Chapter 53

"Your crops are the worst, Wang Lang." Li Feier covered her mouth and chuckled. There was nothing he could do; the Wang family consisted of three people: a 14-year-old, a 9-year-old, and an 8-year-old. The second girl could wash clothes and cook, and Wang Ju was already happy with that. How could he compete with others in terms of labor? The biggest advantage of the "individual household" economy was that the more you worked, the more you earned, which stimulated everyone's enthusiasm for labor, and thus their income increased. But the Wang family was in a tough spot. Wang Ju didn't mind; he still had his shares in Xia Guojian. Besides, by the end of the year, he would go to find a master and leave Wang Family Village. "What should we do? How about this, you help me out." "Sure, how can I help?" "Help me spread the fertilizer." Wang Ju pushed a basket of fermented sheep manure in front of Li Feier. Li Feier looked at the manure and was frightened, her face losing its color. Wang Ju laughed heartily and said, "Miss Li, sit down." Li Feier found a stone and sat down. "Look, my family is very poor." "Mm-hmm." "Do you still want to marry me?" "If the Lady agrees, I agree," Li Feier said, blushing and lowering her head. It wasn't that simple, but Wang Ju thought, what could he explain to a little girl? Anyway, even if she agreed, they wouldn't get married until six years later. By then, passing the imperial examination would be unlikely, but supporting a family wouldn't be hard, right? Li Wan and his siblings didn't stay long and soon returned. With Zhu Jun about to marry the Zhao family's young lady. Without asking Zhu Jun's age, it was just right in Yan Prefecture... "This is Wang Xiaolang's wedding gift to Second Young Master." Zhu Qing took out a piece of yellow vine paper and opened it. The writing was very thin. Zhu Huan didn't pay much attention to this; many poor children couldn't afford writing materials when they were young, so they wrote on sand with sticks, and their handwriting often became thin and dry when they grew up. The most typical examples were Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu's calligraphy. Zhu Huan hadn't seen Ouyang Xiu's calligraphy, but he had seen Fan Zhongyan's. When he followed his father to visit Fan Zhongyan in Yan Prefecture, he saw Fan's writing, and the square, hard, and thin characters left a deep impression on him. Wang Ju's situation was similar to Fan Zhongyan's when he was young, very difficult. Even now, he mostly wrote with sticks and made his younger siblings do the same. Writing materials were too expensive. Even when Wang Ju recorded some insights, he used tiny characters. The writing wasn't too good, but it had improved a lot compared to before. With high intelligence, learning quickly, and rapid improvement in calligraphy was normal. If there was no improvement, it would be abnormal... He didn't pay much attention to the writing, even Wang Ju, to become a calligraphy master, would probably take a long time. What caught his attention was a short poem:

"East wind at night sets a thousand trees ablaze with flowers, and more, like stars, fall in a shower. Fine carriages and fragrant horses fill the road. The sound of the phoenix flute rises, the jade pot's light turns, and fish and dragons dance all night.

Earrings and willow-like gold thread, laughter and whispers, the scent fades away. Among the crowd, I search for her a thousand times, suddenly I turn my head, and there she is, in the dim light of the lanterns."

