Chapter 41: Spring Plowing

Hearing Xu Zhongjun say this, Wang Dou replied, "My lord, your humble subordinate has already had people purchase a batch of millet and sorghum seeds, which can be sown immediately. Only the draft oxen and plowshares are somewhat insufficient."

Xu Zhongjun asked Wang Dou how many draft oxen the fort currently had, and Wang Dou told him.

Hearing that Jingbian Fort presently had only nineteen draft oxen, Xu Zhongjun furrowed his brow. He turned to Du Zhen and said, "Lord Du, Wang the Squad Commander devotes himself wholeheartedly to the battalion's farming colonies. As his superior, have you rendered any assistance to Wang the Squad Commander?"

Du Zhen hurriedly said, "My lord, when Wang the Squad Commander first came to the fort, your subordinate immediately ordered his men to allocate supplies to aid him."

Du Zhen turned his head toward Du Gong beside him. Du Gong hastily stepped forward and said, "In reply to Lord Xu, when Wang the Squad Commander first came to the fort, your humble subordinate at once allocated a batch of draft oxen and seeds. Wang the Squad Commander is aware of this matter."

Xu Zhongjun said evenly, "How much was allocated?"

Only after a long pause did Du Gong say in a low voice, "Four draft oxen, three sets of plow gear, and twenty hoes."

Zhang Gui, standing nearby, let out a snort of laughter. "What a grand gesture."

Recalling that he himself had allocated ten military households, five oxen, one dan of rice, and fifteen hoes to Wang Dou — and that a full Battalion Headquarters had not matched his own generosity — Zhang Gui could not help feeling immensely smug.

Du Zhen cast a dark glance at Zhang Gui, and seeing Xu Zhongjun's displeased expression, Du Gong steeled himself and stepped forward to explain, "At present our own fort also lacks draft oxen and farming tools, and many garrison forts frequently come to request them, so..."

Xu Zhongjun remained silent. Just as Du Zhen and Du Gong grew uneasy, he said flatly, "Allocate another twenty draft oxen with plow gear to Squad Commander Wang's fort."

Du Gong said repeatedly, "Yes, yes, your humble subordinate understands, your humble subordinate understands. Upon returning to the fort, I will allocate them at once."

Xu Zhongjun looked around at everyone and said meaningfully, "Men of talent are rare, and those who serve with full devotion are few. Everyone ought to offer more help."

A chorus of assent followed, and many pairs of envious eyes turned toward Wang Dou. With such recognition from a superior, it seemed Wang Dou's meteoric rise was only a matter of time.

Over on the other side, Du Zhen and Du Gong exchanged a glance, both of them looking deeply at Wang Dou.

Xu Zhongjun then summoned Wang Dou before him, looked at him, and said, "Wang Dou, so long as you devote yourself wholeheartedly to the battalion's farming colonies, this official will certainly give you his full support."

Wang Dou bowed deeply in gratitude. "Many thanks for the generous favor of the Defense Commander, my lord. Your humble subordinate will surely exhaust his utmost effort and see the fort's farming colonies well established."

Xu Zhongjun nodded with satisfaction.

After the inspection was complete, Xu Zhongjun and his party returned to the fort. Wang Dou naturally slaughtered pigs and sheep and hosted a banquet for the group in the official hall.

During the feast, taking advantage of Xu Zhongjun's good mood, Wang Dou mentioned that his fort lacked craftsmen and expressed hope that Lord Xu could allocate a group of artisan households. The civil-engineering craftsmen who had come to build the waterwheels and the fort were currently in his fort — he asked that they simply be assigned to him.

Xu Zhongjun nodded and agreed. In addition, he brought up the bandit-suppression operation at Dongjiazhuang the previous year. Suppressing bandits was merely the local defending officer's duty to keep the peace, so the military merit was not substantial. Moreover, since Wang Dou and the others had just been promoted not long ago, once this merit was reported upward, each man would likely only receive a recorded commendation to be used in future military-administration evaluations.

