Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 147 Good Minister
Winter wheat is harvested much earlier than spring wheat. As the fourth month of the lunar calendar approaches, the labor force in the Huanghuai Province begins to converge southward.

Forty-seven-year-old Li Tangqing sat in the carriage reading a newspaper, occasionally looking up at the road outside.

Ahead and behind the carriage were a large number of wheat farmers from the Huanghuai Province, men and women, as well as many children as seven or eight years old and over ten years old.

A contingent of over 10,000 people is heading towards Xinyang, 700 li away.

Around noon, the group rested by a river.

Li Tangqing got out of the car to get some fresh air and looked at the crowd nearby. Large numbers of men and women were gathered together in groups of hundreds to eat and drink, while some men and women went to relieve themselves further away.

Children, on the other hand, would relieve themselves anywhere.

The caravan stretched for five or six miles, and in addition to people on foot, there were also a large number of oxcarts and horse-drawn carts loaded with farm tools.

Many men carry weapons with them, such as newly issued hoes and sickles, which can be used to deal with various emergencies.

Li Tangqing looked around and walked more than two hundred meters ahead. He saw a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar, who looked to be about thirty or forty years old.

Upon seeing Li Tangqing, the man politely asked, "Are you also going to Xinyang, sir?"

Li Tangqing walked over, smiled, and said, "Yes, come along to harvest the wheat."

The man said, "I am from Xuzhou, Chai Boshi. I used to be the Tongpan (assistant magistrate) of Xuzhou. You seem to be a scholar, sir."

The vice-prefect was in charge of matters related to military and civilian affairs, finances, household registration, taxes and corvée labor, and the adjudication of legal cases.

This was a very powerful official position, with the authority to supervise and recommend officials of the prefecture to the imperial court. If the prefect committed illegal acts, the assistant prefect could report it to the imperial court.

Li Tangqing politely replied, "I am Li Tangqing from Huainan. I came to Luoyang with my family to seek refuge in the winter of the first year of the Wu Dynasty. It has been a year and a half since then, and I am now serving as the Tian Cao in Luoyang."

Tian Cao was in charge of agricultural production.

Both of them were agricultural officials in the Shan Nong Kingdom, and now they were both going to Xinyang to do things.

Chai Boshi smiled and said, "Mr. Li, please sit down. There are more than 10,000 people in the 240,000 team. Many of us have been on the same line for a year and a half, but this is the first time we have met. Come, have some fruit to moisten your throat."

The woman near Chaiboshi opened her bundle and placed the steamed rice with eggs and a few fruits she had brought on a cloth.

The woman then took out a wine jar and poured wine for the two of them.

Li Tangqing politely accepted the wine cup. "I heard that Xuzhou was not affected by the war. How is it there?"

Chai Boshi shook his head, took a sip of wine, put down the bowl and asked the woman next to him to pour more wine before he began to speak.

"There was no war, but there were several droughts and floods. The houses in my hometown were all covered in yellow and black mud. There weren't many people left in the city. Fortunately, the mountain farmers gave me money and grain to help build houses. I had been an official before and could read and do math, so they gave my family a house about a mile outside the city and I became a supervisor in the Wanhu Team in the east of the city."

“In the past, grain and money were distributed on the fifteenth of each month. Later, when grain became worthless, it was all exchanged for silver. Merchants came to the village every month to sell grain. The women and children in the family would also go to the city to buy food and drinks. It was much happier than before.”

After Chai Boshi finished speaking, he raised his wine bowl and drank another bowl.

The woman next to him had already cut the cooked meat, placed a few slices on a plate, and then got up to go to the back to eat with the girl.

The teenage girl looked at Chai Boshi with a quiet smile, then lowered her head and began to eat with the woman.

"Come on, have some meat."

"it is good."

The two drank and ate meat. Meat was not expensive in Luoyang, and eating it once or twice a month wouldn't cost much.

After eating two slices of beef, Li Tangqing said, "Ever since King Wu returned and learned about the affairs of the Duke of Yan and the Duke of Wei, he has made the Han people wear Hanfu and the mountain farmers wear mountain farmer clothes. Why do I see that most people here are wearing mountain farmer clothes?"

Chai Boshi laughed and said, "There aren't that many mountain farmers; they're all Han Chinese."

"This..." Li Tangqing was at a loss for words.

Chai Boshi didn't take it seriously. "In the beginning, King Wu only had a hundred or so people. Now the Wu Dynasty has nearly ten million people. It's not easy to find a real mountain farmer, but fake ones are everywhere."

Li Tangqing had also considered this issue before, but she wasn't as certain as Chai Boshi.

Now that this unbelievable fact has come out of Chai Boshi's mouth, Li Tangqing is forced to face something she has never wanted to face.

"So, does that mean it's always been the Han people fighting each other?"

Li Tangqing looked at Chai Boshi, wanting to hear his opinion.

Chai Boshi shook his head, "How could that be? King Wu's campaign was not based on opportunism. Even if Luoyang was ceded by the King of Shu, we all know that taking Luoyang was not difficult for King Wu."

“A city with a million inhabitants cannot withstand King Wu for more than half a day. Apart from those that are too far away and not worth fighting, places like Luoyang, which are within easy reach, can be taken easily.”

"Hu people, Western Region people, mountain farmers, Han people, it doesn't matter who they are or who they fight. Now we are all Wu Dynasty people. The mountain farmers have treated us well. Don't think too much about it. If anyone wants to become a Han person, there are no military defenses in the south. They can leave if they want, and no one will stop them."

Li Tangqing said with a bitter smile, "My elderly parents refused to leave and stayed with my relatives at home to welcome the royal army, but they died in the chaos of battle. On the contrary, the mountain farmers gave my poor family a way to survive."

