Three Kingdoms: Ancestors of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 345 Questioning

The dusk of Ladong came earlier than usual. Liu Chan and his party traveled for a day and arrived at Deyang Pavilion in Zitong County. Officials from all over the country did not dare to accept the edict, but they offered the food and grass needed for the journey.

At dusk in late winter, there are few pedestrians between the fields and roads, but occasionally you can meet villagers in the countryside who go to worship their ancestors.

However, the villagers stayed far away from the convoy that was about to set up camp, for fear of disturbing the nobles. After all, they knew that there was a huge gap between them and the nobles in this convoy.

This scene caught Liu Chan's eyes, but it was often the time when Liu Chan was the most silent, because he was also one of them in his previous life, and he was lucky to travel through time and become rich.However, Liu Chan has never forgotten the past. Although he can't say that he is a sage and a gentleman, he also knows the word "responsibility". On his shoulders are countless people in this land.

Liu Chan was the same as in the past. When the soldiers were setting up camp, he ordered his personal guards to summon ordinary people from the countryside to ask about farming.

Not long after, a dark-skinned, wrinkled face, who looked like an old man in his fifties, trembling, followed behind the guard very cautiously.

"Craftsman Li Tie has met His Majesty, His Majesty has been around for thousands of years!"

Before approaching a few steps, the farmer plopped on his knees, kept kowtowing, and shouted nervously, obviously ignorant of etiquette.

Liu Chan smiled softly, waved his hand, and said, "Get up, come closer and talk!"

The farmer stood up awkwardly, moved lightly, and approached Liu Chan.

Liu Chan didn't stand still, but sat down directly on the Tianlong regardless of the soil on the ground, and said with a smile: "Sit down, there is no need to be formal."

Dong Yun and Liao Li, who followed Liu Chan to do farm work, also sat on Tianlong.

The farmer saw that the nobles looked so much like him sitting in the field after finishing the farm work, the tension in his heart was slightly relieved, and he also lifted the hem of his clothes and sat down.

Liu Chan was very friendly, pointing to the farmland in front of him, and said with a smile, "Is this your farmland? It seems that you take care of it very carefully!"

Hearing this, the farmer peeked at the emperor and asked curiously, "Your Majesty also knows how to farm?"

Liu Chan laughed, stretched out his rough palm, spread it out in front of the farmer, and said, "What do you think?"

I saw the thick calluses on Liu Chan's palms, which were either left over from his hard work on horseback riding, riding and shooting, or from working in Wudan Mountain.

The farmer looked at it with a look of surprise on his face. He didn't expect that His Majesty would actually be able to farm as rumored. The calluses on his hands could not fool him who had worked for a long time.

Liu Chan withdrew his palm, pointed at the field, and said, "How is the harvest this year?"

At this time, the farmer was no longer nervous, shook his head, and said: "This year there are wars, and the men in the family either join the army or are conscripted into corvee. The fields are cultivated by the family's humble wife and daughter-in-law, and no one helps them." , so the harvest in autumn this year is not good."

The ancients issued corvee is another kind of tax. Farmers were confiscated as corvée, and they had to bring their own tools and rations. If they were close, it would be fine, but if they were far away, farming would often be delayed, so that no one would cultivate the fields at home.

Liu Chan raised his sleeves and asked, "Is there any food shortage at home?"

The farmer hesitated for a while, took a peek at Liu Chan's expression, and said: "The counties and counties expropriate grain and grass, but fortunately the people have saved up in the past. Although there is a shortage of grain this year, they can barely make ends meet. They still need to plan carefully. It should be safe."

Dahan farmers harvest twice a year, one in summer and one in autumn, and rely on the grain from these two harvests to survive winter and spring.

Liu Chan sighed slightly in his heart. Although the people of this year have to live on a budget, they can live as long as they can, so that they can recuperate in the future and live a good life for a few years.

