A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 113: Yield over jin per mu
The wind blows the rice waves.

The rice fields on both sides of the Hehe River are golden, like a golden carpet.

The sun was shining brightly, it was the good weather that everyone had been looking forward to. Every household began to go to the fields to harvest, and Li Yi's Wuji Academy also officially had a half-month holiday for the busy farming season.

In the early morning, when it was just light and the dew had not yet dried, everyone started to work in the fields.

The whole family, young and old, men and women, joined in, wielding sickles and cutting down the rows of rice.

Li Yi also got up early.

Ji prepared a set of clothes for him to go to the fields in the morning, a short shirt with narrow sleeves, drawstring pants, a scarf on his head, and a pair of straw sandals on his feet.
Today, in addition to the workers in the Li family's workshop who continued to work,
The rest all went to the ground,
Even the two delicate maids, Ji and Yu Shu, changed into coarse cloth dresses.

"Alang, everyone is here."

Liu Heizi had been waiting at the door for a long time. He had helped Li Yi find disaster victims on the beach of the He River yesterday to harvest rice. Although Li Yi said that there was no need to specially select young and strong people, he still took the responsibility for his boss.

I tried to pick some young and strong ones,

Li Yi's family had 30 mu of rice fields, the school had 120 mu of fields, and Luo San's family had 20 mu. This time, Li Yi harvested all of them together.

Under the big soapberry tree in front of the thatched cottage, there was a group of people squatting on the ground. They were wearing tattered clothes and looked pale and hungry. They were the people Liu Heizi had found for Li Yi yesterday.

He picked more than a dozen disaster victims yesterday.

But this time there are so many black weeds, there are definitely more than a dozen of them.

"Those who were selected yesterday as I told them to come here, those who were not selected don't have to come here," Liu Heizi immediately understood that some people also wanted to come and ask for work, and those who were not selected also came.

Those who were selected yesterday immediately went to Liu Heizi, fearing that someone else would snatch the job away from them that night.

It was really because the conditions offered by the male manager of Li County were too good. He provided two meals and said there would be meat. He also paid three liters of millet per mu as wages. Even the elderly and children who came to work together were provided with the same meals.

This is really a kind person.

Those who were not selected were anxious and came up to surround Liu Heizi, hoping to be given a chance, and were even willing to pay less. Some people said that they had children and elderly people at home, and they helped with the work, but they did not want to eat the boss's food.

Seeing their pleading and longing looks,

Li Yi felt very uncomfortable. His generation, who were born under the red flag, faced great pressure when they grew up, but at least they had enough food and clothing.

"Heizi, count them in too,"

Li Yi also has 170 acres of rice fields to harvest, not to mention that after harvesting the rice, he also has to harvest the millet planted after the summer harvest, as well as soybeans, which also account for about 200 acres.

"Before work begins, drink some porridge to fill your stomach and give you more energy to work."

Li Yi had given instructions last night and had already cooked millet porridge.

To express gratitude for filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty and righteousness, each of them carried two buckets of porridge and ate under the big soapberry tree.

I specifically ordered the porridge to be cooked very thick, and there was also pig liver soup.
Although a pig's liver was used to cook several large buckets of soup, the soup also contained salt and some oil. It was too rich for the disaster victims who had not eaten enough for a long time.

Everyone ate a few bowls of porridge and drank a few bowls of soup, and their stomachs were full, making them feel particularly satisfied.

"Let's go, get out of here." Liu Heizi shouted.
The morning breeze is light and there are dewdrops on the grass.

The disaster victims looked at the endless golden rice fields with envy.

Coming to the fields,

Li Yi also held a small ceremony to offer sacrifices to the fields.

Place a basket of rice, pig's head, chicken, carp and other offerings at the edge of the field, sprinkle some wine on it, and light some incense sticks.
This is actually a sacrifice to the God of Millet, the legendary god of the five grains. Millet is one of the five grains, and it is not possible to sacrifice to all the grains, so the God of Millet was established to offer sacrifices to it.

