Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Ignore Chapter 182

In the autumn of the sixth year of the Wu Dynasty, the governor of Ezhou was besieged by the people of a subordinate county for extorting money from soldiers and taking away the people's oxen. Both sides wrote to the Northern Emperor Wu for help.

After receiving letters from the Prefect of Ezhou and the leaders of the local militia, Beijiwu replied to them.

[The land and military households are all yours. You are responsible for what happens afterward. If you manage them well, that's your skill; if you don't, it's your incompetence. How come everyone else can manage them well, but you can't? Your neighbors in Xiangyang and Xinyang manage their territories perfectly, with harmonious relationships between officials and people, full of singing and dancing. Your territory is no worse than theirs, and it's a key location for waterway transportation; making money should be easier for you than for anyone else. When things go wrong, reflect on your own actions.]

Beijiwu sorted out his reply to the hereditary governor and then wrote a reply to the leader of the rebel army.

[The Shan Nong Kingdom has exempted you from taxes and corvée labor for the past few years. The affairs of Ezhou are for you, the people of Ezhou's counties, to manage yourselves. I also rose to power through rebellion; I understand you. The Shan Nong people and the Han people are the same; everyone just wants to live a good life. I only suppress those who oppose me and kill those invaders who disturb my land. You are my subjects; I don't care if you oppose others.]

Apart from messengers, Arctic Warriors didn't send a single soldier and didn't care about this trivial matter.

Whoever's servant is responsible for their own livelihood, and whoever does the work for them should be the one to whom they claim their wages.

***
The peace and tranquility of the land ironically caused anxiety among the local gentry and aristocratic families.

Inside Lin'an Prefecture, a group of young men from prominent families gathered together to drink and eat, listening to folk songs and discussing national affairs. They were all people who cared deeply about the country and its people.

"Now that the world is at peace, King Wu should be selecting talented people from the south this year. Why are we scholars from the south not allowed to go to Luoyang?"

The speaker was Sun Chengxi, the son of the Sun family in Jiangnan, whose father was a high-ranking official in Lin'an.

Sitting opposite him was Feng Jin, who was of similar status.

“I went to Luoyang a while ago. The people in Luoyang wouldn’t let me in because I came from the south. They said that people who went to fight in the war had to report to Tiezhou. I said I was going to the city to study. They said a lot of nasty things and wouldn’t let me in. They insisted that I go to Tiezhou.”

Feng Jin was very disappointed with Luoyang, and also somewhat disappointed with King Wu.

Although he actually carried the travel permit from Lin'an Prefecture, he claimed he was a student traveling to study and refused to go to war, so he was scolded and sent back.

The Northern Wu not only refused to accept the surrender and loyalty of people from Jiangnan, but also forbade people from the Wu Dynasty to go south.

The business routes of railways and highways all bypassed certain people, and water transport was unavoidable, but the people along the routes were relocated to nearby inland areas to farm.

Commercial taxes were managed by the Northern Military Commissioner himself, and the region was divided between the North and South.

They extort money and goods from people, even those who just pass by a boat, and they directly use the Hu people to do things.

Beijiwu always believed that the Hu people were not as good as the Han people in terms of corruption.

That's actually true...

For most of the Hu people, coming here meant completing King Wu's task. After working for half a year, they could go home to reunite with their wives and children and rest for another six months. Moreover, King Wu would give them a lot of money and sheep.

Local industries can't be taken away, and embezzled money and cash will be inspected when crossing the border, which will cause trouble if it's discovered.

The Hu people only needed to feed themselves, while the Han people needed to feed an interest group, with everyone from top to bottom following suit and each level taking a cut.

The people at the table sighed, "King Wu only knew how to make good use of the mountain farmers and the Hu people, and he was always wary of us Han people, worried that we would rebel."

Son Seung-hui said, "It's been almost half a year. What's the difference between now and when we didn't surrender?"

"Not only have none of our Jiangnan literati been given important positions, but even Foreign Minister Mei and the various dukes and marquises who were originally in the capital have been sent back."

Mei Yifu was a failure as a diplomatic ambassador.

Beiji Wu disliked the old man, and once he no longer needed diplomatic envoys, he directly sent him to Wanhu to be a servant.

Those who are loyal to the Wen Dynasty should remain loyal; the Qin Prince's Mansion in Chang'an is there to ensure everyone's loyalty!

Beiji Wu directly incorporated a group of loyal ministers into the hereditary Wanhu family, making them slaves for generations to come.

