Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 42: Cure Pill Chapter
"Jiu Juyan, the commander of the Zhechongfu, is an eighth-rank official. He receives a salary of 46.5 dan of rice, 40 dan of which he sends home, and the rest is converted into 13 guan of cash."

"Zhang Chang, commander of the Zhechongfu Brigade, eighth rank..."

There were three main types of salaries for officials in the Tang Dynasty: the first was rice, the second was salary, and the third was land.

However, the situation in Hexi was special, so basically only two methods were adopted: providing rice as salary and providing land. If the rice as salary wanted to be converted into money, it depended on whether there was enough money in the treasury.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, ordinary soldiers and lower-level officers such as captains, cooks, and sergeants all receive their rice salary directly, and the right to receive cash discounts is only enjoyed by brigade commanders and above.

The salaries of officials were also paid based on the situation during the Zhenguan period recorded in the book.

From afternoon to dusk, the soldiers of the five regiments had all received their military pay, and Liu Jilian and Zhibai were also very tired.

After distributing the military pay for Jiujuyan's brigade, Liu Jilian finally received his own nine-month salary.

"General Liu, you are a general of the seventh rank, and you are also the chief clerk of the ninth rank. Your rice allowance for the past nine months is ninety-one and a half stone. Please take a look..."

At dusk, a straightforward man licked his dry lips and asked Liu Jilong subconsciously.

Liu Jilong had never expected that being concurrently the chief clerk would actually earn him an extra salary, so he said with a big hand: "Leave 80 shi to be transported to my courtyard, and the rest can be converted into money."

"Yes, sir." He agreed straightforwardly. Upon seeing this, Jiu Juyan ordered someone to weigh eighty stones of millet and transport it to Liu Jilong's courtyard.

Zhibai calculated the remaining rice allowance, and finally converted it into 23 strings of cash, put it into a cloth bag, and gave it to Jiu Juyan to transport to Liu Jilian's yard.

After this final sum was calculated, the Zhibai people began to calculate how much grain had been distributed today and how much grain needed to be sent.

It was not until the sky became completely dark that Liu Jilong saw the final document in front of the torch.

Not to mention the cloth and other sundries in the warehouses, just talking about money and grain, Shandan still has more than 3,000 strings of cash and more than 20,000 shi of grain.

The money and grain sent by the soldiers amounted to more than 700 strings of coins and more than 18,000 stones.

It seems like a lot, but it is not much when distributed to each county.

Now Shazhou has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and the annual military pay is nearly 300,000 dan, which is not a small amount.

"Give me the document and I'll take it to Sima Zhang."

Since he had assumed the position of Chief Clerk, Liu Jilong naturally had to discuss the Shandan issue with Zhang Huairong.

It has been several hours since I submitted my "Chapter on Treating Shandan", and I think Zhang Huairong should have made a judgment.

Liu Jilong walked into the yamen with the document, and soon he was received by Zhang Huairong.

When he followed the soldiers to the inner hall, he also saw Zhang Yichao and Zhang Huairong sitting in the main seat and the second seat.

"Provincial governor, Sima..."

Liu Jilong stood in the middle of the inner hall and bowed to the two of them.

Zhang Huairong motioned him to sit down and asked, "Have you distributed the military pay?"

"Yes, the military salaries of the brothers in Shandan Zhechong Mansion have all been paid." Liu Jilong responded, his eyes also fixed on Zhang Huairong's hand.

Zhang Huairong and his friends had already had dinner and were now drinking tea.

In the Tang Dynasty, tea was mainly brewed. Even though Tubo banned many Tang cultural practices, the brewed tea culture was not so easy to abolish.

Not only the Han nobles in Hexi continued the tea culture, but even the Tibetan nobles also continued the tea culture.

The processes of arranging the utensils, making fire, using water, roasting tea, grinding tea, sieving tea, boiling water, adding tea, adding salt, nurturing tea, and pouring tea are dazzling.

Zhang Huairong didn't put the tea leaves into the tea bowl until they were ground into powder. He looked up at Liu Jilong and asked, "Do you like it spicy or sweet?"

