In the summer, the entire north seems to be baked on a charcoal stove, and it seems to be included in a pottery cave, which makes people miserable.
Liuli Village is located in Fangshan County, two hundred miles southwest of the capital. Due to its proximity to the Liuli River and abundant water resources, most of the land in the entire village is irrigated. It has a prosperous population and more than 300 houses, making it one of the best in the neighborhood.
Big village.
The summer heat wave scorched the earth mercilessly, and the air was filled with smoke and dust. The farmers in short brown clothes even felt unable to breathe.
The crops in the farmland are green and yellow, and the wheat ears are gradually bending, which is obviously a good harvest year.
The people who were cultivating the fields with their leaves yellowed by the scorching sun were sweating profusely and exhausted, but each of them had a bright smile in this scorching heat.
His eyes were full of desire and hope.
The desire for food from the summer harvest and the hope of not going hungry.
Just like this, people ranging from sixty-year-olds to seven-eight-year-old children, and even pregnant women with big belly, all joined in this summer harvest.
The Ming Dynasty's summer tax collection period was from late May to the end of August, which seemed to be a bountiful period, but God waited for no one, and the villagers did not dare to bet on whether there would be a heavy rain, turning the harvest into a famine.
Taking advantage of the hot weather at noon, the village chief and elders of the clan, who were getting older, sat under the shade of the trees to rest and look after the children who had just learned to walk.
The fifty-year-old village chief had a pimple at the corner of his mouth. When he saw the clan elder on the side taking out a cigarette bag and stuffing it with shredded tobacco, he took out the cloth bag from his arms, took out a flint and a fire sickle, and scratched the mouth of the cigarette.
.
After a while, the dry eye caught fire.
"Uncle, are you feeling comfortable?"
"I feel relieved." The frown on the clan elder's face also relaxed, and white smoke came out of his nose.
"Tell me, when will we plant these tobacco leaves?"
The village chief asked eagerly: "I heard that everyone with some status in the capital likes this pipe, and all officials like to take a few puffs..."
"There are many people from all over the country who smoke. If we plant well, we won't be able to make a fortune."
"Why are you so anxious?" The clan elder coughed and said slowly: "Do you think this kind of thing is easy to do?"
"My nephew said that Fujian has a strong control and has hidden all the best seeds. Even if the tobacco leaves in the capital are very inferior, they are still better than ours."
"So, can the smoke in Beijing be the same? No matter how bad it is, it's still better than us."
"You are always under God's care, and you belong to our Fang family."
The village chief was so envious that his eyes almost fell out.
This clan uncle went to the county town a few years ago and used local methods to save a big guy from a trading company on the way.
Over the years, melon and fruit snacks have been delivered during festivals.
When I came here last year, I found out that he smoked dry tobacco, so I told him that I would send some good seeds to pay homage to him.
This is a big deal for Liulicun.
Once Liuli Village has better tobacco leaves than those from Shilibaxiang and can be sold in commercial houses, will development be far behind?
As for grabbing?
Just kidding, if there are one or two thousand people in a village, even the county magistrate cannot enter.
"Dry cigarettes are really a good thing. Just take a puff and feel refreshed when you are tired." The clan elder said with emotion:
"I heard it was Master Wanli and Master Tianqi who would spread the news to us. This is a good thing——"
"Humph, the village next door also has a lot of them, and they are hidden like treasures, so no one can see them." The village chief said angrily.
"Don't talk nonsense. This is the farmland owned by high officials. Look at the waterwheels and stone mills. How many can there be in Fangshan County?"
The clan elder was knowledgeable and said quickly.
After a while, the tired villagers also took a rest, unable to endure the scorching sun, and huddled under the shade of the trees to eat lunch brought by their wives and children.
Only during the busy farming season can we eat three meals a day.
"Uncle, look, he is indeed a high official!" The village chief pointed to the embankment in the distance, his expression changed greatly.
The clan elder squinted his eyes and looked carefully, and then he looked carefully:
I saw a group of hundreds of people on the embankment of the Liuli River, surrounded by a man in rich clothes, who seemed to be admiring the scenery.
"It's such a hot day, I don't know what these officials are looking at." The clan elder shook his head and said to the village chief:
"I am a noble person. Please tell everyone not to go over and disturb me, and then give me some local specialties from our village."
"Can someone want it?" The village chief asked in surprise: "Just that piece of clothing can probably buy dozens of acres of land."
"As an official, what matters is face. Although the things we give are not valuable, they have to get something back after receiving them."
There was slyness in the clan elder's eyes: "They think it's worthless, but it's a good thing for us."
On the embankment, Zhu Yixi looked into the distance. A huge windmill turned slowly, accompanied by the sound of water flowing beside it.
The huge windmill leaves look extremely exaggerated at a close distance, but bags of wheat come in from the entrance and turn into grains of wheat at the exit.
