Chapter 9: The new official takes office and the group returns to Tai...
When the group returned to the Grand Tutor's Mansion, the patriarch had already cleaned up the courtyard closest to the main courtyard.
Wen Zhong said in front of everyone, "From now on, this is your home. If you need anything or want something, just ask the elder directly. If anyone dares to neglect you or disobey your orders, there is no need to report to me. I will just kick them out."
Only guests who are treated with neglect need to report to the host. Since Wen Zhong asked her to treat this place as her own home, it doesn't make sense for him to have no right to punish her if she is neglected by a slave in his own home.
Fu Li knew that anyone who could say such words must be an open-minded gentleman.
If her original trust in Wen Zhong came from her master, from this moment on, she began to trust Wen Zhong's character.
"Since Grand Tutor said so, I will take it seriously." Fu Li agreed without any pretense.
Wen Zhong laughed and said, "I want you to take it seriously. Come on, let me show you the yard you live in first. Others may not like what you have done. If you think there is something wrong, just change it."
The courtyard built by the family elder is quite large, with more than ten rooms. There are two crabapple trees, a naphthalene tree and a pear tree in the courtyard.
In this era when fruits don’t taste very good, crabapples are also a commonly eaten fruit.
Fu Li had observed that most of the trees planted in the Grand Tutor's Mansion were fruit trees. It seemed Wen Zhong was a pragmatic man.
The main house is five rooms wide, the middle one is the living room, the east side is used as a bedroom, and the west side is used as a study.
However, it is not easy to make bamboo slips. Although it is called a study, there are only shelves for stacking bamboo slips, and no books at all.
The ornaments in the room are all bronze and lacquerware, which are absolutely rare treasures of this era. There are also two pieces of pottery, both of which are painted with exquisite multicolored patterns.
Fu Li looked carefully and saw a black bird painted on a pottery plate and a fish painted on a pottery bottle.
From a modern perspective, the pattern is somewhat abstract, but one can tell what it is about at a glance.
In this era, no one considered painting as a separate skill, and only craftsmen who made tools would learn it as a side skill.
Fu Yue and Fu Shuang usually lived in the west wing. They only followed Fu Li closely and did some light work like serving tea and water. The rest was naturally taken care of by the slaves assigned to them.
The east wing is a guest room, reserved for Fuli to entertain her guests.
Wen Zhong took her around and asked her if she thought there was anything inappropriate.
Fu Li said sincerely, "Mr. Mu has been very thoughtful. He's thought of things that I haven't thought of. It's just that there are too many bronze and lacquerware. These things are so precious that I can't help but feel a little uneasy."
Wen Zhong smiled and said, "Don't worry about these things; they are merely material possessions. Your master should have told you that I was born into the Jie Sect and was originally a Qigong practitioner overseas. If it weren't for repaying Cheng Tang's kindness, I wouldn't have gotten involved in the changes of dynasties in the human world."
For a god like him who can fly into the sky and hide in the earth, no matter how exquisite and precious the earthly utensils are, they are not worth his attention.
Fu Li understood his hidden meaning and stopped worrying about it.
She then said to the family elder, "Mr. Mu, I need your help in preparing some ingredients. I want to make something delicious."
The patriarch had no objection and simply asked her for instructions.
Fu Li then asked him to order people to collect mulberry bark, scrapers, stone mortars, lime water and sugarcane, and also to build a pond ten feet long and seven feet wide. He also explained to him with gestures how to make the bamboo screen for making paper.
That’s right, Fuli is preparing to make paper.
She would be an agricultural official in the future, so she would have to write a lot of official documents. Although she didn't have to make the bamboo slips herself, they were heavy and had a limited capacity.
For your own convenience in the future, you should get the paper out first.
As for the appearance of paper in the early Shang Dynasty, would it disrupt the course of history?
She has traveled through time and space, and to the world of Conferred Gods, so how can she care about the course of history?
As long as God doesn't strike her with thunder, she is allowed to do whatever she wants.
Wen Zhong didn't know what she was going to do, but although these things were trivial, they were nothing in this era where human labor was worthless.
So he stood there without saying a word, letting her tell the elders to do things, so that people could see his attitude more often and avoid his subordinates deliberately neglecting him when he was not paying attention.
There were ten slaves assigned to Fuli, five men and five women, all of whom were captives captured by Wen Zhong during his battles over the years.
Most of these captives were presented to the King of Shang, a small portion was given to his friendly colleagues, and he did not keep many for himself.
As an accomplished Qi-refining practitioner, Wen Zhong actually didn't care about these mortals. The family elders had always been concerned about how to place the slaves belonging to the Grand Tutor's Mansion.
But these slaves knew very well who their real masters were.
Seeing Wen Zhong's attitude towards Fu Li, their expressions became obviously more respectful.
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The next morning, Fu Yue and Fu Shuang brought her a new set of clothes and matching jewelry made of gems such as gold, jade, agate and turquoise.
Fu Li put on her clothes, but she only picked out a turquoise necklace and a jade crown to tie her hair.
"There are so many beautiful pieces of jewelry, can you pick a few more, Senior Sister?" Fu Yue felt that she was dressed too simply.
"Isn't that what I did when I was in the mountains?" Fu Li said, "Besides, I'm going to inspect the fields today. Why should I dress so fancy?"
Seeing that she really didn't want to wear it any longer, Fu Yue felt a little regretful, but still went along with her wishes.
After she was dressed, the two men led her to the east wing. The slaves had already brought her breakfast. The staple food was corn rice, and the side dishes were a plate of venison, a plate of musk deer meat, a plate of scallions and a plate of wild vegetables that she couldn't name.