Chai Boshi comforted her, saying, "Let's not talk about these upsetting things. Since you're the field supervisor, do you know how to arrange things for this harvest?"

Li Tangqing replied, "Plant rice in April, harvest wheat in May, plant beans in June, harvest rice in July, harvest beans in August, and plant wheat in September."

"There are many local folk sayings about farming: 'Eighteen days after Grain Buds, the wheat will ripen in no time.' 'Mangzhong is busy, with two or three harvests.'"

"The yellow wind blows in May, a time for harvesting wheat."

"The harvest will be based on the growth of the crops in the fields, depending on the situation."

"First, I went to help Xinyang plant rice, then I went to the east to harvest wheat. After harvesting in the east, I went to the north. After harvesting in the north, I went to the south to plant beans. After planting beans, I went back to Xinyang next door to harvest rice, then went to the north to harvest beans and plant wheat. Then I could go back to Luoyang."

Chai Boshi laughed and said, "Running around like this must be quite tiring."

Li Tangqing argued: "When working, men earn twenty coins a day, and when not working, they earn five coins. Women and children earn ten coins when working, and five coins when not working. A family of two earns thirty coins a day when working, and ten coins when not working. When marching, the pay is based on when they are working."

"This year, millet and wheat cost four or five coins, and beans cost three coins a pound. Seven coins a day is enough for food. If you work hard and save some money, you can eat beef and mutton twice a day for more than twenty coins a pound."

Chai Boshi knew Li Tangqing was right, so he raised his glass and said, "Cheers!"

"Cheers!" Li Tangqing raised his glass in a toast.

They both drank it all in one gulp.

What does it matter if someone is Han Chinese or a mountain farmer? Anyone who is willing to benefit others is a good person.

A stable ruling system can produce both treacherous and loyal officials.

We're all in the same boat. As long as the boat doesn't leak and there's a certain level of cohesion, there will be no shortage of crew and passengers who will spontaneously maintain it.

After entering Luoyang, Beijiwu treated the people and soldiers well, reduced taxes and corvée labor, and provided relief through work.

He personally handled all matters, and when battles broke out, he would go out and resolve them quickly, bringing back numerous spoils and prisoners of war with minimal consumption of food and supplies.

They managed water resources and promoted agriculture, encouraged people to live and work in peace and contentment, provided additional food subsidies for having children, and distributed relief grain and money for buying vegetables.

People are appointed based on merit, regardless of their background or family circumstances.

Thorough investigations into various cases have led to the exoneration of many people who had been wronged.

Sentences should be handed down with caution, torture should be prohibited, and killing should not be done indiscriminately.

They expanded the territory, resisted foreign invasions, and generously rewarded meritorious officials, entrusting them with important responsibilities.

Arrange things in advance for what happens after you die, to prevent chaos and endless infighting after your death.

They lived frugally, did not squander the people's hard-earned money, and did not engage in large-scale construction projects that would cause hardship for the people.

Compared to the King of Western Shu and the Emperor of Southern Dynasty, Beiji Wu was undoubtedly more worthy of his allegiance.

The group that returned from the south included not only the Wenshu Mo family, but also many ordinary people from the Southern Dynasty who had been oppressed by cruel officials.

Xinyang is located slightly south of the western part of the Huai River, while in the vast area between the Huai River and the Yangtze River, places like present-day Luzhou and Yangzhou are beginning to develop their own autonomy.

Wu Chao didn't want to deal with it, and didn't have time to deal with these people.

Wen Chao wanted to intervene but dared not, fearing it would cause a diplomatic incident, but secretly sent people to collect taxes.

These places had been ravaged by the Southern Dynasty's army and then sold to the Wu Dynasty by the Wen Dynasty. Now that King Wu has allowed them to govern themselves and live a life without paying taxes, they naturally do not want to return to the Southern Dynasty.

In the sweltering heat, the wheat turns golden.

Thanks to the efforts of more than one million people, more than three million mu of wheat in Huanghuai Province have been successively stored in granaries.

Because there wasn't enough winter wheat, most areas in the north still grew millet and sorghum for brewing, as well as hemp, which had a wide range of uses.

In the south, beans, sesame, cotton, and large areas of buckwheat pasture are grown.

Winter wheat requires a large amount of seed to be saved, while spring wheat is used directly after a fixed amount of seed has been saved.

The food problem is not completely solved yet, but people certainly won't starve.

Large quantities of beans, millet, rice, and spring wheat, along with large quantities of beef and horse meat for similar work, have enabled most poor people to eat better than before.

New grain was stored in warehouses, and the old grain was sold to people outside the area. Along with a large number of wheat farmers who had gone south, they returned to towns and counties near Luoyang to have children. These people earned four or five thousand coins in half a year.

One hundred and three catties of millet cost four hundred coins. If eaten with even cheaper beans, the food expenses for a family of three would only be three or four thousand coins. Moreover, working was tax-free, making it much more profitable than growing grain.

***
With a large number of civil officials moving to Zhengcheng, Luoyang became even more bustling.

The city had been under construction for more than half a year, and a large number of workers and farmers began to enter the city to buy all kinds of things. Each time, they would buy a newspaper to take back and read.

"Mountain Farmers' Daily! Mountain Farmers' Daily! King Wu has decreed that infanticide is forbidden, and those who kill infants shall be executed! Those who give birth to female infants and raise them to the age of three will be rewarded with three thousand coins."

"Mountain Farmers' Daily! Mountain Farmers' Daily! His Majesty King Wu has decreed that those who go out to work next year will continue to be exempt from taxes, and all wages earned from work will be increased by one-tenth, regardless of whether they are from the Mountain Farmers or Han Chinese!!!"

The girl with two long braids, 498, shouted happily that she was getting a raise.

(End of this chapter)