I traveled through time, starting with two acres of land and a dog

Du Chenyu's life was spent on a diet of half rice porridge and half milk, growing up day by day. Du Chenyu continued to practice hard qigong, but it was of no much use except for increasing his strength and vitality. Didn't the time-travel novels in his previous life say that babies have innate qi and can easily fly in the sky, pick flowers and hurt people? It seems that everything was a lie. It seems that there is no hope for him to fly in the sky and walk on the ground in this life. He can only be an ordinary person and live on.

Three days before October 10, his father came back early in the afternoon. When Du Chenyu saw him, he shouted:

"Dad, why are you back so early?"

He lifted his gown and trotted to Du Chenyu.

"Son, I was appointed as the acting head of the 7th Jiajia of Linshuibao today. I went to Yu Baozhang's house at noon today. Yu Baozhang gave the appointment document to Du Chenyu. Since he is not a member of the 7th Jiajia at present, he can only act as the acting head temporarily." Then he took out a yellowed paper document from his arms. It was written in small regular script that Du Decai was appointed as the head of the 7th Jiajia of the 8th Fort of Wuyin Township, and the signature was Baizhang Branch Inspection Office Wuyin Township, August of the third year of Xuantong.

The Qing Dynasty implemented the Baojia system, which stipulated that each household had a head of household, ten households had a Paitou, ten Pai had a Jiatou (Jiazhang), and ten Jia had a Baozhang. If there were few people in a village and the number of households was less than the number, the minority would be included. Therefore, the mountains in northern Sichuan were high and steep, the land was vast and sparsely populated, and there was only one household every few miles. Here, there were only four or five Pai in one Jia, and my father, the acting seventh Jia, had only more than 30 households and more than 100 people.

In the Qing Dynasty, local gentry, scholars, students, and juren who had achievements and status were unwilling to be baojiazhang, because baojiazhang was a yamen runner, belonging to the lower class, and the local political power was basically in the hands of clan forces. Baojiazhang and jiazhang were also in name only, running errands for gentry and clan forces. But now that the imperial examination has been abolished, my father, the last scholar, is of no use, and the clan forces in the mountains are also weak. A jiazhang still has great power. Although he is under the feet of Yu Yuedong and is controlled everywhere, there are still benefits, so my father gladly accepted the appointment.

Du Chenyu looked at it for a while and then returned the letter of authorization to his father.

"Dad, this was recommended by Yu Yuedong, and also with the help of your old classmate." Du Chenyu asked.

"About the same. Yu Baozhang even asked me what my relationship was with Township Chief Wu. He said that when I mentioned you at the meeting, Township Chief Wu agreed and praised you highly, so I passed it easily in the end," my father replied.

"Now that you are the head of a village, what are you going to do? You have to teach in school, and you are also responsible for collecting taxes, corvee labor, public security, etc. Are you able to handle all these things?" Du Chenyu said.

"I can't lose my job at the school. I have to rely on it to support my family. But what can I do? Can you help me think about it?" The father held me and sat on a big rock by the yard.

"I don't have many ideas. We don't have the money or guns to recruit militiamen to protect the hometown. If we can get a few errand boys to help, everything will be fine," said Du Chenyu.

"Why not ask Hu Laosi to come and help for a long time?" Anyway, whenever something happens, I will think of Hu Laosi.

"He alone is not enough. I have an idea. You see, we have rented nearly 20 acres of land from the rich man Ma. Although half of it is not allowed to be cut down for reclamation, you are now the head of the village. Discuss with him and cut down a few acres of woods. He must agree. There is so much land that our family cannot cultivate it all. We can divide it among two landless tenants for them to cultivate, but they must send one person as an armor security team member, one person from each family, and divide two acres of land as compensation. No rent will be collected, only taxes will be paid. If there is nothing to do in the team, they will work at home. If there is something to do, they must obey the arrangements of the security team. What do you think?" Du Chenyu proposed the strategy of exchanging land for people for the first time.

"Your idea is quite good. Use land to win people's hearts and rent to pay them. Let's give it a try. It should work." My father said, stroking his sparse beard. In fact, his purpose was to let my father learn to use land to win people's hearts. In troubled times, the most effective way to win over refugees and tenants is food and soil. Only by learning to distribute food and land can you win the hearts of the people.

"Now you are the leader, can't you treat us to a meal to celebrate?" Du Chenyu asked.

"Forget it. In the past, no scholar would be willing to do such a low-level job. It's a self-destructive thing. It's not a noble official position, and it's just an agent," said my father.

"That's fine. In a few days, when we have a holiday and no classes, you can still go and walk around your territory. Take me with you so we can have a look and broaden our horizons." He has been staying at home for most of the year, not daring to go out. He must take this opportunity to take a walk. He is almost suffocating.

"Well, that's fine. Although most of the people in the Seventh A are familiar with each other, there are still a few families whose homes we don't know. It would be good to go and take a look," the father replied.

Then, they chatted for a while and in the evening told their family members, including grandfather, mother and uncle, about their father’s promotion to the rank of captain.

Three days passed in anticipation, and October 1911, 10, the year of Xinchou, finally arrived. However, apart from the bright sunshine and the worsening autumn drought, there was no other change on this day. The gunshots from the Wuchang Uprising could not be heard from northern Sichuan, which was thousands of kilometers away. Du Chenyu continued to grow up slowly.

