The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Chapter 117 The Coming Little Ice Age
In order to avoid being involved in too many political issues, Wang Wenlong suggested that the main content of the newspaper should be business intelligence and entertainment, which Xu Xueju also thought was reasonable.

This is not surprising. In the previous life, the European newspaper industry also started with "Commercial Information Newspaper", which was a natural compromise product at the stage when cheap printing technology was popularized and the yamen ideology had not yet changed.

As for the name of the newspaper, Wang Wenlong first suggested "Si Min Shang Bao", but Xu Xueju shook his head after hearing this. He said: "As long as there is the word "Shang" on the paper, I am afraid that no scholar will buy it."

Xu Xueju himself also mentioned a few names, such as Zhai and Xuan, but Wang Wenlong also said that the main buyers of newspapers are still small businessmen and middle-class families. If it is too literary, these people may be shunned.

Several of the names they mentioned were inappropriate. Finally, Wang Wenlong came up with an idea: "Our newspaper is published three times a month, so why not name it "Xunbao". It is simple and straightforward, and not too tacky."

Xu Xueju thought for a while and nodded: "This name is the most straightforward."

After deciding on the name of the newspaper, it began to be divided into layouts. Wang Wenlong took out the layout method of later newspapers and directly cut a six-foot-wide piece of rough paper into four and folded it into a four-page, sixteen-page newspaper.

The difference between this size and the size of later newspapers is only a few centimeters.

The printing layout of newspapers in later generations was jointly tested in the era of paper media around the world.

At the end of the paper media era, no matter what civilization or language, no matter whether it was written horizontally or vertically, or read left or right, almost all newspapers in the world were unified to this standard.

After Xu Xueju got the "newspaper" handed to him by Wang Wenlong, he was a little uncomfortable at first, but after Wang Wenlong introduced it, he felt that this printing method was quite reasonable.

"This type of page is about the same width as a person's chest when folded in two. When you are reading only one page, you can hold it very comfortably in your hands. If you are reading two pages at the same time, you can separate your hands so that the format will not feel too big or too small."

"The more important thing is to save money. For large-format printing, as long as the newspaper is not broken, there will be no missing pages. There is no need for binding at all, and the layout is large enough. Even if there are some plate printing problems during the printing process, they will be ignored. The accuracy of printing is required. It can go lower.”

The main requirement of newspapers is to spread quickly and at low cost. With mimeograph technology, you can directly use the cheapest rough paper, and the ink will not spread anyway.

Xu Xueju nodded repeatedly, "It's hard for you to think in such detail."

The two discussed and decided that the final newspaper would be tentatively divided into two pages and eight pages, including official court documents, official appointments and removals, business intelligence, market news, common sense of life, novels and essays, etc., and would be published on the tenth day of each month.

Xu Xueju asked Wang Wenlong to quickly prepare to recruit people. If the sales of the newspaper were good, even the Chief Executive Si Yamen could continue to invest money to expand the printing scale.

The more Xu Xueju thought about it, the more beautiful it became, and he said with a smile: "This may also increase the revenue of the Yamen."

Wang Wenlong smiled and suddenly felt like he was about to set up a tertiary industry for his unit.

Xu Xueju left after explaining his work. Wang Wenlong thought about finding an editor to help him first. The first thing that came to his mind was Deng Zhimo. This man was knowledgeable and had edited all kinds of messy books. It was really a bit unfair to put them in his workshop now. It would be a good idea to recruit a newspaper editor.

He also thought that he could go to Li Guozhu for business information. As long as he asked them what goods they needed at which ports, it would not only help them prepare the goods, but also help small businessmen find sales.

My good friend Xu Xinggong can also be invited to be a special author. His Hongyulou is famous in Fujian, so he can write some book recommendations. Xu Xinggong is also a general in the poetry circle of central Fujian. With him writing articles, he will definitely be able to write articles in Fujian. At this time, it attracted attention among literati.

