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

Chapter 829 Quantity of Thirty-Two Jin
"From Guanzhong to Henan, there is almost no hope for this year's summer harvest."

"The drought is worsening, and most of this wheat crop will be lost."

When the Left Vice Minister Fang Xuanling uttered these words in the Hall of State Affairs, the prime ministers remained silent. Although they possessed firsthand information and had been observing the wheat situation in various regions, they were still in a state of silence.

But no surprises occurred.

Just as the Imperial Observatory predicted, a warm winter and spring drought, coupled with wheat shortages and pests, meant the wheat crop was doomed.

Du Ruhui spoke in a slightly hoarse voice: "We can no longer have any illusions; we must face the worst-case scenario."

Every year before the summer harvest, there is a period of famine when food is scarce and people rely on the harvest to have enough grain. But now, the summer harvest has failed completely.

How to do?
What do ordinary people eat?
There isn't much grain in the national warehouses.
In the summer, very few people had any grain left in their homes.

This drought is extremely widespread, stretching from Hexi and Longyou to Guanzhong, and then to Hedong, Henan, and Hebei. It can be said that the entire northern part of the Central Plains will suffer a great disaster.

North of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River, a severe famine is imminent.

This is an urgent problem.

It's extremely urgent, like a fire burning one's eyebrows.

The State Council had already begun preparations and implemented many measures, such as the grain procurement plan proposed by Li Yi, which required the government to purchase two dou of grain per mu from those who owned more than 100 mu of land.

Then there was the grain system of the public granaries that existed even earlier last year. Regardless of whether one was a prince or a commoner, grain was levied on every mu (unit of land area), at a rate of two sheng (unit of volume) per mu. This was not a purchase, but a collection, and the imperial court did not pay for it.

In addition, Li Yi also proposed a plan to borrow grain from wealthy and powerful families, and even temple merchants, based on their land and property, to borrow grain or money to purchase grain.

Another point is Li Yi's recent proposal that the imperial court should procure and transport grain from Jiangnan, Shannan, and even Lingnan and Jiannan to the north.
At the same time, merchants and ordinary people were encouraged to buy grain in the south and transport it north. In some cases, distillers were even required to bring grain from the south to the five major granaries in the north in order to obtain a liquor license and permit to brew and sell liquor.

These measures
They are all trying to find ways to transport food to the disaster area and increase food reserves.

Such a widespread drought, and possibly the locust plague that may follow, could even jeopardize the autumn harvest if a major locust plague breaks out.

If there is no harvest in two seasons of a year, the consequences are quite terrible.

Those present here have all lived through the late Sui Dynasty, the reign of Emperor Daye.
The horrors of war and famine are still fresh in my memory.

The newly appointed Imperial Censor Sun Fujia also attended the meeting of the Council of State Affairs. He proposed that increasing revenue was not enough, and that expenditure should also be reduced.

"I remember when Minister Li was in Hebei, there was also a severe food shortage and famine. At that time, Minister Li took many measures and adopted a multi-pronged approach. On one hand, he transferred grain from other places to Hebei, and on the other hand, he borrowed grain from large households and encouraged them to sell their grain."
In addition, were policies regarding grain quotas and rations implemented?

Sun Fujia asked Li Yi to elaborate on the measures taken to deal with the famine in Hebei.

"Hebei suffered a severe famine after the war, but under Li Situ's governance, there was no serious famine, no large-scale migration of starving people, and no disturbances caused by displaced people."

These are all things we should learn from.

Everyone looked at Li Yi.
When Li Yi was in Hebei, he was quite decisive in his actions, thanks to the privilege of acting expediently granted by the emperor. With imperial edicts in one hand and a strong army in the other, things went quite smoothly.

"Actually, it's not that complicated,"

Ultimately, it's nothing more than concentrating limited food supplies and distributing them rationally.

It's unacceptable for ordinary people to be starving and resorting to cannibalism on one hand, while powerful landlords hoard vast amounts of grain in their estates, preferring to let it rot rather than release it.

Another thing is to be careful with your money.

