Chapter 23 Thriving

Chapter 23 Thriving

In the early morning, the fields were fresh with dew and the earth was fragrant.

When Li Tai stretched out of the tent, he saw that the soldiers were busy in groups of three or five, scattered among the fields and hills, picking or cutting, making the countryside full of vitality.

"Master, there are so many wild vegetables in the fields! We only harvested two hectares of land, but we got dozens of kilograms. This is wild Polygonum, which can be used as pickles, medicine, seeds, and cloth dyeing. This is shepherd's purse..."

Liu Sanzhu returned to the camp with a rattan basket full of wild vegetables on his back. He greeted Li Tai happily and enthusiastically explained the types of wild vegetables he collected.

Li Tai smiled and listened. Looking at the man's hearty smile, he couldn't help but sigh that people are indeed full of confidence when they do what they are good at.

Before, Liu Sanzhu was silent in the army because he couldn't ride a horse. Li Tai originally thought that he was introverted by nature, but today he saw his cheerful side.

The morning sun shone into Liu Sanzhu's eyes. He looked at Li Tai with hope and said, "Master, the farming work is busy in spring and summer, and the villagers have no time to collect. If there is enough farm labor, I want to take two people to collect all the surrounding fields. The pickles made are more than enough for our own use, and we can also sell them in the city in exchange for cloth. The pickle making method passed down by my family is also famous in the village. I can support my family with it..."

"Just harvest from your own fields, and don't fight for food from the villagers. Sanzhu, you will be the pickle ambassador of the family in the future. When your master strives to move up, you can not only support your family with this method, but also become an official!"

Li Tai patted the young man on the shoulder and encouraged him with a smile.

When the other people heard Li Tai's smile, they also smiled and bowed to Liu Sanzhu and shouted "Meet the Ambassador". A maid who was in charge of the kitchen also came over and said with a smile: "Ambassador Sanzhu, do you want a wife? I have a young lady at home..." Liu Sanzhu was teased by everyone and his face turned red. He emptied the wild vegetables in the basket and ran out of the camp. After running a few feet, he turned around and shouted to the woman in charge of the kitchen: "Madam Deng, I don't want your young lady. If you want to find a partner, can you see me? I work hard to make pickles and save up a dowry for the young lady..." "You thief, dare to tease your mother!" Madam Deng was embarrassed when she heard it. She picked up a piece of soil and threw it at Liu Sanzhu who was running away. She also waved the soup spoon to hit the people around her who were making a fuss. She was very fierce. But when she returned to guard the stove, her face was still as red as rouge, and her eyes drifted to Liu Sanzhu who was collecting wild vegetables in the distance from time to time. Li Tai watched all this playfulness and was thinking about it in his heart.

There is no need to hide the desire between men and women. Arranging marriages for the soldiers is also one of the duties of the head of the family. However, if these things are not handled well, they can easily cause chaos.

At breakfast, while everyone was working and returning, Li Tai frowned and said seriously: "The country has its own laws, and the family has its own rules. Since we have settled down here, I will first make a few family mottos, and you all must keep them in mind! The first point is that you must not bully women and children. If anyone dares to break the rules, once reported and verified, he will no longer be a member of our sect and will be sent to the authorities for punishment!"

Seeing that the master was serious, everyone nodded in agreement. Although life is poor now, the atmosphere of getting along is good. Many soldiers gradually feel a sense of belonging and are reluctant to lose this harmony.

"The country rewards merit with titles and salaries, and naturally the family should also have a system to reward hard work. From now on, every day, every quarter, there will be a review, and those who have made great contributions will be rewarded. If there are widows and widows who want to find a spouse, they will be ranked according to their merits. If the two are in love, the family will provide funds for you to start a family."

When everyone heard this, they subconsciously looked at the twenty women who came with the team this time, and suddenly felt a sense of urgency in their hearts that there were too many wolves and too little meat.

Liu Sanzhu finished a bowl of vegetable soup in two or three mouthfuls, wiped his mouth and said: "Does the master have any more instructions? If not, I have to hurry to collect the vegetables. If they are exposed, they may not be good in appearance!"

"That's all for now, go!"

After hearing this, Li Tai laughed again and waved his hand.

The troops immediately scattered like birds and beasts, and each one was several times more active than before.

The women who stayed in the camp were not all happy. After hesitating for a while, an older woman was pushed out and said in a low voice: "The master cherishes his soldiers and is a rare good master in the world. We foolish women dare to ask the master, when you are married, can we, can we also..."

"Are you worried about marrying the wrong person and suffering for the rest of your life? Don't worry, the household will make a marriage book. If you are willing to be married by the household, come and register. If you don't want to, don't force it. If you have accumulated enough merits, you can choose those clumsy men!"

In ancient times, in order to increase population, it was a sin for men and women to marry late or not. However, Li Tai's troops now have less than 300 people, so he doesn't mind spending more energy to give these troops and men and women some freedom of marriage. All kinds of donkey lips and horse mouths are also a torture over time.

Women are usually more emotional, and they can't help but feel red in their eyes when they hear Li Tai say this.

