A few days ago, Han Yueniang was unwell, and Du Zhongxiao went back to Qingtai Town. Unexpectedly, Han Yueniang was pregnant, so she lived there for a few days, and waited until her mother-in-law came from home before returning to the iron prison.

On this day, the wind and the sun were beautiful, Su Song and Liu Zhuo came to invite Du Zhongxiao to the east of the iron prison to enjoy the flowers.

South of the Li River, all the way to the border of Fangcheng County, it is all the land of the iron prison, and the people are not allowed to live and cultivate. Before the establishment of the Iron Prison, this area was full of idle fields, except for a few hunters, there were no people. Now those hunters are assigned to the iron prison and raise livestock and poultry.

Except for the water from the small reservoir for iron forging, the rest flows into the Li River from the east. Along the bank of the river, hundreds of acres of land were opened, which was the vegetable field of the iron prison, and there was a flower garden in it. In recent months, the price of meat has risen, and livestock and poultry farms have been built in the vegetable fields to the south, along the hills. It's just that after it was built, it was winter, and there was no decent output until now.

Away from the Iron Prison, a road ten steps wide, flat and wide. It is paved with slag, and there is no dust on dry days, and there is no mud on rainy days, and it is much better than the previous dirt road. Occasionally, the soldiers of the iron prison walked on the road, pushing vegetables and wild fruits in the mountains with small carts, talking and laughing.

The mountains in this area are prolific with walnuts, and there are a lot of them all over the mountains. There were many people in the iron prison, so he selected some idlers, went to the mountains to pick, and transported them back to the iron prison. There is a pastry factory in the camp, which is very prosperous, and it uses corn and walnuts to add some tricks.

Chestnut, red dates and mulberry trees are the fruit trees that the imperial court mainly recommended to be planted in the countryside. These trees are easy to grow, and the fruits can be used as food in famine years, and they are famine crops. In the past, when the year was bad in Ye County, people often went into the mountains to pick these nuts to fill their stomachs. This was the norm in China before the population explosion, and a large number of mountainous areas were undeveloped, which is different from later generations.

A short walk, along both sides of the river, a large area of flat land is the vegetable field of the iron prison.

The commander of the valley who was in charge of the vegetable field brought a few soldiers and greeted him at the door early, and when he saw Du Zhongxiao and others coming, he hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

Dismounted, arrived at the barracks of the vegetable field, sat down one after another, and Commander Gu asked people to serve tea.

Commander Gu was in his fifties, and after he arrived at the Iron Prison, he didn't have the energy to learn new things, so he came to manage the vegetable field. He picked up the remaining forbidden army, and after being assigned to the box army, he started from the capital, and only rose to the command for more than ten years. I know in my heart that I have no future, and all I want is to retire in a few years and go home with half a salary.

Seventy civil officers are dismissed, and non-commissioned officers of the forbidden army are sixty dismissed. The Great Song Dynasty established the country, and there was no Yulu after the civil official Zhishi, and most of the Zhishi in the last chapter would be retained by the imperial court until he died. Until Emperor Zhenzong, the civil official was able to receive another part of the Yulu. The forbidden army and the box army can be discharged from service at sixty, and they will be paid half a salary until the end of their lives.

In such a system, once a civil official comes out, whether he is old or not, he will basically not return to his hometown. Some of them are in the last place to be officials, some choose a place close to convenience, and some deliberately choose a place with low prices as a place to spend the rest of their lives. For example, Han Jiang's father, Han Yi, went to Xuzhou to buy a farm house in the years of Zhishi as his final place. In the Ming and Qing dynasties in history, there was no pension after Zhishi, and in the words of later generations, there was no pension, and officials were forced to return to their hometowns and given preferential treatment such as tax exemption and exemption. A large number of Chinese genealogies date back to the two Song dynasties, and in addition to the southward migration of the people, another reason is that officials do not return to their hometowns and spread out their branches outside.

This is the case with the Gu commander, after arriving at the Iron Prison, he bought land on the south bank of the Li River and let his family take care of it. Just waiting for himself to be discharged, he settled in Ye County, and as for his hometown, which is far away, there has been no news for decades.

