Chapter 569 You Fu Discusses Farming (Please vote and subscribe)
"How do you farm? Does everyone have to farm so much land?" After finding out the yield of millet, You Fu asked about everyone's labor intensity and the size of the cultivated land.
"Our tribe farms together, so there is no fixed amount. The harvested grain is also eaten by everyone, but if you want to get grain, you must participate in the labor. Lazy people are not qualified to enjoy the fruits of others' labor. However, our Jiang clan members are very hardworking." Xuan smiled with relief again when he said this. No matter what, he was still proud of his tribe.
"Well, can you let me see how you farm? You said you were willing to teach us at the beginning." You Fu made another request.
"Of course, that's no problem, but let's go eat first. I'll take you to see it after dinner." Xuan suggested.
"Okay."
The two of them walked back while talking. The men who were weeding also came back and went back to their homes to eat. The children were also called up by the adults, and the tribe was still lively.
Still at the place where they had dinner last night, Xuanhe Yong, his sister, and eight people from the Han tribe, each holding a bowl of white rice porridge with some salted minced meat in it. You Zhi also took out a small bowl and poured some pickled vegetables into it. It was a food unique to the Han tribe, pickled with peppers, dried radish, mustard tuber, peanuts, green beans, and soybeans.
This was also invented by Luo Chong. The ingredients used were common things in the Han tribe. Basically, every family had them, and ordinary people could afford them. If they didn't cook in the morning, eating some pickled vegetables with white porridge could also ensure the salt needed for a morning of activities.
The people from the Han tribe had long been accustomed to it, but for the people from the Jiang family who were eating this kind of food for the first time, even the most ordinary white porridge and pickled vegetables were delicious and made them unable to stop.
"This thing is so delicious. What's in it and how is it made?" Yong slurped the white porridge while chewing the pickled vegetables, and even took the time to ask about the recipe of the pickled vegetables.
"There are too many things in it, all vegetables, which we grow ourselves, just like growing grains. You can do the same, too. You don't have to grow all grains. If you find delicious plants, you can try to grow them yourself." You Fu explained to him.
Xuan was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly asked, "Such delicious food, and so much pure white salt, it must be very precious, right?"
You Fu smiled and said, "No, this is the cheapest thing. Every member of our Han tribe can afford such food. Our breakfast is basically like this. The pickles are made at home. Maybe they are a little different, after all, everyone's taste is different, but it's nothing to eat every day. It's a good life to eat meat every day."
Yong and his sister were shocked by You Fu's words again. They stared at him blankly and forgot to continue eating.
"The life in the Han tribe is so good. Such delicious pickles can be afforded by everyone, and can be eaten every day?!"
And Xuan felt the same way. Yes, vegetables are nothing. Jiang can dig some wild vegetables to eat every day, but it is too difficult to let all the tribesmen eat meat every day.
Maybe some people in small tribes would say that we can eat meat every day, that's nonsense, we don't know how to farm, and the population is small, what can we eat if we don't hunt for meat? Only the Youjiang clan, who also have a population of more than 2,000 and all make a living by farming, can have such an experience, the difficulty of eating meat, you know that eating enough and eating well are two different things.
After breakfast, Xuan brought Yong and Youfu to the empty farmland, bringing some unique farming tools of the Youjiang clan to teach their tribe's farming techniques.
There are five main farming tools of the Youjiang clan, lei (lei, 3rd tone), si (si, 4th tone), rake (pa, 2nd tone), sickle, and hoe.
A lei is something made of wood. The main body is a long wooden stick with a sharpened end. A two-palm-wide beam is tied to the sharpened end, which looks like a cross. This thing is mainly used to turn the soil. When using it, hold the long handle with both hands, point the sharp end to the ground, then step on the short beam to drive the sharp wood into the soil, and then press the wooden handle backwards. It can be used to dig the soil. Its function is similar to that of a shovel, but it cannot shovel up the soil and can only be used to loosen the soil.
A shu is a deformed tool of a lei. The main body still looks like a lei, with a long wooden handle and a short beam at the end, but an animal's lamellar shoulder blade is added at the bottom, which makes it more like a shovel. It can also be seen as a shovel. It is also a tool for turning the soil, but it is relatively rare. After all, there are not so many suitable shoulder blades, and they are not strong. The connection points are all tied with ropes and fixed, which is particularly easy to damage. Therefore, repairing farm tools is also one of Jiang's daily routines.
