Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 106 Four Million Mu of Fertile Land
In the Sanggan River plantation, farmers from the first production team gathered by the river to eat.

Every household brings their own food. In order not to compare with each other, honest and unassuming farmers bring steamed vegetables and steamed millet rice.

Sang Yang'an squatted by the river to eat. After finishing the large bowl of wild vegetable rice that his wife had brought him, he gently placed the bowl, which still had some millet grains left, on the river.

The river water in spring is cool and looks clean, not as dirty as usual.

Sang Yang'an scooped up a bowl of water and drank it down along with the icy river water and the meager leftover food broth.

After eating and drinking his fill, Sang Yang'an walked to the riverbank.

On both sides of the Sanggan River, there are large areas of farmland. Every ten to several hundred meters, you can see one or more farmers working hard. In front and behind, you can see the mountains stretching for hundreds of miles.

Sang Yang'an walked over to the group of people from the first production team and sat down, then lay down on the barren land by the river where there wasn't a single green plant to be seen, and went to sleep.

Having enough to eat and drink is a happy thing. Last year, Sang Yang'an, who was in his twenties, was allocated land and a wife, and also became a registered resident.

The public household registration is the household registration directly belonging to Beijiwu, the chief of the Shannong tribe, and belongs to public resources.

The best candidates for military service, farming, craftsmanship, blacksmithing, medicine, and scholarship were all found here.

It would also be used to reward those who had made contributions.

Currently, San Nong County has over 100,000 households and 500,000 people, with 30,000 households in public housing, totaling over 100,000 people.

When they were in Kitahara, they only set up a dozen or so production teams. After they occupied Yamagoku Kyushu, they changed them to Kyushu production teams, with each province arranged in order from west to east.

Shuozhou, being a place close to Yanmen Pass, was where the troops and civilians of the Beijiwu Army were stationed.

The first production team, with its 30,000 households, was responsible for 3 million mu of land.

Thirty thousand households and one hundred thousand people, cultivating three million mu of land—when I first heard this news, I was truly filled with despair.

While Sang Yang'an was taking a nap in the sun by the river, several elderly people next to him were chatting with worried expressions.

"I heard that another village in the east has fled, and they all say they won't survive this year."

"How can we not go out and work? With less than 30,000 laborers, we have to cultivate 2 million mu of land. Each family has to cultivate nearly 100 mu of land. Even if we work ourselves to death, we still can't manage it all."

"I heard that the people under the command of the Thousand-Household Commander are not many to farm, and those people behind him only need to farm ten acres of land each."

"The taxes over there are lighter, only one-tenth. Here, we have to pay 50% of the taxes. After harvesting the grain, we have to hand over half of it. The rest is ours. We still have to work, dig ditches, build houses, and send people to raise cattle, sweep the floor, and do odd jobs."

“The regulations here are very strict, even stricter than the previous imperial court. My son went to work in the city yesterday and said that the master found out that the oxen had not been distributed this year. In one team of a thousand households, more than two hundred households were still pulling the plows. So he killed three thousand-household commanders and ten hundred-household commanders and gave the wives of the thousand-household commanders to the new thousand-household commander.”

“Our master has killed nearly a hundred people this year. He killed dozens during the Spring Festival last year. He used to say he didn’t like killing people. How come he killed so many?”

"Nonsense! Could he become a marquis without killing people? I think he wants to be the emperor. What conqueror doesn't kill? He's killed at least ten thousand people. He's a warrior capable of taking on ten thousand men!"

A few old men were chatting idly and mysteriously, making it impossible for Sang Yang to get a peaceful sleep.

[A bunch of old geezers, they're just bored and have nothing better to do!]

Sang Yang'an cursed inwardly, then lay down on his side with his back to them to sleep.

His wife was six months pregnant. As long as he and his wife could have enough to eat, receive the monthly relief rations distributed by the production team on time, and have a place to shelter from the wind and rain, Sang Yang'an would not run away.

Arctic Wu kills people as easily as drinking water, but as long as you don't provoke him, you'll be fine.

The killings were mainly related to corruption, bribery, and disobedience.

For example, if someone tries to get a woman to treat her illness by arguing about morality and shame, then with a single stroke from Beijiwu, no one would dare to speak up.

For example, if someone has too many cattle and sheep, enough for every household to have, but insists on withholding them and not distributing them, then getting caught means certain death.

If you want to resist, you'll die.

Waiting to die is death, and resisting is also death, so many people choose to wait to die.

Those killed by Arctic martial arts were mostly people who had no ability to resist.

Those commanders all died on their knees, never truly believing they could fight to the death or defeat the Arctic Army.

Whether civil or military officials, they are all lackeys of the Arctic military.

Sang Yang'an didn't care about Beijiwu's killings, as long as he didn't kill the lower classes.

The 500,000 people of Kyushu behind the mountains all knelt before the Northern Warlord to beg for a way to survive, so there is a certain path dependency.

After resting for more than two hours, the people who were lying or sitting in the fields slowly got up after the village three miles away started to ring the bell.

