Kingdom of Heaven and Han

Chapter 169 Harvest
Dengzhou governs Rang County.The place is flat, the land is fertile, and the population is large.Since most of the previous ditches were abandoned and there were not many rice plants, most of the land was planted with wheat.At the beginning of May, the wheat is ripe, and there are golden waves of wheat in the field.

Together with Wang Ruohai, Wang Xiaolie and the officials from the prefectures and counties went out to the north gate with the common people to see the harvest of wheat this year.

When they arrived at the chosen site, some elders had already come up to toast Wang Xiaolie and other officials.

After drinking wine and burning incense, Wang Xiaolie read the prayers he had written earlier.Then Wang Ruohai went forward without using a draft, and took up an article, thanking God for the good weather and the people had a good harvest last year.The people cheered.

Two old men stepped forward, each holding a sickle, and said to Wang Xiaolie and Wang Ruohai, "Please cut the wheat!"

Wang Xiaolie took the sickle and went to the field with Wang Ruohai, each of them harvested a handful of wheat.An official on one side had already caught it, took it and put it on the incense table set up.Officials prayed with the people.

Wang Xiaolie put down his sickle and saw that an old man had placed Tianlou.A row of young and strong went to the fields together, singing promises loudly.With an order, everyone waved their sickles, and pieces of wheat fell beside them.

Niu Gao stepped forward and whispered to Wang Xiaolie: "Zhi Zhi, everything is over, should we go back to the city immediately?"

Wang Xiaolie said: "No hurry, let's take a look here. Since returning to Ruzhou last year, this is the first time we have had a good harvest, which is unusual. The common people are very happy, but why aren't we? With this year's wheat , many difficulties will be overcome.”

Niu Gao promised.Stand aside quietly.

Looking at the wheat in the field, Wang Xiaolie felt an indescribable feeling in his heart.

Everyone said that this year's harvest was good, and it was not comparable to previous years.The wheat in Rang County is said to be able to produce two stones per mu, or even higher, which is far from the usual saying that one stone per mu can be harvested.With three buckets of tax and grain per mu, there is still one stone and seven buckets left.Even if you rent a field to plant, pay taxes and food, and then share it equally with the main household, the usual customer can collect more than eight buckets of grain per acre of land.A household is calculated on the basis of 30 mu of land, and a family has nearly [-] to [-] shi of wheat.

But in Wang Xiaolie's eyes, there was something awkward.In the previous life, I also saw the wheat in the field, which was completely different from the one in front of me.What did the wheat in the previous life look like?The ears are densely packed, and the ears of wheat are so large that they may not be able to be cut with a scythe.But in the field now, the wheat is sparse, and the ears of wheat look very small.No matter how much you grasp, you can easily cut it with a sickle.For a strong man, harvesting wheat is not very heavy work.

If in the previous life, the wheat had grown like this, the host family would be heartbroken and probably would not want it.When this kind of wheat is harvested home, the grains produced may not be as expensive as the harvested ones.But in this era, this is a bumper harvest.

Two stones per mu is just over 200 catties.In Wang Xiaolie's previous life, he often weighed a thousand catties, how big is the gap between the two?The yield per mu is over a thousand catties, and a family has five or six mu of wheat, so harvesting is very difficult.But in this day and age, a family usually needs more than ten acres, or even twenty or thirty acres.It is not that people in this era are capable, but that the output of this era is too low.

In the previous life, when the production of chemical fertilizers in China was not high, a marshal planted wheat himself as an experimental field.With intensive cultivation and the use of farmyard manure, the yield of wheat per mu is only 300 catties.Without chemical fertilizers, water, fertilizer, and seeds are guaranteed, and that's about it.At this time, the maximum yield of one mu of wheat will not exceed [-] catties, and the field can produce more than [-] catties, which is a rare bumper harvest.

Before long, the reapers were in the middle of the field.The old man who directed the wheat harvesting beat a drum to urge everyone.

During the busy season of the Song Dynasty, farmers often formed societies, and farmers would work collectively.Before going to the ground, the head of the field set up the field drain.According to the time, everyone should go back and forth together and return to the ground.This is borrowing military discipline to guide agricultural production.It is not like later generations, each family works in its own field.In particular, the people in the Chuanxia area use Yundrums when planting rice, and dozens of households work together.The area is narrow and densely populated, and they are often led by a leader to plant rice in places with a lot of land.

Standing on the ground, looking at the busy people, Wang Xiaolie seemed to see the hope in this world.Since returning to Ruzhou last autumn, I have done many things by myself.But there has been no harvest, and it always makes people feel anxious.Starting today, the situation is completely different when the grain is harvested in the field.

As in Rang County, if one mu harvests two stones, one county can produce more than one million stones of grain.With this food, the army is not afraid of starvation.If the army can be stabilized, the whole society can also be stabilized.

Taking a deep breath, Wang Xiaolie looked around.The ripples of the pond not far away reflect the light, beside which there are cattle grazing leisurely, flocks of geese and ducks playing, and a flock of sheep playing around.Not far away is a mulberry forest, which is growing lush.The village is hidden among the big trees, a quiet and peaceful scene.

