From Chief to Ball

It has long been a foregone conclusion that there will be rich and poor within the clan.But the divide between rich and poor or status wasn't as deep as it used to be. Slaves were one thing, clan members with disparate wealth and status were quite another.

There is a childhood playmate of Crescent Strider here.It is always easy for children to become friends. For example, when they migrated here from the east, they used a small bow and arrow to chase rabbits together. After they were hungry, they roasted together and then made an appointment to follow them when they grew up. A play house for clan members.

This was supposed to be E's bodyguard or partner when he became an adult, but because he was studying for Xiacheng and Yucheng, the two hadn't seen each other for several years.

Gently pushed open the wicker fence in the yard, and tied the horse to a large stone at the door.The stone was not used for tying horses. There was a small hole in it, and there was a wooden mallet next to it. It was obviously a stone mortar for pounding corn shared by several families.

There was a smell of a barn in the courtyard, two little pigs curled their tails and hummed, a five or six-year-old child was chasing the little pigs with a stick, and a big white goose watched vigilantly as the door opened The crescent strider, quacking and flapping its wings.

Inside the barn was a not-so-big cow, lying there grazing grass, and piles of cow dung were piled together.

In front of the barn stood a wooden plow, neither bronze nor iron, and the birch share was worn smooth by the earth.Two stone sickles with wooden handles were placed crosswise under the barn to prevent rain, and a few handfuls of dried grass were hung beside them, which smelled faintly of herbs.

The kid who was driving the pigs was not afraid of strangers, he stared at the clothes on the crescent and asked, "Are you from Xiacheng?"

E Strider smiled helplessly, and really wanted to tell the children that she was not a guest to Chengyi, and wanted to say that I had been to your house before you were born, but after thinking about it, she still didn't say anything.

"This should be the child of Mang's elder brother's family. He is about the same age as me. Even if he has a woman, he can't have a child of this age. I don't know if he can't recognize me yet, and he won't even think that I am someone else. Are you a guest from your city?"

The e-strider was thinking wildly, and opened the door made of thatch. It was warm inside. Two little girls and an older woman were peeling the hemp skin. cry.

The older woman raised her head and let out a cry of surprise, and E Yan recognized that it was Mang's mother.

"Strider, why are you here? Are you back from Yucheng?"

While talking, Mother Mang hurriedly added some branches to the clay stove, and drove away the two little girls who were learning the thin hemp leather there. Went outside to play.

"Meng went to the other house to help, you do it first."

The woman opened the straw curtain and shouted to the children outside: "Stop pulling the pig's ears! Go and call your uncle back."

E-strider thought to himself, this is indeed the child of brother Mang's family, it seems that he guessed right.

After a while, there was a sound of footsteps outside, probably the child didn't make it clear, and heard a rather rough voice shouting: "Is the leader going to call for troops?"

As soon as he entered the door, what E Yan saw was a sturdy man, wearing a ragged sheepskin bag, which was a little small and stretched tightly.

"Strider! You're back? Oh, you really scared me to death. I heard that you went to Dongyi when I was mowing the grass, and they said you were dead..."

E Strider smiled and punched the opponent's majestic chest, took out a handful of copper coins from his arms, and said to the child outside: "Go and buy some wine and mutton, can this money be used here?"

Not long after, the wine and mutton were placed in clay pots, and E-strider took out a large piece and shared it with the children. They drank some with Mang, recalled the story of migration a long time ago, and laughed for a while.

"Meng, how have you been these two years?"

"Last year was okay, but this year is worse."

"How to say?"

"Last year's harvest was better, and things were cheaper. This year, something happened in Xiacheng, so it's not good. I don't know anything else, but salt is much more expensive. I heard that the salt fields over there are no longer public property. Money is also cheaper than I bought a lot less last year."

"I saw you raising cattle?"

"Where is mine? It's public property. You have to take care of it carefully, otherwise you won't be able to pay me if you sell me. If the person who allocated it didn't know that you and I were playmates when we were young, I'm afraid it won't be my turn. Hey, originally said Well, there will be another batch of plowshares this winter, and it will be my family’s turn at that time, where did I come up with such a thing, I haven’t seen a new plowshare and hoe for half a year.”

"Do you still have to cultivate the public land every year?"

"No need. Everyone thought that the mountains, rivers, fish, shrimps and trees belonged to the clan. It has always been like this. After the leader came back from Yucheng last spring, he changed things."

"Have you also learned how to pay taxes in Xia City?"

"Almost. How much grain was only produced in the public land? Now that there is no public land, the warehouses are fuller than before. This is a good thing for everyone."

"Has the flat land near the city been divided?"

"It's divided. According to adult men, women are divided into mulberry and oak forests. After the public land is divided, everyone does not need to work in the public land, as long as each man pays the harvest of five acres of land as public property taxes. It's just that some clan relatives are responsible for the distribution of land. Their land is better, while ours is worse. Their land is closer to the city, and our land is farther away. But everyone has to pay taxes, and there is nothing unacceptable .In the past, besides the public land, there was also the family land of the clan, and then it was your own. Now no matter what, it’s all up to you.”

