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

Chapter 122: All sorts of excuses
As the carriage was on its way to Fuqing, Xu Guangqi suddenly asked: "Jianyang, do you think we can really help the people of Fuqing this time? And how much can we help?"

Although he has been promoting sweet potato powder with Wang Wenlong these days, Xu Guangqi also knows that their influence is limited after all.

Hearing this, Deng Zhimo and Chen Jinglun also looked at Wang Wenlong.

Wang Wenlong thought for a while and replied: "I don't know how far we can go. It's not difficult to help one or two villages. Even with our reputation, we can make the local sweet potato powder marketable. But if we really want to help the whole of Fujian, even in As we promote sweet potato cultivation throughout the Ming Dynasty, we can only hope that the success in Fujian will lead to some people following suit.”

Xu Guangqi is a smart man. Historically, Xu Guangqi did not start learning Western science and technology until he was in his thirties. He was actually able to collaborate with Matteo Ricci to translate books on astronomy, mathematics, geometry, etc. within a few years, and then became a self-taught agriculturalist. , it is impossible to achieve without great understanding and strong practical ability.

Xu Guangqi lamented: "It is so difficult to even get wealthy merchants in the city to try selling new products, and it will be even more difficult to get farmers with poorer financial resources to try new crops."

"Let's do it step by step, maybe first let the local big landowners make money from growing sweet potatoes, and then ordinary people will follow."

Wang Wenlong also sighed in his heart. He knew that if he really wanted to promote a new crop, it would not be the initiative of a few literati. Even in the later generations with smooth information, if you want to promote new crops in a place, you need to go deep into the countryside to handle the grassroots political power. To provide assistance, we also need to open up sales channels for ordinary people. Even so, the probability of success is not very high.

In this era, a bloody fact is: the reason why sweet potatoes were successfully promoted on a large scale in history was because famines forced the people out one after another.

The only thing that gives Wang Wenlong hope is that at least after the replacement of melons and vegetables in winter, some farmers have already known the benefits of the new crops. This promotion process in this time and space should not need to go through the hundreds of years of Ming and Qing changes, and probably fewer people will die.

The carriage jolted for a long time and finally arrived at Fuqing County.

As soon as he arrived at the city gate, he saw Zhang Hang waiting with his elders at the city gate.

In this era, even big landowners were afraid of the government. If someone from the school family was in the family, they would naturally become the mainstay of the family in liaising with the government.

His elders were even less experienced in the world than Zhang Hang. They had heard about the identities of Wang Wenlong and others, and knew that they were people connected to the provincial government. When these landlords met the county officials, they thought they were as big as the sky. So when I saw Wang Wenlong and the others, there was naturally a hint of fear on their faces.

Wang Wenlong said pleasantly: "We are Xu Fantai's staff, and we are here to help your family sort out the sweet potato planting."

Seeing that Wang Wenlong was not intimidating, the elder smiled respectfully and said, "Thank you for your help, gentlemen."

Xu Xueju had already contacted the Fuqing County Government Office, so Wang Wenlong took people directly to the County Government Office.

When I went to the county government office to ask, I found out that today the county magistrate went to the countryside for an inspection and ordered the county magistrate to wait in the county.

Upon hearing the arrival of Wang Wenlong and others, the county magistrate quickly walked out of the county government office.

Several people exchanged names, and the county magistrate said: "The student's surname is Fan. The three gentlemen came to the humble residence and were originally going to invite them to the Yamen. I was afraid that someone would come to sue the officials and hinder the conversation, so I prepared a few dishes here. I am just a humble person, so I would like to ask some old gentlemen not to think that I am being disrespectful."

These days, there are only dozens of people in the county government office, but they have to take care of almost everything in the entire county. In fact, there are simply not enough manpower. Fan Xiancheng directly closed the government office in order to greet them.

Several people followed the county magistrate into the workshop, and saw that the Eight Immortals table had been cleared in the workshop. When everyone sat down, they ordered wine to be served.After a while, bird's nests, chickens, and ducks were placed on the table, followed by seafood that is widely available in Fuzhou. The vegetables were two bowls of stewed radish and cabbage that were in season at this time.

The tableware used to entertain guests in the county government office is all silver-inlaid cups and bowls, which are kept very clean.

Before talking about drinking beforehand, everyone followed Fan Xiancheng's advice and had a drink. Wang Wenlong took a symbolic shrimp ball, put down the bowl and asked: "Can our county's grain tax be paid in silver?"

Na Fan County Magistrate quickly explained: "Our Fuqing is also a famous county in Fujian. In one year, money and food are lost: flowers, cloth, cattle, donkeys, fishing, boats, and house taxes have already used the whip method. We still need to collect five or six thousand gold a year, but the grain and grass tax is still collected in kind."

When Wang Wenlong talked about paying money instead of food, the eyes of Zhang Hang and his elders on the side showed light of expectation. Wang Wenlong continued to ask: "Why don't the food taxes also be paid in money?"

Fanxian Cheng said, "In the past few years, there was a policy in the government, saying that the government's warehouses were empty, and asking us locals to collect more grain. It is not easy for the people to exchange money. This is considered to be considerate of the people's thoughts."

Xu Xueju was in charge of the province's tax revenue when he was the right chief minister. The files were kept in the chief envoy's office. Wang Wenlong had already read the relevant policies before he came. At this time, he smiled and said: "What is the statement? Bring it to me." look?"

Na Fanxian Cheng just said carelessly: "That was a note from my predecessor. This is what the county officials said after I took office. To know where to put the note, you still need to go to the clerk's room to find it." Find it once.”

Deng Zhimo looked quite disdainful.

Fan County Cheng was obviously dealing with them. Wang Wenlong was about to continue questioning when he saw a master running in from outside.

The Prime Minister of Fan County was granted amnesty and quickly stood up to introduce them to Master Qian Gu of this county.

The master raised his hands to several people and asked: "I dare to ask, but Wang Jianyang and Wang Xiangong are in front of each other?"

Wang Wenlong nodded and said: "I don't dare to be an immortal. I am Wang Wenlong."

The master quickly said: "Mr. Wang, our Fuqing County is close to the sea and food is scarce. We can't let the local people pay taxes in silver, otherwise there will be a food shortage."

Fan Xiancheng was also beating the drum: "It's true, the local rice production is already scarce. If the people are allowed to grow sweet potatoes, the local food prices will soar, and the government will not be able to control it."

Hearing this, Xu Guangqi frowned. Everyone knew that the local people actually had to grow sweet potatoes to avoid starvation, but the local county magistrate directly said that they must grow rice, and the household registration and grain registers were in their hands. Even if Wang Wenlong wanted to There was no verification from the investigation.

In fact, the reason why Fuqing County collects grain without charging money is very simple: it is because it can be used as a trick when harvesting grain.

For example, if you dislike farmers whose food is not up to standard, you will give them bribes if you want it to meet the standard.In addition, there are so-called losses in harvesting grain, such as large buckets and small buckets, picking and flat points, scattering and so on.

(End of this chapter)