“How much can one stone of wheat produce?”
"Your Majesty, if it's an ordinary stone grinder, it's 50%, while the windmill is 50% and a half, and it's even more refined..."
The steward on the side said cautiously, his legs trembling slightly.
Obviously, compared to the common stone mills in rural areas, windmills are more powerful and more precise, which results in a high shelling rate of 50%.
Zhu Yixi comes from a lower-class background, so of course she understands how powerful agriculture is.
Nowadays, the north is generally at peace. Although the Little Ice Age has repeated itself, those large-scale droughts and floods have basically ended, and the yield per mu of land has steadily increased.
A rough estimate is that one acre of dry land in the north costs about one stone, which is about 150 kilograms, and one acre of irrigated land costs one and a half to two stones.
In other words, if farmers summer wheat and autumn millet, their yield per mu can only reach two dan.
However, the stone mill can only produce one stone of grain after shelling, while the windmill can produce two more buckets of grain. Of course, the bran can also be eaten, but the price is very low.
The market price for a dou of grain is fifty cents, and two dou is equivalent to one hundred cents. Even if the grain dealer charges a low price, it will be worth at least fifty cents.
According to the regulations of the imperial court, the world's taxes are divided into three levels: poor, middle, and upper. Shuntian Prefecture is medium, and the monthly payment is two cents of silver, which is twenty coins.
This is the price of a bucket of grain.
Typical of light corvee and low taxes, but compared with the thirty-one tax in the early Ming Dynasty and the twenty-one tax in the Qing Dynasty, it was already considered high.
But if you include local showdowns, it would be at least five taxes and one tax, or even three taxes and one tax.
Nowadays, taxes are collected uniformly by the Ministry of Finance, one of the eight ministries, and then divided into four or six parts, which avoids random collection by local factions and saves a lot of money and food for the people.
At the same time, the Ding tax has also been included in the grain tax, which is clearly regarded as a tax reduction.
The windmill is equivalent to saving taxes and giving an extra pound.
If windmills spread across the country, the effect will be even more exaggerated.
There are now 12 million hectares of cultivated land in the country (including military fields in the pre-Ming Dynasty), which is 1.2 billion acres. An extra two buckets per mu is 240 million shi, worth more than 100 million silver coins.
Of course, the amount of cultivated land is increasing every day, but the cultivated land is at least more than 1.2 billion acres. It seems that most of it is recorded in the Ming Dynasty records. During the Wanli period, there were 1.1 billion acres owned by the officials and the people.
As for today's growth, the three northeastern provinces and the Anxi region are the main growth points.
"Not bad-" The emperor nodded slightly and expressed his appreciation.
This manor nominally belonged to the King of Qin and belonged to the private money given by the emperor, but after the establishment of the Qin State, it actually returned to the management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In other words, except for the Prince of Qin's Mansion, the rest of the land, merchants, etc. will basically be recovered. After all, the Prince of Qin is not short of money now.
Today's private visit incognito is nothing more than that the emperor often lives in the inner court. He feels a little separated from the masses, so he goes to the countryside again.
"Your Majesty, the villagers didn't know the importance and sent some fruits and two fine grouse."
"Take it!" The emperor waved his hand, and a smile appeared on his face under the umbrella: "We can't be stingy, so just send some sugar water to replenish their energy!"
"Yes!" Liu Ahfu responded and waved his hand to tempt him to do it.
The emperor continued to inspect the farm, looking at everything from the houses to the farm tools, and he was very interested.
On the other side, the people of Liuli Village had just rested. Although the sun was still hot, they still got up and prepared to work.
At this time, a group of big men who looked like villagers strolled over carrying ten buckets of water.
"My master has received your things. The gift is light but the affection is heavy, so he sent some sugar water over for you to try."
The village chief went over to confirm repeatedly that it was genuine after he tasted it. He immediately felt grateful and couldn't stop talking about it.
Soon, the villagers lined up in a long line and started scooping out the food one by one.
Regardless of whether they are men, women, old or young, they all taste it carefully, for fear of spilling a little bit, and savor the sweetness on the tip of their tongues.
The old man squinted his eyes, the child grinned, the man was amazed, and the woman had endless aftertaste.
Sweetness is the taste that humans have been pursuing.
It lingers on the tip of the tongue, and the villagers are reluctant to leave for a long time because they have endless aftertaste.
Many people even kept it and were reluctant to continue drinking it.
The village chief sighed: "Uncle, you are right."
On the market today, the price of a pound of sugar is much more expensive than salt. Even maltose, also known as maltose, costs thirty or fifty cents.
The cane sugar on the market only costs one hundred and eighty cents.
For example, Taiwan’s sugar exported overseas costs six silver yuan per stone and one silver cent per kilogram.
In other words, Ming Dynasty has increased prices inland, and the market price can only be comparable to the export price, and domestic sales are not as good as export sales.
