I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1026 Quiet Country Life

Seeing that the others were still hesitating, Rochefoucauld raised the fertilizing bucket again:

"I got this for free when I bought a 'speed car' today. It's very useful!"

Well, in fact, the farmer who buys a car tomorrow can also get a watering can, but he will pretend to be embarrassed and say that he has violated company regulations and ask the other party not to make it public.

Soon, two more farmers with better financial conditions expressed their desire to buy one.

Then, these people loaded the purchased honeycomb coal onto the wheelbarrow, and pushed it back home leisurely under the envious gaze of everyone.

That night, Rochefoucauld stayed at the home of Hervignie, a minor nobleman in the village.

He only sold four wheelbarrows today, which was far from enough.

He mortgaged all his shares in the coal company and became the agent of "Universal Flying Car" in the south of Reims.

If he doesn't sell 200 wheelbarrows a month, he will lose money.

The next day, Rochefoucauld came to the church again and started selling wheelbarrows, but found that it was very lively here, as if someone was holding a wedding.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, bells rang in the church.

This usually means that the newlyweds have taken their vows in front of the altar, the priest has blessed them, and the first step of the wedding is completed.

Sure enough, with the sound of organ, trumpet and lute, a young man about fifteen or sixteen years old, wearing a brand new double-breasted jacket and dark blue trousers, walked out of the church leading a rather sturdy horse.

The bride on horseback was about his age, wearing a long white dress, and shyly waved and greeted the villagers.

According to custom, they will travel around the village, scattering wheat grains and flower petals along the way to attract children to pick them up. Of course, if the family is wealthy, they will also scatter some coins.

When the wedding procession passed by Rochefoucauld's stall, the groom's father walked quickly towards the fat boy, bowed respectfully to him, and said nervously:

"Respected Monsieur Rochefoucauld, I am from the Leonor family. My son Domi is getting married today. Would you be honored to attend the wedding banquet?"

He had heard his second son, who came to buy honeycomb coal yesterday, talk about Mr. Rochefoucauld. If Domi's wedding could invite a nobleman from Paris, it would be a very prestigious thing.

Rochefoucauld looked at the wedding procession of sixty or seventy people not far away, and immediately smiled and nodded:
"It's my pleasure, Mr. Leonor. Please accept my most sincere blessings to the newlyweds. Oh, I think there will be a lot of tables, chairs, wine barrels and the like that need to be moved at the wedding. I can lend you two universal flying cars. I hope they can help."

Leonor waved his hands and said, "How can this be so embarrassing?"

Rochefoucauld, however, ordered his followers to send the three wheelbarrows to Leonore's house without further ado.

At 5 o'clock in the afternoon, in the open space in front of Leono's house, there was a long and narrow dining table made up of dozens of tables, covered with tablecloths of different colors.

Leonor's neighbors came over with several barrels of wine on a wheelbarrow. As soon as the barrels were placed on the table, hundreds of villagers gathered around, loudly blessing the newlyweds and filling their glasses with wine.

Soon, the newlyweds returned around the village. Domi Leonor lifted his wife down from the saddle. The neighbors who came to help immediately began to put dishes of stew, vegetable soup, sausage, bread and so on on the table.

Leonor led the family's horse into the stable himself, tying the rope and saying:

"Sophie, old man, you can start eating your oats now."

This was not the old horse that originally belonged to his family.

Old Sophie died of old age two years ago. This is her daughter, who is even stronger than she was when she was young.

In recent years, the village has taken out loans to buy water pumps, which has greatly improved the irrigation conditions of cultivated land.

In addition, the agricultural service consulting company taught everyone to build compost pits and encouraged the use of stone fertilizers, which increased his family's grain harvest by 30% compared to before. At the same time, after the tax farmer system was abolished, all kinds of messy taxes also disappeared.

Now, he only had to pay the basic land and agricultural taxes levied by the tax bureau, as well as the church's tithe, which was less than half of what he had paid a few years ago.

With so much income and so little expenditure, his family could have a surplus of 25 to 30 francs every year.

As early as the spring of the year before last, he had paid off all the family debts, and then he raised money to buy back the foal that old Sophie had given birth to from Master Elvini.

He and his wife felt that the name Sophie brought luck to the family, so they continued to call Xinma Sophie.

The wedding banquet was quite sumptuous for such a small village. There was no limit on the amount of wine and food, so the villagers who came to congratulate could eat as much as they wanted.

In addition, it can be seen from the new cotton clothes made in Lyon that Domi and his wife are wearing that Leonor's family is indeed in good financial condition.

Rochefoucauld watched with satisfaction as the wheelbarrow he had borrowed was put to great use, carrying cartloads of dirty dishes back into the house and loading barrels of wine out.

The effect of this advertisement is better than if he shouted at the top of his lungs for a month.

As it grew dark, a bonfire was lit next to the dining table.

The villagers, who had eaten their fill, began to sing and dance around the fire, and some chatted loudly:
"I heard from Mr. Pleco that something called 'potash fertilizer' will be delivered next month, which will increase the harvest even more."

Pleco is the head of the agricultural service consulting company in this village.

"Really? Did he say the price?"

"It seems to be cheaper than stone fertilizer, but the quantity seems to be small..."

A literate farmer continued: "I read in the newspaper that it was shipped from Germany. There should be more of them in the future because of the newly opened mines."

"Frank, what are you talking about? That's a French mine, not a German one?"

"Oh, damn, I'm drunk. It really is ours."

"Has any of you heard about the Parish Bank's offer to lend money for the steam mill?"

Frank said again: "I know that. That thing costs 4500 francs per set. So each household will have to pay more than 30 francs."

"But it will be much cheaper to grind flour in the future. We can also make some money by grinding flour for the neighboring villages."

"Well, most people in other villages will also buy it..."

"Only thirty francs. If you pay it back in ten years, that's only three francs a year. The mill tax used to be fifteen francs a year."

"My family got 18 francs..."

The wine from Leonor's family was not considered a good wine, at least that was the case in Rochefoucauld's opinion, but in this lively and festive atmosphere, he still drank it until he was a little dizzy.

The next day, sales of his "universal flying car" really began to increase - the villagers attending the wedding banquet all saw that this thing was indeed useful.

Four days later, Rochefoucauld prepared to leave Meitian with the sales of 4 wheelbarrows.

When his carriage passed by Leonor's house, he was attracted by the fierce quarrel coming from inside...

(End of this chapter)