Qin Official

Since Shang Yang's Reform, the Qin State has implemented a system of "named fields and houses according to the rank of nobles and nobles, and the clothes of ministers and concubines according to their families" in order to match the military merits and titles, which is called the "named fields and houses" system , that is, according to different titles, they occupy different lands, houses, and slaves.

Among them, Heifu, as the seventh-level "Gongfu", can occupy 9 hectares of fields and 9 houses.

One house is 30 steps square, and one step in Qin is about 1.3 meters. Nine houses are more than 10,000 square meters of homestead, nearly 30 acres, far exceeding the "five acres of house" of ordinary people.

It would take at least a year and a half to build such a large house from scratch. Fortunately, the biggest shortage in Anlu County these days is empty houses.

The Yun family has been based in Anlu for hundreds of years, and there are manor houses everywhere. After the fall of Yunman, all these real estates were confiscated and returned to the public. The main house in the county was expropriated by the government, and a manor on the outskirts of the city was just the right size. Hef's standards.

So, their family occupied the magpie's nest and moved in...

This manor stands in a fertile field on the eastern outskirts of the county. The yellow and black outline of its tall building can be seen from a distance. The yellow ones are the walls and the black ones are the roof tiles.

"This field is the field that will be exchanged for my family."

Zhong was already in his thirties, had grown a long beard, and was wearing the official uniform of a field official. Although he still looked so kind, his speech and behavior had become a bit official.

He and Heifu were riding in a car together, and when they passed by this field where the rice was just blooming, they pointed at this vast paddy field and said this. The rice in the field had just set ears, and there were still more than a month before harvesting.

Legally, Zhong and Heifu have separated, but as long as they pay two taxes, whether the two brothers live together will not be investigated in detail.

The land in front of me also belongs to the Yun family. According to the famous land housing system, Heifu can own 900 acres of land, but Zhong is 300 acres. If Heifu is also involved in "Nasu worship" The title of Duke he received was as much as 13 hectares, making him a real big landowner.

"However, this year's harvest will still be returned to the government and collected in the county warehouse. Starting from January next year, it will be officially transferred to my family."

In the same way, their family's fields in the sunset can also be used until next year. In addition to rice and corn, Heifu is also confiscating hundreds of acres of sugar cane!

But Heifu didn't care much anymore, because during the six months since he went to Jiangling City, he had asked people to search for sugar cane grown in various palaces and gardens of the Chu royal family. His hard work paid off, and he actually found several acres of relatively sweet black sugar cane. It was indeed used for juice extraction by the chefs of the King of Chu back then, and it was better than the varieties grown at home.

Heifu plans to wait until next year to ask someone to transplant it and plant this cash crop on a large scale near his home, and then let his aunt's son, who can make caramel, set up a brown sugar workshop nearby. This may become the mainstay of their family in the future. financial resources...

Seeing that the family business is getting bigger and bigger, but the places where money is needed are also increasing, it is not enough to just expect the salary to reward money.

Turn off the official road and walk for half a mile along the path beside the field that can accommodate a car, and then you arrive in front of the village. This is a three-entry courtyard. In Heifu's opinion, it is nothing compared to the mansions of county governors and county lieutenants. Even Zhang's house in Yangwu County, Wei Di, is twice as big as this!

But in the eyes of his mother, brothers-in-law, nieces and nephews, who rarely leave the setting sun, it is already a "mansion"!

Heifu had come to see it before, so he took his family into the mountain-style courtyard gate. The first thing that caught his eye was a four-story watchtower. On the top of the building was a sentry pavilion protruding from all sides. There were drums built into the pavilion. For the purpose of calling the alarm.

"This is to warn off thieves."

He smiled and said: "But I think that within a hundred miles, no thief would dare to invade the county captain's house."

Further forward, there is the second gate. The second gate also has two three-story turrets facing each other, from which you can not only look far away, but also shoot arrows and fire crossbows.

Heifu couldn't help but wonder when he looked at these buildings. Yun Man had indeed built his manor to look like a fortress. Fortunately, Li Xian had planned to trap him that day, otherwise the government would have paid a lot of casualties when they stormed various manors.

After entering the second gate, they arrived at a longitudinal main courtyard. On the front was an open hall facing south. After everyone entered, they found that the windows inside were open, empty and very bright.

"This is a place for entertaining guests or banquets. The bronze lamp stands, couches, tables, etc. placed inside were all confiscated by the government, and they had to go to the workshop to order a batch..."

Heifu's mother led her grandchildren and walked in the hall. They walked very carefully, for fear of stepping on the smooth floor. She also stretched out her hand to touch the thick pillars painted with fine red paint. They held up the Tall house, and then subconsciously wiped it with his sleeve, as if he was afraid of getting dirty.

The mother couldn't help but sigh: "I have never even entered such a big and high house, let alone live in it..."

Hei Fu couldn't help laughing and said with a smile: "Mother, you will live here forever. When I host a banquet for guests, I will invite you to sit in the middle of the hall as the birthday boy!"

Mother waved her hands quickly, still a little timid, but she couldn't believe that this place was really going to be her "home". The second son's rapid rise in recent years has been far beyond what they can accept. Now they just feel that this is a dream and they will wake up at any time.

Verandas are built on the east and west sides of the main hall, and behind the hall is the backyard. First of all, there is a spacious patio, where trees are planted, pavilions are installed, and a small pond is dug.

"There's fish in there!"

