Chapter 223 Letter
Grandma quickly protected Gu Jiayue behind her, "Does the officer have any instructions?"
Chen Yamen rushed to say, "Don't be afraid, old man. Our county magistrate has something to tell me to tell Miss Gu."
Seeing Chen Yayi's attitude, Grandma breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he wasn't causing any trouble, that was good.
Gu Jiayue was out and about in public all day long, and she refused to wear men's clothes. Her grandmother was really worried every day, fearing that something might happen to her.
Gu Jiayue walked out from behind her grandmother and bowed to Chen the yamen runner. "What do you want to tell me, sir?"
The yamen runner Chen quickly dodged to the side. He then pulled out a letter from his pocket. "This is what the county magistrate asked me to give to the young lady."
Gu Jiayue took the letter, which had "Zhao Rong's personal letter" written on it.
She held the letter and was stunned for a long time before she realized that Zhaorong was her pen name.
When a noblewoman of the Dagan clan reached the age of 15, her family elders would give her a Chinese character, which showed how much they valued and loved her.
However, women's characters are different from men's characters and are rarely mentioned. They are usually only used in marriages or letters. On weekdays, elders or close friends at home are more accustomed to calling their children by their first names.
After all, I've been calling it that since I was a child, so it's familiar and a habit.
Seeing Gu Jiayue accept the letter, Chen Yayi continued, "Tomorrow we will be collecting taxes in the neighboring Xinghua Village. If you want to reply to the county magistrate, you can send someone to find me in Xinghua Village."
"Okay, thank you for troubling Chen Yayi."
Gu Jiayue hadn't read the letter yet, so naturally she wasn't sure whether to reply.
She didn't know what Zheng Qinghe was up to. The last time they met, he hadn't mentioned anything about the engagement or his love for her, so she'd assumed he'd let it go. Now, he'd written another letter that was misleading.
No one misunderstood?
Haha, you didn’t see the gossipy looks in the eyes of Chen Yayi and grandma.
When we got home, grandma took my aunt to the village chief's house to help prepare lunch.
Gu Jiayue took out the letter and opened it to read.
After a quick look, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, fortunately it’s not a love letter.
In the letter, Zheng Qinghe wrote about his development plan for Annan County. He wanted to ask Gu Jiayue for her opinion to see if there was anything he needed to add.
Seeing that it was serious business, Gu Jiayue naturally did not dare to slack off, but read the letter twice more and circled the key points with a red pen.
As the poorest prefecture in Dagan, Juzhou faces many factors that limit its development, including harsh geographical conditions, weak economic foundation, backward culture and education, unstable political situation, and insufficient financial and policy support.
Juzhou Prefecture is one of the few special provinces among the traditional "Eighteen Provinces of Han Area" whose entire territory is made up of mountains, hills and basins. It is said to be "eight mountains, one water and one piece of land".
This terrain makes transportation extremely inconvenient and communication with the outside world difficult, greatly restricting the flow of people, materials and information.
The land resources are scarce, natural disasters occur frequently, the chieftains are powerful, and conflicts among ethnic minorities are prominent.
With so many problems created, it is a bit of a pipe dream for Zheng Qinghe to solve the current predicament of Annan County by his own efforts and make it develop.
Moreover, many of the plans he listed are not suitable for Juzhou at all, and even less suitable for Annan County.
But considering he had a father who was the Prince's tutor, a grandfather who had many students all over the country, and he himself was this year's top scholar, it wasn't impossible to give it a try, right?
Gu Jiayue took out some more paper and started writing a new plan.
First, we must improve transportation. After all, practice has proven that the policy of building roads first in order to become wealthy is correct. Then, we must vigorously develop water transportation. Although navigable rivers within Juzhou are limited, some can still be utilized. In this situation, we must utilize all available resources.
Secondly, we must vigorously promote agricultural development. While Juzhou may be nothing but mountains, each mountain has its own merits. Juzhou's vast mountains also offer unique treasures not found in other prefectures. Its specialty agricultural products are abundant and diverse, encompassing grain crops, cash crops, livestock products, and traditional Chinese medicine.
For example, buckwheat from Weining County.
