allonlinenovel Chapter 48 Zhu Chong's Headache 8 Emperor Zhu
Chapter 48 Zhu Chong's Headache 8 Emperor Zhu
Liu Miao Village has only 40 mu of wheat fields.
Based on the 35 households and 90 people in Liumiao Village, there should normally be about 1,000 mu of farmland. However, due to the exploitation by the Yuan Dynasty government and the oppression by the local gentry, the entire 35 households in Liumiao Village only had a mere 40 mu of farmland, averaging just over one mu per household.
Even if we calculate based on the yield of 300 catties of wheat per mu, the 40 households' farmland would only produce about 1,000 catties of wheat, which is not enough to feed the 90 people in Liumiao Village. Not to mention that the Yuan Dynasty government and soldiers caused a lot of damage when they fled, and the people were unable to manage the land properly. A poor wheat harvest was inevitable, and the yield could not possibly reach 300 catties per mu.
Therefore, with a little analysis, one can understand why the people of the eight communities and sixteen neighborhoods of Ningyang County genuinely respected Yang Shaofeng. The people were not foolish; a poor wheat harvest this year was inevitable, and drought was almost a foregone conclusion. If it weren't for Magistrate Yang Shaofeng allocating land to them and for him ordering each neighborhood to send able-bodied men to dig an artificial lake, the people of Ningyang County would have had no choice but to wait for the drought to end and flee the famine.
Dividing the land and digging an artificial lake—this was a great act of kindness that saved my life!
It is precisely because of this that the people of Ningyang County genuinely respect Magistrate Yang Shaofeng. Even when Magistrate Yang had Lame Wu whip the young man who had made a bet with someone ten times, the young man who was whipped did not have any dissatisfaction or resentment. On the contrary, he genuinely believed that he had violated the magistrate's order to prohibit gambling, and that it was not unjust for him to be whipped a few more times.
Yang Shaofeng stood on the edge of Liumiao Village, looked at the busy young men and women, sighed slightly, and then had someone call over Liu Thirty-Two, the head of Liumiao Village.
"Can you finish harvesting the wheat before the Grain in Ear solar term?" Yang Shaofeng asked directly. "I will allocate a few more oxen and horses to each of your villages and communities, but each of your villages and communities must finish harvesting all the wheat before the Grain in Ear solar term."
Liu Thirty-Two was slightly taken aback and asked, "Master, has there been any change?"
Yang Shaofeng nodded and pointed to a wheat field not far away, saying, "How many kilograms of wheat do you think this field can yield?"
In the wheat field before us, although the fact that there are almost no weeds growing around the wheat shows that the people who have cultivated this land have put a lot of effort into it, the wheat in the field is of varying heights, with few full ears and shriveled ears scattered everywhere.
Liu Thirty-Two said with a bitter expression, "This land... this land belongs to my family, totaling one and three-tenths of an acre. It looks like we'll be lucky to harvest two hundred catties of wheat."
Yang Shaofeng nodded again and said, "Your family has six people, and two hundred catties of wheat, is that enough to last you until the end of the year?"
Liu Thirty-Two shook his head slightly, then sighed deeply and said, "I'm afraid we won't make it until autumn."
Yang Shaofeng said, "Since things have already come to this, it's better to end it quickly than to suffer for a long time. We should harvest all the wheat before the Grain in Ear season, and then plant beans together with the fifteen acres of wasteland we just took back."
“After the beans are planted, your village will select ten more able-bodied men from those who originally cleared the land to help dig the artificial lake.”
"I intend to dig several more artificial lakes in Ningyang County, so that even in times of drought, the beans can be irrigated with the water from these artificial lakes."
Yang Shaofeng paced back and forth a few times: "Wild vegetables, wheat, all these miscellaneous things combined should at least last until the autumn harvest."
"With beans, I will find a way to send people to purchase some grain from Jiangnan or other places. That should be enough to last until around the time of Grain in Ear next year, when the new wheat should be harvested."
After hearing the arrangements made by Magistrate Yang Shaofeng, Liu Sanshier, who was almost in despair, was immediately filled with renewed fighting spirit and shouted, "Don't worry, sir! I'll go and call people to harvest the wheat right away. I'll try to finish harvesting before dark tomorrow and then arrange for the people to be assigned to the construction site of the artificial lake!"
Yang Shaofeng nodded and instructed, "Remember to tell the heads of the other villages and communities that I will give you three days to harvest the wheat. Then each village and community must send manpower to the artificial lake."
……
While Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate of Ningyang County, was racking his brains over a whole host of messy things, such as preparing for the wheat harvest and digging more artificial lakes, Emperor Zhu Chongba, far away in Yingtian Prefecture, was also having a headache over a whole host of messy things.
The first to be affected is Ningyang County, which is far away in Shandong.
"Within the city, neighborhoods are divided into sections; outside the city, communities are divided into households?"
"Is this a pretext to distribute land to the people under the guise of letting them claim their own land?"
"Chicken farms, pig farms, cattle and horse farms?"
"Settle down in a widows' village and let the young widows open steamed bun shops?"
"To dig an artificial lake to prevent drought?"
"lighter?"
Emperor Zhu Chongba's understanding of Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate of Ningyang County, began with the fact that he was a nineteen-year-old scholar who was devoted to the Ming Dynasty and almost starved to death outside Ningyang County. After being rescued by the Ming army led by Chang Yuchun, Chang Yuchun forcibly arranged for him to become the magistrate of Ningyang County by giving him a position as a horse bone seller.
Such a status was not unusual for Emperor Zhu Chongba. After all, the slogan of the Ming Dynasty was "Expel the Tartars and restore China." Although there weren't many scholars in the north willing to join the Ming Dynasty, there were still some. For Emperor Zhu Chongba, whether there was one more or one less Yang Shaofeng was not a big deal.
However, Emperor Zhu Chongba never expected that Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate, could cause such a stir in just two or three months, and even Chang Yuchun and Xu Da submitted memorials to the emperor on his behalf several times.
Recalling the previous memorial submitted by Xu Da and Chang Yuchun requesting the court to allocate grain to Shandong to prevent drought, Emperor Zhu Chongba couldn't help but feel a little more curious about Magistrate Yang.
With a "snap," Emperor Zhu Chongba opened the lighter's cap, pressed the switch on top, and stared blankly at the suddenly erupting flame.
It didn't matter whether grain was allocated to Shandong or rewards were given to Yang Shaofeng. Whether it was money or a promotion, it didn't matter. However, the various actions of Yang Shaofeng, the magistrate, always gave Emperor Zhu Chongba the feeling that "I can understand your individual actions, but when viewed together, they are quite shocking."
The emperor summoned Crown Prince Zhu Biao and immediately pushed several memorials concerning Yang Shaofeng in front of him, saying, "Take a look at them first, and then tell me your thoughts."
Zhu Biao picked up the two memorials and flipped through them, his expression gradually becoming serious.
"Let the people recognize their land?"
"Summon three hundred able-bodied men from the county to dig an artificial lake?"
Zhu Biao put down the memorial in his hand and said seriously, "This Magistrate Yang, who appeared out of nowhere, is not someone to be trifled with."