Chapter 1224 Kalpui, the Spring Bird

The rolling molten iron solidified into iron materials, which were then forged into the shapes of various tools and agricultural implements. The hammers and axes for building roads, the plows, hoes, and sickles for cultivating land were all loaded onto the fleet. Some of the tools were transported back to the port of Zicao City and distributed to the civilian villages and flag teams responsible for road construction and land reclamation. The other part continues upstream along the upper reaches of the lake, and then is transported to Apa City on the Apa Plain through the well-constructed three-river dirt road.

"Praise the Lord God! Share the farm tools!..."

"Everyone stand still! The officiant is here to hand out farm tools to you in person!... Please behave yourself!..."

"Ah! Praise the Lord God! Praise the priest!..."

Seeing the wheelbarrow convoy bringing farm equipment, there was a loud cheer outside the city. At this moment, hundreds of militiamen from hundreds of villages in Apa County, led by their respective village priests, gathered outside the city in accordance with the village flags. According to the rules of the kingdom, these iron farm tools will never be transported to the city market, but will be distributed directly to the villages, used as public property of the village festival, and then lent to the young people in the village for use.

The village community system at the bottom of the kingdom actually originated from the traditional "Calpui" system in Mesoamerica, and was adjusted by some mysterious oriental power according to the teachings of the Qin Dynasty. "Calpuy" is the traditional clan commune of the Nahua people. The ownership of all farmland in the village belongs to the "Karpui" clan commune, and each family only has the right to use it. As long as they are mature men and women, they can receive a piece of land from the commune and farm it forever until they can no longer plant any more. In addition to cultivating their own portion of land, each family also had to take turns cultivating the common land of the clan commune to support the priests and chiefs, and to store food for wars, famines, and tribute.

According to the ancient tradition of clan communes, private property in the entire village community is very limited. Even the village chief or chief cannot seize the commune's land and use the collective barn in the village privately. This tradition has also been strengthened in the promulgated religious laws of the Lord God. The tribute collected by the kingdom is also based on the village or flag team, and will not be specific to a certain household. On the one hand, this saves a lot of tax collection manpower and costs. On the other hand, every household in the village does not have much property to collect, unless they have made a fortune by fighting in the war. The basic composition of the entire kingdom is the villages where priests are stationed, the warrior fiefdoms surrounding the towns, and the third-level nobles with larger fiefdoms.

In the kingdom, three types of land distribution coexisted: village communes, military meritorious landowners, and feudal nobles. Village communes dominated the majority of the population, followed by military meritorious landowners. At least until the kingdom's productivity and village population explode, this village commune system, which has evolved over a long period of time and has been modified by religious law, will not be easily changed.

"Praise the Lord God! Get the farm tools and go back to prepare for spring plowing! The rainy season is coming, maintain the roads responsible for each village! There will be warriors from the kingdom to inspect!..."

"Yes! Praise the Lord God! Praise the chief priest of Apa City!..."

As the seat of a county, Apa City is an important transportation center, extending out three marching roads with constant flow of people. One goes east, connecting to Atoyak Lake a hundred miles to the east. The other goes northeast, connecting to the Black Rock City coal and copper mining area two hundred miles northeast, and further east to Gyeonggi in the Prepecha Lake area.

As for the last one, it first extends westward until the end of the Apa Plain, two hundred miles to the west, and the clay town on the edge of Olive Lake, and then bifurcates into two branches, leading to the Chapala Lake in the upper reaches of the north and the southwestern mountainous area. Tribes of Colima. At present, the road leading to the Colima Mountains has been repaired. The road construction workers recruited this year will go to the northwest to completely repair the road to Chapala Lake County.

These three main roads are ten miles around Apa City. They are all three-level stone roads of the highest standard. They use large and small stones as the base material, slag and natural sand as fillers, and are bonded with volcanic ash cement. The stones are dragged and rolled by civilians. It is solid and will not be easily damaged by the rainy tropical climate. The standard of the third-grade stone road is very high, but the width is only enough to allow ten people to walk parallelly, which is the "two tracks" in Shulot's impression, and the distance that allows two carriages to cross. Although, there are no horses in Central America yet...