In Gu Jiayue's modern life, Weining, a region known as the "Buckwheat Town," boasts a long history of buckwheat cultivation, producing a naturally pollution-free crop. The local bitter buckwheat is so nutritious that Weining buckwheat pastries, made with it as the primary ingredient, were once considered tribute during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
As for rice, the few plains and river valleys in Juzhou boast abundant water resources and fertile soil, making them ideal for rice cultivation. For example, the rice produced in Meitan is of excellent quality and has a soft, glutinous texture. While Annan County isn't particularly well suited to rice cultivation, if hybrid rice could be planted entirely, the annual harvest would be significantly higher than in previous years.
If you want to make money in Juzhou, tea is naturally indispensable.
Juzhou tea boasts a long history, having been renowned as early as the Tang Dynasty. During the Ming Dynasty, over 20 varieties of Juzhou tea were presented to the imperial court as tribute teas. Among them, Yunwu tea, produced in Yunwu Mountain, Guiting County, was a tribute tea from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the late Qing Dynasty, earning it the reputation of "Queen" of the tea family and "the finest tea." Meitan tea also made its mark in Ming history, with tea produced along the banks of the Meijiang River being particularly renowned.
Gu Jiayue had previously investigated and found that the soil in Annan County was very suitable for growing tea. Therefore, if Annan wanted to develop, growing tea was one of the fastest ways.
When mentioning Juzhou, everyone’s first reaction will be to think of Juzhou’s black goats.
The black goats of Juzhou are known for their ability to tolerate roughage, strong adaptability, tender meat, and minimal mutton odor. Their fur can also be used to make clothing.
Gu Jiayue had investigated before. Annan County has many mountains, but there are almost no tall forests on the mountains. There are only low shrubs and patches of weeds.
This kind of ecology is very suitable for raising black goats.
Finally, it was time to plant medicinal herbs. The climate in Juzhou was particularly suitable for the growth of Gastrodia elata and Eucommia ulmoides. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, when Gu Jiayue lived, these two herbs were not only tributes, but were also exported overseas.
So it is true that Juzhou is poor, but it is also true that it is rich.
It’s just that the people of Juzhou are overwhelmed by life every day and have no time or motivation to create other value.
Of course, it’s not enough to just plant these things. What if you can’t sell them?
So we still have to develop business, go out and bring in.
There's a large river in Annan County that flows through the Juzhou capital and into Xiangzhou. So we can capitalize on this river and use the dock to ship our goods out.
But it’s not enough to just send it out, we have to bring it in.
What are they attracting? Naturally, it's the merchants outside. People look down on merchants for their pursuit of profit, but they are indispensable to every aspect of our lives, and the development of our country also depends on them.
Therefore, we must improve the status of merchants, reduce their business taxes, and guarantee their safety, so that they will voluntarily bring back the goods from Juzhou.
But we can't rely entirely on outside merchants. We also have to make use of our local merchants... No, we also have to take care of them a little.
To organize markets and temple fairs, let’s start with the street stall economy.
While developing the economy, we must not forget education.
We also need to strengthen ethnic integration and deal with the various chieftains.
.......
Gu Jiayue was busy writing. Grandma Gu had already returned from the village chief's house and had been working for half a day. She was getting anxious when she saw Gu Jiayue still hadn't come out.
Could it be that the county magistrate wrote something extraordinary?
Grandma knocked on Gu Jiayue's door anxiously.
Gu Jiayue came back to her senses when she heard a knock on the door. She looked to her left and saw that the plan she had written was spread out.
"Jiayue, Jiayue, are you okay?"
Gu Jiayue quickly put down her pen and went to open the door. "Grandma, is there something wrong?"
Grandma looked the man up and down and found that there was nothing wrong with him, so she felt relieved.
"I met Doctor Lin on my way back just now. He said that he and Doctor Fu have almost figured out the solution and can take your second brother there to detoxify him anytime."
Note: There are historical records of women being given Chinese characters. The Book of Rites, Volume 1, states: "A woman was given a Chinese character after she was betrothed and wore a hairpin." This indicates that according to the etiquette of ancient society, it was customary for a woman to be given a Chinese character after she was betrothed and held a hairpin ceremony. This Chinese character was widely used in social settings, especially at important occasions like marriages.
For example, Wang Zhaojun, one of the four great beauties of ancient China, was known by her courtesy name, Wang Qiang. The famous poet Li Qingzhao was known by her courtesy name, Yi'an.
However, there are very few women's names that have been passed down in history, and there are many factors involved.
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