The overturning car is to use manpower to step on the flap to lift the water up, the labor intensity is very large, and the lifting height of the water is limited, however, Hezhou is a mountainous area, the fields are in the form of terraces, most of the fields are far away from the high place of the canal, and the water of the canal can not be transported up by the overturning car.

After Zuo Shaoyang asked Miao Peilan, Hou Pu and others, he learned that these fields can only be Wangtian fields, that is, when it rains, there is water to grow rice, and if there is a drought, they can only be picked from the canal under the mountain with a bucket to the mountain field for irrigation. Otherwise, it can only be abandoned. Zuo Shaoyang began to understand a little why a strong laborer in the early Tang Dynasty could plant five acres of land. I can't stand this irrigation alone.

The countryside of Zuo Shaoyang's parents' hometown is also mountainous, which is very backward, and even the electricity for lighting is only two or three hours at night, and it is still as bright as fireflies. Agricultural machinery is basically handmade farm tools, and advanced agricultural machinery such as pumping irrigation cannot be used if you buy it, and no one wants to spend this money.

The local irrigation of the terraces on the hillside is to use an irrigation tool called a high drum car, there is a big wheel in the high and low places, the following one is a water wheel, and the two wheels are connected by a wooden barrel, using the characteristics of the large water source difference in the mountainous area, the water wheel is pushed by water power, the bucket of water is transported to the high place, and then the water flow is guided by a bamboo pipe to the field that needs water.

Zuo Shaoyang had already told Miao Peilan and others about General Feng Li's soldiers to help turn over the soil and cultivate the fields in Hezhou, and after looking at the cultivated land at this moment, he asked Miao Peilan: "You said before that if there are ploughing cattle, you can plant ten acres of land alone, it is because you can't wait to plough the land, and you can't grab the farming time, and now you have Feng Li's soldiers to help you plough the land, how much land can you plant?" ”

Miao Peilan glanced at the field in front of her: "If it is a field that can be irrigated with a rollover, I can plant thirty acres." ”

Zuo Shaoyang smiled: "If I design a machine that can suck water up without stepping on it, and you don't have to step on the overturned car to irrigate, how much land can you plant?" ”

Miao Peilan was very surprised: "Is there really such a farm tool?" ”

"Yes! Rest assured, I have the means. ”

"If I don't have to step on the overturned car for irrigation, I can plant 50 acres!"

Zuo Shaoyang smiled: "Don't be so tired, you still have to help me plant and cultivate the ten acres of barren slopes to plant medicinal herbs, let's choose twenty acres to plant, and plant them according to my method." I'm going to show them the benefits of our new approach. -- Don't use too fertile fields, lest in the future they say that they should produce more grain. ”

"Good! It's close to the twenty acres of land on the barren slope where we chose to grow medicinal herbs last time. This is also convenient for growing medicinal herbs. ”

Although these 20 acres of land are smoother than ginseng, on the high slope far away from the water source, there is no way to irrigate with the overturned car in the early Tang Dynasty, and it belongs to the inferior Wangtian field. However, it is in line with Zuo Shaoyang's intentions, if he can use the inferior field to grow grain far higher than the superior field, he can show that his planting technology is more advanced than others. So as to achieve the purpose of gradually popularizing modern planting technology.

Therefore, Zuo Shaoyang nodded in agreement: "Just choose this land." Plant the land first, and after the medicinal herbs are busy with spring ploughing, you will plant again when you have time, so you are not in a hurry. ”

"Okay."

On the way back, the group saw many soldiers scattered along the ridges to the fields in all directions, and began to break the soil and turn the ground.

Most of these soldiers came from the countryside, and naturally they all knew what to do with the farm work of turning over the ground and building ridges. They did not have the tools to do so, so they used swords, axes, spears, sticks, copper hammers, etc., to plough and break the soil, and also simply divided the labor according to the situation of the blades, swords, spears and other things that could turn over the soil, and clubs and copper hammers to break the soil.

It's just that there is more rain this year, and many fields are full of field water, which is inconvenient to turn over the ground and break the soil, and the time is tight, only two days to complete it all, including sowing, so the quality of the soil is naturally not so good.

A team of soldiers entered the fields to plough, Zuo Shaoyang hurriedly found the military academy of the leader, and asked them not to put the stagnant water in the 20 acres near the barren slope, let alone plough and sow seeds, hoping that they could plant rice for themselves and find someone to cultivate it themselves. The military academy flatly refused, saying that General Feng had ordered that all rice seeds must be sown and not distributed to others, including landowners or tenants.

Zuo Shaoyang secretly scolded him for being rigid and rigid in his stomach, but he didn't dare to get angry, for fear that they would make their fields look bad or not good. Anyway, I met Feng Li and decided to go to Feng Li in person.

After asking the soldiers, they learned that Feng Li and Xue Wanche had already lived in the yamen, the state capital, in Hezhou, in order to supervise the cultivation of the land.

The group hurriedly returned to the yamen and came to the yamen, Zuo Shaoyang stepped forward to show his identity as a "model for supporting the army" and asked to meet General Feng Li. The general's soldiers have all been evacuated, and the guards at the gate of the state capital have all been replaced by Feng Li's soldiers. The big stinger asked him what he was doing with General Feng. Zuo Shaoyang took out the money bag from his arms, took a piece of loose silver of two coins and handed it over, saying that he had an urgent matter to meet General Feng. The guard changed his smile and told them to wait, and then went in to report.

