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Zhu Chongba at the end of the Ming Dynasty Volume 1 Chapter 497: Ask the fairy sister to take me to meet the Jade Emperor

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    In the mountains, by the creek!

    Li Yan Young Master Li woke up faintly. He didn¡¯t know how many days he had been in coma. He only knew that he was very hungry and his whole body was weak.  Hearing the sound of rushing water in his ears, he pushed himself up, but failed. Instead, he fell heavily again, and his head hit a stone with a "bump" sound.

    A woman's voice sounded next to her: "Oh, young master, please don't move around. I managed to wrap up the wound. If you mess around, you may die."

    Li Yan calmed down and looked to the side. He saw a beautiful girl sitting by the stream not far away. She was about fifteen or sixteen years old, with an innocent smile on her face. She was dressed in red and looked very heroic.  As soon as I saw it, I felt a great feeling in my heart.

    Li Yan knew what had happened as soon as he thought about it, and hurriedly said: "Li Yan thanks the girl for helping me, but he doesn't dare to ask the benefactor's name?"

    The woman in red said nothing. "Humph, it's troublesome for scholars. You want to ask me my name, but you say 'I don't dare to ask'. What's the trouble? If you just ask me 'Hey, what's your name?' that's the end of it."  "

    Li Yan couldn't help but blush, feeling a little embarrassed.  What the little girl said makes sense. If you want to ask for your name, you can ask her name. She said "I don't dare to ask", which is a bit false.  After all, Li Yan had been hanging out with the thieves of the 36th Battalion for a long time, and he was much bolder than when he was a pure scholar before, so he asked seriously: "Hey, what's your name?"

    The woman in red smiled and said: "You changed your words quickly. It seems that you are not a rigid nerd. You are better than that nerd Ma Xinyu. My name is Red Lady. You can call me Miss Hong, but it's best not to. I still feel that Red Lady is a red lady."  The lady sounds better."

    Ma Xiaotian always calls her Miss Red. If others call her Miss Hong, it will remind her of Ma Xiaotian, which always feels weird, so she doesn't like the name Red Girl now.

    "Red Lady?" Li Yan frowned slightly when he heard the name. He could tell that it was a nickname.  These days, people are traveling around the world with nicknames.  It can be said that no one is a good person. He is either a thief or a bandit, or a bandit or a thief. There is no escape from these two identities.  But the reputation of the Red Lady is still relatively small.  Compared with big bandits like Xue Hongqi.  It can be said that no one has heard of her name.  Li Yan didn't know that she was from Zhu Jun.

    He became wary and asked, "Which eldest brother does the girl work under?"

    The red lady pursed her lips. She originally wanted to say Bai Shui Zhu Ba.  But when I think about it carefully, it seems that I ran away This doesn't count.  She could only say: "I don't work for any big brother, I am who I am, the red lady!"

    Li Yan was relieved when he saw that she didn't seem to be faking it. As expected, he didn't call her Red Lady, but called her directly: "Red Lady, Chuang Army, Zhu Army, Zhang Xianzhong Army, officers and soldiers are fighting fiercely here, and it's a mess.  How will you be here?"

    The red lady laughed and said: "I am a talented and brave girl who can go anywhere." In fact, she got lost in the mountains. She didn't know how she got here, and then she picked up a scholar in the stream, but she herself was not  Will admit to being lost.  He looked at Li Yan for a while and then said with a smile: "You said it yourself. The Chuang Army, Zhu Army, Zhang Xianzhong Army, and officers and soldiers nearby made a big move. You were injured and lying in the creek. It seems that you are one of them, right? You  Which army does it belong to?"

    Li Yan did not hide it, and said proudly: "I am the military advisor of the Chuang Army, Li Yan."

    "Oh?" When Lady Hong heard this name, she immediately remembered that she had heard Li Yan's name when she was in Zhu Bajun. Wasn't that children's song composed by Li Yan?  She laughed and said, "I know, it turns out you opened the city gate to welcome King Chuang. King Chuang has come, Mr. Li Yan, who refuses to pay for his food, right?"

