A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 470 The Good Landlord

"If it's dirty, it's cut, if it's dirty, it's cut!"

In the early morning, a group of birds flew across the sky, shouting joyfully to remind everyone that it was time to harvest the wheat.

"This bird is so noisy, I really want to sleep again." Chen Runniang turned over lazily, and her white and tender arms like jade lotus root pressed onto Huaiyu's chest again.

Wu Huaiyu yawned, thinking that this was not a trip to harvest wheat, but a trip to pay public grain. The night before departure, he talked to Banu about the current situation in Persia Sassan. His father, who rebelled and proclaimed himself emperor, was now supported by the Roman emperor. He was somewhat invincible in the Persian civil war.

Banu didn't go back with his father's emissary and chose to stay, but he was also worried when he heard that his father's situation was not good. Wu Huaiyu comforted him all night and three times.

As a result, on the way to Sanyuan, I chatted with the old Taoist Wei Shanjun all night about medicine, and then was caught by Fan Xuanfu on the way the next day for inspection, and checked twice more.

When I arrived at Longqiao Fort, I thought I could finally sleep peacefully.

Chen Runniang tangled up again, talking about the time when she followed him to Longqiao and spent the night in that simple dilapidated cave dwelling, and now such a big Wujiabao has been built, and the construction of this Wujiabao also owes her a share of the credit for managing Qian Zhidu.

Hao Lang is also afraid of pestering women.

Recalling the past, recalling it twice.

It's really too much to bear, it's better when I was in Beijing.

"That bird, every May, will remind everyone to harvest wheat like this. It is amazing that after May, it will not be heard again. When spring begins, there will be another voice, always calling cuckoo, cuckoo."

"Get up, it's getting late."

Wu Huaiyu felt a little sore in his waist and legs, and really wanted to lie down and rest for a day, but he also knew that today was an important day, and the host could not be absent.

Before dawn, you could hear the pig's cry. It was because the pig was caught and slaughtered early in Zhuangzi to prepare for today's meal. It is estimated that the pig has become a hearty breakfast by now.

After one night, Runniang was very nourished and her complexion was rosy, but seeing Huaiyu's haggard look, she couldn't help feeling distressed and regretful.

"If you don't have a husband, you can rest at home for a day."

"I can't rest, I need to be more restrained in the future. The day before yesterday I chatted with Zhenren Wei. I talked about Dr. Sun. Dr. Sun knows how to keep healthy. There are nine secrets. Eat to be full when you are hungry, and you must be hungry when you are full. The joy of husband and wife must also be restrained. It is said that the law of imperial daughters can be ejaculated once a month. If you ejaculate 24 times a year, you will be [-] years old. You will have color and no disease. If you take medicine, you can live forever."

"Twice a month, can we have intercourse 24 times a year?" Run Niang was shocked.

Wu Huaiyu laughed, "I don't even want to live forever, I don't even plan to live to be [-] years old, so I can relax."

"Then once a ten-day period, three times a month, 36 times a year?" Run Niang is not only good at chess, but also good at accounting. She learned the method of double-entry accounting from Wu Huaiyu herself.

She soon became a little disappointed, only three times a month, but now there are so many women in the backyard of the Wu family, one wife, five concubines, seven concubines and three maidservants, not counting the women outside such as Feresta and Banu, there are twenty of them.

How is this divided?

It can be seen that my husband is so haggard from the hard work these days, and I feel distressed and worried.

"From now on, I will never dare to mess around again."

Huaiyu saw her fear of doing something wrong, and slapped the peach hard, "Okay, I'm still young, just take a rest and rest."

Wu Huaiyu himself also knows how to keep in good health. At his current age of 20, too much indulgence will definitely hurt his body, but there is no need to be too abstinent. Twice a month is definitely not enough.

Once every two or three days, it's fine.

When can enough be enough.

Get up and take a shower.

Living in a big earth building is indeed quite novel.

However, although the earthen buildings of the Wu family are relatively large, they are not unusual for Tang people. After all, the earthen buildings designed by Wu Huaiyu were originally samples from the Hakka earthen buildings, and the Hakka earthen buildings are essentially built by the Hakka people. The Hakka people are a group of people who came south from the Central Plains.

Their earthen buildings were originally brought from the Central Plains. From the Han and Wei Dynasties, to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and then to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Central Plains were in constant war. The earthen buildings, also known as Wubao, are one of them. There are still many existing ones, but the ones built by the Wu family are relatively large.

At this time, the villagers were full of praise and admiration for the surrounding building of the Wu family, and felt that it was so tall and safe.

Wu Huaiyu still felt that this building was too compact, not as comfortable as those courtyards with three or four entrances, and felt a bit oppressive.

But in the innermost courtyard in the morning, the air is still very fresh, and you can even smell the aroma of ripe wheat.

Under the big ginkgo tree in the courtyard, Wu Huaiyu practiced Babu King Kong, and she felt as if she had regained a lot of energy.

