Chapter 935 Baiyun Lake Farmhouse
Zhu Yijun waved his hands and said, “Let’s go find a farm worker and go to his house to have a chat.”

Yu Dafu stepped forward and said, “Your Majesty, it is the busy farming season now, and workers young and old have all gone to work in the fields, so there are usually few people at home.

I have selected two households where there are elderly people in their seventies who stay at home.

I beg Your Majesty to visit these two families.”

Zhu Yijun had previously issued an edict, saying that there was no need to make special preparations, and that they should proceed as usual. However, he knew that there must be something fishy going on with these two families who had elderly people in their 70s left behind.

Maybe all the good things from the neighbors’ homes were moved to these two families, and the place where the two old people stayed might not necessarily be their home.

But Zhu Yijun remained calm, nodded, and signaled Yu Dafu to lead the way.

Walking along the path in the field, the fishy smell of the soil on both sides has been soaked by spring water and is particularly fresh.

The grass and wild flowers that had just emerged not long ago seized this great opportunity and grew wildly.

Zhu Yijun and his group walked in a long line on the muddy road that was less than one meter wide.

“Second sister, look at these flowers, they are so beautiful!”

“Brother, the flowers over there are beautiful, help me pick a few.”

In the middle of the team, Zhu Xuanni had the loudest voice, like a cheerful lark, chirping non-stop on the branches.

Zhu Yijun looked back and saw that Zhu Xuanni had pulled out a bunch of long grass from somewhere, tied it into a ring, inserted many wild flowers on it, and then wore it on her head proudly.

Zhu Xuanni, wearing a wreath, looked around, put her hands on her waist, pointed at Zhu Changhao, Zhu Xuanwan and Zhu Changhan and said: “Now, I am your king.”

The three princes and princesses bowed with a smile, “Yes, yes, the eldest sister is our king.”

The faces of the people around him changed slightly. Zhu Yijun heard it but did not take it seriously.

After a while, there were sudden cries of surprise from behind, followed by Zhu Xuanwan’s scream, and the anxious shouts of Zhu Changhao and Zhu Changhan, but their shouts sounded like gloating.

“What’s wrong?” Zhu Yijun asked.

Yang Jinshui replied: “Your Majesty, my elder sister fell into the field next to us and has been pulled out. She was just covered in mud.”

Zhu Yijun laughed and waved his hand, “This is the price she pays for her arrogance.”

At this time, Zhu Xuanni’s voice came, “Haha, not bad, not bad. As the saying goes, spring rain is as precious as oil. I rolled in this oil pool today, and it was not in vain.”

He shouted again from a distance.

“Father, I rolled in the mud. Does that count as being down to earth?”

Zhu Yijun replied without even turning his head: “You are quite down to earth.”

“Hehe, thank you, father.”

Along the way, we saw farmers busy with spring ploughing in a tense and orderly manner. They seemed to have been told to focus on farming and not worry about anything else.

Or maybe they originally only cared about farming and nothing else.

A group of people walked by, just stood in the field, looked up, and then continued to do what they were supposed to do.

At the intersection of a field road, there is an open lawn, about thirty or forty meters in radius. A simple wooden pavilion was built with four long wooden strips used as benches.

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said, “Lord Rudong and Lord Fengpan are old, sit down and take a rest. There is still a long way to go, so we are not in a hurry.”

The attendants took out the stools they carried with them, spread them out and placed them inside and around the pavilion for everyone to sit on.

After Zhu Yijun sat down, he turned around and talked about an important event.

“The Imperial Astronomical Observatory officially promulgated a new calendar, the Wanli New Datong Calendar, which was officially implemented throughout the Ming Dynasty on the first day of this year.

The Datong Calendar of the Guo Dynasty was actually the Shoushi Calendar of the previous Yuan Dynasty, which took 365.2425 days as one year and was very accurate.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu used the Shoushi calendar as the Datong calendar. However, after two or three hundred years, there were always errors due to the accumulation of time.

During the early years of the Jiajing reign, the Emperor issued an edict to correct the errors and promulgated a revised version.

During the Longqing period, I issued an edict to the Imperial Observatory to thoroughly correct the errors.

They sent out more than a dozen astronomical survey teams to all directions.

It extends to the North Sea (Lake Baikal) and the Ice and Fire Ocean (Arctic Ocean) in the north, to Port Aden (Port Aden), Dragon Blood Tree Island (Socotra Island), Malin (Malindi) and Manbala (Mombasa) in the west, to Yanzhou Island, Dingzhou Island, Fuzhu Island (Tasnia) southeast of Dingzhou Island, and Guixu Island (New Zealand) further east, and to Genzhou Shangzhou, Yaozhou (Mexico), Rushou Islands, and Xunzhou Daifang County in the east.