Wishing the new couple, Second Young Master of the Zhu family and Fourth Young Lady of the Zhao family, a happy marriage. Hearing that Zhu Jun and the Zhao family's young lady were about to get married, Wang Ju was very grateful to the Zhu family. Regardless of whether the Zhu family had invested in him, if they hadn't helped him, what could he do to the Zhu family? So he decided to prepare a gift. But he didn't know what kind of gift would be appropriate. After some thought, he copied this short poem. Perhaps Xin Qiji had his own thoughts with this gentle poem. But when Wang Ju brought it over, the time, place, and people were wrong, so the impression it gave was different. It clearly said that there were many prosperous scenes and beautiful women, but they weren't for Zhu Jun; they would just leave with a faint scent. Only the Zhao family's young lady would be there when he suddenly turned his head. The realm had dropped by at least 70%, but it was still a beautifully written poem. "It's a well-intentioned effort." Zhu Huan was very pleased. Zhu Qing was also very pleased. "Speaking of which, I should thank him..." Zhu Jun had stayed with Wang Ju for half a year. After this half year of refinement, Zhu Jun was no longer the bookworm he used to be. Just by helping the Zhu family cultivate a qualified successor, this favor was immense. Even the Zhao family praised Zhu Jun's transformation. But his son, Zhu Huan, knew that despite Xiangyu disappearing with the fan thief Song Ji for a long time, the young man seemed to have advised her multiple times, yet his son still couldn't forget her. That's why he wrote this short poem. ... "Feier, how is your marriage to that boy?" It was said that Li Feier was born on a clear morning after a rainy night, with the flowers in her family's garden blooming brightly, and the magpies, after a night of rain, were overjoyed and chirping nonstop in the back garden. The weather was good when she was born. Being the youngest in the family, her father gave her a wealthy and beautiful name, Feier. Zhu Huan personally came to propose for Wang Ju, and Li Yuanwai sent people to investigate. It was easy to find out about Wang Ju's situation. The weather was good when Li Feier was born, but it was very bad when Wang Ju was born. His father was conscripted as a soldier, and a heavy snowfall sealed the door, leaving the family in poverty. Wang Ping gave his son the name Wang Ju, not "huge," but "saw." An axe is powerful and can cut a branch in one go, but to cut down a big tree, you need to use a saw, pulling it bit by bit. Thus, with this name, no matter how harsh the environment, he needed the sharpness and resilience of a saw... The Li family didn't consult the eight characters of fate. However, the weather when Wang Ju was born was too bad, seemingly unsuitable for a true prince for their daughter. This was one of the reasons the Li family was hesitant. Of course, the Zhu family didn't know this. "East wind at night sets a thousand trees ablaze with flowers, and more, like stars, fall in a shower. Fine carriages and fragrant horses fill the road. The sound of the phoenix flute rises, the jade pot's light turns, and fish and dragons dance all night. How beautifully written." Her close friend, the Song family's young lady, said, "If you don't like him, I'll take him." The Song family's young lady might take him, but her family might not agree. Many wealthy families in Yan Prefecture were happy for their children to interact with Wang Ju, seeing his living conditions and comparing them to their own, reminding them to appreciate their good fortune. Moreover, Wang Ju was well-read and polite, suitable for interacting with their children. Look at how the Zhu family's young man had changed. But marriage was another matter. There were too many uncertain factors in the future. Not just Wang Ju, even with the talent of Liu Sanbian, what was the outcome? But if Wang Ju were there, seeing two little girls fighting over a husband would surely shock him. But this short poem caused a small sensation. Because it was written by Wang Ju, its value was halved, but it was still a good poem, especially coming from the "cultural desert" of Yan Prefecture. Even Cheng Kan was interested and had someone copy the poem to read, then, after thinking about Wang Ju's wisdom, talent, and character for half a day, said, "He might be another Ding Wei." Lawless, astonishingly talented, cunning, and meticulous... Ding Wei. With this thought, Cheng Kan made a decision: he would neither promote Wang Ju nor offend him, even if he was a poor boy, and he could crush him with one finger, but what if he couldn't? ... "Dong Gong said your gift was the best he received." "Thank you, Manager Zhu, how about that matter?" "The Ding family is only willing to pay 5,000 guan." "5,000 guan, too little." "It's not little, and the Ding family is also planning to form an alliance with the Niu family." The Ding family was the Zhao family's mortal enemy, and the Niu family was the Zhu family's mortal enemy. The Niu family was also one of the suspects in the initial investigation. The Ding family had suffered a major blow this time. It was said that the people on the other side of the mountain blamed the Ding family for not providing good news, which led to the death of many soldiers, and they were planning to deal with the Ding family, scaring the Ding family from engaging in private trade at the border. Under Cheng Kan's intimidation, the scale of private salt trade in Yan Prefecture had decreased. Even without Cheng Kan's intimidation, Xue Xiang had brought a large amount of Jie salt, sold at a fair price, and implemented other policies, which also reduced the scale of private salt trade to some extent. However, private trade wasn't just about salt; it also involved other goods from Western Xia. If they couldn't engage in private trade, the Ding family would decline further. But if the two families joined forces, they could reverse this passive situation. Wang Ju thought for a moment and said, "Buy salt vouchers." "Buy salt vouchers?" Manager Zhu was a bit stunned. In the Song Dynasty, tea, salt, alum, and wine were under a state monopoly. However, due to corruption and inefficiency among officials, and the burden on the people, it was said that just the salt tax alone caused the death of thousands of oxen and donkeys each year, and countless people were punished for breaking the law. Therefore, the court decided to contract the production and sale of salt, wine, tea, and alum to merchants. For salt, merchants had to buy vouchers from the court, take the vouchers to designated locations to collect salt, and then sell the salt privately, known as the "buying and selling system." This was also the case in Shaanxi, where Fan Xiang, supported by Bao Zheng, reformed the system, allowing merchants to pay 480 guan for a voucher to collect 200 pounds of salt from the Jie salt lake and sell it privately, with the money going to the border, saving the labor of transporting salt from dozens of counties. However, private salt trade in Yan Prefecture was rampant, and the salt was of better quality. Think about it, the "factory price" of Jie salt was about 20 wen per pound, plus the huge transportation costs and losses, the cost of Jie salt in Yan Prefecture could be over 35 wen per pound, where would there be a market? "Listen to me..." Wang Ju whispered softly. "How high would the cost be?" "It's high. How much does a regular sword cost? How much does a Xia Guo Jian sword cost? You can test the effect before buying the salt vouchers." "That's true." It's just a bit of soda ash, a bit of firewood, a bit of gauze, and a bit of salt, costing less than a few guan. "Remember, if successful, the minimum price is 20,000 guan." "Does the Ding family have that much money?" "The Ding family doesn't, but the Niu family does." "That's true," Zhu Qing was happy, hoping the Ding family would fall and the Niu family would also sink. Think about it, if this succeeds, the misery of the two families in a few months.

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