After passing through the gates, he finally came to the wider outside of the building.

The pig has been slaughtered, and so has the sheep.

The butcher cut the pig into pieces, and the maids who helped cook in the kitchen were already processing it.

Burn the skin to remove the hair, turn over and wash the intestines, clean the pork belly, and burn and wash the pig's head.

It was so lively, and Zhuang Ding of the Wu family went to Qinghe to fish with nets and brought back a lot of fresh river fish, of all sizes and types, but they were all fresh, as well as some crabs and shrimps, and even a few snakes caught in the net.

"Peel off the skins of these snakes and stew them for a while. The young men will not get prickly heat after eating them. Use the snake skin and snake oil to boil the oil. This snake oil is the most effective in treating burns."

At this time, the genius is slightly bright.

There was smoke in the kitchen, and the steamed yellow buns made of yellow millet noodles had already come out of the pot, a cage full of smoke, and when the lids were lifted, each one was cracked, and there were crushed red dates on top.

The golden and thick millet porridge has also been cooked. It is said to be porridge, but it is very thick, and it can stand up immediately after throwing a chopstick down.

The noodles were still cooking in the big pot over there, and a few servants quickly tore the rolled out lasagna into small pieces the size of fingernails and threw them into the pot, their movements were as skilful as a butterfly piercing a flower.

A few people are pulling, and more people are kneading the dough.

There are still a few big pots where the bones are being stewed. These bones have been stewed for a long time, and the meat on the bones has also been stewed loose.

Scoop up the bones, remove the meat, and scoop up the bone broth.

It is a perfect match with noodles, a large bowl of noodles, poured with a large spoon of rotten meat, bone broth, sprinkled with chopped green onion, and served with two cloves of garlic.

The samurai trilogy, the long-term workers, the short-term workers, and the invited Mai Ke also smelled the fragrance and lined up early. After a brief wash, they took the time to prepare everything such as the sickle and other things, and then lined up.

Everyone is very disciplined.

Wu Huaiyu inspected the kitchen carefully, and then came to the empty space outside, seeing that the millet porridge was very thick, the yellow steamed buns were very solid, and that the rotten meat noodle slices were also full of weight, and she was very satisfied.

The steward yelled, "Everyone line up, our boss is the king of the dynasty, the most benevolent and generous. Look at the pigs and sheep that are specially slaughtered this black, this yellow steamed millet porridge, and this noodle soup. They are all full of ingredients. Everyone is full. After a while, go to the field and put in a little more effort. The wheat needs to be harvested quickly and neatly. Don't scatter the ears of wheat everywhere. They are all hard-working crops for half a year..."

Wu Huaiyu interrupted the butler's long speech, "Let's start quickly, everyone is hungry."

"Yes Yes Yes."

Each person first scooped up a large bowl of rotten meat noodles, then gave out two yellow buns, and then a bowl of millet porridge.

The general rule is that the owner manages the food, but it is not allowed to keep it, and you can eat as much as you want.

However, Wu Huaiyu made a special message that when everyone is full, they can take two more yellow buns with them.

Of course, there are two steamed buns in the morning and in the afternoon, it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to eat them or keep them.

Although the dried steamed buns are not as delicious as the freshly steamed ones, they can be eaten after being dried and soaked in water when you get home.

Regardless of whether the family slaves or tributaries, or hired long-term or short-term laborers from surrounding villages, or foreign mikes, they are all treated the same.

When meeting with many mikes, they even saluted Huaiyu, saying that they were from Shuofang, their hometown. Everyone still remembered the peace Wu Huaiyu brought to everyone when he was in Shuofang, especially some mikes from Xia Suiyin.

Their side is a bit drier, and there are few wheat growers. They mainly grow buckwheat. The harvest seasons are different, so when the wheat harvests, they go south to Guanzhong or even go to Henan, Huaixi and other places to work as wheat harvesters.

Since Wu Huaiyu and the others destroyed Liang Shidao, let Shuofang return to the Tang Dynasty, opened a border market, and established a stable relationship with the Turkic people, now the people of Shuofang can settle down, much better than previous years, and everyone still feels grateful for Huaiyu.

When they came to Guanzhong to harvest wheat, they heard that this was Zhuangzi of Wu Huaiyu's family, and they all rushed to harvest wheat for Wu's family first.

Huaiyu still feels very happy about the words of these Shuofang people. This is a sense of identity and an achievement.

There was a young boy who was only eleven or twelve years old, thin, but he could talk. He even kowtowed to Huaiyu a few times, saying that his family was allotted a field in Xiazhou thanks to Huaiyu.

"You have a sweet mouth, kid. I will reward you with two boiled eggs. Put them on your body for a while, and eat when you are hungry."

"Thank you, sir."

"It's my first time to be a Mac, maybe I'm used to it, have you slept soundly these days?"

"I have been helping harvest wheat since I was a child. My husband saw that my palms are full of hard calluses. Regardless of my short stature and age, I don't have back pain when harvesting wheat, and I am no slower than them."