Not long after Xu Zhongjun and his party departed, Du Gong escorted over twenty draft oxen with plow gear. His expression was somewhat sour when facing Wang Dou, but after Wang Dou privately purchased over ten more draft oxen and plow sets from him, his face turned from overcast to sunny.

Very soon, the household registrations of that group of craftsmen were also transferred to Jingbian Fort. Aside from a few craftsmen who were artisan households from Bao'an Department City, the majority belonged to artisan households of Shunxiang Fort and Dongjiazhuang. The transfer of their household registrations was accomplished with a single word from Xu Zhongjun.

Together with the military craftsmen already in the fort and the several artisan households allocated to him, the artisan households that finally ended up in Wang Dou's hands numbered over twenty. The household registration of the old craftsman who built the waterwheels was also among them, which made Wang Dou quite happy for a time.

Wang Dou properly arranged housing for the families of these craftsmen within the barracks. Having experienced life at Jingbian Fort over this period, all the artisan households were at ease and full of hope for their future livelihood.

Each of these three groups had its own minor foreman, but Wang Dou placed them all under the unified command of the craftsman foreman Li Maosen.

These twenty-some artisan households, together with the original military households of the fort, brought Jingbian Fort's total to over seventy households and more than three hundred people — making it a rather large garrison fort.

On the seventh day of the second month of the eighth year of the Chongzhen reign, in front of the Squad Commander's official hall at Jingbian Fort.

"Everyone line up properly. Come up one by one to receive your oxen and rice. Keep order, no chaos."

Qi Tianliang stood before Wang Dou and shouted loudly at the assembled military households.

Wang Dou sat steadily in a chair, with Han Chao, Zhong Diaoyang, and a few others standing beside him observing. Next to Wang Dou, a table had also been set up, where Zhong Rong was registering the grain and farming tools being distributed to each military household.

A few days earlier, after the military households had been allotted their farmland, today Wang Dou was distributing draft oxen, plow sets, seeds, and grain to them. To ensure fairness, everyone drew lots to determine ownership of the draft oxen, so that no one would fight over the strong oxen while the relatively leaner ones went unclaimed.

Of course, once the oxen and plows were distributed, like the waterwheels outside, they were only considered lent by the fort; ownership still belonged to the garrison fort. In the future, each person was also required to treat the draft oxen well, and every few months the fort would send someone specifically to inspect them. Additionally, the military households each borrowed grain to serve as their rations until the autumn harvest.

As Wang Dou sat in his chair looking down, the military households below were all beaming with joy, and when they received their draft oxen and plow sets, they were endlessly profuse in their gratitude. With farmland, and now with the draft oxen and plow sets distributed, a happy life with wife and children and a warm kang bed awaited them.

Wang Dou sighed with emotion. His land policy had now reached its final stage. Once the land was distributed to each household, what kind of life they would lead from then on could only depend on the military households themselves. Yet history proved that once they possessed land, those yeoman farmers would radiate tremendous enthusiasm, along with a reckless spirit to defend their own interests.

While the military households were dividing the oxen and plows, the group of artisan households also watched enviously from below, occasionally murmuring a few comments among themselves. Of course, although they had not been allotted farmland or draft oxen, Wang Dou paid them a stable monthly ration of work grain, and if they did well there were also rewards. They too were very satisfied with their present life.

Wang Dou had already decided that from now on, the fort's farming-colony affairs would be supervised and overseen by Qi Tianliang. In addition to his usual duty of urging the military households to cultivate diligently, whenever there was any public construction in the fort in the future, Qi Tianliang would likewise be responsible for urging the military households to provide labor service.

Wang Dou could not personally handle every single matter, large or small. The old hands around him numbered only these few. Among them all, only Qi Tianliang was relatively well-versed in farming matters, and since he was somewhat literate, if the fort's farming-colony affairs were not entrusted to him, to whom else could they be given?

Therefore, besides managing the supply corps, Qi Tianliang would henceforth be in charge of the fort's farming colonies and related matters. The pity was that Qi Tianliang had previously been only a beacon-tower soldier, and now having to manage so many people, he inevitably felt great pressure, constantly fearing any misstep that might ruin the heavy responsibility Wang Dou had entrusted to him. Only his wife, Madam Tao, was utterly delighted and kept cheering her man on.

