Chapter 36: The Farmer Has His Own Land
Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
"The Eastern Han is full of hidden talents indeed, and everyone is fighting for first place."
Chu Tian was slightly astounded. There were a lot of feudal lords in the Eastern Han, and the competition was extremely intense.
The Eastern Han had thirteen prefectures, so even remote regions like Jiao Prefecture and the Protectorate of the West had large numbers of feudal lords.
Back in the era of the Qing Dynasty, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang had been hailing the slogan, "Were the princes and marquises born superior to us?" In the Eastern Han, the ubiquitous principle that people embraced was that whoever had a bigger fist had the power to dictate, and he could fight with other heroes to conquer the world.
Besides, the Eastern Han was the largest region, which meant that it had the highest chances of having great feudal lords.
"You, Liang, Bing, and Guanzhong Prefectures are excellent places that produce horses. Feudal lords in these regions are at a great vantage point during the early stages."
Chu Tian realized that half of the feudal lords that ranked in the top ten in the Eastern Han came from the prefectures and districts that produced horses.
These feudal lords must have quite a lot of cavalrymen. The power of cavalries in the era of cold weapons went without saying.
As far as Chu Tian was concerned, it was both a good and a bad thing that the first town in the world had appeared in the Eastern Han. The good part was that the collective capacity of the Eastern Han had been raised, whereas the bad part was that 'Soldier at the Border in Late Ming' would become a powerful enemy.
He was a feudal lord from You Prefecture who had occupied the horse-producing land of Liaodong. Once he seized control of the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun, hardly any generals or feudal lords would be able to fend him off once he broke past the custom.
However, Chu Tian wasn't worried.
There were countless feudal lords during the early stages. The difference between the first echelon and the feudal lords at the back wasn't conspicuous.
Xia Village would soon be upgraded to a Level 1 town too.
"Master, after the population of the village increased, we were faced with a severe shortage of farmlands. Master, please give an order to have new farmlands cultivated, and have them up and running by the sowing in October. Only then will we have sufficient food in the coming year."
Li Kui, who was the agricultural officer, interrupted Chu Tian as he took interest in other feudal lords.
One wished to dream, but the problem at hand concerned their everyday meals.
The food crisis was once again displayed right in front of Chu Tian- Xia Village was facing a shortage of farmland.
"How much money is needed for cultivating new farmland?"
"There are lots of plains and wastelands outside the village, so no expense will be needed for purchasing land. As for labor forces, we could just use refugees and the cultivated farmlands can be used for future farming, so no wages have to be distributed either. The only part that requires expenses is purchasing a set of ironware, such as axes and shovels, to clear the weed and trees.
"Besides that, we need to organize villagers to drain water from the Yi River to the newly cultivated farmlands, as well as open some wells. The amount of new farmland should be greater than the demand in order to accommodate for future usage as population increases. Implementing a crop rotation system will require more farmland as well, to prevent affecting annual production. Every year, half of the farmland should be used for production, and the other half for fallowing.
"This is the map I drew while evaluating the nearby farmland. The wastelands that can be cultivated into farmland are listed here."
As the agricultural officer, Li Kui seemed to have carried out his duty responsibly, for he had prepared the map even without Chu Tian's instruction.
Chu Tian looked over the map. The area of viable land outside Xia Village was enormous, hence no pressure to find land to use. Land use would probably become a problem only when they reached the level of a city.
"Organize villagers who haven't had farmland to go cultivate new land. The farmer has to have his own land. Besides that, prohibit the transaction of lands for now, and retain the farmers on our land."
After some contemplation, Chu Tian decided to forbid land transactions during early stages, to ensure that harvest would not be a problem next year.
"Yes," Li Kui replied, leaving soon after. He went to recruit villagers who wished to farm but had no farmland in Xia Village, and commenced the cultivation based on the locations shown on the map.
Very soon, a new agricultural policy was enforced in Xia Village- the farmer had to have his own land.
The ownership of the cultivated farmlands belonged fully to the feudal lord's office. If a family had farmed for more than five years on that piece of land, they would be acquiesced concession to it.
Under the precondition that the family did not alter the function of the farmland, the feudal lord's office would not transfer the concession of the land to other farmers.
Approximately 200 villagers followed Li Kui to cultivate new lands before the sowing in October. These villagers carried ironware such as shovels, axes, and hoes, all seeming to be high in spirits and earnest to strive.
The new farmland cultivated would be their future lands, so they were very serious about it.
Although this farmland would belong to the feudal lord's residence nominally, it was just for the sake of collecting land taxes, prohibiting land transactions, and requisitioning the lands with compensation in the future.
Aside from that, it wasn't really any different from owning a piece of land of their own.
To put it simply, they could farm forever on the piece of land as long as they paid their land taxes on time.
The population of Xia Village gradually rose to 2000, and the prosperity level increased due to the cultivation of new farmland.
Along with the increase in labor forces that were involved in logging lands, stone quarries, and minelands, the scale of the relevant resource constructions was also expanded.
Finally, the Level 4 fish market was completed. The prosperity level of Xia Village rose directly by 50.
The current prosperity level of Xia Village was 504, and the population was 2021. Due to the completion of the Level 4 fish market, Xia Village's prosperity level was now ranked in the top ten among villages of Xu Prefecture.
Requirements like popular sentiment, public security, and special constructions were fulfilled too.
There was only one requirement left: the 100 units of gold.
As a feudal lord without enough money, there were only two choices left- either rob from other influences or borrow from them.
Chu Tian chose to borrow. His target was no one else but his ally, Xiaozhu Village.
A Level 1 town could have four quotas of adjoined villages. Chu Tian was planning to gobble up Xiaozhu Village.
If the chief of Xiaozhu Village, Xia Tianliang, refused to accept the merger, Chu Tian would have no choice but to tame her with brute force. Of course, brute force here meant dispatching troops to besiege Xiaozhu Village.
Considering the strength of the local soldiers of Xiaozhu Village, they stood no chance if they resisted against the devastating attack by Xia Village.
Chu Tian had brought it up to Xia Tianliang in advance. The best way was to merge with Xiaozhu Village without inflicting the slightest harm upon them.
Xiaozhu Village contained quite a number of constructions that not even Xia Village had, like a mulberry garden, commerce center, spawn shops, escort agencies, textile factories, and so forth. All of these were constructions that Chu Tian coveted.
"Go invite the chief of Xiaozhu Village over to discuss the matter about merging our villages."
Chu Tian arranged a small cavalry to head for Xiaozhu Village and escort their chief.
A big deal like merging two villagers would be better explained face to face.
Could Xiaozhu Village really afford to lend a sum as big as 100 units of gold?
Chu Tian was still pretty suspicious.
A hundred units of gold was equivalent to a thousand taels of silver. During the early stages, no more than a handful of feudal lords could lend 100 units of gold that easily.
"Xia Village is 100 units of gold away from an upgrade to Level 1 town? If you want it, I can bring it over to you. But you would have to return it within a year, the interest being one-tenth of the original sum," Xia Tianliang informed Chu Tian in advance.
"No problem."
It turned out that this fellow really could afford to lend 100 units of gold.
Chu Tian realized that Xia Tianliang was an ATM indeed, with such an economical brain.
It was important to note that since all the players were trapped in Feudal Lords, no one was able to exchange earth currency for money. In other words, these 100 units of gold were the capital that Xia Tianliang had collected solely depending upon Xiaozhu Village.
A one-tenth interest would be ten units of gold, which Chu Tian could totally accept.
If he could upgrade to a town in advance, he could conquer other villages. By then, the monthly tax revenues would be greater than the interest.
-- Gift
received