GBP Chapter 221 Having a county magistrate is a blessing for the Ningyang County family.
Chapter 221 Having a county magistrate is a blessing for the Ningyang County family.
Almost everyone is busy.
Emperor Zhu Chongba was busy perfecting his idea of inviting some common people to the capital for questioning every year. He knew that he would not have many opportunities to leave the capital to observe the lives of the common people in person, so he wanted to use the eyes of the people all over the country to observe the whole Ming Dynasty.
Empress Ma was also busy, after all, it was the wedding of two princesses. The princesses' residences had to be prepared, the wedding dresses had to be prepared, the dowries had to be prepared, and the maids who would serve Jin'er and Yu'er in the future also had to be prepared. All the procedures of the wedding had to be prepared in advance to avoid making a fool of oneself.
The civil and military officials in the Ming Dynasty court were all in a state of panic, after all, there was a certain county magistrate who did not want to reveal his name stirring up trouble behind the scenes. The officials in the court were losing clumps of hair because of the so-called "five-year plan".
Local officials in various prefectures and counties across the country were also busy, because the thirteen official documents required a huge amount of data, none of which could be completed in a day or two, unless they were the kind of officials who were willing to lower their heads, walk around the counties and villages under their jurisdiction, and have a thorough understanding of all the data.
For ordinary people, it goes without saying that they can only have a little free time after winter arrives throughout the year, and even that is only relatively free – do they need to repair farm tools? Do they need to feed livestock? Do they need to prepare for spring plowing next year? Do they need to collect firewood for the winter?
Even women are busy in winter.
Do you want to make a rope?
Should I do needlework?
Have you prepared all the food for the Lunar New Year?
Have you washed and mended all the clothes you'll wear for the New Year?
Therefore, neither men nor women can have a moment of peace during the winter.
It's the summer solstice, a busy time for farming, so no one can afford to be idle.
Even Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate of Ningyang County, who always liked to treat Emperor Zhu Chongba like a beast of burden and would come up with new tricks to annoy the officials in the court from time to time, while he himself preferred to lie in the back office of Ningyang County drinking tea and being a lazy bum, was the same. He was even busy as night was falling.
It wasn't until an hour later that Magistrate Yang, who had been busy from dusk until it was completely dark, finally had a moment to relax.
Meanwhile, Limpy Wu, who had been keeping Magistrate Yang company for a full hour, just stared blankly at Magistrate Yang, listening to him swearing.
"Damn it, I've been busy for almost an hour, and this is all I've managed to get?"
When Magistrate Yang saw the thirty or so cicada nymphs in the bucket, he completely lost his composure.
Back in the 1990s, there were quite a lot of cicada nymphs. If you were lucky, you could catch about a hundred in one night.
However, with the development of the times, cicada nymphs are becoming increasingly rare, and it's possible to catch less than fifty in a single night.
At its lowest point, Magistrate Yang searched for two or three hours before finding only four or five cicada nymphs.
Later, these things started to be artificially bred, and one could sell for about a dollar. However, the taste was far inferior to what Magistrate Yang had eaten when he was a child.
Later still, Magistrate Yang traveled back in time to the Ming Dynasty.
However, when Magistrate Yang first arrived in Ningyang County, the county was first suffering from a severe drought, and Yang Shaofeng was busy getting the people to dig artificial lakes and ditches. Then came a locust plague, and Magistrate Yang was busy leading the people to exterminate the locusts. He was exhausted every day and didn't even think about the cicadas.
Now that it was finally the second year of Hongwu's reign, the weather had been favorable from the beginning of spring to the summer solstice, and there weren't many things for the county to worry about. Naturally, Magistrate Yang thought of the cicada nymphs.
You should know that cicada nymphs are a really good thing.
This thing has another name, cicada, and is sometimes called Tang Monk's flesh in folk terms. Its molted shell is also a medicinal ingredient. Longevity porridge is made from the two pieces of meat on the back of a cicada that has just molted. Its meat is particularly delicious, tastes like bullfrog, and chews like chicken. It is said that drinking a bowl of longevity porridge can keep you healthy for a year.
So, on the evening after hearing the cicadas chirping, Magistrate Yang had Lame Wu prepare torches and then ran outside the city to catch cicada nymphs, thinking he could also make a bowl of longevity porridge to try.
But to everyone's surprise, when Magistrate Yang excitedly carried torches and buckets to the outskirts of the city, running all the way from the county seat to Xihe Village, he only caught a mere thirty or so cicada nymphs, less than three times the hundred or so he had envisioned.
Limpy Five also wanted to swear.
No, what kind of respectable county magistrate would personally come out of the city to catch cicada nymphs?
If you want to eat them, just give the order, and all those yamen runners in the county office will come out and catch a few for you. They can catch at least a hundred or two for you in one night, right?
You're something else! Not only did you personally come out to catch cicada nymphs, but you also dragged me, Limpy Five, into it!
After silently complaining to himself, Limpy Five couldn't help but whisper and advise, "Your Excellency, why don't we go back to the county town? If you want to eat cicada nymphs, I can bring some men out to catch some tomorrow night."
Magistrate Yang grew angrier the more he thought about it. Finally, with a dark face, he simply agreed, shoved the small bucket containing about thirty monkeys into Lame Wu's hands, mounted his horse, and said, "Let's go, we'll go out and catch them early tomorrow."
But as he walked, Magistrate Yang suddenly felt that something was not quite right.
Where are the trees?
To catch cicada nymphs, the first requirement is to have trees, preferably perennial poplar trees, as cicada nymphs love to climb poplar trees.
However, from Ningyang County to Xihe Village, there were no decent trees along the way, let alone poplar forests.
"Forget it, I'll go out again tomorrow and see. Maybe it's not the right time yet."
Magistrate Yang first comforted himself, then muttered to himself, "After next spring, trees must be planted on both sides of the road, on both sides of every road, all of them must be poplar trees."
Lame Wu paused slightly, then asked, "Plant poplar trees?"
Magistrate Yang nodded and said, "That's right. As the saying goes, if you want to get rich, build roads first, have more children, and plant more trees. Our Ningyang County has already started building roads, so there's no need to say more. I don't need to worry about the people having children; they know how to have children on their own. But I do need to worry about planting trees."
"Furthermore, with more trees planted, it will be easier for people to get firewood in the future, and the soil and water can be better preserved."
Even if you're tired from working and want to lie down and rest for a while, lying under the shade of a tree is always more comfortable than lying under the sun, right?
Upon hearing Magistrate Yang's argument that planting trees was beneficial, Lame Wu was immediately filled with admiration. He bowed to Magistrate Yang and said, "Even when you're out catching cicadas, Magistrate Yang doesn't forget to consider the people. It's truly a blessing for the people of Ningyang County to have you."