Chapter 268: Busy Spring Farming

The tenth day of February is the Waking of Insects.

All over Guanzhong area, people have started to prepare for spring ploughing.

The black bear used the black magic power accumulated during this period to pull out ten dried horses in one breath; together with the two original horses, he strung them together into six rows of two.

He was equipped with a heavy three-tooth wide plow. When using it, he stood on the plow, with twelve horses in front to move forward steadily.

It can plow a path of soil that is one step wide and nearly two feet deep; behind the three-tooth wide plow is hung an equally heavy iron harrow, which is used to break up soil clods and level the land.

Three soldiers were standing on the iron rakes, they were sowing wheat and soybeans evenly. The shallow furrows where the seeds were sown were soon smoothed by the soil layer covered by the iron rakes under their feet.

The plot of land is 240 steps long. Black Bear can cultivate and sow two acres of land with one go using a three-tooth wide plow.

According to the "Official Land Order", Hei Xiong had 500 acres of official land under his name; even his personal soldiers generally had 10 acres of official land.

When he drove a wide plow to sow seeds, he was followed by a horse-drawn carriage. He would pick up the stones that were turned up when turning the soil and put them in the carriage, and then transport them to the edge of the field to consolidate the ridges.

The chief clerk Yang Fu accompanied Hei Xiong in the trial farming. Yang Fu's official rank was equivalent to 400 dan, so his official land was 35 mu.

Yang Fu stood at the edge of the field, holding a wooden hourglass in his hand. He calculated the black bear's farming efficiency and moved the abacus back and forth with his index finger.

I couldn't help but gasp. If these horses could maintain their stamina and continue tilling the land, they could sow seeds on seven acres of land in a quarter of an hour.

Ninety-six quarters of a day, that's nearly seven hundred acres of land!
Normal people use cattle and horses, and they have to be careful with the power of the animals, and they can only work on five or six acres of land a day.

But the plow here has been improved, although it is an exaggerated three-tooth wide plow; but the shape of the plow has been improved into a curved plow.

The military and civilians can achieve higher reclamation efficiency by using two oxen to pull the plow, or even one ox to pull the plow.

Now, due to the war, the technological level has regressed to the point that Guanzhong cannot even manufacture a seed drill.

Some experienced craftsmen were also standing at the edge of the field observing. Today they were cultivating and sowing corn.

This corn is easy to grow and its seeds are small and fragmented. After being evenly sown, the seeds will penetrate into the cracks in the ground. After the ground is harrowed, most of the corn seeds will be covered by the soil.

But after sowing corn, sorghum and spring wheat, some other crops still need to be ridged in the fields. Now these craftsmen need to research, improve and trial-produce ridge-making machinery.

Clearing the land, sowing seeds and forming ridges can be completed at one time, which can save a lot of trouble; people can then refine the ridges later.

After Black Bear had cultivated more than 50 acres of land through trial driving, he finally got tired of the fun and returned to the field, directing the herd of horses to automatically cruise and cultivate the land.

He picked up the small teapot and took a sip, observing the plowing process and felt that the horsepower was a bit wasted.

However, after being expanded into a four-tooth wide curved plow, the horsepower may be insufficient, which will accelerate the wear of the harness.

If the ground is dry and hard, the efficiency will be lower.

The black bear looked at the slightly higher terrain around him, then at the ravines and streams in the distance. If he wanted to irrigate in the future, he could only use a waterwheel.

But there is no need to build water wheels in the short term. As long as the water conservancy projects in Guanzhong are unblocked, the fertile fields available for irrigation everywhere can meet Guanzhong's consumption.

The reason why people cultivate land and plant corn and sorghum here is simply because the foxtail grass is easy to grow.

As long as you turn over the land, sow the foxtail grass seeds, and pull out the weeds from time to time, these tenacious crops will grow and thrive.

If you are busy, it’s okay not to come to weed, you can just come to harvest in summer or autumn.

