Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 73 List
Autumn is the time to prepare food.

Because he plans to go out and play PUBG next year, Beijiwu has stopped caring about land reclamation and water conservancy.

The villagers have a strong sense of self-management and do not require much effort from the villagers themselves.

He sleeps until he naturally wakes up every day, and when he has nothing to do, he exercises in the woods or invites a few women over to make merry during the day. They can sit wherever they want, whether it's in the front yard, back yard, house, or even on horseback.

Just as Bei Jiwu was enjoying life, sitting in the yard teaching a few little girls addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, and reciting multiplication tables, there was a knock on the door.

Beijiwu continued to scold the children, "Stop looking around! Keep reciting!"

Li Bing, Xiang Lan, Xi Dan, Jiang Cao, and Mu Lin, who were studying together, didn't dare to turn around and continued reciting the multiplication tables.

"One times one equals one".

"One times two equals two".

Beijiwu leaned back in his chair, supervising the four children, holding a small twig as a ruler.

Anyone who disobeys will be slapped on the hand.

Jiang Rong opened the courtyard gate and saw Aunt Beigong.

"Is the clan chief here? I'm looking for the clan chief. I caught a fish in the river today, and I'd like to bring it to the clan chief to help him recover."

Aunt Beigong smiled and made a conversation, holding a fish in her hand.

Jiang Rong made way, and Aunt Beigong walked over carrying a large fish. Upon seeing Beiji Wu, she quickened her pace and knelt down two or three meters in front of him.

"Chief! My old man caught a big fish in the water today and has come to present it to you."

Beijiwu looked at the river fish and said softly, "Okay, give Kitada a point."

Work enthusiasm doesn't need to be specifically cultivated, but the slave mentality of voluntarily handing over extra resources is worth nurturing.

"Thank you, patriarch!"

Aunt Beigong handed the fish to Gao Conglian, who was still breastfeeding and needed to eat something good to nourish her body.

After handing over the fish, Aunt Beigong continued to kneel on the ground, looking up at Beijiwu with an embarrassed, aggrieved, and fawning smile on her face.

“Chief, there are nine people in our family. Only four women work every day, and only one man patrols at night. The rest of us don’t get work points and don’t have enough to eat.”

Beijiwu said calmly, "The first few days, when I asked you to do some work to earn work points, you all didn't say anything, but you were all very unhappy and complained endlessly. Now that I'm asking you to rest quietly like in previous years, why are you all unhappy again?"

Aunt Beigong hurriedly said, "We are not complaining. Everyone in our family is willing to work. However, there are always a few people in the family who are not eating. We beg the clan chief to have mercy and find some work for my two sons."

If you don't work, you won't get work points; without work points, you can't eat in the canteen and have to go home and cook for yourself.

Every household had surplus grain, but having gotten used to eating government meals, they felt it was a waste to cook for themselves again.

Especially in rural areas where the mentality of small farmers is deeply ingrained, people feel they are missing out if they don't take advantage of the opportunity to have three meals a day.

Night patrols don't require many people, and water conservancy and land reclamation projects have been abandoned.

Three Tatar slaves, without having to worry about food, taxes, or other such trivial matters, can take care of more than forty cattle, horses, and donkeys, plus more than twenty sheep.

Slaves are indeed more useful than villagers. After being exploited by Mongol nobles and military households, the three Tatar slaves cherished the good life of the mountain farmers and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the slaves of Beiji Wudang.

With the slaves having work to do, there wasn't much work left for the more than one hundred men and women in the village to do.

Without the active organization of women in the Arctic region to weave cloth and spin thread, relying solely on villagers to find some hemp and twist it themselves is too inefficient.

The situation at Aunt Beigong's house was very bad; with a shortage of hemp straw, they could only produce a small amount of goods.

If a family can't scrape together enough work points, then all nine members of the family will have to feed themselves.

Beijiwu said slowly, "Go from house to house and tell the villagers that if they cut down trees to make cart wheels, they will get 20 points for a wooden cart, 1 point for five straw sandals, 2 points for a ten-meter-long, one-finger-thick hemp rope, and 1 point for ten two-meter-long sticks."

"We divided them into groups of twenty: one group made wooden oxcarts, one group made straw sandals and hemp clothes, one group made sticks and wooden guns, one group made long wooden boxes, and one group built houses."

