In the blink of an eye, it’s the Dragon Boat Festival in Shaotian’s fourth year again.
Summer is getting longer and longer.
Dragon boat racing and eating rice dumplings have begun again in the south. However, in Shandong, people don’t have so many rituals during the Dragon Boat Festival. At most, they eat eggs and put mugwort on them. Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival, Shandong has already begun harvesting wheat, entering the busiest harvest season of the year.
No more Dragon Boat Festival.
At this time, Mai Ke from western Henan and northern Henan and other places who were the first to finish harvesting wheat began to come to Shandong in groups.
The scorching sun is in the sky, the wheat waves are golden, and wheat customers are chasing the wheat. They come in groups. At this time, the landowners from all over the country will warmly greet these wheat customers. Harvesting wheat is a matter of time. Take advantage of the good weather to harvest the mature wheat.
After harvesting the land, it was dried, threshed and stored in the warehouse as quickly as possible without any delay.
Once the weather is delayed, the wheat grains may fall off and be wasted in the fields; in worse cases, they may sprout directly on the wheat straw due to wind and rain; even if they are taken back, they will not dry in the sun and become moldy and rotten.
That is a year's hard work, and no one wants the last tremor to be wasted.
This is also the day when pigs and sheep are slaughtered everywhere in the countryside. The butchers kill the pigs early and start selling the meat at stalls before dawn, and some even go directly to the countryside to sell the meat.
Landowners with a lot of wheat directly hired people to kill pigs themselves. The fat pigs in the pens were caught and killed. The pig-killing rice was also the starting meal for harvesting wheat. The long-term workers and wheat customers had enough food and could eat big chunks.
Fatty meat.
Once you have enough to eat and drink, you can go to the fields and work your butt off, harvesting wheat for your employer.
At this time, all the people in the countryside were gathered around the wheat fields, and even the officials were required to go to the countryside and work as part-time workers in the villages to ensure the successful completion of the wheat harvest.
There are voices of bargaining and bargaining everywhere on the roadside. The wheat collectors are carrying blankets and sickles to harvest wheat. Regardless of whether the wheat is good or bad, it is usually counted in acres. If you encounter wheat that is growing weakly, you are lucky. If you encounter wheat that is growing vigorously, you will be lucky.
Those in the whirlpool can only admit that they are at a disadvantage, and there is no reason to increase the price. This is the rule of Mai Ke.
Of course, if the cut is done well, not only will the meal contain more meat when the master delivers it at noon, but he will even add a little more when paying for the work in the evening, so that everyone is happy.
Wheaters are paid by the acre, and the wheat season is short, so everyone is rushing to make money. They start working at dawn. Even at noon, when the sun is too hot, they don't go home. They ask their masters to send food to them, and they go to the fields under the trees.
After eating, continue to grab time. If you can collect more, you can get more money.
A long sickle made of willow wood, equipped with a thin blade, can be swung to cut the wheat through the sickle.
Once the fields are opened, it usually takes three days to cut them, leaving the fields bare.
The next step is to load the wheat into trucks and transport it home, and then use the time to grind the wheat into the field. Because there is a lot of wheat and we are afraid of rain, we usually have to pile it into piles before transporting it back. If the weather is good, we can unpack the piles and bring them to the field first.
Let it dry and then roll it with mills. After grinding it once, turn it over again, then grind it again, and then start and raise it.
Only when all the wheat is ground and cleared is the wheat harvesting and milling field completed. Next, it is necessary to dry it in the sun. After the weather is good, it can be put into the warehouse. The wheat harvest for the year is also over.
Most of the people who come to Shandong to harvest wheat this year are from southwestern Henan. There is still a war there and there are many hungry people. Moreover, the wheat harvest there is early, so after the harvest is over, they come to Shandong to harvest wheat.
In the past, wheat harvesters from Gansu were more likely to come from Gansu. The wheat harvest in Gansu was much later and the area was poorer. So a large number of Gansu people went south and eastward, first harvesting crops from Guanzhong, and then from Henan and Shandong.
Men, women, old and young, it is said that at most, 200,000 to 300,000 people marched eastward to harvest wheat in a year. The scene was very spectacular.
However, this year, because Wu Sangui was stationed in Guanzhong and Gansu was occupied by the Ming army, the war broke the old tradition.
Most of the wheat farmers are poor people, even landless poor people. They go out to harvest wheat and rely entirely on their physical strength, endurance and leg strength. What they do is overloaded with heavy physical effort, and they are truly desperate.
A capable Mai Ke can harvest one or two acres of wheat a day, eat four to five kilograms of food, and walk dozens of miles at night.
If you work hard for a month, you can earn two or three months' wages.
Many of the people who came to Shandong to harvest wheat this year came from Yingzhou, Nanyang and even Huguang. It was still a Qing-occupied area and the people were suffering.
