At this time, soybeans were mainly grown. One person had half a bushel of soybeans per day, and three hundred and sixty-five days for five people was 912.5 bushels. In addition, the tax rate during this period was one for ten taxes, and it increased in the later period.
According to the "Tongdian" record: "The tribute of Xia, the support of Yin, and the Che of Zhou are all taken out of ten, and taxes are paid according to the land."
"The Qin Dynasty was not like this. They gave up their land to pay taxes. Since the land was not in surplus, the taxes were necessary. This was because the poor avoided taxes and servitude and fled, while the rich were content with mergers and acquisitions."
"In addition to the work of internal revitalization, expelling the barbarians and Di people from outside, collecting most of the gifts, setting up a garrison on the left, and exhausting the world's resources to serve his government, it is still not enough to support his desires. The two generations have continued unchanged, and the rebellion at home has collapsed."
There is also a record in "Mencius": "The Xia Hou family paid tribute at fifty, the Yin people at seventy helped, and the Zhou people paid a hundred acres. In fact, they are all tithe."
This means: In the Xia Dynasty, each family had fifty acres of land and practiced the 'tribute' method; in the Shang Dynasty, every family had seventy acres of land and practiced the 'help' method; in the Zhou Dynasty, each family had one hundred acres of land and practiced the 'zhi' method. These three laws
The essence is very abstract.
More than 900 bushels plus one-tenth of the tax taken away, which means that 100 acres can produce about 1,000 bushels of soybeans at this time.
Each bucket is equivalent to the weight of three kilograms in later generations. In other words, based on the area of one mu of land in later generations, the output at this time is less than one hundred kilograms per mu.
It is only equivalent to about one-fifth of the output of later generations. One acre of later generations can only produce 400 jins, and good bean seeds can produce up to 600 to 800 jins.
This is mainly because the grain seed technology was backward at this time, and the planting technology was also backward. In the early and mid-spring and autumn periods, there was no furrow and ridge technology, and grain seeds were planted directly on the flat ground.
Moreover, the main tools used for farming were stone tools. There were no iron tools during this period, and copper tools were expensive and not hard enough for farming, so farming efficiency was low.
Ye Feng actually had enough money to go to Chu State at this time, but when Jiang Chuan was very kind to him, Ye Feng wanted to teach him some skills and leave some wealth for him before leaving.
Zhao Kuangyin was very interesting and gave Ye Feng a hundred acres of land. Although it was not fertile land, it was not bad. It was the middle piece of his family's three hundred acres of land.
Since this hundred acres of land is cultivated by Ye Feng, the natural talent will also be borne by Ye Feng. Ye Feng also said that after the autumn harvest, he will give Zhao Kuangyin some grain for land rent.
Zhao Kuangyin said casually: "Let's talk about it then." He thought to himself: "You can eat it before we talk."
Zhao Kuangyin took Ye Feng to the field and showed Ye Feng the hundred acres of land.
Ye Feng was shocked when he saw it, and thought to himself: "Such a huge wasteland." Because there was no furrow and furrow technology, the fields during this period looked like a wasteland.
Ye Feng measured it with his thumb and found that it was close to thirty acres. Although Ye Feng was very strong now, he still couldn't bear to farm like this.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the area of acres varied greatly. In the Qin Dynasty, one hundred steps was an acre, six feet was one step, and one foot was equivalent to 23.1 centimeters in later generations.
That is, one step is about 138.6 centimeters, and one hundred acres is 19,209.96 square meters.
Based on the calculation that one acre of land in later generations is approximately 666.67 square meters, it is approximately 28.815 acres.
During this period, the well-field system was used. According to the record in "Kao Gong Ji. Craftsman": "One hundred acres is one husband, one hundred paces in length and width is one hundred acres, and three hundred paces is one mile."
"So Jiufu's field is a well, and there is a ditch between the wells. It is four feet wide and four feet deep. It is called a ditch."
"A square of ten miles is a yicheng, that is, there are ten wells in each row, a total of one hundred wells are yicheng. The ditch between the cheng and cheng is eight feet wide and eight feet deep, which is called a gully."