"Just add some water." Liu Jilong doesn't like drinking tea of this era.

Zhang Huairong nodded when he heard this, and after simply flushing the water, he signaled the soldier beside him to pass the tea bowl to Liu Jilong.

At the same time, he added onions, ginger, jujubes, cinnamon, orange peels and other things to his and Zhang Yichao's tea bowls. Watching him do this, Liu Jilong took a sip from the tea bowl, frowning, and secretly made up his mind: "Once I get the iron pot, I must make fried tea!"

After swallowing the tea in his mouth with difficulty, Liu Jilong finally calmed down and waited.

Zhang Yichao's mind was not on the tea, so he just took a sip and looked at Liu Jilong.

"I've read your charter. It's very well written, but the handwriting is a little poor. You should practice your handwriting when you go back."

"Yes..." Liu Jilong was embarrassed.

"I have never seen you write down the matters concerning the reclamation of Shandan in the charter. You just said that it depends on the situation. I would like to know how you decide it based on the situation."

Zhang Yichao was very concerned about Liu Jilian's idea of governing Shandan. After all, Shazhou was not short of talented generals, but what it really lacked were talented leaders and administrators.

Liu Jilong was well aware of this, so he did not hide it. He raised his hand and bowed while explaining:
“When it comes to farming, the first thing is the field, the second is water, and the third is fertilizer.”

"When I was young, I followed my family members to farm and found that if the manure was composted and mixed with plant dust and green manure, the grain yield could be increased."

"I see that most of the feces of the people in the city are used for sewage. If the government orders the people to collect the feces and compost them outside the city, and then orders people to burn the wasteland and add grass dust and green manure, the grain production in the fields can be increased by at least 10% to 20%. "

"also……"

Liu Jilong talked about composting, and he also proposed the idea of "pulling manure carts", which is to order people to pull manure from the streets and alleys to outside the city for composting, and then to spread it during the spring plowing season next year.

His statement did not exceed the understanding of Zhang Yichao and Zhang Huairong.

Although the history of Han people using feces for fertilizer can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty, it was not common or widespread.

Even in the Tang Dynasty, animal manure was still used more as fertilizer, while human feces were mainly used for sewage disposal.

It is for this reason that the Tang Code stipulated that anyone who dumped excrement on the street would be punished with 60 strokes of the cane.

As for using human feces for composting, that was not until the Southern Song Dynasty, but people regarded carrying feces as a business and dividing feces channels, which was basically a thing in the middle and late Qing Dynasty.

During the Republic of China period, in order to compete for the area of ​​the manure channels, manure collectors began to form gangs and factions, and armed fights often occurred.

Yu Deshun, the number one manure tyrant in Beijing, owned thirty-six manure ditches and earned hundreds of properties and thousands of acres of fertile land by carrying manure.

Of course, dealing with human feces is not a simple science.

Human feces come in many forms and if not handled properly, it can easily make people sick.

For example, in the 1970s and 1980s, in many rural areas, toilets were often combined with pig pens, causing pigs to ingest feces.

If there are detached segments of tapeworms in these feces, it means that worm eggs have been ingested.

If pigs that have ingested worm eggs are slaughtered and sold, and the buyer's cooking method causes the meat to be immature, the worm eggs can be transmitted to humans, forming a closed loop.

In addition, pouring uncomposted fertilizer into the vegetable garden can also cause vegetables to carry tapeworm eggs.

If the people who buy the vegetables do not wash them properly or eat them raw, they may also be infected.

It is precisely because of these problems that the use of human feces composting came so late.

In his previous life, when Liu Jilong was farming with his elders, he had seen how to make compost out of human feces. He thought this was disgusting, but he didn't expect that it would become a skill in this life.

"You can give it a try, but it's best not to occupy too much arable land to avoid crop damage."

After listening to Liu Jilong's suggestions and Zhang Yichao's more cautious comments, Liu Jilong also nodded repeatedly.

Then, he talked about some matters concerning military reclamation, and Zhang Yichao listened very attentively.

It was not until an hour later that Zhang Yichao signaled to Liu Jilong that he could go home and rest as he finished speaking.

(End of this chapter)