Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 128 Going West

Eastern Shandong region
In Wangjia Village, a village outside Laizhou County, Wang Fugui, the richest man in the Wang family, is eating a simple meal.

The Wang family was wealthy in the village. They owned five mud-brick houses, with three side rooms housing the elderly couple, their two sons and daughters-in-law, and two grandchildren.

Three generations living together under one roof, it can be considered a harmonious and joyful occasion.

Two years ago, in addition to the cowshed, woodshed, and kitchen, we built a pigsty and raised two pigs. We also raised about ten chickens in the yard and got a dog.

A year before the establishment of the Wen Dynasty, the war had already ended, and the court had announced tax reductions, so everyone knew that they would be able to live a better life.

The first year was indeed a good year, the second year was a severe drought, and this year, the third year, it hasn't rained for more than half a year, and the seedlings in the fields have all withered and died.

Those who hadn't stockpiled food panicked and packed their belongings to flee south.

Wang Fugui, in his forties or fifties, ate a coarse meal of old millet and bran mixed with rice and drank a light salted vegetable rice soup.

"Dad, what should we do this year?" The eldest son, Wang Cheng, looked at his father, waiting for his decision.

Wang Fugui has always been the backbone of his family, having experienced too many droughts, floods, locust plagues, and wars throughout his life.

In this world, diligence and thrift alone are not enough to survive; one also needs wisdom to know where to direct one's efforts.

Just as I was about to speak, someone came in from outside.

It turned out they were familiar friends from the village. The two families lived together and had helped each other in previous years, so they had a good relationship.

After a few words, the neighbor, looking distressed and pleading, revealed what the Wang family had long anticipated.

"Old Liu, I don't have much grain here either. Look at me, I'm already eating nothing but water. Next, we'll have to eat tree bark, grass roots, and locusts. My family of eight needs to survive. We're not sure where our next meal will come from. I'll lend you eight hundred coins so you can go and buy some grain."

Old Wang calmed Old Liu down with just a few words and saw him off.

Now, even with money, it's impossible to buy grain. More and more people with money in their hands but unable to buy grain are gathering together and flocking to the county town, demanding that the county magistrate open the granaries and release grain.

The officials had no grain of their own, but they took away the last rations of most of the honest and law-abiding villagers.

The starving mob stormed in, killing officials, soldiers, and even the officials' families.

The grain in the granary was running low, and the disaster victims who had looted the grain only ate a few meals before running out of food.

Groups of disaster victims began to eat at the homes of the wealthy, and they did follow the rules, eating in front of one wealthy household for three days before moving on to the next.

Locusts, disaster victims, and government soldiers swept and plundered in different areas, each minding their own business when they encountered each other.

In the sweltering heat, more and more people collapsed on the ground.

Locusts, disaster victims, and soldiers all began to fall ill unprepared in the scorching heat.

Food supplies were dwindling, and neither the southern court nor the northerners cared about them.

When they learned that the Wen Dynasty emperor had ceded territory to the Shan Nong people in exchange for peace, some rebel groups began to rob the Shan Nong people's grain transport teams.

They succeeded quickly; several thousand disaster victims managed to snatch grain from several hundred Mongolians who were escorting it.

These grains were intended for miners, tea workers, and salt workers in the Jiaodong region, as well as their families.

So the Jiaodong region immediately organized 10,000 men to fight back and killed all those who dared to steal grain.

Organized miners and soldiers are naturally more powerful than disaster victims.

Everyone knows the importance of food. Miners have elderly people, women, and children to feed. If the mountain farmers are driven away, they will become disaster victims, forced to sell their wives and eat their children.

Left with no other choice, Arctic Martial recruited 10,000 people from the desperate disaster victims, allowing them to occupy villages in ten regions along the route to protect the grain transport teams, or to join the miners.

Those who mine will provide food and drink for their entire families, while those who only protect grain will be provided with two catties of old rice per day.

More and more people are choosing to become miners and slave laborers, helping mountain farmers harvest wheat to earn money to support their last remaining relatives.

In July, torrential rains fell across North China, causing locusts to swarm and die, burying grass in the rain. In some areas, the remaining 20-30% of wheat was completely destroyed by the rains.

In despair, Wang Fugui's family also joined the ranks of refugees, becoming one of the hundreds of thousands of people who went west to seek refuge.

In order to survive and have a bite to eat, some people fled south, while others chose the mountainous country where they could eat three meals a day.

It's better to be a slave than to die, and besides, the mountain farmers are indeed willing to accept them.

Men, women, and children, in a vast and mighty migration, passed through Laizhou, Cangzhou, and Baoding, climbed Zijing Pass, and followed the Taihang Mountains westward into the narrow Puyin Pass. They then followed the Puyin Pass Great Wall into the Feihu Pass, and finally passed through the Feihu Pass into the Weizhou Plain behind them.

Here, the weather is fine and sunny. Standing on the hillside and looking down, you can see an endless expanse of golden wheat fields.

