The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Since Shang Yang's reform, the Qin State has implemented a system of "clearly distinguishing the ranks of nobility, naming fields and houses according to their ranks, and naming the clothes of servants and concubines according to their families" to match the military merits. This is called the "named fields and houses" system, that is, different lands, houses and slaves are occupied according to different nobility titles.

Among them, Heifu, as a "gongdafu" of the 7th level, can occupy 9 hectares of land and 9 houses.

1 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 Qin mu, far exceeding the "five mu house" of ordinary people.

It takes at least a year and a half to build such a large house from scratch. Fortunately, what Anlu County lacks most recently is empty houses.

The Yun family had been based in Anlu for hundreds of years, and there were manors and houses everywhere. After the fall of Yun Man, all these real estates were confiscated and returned to the public. The main house in the county town was requisitioned by the government, and a manor located on the outskirts of the city just met Heifu's standards.

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

This manor stood in a fertile field on the eastern outskirts of the county town. Its tall yellow and black outlines could be seen from afar. The yellow ones were walls, and the black ones were roof tiles.

"This piece of land is going to be exchanged for my family's land."

Zhong was over thirty years old, had a long beard, and wore the official uniform of a field assistant. Although he still looked so kind, his words and deeds had become a bit official.

He and Heifu were riding in the same car. When passing by this field where the rice had just bloomed, he pointed to this vast paddy field and said that the rice in the field had just formed ears, and it would take more than a month before the harvest.

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

The land in front of them also originally belonged to the Yun family. According to the system of land and house, Heifu can own 900 acres of land, and Zhong can own 300 acres. If you add the title of Gongshi that Heifu got by helping Jing "pay the tribute to the noble", it will be as much as 13 hectares, making him a big landlord.

"But the harvest from the land this year still has to go to the government and be stored in the county warehouse. It will be officially assigned to my family from January next year."

Similarly, their family's land in the sunset can also be used until next year. In addition to rice and corn, Heifu also confiscated 100 acres of sugarcane!

But Heifu doesn't care much anymore, because in the past six months in Jiangling City, he has asked people to find sugarcane planted in various palaces and gardens of the royal family of Chu at that time. Hard work pays off, and he really found a few acres of relatively sweet black-skinned sugarcane, which was worthy of being used for the kitchen of the King of Chu to squeeze juice, and was better than the variety grown at home.

Heifu planned to ask someone to help transplant it next year, and plant this economic crop on a large scale at home, and then let his aunt's son who could make maltose set up a brown sugar workshop nearby, which might become the main source of income for their family in the future...

Seeing that the family business is getting bigger and bigger, but there are more places to use money, and it is not enough to just rely on salary and reward money.

Turning down from the official road, walking half a mile along the small road beside the field that can accommodate a car, you will arrive in front of the village. This is a three-entry courtyard. In Heifu's opinion, compared with the residence of the county governor and the county lieutenant, what is it? Even Zhang's house in Yangwu County, Wei, is twice as big as this!

But in the eyes of his mother, uncle, sister-in-law, nephews and nieces who rarely leave the sunset, it is already a "luxury house"!

Heifu had come to see the whole place before, so he took his family into the mountain-viewing gate. The first thing that caught his eye was a four-story watchtower. On the top of the tower was a sentry pavilion with four sides protruding. There was a drum inside the pavilion, which was used to call the police.

"This is used to warn thieves."

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

Further ahead was the second gate, which also had two three-story corner towers facing each other, from which one could look far away, shoot arrows, and use crossbows.

Heifu looked at these buildings and couldn't help but laugh. Yunman had indeed built his own manor like a fortress. Fortunately, Lixian designed to lure him in that day, otherwise the government would have suffered a lot of casualties when attacking various manors.

After entering the second gate, they arrived at a vertical main courtyard. In front of it was a hall facing south. After everyone went in, they found that the windows inside were open, empty, and very bright.

"This is a place for entertaining guests or having banquets. The bronze lamp stands, couches, and tables placed inside have all been confiscated by the government. We have to order a batch from the workshop..."

Heifu's mother walked in the hall with her grandchildren. They walked very carefully, fearing that they would damage the smooth floor. They reached out and touched the thick pillars painted with fine red paint, which supported the tall house. Then they subconsciously wiped them with their sleeves, fearing that they would get dirty.

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

Heifu couldn't help laughing and said: "Mother, you will live here permanently in the future. When I have a big banquet for guests, I will invite you to sit in the middle of the hall as the birthday star!"

The mother waved her hands hurriedly, still a little timid, and just couldn't believe that this place would really become her "home". The second son has become very successful in recent years, and has far exceeded the speed they can accept. Now they just feel that this is a dream and they will wake up at any time.

There are verandas on the east and west sides of the main hall, and behind the hall is the backyard. First, there is a spacious patio with trees planted, pavilions installed, and a small pond dug.

"There are fish in it!"

Heifu's nephews and nieces ran to the pond in surprise, looking at the fish and turtles swimming in it, and felt 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 owner's residence. Basically, everyone can be assigned a small courtyard, and there are still many empty...

