older brother had already begun to learn the first four books, and the younger sister had basically finished recognizing the characters.


Originally, it was enough for my sister to learn this. Anyway, according to previous thinking, girls did not need to read too many books. But looking at Chi Li later, Xue Zhangming slowly changed his mind.


One day later, when Chi Li accidentally passed by and caught a glimpse, he found that his sister was also studying the Four Books and Five Classics together.


The examination for this session is in mid-December.


It is also quite cold at this time in the south, and there may even be a thin layer of snow occasionally. On the day of the exam, you must take measures to keep warm, otherwise you will easily get frozen in the exam room.


At the beginning of December, Chi Xiucai rushed to Fucheng from home.


Thank God, two of his students also had to take the college entrance exams, and the others were put on annual leave early after being assigned a lot of homework.


That's why Chi Xiucai was able to spare time to accompany his daughter in the exam.


This year the Chinese New Year is in early January, which is equivalent to the Chinese New Year being almost completed as soon as the college examination is completed. Therefore, although it is a bit early to take the annual leave at this time, it is not too outrageous.


One of the two people who were going to take the college exam, Chi Li, was familiar with her. He was her classmate who took the government exam with her, Shouzi Qi. He got No. 40 in the government exam and was ranked at the bottom, but he also passed. .


He Yuanhang, who had taken the exam together before, failed to make the list, but his name appeared on the side list, indicating that his knowledge was actually quite good, but this year he was a little less interesting, so he could only accumulate more and wait until next year to fight again.


Another student named Ning Zhuxuan passed the government examination the year before last. However, because his family was too poor, he could not afford the money needed to take the college examination. In addition, he had no confidence in his knowledge and wanted to take another exam. I need to accumulate two more years before continuing to take the college examination, so I have postponed it until now.


Chi Li heard her father's private evaluation of these two students.


"Shou Ziqi has a solid foundation, but lacks knowledge. It is a blessing to be able to pass the government examination. There is still a little bit of preparation left to pass the college examination. Ning Zhuxuan is quick-thinking and a good student. He also works hard enough and has done enough before. Be prepared, you are [-]% sure to pass this college examination."


"What about me, Daddy?"


Chi Li was still very interested in her father's evaluation of her.


All I heard was: "It's hard to say."


Chili: "Why?"


"Because dad is not sure about you, your knowledge base is also solid, especially your memory is good, you can learn everything quickly, your talent and knowledge have also grown under your Xue Shibo's guidance, but your performance is not stable enough, sometimes it is good and sometimes it is bad. That’s why dad doesn’t dare to jump to conclusions.”


Chi Xiucai is quite honest with his daughter and is not afraid of hurting his child's self-confidence. He just says whatever he says.


And Chi Li also understood. It turned out that her father meant that she was in trouble. Whether she could do well in the exam all depended on her on-the-spot performance. If she performed well, she would get good grades. Maybe she would still be able to pass the college exam. If she performed well, she would get good grades. If it's bad, then there's no chance.


The fundamental reason for this is that Chili's actual exposure to the reading mode of the imperial examination was too short. She was not familiar with it, so whether it was daily questions or during exams, she had difficulty controlling the degree. I don’t know how to use it correctly to better demonstrate my strengths.


To overcome it, we can only rely on time and accumulation. After Chili herself becomes familiar with this exam mode through accumulated study, she will naturally improve a lot.


But what Chi Li lacks most now is time.


In addition, there is another problem that Chi Xiucai did not express.


He was afraid that his daughter would encounter the kind of examiner who would suppress female students again.


Yes, even though he was just a young scholar, with the help of the contacts he had accumulated over the years, Chi Xiucai still found out the preferences of the examiner during his daughter's imperial examination and knew that he was someone in the court who opposed the female imperial examination.


If it hadn't been for my daughter's good luck and the deputy examiner she met was a die-hard loyalist to the empress, it was still doubtful whether she would be on the list for the imperial examination this time.


But could it be that if I got lucky this time, my daughter's luck would be as good next time?

Chi Xiucai had no hope for this, but he did not dare to say it outright for fear of hurting his children, so he could only hold it in his heart, which made him restless when he slept at night. His wife asked her several times, and he bit him. He gritted his teeth and said nothing.


Chi Li didn't think about this.


After all, to be honest, she would never lack luck if she lacked anything, so she never thought about being unlucky.


Today, Chi Li rarely read like crazy. Instead, she took an hour's leave for herself and made an appointment with Zhang Dabao to go out to the bookstore to buy the latest issue of the booklet.


It is worth mentioning that Zhang Dabao also passed the government examination.


