Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 14 Wheat Harvesters
Before dawn, the four girls got up and started working.

The toilet was located in a corner between the cowshed room and the earthen wall behind it. It was a simple toilet built with a wooden sign made of branches and hemp rope.

Below the toilet is a small pit about one meter deep, with stepping stones on both sides.

Even Beijiwu didn't build a toilet that big. Each time, he would pour some water when it was almost empty, and then use a special scooping tool placed in the toilet to collect the sewage into a bucket and carry it away to fertilize.

In the days before fertilizer, every household valued manure.

The same applies to Arctic warfare, as it relates to food production.

After using the toilet in the early morning, Beijiwu washed his hands and ate breakfast.

Today I cooked another fish. When Beijiwu saw that only half of it was used for soup, he looked at Li Hong.

"Why leave half of it?"

Li Hong explained, "The other half is baked. Take it with you when you go out to work and eat it on the way."

Arctic Wu doesn't need it. "Just take it out and eat it together. When I go to work for others, they will provide meals. That's what I ate last year."

Upon hearing that Beijiwu had gone to help someone and that the person was providing meals, Li Hong stood up and went to the main room to get fish and meat.

Beijiwu looked at Li Hong's withered buttocks as she walked, then at the equally thin and frail Li Bing, as well as the even thinner Xiulan and the short and thin little girl Xianglan.

"The four of you can eat and work here. From now on, you'll have two meals a day, two steamed buns and two bowls of porridge each time, which will be four steamed buns and four bowls of porridge a day."

Li Bing quickly replied, "Okay!"

Xiulan and Xianglan smiled happily, "We're doing well too!"

Everyone was having a happy meal together when Li Hong came over carrying a package about the length of a palm. She took out the grilled fish from the package and placed it in front of Bei Jiwu.

Beijiwu looked at the charred fish, tore off a piece for himself, and put the rest on Li Hong's side.

"You should share the food, eat more and you'll gain weight."

Li Hong lowered her head and began to cut the meat. Ever since she met Beijiwu, she had received a gentle treatment that she had never received at home, and even the food and drink she received were ten times better than before.

Xiulan and Xianglan each received one large and one small piece of meat. The older one ate more, and the younger one ate less, and that's how the meat was divided.

Xianglan took a piece of broken fish meat with both hands and took a bite with the other.

Even without oil, the fish fat and the juices from grilling made Xianglan's mouth full of oil.

After finishing his meal, Beijiwu stood up and said, "It looks like it's going to be a hot day. You four just keep working on the wheat. I'm leaving now."

Li Hong stood up and asked, "Where are you going? If you need to work a few more days, I can ask you about it later."

In those days, it was very difficult to go out. Li Hong had never left the village since she arrived, and the other three were the same.

If Beijiwu has an accident while working, the four women will have to go back to their respective parents' homes.

Even daughters who are sold into marriage are the same; unless they have children, they have nowhere else to go but to return to their parents' home.

In those chaotic times of war, Li Hong didn't want Bei Jiwu to leave the village, but she had no choice but to go for the sake of making a living.

Beijiwu said, "Go to Hutou Town near Beiyuan County, follow the official road, it's about twenty li away."

Li Hong felt relieved; it didn't seem too far.

"Then be careful, keep your distance from people, lest you get captured and sent to war." Li Hong was still a little worried, but she couldn't stop him from staying.

After receiving the sickle and whetstone, Beijiwu went out to work.

The wheat harvesting time varies from place to place. Today, the wheat in the northern part of the village has not been completely harvested, and the areas further north certainly haven't finished harvesting either.

With the strength of an ox or horse, Beijiwu quickly ran out of the village and headed towards Beiyuan County.

After running for about 10,000 meters, I finally saw a golden wheat field. More than half an hour had passed by then.

There were many people working in the nearby wheat fields. Beijiwu walked over with his wheat-harvesting tools.

There were many people in the neighborhood, including women and children, all pitching in, and not many were actually doing the work for others.

If you reclaim wasteland yourself, you'll have land. As more people die, land consolidation becomes less serious.

Beijiwu looked around and found a spot with lots of women.

It's not that they're lustful; it's that if they make all the women in the family work in the fields, it's usually because they're genuinely short-handed.

If four or five men from a family were working there, they wouldn't need to spend money to hire help.

Beijiwu walked to a place where two men were working with four women and three children.

"It's going to rain today, do you need to hire people to help harvest the wheat?"

Arctic Martial Arts, standing more than ten meters away, immediately started asking questions, his first words being nothing more than selling anxiety.

Upon hearing this, the boys and girls working over there all looked towards the young man walking towards them.

Wen Zhaohu breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Beijiwu, but he couldn't feel happy. "It's you, you little rascal! I've been wondering when you'd come. Your wheat harvest is already done?"

Like most people who know Arctic Martial Arts, Wen Zhaohu doesn't seem to like Arctic Martial Arts very much.

Beijiwu said, "It took me two days to finish harvesting. I also found four girls to help me clean up at home. I can't support four women on my own, so I came here to earn some money. Old man, do you still need my help? The old men and women in my village who wouldn't let me help all sat on the ground and cried after a rain."

