Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 20 Food is the Heaven of the People

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early morning.

Luo Feng slept until dawn.

This was the most comfortable night he had slept since coming to this era.Although the bed was very hard, covered and covered with stuffed straw, the straw was fluffy and warm after being dried, and had a fragrance of grass and trees.

Especially after taking a bath, there were no lice and fleas on his body, which made him feel much more comfortable.

It was already three poles in the sun after sleeping, and when he got up, he found his mother and sister-in-law spinning and weaving in the weaving room, with the chirping sound of the loom.

And Xiao Liu was nowhere to be seen.

When the sister-in-law saw him, she hurried out.

"The second cousin has already returned to Licheng early in the morning. He saw that you were fast asleep, so he told us not to disturb you."

Qin Qiong rode away on a yellow puma, and when she left, she left a horizontal knife for Luo Feng and ten pieces of meat for Luo Mu.

Mother Luo refused to take it, but in the end he insisted on leaving the money and riding away.

"Xiao Wu, send the money to Licheng and return it to your cousin."

"Mother, since the second brother left the money, you can accept it. The two relatives don't have to see each other like this. The second brother is a soldier. I will walk around Licheng more in the future, and take good care of my aunt for the second brother. of."

Shiguan meat is much better, but Luo Feng thinks that sometimes relatives don't need to be too alienated, money is nothing but a thing outside of the body, it is more important for relatives to communicate more and take care of each other.

"Where is Little Six?"

"Going to herd cattle for the Wang family."

Xiaoliu grazes cattle for the Wang family every day, earns one meal at the Wang family, and earns two rice millets a month.

This salary is very low, but for a country boy, it is still a good income.If it wasn't for Xiao Liu's natural strength and talent in herding cattle, those cattle would have obeyed him very much, otherwise there would be no such bucket of rice.

"What about little sister?"

"Go to the field to pull weeds."

There are always endless things to do in the farmhouse. There is always work when the sun is bright, and there is always endless work to do until dark. Even a child of a few years old always has something to do.

In Luo Feng's family, [-] acres are planted with mulberry and hemp trees, and the remaining [-] acres must be planted in rotation. Every year, more than [-] acres are fallow, which means that only [-] acres can be planted each year.

The [-]-odd mu of land, because it is poor land on hillsides, can often only grow crops for one season, and some miscellaneous grains such as beans are mixed in between.

There is no cattle in the family. In the past, plows were almost always plowed by people. Although the landlord’s family also has cattle to borrow, they have to pay cattle rent, which is very expensive. Generally, they directly ask for [-]% of the harvest in the field. Lao Luo’s family I have always been reluctant to borrow cattle.

In the past, Luo's family had a blacksmith's shop, which could subsidize the family's work by blacksmithing during the slack season.

There are no pigs at home either, because piglets are not cheap.

The family only raises some chickens and geese. The chickens lay eggs, and the eggs can be sold in the market for needles and thread.

Luo's mother looked at the clothes on Luo Feng's body, "It's a little short, my mother will make you a new one. It's getting cold, so I'll make a jacket with some silk to keep you warm."

Seeing that it was getting late, Luo's mother asked her sister-in-law to cook.

The sister-in-law responded and went to the warehouse to measure rice for cooking.

Now there are six people in the family, but the eldest sister-in-law strictly follows Luo's mother's instructions and only measures one liter of millet.

Such a liter of millet is actually only equivalent to the Liushi Liang of later generations, and it is still in the shell. If the shell is removed, it will not even weigh half a catty.

"Mother, there is still food at home, you can make more."

"Sometimes I have to think about it. Although it is said that it will be harvested in autumn, you can also see that there is no harvest in the field this year. Our family still has to pay the land rent and the grain for the righteous warehouse. The land rent costs fifteen shi, and the Five bolts of silk and 15 taels of cotton."

As a citizen of the Sui Dynasty, although the Luo family did not get the average land, the rent was not discounted. No matter how much land you were allocated, the rent was levied on a per-dem basis.

There are five men in the Luo family, one middle-aged man, and the middle-aged man does not pay the rent for the time being, but only accepts mediocrity, and the rent for each quarter is three stone millet, which is adjusted to a bolt of silk or one end of cloth, plus three taels of cotton or three Jin numb.

This is fixed, and then there is another one, the Yicang Grain. The Yicang Grain was originally used by the local people to store grain and prepare for famines and disasters. Now it is actually equivalent to the land tax. The grain is paid according to the wealth of the family and the number of acres of land. Although Xiang Luo's family is poor, they still have to pay five stones of millet to Yicang a year.

Calculated in this way, the Luo family has to pay twenty shi of millet a year, five bolts of silk, and 15 taels of cotton, which does not include some additional apportioned fees in the county and township.

In the case that several strong laborers in the family are not at home this year, this rent adjustment is an extremely heavy burden.

For twenty mu of land, you have to pay twenty shi for millet rent. It is estimated that after all the land is collected and paid, there will be nothing left.

No wonder the Daye Dynasty is getting worse and worse, and more and more people are rebelling, because although the court is rich, the people are getting poorer and poorer, and they can't even eat enough. How can they not rebel?
One liter of millet for one meal, two liters for two tun a day, six dou a month, Luo Mu felt that it was already a waste of food.

But Luo Feng did the math, how could it be enough for six people to eat four taels of corn for one meal, and one tael would not be enough for one person. These days, there is little oil and water, and there is even a lack of non-staple food. The amount is still large, if you eat like this every day, you will definitely be malnourished.

