Chapter 6

"Using oxen for plowing and iron tools is truly satisfying."

A few days ago, the farmer who was still working with a partner, pulling ropes like snails in the field in front of the Fifth Lun, was now very pleased today.

Oxen are much stronger than humans. With two oxen pulling the plow, they could move forward easily and freely. The large iron plow behind them was already deeply embedded in the ground. The plowshare ruthlessly turned over the dry, hard soil, making it loose and suitable for wheat to grow.

It's no wonder that during both the Former Han and the Xin Dynasty, there were strict laws prohibiting the slaughter of oxen used for plowing. The people also held these large animals in high regard, almost treating them as sacred cows. However, they wouldn't go as far as drinking ox urine or taking ox dung baths.

Since the order of borrowing was decided by drawing lots, those who were behind had no reason to complain. When using the oxen, the villagers were very careful, not daring to whip them too hard, for fear of injuring or weakening them.

Just then, Fifth Ba happened to pass by. Seeing everyone's light and gentle actions, he was extremely displeased and stopped to shout, "Haven't you eaten enough? Use more strength! My oxen are strong, they won't damage the land!"

Only then did everyone loosen up a bit. If someone accidentally hit a stone and damaged the plow blade, they would nervously take it back, and although the person in charge of the tools, Fifth Ge, gave them a stern look, he didn't make them pay for it.

This reassured the villagers. They all marveled at how the head of the family, who usually didn't care much about their well-being, had changed this year. When they heard that it was the young master's idea, they secretly gave a thumbs up to Fifth Lun, who was squatting by the field, doing calculations.

What Fifth Lun was calculating was how much time the loan of oxen and plows could save for the entire village. With two oxen per person, it would take just a few hours to plow thirty small acres of land, a rate several times faster than using the old method of partner plowing with wooden and stone tools. After the autumn plowing, before the village festival, the farmers would have seven to eight days of free time. At that time, calling them to work should not be met with resistance.

During a break, Fifth Lun announced the plan to rebuild the village shrine during the farming off-season. The farmers were initially silent, then they all showed great enthusiasm: "The village festival hasn't been properly held for years, this is indeed a big event! Only by pleasing the gods can we ensure a good harvest next year."

"Once we finish sowing in a few days, we will immediately go to help!"

"I'll go to the mountain to cut trees."

"I'll go to the ditch to dig soil."

"I'll go to the kiln to burn tiles!"

Since they were idle anyway, even though there was no pay, the Fifth family would provide meals. With everyone contributing, the work would be done quickly. Now that they had benefited from the oxen, anyone who slacked off would be looked down upon by the whole village.

Even a half-grown boy with a bald head shouted that he wanted to help carry bricks. In his memory, the village festival was the most fun time of the year. Making the gods happy through dance and music also made him happy. Wasn't that great?

Fifth Lun was relieved. On the other hand, the "new thing" he had asked the blacksmith Qiu Gaonu to make had just completed its first field test.

...

"Grandfather, why did you call me?"

The one called was the middle-aged farmer who fell from a pear tree and was sent home by Fifth Lun on a horse, named Fifth Pingdan.

Fifth Lun had made a mistake; this person was not his nephew but his grandson—there was no way around it, he had at least a dozen grandsons in the village, and even some great-grandsons who were older than him.

A man in his forties had to call the 17-year-old Fifth Lun "grandfather," which was initially awkward but became normal over time.

"Is your foot better?"

Fifth Lun looked at his injured foot. Fortunately, the wound had not become infected, which could have been fatal.

"It's better, thanks to the medicine sent by Grandfather. I don't know how to repay this kindness."

To prove it, Fifth Pingdan stomped his foot on the ground.

Fifth Lun quickly stopped him, "Be gentle. When you go to the fields in the future, remember to wear shoes, don't go barefoot."

This made Fifth Pingdan a bit embarrassed. He didn't mention that he had lost his wife two years ago, and there was no one at home to weave shoes. He could only make do with straw shoes. His hands were clumsy, and the shoes he made were loose and fell apart after a few days. The only good pair of shoes at home had to be shared by his two sons when they went out.

Fifth Pingdan was known as one of the best farmers in the village, and Fifth Lun specifically called him to test the new plow.

Fifth Lun had observed that the plows used by the villagers were very different from those he had seen in the south in his previous life. Although they had all the necessary parts—plowshare, plow bed, plow beam, and plow handle—the biggest difference was that the plow beam was long and straight, making it difficult to turn and requiring two oxen to operate.

In his previous life, the plows were shorter and had a curved plow beam, which could be pulled by a single ox.

