The sun sets in the west.
The setting sun dyed the clouds red.
After a whole day, Han Zhen finally completed the field measurement and household registration inventory in Xiaowang Village.
Next, you only need to organize this information and register it.
Han Zhen invited: "Chief, Zhu Dalang, you have worked hard today. Come and have dinner with me."
The headmaster waved his hand: "No, I still have something to do at home."
Han Zhen knew that he was eager to go to the mountains to recruit fugitives to make money, so he didn't expose it. He nodded and said, "Since the village chief has something to do with his family, let's go back first."
Zhu Zhengze, on the other hand, followed behind him silently, holding a stack of paper.
Back in the big house, Fang Sansan greeted him as soon as he entered the door: "Alang is back."
"Um!"
Han Zhen nodded.
Fang Sansan followed him and chirped: "Alang, some young men have hunted a deer."
deer?
Han Zhen frowned, and happened to see the monkey coming out of the reverse room, so he called out: "Didn't I ask you to explore the terrain in the mountains? Why are you hunting deer?"
Seeing that Han Zhen looked unhappy, the monkey hurriedly explained: "Brother Han, the deer was not hunted. The deer bumped into us in the mountains and was frightened. As a result, it hit a tree while running away and fainted."
Is this okay?
Han Zhen didn't know what to say for a moment and could only lament that they were so lucky.
After entering the hanging flower gate, I saw the parents of the monkey and the insect sitting in the yard, with restraint and confusion in their eyes.
Han Zhen stepped forward and said with a slightly apologetic tone: "It's all my fault. I've brought down several uncles and aunts."
Several people stood up quickly, Yang's father waved his hand and said: "Erlang, please don't do this. If it weren't for you, I'm afraid they would still be in prison now."
Han Zhen said: "Since we are here, my uncle and aunt can live here with peace of mind."
Father Yang nodded, looking like he was hesitant to speak.
Seeing this scene, Han Zhen immediately understood what they were thinking and said with a smile: "If the uncles and aunts feel too idle, they can choose a few acres of wasteland to plant."
Hearing this, Father Yang and others were immediately overjoyed.
As a farmer, if they don’t have a few acres of land in their hands, they really can’t feel at ease.
Once you have a field, your mind will be at peace.
In their understanding, no matter where they are, as long as they are not lazy and are willing to work hard to farm, they will always have something to eat.
At this moment, Chef Shen stood in front of the kitchen door and asked, "Alang, can you serve dinner?"
"Let's have dinner."
Thanks to the deer that I killed, tonight's dinner was a sumptuous one.
Chef Shen really showed off her skills. The deer tenderloin was stir-fried with green onions, and the ribs were made into braised pork ribs. The remaining bones, internal organs and offal were washed and boiled into a large pot of soup.
The staple food is wheat rice, but compared with ordinary farmers, the wild vegetables in the wheat rice are much less.
This is normal. Even wealthy landlords are not willing to eat refined grains every day.
Refined grains such as rice and wheat are reserved to make money in disaster years.
The more you eat, the less money you make.
Seeing that Zhu Zhengze was showing signs of picking up the bowl and running away, Han Zhen raised his eyebrows and said, "Sit down and eat, and then take another portion back after you finish."
"Thank you, village chief."
Zhu Zhengze didn't hesitate this time and immediately thanked him.
…
When everyone was halfway through eating, the tenants arrived with their families.
Without waiting for Han Zhen's instructions, Chef Shen invited them to eat.
"Everyone is lined up, don't be crowded, there is something for everyone."
Under Chef Shen's shout, the tenants lined up and came forward to receive their meals in an orderly manner.
Chef Shen filled a bowl of wheat rice and handed it over. A boy about eight or nine years old wiped his hands on his clothes, and then held the bowl carefully.
Seeing the boy turn around and leave, Chef Shen called out: "Don't leave, there is still broth."
As he spoke, he used a wooden spoon to scoop a large spoonful of broth into the pot and poured it into the bowl.
The rich aroma of the broth, accompanied by a hint of heat, reached the noses of the tenants, causing everyone's throats to flutter.
"Dad, there is meat!"
Seeing a few pieces of internal organs in the bowl, the boy suddenly exclaimed.
Meat!
In an instant, the tenants behind them all had their eyes gleaming.
Soon, more than 20 people were sitting in the yard with bowls in their hands.
Tan Qiang squatted down next to his son, raised his head and looked around, and found that the tenants' bowls all contained meat, either a few small pieces of offal or bones with some shredded meat attached.
