On the lake, several sailboats lined up in line, sailing on the wind, the stern door was wide open, and thick hemp ropes were dragged on the lifting beams. One end of the hemp rope was immersed in the lake water, marking marks on the water surface.

Li Li glanced at the shore dozens of steps away and saw that the shore was covered with trees, lush and lush, and from time to time, birds flying up and soaring straight into the sky.

After getting off the net, the ship's sailing speed gradually slowed down. Li Li looked up at the sails, but saw that the sails made of scribble were already bulging and full of wind.

This is a soft sailing boat. It sails very fast when it is downwind, but now it cannot drive the ship to move forward quickly. It seems that the released big net has many things in the net at the bottom of the lake.

"Closing the Internet! Closing the Internet!!"

Accompanied by the shouts, the crew members tried hard to turn the winch and drag the heavy rake net together with the river clams in the net onto the boat.

There are a large number of river clams (freshwater clams) in Pengli Lake. Of course, there is a certain chance that pearls (freshwater pennants) exist.

But the chance is lower, and occasionally you find pearls, and the quality is even less good.

Therefore, since ancient times, fishermen on the banks of Pengli Lake occasionally found pearls from the clams they caught, but only pearls with good quality can be exchanged for money.

Like other people in the village, Li Li would fish in the lake from time to time when fishing in the lake, and then open the clams with expectations, praying for God's blessing that there are pearls in the clams.

However, there are occasionally pearls, and even a few or more than a dozen pearls can be found in a river clam, but they are all deformed defective products, so the wish of "accidentally making a fortune by making a fortune" has never been realized.

Sometimes you can find a few pearls in a river clam, but the quality is very poor and it is not worth the money at all.

Therefore, it is very difficult to make a fortune by picking pearls.

And the Zhumao will undoubtedly force many people to a dead end. Thinking of this, Li Li looked at the big net that was about to close.

This is a special mesh tool, called "rake net", which is a large iron rake and net bag, which can "rake" the clams on the riverbed and seabed into the net like a rake.

This is a mesh specially used for fishing river and sea clams. He had seen small models in museums before.

Then, by watching the exhibition, we learned about the blood and tears of ancient pearl collectors.

Pearls have been loved by wealthy families since ancient times. The main pearls in the Central Plains are all produced in coastal areas. The most famous one is the pearls produced in Hepu County on the South China Sea.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, the method of collecting sea beads was extremely primitive. People who picked pearls had sharp knives on their mouths, tied long ropes around their waists, and sneaked into the sea bottom naked to look for pearl beads.

The time for holding your breath and diving is very short, but in order to increase the "working time" at the bottom of the sea, the pearl pickers usually have to be unable to hold it in, so they will pull the ropes on their waists and let their companions on the boat pull themselves up.

The situation in the sea is complicated and very dangerous, with both sharks and undercurrents. The pearl picker will die in the sea if he is not careful. The companions on the boat may have been pulled up by incomplete bodies, not even the bodies.

When you encounter danger, even if you escape by chance, you can easily break your hands and feet and become disabled.

Picking pearls requires strong people, and the imperial courts of all dynasties had a great demand for pearls, so local officials used all means to force coastal residents to go to sea to pick pearls, and countless families were destroyed because of this.

The dazzling pearls are actually made up of the blood and tears of countless people.

With the development of the times, the technology of pearl harvesting has been updated. Gradually, the equipment of pearl harvesters has become richer. By the Ming Dynasty, simple ventilation equipment even appeared.

However, the risk of going into the market for beading is still very high. The beading industry is still a high-risk industry.

Even with the technologies such as "rake picking" and "basket picking", the casualty rate of pearl pickers is still very high.

This is how it is collected from Haizhu, and it is not much better to collect from Hezhu.

Freshwater clams in rivers and lakes also have a chance to produce pearls - freshwater pendants (river beads). However, the pearl production rate of river clams is very low. Although river clams are collected in rivers and lakes, they will not encounter sharks, but poisonous snakes and undercurrents are still inevitable.

In the middle of winter, frequent water flow, water flows easily and gets cold, and once you get sick, it means that a strong labor force will be alive. In order to cure the disease, it will also cost a lot of money to drag down the family.

This is the sorrow of fishermen. Whether they are fishing for various aquatic products or collecting river beads, they will get sick and die if they are not careful.

