Dengzhou governs Rang County. The place is flat, the land is fertile, and the population is large. Because most of the ditches in the past were abandoned, not much rice was grown, and most of the land was planted with wheat. In early May, the wheat matured, and there were golden waves in the fields.

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Wang Xiaolie and Wang Ruohai, together with a group of officials from the prefecture and county, went out of the north gate with the people to watch this year's wheat harvest.

When we arrived at the chosen land, some elders had already come up to toast Wang Xiaolie and other officials.

After drinking wine and burning incense, Wang Xiaolie read the prayer he had written earlier. Then Wang Ruohai came forward, without using the manuscript, and wrote a poem by mouth, thanking God for the good weather last year and the people's good harvest. The people cheered.

Two old men stepped forward, each holding a sickle, and said to Wang Xiaolie and Wang Ruohai: "Please let the officials cut the wheat!"

Wang Xiaolie took the sickle and went to the fields with Wang Ruohai. Each of them cut a handful of wheat. An official on one side had already caught it and put it on the incense table. The officials and the people prayed together.

Wang Xiaolie put down his sickle and saw an old man setting up a field drain. A row of young men went to the field together, singing loudly. Following the order, everyone waved their sickles, and pieces of wheat fell around them.

Niu Gao stepped forward and whispered to Wang Xiaolie: "Zhizhi, everything is done. Should we return to the city immediately?"

Wang Xiaolie said: "Don't worry, let's take a look here. Since we returned to Ruzhou last year, this is the first time we have had a bumper harvest, which is unusual. The people are very happy. In fact, we are not the same. With this year's wheat

, many difficulties will be overcome.”

Niu Gao promised and stood aside quietly.

Looking at the wheat in the field, Wang Xiaolie felt an indescribable feeling in his heart.

Everyone says that this year's harvest is good, not comparable to previous years. It is said that the wheat in Rang County can produce two dan per acre, or even higher, which is far from the usual one dan per acre. Three bushels of taxed grain per acre can still leave one dan.

Seven dou. Even if you rent a field for planting, pay the tax on grain, and then share it equally with the main household, an ordinary customer can receive more than eight dou of grain from one mu of land. If a household is calculated as twenty acres of land, a family will have nearly twenty

A stone to more than thirty stones of wheat.

But in Wang Xiaolie's eyes, it was really a bit awkward. He had seen wheat in the field in his previous life, and it was completely different from what he saw before him. What did the wheat in the field look like in his previous life? It was densely packed, and the wheat ears were so big that it could easily be cut with a sickle.

It doesn't move. But in the field now, the wheat is sparse and the ears look very small. No matter how many you hold, it can be easily cut with a sickle. For a strong man, cutting wheat is not a very heavy job.

If in the previous life, the wheat had grown like this, the owner would have been heartbroken and probably wouldn't have wanted it anymore. If this wheat was taken back to the family, the grains produced might not be as high as the cost of harvesting. But in this era, this is a good harvest.

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Two stones per mu is just over two hundred kilograms. In Wang Xiaolie's previous life, he often weighed over a thousand kilograms. How big is the difference between the two? The yield per mu exceeds a thousand kilograms, and a family has five or six acres of wheat, so the harvest is very difficult. But in this era

, a family normally needs more than ten acres, or even twenty or thirty acres. It’s not that people in this era are capable, but that the output in this era is too low.

In the past life, when China's chemical fertilizer output was not high, a marshal planted wheat as an experimental field. He cultivated intensively and used farmyard manure, and the wheat yield per acre was only 700 kilograms. There was no chemical fertilizer, water, fertilizer, and the planting was complete, which was about the same.

That's it. At this time, the maximum yield of wheat per acre will not exceed 500 jins. If the field can produce more than 300 jins, it is a rare harvest.

Not long after, the wheat harvesters arrived in the center of the field. The old man directing the wheat harvesters beat a drum to urge everyone.

In the Song Dynasty, when farming was busy, farmers often formed societies, and farmers would work collectively. Before going to the fields, the field drains were set up. According to the time, everyone should go back and forth together and return to the fields. This was borrowing military discipline to guide agriculture.

Production. Unlike later generations, each family worked in their own fields. Especially the people in the Sichuan Gorge area used drums when planting rice, and dozens of families worked together. The area was narrow and densely populated, and often one person

The leader took him out of Sichuan to plant rice in a place with plenty of land.

Standing on the ground, looking at the busy people, Wang Xiaolie seemed to see hope in the world. Since returning to Ruzhou last autumn, he has done a lot of things. But there has been no harvest, which always makes people feel uneasy. Since then, he has done a lot of things.

Starting today, the fields are harvesting grain, and the situation is completely different.

For example, in Rang County, if one acre yields two stones, one county will produce more than one million stones. With this food, the army will not be afraid of starvation. If the army can be stabilized, the entire society will also be stabilized.

After exhaling a breath, Wang Xiaolie looked around. Not far away, the ripples of the pond reflected the light. Next to it, there were cattle grazing leisurely, groups of geese and ducks playing, and a group of sheep playing. Not far away.

There are mulberry forests everywhere, which are growing lushly. The village is hidden among the big trees, giving it a quiet and peaceful scene.

