No war in the Northern Song Dynasty

Chapter 68 New Books, Interplanting, and New Buildings

For the next half month, Su Ze was busy with store and household affairs.

During this period, a lot of things happened.

First of all, Cai Xiang really sent over his new official manual. It seems that Cai Xiang had already summarized this matter and finally wrote it after editing and typesetting.

Su Ze then asked Cai Xiang to name the book, and finally decided on the name "Notes on the Rituals for New Officials to Take Office", which can be regarded as an operational guide for new officials taking office.

What surprised Su Ze was that this book actually contributed 150 points of cultural energy to him in one go!

I can only say that Cai Xiang is worthy of being a writer and calligrapher. Even as a reference book, it is written in a vivid and interesting way, and the content is easy to understand.

He gave the book to Azhi and asked him to make a woodblock to print it. Su Ze also promised to give all the proceeds from the sale of the book to Cai Xiang, but Cai Xiang refused:

"As long as it can help new officials avoid unnecessary setbacks, it will be considered a meritorious deed for Mr. Cai."

Su Ze insisted:
"In ancient times, there was the story of Zigong redeeming a man, but Doctor Cai refused to accept such a meritorious service. How can future generations write down their experiences and teach others? The proceeds from the sale of the book should belong to Doctor Cai. If the book really sells well, Doctor Cai can even hold a grand banquet. This will make people more willing to write down their experiences and publish them."

Cai Xiang thought it made sense, so he made a gentleman's agreement with Su Ze and returned satisfied.

As for Azhi, the collection of essays from the last literary gathering with Wang Anshi and others has already been published.

Since the materials were all from Taohuayuan and there was no labor cost, Su Ze simply printed a hundred copies at a time and had them delivered to the homes of Wang Anshi and others.

This kind of collection of essays was naturally not for personal collection. Yang Zong took away the most of them. He would bring the collection with him to every banquet and circulate it, and as the top scholar, he attended the most banquets.

As a result, all the participants in the literary gathering became famous in the circle of scholars in Bianliang. Su Ze and Zeng Gong, who failed the exam, were compared with Yang Zong, Wang Anshi and other top-ranked Jinshi.

Seeing that a collection of essays could spread so quickly shows that the literary life of the scholars in Bianliang was lacking.

Su Ze became more determined to publish a tabloid. He took time to visit Zeng Gong again and persuaded him to participate in the newspaper.

As for the first issue, Zeng Gong suggested that they should first ask acquaintances for articles, and then solicit articles from the public after they became famous. Su Ze followed his advice and brought in the notary Wang Anshi, who offered Zeng Gong a monthly salary of five strings of cash and asked him to be the chief editor of the tabloid.

Another thing happened during these days. Wang Anshi was going back to his hometown in Jiangxi to get married.

Although Wang Anshi ranked fourth in the imperial examination, he still had to wait in the Court of Censors for the corresponding position to become vacant before he could officially become an official.

After becoming an official, he was no longer as free. Wang Anshi's mother, Mrs. Wu, decided to take the whole family back to their hometown in Linchuan to arrange her son's marriage.

When everyone knew about this, they all gave Wang Anshi gifts, but Wang Anshi refused to accept expensive gifts. In the end, he just accepted the dried pheasant as a gift according to the etiquette of interaction between scholars.

After bidding farewell to Wang Anshi on his day off, Su Ze got busy with moving again.

With official duties to attend to, it was really inconvenient to live in Zhang Yaozuo's house, so Su Ze finally moved back to the small courtyard.

Fortunately, Su Ze didn't have much luggage, so in the end Feng Shiyuan came to help and they moved back to their old house.

However, during this period, Zhang Daocheng sent people to renovate the small courtyard and bought the house of the neighbor behind it, so that the house was transformed from one courtyard into a two-courtyard house.

In addition, Feng Shiyuan also rented the house next door and moved next to Su Ze.

The Peach Blossom Spring has also changed.

After obtaining 150 points of Wenmai Qi from Cai Xiang, Su Ze had a total of 165 points of Wenmai Qi, which finally alleviated his predicament.

But just when Su Ze had gathered the energy of culture, the God of Cooking came to him as soon as he entered the Peach Blossom Spring.

"Master Taoyuan, just making sauce is not enough. You also need oil to cook."

Su Ze didn't expect that the skill [Picky] would be so troublesome, so he had to ask:
"Then how do we make oil?" "Sesame oil is commonly used nowadays. All we need to do is plant sesame and build an oil press. However."

"But what?"

Hu Ma is actually sesame, which is what later generations called sesame oil.

Sesame oil is naturally fragrant, but it is too strong to be used as cooking oil, and many people are not used to the aroma of sesame oil.

"If the owner of Taoyuan doesn't like food cooked with sesame, he can plant rapeseed."

"Brassica rapa?"

At this time, Anon came over and said:

“Isn’t it just rapeseed?”

It turned out to be rapeseed. The oil extracted from rapeseed is rapeseed oil, which is also one of the commonly used oil crops in later generations.

Anon said again:
"This rapeseed can be intercropped with rice, which means that one acre of land can produce both rapeseed and rice."

Su Ze's eyes lit up. This would not only reduce the cost of building farmland, but also reduce the cost of hiring agricultural workers!

Su Ze recalled that in his previous life, in some areas of Jiangnan, people would indeed plant rapeseed in winter, and then plant rice after the rapeseed was harvested in spring. Then, after two seasons of rice were harvested, rapeseed would be planted again.

This intercropping method can effectively save land and increase the income of cash crops while ensuring the production of staple food.

In the future, the sea of ​​rapeseed flowers all over the mountains will also increase tourism revenue.

Su Ze said to Anong with satisfaction:

"I'll go buy rapeseed seeds right now. Anong, try interplanting rapeseed and record the interplanting method."

The development of any agricultural technology can greatly benefit the people. Su Ze is experimenting with the farming technology of intercropping rapeseed and rice in Taohuayuan. When he has the opportunity to govern a region in the future, he can promote this technology.

Anong nodded and returned to working in the fields.

The Kitchen God Boy pulled Su Ze and said:

"Master Taoyuan, I'll also need an [Oil Press] and a [Ordinary Pigsty]. As for a [Slaughterhouse], I don't need one. I'm pretty good at killing pigs! Now I can start cooking!"

Su Ze opened the scroll. The [Oil Press] was a blue building that required 15 points of cultural energy and a Nong Yun boy to work in it, while the [Ordinary Pig House] was a green building that only required 10 points of cultural energy and a Nong Yun boy to take care of it full-time.

Su Ze gritted his teeth and spent another 35 points of cultural energy.

This time, two ordinary spiritual boys were recruited again.

Looking at the remaining 130 points of cultural energy, Su Ze once again lamented that this cultural energy was really not enough.

Just when Su Ze was about to leave Peach Blossom Spring, Li Yun Tongzi A Zhang came to Su Ze.

"Master Taoyuan, there's something wrong with these accounts."

Su Ze was startled. He had sent in several batches of account books. Feng Shiyuan's account books were very clean and A Zhang didn't find any major problems.

This batch of store and house account books was taken out by Su Ze from the store and house account cabinet. Ah Zhang had only been looking at them for three days, but he had already found the problem?
Su Ze said:

"Tell me what's wrong."

(End of this chapter)