"Shi Xiancheng, you haven't cultivated the land, have you? Horse ploughing is fast, but it is also very troublesome. Although a horse can plough the land five times faster than an ordinary ox, we can't afford to use it! Ordinary ploughing cattle eat forage, but horses eat grain! ”

"That's right! The horse eats grain, which is enough for a big appetite. But the horse is still very weak, and if you are not careful, you will get sick. Unlike cows, which are strong and not easy to get sick. Therefore, there is a saying that horses tied with copper donkeys and iron ox paper are too weak to be able to plow the land. ”

"Yes, not to mention a horse that sells for many times more than a cow! The price of a horse is more than a lot of cows, and I can't even afford it now, so how can we afford a horse? ”

"As for what you said about Shi County, horses can plow the land quickly, this is true. Horses plough the land several times as much as ordinary cattle, but we have enough oxen to use horses. We have a horse, and our family is only a hundred acres, where can we use horses? ”

Obviously, these peasants who cultivated the land were also thinking that Shi Bufan, a bureaucrat, was "not grounded" and could not really cultivate the land. However, Shi Bufan didn't directly refute it, and took the initiative to wait for them to finish complaining before he was ready to speak. And Shi Bufan knows that the Chinese have always been mainly cattle farming, which is caused by China's small-scale peasant economy. In fact, if we look at it from the perspective of the extraordinary times, the West uses horses to plow, while the East uses cattle to plow, this is actually the difference between the two agricultural production models to produce an effect. There is no best system in this world, only the most suitable system.

However, in China and the West back then, cattle farming was a per capita arable land in China, and in the future, China's economic center will move southward, and the south will be rich in paddy fields, but it is not suitable for horse farming, but only suitable for cattle farming. Horse farming is more suitable for dryland cultivation and is suitable for growing dryland crops such as wheat.

Moreover, China is generally a small-scale peasant economy, with families as units, and each household has relatively little land. With the peak of national power, the population is increasing, and land annexation is becoming more and more serious. However, the annexation of land did not actually increase production capacity, but only transferred the "paper" of land ownership to another person, who borrowed this paper and took part of the peasants' harvest free of charge. In fact, the production model of the smallholder economy has not changed, so that it is in fact more suitable for cattle farming.

The shortcomings of horse farming, these people have also said. Horses are prone to illness, and the price is much higher than that of cattle, plus the food that horses eat is very good, and the cost of use is relatively high. In addition, under the model of ordinary people's small-scale peasant economy, there is not enough land, so naturally it cannot form a sufficient scale effect, and there is no need for horse farming.

"Hehe, this horse plough is actually similar to the agricultural machinery of later generations. All kinds of agricultural machinery in later generations, although agricultural machinery and so on are very efficient, can often plough dozens of acres or hundreds of acres a day. But the people didn't need it, and the average cultivated land of the people in later generations was only a few acres of land, and they didn't need such good agricultural machinery. Coupled with the high price of agricultural machinery, it naturally seems flashy under this economic model. ”

"In fact, if you use agricultural machinery, if the amount of arable land is small, it is naturally not worth it. However, once the amount of cultivated land reaches a certain scale, the cost is reduced a lot, and it is much better than ox farming. ”

Of course, Shi Bufan is not the kind of person who is absolutely ungrounded, he only needs to bring the experience of agricultural machinery in later generations to the ancient horse farming. Horse farming is suitable for farmers who have a lot of land and a large demand for arable land. In other words, the larger the cultivated area, the more worthwhile and inexpensive the horse farming is. Although horses have to eat grain, horses are efficient. If it is used to cultivate small plots of land, it is naturally not worth it.

However, if there is a large area of arable land, the larger the area, the lower the cost. Shi Bufan even estimated that if the area is large enough, the large-scale use of horse farming, then the final cost of horse farming may be about eighty percent of cattle farming. Of course, the premise is that the arable land is large enough to spread the cost, so that they can share the cost. However, the small-scale peasant economy in ancient China really made it difficult for them to have this kind of thinking, so that everyone thought that horse farming was more expensive.

In ancient times, the small-scale peasant economy was divided into small peasant economies, and almost did not take the initiative to help them. So it's embarrassing, buying horses alone, farmers don't need it, they can't afford it, and they can't afford it, let alone raise it. So although horse farming is beneficial, it is naturally not necessary under the model of China's small-scale peasant economy.

"Who says you're just a family? In the future, so many of your families will be gathered together. There are about 6,000 households in our Wannian County, and if each family has 100 acres of land, it is more than 600,000 acres of land! More than 600,000 acres, do you say that horse farming will still lose money? That's saving money! Not only does it save money, it originally required ten people to be lower, but now three or two can do it, you say it's not saving time, it's also saving manpower! With all this manpower saved, can you do a lot of things? Shi Bufan asked.

Some of the people also began to roughly count on their fingers, but in the end they were also confused, apparently their mathematical skills were very poor, and there was no way to accurately calculate the ledger. However, some people suddenly recognized a statement.

"However, these cultivated land are our own, how can it be regarded as 600,000 acres?" Someone still asked unwillingly.