    Li Yan said: "It's just me." When he admitted it, he felt a sense of accomplishment, because this children's song was his favorite work. It not only gained Chuangjun an excellent reputation, but if he continued to implement it, it would also  It allows people to live a good life.  Therefore, when he heard the red lady say these words, he felt proud for no reason.

    He had just agreed, and was waiting for the red lady to say something like, "I have admired you for a long time, your children's songs are well composed, and you are a good person," when he heard the red lady laugh and say: "Your songs are really charming, but  ¡­It¡¯s wrong not to pay food!¡±

    "What? Wrong?" Li Yan was slightly angry in his heart: "I told King Chuang not to pay taxes, so the people don't need to pay taxes, so that they can live a happy life. Why is it wrong? In the future, King Chuang will conquer the world, and all the people will be able to live happily.  The people in the world don¡¯t pay for their food, so we can live a peaceful and beautiful life together, what¡¯s wrong with that?¡±

    The red lady smiled and said: "Oh, it's wrong anyway." She recalled some of the words she heard from Zhu Yuanzhang and Ma Xiaotian, sorted them out in her mind, and then triumphantly criticized Li Yan and said: "People all over the country  If we don¡¯t pay taxes, then who will build the city wall?¡±

      Li Yan said: "Of course it is the imperial court."

    The red lady smiled and said, "Where will the money come from if the court doesn't collect taxes?"

    Li Yan was stunned: "The imperial court has a lot of money, and there will be endless money if we don't collect taxes"

    Hearing what he said, the red lady burst out laughing: "You you don't really think so, do you? Laugh I'm laughing to death Hahaha No, I'm laughing to death"

    Li Yan's face darkened and he said, "Did I make a mistake? Those princes, nobles, and dignitaries in the imperial court have so much gold and silver at home that they can't use it up. So what's wrong with the money they spent to build the city wall?"

    The red lady shook her head and said: "Didn't you say that King Chuang wanted to seize the world? After King Chuang killed all the people in the court and captured the world, all the princes and lords would also die, and then guys like Li Guo, Liu Zongmin, and Niu Jinxing would  They have become the new prince and lord, and their family also has mountains of gold and silver, can they use it to build the city wall?"

    This sentence made Li Yan take a breath, a cold air poured into his forehead, and sweat poured down. He had never thought about this problem before, but now that he thought about it carefully, he immediately discovered the major shortcomings.  The dignitaries in the imperial court are indeed very wealthy, but what Li Zicheng is doing now is to kill all these wealthy people and seize their money to use as his own military expenses.

    And after Li Zicheng conquers the world in the future, the wealth of these dignitaries will be spent by Li Zicheng as military expenses.  What money did Li Zicheng use to govern the country at that time?  Without taxation, where would finance come from?  How can we govern a country without finance?

    Li Yan had always vaguely felt that there was some major flaw in his children's songs. Now he finally understood it and understood the key. He was sweating like rain for a while, and many questions he had never thought about were all placed in front of him.  .  His whole body was shaking, and it took him a while before he finally regained his consciousness.  He quickly said to the red lady: "Girl, you are a talented person. Can you give me a few words of advice Is there any way to save Xiaosheng's policy of not paying for food?"

    When he heard what the Red Lady had just said, he was shocked and thought that the Red Lady was a goddess descending to earth to enlighten him, so his attitude became extremely respectful.  It's just that my body has difficulty moving.  Otherwise, I would have kneeled down to the red lady.

    The red lady smiled and said: "We can't save Luo! A very powerful person said it. The key to your plan is 'not paying for food', but this key is already wrong and crooked. All the subsequent issues are crooked."  , completely hopeless"

    Li Yan was sweating profusely. He thought to himself: This woman may be a fairy, and that extremely powerful person is the Jade Emperor. He said that I was wrong. Was it really all wrong?

    The scholar's arrogance suddenly burst out from deep in his heart, and he asked seriously: "If that extremely powerful man wants to correct this troubled world, what plan will he use? What will be the key to his plan?  What?" He thought to himself, if Li is not talented enough to compare with the Jade Emperor, maybe I can find a huge loophole in his plan.