Harvesting is also simple, just pick the ears of corn and put them into the basket.

The black bear stood at the edge of the sky and thought, millet and corn are easy to grow, the only downside is that they cannot grow for years like weeds.

If millet and sorghum with strong root systems can grow for many years, then it will be a one-time solution. After sowing, you just need to harvest them regularly every year.

The fruits are harvested and the plants also make good forage after harvesting.

“We are still unprepared.”

Black Bear sighed to Yang Fu who was approaching: "The supply of curved plows is insufficient. I underestimated the demand for spring ploughing in Guanzhong."

Making a plow requires good wood and enough iron.

Nowadays, many places have no shortage of animal power, but what they lack is the curved plow. Although the curved plow may look simple, it is not something that can be manufactured quickly.

Black Bear said with his hands on his hips: "Guanzhong lacks too many things. Just the curved plow and various farm tools alone will take us three years to roughly meet the needs of the military and civilians."

Yang Fu felt speechless after listening to this. According to Black Bear's expectation, every household should have a complete set of farming tools, including three oxen and horses, a carriage, and a loom.

Yang Fu came from Tianshui. In the core city of Tianshui, farming tools were shared by several households and clans. In remote areas, technology was difficult to circulate and the area became more backward.

Tianshui is fine, as it has enough power to protect itself.

Many of the Hu tribes in the border counties are powerful. If they see a plow, the iron on it will be difficult to preserve.

Without that little bit of iron as a sharp edge, the wooden plow would wear out quickly.

Now there is a shortage of craftsmen, and over time, many households in border counties no longer have plows.

The more he learned about agriculture, the less interested Black Bear was in sending troops to Kanto. He had no interest in fighting those poor guys.

The larger the territory you occupy, the greater the food pressure you will face.

It would be better to attack the Hu tribes than to attack Guandong. The livestock looted can immediately strengthen the agricultural foundation.

Cows and horses give birth to cows and horses, and they eat grass, which is much more efficient than humans. How to make sure that everyone in your own team has enough food, good clothes, and a spacious and warm house is the truly meaningful thing.

He was fully committed to restoring production and naturally would not allow others to interfere with spring plowing.

Starting from the Waking of Insects Day and lasting for one month, the gates of the county government offices under his jurisdiction were closed.

County governors and magistrates were all required to take the lead in cultivating their own official lands in the fields; even the various newly restored pavilions and post stations had to open up wasteland nearby as the local responsible public lands.

Except for a small number of guard troops, the vast majority of soldiers returned to their hometowns and engaged in spring farming work.

The benefits of strategic deterrence are reflected at this moment. There is no need to reduce border defense manpower, and the number of production units has increased, which is conducive to Guanzhong's large-scale production this year.

This year's production scale will determine the intensity of the strategic strike after autumn!

Therefore, after the spring plowing is completed, manpower must be organized to dredge the dried up and blocked rivers and canals in Guanzhong.

Water conservancy projects are very complicated. After dredging the main canals and branch canals, it is necessary to re-maintain various weirs and ponds to increase the water storage capacity at each node.

Basically, during the seven months from the beginning of spring plowing to the completion of autumn harvest, Guanzhong did not have the foundation for foreign expeditions.

At least, the appearance of full production now is very confusing.

While spring ploughing was in full swing, more than 3,000 people in Hancheng, north of Xiayang, were building houses in the ravines in preparation for mining.

In fact, iron ore does not need to be mined. It is mainly collected and transported, and there is a process of crushing the ore in the middle.

Blacksmithing is hard, mining is even harder.

Xu Lin inspected the mining area and was accompanied by Yan Xing and Lu Chang, two powerful miners' representatives.

Miners are different from each other. The more than 700 people led by Lu Chang may be redeemed by Liu Bei at any time, so they have always been doing light work, so they have a posture of supervising the more than 2,000 people led by Yan Xing.

There were only so many jobs, so people from Jingzhou did the light work, while the heavy and threatening jobs were given to people from Liangzhou.

