Chapter 105: Rules
Editor: Atlas Studios
Madam Ma-Liu’s gaze swept between Mu Shi and Mu Yangling before finally landing on the latter. She said, “If your father’s around, it wouldn’t be a problem for us to plant more than half of the 180 acres of land. However, your father won’t be at home, so we have to rely on the old and weak. It’s already not bad if we can plant 20 acres. Even if we have plowing oxens, we can only plant an additional 10 acres. Rocky, you have to clarify how much grains we have to hand over to the army after autumn. Otherwise, we won’t even be able to submit enough for the army’s share.”
Mu Yangling and Mu Shi looked at each other. Neither of them had thought of this. They had already obtained the land, but they still couldn’t plant it?
“Then, should I go and take a look at our family’s land tomorrow? But Little General is gathering the troops for a lecture tomorrow. I can’t spare the time,” Mu Shi said, vexed.
“Father, I’ll go.” Mu Yangling said, “I’ll go get firewood in the morning and go to check out the land with Great-aunt in the afternoon. Father, you don’t know how to access the condition of the soil, so it’s useless even if you go. Why don’t you let Great-aunt go and see it? When the time comes, we can just farm the fertile lands. Since we only have to pay 40% to the army, isn’t there still 60% for us to eat? We’ll just try to plant as much as we can.”
Xiuhong quickly said, “My sister and I can help, too.”
Little Bowen quickly squeezed over. “Me too, me too.”
Mu Yangling glanced at their small bodies and ignored them.
Xiuhong said indignantly, “Cousin, I can do a lot of work. I’ll go get firewood with you tomorrow.”
“Sure.” Mu Yangling said readily, “Then you have to get up early tomorrow.”
Xiulan and Little Bowen also wanted to go.
“Forget about it. The two of you are still growing. You should sleep more.” Then, she said, “You two stay at home to take care of the baby twins. They need someone to accompany them.”
Only then did the two of them stop pestering her.
There weren’t many families like the Mu family who had land but couldn’t plant all of it. This was because those who enlisted as soldiers mostly had at least a brother, and the old and young in the family could all work. Although 100 to 200 acres was a lot, they could more or less finish planting it if they started early and returned home late.
Take Liu Daqian’s family for example. After Liu Ting and Liu Zhuang drew lots, it was decided that Liu Zhuang would become a soldier. And in the future, Liu Lang would take over from him. This way, no one would lose out.
Liu Daqian and his wife, plus Liu Ting, Madam Liu-Zhang, and the children could all work in the fields. But since they had also been distributed quite a lot of land, they were also thinking they should check out the land tomorrow and choose the fertile ones to serve first. The rest could be discussed later.
At this moment, Qi Haoran was also checking the booklet which listed those lands. He said proudly, “With so much land, our rations won’t have to be controlled by others in the future.”
Not as optimistic as him, Fan Zijin took out a book and showed it to him.
Qi Haoran flipped through it and asked, “What is this?”
“Xingzhou Prefecture’s grain production over the years, followed by the grain production in Jiangnan. Big Brother Rong spent half a month getting someone to copy and collect the data.”
After flipping it open, Qi Haoran’s eyes widened. “Why is there such a huge difference?”
“Otherwise, why do you think the people under the provisional government are worse off than those in Jiangnan, when their average household owns ten acres of land as compared to Jiangnan’s three acres?” Fan Zijin said with a sigh, “Jiangnan is a land of fish and rice. The water conservancy facilities are incomparable to other places, let alone Xingzhou Prefecture. Moreover, the climate and fertility of the land in both places are good. It’s already not bad if the autumn harvest of Xingzhou Prefecture could be half that of Jiangnan. Last time, Song Zhi said that an acre could produce 200 catties of wheat. That was the best production level among the landlords. Do you think our army can have such production capacity?”
Qi Haoran threw down the booklet and asked, “Then how much do you think we can collect, considering they’re handing over 40% to the army?”
