Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 729 Mud Cannon

Therefore, the number of participants in this mud cannon wrestling competition is increasing, and it has almost become a national competition.

In order to increase the atmosphere of the New Year and to rely on the power of the people to obtain more high-quality land, the government has always been very supportive of this activity.

Therefore, in recent years, because there are too many people participating in the competition, it was originally only held on New Year's Eve, but now it is held from the first to the fifteenth day of the new year, with people competing every day.

Before the competition, these people searched for suitable mud everywhere and made it into the size and shape they wanted, usually an oval mud tray about 1.5 meters long and 1 meter wide.

Pinch a small hole on the edge of the clay tray. This way, when you throw the clay cannon, not only will the sound be louder, but the clay strips will also be longer and more beautiful.

Because it is a competition, there are two points to be assessed in throwing mud cannons. First, the sound must be loud. Second, the longer the cracked mud strips are, the better.

In Xichang, anyone with experience can make and play clay cannon throwing, but in order to get first place, there are many things to pay attention to.

First, you need to make a clay tray that can be lifted up. You can't let the clay tray just become a pile of loose sand before you lift it up. That won't work.

Second, once the clay pan is made, it is crucial to choose the right angle, pay attention to the strength, and use the right technique when wrestling the clay pan. Otherwise, the clay pan will either make no sound or fall apart.

After hearing what Wan Tongpan said about the mud cannon throwing competition, Hualei immediately proposed to provide 15 kilograms of corn seeds every day as a prize in her own name. This would last for 16 consecutive days from New Year's Eve to the 15th day of the first lunar month.

The 15 catties of corn each day were divided into three bags, weighing 7 catties, 5 catties, and 3 catties respectively, and were awarded to the top three people who won the mud cannon throwing on that day.

Those who got the corn seeds could not only grow corn in their own fields, but also rent a donkey from the government for three days for free when they needed to plow the land.

When Wan Tongpan heard this, he immediately arranged for the Ministry of Rites to organize this year's mud cannon throwing activity. He knew that when Tian Xiaofu sent the preserved food, he also sent a batch of corn seeds to Hualei.

These corn seeds were originally intended for several farms in Shangjing City, such as Baihua Zhuang and Huaying Zhuang. However, Hua Lei considered that there might be vacancies in Xichang Prefecture because he had to lend 1,000 kilograms of corn seeds to Prefect Bao in the neighboring Xi'an Prefecture.

Therefore, a portion of corn seeds was dispatched to Xichang Prefecture, and the Zhenbei Marquis Mansion also sent some corn seeds over.

Therefore, there are a lot of corn seeds piled up in Hualei's private warehouse. Hualei is willing to take out corn seeds as a prize and reward them to those who smash the mud cannon, which will definitely have a very good effect on the promotion of corn.

So, three days later, a notice was posted at the gate of the government office. However, in addition to the fact that Hualei used corn seeds as a prize to reward the top three people who smashed the mud cannon, there was also a notice.

In addition, many wealthy businessmen in the city also took out their own prizes as rewards for the top three winners of the mud cannon-throwing contest.

They imitated the pattern of flower buds and produced rice seeds and wheat seeds, brown rice and flour, fabrics and clothing.

What's more, some even directly exchanged silver ingots and copper coins. There were many kinds of food, clothing and daily necessities, all of which were suitable for the actual lives of the people, but the prices were not very high.

It turned out that after Hualei decided to use corn seeds as a prize, she felt that her own strength was too limited. There were still many wealthy merchants in Xichang City, and they could be used appropriately.

Therefore, Hua Lei asked Wan Tongpan to deliberately spread the news that he used corn seeds as a prize, and secretly promoted public opinion.

Not only did all the officials in the government know about it, but their families also knew about it. In this way, many people knew about it without realizing it.

Within two days, the well-informed wealthy merchants in the city also heard the news that Hua Lei used corn seeds as a prize. After thinking about it for a while, they sent people directly to find Wan Tongpan.

He said that he was willing to contribute some money to make the mud cannon throwing competition more exciting. One person came, and others followed.

They don't have the precious bud corn seeds, but they have other things at home and can take out some of them appropriately to gain a good reputation.

Many wealthy businessmen have great wealth, so they don't care much about these small amounts of money. However, they care about their reputation and the attitude of the government towards them.

So, they followed the pattern of Hualei and offered their own prizes. Some kind-hearted wealthy people felt that offering only one share was too little.

So, after he paid a share of the prize himself, he also paid a share in the name of other family members.

For example, in the name of praying for the blessings of the parents at home, one would offer 800 kilograms of brown rice as a prize, or in order to gain a good reputation for the daughter who was about to get married, one would offer 100 rolls of summer cloth as a prize.

When Hua Lei heard this, she was of course very happy, so she wrote a note of thanks and asked the bailiff of the government office to send it back.

Of course, Hua Lei learned this trick from Minister Zhang when she was in Mobei. She thought it was very useful.

In addition, Rong Jin was asked to write a list of all the people who had won prizes in descending order, and then post it on the notice board outside the government office.

After some operations, more people came to send gifts. The categories were also varied, covering everything from food to clothing.

Looking at the huge pile of prizes in the warehouse, Hualei thought that the rules of the competition should be slightly changed. Because if all the prizes were only given to the top three, it would be inappropriate.

If an ordinary citizen wins dozens of prizes at once, it is very likely that some people will become jealous and it will cause a lot of unnecessary trouble.

Therefore, Hualei made another plan. With the prize as the eye-catching point, they divided into many mud cannon throwing competition teams.

If you want to get corn seeds, sign up for the team that has corn seeds as its prize. If you want to get brown rice or flour, sign up for the team that has brown rice or flour as its prize.

There are 16 days in total, and you can take turns participating, or you can always participate in the same lottery team. However, once you win the lottery in this team, you can no longer participate.

For each lottery, the number of people who can register each day is also limited, to avoid not being able to finish the competition in one day, which would affect the next day's competition.

As soon as the notice and the list of benevolent and kind people were posted, they immediately attracted the attention of the people. With the help of the government officials who promoted it by beating drums and gongs, word of mouth soon spread among the people. For a time, more and more people participated in the mud cannon-throwing event.

As a result, the staff of various departments in the government office became busy because of this competition.