The First Great Ancestor of the Five Dynasties

Chapter 142

At the end of April, spring planting is coming to an end.

Around Anding County, most of the paddy fields and dry fields have been cultivated, leaving only some scattered plots of land, which are still being plowed and sown as soon as possible.

This year, the spring plowing and planting work in Jingzhou, especially in Anding County, has been carried out very quickly. County officials took the lead in organizing the work. Township heads, village leaders, and elders from the county and township went to door-to-door notifications. All farm tools and cattle were uniformly allocated by the government. Divide areas, identify the main responsible persons in each area, and carry out large-scale collective farming.

Zhu Xiu specially compiled a farming manual for this purpose, listing dozens of production responsibility systems, which basically had rules to follow from plowing to autumn harvest.

After convening the officials of Jiedu Prefecture and the chief officials of each county to discuss, they deleted, revised and revised it for a few days, engraving and printing it in time and distributed it to the officials.

All officials involved in farming are required to firmly grasp the contents of the manual. They must not only organize large-scale mulberry farming examinations after the spring planting, but also measure the performance of the responsible persons based on the harvest of the area after the autumn harvest.

The officials below were complaining endlessly, but Zhu Xiu, the instigator, secretly expressed his pride. It felt good to be an examiner.

Outside Anding County, on the dirt road in the fields, Shi Lingyan rode a bay-red horse, Zhu Xiu rode a gray donkey and a black egg, and Shi Xiangwen followed behind. The three of them were walking in the fields talking and laughing.

Smelling the air filled with the scent of earth and grass, enjoying the slightly scorching sunshine in the afternoon, Zhu Xiu squinted her eyes slightly and fell asleep, feeling that life was extremely comfortable.

Gray Donkey and Black Egg had a bag hanging under their neck, which contained its snacks, ground bran and soybeans, sprinkled with a few handfuls of salt, and ate them with gusto.

The bay-red horse was eating chopped old wheat straw. He seemed to smell the smell, and suddenly felt that his rations were no longer fragrant. He put his big head next to Heidan's bag.

The donkey behaved very generously and took the initiative to give the snack to the bay horse to take a bite, and then most of it was eaten by the bay horse who tasted the taste.

Hei Dan also took a few symbolic bites of the chopped wheat straw from the red horse, and then the two guys rubbed their necks together, as if to express friendship.

Zhu Xiu was amazed.

The maroon horse looks good and has a bad temper. He is the dominant one in the Jiedu Mansion stables. Usually, other horses will be bitten by it in an extremely unfriendly manner if they want to get close. Unexpectedly, Heidan is a donkey. Cross the boundaries of species and form a deep friendship with the bay horse.

The problem is that the bay horse is a female horse and the black egg is a male donkey. If things continue like this, there might be a baby in the stable next year.

Shi Lingyan gently grabbed a bunch of gray hairs on the top of Heidan's head, Heidan raised his head, and the donkey's lips turned up as if to nibble her, Shi Lingyan laughed and grabbed the donkey's ears and reprimanded her.

The little girl who is new to the world may not know it yet, but her beloved horse has been targeted by an unscrupulous donkey.

Several old farmers pulled a cart and walked past. They stopped to salute Zhu Xiu and addressed him with a smile: "Little official."

Zhu Xiu jumped off the donkey, held his hands towards the old farmers, and stood on the dirt roadside to chat.

Shi Xiangwen saw two grasshoppers jumping on the weeds beside the field edge. He excitedly rushed forward to catch them. He had a great time catching two grasshoppers.

Winter in Jingzhou came early this year but was not cold enough. Even the early spring grasshoppers jumped out.

Shi Lingyan blinked his eyes and listened curiously to Zhu Xiu's conversation with the old farmers.

Shi Lingyan could understand every word they said, but he couldn't understand them all together.

Shi Lingyan was confused as to what "dung field", "taro planting", "basic fertilizer" and "snow water and bone juice mixed with manure water soaked grain seeds".

After the old farmers resigned and left, Shi Lingyan couldn't wait to catch him and chatter about them.

Zhu Xiu explained patiently with a smile.

He was communicating with several old farmers about methods of fertilizing their fields.

These veteran farmers are all farmers in several villages around Anding County, and they are good at farming. The yield of the fields they handle is usually [-] to [-]% higher.If the local agricultural officials are successful enough, they will usually register such soil experts and invite them to give demonstrations and guidance every spring to promote farming techniques. The government will also give certain rewards and commendations.

