Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 231 Pre-New Year Tribute
With the New Year approaching and the transition from Year 9 to Year 10 just a few days away, Luoyang City is bustling with activity.

Five or six more people joined the shop at 498 to help out, and the group worked from morning until noon.

Xiao Gua sells newspapers at his own newsstand. No matter what, he works 496 hours a day and has to sell newspapers for a few days every year.

Because the newsstand business was so-so, and one person could manage it, Hu Yan came to the store to help out.

Si Jiuba wouldn't let Xiao Ya come over to help, and when he had some free time, he asked Hu Yan, who was drinking porridge, about his sister.

"Where did the little girl run off to play again?"

Hu Yan put down her spoon and replied, "She went shopping for clothes with the girls on the street."

498 frowned. "Where did she get the money?"

Hu Yan said with a smile, "She earned the money herself by working as a sales clerk in the supermarket. Many places in the city are short of people. Although she doesn't have a public household registration, she is still a public household member. Merchants and shops outside like to recruit shop assistants with clean backgrounds."

Xiaoya has a bad reputation at home, but she's a high-quality girl outside. Any family that marries such a hardworking, capable, and eloquent girl is definitely lucky.

Xiao Gua and Si Jiu Ba think Xiao Ya has all sorts of bad points, but Xiao Ya is indeed hardworking. She cooks, sells newspapers, and does laundry at home. During the period when she was engaged to Captain Jin's family, she went to their house to do chores every day. She gets along very well with her mother-in-law and aunts.

In addition, 498 was enjoying immense popularity at the time, and there were at least several hundred families willing to marry Xiao Ya.

Whether she's outgoing or shameless, she's definitely more capable of surviving than the average girl.

498 nodded. "That's good. At least we can find something to do. Ask her which shop she works at later, and we'll go there and buy her something."

Hu Yan quickly said, "No need for that. If you want to help her, just give her the money directly. The money you earn from buying things ends up going to outsiders, so it's better to just give it directly."

498 sighed.

"How do you think she'll ever get married?"

Hu Yan smiled and said, "What's there to be embarrassed about? Just marry anyone. Mountain farmers don't care about these things."

That's absolutely right...

Chastity is something that doesn't really matter in a place like Kitahara.

As long as the child is his own, nothing else matters. Most men's wives are married, and many are widows.

Neither the Hu people nor the Han people care about this.

It's not hard to find a woman who has never been married; as long as you have a social status, you can find one easily, and marrying one more wouldn't be a problem.

Fang Wen, the female shop assistant sitting next to Hu Yan, said with a smile: "When it comes to marriage, it's mainly about family wealth and the bride's family. Your sister's family has two government employees. Even if she's pregnant, let alone just engaged, there are plenty of men willing to marry her!"

Si Jiuba felt his face burning; he was embarrassed.

“If someone like her marries into a good family, I’m afraid I’ll be holding them back. If she marries into a scoundrel, I’ll be miserable. It would be best if she marries someone far away, someone who’s neither good nor bad.”

498 spoke his mind.

Her words made several women in the shop laugh.

Wu Yue couldn't understand why these people were laughing. She always felt that there was something wrong with their heads. Whenever they sat together, they would burst into laughter without saying a word.

Just as I was feeling bored, I saw a little girl with red lips walk in.

Wu Jia's sixteenth son walked in and laboriously lifted a vegetable basket that he had to carry and placed it on the table.

"Sister, Mother asked me to deliver fruit to your master."

Wu Yue quickly stood up and opened the vegetable basket, where she saw a large, bright red apple, red dates, raisins, and two pomegranates.

After noticing that the height of the fruit in the basket hadn't changed much, Wu Yue stared at her little sister's uncleaned mouth.

Did you sneak some food?

"No." Sixteen looked at Wu Yue seriously, then quickly looked away guiltily. "I'm going home."

Si Jiuba stood up and said with a smile, "Don't rush off. Thank your mother for me. Here are a few coins for you to buy candy."

"Thank you, sister." Sixteen stopped and thanked her happily.

They don't get much pocket money at home, mainly because children have no control over their spending. Also, since they have enough to eat and drink at home, they won't come home for dinner if they eat out.

Looking at the fruit in the basket, Hu Yan asked curiously, "It's winter, are there still pomegranates for sale?"

Sixteen replied, "It's fruit sent from the South. My aunt said it's hot there all year round."

Si Jiuba took out a pomegranate, saying, "This big pomegranate is for Xiao Shiliu~"

"Hahaha~" The woman in the shop chuckled again after hearing this.