E-strider recalled the uncle hanging on the top of the wall, and her heart skipped a beat.After studying in Yucheng Academy for so long, what he learned the most was contradictions and interests. What he worried about was whether his parents would follow Yucheng's radical changes, so that all relatives and nobles opposed it?

If that's the case, I have to persuade my parents.There are so many people who can read and count in Yucheng, and besides, the whole city of Xiacheng just walked out of the woods and hasn't had enough food for a few years, and there are not so many deep-rooted clan relatives at all...

Thinking of this, E Strider couldn't help asking: "Is everyone's land the same?"

Mang nodded and said, "It's all the same."

E Strider trembled all over, spilled some of the wine in his hand, and then heard Meng say nothing.

"However, it cannot be said the same. Every time a male slave owns an additional [-] mu of land, every time he owns his own cow, each cow will be given [-] mu of land. Some people have more cows and more slaves. There will be more fields..."

E-strider is relieved now, it seems that father has discussed with his husband in Yucheng for so long, and he used the method that is most suitable for the city. It is not as radical as Yucheng's reform. At least most of the relatives will support this change. Nominally solved the problem of land ownership.

Now it seems that Mang is not very opposed to this policy, on the contrary, he is very supportive, because after drinking some wine, Mang has been nagging about the unfair distribution of the clan's gongtian and clantian spoils in the previous clan era, obviously drunk.

……

The young people who came back with the crescent also returned to their respective homes. They did not wander around and enjoyed the leisure and prosperity of their homes.There are slaves to do everything, the food is quite good, and there are even some things that I have never enjoyed in Yucheng.

Different families have different voices, and several small workshops yelled at the troublemakers in Xia City. The riots, the random issuance of currency, the rise in salt prices and other issues have greatly affected the sales of workshop products; Some of the land slaves and the new nobles were extremely dissatisfied with the fact that Xiacheng was divided and it was difficult to bring in ironware. They all wanted to take advantage of the final taxation policy three years later to reclaim more land.

And several slave traders praised it; even a few merchants exaggerated the policy of liberalization of trade controls and the private sale of salt and copper after the split of Xiacheng. Without the official management and alliance benefits of the Supply and Marketing Department, The price difference of just two hundred miles made them a lot of money.

Some praised, some opposed, some supported, and some cursed.

But no matter whether they support or oppose it, when these relatives talk about the land distribution, they are quite proud to tell the children about the wisdom of themselves and the leaders and the stupidity of the common people.

"Each man has to pay five acres of land tax, but our slaves can also share fifty acres of land. This land belongs to us, not slaves, and each slave only needs to pay two acres of land tax That's fine. If you think about it this way, let's get some female slaves to give birth to small slaves in batches, and after ten years there will be many people, and more land can be reclaimed."

"Our family has always been close to the leader. Before the reform, the leader had already discussed with us in secret. At that time, those who were close to the leader were buying slaves and cattle, and they all knew that the future division of land would depend on these. At that time, we deliberately released rumors, saying that we would undergo radical changes like Xiacheng, that slaves would be given land and people’s rights, bought by public property, no longer governed by clans, but learned the six-division system, and elected officials to manage.”

"The relatives of the clan who opposed the leader's change were a little sullen. The leader deliberately pretended to go hunting, and as a result, this group of people couldn't bear to do it, hahaha."

"As a result, when you came back, you also saw that the heads of those idiots were hung on the city wall, and their slaves, fields, and cattle were divided by our family, and by the way, some soup was left for those at the bottom. Countryman..."

Chapter 71 Hundreds and Thousands of Miles

E-strider didn't know what those relatives said, but heard a lot from Mang and guessed a lot.

Late at night, E-strider returned to her parents with the support of her slaves in a slightly drunken mood. Not only did E-yue and Shujiu not blame E-strider for not going home first, they also greatly appreciated E-strider's behavior of wandering around.

E Yue Number Nine is not only a parent, but also the leader and priest of the city, and it is impossible for the family to bypass the entire city.So while chatting, they naturally turned to the transformation of the city and the upcoming civil war in Xiayu.

Speaking of the previous coup and reform, E Yue asked: "Strider, you have studied with Ji Xia for so long, and you have heard a lot about what happened in the city. What do you have to say?"

E Strider was silent for a moment. Compared with his relatives in other cities, he was the first to follow Chen Jianxue and also witnessed the establishment of Yucheng with his own eyes.

After contemplating for a while, looking at the concerned and encouraging eyes of my parents, I summoned up my courage and said: "Father, mother, before I went to Xiacheng as a hostage, I always thought that to be a good leader, I need to be praised by everyone in the Chengyi clan. Now Well, I know that to be a truly good leader, one only needs to be recognized and appreciated by one person."

E Yue rubbed his chest and smiled: "I'm still worried that after studying with Ji Xia for so long, you will ask why your parents didn't learn Yucheng's method, and even yell stupid things like saving slaves. It seems that Ji Xia taught well .So for Echeng, who is the person who needs our approval and support?"