Three Kingdoms: A Million Soldiers Grown from the Fields

Chapter 20: Rural Officials Gather (Please Read Further)

After breakfast, the Zhao family courtyard returned to its usual tranquility.

The young men went home or went up the mountain in groups to gather firewood.

The amount of firewood needed to feed twenty or thirty people was also large, which is why Zhang Xian set this rule.

Otherwise, if Zhou Cui were to do all the firewood gathering, she wouldn't be able to cook even a few meals in a whole day.

As people gradually left, Zhang Xian finished the last bite of his wheat cake and drank a mouthful of cold water.

How much food do we have left at home?

He asked Zhou Cui, who had been in charge of cooking for the family ever since she brought the mother and daughter back, while Zhang Xian only occasionally cooked for himself.

After tucking the stray hairs from her forehead behind her ear, Zhou Cui pondered for a moment and replied, "The patriarch initially gave me about six shi of grain, but now only two shi, or five dou, remain."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Xian nodded slightly: "Okay, I understand."

Zhang Xian had spent the last twenty-odd days memorizing conversions of ancient units of weight, so he immediately understood.

In the Han Dynasty, one shi (石) was approximately 60 jin (斤), one dou (斗) was 6 jin (斤), and one sheng (升) was 6 liang (两). (One shi in the Han Dynasty was 120 jin, which is equivalent to 60 jin in the Chinese market. This is a standard conversion for ease of writing.) Two shi equaled five dou, which, according to the weight unit conversion, was approximately 150 jin.

The grain brought back from the Guo family is almost half used up, and that's only enough for one meal every seven days.

Without sufficient oil and water intake, it's normal to eat at least a pound of food per meal, so he didn't mention what the village lads could eat.

Even his own appetite has been increasing recently. Fortunately, Changshan is not short of salt, and he is willing to spend money to buy salt.

Otherwise, he would have to use spiciness as a seasoning, just like most people in this era.

That's right, it's seasoned with spiciness.

At first, Zhang Xian also thought that people in ancient times did not eat much spicy food, after all, chili peppers were not introduced to China until the Ming Dynasty.

But after experiencing it firsthand, he realized that although there were no chili peppers in ancient times, the taste of "spicy" had already been widely accepted.

The character 辛 represents the word 【辣】 (spicy).

However, currently, the people who are most accepting of spicy food are mostly poor families. Salt consumption is a major expense, and it is impossible to use enough salt every day. Sufficient salt is only replenished during busy farming seasons or when heavy physical labor is required.

Normally, people use dogwood or smartweed to flavor food in order to trick their taste buds into swallowing it.

The very existence of spiciness is a trick that causes the brain to release dopamine in order to obtain pleasure, and so spiciness gradually spread among poor families.

Such transmission is more common in areas with less salt, and much less common in coastal areas or areas with salt mines.

"Brother Lan." After finding out how much grain was left in the house, Zhang Xian looked at Xiahou Lan, who was helping to chop firewood.

"What's wrong, Brother Xian?" The latter put down his wood-chopping knife and looked over.

What is the current price of grain?

“Grain prices? Let me think.” Xiahou Lan pondered for a while before replying, “When I accompanied my father to buy grain the year before last, it was already around 350 coins per shi. Last year I heard it rose to 500 coins, and this spring, it will probably be 600 coins.”

“600 coins,” Zhang Xian rubbed his chin. He had only brought back 100,000 of the million coins the Guo family had given him, which was still considered quite wealthy.

If all of it were used to buy grain, it could buy about 160 shi, or 10,000 jin of rice.

Based on current practices, and assuming each person consumes 1.3 jin of grain per day, he could support 30 people for a year.

"Hiss!" I didn't realize how much it was until I did the math. One hundred thousand coins is enough to kill someone, but it's only enough to support thirty people for a year.

"No, self-sufficiency must be put on the agenda, otherwise in a few years, even if we have money, we won't know where to buy food."

As I pondered, the sun outside gradually rose higher.

It was almost noon, and Zhang Xian had already helped Huwa cultivate one and a half acres of land. He was working incredibly hard, and Huwa and his mother were both exclaiming, "You can't do that! Don't overwork yourself!"

Zhang Xian, leaning on his hoe, waved his hand dismissively and said, "It's alright, it's alright, my body won't break!"

Just as they were busy finishing cultivating the last plot of land belonging to Huwa's family, they saw a young man running quickly from the direction of the village in the distance.

"Brother Xian! Brother Xian! Stop working for now, the village elder wants you to go back, saying the Guo family is here."

"Huh?" Zhang Xian didn't quite hear clearly.

"Old Hu said the Guo family has arrived!" The young man, panting, walked up to Zhang Xian and said loudly.

"The Guo family is here!" Then their land is here too! Thinking of this, Zhang Xian threw down his hoe and said to Huwa and Huwa's mother, who were still busy in the field, "Auntie, Huwa, I'm going back to the village first. I'll come back later to help you finish."

Tiger Cub's mother, a woman in her thirties, quickly waved her hand and said, "Zixu, you go about your business. The aunties and Tiger Cub can handle the rest."

"Yeah, Brother Xian, you go ahead and do your work. I'm energetic enough to finish plowing too," Huwa chimed in, his admiration and gratitude for Zhang Xian overflowing.

After thinking about it, he agreed, "There's not much land left, so it's not worth the trouble for him to run back and forth." He nodded and said, "Okay, then I'll head back now."

"Okay, Brother Xian."

Tiger Cub responded and picked up the hoe to continue working.

With a notification sound saying "Agricultural Experience +35", Zhang Xian called over the young man who had come to inform him, and the two ran back to the small mountain village.

At this time, the old village was quite lively, with as many as eight or nine horse-drawn carriages in front of the house.

"Brother Xian, you're really something. Look at that carriage, even the village head has come. I think he's also brought the village head, Yi, and You Ji."

"The township head is here too?" Zhang Xian hesitated slightly.

The rural structure in the Han Dynasty was quite semi-autonomous. It can be said that below the county level, the township head was the highest-ranking official, directly managing the villages.

The village head was similar to a security chief, responsible for village security, conscripting laborers, and managing post stations. He could be considered a military officer with troops under his command.

As for Youyi and Youji, the former was responsible for collecting taxes, while the latter was a deputy under the head of the village.

However, generally only large townships have the position of Yi, while small townships have the position of Sefu. Although the two have the same authority, there is a difference in their titles.

Below the pavilion chief is the village chief, or village head, who is in charge of an area of ​​about a hundred households within a mile. Nowadays, the village chief of a small mountain village is the eldest son of the village elder.

Another point is that although the village elders are called village elders, they are also one of the three elders of the township. Although they do not have specific authority, they have enough public opinion power.

It can be said that the countryside during the Han Dynasty, or the countryside during the following dynasties, was firmly controlled by these people.

"Why is everyone here today? Are they here to get a share of the pie or to build relationships?" Zhang Xian judged that it was most likely the latter.

Even if it's a genuine case of direct rural management, one still needs to maintain good relations with those above. Given the Guo family's size, these people should naturally be currying favor with them.

With this in mind, Zhang Xian naturally had nothing to worry about and went straight into the village elder's house.

　Please read
　　
　
(End of this chapter)