Chapter 186 185. Be careful, I might hurt you if I get too strong
It's a very hindsight act.
But in terms of gaining a good reputation and deceiving the people, it was very effective. At this time, the reputation of the fifth prince in the streets and markets rose sharply, far surpassing that of other princes.
Not only did scholars write poems and lyrics to praise the Fifth Prince, but the incident of the Fourth Prince of Nanjiang besieging the city and trapping the people two years ago was also brought up and criticized in anger. The Third Prince was even despised as a beautiful fool, unworthy of his identity as the son of Tianlong.
"If it were a princess who was the most beautiful in the country, she could marry into a foreign country and benefit our Great You Dynasty. But a beautiful but brainless prince is supported by the whole world. How is he any different from a wasting rice grain?"
certainly.
It wouldn't be so straightforward.
But those pedantic and tortuous words were full of sarcasm and mockery, but they did not consider that sending the princess to marry to consolidate the regime was itself an act of incompetence and cowardice.
Emperor Anwu had few descendants.
When he was still a prince, he had only one son and two daughters. After he ascended the throne, he was not greedy for women and was busy with government affairs and rarely went to the harem, so he did not have many newborn princes and princesses.
Up to now, there are only seven princes, twelve princesses, and three noble princes, that is, the emperor's brothers.
——Considering Emperor Anwu’s advanced age and the large number of concubines in the three palaces and six courtyards, he already had relatively few offspring. The emperor with the most offspring in the history of the Dayou Dynasty had more than fifty royal heirs.
However.
The seventh prince was ten years old and was indeed very young. The fourth prince was vicious and infuriating. The third prince was brainless and despised. The second prince betrayed the people during the peace talks and was subjected to endless abuse. The eldest prince died young, which was a pity.
It seems that only the fifth prince is capable of being of great use.
There was a subtle trend among the people and the court to make the fifth prince the crown prince. Even Lei Li and Zhou Yi, who were far away in Sanlihe Village, had heard of it.
The fifth prince immediately became the most popular.
However, Lei Li and Zhou Yi did not comment and just did their own thing.
Summer harvest in June.
The ripe rice in the fields looked like golden-green waves. Fish, ducks, loaches and the like were caught early to prevent them from devouring the rice ears, and they were sold at a good price.
Most of these farm products were sold to the Lei family.
A Sichuan restaurant and a home-cooked restaurant both need fresh and delicious vegetables and meat ingredients, which are usually purchased from the village. However, due to the large quantity, the price given is slightly lower than the market price.
So some families in the village would sell it to save trouble, while some would rather go to the streets to buy it and earn a few more cents per pound.
The Lei family doesn’t care what they choose. What’s more important now is tomatoes.
When the Meng family in Zhongchuan heard that Lei Li and Zhou Yi had discovered a new ingredient - tomato, and after piloting it in Xiling and Baihui, they were showered with praise.
Tomatoes taste like fruit, sour and sweet, not irritating. They can be eaten by the elderly, children, sick and weak people, and can be eaten raw or cooked. They are also easy to carry and have a wider audience than peppers.
The head of the Meng family, Meng Fuguang, had a sharp eye and extraordinary courage. He saw at a glance the huge market for tomatoes and invested hundreds of thousands of taels in them, hoping to promote them nationwide at lightning speed.
——It would be best to reap some rewards this year.
Lei Li acted decisively and quickly closed down the tomato business in Xiling, retaining only a small portion and supplying a limited amount every day to whet the public's appetite. Zhou Yi's more than 20 acres were used as parents for seeds.
The Meng family bought hundreds of acres of fertile land outside Qingmi County and hired a large number of workers to cultivate it.
At the same time, the Meng family purchased a large amount of fertile farmland or wasteland in various cities across the country, and transported a large amount of tomato seeds from Sanlihe Village to plant them simultaneously.
Bing Gaojin hired several villagers from Sanlihe Village who had experience in tomato cultivation and even supported the relocation of their families by providing them with houses.
——Of course, only after those villagers voluntarily signed a twenty-year contract with the Meng family would they be given property and their families resettled.
This is also a means of intimidation. The employer holds the family in his hands, and the employee has to think twice before tearing up the contract and running away, or accepting bribes and betraying the employer.
But for those villagers, this was simply a godsend.
They are older, the youngest is 45 years old, and their physical strength and energy are not as good as those of young people. Apart from farming, they have no special skills and find it difficult to find work to make money.
When working for the Meng family, they have to do their old job - growing vegetables. They don't plant them themselves, but just act as consultants.
The conditions were so good that two of the uncles and aunts suspected fraud. If it weren't for the Lei family acting as a middleman to guarantee it, they wouldn't dare to go.
In short.
The families who were hired happily packed up their things and followed the Meng family fleet to different prefectures. Two or three families with large populations and disagreements took this opportunity to split up.
Those brothers and sisters who are more nostalgic and honest stay in the village, while those who are willing to go to the big city to try their luck will follow their elderly parents.
After hearing this, the other people in the village were either envious or jealous, and a few of Gui Fulang's aunts who usually disliked him were particularly sarcastic.
"Oh, Niu Dacai is so lucky. I am so lucky to have caught the eye of Li Ge'er. Now I have been noticed by the big boss and have gone to Zhongchuan Prefecture!"