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

On the west side, there are mulberry forests, orchards, and vegetable gardens. There are nearly a hundred mulberry trees. It can be imagined that raising silkworms and spinning silk in spring can completely achieve self-sufficiency. There are dozens of trees in the orchard, including pears, dates, plums and other common fruit trees in Nanjun. They will be ripe in a month or so...

Heifu asked his nephews and nieces to come over and told them the story of "swallowing dates whole". The two children laughed out loud after listening to it. Then Heifu asked them if they liked this new home.

"I like it!"

The answer is of course yes. This house itself is much more interesting than the rural neighborhood where they lived before, not to mention that Heifu promised them that after coming here, they can stay away from dirty and tiring work such as picking up manure.

The two children were very happy, but they didn't know that Heifu had arranged a teacher to teach them how to read and write. Their carefree days of playing would not last long...

On the other side, Heifu's mother and uncle stood at the other end of the orchard, looking at the neatly ridged vegetable gardens with ditches and whispering to each other. Until then, they no longer felt strange walking around in someone else's house and began to think about what to plant here.

"July is a good time to plant winter mallow." The mother squatted down and touched the moist and fertile soil, smiling.

After a summer, the humus evaporated and fermented in the soil, and the newly turned land showed a fertile black color, exuding a pleasant smell of soil.

In addition to winter mallow, onions and leeks were planted, covered with loose soil, and then covered with thick melon vine straw. Before and after the beginning of winter, the onions and leeks grown were very fragrant. Then, they would spread a bag of radish seeds brought from Xiyangli's home on the ground, tamp them down with their feet, and fertilize them carefully. After a few rains, the radish would grow two cotyledons. In late autumn, their three sons and grandchildren would have green-skinned, red-hearted, juicy and sweet radishes to eat…

Thinking of this, they couldn't wait to loosen the soil and sow seeds here, plant green vegetables in the open space near their homes, and make the chicken coops and pig pens bustling. This was the instinct that rural women could not stop.

Heifu was somewhat helpless: "Mother suffered too much in the past. After coming here, just enjoy yourself. If you want to eat anything, you can buy it directly from the county city. Uncle and sister-in-law don't have to get up early and stay up late to pound rice. Just let the servants do it."

Zhong smiled and said: "Heifu, just let mother toss around. Otherwise, they will be uncomfortable."

Heifu had to let the two children play in the orchard, and let his mother and uncle and sister-in-law continue to discuss growing vegetables, raising chickens and pigs. He and Zhong walked to the back of the manor.

Behind the backyard, connected to the kitchen and granary, there are some low buildings. In addition to the stables and cattle pens, there are also some dim earthen houses. Now they are all empty. This is where the slaves of the manor live.

"I know Heifu doesn't like to use slaves and concubines."

Zhong has been a minor official for the past few years and has gained a lot of experience. When he went in and out of the houses of Tianshoufu and Cangshoufu in the county, he also secretly observed their family's management methods and remembered them in his heart. He said: "But this manor is too big for our family to take care of it. Daily cleaning, raising cattle and horses, sericulture, and pounding rice, it really won't work without 20 or 30 people. In my opinion, we still have to buy a dozen slaves and concubines from the market to be enough."

Zhong's words made sense. Heifu nodded. With the temperament of his brother, mother, uncle and sister-in-law, they would definitely treat those slaves and concubines well, observe them for a few years, restore personal freedom to those who perform well, and then let those who want to stay stay or leave. It can be regarded as saving them.

In addition to the purchased slaves and concubines, according to the system of famous fields and houses, Heifu can also have nine "bastards" allocated by the government, that is, nine servants, which can at least fill this large yard.

Zhong added: "In addition to the servants and concubines, there are a few people who want to come to this manor to work..."

Heifu frowned. Although Qin did not advocate keeping guests and scholars, local tycoons, such as the widow Qingjia in Ba County, the Yun family and the Li family in Anlu, often had people come to rely on them. The high-level dependents were called "guests", who were some capable scholars and warriors who helped you guard the house and manage the manor. The low-level ones were called "subordinates", who were actually slaves.

It was okay in Nanjun, but in the newly conquered Wei, Yanzhao and other places, and even in the Bashu area, it was common for the tycoons to have hundreds of houses, fertile fields all over the fields, thousands of slaves and servants, and tens of thousands of subordinates.

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

"Not guests, nor followers."

Zhong saw that Heifu had misunderstood, and hurriedly said, "Just some of your old friends. I hope to hire them and give them a chance to repay their kindness..."

"Repay a favor?"

Heifu was a little confused. Zhong looked at him like this and smiled, "My brother, you don't even remember the favor you have given! Let's go, follow me to the stable and you will know."

As they were talking, they had arrived at the cattle and horse stables behind the yard. Here, a gray-haired old man was directing Heifu's old subordinates who came to help move the objects on the cattle and horse carts, and then put the cattle and horses into the stables one by one.

Seeing Heifu's brothers coming over, the old man hurried over and bowed, "I meet the county lieutenant! Thank you for saving my daughter back then!"

Heifu took a look and found that he was really an acquaintance!

It was Ju, the father of the woman "Yuan" whom he rescued in the Blind Mountain when he was a pavilion chief!