Chinese New Year

Chapter 114 Farming
On the fifth day of February, the first batch of refugees from Bingzhou left Shaoyuan and Panyuan and headed for Yiyang.

It would take them about three days to reach Yunzhongwu, and then they would be placed under military control and start spring sowing work one after another.

Shao Xun did not go with them, but rode back to Yunzhongwu first.

I hadn’t been there for a few days, but I could see that a wooden fence had been erected at the foot of the hillside on the south side of the terrace.

The leader of the group, Jin San, was holding a sword and a bow, looking very majestic and pointing around.

The teenager was already quite stylish. The coolie soldiers from Luoyang, who were generally at least ten years older than him, were very respectful to him. After a while, they assigned a few of them, carrying small flags, to hide in the nearby woods.

This is to deploy secret sentries and mobile sentries, using small flags to communicate regularly. Once contact is lost, the Silver Spear Army soldiers will immediately gather and prepare for battle.

If the enemy is large in number, the whole village will ring the bell.

The men among the farmhands were immediately mobilized and went to the top of the city wall to fight.

Healthy women served as auxiliary soldiers, carrying the wounded and various city defense equipment.

The children will not be idle either. They will do things within their ability, such as delivering water and food, taking care of the wounded, transporting medicine for arrow wounds, etc.

In short, everyone is on the battlefield and no one will be idle.

Shao Xun dismounted from his horse and walked quietly along the Qugu River, watching silently.

There are still flat fields on both sides of this tributary of the Luo River, and some people are already ploughing the fields. They are all the families of the former bandits, working hard and numbly on the fields, living a mechanical life.

Bandits don't have an easy life. In this world, they can only rob civilians or small caravans, and their income is limited. In the end, they still have to rely on farming to support themselves.

"Master Shao." Jin San was informed quickly and rushed over, followed by two honest middle-aged men - it was all an illusion, the thieves could not be honest.

"Who is this?" Shao Xun pointed at the person behind him.

"Li Yu and Qiu Da, the village leaders I appointed, are in charge of fifty households each," Jin San replied.

Counties and villages are both grassroots organizations, and they were transplanted into the fort as a whole.

When Yu Gun was in Yushanwu, he ordered "the town to recommend its leader" and "the village to recommend its virtuous", and divided the households in the Wuminbao into management units, so that "the orders were unified, the upper and lower levels were polite, and the young and the old had etiquette".

"Have you ever farmed?" Shao Xun looked at the two local sages and asked.

"Grown it."

Shao Xun nodded, then led them along the Qugu River.

"You dug all these canals, right?" he asked, pointing to the winding and crooked irrigation canals.

"Yes."

"Are you planting millet?"

"Exactly."

“Have you ever grown wheat?”

"Only twice."

"Spring or autumn planting?"

“Once in the spring and once in the fall.”

“Why don’t you plant it?”

“There aren’t that many canals.”

Shao Xun understood.

In fact, there is not enough food to support them in extending the existing irrigation canals. To put it bluntly, they are still poor and cannot invest huge resources at one time to improve the infrastructure, even if the foreseeable benefits in the future are higher.

"After autumn sowing, the wheat is harvested in May of the following year. What did you plant after the harvest?" Shao Xun asked again.

"I planted some grains, all kinds of grains, and harvested them before the snow came."

“That year, life was much more relaxed, wasn’t it?”

"Yes."

Shao Xun looked at the Qugu River winding northward and made a decision in his heart.

If the wheat planting area was only one acre at that time, it gradually became two or three acreages during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and became four or five acreages in the Tang Dynasty. At the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, it had become seven or eight acreages.

Why are people so crazy about growing wheat?
One reason is that the per-acre yield of wheat is higher than that of millet at this time, but this is only one reason.

More importantly, we can harvest one more season of grain.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the two-year three-crop system had become quite mature in northern dryland agricultural production. This planting tradition evolved from the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

According to the Wei and Jin tradition, millet could only be harvested twice a year.

In the Sui and Tang dynasties, millet was sown in the spring of the first year, wheat was sown after the autumn harvest, wheat was harvested in May of the following year, and after the harvest, a crop of miscellaneous grains was sown and harvested before the snow fell. In two years, one crop of millet, one crop of wheat, and one crop of miscellaneous grains (mainly beans) could be harvested, which greatly improved land utilization and yield.

This planting pattern was so common that the government changed the tax system, introducing summer tax and autumn tax, two taxes a year.

Summer taxes were levied on silk, cotton, wheat and cash (250 coins per household), while autumn taxes were levied on rice, millet, beans and hay (usually 10 bundles).

The objects of taxation can give us a glimpse into the agricultural production model.

As the wheat planting area increases, the planting, processing and cooking technologies surrounding it will gradually emerge, and you don't need to worry about it.

At this time, there was plenty of food made from wheat in the nobles' manors, and the Jingu Garden had more than 30 water mills. Each area even had special roads built to transport various grains. The processing technology was very clear, but it was not spread out.

This was also an important reason why Shao Xun wanted to take over Jingu Garden. The irrigation canals and processing equipment were all ready, but the people had all fled. The rebel soldiers were not interested in these things either. What they wanted was the wealth in Jingu Garden.

Things like blooming steamed buns cannot always exist only in the manors of the aristocrats.

"Sow as soon as possible in spring. Don't delay. Plant as many as possible, starting with millet." Shao Xun bent down, grabbed a handful of soil, looked at it carefully, and said, "After the spring sowing is completed, start digging trenches and sifting the soil."

"Yes." Jin San, Li Yu and Qiu Da responded together.

There were also some livestock on the river bank.

Among them, five horses, thirteen cows, and dozens of sheep were eating grass leisurely on the left bank of the river. These should be the livestock originally raised in the bandit camp.