"Hey! The stone roads around the big city are really nice and easy to walk on. You don't have to worry about your feet... When you leave the suburbs, there are no such good roads!..."

Ten miles outside the city suburbs, the stone road disappeared and became the most common road standard in the kingdom, a second-grade three-way dirt road. A few militiamen who had fought in the war and were wealthier hesitated for a while, then took off the straw sandals hanging around their necks and put them on. Most of the men and militiamen still walked barefoot.

The Sanhe Road starting from here is built with clay and loam as the base, bonded with slaked lime, and then tamped with natural sand as filler. There is a lot of precipitation in Apa County during the rainy season, and the Sanhe dirt road is easily affected. Every year, flag teams and civilians along the road are required to go out to maintain the road sections they are responsible for. The road sections close to the river must be paved with cinders, slag and gravel to prevent overgrown weeds.

"Huh! It's too sunny today. Let's take a drink of water from the canal, take a rest, and then go back!..."

After walking for a while, the sun gradually got higher. The village priest stopped for a while and led the team to the water channel near the road. Everyone drank some of the water from the river. And where the earth and rock ditches extend, there are endless fields on the Apa Plain, waiting for spring plowing in two months!

The Kingdom’s major infrastructure project has been underway for three years. During the off-season every year, from November to March, hundreds of thousands of villagers, tribal flag troops, and fiefdom serfs are recruited to work in various places to build roads, dig canals, build reservoirs, clear wasteland, and clear trees. Develop new peripheral lands. The entire southern hinterland of the kingdom, especially the Apa Plain, which is more than 3,000 square kilometers and half the area of ​​the Chengdu Plain, has been gradually developed through such large-scale labor. With fish and rice...oh no, in the land of corn Rich appearance!

"God bless you! Get some rest and get on your way!..."

"Priest, what are you doing over there? They seem to be applying that kind of stone fertilizer that I heard is very powerful!..."

Hearing the militiamen's exclamations, the village priest stopped and looked towards a village not far to the north. The village was obviously much more stylish, with many wooden houses built and even a few brick houses. Even the main god’s shrine in the center of the village is bigger than the one in their village! This village obviously made a lot of money during the kingdom's conquests, so it is so grand and enviable by everyone.

If you look carefully, you can see that before spring plowing, some people in the village have started planting black beans in the fields, and they have also spread a white powdered "stone fertilizer". The village priest knew at a glance that this was "struvite fertilizer" that the kingdom had brought back from the sea. Grind it and sprinkle it on the fields, which could increase production for two or three years! The priest of this village, someone in Apa City, has this amazingly effective stone fertilizer base. The village here can grow two crops. After all, it’s actually very warm now at the end of February and early March. In the past, I didn’t dare to plant for two seasons because the soil fertility could not keep up with it, and we often had to cultivate and rotate crops. And if the soil and fertilizers are sufficient, the Chinampa floating fields on the water can even be cultivated all year round, producing four seasons of harvest a year!

"Priest, is that stone fertilizer?..."

"Yeah. It's struvite fertilizer."

"Ah! Then when will our village be able to use this kind of stone fertilizer?..."

"God bless you! This... it depends on the kingdom's fleet. When can more stone fertilizers be transported... I will mention it to the chief priest after I pay the tribute after the autumn harvest... Hey!..."

Everyone looked at it with envy for a while, looking at the flowing canals, the fertilized fields, and the sprouting new seedlings. Then they continued to push the wheelbarrow, carrying the iron farm tools that the village was looking forward to, to their homes dozens of miles away. go. Although spring plowing has not yet begun, with these farm tools, a harvest that will surpass last year’s harvest seems to be just around the corner! Of course, it would be even better if there was stone fertilizer, it would be as good as a flying bird in spring~~