Sacrifice to the God of Millet.

Li Yi took the sickle handed to him by Liu Heizi and started the first harvest.

Rice awns are very sharp and the rice leaves have serrations. When they sweep across your face, they cut a small cut, which will cause itching after sweating.

In the early morning, the rice stalks were still covered with dew.

Li Yi bent down and cut a few times, feeling very tired.

Liu Heizi was cutting the second row. He was also a good worker. His sickle kept moving, and rows of rice fell down. In a few strokes, he surpassed Li Yi.

Luo San also went to the fields. When he was young, he worked as a wheat picker. Later, he rented the rice fields of Wuji Temple and worked efficiently.

Ji and Yu Su dressed up as village women, one holding a basket, and they picked up rice ears, taking the leftover ones home to make sure that every grain was stored in the granary.

Li Yi symbolically cut a dozen or so and then stopped.

He took a group of disaster victims who were harvesting rice and divided the land among them. Each family got a piece of land, or a group of people formed a group and contracted a piece of land.

It will also be convenient to pay wages then.

"Leave the rice stubble short, cut it as close to the ground as possible, don't leave it too long!" Luo Er, the workshop manager, also came to help today.
He was like a harsh landlord, pointing fingers and making many demands on the disaster victims who were harvesting rice.

He said that since these people were here to work for others, they had to do their job according to the boss's wishes. If the rice stubble was left too long, it would affect future farming. Besides, the rice straw was also very useful.
It can not only be used to feed cows, but also to make fire, and to weave ropes and shoes. In short, it has many uses and should not be wasted.

The rice is harvested and laid out in the fields to dry.

Wait until the afternoon, or tomorrow to bring the rice home and thresh it after drying in the yard.
If there is little land, people can thresh the rice directly in the field by hand, holding the rice grains and beating them on a piece of wood, or using a rice threshing machine.

No machinery,

Everything is handmade.

If you beat the rice by hand, you can get complete straw. After beating, you can bundle the straw and dry it in the sun. After it is dried, you can collect and store it. However, if you use a millstone or a flail to beat the straw, the quality is not very good.

In general, grinding is more efficient and pounding by hand is less efficient.

Li Yi separated harvesting and threshing.

Three liters of millet were given for harvesting one acre of land, and a team of young and strong people was organized for threshing. Most of them were single disaster victims who were strong and could thresh the grain directly in the field.

Some of the rice is also taken back to the drying yard for threshing. In any case, we use multiple methods to store the rice as soon as possible.

In the field of hope,

Everywhere there are people working hard at harvesting,

"The village chief's rice has a bumper harvest this year. After applying manure several times, the yield per mu has increased a lot. Your 30 mu of rice fields are expected to produce 400 kilograms of rice per mu this year." Luo Sanyi finished cutting a long row of rice and came back to drink water, sighing.

Li Yi couldn't estimate the yield, but he could see that the rice ears were heavy, so the yield should be good.

"Dry Valley, Wet Valley?"

"It must be 400 kilograms of dry grain, which can be milled into nearly 300 kilograms of rice."

"How could it possibly be that high? I heard that the rice fields along the Mijuku River, even though they were fertile and well-watered, could only yield about three shi (approximately 100 grams) per mu, right?"

"Even if the fields are fertile and well-watered, they can't withstand years of cultivation," Luo San pointed to another family's rice fields in the distance. "Look at those rice paddies. They're on the same land, irrigated by the same canal, but their yields are much lower than yours.

You still have to have fat.”

Li Yi's family's 30 acres of rice fields have increased their yield by more than one stone thanks to the manure from the Qiaotou public toilet and the Wuji School toilet.

"Some dry lands on the plateau only have one crop per year, and they only yield about one dan per mu. It's a lot of planting, but the harvest is thin, especially on the plateau. Food is completely dependent on nature. Drought can cause a reduction in yields at best, or even a complete loss at worst."

Li Yi's rice fields are not only irrigated by the water from the He River, but even if there is less river water sometimes, the groundwater is very shallow. If you dig about one meter in the field, you will find water.