The rake is easy to explain. The Han tribe also has this thing. It is a spiked rake-like farm tool made of wooden sticks and branches. Its main function is to level the land. The soil is loosened at the front and then the land is leveled at the back.
The sickle is also very common. It is a sickle used for harvesting. It is usually made of wooden sticks and bone knives, and sometimes stone knives.
The hoe is also easy to understand. It is a wooden stick plus a triangular sharp stone, which is made into a mattock. It is very primitive and simple, but the Jiang clan has been using this simple tool for production.
Xuan and You Fu watched from the side. Yong led several Jiang clan men to demonstrate. Several people stood in a row, holding a hoe in their hands to turn the soil together. After turning the soil, they scattered "seeds". The seeds were replaced by corn husks. After the seeds were scattered, the soil was covered with a spiked rake, and then watered with a pottery jar.
Yong introduced to several people that the elders in their tribe could observe the sky and predict when it would rain. Generally, they would sow before the rain, so that they didn't need to water.
Moreover, millet is a very drought-resistant grain. It is okay to have less water, but it must not be too much, otherwise the roots will rot and become sick, and finally the yield will be reduced or even eliminated. Therefore, when planting millet, you must choose a slightly higher plot of land to facilitate drainage. In short, remember that you must not let water accumulate in the field.
You Zhi touched his nose while watching from the side. He wanted to laugh but was too embarrassed to laugh, so he kept holding it back. He felt that the way the Jiang family farmed was really bad. If the Han tribe also used this method, it is estimated that so many tribesmen would have starved to death.
Xuan looked at You Zhi's expression strangely and felt a little angry. This is teaching you how to farm, but you don't learn it well and are still laughing there, so he asked.
"You Zhi, what do you think of our way of farming?"
"Ah? Oh, I don't have any opinion. I just think that this way of working is too slow. If a piece of land that is 100 steps long and wide can only support one person, then it will be exhausting to grow the food needed by more than 2,000 people." You Zhi also spread his hands and said, indicating that it was not what I wanted to say, but you insisted on saying it.
You Fu glanced at his nephew, who stuck out his tongue in fear. Yong, who was standing next to him, dropped the tools in his hands and sat down on the ground. It was obvious that working like this was really tiring and their efficiency was very low.
"Yesterday I heard you say that the Han tribe also grows crops, and it seems that there are more than one kind. So how do you grow them in the Han tribe?" Xuan did not bother to argue with the young man You Zhi, but turned to ask You Fu next to him.
"Oh, this, our Han tribe has many kinds of food, mainly three kinds. One is wheat, which is similar to millet, and there are also barley and wheat. It is about the same height as millet and also matures every four or five months;
the other is rice, which is divided into two categories: polished rice and glutinous rice. The white porridge we just ate was cooked with polished rice. Glutinous rice is very sticky, and many people don't like to eat it. We don't grow much of it
in our Han tribe now. The last kind is corn, which grows very tall, taller than a person, and will produce two cobs full of corn on it. The corn grains are very large, but they are hard to eat. It is also good to cook and eat. It is also one of the staple foods of our Han tribe." Xuan said
, counting on his fingers. "So many kinds?" Xuan was surprised. Although he had never seen the things that You Fu said, just by listening to the number he listed, he mentioned three major categories and five small kinds.
And he just ate rice. Although it didn't have the unique fragrance of millet, it also tasted special sweetness. It was also good in terms of hunger relief. At least he drank a big bowl of it in the morning and didn't feel hungry until now.
"There are many more, peanuts, soybeans, cowpeas, sorghum, etc., but they are not staple food. We Han tribe people mainly eat rice and corn. We also eat wheat, but not much now, mainly because it grows slowly and needs to be taken care of frequently." You Fu continued to introduce the planting situation of Han tribe.
"There are more?" Yong also said in surprise. He didn't expect that Han tribe actually had so many kinds of food. People picked and ate them in turn, but his tribe only had one kind. Ah, no, if you break it down, in addition to millet, they also have millet, which is yellow rice. It looks no different from millet, just a little bigger.
"Then how do you Han tribe farm? So many varieties, it must be difficult to manage, right?" Xuan continued to inquire, trying to solve the doubts in his heart.