The more he thought about it, the more opportunities he found, so Wang Wenlong spread out the paper and began to write a plan for the first issue of "Xun Bao".

As soon as he finished writing, Li Ding opened the door and came in, saying angrily: "Jianyang, these new crops of yours are really difficult to promote. I really can't help you. Why don't you go back and chant sutras..."

Seeing Li Ding's bored look, Wang Wenlong hurriedly stood up and poured him a glass of water. Then he sat him down and said with a smile, "Master Immortal, don't be in a hurry. Tell me everything slowly."

Li Ding shook his head and talked about the trouble he encountered.

It turned out that it was time to sow sweet potatoes in March. This year Xu Xueju encouraged the people to promote new crops. With Wang Wenlong's request, Li Ding came to Fuzhou from Quanzhou and invited some Taoist friends to go to the countryside to do Taoist temples for various Guacai Immortal Temples. , promote planting.

The land in Fujian was already very concentrated by the Wanli period. Although the people were enthusiastic about planting sweet potatoes, the landowners and gentry were no longer interested in trying to plant new crops after surviving the drought. When Li Ding and others went to the countryside to promote the planting of sweet potatoes, they They often come out to stop them.

Yesterday, Li Ding was invited by the people to take people to Fuqing to do the Xianshu Gong's dojo. However, he was only halfway through when the local landowner came with a group of servants to disturb the situation. They directly drove away Li Ding's little Taoist boys with sticks. , cymbals were crushed, and even the drums used for worshiping gods were broken.

After being obstructed, those people did not dare to plant sweet potatoes anymore and had to resort to the original method to grow rice on land that was not suitable for rice cultivation.

Li Ding was so discouraged by this incident that he no longer wanted to help Xu Xueju promote sweet potatoes.

Li Ding said: "The Taoist friend Pindao invited from Gongchuan was also punched. Today he boarded the ship and went back to western Fujian. You said this, Pindao... Pindao really can't do it... "

"These bastards!" Wang Wenlong was furious after hearing this, and said directly: "When will the Immortal Lord have another sacrifice to the Immortal Potato Gong? I will go and ask the Lord Fantai for a handwritten letter, and I will take people to follow the Immortal Lord to see them. Who dares to cause trouble?"

Wang Wenlong is now a staff member of Xu Xueju's staff. He is still capable of urging several government officials to follow him out to show his power. He finally hired Li Ding to help. How could he let him go away after being wronged like this?

……

The most fertile place in Fuqing County is on both sides of the Longjiang River. There are large areas of fertile farmland there, and growing rice can ensure sufficient food and clothing. However, the large area away from the river bank is no longer suitable for growing rice. Residents who fled here many years ago and people from the guard station gathered here. Living a miserable life on a small piece of flat land in the mountains.

Fuqing County, Jiangyin.

This place will become an important port for Fuzhou's foreign trade in later generations, but these days there is simply no ability to dredge and develop such a deep-water port. This place is far away from fresh water and water sources. The land is damaged by salt and alkali and is mostly sandy soil. It is difficult to grow rice. The yield is extremely low and the land is barren and the people are poor.A pot of oil was smoking. The woman quickly put the onions into the pot and sauteed them until fragrant. Then she threw the clams, shrimps and crabs into the pot and stir-fried them. Then she added the green vegetables and stir-fried until soft. Then she poured in a ladle of water.

When the soup boiled, the woman took out sweet potato balls one by one from the pot on the side, put them into the pot and brought them to a boil.

After a while, three bowls of hot sweet potato balls were brought to Wang Wenlong, Chen Jinglun and Li Ding.

The peasant woman was not good at words and said with a simple smile on her face: "Masters, please have a meal."

Wang Wenlong and Li Ding quickly thanked them.

The woman said happily: "We don't know how to cook it, I'm afraid it won't suit the master's taste."

Wang Wenlong smiled and said: "Well done, thank you for your busy work, aunt."

"Hey, the master is so kind." The woman wiped her hands on her apron and left with a smile.

