Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 409 Oh my god...

"hold head high?"

Xia Lin was stunned. He seemed not to have heard clearly and asked again with a stronger tone: "What?"

"We want to be Chinese." The leader of the Heishui Mohe said seriously, "We want to enjoy the grace of God."

Xia Lin had not expected this move. He had thought that this group of people wanted to do business, and he had also thought that they wanted to join forces with Xia Lin to eliminate their enemies, but no one expected that they would come up and attack him directly.

Want to be a Han Chinese...

My goodness, these people are incredible. If Xia Lin agrees, then doesn't that mean he will help them bear the feud with other tribes? If he refuses to agree, how can they implement the policy of sinicization here?

My goodness, who said this Doujiao... this barbarian is stupid, this barbarian is so smart, he can even use open conspiracy.

"Tell me, why do you want to become a Han Chinese?"

After asking this question, Xia Lin regretted it, because this man kept talking non-stop, praising us in various ways, saying that we were good in this and that, and that being a Han Chinese would allow us to have enough food, study, and...

Anyway, he wanted to praise the benefits of being a Han Chinese to the sky. What he meant was that he would rather be a Han Chinese dog than hunt wild boars in this remote place.

Huang Taiji, take a look at your great great great great grandfather...

If it were someone else, they would be overjoyed, and would definitely be grateful for the universality of the kingly way and the merits of promoting education. But Xia Lin was born not interested in this kind of thing. If there was someone who was willing to sacrifice his dignity to please someone, there must be a factor behind it that could affect his survival.

The dignity he sacrificed will definitely be taken back in a twisted and cruel way in the future. Think about when An Lushan danced with his bare chest and when he later attacked Chang'an City.

Therefore, Xia Lin had a cold face throughout the whole process and was not happy at all. It was not until the Mohe leader fully expressed his admiration for him that he tore off a piece of venison and put it in his mouth, and asked in a bland tone: "Is there any tribe that wants to encircle and suppress you?"

After these words came out, the leader's expression became obviously unnatural. He laughed dryly a few times, and then said: "Master Han Envoy, we just sincerely admire you..."

"That's enough." Xia Lin raised his hand. "The Chinese territory is 4,800 miles from east to west and 3,700 miles from north to south. One more or one less of you won't make much difference. But we want brothers who are our closest relatives, not cats and dogs who try to please us by trickery. If you have any troubles or problems, you can bring them up. Even if they are not Han Chinese, those who can solve them can be solved for you. After all, we are friends. If you use this method to avoid problems, it will make people look down on you."

The chief felt somewhat ashamed after hearing these words. This man, who used to move as fast as the wind in the mountains and forests, was now as helpless as a child.

After a long while, the man reluctantly told the reason. He said that there were some conflicts with other tribes a few years ago. Now everyone is reclaiming wasteland together, but when the land was divided, they were bullied because of their small tribe size, and the land they were allocated was basically near the river.

They saw that other people's crops had already sprouted, but their own land could not be grown at all because of root rot caused by excessive waterlogging and tidal flats.

He said he also went to see General Ye, but the general said he had no say in the matter. After all, they were all from Bohai State, and he, a general of the Han Dynasty, could not interfere. If he interfered in the internal affairs of Bohai State, conflicts would arise.

When he said this, the chief was almost crying. He said that they were still dreaming of a good harvest last year, and they learned how to grow crops from the Han masters seriously, but this year it turned out to be like this...

Xia Lin laughed after hearing this: "So you just want to become a Han Chinese so that you can get more land?" "No, I won't stay here. I'm going back with the Han envoy to the interior of the country. I heard that every household in the Central Plains can have enough food, the weather is warm, and there are not so many taxes. Everyone can live a good life. I want to lead my people to live a good life. We've had enough of people starving to death every year."

Xia Lin smiled and stood up: "Come on, take me to see your land."

The leader brought Xia Lin to the place where they were assigned. It turned out that the other big tribes in Bohai Kingdom were really fucking wicked. In the countryside, this kind of thing was just a routine of bullying women, children, and the widowed, but in this place, they learned it without any instruction.

Each of their tribes was allocated about 5,000 acres of land, but there was a river in the middle of the 5,000 acres. The farmland and the river accounted for a total of 5,000 acres. The river was not big but was more than 80 meters wide. Excluding the river and the mudflats on both sides, the arable area was less than 500 acres.

Five hundred acres of land are divided among three thousand people, and they have to hand in grain at the end of the year. Isn't this forcing people to death?

Xia Lin stood by the river, stroking his chin and thinking for a long time. This problem might be difficult to solve. It was unrealistic to ask them to build a dam. If they were asked to farm, they would not be able to pay this year's land tax even if they swung their hoes until sparks flew.

Besides, it’s summer now, and it’s too late to ask them to choose new land since they missed the spring plowing season.

This matter is a headache even for Xia Lin.

Suddenly, an idea came to him and he actually had a trick.

Xia Lin squatted by the river, watching the timber floating down from upstream from time to time, and the many merchant ships passing by that were communicating with the Han area. He squinted his eyes and smiled, then pointed to the other side of the river: "Will you build a bridge?"

The leader shook his head silently, while Xia Lin chuckled a few times, "It will take about two months to build a suspension bridge and a dock here. I will lend you money. You can take the money to General Ye and ask his engineering team to build the bridge for you. After it is built, you can collect money from people who want to cross the bridge or go up and down the river, and then you can start a service industry based on the docks on both sides of the river."

"Mr. Han Envoy, what is the service industry..."

Xia Lin squatted on the ground and propped up a wooden stick to demonstrate to him: "This bridge can be raised and lowered on both sides. When it is raised, people can pass through. When it is lowered, no one can pass through. If you want to pass through, you have to pay you. And if you have a ready-made dock, their passing goods can be directly loaded here, and your people can work around here to earn their money. I have seen along the way that they have given you the widest part of the river."

"Yes, they are very bad."

"It's impossible for things in this world to have only disadvantages and no advantages." Xia Lin pointed to the other side of the river. "Other places don't have the conditions to build a good cargo terminal. Only here, where the river is wide and the water flow is slow, can we build a terminal."

The leader was uneducated and really didn't understand. Xia Lin pondered for a long time, then stood up and put his hands on his hips: "Well, I won't be in a hurry to leave in two months. I'll do this for you. I'll pay the money and do the work. Just remember to pay me back when the time comes."

“But we have no money…”

Xia Lin shook his head silently, thinking that education was the most important thing. These people might be good at fighting and hunting, but they were not even as good as African gorillas in matters that required thinking. It seemed that the progress of the strategy in the Northeast region might not be as smooth as Xiao Chenzi thought. The cultural level of these people was too low...

"Don't worry about it! Go and call General Ye for me."
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I updated a little less today because the weather has cooled down and my frozen shoulder is acting up. It hurts so much sitting here...

(End of this chapter)