"Sister-in-law, measure two liters of millet. There are so many people in our family. When my younger sister and Xiaoliu are still growing, we must not let them have enough to eat. As for the food, you don't have to worry about it. I will be working in the county government in a few days. There will be money and food at that time, and, didn’t the township and village chiefs already promise to give me [-] mu of land yesterday, our family will get better and better in the future.”

"The divided land will not be able to grow this year. If your father and brother don't come back, I'm afraid they won't be able to grow the land next year." Luo mother said worriedly.

"After a while, father and brother will definitely come back, so you don't have to worry too much."

In the end, Luo Mu compromised and let the amount be one liter and a half millet.

Luo Feng couldn't help it, so he had to agree. This liter and a half millet is actually only equivalent to [-] liters, which is still less than a catty.

The sister-in-law measured the millet, and then went to the porch in front of the main house to pound the rice, where there was a mortar.

Luo Feng went over and took a few glances, and found that it was very crude, outdated tools entirely made by hand, a mortar made of stone with the thickness of a basin, half buried in the ground, and then a pounding stick with a thickness of a bowl. A wooden stick with a pestle the size of a fist at the lower end.

The sister-in-law puts the shelled corn into the stone mortar, then holds the pounding stick with both hands, and beats the millet repeatedly to make the shells fall off and separate. One mortar needs to be pounded at least three hundred times. Even a young sister-in-law can Chung was sweating profusely.

Pounding rice is not a craft and skill, but it is a very laborious job. Luo's mother can no longer pound rice. The two sister-in-laws in the family have always taken turns to do this job.

After the millet has been pounded, a sieve has to be used to remove the chaff, and to filter out the pebbles and dust in the rice.

A rice pounding stick is about one meter long and weighs five or six catties. It is really tiring to pound three or four hundred times repeatedly.

Too far behind.

He remembered that Li Xiangzheng had a mill and a mill in his home.The Wang Landlord’s house in Wangzhuang next door also has them, but they have to pay money or rice flour to grind rice and flour at their house, and two liters for grinding a stone, which is not willing to be parted by most people, so they can only use this primitive method of pounding rice.

"Mother, let's install a pedal mortar by ourselves, it will save a lot of labor."

"It costs a lot of money to install a mortar." Luo Shi said.

"It doesn't cost much, and it will save a lot of effort after installation. We can also install a mill, so that it will be convenient to grind rice and noodles in the future, and even help others grind rice and noodles to earn some money back. .”

Luo's mother and the others felt that labor was worthless. Although it was time-consuming and laborious to pound rice by themselves, there was no need to invest in the cost first. Moreover, a family like the Luo's family did not have money to invest first, and gradually got used to hand-pulling rice.

But Luo Feng felt that this was too uneconomical, not to mention low efficiency, and tiring.Besides, even if you spend some money in the early stage to install a mill, you can not only use it for your own use, but also help others to grind it. Whether it is collecting money or rice noodles, the processing fee will be a very good income. After a long time, the initial investment It can be recovered if it is not reversed, and more profits can be made.

"Sister-in-law, let me pound."

Luo Feng watched the meeting and saw that his sister-in-law was struggling to pound, so he took the initiative to step forward.

"Pounding rice is a woman's business. Uncle let me do it myself." The sister-in-law was very polite. She said that she had been married to the Luo family for more than two years, but she still hadn't given birth. It wasn't that she had any problems, but Since marrying into her husband's family, the husband has often been conscripted to go out to serve as a slave. He is away from home for many years.

"Anyway, I'm free now, let me come." Luo Feng grabbed the pounding stick and started pounding the rice.

At the beginning, I felt quite relaxed, but after a long time, holding the pounding stick weighing five or six catties gradually felt heavy, and even started to sweat afterward.

For Chen Su, which was one and a half liters, Luo Feng had to pound it for half an hour before finishing it. Originally, it wouldn't take so long for his sister-in-law to pound it.

"It took less than half an hour to pound a liter and a half of rice. It's really not as good as my sister-in-law."

"Pounding rice is a woman's business." The sister-in-law laughed.

Sieve the pounded corn, then wash the rice, put it in the pot and boil it, then add the current seasonal vegetables such as sunflower and cabbage, and then add some sun-dried bamboo shoots, pickles, etc. cook.

In the end, Luo Mu even took out a piece of dried salted fish with great care, and asked the sister-in-law to cut half of it, cut it into pieces and put it in the pot to cook together.

One liter of rice, Chen Su, finally cooked a big pot of gruel.

The porridge was very thin, so thin that the shadow of a person could be seen, and the chopsticks could not stand upright. The yellow corn porridge was mixed with green and yellow cabbage leaves, etc., and it was stewed randomly. It smelled like a pig's food.

Compared with yesterday's lard, today's pot of millet porridge with cabbage and salted fish made Luo Feng very unappetizing.

"Mother, after dinner, I will take my younger sister and sixth brother to the fourth sister's house, and tomorrow I will go to the fifth sister's house to see."

"Let Xiaoliu lead the way for you. You don't have to go, little sister. Lu Yuan is in trouble. You see how they are doing, what is missing at home, and we can make up for their dowry when we come back."

　Thank you brother for your reward, this chapter is updated late, sorry!Send a [-]-character chapter.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)