All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

But it wouldn't be right for him not to feel some sadness after his father's death. He could only rub some chili peppers under his eyelids, and finally, on the day of the burial, he cried his heart out with red eyes.

Tears flowed like the clear sky after the rain. With the old man's death, the house felt much cleaner. The mother, Bai Zhao, was heartbroken for two days, but then she let it go, since she now had a precious grandson.

Bai Jiaxuan didn't particularly like the name Bai Xiaowen for his son, but that's because he had read the original novel.

Bai Xiaowen in the original novel is a true two-faced person, the kind who says one thing and does another. Yet, this is the kind of person who ultimately lives the most carefree life in the original novel.

Perhaps this is reality. Bai Jiaxuan doesn't know if his son will be like the one in the original story. But children and grandchildren have their own blessings, and Bai Jiaxuan doesn't believe that this person can live exactly the same life.

The birth of their son, Bai Xiaowen, brought new vitality to the family and dispelled the shadow of his father's death.

Bai Xiaowen's birth also removed the last obstacle for Bai Jiaxuan to succeed as the clan chief of Bailuyuan.

He had married six wives before but had no children. Now that he finally has a son, he should naturally succeed to the position of clan leader.

Three months after Bai Bingde's death, with the consent of his uncles, Bai Jiaxuan officially succeeded as the eighteenth clan chief of Bailuyuan.

Lu Zilin had been depressed for a while. He had been looking forward to the position of clan leader since he was eighteen years old. It had been almost ten years, but in the end, it was all for naught.

In this era, the clan chief still wielded considerable power. In Bailu Plain, the clan chief had to make all the decisions, big or small.

Of course, it wasn't a one-man show. Several older uncles acted as supervisors, and if the clan leader went too far, they could use their seniority to reprimand him.

If Bailuyuan is considered a large family, then Bai Jiaxuan, as the family head, can be considered the patriarch of the family.

Not only did they manage all the affairs of the village, big and small, but they also had to manage the village's customs and discipline, preventing villagers from committing crimes. In essence, they had to ensure the simple and honest folk customs of Bailuyuan.

Fortunately, nothing major usually happens in Bailuyuan. The biggest news in the past two months was that a bag of beans was stolen from the house of Widow Wang in the east of the village. It was later discovered that it was stolen in the middle of the night by Bai Xing'er, a notorious lazy man in the village.

After Bai Jiaxuan took over the family business, he discovered that while Bailuyuan didn't have any major problems, it had quite a few minor ones, with all sorts of trivial matters. Moreover, it was already 1911, and after inquiring about the situation in the county town last time, he learned that the situation was becoming increasingly unstable.

Bai Jiaxuan's first priority was to find a way to solve the problem of food in Bailuyuan.

Not to mention that they relied on the weather for their livelihood, the wheat stalks were thin and long, the corn stalks weren't even as tall as themselves, the corn cobs were sparse, and the yield was less than a quarter of what it would be in later years.

This land has been tilled and sown every year for hundreds of years, but with this primitive farming method, it can only provide enough food and clothing.

To find a way to survive in chaotic times, the first thing is to avoid starvation. If, as in the original story, there is a drought, all the people of over a thousand will be on Bai Jiaxuan's shoulders. He can't just stand by and watch hundreds of people starve to death.

There is a curse on Bailu Plain: once the population exceeds one thousand, a natural disaster will occur every few years, killing hundreds of people each time, until the population is controlled back to less than one thousand.

The population of Bailuyuan is now over 1,200. According to the curse in the original story, it is estimated that it will arrive in a few years.

But Bai Jiaxuan thought this was nonsense. The only explanation was that natural disasters were too frequent on this land, and the farmers had no way to avoid them.

Bai Jiaxuan had promised the ancestors in the ancestral hall that since he had promised to protect them through the chaotic times, he would definitely break the curse.

The first way to break this curse is to ensure that everyone has some money on them. If a drought really occurs, as long as you have money, you won't have to worry about not being able to buy food.

Zishui County is only a few dozen miles from Chang'an City, and Bailuyuan is only about a hundred miles from Chang'an City. With a horse-drawn carriage, a round trip can be made in a day.

The reason why they couldn't resist natural disasters before was simply because farmers were trapped in their mindset; they had no other way to get rich.

Bai Jiaxuan has many ways to get rich, but leading the whole village to prosperity, especially in a rural area, is quite difficult. However, he already had a plan in mind.

Since growing wheat isn't profitable, we can just grow other crops.

For example, Chinese medicinal herbs?

This reminded Bai Jiaxuan of a world he had once traveled to, a world where the surname was also Bai, Bai Jingqi from the Grand Mansion. The Bai family made their fortune in the Chinese herbal medicine business, and Bai Jiaxuan knew that kind of thing better than anyone else.

Moreover, he has a lot of secret recipes in mind. With chaos looming, what business is the most profitable?

They're definitely selling medicine!

