Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 274 Livestock

Song Chunlin assured him solemnly: "Someone will definitely come to listen to the lecture. If that doesn't work out, we can hold an agricultural knowledge exchange conference, where everyone can discuss and exchange their farming experiences. Isn't that great?"

Song Dazhuang: "You're still exchanging experiences? I don't think this will work. Nowadays, all secret recipes are in the hands of others. Who would be stupid enough to tell others about their secret recipes? Isn't this just destroying one's own reputation?"

"How can this be considered sabotage? Think about it, farming is something like this. Even if you don't tell them, they will learn it after watching you plant it several times. Can't they? Our methods can be learned as long as they are willing. Instead of waiting for them to learn from us, it is better to tell them openly. As for whether they believe it or not, that is their business."

What Song Chunlin wanted was to ask Song Dazhuang to help improve the farming methods of the people of Dajing. As long as they were planted scientifically, even the seeds from Dajing's native land could yield an extra hundred kilograms. But these hundred kilograms should not be underestimated. Perhaps a hundred kilograms could save a family's lives?

Although the Song family was not optimistic about opening the class, they could not change Song Chunlin's opinion and still prepared the teaching materials honestly.

It happened to be late autumn and there was no work to do, so Song Dazhuang and his son Song Chunsheng spent the whole day in the study, writing down what they knew and compiling it into a book.

This was a huge project, not to mention that Song Dazhuang and Song Chunsheng were both poor students, so it was really difficult for them to compile a textbook. Fortunately, Lu Ming and Fu Nian came to join in the fun after hearing about it. Although Lu Ming was also a rough guy, he had been to school in his childhood. When the whole family knew this, they were very surprised.

Song Dahe was even more surprised by everyone's reaction: "Brother Lu comes from a big family, so he must have gone to school when he was young. He is also a good writer. Don't you know that?"

"Sigh~"

Song Dazhuang stammered, "You didn't say that either."

"Uncle Lu is actually a descendant of a big family? Could it be that Lu family?"

Lu Ming nodded calmly: "That's right, but my parents died early and my family property was divided among my uncles, so I joined the army."

Fu Nian also found it a little funny: "We seem to have never talked about our hometowns, right? Brother Lu and I are actually from the same hometown, but my family is poor. Fortunately, I lived next door to an old gentleman when I was young, so I learned a little bit. I used to sell calligraphy at a stall, but ended up following Brother Lu to join the army."

Song Chunlin looked at the two people with very different styles and thought to himself that it was no wonder that they had the same accent. He thought they learned from each other after living together for a long time.

No one had any intention of exploring the past of the two, except for the two little brats, Song Chunxiao and Song Chunming, who kept chasing after them and asking questions. Lu Ming didn't say anything, but Fu Nian was very interested in telling them some interesting childhood stories, and the two little brats listened with great interest.

With the participation of the two people, the book editing work gradually got on track. Fu Nian helped the father and son to summarize, and Lu Ming was responsible for polishing. A month later, when the first snow fell, the first textbook compiled by the four people was finally published.

At this time, the four of them looked like their souls had been drained out. Even if Song Chunlin brought back a stack of bright red spring couplets, he could not arouse their spirits.

Aunt Song and Song Qin's sisters-in-law were very interested. Zhou Ning was also watching with Song Manman in his arms. Song Yuanyuan was able to run around now. Children had no resistance to bright colors. She grabbed a piece of paper and ran around the yard. When Song Chunlin tried to chase her, she ran even faster.

Watching the brother and sister fighting, the others ignored them. Song Qin just said "don't fall down" and continued to look through the written Spring Festival couplets.

"This one is good. It's actually painted with gold. It looks rich."

"The black one is also good. The words written here are very majestic."

Song Chunlin had someone write the characters for "Spring Festival" and "Fu" that he brought back. Although the efficiency was relatively low, the quality of the finished products was very good. In addition to the already written Spring Festival couplets, there were also some red papers without inscriptions. Song Chunlin packed them up and sent them to General Lin and others. Those red papers were printed with gold prints. The craftsmanship was more complicated, so the finished products were naturally more gorgeous.

At first, Song Chunlin didn't know what to give General Lin. After knowing that his great-grandfather was a great scholar of the time, he thought that a great scholar must have good handwriting, so it would be better to use local materials and give him a stack of red paper and let them write it themselves.

