The winter solstice has passed and the weather is getting cooler.
Grain from the Central Plains, Shannan, Jianghuai and other places also entered Beijing one after another, and the price of grain in Chang'an fell a lot.
The Lumi that the officials had been waiting for for a long time finally began to be distributed, and all the offices in Chang'an were divided into three classes: upper, middle and lower.
When Huaiyu was working as an errand in Baiqi, he had already filled out and submitted the salary receipt form. On this day, he was finally issued a wooden sign indicating that he could go to the Taicang Department under Sinong Temple to receive rice.
When he was not on duty the next day, Huaiyu got up early and asked someone to prepare the carriage.
Taicang is located six miles north of Xuanwu Gate and within the Royal Forbidden Garden. It is a large granary with the Zhongwei Bridge to its north.
The water and land transportation here is convenient, and it is not far from Chang'an City.
However, it is a dozen miles from Yongxingfang to Forbidden Garden Taicang. As soon as I went out, I found many officials driving their cars and horses to Taicang to collect Lumi.
Originally Lumi was distributed in spring and autumn, but this autumn Lumi was delayed for a long time. Many officials in Chang'an City who relied on official salaries to support their families were greatly affected and even had to borrow debts and mortgages, especially those who emigrated in Chang'an in large numbers.
Officials and petty officials are even more miserable.
The Wu family drove two carriages to Lalumi.
When we arrived at Taicang, Gongbei, we lined up to receive the salary.
They had to check the talisman and check the card. After checking that everything was correct, they started weighing and taking the rice. It was the first time that Huaiyu came to receive the salary. Everything felt quite new. There were people and carriages and horses everywhere, and everyone looked very happy.
The granary here is very large, and a lot of grain is transferred from Luoyang. However, it is said that the transportation cost of transporting grain from outside the customs to Chang'an is extremely high. Taking the waterway is the fastest and lowest cost. But there is a section from Shaanzhou to Tongguan because of the Yellow River
There is a mainstay here, and it cannot be transported by ship, so it can only be transported by land. It has to take a three hundred mile mountain road. The famous Hangu Pass is here.
As for transporting grain from Hedong, Shannan, Bashu, Longyou and other places to Chang'an, the cost is even higher.
There is a saying that a bucketful of money is used to transport a bucketful of rice. Although it is a bit exaggerated, the cost of water transportation is indeed extremely high. In good years, grain from the Jianghuai River costs a few bucks a bucketful, but when transported into Chang'an, the freight is higher than the price of grain in the place of origin.
Although Chang'an is surrounded by four dangerous fortresses and has a fertile 800-mile plain in the middle, as the imperial capital, it cannot be self-sufficient in food. There is a shortage of millions of stones every year. Food is transported to Beijing from Guandong, especially from the Jianghuai area.
Constant loading and unloading, water and land transfers are time-consuming and expensive, and the losses are high.
But Chang'an's demand is there, and it's unlucky and useless.
Whenever there was a war or famine, Chang'an would be seriously short of food. The emperor would have to take all his officials to the eastern capital to get food, not to mention that the people would have to go to Guandong to escape famine.
After queuing for a long time, I finally got to Wu Huaiyu.
"In the seventh grade, eighty shilu of rice can be broken into pieces. One stone of millet can be broken into six measures of rice."
Although Wu Huaiyu is now the Marquis of Shouyang County of the third rank and the commander of the fifth rank of the army, in the Tang Dynasty, Lumi was only distributed according to the rank of casual official, not according to the official position. Wu Huaiyu's rank was still the seventh rank when he was previously registered and filled out.
, so it can only be based on eighty stone.
But he couldn't get eighty shi. The salary paid in autumn was not the salary for the whole year. Wu Huaiyu only entered the official position in June, and the rank changed greatly. One month was counted as the ninth rank, and one month was counted as the eighth rank.
, one month is calculated according to the seven grades.
After calculation, Wu Huaiyu could only receive three months' lumi, which amounted to more than thirteen shi.
If you break it into corn, it’s a little over twenty-one stones.
The emperor was considerate of the officials and knew that it would be difficult for everyone this year, so although food was still very tight at the moment, he still distributed the full amount to the officials.
Even the hair is millet, and there is no corn, wheat, rice, beans, etc. that are broken together.
Sign and stamp.
The two carriages had just finished loading, and they were driving back.
