Zuo Shaoyang knew that if he didn't talk about the cost of medicine, he was afraid that Miao Peilan would not be able to let herself treat her brother, and would find another pharmacy to treat him, so he had to say: "This medicine is given to people for twelve wen, just charge you a cost, seven wen." ”

"Others take as much as they want." Miao Peilan smiled, "Come in and sit down." ”

"No," Zuo Shaoyang looked up at the sky, there was still some time before noon, and saw that she didn't untie the firewood knife on her waist, last night I heard her say that she had to cut four or five picks of firewood a day, and at least two picks in the morning, so he said: "You still have to go up the mountain to cut firewood, right?" I'll go with you, okay? ”

"What are you going to do?"

"Pick some herbs by the way."

"Okay, let's go."

"And where do I put my medicine box?"

"Give it to me, put it in my house." Miao Peilan took the medicine box, entered the house, and soon came out again, took a small hoe and a back basket, and handed it to Zuo Shaoyang.

Zuo Shaoyang thanked him, put the small hoe in the back basket, carried it on his back, and followed Miao Peilan out of the village quickly. Head down the hill. This Laohuai village is only a few hundred steps away from the top of the mountain, the top of the mountain is a steep rock, there are no trees, so you can only go down the mountain to cut firewood.

The two walked down the mountain one after the other, and Zuo Shaoyang asked, "Have you ever read?" ”

Miao Peilan shook her head.

"Do you want to read it? I can teach you. At least teach you to read. ”

Miao Peilan stood still, glanced back at him, her eyes were full of joy, but they quickly dimmed again, and shook her head gently. Keep your head down and go down.

"You don't want to study?" Zuo Shaoyang said strangely.

Miao Peilan smiled bitterly and shook her head.

Zuo Shaoyang understood, Miao Peilan didn't want to study, but the family didn't have this condition at all, this was not just a matter of money, the main thing was that the family relied on her as a laborer, she was going to study, who would take care of the work in the field and the affairs of the family? How does the family live.

Zuo Shaoyang couldn't help but sigh secretly, and asked again: "How many acres of land have you planted?" ”

"Three acres of land. Tenant of the land of the old man Jia's house. ”

"Three acres of land?" Zuo Shaoyang had no idea how many crops could be harvested in one acre of land, and asked, "How much can be harvested in a year?" ”

"One mu can harvest sixteen buckets, and three acres have a total of fifty buckets, that is, five stones."

"How many meters can you hit?"

"Let's fight for thirty."

"Thirty buckets?" In modern society, Zuo Shaoyang used to stretch out his hands to open his mouth when he was a child, and when he was in college, he ate in the cafeteria and swiped his meal card, and he had no idea how much rice a person eats in a year, let alone the ancient unit of measurement, and asked: "Your family of six people, is this more than 30 buckets of rice enough to eat in a year?" ”

Miao Peilan glanced at him and smiled: "It's good to have so much, and you still have to pay rent." ”

Zuo Shaoyang patted his head, yes, Miao Peilan just said that it was the tenant Jia's rich man's land farming, so naturally he had to pay rent, when he thought of paying rent, he remembered the image of the landlord in the old society in the old movie with an abacus and a wolf dog to forcibly collect rent, but I didn't expect to be there now, and I slept in the landlord's house last night, and I didn't think that the landlord Jia was so vicious, wouldn't he be a smiling tiger? Remembering something, he asked, "Then why do you want to rent land to plant?" Isn't there a lot of wasteland? Why don't you open up the wasteland and farm the land? I heard that the first few years of land cultivation can be reduced or exempted. ”

"The newly opened land is not fertile enough to grow crops, so it will take many years to raise it."

Zuo Shaoyang has no concept of planting crops, and he doesn't understand anything after listening to it, but he only knows that for Miao Peilan's family, it is more cost-effective to plant the landlord's land than to plant it yourself. Remembering that a lot of farmland I saw along the way was barren, I asked, "I saw a lot of farmland that no one cultivates, can't I plant it myself?" ”

"No, the cultivated land that has not been inherited and abandoned after the death of the people is all returned to the imperial court, and it cannot be planted indiscriminately, otherwise it will be beaten."

"His grandmother's would rather be barren than let the common people plant, what the hell is this yamen? -- By the way, how much rent do you have to pay for tenant farming? ”

"One acre of land, one stone for rent."

Zuo Shaoyang knew that one stone in the Tang Dynasty was also called one dan, which was equal to ten buckets, and one bucket was equal to 5.9 kilograms, which was nearly twelve city catties. So one stone is one hundred and twenty pounds. He asked, "How many catties of grain are left after paying the rent?" ”

"It depends on God, in a good harvest year, there are about 20 buckets of rice left, and about 15 buckets of rice. If it's a bad year, it's good to have ten buckets. ”

"Is this rent dead?" Zuo Shaoyang has a big head.

