A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 413 Wild Boars Can't Eat Fine Sugar

North of Luoyang City

Along the Chan River, the low, dilapidated shacks that once stood there are now neat rows of traditional courtyard houses, complete with a front courtyard, a back vegetable garden, halls, side rooms, kitchens, pigsties, cattle pens, outhouses, woodsheds, and warehouses.

Li Yi, accompanied by Luo San, inspected his territory.

The manor is situated along the road and river, with rammed earth walls standing two zhang high, giving people a great sense of security.

Many courtyards have been built within the manor; these are workshops under construction.

Compared to my last visit, there were many more people on the manor, including slaves and laborers, both men and women. The vast majority were engaged in manual labor, such as sawing wood, blacksmithing, and grinding grain. Although the work was hard, they received two meals a day, so the pay was considered good.

People even came from Luoyang city to ask for work.

It is currently a time of food shortage, and post-war Henan, especially the Luoyang area, is still experiencing food shortages. Although the situation is much better than during the war, grain prices in the market are still very high.

Finding a job that provides two meals a day, and even earns you some extra food each month, is something that people fight tooth and nail for.

Compared to most manual laborers, skilled craftsmen or literate scholars who could read, write, and do accounting were more popular here. They were provided with better food, new clothes and shoes every season, not to mention higher wages, including not only food but also money and silk.

Li Yi looked at the manor that was slowly under construction.

Of the original thirty-odd tenant households, not a single one left; they all stayed and now live in new courtyards, growing vegetables in the backyard, raising chickens and ducks, and feeding pigs and sheep.

Although all of this was provided by the Li family and wasn't given away for free, the tenants looked at it as if they already owned everything.

There's more work now.
They were either helping to repair the estate and build workshops, or helping with transportation and logistics, or feeding the livestock and poultry that were distributed to them.

The busier they were, the more smiles appeared on the farmers' faces.

"It seems everyone is having a fulfilling time."

Luo San laughed and said, "That's because they did good deeds in their past lives, and in this life they met such a kind and benevolent boss as you, Ah Lang."

Everything has been thought out and arranged for them; all they have to do is follow the instructions.

Not only are we lending them food rations interest-free, but we're also helping them build the estate. The estate provides lunch at the canteen.

The porridge that can hold chopsticks upright is filling, and it even comes with soup, oil, and salt.

It must be said that these tenants are easily satisfied.

Li Yi took a stroll around the manor's dining hall. The free lunch provided by the dining hall was very simple: porridge was unlimited, but it was a mixed grain porridge. Although chopsticks could stand upright in it, it was still porridge. The millet was just hulled brown rice, mixed with sorghum, beans, and some wild vegetables.

There were no vegetables, only soup.

It's basically just boiling water in a big pot with a little salt, a little oil, and some wild vegetables. This is the delicious oil and salt dish that everyone loves.

“The tofu and bean curd workshop has already opened, right? We can use the bean dregs to cook a dish for everyone,” Li Yi said.

"We can't even sell enough soybean dregs," Luo San told Li Yi. He explained that dried bean curd sticks and tofu puffs were luxury foods reserved for nobles and wealthy families, and even ordinary tofu was not something that ordinary people could afford.

Soybean dregs are considered a good thing by ordinary people.

Luoyang is still relatively short of supplies, especially food-related items such as grains, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar.

Luoyang today is like Chang'an a few years ago.

Looking at the tenants in the workshop, Luo San thought of his past. Now that he had overcome hardship, he still remembered those days of hunger. He even had a habit of always carrying some food with him, no matter what.

It's either fried beans or a few pieces of dried meat.

I always need something in my mouth, otherwise I feel very uncomfortable. It's a lingering effect of being afraid of hunger in the past.

The family has several children. Lanxiang, Gousheng, and Shitou used to be very thin, but now they are all very fat.

But Luo San really liked the children's chubby appearance. Lanxiang was also fair and plump, and she liked that too.

