Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 242 The Eastern Fleet 2
Early in the morning, Alexei returned from queuing at the public toilet.

Recently, Luoyang has become increasingly crowded, making it more and more difficult to use the restroom.

Most people choose to use a bucket to defecate, and then empty it into the sewer or toilet.

After Alexei got home, he started washing his hands, thinking about the toilet as he did so.

"Maybe I should buy a flush toilet, but my apartment doesn't have a sewer. I heard that shared apartments can be connected to the sewer system, and each apartment has a fist-sized drain."

Housing problems are troubling Alexei; there is a severe shortage of houses in Luoyang.

Even after being built to a height of six stories, it still cannot meet the needs of the people waiting in line, especially in the city of Luoyang, where land is extremely scarce.

Most of the buildings were demolished and replaced with high-rises. Since the advent of reinforced concrete, buildings have become increasingly taller in the last two years.

A ring of counties was established around Luoyang. In addition to the original four counties in the east, west, south, and north, eight new areas were planned for the construction of houses and towns.

The newspaper article was about addressing the population problem in advance by providing housing for children born more than 20 years from now.

All housing is definitely arranged according to the rules of the mountain farmers: it is given to their own people first, and only the surplus is sold.

After washing his hands, Alexei sat on the sofa in the living room, where his wife and maid had already prepared breakfast.

The custom among the mountain farmers is that men and women can eat together, so foreigners like Alexei also followed this custom.

Why not abide by the rules when there are no fundamental issues involved?

Many of the rules and regulations of the Mountain Farming Kingdom, especially those concerning morality, are easily understood by everyone.

This includes the bizarre rule of setting the marriage age at eighteen.

Although I don't understand it, getting married later in life does have its advantages.

Firstly, the jobs of mountain farmers are hereditary. It would be troublesome if children got married too early and had nothing to do. If they had an extra daughter-in-law but did not improve the son's treatment, the trouble would be even greater.

Since it's impossible to separate the family after marriage, it's better to get married later.

In rural areas, no one cares. People can have children if they want. King Wu's rules only apply to mountain farmers; others have no right to be governed.

As a businessman, Alexei also hoped that his son and daughter could marry later, and choose a good family first.

Getting married requires a lot of money, so waiting a few years will give you more time to prepare.

The family of more than ten people ate steamed buns and fried dough sticks together. Alexei was a middle-class wealthy businessman. With his steady and low-key business acumen, he could provide his family with a better life than the kings and lords of the past.

Mealtime is also when I read the newspaper.

Although they had only been in Shannong Kingdom for less than three years, Alexei and his family were already indistinguishable from the local Han and Hu people, except for their skin color and appearance.

There are many people with dry, yellow hair. Apart from their eyes, there's nothing they can do. Usually, the whole family tries their best to move closer to the mountain farmers.

Discrimination against non-mountain farmers has always existed, but it is even more pronounced in Luoyang.

Although King Wu told everyone not to discriminate against others, he said it but actually gave the benefits to the mountain farmers.

If things are done this way, it would be abnormal for people from Shandong Agricultural University not to discriminate against outsiders.

However, it was precisely because of this discrimination that Alexei always referred to himself as a Hu (a term referring to a non-Han Chinese) and was unwilling to say that he was European.

"Hu people" is a discriminatory term. People from Hu people would say they are from the Gui Nong province, not that they are Hu people.

However, discrimination also has levels. Compared to the desolate lands of Europe conquered by the Hu people, the Hu and Han people were closer to the mountain farmers.

The Hu people were directly defeated and subdued by the Shan Nong people, and the Han people were also ruled by the Shan Nong people, so they were closer to the Shan Nong people in terms of relations.

Foreigners like Aleksey would not intermarry; their first choice was to integrate into the local community rather than to be proud of being a non-Han.

Rapid integration is a tacit understanding among this generation.

We accept everything about the mountain farmers.

Sons will marry Han Chinese, and daughters will also marry Han Chinese. Intermarriage within the mountain farming community is common; it's easy for them to find suitable marriage partners within a collective of thousands of households. Generally, they don't marry into families outside the common household system.

According to the rules established by King Wu, women with household registration lost their registration after marriage, and those who left the collective were no longer considered part of the collective.

All assets within the collective belong to the public, including private land and houses, and cannot be sold to outsiders. No one, whether a high-ranking official or a merchant, can get their hands on them.

Alexei finished his breakfast while reading the newspaper, and then took a carriage to attend to his business.

I didn't eat much for breakfast, just a few things.

After supervising the workers to transport the autumn harvest of fruit to various shops and production brigades, it was already noon.

Alexei told his men to go back and rest, while he went to a restaurant for a meal.

The mountain farmers rarely ate out, and Alexei and the others were well aware that they had learned more about Han Chinese customs.

But there's no way around it; socializing is necessary.

A group of merchants from both Central Asia and China gathered for a meal. There was bound to be some flattery and pleasantries at the table, but they also exchanged some information.

Li Shuya and Alexei sat together, while the person in charge of the eloquent talk was a West Asian merchant named Wang Daxi who had been in Luoyang for more than ten years.

Wang Daxi leaned back in an oversized chair. He had a belly as big as a bucket, and it took two Kunlun slaves to help him stand up.

Despite his obesity, he was still mentally sound and possessed a great deal of inside information and intelligence about Luoyang.

"We were initially very optimistic about the Japanese caravan, but what did these ten thousand people bring back?"

"Cinnamon, chili peppers, cloves, coconut, ivory, jade, pearls! ... Hahaha! We have all these spices and jewels here!"

"The women brought back are similar to Lin Yinu, both are dark-skinned, but it takes more than half a year to sail there."

"The spices we brought back were everywhere in India and Annam."

"The banana and coconut seeds, along with the black soil and minerals we brought back, are completely worthless!"

"King Wu gave them too many rewards, spending ten million taels to support the Japanese fleet, but the things they brought back were not even worth two hundred thousand taels."

Arctic Warriors only require caravans to collect local crops; they have no demand for exotic animals, furs, or jewelry.

Items like tortoise shells and ivory were neither accepted by the Northern Martial Arts Master nor bestowed upon others; they were simply kept in the treasury.

The ruling class had no interest in these things; the merchants at most sold them to wealthy families in the southeast.

Without a high-end market, businessmen have no profit to travel that far.

The north-south routes, with trains as the main market, were the mainstream, and the business of transporting fruits, timber, porcelain, tea, and clothing was the legitimate business.

Alexei and Li Shuya shared similar ideas.

Business always involves both gains and losses, but this voyage involved a massive number of ships, resulted in the deaths of thousands of people and the destruction of dozens of large ships, yet yielded only meager gains—a truly disastrous loss.

The entire West was a barren land, impoverished and inhabited by savages.

The mountain farmers' industry was already capable of mass-producing glass and ironware, and unless gold and silver mines were discovered, they would not be able to recoup the cost of their ocean-going ships.

Moreover, nowadays, doing business requires a license, going to sea also requires a license, and crew members are all registered residents.

Unless one is extremely poor, they will not easily become a sailor.

Business opportunities at sea certainly cannot compare to those on land. King Wu's focus is clearly still on Eurasia, with perhaps the South Pacific islands as an additional option.

The world is only so big; you can travel through it in a year or two. The best place is definitely the Mountain Farming Kingdom, and its capital city.

With the autumn harvest of the new year over, the people of Shan Nong Kingdom were focused on the release of the autumn harvest log and quickly forgot about the return of the Jiangnan fleet.

(End of this chapter)