They sell external wound medicine, medicine that can stop bleeding and kill bacteria, even the kind of miracle drug that is more effective than a certain Yunnan Baiyao.

Bai Jiaxuan never thought about making this business very big; he just wanted to use the land of Bailuyuan to support the people of Bailuyuan.

Bai Jiaxuan already had a plan in mind. Right after the New Year, he went back and forth to several medicinal herb markets and bought some Chinese medicinal herb seeds. After returning, he did not call a meeting with everyone.

When he first called on everyone to plant this thing, no one believed him. Although he was the clan leader, he didn't want to force everyone to plant it.

He simply planted all twenty acres of his own irrigated land with these medicinal herbs. Everyone was curious when they saw Bai Jiaxuan plant all the good irrigated land with these medicinal herbs.

Bai Jiaxuan wasn't stingy; he told everyone directly that anyone who wanted to plant could buy seeds from him, and he would help them sell the herbs once they matured.

Everyone was a bit cautious about these Chinese medicinal herbs that they couldn't understand. Only a few households planted a few acres of land. Bai Jiaxuan didn't force them. He provided free guidance on planting techniques to those households that planted the herbs.

Life in the countryside is so ordinary, with sunrise and sunset every day, and half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.

For more than a year, the villagers of Bailuyuan lived a decent life, because they hadn't paid grain taxes for two consecutive years, and everyone had some surplus grain in their pockets.

This was also Bai Jiaxuan's request. In the past two years, things have been in chaos outside. Between 1910 and 1911, several groups of people came to Zishui County. Some were Qing troops, and others were the Kuomintang.

However, this has nothing to do with Bailuyuan, which is fifty miles away from the county seat, because due to the chaotic management, no one really came to urge the grain delivery.

This allowed Bailuyuan to enjoy a rare period of peace and tranquility over the past two years.

However, this kind of peaceful life is clearly just a reflection in the water, something you can see but can't touch. This kind of peaceful life will soon fall apart.

In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was already in decline. The following year, the young Qing emperor finally abdicated, and the Gorman Party gained momentum. Zishui County also established a county government, and the newly appointed leadership team took office.

Zishui County has been quite turbulent in recent years, with several waves of people coming and going. Now things have finally settled down, but no matter which wave of people comes, they leave without leaving a single penny behind.

With the Qing Dynasty on its last legs and the Nationalist government officially established, the newly appointed leadership set out to revitalize the people's livelihood. But to do this, they needed money, and the county government's treasury was now completely empty.

After a discussion, the bureau chiefs decided that the first thing they would do upon taking office was to find a way to raise money and supplies!

First of all, it is necessary to restore the system of paying grain taxes. Moreover, their investigation revealed that, due to the chaotic management in the previous two years, there were no records of paying taxes or grains in the accounts. That makes things easy; they can just pay all three years' worth at once!

Thus began a grand and vigorous grain delivery campaign.

Grain collection teams soon arrived in various villages and hamlets, and Bailuyuan was no exception. The people who came to collect grain in Bailuyuan were not outsiders, but a local villager named Tian Fuxian.

Tian Fuxian was originally from Bailuyuan. His family was a poor household and had not fared well for generations. In Tian Fuxian's generation, he joined the Ge Ming Party and became a minor official. His first task after taking office was to collect grain in Bailuyuan.

The Bailu Plain covers an area of ​​more than 2,000 mu. The tax grain collected over the past three years is no small amount!

Moreover, Tian Fuxian was a local, and even before taking office, he had already learned that Bailuyuan had not paid any land tax for the past two years.

Good heavens! When he told his superior about this, the newly appointed "county magistrate" slapped his thigh and thought, "This fat sheep is not bad." He then made up his mind to squeeze a good amount of money out of Bailuyuan!

So Tian Fuxian, accompanied by a few henchmen and with a short gun tucked into his waistband, strolled over to Bailuyuan!

When Tian Fuxian arrived at Bailuyuan, Bai Jiaxuan was harvesting medicinal herbs that he had planted for a year, covered in sweat.

He already has a plan for these twenty acres of medicinal herbs. He will first process the herbs in Bailuyuan, prepare the powder himself, and then package them uniformly. He intends to create a long-term brand, and this powder will be unique in the world.

However, he did not intend to sell it nearby, but to transport it to other major cities. He understood the principle that a tall tree catches the wind, and there was no need to invite disaster for Bailuyuan.

He plans to go to a big city and find a pharmacy to cooperate with long-term, and then supply the pharmacy with the herbs every year. He is not worried about not being able to sell the herbs. He wants to sell the herbs from these twenty acres of land for an astronomical price.

The medicinal herbs grown on this land are just ordinary Chinese medicinal herbs, but after Bai Jiaxuan's preparation, they become miraculous medicines that can stop bleeding and kill bacteria.

He doesn't plan to expand this business too much, nor does he intend to buy the medicinal herbs grown by those farmers at high prices. He will give them a little profit at most, but even that profit is three times higher than the profit they make from growing wheat.