Qi Tianliang had already resolved to learn more characters and more arithmetic from now on.

That day, after the oxen and plows were distributed, the waterwheels in the irrigation wells outside had been installed. The next day, Jingbian Fort organized a grand spring-plowing ceremony.

A thatched shed had already been erected beside the Hundred-Household Canal. Wang Dou also spent two taels of silver to hire a theater troupe from the department city, who beat drums and struck gongs all along the way, playing music with great fanfare. He had people carry a paper-mache spring ox, plow sets, and the like, parading them from inside Jingbian Fort all the way to the thatched shed.

Along the route, the military households set off firecrackers and tossed rice, soybeans, and other grains at the paper-mache plow ox, signifying an abundant harvest of all grains in the new year.

After the paper-mache spring ox and other items were carried into the thatched shed, Wang Dou burned incense and made sacrificial offerings to August Heaven and Bounteous Earth, leading everyone in three prostrations and three kowtows. The military households followed behind, paying homage according to ritual. After the sacrifices to the gods of heaven and earth were complete, Wang Dou personally took hold of the plow and demonstrated plowing with an ox to mark the beginning of spring plowing. The watching military households raised shouts that resounded to the clouds.

Finally, the paper-mache spring ox was carried in several circuits around the inside and outside of Jingbian Fort, and then it was burned, bringing the spring-plowing ceremony to an end.

From that day on, the intense spring plowing at Jingbian Fort began. Everywhere in the fields and along the plots, the happy songs of the military households at their cultivation rang out:

"Plow deep in autumn, plow shallow in spring. Spring plowing is like flipping a flatcake, autumn plowing is like digging a well. Plow one inch deeper in spring, it's worth a full layer of manure. If you won't get busy with spring plowing, your face will turn sallow with hunger after autumn. Plow well and harrow well, the crops will thrive and the weeds won't grow. Crops don't care who your father and mother are — careful plowing and fine tilling yield more grain..."

Qi Tianliang nervously urged the military households to work everywhere, while the fort's three squads of combat troops also went down to the fields at the same time to help their families with the labor. They were all the sturdy able-bodied men of their households, the pillars of their families, and the household work could not do without them.

At present, Wang Dou had not yet maintained full-time professional soldiers. Of course, he had considered this problem, but if he were to support these three squads of combat troops as full-time soldiers, he would need to give them at least one dan of grain per month to compensate for the loss of their household labor, plus each man's weapons, armor, horses, and bean fodder. All told, it added up to a considerable sum.

Perhaps he ought to go suppress bandits a few more times.

During the spring-plowing season, while the military households of Jingbian Fort were intensely engaged in cultivation, Wang Dou also returned home to help for several days.

The winter wheat was already beginning to green and joint, which was the critical time for topdressing and weeding. People spoke of spring rain being "more precious than oil," and as in previous years, rainfall across the Bao'an region was still sparse this year, so irrigation was also needed.

Fortunately, the Wang family's fields had already been fitted with irrigation wells. Moreover, with the help of several strong men — Wang Dou, Han Chao, Han Zhong, Gao Shiyin, and Zhong Diaoyang — the Wang family's several dozen mu of land were finished easily and quickly. There was absolutely no need for Madam Zhong and Xie Xiuniang, the two women, to go down to the fields to help.

In addition, at the beginning of the year Wang Dou had also bought twenty mu of wasteland on the west bank of the Dongfang River, but for the time being he still let that land lie fallow. He would consider building a manor farm there later, once the land and population had increased.

Around the day of Qingming, the spring plowing and sowing for the military households of Jingbian Fort had all been completed.

On Qingming, Wang Dou gave the military households two days off, and also went home himself to sweep the graves and pay respects to his deceased father and ancestors.

Starting from the third day, Wang Dou decided to organize the entire fort's manpower to begin building the fort walls.

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Old White Bull:

There will be one more update tonight, around before 11 o'clock. Thank you everyone for your support.

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