"The remaining forty or fifty people will cook, gather firewood, patrol, and find other tasks to help take care of the children. I have to go out tomorrow."

Aunt Beigong breathed a sigh of relief; at least she had something to do.

"Thank you, clan chief! I'll have the old man get ready and follow you out."

Beijiwu said directly, "He doesn't need to go out. He knows a lot of things. He can just stay in the village and lead the others in their work. I'll find people myself." "Yes, Chief!" Beigong Da Niang, who had recently gained weight, bowed and kowtowed before leaving the Chief's courtyard.

Beijiwu scolded the four lazy children, "Stop being lazy! If you don't memorize it well today, you won't get to eat!"

The four children quickly focused their attention back on memorizing the rhymes.

"One times one equals one..."

"One times two equals two..."

People who had previously complained about being overworked are now, regardless of age, desperately wanting to get to work and eat as quickly as possible.

Even though they have enough food to eat at home, they always think about taking advantage of public resources.

When Li Hong heard that Bei Jiwu was about to leave, she came over and said, "Sir, we may not have enough blankets at home. We need to buy another one. Also, we don't have many sheets of paper left to write on."

The Arctic Warriors were actually preparing for the migration, instructing the villagers to make more ropes, clothes, baskets, and sticks for fighting, so that they could carry them when running away.

"Okay, got it."

Beijiwu, too lazy to explain, shouted again to Ma Tuchai, who was learning to make socks nearby:

"Tu Chai, go and get the account book. I'll collect the debts on my way out this time."

Collecting debts?

Li Hong realized that they were referring to the Yang family's account books.

"I'll go get it." Li Hong took the initiative to do Ma Tuchai's job, quickly went into the room and took out two account books from the bedside table.

One was a blood-stained ledger containing more than a dozen IOUs.

One is an old-fashioned ledger containing six IOUs.

Beijiwu, who had taken over the Yang family's daughter-in-law, was holding Boss Yang's ledger and randomly flipped to a page with an IOU.

**
Li Jiemi Ren Zhou Er, a native of Zhoujia Village, ten miles southeast of Beiyuan County.

Because of the current food shortage, my family has no surplus grain. With the help of a guarantor, I borrowed 2 shi of unpolished rice from Yang's Rice Shop in Beiyuan County.

Interest would be calculated at one tael of silver per shi (a unit of dry measure) after the autumn harvest. If there were any delays, the guarantor would make compensation on behalf of the borrower, and the borrower could pursue legal action to recover the debt.

It is stated that interest will accrue at 5% per month, with a 12-month repayment period, during which principal and interest will be returned together. If the repayment is not made by the due date, the ancestral home (five rooms), 60 mu of farmland, and the wife, Liu, will be provided as compensation, and may be sold at will.

Guarantor Zhou Shoucai (signs his name)

See the borrower, Yang Qing (thumbprint).

May 9th, the third year of Yuanheng
**
Beijiwu looked at the IOU from the previous dynasty, which was probably from last year.

"Five percent interest, two taels of silver, four taels in fourteen months, is that four taels?"

As Beijiwu was calculating the interest, he muttered something to himself when Ma Tuchai came over and said with a smile, "Chieftain, you've miscalculated."

Arctic Martial looked at the woman and asked, "How much is it?"

Ma Tuchai said smugly, "The interest rate is five percent per month. Five percent interest on two taels of silver is one tael, and fourteen months is fourteen taels."

Beijiwu was stunned. "Oh, I miscalculated. I thought five percent interest was five percent."

Arctic Martial Arts was already charging exorbitant interest rates, but no one expected Boss Yang's lending to be even more ruthless, directly advancing the decimal point by one place.

How did my family incur a debt of four taels of silver?

Beijiwu thought about the money he owed Boss Yang.

This thought quickly disappeared, because Boss Yang died, and with death comes the debt.

People like Mu Chuanliang and Old Man Li, without the help of Beiji Wu, wouldn't be able to pay off their high-interest loans even if they sold their daughters and wives.

Beijiwu carefully preserved these two ledgers, which were filled with the reserve members of the Shannong tribe.

Either pay off your debts, go to jail, or go to the mountains!
(End of this chapter)