In comparison, Shandong will undoubtedly do much better this year.
When entertaining Mai Ke, one must be more generous and kind, including steamed steamed buns, fermented tea, plenty of food and drink, and meat. One pound of pork for four people, not pig intestines or lungs, but pork, usually pork belly.
Three layers of meat, one pound for four people.
The common people could usually eat white flour steamed buns and salted fish. It was a festival. Now the four landlords gave them a pound of meat, steamed buns and tea. This was really generous.
Some hosts even provide some tobacco for smoking.
These Mai Kes who come to take their lives to make money are actually victims of the disaster. Their requirements are not high. They are satisfied with a bowl of porridge, a few white flour steamed buns, and some pickles. They mainly want to earn some money to go back.
As long as you can eat enough and have the strength to work.
Many landlords gave them steamed buns, and many Mai Ke even refused to eat them. They spread the steamed buns out in the fields to dry, then collected them and took them back to their families for the elderly and children to eat.
In particular, there are many female chefs who work as hard as men, and endure even more hardships. They are reluctant to even take a few bites of the four ounces of meat, and have to dry it and take it home.
When harvesting wheat, the housekeeper would spend the night, usually setting up a temporary bunk on the ground, or spending the night in an abandoned house. Some even slept directly on the wheat pile.
Mai Kes like those big landowners who have a lot of wheat fields and can harvest for several days without having to change fields every day.
After harvesting a field, they don't dare to rest much. They will rush all night to find a new wheat field, sleeping wherever they go. What they are most afraid of is rain. Even if it rains, they will not be able to harvest wheat.
If the wheat is not harvested, there is no one to take care of the food, so you can only eat dry food and even go hungry, let alone income.
The wheat collectors stopped like this one after another, chasing the golden waves of wheat until the wheat harvest was over. Wearing leggings, carrying luggage, and carrying sickles, they worked in groups in the dark to make a living.
Among the wheat tourists who came to Shandong to harvest wheat this year, some have been here in the past, and some have never been here before. Even those who have been here before found that this place is different this year.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The landlords have smiles on their faces, are more enthusiastic, and serve better food. In the past, only some more generous landlords would serve pork, usually eight people per pound.
Two taels per person. Sometimes they even only serve pig intestines and lungs, but this year generally one pound of good pork is enough for four people, and white-flour steamed buns are enough.
There are even local officials in villages all over the country who are responsible for receiving them. If there are disputes, a sudden illness of a Mai guest, or it rains and there is nothing to do, etc., these people will take the initiative to contact and even help them.
In the past, when going out to harvest wheat, it was easy to encounter bandits, thieves, and even village tyrants and evil gentry. However, this kind of thing is much less common this year, and even these local officials will help them.
Even the wages for harvesting wheat have increased a lot.
After working hard for seven or eight hours during the day, everyone will be envious if they finally stop and lie under the stars. In some places, the yamen servants will even take the initiative to bring a pot of tea or some tobacco to talk to them, and what they want to say.
Come, the conditions along the way, even the difficulties encountered in harvesting wheat, etc.
We also publicized to them the new policies here after the Shao Dynasty restored Shandong, etc. For example, many people bought low-interest loans to buy land repriced by the government, and the new tax law has greatly reduced the burden. What other low-interest agricultural loans are there?
You can buy cattle, seeds, farm tools, and even get subsidies for buying cattle, etc.
Everyone listening was extremely envious.
There are those from Hubei. They are now under the control of the Tatars. In addition to the regular tax, there are surcharges. In addition to the surcharges, there are floating charges. In addition to the floating charges, there are fire charges, and then there are additional payments, such as Liao rates and other three rates.
All in all, life was very difficult.
The Tatars were very controlling and did not allow them to escape.
When they go out to harvest wheat, they have to pay a donation from wheat customers to get the road, and they must have a wife, children and parents in the village to go out. If they are single, they are not qualified to come out.
On this trip, even if we work hard and deduct the Mai customer donation, there are actually not many left, but everyone has no other way to get every one.
Everyone hopes that the government and army can regain Yingzhou and other places in Nanyang, Hubei Province as soon as possible, so that they can also enjoy the treatment of the people in Shandong.
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"This year's wheat harvest in Shandong has basically been completed. The weather has been fine and the people have successfully put the wheat into their warehouses."
"This year, Shandong's summer harvest of winter wheat is about 50 million acres, and it has been a bumper harvest. The productivity of the upper fields is more than three shi per mu, and the output of the lower fields is about one shi,"
Huang Zongxi, the governor and governor of Shandong, was reporting to the emperor this year's wheat harvest in Shandong. All the data were astonishing.