After drinking tea, Commander Gu stepped forward and said, "Official, the lower officials have been ordered to take care of the vegetable fields, and they have put a lot of thought into it. The weather is fine today, so why not check it out. If there are any deficiencies, they will be pointed out, and the officials will order people to correct them. The flower garden is in the place where the south side is leeward and sunny, and it just drops in. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "It's okay." Now that there are more iron prisoners, the supply of meat and vegetables is really annoying. ”

got up with Su Song and the others, led by Commander Gu, and walked along the road between the vegetable fields to check the vegetable fields that had been opened.

After walking about two or three hundred steps, Commander Gu pointed to a place not far from the pond and said, "Yun Ju, there is a manure tank in the vegetable field." All the pickled things of the Iron Supervisor will be transported here and made into fertilizer. Over the past few months, a lot of manure has been made, just waiting for the next spring, when the fields are planted with vegetables. In addition to this, there is another place in the south where livestock and poultry are raised, and the manure of livestock is used for manure. ”

Liu Zhuo smiled: "No wonder approaching here, there is a strange smell." Farming depends on manure, and you must not be careless. ”

Commander Gu said yes and said, "Do you want to go over and have a look?" ”

Liu Juan said: "Forget it, we are here to enjoy the flowers today, why bother to approach these unclean things." ”

Du Zhongxiao wanted to go over and take a look, but when he heard Liu Zhuo say this, he would forget it. As for the booklet on farming, the camp has summed up a lot of experience through more than half a year of practice, including manure. Someone from the Iron Supervision Commission came here to inspect according to the booklet, and there was no need for him to ask about everything.

The iron supervisor pays special attention to the hygiene of the camp, there are no puddles from the beginning, no garbage heaps are allowed, and the garbage is transported out of the camp once in the morning and once in the evening. Most of it is shipped here to make manure. In this year, there are no plastic products, and there is no non-degradable garbage, which can be used for manure after simple treatment, and garbage disposal is much more convenient.

Du Zhongxiao saw that the land was opened on the left and right, and there were canals dug at the head of the land, and the openings could be opened to irrigate the vegetable fields. After the reservoir is repaired, there is a height difference to the Li River, which can be irrigated by artesianism. This well-opened vegetable patch is very convenient to water, and it is the best watering ground here.

After walking a short distance, he saw five or six people coming in front of him, and the first one with a white beard came up and saluted with his hands crossed.

Commander Gu said: "This is Qiu Dutou, who is in charge of raising livestock and poultry over there. When I heard that the officials were coming, I hurried over to greet them. ”

Du Zhongxiao looked at these people, below Commander Gu, and two deputy commanders, all of whom were elderly. These people are old, they can't learn new things, and they have a non-contentious mentality, so they all gather in this place to grow vegetables. It's quiet, there's no distraction, and there's not much interest, which suits them perfectly.

This is the vegetable garden of the iron prison, and if it is in the later generations, or in the big city, there is also a lot of oil and water. But here in the Iron Prison, the land used to be vast and sparsely populated, and there was no place to sell the things in it outside. The people who do things here are nothing more than eating more vegetables and fruits, eating more chickens, ducks and fish, but no one is competing with them for power and profit.

Leaving the place where the manure was made, Qiu Dutou said: "There are chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep raised by the lower officials, and they are really pickled." Officials can go to the flower garden first, have some wine and food, and wait until the afternoon, and then go and check it out. Zuo Dutou took the soldiers to the reservoir over there to net fish, and I heard that he took some big ones. After a while, let the soldiers do it, and serve wine to the officials. ”

That small reservoir is also the fish pond of the Iron Supervisor. No one has been fishing here for many years, and although there are no fish fry, there are many big fish in the stock. In the fall, it was caught once, and the people of the whole iron prison ate a round belly. In the winter, the head of the hill where he was in charge would go to catch some big fish every once in a while, mainly to improve the food for the officials and technicians of the iron prison.