Luo San had previously heard Li Yi say that he didn't eat greasy food for dinner because he wanted to lose weight, which was hard to believe. Someone actually thought that being thin was good and being fat was bad.

Obesity is a sign of prosperity, representing wealth and status.

Luo San is now very proud of his belly, and he deliberately sticks it out a bit when he walks.
Fat Luo San, with his protruding belly, felt that this was a matter of pride for Li Zhuang. If a trusted steward like him were skinny, others would think that the Li family was harsh on their servants.

“I also ate lunch at the manor’s canteen,” Li Yi said.

"Then I'll order someone to slaughter a sheep and a chicken..."

Li Yi stopped Luo San, "Slaughtering a sheep or a chicken is fine, it'll be a good meal for everyone. You've all been working hard lately, especially the managers and foremen."

I saw a lot of wild vegetables in the kitchen: shepherd's purse, purslane, dandelion, mugwort, etc., all very fresh and tender.
I ate wild vegetables for lunch.

Shepherd's purse porridge, dandelion soup, malan salad with dried tofu, and purslane stir-fry.

Luo San laughed and said, "Those are just wild vegetables, nothing special. These are all dug up by the children of the tenant farmers in the fields. They dig up a whole basketful and can exchange it for a bowl of porridge at noon. These children go digging every day, there's just too much."

These wild vegetables are a lifesaver for people during the lean season when crops are scarce, but few people actually like to eat them. They eat too much of them and then look at them with disgust.

Of course, poor people don't have as many fancy ways of eating wild vegetables as rich people, and they don't have as many seasonings.

They basically just boil them in water, some don't even have salt, let alone oil. How can that taste good?

Although Li Yi's shepherd's purse porridge looks simple—just shepherd's purse and rice cooked into porridge—the rice is of the highest quality, seasoned with salt.

The salt I added was more expensive than the rice I used to cook the porridge.

Malantou (a type of wild vegetable) is also often mixed with dried tofu in a cold salad, along with sesame oil and vinegar.

The wild vegetables eaten by nobles and the wild vegetables eaten by poor people are actually not the same thing.

This is an era of not having enough to eat.
Even the best fertile fields yielded only about two shi (a unit of dry measure) of wheat, while ordinary fields yielded as little as one shi per mu (another unit of dry measure). Many arid lands couldn't even grow wheat, only millet, sorghum, oats, or other grains, though these could be grown, the yields were even lower, less than one shi per mu. The people lacked oil and other food sources, and their large appetites only exacerbated their hunger, leading to chronic starvation.

Li Yi thought cotton planting had potential, so he wanted to plant more this year, but he was impeached by many officials.

They impeached Li Yi for using precious farmland to grow flowers, accusing him of extravagance and debauchery.

Li Yi Manor engages in animal husbandry, raising pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks. Li Yi uses sorghum, beans, and rice flour and bran left over from milling to feed the livestock and poultry.

He was impeached by officials, who even accused him of leading beasts to devour people.

Even the Qiang dog that Li Yi kept at home, which was fed two bowls of food a day, was impeached.

The officials who impeached him spoke righteously, pointing out that so many people in the world were starving, digging up grass roots, peeling tree bark, and even eating dirt; some were even exchanging their own children to eat.

You occupy thousands of acres of fertile land, using the best fields to grow flowers? You use precious grain to feed pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks.
They might barely accept feeding cattle or horses, but they won't accept feeding pigs, sheep, chickens, or ducks. Cattle and horses are for working, but pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks are purely raised for meat.

What Li Yi considers self-evident and just, some of in fact are problematic in today's world.

Grain is the key link.

Everything must give way to food production.

An imperial censor, after inspecting various regions, returned and reported that the Xuan and Rao prefectures could be mined for silver, yielding millions annually.

Instead of being rewarded, he was dismissed from his post because mining and smelting silver would consume a lot of manpower and affect agriculture.

noon,

Li Yi personally selected fresh wild vegetables and prepared several seasonal dishes.

