There are 300 acres of wasteland on the riverbank. If you want to use manpower to loosen every inch of land from beginning to end, or even several times, 300 people will be needed.

Let's use this first farmland as an experiment to see how to arrange manpower and manage it.

When it comes to affairs, Li Mengxi is very inexperienced, and he doesn't even know the specific details of land reclamation.

They wanted to open up wasteland by the river beach, so the five of them rode back.

Then he issued an order to ask if anyone was willing to go to work in the fields. Those who were willing to work in the fields would have their rations doubled.

In other words, you can drink a large bowl of porridge in one meal.

The refugees don’t know what farming means.

"That is, we go to open up wasteland, take care of housing and food, open up wasteland there, and grow food next year." Li Mengxi explained to the refugees.

It was about personal interests, and the refugees gathered around Li Mengxi asking questions.

"Then if we open up wasteland, who will give the land to?" asked a refugee.

The earth has been the lifeblood of the people for two thousand years, and the people regard the earth as their destiny.

This question is hard for Li Mengxi to answer.

First, we don’t know how much land can be cultivated; second, we don’t know how much land is appropriate to reward.

If all the reclaimed land is given to the refugees, will the food grown be levied on the refugees in the form of taxes?

If this fails, the cultivated land will not be able to provide much military food at all.

Are the refugees still being raised by the rebels now? If the refugees are divided into fields and farmed in the future, will the rebels continue to support them or not?

Furthermore, Li Mengxi didn't really want to do anything about collecting taxes.

What he wants even more is to distribute all food uniformly.

And if the refugees grow their own food, they will have a large part of the food. If the refugees themselves hold it, it will not be a military food reserve.

After thinking about it for a long time, "The land was opened for us and 20,000 people to share. The food grown by 20,000 people will be eaten together. Isn't this okay?" Li Mengxi smiled and replied to the refugees around him.

Li Mengxi was vague about the ownership of the reclaimed land.

Li Mengxi doesn't want to give the land to private individuals.

After all the refugees learned about the farming matter, the ownership of the fields was still unclear. However, in order to get twice the daily rations, the refugees were willing to go out to reclaim wasteland and were eager to do so.

Li Mengxi even felt that the Han people's enthusiasm for land was rooted in their genes. Many people signed up just to open up wasteland and cultivate some land, not even for food rations.

The large area of ​​land next to the river beach is unclaimed land. Zhang Fei said three to four hundred acres, so he would take it as three hundred acres. If one person clears one acre of wasteland, there will be three hundred people.

In the first batch, three hundred people were recruited.

Not far from the river beach, about seven or eight miles away, Liu Guanzhang took the refugees there.

Leading to the river beach, Zhang Fei's horse ran back and forth twice in front of the refugee team with a spirit of loyalty, pointing to the woods in the north, "From there!"

Then he pointed to Nanhewan, "Wherever we go again! This is our land!"

When the refugees were looking around, Liu Bei came over on horseback. On the horse, Liu Bei pulled Zhang Fei's clothes, leaned over, leaned over and asked in a low voice, "Yide, did you not bring the hoe?"

Zhang Fei's expression froze.

Damn it! I was in a hurry when I came out, and I forgot to hand out hoes to the refugees.

The first problem arises in the field.

It’s a farm tool, it’s a hoe. It’s not just a hoe, it also includes other farm tools.

Three hundred people working in the field should each have a hoe, right? Otherwise, why would they come here to dig with their hands?

Although hoes are common farm tools, if there are 20,000 refugees and they all go out to cultivate land, it will be difficult to find 20,000 hoes.

Naturally, it is impossible to have only one place for farming, and it is also impossible to send only three to five hundred people to work in the fields. Many people must have dispersed, and there will be a huge gap in farm tools.

For this reason, Li Mengxi proposed to Liu Bei to purchase or build agricultural tools as soon as possible.

"Xuan De Gong, how many hoes do you usually have?" Li Mengxi didn't know the prices, so he could only ask Liu Bei.

Liu Bei thought for a moment and said, "About forty articles."

"Then let's take fifty handfuls at a slightly higher market price and buy more." Li Mengxi said.

This is to save time and trouble as much as possible. Only by buying at a price slightly higher than the market price can people's farm tools be sold. Otherwise, if they are bought at a fair price, the people will not sell them.

You also have to pay an errand fee for running errands.

So Zhang Fei went back to the manor first to get farm tools.

Not long after, Zhang Fei drove an ox cart back, pulling a load of hoes on the ox cart.

At the same time, Zhang Fei's servant also drove his cart to the county town to buy a hoe.

In Zhuozhou City, the servants shouted at the top of their lungs as soon as they entered the city, "Who sells hoes? Fifty-one, take one, it's fifty!"

"Fifty-one hoes!"

An old man opened the door and came out, looking around, "Hey, young man, is it really fifty cents?"

"Fifty!" The servant turned around and smiled at the old man, "Old man, if you have a few hoes, I will buy a few!"

The old man then went back to the house and took out a hoe with a scratch on it.

According to the old man's thought, the money given by the hoe collector was more expensive than buying a new one, so why not sell the hoe and buy a new one.

With the attitude of giving it a try, the old man took out the shabbiest hoe at home and sold it. The old man thought that if there was a gap, he would sell it for forty coins.

Zhang Fei's servants had long been told by the military adviser to collect the hoes regardless of the price, so as to save trouble.

The two servants took the old man's hoe, murmured a few words, and then counted fifty coins from a sack of money in the car.

"Uncle, here you go, count the money and see if it's enough!"

The old man was surprised. If he really wanted to give him fifty, he would also give him fifty if he was short of money.

The old man counted the money and found three for ten cents and twenty for one penny, which was a lot.

The servant bought a hoe, pulled the cart and continued on his way.

"Collect the hoe! Who is selling the hoe!" the servant shouted as he walked.

The car was gone, and the old man who had just sold his hoes hurriedly went out with two good hoes, shouting from a distance, "Hey! I have two more here, do you want more?" The old man hurriedly shouted to let him go.

Stop.

The servant then collected two more hoes.

The rebels bought hoes on a large scale in Zhuozhou City at a price higher than the market price. They bought hundreds of hoes and also bought up all the hoes in the blacksmith shop.

As for the riverbank land, we already have hoes, but if we really open up the land, there will still be many problems.

For example, if it is stipulated that each person should be divided into one acre of wasteland, how should he be divided? The wasteland is so big.

The land must be measured.

It was his first time to open up land, and he was very inexperienced, so Zhang Fei went back to get some tools to measure the land.

Li Mengxi originally thought that the tool for measuring the land was a ruler, or a rope with marks on it, but it was not, but something similar to a bow, or a large bullhorn.

When measuring the land, it is something like a bow. You measure it once, hold one end still, and then measure it a second time, just like a person walking.

And this is called the step gauge tool. The distance measured is one step.

Li Mengxi's knowledge has been updated. It turns out that the ancient terms "one step" and "hundred steps" were originally thought to be measured with feet, but were an approximate length based on visual inspection.
Chapter completed!