In addition, there is a dish of salted meat and a dish of sauce made from something like white sesame seeds.
"What kind of sauce is this?" Fu Li asked curiously, pointing at the dish of "white sesame" sauce.
It was her fault for asking this question. When the female slave who brought her the food told her that this was "snail meat" that only the upper class nobles could enjoy, and the raw material was ant eggs, Fu Li's face turned green.
"Two junior sisters, would you like to eat?" she asked Fu Yue and Fu Shuang first.
Although the two of them were responsible for taking care of her, they were also Hua Jing's registered disciples. They ate three meals a day with Fu Li, but the utensils they used were different from hers.
Fuli's bowl was made of some unknown material, decorated with gold and colorful gemstones, while Fuyue and Fuyao held ceramic bowls with colorful patterns.
Hearing that it was only enjoyed by the upper nobility, the two were very curious and nodded. They had no objection to the fact that the raw material was ant eggs.
If you think about it carefully, at that time, the human race was very short of supplies, and even the nobles would not be too picky.
Since the two of them wanted to eat, Fu Li didn't ask them to leave.
When eating, she only ate the meat, vegetables and ingredients, and did not touch the two sauces.
Not to mention that ant eggs were beyond her knowledge of food, as far as she knew, the minced meat was made from raw meat and was served directly on the table without any further processing.
As someone who has only eaten cooked food since childhood, she really couldn't bring herself to eat it, so she simply didn't force herself.
On the other hand, Fu Yue and Fu Shuang, two native Shang Dynasty people, were very receptive to slug and salted fish. They didn't eat any vegetables, but finished their meal with just two plates of sauce.
"Will you come with me on the patrol, or stay here and wait for me?"
The two exchanged a glance, and Fu Shuang said, "I'll go with you today, and ask Senior Sister Fu Yue to stay behind. The family elder said someone will be delivering a batch of bamboo slips today, and someone needs to be in charge of sorting them."
Both of them were familiar with her daily reading habits and could put the bamboo slips they had already read aside. They left Fuyue behind because she was more careful.
Fu Li nodded, called a slave, and asked him to report to the family elders first, explaining that she was going to inspect the fiefdom.
The patriarch was very efficient and came over in person shortly afterwards, saying that the carriage and guards were ready and inviting her to get in.
"Thank you for your help, Mr. Mu." Fu Li thanked him, went out and took Fu Shuang with him in the carriage. Twenty soldiers followed behind and they left the city together.
Wen Zhong's fief was west of the city, and during the reign of the previous king, he was granted 5,000 mu. Later, because of his contribution in suppressing the Han clan's rebellion, Yi Yin granted him an additional 3,000 mu on the grounds of "clear distinction between rewards and punishments."
In other words, Wen Zhong's fiefdom was eight thousand acres.
It sounds like a lot at first, but considering the per-acre yield of that era, this 8,000-acre fiefdom can barely support the slaves of the Grand Master and the private soldiers under Wen Zhong.
Along the way, listening to the family elder's words that could not hide his worries, Fu Li realized that Master Wen, who held a high position of power in the court, was actually not rich.
Of course, he is a senior disciple of Jiejiao, so he must have no shortage of resources for cultivation.
This "not rich" only refers to the identity of Grand Tutor.
Fu Li was determined to increase the yield per mu, firstly to repay Wen Zhong for taking her in, and secondly to give Wen Zhong more confidence when recommending her to Wo Ding.
Boyi is located in the Central Plains. The sowing time for corn is in April of the solar calendar and March of the lunar calendar. The exact time is not fixed, but after the first spring rain, it is time to sow.
It is still early February, and the fields are barren, with nothing but weeds.
In a fief of 8,000 mu, every 500 mu was managed by a small chief, and these small chiefs were also promoted from slaves.
According to the family elder, because they were born as slaves, they were more strict in managing other slaves and did not have to worry about the slaves being lazy while working.
After hearing this, Fu Li, who had never had the chance to be a working dog in her previous life, felt so upset that she didn't know what to feel.
But these were not hers to control, at least not right now. All she could do now was to inspect the land carefully and figure out where to start.
Every five hundred acres, she would call the small leader over and carefully inquire about how the land was cultivated in previous years.
The answers we got were similar, and they can be summed up in four words: you have to depend on the weather for your livelihood.
There is no weeding, no tilling, no watering or fertilizing.
It would be a miracle if the output could be increased.
After inspecting 8,000 acres of land, Fu Li had a clear idea.
When she came back the next day, she changed into more neat clothes and gathered the sixteen small leaders together. She first taught them how to weed and turn the soil, and then asked them to hand over the work to the slaves under their command who were responsible for farming.
"Since the Grand Tutor has appointed me as the agricultural official, I will certainly do my best. I hope you will also cooperate wholeheartedly. When the harvest is abundant, I will certainly commend you to the Grand Tutor for your achievements."
The sixteen little leaders looked at each other, with hesitation on their faces.
Fu Li's face darkened, and he changed the subject: "If you are interested in fulfilling my promise because I am young, then go ahead."
She didn't tell me what the consequences of lying would be, but the effect was better than if she had told me.
After all, most of human fear comes from the unknown.
The small leaders looked stern and said that they would never have any second thoughts.
Fu Li smiled again, her voice softening. "From today on, I'll come here every three days to inspect. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. But one thing is certain: weeding and tilling the soil must be completed before planting."
"only."
The small leaders responded in unison.
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