Is this a godsend?

The main reason is that there are so many wild beasts in this era, to what extent, so many that hunting is called "field hunting", and hunting in the field, if this kind of low wall is not built, there will be mounds for sentry If you don't, the beast can kill half of your misfortune.

And those savages (farmers living in the wild and in the suburbs) can also give you trouble for the remaining half. There are usually boundary markers inserted on the mounds to indicate who the land belongs to. The land in the whole country is divided evenly in this way. The checkerboard shapes one by one are enough to satisfy patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

However, this division method is limited to places with a large amount of flat land such as the North China Plain, such as Xiqi, Nanfangguo, etc., so it is believed that this kind of well field system was only implemented in the Shang Dynasty. Although North Korea is known as the well field, it has not been fully implemented.

At this time, it was the spring plowing period, and groups of slaves could be seen in the farmland driven by the people to cultivate. The origin of these slaves was very complicated, some were prisoners of war, some paid tribute from the surrounding countries and princes, and some went to the south and Shandong to rob Looted.

"Come closer." Zishou's expression was a bit serious. The planting methods used by these people were very primitive, the standard slash-and-burn farming method. Several slaves held torches to burn the growing weeds, and the slaves with rattan dustpans behind them burned the ashes of the plants and trees. collect them.

The slaves walking behind poked the ground with their bony agricultural tools, trying to smash the underground roots, and then planted the seeds in the pits.

The consumption of manpower is very large, and the efficiency is also very low. Basically, they haven't processed an acre of land after watching it for a long time. And with such farming, the grain output is estimated to be pathetic.

So in a sense, sacrificing slaves is also a last resort—because the food can’t feed so many people—this is still a business that robs everywhere and doesn’t rely entirely on farming.

Farm tools are mainly bone, some are wood, no metal components are seen, and there are stone tools used; the planting method is standard slash-and-burn farming, so primitive that Zishou almost wants to jump in and let these people stop this waste of seeds immediately Behavior.

Irrigation is not bad, at least there are canals, but there are no water conservancy facilities such as waterwheels, but considering the complicated structure of waterwheels, he thinks it's okay, but he can consider getting the manpower to overturn.

"Okay, let's go back." Zishou had some thoughts, "Tomorrow we will call the artisans of Modu to the palace, as well as the people who manage the public land."

"Your Majesty?" Elai was a little puzzled, isn't this normal?It seems that this year's harvest should be good, but why does the king look like the end is coming.

Can you not look like the doomsday is coming, with your farming method, you will soon lose the dry millet. For modern people, it is simply unlovable!

After inspecting the farmland for a week, the carriage stopped by a stream. On the land of China today, the precipitation line is relatively north and west. Therefore, streams and small rivers are still common on the land, even in the current Chu or It is said that later Hunan, Hubei and other places were still wetlands, and Yunmengze was even more spacious like the Mediterranean Sea.

"My lord, drink water." The attendant brought up a cup, that's right, a mug or the scientific name "Xia Dynasty gray pottery cup" that is no different from the later generations.

The earliest unearthed cultural relics found before the Shang Dynasty, of course, it is not a cultural relic now, just an ordinary off-white mug without any pattern.

"Is the water boiling?"

"what?"

"Go, boil the water before drinking." Drinking boiled water is the secret to prolong life in this era. Modern people who have never known the terrible vibrio cholerae and parasites do not understand why humans have to invent tap water and tap water disinfection.

Isn't pure natural, pollution-free water sweet?sweet!

That means that the water body is eutrophic and contains minerals including lead. There must be no industrial pollution, but biological pollution and heavy metal pollution are hard to say.

So what was the consequence of diarrhea and dehydration in ancient times? It was almost equal to death. To be on the safe side, Zishou decided to drink hot water.

"My lord, this is too..." Extravagant. Bronze or pottery boil water very slowly and consume a lot of fuel. It is a waste to boil hot water just to take a nap in the middle.

"There are [-] worms in the water, often drinking raw water is easy to get sick." Zi Shou didn't bother to explain the messy things such as parasites, bacteria, etc., just said that drinking raw water often made getting sick was fine. Discharge it into the river, otherwise it is easy to get epidemics.”

"My lord, is what you said true?" Elai's expression became very scary, "Could it really cause the epidemic?"

The reason why the ancient plague was called seasonal plague is because it erupted with the changing seasons. The ancients could not understand the reproduction of microorganisms at all, they could only understand it as punishment from heaven, and then eliminated it through sacrifices.

