A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 41 Spring Ploughing

Hearing what Xu Zhongjun said, Wang Dou said: "My lord, I have already ordered someone to buy a batch of millet and sorghum seeds, which can be cultivated immediately, but the ox plow is not enough."

Xu Zhongjun asked Wang Dou how many cattle there are in the fort now, and Wang Dou said.

Hearing that there are only nineteen cattle in Jingbian Fort, Xu Zhongjun frowned. He turned to Du Zhen and said, "Master Du, Wang Zongqi is dedicated to farming in the camp. As a superior, can you help Wang Zongqi?"

Du Zhen hurriedly said: "My lord, when Wang Zongqi came to the fort that day, the subordinate officials immediately ordered his subordinates to allocate material support."

Du Zhen turned his head to Du Gong who was beside him, and Du Gong hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Master Xu, when Wang Zongqi came to the fort that day, the humble officer immediately set aside a batch of cattle seeds. knew."

Xu Zhongjun calmly said: "How much have you dialed?"

Du Gong said in a low voice after a while: "There are four oxen, three sets of plows, and twenty hoes."

Zhang Gui who was next to him let out a chuckle: "What a great handwriting."

Thinking about the ten military households, five cows, one stone of rice, and fifteen hoes that I allocated to Wang Dou that day, a thousand households were not as big as his pen, Zhang Gui couldn't help but feel complacent.

Du Zhen glanced at Zhang Gui with gloomy eyes, and seeing Xu Zhongjun's unfriendly expression, Du Gong stepped forward and explained: "At present, our fort also lacks farm tools for farming, and many forts often come to ask for them, so ..."

Xu Zhongjun remained silent, and when Du Zhen and Du Gong were uneasy, he said calmly: "Take another twenty oxen and plow tools and put them in the king's banner castle."

Du Gong repeatedly said: "Yes, I can save you from a humble job, save me from a humble job, and dial it immediately after returning to the castle."

Xu Zhongjun looked around at everyone, and said meaningfully: "Talents are rare, dedicated people are rare, everyone should help a lot."

There was a lot of echoes, and many pairs of jealous eyes were looking at Wang Dou. The Shangguan appreciated it so much, it seems that Wang Dou's prosperity was only on that day.

Over there, Du Zhen and Du Gong looked at each other, both looked deeply at Wang Dou.

Xu Zhongjun called Wang Dou to him again, looked at him and said, "Wang Dou, as long as you put your heart and soul into farming, I will definitely support you with all my strength."

Wang Dou thanked deeply: "Thank you for your kindness, Mr. Defender. I will do my best to keep the fields in the fort well."

Xu Zhongjun nodded in satisfaction.

……

After the inspection, Xu Zhongjun and his party returned to the castle. Of course, Wang Dou slaughtered pigs and sheep to entertain the group in the official hall.

During the banquet, taking advantage of Xu Zhongjun's joy, Wang Dou said that there is a lack of craftsmen in his castle, and he hoped that Mr. Xu could allocate a group of craftsmen. It happened that the civil engineering craftsmen who built the waterwheel and the castle were in his castle, so they needed them. up.

Xu Zhongjun nodded in agreement. In addition, he talked about the bandit suppression in Dongjiazhuang last year. , presumably everyone will only record their merits once, as a future military and political assessment.

……

Not long after Xu Zhongjun and his party went back, Du Gong escorted over twenty ox plows. When he met Wang Dou, his expression was a little bad. However, Wang Dou bought more than ten ox plows from him personally. After that, his complexion turned from cloudy to sunny.

Soon, the household registration of those craftsmen was also transferred to Jingbian Fort.Except for a group of craftsmen from Baoanzhou City, most of them belonged to craftsmen households in Shunxiangbao and Dongjiazhuang. Their household registration transfer was just a word from Xu Zhongjun.

Even the batch of military craftsmen in the fort, plus the few craftsmen dispatched, there were more than [-] craftsmen in Wang Dou's hands, including the old craftsman who made the waterwheel. Dou was happy for a while.

The families of these craftsmen, Wang Dou, arranged them in the barracks properly. With the experience of these time in Jingbian Fort, all the craftsmen and households feel at ease and full of hope for their future life.

Each of these three groups has a small leader, but Wang Dou unified them to be led by Li Maosen, the head of the craftsman.

These twenty or so artisan households, together with the military households in the original fort, now have a total of more than 70 households and more than 300 people in Jingbian Fort, which can be regarded as a rather large fort.

……

On the seventh day of February in the eighth year of Chongzhen, in front of the official hall of the General Banner of Jingbianbao.

"Everyone line up and come up one by one to get the cattle and rice. Be orderly and not chaotic."

Qi Tianliang stood in front of Wang Dou and shouted loudly to all the military households in front of him.

Wang Dou was sitting on a chair, and Han Chao and Zhong Tiaoyang stood beside him to watch.Beside Wang Dou, there was also a table, and Zhong Rong was registering the rice, grain and agricultural tools brought down by the military households one by one.

After all the military households distributed the fields a few days ago, Wang Dou distributed cattle, plow tools, seeds, rice and grain to them today.In order to show fairness, everyone draws lots to decide who owns the farm cattle, so as to avoid everyone scrambling for the strong cattle, and no one wants the relatively thinner cattle.

