In the second year of the Kaiyuan era, April, the willow branches.
East of Chang 'an, seven miles outside Tonghua Gate, the Ba River flowed.
In a manor on the east bank of the Ba River.
A group of people looked at a copper pipe in front of a teenager.
Then, the young man placed the small burning torch on the ceramic object with many small holes on it.
With a soft bang, a flame appeared on the thumb-thick, inch-long ceramic object.
"It's done. You can use it to light your books at night. Remember not to burn it."
The teenager smiled and said to the people around him who were dressed like students.
The students looked around. One of them looked and bowed deeply to the teenager. "Brother Li Yi has sponsored our candlelight. We are ashamed that we can't repay you."
The other students bowed one after another, their eyes full of gratitude.
The teenager waved his hand. "Brothers, no need to thank me. When the day comes, don't forget the poor. "
"We will remember Brother's righteousness." The person just now said again.
Everyone bowed again.
Then they watched as Li Yi closed the screws on the copper pipe and the flame went out.
Then they excitedly ran back to their rooms in the manor.
Chang 'an in April was still cold, but their rooms were warm.
In addition to the different wooden beds in the room, there was also a fire path built along the wall.
The rooms were connected to each other by the fire path. Every six rooms had a brick chimney behind them.
The six rooms shared a stove, and the students took turns to add charcoal. The room was warm and pleasant.
Not to mention the students, Li Yi, who had lit the methane blowtorch, also hurried back to the main room.
He entered the room, closed the door, and locked the latch.
Li Yi said silently, "Come out and see how much my lifespan has increased."
As he said it, a screen that no one else could see appeared in front of him.
The screen showed a number: 1550.
Li Yi patted his chest. "I made it. Very good. It increased by 1200."
As he spoke, he wiped his sweat, his heart still palpitating.
The previous number was 350.
This meant that he could live for another 350 hours, which was 700 hours.
If it was a day, it was a little more than 29 days.
When the time came, he would disappear and his life would disappear.
He had brought such a system with him when he transmigrated last October.
As long as he could promote the development of this society, the system would reward him with lifespan.
At the same time, his lifespan could also be used to exchange for technical information and materials that he needed.
For example, he had risked his life to obtain this methane pool and the manufacturing method of the simple methane lamp.
It took him four hundred hours to get it.
And he couldn't afford a better biogas lamp.
However, he was not in a hurry. The use of biogas was a series, and there would be income in the future.
This was the eastern suburbs of the capital, and the manor occupied an area of one thousand mu.
Li Yi had completed all the necessary paperwork when he transmigrated, so no one doubted him.
There were 42 foreign students from Chang 'an living in the manor for free, providing Li Yi with a lifespan.
The students studied hard and increased their knowledge, while he increased his lifespan.
In order to let the students have a good learning environment and gain more knowledge.
He ordered the hired tenants and the bought servants, stewards, and servants to build a wall of fire.
"It's spring. We should think of ways to earn money. Otherwise, we won't be able to support people." Li Yi looked at the numbers and felt slightly relieved.
He owned a thousand mu of land and left eight hundred mu of land for ten tenants.
As the master of the house, he provided the cattle and plows and collected 20% of the rent, which was 30% lower than the other houses.
He also said that he would be in charge of the tenants' rent. The ten families beat the other competitors and came over happily.
After the winter wheat was planted last year, it would be harvested in one and a half months.
It was time to pay the summer grain to the imperial court.
20% of the rent was not enough to rent out, rent, and adjust.
Therefore, Li Yi had to think of other ways to earn money.
Fortunately, he did not idle during the winter and was prepared.
***
At night, Steward Song De called everyone over for dinner.
When he arrived at the main house's conference hall, the 42 students also rushed over.
Every ten days, Dongzhu Li Yi would treat the students to a meal with meat to replenish their nutrition.
The students' accommodation was free, and Li Yi did not care about anything else.
However, during the winter, four students caught a cold and had a fever.
Li Yi exchanged four hours of his life for a box of cold medicine.
He secretly mixed it with ginger soup and fed it to the students.
Two pills per person was enough. There was still a lot left in the medicine box.
He was afraid that the doctor would take too long to give the medicine and infect others.
At this time, five of the ten tenant farmers had three people, a young couple and a child.
Three households had four people, a young couple and two children.
Two households had five people, a young couple and three children.
One steward, four male servants, and four female servants.
The entire family had 46 people, including Li Yi, 47.
It had been less than ten days since the last gathering, only six days.
However, there was a biogas lamp now. It was time to celebrate.
The main thing was that Li Yi wanted to try something new and see if everyone liked it.
Today, they ate prison pills, or dumplings.
Pork and garlic stuffed dumplings. The garlic dumplings were distributed by Zhuangzi himself.
Today, they ate garlic sprouts to plant garlic and see how it was doing.
They started planting in April and harvested in September. They could plant another batch.
Li Yi set aside 100 mu of land to plant garlic, and the basic fertilizer had been applied.
When one of the three biogas ponds was used up, they would use biogas fertilizer to fertilize.
Now, the main event was here. Whether they could make money or not depended on liking these things.
The steward, Song De, brought a big bowl with a yellowish-black liquid.
It smelled like five fragrances.
"This is the soy sauce developed by my family's Dongzhu. You can dip it in the prison pills and taste it." Song De introduced solemnly.
The students and tenant farmers looked solemn as they waited for the steward to distribute the soy sauce.
The steward picked up a spoon, one for each person, and scooped it into a clay dish.