Although these 50 million acres are not the standard tax acres of the imperial court, but are used in upper, middle and lower fields, even if you average it, this year's summer wheat harvest in Shandong will be 60 to 70 million stone wheat.
This is quite astonishing.
The total cultivated land in Shandong is about 100 million acres. Winter wheat is the main food crop. Fifty million acres have been planted this year, which means that there is basically no wasteland this year. Except for the land planted with spring wheat, corn, potatoes, etc., almost all the land is planted with winter wheat.
The abundant summer grain harvest also means that there will be no problem with the imperial court's collection of land and silver from Shandong this year. It also means that Shandong has been able to be self-sufficient in food this year, and even has a lot of surplus.
The price of food can drop back to one to two or one stone, or even lower.
"It is a good thing to have a good harvest of grain. This year, we will purchase grain from the people. You can relax the amount of rations that the people keep for themselves. I would like to make a suggestion. The grain collected by the people can be divided into three parts. One part is enough to keep the people's rations based on the population. It is appropriate to
Keep more. The second is to purchase grains in a unified way. You don’t need to collect everything except the rations. Instead, according to the number of acres and grain output, after excluding the rations, set a number. Let’s use the 70% of the normal remaining grain as the unified grain purchase.
, the imperial court collects the price according to the market price, and the remaining 30% can be left to the people to make free arrangements.
In the past, we had unified purchases and sales of grain, which was also a special method in special times. Now that the food situation is gradually improving, the court must also relax the grain control appropriately. We cannot control it too tightly. If we control it too tightly for a long time, things will easily happen. We need to restore
Part of the grain market economy allows private grain stores as well as public grain stores, as long as they are subject to supervision.
The people are free to choose what to do with their remaining grain."
"Another point is that this year's summer grain harvest will be bumper. Some officials have proposed to lower the summer grain unified purchase price to less than 7 cents, or even lower. However, I think it is inappropriate. Since Chongzhen, wars, famines, etc. have not only led to rising grain prices.
, almost all prices have increased a lot,
The current grain price is set too low, which will undoubtedly hurt farmers. Therefore, I believe that grain prices cannot be drastically reduced as soon as there is a good harvest. This year’s newly harvested rice and wheat will be sold at one to two, one stone. The price of grain purchased by farmers is 70% of rice as a rule.
Although the pricing should be low, it should not be too low. The purchase price must be determined based on this selling price to ensure the income of grain farmers.
Guanzi once said that the five grains are the master of all things. If the grain is noble, then all things must be cheap; if the grain is low, then all things must be noble.
Food and clothing are the foundation of a country's people's livelihood, especially being full is more important.
There are tens of millions of people in the world who farm and sell grain. The grain produced in the land is their main source of income. If the price of grain is too low, they will have no money to buy other things.
Grain prices are the price indicator. When grain prices rise, the prices of other things will actually rise, but it is good to maintain a relatively reasonable price. For example, in Chongzhen, a few taels or even a dozen taels per stone of grain, of course, would not work.
But if food prices are too low, big problems will arise.
Just like in the Tang Dynasty, in the third year of Zhenguan, there was great prosperity in the world. It cost 20 or 30 yuan to fight rice. This was not a good thing. One stone of rice only cost 20 to 30 yuan, which meant that things were cheap and money was expensive, which meant that the circulation of goods was insufficient, deflation occurred, and
Money shortage.
So at first Li Shimin was very proud. I had only been in power for a few years, and a dou of grain was sold for only two or three yuan, and the world was prosperous. But the minister who knew economics told him that he was wrong, and there was going to be a big problem in the world. Because of material
If money is too expensive, department stores will be blocked and merchants will be at a loss, which will have huge destructive power on economic development and commodity exchange.
To put it simply, there will be a Great Depression.
Even in the agricultural era, it was impossible for the country to leave industry and commerce.
The money shortage in the Tang Dynasty was serious, and it was not enough to do both money and silk, and even trade in rice and wheat.
Zhu Yihai also knew that grain prices were cheap, which looked good on the surface, but the Ming Dynasty was still a farming-dominated society, and a large number of people relied solely on farming and selling grain as their main income.
If the price of grain is too high, the income of farmers will be too low, and farmers have always been the ballast stone for the prosperity of a dynasty. Once they find it difficult to feed and clothe themselves, the entire world will be in turmoil.
A young and strong farmer can cultivate only ten acres of land at most. A family of five or six people needs more than ten shi of rations a year. If the middle field is harvested, the average per mu is two and a half shi, and ten acres is only 20 shi.
Five shi of grain, for a family of five or six, requires at least 15 shi of rations, and at most ten shi of grain will be left, not counting seeds.
This has to be the case if you own your own land.
You have to pay taxes and various expenses on ten shi of grain, so there is basically no surplus. You have to save food rations with vegetables and melons to survive. It is difficult to even feed and clothe yourself, let alone the purchasing power.