"That's right, I'll add another chicken leg to you!"

"Housekeeper, get this kid a new straw hat, and give him a towel to wipe his sweat."

The young man thanked him again after receiving the reward, and the little man went to hold a noodle bowl bigger than his face, and squatted aside like everyone else, and began to eat vigorously.

Huaiyu has been watching the young man, he can eat quite a lot, after finishing a large bowl of noodles, he actually asked for another bowl, then ate two steamed buns, and added a small bowl of millet porridge, then patted his stomach, and went to get two steamed buns, eggs and the chicken leg with satisfaction, wrapped the whole body with a cloth, picked up the sickle, put on a straw hat, put on a new sweat towel, and stood in the line of Mai Ke.

From Xiazhou to Chang'an, it's so far away, this young man followed his clansmen all the way south, relying on his two legs, he would not stay in a hotel or anything on the way, he really suffered a lot by sleeping in the open, eating some dry pancakes when he was hungry, asking for water when he was thirsty, and staying in any haystack for a night.

But this kid can still maintain a very optimistic and positive attitude, which is very rare.

Some of those mikes are very old and have lost their teeth, and there are even female mikes, couples walking together, all running around for a living.

The breakfast of the Wu family is very rich, and everyone eats it quickly like a storm, and they don't dare to waste time. It is the coolest time in the early morning. Although Mike calculates money by the day, if he can't cut it, he may be deducted.

The housekeeper rang the gong, "Let's go, the wheat is harvested."

Wu Huaiyu also set off wearing a straw hat and a sweat scarf around her neck, and carrying a long-handled sickle. Fan Xuanfu followed behind with concubines, servants, and servants. Most of the women carried baskets.

In addition, the family members of the Wu family set up the carriage and mule cart, and were responsible for transporting the harvested wheat back, as well as threshing in the drying field, etc., all of which had to compete for good weather.

There was also a carriage loaded with water, watermelon, etc., and Wu Huaiyu also asked him to prepare some herbal tea that he made in advance, as well as some anti-heatstroke medicine.

The sun hadn't come out at this time, and there was a cool breeze in the morning, and the Wu family's wheat harvesting team set off. The Wu family now has [-] mu of land on both sides of the Qinghe River, divided into many plots, and went to sweep them one by one.

On the way, I also met other villagers who were dispatched by the whole family to harvest wheat, and even saw many tenants of the Wu family.

Of the Wu family's [-] mu of land in Qinghe, in fact, only a small half is cultivated by the Wu family itself, and most of it is cultivated by the villagers.

They are also very grateful to Wu Huaiyu, the Wu family. These days, the relationship between tenants and landlords is mostly relatively harmonious, even good, and the two sides need each other.

The tenants want to plant the land of the landlord’s family, and the landlord also needs someone to farm the land. Now the population is small, and there are not so many refugees, so the relationship between the two parties is relatively fixed, and it may even be such a relationship passed down from generation to generation.

In the past, Huaiyu and Lao Wu would go door to door to deliver some wheat float wine to their tenants after the wheat harvest, and then invite everyone to drink.

After getting off the ground, Wu Huaiyu took the sickle and made the first cut. Over there, Lao Wu even prepared sacrifices. There were pig heads, sheep heads and a chicken on the tray, as well as a bowl of barley rice and a jug of wine.

Sacrifice to the head of the field and pour wine.

This is also a very grand ceremony, thank God, thank the earth, thank the wind, rain, thunder and lightning, so that this year can have a good harvest.

Although Wu Huaiyu was cutting wheat very seriously and was young, he was quickly left behind by the mikes, further and further away, and the long-term workers and slaves of the Wu family also all left the patriarch behind.

Huaiyu worked very hard, it's not like he didn't do this kind of work before. In the past few years in Zhongnan Mountain, he was self-cultivated and self-sufficient. He did all kinds of farm work, but he found that those people were simply humanoid harvesters. Even the boy who he specially arranged next to him, who knew that he was the best.

I saw rows of wheat falling down, and they almost didn't straighten their backs.

Moreover, they cut fast and finely, and the wheat was gathered very neatly.

The sun was rising and the heat wave was blowing, Wu Huaiyu already felt a little overwhelmed, sweat drenched his clothes, it felt like he had entered a steam room, the sweat was like a waterfall, his waist was sore and his back hurt.

The towel around his neck was already soaked.

Huaiyu was very thirsty.

I couldn't do it anymore, and Lao Wu over there also saw his son's reluctance, so he came over and called him to hide under the big mulberry tree on the field.

"Eat some water first, or eat some melon? You are the head of the family, and you have never done farm work. Let them collect it. Don't make the dignified prime minister faint in the wheat fields and make people laugh."

The women like Fan Xuanfu also picked it up for a while and then ran back to the shade of the trees when the sun was high. They would spread out blankets, as if they were at a summer camp.

(End of this chapter)