"We just have enough to live!" The fellow said.

Hearing the words of the fellow, Chen Fei immediately asked, "How can you just live?" Can't get enough to eat? Don't you have a hundred acres of land for every household? ”

"It's just reluctantly, now the yield per mu is only one stone, that is, just enough for a family of four to eat!" The fellow replied.

Chen Fei listened carefully to what this fellow said, and finally realized the problem of ancient grain production and ancient dietary structure.

During the Tang Dynasty, the amount of grain per mu was only one stone, that is, about 120 catties in later generations. The yield of one acre of land is only one hundred and twenty catties, which is simply unimaginable in later generations, but it is a good yield in ancient times. And each family has 100 acres of land, and they have to support a husband and wife, a pair of old people, and even several children. In ancient times, many people were engaged in agricultural work, so they were all manual labor jobs, and the physical consumption was very large. And when the physical exertion is high, that is, the food needs more.

If it is calculated according to the average person who needs to consume the equivalent of two catties of grain in later generations every day, then each household needs to consume fourteen catties a day. Even according to the limit of farmland yield, a family of 100 acres of land can produce 12,000 catties of grain in good weather. And there are about 1,000 catties of grain to be used as taxes, and the rest is your own. And after the remaining 11,000 catties of grain broke the layer of chaff on the outside of the grain, only 70 percent of it belonged to the grain that was really edible.

And 14 catties of grain per family a day, which is more than 5,000 catties a year. According to the formula just now, what a family can actually use is about 8,000 catties of grain. And all of a sudden, the rations consumed more than 5,000 catties. But human beings can't just need food rations, they need a lot of things. What clothes, all kinds of farm tools, and even all kinds of production tools and daily necessities, these have to be exchanged for the remaining 3,000 catties of grain. If you say so, although each household has 100 acres of land a year, based on the productivity of this pit father in ancient times, I am afraid that 100 acres of land is just enough to live. This is still the condition of ordinary yeoman farmers, and if it is at the time of land annexation, then there will not be much left after paying the rent.

Of course, there may be people who don't quite believe that an average person needs to consume two catties of food per day. In fact, this is also from the analysis of the dietary structure in ancient times, and there was not much productivity that could be matched in ancient times, so there were very few crops other than various grains. In ancient times, the common people could hardly afford to eat meat, and in the Tang Dynasty, the vast majority of the people could not afford to eat meat. And no meat, often means no oil, no water, no nutrition, so all the energy supply is also obtained from food. This has also caused a lot of food consumption, which has caused the need for two catties of grain every day.

When Chen Fei went online in later generations, he often found that some people who were dissatisfied with the government said that the per capita grain in the ancient Tang Dynasty could be more than 1,000 catties, but in later generations, it was only more than 800 catties, so it was inferred that later generations were not as happy as ancient people. But Chen Fei finally knows now that this is a false proposition. Although the food of later generations is relatively small, they can eat meat, vegetables, and many nutritious things. But the ancient people had nothing to eat except food. Therefore, although it seems that the per capita food possession of later generations is much less than that of ancient times, in terms of dietary structure, later generations are countless times happier than ancient people, at least the vast majority of later generations can afford to eat meat.

"Productivity, productivity, that is, productivity is pit people!" Chen Fei said.

"Brother Chen, since the people don't have too many vegetables to eat a lot, why don't they plant some vegetables? It turns out that I can eat vegetables in the palace! Li Wanrou said.

And Chen Fei stroked Li Wanrou's little head and said, "Do you know what your name is?" Why don't you eat minced meat! ”

The so-called why not eat minced meat, that is, a famine broke out during the reign of Emperor Hui of Jin, and the people had no food to eat. And Emperor Jin Hui heard that the people had no food to eat, so he actually said why he didn't eat meat porridge. This was a matter of laughter in later generations, but he, an emperor, actually said such a thing.

Li Wanrou's face was a little blushing, of course she knew this allusion, so she was a little embarrassed.

"At the end of the day, it's a question of productivity!" Chen Fei made a definition.

If it weren't for the fact that the average yield per mu of grain was too low, the result would be the need for more land to grow food. If the yield per mu of grain can be increased a lot, then it will be able to save some land for planting some cash crops, such as vegetables and fruits.

One of the biggest reasons why later generations were able to let the people grow their own cash crops instead of forcing everyone to grow grain was that the yield per mu of grain had increased many times, so it was possible to use as little arable land as possible to produce several times the yield of cultivated land than before, so that more arable land could be liberated to grow cash crops. But during this period of the Tang Dynasty, there was not enough food to eat, so where was there so much land to grow those cash crops? If cash crops are planted, it means that food production is reduced, which in turn will starve many people to death.

In the final analysis, everything is caused by productivity, and if the productivity of food increases, then it can bring about a series of changes. Cash crops can be produced in large quantities, and they can also feed a large number of industrial populations, as well as a large number of non-agricultural populations, so that the division of labor in the whole society can be further subdivided. However, the current productivity has seriously restricted this factor, so Chen Fei is helpless.

"How to develop the productive forces? If we can develop the productive forces, then we will be able to make the people better and better, and their lives will become more and more abundant. It seems that for this productivity, it is still very important. If I want social development, then I must develop the productive forces in order to promote the development of the whole society. But this doesn't seem to be so easy, and the grain production is so much, I can't leave the land vacant for me to grow cash crops! If I dare to do this, I am afraid that it will not be long before I will have to go home and sell sweet potatoes! Food is the absolute red line of a country, this is not in vain! "Chen Fei really feels very nerve-wracking.