Fifth Lun had the blacksmith make one according to his memory, and after Fifth Pingdan tested it, the feedback was good.

"It's much lighter and more convenient, and it's easier to turn, suitable for small, scattered plots of land."

Indeed, the heavy, straight plow beam was more suitable for the large, contiguous fields of the Fifth family, which covered over fifty hectares. The small, scattered plots of land owned by individual farmers, each less than a hundred acres and divided by inheritance, were difficult to plow with large plows, but the small, curved plow was perfect.

Fifth Lun happily took the new plow to his grandfather, who was sitting on the field ridge basking in the sun, to report his success. He hoped to make a dozen or so curved plows for the villagers before the spring plowing.

Fifth Ba was not surprised by his grandson's endless new ideas. He had been watching the plow test in the field but was not overly impressed. After examining it, he said slowly, "It's a good tool, it can save labor and is suitable for small farmers, but..."

He asked his grandson a question.

"Lun, which is more valuable, human labor or iron?"

"Of course... iron is more valuable."

Fifth Lun was speechless, realizing he had been too hasty.

The aristocracy hated two policies of the Xin Dynasty: the Wangtian Private Ownership Decree, which restricted their desire to acquire more land and slaves, and the Five Equalities and Six Controls, which harmed not only small farmers but also the landlords. The monopoly on iron production, in particular, was a significant issue.

Iron, from mining to smelting and selling, was entirely controlled by the government, and the prices were set by officials, making it extremely expensive. This was a form of hidden heavy taxation, allowing the Xin Dynasty to support foreign wars without increasing taxes, but it made the aristocracy furious.

It's no wonder that during the Han Dynasty, scholars and literati repeatedly requested the abolition of the salt and iron monopolies, which was a common hope of both landlords and commoners. For the lower classes, it was just a matter of whether the government or the aristocracy would exploit them.

If he were a loyal citizen of the Liu or Wang family, he could criticize this as the greed and shortsightedness of the landlord class, but as a foolish grandson of a landlord...

Fifth Lun rubbed his buttocks and patted his head, smiling.

"That saying is really true."

The powerful families in the east could ignore the laws, but the Fifth family, being in the Guanzhong region, dared not defy them too much. Mining and smelting iron on their own was out of the question, as they lacked the resources, and building a furnace would likely result in the entire family being sent to the frontier as convicts.

Now, to make new plows, they would have to buy finished iron tools from the county iron official, melt them, and recast them, which would increase the cost.

This matter had to be put on hold for now. Fortunately, Fifth Ba was not stubborn and conservative; he just wanted his grandson to understand the difficulties of the world and not act impulsively.

He agreed with Fifth Lun that they would first have craftsmen and slaves make some curved plows from hardwood. If the straight plows at home broke, they would not be repaired but melted down to make plow blades for the curved plows, gradually updating and replacing them. They couldn't expect to achieve everything at once.

Fifth Lun nodded but had another concern.

"Since iron is so hard to obtain, how will we make and stockpile weapons in the future?"

...

By mid-August, the autumn plowing in the Fifth village was complete, and it was time for sowing.

As a southerner who grew up eating rice, Fifth Lun was not very familiar with wheat, let alone baking bread.

Moreover, the county was in the heart of Guanzhong, and by the Former Han, it had undergone two agricultural revolutions led by Zhao Guo and Fan Shengzhi, making farming techniques very advanced. Techniques like the alternating field method, ridge farming, and composting were already in use, leaving little room for Fifth Lun to contribute.

He even saw Fifth Ba wave his hand and have the "seeder" from the warehouse brought out to use on their fifty hectares of land. This device, called a "three-legged seeder," was invented by the agricultural official Zhao Guo during the Han Wu Emperor's reign. It was pulled by oxen, and one person behind it would hold the seeder and scatter the wheat seeds. It could sow one hectare of land in a day, and the seeds were distributed evenly, avoiding waste.

Fifth Lun only suggested "intercropping wheat and beans," a common practice learned in junior high biology, as one of his "resource expansion" methods, which might slightly increase the yield next year.

"It's too slow, still too slow." Fifth Lun knew that neither the curved plow nor intercropping would bring immediate increases in yield, and it was better to simply increase the harvest by a few hundred stones.

Moreover, crops grow according to their own rules, and it would take until next year to see the results. How many more years did he have to prepare?

Thinking about this, Fifth Lun smiled. He seemed to know the fastest way to gather grain and iron.

"The most profitable methods are all written in the criminal code!"

In his previous life, he would have been a law-abiding citizen, but in the Xin Dynasty, these restrictive laws made him feel the urge to break the law.