It was already late July. After more than a thousand people died on the way, more than 100,000 people finally reached the Shan Nong Kingdom in the mountains and the fertile land of Weizhou, one of the Nine Provinces behind the mountains.

Some people died on the road, but many more survived and saw hope for the future!
Just as the legend says, this is a fertile mountain land that has been cultivated by generations of farmers for over a hundred years.

In the short history of the mountain farmers, there has only been conquest and being conquered. Beijiwu was the conqueror, while the others were the conquered. Therefore, those who do not fall into this category will not be given land.

The disaster victims who came on their own were not given any land; they were only used as slave laborers to harvest wheat and dig mines.

Ten thousand people were to be resettled in each of the nine provinces, with priority given to filling the gaps in the number of households in each thousand households. The rest would not be registered in the public household register, but would be managed as temporary workers.

Arctic Martial had no intention of taking in one-fifth of its own population of disaster victims, nor did it want to add people who were involved in fighting, robbery, theft, murder, and other crimes to its newly stabilized base.

However, the outside world was indeed in chaos. In order to protect the grain transport routes and the salt and tea trade, and to ensure the stability of the vast area in the future, 100,000 people were brought in, while the rest continued to defend the Jiaodong region.

We can't worry about the fate of Jizhou and Youzhou for now; we can't concern ourselves with that.

Feeding millions of people is not an easy problem; the Arctic porridge distribution doesn't accept new members.

There are too many people to use them all.

Disaster victims living in family units are more difficult to manage than families who have surrendered, and theft and other rule-breaking incidents frequently occur.

Beijiwu was busy harvesting wheat to solve the problem of food and clothing for his own people, and had no patience to solve the problem slowly.

After ruthlessly killing some rule-breakers, things became much simpler.

Those who were bad apples were resolutely eliminated. The disaster victims were encouraged to report those who had committed crimes. After thousands of people were identified and executed, the villagers were assigned tasks to harvest wheat.

Anyone who causes trouble during the wheat harvest will be killed!
King Wu was very powerful, and he turned agriculture into a violent undertaking.

On the Shuozhou Plain, Beijiwu's subordinates were harvesting wheat.

Nowadays, the wheat harvesters are no longer workers with sickles, but horse-drawn harvesters pulled by five horses.

The harvesting machine, resembling a horse-drawn carriage, is pulled by five horses and driven by a ground wheel to cut reciprocating blades.

The wheel-driven blades repeatedly make crisscross cuts, and a "separator" is equipped next to the cutter.

The divider directs the wheat stalks to the cutting area, where they fall to the ground behind, where workers collect the ears of wheat. Bei Jiwu, watching the horse-drawn harvester, smiled at Wen Zhaohu beside him and said, "What do you think? With more of these machines, we won't have to worry about not being able to harvest all the wheat we plant!"

Wen Zhaohu was a landlord by profession, but he was also an experienced agricultural worker with a deeper understanding of farming than most farmers.

Wen Zhaohu has extensive experience in determining how many people cultivate how much land, as well as how to manage and cultivate the land.

"Your Majesty is wise! With this harvesting tool, we can save over a hundred men!"

Wen Zhaohu smiled and praised Beijiwu, while secretly marveling at his own good fortune in having found a powerful patron.

The daughter-in-law issue isn't a problem; the son already has a mistress.

Beijiwu smiled and said, "This is not just a useful tool, it's a divine artifact! With this, the agricultural labor force can be reduced by one-fifth, freeing up more people to do other things, and the wheat yield per acre will increase by one-third."

"Now, one mu of land can yield 200 jin of wheat, and two million mu is 400 million jin! 400 million jin of wheat is enough to feed 800,000 people for a year. In addition, there are 2 million mu of public grain and 1.5 million military and civilian settlements, which can feed 2 million people."

Today, with a population of over 500,000 in Shannong County, plus 100,000 refugees and 300,000 in Jiaodong region, there is certainly enough food and drink for one million people.

However, there are too many people in the entire northern region. Even with the recent torrential rains causing deaths, and considering the large number of people fleeing south, it is estimated that three to four million people will remain in the end.

When there wasn't enough food to eat, the only option was to open trade routes to buy grain from the south.

Wen Zhaohu asked curiously, "It's obvious that it saves effort, so how can it increase production so much?"

Bei Jiwu explained, "When people harvest wheat, the vibration caused by the sickle cutting the stalks can cause mature grains to fall off, resulting in a loss of about one-tenth in the field. Machine harvesting can reduce this waste."

"Based on a yield of 200 jin per mu, 100 mu can recover 1000 to 2000 jin of grain."

"A five-horse-drawn harvester can do the work of ten people, and a ten-horse-drawn harvester can harvest one hundred acres a day."

"Currently, only one hundred horse-drawn harvesters are available for two million mu of wheat fields, which can harvest 10,000 mu of wheat per day."

"It just so happens that 400,000 people are harvesting wheat together this year, and two to three million mu of wheat can be harvested in six or seven days. The time freed up can be used to plant some buckwheat, peas, and turnips to alleviate the famine."