Wu Yue, who was standing next to him wanting to eat pomegranates, couldn't manage a smile.

They were even a little angry.

"Thank you, sister!" Sixteen happily took the pomegranate, started biting into it with her teeth, and then peeled it.

At that moment, someone came in.

"Buy a newspaper."

Wu Yue was in charge of selling newspapers.

Since the newspaper business was moved to the store, the customer base has changed slightly.

Nowadays, newspaper buyers are mostly wholesalers, government officials, and chambers of commerce, who usually buy ten or more copies at a time or subscribe to specific newspapers for various dates.

Ordinary people gradually moved to the ordinary newsstands outside.

The exterior renovations deterred many customers who only had a few dozen coins, and most people wouldn't travel too far to buy newspapers here.

Before long, I got busy again.

With many officials returning to the capital to report on their work, or hereditary nobles from thousands of households coming to pay taxes and tribute, the population of Luoyang reached two million during the New Year period.

Si Jiuba and the others worked at several counters until noon.

Just as I was about to leave work, a wealthy lady wearing a warm cloak walked in through the door.

"Boss 498~" Duchess Fang Huairui walked in and said with a smile, "We've known each other for several years now. I heard you became a boss here. What's your surname? I can't very well call you Boss 4, can I?"

Si Jiuba simply said, "Just call me Si Jiuba. I'm not the boss, I'm just a worker."

The title "498" is more important than any surname. Anyway, if you don't get married, you won't have any offspring. Even if you have children, it won't have any impact, since they won't inherit the woman's surname.

"Madam Wang, you've come at the right time. I saw Miss Mingyu a few days ago; she shouldn't have left yet."

Fang Huairui smiled and said, "I've met her. She wants to use her connections and even asked my husband for help, but who would dare to help with something like that? We don't even dare to say anything when something happens to us."

The relationship between Si Jiuba and the Wang family was neither good nor bad.

"Come in and sit down. It's been years since we last met. Have you finished managing your 500,000 mu of farmland?" "Yes, I've managed to earn some extra money every year." Fang Huairui smiled and then sighed, "But compared to those 500,000 mu of land, the river in front of my house earns more."

498 asked curiously, "What does that mean?"

Fang Huairui replied, "Farming doesn't make money now, but fortunately the Emperor has been very kind to our family, allowing us to sell grain to brick kilns and ironworks hundreds of miles away. Since there is a river in front of our house, it is much more convenient to transport grain and goods back and forth."

"Now our family has no mountains or mines, so we rely on that river to make a living."

498 thinks this is the trouble of the rich.

"Even if each mu of land yields 100 jin of grain, and each 100 jin of grain is worth three copper coins, 500,000 mu of land can still be sold for over 100,000 taels of silver."

Fang Huairui smiled and said, "There isn't that much. All the various businesses combined amount to about this much, but we also have to pay the servants' wages and bribe officials at all levels to pay taxes."

Nowadays, farmland can indeed make money, but it's not enough for the elite; mountainous areas where mining and coal extraction are better.

The world is changing too fast. No one expected that flat, good places would become poor places, and mountainous and swampy areas that are unsuitable for farming would become good places for mining, sand mining and stone quarrying.

Nowadays, each hereditary household is essentially a contractor and a private enterprise, using goods as taxation and selling resources at low prices to obtain hereditary status and wealth.

This act of offering resources as tribute was considered perfectly reasonable in that era; the world belonged to King Wu, and the resources on the land also belonged to him.

King Wu's willingness to buy things from the land with money was already a great act of kindness.

If it were any other emperor, a simple edict would have been enough to conscript them for free.

Arctic Martial Arts doesn't offer honors or official positions, nor does it demand anything. In short, it pays whatever resources are provided and doesn't mind if they sell those resources to others. Similarly, Arctic Martial Arts itself doesn't have just one supplier.

Buying resources is merely a way to provide those hereditary lords with some subsidies and an opportunity to live a normal life and develop.

The guard dog must be fed; this is Arctic Martial's simple moral philosophy.

This simple moral view is already very advanced for this era.

After the two entered the house and sat down, 498 poured tea from the thermos and asked curiously, "Do we have to pay taxes for farming?"

Fang Huairui smiled and said, "I don't need a few acres, but I definitely need hundreds of thousands of acres."

498 handed over the tea, "How much tax do I have to pay?"

Fang Huairui took the coarse tea that hadn't been brewed properly, put it down and let it cool, saying, "Our family was exempted from taxes for a few years in the past. Now, with about 10,000 people managing 500,000 mu of land, the tax exemption period has expired and it's time to pay taxes."

