Great Tang Idyll

Hearing the voice, Ge Yingxi shifted his gaze to the person . Then he recognized this man, who was the butler of w.a.n.gs’ . Then, Ge smiled, “Butler w.a.n.g, are you busy now? I"m just walking around here . ” As he spoke, he was ready to go closer .

Well, Butler w.a.n.g took a step towards the side of Ge Yingxi, standing in front of Ge Yingxi, and said,

"Village Head Ge, the field is muddy due to the spring tillage . Why not go to the riverbank for a walk, where the scenery is much better than the field . And these farmers have not seen too many big shots . They might be frightened if they saw you . ”

Under this circ.u.mstance, Ge Yingxi had to stop, with his smile full of embarra.s.sment . Noticing that Butler w.a.n.g was going to the riverbank with him . Ge Yingxi hesitated for a while, then followed him .

“Butler w.a.n.g, the spring tillage of your village is much faster than that of mine, but the number of farmers this year seems same with that last year . I wonder what method you have used . The farmers in our village are indeed living a hard life . ”

Ge Yingxi asked as he walked, sighing and trying to find out something .

Of course, Butler w.a.n.g understood what Ge Yingxi wanted to know, but he would never tell the secret . How could others get the thing the little master and the little lady made? Then he said,

“Zhang Village is the same with our village . There is not any special way . Well, the only way is to treat the farmers well . If so, the farmers will surely work hard . Just like last night, our masters prepared some food and some wine for them, which is enough for them . ”

Ge Yingxi was quite embarra.s.sed, which clearly meant that he didn’t treat the farmers well . But he had no choice . After all, Zhang Village and w.a.n.g Village were rich, but it was too hard for him to afford the expense . But he understood what Butler w.a.n.g had said . Especially those fields which hadn’t been rented, he had to be responsible for them as the master .  

But if the farmers could finish the work which usually costed a few days within one day, he would never believe it . Well, the key of this problem must be the plough . Or why didn"t the butler let him go over there to check it?

Ge Yingxi wondered the difference of that plough . He still looked over there when he walked by the river . This time he finally found out the difference . The plough used by his farmers was definitely not as fast as the one farmers of w.a.n.g Village used .

“Butler w.a.n.g, is it really that simple? Is there anything else?” Ge Yingxi did not worry any more whether Butler w.a.n.g was unhappy about his question, just asking .

Butler w.a.n.g smiled, “Head Ge is really intelligent! Actually, there are indeed some differences . Besides, since last summer, the two villages have bought cattle and horses for ploughing . Look, there is no one plough pulled by people anymore . ”

Ge Yingxi nodded and stopped talking about it . He knew the key was the plough . Now that they did not want to talk about it, he could not continue to ask . Thinking about trying to figure it out later, he talked with the butler for a while, and then went back .

Butler w.a.n.g sent him to the bridge . Seeing that Ge Yingxi gradually went away, he took a deep breath and turned back .

Ten busy days pa.s.sed, during which Zhang Village and w.a.n.g Village had ploughed all the land . Ge Village had to spend another half a month on this . The people of Ge Village couldn’t believe the speed, which made the people of Zhang Village and w.a.n.g Village get more confident .

Some farmers found that there were still a few days available . After a discussion, they went to the master"s house, and advised to put fertilizer on the soil to nourish the fields first . Then, they would have the fields ploughed again .

Since the farmers were willing to work more, the masters would not stop them and just needed to prepare more food for the farmers . This winter Zhang Xiaobao and w.a.n.g Juan had made a lot of money . So it was easy for them to spend some money on this part .

“Shi Liu, dig out the earthworms and move them to another place . Then put the soil where they lived and the rotting things above it into the fields together with other manure . Well, let me see . Leave it for a while . Ask Little Hong to take the chicken to the fields first . There are a lot of pupae, which could be the food of the chickens, coming out after the fields are ploughed . ”

Zhang Xiaobao was instructing Shi Liu, with worry on his face . After listening to the words, Shi Liu left . Then w.a.n.g Juan sighed .

“It has been so many days . Why isn’t there any news from Er Niu yet? That doesn’t matter if he didn’t get any medical stone . I just hope he is safe . ”

"Yes . The communication here is really bad, and the transportation is not convenient . So it will take a long time on the way . We really need to recruit more servants; with their company, we could be at ease about the safety of the person we have sent out . These days, some people from the Ge Village have been sent over here, trying to peek at us or getting some news from our farmers . ”

When Zhang Xiaobao was worried about Er Niu, he was also dissatisfied with the master of the Ge Village . But he indeed understood it . After all, everyone wanted to live a good life . But he couldn’t share the such a technical tool casually .

“Take it easy! No one would say it . Yesterday, a farmer came with a liang (1 liang =50 grams) of silver and said that someone wanted to buy him over . The person who gave him the money is a farmer from the Ge Village . Obviously, there is no one but Ge Yingxi arranging it . "

w.a.n.g Juan didn"t care about it . She was very satisfied with the performance of the farmer who came here yesterday .