"A square of a hundred miles is called a trough. The ditch between the tong and the tung is two fathoms wide and two ren deep. It is called Hui."
Xun and Ren are the ancient quaternary units of length. "Shuowen. Renbu" records: "Ren, stretch your arm for one Xun, eight feet, and follow the sound of a human blade."
In "Kaogong Ji", a person's height is eight feet. Generally, the length of the outstretched arm is equal to the height, which is also eight feet and one foot.
In addition, because we have said before that the length of the small ruler and the large ruler are equal to each other, there is another saying in the pre-Qin Dynasty that one ren is seven feet, which is equivalent to a conversion relationship between the large ruler and the small ruler.
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Ye Feng thought for a while and did some mental calculations. He ate almost ten kilograms of grain a day, which would be 3,650 kilograms of grain in three hundred and sixty-five days.
If we use the farming methods of later generations, although the yield cannot reach that of later generations because of issues such as grain seeds, it should still be able to reach two to three hundred kilograms per acre. Excluding taxes and land rent, we will have to cultivate ten to fifteen acres.
Ye Feng said: "I don't need so much land, half is enough. I can't plant a hundred acres by myself."
Zhao Kuangyin thought for a while and thought that it was true that others were planting hundreds of acres per household, or at least the couple could barely finish the planting, so he nodded and agreed with Ye Feng's opinion.
However, this made Jiangchuan on the side even more worried. This was reduced by half. This kid was going to be hungry.
Because the planting day has not yet come, Ye Feng still has time to prepare. Ye Feng plans to buy a cow and then make a plow. Making a plow requires iron making.
During this period, cattle were not used for farming and could be bought and sold at will, but because they were used as meat, they were very expensive. In the end, Ye Feng was forced to sell a set of jade pendants to get enough.
This is because during this period, it was popular among the dignitaries of Qin to eat dog meat, so beef was relatively less expensive.
Jiangchuan was surprised when he saw Ye Feng buying a cow. On the one hand, he wondered where he got the money, and on the other hand, buying a whole cow alive to eat was a bit extravagant.
Jiang Chuan turned around and found a copper dagger from the house and prepared to help Ye Feng kill the cow. When Ye Feng saw Jiang Chuan sharpening the knife towards his calf, he immediately stopped him and said, "This cow is not here to eat."
Jiang Chuan thought for a while and said, "Oh, I also think there is not enough cultivated land to support a cow to supplement the income."
As he spoke, he wiped his saliva, then thought about it and said, "That's not right. If you want to raise cattle, you have to buy calves to raise them. Is it not a loss for you to buy such a big cow? If you want to raise breeding cattle, you also need to buy cows. That's right."
It's a bull."
Ye Feng explained: "I use it to work." Then he left.
Jiangchuan thought: "Should we make an ox cart?" Thinking about Ye Feng, even if he is farming now, he has no food to eat, and he even has to borrow grain seeds, it would be good to make some money driving an ox cart.
Jiang Chuan slapped his forehead and said, "That's not right. I have to farm during the day, and I don't have time to pull an ox cart." Jiang Chuan looked at Ye Feng, who had already walked away, and shook his head.
Ye Feng remembers that there is a Heimulin Iron Mine in Baoji City. It is easy to find where there is iron and the soil turns black. You just need to consult nearby villagers and ask them where the soil turns black.
It is recorded in the Tiangong Kaiwu: "Wherever iron pits exist, their quality is shallow and the soil surface is shallow, and deep caves are not produced. They are common in Pingyanggangbu, and there are no steep mountains or high mountains."
"The quality includes several types of soil ingots and crushed sand. If soil is an ingot of iron, black lumps will appear on the surface of the soil, shaped like a weighing hammer. From a distance, it looks like iron, but when you pinch it, it will break into pieces of soil."
"If it is smelted and smelted, it will be picked up when it floats, and when it is wet from rain, oxen will plow up the soil and pick up the pieces within a few inches of the soil. After plowing, the pieces will grow day by day, and the more they will be used, the more they will be used."
