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

Chapter 114 Recruiting Regiments
As soon as Li Yi entered the inner courtyard, he saw Zhaocai beating Lai Fu.

After two months of raising the little tabby cat, he has been fed with fish and shrimp every day and has grown very fast. He now weighs about five kilograms and is no longer a milky little kitten. He has become the Fat Tiger General who has begun to show his dominance.

At home, it is very obedient only to Li Yi. Li Yi can use it as a pillow, but no one else is allowed to touch it. Even Ji and Yu Shu, who spend every day together, are not allowed to hug it.

Lai Fu is the black, furry Qiang dog. Although the seller said he was one and a half months old, he had actually just been weaned. When I weighed him after buying him, he weighed 18 kilograms.

This one is already quite big, and the little guy is also very brave and fierce.

As a result, he didn't know his place and provoked the inner courtyard overlord, Little Lihua.

Although Zhaocai was taken to Chang'an to stay for a few days, he was also a Beijing drifter who had gained experience in culture. How could he spoil this newcomer? Wuji Caotang was his territory, so the little tabby stood up and raised his paws to take a series of photos.

Lai Fu, the 18-pound Qiang dog, was stunned by the beating.

Wangcai, a local puppy who is also only one month old and weighs only eight pounds, is docile and timid. He was bullied by Lai Fu just now. When he saw Zhaocai stand up and hit Lai Fu, he was immediately scared and hid aside.

"Attract wealth," Li Yi stopped Lihua,
"Don't bully Lai Fu, he's new here and your little brother from now on. And the one hiding under the potato bowl is Wang Cai,"

Little Li Hua meowed at Li Yi,
"Okay, Lai Fu, tone it down and don't provoke anyone."

"Come on, you two shake hands,"

Li Yi picked up Fu in one hand and Zhaocai in the other, and put the two furry children close together. Lihua looked aloof and threatening, hissing at Lai Fu.

Lai Fu was a little scared after being beaten.

"Where's the Mastiff?"

When he grows up to more than 100 pounds, I don't know if Lihua will dare to bully him, not to mention that Lai Fu has seven brothers and sisters.
"Laifu, you should live in the outer courtyard with your brothers and sisters. Don't come to the inner courtyard anymore."

Ginkgo leaves in the yard are falling in the wind.
Seeing that it was around eight or nine o'clock, Li Yi went to the west courtyard kitchen.

"Is the meal ready?"

"Everything is ready, you can deliver the meal."

There are many people today, and all the dishes are from big pots. The two aunts usually cook for nearly 200 people in the workshop and school, and they have become very good at cooking big pots. Of course, this is inseparable from the nine-print cast iron pot that Li Yi customized at the Feng family blacksmith shop.

The prepared dishes have been packed in large wooden barrels.
Slice the braised pork head, chop the green onions into shreds, sprinkle with sesame seeds and mix well to make a dish of green onion mixed pork head that is colorful, fragrant and delicious.

The pig's feet are chopped into pieces and stewed with soybeans until they are soft and glutinous, and the soup is very delicious.

The purchased pig intestines are cleaned, stewed with ingredients first, and then fried with garlic sprouts. There is no peculiar smell at all.

Pig heart, pig liver, pig lung, pig intestine, pig stomach and other pig offal, add ginger slices to cook pig offal soup,
Vegetables include stewed eggplant, stir-fried cucumber, and the seasonal new vegetable wild rice stem.

There are several buckets of each dish, and the portion is very generous.

The two aunts reserved a portion for the workshop. "Alang is really generous. In our surrounding area, even the landlords and wealthy families who harvest wheat and rice have never seen such a large amount of money and such good food."

Other families would also buy some pork offal, fish, shrimp, etc., but definitely not so much.

"This is the first meal of the autumn harvest, so we must eat something good. We've all worked so hard, and besides, this isn't worth much."

"The food tonight is also good. Roasted loach and yellow eel, fried toad, scallion tofu, and bean curd paste are all delicious dishes."

"Yeah, let's not even talk about having meat every meal. Just think about Alang specifically asking us to put more oil and salt in it. Who would be willing to do that?"

Li Yi called Xiao Shitou to help ask Cunxiao and the other four Vajras to carry food to the fields. Li Yi didn't mind being a little generous and appropriately improving the treatment of his subordinates within his ability. This was what he deserved and could also gain their loyalty.

You can't say that Li Yi made millions of dollars in just two months, and then the people who worked so hard for him to make the money wouldn't even put more oil and salt in the dishes.

When raising cattle and horses, we know that they cannot be without grass and fodder. During the busy farming season, we have to add some concentrated feed and even salt.

Guo Erlang next door is very stingy. During the busy farming season, he likes to fool others by getting some snails, frogs, and mice. He also likes to lend money to the villagers, wishing that every penny he earns could go into his pocket. People like him have a bad reputation, and everyone calls him Guo Baopi in private.

If something happened to Guo Erlang's family one day, such as a fire in the house, I guess no one would be particularly active in rescuing them.

In the past, Taoist Li from Wuji Temple was a very good person. He usually liked to study Taoism, make elixirs and draw talismans. However, when the villagers came to see him for medical treatment or wanted to borrow some money or food, Taoist Li would help them to the best of his ability.

Luo San used to be a tenant in the temple, and the old Taoist never found a reason to deduct money or ask for more food and money, so when they encountered a collapsed cliff and the cave collapsed, even though Luo San's wife and children were crushed to death, he still tried his best to dig Li Yi and the others out.

Plant onions in Cold Dew and wheat in Frost.
In the fields, hot meals give off an alluring aroma.

Those who were working quickly washed their hands and wiped their faces, then came to line up for food, even though Liu Heizi had said yesterday that two meals would be provided, with meat, oil, and salt.