Of course, the sacrificial offerings will aggravate the plague when they rot, and with the rise of imperial power, the Chinese will soon stop doing such stupid things, and they choose a more effective way to wipe out the plague—blockade the whole city, some The conscientious ones wait until the people are dead, and the unconscionable ones close the city gates and set fire on all sides, and burn them all.

"Yes, in the future, we will build a special pool to collect the excrement and urine, and then sprinkle slaked lime, plant ash, and cover boards." The simplest method of fertilization, "and wait for a period of time. After the plague poison in it disappears, it can be used to irrigate the ground. can produce more food”

Now we can only quit the manure retting method. Although the Chinese have been using manure in the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, one is not widespread enough, and the other is untreated manure...

"Where did the king come from these..."

"I dreamed about it," Zishou said. This is an era where humans and gods live together. As the king of Shang and a descendant of Xuanniao, he became a god to enjoy sacrifices after his death. It is normal for him to dream of mysterious knowledge.

Anyone who refutes this is making trouble with the king of Shang, the noble class of blood, and the priestly class—almost everyone in the world—there is no way to play the Boting staff these days, and there should be no such fools.

These days, the usual way to deal with courtiers who are "unfaithful" is the kind that Daji did, come, ask the young master to go to the altar to have his heart cut - really a heart-to-heart sentence.

He said that, as his own guard, in other words, his confidant, Eilai would naturally not refute it, even he really believed that the king had the blood of a black bird and had supernatural powers, this kind of mysterious belief was Zi Shoulai The greatest confusion felt in this era.

According to the principles of religion and belief, people who are closer to God should be less likely to believe in it. However, whether it is Queen Jiang or Elai, close officials who get along day and night, they all firmly believe that they are descendants of Xuanniao, and that the sun god is also a god on earth. Funny.

Of course, Queen Jiang may have a need for self-hypnosis. After all, the child in her stomach is the blood of the sun god, the next generation of Shang kings. In this era when blood theory is popular, what is this? All real benefits.

But he didn't have such a motive. Could it be that he didn't have a bright mind or his father Fei Lian was a devout believer so he really believed it?

"My lord, it's not good, there are savages coming in front of me."

The so-called savages are things that are distinguished from Chinese people. People living in the wild, or to put it bluntly, farmers living in small towns around cities and in rural areas, are considered to be a vulgar phenomenon, and in rural areas, they still retain The characteristics of group marriage and matrilineal clan, therefore, even until the Zhou Dynasty, it was said that the savages "know their mothers but not their fathers".

However, considering the context, the savages shouted by the attendant here may not be the so-called wild people, "Where do these savages come from?"

"I don't know, no one knows." Elai shook his head. The savages here don't just refer to those people in the countryside, but those who live in the deep mountains and old forests. Some are escaped slaves and some are criminals. They hide in the mountains and forests. , usually make a living by collecting and farming mountains and fields, and come out to grab food when there is not enough food.

And during the four hunts, these "savages" were also hunted as wild beasts. After being caught, it depends on the situation. If there is not enough labor, they will be treated as slaves. Go to the temple and dispose of it.

"Looks like escaped slaves from nearby." Crowds of unkempt people armed with bone weapons and agricultural tools poured out of the forest. There seemed to be three to 40 of them. The sharpened weapon was tied to a wooden stick, and his eyes were fixed on King Shang's chariot with only three or five servants and two guards.

But to his surprise, Zishou found that everyone had a calm expression, including those servants who did not have weapons. "Hey, you don't really believe that I am a black bird?" Zishou wanted to say , but if you say this now, it is estimated that morale collapsed on the spot.

"My lord, shall we attack?" Elai looked eager to try, which attracted Zishou's strange eyes, brother, there are only three of us with weapons, and each of us will fight eight on average. I'm not Donnie Yen. Where did you get this confidence?

"These savages are not many in number. If there are hundreds of them, we will have to shoot arrows to call people." Elai nonchalantly drew out his bronze sword. How many times has the merchant army lost in a battle?

When the Shang army fought, whichever time the Shang king was not at the forefront, whoever you saw lost—not to mention the Shang king, the queen could kill these people to run around, and then chopped off all their heads and took them back to sacrifice.

Chapter 5 Building toilets is the first priority of crossing

Facing the oncoming bone knife, Zi Shou pulled out the long sword in his hand without even thinking. Chop down.