When inspecting a broken construction site, Yan Xing immediately said, "Captain, we are not eating enough, lacking physical strength and mental distraction. Death from work-related injuries is a minor matter, but delaying the plans of Marquis Liang is a major matter."

Lu Chang remained silent. Now the people of Jingzhou were still responsible for felling and transporting wood until a huge water-mill working base was built.

The model of the water-mill has also been delivered. The original rigid working mode has been improved by using a water wheel to draw water power. The huge water wheel is pushed by the water flow and can drive the hardwood iron mill.

From then on, the people of Jingzhou were responsible for guarding the river and crushing the iron ore that was transported.

The people from Liangzhou are responsible for collecting the ore and transporting it to the water-pounding work area. After the crushing is completed, the people from Jingzhou who are good at controlling the boats will transport the materials to the smelting area.

Downstream of the water-draining working area is the future iron ore smelting and forging center.

The coal will be transported here for coking, and then mixed with charcoal to smelt the crushed ore; after the molten iron comes out of the furnace, it will be used first to cast various farm tools.

There is no extra productivity to manufacture military equipment this year. With the equipment currently in stock in the army, there will be no problem in defeating the Hetao tribes again.

As long as the battlefield is cleaned enough, the blacksmiths accompanying the army can repair the armor and weapons.

Yan Xing also knew the future development plan of Hancheng Smelting Supervision Workshop, but he really couldn't stand the fate of the miners.

Although he did not need to participate in actual labor, his fellow villagers and followers could not escape.

I can't just watch them die of exhaustion in front of me.

Therefore, Yan Xing really wanted to seize an opportunity. Now he could no longer count on Han Sui. Han Sui pushed the blame for the rebellion onto these people. How could Han Sui be willing to spend money to redeem them?
If Han Sui had a conscience, he should send the families of these people to Guanzhong.

Use these people to apologize to the black bear; only when their families come to Guanzhong can they have a chance to be quickly freed.

Since Han Sui cannot be expected to do such a good thing, Yan Xing can only save himself.

Seeing that Xu Lin showed no disgust, he said, "We are good at fighting. If you can give us a chance, we are willing to capture three barbarians to buy the freedom of one person."

"Three prisoners?"

Xu Lin frowned and re-examined Yan Xing, who was over eight feet tall and had been doing hard labor for nearly half a year but was still broad-framed and strong. He then turned his head to look at the miners in Liangzhou who were generally over seven feet tall.

I made a simple comparison with the body shapes of some Xiongnu captives in my memory. Regardless of whether they were Xiongnu or Qiang captives who migrated eastward, they were generally thin and short.

Xu Lin said, "The Hu Lu are weak, and three people need three people's rations. It's better for the two of you to do a better job. The two of you only need two rations."

Yan Xing was stunned by the compliment and continued, "There are many mineral veins that need to be excavated. The Hu Lu are short, so they are suitable for collecting minerals in the mines. We are tall, and we can only eat 70% of our daily rations, so we can only use 60% to 70% of our strength. The Hu Lu are different. They have lived in hunger since childhood. They will be full after eating their daily rations, so they can use 80% to 90% of our strength."

"What you said makes sense."

Xu Lin nodded and looked at Lu Chang, who also said, "In the future, when the Jianfang expands, the ore will still have to be mined from the veins. In this way, the Hu Lu are the best miners."

Xu Lin was now somewhat confident, and said to Yan Xing: "I will report this matter to the Lord. The details will be decided by the Lord, and it is not up to me to decide."

"Thank you for your help, Captain."

President Yan breathed a sigh of relief. He was really afraid that Black Bear would forget about them.

Guanzhong is now not short of elite soldiers and generals. If they cannot make it in time for the next round of foreign war, then these two thousand people may really all be buried in the collapsed mine tunnel.

Nowadays, if a decent family wants to make a living, why would they go mining?

If mining was a good job, it would never be the turn of these captives to do it.

(End of this chapter)