Chapter 526 Farming
"Yes, for one year." Man Bao said, "At that time, some people in our county also did not want to apply for tax exemption. It was County Magistrate Fu who worked hard and finally got the tax exemption by taking advantage of Yizhou's advantage. Otherwise, our village would have been in dire straits."
The farmer slapped his thigh and said, "Oh, you are so lucky! You met a good man. Our county is not only tax-free, but also added two new taxes last year. They said that the flood washed away the roads and water conservancy projects, and we had to spend money to rest. The money and grain used were distributed to us. Otherwise, my family would not be unable to pay back those two bags of grain."
Manbao is no longer a child of six or seven years old. She now knows more and thinks more. Although she still remembers that County Magistrate Fu increased the city entrance fee, she also thinks about what her teacher said.
When evaluating a person, you cannot just remember one thing he has done. You have to list the things he should do and then list the things he has done, only then can you know what kind of person he is.
Magistrate Fu had been in Luojiang County for many years, but he had only visited Qili Village twice. He would never go to Qili Village to encourage farmers to work.
In six years, he only increased his donation once;
Every year, labor was sent to build water conservancy projects and roads, and the county government office was also renovated.
Collect city gate fees;
A petition was submitted to exempt them from tax;
To sum up, there are only a few things, but because of his mother, Manbao likes Taoism very much. He has also read Laozi and Zhuangzi in the past two years, and gradually realized that sometimes, not doing anything is the right thing to do.
Of course, she prefers the current County Magistrate Yang.
Because every year he would come to Qili Village to encourage farmers to work, and he would visit not only Qili Village but all the villages in Luojiang County.
Almost every year he would take out a portion of the money from the county government to buy grain seeds, farm tools or oxen to distribute to each household or village to help the poor and the weak;
If a family has a new baby or acquires new property, the head of the village will pay more attention to it than before. Sometimes, the head of the village will come to the family to check the records and then report to the higher authorities without the villagers having to look for them.
Yang Heshu would also issue conscription orders, but he would advance them, sending them out within ten days after the busy farming season. He would not be like County Magistrate Fu, who would send them out early one year and late the next, either right at the end of the busy farming season or when the weather was at its coldest.
Yang Heshu did not collect city gate fees, and he also restrained the hangers-on in the county town, forbidding them to cause trouble to the small vendors in the city.
They will also help merchants in the city contact merchants outside to expand their business...
So not only Li Erlang, whose true identity was not revealed at first glance, asked her, but also ordinary people asked her what she thought of the two county magistrates, she could not say that County Magistrate Fu was not good, but could only say that she liked County Magistrate Yang better.
Li Erlang, however, shifted his focus and inquired about the farmer's donation and the disaster that had hit their county two years ago.
But how could the farmer know what was happening in the entire county? All he could tell us was the disaster situation in his village and several nearby villages.
But this was enough for Li Erlang to infer the situation in their county.
Bai Shanbao also sat up. His grandmother and husband both said that if he became an official in the future, he would have to understand all these things.
He also wanted to see how others served as officials and what the people would say about them.
Li Erlang asked about farming. "I wonder how the harvest was last year? How many dan (approximately 100 grams) can be harvested per mu?"
"I haven't calculated that, but one acre of wheat yields three and a half bags of good quality wheat, and nearly three bags of bad quality wheat. The harvest is pretty good."
Li Erlang frowned, remembering something, and turned to ask Bai Shanbao, "You are from Luojiang County. Do you know how the harvest is in Luojiang County?"
Bai Shanbao thought for a moment and said, "Only the county government knows the county-wide data. However, our small village's wheat yield per mu was five dan when we weighed it last autumn. The rice yield was much lower, only about three dan."
Li Erlang looked at him suspiciously, "How can the wheat harvest be so high?"
The per-acre yield of rice is normal, but the wheat yield is generally only about three stones. Even if some land is fertile, four stones can fill the field.
Bai Shanbao smiled and said, "We use new wheat seeds, so the harvest is higher than other fields."
Originally, the wheat seeds used by the small farm and Lao Zhou's family were the best batch, and then every season they would select the strongest and best wheat ears to keep as wheat seeds.
I don’t know if they have adapted to the environment of this era, and the excellent performance of the wheat seeds has slowly begun to be stimulated, or if they have adjusted, but in any case, the harvests in the past two years have been pretty good.
And the per-acre yield is even higher than that of the Zhou family.
Every year during the harvest season, the story of Manbao's fairy reincarnation becomes more widely known.
Because the villagers all agreed that Manbao and his colleagues didn't really take care of the work in the fields, yet their annual harvest was actually higher than theirs.
What could be the reason?
They knew that the land in Daling was not very fertile, so they could only have such a good harvest thanks to the blessing of the gods.
The villagers thought so, but Bai Shanbao didn't think so. As for the work on the farm, they just didn't go to the fields to work, but they made all the decisions.
Only they themselves know how many people they hire to compost the land every year, how much fertilizer they spread, and how much manpower they hire to draw water from the canal for irrigation.
He felt that this high harvest was well deserved and not due to the blessing of gods.
However, although the villagers listened to them, they still believed that it was the blessing of the gods.
Now that he was talking about farming, he couldn't help but ask the farmer a few more questions, "Do you only grow spring wheat? Does it always rain when the wheat heads?"
"God is not so predictable. There will always be a difference of a few days or ten days, but it's not a big problem."
"The problem is still huge," Bai Shanbao said. "If the rain could arrive just in time for the wheat to emerge, not only would the grains be fuller, but the ears would also be longer."
"But we can't just let it rain whenever God wants, right?"
Bai Shanbao: "So it needs to be watered."
Li Erlang couldn't help but look at Bai Shanbao.
The farmer groaned and said, "There's so much land, how can I water it all? Besides, when the wheat is filling, the weeds are growing thickly. If I don't weed the fields now, there will be no harvest."
Manbao said, "It all comes down to a problem of manpower. We can't farm the land as carefully as we can. It would be much better if we had a few more cows at home."
"We still need a few more cows. In our village, there's only one family that has a cow." The farmer looked at Manbao and the others' clothes. They looked very ordinary, but when he looked at the horses tied outside, he smiled and said, "Young master and young lady are from wealthy families. How could they know the hardships we have outside?"
"I know, my family is also very poor."
The farmer didn't believe it. "How can a poor person afford to go to school? And a girl at that."
"That's because our husband is kind. My education doesn't cost money. Besides, what's wrong with being a girl? In my family, I was the first to study, and then my nephews and nieces followed suit." Manbao said, "Since we don't have human power at the moment, and animal power is insufficient, then you should just change the wheat seeds."
The next update will be around 6:00 PM
We are in transition, so it may be a little slow recently.
(End of this chapter)
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