Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 177 Military Diplomacy
It was still the New Year season, and on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Beiji Wu summoned the messenger at the Wanshang Temple.

Led by the eunuch, Adaihai arrived at the main hall of the temple and saw King Wu of the North Pole and the huge golden statue in front of him.

"Greetings, King Wu!"

Beijiwu smiled and said, "Please rise. When do you plan to return?"

Adaihai stood up and respectfully replied, "This year, the tribe experienced heavy snowfall, and the Khan's health has been somewhat poor. I plan to return in a few days."

“Okay.” Beijiwu stepped aside. “Let’s light some incense. We don’t know when we’ll be back.”

Adaihai showed a delighted expression. As a Buddhist on the grassland, he did wonder if he could offer incense when he saw such a giant statue that was tens of meters tall.

"Thank you for your kind permission, Your Majesty!"

Adaihai carefully walked over and knelt down devoutly before the statue, seemingly praying for something.

After kowtowing, Adaihai got up and lit incense and candles from the table.

Seeing the woman kneeling down to pray again, Beijiwu raised his head and looked at the unchanging statue.

Although I don't know if gods and Buddhas exist in this world, I brought back a lot of gold and bronze Buddha statues after destroying the Western Xia and Tubo.

The spoils of war from Tibet have not yet been fully transported back. Due to limitations in transportation, manpower, and resources, it will take more than a year to deliver them all.

Gold and silver can be stored, but the Treasure Pavilion can't hold them all.

Excess Buddha statues naturally turned into molten gold and copper, becoming something reeking of money.

After Beijiwu and Adaihai finished worshipping Buddha, they said, "I have prepared several Buddha statues for you to take back, a total of five truckloads of gifts."

"The spoils of war that the Guihua Department seized from the fleeing Tibetan nobles last year are considered my reward to them."

"From now on, live your lives in peace. The grasslands are not only yours, but also mine. I will raise warhorses and cattle there, but I will also provide you with shelter. I also welcome more people from your tribe to learn my language and script."

Adaihai was stunned for a second, but quickly recovered.

“I don’t lie.” Following the straightforward manner of the mountain people, Adaihai also frankly said, “Many people in the Naturalization Department think that we will become the overlords of the grasslands, and Your Majesty will become the overlords of the Central Plains.”

Beijiwu laughed and said, "The grassland is not a place for the weak. People without strength cannot occupy a large area of ​​grassland."

"I have no intention of taking over that grassland for the time being, and you are welcome to stay. At the same time, the Central Plains can also provide you with land for farming and a place to live, as long as you are willing to use my language and writing system."

“I am not xenophobic, nor am I weak. I do not like being a robber, nor do I welcome robbers.”

"Expansion is a thought shared by both nomadic people and Han Chinese. Khitans, Tibetans, and mountain farmers all share this humanistic idea."

“I will destroy the Khitans and take over that grassland. I also know that that grassland will summon the next Turk, Khitan or something else.”

"In that case, I will naturally let the mountain farmers go and occupy it."

"Whoever is willing to become a mountain farmer can use that grassland that I don't have any plans for at the moment."

Adaihai nodded. "I understand what you mean. I am willing to join the Shannong Kingdom on behalf of the Guinong Tribe, take the name of the Shannong people, use the script of the Shannong Kingdom, and abide by the customs and laws of the Shannong Kingdom."

Beijiwu said with satisfaction, "Good, I appoint you as the hereditary governor of Guinong City, unaffected by the naturalized tribes, and you will be in charge of selecting the next steppe Khan!"

Adaihai hesitated and asked, "From the children of the Borjigin, or from other tribes?"

Arctic Martial nodded and smiled.

"Either is fine, whatever you think is suitable. I don't care. As long as peace can be maintained, I am willing to acknowledge him as the next governor of Guinong Province."

Adaihai understood Arctic Martial's ambitions.

This ambition is not a bad thing; it's a good thing for both men and women on the grasslands.

A leader who doesn't compete or fight for anything is definitely not a good leader.