Wang Wenlong looked down and saw that the vegetables in the bowl were green and the meatballs were golden. Together with a bowl of fresh soup full of seafood, it looked quite delicious.

He picked up a sweet potato ball and put it in his mouth to chew. He felt that the ball was sweet and chewy, and it was also filled with fillings made of vegetables and shredded seaweed. Although it was reluctant to add oil, it had a rich texture.

Chen Jinglun said: "The local rice production is too low. Elsewhere, sweet potatoes are only used to make porridge and cook. However, local people treat sweet potatoes as rice noodles and use them to make bread. This sweet potato ball is also the way local people came up with to eat it. . The red meatballs are made from sweet potatoes and are more chewy. The white meatballs are made from white potatoes and have a flourier texture. Let’s try to see if they suit your taste.”

Chen Jinglun's family is from Changle, Fuqing, not far from Fuqing. A few years ago, he and his father promoted sweet potatoes with the support of Jin Xuezeng. The Jiangyin area in Fuqing County was one of the successful pilot areas. Chen Jinglun really knows the local customs very well. .

Chen Jinglun said with a smile: "Sweet potatoes don't have to be dug in the ground, just dig a hole and bury them, and then dig them out when they are ripe. They are really food for lazy people. The local people are not willing to be lazy. It's just that there was no land to grow sweet potatoes in the past. Now every household grows sweet potatoes." Those who fertilize are diligent, and the sweet potatoes they grow are big and sweet.”

Li Ding ate the sweet potato balls and found them delicious. He couldn't help but sigh: "These sweet potatoes are really good. Without them, the people here would probably starve."

"We need to vigorously promote it." Wang Wenlong nodded and said.

Not only in Fujian, but also in the past life and the founding of the People's Republic of China, the output of sweet potatoes in many places in the south had exceeded that of the staple food. The total output of more than one billion dan a year was no joke.

As China's population increases, land suitable for staple food cultivation will become increasingly scarce, and the production capacity of sweet potatoes on barren land will become increasingly valuable.

It has strong growth ability, drought tolerance, high yield, high adaptability, and can be eaten both raw and cooked.

Especially for a place like Fuqing, where one season's sweet potato harvest can equal half a year's food supply, the importance is self-evident.

And Wang Wenlong also knows another necessity to promote sweet potato planting this year - the weather changes.

If history had not been changed to a great extent by his arrival, then the eruption of the Enapudi volcano in South America had just ended.

This was the largest climate event in the past 300 years. Thirty cubic kilometers of volcanic ash shot into the sky and could be felt around the world.

Not surprisingly, in a few months people in Fujian will suddenly find dust starting to fall from the sky.

What's even more terrible is that the volcanic ash floating in the air reflects a large amount of solar radiation, and the global temperature will plummet.

Next year will be the coldest year on earth in 600 years, a year without a summer.

What makes Wang Wenlong even more nervous is that he knows that the volcanic eruptions in South America are just the beginning of this climate change.

The eruption of South American volcanoes has announced that surface volcanoes have entered an active period. In the next few decades, there will be more than a dozen major eruptions that will affect the climate. This is the most violent century of volcanic activity since human civilization.

The dust and sulfide emitted by the volcano will remain high in the sky for longer and longer, blocking the sun, and the weather will only get colder.

In the next 50 years, cold will become the dominant tone of the world.

Crops around the world will die on a large scale. In Europe, the Thames River, which is navigable all year round, becomes frozen every year. Ice floes appear on the sea in Venice in southern Europe where the winter is warm. One-third of the population in Russia will suffer due to climate abnormalities. and death from food shortages.

Spring will be delayed across Asia.

People in the north will gradually find that spring does not appear until March or April of the lunar calendar, and then autumn quickly begins.

The dog days of summer have changed from more than forty days to 30 days in the past, and in the extreme situation during the Chongzhen period, there were only ten days left.

Standing at the starting point of the 28th year of Wanli, the Little Ice Age is coming. The implementation of new crops one year earlier can save many people.

(End of this chapter)