The blade intersected with the opponent's bone knife, and the bone fragments burst and flew. There was a click sound, the bone knife broke, and the flying broken bones hit the face, which was painful. The unabated sword blade directly hit the opponent's shoulder, killing him. Knocked down.

Zi Shou didn't have time to think about why the sword was so blunt and didn't split the man, a wooden spear with charred tip pierced his abdomen. As a last resort, he could only dodge to one side.

And the opponent had no defense and tactical thinking, just smashed and stabbed him with the weapon in his hand, and after the initial panic, Zishou stabbed him in the stomach with a sword, knocking the man over. on the ground.

However, as if feeling no pain at all, the person who was stabbed by the point of the sword climbed up again and attacked Zishou until Elai grabbed his hair and smashed it to the ground, and stepped on his chest with his big feet. , sending the bronze sword in his hand down forcefully, blood spattering.

None of the thirty or forty people escaped, and none of them stayed in the end. They were wiped out by Elai and the guarding warriors. The smell of human blood rushed straight to the door, which made Zi Shou's expression ugly. I haven't adapted to this body, this identity, and this era when human life is worthless.

Only now did he have time to look at the long sword in his hand. It was dark and non-reflective, more like it was made of some kind of obsidian-like material, with a smooth surface, and the handle was bronze wrapped with fur and decorated with feathers.

The position connected to the blade is a very exaggerated eagle owl head. The ear feathers are flattened to protect the fingers holding the sword, and the blade is spit out from the mouth. There is no inscription on the blade, only some shiny lines like scratches .

Zishou didn't quite know what material it was, but it must have been made of some kind of stone, no wonder it was so blunt that no one could split it.

"Your Majesty..." Wang Zishou stared at the long sword with a stiff and serious expression, Elai leaned forward, "You also found out?"

"Hmm~" Zishou instinctively hummed, and then made a puzzled voice, "Huh?" What did you find?

Elai squatted next to a dead body, pushed his eyelids away, "Please look, Your Majesty." The pupils of his eyes were scarlet, and the bloodshot eyes covered the entire white of the eyes. Before Zi Shou could open his mouth to ask, he saw a white The tiny bugs crawled out from the eye sockets, and then more bugs bit the eyeballs and crawled out.

"Water beetle! Come here, bring fire!" Elai also withdrew his hand suddenly as if he had been scalded. Others also poured the fat in the jar on the corpses, then threw torches and burned them one by one. .

"These people were poisoned by water beetles! They drank bad water!" Zi Shou looked at his panicked subordinates, confused, what is water beetles, and what is bad water?

It looks quite disgusting, but if you think about it carefully, it should be some kind of parasite, so bad water refers to the water source polluted by parasites?

In this era without industrial pollution, the danger of wild water and food is more terrible than the additive food produced by modern industry.

At least the additives only slowly damage the health. If there is a conscience, the ingredients of the additives are still below the harmful standard, but in the era of no industrial pollution, the pure natural diet will really kill people.

While thinking wildly, Zishou saw that Elai, the warriors, and the horsemen collected some large leaves of unknown plants from the wild, dipped them in the clear water in the jar, and kneaded the large leaves into a ball with their rough hands as if they were rubbing the leaves to wipe their buttocks , and then spread it out and wiped it vigorously on the body, especially the palms and forearms that had touched the corpse.

"What are you doing?" Zishou squinted his eyes, which seemed to be an ancient sacred act. Judging from their expressions, they were terrified and focused. Could it be that they were disinfecting with the juice of plants and herbs?

Human beings' cognition of diseases has run through almost the entire history of human civilization, and almost [-]% of theological behaviors and teachings come from two things-agriculture and medical treatment.

For example, Islam does not eat pork because most of the early pork was "rice grain meat" because of the relationship between breeding. If you eat it, you will get sick; if Taoism does not eat it, it is mostly due to agricultural considerations. Of course, because Taoism rose very late , plus he is a religion evolved from a serious school of philosophy, so there are many other factors mixed in this matter.

Although they can't recognize parasites and various fungi in the wild, they also know that certain herbal medicines can cure diseases and certain plants can sterilize and prevent infection from serious diseases through a long period of time, relying on human life and experience.

It's just that Zishou thinks this behavior is useless. These people obviously drank unclean water, leading to parasite infection, and the characteristics of parasites will not be affected by contact...

"Fuck!" Zi Shou looked deep into the grove and at the slowly flowing stream, "Come on!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

"Call someone to block up this forest, cut off the stream, and burn the trees."

