Controlling mountains and rivers since the Warring States Period

Chapter 33 Spring

Liu began to walk on her way carefully.

In Ye County,

He Bo is counting his harvest.

"Spring is almost over. Time flies so fast..."

He Bo clasped his hands, went ashore, and walked slowly along the grassy river bank.

His eyes were far away, as if he was thinking about something important.

But in fact,

He was just looking at his progress bar.

"The ones at Tongdi Mountain are almost full!"

In He Bo's eyes, the green progress bar representing the authority of the "Mountain God" was almost loaded.

It may be because the mountains and waters of Tongdi are one, or it may be because the villagers of Tongdi directly worship He Bo as the mountain god, so that he can get the "reality" by borrowing the "name"...

In short, the progress of Tongdi Mountain is faster than He Bo imagined.

The recent incense offerings have also been quite lucrative.

After the spring begins, we have to work on the fields.

Farming, harvesting, and eating have always been major events in life since ancient times.

So Ximen Bao led the villagers of Ye County to hold a sacrifice in front of He Bo's temple, informing He Bo of the start of farming in Ye. The villagers also prayed more seriously, praying for good weather and good harvests this year.

This naturally contributed a lot of incense and vows to He Bo.

Then, they led the yellow oxen, which were so valuable that they had special people to take care of them, to the fields and began to cultivate the fields carefully.

At the same time, the new canal planned by Ximen Bao was also built.

After a short break in winter, life is bustling again.

And He Bo really likes this kind of excitement.

So when Ye County, Tongdi, or other cities on both sides of the strait needed water for irrigation, he often gave it generously.

In today's era, the population is small and there is not much arable land, so the amount of water required is naturally not as terrible as it will be in later generations.

Even though He Bo spent money lavishly, the water level of the Zhang River never dropped, and even rose a little.

Because there is more rain in spring, rainwater overflowing from many places gathers into the Zhang River, making He Bo's family wealth even richer.

As spring brings vitality, the scenery on both sides of the Zhang River changes dramatically.

When He Bo completely merged into the Zhang River and became He Bo, it was already autumn.

The grass and trees have turned yellow.

Some small animals have also reduced their activity frequency.

This forced He Bo to stay in the Zhang River and fish in vain most of the time.

But now,
Many animals are cheering up and carrying out their own special spring actions.

For example, not far from He Bo, there was a pair of rabbits having sex in the wild.

The male rabbit lay on top of his mate, twice, his body stiffened, and then he fell down.

Then it got up again, and twice more, stiffened its body, and fell down again.

Repeat this process several times.

The spouse had been squatting there quietly, nibbling on the tender green grass with an indifferent look on his face, as if everything had nothing to do with him.

Further away, there were wild deer and wild boars, drinking the river water with their heads down.

Perhaps it is because there is plenty of food in spring, even if predators and prey occasionally get together, they just lazily shake their tails and drink water first.

Occasionally a fish would float to the surface and, for some reason, look up at the sky.

"What a pity, the joy is not here, otherwise seeing this fish would only make me feel bad again."

He Bo thought of the fisherman who had been in the Air Force all his life but kept trying despite repeated failures.

During this period, Xi responded to Ximen Bao's request and often taught each other in dreams.

Ximen Bao taught Xi to read and learn to write.

Xi taught Ximen Bao how to farm and apply fertilizers.

Although Ximen Bao was born into a commoner family, he was able to learn and become a member of the Xihe School. He also had a surname, which showed that his ancestors had left some assets for their descendants. However, due to bad luck, he went from being a noble to a commoner.

But even if he wanted to farm, he would not be as meticulous and clear as Xi, a "vulgar person" who didn't even have a surname, and he had no experience in things like composting.

But Ye was previously desolate, and the villagers did not have much harvest. They only thought that the sacrifices to the gods were not enough, and would rather jump into the river than think about how to farm and plow the fields. It can be seen that they were not as proficient in farming as those in prosperous places like Pingyang.

Xi was able to save up a lot of time for fishing, and as a widower, he was able to raise his son and help him get married. He was indeed commendable when it came to farming.

So Ximen Bao was not ashamed to ask questions, and Xi was willing to teach everything he knew, so that this era when the iron plow and ox-drawn plow were gradually being popularized and causing a sensation in the world could be made more interesting.