Liu Chan was blowing the cold wind, exhaling white air, and asked with a smile: "Is the plow in Shu easy to use?"

Speaking of this time, the wrinkled face of the farmer became more wrinkled, and he said with a smile: "It's easy to use. In three or four years, the pavilion chief and Li are promoting this plow. Xiaomin found a carpenter and waited for a few months to make a plow. , very easy to use. In those years, people who were carpenters got rich, even this year they lived well.”

Liu Chan patted his thigh, turned to Dong Yun, and said with a smile: "It seems that what the head of Baishui Pavilion said yesterday is true."

The farmer looked at Liu Chan and continued to smile and added: "In the past, the best harvest in the field in the village was only eight or nine dendrobiums per mu. Since the county and county promotion method was used, the harvest per mu was twelve or three dendrobiums. This is a constant. We wait All thanks to His Majesty's kindness."

Hearing this, Liu Chan also had a smile on his face. There is nothing better than being kind to the people. You can clearly feel the recognition of the big man and the attachment of the people from this farmer.

Liu Chan propped himself on his lap, stood up, looked at the frosty farmland in front of him, and asked, "How many acres of land and how many people do you have in your family?"

The farmer stood up to answer, and reported truthfully: "In my family, there are ten acres of upper field, eighty acres of middle field, and ninety acres of poor field. All married."

After calculation, this farmer has five members in one family, with a total of [-] mu of land.

More than [-] mu of land seems to be a lot, but it is not. Both the middle field and the poor field need to be cultivated in rotation. The poor field cannot grow rice. Only the upper field does not need to be cultivated in rotation. After a year, the real field that can be planted may only be seven or ten acres. Eighty acres, and within the seventy or eighty acres of land, there are also acres that need to be planted with mulberry trees.

As for this family of five, two people are required to serve in corvee, that is to say, the civilian husband said that the eldest son joined the army, and he himself served in corvée.

This farmer's family can be said to be at the middle income level among the people at the bottom of the Han Dynasty. There is no new farming method, and they can save a little by saving food and clothing, and it may be difficult to survive the war.But now with the addition of new farming methods, life is a little richer in an instant, and even because of years of war or corvee, careful planning, it is still difficult to survive.

The words of the head of the Baishui Pavilion yesterday could not prove the life of the people at the bottom, but the words of this farmer can be believed.

Liu Chan nodded slightly, asked the last question, and said with a smile: "I don't know if you think about Liu Yan and Liu Zhang, the two prefects?"

The farmer didn't think about it, and replied straightforwardly: "No, since His Majesty came to the throne, although we have been attacked in recent years, compared to before Your Majesty, we live a little richer."

Liu Chan waved his sleeves and turned his back, raised the corners of his mouth, obviously Liu Tianzi was very happy in his heart, and ordered his left and right: "Give him some money and food for today's answer."

"promise!"

Farmers returned home happily, and visited relatives and friends in the first month. They often said to people, "Your Majesty plows the land with a golden hoe", and everyone laughed at it.

After the farmers left, Liu Chan turned to Dong Yun and Liao Li and said, "If the common people have their land to cultivate, the world will be stable. The great man should protect the common people's land to those who till it, and pass it on from father to son, and don't take it away from others."

Liao stood by Liu Chan's side, with doubts on his face, he said: "Your Majesty's words are good, but if the people sell their land to others, what should they do?"

Liu Chan pondered for a while, and said lightly: "Under the whole world, is it the king's land?"

Dong Yun frowned slightly, looked at Liu Chan's profile, and said, "Could it be that your Majesty restricts the sale of land."

Liu Chan chuckled, shook his head, and said: "It can be determined by the person. The quota of the people's land is limited. Those who are not enough for the people's land cannot sell the land, and those who have enough land can sell the land to others. The land quota for each household is limited, and the land is divided according to people. Those who are not enough to make up for the fields will not make up for those who are not enough."

(End of this chapter)