CHAPTER 76: CHAPTER 75: SITTING BACK TO WATCH THE JOKE

Lin Zhentian saw that Lin Wanwan had said so, so he naturally stayed to join in the hotpot meal. Just looking at all this meat made him drool. In fact, he came over at this hour just to join Kun Lun and the others for a meal.

Ever since he started working with Lin Wanwan, his life visibly improved.

After Lin Zhentian was put in charge of the manor’s households by Lin Wanwan, he, like Kun Lun and others, received winter "work clothes". The best clothes he had worn in his lifetime were these "work clothes" provided by Lin Wanwan.

Lin Wanwan built a few brick dormitories on the wasteland at the edge of her permanent land, providing shelter for many homeless mountain villagers and farmers who had lost their land and homes. These people considered her manor guests and helped her farm.

Most of the time, they were managed by Lin Zhentian. Kun Lun, due to language barriers, occasionally represented Lin Wanwan to check on them.

In winter, while others couldn’t plant much, for Lin Wanwan, there was still plenty that could be sown.

Cabbages are not worth mentioning since everyone was planting them. Lin Wanwan also bought winter wheat, radishes, chives, peas, and of course, the high-yield potatoes that every time traveler must have.

She not only had her manor guests plant in her fields but also distributed the seeds to her clan members so everyone could plant them. After the harvest, they just needed to give her an equivalent amount of matured plants, serving as an interest-free loan.

Lu Family Manor and Dafeng Village, being in the same area as Lin Family Manor, fell under the jurisdiction of the Village Chief Lin. Lin Wanwan also gave the Village Chief a bunch of seeds to handle.

The Village Chief was willing to lend a hand to his fellow villagers, but unfortunately, the others didn’t appreciate it.

Farmers fear changes the most. Planting what they are used to, no matter how much, always yields some harvest. Suddenly switching crops leaves outcomes unpredictable.

Everyone was too poor to afford any fuss.

They certainly wanted to get rich but only without any risks. They did not dare to take even the slightest risk because a deviation from expectations could mean starvation, freezing, or even death. But in this world, who chases after you to feed you? And if there is, it won’t be their turn.

On the contrary, Xiao Chong had free time to go to Lin Wanwan’s fields for inspections every time he found good things, he wouldn’t miss them.

Lin Wanwan dared not give him too much, otherwise, it would be hard to explain. Actually, even as it was now, Lin Wanwan already felt Xiao Chong was suspicious of her. But since the other showed an unspoken understanding by not asking anything, she naturally played dumb.

In Great Tang, even officials with ranks usually got low salaries, but as a subsidy, they had their job fields and guards funded by public expenses (mostly counted within the labor duty of local commoners).

Xiao Chong, as a County Magistrate of Mao County, an upper county, held a rank of Secondary Sixth. He received a monthly salary once a month (which included various living supplies, totaling no more than 2.5 guan) and received a salary once a year after the autumn harvest, primarily consisting of millet, grains, or other foodstuffs, totaling 95 shi per year.

Additionally, he had job fields of 500 mu.

With so many job fields, it was certainly impossible for him to cultivate them himself. Thus, a County Magistrate was actually also a landlord, renting out his job fields and collecting rent. Great Tang had specified that job fields could collect no more than six du of millet per mu annually.

But Xiao Chong was different; as a direct lineage of the Xiao Family, when he took office, the Xiao Family sent enough people with him. Staff, guards, servants, doctors were no exception, and he even brought many manor guests attached to the Xiao Family for farming.

Because the previous County Magistrate was quite ruthless, the tenant farmers in the job fields were driven to be separated from their families by the former. When the new County Magistrate came, many dared not rent anymore, fearing a similar bloodsucking official, which, in turn, cleared obstacles for Xiao Chong’s takeover.

Eventually, half of Xiao Chong’s job fields were leased to mountain villagers and dispossessed farmers who had descended from the mountains, while the other half was cultivated by his own manor guests, naturally he could use it as experimental fields.

Lin Wanwan sold Xiao Chong mostly potatoes because of their high yield, only selling a little bit of the others symbolically.

Now, the gentry class of Xiaoxi Town had all heard of Hou Tao Lin’s Lin Wanwan. The legendary fifteen shi per mu rice harvest spread across miles. Yet most of the gentry simply did not believe it, thinking Xiao Chong was falsifying results for political achievements.

How bold people are, how big the harvest! Great Tang’s most top figure who murdered his brother and forced his father, coming into power unjustly, with heaven sending locusts as punishment, needed to create some "auspicious omens" for public opinion.

The gentry have seen much of such sordid affairs, only the foolish commoners would believe them to be true.

The gentry in Mao County also knew that Xiao Chong’s job fields had many seeds bought from Lin Wanwan, now everyone was keeping their eyes open, just waiting to see the results (as a joke).

How much can you grow in winter? It’s just a waste of effort. These two cold-resistant seeds, cabbage and radishes, might not even yield a shi per mu, what else could there be? In the end, it might still require Xiao Family’s main house to fill this false prosperity.

Regarding Xiao Chong, the local gentry respect him more than they fear him.

Just a young lad in his early twenties, recommended through family power, even if he’s one of the Xiao Family, so what? They just coldly watch Xiao Chong messing with high-yield rice seeds and sweet potatoes, not cooperating.

Luckily, Xiao Chong hadn’t thought about giving them high yield seeds, there were already not many, and naturally prioritized self-farming farmers.

***

After the first snow, the weather grew colder by the day. In Great Tang, winter was far harder to endure than summer because common civilians had insufficient warming supplies.

Poet Saint Du Fu once wrote, "Coarse quilts cold like iron for years, the frivolous child errantly breaks them; leaking roof over the bed without a dry spot, unending rain seeping like clusters."

What does this mean? It means clothes and quilts are cold as iron, the house leaks, miserable beyond measure, so you can imagine. The great poet Du Fu was at least an aristocrat, reduced to such poverty, the other common folks are even more imaginable.

Under Li Shimin’s reign during Zhen Guan Year, though not as wretched as during Tang Xuanzong’s militaristic phase in later Kaiyuan, it wasn’t much better.

This year a drought struck Guanzhong, not to mention the recent flood, harvests are desolate. Depending entirely on transport support from various places. Amidst such difficulties, Li Shimin appointed Li Jing, Li Shiji, Chai Shao, and Li Daozong as expedition generals in August, sending troops to subdue the Eastern Turks.

It is said, for the army to move, provisions must be ahead. War is not only about force but also national strength, consuming massive money and food. Because of the butterfly effect, this autumn taxes on fisheries in Lin Family Manor had increased by two-tenths compared to last year.

Were it not for Lin Wanwan’s low-price rice subsidy, they had a difficult time in Lin Family Manor surviving the winter.

Li Shimin’s military campaigns, governing all corners and hiding places, required Tang subjects collectively tightening their belts in support. Those wealthy houses, gate valve families lived in luxury as usual, only the common people had to bear this pressure.

Such unfairness in society is ancient.