I, Liu Bian, Sanxing Han Dynasty

Chapter 61 Poor Peasants

After a brief discussion on mathematics, Liu Bian asked about Zheng Xuan's residence.

Zheng Xuan pointed to his adobe house with a thatched roof and said to Liu Bian: "Your Highness, this house may not look dilapidated, but because it is located on the outskirts of Luoyang and the terrain is good, it is worth fifteen thousand yuan!"

What is the concept of 27 yuan? According to Liu Bian's knowledge, currently, the salary of grass-roots officials with a hundred stones is divided into two types: money and grain, which totals yuan per month, and four hu (stones) of rice and eight dou. One stone from the Eastern Han Dynasty was equivalent to about kilograms in modern times.

Relying on the money from his salary alone, he would have to save for a year and a half if he wanted to buy such a shabby house.

Generally speaking, if the official is not corrupt, as long as the food price is normal, the salary is more than enough to support a family of five, but if you want to save money, that is a different matter.

"Living in Luoyang is not easy!"

Liu Bian learned from Zheng Xuan's introduction that the house he currently lives in is not much different from ordinary people's homes.

The adobe wall is rectangular in shape and is divided into three rooms. The middle room opens to the outside and serves as the main room for entertaining guests.

The rooms used for living on both sides have windows that open to the outside. If possible, a wall will be used to separate the three rooms. If not, they can only be covered with straw mats.

But after all, the walls are made of adobe, which limits the size of the doors and windows.

As soon as Liu Bian entered the main room, he felt the moisture in the room.

The next level up is the brick house, which is a level higher in terms of service life and comfort, but this is something that only the middle class and above with a household wealth of more than 100,000 yuan will consider.

Here at Zheng Xuan, Liu Bian suddenly realized that this was a good opportunity to understand the real life of contemporary people.

Thinking of this, he asked Zheng Xuan: "Master Zheng, are there people living near here who make a living by farming?"

Zheng Xuandao: "Not only are there, but they are all living around!"

Liu Bian said happily: "Can you please invite a few people to talk to me? I have been living in the palace for more than a year. I don't know the current situation of the people. What I can see on paper is not as good as seeing it."

"You can do anything!" Zheng Xuan once farmed his own land to support himself. He knew the hard work of farming, so he asked his son Zheng Yi to invite some nearby people.

It is now the end of February, and the busy farming season has not yet begun, so there is no need to worry about delaying the farming season.

Liu Bian emphasized: "It would be great if we could find people with different family backgrounds."

Although Zheng Xuan is simple, he still wears classic Confucian casual clothes made of silk. This kind of clothing is generally too large, with the wide sleeves being the most prominent, which is used to show his broad spirit.

What Zheng Xuan wore was the common cyan color. In addition, like yellow, because the dyeing material Rehmannia glutinosa is easy to obtain, it is also very common. The so-called Yellow Turban is like this.

At that time, people respected black and red, followed by green.

While waiting, Zheng Xuan talked to Liu Bian about the difficulty of people's lives, and how he could only wear short brown clothes made of burlap when he was the poorest.

After a long time, Zheng Yi finally came back.

He did not explain Liu Bian's identity to the people he brought, but only said that he was a nobleman from Luoyang.

Even so, looking at the knights guarding outside, the visitor was already frightened.

Liu Bian naturally did not put on any airs, and asked Guo Sheng, who accompanied him out of the palace, to get some money to share. Zheng Xuan was beside him to discuss the matter. After some operations, the visitor was finally not as nervous as he was at first.

Some people even put the money into their arms immediately after getting it, and happily patted their chests and promised that no matter what they asked, they would definitely answer it.

It's just that the linen clothes he wore were worn out, and when he patted them, some of the broken linen stuffed inside to keep him warm came out. He didn't care and picked up the broken linen clothes again. Liu Bian couldn't help but ask: "Can I wear this linen clothes to keep out the cold during the winter solstice?"

"At that time, I tried not to go out. If I had to go out for something, I had to stuff more broken hemp inside."

Zheng Xuan explained on the side: "They don't have many clothes at home. Just like this cloth, when the weather gets warmer, the broken linen inside needs to be taken out and used as summer clothes."

Liu Bian asked again about the acres of land at his home. The man was a little shy and said: "In the early years of famine, we had to sell our land to survive. Now there are only eight acres of thin farmland left."

He remembered that since the late Western Han Dynasty, including the entire Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, the overall climate had spiraled toward the Little Ice Age. During the transition period, the climate fluctuated and natural disasters continued.

If nothing unexpected happens, the climate temperature will generally continue to fall in the next period. Although there are recurrences, the general trend remains unchanged, and finally reached its lowest point during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

"Are all these eight acres of land planted with wheat?" Liu Bian asked.

"Only six acres of middle- and upper-grade fields can be grown with wheat, and the remaining two acres of low-grade fields can only be grown with soybeans and vegetables."

Relying on six acres of wheat fields, it is definitely not possible to support the whole family. Therefore, in the past, this person would go to work for wealthy households during busy farming seasons and other seasons. He could earn twenty or thirty dollars a day, but there were not many good days like this. .

"Can the wheat yield per mu reach three stones?" Liu Bian asked. This was the data he saw in official documents.

"The upper-grade fields can have three stones, but the middle-grade fields are not enough."

Liu Bian nodded. It seemed that there was no lie in the official document. If there was no disaster, the wheat yield could reach three stones per mu. Unfortunately, not all land can grow wheat, and not all wheat fields can produce such a yield.

After that, the man told the reason why he was so happy to get money - his family's food reserves would definitely not be enough to eat in March. The only way was to turn to mutual aid within the clan, but the clan may not have the resources. Surplus food.

Now with this money, he can survive the most difficult month of March, and by April, he can harvest the mustard greens, mallows, and turnips he planted last year.

That is to say, I didn't bring much money with me when I went out this time. I had already given them all away, otherwise Liu Bian would have wanted to give him more. This was the only thing he could do at the moment.

As a result, Guo Sheng found out a hundred coins from nowhere. Although it wasn't much, it was better than nothing.

While they were talking, officials here had already heard the news and rushed over, but they were blocked by Yu Lin who was guarding Liu Bian.

With such an example, the rest of the people are no longer cautious.

Zheng Yi did not bring any tenants. Among the people Liu Bian had ever seen, he was the first person with the least land area, only eight acres, and the person with the most land had sixty acres.

On average, one family of these people only has about twenty-five acres, and this is still the situation around Luoyang.

With the current productivity, if you rely on these more than 20 acres of land and the wife's sericulture and weaving, you will be able to sustain your life.

If you encounter a natural or man-made disaster, you can only rely on the clan to help each other. If you still can't solve it...

History has already given the answer.

More than ten years ago, in the spring of the third year of Jianning, there was a great famine. In Hanoi, there were women who ate their husbands, and in Henan, there were husbands who ate their women...

Liu Bian only felt that the situation was not optimistic!

The country has a tendency to slowly recover after the Yellow Turban. In the past year or so, no major disasters have occurred, but he had a hunch that the climate in the last years of the dynasty would not be so smooth.

　This shouldn't be considered water, right?

　　

　

(End of this chapter)