Even if I'm a useless bum at Whampoa Military Academy, I'll be invincible in the War of Re

In Lijia Village, Xinyang, the rice is ripe, and busy figures can be seen everywhere.

Li Youtian's family arrived at the fields early to harvest rice. Time waits for no one, and they needed to hurry and bring the grain home. In addition to paying 60% of the land rent to the landlord, they also had to pay taxes.

The family was busy at work when several soldiers walked by. Li Youtian's heart tightened, and he instinctively wanted to hide his fifteen-year-old daughter.

Lijia Village is located near the mountains and is not peaceful. Every year, they have to pay grain to bandits in exchange for a year of peace.

Fortunately, these bandits were somewhat reasonable; they set quotas for each village, and as long as the quotas were collected, they wouldn't kill or get angry.

When the Japanese arrived, the government had to pay taxes to alleviate the national crisis. With such a large harvest, after paying all these miscellaneous taxes, the family members couldn't even dream of eating a single pound of fine grain.

In the eyes of many ordinary people, soldiers and bandits are the same, and sometimes even worse.

Bandits passed by like combs, soldiers passed by like fine brushes; several soldiers came this time, how could Li Youtian not worry?

He longed to take his family to hide in the mountains, but the rice was ripe, and if they didn't hurry to harvest it, the whole family would go hungry for the next year. He had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue working.

As the soldiers drew closer, Li Youtian's heart was in his throat. He prayed that the old soldiers couldn't see him.

"Brother, they're harvesting rice! Let us come and lend a hand!"

Zhao Yunwen seemed unaware that he had scared anyone. After greeting them, he rolled up his trousers and went down into the field on his own.

Li Youtian was illiterate and didn't know how to respond, so he simply said:

"Boss, no, I can't let you do this hard work."

He didn't know what Zhao Yunwen was up to, but subconsciously felt it wasn't a good thing. He thought it was a blessing if these soldiers didn't rob or harm the villagers.

Before transmigrating, Zhao Yunwen came from a farming family and had harvested rice, so he quickly got the hang of it after going into the field. In a short time, he had harvested several handfuls, and it looked quite professional.

The guards he led had all done farm work before joining the army, so he didn't explain much and just did as they were told.

The military commanders are all working hard; they have no right to speak.

So a strange scene unfolded in the field: several soldiers were working hard, while the owner stood in the field, at a loss.

After a while, Li Youtian bent down to continue cutting rice, since there was nothing he could do to stop him anyway.

With the addition of several strong laborers, the golden rice in the field was visibly harvested, which was naturally a good thing for Li Youtian's family.

Li Youtian gradually realized that these soldiers weren't as scary as he had imagined, and slowly he calmed down.

Before we knew it, the rice in a large field had been harvested, and the sun was high in the sky; it was lunchtime.

During busy farming seasons, Li Youtian's family usually makes do in the fields with coarse grain cakes and cold water.

Guests are welcome, and they even helped with the rice harvest all morning. Even if we can't pay them wages, we should at least provide them with meals.

However, Li Youtian's family did not bring any extra food, so they could only say embarrassedly:

"Boss, it's already noon, and the rice in this field has all been harvested. Shall we go home and have lunch?"

After Li Youtian said that, Zhao Yunwen realized that his stomach had been growling for a while, and quickly said:

"Brother, we brought our own dry rations, let's just make do on the edge of the field!"

"Boss, I wouldn't dare. How can someone work for someone else and still eat their own food? If word got out, everyone in the surrounding villages would laugh at me to death."

"Brother, my surname is Zhao. Don't call me 'boss,' just call me Brother Zhao."

"The troops were digging trenches before, which delayed your farming season, so the officers sent us over to lend a hand. We were all given dry rations."

After Zhao Yunwen finished speaking, he took out some dry rations from his person, waved them in front of Li Youtian, and then said:

"Let's not just stand there, let's go eat first. We've almost finished the cold water we brought, do you have any extra?"

Upon hearing about the cold water, Li Youtian's wife immediately said:

"Yes, yes, I'll go get it right away."

Zhao Yunwen said no more and strode towards the edge of the field, where he plopped down.

The others followed suit, each taking out their dry rations and starting to eat. Li Youtian's wife gave the cold water she had brought to Zhao Yunwen and the others first, and then went to the well next door to fetch more.

Zhao Yunwen and the others were still carrying field rations, one portion each for lunch and dinner, and they would go back to the camp to sleep after the event.

Each village is led by a company commander or platoon leader, who is responsible for managing their own people. If there are disciplinary issues, not only will the violators be punished, but the officers will also be held accountable, ranging from demotion or dismissal to execution.

While eating his dry rations, Zhao Yunwen chatted with Li Youtian about everyday things.