In order not to cause a large-scale parasite plague, Zishou can only use this method to cut off the plague. He just suddenly realized that the biggest transmission route of parasites is feces polluting water sources, and these "savages" have been staying in the forest for a long time In a day or two, the stream here must be polluted!

Just kidding, these days, only aristocrats have toilets, and the city has dug open ditches for excretion, but there is no real toilet. Flies and all kinds of messy insects are flying on the excrement and garbage, like a living thing The moat is what Modu looks like at this time.

"Let's go, go back to the capital, kill all the people within ten miles of this place!" Zi Shou could only harden his heart.

This is not the modern age with advanced medical treatment. There is only one witch doctor with first-class dancing skills in his palace. If there is a plague, it is not a matter of killing a few people. It is the daily life of this barbaric era.

Fortunately, flames are indeed a symbol of human civilization. All diseases and hazards can be solved with large enough flames. On the way back to Modu, Zishou saw a group of warriors riding various mounts leading professional soldiers rushing towards the city. woods.

The military system of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties was basically the same as that of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods. It was a standard citizen soldier. Simply put, fighting such a thing was a matter for the "nationals" living in the city, that is, the so-called "national soldiers".

This means that all soldiers are half-timed (completely out of production is impossible), and have also undergone very professional military training. In the Warring States period, Guan Zhong was forced by the needs of the princes to compete for hegemony, and even came up with a regular military training system. A large number of school fields are set up in various places, and regular military training is organized for farmers in the suburbs around the city.

"Bring the best craftsmen in the city, as well as priests from the temple" Zishou has nothing to do with the military, so he is not called a military nobleman. As for calling priests, there is no other way, because in this era, Make your subordinates obedient, religion works better than reason.

The average prenatal education education per capita, can understand the truth of a fart, the real meaning of the so-called courtesy is not inferior to ordinary people is this: ordinary people can understand a fart of etiquette, this is the scheme of meat eaters!

One of the biggest advantages of this era is that the place is small, and all the people arrived in the palace within a minute after being called, and there is no cumbersome etiquette for later generations. Everyone sits cross-legged casually, and then their eyes are on the barbecue on the bonfire. Look, the noble family doesn't have any surplus food, so why eat your own food when you can eat the king's?

"I came to you because there is a project that you need to do, and there is a new law to be announced." Zishou got straight to the point. In an age that is too old, one of the biggest benefits is that it does not exclude technological and academic innovations.

Because there are no deep-rooted interest groups in this era, and even institutional innovation, as long as it is not too radical like Dixin in history, there will not be too much opposition.

Therefore, until the Zhou Dynasty, there was a saying that "although Zhou is an old state, its destiny is to be restored". Under the enfeoffment system, the power of the princes grew rapidly beyond the ruling ability of the emperor of Zhou, which naturally led to the struggle for hegemony among the princes.

But at this time, there will be no hegemony among the princes, because even Xiqi can't survive without the tribal alliance of Shang. , I can praise you at any time.

Not to mention, food, manpower, and military cannot be self-sufficient. This era even uses economic tactics more often than later generations, because each tribe cannot produce enough materials to meet their own needs, let alone build cities and fortresses - without strong If you are in the city, you don't need the King of Shang to drive you, and those beasts in the wild can make you unable to survive.

In a sense, King Wu's defeat of Zhou was really the fault of Emperor Xin himself. If he didn't carry out reforms and prevent the princes from being able to develop self-sufficiency in production, Xiqi's little family background might sell Ji Chang's family It's not enough for military expenses.

Closer to home, "I want you to use your useless slaves to dig holes in the city"

"Your Majesty wants to offer sacrifices to Houtu?" the priest asked, his first reaction was that His Majesty was going to bury these slaves alive, offering sacrifices to Houtu, and bless the stability of the city.

"No, after digging the hole, cover it with wooden boards and leave a gap this wide. From then on, people in the whole city will excrete here." The first thing Zishou had to do was to dig public toilets.

"My lord, is this necessary?" The priests were very puzzled, if they shit, wouldn't it be done in the ditch beside the city?There are plenty of leaves growing there.

"Then let the slaves dig a hole, and then dig a bigger hole outside the city, use wooden barrels to pull the excrement inside into the big hole outside the city every day, and then cover the big hole with wooden boards."

"This makes these sluts incapable of thinking about more things, and prevents them from slacking off and sleeping all day long or trying to resist." In addition to digging toilets, Zishou also vents the slavery that is almost impossible to abolish in a short time. Press it once, otherwise the number of slaves will increase, and the military power of Modu will not be able to suppress it. At that time, it will only be possible to pull a group of slaves who are too lively to sacrifice.