On the right bank of the river, there were more than 20 horses and mules, and seven or eight cows, which were the Silver Spear Army's draft animals, and were managed by several soldiers. In addition to grazing the livestock, they were also collecting dry firewood and branches, and were very diligent.

"How do you deal with livestock manure?" Shao Xun suddenly asked.

"Pick it up and pile it in the corner."

"Let's go and take a look." Li Yu and Qiu Da were a little surprised, but they didn't dare to delay and led the way.

A high-ranking official in the imperial court actually had to take the initiative to look at manure. I don’t know what to say.

Shao Xun smiled and said, "What's wrong? I just like it this way."

Wang Yan's wife, Guo, even sent out the maids in the mansion to see if there was any feces on the road. If there was, they would pick it up and take it home immediately.

This is what is called good management of the household and good business management.

The cowshed, horse shed and sheepfold are located inside the village. This is understandable, as livestock are important assets, and it is painful to see one die of disease, let alone to see one robbed.

When approaching the cowshed, Shao Xun smelled a scent from afar.

He looked carefully at the pile of cow dung without frowning.

It looks like it has been piled up for a while, and although the outside is not in great condition, the inside is probably already "cooked".

When people picked up manure and brought it home, they would basically throw it in a pile in a corner and clean it up after a while.

Shao Xun didn’t know whether this was a good idea or not, and he felt it wasn’t going to work.

He entered the cowshed again. The smell inside was even more touching, as if it had never been cleaned.

Finally he couldn't hold it anymore, frowned, and asked, "Why don't you clean the cowshed?"

“The manure has been shoveled away…” Li Yu was a little scared when he saw Shao Xun frowning.

"How about this..." Shao Xun pondered for a moment, then said, "I'll tell you a few things, put them into writing, and make them into regulations in the future."

He said this to Jin San because he could read and write.

"Yes." Jin San immediately asked someone to bring a desk, wooden tablets, and writing brushes and ink.

"First, manure that is less than one year old cannot be used."

"Second, when rivers and canals are dredged, the silt excavated is mixed with feces."

"Third, the stables should be cleaned regularly. Every half a month, a layer of soil should be sprinkled on top, cleaned, and then spread on the manure pile."

"Master Shao, why is this?" Jin San asked while writing.

Shao Xun didn't really understand, so he could only say, "Manure mixed with soil lasts longer."

"Oh." Jin San responded.

"Also, I want to raise horses in the future, and it certainly won't do to leave the stable like this," Shao Xun added.

There are two ways to raise horses. One is to let them graze on pasture; the other is to raise horses in the manger, which means they die in the manger.

To put it simply, it means keeping the horse in a pen and letting it out to exercise regularly, which is beneficial to its physical and mental health.

This method of horse breeding is very popular in areas where there is a lack of large areas of grassland and is a desperate alternative.

This was the case with the Nanzhao Kingdom in later generations.

The horses in Dianchi and Yongchang are allowed to roam freely without being kept in stables.

In addition, hundreds of Yuejin horses (Tengchong horses) were selected and brought to Dali. They were fed with rice porridge for three years, and grew up slightly in four or five years. They were mature in six or seven years. Horses fed in this way had high tails and were especially good at running.

Stable horses can be carefully managed, fed with grain, and the quality of the horses is high.

When charging head-on, the wild horses can be scattered into pieces.

The cost is really high. A horse eats at least three times as much food as a human. Shao Xun doesn't have that luxury for the time being.

But raising horses is a must.

Even if you don't form a cavalry unit, there are many other places where horses can be used.

A scout had to take several horses with him when he went out.

When setting up camp at night, the secret camps that were set out far away would also have to prepare a few horses so that if they saw an enemy attack at night, they could return to the camp in time - they would take turns riding the horses so that they would have enough horsepower to gallop at high speed and send back messages.

The battlefield courier wants a horse.

Small groups of cavalry that harassed the enemy needed horses.

The baggage train had to use draft horses or other animals.

Middle and senior officers need to prepare several horses. One is to charge into the battlefield, when the horsepower is insufficient, they can directly cross over to the back of another empty horse and continue to fight. The other is to have a horse to ride when escaping to maintain high speed.

The personal soldiers of senior officers also need horses, and more than one.

Pure infantry units are also equipped with a large number of horses.

"Fourth, build livestock pens near farmland for convenience. If bandits come to attack, we can move them there."

Shao Xun said several more things in one breath, which was considered to be emptying out the little stock he had in his stomach.

After Jin San finished recording, he gave it to Shao Xun to review. After confirming that it was correct, he put it away carefully.

"If you have any good ideas, you can also put them forward. After verification and effectiveness, rewards will be given out." Shao Xun added.

After it is written down, it can even be compiled into a book and copied and circulated in the fortress or manor under one's name, mainly to the fortress owners and farm managers who are involved in the actual management.

If other forts or farms have unique agricultural technologies, they can also be exchanged with each other.

He never dared to underestimate the estates of those wealthy families.

They have been managing the farm for many years, some for several generations. It is impossible for them not to summarize their experience in long-term agricultural practice, but the key is that they cherish their own experience and are unwilling to disclose it to outsiders.

This is similar to the so-called military family.

The knowledge of marching and fighting was only circulated within the family, and the family even compiled its own military books which were kept secret.

This is what is known as the foundation of aristocratic families.

If they were willing to share with each other, the speed of knowledge dissemination would be greatly accelerated, but no one is willing to do so.

When did flower-shaped steamed buns become popular among the people?
Shao Xun was not from an aristocratic family, but his background came from later generations and was very profound. In certain specific areas, he alone was equivalent to the knowledge accumulated by several generations of tens of thousands of people in the aristocratic family's manor.

His dock is no worse than others, and can even be managed better.

This is his confidence.

(End of this chapter)