The water quality is also good, and the rice variety grown here, Osmanthus Ball, is known as Crystal Rice and has been a court offering since the Qin and Han Dynasties.

The people here usually don't eat the rice they harvested, and instead take the remaining food to Chang'an to exchange.

Change to millet, broomcorn millet, or wheat.

Although there are large tracts of rice fields at the foot of Mount Zhongnan in Guanzhong, they are no more than 100,000 mu at most, which is still relatively small. Chang'an, as the capital, has many officials from the south, so even for northerners in Guanzhong, it is not easy to eat rice.

Osmanthus ball rice has good quality, so it has always had a good market when exchanged for rice. People can get more food in return if they work harder.

"You still have to cultivate it carefully. Your thirty acres of rice have been well-fertilized with manure and wood ash. The rice is growing much stronger than others, with longer and heavier ears. Others can harvest 200 to 300 kilograms, but you can only harvest 400 kilograms."

Luo San was extremely envious. After farming for so many years, it was rare to see such a good harvest.

Li Yi thinks that a yield of 400 kilograms per mu is really incredible?
He remembered that when he was a child, his grandfather's family grew hybrid rice, which yielded over 1,000 kilograms per mu. Ordinary rice could yield 700 to 800 kilograms per mu, which was considered low. Any yield below 700 to 800 kilograms per mu was glutinous rice, grown for making wine and cakes.

I remember that although hybrid rice had a high yield, I didn't seem to eat it myself. I paid the tax and sold it. In the south, rice is usually grown twice a year. Farmers mostly eat late rice, which takes longer to grow and tastes better. Early rice is generally not eaten, but sold or saved for chickens and ducks.

It is said that the hybrid rice in some experimental fields can even produce two to three thousand kilograms per mu. Li Yi has never seen it, and Luo San probably would never believe it if he told him.

Many fields only produce a few hundred catties per mu, and you want to produce 3,000 catties per mu?
Li Yi felt that in the Tang Dynasty, only growing potatoes could yield two to three thousand kilograms per mu.

"But this year the weather is good, the weather is favorable, and there are no major insect pests," Luo San sighed. These days, planting more depends on God's blessing.

Drought, cold snap, insect pests, and various accidents can reduce or even eliminate the yield of crops.

It is rare to have such good weather and no major disasters as this year's rice crop. The weather was so good even during the harvest.

Li Yi also felt that intensive cultivation was better than extensive sowing and little harvest.
He now has these two large toilets, which guarantee a supply of manure. In addition, there are so many stoves in the workshop and plenty of wood ash. In the future, he can spend money to buy vegetable cakes from the oil mill, which can increase production. Compared with simply buying land and sowing a lot, intensive cultivation will bring higher returns.

Everyone worked hard in the fields for a long time before the sun rose.

"I'll go back to help with the logistics and meals. Everyone, work hard. We'll have pig heads and pig trotters stewed with soybeans for lunch!" Li Yi inspected the field and then returned to the yard. The two women in charge of cooking and sweeping the floor in the west yard canteen were also busy. They burned the pig heads and pig trotters bought in the morning with straw and then scraped and washed them clean.

There are a lot of people here today, so we need to steam a lot of rice.

"Aunt Liu, Aunt Zhang, there are many people here today, so you must cook enough rice. It's okay to cook more and have leftovers, but you can't cook less and not have enough to eat."

The rice should be enough to fill you up, and the dishes should have meat, oil, and salt.

Even the most stingy landlord would not be stingy during the harvest. At least he would buy some pig offal and even some fish. Not to mention rice, he would just eat enough dry rice to fill his stomach.

"Add some pork offal soup and put more salt in all the dishes. If you sweat too much, you won't have the energy."

"Prepare the food early. I'll have Cunzhong and the others come over and carry the food to the fields so they don't have to run back and waste time."

We agreed to provide two meals, and the porridge in the morning does not count.

(End of this chapter)