Adaihai asked, "Are you planning to attack the Khitan this year?"

Beijiwu looked at the sky outside the door.

"I'm going to visit Jizhou and Youzhou this year to inspect grain production and road issues. I might also take a trip to Liaodong after the autumn harvest."

"Let's see who's unlucky enough to run into me."

Beijiwu smiled.

Adaihai smiled, knowing that nothing good ever comes of encountering Arctic Wu.

Those who did not surrender before the Arctic War passed by were all killed.

"Then I am willing to lead my troops to assist you. We warriors of the grasslands are willing to follow heroes like you!"

Beijiwu casually said, "I don't need that many people. I estimate it will be around three million. I can kill tens of thousands of them. The main purpose is to hope that the North will behave itself and not interfere with my farming to support so many people."

"Including those born this year, the Tibetans I conquered, and the large number of northerners who have come to me, there are already 20 million people. The population will continue to grow in the future, and I must deal with the continuous natural disasters to provide my people with a beautiful home."

Arctic Martial didn't actually know what he wanted to do; he just did whatever came up.

It's not mandatory; sometimes you can rest when you want, and ignore it when you don't want to.

What you see in the Atai Sea is the industrious side of the Arctic.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Naturalization requests your reply regarding the allocation of the western grasslands."

The Mongol tribe of Borjigin and the Turkic tribe of Ashina Bingzhen were not equal in strength. Now, the Mongol tribe, which has been renamed the Guihua tribe, is clearly stronger. It has received blood donations from the Shan Nong people, which is why it has grown stronger amidst frequent disasters.

The Yunzhong Turkic tribe was too far from the Shannong people, and the Beiji Wu had no intention of conquering the northwest, which led to the grassland forces quickly overlapping with the Guihua tribe.

Both sides were exercising restraint. The Turks were mainly unable to win, while the Mongols dared not make any rash moves and prioritized attacking the northern grasslands.

Numerous conflicts, both large and small, have occurred. Initially, Beiji Wu also considered destroying the Turks, but due to numerous issues in the south, east, west, north, and south, he withdrew his troops to resolve internal matters first.

"Expand westward and don't get in my way."

Beijiwu gave a general direction: "I allow the Yunzhong region and the Guihua region to be called the Guinong region. Within the province, whether they are Turks, Mongols, Khitans, or Uyghurs, as long as they have a household registration in the Shannong region and can speak the Shannong language, they are Shannong people."

"The Mountain Farmers can enter the Mountain Farmer Kingdom to trade, and they can also receive my assistance."

“Relying on herding horses, sheep, and cattle, we can’t live a life of feasting on wine and meat every day. If you two unite the entire grassland and then divide your forces to advance westward, I will reward you with fine wine, fine clothes, weapons, armor, medicine, and banknotes that can be used to purchase goods among the mountain farmers, based on the spoils you bring back.”

“I will buy the land you conquer.”

Arctic Martial himself didn't want to conquer the world, so he chose to spend money to send a group of people who were prone to causing trouble out to do the work.

They neither work nor obey orders, so it's no wonder King Wu had to make a trip there.

Adaihai was worried about not having the goods that the mountain farmers needed, but now the mountain farmers have no shortage of cattle, sheep, or warhorses.

Especially after the development of horse-drawn plows, the mountain farmers preferred draft horses to the warhorses of the Mongols.

This led to a decrease in the price of warhorses and wool, making them less valuable than drought- and cold-resistant cotton.

Aside from women, the Mongols had little left to buy salt, tea, and wine, and their debts were piling up.

Now that someone has come to buy the land, the grassland people of Gui Nong Province have immediately found a way to get rich on the grasslands!

Robbing and seizing land is something everyone is good at. In the past, no one was willing to spend money to buy land because if you were too strong, there was no need to spend money, and if you were weak, you couldn't defend it even if you spent money.

When neither side is strong nor weak, they are locked in a standoff, both aiming for unification and to seize more land. Neither side would sell out its territory.

