After Transmigration: Building a Kingdom in Turbulent Times-Chapter 657 - 651 Public Sentiment

The person looked Ming Yu up and down, noticing that while the guard behind him was strong, Ming Yu himself seemed weak and pale, clearly showing signs of poor health.

Relieved, he turned and fetched a large bamboo tube from the edge of the field, saying, "Here, this tube of water is for you."

Ming Yu accepted it and unscrewed his water pouch to pour in the water.

After filling it up, he returned the bamboo tube to the farmer, glanced at the rice, and couldn’t help but touch it, sighing, "These rice ears are generally short, did you miss the farming season?"

He replied, "I came from Chen County, where the rice was harvested early in the month, here it seems to be delayed by ten days."

Talking about farming, the farmer couldn’t help but say more, especially since Ming Yu had filled the water, truly looking like he came to borrow water, and was from Chen County, so he was friendly, "Ah, we were still fighting wars in spring this year, fortunately, Lord Zhao was kind, giving us seeds and farm tools so we could farm at ease, otherwise there wouldn’t even be this bit of rice this year."

He was quite satisfied, "I planted five acres of rice this year, not a lot, but gathering them all can last till next summer, and this year Lord Zhao will give us wheat seeds too, to sow in autumn and harvest next summer, if nothing goes wrong, perhaps we won’t suffer the hardship of spring shortage next year."

"Is the yield from these five acres all yours? I remember the court has decrees, adult males must pay a tax of four bushels of grain."

"No, no, no," the farmer was shocked, quickly waving his hand, "Lord Zhao has great virtue, this year each household only needs to pay two acres of tax grain, secondary males and females only one acre, I have only a wife and grandson, the grandson is still young, not even counted as secondary males, so my family only needs to pay tax for three acres of grain."

He touched his chest and said, "Don’t mention four bushels, that number now makes me anxious and dizzy, the previous year and last year, the court first collected six bushels from my household, then said my six-year-old grandson was also an adult male, and wanted four more bushels, shortly after, the court needed to send troops to Yu State, taking two bushels from each household again."

"Last year, Luoyang suffered a famine, we were already struggling, the court said it needed to support Your Majesty, and increased the tax again, my family lost another four bushels, alas," the farmer sighed, "but I heard that grain never reached the emperor’s hands, Prince East Sea took it and fled with his people, we sold everything that could be sold, not even having a grain of tax left, we ate the seed grain, choosing to die in our hometown rather than elsewhere."

"Fortunately, heaven finally opened its eyes, Lord Zhao came," the farmer couldn’t help but smile, "Lord Zhao said, Emperor Wu’s land decree is excellent, she will follow it, but one flaw is the land numbers being too high, making the taxes also high, while an adult male obviously can’t farm so much land, so she ordered, all adult males and females farm half the number of lands as per the decree, taxes are halved too, times are hard this year, so even lesser, my family only needs to pay tax for three acres of land."

He raised a big smile, "Only paying two pecks and four liters."

Ming Yu also couldn’t help but smile, "That tax amount is indeed light, congratulations, sir."

The farmer grinned broadly, "Happy together, happy together. You came from Chen County, so you’re a fellow townsman of Lord Zhao, are you here to join her?"

Ming Yu smiled and nodded, "I am not from Yu State, but Lord Zhao’s name is thunderous to me, I admire deeply, so I came to join."

"Then you came right, our Lord Zhao is virtuous and kind, treats us commoners so well, let alone her subordinates, I heard anyone with talent can receive house and land upon entering Luoyang, there are even people helping to farm the land."

"Even those of average talent can rent very cheap houses from the county government, costs are minimal."

Ming Yu laughed and nodded, "I heard the same, hence why I came."

The farmer glanced behind him, seeing his servants strong with carriage and horses, felt his status must be high, and his learning even higher, so he wanted to form a good bond.

He turned and took something wrapped in lotus leaf from his barrel, opened it, revealing dry cake, painfully handing one to Ming Yu, smiling, "Sir, you must be hungry, this is for you."

Ming Yu knew how important food was, quickly refusing.

The farmer insisted, stuffing it into his hand, saying, "This is bean cake mixed with bean flour, not worth much, eat, eat."

He laughed, "I’ve harvested the rice, after drying for a few days it can be eaten, my family isn’t short on food right now, eat at ease."

Only then did Ming Yu accept it, taking a bite, it wasn’t as hard as imagined nor particularly unpleasant, had a bean fragrance, somewhat resembling wheat cake while eating.

Ming Yu chewed carefully and swallowed, smiling, "This is made with bean flour?"

"Yes, with bean flour, my family planted three acres of beans this year, harvested recently, already dried, pity we have no water mill here, nor any water press workshop, can only grind bean flour ourselves, otherwise sending it to the water mill, quickly ground into flour. The bean oil pressed is extremely tasty too, alas, I only tasted once, pressing oil needs great strength and labor, my family is small, no spare hands."

Ming Yu also knew of bean oil pressing, originating from Yu State, heard Zhao Hanzhang’s workshop occasionally made it, she didn’t hide the pressing method, instead spread it nationwide.

He and Yan Heng privately tried using bean oil for cooking, finding its flavor unique, so they opened several workshops in Yan State specializing in the oil pressing business.

"Is there no oil press workshop in nearby counties?"

"There is, but far, to transport beans so far for pressing, actually yields little oil, better to keep for self, bean stew, occasionally grind into bean flour, also good food ration."

"Some buy beans too, or sell them, saving money for emergencies." He happily added, "We have money now, those buying beans paid in cash, unlike before, they didn’t use money, only willing to trade with fabric and other things, and some fabric was too good, expensive, we traded then had to trade again for our coarse cloth."

Ming Yu didn’t know Zhao Hanzhang minted new currency herself, as it’s only in Luoyang for now, not much even in Yu State.

So he assumed farmers meant Luoyang merchants were rich, earned money, willing to trade with farmers in money.

When he sensed something was off, he already reached Luoyang borders, rushing all the way, he stopped at a roadside teahouse outside Luoyang for lunch, during the wait, glanced seeing someone paying the shop seven or eight copper coins then leaving.

He stared at those copper coins, his sharp gaze hinted something was amiss.