The vast farmland in front of Heifu is composed of slender strips, and those long strips are acres.

He stood at the edge of the field, along the edge of the acre for drainage of the small ditch, lightly stepped out of the left foot, then the right foot, one left and one right down, is the basic distance unit of this era: step, one step is equal to six feet, equivalent to 1.38 meters in later generations.

In this way, the width of one acre of land is just completed.

So each acre is 1 step wide and 240 steps long. Because the Qin State began to implement the large mu system since the Shang Dynasty changed the law. It is different from the 100-step small mu of Yan, Chu, and Qi, and the 200-step middle mu of Wei.

The reason for this is that in addition to the fact that the Qin State was vast and sparsely populated when Shang Ying changed the law, it was necessary to let the common people share more land and a variety of grains. Probably because the Qin State began to use cattle for farming extensively, even those who did not have cattle could borrow cattle from the government for farming. And an ox pulls a plow, about 240 steps, and needs to rest once, as for people, pull the plow and walk a hundred steps, you have to lie down tired.

As a result, the 100 acres of land belonging to Heifu are extraordinarily large.

After Heifu was shocked, he squatted down and calculated the account with a branch: a city acre in later generations was 666.67 square meters, while a large acre in Qin was about 400 square meters, a little smaller than that in later generations. But when converted, 100 acres is more than 40,000 square meters......

"With such a big land, in the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, I am already a small landlord."

Heifu was suddenly a little amused, you must know that it was normal for farmers in the Qing Dynasty to have more than ten acres of land for self-cultivated farmers, and those who were poorer even only had a few acres.

But don't be too happy, although these lands are given to the black family, they still belong to the state. Dong Zhongshu of the Han Dynasty said that the Qin State "changed the imperial system, except for the well fields, and the people had to sell and buy", but when Heifu returned to the Qin State, he had never seen any transaction to buy and sell land, let alone contracts, and the Qin Jian excavated in later generations could not find anything like it at all.

In the Qin State, land must not be bought or sold! After all, only under the premise of state-owned land, the land system and the military merit award, the two foundations of the Qin state can be maintained, at least until Qin Shi Huang ruled the world and announced that "the head of the Qian" was like this, and the peasants had the right to use the land, but not the ownership.

Thinking about it this way, Daqin and my Celestial Empire are really quite similar.

And don't think that the fields are big and the harvest is abundant. On the contrary, in this era, because the harvest of arable land is too small, if so much land is not allocated, it is absolutely impossible to support a family.

"Uncle."

When Heifu sat on the ridge to rest, he asked by the way: "Last year, when our family harvested in the autumn, how much harvest was there in one acre?" ”

After walking for a while, his leg injury was a little sore, but unlike Heifu, he looked at the land in front of him, his eyes were full of longing and expectation, as a farmer, how could anyone not love the land?

"If you have millet, 2 stones, more rice, and 3 stones per mu. When I was serving in the garrison, I heard from the soldiers from Guanzhong that the yield of corn per mu could be increased by two to three times! "As the backbone of the family, I have to have a number in my heart when I collect more and less every year.

The "stone" here refers to volume, not weight, after all, how can there be effort to do precise weighing in these years. The peasants hit the millet, scooped up the rice, are put into the bucket and liter of the fixed volume, and the "Shang Yang Fang Sheng" distributed by Xianyang to the counties and counties is the standard measuring instrument of this era.

Heifu has been in this era for so long, and he has carried rice grain countless times on his shoulders, and he has a number in his heart. So I know that according to the eldest brother, in my own field, the yield of millet is about more than 50 city catties per mu, and the yield of rice is about more than 70 city catties per mu.

What is this concept?

Heifu's hometown in the countryside in his previous life was also knowledgeable about grains, and he knew that modern hybrid rice fields could produce nearly 2,000 catties per acre of land! Millet, planted in a large area, can produce eight or nine hundred pounds per mu!

In other words, the grain yield per mu in this era is only about a few tenths of that of the 21st century.

Productivity, which was just a dry word in textbooks in the past life, seems so terrible at the moment. If people want to eat enough, if the yield per mu cannot be increased, they can only expand the planting area, and it is no wonder that the average land occupied by each person at this time is so large.

Therefore, Heifu can especially understand the difficulties of farming in this era, without the help of mechanization, each peasant has to do ten times or even dozens of times more work than later generations! A family of five to eight people must work in the fields day and night during the busy farming season to cultivate so much land.

The peasants of the Qin State, under the guidance of the field officials appointed by the government, had already moved away from the stage of slash-and-burn cultivation and began to cultivate intensively. In the "Cang Law", the peasants are even taught hand-in-hand, saying that when sowing seeds, rice and hemp should be used for two and two-thirds of a mu of rice, one bucket of millet and wheat per mu, and two-thirds of a mu of millet and beans......

But even so, the yield of millet is only a little higher than the "yield of 1.5 stones per mu" of Wei 200 years ago.

After all, there are no chemical fertilizers and pesticides in these years, which brings not ecology, but low yield. Farming tools are a mixture of wood, stone, bone, copper, and iron, and farming techniques need to be improved. If you want to have a good harvest, you can only use water conservancy to forcibly upgrade, there is the Guanzhong of Zhengguo Canal, the CD Plain of Dujiangyan has been built, and it has become the largest granary of Qin, supporting the King of Qin to launch one war after another.

Now that Heifu has been allocated a hundred acres of land alone, although it looks beautiful at first glance, when he thinks about it, he has no desire to cultivate at all.