Instead of sacrificing people, it would be better to exhaust them to death, and at least it could contribute to the construction. He didn't want to compete with the noble priest class in advance because of the brutal emancipation of slaves, and when production began to develop and the manure fermented successfully, then The noble priests themselves will propose to abolish the living sacrifice system.

"Hmm~" The priests thought about it for a while, and felt that there was nothing wrong with it. The slave sacrifices kept in the temple were indeed quite a burden, and although living sacrifices were common, they could not be sacrificed casually at any time. After all, Queen Shang and those military nobles are still watching.

Of course, it is impossible to let them out, even if they can't use up so many slaves to work, it is impossible to let them out, so the order of King Shang is very beneficial to them.

"Follow your Majesty, but why do you have to stay in these pits..."

"Because those feces are placed in the ditches around the city, it is disrespectful to the gods. When offering sacrifices, we have to offer herbs, burn incense wood, and use wine to clean utensils and clean the dirt on our bodies, so as not to offend ghosts and gods. However, Around the altar of the city are ditches filled with filth..."

This reason is very convincing. If you talk about hygiene with these people, I am afraid that you are thinking about farts. It is better to tell them that ghosts and gods are uncomfortable than anything else.

"Besides, I dreamed that God told me that spreading the purified things under the wooden planks in the field can increase the grain production." Zimen didn't want to play tricks, but at this moment, he could only play tricks.

"Then how can slaves be allowed to do this kind of thing? It should be done by people with status..."

"Although the filth will be purified by the later soil, it is filth after all. Do you want to contract a disease?" Zi Shou said sharply, "As a slave at this time, you need to live separately. Once found to be infected with filth and disease, the whole team will be killed. Clean it up with the sun and fire, and then bury the ashes in the pit to purify the soil.”

Throwing the dead bodies around like this, sooner or later there will be a fucking plague, this is definitely not a joke.

"In addition, peel off the bark of the willow trees planted in the fields outside the city, soak them in water for three or four days, then let the slaves carry them, sprinkle them around the big pits, and the slaves must drink a cup every day. of water, and use it to scrub the body”

This contains a small amount of salicylic acid, which can effectively deal with the reproduction of some fungi and bacteria. If you drink it, it will weaken aspirin countless times. As for the side effects...

What are you talking about, who the hell cares about side effects these days, these slaves can live for ten years is already blessed by God.

"Willow branches can purify pollution, and the soaked water can be sprinkled on the field to speed up the rooting of crops."

This knowledge of herbal medicine is often the secret of the priests and witches. The priests gain status by monopolizing the knowledge and experience summed up by these ancestors. Ri opened his head.

If the first generation of priests knew that this knowledge was actually the experience of living in the wild for a long time and collecting Baicao, then the current Shennong, or the priests of Lieshan's Jiang surname really believe that this knowledge is passed down from ancestors and gods. the next thing.

Of course, in this era, the difference between ancestors and gods is that there is no difference. They all believe that they will turn into gods after death, so the things of ancestors and the things of gods are the same thing, although dreaming of such things...

They haven't met them themselves, but King Shang is a descendant of Xuanniao, and the daughter of the real Lie Shan family is his queen, so it must be true.

In this era, most of the divine power is held by women, and the matrilineal habits of more ancient times still remain. Women are usually witch priests, who master the knowledge and inheritance in the tribe, raise the next generation, and teach knowledge. Therefore, as Lie Shan When the daughter of the family, Queen Jiang, was still alive, no one dared to speak up even if Di Xin wanted to appoint a villain, or even set out to abolish the living sacrifice system.

After all, the Lieshan family is the Shennong family, and their prestige is no less than that of the Shang king. When the husband and wife join forces to fight against the enemy, no nobles can resist at all.

Of course, once Queen Jiang died, Di Xin would have more fun. Breaking with the theocratic clan meant that he could no longer have such a powerful queen. The only way was to continue the previous political path and promote villains to fight against priests and nobles In order to make the villain obey his orders, he promoted You Su's daughter and his captive female slave to be the queen, that is, Daji.

If it wasn't for the bad luck and the barbarian rebellion, King Wu of Zhou's combat power would at most make him feel uncomfortable for a while. When these slaves are thoroughly trained as soldiers, then when they fight the Battle of Muye, they won't be defeated by the former army. The slave crashes and fails.