He planned to sell the remaining ones at the market at the end of the year. Although Changping Town was located at the foot of the emperor, there were not many educated people there. In previous years, the villagers would go to the market to find someone to write the couplets for the New Year. After they were written, they had to wait for them to dry. However, his couplets could be written directly. They were mass-produced and there was no need to wait. They could be taken and left.

The first time Song Chunlin did this, he didn't plan to make a lot, but he did write several thousand "Fu" characters, both big and small. The big one cost fifteen cents each, and the small one cost eight cents. Or if you bought two couplets, you would get a small "Fu" character for free.

This year, the Song family will not be displaying jam, but will supply it exclusively to Shengji, which will be sold to the outside by Shengji and the shop in the Marquis' Mansion. The accounts will just have to be reconciled at the end of the month.

After resting for a few days, the four men finally recovered. It was already the twelfth lunar month, and the court finally reached a conclusion on the incident in which the Grand Marshal deserted the battlefield last year.

The emperor decided to depose the Grand Marshal and appointed Gu Fengyue as the new Grand Marshal.

As soon as the imperial edict came down, the entire court was in an uproar. Most people felt that Gu Fengyue's qualifications were not enough for the position of Grand Marshal, but if they were to take the position, they couldn't find anyone else. The argument in the court was so intense that even the harem was alarmed.

The empress dowager, who had never been involved in affairs of state, also came out to reprimand the emperor, thinking that he had acted too hastily this time. Since the founding of the Dajing Dynasty, there had never been a case of appointing a person who had not even reached the age of twenty as Grand Marshal. Wasn't this nonsense?

However, in response to the empress dowager's rebuke, the emperor gave a seemingly impeccable reason.

"Gu Fengyue was able to turn the tide in the battle of Haihe, recapture the two cities of Dajing, drive the barbarians out of the border, and kill the Turkic prince. Apart from Gu Fengyue, who else in the court can have such achievements? If I don't let him be the Grand Marshal, then who else do you think is worthy of the position of Grand Marshal?"

The Queen Mother was so angry that she smashed the teacup in her hand. "Asshole, are you questioning me? So what if he has Gu's army? Can he rebel against us?"

The emperor said in a deep voice: "Mother, be careful with your words."

"Mr. Gu has a great reputation throughout his life. Please don't disappoint them, mother."

The Queen Mother was choked by these words and almost couldn't breathe. At the end, she didn't forget to remind the Emperor: "How do I know that my son is not the next Zhu Chengyu?"

When it comes to Zhu Chengyu, the emperor is somewhat disdainful.

"The Zhu family was once glorious, but it was ruined by their descendants. The late emperor saw that Zhu Chengyu was a fool, so he divided the military power into two. Otherwise, how do you think the Gu family army came from?"

The empress dowager had no idea that there were so many twists and turns behind this. Looking at the stubborn emperor, she could only sigh softly.

"Forget it. You have a strong opinion and I can't argue with you. I just hope you didn't make a mistake this time."

The emperor did not comment, but bowed respectfully and left.

Even the imperial harem was opposed to it, not to mention the old ministers of the previous dynasty. They all thought that Gu Fengyue did not have enough experience and was too young, and that it would be difficult for him to win the support of the people at such a young age.

Of course, those who said these words were all civil officials. Although the military generals had mixed opinions about Gu Fengyue, overall there were more praises than criticisms.

However, no matter how much those old ministers objected, Gu Fengyue still took over the seal of the commander-in-chief and became the youngest Grand Marshal of the Da Jing Dynasty.

After Gu Fengyue became the Grand Marshal, the first thing the Marquis' Mansion did was to move for him. In Gu Fengyun's words, the child had grown up, the marriage had been decided, and the official position had been obtained, so he couldn't continue to share a house with his brother, so they quickly hung a plaque of the Grand Marshal's Mansion on the newly renovated house.

As the youngest Grand Marshal of the Da Jing Dynasty, the old ministers did not think highly of Gu Fengyue, but the younger ministers admired him very much. As far as recovering lost territory was concerned, at least Gu Fengyue could drive away the barbarians, while the waste Zhu Chengyu could only escape from the battlefield.

After Zhu Chengyu was deposed, the emperor confiscated the assets of several ministers one after another. These people had more or less been involved with the Li and Zhu families. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the emperor simply uprooted them all.