As a result, only he enjoyed the meal, while Luo San didn't like it. Even though Li Yi prepared it very exquisitely, Luo San still preferred to eat meat.

Liu Heizi, Chen Lingjiao, and the others were similar; they enjoyed eating large chunks of meat, and the oily, juicy feeling made them feel happy and satisfied.

"You're like wild boars that can't handle fine food," Li Yi laughed.

Liu Heizi picked up a large piece of mutton: "This piece of mutton is big and fatty. We really can't understand why Alang would rather eat wild vegetables."

The shepherd's purse porridge was delicious and could also cleanse the liver and improve eyesight. Li Yi ate it with great relish; he didn't want to become a big fat man.

His aesthetic sense is still stuck in the past; he likes a fit physique with abs and a low body fat percentage.

Furthermore, one should not have a large belly. In the eyes of the Tang people, a large belly is a "general's belly," but in Li Yi's eyes, it is just a beer belly, a symbol of greasiness.

He would deliberately maintain his figure, and sometimes he would even skip meat and eat only vegetarian food and fruit at night.

Since becoming officers, Hei Zi and his comrades have been deliberately gaining weight and trying to build up fat, especially to develop a potbelly, which they believe makes them look more imposing.

They eat white flour at every meal and meat at every meal. This is their usual diet. In the past, they would have thought that this was the emperor's royal cuisine.

Even landlords couldn't afford to eat white flour every meal, let alone meat.

"Both the Crown Prince and the King of Qin recommended that Alang lead the army to conquer Xiao Xian, so why did Alang refuse?"

"Yes, even if he doesn't lead the army to fight Xiao Xian, he can still accompany the expedition to Hebei. With A Lang's merits and abilities, he would definitely be the deputy commander."

As Liu Heizi and his companions ate their delicious mutton, they couldn't help but bring up the matter again, unable to hold back their complaints.

"I intend to do my job well." Li Yi smiled, unable to explain too much to them. He was already concurrently serving as Grand Councilor, Grand Minister of Works, and Grand Master of the Left. So young, yet he had already achieved such great merit and received so many rewards.

There's no need to go through all that trouble to command troops and fight battles.

The credit should be given to others.

Let's leave Xiao Xian to Li Xiaogong and Li Jing. After we've defeated Xiao Xian, we can even let Lin Shihong, Li Zitong, and even Feng Ang and Ning Changzhen of Lingnan be the ones to attack him.

Making too many contributions isn't always a good thing.

Great achievements are difficult to reward, and great achievements threaten the ruler's authority...

It's fine for him to stay in Luoyang and enjoy a more relaxed life.

"This time, Henan will also send troops to accompany the King of Qin on his northern expedition. I can arrange for you to join the expedition."

Liu Heizi hesitated for a moment, then said, "Never mind, I'll stay in Henan and keep Alang company."

Da Fu and the others also said they were willing to stay, but they just couldn't understand why Li Yi would give up the opportunity to take command.

"The Tang Dynasty hasn't unified the entire country yet; at most, we've only seized half. There's still a long battle ahead," Li Yi said mysteriously. "If we really want to fight, we don't need to go to Hebei or Jingzhou; we can just stay in Henan."

"It won't be long before there's war again."

"Really, who are you going to hit?"

Chen Lingjiao rubbed his fake eye and laughed, "Even a fool could guess who we can beat in Henan. Of course, it's those guys east of the Grand Canal."

Liu Heizi chuckled, "Could a fight really break out?"

"Something should be happening soon."

If the Tang Dynasty did not send troops to attack Dou Jiande now, perhaps Meng Haigong, Xu Yuanlang and others could still tolerate it. But since the Tang Dynasty is going to send troops to attack Hebei, Dou Jiande will definitely try to find some helpers and will inevitably provoke them to take action.

With Dou Jiande backing them up, it was inevitable that these people would defect.

Moreover, Li Yi also sent them Yin Ashu and Zhang Xuan, two arrogant relatives of the emperor.

(End of this chapter)