"Back then, we received many favors from the Emperor, including silver, farm tools, and livestock. Those animals and farm tools are still in use now, so it's time to pay taxes."

Si Jiuba sat down and said, "These past few days, I've definitely noticed a lot more people in Luoyang."

Fang Huairui smiled.

"They're all here to pay taxes, and there are also envoys from various countries coming to pay tribute. Now the world belongs to His Majesty. This time, our family has also selected a few pretty girls from our territory, but we don't know what kind His Majesty likes."

Si Jiu Ba laughed and said, "It seems that she likes women with slim waists, big breasts, and who love sports. That's what I heard from people in the palace."

Fang Huairui quickly memorized this.

As long as King Wu can provide a standard, everyone can find people according to that standard.

Without standards, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

***
Inside the Wanshang Shrine, Beiji Wu was lighting over a thousand candles in the magnificent hall, watching the "models" walk by and then turn away.

These aren't models; they're all beauties sent as tribute from various places.

At this moment, these beauties walked across the 30-meter-long red carpet without wearing any clothes, simply tidying their hair, and then paused for a few seconds a few meters away from the Arctic Martial Arts Center before turning around and leaving.

They are not allowed to wear any clothes or jewelry, only a waist tag with a number on it.

You can view more than ten people per minute, six hundred per hour, and two or three thousand per afternoon.

Beijiwu, feeling drowsy, asked boredly, "How many more?"

Cui Qing, who was only wearing a transparent gauze dress, replied, "I've just looked at a thousand, and there are still more than thirty-four thousand to look at."

Arctic Martial patiently watched as the women walked by and then swayed their hips as they left.

It feels like searching for study materials. What should only take a few minutes can take several hours of preliminary research, and you can't find anything you really want even after flipping through hundreds of pages of books.

After a long day, Beijiwu set his sights on more than a hundred decent young married women.

There are many young, unmarried, and innocent women, but there are also jobs that must be taken up by married women, such as wet nurses.

Arctic Martial Arts provided shelter for many foreign wet nurses, ensuring they could stay.

As for the women who were not selected, they can go back to where they came from.

If you're homeless, then figure it out yourself.

The women who came in were all aware of the consequences of not being able to stay, so they all tried their best to perform, but unfortunately, Arctic Martial only gave them a few seconds to perform.

Of the thirty or forty thousand women, only less than three thousand will ultimately remain. Arctic Martial Arts doesn't need ordinary women.

The number of women in the palace has exceeded 100,000 again. Not only are there women who come as tribute, but also many wives and daughters of common households and hereditary nobles who want to come and pledge allegiance to the Northern Army.

After all, in name, Arctic Martial Arts is the master of these people.

Unlike traditional emperors, before becoming emperor, the public households were the private households of the Northern Emperor Wu. Just because the Northern Emperor Wu became emperor did not mean that these people were no longer slaves in his eyes.

The Shan Nong people have always been servants of the Beiji Wu, not servants of the Han people, nor servants of the Shan Nong people, but servants of the emperor.

The mountain farmers farmed to feed the Han and Hu people, simply following the orders of the emperor of the Mountain Farmer Kingdom.

The standard for promotion for public officials and bureaucrats was to fulfill the emperor's orders and gain the emperor's approval.

There has never been any concept of equality in the entire Shan Nong Kingdom. When it was established, the Arctic Warrior forced the rest of the people to obey orders.

The foundation of the regime has always been crooked. Whether it's the absurd reasons for the rebellion or the unqualified and unorthodox rule, the violent emperor who kills people like mowing grass is seen as a benevolent and wise ruler by most people in the Mountain Farming Kingdom.

Beijiwu ordered his subordinates to select beautiful women from the public households to serve him, regardless of whether they were other people's wives or daughters.

There's no fault in this kind of thing; after all, the public household is the slave of Arctic Warrior...

Not to mention the public households and mountain farmers, even Han Chinese, non-Han Chinese, and foreigners all felt that this was reasonable and that the emperor should have this power.

He talks about dedicating himself to the cause until his dying breath, yet he refuses to even let his wife and daughter enter the palace. Such a person is certainly not absolutely loyal.

Moreover, most of the public households received women from the Arctic Army, and the 30,000 to 40,000 people who were not selected this time will also be given priority to be married to unmarried men from public households.

However, Beiji Wu was not interested in such things. He only invited those people's wives and daughters in to try to cultivate a group of servants who would be loyal to the royal family for generations.

They weren't palace maids, but rather a family of maids raised by generations, or even several generations, working together.

(End of this chapter)