A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 596
Digging sweet potatoes and feeding pigs,
We visited water mills and windmills, watched the shirtless workers in the oil mills push logs and wedges to squeeze oil, and even went to the Jianhe and Lihe rivers to catch fish and shrimps.

For several days, Cheng Qian had a lot of fun.

Zhuangzi in Fanchuan gave it a new name: Wuqu, also known as Shangwu Fort.

The rice was in bloom, and the tenants worked nervously and hard to harvest. The heavy ears of rice made them grin all the time, and they were very happy. Especially this year, as a gift from the emperor, they were exempted from paying this year's rent. The golden rice on the ears of rice is all theirs. .

Old man Zheng also asked for leave to go home to harvest rice. Huaiyu took the prince to help and went to the fields to experience harvesting rice.

The sun-bathed rice fields are still a little moist, and it feels cool to step on barefoot. The rice leaves are still covered with dew in the early morning. Taking advantage of the cool weather to harvest, rows of rice seedlings are cut down and placed neatly in the field. Let it dry in the sun, and then beat and thresh it after the dew has dried.

Compared with wheat milling, rice threshing is simpler. Lift a large wooden barrel into the field, grab a handful of rice and slam it on the barrel, and all the rice grains will fall off.
This is a laborious job, but it is faster than hauling the wheat back to the drying ground, grinding it and lifting it.

Old man Zheng has been in Fanchuan for more than ten years and has long been an expert at growing rice. Although he is old, he is extremely powerful when threshing rice. Every time he hits the rice, he can feel the rice grains flying and the feeling of harvest. It all made him extra energetic.

The whole Zheng family went into battle, even the two little ones were gleaning rice ears in the fields, so they would not waste a single bit.

Cheng Qian also put on a commoner's shirt, straw sandals on his feet, and a straw hat on his head, and also learned to beat rice. After the initial novelty wore off, he felt tired, repeated over and over again, and the sun above his head became increasingly bright. strong,
The sweat soaked into the skin scratched by the rice grains, making it extremely itchy.

I would also encounter spanking bugs from time to time, and when the skin was sprayed, it would swell, become smelly and itchy.

"I'll fight, Your Highness will bring the crops," Huaiyu said with a smile. Since this is an experience, it can't just be a formality.

Wu Huaiyu beat rice very hard. After all, people who practice martial arts are young and strong, unlike Cheng Qian who is only 11 years old and has limited physical strength and lack of endurance.

Chengqian brought the cut and dried rice, while Huaiyu beat and threshed it hard. The teacher and student cooperated quite well.
After beating for a while, you also have to winnow the grain, and use a sieve to sift out the rice straw, shriveled chaff, etc. This is also a technical job, and you have to blow the wind while sifting.

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,

Every time I shout a few times, the wind really comes, and with the help of the wind, I can better sift out the debris.

After the millet has been winnowed and sifted two or three times, it is put into baskets and taken back to dry in a hurry while the sun is good. If it is not dried in time, the newly harvested rice will become black and sprout.
"One year when we were harvesting rice, we encountered continuous rain for half a month without clear weather. The rice germinated directly on the ears. We had no choice but to harvest the rice in the waterlogged rice fields. We took the wet rice back home, but There was no weather to dry them, so they could only be piled up and spread out in the house, but in the end they all sprouted.

Hey, almost all the rice that year was white."

Speaking of this past incident, Lao Zheng was still very distressed. The rice originally grew well that year, but in the end there was no harvest, but the landlord still wanted to collect rent. Lao Zheng finally gave the landlord a calf from his old scalper. To offset the rent, the calf had already raised more than one cow. If it had been raised for another half a year, it would have been a good helper in plowing the land, but in the end, it could only be used to offset the rent at a low price.

The sun was extremely bright in the sky, and people who were exposed to the sun were dizzy, but Lao Zheng repeatedly praised God for his beauty and said the weather was good.

Sweating like rain, he still couldn't hide the smile on his face.

As long as there is something gained, no matter how hard or tiring it is, it is worth it.

