Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 179 Victory without a fight
May of the sixth year of the Wu Dynasty

The weather was clear and cloudless.

A group of a thousand people from the south entered the territory of Nanyang County.

On both sides of the road were endless wheat fields. The group walked along the road and soon saw soldiers riding by on horseback.

"Where are you from?"

No one answered the soldiers' questions.

After a second or two, a young man who wasn't exactly the leader replied, "I am Zhang Gong, who came from Yongzhou to join the army. As I walked, I encountered many others who were also here to join the army."

Sang Yang'an frowned. "I am Sang Yang'an, the commander of the ten thousand households here. I heard from my men that a large group of people were coming, so I came to see for myself. Where is Yongzhou? How far is it from here?"

Zhang Gong replied, "I walked from morning till night every day for a month and a half, from spring to summer."

Sang Yang'an smiled and said, "Well, you've worked hard. Sit down and rest. My men will come over when they finish their work. They'll provide you with food then. Did you manage to eat on the way?"

"We got to eat!" Zhang Gong said with a smile. "The people in our village received their orders from the prefecture and traveled north along the official road. They all got to drink free rice porridge at the post stations along the way."

Sang Yang'an smiled and didn't say anything bad.

"His Majesty plans to wage war after the autumn harvest. The army will provide food and lodging, and each of you will receive five taels of silver per month. If you need to send money back to your family, His Majesty will send someone to personally deliver it to your family. Your family will receive exactly what you send."

"During your time in the military, make good use of your literacy skills; you'll need them in all sorts of situations."

Zhang Gong happily said, "Great! I'm a customer, can I become a mountain farmer? If I can become a mountain farmer, I'll cut my hair!"

Sang Yang'an didn't know where Yongzhou was, only that it must be a very far place, and he also didn't know who his client was.

"I know what Han Chinese, Hu people, Tibetans, and customers are."

Zhang Gong replied with a carefree laugh, "The Wen Dynasty divided the Han people in our area who owned land into main households and those who did not own land into guest households. My brothers and I who came with me are guest households."

"We heard that the Wu Dynasty doesn't pay land taxes or buy grain, so we've come here to fight the Hu people and make money since we have nothing else to do!"

The man next to him added, "We are from Guangxi Prefecture, specifically Yongzhou, which is south of Guizhou."

Sang Yang'an laughed and said, "Then you are no longer customers. You will be given land when you join the army. Don't say you are customers anymore. If you want to be a mountain farmer, be a mountain farmer. If you want to be a Han Chinese, be a Han Chinese. When you register later, choose whichever you think is better."

Zhang Gong asked curiously, "Don't the mountain farmers care about this? If a Han Chinese is found to be impersonating a mountain farmer, won't they lose their head?"

These words made Sang Yang'an want to laugh, but Sang Yang'an was not so foolish as to undermine his own emperor.

"No, the mountain farmers don't care about that. As long as they can work and fight, they're one of us."

Zhang Gong felt this person was quite good, so he took the initiative and said, "You're a commander of ten thousand men, so how about I follow you into battle? We, the people of our country, are all brave enough to fight! We're not afraid of dying!"

Sang Yang'an smiled and said, "I am a civil official, not a military general."

Zhang Gong looked intently at Sang Yang'an and said, "I feel you must be a good official!"

Sang Yang'an asked, "Why?"

Zhang Gong replied with a smile, "This is the first time I've met a high-ranking official who speaks to us with a smile."

The others also looked at Sang Yang'an with smiles, feeling that this person was particularly easy to talk to.

Sang Yang'an smiled and said, "Good or bad isn't judged by that. You all sit down and rest. My men will be here soon. It's still 400 li from here to Luoyang. After I finish my work here, you can go to my place to rest for the night and have a good breakfast before setting off again tomorrow morning."

Zhang Gong immediately said, "We'll help you with the work! We're all men, we've got plenty of strength!"

The people in the vicinity also felt that since others were providing food and lodging, they should work. They thought this high-ranking official was quite good, so they all tacitly agreed with Zhang Gong's words.

Sang Yang'an smiled and said, "No need, I have enough people. Everyone has their own tasks. Too much chaos will only affect efficiency."

As they were speaking, the sound of bells could be heard in the distance.

"Stand on the road, don't get in the way in the fields."

Sang Yang'an shouted to the passersby who were gathering in the distance.

Zhang Gong and the others looked ahead and saw herds of horses walking in groups across the wheat fields at the horizon.

Each horse was equipped with a bell around its neck, and the jingling of thousands of bells scared away the birds and wild animals in the fields.

The herd of horses, lined up in a row, surged forward like waves, pushing the golden wheat fields into rows of sheaves.

Each harvester was spaced apart to prevent them from colliding, but from a distance they looked like a long row.

A scholar-like scion of a prominent family immediately exclaimed, "This is the harvesting machine of the Wu Dynasty!!"

