The peach blossoms outside the mountain began to fall, but the peach blossoms in the mountain were in full bloom.

Sang Yi sat on a big rock, looking at the splendid rhododendron sea around him, picking out a delicate peach tree from time to time, and sighed at the beauty of Lingnan.

There is also spring in the Central Plains, a sea of flowers, and delicate peach blossoms, but not in the mountains and fields of Yongzhou, these flowers bloom so unrestrained and presumptuous.

Sun Qilang trotted and brought an iron basin and put it on a small wooden table not far away, hehe's burning his hands, and shouted to Sang Yi: "Xiucai, come over for dinner!" ”

Sang Yi stood up, came to the table, and asked Sun Qilang, "What's in this pot?" It smells so good! ”

"Hehe, a pair of bamboo chickens!" Sun Qilang said while cleaning up the table: "Xiucai, you come over and follow the two of us, but you have a mouthful, you can't eat all the wild game every day!" ”

Sang Yi smiled when he heard this: "Qilang, you go around the mountains every day, of course, wild meat is indispensable." That is, the tall and all-powerful can bear you, if the officials see it, I am afraid that you will inevitably be said. ”

"This wild meat is tall and full of food, what did he say about me? Besides, I came here to help him, and when the meaning comes, it's okay, so it's hard to really let me move the stones! ”

Sun Qilang is always vibrant, and he looks proud, as if he will never grow up, and others can't do anything about him. is also where Xu Ping's identity is, Sun Qilang is still a little jealous, he is not used to other people, he can say whatever he wants.

Gao Daquan came over, and also an iron basin, full of meat, and sat down on the table.

"What is this?" Sang Yi looked at it and asked curiously.

Sun Qilang picked up the chopsticks and said: "Field chickens, all of them are so fat that they can't move, they are fresh and fat, taste them!" ”

Sang Yi picked up a piece of chopsticks and chewed it slowly in his mouth, nodded and said, "The days in the mountains are a little tired." But you're having a good time! ”

"Hehe, the officials praise me for taking work as fun, the highest level! Gao Daquan, you see, with a bitter look, the official said, he can't do this. It's not good for work, it's not good for yourself. Sun Qilang picked up the wine bottle and poured wine into the bowl, shaking his head as he spoke. The official said that he was not in a good state, which is not right, do you know, Gao Daquan! Learn more from me in the future, man, see everything a little bit! ”

Gao Daquan didn't bother to pay attention to him, and said to Sang Yi: "Xiucai, let's drink!" ”

The three of them touched a glass. After eating a few bites of food, Sun Qilang said again: "There will be a fish in a while, and there will be a Shanrui soup." This thing is eaten by officials all the time, and we have learned to eat it a few times, and it tastes pretty good. ”

Sang Yi has been in Kaifeng City for nearly half a year, and he has really lived a hard time, and the most difficult time is so bad that he has to go to Xu Ping and Li Zhang's house to eat, which is a bitter tear. Finally, I chose to come to Yongzhou. It was also a desperate heart, and the mood was inevitably depressed. Xu Ping's temperament will not enlighten people. It wasn't until I came to stay with Gao Daquan and Sun Qilang that my mood slowly brightened.

After a while, all the dishes came up, and the three of them ate so much that a bottle of wine went down in a short time.

Sang Yi ate happily and asked Sun Qilang: "I've been here with you for two days, why do you have three dishes and one soup like this every time." It's hard to be an official and still care about you. ”

Sun Qilang said: "Ah, Xiucai, you don't know, the officials can care about everything!" Eat at most three dishes and one soup, the rules set by the officials for the sugar, who dares to violate the rules of the officials! Still. It doesn't matter what kind of dish the dish is, the radish and green vegetables are a dish, the beef and fat chicken are also a dish, our bamboo chicken oil fish is still a dish, haha! ”

Sang Yi smiled and shook his head, Xu Ping does have this habit, the rules are much more set, but the management is not strict, it seems that he deliberately left a certain amount of space for his subordinates, I don't know what it means.

