Great Tang Idyll

Hearing the voice, Ge Yingxi shifted his gaze to the person. Then he recognized this man, who was the butler of Wangs’. Then, Ge smiled, “Butler Wang, are you busy now? I'm just walking around here.” As he spoke, he was ready to go closer.

****

Well, Butler Wang took a step towards the side of Ge Yingxi, standing in front of Ge Yingxi, and said,

"Village Head Ge, the field is muddy due to the spring tillage. Why not go to the riverbank for a walk, where the scenery is much better than the field. And these farmers have not seen too many big shots. They might be frightened if they saw you.”

Under this circumstance, Ge Yingxi had to stop, with his smile full of embarrassment. Noticing that Butler Wang was going to the riverbank with him. Ge Yingxi hesitated for a while, then followed him.

“Butler Wang, the spring tillage of your village is much faster than that of mine, but the number of farmers this year seems same with that last year. I wonder what method you have used. The farmers in our village are indeed living a hard life.”

Ge Yingxi asked as he walked, sighing and trying to find out something.

Of course, Butler Wang understood what Ge Yingxi wanted to know, but he would never tell the secret. How could others get the thing the little master and the little lady made? Then he said,

“Zhang Village is the same with our village. There is not any special way. Well, the only way is to treat the farmers well. If so, the farmers will surely work hard. Just like last night, our masters prepared some food and some wine for them, which is enough for them.”

Ge Yingxi was quite embarrassed, which clearly meant that he didn’t treat the farmers well. But he had no choice. After all, Zhang Village and Wang Village were rich, but it was too hard for him to afford the expense. But he understood what Butler Wang had said. Especially those fields which hadn’t been rented, he had to be responsible for them as the master.

But if the farmers could finish the work which usually costed a few days within one day, he would never believe it. Well, the key of this problem must be the plough. Or why didn't the butler let him go over there to check it?

Ge Yingxi wondered the difference of that plough. He still looked over there when he walked by the river. This time he finally found out the difference. The plough used by his farmers was definitely not as fast as the one farmers of Wang Village used.

“Butler Wang, is it really that simple? Is there anything else?” Ge Yingxi did not worry any more whether Butler Wang was unhappy about his question, just asking.

Butler Wang smiled, “Head Ge is really intelligent! Actually, there are indeed some differences. Besides, since last summer, the two villages have bought cattle and horses for ploughing. Look, there is no one plough pulled by people anymore.”

Ge Yingxi nodded and stopped talking about it. He knew the key was the plough. Now that they did not want to talk about it, he could not continue to ask. Thinking about trying to figure it out later, he talked with the butler for a while, and then went back.

Butler Wang sent him to the bridge. Seeing that Ge Yingxi gradually went away, he took a deep breath and turned back.

...

Ten busy days passed, during which Zhang Village and Wang Village had ploughed all the land. Ge Village had to spend another half a month on this. The people of Ge Village couldn’t believe the speed, which made the people of Zhang Village and Wang Village get more confident.

Some farmers found that there were still a few days available. After a discussion, they went to the master's house, and advised to put fertilizer on the soil to nourish the fields first. Then, they would have the fields ploughed again.

Since the farmers were willing to work more, the masters would not stop them and just needed to prepare more food for the farmers. This winter Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan had made a lot of money. So it was easy for them to spend some money on this part.

“Shi Liu, dig out the earthworms and move them to another place. Then put the soil where they lived and the rotting things above it into the fields together with other manure. Well, let me see. Leave it for a while. Ask Little Hong to take the chicken to the fields first. There are a lot of pupae, which could be the food of the chickens, coming out after the fields are ploughed.”

Zhang Xiaobao was instructing Shi Liu, with worry on his face. After listening to the words, Shi Liu left. Then Wang Juan sighed.

“It has been so many days. Why isn’t there any news from Er Niu yet? That doesn’t matter if he didn’t get any medical stone. I just hope he is safe.”

"Yes. The communication here is really bad, and the transportation is not convenient. So it will take a long time on the way. We really need to recruit more servants; with their company, we could be at ease about the safety of the person we have sent out. These days, some people from the Ge Village have been sent over here, trying to peek at us or getting some news from our farmers.”

When Zhang Xiaobao was worried about Er Niu, he was also dissatisfied with the master of the Ge Village. But he indeed understood it. After all, everyone wanted to live a good life. But he couldn’t share the such a technical tool casually.

“Take it easy! No one would say it. Yesterday, a farmer came with a liang (1 liang =50 grams) of silver and said that someone wanted to buy him over. The person who gave him the money is a farmer from the Ge Village. Obviously, there is no one but Ge Yingxi arranging it."

Wang Juan didn't care about it. She was very satisfied with the performance of the farmer who came here yesterday.

Zhang Xiaobao shook his head and thought about it for a moment. Then he said, “It’s impossible to keep the secret of the Curved Plough. Ask Song Jinggong to send one to County Magistrate Cheng. Besides, send one to Zhou Xihu, asking him to learn how to make it as soon as possible. Later on, we can make a profit by selling it. Tell him that he should finish it before the end of the spring tillage.”

