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

Chapter 64 Killing someone with a borrowed knife

early morning,

Li Yi took out the potatoes that had been drying for two days.

"What is this called?" Lanxiang asked curiously.

"Potato."

This name made Lanxiang a little disappointed. Isn't it said to be more precious than a gold nugget? How can it be called a potato?

"Can we just bury it in the soil? Like planting taro?"

"No, we need to germinate it first."

Li Yi first cleaned the potatoes, then cut them into pieces with a knife, leaving two eyes on each piece. After cutting, he mixed the potatoes with wet soil in a 1:1 ratio, spread them evenly, and covered them with a layer of moist sand.

Li Yi learned all this from his wife. The temperature shouldn't be too high, or they'll rot. He says he can dig out the sprouts when they're about two centimeters tall. He says he needs to dry the seeds first, and then wait until they turn green and thick before planting them.

Take this time,
Li Yi took out the rapeseed cake he bought from Fengjiabao Oil Mill. This is a very good organic fertilizer, rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. In particular, the nitrogen content is high and can be released slowly to provide long-lasting fertility support for crops while also improving soil structure.

However, rapeseed cake cannot be buried directly in the soil as fertilizer. It must be fermented first, otherwise it will burn the roots.

Fermentation is simple.
First crush it, then add water and pile it up, maintaining a moisture content of 50 to 60 percent. It should be in a state where it can be squeezed into a ball and will fall apart when released. Turn the pile over regularly, once a week, for one or two months in summer and three or four months in winter, until it turns black, has no odor, and is easily broken by hand.

Of course, there is also a faster liquid fertilizer method. After crushing, put it into a sealed container, then add water at a ratio of ten to one for rapeseed cake, soak and ferment. Open it and release the air every two or three days. After one or two weeks of fermentation, the liquid will turn dark brown, a layer of white bacterial film will form on the surface, and there will be an obvious fermentation smell, which means it is successful.

When using, dilute it 10 to 20 times and then pour the fertilizer around the roots. It will have good fertility and can also avoid root burn.

Li Yi planned to try both methods.

Although rapeseed oil cake is a by-product of oil pressing, it is not cheap. He is a regular customer of the oil mill, but he still has to pay three cents for a pound.

This thing can also be used as livestock feed.

A cake weighing seven pounds costs twenty cents, which is equivalent to a steamed bun.

Most farmers are reluctant to buy this oil meal to use as fertilizer.

Soybean meal cake is also a good fertilizer. Rapeseed and sesame have high oil yields, but low meal cakes. Soybean has a lower oil yield, but high oil cakes. However, Li Yi discovered that soybeans were not used to extract oil during the Tang Dynasty.

I don't know the exact reason, but I haven't seen it yet.

After tinkering with it for half the morning,
Cut the potatoes and germinate them, then crush some rapeseed cakes and wet-pile and soak them for fermentation separately.

"It's fine to use manure directly, and you don't have to spend money." Xiuzhi reminded Li Yi that these days, she took Lanxiang and other children in the yard to dig some land in front of and behind the house and in the yard to plant some vegetables.

There is a self-built toilet at the bridge head below, where a lot of feces and urine are collected every day. Farmers use feces in three ways: composting, piling and fermenting. Many farmers get up early in the morning to pick up feces on the road, and then pile them up for fermentation.
The bedding grass in the sheep pen and cattle pen contains cow and sheep feces and urine, and must be piled up and fermented before use.

You can also directly mix it with water and fertilizer for irrigation. Our ancestors knew how to use manure water to water vegetables a long time ago. It is simple, crude and easy to use.

Another method is to mix manure with straw, wheat straw, fallen leaves and even bones to ferment.

"I want to plant these two gold nuggets in flower pots and keep them in the yard. It's too smelly to use manure to water them." Li Yi said with a smile.

Li Yi built a great service area at the bridgehead. What the villagers envy most now is not how much soy milk and millet porridge the breakfast stall can sell every day, nor how much bean curd sheets and tofu soaked in soy sauce it can sell as a side dish.

What the villagers envy the most is his row of toilets, because they are clean and sanitary, and people coming and going are willing to use them.

This accumulates over time and makes others envious.