In the past, under the rule of the Changyi Army, the two prefectures of Jingyuan knew that farming was important but did not know how to pay attention to it. They could only allow the people to develop freely. The government would only collect grain taxes on time and would not take care of farmers' harvests.

This year, time is running out, so Zhu Xiu used farming manuals to coordinate with high-pressure policies to raise the attention and awareness of agriculture among officials at all levels.

Food is the most important thing for the people. In the feudal agricultural era, nothing was more important than ensuring the supply of food rations.

Since spring plowing, Zhu Xiu has traveled around the villages and fields in Anding County and talked with different officials and farmers. In summary, it can be seen that both officials and farmers actually understand farming mostly from the experience passed down from generation to generation, lacking systematic understanding and scientific understanding. Know.

Agricultural works such as "The Book of Si Sheng" at the end of the Western Han Dynasty and "The Essentials of Qi Min" during the Northern Wei Dynasty have actually spread to the north and south of the Yangtze River. However, they are limited by the low literacy rate and lack of scientific guidance. Even the officials in charge of agricultural affairs have little understanding of them. The content is also very superficial.

The improvement of agricultural technology requires an in-depth combination of theory and practice.

Zhu Xiu had long given up hope in the knowledge and understanding of some officials, and it was impossible to expect them to promote agriculture.

In his eyes, those guys who had nothing to do with their corpses were just tools. Once they got through this period, they would have to be eliminated one after another.

Zhu Xiu explained the knowledge about soil and fertile land. Shi Lingyan seemed to understand, and then asked in a crisp voice: "What are the old men carrying on their shoulders?"

Zhu Xiu smiled and said: "That's called a crank plow. It's a ground plowing tool that I recently improved based on ancient records. This time, Jingzhou was able to complete spring planting in time, thanks to it."

Shi Lingyan opened his mouth slightly to express surprise. He wanted to give him a few compliments, but when he saw Zhu Xiu holding his hands behind his hands and raising his head with a proud look on his face, he rolled his lips and rolled his eyes at him.

"Dalang~ let's go!" Zhu Xiu shouted as he mounted the donkey, and Shi Xiangwen came over with a quick step. The three of them patrolled around the county seat and prepared to return home.

As soon as he arrived outside the county town, Guan Tieshi led a person out of the town in a hurry, and it turned out to be Pan Mei.

Pan Mei had been on the road for several days without closing her eyes. She was tired and sleepy. She lost a lot of weight and her face was darkened, like a refugee fleeing from a refugee.

Guan Tieshi said: "Brother Pan came all the way from Chang'an and said he had something important to tell you."

Ignoring the pleasantries, Zhu Xiu held his arms and said in a deep voice: "But something happened in Chang'an? Where is the lady now?"

Pan Mei swallowed her dry throat and said bitterly: "The eldest lady is still in Chang'an. She has many eyes and ears around her. The slightest movement will alert Li Chongxun and the Yongxing Army. The eldest lady chose to stay and asked me to escort [-] stones of food and grass to You deliver it. The grain escort team is still in Qiugu County. I'm afraid of delaying important matters, so I came to inform you in advance."

Zhu Xiu's heart sank, Mrs. Fu actually stayed in Chang'an.

In this case, she will definitely be implicated in Li Shouzhen's rebellion.

When she was with Li Shouzhen and his son, there were too many variables, and her life might be in danger.

Zhu Xiudao: "Brother Guan is going to bring the food back first, and Lao Pan will follow me back to the mansion to rest. This matter needs to be discussed in the long term."

Guan Tieshi hurriedly dispatched men and rushed to Quail Gu to collect the grain.

Pan Mei grabbed Zhu Xiu's arm tightly and said urgently: "You must find a way to save Mrs. Fu! Now tens of thousands of soldiers and horses have gathered near Jingzhao, and all roads are blocked by the Yongxing Army. Li Shouzhen is afraid that if she really wants to It's the other way around! Madam Fu is involved, and neither the Li family nor the court will let her go!"

Zhu Xiu patted him on the shoulder and said comfortingly: "Don't worry, I know in my heart that the lady is kind to me, and I will find a way to save her no matter what!"

Pan Mei opened her chapped lips and smiled. She rolled her eyes and fell backwards. Zhu Xiu was startled and quickly checked her breathing. Fortunately, her breathing was quite stable. This guy must have been on the road day and night. , exhausted and exhausted.

He immediately asked Shi Xiangwen to carry Pan Mei on his back and hurried back to the city.

(End of this chapter)