She is 36 in the government examination, in the middle position.


Zhang Dabao was quite satisfied with the result. However, when Chi Li asked her if she wanted to continue taking this college examination, she shook her head and said, "No, I still know how much I weigh. I have already tried my best to pass the exam, but it is beyond my ability to take the college exam again, so I plan to study for a few more years and then take the college exam when I am fully prepared."


Anyway, for her, having the name of Tongsheng is far better than those of her concubine brothers who have studied for many years but have never passed the county examination. Even her father, after learning that she passed the prefectural examination, saw that Her eyes were different.


Zhang Dabao realizes that her life has undergone earth-shaking changes, so in order to better control her own destiny, every step she takes in the future must be more steady and steady, and she must not make mistakes.


Knowing that Zhang Dabao had his own ideas, Chi Li didn't try to persuade him. He just smiled and said, "Then I'll tell you about my experience in the exam after I finish the college exam."


"Okay, okay, you have to talk to me carefully then. You are not allowed to go home until you finish talking." Zhang Dabao followed Chi Li's words and started laughing with her. The two girls' laughter attracted the attention of passers-by. .


Chili didn't have much time to come out. She went to the bookstore to buy books, then stopped by her mother's favorite preserved fruit shop to buy preserved fruits, and then returned home.


After delivering the preserved fruit to Mr. Xu, the mother and daughter met and chatted about the business of the two newly opened shops at home.


As Chi Li expected, the small shop on the pier was opened into a food shop. It mainly sells meals, including porridge, rice and vegetables. They are all boiled or fried in large pots. They are delicious and delicious. It's full and the price is cheap. Basically, you can have a full meal for two or three pennies. If you add more meat and vegetables if you want to be more luxurious, it won't cost more than five or six pennies. It is very popular among the movers.


This kind of business is entirely volume-based, relying entirely on small profits but quick turnover to make money.


Fortunately, whether it is rice, meat, eggs, or vegetables, the Chi family can provide it themselves, so the cost price is kept to the lowest, and there is still a profit.


Xu plans to make a return on the shop within two to three years.


What to run in the other shop really worried Mrs. Xu for a while. That shop was too small to be used as an inn or restaurant. It could barely be used as a teahouse, but there were a lot of teahouses in Fucheng. They were new. Come on, it's too difficult to squeeze in and grab business from others.


She didn't have a clue if she wanted to do other business. The main reason was that the Chi family only had this little foundation. Unlike other families, they all had some secret recipe or something, so even if she wanted to do other business, it would be difficult.


I don’t know how to make rouge and gouache, and I don’t know how to make wine and dye cloth.


In the end, Chili gave the suggestion.


selling sugar.


Chili also learned after getting to know that Nanhuai Prefecture is rich in sugar cane. What does the presence of sugar cane mean?

Sugar!


In ancient times, sugar was a luxury product and a very popular item. As long as you could make sugar, your business would basically be good, and sugar was durable and could be sold for a longer period of time.


The sugar cane sugar making process is also quite simple. It just involves squeezing out the juice from the sugar cane and boiling it into pieces. The sugar cubes obtained are the most common brown sugar. At the same time, brown sugar was still a kind of medicine and tonic in ancient times. Housewives who want to conceive and give birth, or regulate their menstruation, must eat brown sugar to replenish their health.


So basically as long as her family can grow sugar cane, they won't have to worry about sales.


The only problem now is how to get another piece of land to grow sugar cane, since all her land grows is grain.


It is absolutely impossible to grow sugar cane on land that originally produces grain. Not only does the government not allow it, but their family is not willing to do so either.


Therefore, if you want to grow sugar cane, the best way is to contract a small hilltop, or buy a piece of wasteland suitable for growing sugar cane and hire someone to open it yourself.


But the problem came again.


The cost of doing this is a bit high. The family has just bought two shops and is short of money. Secondly, planting sugar cane also requires time and cost. While waiting for the sugar cane to mature, you can't keep that shop empty, right?

Chili was still worried about this, but she didn't expect that her mother had already come up with a solution.


Sugar cane production is temporarily unavailable, but there is still maltose production.


Malting is not difficult and does not take much time. Boiling maltose is also quite simple. You can spend some money at home to buy a few acres of medium-sized fields specifically for malting to meet the sugar needs of the store.


In addition, sugar can be made in various ways. Even with the same raw materials, changing the style and adding other ingredients can make it a different sugar.

For example, sesame candy, peanut candy, etc.

However, these can be improved slowly in the future, and there is no rush.

(End of this chapter)