Fan Zijin shook his head. “I don’t know. It still depends on how many plowing oxens the Imperial Court can give us. Although we have a lot of land, there are few people. We definitely won’t be able to finish planting these fields. If we have a lot of plowing oxens, we can farm more. Having the civilians hand over 40% to the army is the Imperial Court’s idea. Cousin might not adopt this method.”
Qi Haoran said solemnly, “Big Brother won’t raise taxes. He’s not such a person.”
Fan Zijin glanced at him and said, “I didn’t say that Cousin will raise the taxes, but there might be some hard rules added. For example, the number of military fields that must be farmed, and the number of freehold fields that must be farmed. Only in this way can we ensure the rations for the next year. Otherwise, once a war breaks out, we can only forcefully collect rations for the military from the people. Should that happen, Cousin will definitely lose the hearts of the people. This is something that no one wants to see.”
“What’s the difference? They’re going to farm anyway. If they can farm, they’ll definitely farm.”
Fan Zijin glared at him. “What do you know? When His Majesty said to hand over 40% of the crops, he’s referring to the freehold fields. They have to hand over 60% of the crops for the military fields. If they all focus on planting crops in the freehold fields or do shoddy work in the military fields, will the grains collected by the army be enough to fill the gaps between their teeth?”
Fan Zijin was right. This was what Qi Xiuyuan had been busy with for the past few days. He had to set a rule to at least ensure the supply of rations to the army without making the commoners too sad.
Rong Xuan had hired several accountants from Xingyuan Prefecture and invited Song Zhi, who was familiar with the people’s livelihood, to plan this.
The rations had always been one of the most important resources in the army. With no worries about rations, the soldiers could train and fight in peace.
When Mu Shi and the soldiers gathered at the camp in the morning light, the document issued by Qi Xiuyuan was also in Qi Haoran’s hands.
Qi Haoran flipped through it and laughed. “That’s a good idea. I’ll announce it now.”
Qi Xiuyuan’s method was very simple. Every household was allocated 100 acres of military field, he stipulated that the cultivation of the military field must not be less than 40 acres. Also, he stated that the average yield of the military field and the freehold field must not differ by more than 20 catties.
This ensured the amount of farming and the average yield of the military fields. Naturally, the rations collected would not be too little.
Hearing this, Mu Shi was even more worried. Didn’t this mean that they wouldn’t even be able to plant an acre of their freehold field?
Mu Shi stood below and listened to Qi Haoran’s lecture dejectedly.
At this moment, Mu Yangling brought Xiuhong to the foot of the mountain.
Mu Yangling looked around and said, “It’s more convenient from my place, the mountain’s right outside our doorstep. In contrast, we have to walk for half an hour starting from here. How troublesome.”
However, Xiuhong felt that it was great. She had been farming since she was young and preferred to see endless fields.
Chenggu Garrison was two miles south of Mingshui County, and half an hour south was the middle section of Chef Mountain. There were dense trees here, and one could look down at Chenggu Garrison from above. Mingshui County was in the north, and Luocong Mountain was in the northwest. The camp was at the foot of Luocong Mountain, and in the east was the main road leading from Seven Mile Village to Mingshui County. There was a large area of flat fields below. At the thought of the golden grains during the autumn harvest, Xiuhong felt happy. So, she did not feel that there was anything wrong.
If the mountain was too close to home, she would feel afraid and depressed.
Mu Yangling had already walked into the mountains with the scythe. Glancing at the forest, she said in disappointment, “There’s not much dry firewood on the ground. Go and pick it up while I cut the branches.”
Xiuhong ran over to pick up the firewood, while Mu Yangling picked up the withered branches and chopped them. With her strength, she could cut off a branch with two slashes. Sometimes, she could simply snap it with her hands. Xiuhong clicked her tongue when she saw this. She felt that even if her uncle was not at home, with her cousin around, farming should not be too difficult.