All things grow in spring, and no one dares to slack off in this precious season. Ye An took almost everyone in the mansion to Zhuangzi outside the city. Although commerce and light industry were the focus of the Yunzhong County and Marquis Mansion, farming was still the main theme of this era.
Ye An had no choice. Tieniu and Hou San's old mother kept suggesting to him that it was time for spring plowing. Most of all, the master did not dare to waste the land in his village. Wasteland? Once the wasteland was plowed, it would become fertile land. The Hou Mansion was still in need.
How much does it cost to divert water from Cai River for irrigation?!
Well, Ye An thinks what the two old people said makes sense. Even if he doesn't want to go, Qin Mumu will force him to agree with his "vicious" eyes...
There is no way that almost all the officials in Tokyo have gone to participate in the vigorous "mass production" outside the city. Every time Ye An and Qin Mumu go out, Ge Shanshu and the people of Xinlingfang will come up and ask: "Master Hou."
, Spring plowing is a big event, and Zhuangzi, who has the Marquis's residence outside the city, must take it seriously!"
This is like hanging an empty bird cage in your own home. As long as there is no bird in the cage, someone will come and ask you when the bird flew away... until you are tortured and collapsed.
Under pressure from many parties... no, it should be called concern, Ye An could only take everyone in the Hou Mansion to go outside the city for the annual spring plowing.
Of course, he and Qin Mumu were originally unwilling to participate in this kind of manual labor. After all, the Yunzhong County and Marquis Mansion with strong capital was fully capable of hiring a large number of farmers to complete this spring plowing. As for summer farming during the year,
, autumn harvest and winter storage can also be completed by them.
But even so, as a host, you still have to participate in every season of the year, because whether it is spring plowing, summer plowing, autumn harvest, or winter storage, it is extremely important for people in this era.
After some discussion, Qin Mumu and Ye An decided that since they wanted to integrate into this era, they had to participate in everything. So the two decided to work hard to get closer to the "natives" of the Song Dynasty from now on.
Spring came earlier this year, but the sun hung high in the sky, and the working people still began to feel a bit of heat. The old oxen plowing the fields swung their tails in front, and Ye An carefully helped the plow behind.
This operation seems simple, but if you don’t have certain skills, just wait and suffer losses in the field!
In Ye An's view, the efficiency of plowing like this is not good. It's not that the traditional plow is not good, but that there is a problem with the mechanical mechanism. But watching Tieniu and Hou San beside them, they can control the ox plow easily.
Walking through the fields, Ye An felt that he should run into the field and die.
It seems that people in this era are all good hands in the fields. As long as they go to the fields, they are like a fish in water. The iron ox holds the plow with one hand and waves the whip with the other hand, shaking out the whip flowers in the air and making a crisp sound.
Under his urging, he kept moving at a fairly steady pace.
As for Hou San, Ye An once thought that he was a superpower like "Gongye Chang". Before plowing, he lay down in the ear of the old cow and said a lot of words. Then when he went to the field, his old cow didn't even use his
By command, the land can be plowed back and forth in a straight line.
Ye An suddenly realized that his clumsiness was so out of place in the land that the Wang Gang leading the cattle in front looked at him strangely.
The iron plow hit a big stone. Ye An jumped on the plow and used his own weight and the strength of the ox to turn over the stone, and then he was able to continue moving forward.
As for the fields nearby, Zhao Hu and a kind of soldiers were busy working with ease. They were all good sons of farmers and strong laborers. Since they arrived at the Hou Mansion, the whole family had been taken over by Ye An.
Arrive at Zhuangzi and settle down.
Originally, Ye An wanted to place their family in the Hou Mansion, but both the soldiers and the Wang Gang firmly disagreed with this matter. The Wang Gang felt that it was not good to have too many foreigners in the Hou Mansion, while the soldiers did not agree.
I think I don't deserve such treatment.
Of course, most people feel more comfortable in Zhuangzi. The Zhuangzi where the Marquis lives outside Tokyo is different from other houses. Most of them are workshops. Although they are called workshops, the scale and output are no longer comparable to those of workshops.
As more and more money was spent, the scale continued to grow, and it seemed to have occupied half of the land of Zhuangzi, so that Ye An could only find another piece of land to cultivate if he wanted to open up wasteland.
The cement factory is constantly firing bricks and lime, and the output is increasing day by day. The warehouse expansion is getting faster and faster. If there are steel bars, Ye An can even build a building with a concrete structure.
But although the buildings are still mainly made of masonry structures, roads have begun to be paved. Gravel, sand, and cement are not hard to find in this era.
Especially in Tokyo, which has developed water transportation, there is a lot of river sand. Gravel can also be obtained by crushing stones. This thing is not valuable. The cement is produced by the family. Apart from the part sold, there is nothing left.
You can use it for your own use, and the road is not paved in a day.
During the spring plowing season, officials have vacations. Ye An plans to use these few days to pave the cement road from Zhuangzi to Guandao, at least to a large scale, and to train a few road paving talents.
For the ancients, building roads and building bridges were both good deeds. Why? Because the investment and cost of these two projects are huge.
Building roads is an unbearable task for ordinary people and even wealthy households. Even if the local gentry wants to build roads, they can only provide money, and those who contribute need to ask the villagers for help.
The most common road is built with Sanhe soil. This kind of road is strong and durable, and it can also penetrate rainwater. Under normal circumstances, there will be no water accumulation on the road. However, over time, a large number of peeling layers will inevitably appear on the road surface, and the wind will blow.
Flying sand and rocks.
But Ye An is building a cement road, especially in early spring. The cooling at night is of great benefit to the heat dissipation of the cement road.
As the land was plowed, the seeds were planted, and the water from the canal was diverted from the Li family's village for irrigation, half a month of spring plowing was finally over.
Li Zunxun came over with his trouser legs rolled up, and Zhao Qingyi, the eldest princess who had just given birth and had her confinement, also followed behind wearing a headscarf and carrying a rattan basket like Qin Mumu.
Ye An hurried forward and invited the two of them to the wind shelter in Zhuangzi. Qin Mumu served tea and entertained the "neighbors".
That's right, the village of the Marquis is right next to the village of the Li family. It was the village of the Li family that was directly transferred to the village of the Marquis of Yunzhong County. Because it was all wasteland, Li Zunxun was too embarrassed to ask for a few coins.
"I heard that you want to build a road? This is a loss-making business. The Kaifeng Mansion has built a lot of official roads outside Tokyo. The official roads used by our two families are excellent. What roads can be built?"
Ye An asked strangely: "What else is there to pay attention to here?"
Li Zunxu and Zhao Qingyi looked at Ye An and his wife even more strangely, and finally said with a wry smile: "You don't know, right? A road that can pass three carriages is called a "road", and a road that can pass two carriages is called a "road".
A road that can pass a carriage is called a "road"! How wide should your road be built?!"
Ye An and Qin Mumu looked at each other. No wonder the dealers didn't look at them very much. They were looking at fools!