Feng Jin sighed, "The people are living in misery these days. The unruly people who have returned from the north have no regard for the law. This month, there have been more than a dozen murders in several counties outside the city. They all killed people by taking advantage of the knives and guns they got from the north!"

Bloodshed is inevitable; there are far too many inhumane people.

Fortunately, Arctic Martial doesn't help anyone. Anyway, everyone who survives will speak the mountain farmer's language, so it makes no difference to Arctic Martial.

The young men at the table all looked distressed. Feng Jin looked up and asked those around him, "How long do you think King Wu can hold out without collecting taxes?"

"That's hard to say," said Zhu Shubai, the talented scholar at the same table, with a smile. "This year, the court received another five million taels of silver and six hundred thousand taels of gold from the Khitans. Although it spent a lot, considering the cattle, sheep, and warhorses, plus the relatively good harvest this year, it's probably a profit."

Feng Jin clenched her fists angrily and placed them on the table.

"The imperial court only knows how to profit at the expense of the people! Now that so many farmers are cultivating land, they don't even know that grain prices are rising, which is why the grain that the city has worked so hard to obtain can't be sold at a good price!"

"If this continues, who will be willing to farm? If all the farmers in the mountains are left to farm, will we starve to death?!"

Feng Jin angrily picked up the wine cup and took a sip in a huff.

Sun Chengxi, who was also from a prominent family and also had a rice business, sighed, "Yes, low grain prices hurt farmers. How come the mountain farmers don't even understand this?"

Zhu Shubai also understood why everyone was angry.

Thanks to their advanced family experience, the major families in the city knew that there would definitely be a famine this year, so they bought large quantities of grain from the Northern Dynasty in advance, waiting for the price to rise.

Unexpectedly, the emperor bought grain directly from the mountain farmers!

After the North and South became the common rulers, the Arctic Army directly allocated a large amount of food for disaster relief.

In particular, Yangzhou and Yanzhou had already stockpiled a lot of grain, and when they saw the great disaster in the south this year, they sent grain without needing to ask Arctic Wu's consent.

Li Tangqing's good intentions backfired; the free wheat was thrown into the river by a group of noble families.

They'd rather take up space than bring them back; they might as well just sink them in the river to feed the fish.

However, as the mountain farmers continuously delivered grain to various resettlement areas, and Wan Hu chose to open his granaries to release grain in order to gain a good reputation, grain prices were still driven down.

Zhu Shubai suggested, "I often associate with Taoist priests in the mountains. If you want to live a long life, you have to eat rice."

"Rice can feed a hundred people and is more exquisite and precious than wheat from the north. In my opinion, this should be published in the newspaper so that everyone knows the benefits of eating rice!"

Upon hearing this, the young men at the dinner table immediately lit up!
"Yes! Brother Zhu is right! Rice is the best!"

"That's right! Those rough and uncouth northerners are the ones who like to eat wheat and noodles. If you want to live a long life and be smart, you need to eat more rice! The barren land in the north can only grow wheat and millet, not rice that can nourish people!"

"Women need to eat rice to achieve fair and tender skin~"

The group quickly came up with a plan!
In the north, wheat is plentiful, and mechanized farming mainly increases wheat yield.

Rice production is very low because it requires a lot of water for irrigation and the damp soil makes it difficult for machinery to operate.

The land in the south is suitable for growing rice, and the yield per acre is greater than that of wheat.

For grain merchants in the Jiangnan region, encouraging ordinary people to eat expensive rice instead of wheat, which is practically free, becomes a matter of mutual interest.

The tea and textile businesses in Jiangnan will not recover for at least several years due to the severe cold, and rice cultivation has also been affected by the death of oxen.

However, none of this matters to businessmen; they won't let any opportunity to make money slip by these days.

After Shan Nong Kingdom became a unified dynasty, it seemed peaceful on the surface, but undercurrents were surging inside, and the struggles were ten times more intense than before.

What began as a conflict between nations has transformed into a war of attrition in various border regions.

The main reason is that the Arctic military has a rule, but it doesn't truly rule.

The concept of the Mountain Farmer Kingdom was adopted, leading everyone to identify as citizens of the Mountain Farmer Kingdom, but they did not agree with the hereditary nobles and their management style around them.

Wherever Arctic Wu did not directly manage, from the Jurchens of Bohai and Liaodong in Northeast China to the customers and residents in Jiangnan.

From hereditary bureaucrats to hereditary military slaves, from merchants to villagers, everything was completely out of control.

(End of this chapter)