It took ten years to use advanced instruments to survey and map the celestial phenomena in these places, to determine the data, and to thoroughly revise the “Shushi Calendar”. Finally, in the tenth year of the Wanli reign, the “New Datong Calendar” was formulated.

Zhu Yijun solemnly explained to Xu Zhenming: “In addition to unifying the years, months, days and times, the calendar in our country is more importantly closely related to farming.

But the calendar is dead, and climate change is unpredictable.

The Imperial Astronomical Observatory established the Weather Bureau in the third year of the Wanli reign. In the fifth year of the Wanli reign, it merged with the Navy’s Meteorological Forecast Bureau to form a new Meteorological Bureau. Its responsibilities were to monitor the weather in various places, use scientific and technological means, analyze past data, and predict future weather.

It is very difficult to understand God’s temper.

However, with the development of science and technology, after knowing data such as air pressure, monsoon, temperature and humidity, meteorological monitoring and forecasting have gradually developed. In particular, the invention of wired telegraph and wireless telegraph has brought weather forecasting to a new level.

During the five months of summer and autumn last year, the radio station of the Nanhai Regional Command promptly sent four typhoon warning telegrams to Guangzhou. After receiving them, Guangzhou promptly transmitted them to Guangxi, Guangdong, Fujian and Zhejiang, thus avoiding three major losses.

This victory is a huge breakthrough.”

Zhu Yijun said in a serious tone: “Mr. Rudong, you are in charge of agriculture in the cabinet. You should pay attention to the construction of weather forecasting. Its short, medium and long-term forecasts are crucial to agriculture!
In the new era of Wanli, our requirement for agriculture is no longer to rely on the weather as before, but to develop agriculture through science and technology.

What is the science and technology to promote agriculture? It is not only about the various agricultural science institutes cultivating high-quality agricultural varieties, mechanized farming and grazing, but also about weather forecasting, which is also an important part of the science and technology to promote agriculture. “

Xu Zhenming nodded solemnly: “Your Majesty’s instructions, I will keep them in mind.”

Zhu Yijun stood up and clapped his hands: “Okay, let’s continue.”

After walking for another ten minutes, the group arrived at another residential area, which belonged to the Sixth Production Team.

The layout here is the same as that of the Seventh Production Team.

Yu Dafu led Zhu Yijun and his party to a farmhouse, which had six large brick and tile houses, bright and spacious. In the middle was the main hall and the back house, with two suites on the left and two suites on the right.

The kitchen and toilet are built on the walls on both sides.

A white-haired old man was sitting on the yard in front of the main room, basking in the sun comfortably.

Seeing Yu Dafu and his group coming in, he stood up tremblingly with the help of a cane and shouted, “Yu Dafu, are you here to distribute relief supplies again?
What did you bring, grain or oil? It’s too much, you should bring a piece of flowered cloth.”

“Mr. Chen, the emperor is visiting your house on his southern tour.” “Are you out of cloth from Shanghai in the south? Tianjin in the north will do, too.”

“I mean, the emperor, His Majesty, has come to your house in person.”

“How old are you? I’m seventy-six this year.”

Yu Dafu was so anxious that he was sweating all over his forehead. He blamed his subordinates for finding such an old man. He read the answers randomly and no one could handle it.

Zhu Yijun interrupted him, “It’s okay, let the old man sit here in the sun, we will look around.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Yu Dafu had no choice but to take Zhu Yijun and his party into the main hall.

In the middle of the main hall is a shrine with a red sticker in the middle with “Heaven, Earth, Emperor, Parents, and Teachers” written in the middle, “The Five Great Emperors save the world from suffering and disasters” written on the left, and “The spirits of the Chen family’s ancestors are above” written on the right.

There was a wooden board in front of the shrine, on which was a small copper incense burner with three incense sticks that had already burned out.

Above the shrine, there is a color-printed portrait.

It was the portrait of Zhu Yijun wearing the Yishan crown and standing at Chengtian Gate, accepting congratulations from the military and civilians. He looked dignified and powerful.

The colors are bright and lifelike.

Everyone looked at each other in silence, waiting for Zhu Yijun’s final words.

Zhu Yijun nodded, “I never thought that the printing technology of the country has developed to this point. Color printing, the picture quality is so delicate, and the colors are so bright. It’s a bit magical.”

Zhang Siwei stepped forward and replied, “I heard from the people in the printing factory that it was mainly because the chemical industry in the country was developing rapidly, printing pigments were emerging in an endless stream, and the Precision Machinery Research Institute invented the roller offset press.

It is said that the pattern is first transferred from the printing plate to the rubber cloth of the impression cylinder, and then printed on the paper. The printing quality is very different, but it is more expensive.

