Chapter 15 Fertilizer and Plow
It was March when Yan Xuanyu left the palace. The winter snow had just melted in March, and green buds began to sprout everywhere. In another month or so, it would be the spring plowing season.
The northern part of the Great Zhou Dynasty mainly planted spring wheat, but the agricultural tools used by farmers at that time were relatively backward, and there was no way to fertilize the land to increase its fertility. Therefore, even in years with good harvests for farmers, there was not much surplus food left in the homes of the people after paying grain taxes to the government.
Most people's understanding of ancient times is from the perspective of people with higher status in ancient times, but for the people living at the bottom of society, they are poor and ignorant. The history of the development of the small peasant economy is also a history of blood and tears of tens of millions of farmers.
Just like in the winter that just passed, many people in many places in the Great Zhou Dynasty froze to death or starved to death. However, such things were very common in that era. Compared with the losses, the majority of people survived. After the winter, they would enter the busy new year with spring plowing.
When thinking of this, Yan Xuanyu lay in the bamboo house in the farm and thought of many ways. He assumed that he was an ordinary farmer in the Great Zhou Dynasty. How should he spend the winter?
He thought that he could cut firewood and store it before winter came - but most of the forest land in the Great Zhou was owned by wealthy families, and the common people were not allowed to cut down or pick wood privately. Even if some places allowed the common people to carry out certain activities, they had to pay taxes.
The people could only pick up some small branches and straw near their homes, or go further away, or even go to the barren mountains to cut down trees - there was a 50% chance that they would never come back.
In the Great Zhou Dynasty, some slightly wealthier people had wood stored at home, but as winter approached, they tended to burn the wood into charcoal and sell it in the city in exchange for some silver.
Moreover, food is scarce in winter, and every household has to live frugally. Even strong men have little energy to work.
The harvest from the fields was small, the government collected high taxes, and the people could not get enough to eat.
The reason why the original owner was so incompetent and had not been forced to give up the throne during his reign was that although he did so many things that were detrimental to the country and the people, he did not touch the interests of the aristocratic families, and the two could coexist.
Everyone knows that if the people want to live a more comfortable life, they must reduce taxes and levies. However, if Yan Xuanyu touches the interests of the aristocratic families as soon as he ascends the throne, I am afraid that those aristocratic families who are temporarily quiet will immediately unite to rebel against him. Although Yan Xuanyu ascends the throne with the late emperor's will... there are still the late emperor's nephews and nephews in the royal family. If they support another puppet, Yan Xuanyu now has no support from the people and no support from his subjects. What should he do?
He cannot now ensure that everyone in the world has enough food and clothing, but he can only do his best to feed those he can reach.
Yan Xuanyu sighed. Fortunately, there was still a way to solve this problem. If he wanted to order a reduction in taxes and levies, he only needed a legitimate reason.
...
"The master wants us to start plowing the land now?"
Many people in Zhuangzi were surprised.
"There are still more than twenty days until spring plowing!"
Zhuangzi, the leader, stood on a high place and stopped the men below from talking.
He cleared his throat. "The master said the snow melted faster this year than last, and it's getting warmer sooner too. Planting wheat now won't be cold. All of you, be happy you've been dealt a hard time by our master! We feed and drink you well every day. The master wants you to finish the work on these dozen acres of land so we can send you home to help with the spring plowing."
After saying this, he didn't care what kind of reaction his words would cause in the ears of this group of people, and let everyone disperse.
Ever since that young man became the head of the farm, they have been able to eat their fill at every meal. There is no bran mixed in the porridge for livestock, but only thick rice porridge. There is plenty of steamed cornbread and side dishes. Most of them have never eaten such a meal in their lives.
On the first day, none of the men dared to reach out to take the food, because they never thought that such food was something they could eat.
Later, the owner gave candy to everyone in the village, and now they have to cultivate the fields in the village in advance because of their own spring plowing.
This group of people was the first time they were treated like this by their master. For a moment, the strong men were about to shed tears. They were even more determined to use their own strength to cultivate the land for their master.
However, before the farming time stipulated by the master, the head of the village suddenly gathered them together. The men listened in confusion as the head told them what to do.
"What? Manure water?" A man asked cautiously, puzzled. "What can you do with that?"
The boss rolled his eyes at him. "The master has come up with a method to increase the growth of wheat in the fields. It's called 'fertilizing.' The master says that if you follow this method, you can get at least four dan of wheat per mu!"
"How is that possible?!"
Did they hear it wrong? One acre of land can produce four dan of grain? Don't the farmers who work in the fields every day know this? One acre of land can only produce two dan of grain at most!
Their intuition told them that this was fake, but the person who said this was the owner of the house who made sugar from beets! It only took the men a moment to believe what the owner said.
Zhuangzi looked at their reactions with satisfaction and continued, "Someone will come today to teach you how to make fertilizer. What you need to do in the next two days is to apply fertilizer to the fields."
The amount of fertilizer must also be controlled, neither too much nor too little. Too little will have no effect, and too much will burn the seedlings in the field.
Even the most irritable farmhand stirred the foul-smelling water without a complaint.
When they went to the river to fetch water, they did not avoid people, and the farmers around them who were idle because spring plowing had not yet started saw them.
Soon the men were asked by the villagers what they were doing on the farm. The men had long been told by the head of the farm that they did not need to hide anything they did on the farm from the villagers.
"Fertilizer? What is that?" The farmers stretched their necks to look and smelled a foul odor near the men.
“Isn’t this just shit?”
...
The men discovered that the host not only took out something like "fertilizer", but also a strange-looking wooden plow.
Because they have been surrounded by farm manure all day long, they inevitably have a strange smell on their bodies, but they don't mind and every meal they eat is delicious.
One day, Dazhuang was about to go back to mix the fertilizer when he saw a group of people gathered in a circle. He was about to go over and continue working when he was called by A Tie from the same village.
"Da Zhuang, come and see!"
Da Zhuang had no choice but to walk over. When he got closer, he found that it was actually a strange-looking wooden plow.
He said it looked strange because it was very different from the plows he had seen before, but Dazhuang, who worked in the fields every day, could tell at a glance that it was a plow used for tilling the land.
Sure enough, the person in charge quickly brought two people over and asked them to call their companions over and demonstrated to them how to use the plow.
Dazhuang also got the chance to go forward and use it. He tied a belt around his waist according to the method told by the owner, and held the handle of the wooden plow with both hands. He found that this thing was very light and easy to use. The plow after being modified by the owner was much more labor-saving than the one he had borrowed from the village chief's house, and it was also convenient to walk while pulling it.
The other men also looked at the plow with eager eyes, and it seemed as if they wanted to rush to the field immediately to see if it was really as useful as they thought.
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