After eating, the three of them sat halfway up the mountain for a while, and Sun Qilang said to Sang Yi: "Xiucai, you follow me into the mountain in the afternoon, and I will bring you a lot of novelties!" Don't go with Gao Daquan, he keeps blowing up stones all day long, making a mess and making people upset! ”

Sang Yi shook his head: "The officials asked me to come here, but I didn't come to the mountains to play." He said that this area of Zuojiang Road, to put it bluntly, is the place of cane sugar, so let you and Gao Daquan take me to see it. If you see this place clearly, you will know what Zuojiangdao is like. In this way, you take me around in the afternoon, Gao Daquan is busy there, so I won't bother him. ”

Sun Qilang shook his head: "Xiucai, you people have been studying for two years, how do you do things so rigidly?" The officials asked you to come and see, and you really just looked around? I'll just tell you about it, the official has a saying when he asks. ”

Sang Yi smiled and said to Sun Qilang: "Let's go, the two of us ride around on horseback." ”

Although the relationship is good, they are all under Xu Ping, but their identities are different after all. Sun Qilang and Gao Daquan are Xu Ping's servants, and they are a family, and the so-called cohabitation and wealth are a family. Sang Yi worked under Xu Ping with the imperial court, and he belonged to his colleagues, how could he be as casual as Sun Qilang.

Sun Qilang had no choice but to let someone lead the horse and wander around with Sang Yi in the newly opened sugarcane field of the sugar cane business.

After turning around Sangyi, I found that the newly opened sugar fields were all on some gentle hills, from the foot of the mountain to the halfway up the mountain, and the top of the mountain was still a mountain forest.

Each of the cane fields is connected by a wide and narrow road, which finally leads to a large road that leads to the foot of the mountain, which in turn leads to the road from Luobai in the valley to Qianlongtong.

It is these big roads that Gao Daquan led people to repair, and the small roads leading to the fields were repaired by the people who opened the sugar cane fields. Before he came, Sang Yi still thought that the road that was tall and complete was the road from Luo Bai to Qianlongtong, but he didn't expect that there were so many roads connected to the mountain.

Where the road down the hill meets the main road is the settlement of sugar workers, and next to the settlement is the sugar mill.

The road of Zuojiang Road is like the roots of a big tree, rooted in the mountains and mountains, and the cane sugar business attaches to these roots, using this road, and at the same time providing nutrients for the big tree

Looking at the branches of the road under the mountain stretching towards the surrounding hills, Sang Yi asked Sun Qiyun: "Qilang, are all the sugarcane fields in the sugar industry like this?" All connected by road? ”

"Of course! Otherwise, it won't work, Xiucai, the sugar cane must be squeezed immediately when it is cut, and the more the thing is put for one more day, there will be less sugar. White sugar is not rare in our place, and it is valuable to transport it outside! We have tens of thousands of households. But it's all fed by those white flowers! ”

Sang Yi nodded: "I came from the capital, so I naturally know the preciousness of sugar." Speaking of which, I couldn't afford to eat at the time, but now it's everywhere. ”

After speaking, Sang Yi shook his head with a wry smile. Before he took office, he knew that he had been reappointed as the county lieutenant of Shaanxi County, and he thought that a trip to the capital would be over. Didn't bring much money. Where would you have thought that staying there for half a year, the price in the capital is expensive, and you can't afford to pay for the house after more than a month, and you are thin-skinned, how can you be embarrassed to ask your family for money after being an official? just stayed up like that, and in the end, Lin Suniang heard about his embarrassment, and forced him to give him a sum of silver before carrying it.

The officials of the Great Song Dynasty have official positions in their bodies, which is very good. Once you leave office, it's okay if you don't have to keep the election, but if you stay in the capital for a year or two, how many years of family funds will be emptied.