Liu Erganzi sighed, Huaiyu was such a big man, and his salary was not that much. After working for three months, he received twenty-one stones and more grain.
With only ten acres of irrigated land, we can harvest so much millet."
Zhu Zihe, a fellow villager, laughed at him, "Why are your eyelids so shallow? Is it as simple as twenty-one stones of millet? This is official salary."
"Although it is indeed not much, isn't that because Erlang has just entered the official position and his grade is not high yet? With the speed of promotion, Erlang will be able to become the Purple Gold Minister in less than three to five years!"
Zhao Da, a Mazi from the same village, was driving the car and sighed, "Yes, Erlang usually cooks those vegetables every day, but who knew it was still auspicious. A few corns, potatoes, and sweet potatoes turned out to be auspicious. Erlang was promoted to the third level even from then on."
It’s on the sixth level.”
"I want to know that those inconspicuous crops are such treasures. I usually don't treat them as offerings to my ancestors."
Huaiyu's fellow villagers still find it unbelievable, "Are those things really that great?"
"That's great. Your Majesty, can you give me the third-level product?"
Erzhanzi sighed, "Not only have you been promoted to the third level of this product, your Majesty also specially rewarded you with three hundred shi of rice. Why didn't you tell me? That can be converted into 500 shi of millet!"
"There's also a pair of silver bottles!"
"There are two more slaves!"
The four of them were extremely envious. They were all children of the Forbidden Army at Longqiao Fort. They succeeded their father in the Forbidden Army. However, they were not as lucky as Wu Huaiyi brothers. They were just ordinary Forbidden Army soldiers. They fought for Huaiyu, and following him opened their eyes a lot.
As Er Zhuangzi said just now, three months of rice is only twenty stone millet, but Wu Huaiyu's field slave Qian Juan and other rewards can be exchanged for twenty stone millet.
Huaiyu still had 600 acres of farmland to collect rent from, and at least 300 shi of millet that year.
"Erlang is really a role model for our generation. Not only has he been an official, he has been able to marry the daughter of the Duke of the country. He only spent three hundred pieces of silk as a gift, and he didn't even need to pay for his family's wealth. On the contrary, the eldest lady of the Fan family paid a huge amount in dowry.
Ah, the land is only thirty hectares, and there are three sisters who are married..."
Several people were envious.
"Erlang, please help us whenever you can."
Chen Xing followed Huaiyu to Longyou, and is now an eighth-rank soldier joining the army. Chen Sheng followed Huaiyu for less than a month, but Huaiyu got him into Baiqi, and now he is a ninth-rank deputy.
"If you work hard, there will always be a chance." Huaiyu said with a smile.
On the way home, I found that an official from the Taicang Department had arrived, and he also drove several carts of food. After asking, I found out that this was an order from above to rent Huai Yuba's land.
Although Wu Huaiyu held many positions and did not hold them for a long time, the emperor gave Wu Huaiyu his current fifth-grade position and paid him this year's land rent from Taicang.
The direct payment for one year is 600 acres, at the discount of 2 dou per acre, which makes a total of 120 shi of millet, plus the 300 shi of rice previously rewarded, they were also sent here.
The Taicang Office was very respectful to this popular man of the emperor, especially since Wu Huaiyu's uncle was the Shaoqing of Sinong Temple, the superior Yamen of their Taicang Office.
Not only were the grains and rice delivered right away, but they were all new rice, and the portion was not missing at all, and an additional 10% was added. This was considered a waste of energy, but in fact it was a small tribute to Wu Huaiyu.
Mrs. Liu told her son that the grain delivered was 10% more than what was on the list. Mrs. Liu insisted on having all the grain delivered weighed.
"Take whatever you have with you back. Besides, we have to pay the fare for the trip."
The Taicang officials did not dare to accept it, but Huaiyu still insisted that they bring the extra grain back and gave them a sum of money.
Suddenly there were more than a hundred stones of millet and more than three hundred stones of rice in the house, and the rice was actually glutinous rice, also known as glutinous rice.
Lao Wu and Huai Yi immediately queued up to collect Lumi and land rent from their positions. They also had no share of the food and welfare benefits from Bi Gong Shetian.
"There is no shortage of food now."
"I plan to go back to Sanyuan to tidy up my house and visit the folks."
This year the Wu family's crops were destroyed, and the rented fields could not be collected. Lao Wu proposed to bring some food back to help the villagers.