Since there is famine, we must carefully manage our food supplies and try to last as long as possible.

"The imperial court has now collected a batch of grain, including taxes paid by the people, grain collected from the government's public granaries, grain procured through unified government procurement, grain purchased from the market by the imperial granaries, and grain borrowed."

This amount of grain may seem substantial, but it's still not enough to cope with this great famine.

This grain is a stable ballast; we must use it well and not squander it carelessly.

Since Sun Yaxiang just mentioned grain supplies, I'll talk about that too.

Li Yi advised that the state should not easily move the grain reserves, but this did not mean ignoring the lives of disaster victims and refusing to open the granaries.
Instead, we should make the most of the limited food resources.

"Before March, the grain in the official granaries cannot be released; the grain on the market must be consumed first. Grain merchants are allowed to raise grain prices."

"When the food supply is low and there is a shortage of grain on the market, the government granaries will start releasing grain, but they cannot release it indiscriminately."

He suggested implementing a system based on household registration, compiling grain ration books, and allocating grain quotas according to family size and age.

This grain ration certificate and quota were merely credentials and limits for ordinary people to purchase grain from the government; they still had to pay money to buy the grain.

However, one was only eligible to buy grain with a ration coupon, and the quantity that could be purchased was also subject to quota restrictions.

By doing so, we can supply more people with the limited food resources.

"In times of great disaster, survival comes first."

Therefore, I also suggest that the imperial court convert most of the grain in the granaries into a mixture of coarse and fine grains to produce disaster relief rations, which would last longer.

As for this quantitative measure

For example, one jin in the Tang Dynasty was sixteen liang, which is nearly 600 grams, and it was heavier than the 500 grams per jin in later times.

A able-bodied man is rationed 32 catties of grain per month, with a 4:6 ratio of coarse to fine grains.

For middle-aged men and women, that is, those aged sixteen to twenty, the weight is twenty-two jin.

For children aged 10 to 16, the weight is 16 jin (approximately 7.5 catties), while for children aged 1 to 10, it is 12 jin (approximately 6 catties).

That's roughly the quantitative estimate; the specific ratio of coarse to fine will depend on the actual situation.

This quantity has been discounted considerably.

For example, a Tang Dynasty soldier stationed on the border received two sheng (a unit of volume) of rations per day, or six dou (another unit of volume) per month. One sheng in the Tang Dynasty was only 0.6 liters in modern terms, and this was further calculated based on the volume of rice.

One dou of rice in the Tang Dynasty weighs about 4.5 kilograms, which is equivalent to about 7.5 jin in the Tang Dynasty. A border soldier's monthly ration is more than 40 jin. The current ration for able-bodied men is actually 32 jin, which is 70% of the border soldier's ration.

However, the border troops were supplied with rice or millet, but now the grain rations are divided into four parts coarse and six parts fine, or even three parts fine and seven parts coarse, which reduces the amount of grain rations.

But if it's to cope with famine,

Each able-bodied man had the opportunity to buy 32 catties of grain from the imperial granary each month, even if it was a mix of coarse and fine grains, it would be a lifesaver.

The imperial court will not sell this grain at a high price; in fact, it may even allow loans, which can be repaid in the future.

In short, the goal was to prevent the grain in the granaries from being consumed too quickly, and to carefully manage the resources to support the most difficult famine.

A strong man weighs 32 jin, a child 12 jin, and teenagers 16 jin and 22 jin respectively, all of which are 30% of the weight of the first grade.

This ration book was meant to keep people alive, not to ensure they had enough to eat.

Grain could also be purchased in the market or borrowed from landlords; in short, the grain in the official granary was the minimum guarantee.

In order to allow more people to live on limited food supplies,
Therefore, Li Yi suggested that a mix of refined and coarse grains should be made as much as possible. For example, rice should be ground with the husk intact, without removing the bran, and the whole grain should be ground together with the bran. It is even recommended to add locust powder and water hyacinth powder.

When grinding wheat into flour, the bran must also be kept.