For the common people of this era, there was limited fertilizer in the fields, so they mainly relied on manure, but how much could a family produce?
Li Yi's row of toilets sees over a hundred people a day. Now there's a small school with over a hundred students, which is even more incredible.

During this period, there have been several incidents of people stealing feces from his toilet in the middle of the night, so Luo Er often has to go on patrol in the middle of the night to check.

Stealing a truckload of manure is a huge loss.

Li Yi's thirty acres of rice fields and twenty acres of wheat fields are growing much better than those of the people next door because they have been applied with manure, and the yield is bound to increase significantly.

As Li Yi was talking, he thought of something.
He pretended to go into the bedroom, but actually found some vegetable seeds from the space.

Although the weather is still hot at this time, there are already many vegetables that can be grown, including tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, coriander, spinach, Chinese cabbage, beans, eggplants, cucumbers, and green beans, which can all be planted for another season.

However, he temporarily selected five types of vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, coriander, and spinach to try first.

Five small paper bags.

When Xiuzhi heard that these were rapeseeds, she was a little confused.

"What is spinach?" Xiuzhi had never heard of it.

Ji knew, "Spinach was introduced from Nepal. It looks a bit like cabbage and is quite delicious."

"You have eaten?"

Ji nodded. Spinach was introduced during the Sui Dynasty, which was related to Yang Guang's opening up of the Western Regions. It is now relatively rare in the Central Plains, but it is often seen on the meals of nobles.

"What is chili? Is it a kind of pepper?"

"No, it's a very spicy dish, but it's different from the spicy taste of chives and garlic. Fresh chilies are delicious when stir-fried with meat, and they can also be dried to make dried chilies, or ground into powder and used as seasoning."

Lan Xiang said from the side: "Isn't it the same as hot pepper? Hot pepper is very spicy."

Li Yi asked Xiuzhi and the others to take hoes and dig a small piece of land in front of the corridor in the inner courtyard. Then they surrounded it with bamboo, and it became a small vegetable garden for growing seedlings, which could be looked after at any time.

"This coriander seed cannot be planted directly. The shell must be crushed first, then wrapped in a wet cloth to germinate. After the sprouts appear, dig furrows and sow the seeds, and then cover with straw so that they can grow quickly." Xiuzhi reminded.

Li Yi watched them busying around.

I was already imagining scrambled eggs with tomatoes, tomato and egg soup, beef brisket with tomatoes, tomatoes with sugar, tomato sauce, stir-fried meat with peppers, tiger skin green peppers, fried eggs with peppers, and beef fillet with hot peppers.
You can also make chopped peppers, chopped pepper fish head, dried peppers, Kung Pao chicken, boiled fish, and spicy shrimp. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. I used to eat spicy food, and now without spicy food, I always feel like something is missing.

Although he had dried chili peppers, chili powder, and even fresh chili peppers in his kitchen, it was hard to explain where they suddenly appeared.

But if he grows it, then his source of income will be legitimate and will be endless.

Ji looked at Li Yi planting vegetables in the yard, with a troubled look on her face. "In fact, it would be better to plant some flowers in the yard, such as peonies, chrysanthemums, orchids, osmanthus, plum blossoms, and lotus flowers."

Li Yi smiled and said, "I like flowers too. From now on, you will be responsible for planting flowers and decorating Wuji Thatched Cottage."

Ji said excitedly, "Then we can dig a small fish pond next to the pavilion, raise a few koi, plant lotus flowers, pile up some strange rocks, and plant a red maple or crabapple tree..."

"You plan and design first, and then do it when you have thought it through." Li Yi is very supportive of beautifying the courtyard. Although the courtyard is called Caotang, he also hopes that it can be warm and comfortable.

Lanxiang suggested that they should raise a big goose and put it in the front yard to guard the house.

"Raise a dog, raise a dog, the dog can also guard the house." Gousheng suggested.

"Okay, let's go to the market someday and buy a goose and a dog." Li Yi agreed with a smile.

······
At the foot of Shenhe Plateau, on the south bank of the Fuhe River,
Melon Village.

This is the manor where the Jingzhao Du family grows melons, and they grow winter melons.

