My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 29 You always have to pay back if you come out to fool around

During the days when Zhuge Jin was in seclusion taking care of housework, Sun Qian's work of encouraging farmers was promoted very well.

Sun Qian is not good at coming up with strange ideas, but his execution ability is good.

The day after making the decision, he organized an "exhibition" at the canal dock in the east of Guangling City.

He invited local dignitaries to observe the navy fishing and selling fish, so as to enhance the credibility of the technology he wanted to promote.

In order to keep the technical details confidential, Sun Qian had his soldiers set up a cordon in advance and only showed the final harvest stage.

However, such an operation inevitably made the gentry who attended the appointment more nervous and whispered to each other.

They had originally thought that the Lord was short of money and food and had to pay for it again. They all came to the appointment in tattered clothes so that they could cry poor and act pitiful.

There were also two old men with white beards in the group of gentry. They were very conspicuous, and people bowed to them wherever they went. They were obviously the patriarchs of wealthy families in the county.

Soon, they started chatting: "How is Lord Wei these days? You recaptured Guangling a few days ago, and your clan didn't suffer any damage from the war, right?"

Another person replied, "Fortunately, Liu Xun escaped, Liu Ye did not dare to fight in the streets, and the envoy was kind and righteous and did not harass the people. Otherwise, it would be like the previous year, and I'm afraid I would be skinned alive if I didn't die.

How is Bu Gong doing? I heard that Ji Ling has been besieging Huaiyin for more than ten days. Has Guan Yu forcibly seized the grain in your mansion? "

The two of them talked to each other for a while and felt a sense of sympathy.

It turned out that one of them was named Wei Hui, a famous wealthy man in Guangling County, and the other was named Bu Long, a wealthy man in Huaiyin County.

A few years ago, they were all very rich, with vast fertile fields and mulberry gardens and a large population. But the year before last, they were severely damaged by the disaster of Zuo Rong, with a sharp decline in population and all their savings robbed. Fortunately, their fields could not be robbed, so they were able to recover slowly.

This year, Liu Bei and Yuan Shu went to war again, and the landlords were even more worried. Many young people in the clan fled to Jiangdong, but the old and weak were reluctant to leave their hometown and stayed there to manage the business.

As they chatted, the topic soon turned to Liu Bei's persuasion to farmers. Wei Hui first asked:
"This Sun has been advocating the planting of winter mustard for seven or eight days. I heard that he will demonstrate his magic method again today. Does Lord Bu plan to let the tribesmen respond to the call?"

Bu Long shook his head helplessly: "I have never heard of this method of winter mustard in my old age. After hearing Sun Gongshi's propaganda, I sent people across the river to find out whether it was true or not.

Yesterday I received a reply letter from my nephew Zhier who moved to Wu County, saying that there are indeed people in the area who farm in this way, but most of them are in the vicinity of Taihu Lake, where the weather is warm and humid in winter.

He also said in the letter that Jiangdong is now sparsely populated, and many of the great families have been displaced because of Sun Ce's battle with Xu Gong. If they want to cultivate land in a warm winter, it would be better to move the whole family there..."

Upon hearing this, Wei Hui also expressed his deep agreement: "Some of my clan members have also escaped the river. In my opinion, we can't afford to suffer so much. It's better to wait and see for a year. If others can grow these new things successfully this winter, we can learn some skills and then follow suit next year."

After a while, everyone seemed to be determined. "No matter how Sun Qian persuaded them, they just wanted to wait and see and watch others test the waters."

Just as everyone was discussing, there was a commotion at the bank of the Han Canal River ahead, and countless people exclaimed. Wei, Bu and others also went closer to check.

"Look! Lots of sea bass!"

"What kind of fishing method is this? How can there be such a large number of sea bass caught in one net? It's unbelievable!"

"Even if we were to hang sea bass on the bones, there wouldn't be that many, right? This net should hold at least 200 kilograms!"

Wei Hui and Bu Long were also stunned, and other gentry in the county had the same reaction.

"Mr. Bu, could this be fake?" Wei Hui's face was full of disbelief.

Bu Long frowned and denied it decisively: "It's impossible. How can it be fake? Look at these big fish caught in the net. They are either sea bass, bluegill, or carp. It seems that Sun is engaged in this fishing method to specialize in big bottom-diving fish. It's really unheard of."

After all, he is quite old and has lived in the Jianghuai water town for generations. He has rich life experience and naturally knows that it has been easy to catch snorkeling fish since ancient times, while bottom fish are generally valuable.

It is not that there were no bottom fish catchers in the Han Dynasty, but they were not caught with fishing nets. Instead, they relied on fishing, one by one.

While they were shocked, Sun Qian had already struck while the iron was hot and started selling his catch.

As if to prove that it was easy for the government to catch these fish and that the yield was high, Sun Qian deliberately set a very low price and allowed everyone to buy.

This is obviously the best way to dispel people's doubts. Because money is the only thing that will not deceive people.
If something can be sold at a low price all the time, it proves that the producer has definitely mastered new technology that greatly increases production efficiency, otherwise it would not be able to survive by relying on counterfeit subsidies.

While Sun Qian was promoting, he also noticed Bu Long and Wei Hui in the crowd, so he came over to greet them personally:

"Lord Bu, Lord Wei, I heard that your clan also suffered a great loss this year. This new method of fishing nets was also conceived by the envoy who asked the ingenious people to benefit the people. Your clans are large, wouldn't you consider supporting us?"

