A round of red sun floated in the sky, sprinkling the glow of the sky, and the green mountains in the distance were painted with Phnom Penh, and there was a little holiness in the beauty. Beneath the green hills, boundless sugar cane forests stretch out into the distance, like the sea.

Xu Ping and Shi Quanbin rode horses and walked slowly on the road in the sugar cane forest.

"This sugarcane forest was planted new this year, the season is a little late, and the harvest is only now begining."

Pointing to the busy people in the sugarcane forest, Xu Ping whispered to Shi Quanbin.

Where does Shi Quanbin know this, he is also from a big family, he entered the palace and followed the emperor when he was a teenager, he didn't know what to do, and he just nodded again and again after listening to Xu Ping's words.

Although he has the emperor's secret order on his body, Shi Quanbin just glances at most places, occasionally listens to it, and does not go into depth. Yongzhou is different here, and the official family also personally mentioned it to him before leaving, whether this is as some ministers said, it broke out overnight and became one of the few wealthy places in Lingnan. Xu Ping, the little emperor of the first-class jinshi, also remembered that he personally designated the grade, and did not let the queen mother interfere, and when the roll call was called, Ruiguang appeared in the sky, and he still remembered what kind of auspicious omen Ruiguang was.

Early this morning, Shi Quanbin asked Xu Ping to take him out to take a good look at the strange things about this place that Xu Ping has built in the past two years. I have seen it with my own eyes, and only when I go back can I speak vividly in front of the official family, a few beautiful words for Xu Ping, pave the way for his future career, and let him remember his name.

With Xu Ping's background, as long as the emperor is in power, he can also be in a position of ruler while lying down, and at that time, he will have to rely on him to carry him. The real minister, who doesn't have eyes and ears in the palace? The big things can't be helped, but the gossip is better than anyone else, today the official family coughs, tomorrow the official family is in good spirits, which beauty has been liked recently, which minister is hated, and this is important information for Zaizhi.

Of course, they can't help with the real court affairs, not to mention the internal servants, and the prime ministers of the outer dynasties don't know what the situation is in the Inner Shangshu Province in the palace, but they just vaguely know that there is this institution.

Walking all the way, he happened to see the harvester pulled by the ox in front of him to the ground, Shi Quanbin became excited, and pointed: "I have seen this, Yunxing Village uses this to harvest rice and wheat, and it is really profitable." In the past two years, many places in Kaifeng Mansion have been used, and all of them have been sold by your family. ”

Xu Ping nodded awkwardly: "Pavilion chief has good eyesight!" ”

This is obviously different from the rice and wheat harvester, the sorghum harvester is like this, what kind of eyes does this guy have.

Seeing what he was familiar with, Shi Quanbin became interested, kept looking around, and said: "I said that as soon as Yunxing arrived in Yongzhou, it suddenly became a big state, and it still depends on your dexterous mind." By the way, sugar cane is being planted around here, is it because you made these novel farm tools? What else, let me take a good look, and go back to tell the official family a surprise! ”

Xu Ping thought for a while before shaking his head and smiling bitterly: "Don't hide it from the pavilion chief, there are really no novel farm tools, it's nothing more than the ones I did in the capital." What really makes the sugarcane grow here is the road under our feet. ”

"Road?" Shi Quanbin looked down, "If you don't say it, I haven't remembered it yet." Since arriving in Lingnan, it is true that as soon as you enter Yongzhou Road, it is different from other states, and it is much smoother. But what does the road have to do with growing sugar cane? ”

"An acre of land has thousands of catties of fresh cane, if you only rely on people's backs and shoulders, how can you grow it? The reason why the cane sugar was produced in Sichuan and Shu in eastern Zhejiang in the past in this dynasty is because it is convenient to transport there, the rivers are vertical and horizontal, and how many small boats can easily transport it away. The mountain roads here in Yongzhou are rugged, and in most places there are no ox carts, and if the roads are not repaired first, sugarcane cannot be planted. ”

"Makes sense. You build roads and bridges here, and Ze will be used by future generations, and this merit is better than planting sugar cane. ”

I haven't really seen it, and it's still hard for Shi Quanbin to imagine the importance of the road, so he just compliments casually.

The proper crushing period of sugarcane is not long, and when it comes to the harvest season, a large number of fresh cane are concentrated, and it is unthinkable that there is no decent road. In Xu Ping's previous life, there was the first road that could be walked by car until the Anti-Japanese War, and no matter how good the climatic conditions were, the sugar industry could only develop after that. At this time, there is no competition, Xu Ping can slowly squeeze sugar, otherwise the sugar squeezing season will not drag on for so long.

After walking a few miles, when he arrived at the first sugar mill, Xu Ping took Shi Quanbin in to visit.

The squeezes driven by cattle and horses, and the continuous closed cooking system, are the designs that Xu Ping is very proud of. It's a pity that Shi Quanbin is really unfamiliar with people's livelihood in the palace, and he didn't see any doorway, but just flattered casually, which made Xu Ping very disappointed.

On this day, both men traveled on the left side of the valley, all the way through the sugar cane forest. Shi Quanbin didn't understand it anymore, but the boundless scale of this sea still gave him a great shock. Originally, I wanted to rely on my own tongue to fight the lotus flower to say a few beautiful words for Xu Ping, but after walking, I found that as long as I described it truthfully, it was amazing enough.

It wasn't until evening that I walked out of the sea of sugar cane and came to the outside of a stockade.

Xu Ping exhaled and said to Shi Quanbin: "Pavilion Chief, you are also tired this day, let's rest in Wuzhai tonight, and turn back tomorrow." ”

Shi Quanbin nodded, but did not answer, just looked at the long queue outside the village and was dumbfounded.

Xu Ping was curious, and followed his gaze, but found nothing abnormal.

Shi Quanbin swallowed his saliva and asked Xu Ping: "This, why are there so many cars here?" ”

Xu Ping was puzzled and didn't see anything wrong, so he had to answer honestly: "This is a car that transports sugar to Yongzhou, it is the sugar season, and it can be transported to Yongzhou to distribute to various places." The cabinet chief didn't know that the quota for the three divisions was more than 2 million catties. Don't think about how many cars it takes to pull millions of pounds of things. ”

"There are so many horses in Yongzhou?"

"This is a Dali horse, which was bought from Dali for a lot of money. Yongzhou is hot and humid here, this horse can not be used, and the horse cubs under the horse farm here cannot be used, which costs a lot every year. ”

Shi Quanbin couldn't help but smile bitterly: "There are hundreds of horses outside this village, Yunxing, you are also from the original from Zhongyuan, and Zhongyuan County does not have such a big deal as you here." ”

Xu Ping thought about it, it seemed to be the case. His family's grange turned out to be a horse herding supervisor, and whoever has a horse around is very precious, so why did he suddenly not take it seriously in Yongzhou.

After thinking for a while, Xu Ping said to Shi Quanbin: "Actually, it's not strange. Does the cabinet chief still remember that there is a sentence in Liu Hedong's text, 'Qian has no donkey'? It's the same here in Yongzhou, there are no donkeys and mules, everything is made of cattle and horses, compared with the Central Plains, of course, there are more horses. ”

Shi Quanbin just shook his head, but he didn't believe it. The horses here are the same as those in the Central Plains, they are all sold from abroad, and they are definitely not cheap, and the horses are not without donkeys and mules, or because there is a lot of money here.

I consciously glanced at Xu Pinggao, thinking that he could make money more than ordinary magistrates, and I really came down to understand, but I didn't expect it to be much more exaggerated than I thought.

(There are a lot of things at the end of the year, so I can only do so much today, and I will make up for it tomorrow.) ）