It looks like a winter melon, with a green skin and a large size, but when you cut open the thick skin, you'll find a red sac inside that's juicy and sweet.

Cold melon was also introduced from the Western Regions during the Han Dynasty.
However, until the Tang Dynasty, the cultivation of winter melon was not popular and was only a fruit enjoyed by the upper class aristocrats.

Ordinary people can't even see it, let alone enjoy it.

The Du family, however, had a farm in Fanchuan where they grew winter melons. The farm had 980 mu of irrigated land. In addition to winter melons, they also grew sweet melons, winter melons, melons for harvesting melon seeds, and gourds and cucumbers.
Plant one season of melons and one season of beans every year.

There are many kinds of melons in Dujia Melon Farm, and winter melon is naturally the favorite in summer. There is a special melon manager who is responsible for its management. The largest and best of the first batch of winter melons will be tributed to the court, and the others will be given to the nobles, gentry and wealthy families who are relatives and friends of the Du family.

The second batch started to be sold on the market.
Sold from Chang'an to Luoyang, Du's melons are very famous and not cheap, but every year many nobles and famous families place advance orders for the melons from Guazhuang.

Nowadays,

The steward of the Wei family in Weiqu came to take charge.

The Du family manor head also made preparations in advance. In the morning, before the dew had dried and the sun had risen, they selected and picked the melons in advance and brought them to the manor house to avoid being exposed to the sun.

If you pick hot melons in the hot sun at noon, you may get diarrhea after eating them.

The Wei family's manager came and went directly to the warehouse to check the melons, weigh them, count them, and then pay for them.

"These melons are all very good. They are large and must be sweet when you tap them."

"There has been little rain recently, so the melons are naturally sweet."

The Du family steward smiled and replied,

"Our Sanlang came by yesterday and asked me to give you a box of yuba to take back."

Manager Du said, "My wife has been thinking about the bean curd sheets you served her since she went to Duqu last time. She keeps saying how delicious they are."

Steward Wei came closer and lowered his voice: "Do you know where this bean curd sheet is made?"

"where?"

"It's across the Shenheyuan from us, and it's made by the village chief of Luojiabao in Yusu Township. I heard it's actually very simple to make, not much different from making tofu. But tofu is only 20 coins per pound, but this yuba costs 360 coins per pound."

"Is there still this?"

"Yes, that village chief, Li Yi, was originally a Taoist priest at the Wuji Temple. A cliff collapsed, and his master died, leaving him penniless and forced to return to secular life. Later, he started selling yuba (dried bean curd sheets), and it made him a fortune, earning tens of thousands of yuan a day. He now has two large courtyards and a school, enrolling over a hundred children for free. How much do you think he's earned?"

Manager Wei was amazed again and again.

"There's something even more infuriating. This guy made a little money and started to act arrogant. He even dared to set his sights on our Du family's young lady. Do you know our Shi Niang? I heard that your Wei family is interested in asking Wei Erlang, the Cucumber Marquis, to marry our Shi Niang."

Manager Wei perked up all of a sudden. "You think this Li Yi actually dared to set his sights on Du Shiniang?"

"That's right. He's so arrogant just because he made a few bucks selling bean curd sheets."

Steward Wei frowned, "Can't your Du family handle Li Yi?"

"This Li Yi has hooked up with Erlang, the eldest son of our family," said Steward Du. "We are reluctant to take action because of Erlang's reputation, but you can take action on behalf of your Erlang."

Manager Wei didn't respond.

Manager Du added, "Actually, there's a fortune hidden within this. If you can grasp it, brother, it'll be incredible."

"Oh?"

"The reason why Li Yi is so arrogant is because he has a profitable tofu skin workshop. Let me teach you a way. You spend some money to bribe one or two people in his workshop and get the secret recipe of making tofu skin.

If the Wei family builds a bigger tofu skin workshop, will he be able to outperform you?"

"You can lower the price first, shut down his workshop, and then raise the price. Then you will have the exclusive right to trade."

Manager Wei's eyes lit up.
"Brother, tell me about this in detail."

"Okay, but don't forget your brother after you're done."

"Don't worry, there will be a generous reward later."

(End of this chapter)