Of course they would not object to buying cheap perch, because it was a good deal. Bu Long and Wei Hui each bought a hundred rare large fish, as well as dozens of stones of ordinary-sized fish.

According to the price offered by Sun Qian, extra-large sea bass weighing more than seven or eight kilograms are indeed rare and precious, and are the top delicacy for folk banquets, so each kilogram should be equivalent to the price of at least ten kilograms of white rice. Generally, one or two fish are worth a stone of rice.

Other small ones are much cheaper, with an average of three or four pounds of rice for one pound of sea bass.

The worst small fish are cheaper than white rice. Three catties of white rice can be exchanged for five catties of small fish, or five catties of coarse millet or beans.

In just a quarter of an hour, Sun Qian had sold all of his catch. He exchanged more than 300 dan of fish for more than 1,000 dan of rice.

Selling fish was not Sun Qian's main purpose, so after selling them, he immediately took the two clan leaders Bu and Wei and started to promote the idea of encouraging farmers to grow winter mustard:

"Lord Bu, Lord Wei, you have seen the effect of this method of flowing barbed wire, which is really incredible. This thing and the method of growing winter mustard that I talked about a few days ago were both created by the same great sage.

This great sage had a profound family background in learning. He was well versed in astronomy, geography, medicine, divination and astrology. He also helped the envoy stabilize the morale of the army and defeat Liu Xun. How could anything made by him not be useful?
Please do not doubt any more, let the tribesmen plant winter mustard well this year. Guangling has suffered three years of war and the people are already exhausted. We need to do everything we can to restore the people's strength as soon as possible. The envoy will not harm you."

Sun Qian spoke sincerely and put forward a whole set of systematic rhetoric, emphasizing that these magical objects were all made by the same person, which greatly enhanced his persuasiveness.

The two clan leaders, Bu Long and Wei Hui, finally nodded, expressing their agreement in principle and vowing to go back and persuade their clansmen to grow winter mustard as soon as possible.

After this breakthrough was made, several other powerful families in Huaiyin and Guangling counties also thought that this should be reliable. If the clan members put in more effort, they could probably harvest an extra season of winter vegetables, which was also a small supplement.

After all, the technology that Sun Qian demonstrated today was far beyond their imagination. It was at least ten times more efficient than traditional fishing methods. It was a qualitative improvement.

However, Bu Long and Wei Hui were experienced people after all, and they had seen a lot of things. After agreeing in principle, they still asked Sun Qian a lot of details for peace of mind.

"Sun Gongshi, I appreciate your kindness, but I just want to ask, who is the great sage who helped Liu Shijun and is proficient in astronomy and geography? Is he from Guangling? I have been in Guangling for many years, and I have never heard of such a talented person in the local area."

Sun Qian knew that if he didn't explain this issue clearly, the other party would not be completely relieved, so he thought about it and whispered in his ear: "I dare not hide it from Lord Bu. This great sage is indeed not from Guangling. It's not surprising that you haven't heard of him, but he is indeed from Xuzhou.

That is the eldest son of the Langya Zhuge family, Mr. Ziyu. The previous generation of the Langya Zhuge family, Mr. Jungong and his brother, are also knowledgeable and talented, and hold positions in counties and prefectures. Their family has a very deep foundation in astronomy, geography, and military science, so there is no need to worry. "

Wei Hui and some other local elders did not know much about the Zhuge family of Langya. After listening to Sun Qian's bragging, they became more relieved and expressed their willingness to strengthen cooperation with the government.

However, Bu Long was the only one in the crowd who showed a look of surprise and disdain.

But he also knew to save face for Sun Qian, and after Wei Hui and the other elders were sent away, he pulled Sun Qian aside to talk:
"I was wondering who it was, but it turned out to be the work of that brat Zhuge Jin? How could he have such ability? He, my nephew Zhi'er, and Yan Jun from the Yan family in Pengcheng went to Guangling to study together for a year. I have known about this! Aren't their talents and learning equally important?
The day before yesterday, Xi'er wrote me back and asked me to help him find out where Zhuge Jin was. He said that they had agreed to meet in a letter several months ago and that he had found a place to stay in Wujun, but he had not shown up yet. Did Zhuge Jin surrender to Liu Shijun?"

He regarded himself as an elder and never referred to people by their given names. Judging from his words, Zhuge Jin did not seem to be an outstanding celebrity in Guangling County over the past year.

Sun Qian had never been to Guangling before, so of course he didn't know Zhuge Jin's past reputation in the local area.

After listening to the local elders' discussion, I realized that they seemed to know more about Mr. Tzuyu.

"So Mr. Ziyu has so many unknown pasts? In that case, should we inform him and let him contact his old classmates like Bu Zhi and Yan Jun?

And from what Elder Bu said, his nephew and Yan Jun are actually as talented and famous as Mr. Ziyu? They are at least learned men, should we recommend them to the Lord..."

Sun Qian didn't know that these people's understanding of Zhuge Jin all came from the troubles caused by the original owner of Zhuge Jin's physical body before he traveled through time.

The so-called Bu Zhi and Yan Jun are on the same level of talent as Zhuge Jin, but that is compared with the original Zhuge Jin. If the current Zhuge Jin is compared with them, those guys would have been completely defeated long ago.

Out of caution, Sun Qian decided to report what he had learned to his lord first and let his lord make the decision.

(End of this chapter)