It wasn't until the irrigation after sowing that Fifth Lun found a new opportunity to contribute.

The Fifth village was next to the Chengguo Canal, and the water was diverted from the sluice gate into the fields through ditches. He saw that the farmers mostly used buckets and pulleys to draw water, which was very inefficient. Even the fifty hectares of land owned by the Fifth family used a device similar to a dragon-bone water wheel, which required human power to operate.

This year was too late, but perhaps before the spring plowing next year, they could make some water wheels or other irrigation devices, but that would require inviting a skilled carpenter from the county. Fifth Lun had many ideas but poor practical skills.

One day, while Fifth Lun was looking for a suitable place to set up the water wheel, his companion, Fifth Fu, came running breathlessly.

"Little Master, something's wrong, something's wrong."

"What is it?"

"Water... water dispute!"

The farmers, who were drawing water, immediately became agitated, throwing down their buckets and holding their poles, asking, "Who, who dares to compete for water with the Fifth village! We'll beat them to death!"

Not to boast, but under the leadership of the old soldier Fifth Ba, no one in the village could match the Fifth family in a fight.

"It's not us."

Fifth Fu quickly waved his hands, pointing to the west, "It's the Sixth and Seventh families fighting over water!"

...

"It's not our business. If others fight over water, what does it have to do with us? Our village doesn't share a branch canal with them."

The farmers of the Fifth village, hearing this, picked up their poles and walked away, chatting and laughing.

Fifth Lun, however, was thoughtful and called a few servants and clan members to follow him to the west.

The Chengguo Canal was built during the Han Wu Emperor's reign. If the Zhengguo Canal and Bai Canal irrigated the Shiwu Commandery east of the Jing River, the Chengguo Canal benefited the Fuwu, Jingwu, and Liwu Commanderies.

The government took the canals very seriously, setting up water officials to manage them and dividing the canal sections among the counties, prohibiting the upstream from damming the water and depriving the downstream, which could lead to fatalities.

However, the smaller branch canals below the county level were not as strictly managed. In Changping County, each two villages shared a small canal, and the water usage ratio was determined based on population and land size, to the satisfaction of both parties.

But this year, due to drought upstream, the water flow in the Chengguo Canal was low, making water resources scarce.

After walking a few miles, they saw sparse trees and a distant stream. Two villages were adjacent, and groups of villagers, armed with manure forks, sticks, hoes, and even sickles, were rushing to the canal.

Fifth Lun sent someone to ask, and the Sixth village people insisted, "The Seventh family broke the old agreement and wants more water for their land! They started the fight!"

As they approached the branch canal, they heard a loud commotion. The Sixth village farmers, who had arrived earlier, were being forced back by a group of men in tight clothing, armed with knives and swords.

The Sixth family, who were focused on farming, were no match for the Seventh family, known for their bravery in the county. Faced with these fierce young men with real weapons, how could they resist with mere farming tools? Soon, sickles were broken, and manure forks were snapped, and they retreated in disarray.

Seeing this, Fifth Lun, holding a ring sword at his waist, was hesitant.

Recently, he had resolved the feud between the Fifth and Eighth families by giving pears and education, earning some reputation in the county. According to his plan, the next step was to establish his authority.

"Resolving the dispute today could help establish my authority."

But mediating often led to getting hit, and if handled improperly, he could offend both families. He needed to think carefully about whether it was worth getting involved and how to mediate.

He only remembered that his grandfather was on good terms with the Sixth family but had a neutral relationship with the Seventh family. The Seventh family's leaders were known for their arrogance and might not listen to a young man like him.

While he was thinking, Fifth Fu came again, riding a donkey and shouting, "Little Master, the County Magistrate has sent someone to summon you, saying there's an urgent matter at the county office."

The County Magistrate was looking for him? Why now?

Fifth Lun frowned and looked at the two feuding families, whose commotion was getting louder. The Sixth family was already retreating, with many injured, and the Seventh family showed no signs of stopping. If he didn't intervene, there would be fatalities, but if he got involved, it would take a long time to resolve. Damn, which should he prioritize?

"Fifth Lun, you go to the county first, and I'll handle this."

Suddenly, a loud voice came, and it was Fifth Ba, who had also come on horseback.

The old man, with a sword and riding a red horse, still had the same heroic demeanor as in his youth.

"Fifth Ba is here. Let me see who dares to draw their weapons!"

Looking at his grandfather and the red horse's back, Fifth Lun seemed to see the old man's heroic spirit from his days following Chen Tang on the western expedition, galloping across the desert, one Han man against five barbarians!

...

PS: Please give me a recommendation.