    The red lady tilted her head and thought carefully about what Zhu Bago had taught her before.  As soon as he thought about it, he realized that Brother Zhu had taught him a lot, because she followed him all day long and often asked some funny questions. Brother Zhu patiently explained them one by one, which actually made her grow up.  Lots of insights.

    She said seriously to Li Yan: "That person who has done so much harm said that the most critical issue is to allow the people's fields to harvest more food than before. If they harvest more, even if they have to pay taxes, the people will still be able to harvest more food."  You can live a good life. If the harvest is small, even if you tell him not to pay, he will starve to death Therefore, the key issue is productivity!"

    In fact, the red lady did not fully understand the meaning of the three words "productivity". She just copied what Zhu Yuanzhang said. However, these three words fell into the ears of Li Yan, who was well-read in poetry and books, and they were no different from sunny days.  The thunder shook his whole body.

    He couldn¡¯t help but think: Yes, the people have produced more, and they will naturally be rich.  When people are rich, why are they afraid of paying taxes?  If the people are rich, how can they go hungry?  If the people are rich, how can they do evil?  There is an old saying that goes like this: A person with sufficient food and clothing will know the etiquette; a person with enough food and clothing will know the honor and disgrace.  I read the books of saints and sages, but why did I forget this ancient teaching and went out at nine o'clock?

    He quickly struggled to get half of his body up, and said to the red lady: "Thanks to the fairy sister for enlightenment, Li Yan can hear the fairy sound Even if he dies, he will have no regrets"

    "What? Fairy? Who is the fairy?" The red lady was confused.

    Li Yan added: "Please ask the fairy sister to take Li Yan to meet the Jade Emperor Li Yan still has many questions and wants to ask him for advice."

    The Red Lady was shocked: "The Jade Emperor? I have never seen him. How do you want me to take you to see him?"

    It¡¯s summer in a blink of an eye!

    The summer in Sichuan is extremely hot. This place is very strange. The winter is extremely cold.The weather is extremely hot, completely two extremes.  Under the scorching sun, the corn fields in Guangyuan were mercilessly roasted by the sun. The corns drooped in the fields, looking very pitiful.

    It was already the harvest season of spring corn. The people of Guangyuan had been waiting for four months for the growing season. Now it was finally time to harvest the corn. However, seeing the listless appearance of the corn in the hot weather, I couldn't help but sweat.  , if this batch of spring corn cannot be harvested, the people of Guangyuan will have a hard life for a year.

    Zhu Yuanzhang took Xia Erduo and others to inspect the fields. An old farmer came over worriedly and asked Xia Erduo about corn.

    Xia Erduo has never grown anything like this before, and he feels a little uneasy.  Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and said: "Don't worry, it's okay. This thing will look like this in the sun. It will not affect the harvest. Calculating the time, it is actually almost ripe. If you are impatient, just pick up a few corn cobs and check it out.  "

    As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang said this, an old farmer couldn't help it and ran into his corn field, twisting a corn with his hands.  Snap it off.

    In later generations, anyone will understand that corn needs to be stripped of its clothes. When the corn leaves are peeled off, the golden corn cobs are wrapped inside.

    But it was the first time for the old farmer to grow this kind of crop, and he had never even seen what its harvested fruits looked like. He was stunned after breaking off the corn cob. He raised the corn cob wrapped in leaves,  Pulling off a piece of leaf husk wrapped around it, he held it up high and said, "General, are we just going to eat this leaf husk? Boil it in water? Like eating Chinese cabbage?"

    He asked.  An old farmer next to him smiled: "I think so. Look, this corn cob is wrapped in several layers of leaves, a bit like cabbage If you peel off the layers one by one and eat them, there will be a lot of leaves to eat."

    Speaking of which.  He suddenly frowned and said, "Oh. But vegetable leaves can't be used as staple food" Although Chinese people have been eating various vegetable leaves since ancient times.  But Chinese people all know that vegetables cannot be used as staple food. After all, noodles, rice and other things are needed to fill people's stomachs.  Just eating the leaves is definitely not enough.

    Zhu Yuanzhang said dumbfounded: "Can't you just tear the corn apart and then talk about it? Just look at the outside and mess around."