In mid-October, Du Chenyu helped to dry the newly harvested rice in the courtyard of his home every day. This was his food ration for next year. There were only about two dan, or about 10 kilograms, enough for one person to eat for a year. After all, there was only less than an acre of paddy field, and the yield of cold water rice was too low. In addition, there was too much rain, which reduced the yield by one fifth. He also had to pay land tax, population tax and other miscellaneous taxes, about one or two taels of silver per person per year. Fortunately, this was still the Qing Dynasty. After this year, warlords would start fighting next year. According to previous records, Liu Cunhou, a warlord in northern Sichuan, collected taxes a hundred years later.

In the Qing Dynasty, the "tax on land" was implemented, and the tax on land and the tax on land were collected according to the land area. In addition to the "land tax" (grain), local officials also collected rotten grain, stored grain, and rent. "Rotten grain" was the grain assigned to be collected. However, in the mountainous areas of northern Sichuan, the government almost only collected copper coins and silver. The official price of copper coins was 2000 wen for one tael of silver, but the private discount was about 2500 for one tael of silver, so the price of purchasing grain with silver and dollars was relatively low. In this era, although the tenants were not full, they would not starve to death. As long as there was labor, renting one acre of land for a year could barely support one person, but only two meals of plain porridge a year.

In the evening, Du Chenyu decided to persuade his grandfather to promote the conversion of paddy fields to dry fields so that they could have two harvests a year. In the past, paddy fields were drained of water in the winter so that rice could be grown the following year. This method actually wasted a lot of land. I remember that it was not until the beginning of the 200st century, more than years later, that the country vigorously promoted the "conversion of paddy fields to dry fields" to eliminate the four-season winter paddy field model. Rapeseed or wheat was grown in winter, and rice was grown in summer.

When the family was having dinner, he had his own special meal before it got dark. Sitting on his broken bamboo chair, Du Chenyu said:

"Grandpa, I have a method to increase food production. Do you want to hear it?"

"What method, dear grandson, tell us quickly," the whole family looked at him, because I usually don't talk much at home, and I only talk more with my father about family matters. Once I speak, it is easy to shock the world.

“Do we have a water shortage in our fields in summer?”

“There is no shortage of water. Unless there is a severe drought, there will be no shortage of water in the fields,” the grandfather replied.

"If there is no shortage of water, why don't we drain the fields in winter, plow the land, plant wheat, and then drain water to plant rice next summer when the wheat is harvested, so that we can harvest an extra crop?" Du Chenyu asked.

"No one has ever planted crops this way before. What should we do next year when the wheat harvest won't be enough to plant rice?" Grandpa put down his chopsticks and frowned.

"Wheat is harvested during the Grain in Ear season. We can plant rice seedlings right after harvesting, or harvest before the wheat turns completely yellow (ripe). This will definitely not delay the planting of rice seedlings, but we have to leave a field to grow seedlings." Du Chenyu carefully calculated the time for him.

"What if the fields are drained of water and leak next year?" The father thought of a key question and asked.

"After harvesting the wheat, they put a lot of water in the fields, and then borrow a cow to plow the fields a few more times, so that the mud will settle down and the fields will not leak," Du Chenyu explained.

"Hmm...", both father and grandfather were thinking about what he said.

"In fact, we can give it a try next year to see the effect. If it works well, we can harvest two crops a year, which is great. If it doesn't work, the loss won't be big. We will still have so much rice to buy next year, so it won't be a big deal to eat a little," Du Chenyu continued.

"You make sense, Dad. You see, you are the one who usually cultivates their fields." The father looked at him and asked the grandfather.

"You can try planting for one year. This year, plant the two large fields like this. While the fields have not been irrigated in the past few days, borrow a cow to plow them out, and plant wheat next month." Grandpa also dispelled his concerns and made a difficult decision. After all, it is difficult to change the same planting pattern. Although he could not find a reason to refute it, he simply did not want to change the status quo.

Du Chenyu was still very happy. He started to promote the conversion of paddy fields to dry land a hundred years in advance. This was the main magic weapon to solve the food problem in the southern mountainous areas. Because the paddy fields were fertile, the dryland crops would definitely have a high yield, more than one-third higher than the dryland crops. Then, after the paddy fields were fertilized with dryland crops, the summer rice yield would also increase.

The next day was a holiday, so my father decided to go to the seventh tier. In the morning, he put on his worn-out gown, and my mother helped him comb his braids and put on the only pair of cloth shoes in the family, which were only worn for important events.

"Are we going alone?" Du Chenyu asked.

"I called the fourth child yesterday to go with me and help with some chores. In fact, the fourth child is a very smart child. He was one of the first students I taught. At that time, I was in my twenties and young, and I needed a study partner. The Yu and Liu families agreed to let him go to a private school for a few years. He can still handle general clerical materials."

"Well, then let's wait for Fourth Brother." Du Chenyu listened to his father introducing Hu Laosi's study experience. No wonder Hu Laosi has always been so respectful to his father. He is almost like half a family member. It turns out that he was his father's book boy.

Soon, Hu Laosi came down the mountain from behind, hopping down, humming a folk song:

"The moon is setting in the west, leaving my enemy behind. My enemy is not here to play in my house, and my heart is in a mess...", Hu Laosi came to me singing all the way. He had re-combed his pigtails and changed into new straw sandals. He was also dancing with a two-meter-long bamboo stick in his hand, which was covered with green grass. I guess the weeds on the roadside were damaged.