A pair of Heifu's nephews and nieces ran to the pond in surprise and looked at the fish and turtles inside, which was very interesting. This is a garden for sightseeing. Separated from the garden by a wall are several small courtyards for people to live in. This is the residence of the owner. Basically everyone can be assigned a small courtyard, and there is still a lot of room... …

In addition to the front and rear courtyards where the owner has a banquet and lives, there are many ancillary buildings on both sides and rear of the courtyard, such as a kitchen, a warehouse, and a well built on the east side. The warehouse is very tall and can store thousands of stones of grain!

To the west are mulberry forests, orchards and vegetable gardens. There are nearly a hundred mulberry plants. It is conceivable that by raising silkworms and spinning silk in the spring, it is completely self-sufficient. There are also dozens of trees in the orchard, including pears, dates, plums and other common fruit trees in Nan County. They will be ripe in a few months...

Hei Fu asked his nephew and niece to come over and told them the story of "swallowing jujubes". The two children burst into laughter after hearing this. Then Hei Fu asked them if they liked their new home.

"like!"

The answer is of course yes. The house itself is much more interesting than the rural village they lived in before, not to mention Heifu promised them that after coming here, they can stay away from dirty work such as picking up excrement. alive.

The two children were very happy, but they didn't know that Hei Fu had arranged a literate wife for them, and their days of carefree play were not long...

On the other side, Heifu's mother and sister-in-law were standing at the other end of the orchard, looking at the vegetable gardens with neat borders and ditches, talking in low voices. It was only now that they stopped wandering around in other people's houses. Feeling strange, I started to think about what to plant here.

"July is a good time to plant mallows." Mother squatted down and touched the moist and fertile soil, smiling.

After a summer, the humus evaporates and ferments in the soil, and the newly plowed land appears fat and black, exuding a pleasant earthy fragrance.

In addition to the mallow, plant green onions and leeks, cover them with empty soil, and then cover them thickly with melon and vine straw. Before and after winter, the green onions and leeks that grow are extremely fragrant. Then take a bag of radish seeds brought from home in the sunset, sow them on the ground, stamp them firmly with your feet, and fertilize carefully. After a few rains, the radish seeds will grow two cotyledons. In late autumn, three My sons and grandsons ate the green-skinned, red-hearted, watery and sweet food...

Thinking like this, they even couldn't wait to loosen the soil and sow seeds here, and fill the open space near their homes with green vegetables to make the chickens and pig pens lively. This is an instinct that rural women cannot stop.

Hei Fu was a little helpless: "My mother suffered too much in the past. After coming here, just enjoy the good things. Whatever you want to eat, you can buy it directly from the county town. My uncle and sister-in-law don't have to get up early to grind rice. They can just let the servants do it."

Zhongze smiled and said: "Heifu, just let your mother do the hard work. If not, they will feel uncomfortable."

Heifu had no choice but to let his two children play in the orchard and let his mother and uncle continue to discuss growing vegetables, chickens and pigs, while he himself walked back to the manor in good faith.

Behind the backyard, connected to the kitchen and granary, there are some low buildings. In addition to stables and cattle pens, there are also some dim mud houses. They are all empty now. They are used for the slaves of the manor.

"I know Hei Fu doesn't like to use concubines."

Zhong worked as a minor official in the past few years and gained experience. When he went in and out of Tian Shifu's and Cang Shifu's mansions in the county, he also secretly observed their family's business methods and kept them in mind. He said: "But this manor is too big." It’s so big that our family can’t take care of it. We do daily cleaning, raising cattle and horses, sericulture, and pounding rice. It’s really hard to do without twenty or thirty people. In my opinion, we still have to buy a dozen concubines from the market. It’s enough.”

What Zhong said makes sense, Hei Fu nodded. With the temperaments of his brother, mother, and uncles and wives, he would definitely treat those who were servants and concubines well, observe them for a few years, and restore personal freedom to those who performed well, and then let them Those who want to stay stay and those who want to leave can be regarded as saving them.

In addition to the purchased concubines, according to the famous land system, Heifu could also have nine "concubines" allocated by the government, that is, nine servants, so he could fill this large courtyard.

Zhong said again: "In addition to the concubines, there are several people who want to come to this manor to work..."

Heifu frowned. Although the Qin State does not advocate raising food guests and scholars, local powerful people, such as the widow Qingjia of Bajun, the Yun family and the Li family of Anlu, often have people to rely on them. High-level dependents are called " "Guests" are scribes and warriors with some abilities who help you look after your home, care for your courtyard, and run your manor. The low-level ones are called "tufu", which are actually slaves.

It's okay in Nanjun. In the newly conquered Wei, Yanzhao and other places, and even in the Bashu region, it is quite common for wealthy people to have hundreds of houses, fields and fields, thousands of slaves and maids, and thousands of plans.

Heifu was more cautious. He knew that King Qin and the government did not like this, so he shook his head and said: "I don't want to accept guests or disciples for the time being..."

"Not a guest, nor a mere follower."

Seeing that Heifu had misunderstood, Zhong said hurriedly: "They are just some of your old friends. I hope to hire them so that they can have the opportunity to repay their kindness..."

"Repay a favor?"

Hei Fu was a little confused. Seeing him like this, he smiled and said: "My brother, you don't even remember the kindness you have given me! Come on, follow me to the stables and you will know."

While they were talking, they had arrived at the cattle and horse stables at the back of the yard. Here, a gray-haired old man was instructing Heifu's old men who came to help move the objects in the cattle carriage, and then put the cattle and horses into the stables one by one.

Seeing Brother Heifu coming over, the old man hurriedly came over and bowed: "I have seen the county captain! Thank you to the county captain for rescuing my little girl back then!"

When Hei Fu took a look, he was really an acquaintance!

It was the father of the woman "Kite" whom he rescued in the blind mountain when he was the director of the pavilion, Ju!