But when they saw that there were actually six dishes and one soup, everyone was shocked.

"Line up, come one by one, and get more after you finish your bowl of rice. Just don't waste it."

Pork head with green onions, stir-fried pork intestines with leeks, stewed pig trotters with soybeans, pork offal soup, stewed eggplant, stir-fried cucumbers, and stir-fried wild rice stems.

Li Yi personally wielded the spoon to serve the dishes. Ji, Yuzhi, Luo San, Luo Er, Xiuzhi, and Heizi, seven people, each with a large spoon,
Get your own rice, then come over to get the dishes. There are six dishes and one soup, one portion of each.

They couldn't believe it.
The six dishes together filled up a small bowl, and everyone got the same portion. There was also a bowl of pork soup, and you could have more millet rice after you finished it.

Li Yi kept his word and served food and soup to some disaster victims, parents and children who came to work.

Those who got the food were very happy. They quickly took it aside and ate it while sitting or squatting.

I got up early in the morning to work and have been working for two hours. I am really hungry. Especially since most of these disaster victims have been malnourished and have been going hungry all the time during this period, this work is even more tiring.

Fortunately, I had some porridge when I came.

Pig's head, pig's trotters, and pig's offal. Although today's meat dishes are not very expensive, the two aunts' cooking skills are pretty good. Although there is only ginger and scallions to remove the fishy smell, for these people, this is an unimaginable feast.

Some people even shed tears while eating.

Li Yi served food to everyone.
Then I also made a portion for myself,
Ji spread a reed mat under the shade of a tree beside the field and poured water for Li Yi.

"Hurry up and eat, you guys! It must be tiring to have been picking up rice ears for so long, right?"

Ji smiled and said, "In the past, during the summer and autumn harvests, the whole family would go to the fields like this."

While eating pig's trotters, Luo San said that the food was too good and too expensive, and it would be good enough to have a meat dish.

Li Yi looked at those people who were eating voraciously.
Since the Sui Dynasty, these people were actually lucky. After all, they survived. Moreover, in ancient China, the period of unrest between the Sui and Tang dynasties was relatively short.

Think about the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, from the civil unrest in various places to the brutal invasion and conquest of the Qing Dynasty. How many years of chaos lasted, and how much suffering the people endured, it was even more than two or three generations.

The Sui Dynasty began to fall into chaos in the seventh year of Daye, and it has only been five years since then. Guanzhong has already stabilized. Although prices are still high, at least there are no bandits everywhere and countless refugees.

The people in the early Tang Dynasty were much luckier than those in the late Tang Dynasty.

"Uncle San, the school now has 280 mu of land under its name. I plan to buy some more."

"It's a good idea for you to set up that society. Buy more land so that the school won't have to pay for it in the future." Luo San agreed.

"Uncle San, observe these rice harvesters carefully for me these few days and see which ones are honest, down-to-earth, hardworking, and willing to work. If they are willing, I will recruit them as tenants and rent the land to them. Each tenant will give them 50 to 60 acres of land. This way, they can settle down and no longer have to struggle like this. What do you think?"

Luo San thought about it and said, "That's good. It's difficult for these refugees from other places to settle down and get land in the capital. Even if they get land, they have nothing and it's difficult for them to farm and survive."

Being Li Yi's tenant actually meant being his private servant, which meant being dependent on Li Yi and becoming his person. He lost his status as a good citizen, but at the same time was also exempted from the burden of paying taxes and serving in the army.

Although you have to pay rent to rent a field for school farming, you don't need to buy anything. Li Yi, the landlord, can provide you with oxen, seeds, farm tools, and even food and accommodation. The only difference is that the rent will be higher.

Once they have settled down, they can gradually purchase their own farm tools and other items, and the rent will naturally decrease.

Being a tenant farmer has its pros and cons, but for the disaster victims who are struggling to survive, this is the best way out.

At least that's the case now.

Luo Er said, "The village chief can buy some slaves, or recruit some young and strong disaster victims as long-term laborers, and hire some short-term laborers during the busy farming season. He can cultivate hundreds of acres of school land, and most of the harvest will belong to him. It's much less troublesome than recruiting these people as guards, and it's more cost-effective."

Li Yi was not just thinking about making money.

He still remembered what Dong Xiucai had said to him: When we scholars read the books of sages, we should remember to cultivate ourselves, manage our families, govern the country and bring peace to the world. Even if we are in the countryside, we should be local sages.

"Let's pick six households first. Each of them will have 50 mu of land. If there are more, we won't be able to farm them all."

"Okay, I'll take a good look these few days and pick out a few honest and capable ones."

“Try to pick ones that both parents and children have.”

The victims had a very satisfying meal, took a short rest, and then hurried back to work. They didn't want to let the host down with such a good meal. Besides, the wages were calculated by the acre, and they all wanted to earn more food. There was not much work to do in the autumn harvest, and winter was about to come, so a long and cold winter was still waiting for them.

Li Yi was watching others working in the fields under the shade of a tree.

The golden rice fields were cut down, and the air was filled with the green fragrance of soil and rice. Rabbits and mice would occasionally run out of the rice fields, and even some hen's nests in the rice fields were wiped out.

Some people even caught turtles in rice fields.

It adds a bit of fun to the busy autumn harvest.

"Alang,"

"Du Shiniang is here, waiting for you in the thatched cottage."

Li Yi, who was looking at a rabbit and wondering whether to make spicy diced rabbit or braised rabbit, got a headache when he heard this.

Why did you chase me to the countryside?

Ji interrupted, "Alang, why are you trying to avoid it like this? No matter what you think, you should face it head-on. At least explain it to her clearly."

"Actually, Du Shiniang is really good. She and Alang are a perfect match."

(End of this chapter)