NOVPUB"From the Rivermouth fortress in the north to the Tarsas River in the south, from the mountains of Xitaqualo in the east to the mountains of Saka in the west... This vast land is my fief!"
Xiulote laughed heartily, revealing his pearly white teeth. The smile of the young king was handsome, and within that handsomeness lay a touch of solemn majesty. He stretched out his finger, tracing the edges of the atlas, etching the hills and rivers, villages and towns into his mind, as well as comparing them with the memories of his journey to the west.
"The fief stretches from north to south between two rivers, sandwiching two lakes; from east to west, from mountain range to mountain range. The climate here is of a tropical savanna with clear distinctions between dry and wet seasons, and the terrain is largely flat highland. Between the crisscrossing mountains and rivers, the highland dips to form a natural chain of lakes. Around these lakes rivers converge, forming the Lake Region. The land around the lake is fertile, much like the Bashu Basin; the rivers have well-defined courses, similar to the plains of Guanzhong."
The young king perused the map, extracting information, while using the memories of his later years to understand and integrate it.
Administration of the fief required specific data for support; governance must never be based on whimsical guesses. Though the figures estimated from sampling surveys in various places were imprecise, they played an essential role in guidance.
Xiulote looked over his fief, first estimating its specific area.
"At this time, the fief around the lake in my hands is approximately the size of three states. Roughly one hundred kilometers from east to west, and more than one hundred and fifty kilometers from north to south, covering an area of about 15,000 square kilometers, which is almost one-tenth the size of Henan."
Xiulote’s fingers moved across the map. He touched the blue markers for the lakes, also gauging the green-marked plains around them. These areas were fertile and flat, mostly already cleared for farmland.
"This land is the essence of the Tarasco Kingdom, with the most prosperous Patzcuaro Lake region at the center, the once densely populated Cuitzeo Lake region to the north, and the trade-rich North Coast of the Tarsas River to the south. In this era, populations always cluster near water sources, relying on rivers and lakes. On this 15,000-square-kilometer land, there once resided a million people, making up sixty percent of the Tarasco Kingdom’s population."
Thinking of this, the young king scrutinized the map again. Drawing on all the information that had converged, he roughly estimated the agricultural land area of the fief.
"In this fully cultivated prime area, the arable land area, which has been cleared by slashing and burning is roughly one-quarter to one-third of the fief’s total area, that is, 4,000 to 5,000 square kilometers."
"Currently, the adult men are not tall, with slightly smaller strides. One step to the left and right makes one stride, with a stride length of about 1.3 meters. One acre is 240 stride-lengths by 1 stride-width, that is, 1.3*1.3*240... Hmm, 405 square meters. Therefore, ten thousand square kilometers is about twenty-five million acres, just under. The number of acres of cultivated land in my fief is between ten to twelve million acres!"
Xiulote paused for a moment, rapidly calculating with a charcoal pencil in his hand. Kuluka watched from the side, covertly learning the weird numbers often used by His Highness. Moments later, the young king calculated the acres of the fief’s land. He looked at the numbers at the pencil tip, his spirit invigorated, and he continued to estimate further.
"Most of the fief practices Milpa agriculture, uses slash-and-burn methods, sows with wide spacing, and crops are intermixed. There is no deep plowing or substantial fertilization. Apart from the fertile land a few miles around the lakes, most agricultural land requires burning and fallowing... Thus, in each farming season, the actual cultivable land is roughly... slightly over five million acres!"
After calculation, Xiulote pondered for a while. He was always diligent in matters of field cultivation, accustomed to personally inspecting the fields and often gathering old farmers to inquire.
The current density of farming is low, corn breeding has not reached the peaks of later generations, and with beans and squash, the yield per acre of Milpa is about eighty pounds or more. Because corn’s nutritional value is somewhat low, the yield from four acres is needed to sustain an adult male for a year. For this unit, Xiulote referred to the data from the Neon Warring States period, and defined it as one "shi," which is about 320-350 pounds of grain.
"My fief has over five million acres of farmland. If there is sufficient labor to cultivate it, at the current level of technology, the annual yield is roughly 1.3 million shi. In other words, hmm, I am also a lord of a million shi!"
The idea unexpectedly popped into the young king’s mind. He couldn’t help smiling. This time he had put great effort into planning, redrawing the agricultural system, dividing steps, acres, shi. Then, relying on these data, he organized military and civilian settlements, naturally with grand ambitions, thinking of establishing foundational laws for the fief!
Without iron farming tools or large draft animals, a farmer’s ability to cultivate is greatly limited. In the Celestial Empire, where cultivation is meticulous with only human labor, a strong farmer could at most manage five acres. Iron implements can reduce physical exertion and allow for deeper plowing. Oxen and horses can at least double or triple this figure.
Thus, in early Tang, twenty acres per adult male were considered the limit for effective cultivation. With iron implements and oxen, twenty acres in the northern plains with one harvest per year; and for southern rice paddies with two harvests per year, ten acres per person.
In Xiulote’s fief, the size of an acre is roughly the same as those in the Celestial Empire, just slightly smaller. The planting density of the crops, however, is only one-third to one-half that of the Celestial Empire farmers. Due to the diversity of crops, the busy farming time is extended by about twice.
Accordingly, the maximum farming area for a strong adult is around eight to ten acres. The normal annual harvest is between two to two and a half shi, enough to support two adult males, or to support one while the rest acts as tribute and reserves for lean years.