"I agree with this." Wu Huaiyu nodded. "But I don't recommend giving food to everyone."
Lao Wu was about to get angry.
"Aye, listen to me. This is what I'm thinking about. Let's treat everyone to a banquet after we go back. Then we will continue to repair the unfinished holes in the cave house that were repaired for me at home. Aye will also repair the five holes before.
one time,
Let’s invite the folks from Longqiao to work together and provide two meals a day.”
Huaiyu's proposal actually means working for relief. In the past, when the village was building houses, building kilns, weddings, weddings, and weddings, the villagers would help each other. Usually it was just a meal. If one family had something to do, other families would go out to work and help.
A light meal.
For example, if you build a cave dwelling, when it is completed, you can put out a few banquet tables with a few simple dishes, and everyone will have a happy and lively meal.
"We will have two meals a day, and we will ask everyone to help repair the cave dwellings, and we will give you wages in addition."
Although there was no precedent for paying wages in the past, the current situation is special, and when Huaiyu arrives, he can also say that his own kiln and house building project is a big one, and everyone has worked hard.
"The wages will be converted into grain, and men, women, old and young can come to help. The wages will be paid according to the amount of effort, and then the wages will be converted into grain and given to everyone.
This way, compared to giving food directly, everyone will accept it more and they won’t owe us any favors.”
"That's a good idea,"
Last time, many villagers came to Wu's house to borrow food, and two families even sold their land directly to Huaiyu. Orphans, young and old, came to Wu's house to work as servants.
"It won't take long to repair the two cave dwellings."
"Then we can build another yard in Longqiao so that we can go back and live there."
"Erlang, Your Majesty... Your Majesty is here."
The gentlemen were looking at the piles of grain and talking when Wu Cheng ran in a little panicked and uneasy.
The emperor is here again,
This is the third time the emperor has come to Huaiyu's house in the past few days.
Last time, Wu Huaiyu presented auspicious corns. After Li Shimin saw the corns, he immediately brought Fang Du Changsun and several other confidants to Huaiyu's house to see corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes.
He also asked Huaiyu to make a meal with these and tasted them carefully.
The second time he came was because the emperor heard that there was actually a greenhouse in Wu Huaiyu's house, and corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes and other treasures were being grown in it.
What does it look like.
Why are you here again today?
Li Shimin only brought Changsun Wuji, Zhou Shaofan, Xu Luoren, and An Yuanshou today. As soon as he entered Wu's house, he went straight to the greenhouse in the backyard, where he took a good look at corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other treasures, and even caught a few insects himself.
, and then sat down in the pavilion in the vegetable field and let Huaiyu serve tea.
"I also asked the officials from Sinong Temple to come over soon. There is also a greenhouse in the Forbidden Garden. Let them learn from you how to plant auspiciousness,"
Wu Huaiyu felt that there was no need to be so urgent. He already had a lot of seeds on hand, and he would plant more next spring.
But after Li Shimin discovered these treasures, he carefully verified them with his close ministers and determined that if these things really lived up to what Huaiyu said, they could indeed be treasures that saved the people. He was so excited that he couldn't sleep for several days.
The yield of corn is not much higher than that of millet, wheat, and rice, and it even has no advantage in fertile plain fields. But the magic of this thing is that it can be grown in the north and south, in mountains, hills, and other places, and even in some lightly saline-alkali sandy lands.
More drought tolerant.
As for potatoes and sweet potatoes, although they are not as suitable as corn as a staple food, they can be used as vegetables or grains, and their yield is very high. The yield per mu is several times that of wheat and rice. It is a good thing for the people to satisfy their hunger, and it is also easier to grow, even if it is not as good as wheat.
Staple foods such as rice and wheat are good, but vegetables and grains can also be used for starch processing.
Huaiyu also said that these can also be used to raise pigs and cattle.
For Li Shimin, these can help feed more people, and these are treasures.
While waiting for the officials from Sinong Temple to arrive, Li Shimin asked Wu Huaiyu to get some more auspicious things to eat.
"Then I will make mashed potatoes, fried French fries, hot and sour shredded potatoes, cumin-fried small potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, cornmeal pancakes, corn steamed buns, and fried sweet potato stalks for Your Majesty?"
Li Shimin heard the name of the dish and felt that it must be very good. "Okay, make more. I will pack it up and take it back to the queen and the prince. The wolf tooth potato chips you made last time were greatly appreciated by the queen after eating them.