This is a rich land, this is a group of hardworking people.In such a place, it is an unforgivable crime to keep such people underfed.It is a crime for the government to fail to protect the peace of this land.

Not long after, the wheat harvesters who set out came back again, and the people cheered.

Wang Xiaolie didn't keep watching.An hour later, he returned to the city together with Wang Ruohai and others.

When they sat down at the yamen, the officials served tea, and they drank tea and chatted.

Wang Xiaolie said: "Looking at today's situation, this year is a rare harvest year. I went to the field today, and I asked my men to measure the yield of the field where the wheat is being harvested. One mu can harvest about two stones and five buckets more——"

Wang Ruohai wondered: "The wheat hasn't been recovered yet, how to measure the yield?"

Wang Xiaolie said: "What's so difficult about this? Choose three places in the field, one step at a time, cut off the wheat, and weigh the grains. From this, the yield per mu can be calculated. This can be done for any farming. Do."

Wang Ruohai nodded, thinking about the algorithm Wang Xiaolie said.I can roughly understand what Wang Xiaolie meant, but I can't explain exactly how to calculate it.Most of the scholars in this era can do simple arithmetic, but it is difficult to explain it when it is a little complicated.For example, to measure the number of acres of land, if you don’t know plane geometry, you can only calculate roughly.For many people, even simple calculations are out of the question.In the Northern Song Dynasty, Guo Zi was the most capable person in measuring the acres of land, but he only divided the acres into pieces without careful calculation.

After eliminating the influence of local tyrants, Wang Xiaolie planned to re-measure the fields.Among the education I promote, the most important are two.One is literacy, and the other is simple mathematics.After teaching for a few months, there will naturally be talents in the amount of acres.

Wang Xiaolie continued: "Of course, the wheat grains are watery now. After a few days in the sun, they will naturally decrease a little, but not much. Let's calculate it as two shi wheat per mu. The 60 mu of land in Rang County can produce 120 million shi wheat. There are more. Rang County is the first county in Nanyang, with a population of more than 11, and each person has more than ten shi of wheat. If you add other grains, each person has more than [-] shi of grain."

Hearing this, Wang Ruohai was taken aback: "So much? Zhizhi, this is not a small sum!"

"Of course it's not a small amount. If it's just food rations, four shi per person a year is enough. Even if you can eat it, it won't exceed five shi. That is to say, Rang County alone has a surplus of more than one million shi. Collect all of them, and you can support 20 troops."

Wang Ruohai's mind was a little knotted for a while.Of course he knew that this year was a bumper harvest year, and he could harvest a lot of grain.But in the end how much to charge, in fact, I don't know.After listening to Wang Xiaolie's calculations, he realized that the number was astonishingly large.

Wang Xiaolie said again: "We collect three buckets per mu, and there should be a total of 18 shi in tax and grain. In addition to tax and grain, the folks should have a surplus of about 80 shi. The people are full, so what's the use of the surplus grain?" ? Whether the government can accept it or not depends on one's own ability."

Wang Ruohai said: "Store food for disaster prevention. Even if there is some surplus food, the common people will save it."

Hearing this, Wang Xiaolie couldn't help laughing: "Usually, it is said that storing grain for three years can prevent a year of famine. The people of Dengzhou, even if there is no grain for a year, only need 50 shi. Divided into three years, There is only more than 16 shi of grain stored in a year, and there is still a lot of surplus grain."

Wang Ruohai nodded silently.I have been an official for many years, and I haven't calculated it so carefully.Hearing Wang Xiaolie's eloquent talk, he couldn't help being a little shocked for a moment.As an official, many things are clear at a glance.

Wang Xiaolie said: "That's why we can collect 60 shi of grain from the people this year. If we can't collect it, it means that the government can't do things well. If you want to collect grain, you need money. There are five counties in Dengzhou. The other four counties are poorer, counting two counties as Rang County and one county, the money to collect grain would be more than one million guan. This is not a small amount.”

Wang Ruohai smiled wryly: "Dengzhou is a state, where did you get more than one million yuan? Zhizhi was joking."

Wang Xiaolie said: "This is the money we need. With this money, the food in the hands of the people can be useful, and can be exchanged for money to buy what they need. Without this money, the food can only be in the hands of the people until it decays." .”

Wang Ruohai didn't know how to answer, so he nodded silently.

Speaking of this, Wang Xiaolie couldn't help sighing: "When Taizu founded the country, Doumi was only ten or twenty cents. Now, even in the Taiping era, Doumi is nearly a hundred cents. Is it because the price of food is so expensive now? , or the price of money is light, and no one can make it clear. According to common sense, eating enough is the foundation of people, and the price of food does not change much. The price of food is high, or the price of money has become a little light. Should it be How to do it, think of a way when the sentence is idle. As the saying goes, cheap grains hurt farmers, and expensive grains hurt farmers, and farmers can’t be hurt.”

Wang Ruohai just nodded silently.Such a calculation had never occurred to me before.When Wang Xiaolie mentioned it, he suddenly felt that there was a university question in it.It's just for a while, it's hard to say clearly.

For Wang Xiaolie, these calculations are not difficult.However, economic problems are often easier to calculate clearly, but how to solve problems is a big problem.If you don't pay attention, things will often backfire.

(End of this chapter)