With tripled profits, these farmers will have enough money to weather any future disasters.

However, in this era, it was not a good thing for farmers to have extra money. It meant that the sheep was getting fatter and fatter, and since it was a fat sheep, it was bound to be slaughtered.

Tian Fuxian was the first guy who wanted to catch this fat sheep and fleece him!

chapter eight

When Tian Fuxian appeared in Bailuyuan, he attracted a crowd of onlookers. When he arrived at the open space in front of the ancestral hall with a few lackeys, he waved his hand and shouted to the crowd.

"Fellow villagers! I have been appointed by the 'County Magistrate' to come to Bailu to collect grain taxes. You have all failed to pay your public grain tax for the past three years, including the year before last, last year, and this year. Go back and prepare your grain. I need to see grain in front of the ancestral hall in three days. Not a single grain can be missing. The 'County Magistrate' said that this time, our Bailu Plain has a very bad reputation. We have resisted paying grain for three consecutive years and have become a model for the county. If any family dares to resist paying grain, they will have their doors torn down, their houses burned down, and be arrested and imprisoned!"

As soon as Tian Fuxian said this, the crowd of onlookers scattered in all directions. Some of the more timid ones cried and shouted as they went home to talk to their bosses.

Several old men came upon hearing the news and, trembling, received Tian Fuxian and his party.

Lu Zilin also came with his father. Upon hearing Tian Fuxian's words and seeing the disorganized scene, his eyes lit up and he quickly said to his father.

"Father, I think we should ask Jiaxuan to handle this. He's the clan leader, and we haven't even seen a glimpse of him yet!"

Lu Taiheng thought about it and felt it made sense, so he quickly asked Lu Zilin to go to the field to call Bai Jiaxuan.

Actually, Lu Zilin didn't need to call out. After Tian Fuxian entered the village, someone went up to the plain to call for Bai Jiaxuan.

Bai Jiaxuan, shirtless and showing off his strong muscles, was tying up the medicinal herbs with Lu San when he heard the villagers' report. His brows furrowed immediately.

It's about time these bastards came; it's already 1912.

Bai Jiaxuan put on a jacket and, while packing the medicinal herbs, called out to Shi Tou, who had come to report.

"Okay, you go back first, I'll be right back!"

Lu San, who was standing nearby, quickly asked with concern.

"Boss, I'll go with you!"

Bai Jiaxuan looked at the medicinal herbs in the field, shook his head, and said...

"Keep storing the herbs safe. I'll come back in a donkey cart later to take them back and dry them while the sun is shining these days!"

Lu San nodded with some concern, then went back to work.

Bai Jiaxuan watched Lu San work efficiently and nodded in approval. This farmhand was good; loyal and honest!

Just as Lu Zilin was about to go find Bai Jiaxuan, he saw Shi Tou shouting to the crowd outside the ancestral hall.

"The chieftain is here! The chieftain is here!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Zilin immediately stopped in his tracks, and with a fawning expression, approached Tian Fuxian to inquire about matters in the county.

When Bai Jiaxuan returned to the village, Tian Fuxian was sitting in the ancestral hall with his men, leisurely crossing his legs, smoking, and talking to a group of villagers about the county's policies.

Bai Jiaxuan stood with his hands behind his back, his face ashen. The crowd parted to make way for him, and he slowly walked in!

Tian Fuxian was getting into his tirade of threats and intimidation when Bai Jiaxuan walked in from outside the ancestral hall. Everyone's eyes were on him. Tian Fuxian knew that if he could get Bai Jiaxuan on his side, he would have solved most of the problem.

Tian Fuxian had already found out that Bailuyuan had paid grain tax once two years ago, but only Bai Jiaxuan did not pay. In the following two years, it was Bai Jiaxuan who instigated everyone to resist the tax.

Tian Fuxian's eyes darted around, then his expression turned serious, and he shouted at Bai Jiaxuan.

"Bai Jiaxuan, you've come at the right time! You are the clan chief of Bailu Plain. You need to organize the villagers to make good relations regarding the matter of making up for the grain tax. If even a single grain is missing, you will be held responsible!"

Bai Jiaxuan walked up to Tian Fuxian with his hands behind his back, looked at Tian Fuxian and his henchmen, and casually shouted.

"Where did this good-for-nothing come from? He's not even as good as a dog. Dogs grow up eating their master's food and know how to wag their tails. He's only been eating shit outside for a few days and he's already bossing everyone around!"

Bai Jiaxuan's words left everyone speechless, their faces filled with shock. This clan leader was too arrogant; he even dared to scold the officials sent by the county magistrate!

Bai Jiaxuan really did curse him. Tian Fuxian grew up eating food from Bailuyuan. He had only been away for a few years, but he had already turned his back on them. For the sake of political achievements, he had even come back to extort his own fellow villagers!