"It's work."

"Get up, everyone, time to work."

"We still have two thousand acres to work on this afternoon. You're not allowed to go home until you finish!"

Sang Yang'an got up to work, put the rested oxen on the farm tools, and began his hard work.

The first production team had more than 100,000 people, 70,000 cattle, and 30,000 households.

Sang Yang'an controlled a large, two-and-a-half-meter-wide double plow, driving the three oxen in front to pull the iron plow across the land.

A ballast stone was placed on the plough to press the iron hook into the ground for deep plowing. Sang Yang'an stood on it and controlled the plough, while two men led the ox forward.

The public fields are all connected, and you can walk forward for 10,000 meters without having to turn back.

With three people and three oxen, they can plow thirty mu of land per day.

Each member of the production team owns two cows, including old cows, calves, and pregnant cows.

Regardless of the lives of others, Beijiwu made the blacksmiths work hard to smelt iron during the winter. Relying on local coal and iron resources, and with more than a dozen blacksmith shops working together, they produced more than a thousand large iron plows.

There are oxen and plows, and the land is a vast plain farm.

Even if nine-tenths of the land is mountainous, as long as one-tenth is plains, the Kyushu region behind the mountains will have plenty of super fertile land that can be connected together.

While we still don't have enough tools, we have improved our work efficiency.

The first production brigade was divided into thirty thousand-household production teams. Because many people in each thousand-household team had been transferred to work for the Arctic Army, the personnel were not complete.

However, they were all subordinates of Arctic Warriors, who allowed them to cooperate, riding horses, carrying various iron tools, leading cattle, and taking their wives and children to help others elsewhere.

Those who escape will be caught and killed; the rest can be left to their own devices, as long as the farming task is completed.

Beiji Wu was not afraid of his men rebelling with kitchen knives and iron pots, nor was he afraid of them colluding with him.

Give as many farm tools as you feel are needed, instead of waiting for the people below to ask for them or apply for them.

Because he himself placed far greater emphasis on agriculture than the farmers and intellectuals of his time, Arctic Wu's actions seem somewhat strange.

Sang Yang'an and some others could clearly feel the importance that Arctic Wu attached to farming.

As long as you farm diligently, no matter how much grain you have stored in your household before, after the household registration is re-established, you will receive relief rations according to the number of people in your household, silver to buy oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and coal, and after kowtowing to the portrait of Beiji Wu, you will receive a woman and a tattered quilt. After working for a month, you will receive a cow.

Farm tools, kitchen knives, and oxen were used freely; even if they were exhausted to death, it didn't matter—they would be slaughtered and the meat divided up for consumption.

If too many people die, then a few more will die with them. Humans and cattle must live in harmony and maintain a dynamic balance.

The two-hour lunch break was secured by the scalpers themselves, and has little to do with the men and women working nearby.

Sang Yang'an looked at the women sowing seeds in the distance, and then at the horsemen and farmers tilling the land not far away.

"I made it! I'm off!!"

The groom caught up from behind, called out to the group of three oxen and three men from afar, and walked past them with a smile. The oxen needed rest; they still had to pull iron and farm tools, but there were still the horses!

Two horses pulled a cart, carrying farmers tilling the land, and quickly overtook the group of people.

Horse-drawn plows are much faster than ox-drawn plows. This year, we have no shortage of livestock or land, but we lack people and farming tools.

The oxcart couldn't catch up with the horse-drawn carriage, but it soon caught up with the sowing team a hundred meters away.

Fertilizer has already been applied to the fields. Since there was no snow during the Spring Festival this year, in order to deal with pests and diseases, some of the wheat straw covering the land to retain moisture was burned, killing a lot of insect eggs.

Nowadays, early tilling is done to freeze and kill some insect eggs, and also to allow fertilizer to penetrate deep into the loose soil for fermentation.

The land, which was plowed three or four days ago, is already being sown.

Women and old women led oxen and pulled seed drills to sow wheat in the fields.

Spring wheat is sown in April, millet in May, wheat is harvested in August, and millet in September, to avoid overlapping labor and prevent the harvest from being delayed.

After a long day of work, as the sun was about to set in the evening, the sound of the clock striking midnight echoed from the nearby village.

"That's it for the day! Time to head back to the village!"

"Take the cows and horses back and feed them the best feed! Give those who have eggs an extra two!"

"Put away all the tools, we'll continue tomorrow!"

"gone!"

"Kid! Let's go!"

"Wait for me!"

The villagers called out to each other, like a flock of sheep returning home, rushing back to their village.

It was impossible for all 30,000-plus people in the first production team to live together; they were all scattered in places like Shuozhou.

The communes with a thousand households and the villages with a hundred households were all planned according to a square area.

Today, Sang Yang'an's family lives with 99 other households in a makeshift mud-brick house.

One family, one household, one house.

Each household has a unique identification number. Sang Yang'an's number is 131104!

First Production Team, 31,000th Household, No. 4 of the 100th Household Team.

Beiji Wu only had twenty thousand-household troops under his command who were stationed for fighting; the rest were captured farmers and craftsmen.