Lao Zheng's daughter-in-law and two daughters were tying straw in the field. The straw, which exuded a pleasant grassy fragrance, was rolled into handfuls and then spread out in the field to dry, like neat scarecrow soldiers.

These straws are also a treasure. They can not only be used as fodder for cattle in winter and spring, but can also be used as pads for fertilization. They can even be used as straw ropes. They can also be spread on beds in the cold winter to keep them warm and comfortable.

“In the past, when we farmed rice on a leasehold, the land rent not only had to be paid for the rice, but also half of the straw was paid to the landlord’s family.”

The lease that Wu Huaiyu has signed with everyone only requires a [-]-[-] share of the summer grain, with an upper limit of one stone. As for the autumn crops, the rent is not divided, and the straw in the summer grain is no longer required.

On both sides of the Jianhe River, in the rice fields near Xiawu Fort, people were scrambling to harvest, and the wind kept whining. On the ridges of the fields, farmers carrying rice home greeted each other, filled with the joy of a good harvest.

The sun is at noon.

The sun is extremely fierce,

Everyone finally took a break, but instead of going home, they found a place under the shade of a tree and ate meals sent from home, which saved more time.

When the rice was being harvested, it was rare for Mr. Zheng's family to have dry rice. You could also see some meat and oil in the dishes. They mainly ordered the dried fish and shrimps they usually caught, plus scrambled eggs, and bought them from Wujiabao when they slaughtered pigs and went to the countryside. intestines,

Although they are all cheap things, at least they are profitable.

Compared with the daily sweet potato porridge or corn steamed buns, this is still a very good meal. At least you won't get hungry quickly.

In order to let the prince experience the suffering of the people, Wu Huaiyu did not give Cheng Qian a small chance. They ate whatever the Zheng family ate.
Lao Zheng actually wanted to kill the old hen at home to entertain the prince, and even wanted to buy a few kilograms of good pork, but Huaiyu refused.

He got up before dawn and went to the fields to cut rice, and then worked hard all morning. Although Chengqian only harvested rice for a while, he still wolfed down the simple meals under the shade of the trees.

The Zheng family’s food is actually not very tasty.
The rice is made from brown rice, with only the outer shell removed. This kind of brown rice will make the rice very dry and hard, but it will not be wasted.

The small fish and shrimp are usually caught and dried in the sun. They have a bit of a smell and a bitter taste. They are simply stir-fried with vegetables. The fish and shrimp have many small bones.

The intestines were also different from those eaten at the Wu family. Not only did they smell a bit strange, but they were also hard to chew and could only be chewed and then swallowed.

Chengqian would never be able to eat such a meal normally, and he might even feel nauseated and vomit after eating it, but after a long day of hard work, he was tired and hungry, sweating a lot, and his chest was pressed to his back because of hunger. The food that was absolutely difficult to swallow was now being devoured by him.
Bite bite,
I even ate several bowls of rice.

"Teacher, now I understand what it means to be hungry and not choose food, and to be panicked and not choose the road."

"Well, hunger is the best food. Hungry will not choose food, panic will not choose the road, and two more sentences, poverty will not choose clothes, and poverty will not choose a wife."

"I have a lot of appetite. I ate three big bowls of rice."

"It's because there is no oil and water." Old man Zheng is old. If he can eat freely, he can eat seven or eight large bowls of rice. Even the boys in his family can eat several large bowls. They usually eat half food and half food. Eating sweet potatoes, potatoes and half vegetables together makes you barely half full.
Most of the people these days live half-starved and half-fed. In the final analysis, there is not enough food, oil and water.

Just eating some staple food, or eating it with whole grains and wild vegetables. Such a diet that mainly consists of charcoal and water often only has two meals a day, so naturally you will be hungry after one meal.

For ordinary people, let alone eating meat, oil is usually hard to come by.

"If you plant an acre of flax, you can get thirty or forty kilograms of flax, and only three or four kilograms can produce one kilogram of oil. If you plant an acre of flax, you can only produce ten kilograms of flax oil. It's expensive."

Pancakes fried with sesame oil are common in Chang'an, but it is difficult for ordinary people to afford them.