The theft of grain seeds was actually also the work of the Zhu family, but the Zhu family did not take the initiative and only let the Li family lead the charge. The emperor had no evidence to overthrow the Zhu family, so he could only clip the Zhu family's wings first. The reason why Zhu Chengyu was spared was only because his grandfather and father had made great contributions to Dajing and the people, otherwise this idiot would have been dragged out and tortured to death long ago.

Gu Fengyue didn't expect that the Zhu family was actually involved in the theft of grain seeds. He was very surprised when Gu Fengyun told him about it.

"If Zhu Chengyu hadn't intervened in this matter, the emperor probably wouldn't have killed him and directly deposed him from his position as Grand Marshal. Isn't this just trampling on the face of the Zhu family?"

Gu Fengyun smiled faintly: "What dignity does the old Zhu family have? He has already ruined it. Although Zhu Chengyu is useless, there are a few capable children and grandchildren under him. It's really strange. I don't know if there is something wrong with the feng shui of the Zhu family. Zhu Chengyu's generation is all useless, but the grandchildren of the next generation have the demeanor of their great-grandfather and grandfather."

As soon as Gu Fengyue, the Grand Marshal, took office, he received countless congratulations and invitations to banquets. Gu Fengyue was impatient to participate in these social activities and declined them all. Every day he rushed back and forth between the military camp, the Marquis' Mansion, and the Song family. He didn't even have time to take a look at his new house.

Song Chunlin was very interested, but due to the many things to do at the end of the year, he couldn't spare the time.

As the New Year was approaching, in order to reward the three thousand archers, the Song family contributed all the fat pigs they had raised for a year. The Song family had gained some experience in growing sweet potatoes in recent years. Every year, they reserved one acre of sweet potato land for raising pigs. The twenty pigs were raised to be fat and strong, and they could produce a lot of meat.

Of course, the twenty pigs alone were not enough for the consumption of three thousand young men. Song Chunlin had to add twenty sheep. These three thousand people were really big eaters. One tenth of the frozen meat stored in his space was consumed in less than half a year. Song Chunlin was both happy and worried.

The good news is that part of the inventory in the space has been cleared out, and a large space can be freed up to store things. The worry is that these people eat so much, and how big a business must be needed to withstand the consumption of these hungry wolves.

For this reason, Song Chunlin went to ask Gu Fengyue and General Lin for advice. General Lin didn't care. His family's paper mill never had to worry about lack of business. And relying on the reputation of his ancestors, those literati and poets loved to buy their paper the most. It seemed that by using the same paper as the great scholars, they could also write beautiful articles like the great scholars.

However, General Lin had to support quite a few soldiers, so he usually borrowed from Peter to pay Paul. If that didn't work, he would ask his family to cover the cost. Anyway, his life motto was to eat his way to death as long as he could.

Song Chunlin and Gu Fengyue looked at each other and both felt that asking General Lin was an extremely wrong decision.

Gu Fengyue thought about the huge assets of the Marquis' Mansion, which seemed to have considerable annual income. However, the number of Gu's army was so large that they had to be self-sufficient in most cases.

"We are almost self-sufficient now. My family has so many fields. If we give all the harvested food to them, it will be enough for a year."

Gu Fengyue counted for him, then shook his head: "No, not enough."

Song Chunlin was dumbfounded: "What's not enough?"

"If we calculate based on one kilogram of food per person per day, that's three thousand kilograms for three thousand people, three hundred thousand kilograms for one hundred days, and almost one million kilograms of food per year. This is based on the minimum requirement. Although your family's output is very high, it is far from enough to fully feed them."

Song Chunlin continued to be dumbfounded. When he spoke again, his lips had begun to tremble slightly: "So, I have to spend one million kilograms of food every year to feed them?"

"Yes."

"One pound a day, is that the minimum standard?"

"About the same. Considering the intensity of the soldiers' training, one pound a day is actually a bit too little."

"Is it still too little? One pound of grain cooked into food should weigh at least two pounds. Even my pigs don't dare to eat two pounds of staple food a day."

Gu Fengyue sighed and reminded him: "But your pigs don't run around the foot of the mountain carrying a bunch of things every day, do they?"

"Uh……"

It seems to be true. Sometimes Song Chunlin would give them extra training on a whim, and after each extra training, these animals would eat more than usual.

Song Chunlin realized at this moment that the dog emperor gave these animals to him to raise just because he could not afford to raise them. He happily drove them to help him raise them, and not only that, but also fed them with sumptuous fish and meat. He was wondering why the herd of animals ate up one-tenth of the meat that his own people had not eaten in several years in just half a year!