His words are still as harsh as ever, but they do have a way of touching people's hearts.

Wen Zhaohu looked at his family members, who were covered in sweat and had dry, cracked lips, and then at the hundred acres of good land that the imperial court had given him.

"If we follow last year's schedule, how long will you work this year?"

Last year, Beijiwu came here to freeload, earning 0.08 taels per mu. He left after earning one tael of silver, ignoring everyone's pleas for more money.

Beijiwu said, "There are women waiting at home. I'll start with eight acres today, and I'll leave as soon as I finish. If it rains, I'll just do as much as I can."

Wen Zhaohu, who was in his forties, was so angry that he wanted to curse, but he held back and said, "Do it, Qiuyue, go get him the money."

Qiuyue is Wen Zhaohu's daughter-in-law and the daughter of a military doctor in the garrison. She is beautiful and obedient, but she is not as strong as her mother-in-law and the others, and she can't do much farm work.

If it hadn't been raining in the neighboring village, Wen Zhaohu wouldn't have let his daughter-in-law come out to work.

But with Beijiwu here, there's no need for his daughter-in-law to work here anymore.

Due to military reasons, most locals had to stay in the county garrisons, resulting in a shortage of extra labor during the busy farming season.

There are very few people like Arctic Warrior who don't have to serve in the military or pay taxes, yet can still work.

Beijiwu said, "I can't spend the money anyway. Give me some grain and salt, so I don't have to go to the county."

Wen Zhaohu quickly calculated for a moment and soon agreed: "I'll give you two bolts of hemp cloth, three catties of salt, and five pecks of millet."

“Okay!” Beijiwu readily agreed, and walked over with his sickle. “Come on, let’s decide on a place. I won’t do anything more than that. Don’t kneel down like you did last year. Kneeling won’t help.”

Wen Zhaohu was so humiliated by Beijiwu in front of his wife, son, daughter-in-law, and daughter that his face turned red with anger. "You do it! Call me when you're done!"

Arctic warriors are ruthless, foul-mouthed, and strong, but at least they keep their word and don't deliberately cheat or steal.

The nine members of the Wen family watched as the Arctic Martial Arts Project began construction.

The sound of wheat being harvested in the Arctic was continuous, and the enemy seemed to have no intention of conserving their energy, just burying their heads and charging forward relentlessly.

After harvesting so much wheat that they couldn't hold it all, they simply tossed it on the ground.

In the time it takes to breathe, you can drop a handful of wheat straw.

With the addition of Arctic Martial Arts, Wen Zhaohu was finally much more at ease about the harvest from his 100 acres of land.

Grain prices at the border have remained high because the imperial court has recently been building granaries to store grain and alleviate wartime pressures.

Wheat and millet have always been the main staple grains. Rice is relatively easy to transport, while millet is more expensive than millet because it can be used to brew alcohol.

One shi (石) = ten dou (斗) = one hundred sheng (升) = 120 jin (斤)

Five dou is sixty jin
The border troops ate about 0.1 liang (approximately 200 grams) and 40 jin (approximately 20 kg) of millet daily, but the price of grain was not fixed and could fluctuate by two or three times.

The 60 jin of millet I earned today is equivalent to a month's worth of food for one woman in my family.

In an era when people didn't eat sugar or milk tea, nor did they consume fried, high-calorie foods, and still had to work, eating two kilograms of grain a day wasn't excessive.

Two or three roasted sweet potatoes weigh about two pounds, enough to fill you up in one meal, but definitely not enough for a whole day.

A family of five consumes about 3,000 catties of food per year, supplementing their diet with wild vegetables and agricultural products.

One mu of land yields about 120 jin. Twenty mu of wheat fields are just enough to make a living, thirty mu will have a surplus, fifty mu will allow you to save money, and one hundred mu will give you the strength to withstand natural disasters.

Normally, land exceeding 100 acres would be rented out to landlords. However, here there are few people and much land, so everyone is busy with their own land. Even new landlords like Wen Zhaohu have to work in the fields themselves.

If the land cannot be rented out and the family doesn't cultivate it themselves, it's as if they don't own the land, which is unacceptable to Wen Zhaohu's family who owns hundreds of acres of fertile land.

At noon, Bei Jiwu, who had harvested three or four acres of wheat, went to the edge of the field to eat.

The women from the Wen family brought over bowls and water jugs, and then set out six bowls of knife-cut noodles without soup.

The food in wealthy families is indeed different. Beijiwu ate knife-cut noodles with shredded meat and quickly regained his strength.

Wen Zhaohu also ate with a bowl in his hand, but unlike Beijiwu who was eating on the ground, Wen Zhaohu was sitting in a chair.

Respectable people are different.

Wen Zhaohu said to Beijiwu, "Why don't you work for me? I'll provide you with food, pay you wages, and even help you find a wife and build a house in the future."

Beijiwu swallowed a mouthful of noodles and said, "Get lost! I can cultivate a hundred acres of land by myself. Why would I need to work for an old man like you? If you don't want to work, pay me. If you don't want to work, there are plenty of other people who will!"

Wen Zhaohu was so angry he couldn't eat anymore. "I can't reason with someone like you! I'm going to eat somewhere else!"

(End of this chapter)