He Bo also watched and learned for a while at first.

In later generations, due to He Bo's background, he left the loess earth early.

Although he was not unable to distinguish the five grains, apart from being able to recognize the original appearance of the food he ate, He Bo had no idea how to plant and harvest it.

At the beginning of the Warring States Period, everything that was familiar, old, and gradually abandoned and forgotten by the times was still growing like a child, and some of them had not even shown any signs of emerging.

When He Bo was still a man, he saw ridges of fields when he passed by the countryside. In the farming system, it was called "Daitian Method", which was invented in the Western Han Dynasty, less than three years after the three families divided Jin. The Warring States Period when Tian replaced Qi did not happen, which was about 300 years later.

However, the "Daitian Method" did not emerge suddenly overnight. At this moment, there are already some signs.

Under Xi's guidance, Ximen Bao ordered people to dig ditches and build ridges according to the height of the fields, and then plant crops and cover them with piled soil and fertilizer.

High fields are planted in ditches, and low fields are planted on ridges to facilitate drainage and prevent waterlogging.

Compared with the regularity of "Daitian", it is a bit rough.

But Ximen Bao still felt that this method of farming was very advanced compared to before.

After all, farming in Yedi used to be a leisure system, where a piece of land would be planted for one year and then rested for one year, waiting for the land to recover its fertility.

Xi was also somewhat proud of this, "I won't tell ordinary people about this method!"

At this time, if you can harvest more food, you can earn more lives.

Such a "life-saving method" is certainly worth cherishing.

Although you can learn by yourself by watching more, for people in Ye County, the prerequisite is that after going out to learn advanced farming techniques, you can come back.

Before Ximen Bao arrived,

Only the people of Ye were running out, and no outsiders were seen entering Ye.

As a result, He Bo learned a lot and gained a deeper understanding of this era.

He was even a little ashamed.

The reason why he was able to come up with the method of making a waterwheel was because when He Bo was still a human, he once pieced it together with plywood in order to cope with his studies.

The thing He Bo paid the most for future technology was his wallet.

To be more specific, you would buy a wooden model from someone else, and then build a waterwheel by yourself, just like playing with building blocks.

He Bo thinks that

“We know that it is so, but we do not know why it is so.”

I'm talking about people like me.

Unlike Xi, who spoke of his farming with utter passion, like a master when he described exactly when to pile up the soil and when to dig ditches.

So, in shame, He Bo described to Xi what the fields in the future would look like. The similarities between the ridges in the fields that were being reclaimed in Ye County and the ridges made Xi fall into deep thought, and then he went into seclusion to comprehend the "new technique".

So at this time,
He Bo could only enjoy the spring breeze alone.

After arranging the spring plowing affairs, Ximen Bao took Yu and others to capture the wild people and Rongdi people in the surrounding areas. He wanted to use force to force them to submit to Ye County and become official citizens of Wei State.

The savages naturally won't do it.
Howling and running everywhere.

After all, once they entered the city and became city dwellers, they had to pay taxes to the king.

The Rongdi would also take the opportunity to launch a sneak attack and rob the noble Ximen Bao of the things he was carrying.

Ximen Bao was so angry that he devoted all his energy to this matter during this period. He lost a lot of hair and suffered some injuries.

But I can't not do it!
Before Ye County became prosperous, basically no one would move here on their own initiative.

Although everyone can endure hardships at this time, it doesn't matter where you eat, so why come to Ye County?

If Ximen Bao wants to increase the population quickly, he has to capture people and force them!
He Bo naturally didn't want to disturb him anymore, for fear that Ximen Bao would be so exhausted that he would even catch ghosts and gods.

　The farming system before the Warring States Period was a leisure system, which was also the common farming method at the time of this book (401 BC). The ridge-making and furrow-drawing mentioned in the book belonged to the 畎亩 system (the Daitian method was developed based on it), which was promoted during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It was indeed an advanced technology at that time.

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　　Thanks to my book friends Wu Pifu, Sanshi Daojun, Ku Shu Yu Feng, Yi Jian Xiao Shu Rui Yuan Sheng, 20220827184104552, Mou Mou You Dian Keng, 20181001123634671 for their monthly tickets! (*︶*)
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(End of this chapter)