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

Chapter 161 Defending Potatoes
Du Shiniang's visit to her parents

It can be said that it was a perfect ending. Shi Niang received a dowry of two million yuan from Du Ruhui on behalf of Fengxiang Marquis Mansion, and Li Yi sold twenty auspicious objects and earned three hundred taels of gold.

Originally, he sold sixteen of them. Finally, Du Sanlang brought four Jingzhao Dus to him. These four were from other branches of the Du family and were also wealthy. They heard that the Wei and Yang families had all invited Xiangrui, and even the Huangfu family had invited one.
How could they lose in the Du family's home turf, so the four families each invited one.

Li Yi also had the attitude that he would not treat his family members unfairly, and he divided out four more auspicious items from his few auspicious items.

Back home,
Li Yi looked at the three hundred taels of gold and couldn't help laughing like a pig.

Shi Niang couldn't stand her husband's money-obsessed behavior.

But when she counted her dowry, she hummed a little song happily. There were land deeds, house deeds, shop deeds, a stack of slave contracts, and several account books.

A dowry of two million yuan is actually no more, no less.

With such a large sum of money, Shi Niang felt more confident, and the arrival of more than a dozen elderly people around her, such as Shu Ying, who had served her for many years, gave her more capable assistants.

Li Yi now has a lot of gold on hand.

Li Shimin rewarded him with ninety taels of gold before, Li Yuan rewarded him with one hundred taels last time, and this time he rewarded him with seventy-two taels. Today he earned another three hundred taels.
Five hundred and sixty-two taels,

The gold reserves amount to more than six hundred taels!

Shi Niang was also quite shocked at how quickly Li Yi made money.

Some time ago, Li Yi had used up all his money to recruit soldiers, buy cattle, plows and seeds, and had to borrow money from Xiuzhi's mother.
As a result, he saved up five hundred taels of gold so quickly.

Several workshops and shops also started to make money and bring in cash flow.

There are still several thousand acres of land planted at home, and we can harvest it next summer.

You can’t spend it all, you can’t spend it all.

The speed at which he spends money cannot keep up with the speed at which Li Yi makes money.

Shi Niang originally said that her brother gave her a dowry of 2 million, and she gave 1 million to her husband. After all, the 1 million was the dowry given by her husband.

Now I feel it is unnecessary, absolutely unnecessary.

She told Li Yi about her decision with a smile, "I won't return the one million to A Lang."

Li Yi waved his hand and said domineeringly, "This two million is your dowry, your personal property. I won't take a single cent from you."

Li Yi still remembered the one million yuan compensation for the gate.

But one thing is for another, the Du family accepted his compensation, and that should be kept in mind. But the two million yuan that Shi Niang received was her dowry, and they couldn't be confused.

"Just manage these businesses yourself. They're already managed by other people, and they belong to you now. If you're short on staff, you can transfer whoever you like. If you're short on staff, you can hire more or buy more."

Li Yi, who now has five or six hundred private followers, really feels like a nouveau riche.

"After this winter, when spring comes, we can buy some pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and geese to raise." As for the manor, breeding must be carried out, otherwise the manor's potential will be wasted.

A monogamous family can only be a small peasant economy.

But powerful landlords have hundreds or even thousands of people, and besides cultivating the land, they must develop some side businesses.
Planting mulberry trees, growing hemp, raising silkworms and weaving cloth are inevitable, but you can also engage in animal breeding.

He just found out today.

It turns out that the Jingzhao Wei family is the largest pig farmer in the entire Jingji area. They own many pig ranches. Yes, they raise pigs by grazing.

Even though these noble families looked down on pork, saying it was cheap meat and would not eat it at all, it did not prevent them from raising pigs to make money.

It is said that the Wei family started raising pigs since the Zhou Dynasty. They even claimed that they used to raise dragons.

Li Yi didn't know whether the Wei family raised dragons or not, but he heard that the Wei family raised pigs and was very profitable.

Even though the nobles don't eat pork, not everyone can afford mutton. Pork accounts for a large proportion of the meat consumption of the middle and lower classes.

These days, ordinary people cannot engage in breeding because they don’t have the capital and cannot afford the risks.

But for the landlords and powerful people, breeding is essential.

Raising cattle can not only produce calves that can be sold for money, but also rent out oxen for farming. Many landlords rent their cattle to farmers, and they pay 10% of the harvest directly.
Li Yi didn't want to lend money at high interest rates like other landlords, so it would be a good idea to start a side business of breeding.

Today, Shi Niang is particularly happy.