Shi Bufan hurriedly emphasized again, saying: "This is the reason why we want to become a cooperative, as long as we gather into a cooperative, then we can make a unified plan, so that who is responsible for what at that time, so that each performs its own duties, there will be no problems." Some people are responsible for farming on your behalf, some people are responsible for servitude for everyone, and some people are responsible for making other kinds of food. Of course, the ownership of land still belongs to each family, and each family forms a cooperative to produce together, according to their own division of labor. Wouldn't it be nice if those who were in charge of farming would hand over a portion of the enough food to feed their families to those who were not responsible for farming and who were responsible for servitude for everyone? At least the right to use the land that everyone hands over is not ownership, just like you lease this land to everyone to use together, but in the end the ownership is still your own. ”

"When the time comes, those who are responsible for plowing the land and farming will pay the taxes of the imperial court in full, and then leave the collective. The collectives are those who do the conscription in their place and then do other things, and these people have to take the part of the 'collective' to feed their families. And then the rest of the grain, that is, the ones who farmed their own fields. ”

Shi Bufan knew very well that it was impossible to touch the Tang Dynasty's founding system, the Juntian system, which was actually one of the ruling cores of the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty's rent adjustment system was based on the Juntian system. If you destroy the ownership of the Junda system, then there will definitely be problems.

Therefore, Shi Bufan can "change the concept" and artificially split the "ownership" and "use right", which originated from the practice of later companies. However, Shi Bufan is also far-fetched, and directly compares this practice of handing over the right of use to renting land to others, so as to take advantage of the practice of those noble landlords, which seems to be the same.

However, in fact, Shi Bufan himself knows very well that the surrender of the right to use is actually not the same thing as the tenant relationship of those landlords. The surrender of the right to use and the formation of this so-called production cooperative, in fact, is no longer the domain of the smallholder economy. It is just the appearance that the ownership of the land has not been lost, but in fact this so-called cooperative has become a farming company. In this "farming company", all those who own land here are actually "shareholders", and they take the land as a shareholder, and then they continue to join this "company" to work.

Even this farming company is divided into different departments, some are responsible for farming, some are responsible for serving on behalf of everyone, and some are responsible for doing other things. In fact, this has long been no longer the category of small-scale peasant economy, but the organizational model of agricultural reclamation companies. It's just a coat of land ownership that hasn't been lost, and in fact, it's already a new wine in an old bottle, and it's improved more than a little bit.

Of course, this agricultural reclamation company does not belong to a certain large businessman, but to those who hold the land to "buy shares", and when the time comes, everyone can elect their own company leaders according to the traditional method, just as the "township chief" was elected at that time. However, this is no longer a small-scale peasant economy, so everyone joins this cooperative, which is equivalent to being both employees and shareholders, and everyone has the same shares, and then elects people who trust and have the ability to organize production.

With this proper organization, it is possible to increase production efficiency many times. The original small-scale peasant economy not only wastes a lot of human resources, time resources, and even material resources. Wasting that, that's almost a huge loss. If you waste this, you can almost feed twice as many people again! Time is not ordinary is equivalent to saving farmers waste, and then can also increase the yield, so that the increase and decrease are enough to increase the productivity of a lot.

"Also, you can have people who have special contributions, and that can get more. For example, in the future, I will serve as a conscription for everyone, and in the future, I plan to change the conscription service in our Wannian County from the past to a daily calculation to a quantitative calculation. In doing so, there is more work, and one person can serve in the conscription instead of more people. Then more people will do other things, more work for those who serve for everyone, more work for others, more work for others, and those who are replaced will give him their part. This means that the more you do in the conscription, the more food you will receive from the cooperative. ”

Hearing this, it made these peasants' eyes red. If the service is calculated according to the number of days, they naturally want to grind foreign workers, because doing more and less is calculated according to the number of days, and naturally they will not be willing to do more. What's more, they do a lot, and they don't have any additional rewards, which naturally makes them have the desire to do things, and they don't have the idea of being able to work hard. But if the case is calculated according to the amount and you finish your share, then you can do it for others as soon as possible. If you do it for others, you can still earn more income by volume.

So many people have begun to calculate, if they go to serve others, then if they do more, they can get more. In this way, the people who are serving the conscription for everyone may earn much more than they used to simply farm.

With incentives, and paid by volume, they are of course very keen to do things. If you do things for free, you have to post all kinds of food, time and various production opportunities by yourself, and delay production, then you will lose a lot. However, once you are specifically responsible for taking the place of conscription, wouldn't it not only save time, but also change the standard of conscription from the previous daily to quantitative calculation, and the more you do this, the more you can get more.

Even if you do it for an extra month or two, once you are proficient in the work, one person can use it as five or six people, so that the final income has increased many times, and you can earn more than you did in the past.

"If that's the case, I'm willing to serve in your place!" Someone immediately rushed to say.

"No, no, no, I'll go!" "I'll go, I'll take everyone's place, I'll go for this kind of drudgery!" "You still keep plowing the fields, and I'll go and serve in your place!" "It's all from the villagers, I'll go, you can help me take care of the family and help me farm!" "I'll ......"

Shi Bufan looked at this scene, and he couldn't cry or laugh, because everyone had roughly calculated, if they were to serve as a servant instead of everyone, the final income would be much more than farming at home alone, and of course they would be willing to go out instead.

Without money, they are of course unwilling, and even grind foreign laborers. Now that you can do more and more, and even the income is not low, it is definitely a lot of people who are squeezing their heads to get this opportunity. If you want the horses to run, you also want the horses to eat grass! Otherwise, you have to bring your own food for transportation, which is stupid! Who wants to be a "volunteer" for the government when their own lives have not been solved! That volunteer is not rich and has spare time, those who are busy producing their own lives and have not solved it, who will be a volunteer who can't earn money!

Without touching the most basic land system and tax system of the Tang Dynasty, Shi Bufan could give them a better way of production, which was also good for increasing productivity. Shi Bufan did not dare to touch the Tang Dynasty's equalization system at present, he could only make some articles on the way the peasants themselves cooperated, so as to improve the organizational ability and production capacity, so that everyone's life would be better.

(To be continued.) )