Great Tang Idyll

Book 1: Chapter 65

Chapter 65 Stones From Other Mountains Can Rival Jade

"Cuckoo, cuckoo..." On a mountain behind the Zhang Farm, a field was enclosed. Ying'tao and a few other people were calling the chickens over to eat. Ying'tao found out that ever since the chickens were moved to the mountains, the amount of chicken feed they needed to feed the chickens had decreased.

These chickens were able to search the mountains for food to eat, and there were plenty of unlucky bugs that the chickens could eat. The chickens even grew better than before.

Thinking of this, Ying'tao once again admired the Young Master and Young Miss even though she has admired them several times before already. Not only they did save chicken feed, the two of them were also able to sell the small eggs at prices higher than large eggs. Every time, they sold at least 25 kilos, and that 25 kilo of eggs were sold for twelve coins higher than normal eggs of the same weight.

More importantly, even at this high price, people fought to buy it. This money-making ability was truly remarkable. It seems like there was nothing in this world that the Young Master and Young Miss cannot accomplish.

The more Ying'tao thought about it, the happier she became. Furthermore, she was the one in charge of caring for all the chickens. The Young Master has said that separate tabs will be kept for each department. At the end of the year, whichever department made the most money, then the people of that department will receive the most reward money.

The most important thing was not these rewards; the Young Master had also said that whoever received the most reward money was the most capable person so more important tasks can be given to that person in the future.

As long as she worked hard to raise the chickens and contributes to the small businesses the Young Master and Young Miss has arranged, she would definitely be superior than everyone else. Who said that girls were not good as boys? Her father and mother always praised her younger brother; who will they praise now?

Ying'tao thought about it and laughed. A girl that was next to her curiously patted her, "Sister Ying'tao, what are you laughing at?"

"Huh? Oh, I laughed. I'm laughing that after the chickens can lay eggs that can be hatched into chicks, I will keep more eggs to hatch and give them to farmers on our farm. When that time comes, everyone can live a good life and the young children can grow up to be fair and chubby." Ying'tao smiled again.

"Yeah, we can live a good life. This is because Sister Ying'tao is so great. The Young Master really has good judgement of people. The people around him have so many tasks to complete and they can all complete it very well. The Young Master and Young Miss are really deities." The girl continued the conversation.

"Don't always mention this. In fact, the Young Master and the Young Miss also have things that they worry about, but every time, they're able to come up with a good plan after they're done fretting. Those of us that work for the Young Master were actually taught by the Young Master, so it would be the same regardless of who worked for the Young Master."

Ying'tao glanced at the girl, and then acted humbled. This little girl was also from the inner courtyard. If it was a farmer from outside that said such things, she would have to investigate out who had leaked the information.

After reconsidering her owns words, the little girl stuck out her tongue in fear. "Sister Ying'tao, I swear to let this matter rot away in my heart and never tell anyone about. If there was no Young Master and Young Miss, our good days would come to an end and we will never be able to find a master family as good as this one."

"Well, hurry up and feed the chickens. These chickens eat so much all day, when the day comes, it would be perfect to butcher them and eat their meat. I hear the Young Master and Young Miss say that once we earn enough money here, they will build a school and allow the children from both farms to learn how to read and write."

Ying'tao poured out half bucket of fodder again while thinking about the future of the farm.

The little girl also nodded. "Yeah, it's already so great now. They found two doctors to stay on the farm. One of them focuses on treating people and the other one focuses on treating animals. The other day, my head felt a bit dizzy and they gave me a medicine prescription. After drinking the medicine, I immediately felt better and I didn't even spend a single coin. They said that it was counted towards the Young Master's tab and this was the same for anyone from the inner courtyard.

The farmers seem to have to spend a little money of their own. I heard from the housekeeper, that in the future, the farmers don't need to spend any money too, but every year when they harvested their crops, they had to offer more crops to the master family. This extra offering would cover health care, funeral expenses and even house construction. "

"Then you must work hard to finish your tasks. If you make a mistake, even if others want to protect you, nothing will avail. Later, bring these eggs to the storage room so that they can be all sold to those people." Ying'tao spoke seriously while walking back with the empty bucket in her hand. This meal for today was pretty much done.

*

Prefecture Qi, Lin'you County.

There were people coming and going on the streets, and the restaurants and inns were bustling with noise. On this day, three people came here carrying a heavy object, and directly headed to a blacksmith's shop.

"Shopkeeper, does your shop handle carpentry work?" one person of the three asked aloud.

"Yes, my son specializes in woodwork. Do the three of you want something made?" The one who was hammering the iron stopped the movement in his hand, wiped the sweat on his forehead with his hand, and asked with a smile.

"Yeah, make us something like this." As they spoke, the three of them took out the object that was wrapped in cloth and showed it to the blacksmith.

"This...this is a plough? Why haven't I seen it before?" The blacksmith pondered. No wonder these three people still need woodwork; the plough needed to use a combination of iron and wood in order to be crafted.

"Yes, it is a plough. This plough is called the curved-plough. It was made by the Magistrate of San'shui County. When used to plough land, it was definitely speedy; it's several times faster than a normal plough. Even a person pulling a new plough could plough the land more faster and deeper than a livestock pulling an old plough. I have two relatives here. I bought one in San'shui County and came here to make another one.