"Gansu in the northwest and Quan County in the southeast are all troughs of ingot iron. Yanjing, Zunhua and Pingyang in Shanxi are all troughs of sand iron. All sand iron will reveal its shape as soon as it is thrown into the soil film, which is taken out and washed before being put into the furnace.
After being smelted and melted, it is no different from an ingot of iron."
In fact, in ancient times, most mines were mined by washing methods, or by direct open-pit excavation of several to ten feet.
It was not until the Shi Dynasty and the Ci Dynasty that there was a mature mine mining method. During the Shi Dynasty and the Ci Dynasty, the room and pillar method was adopted, using wooden pillars to support the mine. Because the excavation of the mine involves a lot of knowledge systems, and accidents are easy to occur.
Modern mining excavation is not only civil engineering, but also involves rock mechanics, material mechanics, theoretical mechanics and engineering geology, as well as civil engineering and other disciplines.
Rock mechanics involves understanding the tensile strength, shear strength, uniaxial compression and deformation of rocks.
Material mechanics and theoretical mechanics are used to determine what materials to use to reinforce the mine, and how to reinforce the mine to have sufficient support.
Engineering geology involves, for example, the anticlines and synclines mentioned before, where there are water veins and where there are mineral veins, etc.
And these are all superficial. For example, mechanics must be based on mathematics, and materials involve other manufacturing processes. In addition, there are mining equipment and so on.
This requires a complete set of theoretical disciplines as support, as well as a complete set of equipment production processes to provide equipment and materials, as well as mechanical equipment manufacturing, etc.
And how to purify ores containing different components after mining, etc., involve other aspects of chemical physics.
Therefore, if you want to go back to ancient times to mine large amounts of coal and iron ore and establish a nearly modern country, it will be very difficult.
After inquiring, Ye Feng found the Heimulin iron ore of later generations. Ye Feng washed some iron ore using the panning method and was busy for two days.
Ye Feng used the iron sand and asked Jiang Chuan to help him make two sets of hoes, a plow and a sickle. Then Ye Feng led the oxen and plowing equipment to plow the land.
During this period, no one would plow the soil or dig furrows. Ye Feng plowed the soil there, attracting many villagers to watch.
Moreover, no one has ever seen people using oxen to turn the soil, and they all find it strange. The equipment used for plowing the land is also strange to them.
Someone started talking: "Hey, let's see if that relative from Jiangchuan's family has any mental problems? It's not time to farm yet. What is he busy with here?"
A well-meaning person shouted: "Little brother, today is the anniversary of the death of He and it is not suitable for farming."
During this period, a good harvest day would usually be found in Mengchun. The monarch would pray for grain and then order farming matters.
The first volume of "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals" records: "The king arranged agricultural production and asked the petty officials in charge of the farmland to go to the eastern suburbs to repair the field boundaries."
"Build canals, repair field roads, carefully observe hills, highlands, and basins, plant grains according to the terrain, guide the people, and the emperor would personally take care of farming."
"Now that orders for agricultural production have been issued and standards have been set, farmers will not be confused."
"This month, I ordered Yue Zheng to lead the Duke and Qing's children into the school to learn music, singing and dancing. Prepare for the sacrificial ceremony. I also ordered that the mountains, forests, rivers and rivers be sacrificed, and that female animals should not be used as sacrifices."
"It is prohibited to cut down trees, do not overturn bird nests, do not kill young bugs and nestlings, do not kill fawns and hatching birds, do not gather large groups of people, do not build city walls, and bury exposed bodies."
"This month, you cannot raise troops on a large scale. If you start a war, there will be natural and man-made disasters. Don't start a war. You can't start a war from me."
"Don't change the laws of heaven, don't abolish the common laws of the earth, and don't mess up the rules of human beings."
"If the summer season appears in Mengchun, then the wind and rain will not be in season, the vegetation will wither very early, and the country will have terrible events."
"If autumn occurs in Mengchun, a great plague will occur among the people, violent storms will strike many times, and all kinds of weeds will grow vigorously."