Oil is too expensive. Although flax is resistant to drought and barrenness, the yield is too low. Even if it is grown on dry land with low yield, it is not more cost-effective than growing buckwheat, millet, etc.

In common people's homes, especially those with tenant households like Lao Zheng and his family, most of the time cooking is done by boiling water, or even without vegetables. They just put some vegetables into the porridge and cook it into vegetable porridge in one pot. Only rarely do they add a few drops of oil.

I won’t light an oil lamp at night, it’s too expensive.Not to mention lighting candles. Candles were something only nobles and landlords could afford, and adding spices to candles was something only nobles could enjoy.

There is no oil, water, meat or eggs, so they just eat some staple food, and also add a lot of whole grains. This makes everyone a big eater, but they are still skinny.

After working all day, feeling the darkness, I returned home under the stars and the moon.

The clothes were wet, dry, and wet again, leaving a layer of white salt stains on them after the sweat had dried.

Cheng Qian felt like he was going to collapse from exhaustion.

"Teacher, you said everyone is working so hard, why are they still living so hard?"

Huaiyu took Chengqian to take a bath in the Yanhe River. The two of them walked on the country road under the starlight. It was so late and many people were still working in the dark.

"Working hard doesn't necessarily mean you will get rich and live a good life."

"Can't you?"

"Mere hard work is not enough, the most important thing is to master the means of production."

"What?"

"For farmers, they must have their own land. Otherwise, like Old Man Zheng's family, they have been farming on sharecrops here for more than ten years. They have worked hard and worked extremely hard, but year after year, nothing has changed in their family. My waist is already exhausted, and I can barely manage to support the older children. I still live in a few straw huts, and I don’t even have an acre of my own land.

They work very hard, but apart from feeding their families, clothing and food, most of what they gain has already been turned over to land rent. When there is a famine, they have to borrow food to sustain themselves. And if they borrow a debt, the principal and interest will cost them several years of work. ,

The ancients said that after three years of good harvest, there will be one year's surplus of grain. But that is only for landless farmers. For landless tenants or semi-owner farmers, they may not be able to save one year's surplus of grain after ten years of work. They are all hand-held rations. of,
They have no ability to withstand risks at all. When disasters, diseases, or accidents occur, they often have no choice but to go into debt, and once they go into debt, it is difficult to get back on their feet.”

"In contrast, the powerful nobles are all landlords, owning many fields, and even slaves and tenants. They can save money and food every year, and can buy more fields to expand their operations, or make money through borrowing, breeding, etc. value added,
In the event of famine, disease, or accidents, ordinary people can only sell their fields and houses, or even pawn off their wives and children, often losing their families. However, those powerful landowners are able to lend usury at high interest rates, or annex their fields at low prices."

"The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. It all depends on whether they can own the means of production. The most critical means of production is fields."

Cheng Qian's summary of Wu Huaiyu felt like a wake-up call, and he suddenly became enlightened.

"Teacher, I think there is something wrong with this,"

"It's true that there are problems, but that's human nature,"

"But can't the court do anything?"

"The imperial court can and must do it,"

"How to do it?"

"The imperial court must do everything possible to ensure that the people at the lowest level can at least have food and clothing. Otherwise, once the dangerous red line is broken and a large number of people become hungry, the dynasty will collapse."

Cheng Qian looked at Master Wu Huai expectantly and continued to ask, "But the teacher said that the equal land system is no longer feasible."

"It is indeed difficult to implement the land equalization system, but the court can start from other places, such as reducing the burden of taxes and service on these people, and starting to rectify usury, highland rent, etc...."

thump,
thump.

The two jumped into the Jiao River. The warm water made the tired two feel much better.

"Teacher, I will definitely change all this in the future. I will ensure that tillers have their fields, weavers have their straw, residents have their huts, and old and young have their dependence."

"Hahaha, His Highness is extremely ambitious and full of benevolence,"

"I also ask the teacher to help me complete it."

"The minister takes orders!"

"Hahaha!"

The teacher and the student laughed together. Although Huaiyu felt that Chengqian's words were a bit childish, they were also very impressive.

(End of this chapter)