Another issue is the matter of trust. There's the worry that the other party might renege on their promise and refuse to pay, or refuse to give up the land, or give up the land only to retake it and reclaim it.

These are not problems for the Mountain Farmer Kingdom.

Shan Nong Guoqiang has become so powerful that these people dare not go back on their word, and at the same time, he is also the boss of these grassland people.

In the afternoon, Beijiwu received the envoy from Wenguo.

Mei Yifu and five envoys met with Arctic Wu.

The five envoys were all from small kingdoms in the Western Regions. They came to pay tribute after the Northern Emperor had destroyed two kingdoms in succession.

Beijiwu had no interest in small countries three thousand miles away; his main purpose was to meet with the Wenchao ambassador.

Mei Yifu took the initiative to speak, following the customs of the mountain farmers.

"Your Majesty, my lord wishes to continue purchasing grain and coal from the Wu Dynasty this year, and also hopes to purchase them at last year's prices."

“Okay,” Arctic Martial readily agreed. “Continue with the same portions and prices as last year.”

Mei Yifu knew that large areas of the Mountain Farm Country suffered from drought last year, but thanks to the use of metal water trucks and numerous irrigation canals, two-thirds of the harvest was saved.

"There may be less tea and silk this year."

Mei Yifu sighed, gloating over the large-scale reduction in grain production in the Wu Dynasty, but helpless about the fact that his own mulberry and tea trees had been frozen to death by the low temperatures.

Beijiwu laughed and said, "It's alright. I also have tea and silk here. Recently, I also raised tens of millions of sheep in Tibet. If there are no mulberry trees in the future, we can use wool to make clothes, which will save land for farming."

Tea and silk, the most profitable commodities in the south, have seen reduced production, and porcelain production is also lagging behind that of the major northern provinces. Naturally, Wen Dynasty's economy is in trouble. "Wool clothes are rough and unpalatable; how can they compare to silk clothes? Tea has always been best from the Jiangnan region. This year's harvest is bad, but we'll endure it for another year. We will present the best silk and tea to Your Majesty."

Beijiwu raised his hand to stop him, "There's no need for that. We mountain farmers have been working in the fields from a young age, either farming or fighting on the front lines to eliminate invading enemies. A life that is too comfortable will make people decadent and lose the ability to understand the hardships of the people and to discover and create."

"Wool is very good. First, it doesn't require planting too many mulberry trees to compete with grain for water and land. Second, mutton can improve the diet. Third, it can also help with the connection with the Tubo of Xinjiang Province and the grassland tribes of Gui Nong Province."

Mei Yifu asked, "Why did Your Majesty destroy Tibet?"

Beijiwu shook his head. "The Tibetans led an army of 120,000 to occupy our land and kill our people. If I don't wipe them out, a bunch of insects will come into the Northwest region that I don't have time to deal with for the time being."

"Others have already resorted to violence, so I can't possibly act like you Han people and talk about reason and the bigger picture, can I?"

Mei Yifu then asked, "How does Your Majesty intend to govern Tibet?"

Beijiwu bluntly stated, "I don't seek profit, but stability. It took me more than nine months to make a round trip. In recent years, there have been constant internal affairs, and I have no time to deal with things in the west."

"The fact that one-fifth of them survived this time is just to set an example. If there are still people who don't know what's good for them, next time we'll do the same thing as when we wiped out Western Xia: leave the land but not the people, and clean it up for a while before we talk about it again."

Mei Yifu continued to inquire about key intelligence.

"Does Your Majesty intend to annihilate the Khitan this year?"

Bei Jiwu smiled and said, "This year, the main purpose is to inspect the agricultural situation in Pingyuan Province. I didn't have time to check on the floods last year, and I also haven't been to the Jiaodong Peninsula."

"If there is enough time, go and see what's outside the pass. These days, as long as we don't trade with the area outside the pass, it will fall into chaos on its own."

"My men just need to guard this place. If there are any problems, I can go over and deal with them later."