The whole person is extremely excited,
At night, she was still excited and took the initiative to sleep with Li Yi. She asked Li Yi for sex three times, which made Li Yi's waist a little sore.

the next morning,
Li Yi hammered his waist and went to work in the Imperial Garden.

In the north of Taiji Palace, outside Xuanwu Gate,

The agricultural supervisor specially cleared a greenhouse.
Li Yi met a group of farmers here.
They are all heads of farms from the families of nobles and ministers. They were either rewarded with auspicious signs by the emperor or given auspicious signs by Li Yi. Now these auspicious signs are grown in the greenhouse of the imperial garden, and each family sent them here to learn from Li Yi.

Forty or fifty people.

In the homes of the nobles and ministers, they were actually all in charge of the manor.
In the countryside, these people actually have a very high status.

Probably the same as Du San before,
"Good morning, Asamizu-kun,"

A group of people came to pay their respects and brought gifts.
Ten pieces of bacon per person,
In addition, we also prepared red dates, celery, lotus seeds, red beans, dried longan, etc.
These things are collectively called the Six Rites of Shuxiu, which is a very heavy gift for becoming a disciple.

"This is what you are doing?"

Although Li Yi agreed to help teach the planting and management methods of auspicious golden potatoes, he never thought that he would need to send a worship teacher.

But these people are different, as if they had discussed it.
The unified six rituals of Shuxiu,
Each person received ten pieces of bacon and five other gifts.

Li Yi said that it was not possible without it.
In their opinion, being chosen by the head of the family to learn to plant auspicious plants is very important and they must learn it well.

"Master Qianshui, etiquette is indispensable. We are also eager to learn."

Row,
Then collect it.

They collected hundreds of pieces of bacon alone. Normally, the jerky given as a gift would only weigh two pounds each, but these guys were particularly polite and gave each piece weighed three pounds.

Each person donated thirty pounds of salted pork jerky. Given the current price of meat, these ten bundles alone cost several thousand coins.

Li Yi didn't expect that he could earn three hundred taels of gold by selling auspicious items.

By teaching his apprentices, he can earn more than a thousand kilograms of bacon.

The young man is teachable.
He will definitely teach these apprentices well.

Register at Xuanwu Gate and receive the wooden fish token for passage.

There was also the Emperor's Imperial Guard stationed in the camp, who led them to the greenhouse.

A hundred steps away from the greenhouse, there are already imperial guards on duty.

There are several checkpoints leading to the greenhouse, and a high wall has been temporarily built outside the greenhouse.

There is also an arrow tower,

The imperial guards were in armor and armed with sharp weapons.

This scene scared Li Yi.
This seems to be as tight as the national treasury. Is it really that necessary?

After repeated inspection,
They finally passed the last sentry post on the wall,
The old man Wu Shiling, the Shaoqing of the Ministry of Agriculture who had drunk with him at the last Taiji Palace imperial banquet, was also there, as well as his superior, Fan Fang, the Director of the Palace Gardens, and Yu Wenying, the eighth-rank agricultural supervisor.

These three guys,
The highest-ranking warrior, Wu Shiling, was only a county duke, while the other two were county dukes.

Yuwen Ying was a Xianbei, the son of Yuwen Shan, Duke of Xu in the Sui Dynasty. He had already been promoted to the position of Shaoqing of the Ministry of Agriculture during the Daye period of the Sui Dynasty, but he had previously submitted to Li Mi and followed Li Mi to Chang'an.
For the time being, he was only given this minor official position of eighth rank, but was given the title of Duke of Huazheng County.

Yuwen Ying had a very powerful uncle, Yuwen Kai, who served as the Chief of Works and the Minister of Works in the Sui Dynasty. He was the one who presided over the construction of Chang'an and Luoyang cities. He also had an uncle, Yuwen Xin, who was good at using troops and was also a famous general. He was granted the title of Duke of Ying, but was later executed for treason.

Before the Daye Dynasty, the Yuwen Ying family was much stronger than the Yuwen Huaji family.

When Wei Xiaokuan was guarding Yubi, he specially invited the brave and warlike Yuwen Xin to guard it together. The title of Duke of Huazheng County was also the title that Yuwen Xin had been awarded.

Li Yi didn't expect that an eighth-rank agricultural supervisor could have such a powerful background.

Yuwen Ying was not arrogant. Although he used to be the Shaoqing of Sinong and was now promoted to the eighth rank, he could still bend and rise to higher positions. He also took the initiative to meet the young man Li Yi.

"Duke Wu, Duke Fan, Duke Yuwen, why are there so many imperial guards here?"