Of the twenty thousand households used for fighting, only one percent were on guard duty; the rest were farming and working.

Arctic weapons don't need defense...

If the Wen Dynasty dared to attack, the Beiji Wu would dare to attack back, so they never worried about the issue of garrisoning troops.

In other border passes, the task of farming was much smaller due to the need to defend against foreign tribes.

The village provides dinner every night, while breakfast and lunch are prepared by the families themselves.

Adults and children gather together for dinner in the evening.

The centurion took a bite of the beef leg, stood on a table, and shouted at his 99 households, three or four hundred people.

"Three cows have already died from working here. You all better watch out. If anyone else manages to kill or overwork their cows, they'll be in for a beating and have to pay compensation!"

"Our village of one hundred households is tasked with cultivating 15,000 mu of land. Today is the third day. The chief of the thousand households has given the order: after our village finishes cultivating the land, we will leave behind the women, the elderly, and ten men. The rest of us will take our farm tools and horses to support Village 309, which is twenty li to the east!"

Sang Yang'an ate his meal and drank his soup.

The man next to me, Qiu Feng, asked, "Brother Sang, which team is 309?"

Sang Yang'an replied, "The 30th thousandth household is the 800th household village. We are village 311, which is the next village, not far away."

Qiu Feng finished his bowl of porridge and saw a child eating attentively next to him, so he slapped the child on the head.

"Go get me some rice." Qiu Feng handed over his bowl, his temper flaring.

The child, who was eating, reluctantly put down his bowl and went to get more rice for his father.

I have ignored this person's orders many times, and what I got in return was a beating.

Just like being beaten by Arctic martial arts with nowhere to seek justice, it's only natural for these children to be bossed around by their families. They can't help being slapped or kicked by their own parents for no reason.

In the eyes of the men, women, and children of Shannong County, Beijiwu's madness was something that could not be helped. This was the kind of person who was in charge of the household. Many people grew up in such families and received this kind of love that was accompanied by violence and coercion.

After the child went to get the rice, Qiu Feng and Sang Yang'an continued their conversation.

“I’ve been using horses to plow the fields these past few days. Two horses can plow twenty acres a day, which is much faster than using oxen. You can do math, so help me calculate this.”

“Our village has fifty plows, more than 150 adult oxen, warhorses that can’t work, and more than 100 horses for plowing and pulling carts. Every day, forty of the fifty plows are pulled by oxen, and the remaining ten are used by horses.”

"How many acres of land do we cultivate in a day?"

Sang Yang'an smiled and said, "I've already calculated it. If an ox plows 30 mu a day, 40 oxen can plow 1,200 mu. If a horse plows 20 mu a day, 10 horses can plow 200 mu. In total, it's 1,400 mu a day."

"It will take about ten days to complete the task of 15,000 mu."

Qiu Feng had already had a general idea of ​​what to expect, and upon hearing this, he exclaimed, "When I first heard that I had to cultivate 15,000 mu of land, I thought I was going to die. I even considered running away several times. Fortunately, I had a foundation after the first day."

Sang Yang'an smiled and said, "Me too."

There are over 30,000 public households. This year's target is 3 million mu of public land. The remaining 50 mu of private land per household will not be taken into account or taxed. However, anyone who tries to cultivate private land instead of public land will be sentenced to death if caught.

The blacksmiths worked day and night, and the production of ironware quietly ushered in a technological revolution.

Coke is produced by smoldering coal in a honeycomb kiln.

The improved blast furnace, powered by a waterwheel-driven high-powered blower, significantly increased the furnace temperature and greatly improved the efficiency of coke ironmaking.

From an annual output of 100 tons, the current annual output of 1,000 tons of iron is produced in less than six months.

One ironworks is enough. Arctic Armed Forces strictly controls the movement of these people and forbids them from leaving the work area.

Large quantities of iron blocks were sent to more than a dozen blacksmith shops, each producing more than a dozen sickles and hoes per day.

Each blacksmith shop produces more than 3,000 farm tools a year, enough for 3,000 people in the vicinity to replace and use. Large ironware such as iron plows are made by state-owned factories, which can produce more than 700 per month, and currently there are less than 2,000.

Iron plows are still being manufactured continuously for replacement and replenishment. Each iron plow can plow 30 mu of land per day, so 2,000 plows would plow 60,000 mu, and even in 20 days, they would only plow 1.2 million mu.

Fortunately, wheat and millet are planted at different times, and the areas for planting wheat and millet have been planned.

One and a half million mu of wheat were used for the Arctic military and some of the population to eat, while the remaining millet was used for disaster relief.

Even if there's a severe drought and a complete crop failure, it doesn't matter; Arctic Wu can lead 100,000 men to plunder.

Arctic Weapons are the guarantee for everyone, especially the military, which follows Arctic Weapons.

However, Beiji Wu is a very lazy person. He would rather send his subordinates out to their deaths than do everything himself.

War is an act of testing national strength, not individual bravery.

(End of this chapter)