Sang Yang'an smiled and said, "They are harvesters. One machine is not very useful. You need 50,000 machines working together to see the effect. These 50,000 machines can harvest 1.5 million mu of wheat a day. The harvested wheat will be transported to the south for disaster relief."

"Every place within the scope of this return will receive relief food. This year, the weather has been favorable, with rain and heat occurring simultaneously, and there is more food than we can eat."

The group sensed the difference in the Wu Dynasty along the way, especially after crossing the river and arriving in the Jiangbei region, where the living standards of the people had clearly improved and they no longer seemed so poor.

Once we reached the Huanghuai Province, we increasingly realized that the mountain farmers managed things well.

Zhang Gong and his men did not enter Luoyang. Instead, they received a horse, a set of clothes, trousers, a hat, shoes, an iron sword with a sheath, a bag of dry rations, and an iron teacup outside the Yellow River military camp, which was fifty miles away from Luoyang, and then headed north along the main road.

Hot water was provided at the rest stops along the way, and the journey continued from Luoyang all the way to Tiezhou.

***
Beijiwu was not in Luoyang. After resolving matters in the south, he went to Pingyuan Province to inspect agriculture.

Most of the territory now belongs to the Wen Dynasty from the very beginning. After five or six years of hard work, Beijiwu only managed to take over Youzhou and the Western Frontier and Western Regions on the original foundation of the Wen Dynasty.

The Western Frontier was conquered, while the Western Regions surrendered on their own.

It's not that the people of the Western Regions were cowardly; it's just that the Arctic warriors killed too many people.

Arctic Wu is actually a nice guy who doesn't cause trouble and doesn't get involved, but in the eyes of others, he's a ruthless character who'll kill anyone who disagrees with him.

The Central Plains region paid little attention to the Western Regions, but was more concerned about the return of Youzhou, a region that had been occupied for hundreds of years, to its homeland.

It is virtually impossible for the Wen Dynasty to recover the northern Khitan territories. Frequent natural disasters would severely disrupt this plan, and it might fail as before.

It's hard to say whether the Wen Dynasty army or the Khitan army was stronger or weaker; in any case, the Wen Dynasty was very weak in front of the Northern Wu.

To facilitate management, the Arctic region has now been redefined.

Shannong Province, encompassing Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, includes the Guanzhong Plain and the Hetao region, which are currently under development; it is the ancestral home of the Shannong people. Pingyuan Province, covering the entire North China Plain and the Jiaodong Peninsula, is a fertile land for industry and agriculture.

The Huanghuai Province, encompassing most of the Yellow and Huai River basins, is an agricultural, economic, and political center, stretching two thousand miles from east to west, a hub of the Grand Canal, and occupying an absolute central region of the mainland.

Gui Nong Province, the entire grassland.

Jiangnan Province, located in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain, is a fertile and prosperous land.

The two provinces of Hubei and Hunan, north and south of Dongting Lake, in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, have only a very limited level of development.

The Guangdong and Guangxi provinces are a vast expanse of undeveloped, neglected land.

The southeastern provinces, including Jiangxi and Fujian, consisted of a large area of ​​densely populated agricultural land, plus a patch of undeveloped, neglected land, which facilitated the later migration of Jiangxi laborers to the southeast.

The southwestern provinces, including Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and western Xinjiang, are mountainous and teeming with poisonous insects. Apart from the only well-developed area in Sichuan, the rest of the region seeks only peace. Currently, Yunnan belongs to the Nanzhao Kingdom, and there is no desire to wage war for the time being.

Northeast China, the region beyond the Great Wall, is cold and damp, with forests and swamps everywhere, and heavy snow is falling. If you can go south, you would never stay in that wretched place and suffer.

Northwest Province: The remote Northwest region, a round trip takes a year.

The focus of Beijiwu is still on the provinces of Shannong, Pingyuan, Huanghuai, Jiangnan, and Lianghu.

The Wu Dynasty did not have detailed population statistics, but it is estimated that the population exceeded 40 million, of which 10 million were in the Wen Dynasty in Jiangnan.

It is estimated that the population of Central China will exceed 100 million within 20 years.

Wheat was being harvested in Qingzhou, Jizhou, Youzhou and other places one after another. Beijiwu took Mu Chuanliang to Tiezhou to measure the yield per mu of wheat.

Just then, Yang Xiangyun rode over on horseback.

"Your Majesty!" Yang Xiangyun quickly dismounted and knelt down in one smooth motion. "Your Majesty! The Khitan Emperor Yelü Zongzhen has abdicated, and the new King Yelü Bao has heard that Your Majesty is in Tiezhou. He is willing to offer a princess for marriage and has submitted to Your Majesty in Jinzhou to sue for peace!"

Jinzhou was a city established by the Khitans who were captured by the Han people. It was a hundred miles from Shanhaiguan and more than seven hundred miles from the Khitan capital, Shangjing.