"Our Han tribe is not the same as yours. Well, how should I put it? It was similar to you before. Everyone farmed and harvested together. After the harvest, the tribe distributed the food." You Fu thought for a while and said.
Xuan nodded on the side. Sure enough, everyone is the same. No matter how many kinds of food you have, you still have to plant it this way.
"But this year our leader changed the rules and gave each family their own land. The land was divided according to merit and rank, but the least family could get ten mu per person, which is a little bigger than your hundred steps long and wide."
"Divide the land?! Divide the land to everyone and let them grow it themselves?"
All the people of Jiang clan were shocked, and even the leader Xuan was no exception this time. They really couldn't understand that one person had so much land, which meant a lot of farm work to do, and the production tools were limited. Shouldn't all the resources of the tribe be concentrated and used together, so that everyone can grow the land together?
"Can one person grow so much?" Yong asked curiously.
"You can grow as much as you want, but you have to look at the time. If you use it for a long time and delay the farming time, then no matter how much you work, it will be in vain. By then, the food will not be ripe and it will be cold." Xuan replied from the side, and then asked You Fu.
"You are dividing so much land among yourself. Why are you doing it by yourself? It will definitely take too long, right?"
"It will take too long, and it's not what you said. Our leader divides land among adults. As long as they get married and set up their own families after adulthood, men can get ten acres of grain fields, which can only be used to grow grain. Women can get ten acres of auxiliary fields, which are specially used to grow vegetables and mulberry and hemp. If you have children, you can continue to divide the land. You can get five acres for each child. As for whether it is grain field or auxiliary field, it depends on the gender of the child.
So basically every family has 20 to 30 acres of land. This 20 to 30 acres is about three hundred steps long and wide of yours. Usually two people plant it together, and the children will help when they grow up." You Fu continued to explain.
Xuan quickly heard a problem from this. When a man and a woman become spouses after adulthood, they have to set up separate households. Then, each man and woman gets a piece of land that is larger than a hundred steps long and wide. It must be very tiring for two people to cultivate so much land together. Moreover, they have to divide the land again after giving birth. The child is so young, and the land must be cultivated by adults. Wouldn't this mean that they have to do more work? In order to rest and be lazy, would the people deliberately not have children? Wouldn't the Han tribe have fewer and fewer people
? Why is there such a rule? Shouldn't the leader of the tribe find ways to promote population growth? How can it be so troublesome? The leader of the Han tribe is a fool.
Xuan quickly pointed out the unreasonableness of this, but You Fu immediately explained.
"You misunderstood. It's not like that.
The people of our Han tribe divide the land. The land is theirs, and the food grown on it also belongs to each individual. However, they have to hand over a portion of the food they earn to the tribe. Our leader calls it grain tax. The rest can be eaten however you want. No one will care if you want to exchange the extra food with others, but you must pay the grain tax first, otherwise you will be punished."
"The food you grow belongs to you? And you have to hand over a portion to the tribe. How can there be such a rule?" Yong and several other people were greatly surprised. They didn't expect that farming in the Han tribe was actually like this. The food could belong to you, but why did you have to hand it over to the tribe? Aren't they members of the tribe in the first place? What does it mean to hand over the food to the tribe?
"Then how much do you have to pay to the tribe? Is the remaining food enough for the tribe members to eat? And what does the tribe need the food for? Will the tribe members be willing to hand it over? And you have to divide the land when you have children. Isn't this more tiring? Won't everyone have children?" Xuan asked.
"Haha, this grain tax is very useful. The most important use is for storage. The tribe collects the grain that the tribe members cannot eat and stores it together. If there is a disaster year, such as drought or flood, and the grain production is reduced or even eliminated this year, the tribe can take out the stored grain to help the tribe members overcome the difficulties."
Xuan Heyong nodded after listening, thinking that this is indeed reasonable, but they have the Jiang family to unify the harvest, unify the distribution, and unify the storage of the remaining grain, so there is no problem.
"As for how much to pay, the grain tax of our Han tribe is now 10% tax and 4%, which is 40% of the grain production of the year."
The people of the Jiang family exclaimed when they heard it, "Pay so much? This is too high, will the tribe members have enough food left?"
"Enough, our rice and corn are both high-yielding, and the most important thing is that the planting time is short, it can mature in three months, and at least two harvests can be harvested every year. One acre of land can support one person. If according to what you said, a land of 100 steps long and wide, our rice and corn can support eight people."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