This way each my two relatives can have one. When I came here, I saw that there several fields that are not completely ploughed yet. That's too slow. At our San'shui County, everyone has finished ploughing already; some people have even ploughed their land twice. Our Magistrate is great, isn't he? "

The person continued to talk. When he mentioned the county Magistrate, his back straightened up and his head was held tall; it was as if the county Magistrate was his father.

"Really? Who is your county Magistrate? He also takes care of these kind of matters?" The blacksmith's attention was piqued by this person's words. He thought about how his relative's land was not completely ploughed yet and maybe he could craft a plough like this for them?

"How could this be false? Our county Magistrate's surname is Cheng, his respected name¹ is Ling'xiang, and his given name is An'ran. He is a good county Magistrate. Let me tell you, in order for us to have a successful spring tillage, the county Magistrate spent his days without caring for drinking and eating."

This person knew no end when it came to talking about the county Magistrate. He started talking about the good omen, then talked about how the Magistrate sent food and oil to the poor people during the New Year, and then about the curved-plough. He improved the lines that Song Jing'gong used and even added on more exaggerated details.

As he spoke, the surrounding people that were attracted to his bustling speech gathered around. The other two people that came with him feared that some people didn't get to hear the whole story, so they went to the sides to tell the other groups of people. They also made exaggerated hand gesture to accompany the story they told. Then they pushed out the curved-plough to show the crowd and told them to have a close look at it. They explained the benefits of the new plough over and over again.

After the crowd were brainwashed, they handed the plough over to the blacksmith. He told them to come back at night. The total cost was 60 coins and they paid for it on the spot. After they dropped the item off, the three of them found an inn to dine at.

When they entered the inn, they went to whichever corner that was the most busy and lively. They went to the center of the crowd, and after budding in a few lines in, they started talking about the curved-plough again and inserted compliments surrounding the Magistrate. They even pointed out which blacksmith shop was helping them craft a plough.

After having their fill of food at the inn, they did not waste time and they went to a tea house to drink tea. They didn't evendrink the tea that was offered by the inn earlier; instead, they choose to drink tea from the tea house set up on the roadside. Once again, those same words came out of the mouths of the three of them.

It turned out that even before night arrived, different versions of the story began to appear in Prefecture Zhi, Qi'zhou County. Some said that the San'shui County Magistrate's hair turned white overnight from over thinking and he finally came up with the design of the plough; some said that the San'shui County Magistrates became so skinny, that he was nothing but skin covered bones and this moved the heavens so the heavens told him the idea through a dream.

Tales about the curved plough were even more magical sounding. Some said that one person pulling the new plough was faster than two cows; some even said that just by placing the plough on the ground, it could automatically plough the land by itself.

Regardless of which story version it was, the plough was linked to the county Magistrate Cheng of the San'shui County. When the plough was mentioned, one would think of Magistrate Cheng and when a person mentioned Magistrate Cheng, another person will talk about the curved plough.

When night arrived, the three of them came to the blacksmith shop again. The blacksmith was already there waiting. He handed the plough that was crafted first to the three people. After seeing that the three of them were far off in the distance, the blacksmith closed his doors and got his son to help him carry two curved-ploughs to his relatives' houses. .

Those three people did not in fact go to any relative's place with the curved plough. Instead, but turned around and left this place, and headed to the next county.

The blacksmith and his son sent the two sets of ploughs to two relatives' homes and repeated what they had heard during the day while adding a few more details of their own. Upon hearing this, the relatives couldn't resist the urge and decided to bring the curved plough out to field despite it being late at night. Their curious neighbors also followed behind.

The blacksmith's son was pulling it from the front, while his relatives maneuvered the plough from behind. After walking a few steps, he got used to the pace; it definitely ploughed the soil quickly and more deeper. The blacksmith's relative was so excited that on their way back, they found someone to send some wine and food to their house and insisted on having a good drink with the blacksmith.

Those neighbors couldn't bear keeping quiet about it and wanted to share what they just witnessed to everyone they knew.

The next morning, everyone who heard of the news came to the blacksmith's relative's home. However, they were told that the family left for the fields early in the morning, so the crowd continued the chase and went to the fields. When they arrived there, a lot of spectators were there already and from time to time, some people exclaimed with admiration.

With this method, after a few days, the people of other counties in other prefectures near San'shui county all knew about the new plough called the curved-plough and they also knew that it was created by theMagistrate Cheng of San'shui County. Many counties that started the spring tillage later were already beginning to craft this type of plough.

The magistrates of all counties realized the importance of this plough so they began to hold it with high regards. Several reports were sent to the higher ups, and when the different prefecture divisions saw that it did not involve their own prefectures, they knew that couldn't fight for any credit. Thus, memorials were passed forward to the Capital city to truthfully relay the events.

The officials in BinPrefecture²were planning to drag out the time until the Magistrate Cheng gave in to them and surrendered all of the credits to them. They didn't expect that news would travel so quickly to the Agriculture Minister and Labor Minister at the Capital city. The two government officials told their other colleagues, and soon enough, every department learned of this great event.

Translator's notes:

1. Respected name

It was regarded as disrespectful to refer to a reputable person by their given first name, so it was common for these people to have additional names.

2. Bin Prefecture

"Bin" is the pronunciationof the Chinese character and does not refer to the English word "bin".