Mei Yifu knew that Beiji Wu's mind was all on the north. At present, the Southern Dynasty was just putting on a show for the people, and had no real intention of defending the north.

"Last year, I instructed the scholars of the court to start a newspaper, the Wenhua Daily. Has Your Majesty seen it?"

Beijiwu nodded. "I've read it, and I've had it played for me. I'm not interested in poems about romance, talented men and beautiful women, etc. I'm usually too busy to read them."

Mei Yifu smiled and said, "Poetry, calligraphy, and painting are treasures; Your Majesty should learn from them."

Beijiwu ignored him and went to talk to someone else, asking about things in the Western Regions.

***
The Cultural Daily quickly published the dialogue between Mei Yifu and Beijiwu.

As for what was said, Beiji Wu didn't care at all. Whether the people of the Southern Dynasty were happy or proud had nothing to do with Beiji Wu.

A group of clowns, without the advantages of porcelain, tea, salt and iron, and with grain output inferior to that of the North, their handicrafts were directly crushed by the North, which had developed for four or five years.

Nowadays, relying solely on literary figures and poets cannot save the trade market.

Just like the trade disadvantages that Mongolia, Xinjiang and other regions had with the Mountain Farming Kingdom.

When the Arctic no longer needed the warhorses of the Khitans and the ginseng and deer antlers of the Jurchens, the people in these regions found it difficult to offer goods that could be exchanged for salt, tea, and grain.

In the past, we could find our own food and never starved to death.

Now, Beijiwu has brought out alcohol, and in just a few years, he has gained a group of relatively strong alcoholics by smuggling liquor.

Regardless of what Mongolians and other nomadic peoples are called or what ethnic group they belong to, men from cold regions generally enjoy drinking alcohol.

Salt, tea, wine, and iron had a significant impact on people in the regions beyond the Great Wall. When the Khitans waged war, it affected trade with the Shan Nong Kingdom, so naturally, the other people would oppose it.

In the eyes of Beiji Wu, Wenchao was gradually reaching the point where he could sit at the same table as the Khitans.

The north has multiple tea-producing areas, controls most of the salt fields, the best coal and iron industrial areas, and the largest grain-producing areas.

After the defeat of the Tibetan and Western Xia kingdoms, the Silk Road was largely free from banditry, and the route to the Western Regions was reopened.

Silk embroidery and similar crafts also had female embroiderers and weavers from Sichuan and Luoyang. The imperial palace had the most capable female embroiderers, as the Northern Army did not support idle people.

There were even more porcelain pieces. With improvements in firing techniques and metal utensils, the craftsmanship of porcelain also improved rapidly.

Luxury goods such as pearls, jade, and jewelry, which are most abundant in the South, are not popular in the North.

The North buys very little from the South, while the South buys more and more from the North, resulting in a large influx of copper coins into the North.

Currently, the largest export commodities from the South are ships, lacquerware, medicinal herbs, spices, sugar, dried fruit, musical instruments, and books.

Because the Wu Dynasty itself used simplified characters and developed paper and pens specifically for writing with ink, it did not import traditional writing materials.

The most expensive imported goods are ships; the import volume of other goods is only a few hundred ships a year.

On the contrary, the grain, ironware, liquor, warhorses, porcelain, jade and other goods transported to the south amounted to tens of thousands of ship voyages every year.

This year's winter in the south is more severe than Beijiwu had anticipated, but Beijiwu couldn't sense from Mei Yifu how bad the situation was in the south.

Two years ago, the Jiangnan region was hit by an extreme cold wave, which caused countless people to freeze to death, leading to a situation where people resorted to cannibalism.

The Wen Dynasty almost perished here, but Beiji Wu forcefully helped him out and allowed him to have a peaceful year.

By summer, they had basically recovered a little and resolved the minor crisis by purchasing food.

However, we encountered a small-scale drought, but fortunately it wasn't severe because of our proximity to the sea.

Before autumn was over, winter arrived early, freezing the few remaining tea and mulberry trees, as well as large areas of fruit trees to death.