“But why? Only if we didn’t talk about the curved plough, it would never be known by others.”

“It couldn’t be that simple! Tuqiao Village has three hamlets and three heads. In fact, it belongs to a li (an organization unit larger than a village). If Ge Yingxi couldn’t figure it out, he might report it to the manager of li, the reputable old guy in the township or even the county magistrate. They will come here to see if they know the news that there is new kind of plough which can accelerate spring tillage. We couldn’t deal with a senior official. Why not take the initiative in sharing the benefits with each one. They will have to pay back in the future. Last time, the people who came here to check the matter of the auspiciousness were sent away without finding anything by our dilatory tactics. See, this is the society. In the society, we should constantly exchange interests with others, and unit with others according to the situation.”

Zhang Xiaobao thought about all of this clearly. Ge Yingxi didn’t seem intelligent. If Zhao Xiaobao was him, he would have done what he had said.

Wang Juan felt helpless. However, she knew that she had to abide by the rules of the game if she couldn’t set up a game.

“Well, as the fields are ploughed twice this year and have so many good fertilizers, the yield could be increased to some extent. We have some rice, some wheat, and some millet. Among them, how should the rice be planted? Slinging or transplanting rice seedlings?”

“Sling them, though it may waste some rice seedlings. The fittest will survive in natural selection anyway. Then we could keep some fish fry in the fields. After all, there is so much land. With fish, we could earn more income although they are cheap here. Even if they couldn’t be sold for money, we could make salted fish for our farmers to eat. The only thing I worry about is how we shall explain when someone from the upper government comes here to check the situation of planting thinks the way of slinging rice seedlings would cause a low yield, and forces us to change it. After all, this is an era of power. By that time, we will have to ask County Magistrate Cheng for help.”

Lying on the bed, Zhang Xiaobao looked at the ceiling, and said slowly.

After a discussion, they settled the matter. Then they told this to Song Jinggong, who agreed with it too. Then, Song went out in a hurry with two curved ploughs, which were respectively sent to County Magistrate Cheng and Zhou Xihu. And Zhou Xihu was regarded as a partner, sharing the bonus with them.

...

“Hurry up! We'll be there soon. I’ll give you extra twenty copper coins per person when we arrive at the place.”

In less than four hours after Song Jinggong left, a group of large carriages came from the distance, with stones in it. The man sitting in the first carriage kept shouting at those carters of other carriages. In fact, those carters were worried about their horses. If they were in such a hurry, their horses might get exhausted and be unable to work for a few days.

However, when they heard that this man named Er Niu said that he would pay extra 20 copper coins per person, they didn’t care about their horses any more. If the horses were tired, they could have a rest for several days. It was likely that they couldn’t earn twenty copper coins in those days. Besides, Er Niu indeed had paid them a lot.

The sound of shouting and whiplashes were mixed together. And they moved faster than before.

Er Niu had left the village since the 6th day of the month. It had been a long time for him. He was suffering from pronounced homesickness though he was approaching hometown. He kept drinking water, as if he tried to let himself breathe more smoothly.

Passing by a few villages, he knew that spring tillage had begun. But he did not know what had happened to his village. When the team arrived at Ge Village, he was amazed that Ge Village ploughed quicker than before. Well, they also followed the way of ploughing his own village had used during last autumn harvest. Now all farmers worked together.

“Junior Wu of the third, your field looks great this year. By autumn, there must be a good harvest. I didn't expect you to plough so much land these days.”

Er Niu said to the busy man as he passed a field.

Junior Wu of the third was pulling the plough there. Hearing the voice, he turned back and found it was Er Niu. In the beginning, he thought that Er Niu was deliberate to say so. Later, he saw that Er Niu seemed to come back from outside. Only then did he understand that Er Niu did not know what was going in his village. He squared himself and shouted at Er Niu.

“Er Niu, come on! Go back to your village and have a look. All the land had been ploughed yesterday. I guess they may sow the dung and plough the land again. We couldn’t compare with you.”

“Junior Wu of the third, are you kidding me? Is that true?” As soon as Er Niu heard it, he asked again. Junior Wu of the third still had to work. There weren’t too many cattle and horses for them to plough. He just nodded, bent down, and then continued to work.

At this time, Er Niu really hoped that he could fly back, urging the carters to be quick again. When they arrived at the bridge, Er Niu stood up and looked over there. It was true that the land had been ploughed, and there were a lot of chickens pecking at things in the fields.

“This must benefit from our little master. Well, those little insects in the fields will suffer,” Er Niu said to the people who went out with him. The two men nodded too, feeling quite happy. If they really ploughed the land with fertilizer again, of course a good harvest would be obtained.

As soon as the team crossed the bridge, Er Niu could not help shouting, “I'm back. Get some people to help unload the stones.”