"Yes, no matter what the year is, you can rent as much as you want. Everyone is like that. Master Jia is still a rich man with a good surname, but if he catches up with the drought and flood, the harvest is not good, and Master Jia will also reduce the rent. ”

"Really?" Zuo Shaoyang said with a smile: "I see that this old man Jia is very good, we treated his son, he was very generous, and gave two thousand Wen successively." ”

"Two thousand wen?" Miao Peilan smacked her tongue and said, "I can buy an acre of good fertile land!" ”

In the early Tang Dynasty, after decades of war, the productivity was greatly damaged, so the price of land in the early Tang Dynasty was very cheap.

As soon as Zuo Shaoyang heard this, he thought that he had crossed over for a few days, and he had earned almost 5,000 yuan, enough to buy more than two acres of land, of course, he was also lucky, he happened to encounter two cases of rich people, and the patient's family was quite generous (the stillborn woman was generous herself), and the consultation fee was very heavy, so he made so much money, I don't know if there will be such good luck in the future.

Zuo Shaoyang pinched his fingers and said: "Your family of six, even if it is a good harvest year, it is calculated that a family of six only has more than one bucket of rice (less than twenty catties) per month, so how can it be enough to eat?" ”

"Well, it's not enough to eat."

"What then?"

"Add rice bran and wild vegetables and cook them together." Miao Peilan said it lightly, as if there was nothing strange about it.

Zuo Shaoyang sighed very much, compared to Miao Peilan's family, he was afraid that his family's life was better. said: "It's very hard for you to plant three acres of land by yourself, right?" ”

Miao Peilan smiled and didn't speak.

Zuo Shaoyang sighed very much in his heart, and wanted to help her, so he said: "Farming is so hard, it's difficult to even make a living, it's better to think of other ways." For example, planting medicinal herbs! ”

Miao Peilan stood up, turned to look at him, her big eyes were shining, and the few freckles on the wings of her nose were very cute.

Zuo Shaoyang himself is a medical student, and he is more interested in growing medicinal materials than growing crops, and he just said this casually, but after saying it, he felt that it was a good idea, if he could plant medicinal materials well, it would actually be more profitable than planting crops. In particular, I have advanced knowledge of Chinese herbal medicine planting for 1,000 years, and I should be able to grow medicinal materials well. He put on a smile on Miao Peilan: "Trust me!" You can take out an acre of land to grow medicinal herbs, try it first, and I will teach you how to grow it. ”

Miao Peilan smiled apologetically and shook her head.

"Why not?" Left Shaoyang Road.

Miao Peilan lowered her head and said, "Master Jia won't let it." The tenant land can only be planted with rice, and nothing else is allowed. so as not to damage fertility. ”

Zuo Shaoyang seemed to understand whether he understood or not, and wanted to say that I would tell Master Jia, but after thinking about it, his friendship with others is not so good, and this is related to the problem of other people's fields, but I am afraid that it is not so easy to speak. Then he stopped again, sighed and said: "I really want to open up the wasteland to grow medicinal materials, and I don't need such good fertility to grow medicinal materials, and I don't need to cultivate land, like any hillside or barren beach." Moreover, tax reductions and exemptions can be made in the first few years of land reclamation, which is quite good. It's just that I don't know how to farm. Alas! ”

Zuo Shaoyang proposed to plant medicinal herbs, the most important thing was to plant those commonly used medicines that were not used as medicinal materials in the early Tang Dynasty. There's nowhere to buy it. And he knew that if she directly said that she was planting medicinal herbs in partnership with Miao Peilan, she would definitely not be willing to plant medicinal herbs if she was not familiar with planting them, but if she wanted to plant them and couldn't plant them, she might even offer to help, and she could see that she was a warm-hearted girl because Aunt Li had no money to pay for the medicine and gave all the money from the sale of firewood to others. Sure enough, Miao Peilan smiled and said, "I can help you in clearing the wasteland." ”

"Really?" Zuo Shaoyang was pleasantly surprised, "But you're so busy, I'm afraid you don't have time." ”

"It doesn't matter, as long as it's not busy farming, you can still find time."

Zuo Shaoyang shook his head and said: "This is not good, delay your time, when the farm is slack, you can pick up four or five firewood a day, and you can earn forty or fifty yuan." A one-day delay is much better. ”

Miao Peilan smiled bitterly: "If only it was as profitable as you said." -- There are many people who sell firewood, and firewood is not easy to sell, and sometimes they can't sell a handful of firewood for a few days, and they can't earn a few pennies. ”