Mu Chuanliang immediately said, "Your Majesty! Now that the 100,000-strong army has arrived in Tiezhou, we should annihilate the Khitans now and eliminate this threat forever!"

"The Khitans are fickle. If Your Majesty withdraws your troops, they will surely change their minds and launch another attack!"

Arctic Wu actually doesn't want to fight, nor does he want so much trouble.

“I sent a messenger to deliver a message that I demand that the Khitan join the Gui Nong Province, which will later become the eastern part of Liaodong, together with the Yunzhong and Guihua tribes, under the jurisdiction of the Gui Nong Province. I also demanded that one-third of the adult males be sent to accompany the Gui Nong Province’s Western Expeditionary Army on its expedition.”

"From now on, the appointment of leaders in eastern Liaodong must be approved by me, and I will select or directly appoint officials from among them. All assets of Khitan nobles and officials will be confiscated and removed from their residences. Ninety percent of the palace property will belong to me, and I will take seventy percent of the cattle, sheep and warhorses. From now on, all pastures, grasslands and even the entire land will belong to me."

"Those who can speak the mountain language will migrate to Youzhou to farm, while the rest will herd horses and sheep outside the pass. Each man can keep a maximum of two adult women, and the rest will be distributed among healthy unmarried men over the age of eighteen. If you agree, I will conduct normal trade with eastern Liaodong and treat them the same as the Han people."

"If they disagree within three days, then settle scores and grievances, leaving the land but not the people."

Beijiwu felt that if the other side had any backbone, they would not have surrendered.

If they don't surrender, we'll kill them; it's a quick and decisive way to cut through the mess.

Two days later, the Khitan envoy arrived.

The Khitans chose to surrender.

Compared to being conquered and exterminated, it's better to preserve one's strength and life than to be killed.

Beiji Wu only fought one battle with the Khitans, but he slaughtered all the Khitan elites, leaving only a hundred or so to go home and report the tragedy.

Today, countries with populations of several million, such as Western Xia and Tubo, have been massacred, and the Southern Dynasty has also surrendered.

The Khitans all knew they were next.

A large number of Khitans had already fled south, claiming to be Liao people and living a comfortable life in the Shan Nong Kingdom for more than a year. In addition, many western grassland tribes that were originally dependent on the Khitans chose to follow the Wu Dynasty, and the Jurchens and Bohai people in the east also began to disobey.

Both the eastern and western vassals were attacking the Khitan, plundering their territory and people.

The Khitan's core fighting force was largely wiped out by the Arctic Warriors, and its allies were increasingly alienated, making it unable to withstand the three-sided attack.

Escape is out of the question; the western route is blocked by the Yunzhong and Guihua tribes, as well as the Wuzhou army, unless they head north.

The north is a land of ice and snow...

The Khitans all knew they were facing a man who could wipe out their three or four million race.

Not surrendering means death, but surrendering usually means you won't die; in fact, you'll be taken care of.

Mongols, Turks, people from the Western Regions, Tibetans, Western Xia people, Han Chinese, and even Khitans could all work under the Northern Army, and the Northern Army indeed did not kill royal families who surrendered.

Since Beiji Wu could treat the Liao people who had fled there equally, Yelü Baocai also believed in the reputation that the Shan Nong people had built up over the years. He knew that the Shan Nong people would not levy heavy taxes on the tribes they depended on like the Khitan people, nor would they be like the grassland tribes that had to execute their sworn enemy regimes.

The mountain farmers had no historical grudges against anyone. Although they had fought with the Khitans, they did not have any deep-seated hatred.

Overall, it was the good reputation of the mountain farmers and their practice of accepting integration with other ethnic groups that made the Khitans willing to surrender.

As a regime that once ruled the Youzhou region for a long time, the Khitans were no longer as fierce as they were at the beginning of their dynasty, and now they simply chose a dignified way to end their rule.

In short, they can't win, can't escape, have a way to survive, and don't want to die.

If the Arctic forces don't come, the Khitans will definitely not surrender; those turtles at Shanhaiguan pose no threat to the Khitans.

But when he came, things were different...

Everyone thought that the Arctic Warriors were capable of killing millions of Khitans.

In fact, he did this several times, killing men and keeping women. He killed countless men, but he abducted millions of women from outside.

If the Khitans don't surrender, there will be no more Khitans.

Killing someone is much easier than harvesting wheat. It takes four or five hundred cuts to harvest a hundred pounds of wheat, but only one cut is needed to kill a hundred pounds of a person.

The Khitans themselves considered the terms of surrender to be quite merciful; they didn't take all the treasure and women, but rather compassionately left one-tenth of the treasure and two women to the surrendering party!

The confiscation of land and palaces was something that conquerors of all dynasties did.

He took 90% of the palace's wealth, and only 70% of the cattle, sheep, warhorses, and camels, allowing the Khitans to continue raising horses and herding sheep for him, and even providing wives to unmarried Khitans!

(End of this chapter)