The ability to resist unexpected disasters and famines makes the entire dynasty very weak in resisting risks, because farmers are the weakest link in the dynasty.
No matter how long the other boards are, but this board is too short, it will be useless and it will still leak.
The income of landless tenants is even lower. They often have to hand over half of their income to the landlord, leaving nothing behind.
Even if they do some family farming, textile handicrafts, etc., they can still barely make ends meet.
Therefore, in order to achieve social stability and long-term stability, Zhu Yihai thought hard for several years and finally came to the conclusion that in addition to reducing the tax burden on farmers and tenants at the bottom, he must also find ways to increase their income.
Sell the government land to them so that they can own the land, control the means of production, and become self-cultivated farmers. Increase the price of grain appropriately, and even establish a long-term national collection and storage system. In good years, the purchase price will be increased to avoid low prices and hurt farmers, and in bad years, the grain will be released.
Keep grain out of warehouses, stabilize grain prices, protect craftsmen who buy grain for food, etc.
"This year, the common people are still allowed to freely choose whether to pay grain or silver for their land payment. Regardless of whether it is true or false, it must be strictly in accordance with the standards set by the imperial court. No extravagance or waste will be allowed."
"In addition to the collected grain from the land, grain stations in various places must also hurry up to collect the purchased grain. In addition, the Changping warehouse should also try its best to put the surplus grain in the hands of the people into the warehouse. The grain warehouses in various places should do a good job in collection and storage.
Only when you have food in your heart can you not panic."
"New grains are on the market in grain shops in various places, but rice and wheat must be kept at a good price, one or two and one stone. The remaining old rice, soybeans, millets, corns, sorghum, etc. must also strictly follow the corresponding prices. Prices cannot be increased or reduced randomly, and prices must be kept stable.
"
When there is a good harvest, prices are greatly reduced, and when there is a disaster, prices are greatly increased. The fluctuations in food prices will inevitably drive up and down the prices of other commodities and department stores, which will seriously affect economic stability. The imperial court must play the role of ballast.
Procurement and storage at guaranteed prices during good harvests, and distribution of grain at fair prices during poor harvests stabilize prices to ensure economic stability and social stability.
"Chang Pingcang not only collects and stores grain, but also some other important people's livelihood materials. It also needs to actively participate in and maintain the market through the purchase system to ensure the economy and people's livelihood."
In fact, Chang Ping Cang existed from the Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, and even existed before the Ming Dynasty, and the effect was very good.
"This year, the situation in Henan and Hebei provinces is still not optimistic. Shandong has to mobilize food rescue. Now Henan is still besieging Yingzhou and Nanyang. Although Hebei has almost decided to send a message, half of Hebei has surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, leaving only
Yizhou, Hejian, Baoding, Tianjin, Yizhou, Shuntian, Xuanhua, and Zunhua are directly under the northern half."
South of the Hutuo River, almost everything is clear.
It can be said that Tu Guobao and Ma Guozhu both surprised Zhu Yihai.
And Ding Qiguang, Xu Dingguo, Li Huajing and other former regiment trainers and rebels from Henan and Shandong have now taken the initiative to leave the Central Plains and ran into Hebei like a swarm of swarms.
Zhu Yihai could guess the reason. After the year, he began to control Henan and Shandong, and wanted to reorganize or even abolish these outer towns, regiment training, and volunteer camps. These people were still reluctant.
So taking advantage of the good situation in Hebei, they all went to Hebei. What the court wanted now was the control of Henan and Shandong. As for Hebei or Shanxi, there were not many requirements for the time being. Although the ministries such as Tuguobao were granted establishments and divided into battalions,
, and also sent deputies, but basically they were still free to do whatever they wanted, such as collecting grain and tax, attacking cities and plundering land, and even seizing the proceeds.
People from all walks of life who did not want to be reorganized immediately ran to Hebei. Zhu Yihai was happy with this situation and let them go to Hebei to make trouble. It happened to be a bluff to scare the Tatars that he would attack Beijing.
After these people left, the situation in Henan became stable and clear. However, Henan had not been able to rectify things as well as Shandong before, so after this summer's harvest, it still faces the problem of a large amount of deserted land and insufficient food supply.
We still need support from Shandong, and the Jiangbei side needs to supply food and grass for the imperial troops and horses surrounding Yingzhou and even Hubei, so they can't take care of it.
Now Zhu Yihai has to transfer some grain from nearby Shandong to the various people who went to Hebei to cause trouble in Heaven. Anyway, these people went to Hebei, which will still have a lot of benefits for the current situation. Zhu Yihai had to find a way
Solving the problem of insufficient food supply for them.
We can't take back Henan and Shandong, and then want them to attack Hebei, without giving them any benefits.