The woman who spoke first wiped her tears and bowed repeatedly, saying: "Thank you, my dear, thank you... My husband went to war in Lingzhou two years ago, and there was no news since he left. My clan wanted to marry my uncle to me because they wanted my land. I took my two children and escaped, but we were arrested by the government. I left my son behind, and the mother and son were left as slaves. It doesn't matter whether the husband lives or dies, I just want to raise him. I must work hard and never eat for free..."

In troubled times, the most abundant thing is human tragedy.

Li Tai didn't know how to comfort him, but just said: "Don't worry, Madam Xu, no one forced you to do this. I know you are good at weaving and sewing, and you made clothes for your family. When the situation is calm in the future, I will set up a school to educate children. When your husband returns and sees that the child has become a bachelor, he will definitely be grateful for your education!"

When Mrs. Xu heard this, she was even more excited and burst into tears: "I will definitely make a beautiful official robe for Master Lang! Master Lang is so kind to his servants. If he doesn't become a high official, he has no conscience..."

"Then I'll borrow your good words and work hard! Okay, let's get busy. I'll go around and give my family more homework!"

Li Tai drank two large bowls of vegetable soup, stood up and took the two of them up the mountain.

Nowadays, plain land and open fields are the basis for producing food rations, but Li Tai knew his own business, and when it came to intensive farming, after all, the ancients were the real experts.

With his half-baked knowledge of what was happening and not knowing why, it was really difficult for him to put forward any constructive planning suggestions, so he did not arrange and direct the farming in Lu Tian. At most, they can improve farm tools, such as building a curved shaft plow or something like that.

His greatest advantage as a time traveler should be his advanced knowledge of various production tools and processes.

There is no need to think about the big steel smelting now. Even if he has a little knowledge, he has no practical experience at all. Even if he does research, he will have to go through a lot of trial and error, which is obviously not something that his current family background can support.

The first thing Li Tai thought of was the transformation of spinning wheels and looms. After all, Guanzhong market transactions, including taxes collected by the court, were mainly based on cloth. Therefore, the spinning wheel loom was a money printing machine in this era.

The wars of war and iron horses in the latter three kingdoms may have been magnificent, but the true foundation for maintaining the progress and development of this era was woven by women with their hands and feet, thread by thread.

Li Tai really doesn't know how far the textile level of the Northern Dynasties has reached. When I asked the servant maids about the textile tools they used, they couldn't tell much about them. They seemed to have hand cranks and foot pedals.

After all, in the war years, the separatism and confrontation between regions greatly restricted the exchange and development of technology and tools.

But even if he did not understand the textile level of this era, it did not hinder Li Tai's improvement and creation of spinning wheel looms.

As a hard-core ancient style UP owner, the research on ancient textile tools is also one of the basic tasks. He is not one of those coquettish people who chases Hanfu ladies to take photos and earn traffic. He has even restored some ancient textile tools.

Although most of the ancient textile tools that can be seen in later generations date from the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, due to the introduction of cotton, the textile environment and technology have changed greatly compared with those in the Middle Ages. However, cotton fibers are inherently shorter than silk and linen. Some improved technologies can also be used in silk and linen textiles, and the technical requirements are even lower.

On the way out of the city yesterday, Li Tai saw many ponds for retting hemp in the countryside, and he got a lot of inspiration in his mind.

The first thing he thought of was to build a large water-spun spinning wheel. This is a large-scale textile tool invented in the Southern Song Dynasty. It uses water power to process hemp strands into linen yarn. With sufficient power, more than a hundred kilograms of linen can be spun in a day. If converted into the Northern Dynasty system of measurement, it would be nearly three hundred kilograms.

Li Tai also asked Buqu how much flax the women could spin in a day. The hand-cranked spinning wheel could only spin between five and six kilograms, and the foot-operated spinning wheel with three spindles could only spin more than ten kilograms of flax.

Such a comparison shows the advantages of technological development, which can increase productivity by a full thirty times! Others print money for one yuan and fifty cents, but he gets thirty and fifty cents. It is not even a dream to buy Kongguanzhong products at this rate!

The structure of the large water-spun spinning wheel is relatively complex. Later Li Tai also overturned the wheel countless times before shrinking it and restoring it, so he has a deep memory of its scale and structure. This big spinning wheel was mainly made of wood, so after having breakfast, Li Tai went up the mountain to look for suitable wood and try to print money as soon as possible to make money.

When Li Tai came to the hillside, Yang Heili, who was leading the team to find qualified pottery, strode up to meet them. Li Tailuo asked them what their harvest was, and waved to them to help themselves, while he walked into the woods with his two followers.

The soil on the hillside is thick and covered with dense vegetation. All kinds of vegetation that Li Tai may or may not recognize are growing vigorously. However, there are few large and thick logs, and there are quite a few thick and rotten tree stumps. Apparently the villagers from the nearby area have been constantly going up the mountain to cut down trees.

Seeing a thick layer of elm coins spread under some elm trees on the south slope, Li Tai ordered: "Go down the mountain and call a few idlers from the camp to pick up elm coins. Also collect some mountain fruits and honey locusts."

With a small family background and limited food and clothing, he has integrated well into the environment and is not willing to waste even these wild animals in the mountains and forests.

After giving these instructions, Li Tai turned his head and looked down the mountain, his expression suddenly changed. I saw a dark crowd in the fields in the distance, waving their sticks and wading through ditches, heading towards his farmland.

Sorry, I forgot to update. . . sweat. . .