"These are all specially ordered by His Majesty to protect the auspicious signs. His Majesty has directly dispatched two regiments of imperial guards to take turns on duty to ensure that nothing goes wrong."

Four hundred imperial guards, guarding potatoes?

A little crazy.

But Wu Shiling and his men didn't think it was crazy at all. After all, the yield of golden potatoes was two to three thousand kilograms per mu, and they could harvest three times a year. They didn't pick the land.
Certainly it deserves such attention.

"We will all follow Uncle Qianshui's instructions on how to plant these auspicious plants. We will immediately coordinate and allocate any supplies and personnel needed."

In short, we need people and supplies.
Li Yi thought that even if he grew potatoes in a greenhouse in winter, it wouldn't be that difficult.
Compared to growing potatoes in the field, the only difference is the addition of water and fertilizer, as well as the addition of greenhouse and light. Potatoes themselves are relatively easy to grow.

"We need to germinate first,"

Planting potatoes now and germinating them is a little more troublesome than normal, but not that difficult.

All day,

Li Yi, along with the two dukes and one county duke, as well as a group of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Imperial Palace, and the Agricultural Gardens, was busy.
Adjust and control the room temperature.
Li Yi made some requirements for the lighting in the greenhouse. For example, Li Yi felt that the original oyster shell tile windows were not light-transmitting enough, and that more lighting should be added on the roof.

Without saying anything, Wu Shi Leng wrote a note.
Then he got a lot of mica tiles, which are rarer than oyster shell tiles and have better light transmittance.

Li Yi said that planting potatoes requires loose soil, fermented dry manure, oil cakes, wood ash, etc., which can be obtained with just a note.

He said that growing golden potatoes in clay pots would be better than growing them directly in a greenhouse, and you could get as much as you wanted.

This job is easy.
A group of officials and heads of the villages of noble families and ministers followed him. They regarded his every word and action as a guiding principle, and some even wrote down his every word.

noon,

The emperor also asked Guanglu Temple to send them lunch prepared by the chef.
The specifications were the same as those of the ministers' meals in the corridors, with lamb, fish, chicken and duck. After the meal, there were snacks and fruits, and even tangerines tributed from Jiangnan.

Li Yi was very happy with this kind of job where he was the center of attention.

At around four o'clock, Li Yi returned home from get off work.
There were actually imperial guards escorting him home, with several carts of gifts and rituals following behind.

The imperial guards escorted him home.
As Li Yi entered the house, another official came.

He is now an official sixth-rank official, so he has been allocated 500 mu of official land. The palace and garden supervisor is responsible for renting this land to wealthy families with many men in the area. Li Yi does not need to take care of it. He can collect six dou of rent per mu, which means that he can earn an additional 300 dan of rent from the official land every year.

In addition, there is a monthly salary of 2,000 coins, and 400 coins for food and miscellaneous expenses.

As a sixth-rank official, the court assigned him twelve servants to serve him. These twelve servants were all civilians serving in the capital area, and they were replaced every twenty days.

Li Yi's official rank was only sixth. If he could reach the fifth rank, he could also enjoy the treatment of meat supply.

From the prince down to the second rank, 20 sheep, 60 kilograms of pork, and 20 fish were provided each month. Officials of the third rank were given 12 sheep each month, and officials of the fourth and fifth ranks were given 9 sheep each month.

"Your Majesty has decreed that Deputy Supervisor Li be granted the crimson robe and receive the treatment of a fifth-rank official. He is to be provided with seven plates of food daily, two liters of fine rice, two liters and three hectograms of flour, one and a half liters of wine, three hectograms of mutton, two melons, four hectograms of soy sauce, four hectograms of vinegar, and various amounts of salt, fermented black beans, onions, ginger, sunflower seeds, and leeks. Nine sheep are also provided monthly."

Li Yi was surprised.
Suddenly, mutton is free, and nine sheep are supplied every month.

The treatment of this official is really good, with official land, monthly salary, miscellaneous expenses, and free servants.
Not to mention the various supplies of common food,

There are still nine sheep a month, and mutton is so expensive now.

No wonder they say that while the rich feast, the poor freeze to death on the streets.

Now the Li Tang Dynasty only occupied a corner of the world. There were so many disaster victims and hungry people outside the city of Chang'an. The price of food was so high. A bucket of rice and a piece of silk, and mutton was even more expensive.

But this does not prevent officials from receiving generous treatment.

It's the same in every era.

Li Yi glimpsed a corner of another world.

(End of this chapter)