This is a fertile land, and this is a group of hard-working people. In such a place, it is an unforgivable sin to let such people not have enough to eat. If the government cannot protect the tranquility of this land, it is a crime.

Not long after, the people who had set out to cut the wheat came back again, and the people cheered.

Wang Xiaolie did not continue to watch. An hour later, he returned to the city with Wang Ruohai and others.

When we sat down at the Yamen, the officials served tea, and they drank tea and chatted.

Wang Xiaolie said: "Looking at today's situation, this year is a rare year of good harvest. When I went to the field today, I asked my men to measure the yield of the field where wheat was being harvested. One acre can yield about two stones and five buckets -"

Wang Ruohai asked curiously: "The wheat has not been collected yet, how can we measure the yield?"

Wang Xiaolie said: "What's so difficult about this? Choose three places in the plot, cut the wheat in one square step, take out the wheat grains and weigh them. From this, you can calculate the yield per acre. This can be done for any farming.

Do."

Wang Ruohai nodded and thought about the algorithm Wang Xiaolie said. He could roughly understand what Wang Xiaolie meant, but he couldn't explain how to calculate it. Most scholars of this era can do simple calculations.

It’s hard to explain clearly. For example, if you measure acres of land, if you don’t know plane geometry, you can only roughly calculate it. For many people, even simple calculations are impossible. The person who was most capable of measuring acres in the Northern Song Dynasty was Guo Shen, who only calculated the acres of land.

Divided into chunks, not carefully calculated.

After getting rid of the influence of local powerful people, Wang Xiaolie planned to re-measure the acres of land. Among the education he promoted, the most important ones were two. One was literacy, and the other was simple mathematics. After teaching for a few months, naturally

There are acres of talent.

Wang Xiaolie continued: "Of course, the moisture in the wheat grains will naturally decrease a little if it is exposed to the sun for a few days, but not much. Let's calculate the yield of two stones of wheat per mu. The 600,000 acres of fields in Rang County can produce one hundred wheat.

Rang County is the first county in Nanyang, with a population of more than 110,000, and each person has more than ten shi of wheat. If you add in the rest of the grain, one person has more than 15 shi of grain."

After hearing this, Wang Ruohai was shocked: "So many? Zhizhi, this is not a small amount!"

"Of course it's not a small amount. If we only count food rations, four dan per person per year is enough. Even if we can eat, it will not exceed five dan. In other words, Rang County alone has a surplus of over one million dan.

.Collect them all and we can support an army of 200,000."

Wang Ruohai's mind was a little knotted for a moment. Of course he knew that this year was a good harvest year and he could harvest a lot of grain. But he actually had no idea how much he would harvest. After listening to Wang Xiaolie's calculations, he realized that the amount was astonishingly large.

Wang Xiaolie said again: "We collect three bushels per acre, and the total tax grain should be 180,000 shi. In addition to the tax grain, there should be a surplus of about 800,000 shi among the people. When the people are full, there should be a surplus of grain.

What's the use? Whether the government can take it back depends on your ability."

Wang Ruohai said: "Save food to prevent disasters. Even if there is some surplus food, the people will save it."

Wang Xiaolie couldn't help but laugh after hearing this: "It is usually said that three years of food storage can prevent one year of famine. The people of Dengzhou only need 500,000 dan even if they have no harvest for one year. Divide it into three years.

, we only save more than 160,000 shi of grain a year, and there is still a lot of surplus grain."

Wang Ruohai nodded silently. He had been an official for many years and had never calculated so carefully. Listening to Wang Xiaolie's talk, he couldn't help but be a little shocked. Being an official, many things are clear at a glance.

Wang Xiaolie said: "So, we can collect 600,000 shi of grain from the people this year. If we can't collect it, it means that the government is not good at doing things. If you want to collect grain, you must have money. There are five counties in Dengzhou.

, the remaining four counties are worse. If two counties are considered as Rang County and one county, the money to collect grain will cost more than one million guan. This is not a small amount."

Wang Ruohai smiled bitterly: "Where did the money of more than one million yuan come from in Dengzhou? It's a joke."

Wang Xiaolie said: "This is the money we need. With this money, the food in the hands of the people can be useful and can be converted into money to buy the things they need. Without this money, the food can only be in the hands of the people until it decays."

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Wang Ruohai didn't know how to answer, so he could only nodded silently.

Speaking of this, Wang Xiaolie couldn't help but sigh: "When Taizu founded the country, a bucket of rice cost only ten or twenty cents. Now, even in the peaceful years, a bucket of rice costs nearly a hundred cents. After all, the price of food is so expensive now.

, or the price of money has become too cheap, no one can say clearly. According to common sense, having enough food is the foundation of human beings, and food prices do not change much. If the price of food is high, or the price of money has become a bit light. In the end, it should

How to do it? Think of a way when you have time to do it. As the saying goes, if the grain is cheap, it hurts the farmers, and if the grain is expensive, it also hurts the farmers, but the farmers cannot be harmed."

Wang Ruohai just nodded silently. He had never thought about such a calculation before. When Wang Xiaolie mentioned it, he suddenly felt that there was something in it. But for a while, it was difficult to explain clearly.
Chapter completed!