Each person took a spoon of soy sauce and used chopsticks to hold the prison pills. Everyone took a small bite, and then …
"Delicious, incomparably delicious. Brother Li is a genius." A student praised.
The others echoed. Good, delicious, it must be delicious. Even if it was not delicious, they had to say it was delicious.
There was no other way. They were living in other people's house for free.
Moreover, there were free lamps tonight.
As for the other tenant farmers, except for the two children who could not eat prison pills and could only eat rare food, the other 17 children did not lack etiquette.
The children were learning from the students, and Li Yi provided them with brushes, ink, paper, and inkstone.
Therefore, the ten tenant farmers, in addition to farming, also took the initiative to ask Dongzhu to do other chores.
Li Yi tasted the soy sauce. Hmm! The taste was not bad. Pure fermented soy sauce was better than blended soy sauce.
After the meal, Li Yi rested and prepared to sell soy sauce.
The students returned to their own small houses and followed Li Yi's operation method to light the lamp on the small copper pipe that extended into the house.
The house immediately lit up, much brighter than the candles.
Each of them held a book and studied hard, occasionally writing down their thoughts.
The next morning, because they had to plant garlic today, the people in Zhuangzi began to have three meals a day.
The children of all ages drank millet porridge, ate a boiled egg, and went to school to study.
"Heaven and earth are black and yellow, the universe is desolate and primitive, the sun and the moon rise and fall, the stars and constellations are arranged, winter comes and goes, autumn harvests and winter stores …"
The clear sound of reciting came from the school.
Listening to the sound, the tenant farmers who were working were filled with energy.
In a nearby manor, there was a person in his thirties who was listening attentively.
After a while, he pointed at Li Yi's Zhuangzi and asked, "Who is that?"
A person on his left, who had been bending over all this time, replied in a sharp voice, "It was originally a clan. Later, they exploded and died one after another. When only a few people survived, they recruited a lonely young Li Yi from the same clan to join the clan. Not long after, a few people went to the clan."
"Why is there the sound of a child reciting the Thousand Character Classic?" the person asked again.
"Answering the Grand Commandant's question, Li Yi has just entered the age of elephant dance and is weak. However! He understands learning and education. "
"Last winter, ten tenants were recruited, and nine servants were bought."
"After that, he built a kiln and baked bricks. In the winter, he built a house and allowed the capital's rootless students to stay."
"The students remembered his kindness and taught the tenant farmers to learn literature."
The person who was called the Grand Commandant revealed a smile and said, "There is such a youth? Why don't you and I change clothes and go take a look? "
"Grand Commandant …" the person next to him hesitated.
"Is there danger?" the Grand Commandant asked.
"Not really."
"Then let's go."
The two of them changed into normal clothes and did not lead the horses. They turned around and went around.
At this point, the forty-two students all got up and washed up. They then went to the cowshed, pig house, and chicken coop to clean.
The two of them had just arrived and were shocked to see a group of students doing such farm work.
The Grand Commandant was interested and strolled to the cowshed.
Before he saw the cows, he saw a couplet.
First line: Frowning coldly against a thousand fingers.
Second line: I am willing to be a cow for the children.
"Good couplet, good words." The Grand Commandant thought carefully and praised.
Turning around, he went to the pig house and saw the same couplet.
First line: Without pigs, one cannot build a family.
Second line: Going to the country to protect the family.
When the Grand Commandant saw this, he sucked in a breath of cold air.
Now that the family was in front of the country, this couplet said that without the country, one would lose the family.
He clenched his fists and went to the chicken coop.
The chickens had already been released and the students were cleaning the two levels of chicken coop.
There was no need to care about the upper level. They dug out the chicken dung from the chicken coop.
Then, the Grand Commandant saw another couplet.
First line: Every morning, the phoenix cries out.
Second line: The birds call home at dusk.
He closed his eyes and sighed softly, "Sigh …"
He remembered that his position as the Grand Commandant was given to him by the emperor's younger brother.
The emperor's younger brother really did not want to fight with his brothers anymore, so he put his brothers together.
In the imperial court, the emperor's younger brother was naturally a dragon, like a phoenix soaring in the sky.
After the imperial court, the emperor's younger brother threw away his other identities with his brothers.
The chickens have the will of the phoenix, but they come back at dusk. Was it because he had family?
"One couplet is about the heart, one couplet is about the relationship between the family and the country, and one couplet is about kinship. What talent."
The Grand Commandant was shocked.
It was obviously an ordinary farm, but he felt a majestic aura.
Who was that young man?
The sound of children reading continued to ring in his ears like celestial music.
Were these the people of the Tang dynasty?
"The words of the first generation are the clothes. Give up the throne to the Tang dynasty. "The children's voices continued to ring out.
The Grand Commandant suddenly laughed. Yes, give up the throne to the country. Were they talking about him and his father?
Just as he was thinking, a student who had just finished cleaning the chicken coop came over and cupped his hands. "Brother, are you also here for Mu Tian Ju?"
The Grand Commandant was stunned for a moment, but he immediately understood.
The student was implicitly asking if he had run out of money to live in a house, so he came here.
However, after thinking about it, he felt that it was right.
The winter wheat had not matured yet, and last year's grain reserves were almost finished.
Therefore, the high price of grain was not easy for the students who lived in Chang 'an.
In another month, they would really be short of money.
"I'm here to take a look. I wonder if Dongzhu is here?" He asked vaguely.
"He's planting garlic. If you're not in a hurry, you can wait for him to come back at noon." The student pointed in a direction.
"Thank you. It's better for me to go." The Grand Commandant cupped his hands and walked in that direction with the people beside him.
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