However, no matter how expensive it is, it is worth it to use it to print the emperor’s portrait. Even so, it cannot express even a fraction of the love that the people of the Ming Dynasty have for the emperor.”

He was in charge of the Civilization Construction Committee, and the most common thing he dealt with was printing, including printing books, newspapers and magazines, and propaganda papers.
Zhu Yijun glanced at Zhang Siwei and smiled, “Mr. Feng Pan is very familiar with the business, and he is really dedicated to his duties.”

“Your Majesty, thank you for the compliment.”

After the emperor and his ministers’ performance, everyone knew that the emperor agreed to hang up the imperial portrait in every unit and household.

Because in the previous concept, it was okay to paint portraits of strangers, but hanging up portraits of strangers was somewhat taboo.

If the emperor has no taboos, then what else can his subjects say?

Yang Jinshui and Pan Yinglong, the close ministers who were familiar with Zhu Yijun’s temper, looked at each other tacitly and knew what was going on.

One of the important tasks of the emperor’s inspection tour to the south this time is to “delegate power” and delegate some of the power.

While delegating power, he did not mind making his own prestige higher among the people.

This is the emperor’s style of doing things. If he lets go of some things, he can always get some of them back from somewhere else.

Just like his grandfather, Emperor Sejong, he is not someone who is willing to suffer loss.

On the wall behind the shrine portrait, there is a door on the left, which leads to a storeroom.

Inside, there was a cement granary, with wheat piled up on the left. Outside, there were two large jars filled with snow-white flour.

“We have four water-powered mills on our farm, and that’s where this flour is ground.”

“Do you charge money?”

“Of course we have to charge for the daily maintenance of the mill and the workers inside. But the fees charged to the employees are half the price of those outside.”

Zhu Yijun pointed at two jars of flour and said to Wang Zongzai and Chen Dake, “Governor Wang, Governor Chen, there is a lot of room for the flour mill. With industrialized production, the greater the output, the cheaper the cost. It is cheaper than if the people spend money to grind the flour themselves.”

At that time, they would rather sell some of the wheat and buy flour directly from the flour mill, which is more cost-effective and convenient. “

Wang Zongzai and Chen Dake nodded in agreement.

Next to the two jars of flour were two jars of oil, both of which were rapeseed oil. There were also two jars of soybeans and one jar of millet.
A warehouse was packed full.

Zhu Yijun nodded with satisfaction, turned around and returned to the main room, where he found a brand new bicycle parked behind the open door.

A Mustang 70 model bicycle produced by Tianjin Bicycle Factory.

The family is well off and can actually afford a bicycle.

Turning around again, I saw a row of award certificates on the opposite wall, and the ones on the right were for children.

The top six students in the final exam of Baiyun Lake No. 1 Primary School and an outstanding student in the second semester of the tenth year of Wanli in Baiyun Lake Middle School.

The ones on the left are for adults, and one of them is for the advanced worker of Baiyun Lake Farm in the tenth year of Wanli.

Looking at the bicycle on the opposite side, Zhu Yijun asked Yu Dafu: “Is this the award for the outstanding worker of the year?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Baiyun Lake Farm is not as good as the factories and mines in Tianjin. Although there is no worry about food and clothing, there is definitely not as much spare money as in the factories and mines, so there are no more than 50 households on the farm who are willing to spend money to buy bicycles.

At the beginning of the first month of this year, the farm held an annual summary meeting and specially purchased ten Mustang bicycles from Tianjin to award to the ten advanced workers selected last year, and the eldest brother of the Chen family was one of them. “

“Does he have a sewing machine at home?”

“some.

Your Majesty, on our farm, sewing machines are more popular than bicycles, because you can buy floral fabrics and make clothes for your family yourself, without having to go out and pay someone to make them, or buy them from a clothing store.”

As Yu Dafu spoke, he pushed open the door on the left. Inside was a suite. Outside, near the window on the front wall of the room, there was a sewing machine. The head of the machine was retracted under the table, on which a piece of cloth was spread flat. It was shorter than the desk next to it and was also a small desk.

Against the inner wall stood a large bed with a large mosquito net hanging over it.

There is a door next to the bed, and there is another room inside.

It seems that the outer room is where the children live, and the inner room is where Mr. Chen and his wife live.

Zhu Yijun took a look at the outer door, waved his hand to signal everyone to go out and close the door.

“This is someone’s bedroom, a private place, we shouldn’t pry into it.”

After hearing this, Yu Dafu hurriedly left the room and closed the door behind him.

On the left side of the yard, in front of the kitchen, there are two small brick houses with locked wooden doors.

Zhu Yijun pointed and asked, “What are these two rooms used for?”

(End of this chapter)