On the other side, Xie Yuan, who was paying attention to the tenant farmers, inquired about the news.
The fields were confiscated, but the two governors transferred them to the official family on the grounds that they were illegal resources.
What does that mean.
It is in the name of His Majesty that he takes these fields for his own use.
Return it to the people?
nonexistent.
Although he had expected this result, Xie Yuan couldn't help but sigh.
Sure enough, those guys are unreliable.
By the way, common people can claim land and open up wasteland, so can he also claim land and open up wasteland?
Yes, it was also because of the Liangzhou tenant incident that Xie Yuanlai remembered the land occupation system and the Yinke system issued by Emperor Tianwu.
The Yinke system institutionally restricts the possession of land by high-ranking officials and nobles, and although it has been implemented, it does not prevent them from taking Tianjia's words as farts.
For those high-class families, each family occupied thousands of acres of fertile land and had thousands of servants.
Does the emperor dare to speak? He does not dare.
Because it was these aristocratic families who supported his rise to power.
Xie Yuan remembered that the mountain range where the academy was located was still a wasteland that no one was mining, and he bought it so that it could be reclaimed.
He also thought of the tenant farmers in Liangzhou who had insufficient food to eat, so he hired some people to work for them, reduced the tax rate set by the government by half, and guaranteed food and accommodation for them. This solved the basic problems of food, clothing, housing and transportation for the tenant farmers.
I happily agreed.
At the end of March, after some fertilization, the first batch of agricultural seeds were sown on this unattended barren mountain.
Xie Yuan was not planting ordinary grains. He was planting sweet potatoes that were widely planted and resistant to barrenness. The seeds of sweet potatoes were rewarded by the system. Xie Yuan thought that if they were idle, they would be idle. He might as well give them a try.
In such famine years, rice has not yet been fully popularized, and there are very few foods that are high-yielding and can satisfy hunger.
If sweet potatoes can be grown and spread throughout the Central Plains, from a certain perspective, it should be able to reduce the phenomenon of people starving to death due to lack of food.
Now in March, the weather in the north is still cold. Xie Yuan was worried that the temperature was not enough and the sweet potato seedlings would die prematurely, so he found oil paper for making umbrellas and combined it with bamboo strips split with a knife to make the simplest greenhouse.
He carefully read the sweet potato planting guide provided by the system and repeatedly warned the tenant farmers to pay attention.
"Little sir, what kind of grain are these seedlings? Why have we never seen them before?" After hearing this, the tenant nodded repeatedly and then asked about the sweet potatoes.
"These are sweet potatoes. I asked people to bring them from the Western Regions. If they can be grown, they can alleviate the famine during severe droughts." Xie Yuan smiled slightly.
The tenant farmer's eyes lit up when he heard this.
Do you know what this sentence means?
In the future, if a natural disaster occurs and they have no harvest, they will no longer have to gnaw tree bark, eat soil, or even go to mass graves to pick up the corpses of their companions.
These seedlings are not just seedlings, they are hope in times of despair.
"Little sir, please be rest assured, even if something happens to me, I won't let anything happen to these sweet potato seedlings!" The tenant farmers, who felt that they had shouldered a heavy responsibility, puffed up their chests, grinned and packed their bags.
ticket.
"Sorry for bothering you over there." Xie Yuan nodded.
After the sweet potatoes were planted, Xie Yuan asked the tenant farmers to dig out a terraced field and plant rice.
In this era, rice was not yet popular, and even steamed buns were precious - they were usually placed on sacrificial altars as tributes, and the steamed buns eaten by ordinary people were all kinds of other pasta.
It's just that this is Youzhou, located in the north, and it seems that it's not easy for rice to grow... I don't know if it can be grown. Let's try it.
Perhaps planting is something that is inherited from the Han people. Comrade Xiao Xie was so excited when he started doing this kind of thing.
It was probably due to improper planting. The roots of the first batch of rice soon turned black and rotten after they were planted.
The system did not provide many rice seeds, and Xie Yuan felt very distressed. He took out a few and tried several times. When the weather warmed up in April, he finally successfully cultivated seedlings.
There were not many seeds left, so Xie Yuan left only the upper terrace and filled the lower terrace with water to raise fish.
Yes, people are not interested in eating fish at the moment, and they will wait until the economy moves south - Comrade Xiao Xie picked out good fry from the river at the foot of the mountain and raised them here, preparing to return them to Huo Qubing when the fish are fat.
A few diners prepared a feast full of fish.
Throughout March and April, Comrade Xiao Xie was busy with farm work.
Seeing his concentration, Huo Qubing and other disciples were curious and followed him to learn sowing and transplanting, as well as making the most primitive insecticides.
The diners were not surprised when they saw rice, but when they heard about sweet potatoes, their eyes opened wider than anyone else's.
Even Lu Zhong, who came to join in the fun, was stunned.
Can extensive planting, tolerance to barrenness and high yields alleviate famine?
Is there really such precious farming in the world?
"Little sir, are these sweet potatoes really so magical?" he asked.
Xie Yuan wiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded: "If it can be successfully cultivated, sweet potatoes placed in the basement can be stored for a year."
Lu Zhong’s eyes lit up.
Within a year, even if there is another famine, the people can still rely on sweet potatoes to feed themselves, and they will not be forced to go to mass graves to collect corpses to survive, let alone the smell of wine and meat in the rich families, and the freezing of bones on the road.
.
I have to say, Mr. Xie is really smart!
In the evening, Lu Zhong began to write letters once a month.
Yes, the head of the Lu family was afraid that Lu Zhong would be lazy in the academy and be led astray by the children from a poor family, so he asked him to revise a book and go home every month.
When Lu Zhong wrote the letter, he wrote everything he saw today in the letter and sent someone to deliver it to the head of the Lu family.
After reading the letter, the head of the Lu family curled his lips.
How can there be any farming in the world that can withstand barrenness? That guy Xie Yuan, who can't even afford steamed buns, is still thinking about alleviating the famine. It's just an idiot's dream.
He was not curious about Xie Yuan's crops. On the contrary, the basket of treasures mentioned by Lu Zhong made the head of the Lu family very coveted.
Yes, a certain Comrade Xiao Xie dug up a basket of gold and silver jewelry left by ancient people when clearing wasteland. Because he was busy planting crops, the box of jewelry was idle in the academy.
Lu Zhong was very interested in antiques, so he went to study them when he had nothing to do. He found that they were antiquities from the Han Dynasty and identified them one by one.
Among them, we even saw objects from the palace.
If these treasures can be displayed at home, they will definitely be better than other heads of aristocratic families.
How to get it from Xie Yuan...
The head of the Lu family thought so, and slowly started to think about it.
On May 3rd, the governor of Youzhou sent people to the academy and took away Xie Yuan's basket of gold, silver and jewelry on the grounds that he had not paid taxes.
All the diners and Huo Qubing looked confused, but Lu Zhong's eyelids twitched.
His instinct told him that this was the work of his good father.
He must have set his sights on the framed treasure after he wrote the letter.
Oops, I shouldn’t have written that.
Lu Zhong felt a little guilty and did not dare to look at Xie Yuan.