sjar Chapter 874: Father and son argue.
Chapter 874: Father and son argue.
Old Yuan also cordially invited: "Yes, Mr. Long, please come in and sit down. We are going to drink wine, not water!"
As they were talking, Lao Yuan's father and wife also came out and invited Ye Kun into the house.
Ye Kun clasped his fists and bowed, then entered Yuan’s house.
The Yuan family has guests today, they are Old Yuan’s children and relatives.
Old Yuan introduced everyone and insisted that Ye Kun take the seat with his father.
Wang Dahai was sensible and gave New Year's money to several children in the Yuan family first.
As the commander of the emperor's personal guard, Wang Dahai was also generous.
Old Yuan felt very sorry and thanked him again and again, then raised his glass and toasted Ye Kun: "Mr. Long, you are the honored guest today, I toast you first!"
"Thank you, Brother Yuan."
Ye Kun also raised his glass, thanked him, and drank it slowly.
This should be the rice wine from Zhuojun Brewery. It has a higher alcohol content but also retains sweetness.
"Good wine, good wine."
Ye Kun put down the wine glass and deliberately asked, "Is this homemade wine?"
Old Yuan smiled and said, "This is the wine I bought from Zhuo County. It's the New Year, so I bought some good wine to entertain my guests. There are also people who make wine in our village, but it can only be drunk on a daily basis."
Ye Kun nodded and asked, "Wine from Zhuo County shouldn't be cheap, right?"
"Not bad, two cents a pound of wine. I can still afford to buy a hundred pounds of wine for the New Year."
"The key is that if grain is cheap, then wine will also be cheap." Old Yuan's relative took over and said with a smile:
"Speaking of our Han Dynasty, it is indeed capable. Now that so many children have been born and there are so many more people, every family has food to eat and can make wine from it. In the past, a family with seven or eight children, or even more than a dozen, could not afford to support themselves."
Ye Kun and Wang Dahai smiled and nodded.
Old Yuan's father looked at Wang Dahai and asked, "Dahai, I heard that the imperial court has huge granaries in Jiaozhi and Tianzhu. The grain there is free. It is sent to Zhuojun by big ships, right?"
Wang Dahai said with a smile: "The rice in Jiaozhi and Tianzhu can be harvested three times a year, and the yield is very high, 500 kilograms per mu. There are large tracts of fertile land there, more than the arable land in the nine provinces of China combined.
The imperial court built many large farms there. There was indeed a lot of grain from Jiaozhi, which was sent to the nine provinces of China."
Old Yuan's father nodded repeatedly: "Our emperor is really capable. He has conquered Jiaozhi and Tianzhu. Our descendants will have food to eat."
Wang Dahai said: "The emperor said that even if we don't have Jiaozhi and Tianzhu, we can feed 200 million people with sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn."
"Two hundred million people, how much?"
"It means doubling the current total population."
"If we double it, what will happen?" Old Yuan was a little worried and said with a smile:
"If the population doubles, even if there is enough food, there won't be enough clothes. There won't be enough wood to build a house. This year, I plan to build a house and add a few rooms in the backyard. Otherwise, the children will have nowhere to live when they grow up. But I've heard that the price of wood has increased, and the price of bricks and tiles has also increased. And the price of cement has also increased a little bit."
Ye Kun asked, "Do people in the village use cement to build houses?"
"Of course we use cement. A cement red brick house can last for fifty years." Old Yuan said with a smile: "In Zhuo County City, there is an eight-story building that is built with cement and steel bars."
There is indeed a building in Zhuojun City, which is an eight-story concrete house.
It is one of the landmark buildings of Zhuo County, specially built to broaden the horizons of the common people.
Ye Kun nodded and smiled: "Yes, I have also seen the cement building in Zhuo County."
"You have seen it, but you don't know that I was a skilled worker when the building was first constructed." Old Yuan's in-laws perked up and said with a smile, "On the day the building was topped out, the emperor went to see it and even chatted with us."
"Ah, the Emperor is there too?"
Ye Kun was a little surprised.
Because of things like the topping-out ceremony of a building, I would never go to the site.
Old Yuan's relative smiled and said, "You didn't expect that, but I have seen the emperor with my own eyes."
Old Yuan said with a smile: "Don't brag, my brother Dahai is a popular person around the emperor. He sees the emperor every day. Sometimes, he even drinks with the emperor."
Everyone laughed.
Wang Dahai also boasted: "If you want to see the emperor, that's easy. When the emperor is in a good mood one day, I will invite him to come and see everyone."
Old Yuan smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you are fine. Why did you come to our poor place? The dogs in the palace won't eat what we country folks eat."
Ye Kun was speechless.
In the eyes of the common people, am I an extravagant and wasteful emperor?
Wang Dahai waved his hand: "Brother Yuan, don't talk like that. Our emperor was born into a poor family and is very frugal. Life in the palace is not as luxurious as you imagine.
You see, the emperor has been on the throne for many years. Apart from the imperial palace at the beginning, has he ever built other palaces or villas for himself?
Think about it again, how many buildings did the emperor build in Zhuo County? They were used as schools, hospitals, theaters, science and technology exhibition halls and museums? These buildings were all built by the emperor for the people.
If it weren't for the Emperor, how could our children be studying in this building now?"
Old Yuan's son, who just came over with the dishes, said with a smile: "Uncle Wang is right. The emperor attaches the most importance to education and medical care. I heard from the teacher that the conditions in our school are better than those in the palace."
Lao Yuan and others nodded in agreement.
Ye Kun asked Lao Yuan's son: "Are you studying in college this year?"
"Yes, old man. I'm in college." Xiao Yuan was very polite and bowed slightly. "I majored in automobile manufacturing and will graduate this summer."
Ye Kun pretended not to know: "With this major, can you manufacture cars after graduation?"
Xiao Yuan shook his head and said with a smile: "After we get out, we will all go to the automobile production base in Beihai County for internship. After a year of internship, we will be promoted to the top and have specific jobs confirmed. However, the imperial court is vigorously developing automobiles, so there is still food to be made in this major."
Old Yuan sighed, "It's a good major. I heard that the salary after graduation is three to five taels of silver per year, or even more. I'm just afraid that I'll be transferred and sent overseas."
Xiao Yuan disagreed: "There's nothing wrong with going abroad. Many of our students went abroad after graduation. Some went to Jiaozhi, and some went to Tianzhu. They often wrote back and they all lived well.
Because Jiaozhi and Tianzhu are now also our Chinese territory. It is the same there as in the Nine Provinces of China."
Old Yuan glared at him and said, "You know shit. Many people died after going overseas because they couldn't adapt to the local climate!"
"Father, that's a thing of the past." Xiao Yuan argued:
"Now Jiaozhi and Tianzhu have been built by us Chinese Han people for more than ten years, and the conditions are better than those in the nine provinces of China. There are sanitary cities there, and the trees planted there are all mosquito-proof, so there are no poisonous mosquitoes.
According to the letters from overseas classmates, people who go to Jiaozhi now feel the most comfortable. People who go to Tianzhu are also very good. The court gives them houses for free and also provides foreign laborers as servants. "