    When several old farmers heard what he said, they quickly stretched out their hands to tear off the corn husks. After a few times, they finally peeled out the corn inside, and saw rows of golden corn, neatly arranged.  Of course the two old farmers now understood what they were growing. They looked at the neat corn kernels and couldn't help but feel happy: "No wonder the general calls this corn. This is really rice like jade!"  The grains are all crystal clear and round, so beautiful.¡±

    Someone laughed and said, "It turns out it's wrapped in leaves. Let me give this thing a nickname. Let's call it Baogu."

    The farmers clapped their hands and praised him: "I like the name Baogu."

    One person exclaimed ecstatically: "Wow, this one weighs at least half a catty If the whole field is harvested, how much is it?"

    The people next to me were also ecstatic: "Yes, it's such a big lump I'm sure you'll be full after eating one."

    Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and interrupted the man: "Don't be too happy. There is a core in this thing, which cannot be eatensoone corn cannot fill your stomach. There is not as much stuff as you think."

    The old farmers smiled sheepishly and quickly pulled the corn kernels apart with their hands. Sure enough, the corn kernels only had a thin layer on the kernel surface, and underneath was the inedible kernel.  The farmers, whose hearts were burning, hurriedly pulled out the corn kernels one by one, and soon the kernels were completely separated from the corn kernels.

    Someone brought a scale, put it on the scale and weighed it, and then almost calculated the maximum ratio between the core of a corn cob and the corn kernels. Generally speaking, for improved corn cobs in later generations, the corn kernels can account for 50% of the entire corn cob.  Eighty percent of the weight, but at this time in the Ming Dynasty, corn was still a wild variety, and the seed yield was worse than that of later improved varieties, but it still accounted for 50% to 60%.  In other words, the edible part of a one-pound corn cob must account for more than half a pound.

    The old farmers were very satisfied with the result. Now an old farmer who lived not far away went home and carried a pot, boiled water in front of everyone, and threw the corn cobs into the boiling water to cook.

    Everyone sat down around the big pot, and Zhu Yuanzhang was no exception, sitting by the pot and chatting with the old farmers. After a while, the corn was cooked, and everyone and the old farmers picked up one in their hands. Zhu Yuanzhang saw  He moved his mouth first, biting a small notch on the corn cob, and then slowly gnawed down the rows of corn kernels.

    Everyone is looking at Zhu Yuanzhang, just want to learn how to eat corn, and don¡¯t make another joke about eating leaf husks.Seeing him move his mouth, everyone imitated Zhu Yuanzhang and bit down.  As soon as you put it in your mouth, you can feel the aroma all over your mouth. The aroma of corn is very obvious, stronger than the aroma of many grains. As soon as it enters your mouth, everyone's taste buds are fascinated.

    "Well, it's delicious!" An old farmer said happily: "It's so delicious."

    Another old farmer also said happily: "It's really delicious. I think this thing can be mixed with other grains to cook. For example, mixing brown rice with this will definitely make the rice more fragrant." The wisdom of the working people is indeed true.  Extraordinarily, this man invented the famous "rice with rice" after taking his first bite.

    After the old farmers tried corn and tasted its deliciousness, they had no doubts and hurried to their fields to harvest. Folks usually do not work alone when harvesting crops, and call on all the laborers in the family.  , all of a sudden, the fields were overcrowded, and every household sent out all their labor to harvest corn.

    When people were in full swing, a little monkey jumped out of the forest. Monkeys like to imitate people's movements. They saw people picking corn in the fields.  It also jumped into the field and reached out to pick a corn. Unfortunately, it didn't have a back pocket, so it had to hold it with its hands. It picked a corn and stuck it under its arm. It picked another corn and stuck it under its arm again. But it couldn't hold it so well  many?  As we walked, we fell all the way A farmer rushed towards the monkey and cursed: "You thief monkey, you actually came to steal my crops"

    The monkey was frightened and ran into the mountain. In the end, he only caught a piece of corn under his arm

    When the farmer saw that the corn he stole was not much, he stopped arguing with the monkey and scolded him with a smile: "The monkey broke off the grains one by one and threw them one by one, hahaha!" He walked along the path the monkey had just walked and picked it up from the ground.  Many monkeys dropped the corn and said with a smile: "This monkey saves me trouble."
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