"Uncle...... As you said, find someone to plant this land. The thought of so much farm work makes Heifu's scalp tingle.

He nodded and said, "This matter is not urgent, I have asked in the township for the past two months, but there are mediocre cultivators who are willing to come to farm." ”

Although the land grant system was implemented, not everyone in the Qin State had land, and there were always some wanderers and criminals whose fields were confiscated. Because Qin Lu's concept of treating the land is not allowed to occupy the pit and not, are you not active in farming? Okay, don't plant it, take it back to the country and give it to others to plant!

The most typical is the Dongmen Leopard's family, because his father was drunk and drowned, which is considered a violation of the law, so the land was confiscated, and there was no vacant land near the county town to steal seeds for him, and Dongmen Leopard could only rely on other methods to make a living. The same is true of the Xiao Tao family, the father and son are working as tenant farmers for others, and they may be reduced to servants at any time.

The eldest brother pointed to the edge of the field and said, "I called you to come and see the land today, just to discuss and discuss, make an appointment with some people, and build the field (liè) first." ”

Although Heifu's land is large, it also has boundaries, and the four corners of the fields are piled up with a square mound called "seal", and other people's fields have built four earthen walls along the seal, which is the 埒, which is used to mark the boundaries of the land.

When the two brothers pointed out the fields, several people happened to pass behind them, one of them with his head tied in a bun and wearing a wooden crown, like a tall and thin old peasant with his hands behind his back, looked at them from a distance and said, "Isn't this the two brothers of the heartfelt family?" ”

This person was in the sunset, and he took a few subordinates to work in the field, and he had to get up and bow to him.

"I've seen Lizheng."

Li Zheng said with an unkind face: "Heart, Heifu, what are you doing wandering around on the edge of this sealed soil? The decree states that if the fiefdom is destroyed, whether intentionally or unintentionally, it is considered a 'stealing seal' and is punishable by imprisonment. If you dare to secretly eradicate them and expand your own fields a few steps outward, it will be 'stealing land', and the punishment will be heavier!" Hmph, Hugh blames the old man for not reminding you and others! ”

How can anyone treat people as thieves in the first sentence, Heifu was suddenly unhappy in his heart.

The grudge between him and his family here stems from eight years ago, when Lizheng's son also fell in love with his sister-in-law Aoi and wanted to be a concubine. But Aoi is bent on marrying the eldest brother, and finally in the words of their eldest aunt...... No, it was persuasion with good words, and the Aoi family also agreed to this family business.

Since then, the Lizheng family has begun to frequently make trouble for the brothers: borrowing cattle during spring ploughing, only distributing them to the weakest old cattle, borrowing iron farming tools, and giving them all to tatters.

This is also the reason why the first thing Heifu did after getting the money was to let his eldest brother buy a full set of iron farm tools, that is, he didn't want to look at people's faces anymore.

Heifu also thought that he was assigned to serve a shift during the Chinese New Year, and I am afraid that Li Zheng was also hindering him.

He looked at Li Zheng's eyes a little unkindly, but the eldest brother just smiled and said: "Thank you Li Zheng for reminding us, we will never know the law and break the law, but I want to ask Li Zheng about something." ”

"I inherited my deceased father's duke, and every year I would assign a concubine (servant) to help with the farming, but last year I didn't. Not to mention, my middle brother has newly obtained the title of duke, and he can't take care of a hundred acres of land alone, Li Zheng, he should give him a concubine this year, right? ”

Li Zheng still had a straight face: "What about the public servant, the public servant is amazing?" The old man is still on the top! The concubines are limited, but there are seven or eight households in the lords, how can they get a share? According to the law, the concubines should be given priority to those who have official positions, and then distributed according to the household registration number, and sooner or later it will be your family's turn, just wait! ”

As he spoke, he sneered and was about to leave.

At this time, Heifu finally couldn't help it, and asked loudly: "Dare to ask Lizheng, if I am also an official, will the concubine be assigned to my family first?" ”

"It's up to you to be an official?"

Li Zheng turned around, glanced at Heifu with disdain, and said contemptuously: "When your family was in Chu, you were a common man like a subordinate concubine, serving my family for generations. After entering Qin, he was lucky enough to get a public servant, and now he still wants to be an official? Let's toss a few more generations! ”

As he spoke, he raised his head and left with his subordinates.

When the Zheng family was ruled in the Chu State, it was a small clan in this area, and the people were prosperous. After entering the Qin Dynasty, he was also promoted to Lizheng, and in his heart, he looked down on the poor people of these generations.

"Sesame is big and small, and there is no one in his eyes, and he dares to take revenge on my family with small means in private, phew."

Rizheng walked away, and Heifu felt like he had eaten a fly, and his good mood for the past few days had been ruined. But think about it, aren't there many village chiefs and village party secretaries in later generations? Corrupt and pervert the law, collude with each other, and act like a local hegemon.

"After all, it's an official, Heifu, the family is counting on you to be an official, or you may be able to make him restrained." Shook his head with a bitter smile, life at home has become more and more difficult in the past few years, and it has nothing to do with Li Zheng's retaliation, but they can only dare to be angry but dare not speak.

The people cannot fight with the officials, it is the same in all times.

Heifu looked at the peacock-like pace, and laughed instead of anger.

"Uncle, just wait, one day, I will make his family even unable to do it!"

……

PS: The data in this chapter comes from the "Qin and Han Dynasty Grain Yield Analysis", because the records used are mainly from the Han Dynasty, so it has been slightly reduced.