Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 665 Li Bao never dreamed of being able to eat enough

In February of the 12th year of Chongzhen, the northwestern region of Daming was still in the cold spring season. The chilly north wind and the humid and warm south wind were not giving in to each other. They were chasing and fighting in this vast wilderness. Looking from afar , There is tender green looming between the fields and mountains.

No matter how harsh the cold is, spring is finally here.

On the field outside Qilibao, Weihu County, Pingliang Prefecture, Shaanxi Province, Li Bao, who is over forty years old, squatted on the ridge of his field with his arms around his knees, looking at the green wheat fields.

The warm afternoon sun shone on the clear cloth jacket, which made him feel extra warm and comfortable. The net towel that tied his hair was already starched and somewhat torn. A pair of soap-colored cloth shoes had a patch on each, and the blue cloth trousers were not. Seventy to eighty percent of the new look.

Li Bao's household registration originally belonged to Yan'an County, Yan'an Prefecture. In the ninth year of Chongzhen, with the order of Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi at that time, countless farmers in northern Shaanxi were moved to Pingliang Prefecture with their families, and a vigorous renovation began. The large-scale production movement of building houses, opening up wasteland and land, and constructing water conservancy.

Although Li Bao was reluctant to leave the land where his ancestors lived for generations, he knew in his heart that the officials in the government wanted to keep them alive, so they were resettled in Pingliang Mansion.

If he stayed in his hometown, he would either become a rogue and embark on the road of rebellion and lose his head, or he would follow the brigade of refugees and eventually turn into dry bones on the side of the road.

The abnormal weather that began in the second year of Chongzhen did not seem to improve at all. The rain in the already arid northern Shaanxi area was getting less and less, and the big and small rivers gradually stopped flowing, leaving only the dry and cracked riverbed to show the world. , here used to be crystal clear water veins.

More and more serious droughts swept across northern Shaanxi. By the end of the eighth year of Chongzhen, the wells in most villages showed signs of drying up. Drinking water for people and animals became a problem, let alone the crops in the fields.

Just as the farmers were getting desperate and many people had already fled, Sun Chuanting and Sun Bodhisattva came.

The scene that followed was that in the nine years of Chongzhen, innumerable Li Baos moved to Pingliang Mansion one after another under the circumstances that the government sent life-saving rations to hang their lives.

Before he knew it, it had been four years since he moved to Qilibao, and Li Bao still felt like a dream when he recalled the great changes that had taken place in these four years.

There are more than [-] households and more than [-] farmers in northern Shaanxi who moved to Qilibao with Li Bao’s family. After the first year, they expanded and built new houses on the basis of the original Qilibao, and worked hard to open up wasteland in their free time. After the difficult time for Tian and everyone to finally settle down, with the improvement of various infrastructures, since the tenth year of Chongzhen, life has rapidly improved at a speed visible to the naked eye.

In the tenth year of Chongzhen, Li Bao's family of five, old and young, who had just found a place to live and work, had two shovels, a hoe, an iron plowshare, and a wooden rake issued by the government. After that, he worked day and night, and opened up [-] acres of wasteland in just two months.

Although I missed the spring plowing and spring planting that year, I still rushed to plant a crop of soybeans. Although it was a raw land, there were more than ten stones of harvest in the autumn harvest, and these harvested soybeans were sold at the market price All of them were taken away, and the money that should be paid was converted into grain and given to Li Bao's family in one go.

Li Bao was stunned by this act of benevolence and righteousness that he had never seen or heard of.

He heard that the government sent people to preach everywhere, saying that it was the emperor's grandfather who decreed that all newly opened wasteland would not be taxed for three years, and the tax would be halved for the next three years. In the village, according to the number of people in the newly created yellow book, let each household take it home to make a living. The charity of the government lords has made everyone grateful, and this business is doing government affairs?
Aren’t businessmen all out to make more money?How could he be so kind?

More than ten stones of soybeans were actually converted into five stones of rice. When Li Bao and his mother-in-law brought the two boys and a girl back home with the grain, the family surrounded the grain pile like a hill, their eyes and The look on his face was one of disbelief.

Li Bao, who has lived for most of his life, can't believe that so much food is all his own, and he doesn't have to hand over a grain of rice to the government.

The more than [-] catties of grain and rice, as long as they are counted to survive the cold winter and spring, and when summer comes, they can be eaten sparingly with some wild vegetables, which is enough to last until the summer grain is harvested.

After harvesting the soybeans, the elders of the government distributed wheat seeds according to the number of acres of newly reclaimed fields. The winter wheat of each household has been planted, and Li Bao’s field has been planted with fertile soybeans for a season. The next year’s summer grain should be There will be a pretty good harvest.

Yes, the crop will be quite good.

Faced with one point, Li Baoquan's family firmly believed in it.

Numerous deep wells have been dug in the large fields, and a water wheel with feet on it has also been placed at the head of the well. Li Bao and his mother-in-law ignored the cold in early winter, and happily stepped on the wooden water wheel with bare feet. Stepping on it, and then lowering his head to watch the clear well water being brought to the ground by the tube-shaped wood, and then slowly poured into his own wheat field, this scene made Li Bao often wake up with a smile in his sleep.

Everything was just as Li Bao predicted. Although it rarely rained or snowed from winter to late spring and early summer, due to the appearance of wells and waterwheels, the newly reclaimed fields in Pingliang Prefecture still had a bumper harvest in the ten years of Chongzhen.

This year, after planting the winter wheat, Li Bao did not rest idle. He led his family to open up [-] acres of wasteland again, and the farming method will be the same as before. Plant a crop of soybeans first, and wait until the land is fertile enough. Then plant wheat and corn.

In the tenth year of Chongzhen’s summer harvest, Li Bao’s family’s [-] acres of winter wheat harvested more than [-] stones of grain. After being threshed and dried in the sun, nearly [-] catties of wheat were transported back home.

For this reason, Li Bao specially built a hut as a granary, and went to the county town to buy an iron lock, locked the granary door firmly, and put the key in one of the most secret places in the house. Li Bao would open this small granary several times a day to see if there were signs of rat bites.

Chongzhen's ten-year bumper harvest is a scene Li Bao will never forget, and he will never tire of mentioning it until many years later.

Because Li Bao and his family finally had a hearty meal with their stomachs wide open. Due to the overeating, the 16-year-old son couldn’t overcome it and his abdominal distension was like a drum. Li Bao and his mother-in-law fought. I wandered around the yard for half the night with the eldest son, and it was not until dawn after the rooster crowed that the eldest son's stomach returned to its original shape.

This is also the shame of the happiness that the young and old can't hide all his life. After many years, he is often mentioned by his family members, but as the person involved, he always has a silly smile.

Li Baoda looked at the green and shiny wheat seedlings, and smiled silently. The irony in his heart made him have an urge to roll in the wheat field.

Seeing that it was another bumper harvest year, the granary might not be able to hold so much grain, so a bigger and taller granary had to be built quickly.

He is a big boy, and after Xia Harvest, he has to build a house for him to marry his mother-in-law.

Originally because of poverty, my family only married my mother-in-law when I was in my 20s. Now that our family has enough food, we have to choose carefully to marry a mother-in-law for the young and old.

I heard from the head of the village that another group of refugees are coming to Qilibao to settle down. This is a good opportunity to pick a handsome daughter-in-law from the poor families who moved here.

Well, that's it.

(End of this chapter)