Whole grains are not just about the germ and bran; even the chaff is kept, as it's essential for survival during famine.

In peaceful times, ordinary people don't eat sorghum, but even livestock are fed it with other foods.

And soybeans, etc.

Thus,
More food can be utilized from the national granaries.

Wang Gui frowned as he listened.
He couldn't help but say, "Pingzhang, what you're saying sounds like you're preparing animal feed."

Li Yi countered, “Wang Shizhong comes from the Wuhuan branch of the Wang clan of Taiyuan, one of the five surnames and seven clans, known as a prestigious family for a thousand years. Although the dynasty has risen and fallen, the Wang family has remained prosperous.”

You can't possibly understand the despair of the people during a famine.

They would dig up grass roots, peel tree bark, and even eat clay. On their escape route, they could sell their wives and daughters for a bushel of millet or even a liter of beans.

Some even exchanged their own children to eat.

As long as there's something to eat, who cares if it's bran and chaff?
The most important thing is to stay alive.

Food supplies are limited.

Making some food to fill our stomachs and save lives, who cares whether it tastes good or not?
If you've been starving for three days and your stomach is acidic, having two liters of this life-saving food to cook a pot of porridge is better than anything else.

Take Luoyang City for example,

Just a few years ago,
Luoyang, which had been besieged for a long time, was facing a severe famine due to a lack of food. Even with money and silk, it was impossible to exchange for grain.

Even the most precious gold items could only be exchanged for an equal weight of grain.

We only have so much food on hand. If we don't plan carefully, we'll just open the granaries and distribute the grain when famine strikes.
How many days can it be stored?

What do we do after we finish eating?

Du Ruhui was the first to support Li Yi, saying, "Wu Yi is right. We can't afford to be careless. The country has just been unified, and even if the south hadn't suffered such a severe disaster this time..."
However, after the great chaos, the south had not yet recovered, and there was not much surplus grain to distribute.

"This purchase restriction and the processing of grain into disaster relief grain are measures taken out of necessity, and I fully support them."

Fang Xuanling also supported it.

It is often said that Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui were the most loyal executors of the emperor's decisions. In fact, in recent years, Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui have become the most loyal executors of the emperor's decisions.

Now, the two are even the Left and Right Ministers, in charge of the Tang Dynasty's Ministry of Personnel, responsible for execution.

Li Yi, on the contrary, became the emperor's trusted advisor and strategist, and many decisions were made in consultation between Li Yi and the emperor.

“I also agree with Li Pingzhang’s approach. If anyone has a better idea, please let us know,” Wei Zheng said.

Yuwen Shiji and Pei Ju's eyes met unintentionally.
Both of them turned their heads away at the same time.

“I also support it,” Pei Ju spoke first.

Yuwen Shiji then agreed.

Wang Gui was somewhat stunned. He had commented on Li Yi's use of grain stored in the national granary to make animal feed, but instead he was criticized for being arrogant and ignorant of the hardships of ordinary people.

The other prime ministers all supported Li Yi.

Du Ruhui also mentioned that the issuance of grain ration certificates must be strictly based on household registration; without household registration, grain ration certificates cannot be issued.

For example, slaves and tenants who were not registered could not obtain official permits, and thus could not buy or borrow grain from the government granaries.

The masters of slaves and tenants had to solve their own food problem.

Those who abscond or hide their households cannot be processed either.

You can do it, but first register your household. Those with land or property become the primary household, while those without land or property can register as secondary households.

Both the head household and the customers can receive grain rations and quotas based on the number of people registered in the household, the age of the elderly, and the number of rations.

While doing business, they also managed to recruit another group of people.

Wang Gui, having regained his composure, also offered a suggestion: "The quotas for soldiers and officials should be increased, and they should be given preferential treatment, especially officials."

“Officials receive stipends in rice; they don’t need this kind of feed. They can buy it at the market, whether they want refined rice or wheat flour,” Wei Zheng retorted. “Does the Wang family really need to compete with disaster victims for this relief grain?”

With just one sentence, Wang Gui was rendered speechless.

(End of this chapter)