“There’s still flooding in the east, but it should be getting better by autumn. While there’s still some time, would you be willing to take some local flood victims from the east back to plant buckwheat for the winter?”

Wen Zhaohu finally understood why Beijiwu had suddenly summoned him after a year or two.

“I’m willing!” Wen Zhaohu immediately agreed.

Beijiwu said with satisfaction, "I have prepared buckwheat seeds for 300,000 mu of land. Go to Qingzhou, the area most severely affected by the disaster, to replant crops. Go immediately. There are tens of thousands of people there to help you."

The areas most severely affected were several regions where regional warlords ran rampant, but Beijiwu didn't want to deal with them for the time being and would wait until next year.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Wen Zhaohu accepted the task.

Arctic Martial Arts Academy did not arbitrarily grant any titles or positions.

He only needs a few hundred acres of land in Hutou Town; no more grants of thousands or tens of thousands of households will be granted for meritorious service.

Military merits could be inherited by thousands or tens of thousands of households because fathers would take their sons to war and pass on their experience; all that was required was a willingness to risk one's life.

Civil officials do not need to be hereditary, and the abilities of officials cannot be passed down.

If a military officer refuses to fight and risk his life, and refuses to obey the orders of the Arctic Military Commander, then replace him according to the rules.

Wen Zhaohu wasn't the only one capable of getting things done; Beiji Wu had many officials willing to serve him.

Among the officials in various places, there are also many who are willing to do things. Whenever an official takes the initiative to seek help from the mountain farmers to rescue people, the Arctic Wu will give him money and food to help him out.

Many people still went south, and Beijiwu sent people to kill the warlords and military households who had been causing trouble for a century, thus solving the problem at its source.

Although there are indeed good people among them, I haven't seen these good people come out to help others.

Arctic Martial Arts is not a good person, but he has helped at least a million people.

The natural disasters had nothing to do with the Arctic Army, and the man-made disasters were caused by the people of the Wen Dynasty. Those who command troops never cared about making it impossible for others to survive.

The three towns of Jizhou had a terrible reputation; they were fickle and unpredictable, treating rebellion and treacherous behavior as commonplace. They also committed all sorts of evil deeds and acted tyrannically.

Arctic Martial Arts is capable of killing 20,000 to 30,000 people to achieve a permanent solution.

Damn it, he encountered someone who didn't care about reputation. A problem that had plagued dynasties for many years was solved quietly by Arctic Martial.

After the military households in the three towns of Jizhou were all slaughtered by the Shan Nong Legion, people from the south, the north, and Jizhou all cheered!

Without the taxes and exploitation from the three towns of Jizhou, the people returned to their hometowns after the torrential rain and relied on the relief from the mountain farmers to grow buckwheat for a living.

Many people still continue to travel west to work in Kyushu, beyond the mountains.

Men can make bricks, mine, raise cattle and horses, and cultivate land.

Women, on the other hand, worked as servants or maids in wealthy households, or wove cloth in textile factories, or helped out at various farms with their children, managing to earn a living to some extent.

The wheat harvest in Kyushu was completed in just five or six days. The seeds were stored in the warehouse, and then the work of drying and processing began.

When the second group of people who went west arrived, it was time to harvest millet.

Autumn is the season of harvest, but for many people it is not.

Not everyone can have enough to eat every year.

After the millet harvest, the temporary workers who had come from the west were resettled in central and southern Shanxi. Beijiwu collected 100,000 public households, and those who did not perform well were absolutely not to be hired.

In the first year of the Wu Dynasty, Beiji Wu took control of the entire Jinzhou, including the Jinzhou Salt Lake, the Qingzhou Gold Mine, the Tea Plantation, the Salt Field, and numerous post stations and blacksmith shops.

Thanks to the disaster relief efforts, and the large number of people who went to Kyushu behind the mountains to make a living, everyone peacefully became subjects of the Wu Dynasty.

Production was restored, the corpses were cleared, the border was agreed upon with the Wen Dynasty, a city wall was built to cut off the north and south, and both sides worked together on work relief, each taking care of their own people.

A large portion of Kyushu, beyond the mountains, is rotten land, only suitable for growing spring wheat.

This place is high and cold, with barren and water-scarce land, and very little land suitable for growing crops.

Spring wheat, which is planted in spring and harvested in autumn, is one of the few crops that can mature at an altitude of over 2500 meters, but its yield is less than half that of winter wheat.

When autumn arrived, Beijiwu began planting winter wheat in central and southern Shanxi.

Emerging from barren lands, they planted one million mu of winter wheat for the first time in the relatively fertile Jinzhong region.

As for the North China Plain, it is an even richer and more fertile agricultural paradise, where cash crops such as cotton, medicinal herbs, and oilseeds can be grown.

This year, winter wheat cannot be planted due to the need to plant emergency grains. Next year, soybeans and millet will be planted first, followed by winter wheat.

(End of this chapter)