Soon, Feng Li was presented. The guards only let Zuo Shaoyang go in alone.

The reason why Feng Li's rebels were able to recruit peace smoothly and in exchange for a very satisfactory recruitment condition was all due to Zuo Shaoyang discovering the letter, otherwise, both sides would have misunderstood and continued to stalemate, for fear that it would backfire. So Feng Li was still very grateful to Zuo Shaoyang from the bottom of his heart. He also spoke politely.

Zuo Shaoyang explained his intention and asked to hand over all the rice seeds in his field to himself and sow them separately. The reason is very simple: if the depth of ploughing is not enough, the grain yield will be reduced, and this is no wonder to the soldiers, because they plough with blades, not special farming tools, and they have to find someone to plough again and then sow the seeds.

At that time, when the general gave Zuo Shaoyang a gift list, Zuo Shaoyang and they didn't read it out, although Feng Li and the others were present, they didn't know what was on the gift list, and they didn't know that there were already fifty buckets of rice seeds on it. Receiving rice seeds now is tantamount to giving repeatedly. Feng Li heard that he was reasonable, and immediately agreed, and asked the herald to follow Zuo Shaoyang to find the military academy responsible for cultivating that part of the field, convey Feng Li's order, and transfer all the rice seeds of the twenty acres of land near the barren slope that Zuo Shaoyang said to Zuo Shaoyang to sow by himself.

When Zuo Shaoyang found the lieutenant in charge, conveyed Feng Li's order, and received rice seeds, these rice seeds were obtained for nothing. Zuo Shaoyang was very happy.

Back at the old house, it was already evening.

The people who went out to receive the porridge have come back one after another, all of them are mixed, and when I asked, I learned that the porridge distributed by the officers and soldiers is also wild vegetable porridge, and wild vegetables account for most of it, and there is very little rice in it, so rare that you can see the figure of a person, and you can use a spoon to fish, but there is a small half bowl of wild vegetables, and you can't see a few grains of rice. Rao is so, the hungry people are quite satisfied, in any case, two meals of such porridge a day can barely sustain life.

Since only those who go to the queue to receive porridge can receive it, and they are not allowed to receive porridge on behalf of others, they have not been able to give it to the few elderly people who have stayed at home. Liang immediately boiled porridge with Bai Zhihan for these left-behind old people, including the disabled Ni Er.

At this time, the shopkeeper Yu, who went out to inquire about the situation, came back with a limp on crutches and a smile, and shouted as soon as he entered the door: "Good news! The imperial court has sold grain! ”

"Selling grain?" Zuo Shaoyang was very strange, when he attended the meeting before, the general clearly said that he would distribute grain to the hungry for disaster relief, how did it become a grain sale? Busy asked, "Who said that?" ”

"The notices have been posted, and the grain will be sold tomorrow morning! It's just that each person is limited to one bucket each time, and each bucket is worth four dollars. Moreover, two days later, the disaster relief and porridge distribution stopped. ”

Four times more money and a bucket, it is already ten times more expensive than in front of the station! Obviously, this is only for the rich, and with such a high price of grain, they are not afraid of hoarding. Therefore, there is no embargo to restrict the sale of grain.

However, the majority of the people can't afford it, and the porridge will stop two days later, so the people may have to flee the famine! At the beginning, he gave the general a plan to let the soldiers help plough and sow seeds, but the people could not stay without food, and the fields would not have any harvest if there was no cultivation and irrigation management!

Zuo Shaoyang was very angry, and he wanted to go to Ouyang Assassin History to question, but he immediately stood up again, he was a flat-headed commoner, although there was a general, why was he a "model for supporting the army" but not an official, what qualifications did he have to question the history of the assassination? If you can't make him angry, it will be miserable to accuse yourself of something, so you have to find another way.

Zuo Shaoyang ran to the door of Qingfeng Temple and inserted a branch to meet Xiao Yunfei.

After a while, Xiao Yunfei appeared in the small attic in his back garden, as if he had come out of the ground: "I saw that you were busy all day today, and you even forgot to eat, and I didn't eat, let's eat together?" How about chatting while eating? ”

"Good!" Zuo Shaoyang followed Xiao Yunfei to the two-story small building by the river behind Qingfeng Temple. Xiao Yunfei asked Huang Po to deliver the meal, and it was another table of very exquisite dishes, naturally, a basket of meals was prepared for Zuo Gui and the Liang family.

After drinking a glass of wine, Xiao Yunfei said, "Anyway, what do you want me to do for you?" ”

Zuo Shaoyang told everything that happened today. He lowered his voice and said: "You help me think of a way, is there a suitable way to make Ouyang Tingshi change his mind, at least reduce the price of grain, and the people can't afford it." ”

Xiao Yunfei smiled and said, "How much do you think ordinary people can afford to buy a bucket?" ”

These words stopped Zuo Shaoyang, before the war, a bucket of rice was 360 Wen, and most of the people could not afford it, but could only rely on the grain harvested in the field and wild vegetables.

Zuo Shaoyang said: "It would be good if you could give grain on credit, and if you have a harvest in the field in the future, you can pay back it, and you can charge some interest appropriately." If you get a bucket on credit now, and you will have a bucket and a liter in the future, the hungry people will be able to stay, and the court will also have income. ”

Xiao Yunfei was stunned for a moment and praised: "This is a good idea, those who have money spend money to buy it, and those who don't have money buy it on credit, it's good." ”

(To be continued)