Perhaps it was the trust built through working together that made Li Youtian no longer afraid. He discovered that these soldiers were different from those he had heard about and seen before, and he noticed it as soon as they started working.

In the past, when the government assigned people to work, they had to bring their own food rations, not to mention any pay. It was considered good if they weren't beaten; that was called corvée labor.

This time, not only were meals provided, but wages were also paid; no one in the family had ever heard of such a thing before.

"Brother, how many people are in your family, and how much land do you farm?"

Li Youtian quickly said:

"Seven people, they planted six mu of rice and two mu of coarse grains. All of them were from the landlord's estate."

Since Zhao Yunwen transmigrated, he has been busy fighting wars and doesn't know much about the people's lives.

At his level, it wouldn't be good to be ignorant of these things. In the future, if he wanted to establish a base and make it stable, besides blocking the Japanese invaders, the most important thing was to ensure that the people had enough to eat.

Thinking of this, he continued to ask:

"How much rent do you have to pay to the landlord each year? Is it enough to live on?"

Just as Li Youtian was about to tell the truth, his wife interrupted him:

"There's enough to eat. The employer is doing well, and the officials are doing well too. Everyone can eat their fill."

These words sound insincere. Who would say they're not getting enough to eat or speak ill of their employer in front of an official like you? If it got back to the employer, they wouldn't even rent the land anymore, and the Li family of seven would starve.

Only an honest man like Li Youtian almost got tricked into revealing the truth. It was only because his wife was too shrewd that Li Youtian glanced at Zhao Yunwen's military uniform and swallowed back the truth he was about to say.

Zhao Yunwen did not make things difficult for them. Fortunately, the National Government also gave the civil administration of Xinyang to the Tiger Army, which meant that Zhao Yunwen could decide how much tax to collect this year.

This was a common phenomenon during the War of Resistance against Japan. The Nationalist government could not afford to support millions of troops, so it allowed military leaders to collect grain and taxes and conscript able-bodied men in their jurisdictions.

Zhao Yunwen stopped asking about that and instead inquired about the harvest.

"Brother, how many kilograms of rice do you estimate this acre will yield?"

When asked about the harvest, Li Youtian smiled and lowered his guard considerably.

"This year's rainfall has been good, so we should be able to get three or four dan (a unit of weight), which is two or three dou (another unit of weight) more than in previous years."

Zhao Yunwen then realized that farmers didn't measure by the jin (a unit of weight); they had their own units of measurement that had been passed down for thousands of years: dan, dou, and sheng.

Each load weighs 100 jin (50 kg), and the yield per mu (0.067 hectares) is over 300 jin (150 kg), which is already a very good situation.

Zhao Yunwen had seen the data and found that in 1936, the normal yield of rice per mu was 350 to 360 jin.

I also remembered a text I had learned, "Three or Five More Bushels of Grain," so I asked:

"So, when paying taxes to the government, do you use silver dollars or grain?"

"Silver dollars! The government only recognizes silver dollars, while grain stores only issue legal tender. You have to exchange the legal tender for silver dollars, which means you get ripped off again. This year there's also the national disaster tax. If it weren't for the good economic situation, the whole family would be starving."

Li Youtian's mouth seemed to have no hold, and his wife kept glaring at him.

Zhao Yunwen smiled and said:

"Sister-in-law, are your eyes bothering you?"

The woman quickly said:

"Boss, it's nothing, just a grain of sand got in."

Zhao Yunwen didn't expose her. Instead, he opened the lid of the luncheon meat and handed it to their youngest son, Erniu, with a smile.

Erniu was initially hesitant to accept it, so Zhao Yunwen took out a small knife from his body, made several cuts on it, and handed it to him.

Erniu couldn't resist the temptation. He grabbed it with his dark hands and stuffed it into his mouth. Instantly, his taste buds were awakened. This was definitely the most delicious food he had ever eaten, even more delicious than meat during the New Year.

A joyful shout:

"Mother, it's meat!"

Zhao Yunwen handed the rest to Erniu, making Da Niu, who was standing nearby, drool. Even his daughter Hehua, who was hiding far away, swallowed hard, as their family hadn't eaten meat in a long time.

Erniu was quite sensible and ran straight to Da Niu to show off. Li Youtian quickly and politely said:

"Boss, the kid doesn't understand, but meat is precious."

Zhao Yunwen simply smiled and said:

"Brother, don't be so polite, he's just a kid!"

"Oh, by the way, I have some good news for you. I heard it from the officer: this year's national tax is waived. From now on, we only need to pay in grain, not silver dollars!"

Li Youtian could hardly believe his ears and stammered, "..."

"Is this true?"