There was no way, this deer was not big to begin with. It had less than 20 kilograms of meat after skinning and deboning, and the venison was not enough to feed Han Zhen and the others.
But the tenants didn't care. It was a great happiness to have a bite of meat.
Putting all the internal organs into his son's bowl, Tan Qiang held the bowl and ate it hungrily with the broth.
After eating three whole bowls in a row, Tan Qiang put down the bowl and breathed a sigh of relief.
After living for so many years, he felt that today he was truly a legitimate person.
After coming to the well, washing the bowls and putting them back in the kitchen, Tan Qiang led his son and wife to bow deeply to the hall, then turned and left.
The puppy looked back at the house, and said, "Dad, the new master's house is really nice, and he even gives you meat to eat."
"yes!"
Tan Qiang raised a smile at the corner of his mouth.
He hasn't smiled for a long time. The last time he was so happy was when the puppy was born.
Now not only can I have enough to eat, but I also get paid every month.
In just one day, he no longer doubted Han Zhen's words.
Since the young man said he would pay his wages, he would definitely give them.
Three hundred coins.
I can pull out half a piece of linen and make new clothes for my mother-in-law and son.
After careful calculation, the family has not changed clothes for many years.
The little dog seemed to have remembered something and said angrily: "Dad, Wang Laizi is talking bad about Xiao Langjun."
Hearing this, Tan Qiang warned: "That guy is not a good person. Don't play tricks with him in the future."
"Um!"
The puppy nodded solemnly.
…
…
In the study.
Han Zhen is sorting out the household registration information checked today.
It is no exaggeration to say that the information he currently has about Xiaowang Village is more accurate and detailed than that of the county government.
Because when facing the government, whether it is villagers or members of the royal family, they will choose to conceal the truth to a certain extent.
There were obviously five people in the family, but he gritted his teeth and said there were only three.
The other two are dead!
There is also less land. The villagers are afraid that if they have too much land, they will be assigned to the government office, and the landlords are afraid of being overtaxed.
It was all caused by excessive taxes and corvee labor, and the people were frightened by the torture.
This is why Wang Xiao and his wife acted like they were facing an enemy when they heard that they wanted to measure the land.
At this moment, Han Zhen was holding a stack of papers and looking at each household carefully.
It wasn't until late at night that he checked and compiled all the information.
Currently, there are 127 households in Xiaowang Village with a total of 396 people.
What surprised Han Zhen was that there were more young adults than he thought, with men aged 16-40 accounting for 31%.
Among them were three carpenters, one blacksmith apprentice, and one literate scribe.
Including abandoned fields, there are a total of 1,584 acres of fields, of which only 46 acres are paddy fields, all of which are in his hands, and the rest are dry fields.
There is nothing we can do about the lack of paddy fields. The dry and rainy climate in the north means that there will not be many paddy fields.
There are 391 acres of uncultivated farmland. Excluding the 231 acres of farmland in his hands, the average farmland per household in Xiaowang Village is only a little over 7 acres.
Seven acres of land is not a lot at this time, and there are no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The yield per mu of ordinary dry land is very low, with an average of less than one stone per mu.
Even though the two-year and three-crop rotation method of wheat, soybeans and sorghum had been popularized in the north during the Northern Song Dynasty, each household could only harvest less than ten shi of grain from the fields a year.
Ten shi of grain is barely enough to feed and drink a family of five for a year.
If there were more people in the family, they would go hungry.
Note that the above is the ideal situation with good weather and no pests. Under normal circumstances, it is good to have seven or eight kilograms of food throughout the year.
If there is a bad year, I may not even have three stones.
In other words, every household in Xiaowang Village had to work hard for a whole year and could barely make ends meet.
You know, this doesn't even count taxes.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, the two-tax law was implemented. One tax was collected in summer and autumn, which was equal to two out of ten.
That is, eight shi of grain will have to pay a tax of one shi and six.
Coupled with all kinds of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, it is considered a benevolence of the officials if the villagers can only get two stones of food.
How can two stones of grain be enough to feed a family for a year?
It can be seen from the data of Xiaowang Village alone that farmers during the Xuanhe period were actually on the verge of collapse.
Even without the Jin soldiers going south, the Northern Song Dynasty would have fallen apart in the ensuing peasant uprisings.
Boom, boom, boom!
While he was deep in thought, there was a rapid knock on the door.
Immediately afterwards, Fang Sansan was heard shouting anxiously: "Alang, it's not good!"