Zhang Xiaobao shook his head and thought about it for a moment . Then he said, “It’s impossible to keep the secret of the Curved Plough . Ask Song Jinggong to send one to County Magistrate Cheng . Besides, send one to Zhou Xihu, asking him to learn how to make it as soon as possible . Later on, we can make a profit by selling it . Tell him that he should finish it before the end of the spring tillage . ”

“But why? Only if we didn’t talk about the curved plough, it would never be known by others . ”

“It couldn’t be that simple! Tuqiao Village has three hamlets and three heads . In fact, it belongs to a li (an organization unit larger than a village) . If Ge Yingxi couldn’t figure it out, he might report it to the manager of li, the reputable old guy in the township or even the county magistrate . They will come here to see if they know the news that there is new kind of plough which can accelerate spring tillage . We couldn’t deal with a senior official . Why not take the initiative in sharing the benefits with each one . They will have to pay back in the future . Last time, the people who came here to check the matter of the auspiciousness were sent away without finding anything by our dilatory tactics . See, this is the society . In the society, we should constantly exchange interests with others, and unit with others according to the situation . ”

Zhang Xiaobao thought about all of this clearly . Ge Yingxi didn’t seem intelligent . If Zhao Xiaobao was him, he would have done what he had said .

w.a.n.g Juan felt helpless . However, she knew that she had to abide by the rules of the game if she couldn’t set up a game .

“Well, as the fields are ploughed twice this year and have so many good fertilizers, the yield could be increased to some extent . We have some rice, some wheat, and some millet . Among them, how should the rice be planted? Slinging or transplanting rice seedlings?”

“Sling them, though it may waste some rice seedlings . The fittest will survive in natural selection anyway . Then we could keep some fish fry in the fields . After all, there is so much land . With fish, we could earn more income although they are cheap here . Even if they couldn’t be sold for money, we could make salted fish for our farmers to eat . The only thing I worry about is how we shall explain when someone from the upper government comes here to check the situation of planting thinks the way of slinging rice seedlings would cause a low yield, and forces us to change it . After all, this is an era of power . By that time, we will have to ask County Magistrate Cheng for help . ”

Lying on the bed, Zhang Xiaobao looked at the ceiling, and said slowly .

After a discussion, they settled the matter . Then they told this to Song Jinggong, who agreed with it too . Then, Song went out in a hurry with two curved ploughs, which were respectively sent to County Magistrate Cheng and Zhou Xihu . And Zhou Xihu was regarded as a partner, sharing the bonus with them .

“Hurry up! We"ll be there soon . I’ll give you extra twenty copper coins per person when we arrive at the place . ”

In less than four hours after Song Jinggong left, a group of large carriages came from the distance, with stones in it . The man sitting in the first carriage kept shouting at those carters of other carriages . In fact, those carters were worried about their horses . If they were in such a hurry, their horses might get exhausted and be unable to work for a few days .

However, when they heard that this man named Er Niu said that he would pay extra 20 copper coins per person, they didn’t care about their horses any more . If the horses were tired, they could have a rest for several days . It was likely that they couldn’t earn twenty copper coins in those days . Besides, Er Niu indeed had paid them a lot .

The sound of shouting and whiplashes were mixed together . And they moved faster than before .

Er Niu had left the village since the 6th day of the month . It had been a long time for him . He was suffering from p.r.o.nounced homesickness though he was approaching hometown . He kept drinking water, as if he tried to let himself breathe more smoothly .

Pa.s.sing by a few villages, he knew that spring tillage had begun . But he did not know what had happened to his village . When the team arrived at Ge Village, he was amazed that Ge Village ploughed quicker than before . Well, they also followed the way of ploughing his own village had used during last autumn harvest . Now all farmers worked together .

“Junior Wu of the third, your field looks great this year . By autumn, there must be a good harvest . I didn"t expect you to plough so much land these days . ”

Er Niu said to the busy man as he pa.s.sed a field .

Junior Wu of the third was pulling the plough there . Hearing the voice, he turned back and found it was Er Niu . In the beginning, he thought that Er Niu was deliberate to say so . Later, he saw that Er Niu seemed to come back from outside . Only then did he understand that Er Niu did not know what was going in his village . He squared himself and shouted at Er Niu .

“Er Niu, come on! Go back to your village and have a look . All the land had been ploughed yesterday . I guess they may sow the dung and plough the land again . We couldn’t compare with you . ”

“Junior Wu of the third, are you kidding me? Is that true?” As soon as Er Niu heard it, he asked again . Junior Wu of the third still had to work . There weren’t too many cattle and horses for them to plough . He just nodded, bent down, and then continued to work .

At this time, Er Niu really hoped that he could fly back, urging the carters to be quick again . When they arrived at the bridge, Er Niu stood up and looked over there . It was true that the land had been ploughed, and there were a lot of chickens pecking at things in the fields .

“This must benefit from our little master . Well, those little insects in the fields will suffer,” Er Niu said to the people who went out with him . The two men nodded too, feeling quite happy . If they really ploughed the land with fertilizer again, of course a good harvest would be obtained .

As soon as the team crossed the bridge, Er Niu could not help shouting, “I"m back . Get some people to help unload the stones . ”