Crops, vegetables, and winter wheat were all frozen to death, and even southern water buffalo and chickens and ducks could not withstand this extreme weather.

Fruit trees and cattle and sheep need time to grow and reproduce, especially water buffalo used for work, which are crucial to agriculture and cannot be replaced by those from the north.

One year of disaster, several years of crop failure.

Two consecutive years of disasters have brought the economy and agriculture in the south to the brink of collapse.

Fortunately, the most severely affected area was not the Jiangnan region. Fortune changes, and the cold wave mainly concentrated in the Fujian and Guangdong regions.

These places are further south, and some haven't seen a snowfall in a century, making them even more vulnerable. A single snowfall could bankrupt hundreds of thousands of people.

All the generals, landlords, and officials in the south could see that the Wen Dynasty's fate was sealed.

Especially in contrast to the Wu Dynasty, which provided money and grain without collecting taxes and still offered disaster relief, the Wen Dynasty only collected taxes and did nothing, and when problems arose, they became even more ruthless in collecting taxes, money, and grain!

Emperor Wen urgently needed money to buy grain, and his ministers also needed money to buy supplies from the north to feed their families.

Therefore, they levied heavy taxes on areas that were "not severely affected by the disaster".

If someone says something isn't serious, then it isn't serious.

Since a few years ago, there have been many letters from the south requesting surrender, but King Wu has ignored them all.

Arctic Wu has no obsession with unification.

Although future generations will surely complain about not conquering the whole world, Arctic Warrior doesn't care about that.

Even if you conquer the whole world, you can't hold onto it. A dynasty can't last long, let alone the whole world.

The Arctic Army only cares about the three provinces. It doesn't matter if something happens in the Western Regions or the Western Frontier, since the two places together have less than a million people.

These newly conquered peripheral regions were only plundered, with no investment whatsoever. Arctic troops and others withdrew after bringing back all the spoils from there, otherwise altitude sickness would cause continuous deaths.

If anyone keeps clamoring to conquer the south and unify the country, we'll first send them to the western frontier to guard the border for a few years, so they can experience the benefits of having a large territory.

When the Southerners were about to surrender, the Arctic Army not only refused to accept their surrender, but also strictly checked household registrations and prohibited population movement. In short, they felt that their territory was big enough and their population was large enough, and they had no desire to make progress.

No one, inside or outside the court, could force him to advance, not even his wife and children, nor the so-called "powerful ministers" and "important officials" in the court.

***
"Shan Nong Daily! Shan Nong Daily! Taxes are being increased in the south!"

"Shan Nong Daily! Shan Nong Daily! To support our compatriots in the South, we're levying a 'friends tax' again this year!"

"Newspapers for sale! Twenty coins a copy, ten coins to buy back after you've finished reading!"

Sijiuba sat in the small wooden house with his hands tucked into the blankets, happily shouting out the window.

The little girl didn't care about anything in the Southern Dynasty; she only knew that if something involved the South, the newspaper would sell very quickly, and the repurchase rate would increase several times over.

With a guaranteed minimum of 100 coins per day, and through repeated buying and selling, it's easy to sell for around 200 coins, making six taels of silver a month effortlessly.

Moreover, the younger brother's newsstand is also making money, and now the younger sister Xiaoya and Hu Yan, who helps out, take turns selling newspapers.

Hu Yan didn't want to go to the countryside with her brother's family to become self-employed farmers. After much persuasion, she stayed to help Xiao Gua, who was still in school, sell newspapers. Otherwise, Xiao Ya and Xiao Gua alone wouldn't be able to handle the workload.

With an income of more than ten taels of silver a month, it was enough for four people to live a good life. They could spend more money on clothes and food, as well as hire people to do labor service.

Just thinking about it made me feel overwhelmed, so I started to calculate carefully, writing calculations with chalk on a blank wooden board.

The chalk was bought, and the wooden boards were leftover materials from building a house. I usually write down the prices when I sell newspapers, and I also have several spare boards.

498 has money on his mind, but he's not all about money.

(End of this chapter)