The Li family is one of the many unfortunate families. Li Erlang died of cold fishing in winter and died of illness, while Li Sanlang almost finished it because of this.

Now, Li Sanlang actually became accomplices of the tiger and became a pearl official, which harmed the countryside and forced countless people to fish for river clams and collect river pearls.

Is this a distortion of human nature or a degradation of morality?

Li Li touched his chin and murmured: "Now, I'll take everyone to find out!"

"Let's start!!"

The shouts and shouts broke Li Li's imagination. He looked at the stern of the boat and saw a huge rake net wrapped in countless river clams exposed to the water surface. The mud mixed in between spread along the water flowing around, dyeing the water surface black.

The crew shouted slogans, turned the winch, and put the big net into the stern slide.

The weight of hundreds of kilograms was leaning against the stern of the boat, and the stern was obviously sunk, but Li Li was not worried that the full river clams would sink the boat, because the ship was considerate when designing it.

The crew jumped off the slide and opened the bottom of the rake net. The others continued to turn the winch and put the net away. Only the "rattle" sounded, and a large number of river clams fell out.

"I'm afraid this net is five or six hundred kilograms!"

"Hurry up, get ready, I'll be on the dock and unload the goods later!"

Each ship packed up the rake nets, loaded with countless river clams, approaching a temporary pier ahead, where there was a temporary bead mining site of the Pearl Bureau, and the fished river clams were cut open to see if there were any pearls.

The management of the pearl mining site is very strict and there are various means to ensure that employees cannot privately store pearls. At the same time, the number of pearls collected is also a secret.

The pearl production rate of river clams is very low, so even if the fishing volume is large, most people don’t know how many pearls can be taken out of these river clams.

As the chief officer, Li Li certainly knows it.

The best way to obtain pearls is to cultivate them manually, but the cultivation time takes several years. He can't wait and is not clear about the technology of artificial bead planting, so it is better to use "simple and crude" methods to obtain them.

The new technology of large-scale fishing of river musses is "harrowing". The efficiency of fishing river musses is dozens of times that of traditional human resources. With the unchanged pearl yield rate of river musses, the fishing volume is simply and roughly increased, and the pearls obtained are of course very considerable.

Since the establishment of the Pearl Bureau, Li Li, who has been ready for the preparation, specializes in picking pearls and sailing boats to continuously "rake" in the waters of various river clams. He fishes up countless river clams, and does not require villagers from all villages to work hard to pick pearls.

The "rake harvest" that lasted for several months has collected nearly 30,000 pearls, and they are screened pearls.

Starting this year, every year, the Zhushi Administration will pay 10,000 pieces of river beads in Shaofu Temple, and then, Li Li personally will respect 1,000 pieces of pearls in Xu Kui.

In other words, he has collected all his pearl share for two years now, relying on advanced fishing technology. He only needs to use some ships and collect them in a low-key manner.

To outsiders, he seems to be in a bad position. In fact, it is because of the improvement of fishing technology and does not need to use a large amount of labor to go to the lake to catch river clams like traditional beads.

The price of obtaining a large number of pearls is that countless river clams are not the death of the people. If the river clams have blood, it is that the "hei clam blood stains Pengli Lake".

This approach is simple, crude and effective, but it is similar to fishing in the waters that are repeatedly raked, and the large and small river clams were caught and the number was sharply reduced.

Therefore, the production volume of freshwater beads in Pengli Lake will reach a peak in the past two or three years, and then fall sharply, and it will not recover for many years.

For Li Li, it doesn’t matter, because in a few years, the Hou Jing Rebellion broke out, the world was in chaos, and wars were everywhere. Who could still care about fishing for pearls?

When the Hou Jing Rebellion was quelled, no matter which court it was, it would have to live in the people's livelihood and would not care about the "Pearl Service".

As the total amount is probably more than ten years later, a new batch of river clams grew during this period. Whether there will be a "pearl mansion" will no longer matter to Li Li.

Listening to the laughter of the crew members, Li Li suddenly had an idea:

I have harmed so many river clams. Will there be a river clam lady coming to seek revenge?

He withdrew his thoughts and thought about the serious matter: he worked as a supervisor of Shaofu Temple Shangfang Bureau in Poyang. For his first year's "performance" he had to go to Jiankang in person and report to his superiors and his superiors.

That is, the so-called "report" and the gift of "filial piety".
Chapter completed!