"Before, we only knew about Xiling Prefecture. We didn't know there was a Zhongchuan further north. I heard it's much richer and more prosperous than Xiling, and it's full of important people!"
"Unlike us, we've never even left the county. But that's okay. Manager Gui is much more capable than us, but hasn't he also never left the county?"
"Niu San has become rich! He's over 30 years old and can still rely on his father. I heard that he pays him five taels of silver a month! He even gives him a house to live in for free!"
"That's right! We both work in the tomato garden. Manager Gui is still the manager. He does so much work but only gets ten taels of silver a month, and he doesn't even get a share of the house!"
You say one thing and he says another.
Everyone was saying, openly and secretly, that Gui Fulang was just so successful for a while, but he was still not as good as those old guys.
Other people who were "consultants" earning only two or three hundred coins a month have suddenly become able to live in a big city with only five taels of silver, while he is still struggling to make a living in this remote countryside!
Mr. Gui doesn't indulge them.
He cursed back one by one, not comparing himself with those successful people, but just saying that the ten taels of silver he earned a month was better than those who worked day and night but could not save ten taels in a year.
Both sides started arguing.
When Lei Li heard the good news, he just glanced at the man lightly and said with a smile,
"So you want to replace Manager Gui and come here to sow discord or something?"
The person who said that was speechless and left in embarrassment.
At night, when it was just him and Zhou Yi, they would laugh about this.
"I really don't know what they're fighting about. It's their own ability to get to the big city. If they had the skills, wouldn't they be the ones going?"
"They only look at how much money they earn a month and how much they get in the house, without even considering how long the contract is. Twenty years? What's the difference between that and selling yourself?"
Lei Li curled his lips and shook his head, "If it were me, I wouldn't want to work for someone else for twenty years. Who knows what will happen in the future? It would be difficult to leave even if I wanted to."
"The Meng family is kind and will not treat them harshly."
Zhou Yi touched his hair, which was still a little wet, so he took a dry towel and slowly wiped it.
"But it's true. No one can predict what will happen in the future. Going to the big city may seem like a good thing now, but the world is so dazzling. If we can't stick to our original intentions and educate our children well, it might turn out to be a bad thing."
"Everyone has his or her own path, and it's good to be responsible for the choices you make."
"They're not as open-minded as you. It's more painful to see others make money than to lose money yourself."
Lei Li sneered.
Noticing that Zhou Yi had to keep raising his hands to wipe his hair, he lay down and rested his head on Zhou Yi's knees to facilitate Zhou Yi's movements.
Thinking of what happened during the day, he curled his lips again and gloated, "There are also a few uncles who, relying on their good relationship with our father, often talk about vegetable farming with us. They want me to tell the Meng family to go to the provincial capital to work as well."
"But it's not like my dad didn't approach them before when he was looking for consultants for the tomato farm. They just felt the pay wasn't enough and it wasn't worth it for them to stay in the farm all day looking after the tomatoes, so they weren't willing to come."
"Now that he sees that he can go to the provincial capital and there are so many benefits, he comes to persuade his father again. Even the village chief and Niu Ershu have people lobbying him."
"What did Dad say?"
Zhou Yi gathered Lei Li's hair together, rubbed the ends of her hair carefully, and combed it from time to time to straighten her hair and prevent it from getting tangled.
"Of course Dad didn't agree."
Lei Li raised his dark and bright eyes, staring at Zhou Yi's face as he was concentrating on combing his hair. He reached out and touched his chin, and when he saw him dodge slightly, he put his hand back and let him scratch and stroke his chin.
There was a hint of smile in his eyes. He touched Zhou Yi's chin with stubble, touched his sensitive and fragile Adam's apple, and said with a wicked smile,
"Don't hide, or I might hurt you with my strength."
“…”
Zhou Yidi paused and said nothing, but the three words "ruin you" always felt like they had a teasing and ambiguous meaning.
"There's another one, Niu Youtian's father, Uncle Youtian, you know him, right?"
"I know."
"Uncle Youtian wanted this job, but he was too proud to tell my father, so he urged Youtian's mother to tell my mother, but my mother didn't agree to it."
"Uncle Youtian scolded Mother Youtian, thinking she hadn't tried hard enough to persuade him. He was thinking of his daughter who had married into the next village and was unwilling to go to Dafu City."
Lei Li's hand reached out to Zhou Yi's collar, gently lifted the collar, wanting to reach in but not going in, circling his collarbone and neck with his fingertips, lightly scratching, deliberately teasing him.
This made Zhou Yi hide away and he said softly, "Stop making trouble." Lei Li then smiled.
He straightened his body, put his arms around Zhou Yi's neck, and kissed Zhou Yi on the lips.
Seeing Zhou Yi lowering his eyebrows, his expression was restrained, submissive and a little lustful, which made him feel itchy, so he deepened the kiss and made it more lingering and affectionate.
Lei Li panted slightly, sat up, stretched out his long legs and sat on Zhou Yi's legs, hugged his neck and kissed him again, then said,
"Since their parents didn't agree, they went to Liu Xiaocao and Miao Fulang, hoping to save the country in a roundabout way. Unfortunately, Liu Xiaocao and Miao Fulang didn't give them a clear answer."
"Some people in the village say I'm cruel and that I'm deliberately preventing them from making money. I'd rather let people who have no connection with our family go than let relatives go."
"Isn't it funny? When our family was down and out, few people remembered our relatives."
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