Of course, after the ox and the plow are divided, like the waterwheels outside, they are only leased in the fort, and the ownership still belongs to Tunpu.In the future, everyone also needs to treat the cattle well. Every few months, someone will go to the fort to check.In addition, all the military households also borrowed rice grain one by one, as their rations before the autumn harvest.

Wang Dou sat on the chair and watched. All the military households below were very happy, and they were all very grateful when they were given the oxen and plows.With the land and the oxen and plows they share now, the happy life of their wives and children will accompany them in the future.

Wang Dou sighed that his land policy had come to an end, and after the land was divided into households, it was up to these military households to live their lives in the future.However, history has proved that after owning the land, those self-cultivating farmers showed great enthusiasm, as well as their desperate spirit to safeguard their own interests.

When the military households divided the oxen and the plow, a group of craftsmen also watched enviously below, talking in a low voice from time to time.Of course, although they didn't get the land to farm cattle, Wang Dou would give them a stable monthly ration of food and rations, and they would be rewarded for doing a good job. They were also very satisfied with their current life.

Wang Dou has already made a decision, Qi Tianliang will supervise and supervise the farming affairs in the fort from now on. In addition to urging the military households to farm hard, Qi Tianliang will also urge the military households to send out Dingkou for any public construction in the fort in the future. Come to serve.

It is impossible for Wang Dou to handle every detail by himself, and these are the only elderly people around him.Among the crowd, only Qi Tianliang is more proficient in farming, plus he is literate, who would not entrust the farming in the castle to him?

So besides managing the supply team, Qi Tianliang will be in charge of the farming and other things in the fort from now on.Poor Qi Tianliang was just a soldier in the past, and now he has to manage so many people, he is under a lot of pressure, lest he make a mistake and miss the important task that Wang Dou entrusted to him.Only his wife Tao Shi was very happy and kept cheering up her man.

Qi Tianliang has already decided that he will learn more Braille and arithmetic in the future.

……

After dividing the oxen and plows on this day, the waterwheels in the well outside were installed. On the second day, a grand spring plowing ceremony was organized in Jingbian Fort.

A thatch factory was built next to Baihu Canal. Wang Dou also spent two liang of silver to invite a troupe from Zhoucheng to beat drums and gongs all the way, and let everyone carry paper-made spring cattle and plow tools. From Jingbian Fort to the thatched factory.

Along the way, all the military households set off firecrackers and threw rice, soybeans, etc. to the paper-made cattle to signify a bumper harvest in the new year.

After the spring cows were carried to the thatch factory with the paper tie, Wang Dou burned incense to lay down the thick earth of the emperor.After paying homage to the gods of heaven and earth, Wang Dou personally supported the plow and performed a demonstration of plowing the field with oxen to show the start of spring plowing. The shouts of the surrounding military households resounded through the sky.

Finally, the spring ox made of paper was lifted up and swam inside and outside Jingbian Fort several times, and then the spring ox made of paper was burned, and the spring plowing ceremony ended.

From this day on, the tense spring plowing of Jingbian Fort began, and the happy songs of the military households resounded everywhere in the fields:
"Autumn plowing is deep, spring plowing is shallow. Spring plowing is like turning over cakes, and autumn plowing is like digging a well. Spring plowing is one inch deep, and it can cover a pile of dung. Spring plowing refuses to be busy, and the face is hungry and yellow after autumn. Plowing is good and harrowing, light grows and crops do not grow Grass. The crops don’t recognize their father and mother, intensive farming and more grain..."

Qi Tianliang was nervously urging the military households to work everywhere, while the three teams of soldiers in the fort also went to the fields to help their families with work at the same time. They were all strong members of the family, the pillars of the family, and the work of the family could not be separated from them.

The current Wang Dou has not raised any retired soldiers yet.Of course, he has also considered this issue, but if he wants to support these three teams of soldiers out of production, he must give them at least one grain of rice per month, so as to make up for the losses caused by their family members, as well as their weapons, armor, horses and beans. Materials, etc., after all calculations, it is not a small sum.

Maybe I should go to suppress the bandits a few more times.

……

During the spring plowing season, while the military households in Jingbianbao were busy farming, Wang Dou also went home to help for a few days.

Right now, the winter wheat has begun to turn green and jointed, which is the key to topdressing and weeding. People say that spring rain is "expensive as oil". As in previous years, there is still not much rain in Baoan this year, and watering is still needed.

Fortunately, wells have been dug in the land of the Wang family, and with the help of Wang Dou, Han Chao, Han Zhong, Gao Shiyin, and Zhong Tiaoyang, the tens of acres of land in the Wang family will be completed easily and quickly. up.There is no need for the two wives Zhong and Xie Xiuniang to go to the fields to help.

In addition, Wang Dou bought [-] acres of wasteland on the west bank of the Dongfang River at the beginning of the year, but Wang Dou let the land be abandoned there for the time being. When the land and population increase in the future, he will consider building a farm there.

……

On the day of Qingming, the spring plowing and sowing of the Jingbian Fort military households have all been completed.

On the day of Qingming, Wang Dou gave the military households a two-day holiday. At the same time, he also went home to visit the tomb and pay homage to his deceased father and ancestors.

From the third day, Wang Dou decided to organize the manpower of the whole fort to start building the fort wall.

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Old White Bull:
There is another update in the evening, about before eleven o'clock, thank you for your support.

(End of this chapter)