Even at such a low price, it is still a luxury product for ordinary people.
There are only a few silver coins that cannot be removed from these ten barrels of sugar water, so they are extremely precious.
Everyone started the hard harvesting work again, and the sugar water they just drank in their stomachs seemed to give them great strength.
In the evening, even if they were reluctant, they could only go back.
At this time, the villagers realized that the lights were on in the ancestral hall, and some villagers were guarding the temple with knives.
Zhu Yixi coming here like this is the most distinguished guest for Liuli Village.
Even though most of the villagers live in thatched houses, the ancestral hall is a brick structure with left and right side rooms, which is simple but practical.
The rankings of each level are arranged in order, without any overstep.
After looking around for a week, Zhu Yixi sat down. Looking at the two trembling old men in front of him, he couldn't bear it: "Sit down, old man."
"Hey——" The two of them were respectful unconsciously.
"The hundreds of families in your village are united, which is rare in Fangshan County."
"This is the strength of our clan's rules. Anyone who messes around will be in a pig cage."
The clan elder suddenly became proud at this time.
As long as the questions and answers they asked about Zhu Yixi did not involve interests, they would naturally tell everything they knew.
Only then did the emperor have a preliminary impression of Shuntian Prefecture, or the rural economy of Hebei Province.
In many people's minds, the North is poor and the South is rich.
The reason why the south is stronger than the north is because it has two crops a year and the land is fertile.
But in reality? The taxes in the south are several times that in the north, which to some extent has evened the gap.
Therefore, the root cause of the gap between rich and poor lies in the different diversification of rural cash crops in the two places.
For example, apart from the staple food of the north and the south, the only economic crops for the people in the north are fruits and only a few types of wood.
What about the south? In addition to growing rice, you can also raise silkworms and reel silk, grow cotton, sugar cane, tea, sesame, etc.
It can be said that flowers can be grown in some nooks and crannies and in barren mountainous areas, providing a variety of income and strong ability to withstand risks.
Once the food harvest in northern rural areas fails, they can only rebel or wait to die, such as northern Shaanxi.
In the south, you can sell cotton to buy food, or you can make raw silk yourself. If a county or a prefecture suffers a disaster, it will definitely not affect a single province, so disaster relief can be done calmly.
This is the role of a developed commodity economy.
Now that new crops have become popular for more than ten years, many people are planting sweet potatoes in poor lands and sloping fields to prepare for emergencies.
But contrary to the emperor's expectation, the people only used sweet potatoes as a life-saving food for famines or to feed livestock, with no other ideas.
Or maybe there is a new method in a corner, but it has not become popular.
Hearing this, Zhu Yixi hated that iron could not make steel:
"Sweet potatoes can be used to make wine, which is cheap and quench thirst; sweet potatoes can be made into sweet potato flour, which is good for cooking, and can also be made into soy sauce and even sugar."
"These methods are all ways to make a fortune."
These words made the village chief and clan elders stunned. They could not even imagine that sweet potatoes could have such effects. It was really an eye-opener.
With the yield of sweet potatoes, it is definitely profitable to use them to make wine.
The emperor also asked about the situation of the cattle, the number of livestock, and the prices of farm tools.
This made him feel more at ease.
Over the years, with the introduction of grassland, the price of farm cattle has gradually stabilized. A calf only costs eight yuan, while a strong cow only costs twenty yuan.
Compared with the early years of Shaowu, the price is only half.
In order to encourage the raising of cattle, the imperial court did not even levy taxes on their sales.
Cattle have been reduced, and livestock such as donkeys and horses have also been reduced, which is a great supplement to manpower.
As for agricultural tools, when pig iron production continues to rise and pig iron prices fall, their prices are also falling, which to some extent helps agricultural production.
Although most people are reluctant to use iron tools, there are still some people who can afford it.
One thing worth noting is that the continuous development of ZTE machines has continuously reduced the price of cloth. Many farmers would rather buy cloth than work hard to weave cloth.
Finally, looking at the clan elder's tobacco pouch, Zhu Yixi guessed that tobacco leaves might have begun to be grown in the countryside.
When we left Liuli Village, it was already a hollow sky above the moon.
While walking among the weeds, the emperor had many thoughts: "Sweet potatoes and tobacco leaves alone are not enough. Soybeans and sugar beets must be added to increase risk resistance."
Sugar beets are like sugar cane in the south. They can adapt to the northern climate and can be refined into sugar. This is an important economic crop.
Clenching his fists, he felt as if he never stopped, and couldn't help but laugh: "Sure enough, the more women and power there are, the more serious and thoughtful things become."
Of course, stabilizing the countryside and increasing the ability of farmers to resist risks means that the country is stable and the power of themselves and their descendants can exist for a long time.
If you think about it carefully, in the face of power, the emperor should stand together with the ordinary people, but in fact it is often the opposite.