For Wu Chen, the ambassador is a hurdle, and after crossing this hurdle, it will be glory and wealth, and if you can't cross it, everything will be empty in the end. The civil and Beijing officials are a hurdle, and the Inquisitor's Court has a bit of a conscience. Even if the place is not good, it is better to find a place to settle it. The group of low-level talents crowded at the door of Liumenquan is difficult, not to mention the lack of many people. The faces of the officials in the yamen are ugly and their hearts are black, and they are unlucky, and they have waited for two or three years.

Lin Wensi has Xu Ping as his son-in-law, don't look at Xu Ping is not a figure in the eyes of middle and high-level civil officials, but he is a high-ranking figure in the low-level selection, and he is not the same world as them at all. With such a big tree to lean on, Lin Wensi guarded the shortage for more than three months.

Remembering those days. Sang Yi is really unbearable. Everyone wants to be an official, but they don't know that not everyone who is an official can eat and drink spicy food, and the hard work in the middle is not enough for outsiders.

Walk down the newly built road to the newly built sugar settlement. Sang Yi saw that they were all covered with gray bricks, and there were red tiles on them. There are three main rooms in a row, two wing rooms in the east and west, and a square courtyard. The height and width of the house are the same, four households in a row, in the past it was the street, the front and back of the house are alleys, and the four alleys have a street in the same direction.

Thinking of the scene he saw on the road, Sang Yi smiled bitterly: "Qilang, is it possible that all the houses in Sue Sugar are the same?" Why did I see everything I saw on the way here? ”

"Of course! The official said that the house can be built quickly, save materials and labor, and be cheap. Xiucai, you must know that Cane Sugar has built tens of thousands of rooms in recent years, and it has saved a lot of money! ”

"But every village is the same, the houses are the same, it's too monotonous!"

Sun Qilang said seriously: "We rough people, call him monotonous and fancy!" However, I have to warn you that every village that belongs to the sugar cane business is really the same, so don't get lost here! Otherwise, you won't be able to see where it is when you enter the village, and you won't know what village you have entered! ”

"Then there must be a name for the village."

"Yes! Let me tell you, there is a white wall in the village, and the name of the village is written on it, and it is numbered in a thousand-character text. But I still don't recognize all the thousand-word texts, and it's a pain to get lost! But you're a showman, so don't worry about that. ”

Sang Yi looked at these identical small villages connected by roads, and remembered that Xu Ping told him that all the strong men under the cane sugar department were actually compiled into the township soldiers' edition, and they were taught and read on March 1. The two township soldiers with the number of commanders Gao Daquan told him were actually selected capable personnel, and each of them was at least the leader of a team when he went back. Coupled with the retired officers of the original Xiang Army, how much time does it take for Sue Sugar to expand an army?

Two days ago, Xu Ping told Sang Yi about the situation that Zuojiangdao is facing now, and when he mentioned Guangyuan Prefecture and Jiatong, Xu Ping's eyes looked strange, and Sang Yi only now understands why.

At present, about 20,000 of the former Fujian retired soldiers have been received by the subordinates of the cane sugar department, and there are about 30,000 strong men from Fujian, plus nearly 30,000 local recruits, with a total of more than 80,000 households and more than 200,000 people, which has far exceeded the number of households in Yongzhou when Xu Ping came. At that time, the number of registered households in the entire Guangnan West Road was only more than 200,000, so how could we imagine that the sugar business would reach such a scale in a few years.

Of course, at that time, the small number of households did not mean that there were very few people, and the reason why a large number of households under the rule of local officials were not registered in the copyright was the reason, but the more than 50,000 households from Fujian were real.

Now the cane sugar business is like a monster, stretching wherever the road stretches and firmly rooted. With the extension of the road to Siming Prefecture last year and to Qianlongtong this year, the entire Zuojiang Road has been entrenched by the sugar industry, and the tentacles have begun to extend to Jiatong and Guangyuan Prefecture. (To be continued.) )