Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 196 The Golden Age
To defend one's territory, a large population is needed.

In order to encourage population growth, the Arctic Army has introduced a series of policies.

***
"Meeting time! Meeting time! Everyone go to the village/community meeting!"

Upon hearing this, the people working in the fields dropped what they were doing and hurried towards the village.

Wang Cheng and his family carried hoes, led a horse-drawn cart, and carried farming tools back home.

"Dad, what's the matter that requires a meeting?"

Wang Fugui, walking beside him, looked at the dark mass of people ahead and replied, "It's probably something to do with the imperial court. Otherwise, with spring plowing being so important today, who would have time to listen to the nonsense of the commander?"

Wang Cheng whispered, "Father, I wish you were a commander of a thousand men."

Becoming a thousand households is actually quite easy; you just need to sign up to go to the Western Regions, West Asia, or the northern deserts, Liaodong, and other remote areas to farm.

Wang Fugui didn't want to suffer like this.

He is a very hardworking person, but now that he has no worries about food and clothing and has a large family of children and grandchildren, he really doesn't want to take any risks.

Throughout history, those who went to the frontier to endure hardship either had their descendants die out or returned.

This has been the case for hundreds of years. Only young people dare to go out. Older people or those with large families don't go out.

The thousand households of Production Team 3701 quickly arrived, with those who had household registration at the front and the rest standing nearby to listen to the lecture.

A thousand households have more than a thousand people. Nowadays, every household has seven or eight people, and some have more than ten or twenty people, with a total of more than 15,000 people.

Duan Yishan, a thousand-household commander, stood on the podium and addressed the crowd, holding a newspaper.

"The imperial newspaper said that King Wu thought that nowadays every household has many children and the original houses would not be enough to accommodate them. Many people do not want to move out, so he made an exception and allowed each production team to use private land to build houses."

Wang Cheng immediately shouted, "Why are you building houses on private land? Aren't you going to farm it anymore?"

Duan Yishan glanced at him and said loudly, "Don't interrupt! Do you think the King of Wu is more clear-headed than you are? Let me finish!"

The others burst into laughter, mocking Wang Cheng for making trouble for no reason.

Wang Cheng looked very unwell because he was illiterate, and the commander of the thousand households did not allow people to read newspapers, resulting in a lack of opportunities to learn to read.

Wang Fugui also had a smile on his face, looking ahead and blending in with the people around him.

A smile would suffice, and Qianhu Duan Yishan continued to relay the instructions from Arctic Martial.

"The new houses are back-to-back, and the design is mainly for reference. Everyone will pass it around to see what the house looks like."

Duan Yishan paused for a moment, then continued talking about how to build the house.

"Houses were built during the off-season for farming, and the land for building was requisitioned. Each person was given between 20 and 50 mu of land by King Wu, who required that all of this land be collectively owned by the village."

“No matter whose land it is, it must be used to build houses. If your land is used to build a house today, then his land will be used in the future. From building roads and houses to constructing schools, and then to ancestral halls and tombs, all private land belongs to the village collective, and King Wu has the right to dispose of it.”

"This is a mandatory order, a matter for the country and the family. Each household should first contribute their own land: ten mu to build new houses and five mu to build mausoleums."

"The new houses are mainly intended for each family to use as backup housing to solve the problems of overcrowding and family division, and can also be used as storage places."

“Each household can have a land area of ​​eight meters long and five meters wide, no more and no less. After the land is measured, they can build their own houses without interference.”

"The land occupied will be compensated at a rate of five taels of silver per mu, with the imperial court distributing subsidies to the local households. No miscellaneous taxes may be levied on the people; violators will be severely punished!"

Wang Fugui and his family listened attentively.

The family were refugees who went west to the Shan Nong Kingdom a few years ago. They survived the famine years thanks to the Shan Nong people's shelter and then returned to their hometown to farm, as ordered by the Shan Nong Kingdom. That's how they were incorporated into the production team.

Nowadays, the family's household registration type is production team farmer, not thousand-household leader.

Everyone here is a servant of King Wu.

***
Inside the conference room of Team 115, 498 frowned as he pondered something.

"Captain, my land is in Tongzhou, what should I do?"

Jin Yuzhen laughed and said, "It's not your land. Your land belongs to King Wu. King Wu has always had people help cultivate it. Don't even think about it. We are all city people and don't own any land."

An old man nearby said, "Sijiuba, there are only three people in your family, but now there are two households. Even if you build two more houses, you won't be able to live there all. How about I give you money and sell you the extra houses? We're all from the same team, so it'll definitely work."

498 immediately refused, "No, I don't need the money, I won't sell!"

The old man continued, "Then rent it to me. My family is too big to fit everyone in."

Si Jiuba still shook his head and refused, "No! It was given to me by King Wu, I won't give it to anyone else!"

"What do you mean 'others'? We're all on the same team!" The old man glared, his beard bristling, looking quite intimidating.

498 stubbornly insisted, "I won't rent it!"

Jin Yuzhen immediately said, "Stop arguing! What kind of behavior is it to bully a girl? Let me tell you, we don't allow people to act like they're old here. Don't think that just because you're older you can be in charge. We don't let age dictate things here!"

The others watched the spectacle.

The Si Jiu Ba family is living such a good life that many people envy them.

Other families have large extended families, and the money they earn is needed to support their entire household.

The family of 498 consisted of three siblings and a capable young woman. The four of them obtained two household registrations, and their standard of living far exceeded that of the others.

Especially now that housing is allocated according to household registration, while other families of twenty or thirty people share one house, the 498 family of three was allocated two houses.

Adding to the house we already had, we now have three houses!
A young man sitting nearby asked, "Where is the new house? Is it in the city or somewhere else?"

Jin Yuzhen laughed and said, "How could it be in the city? It's ten miles east of the city. They'll build a road and a market there, specifically to house us government employees."

Upon hearing the distance of ten li (approximately 5 kilometers), Xiao Gua immediately exclaimed, "I can run ten li in half an hour!"

For healthy teenagers, five kilometers is indeed not far.

Especially for a boy like Xiaogua, who is only a teenager, as long as he is well-fed and not bored, his stamina and speed are exceptional.

Jin Yuzhen said with a smile, "It's a good thing to be allocated houses. Building a house requires your own money. King Wu will pay for the land. The mud, sand, and workers for building the house can all be negotiated with our production team at internal prices."

"Our team will cover all the expenses and organize everything together. Every household has a lot of money, so let's not let people look down on us."

"A one-story house costs 30 taels, a two-story house costs 50 taels, and a three-story house costs 60 taels. These are all good houses that can be lived in for decades. If the house is damaged, King Wu will pay for the repairs. Those who have money will pay now, and those who don't will have it deducted from their wages later."

498 immediately said, "I'll build a three-story building!"

Jin Yuzhen looked at 498 curiously, "You've been selling newspapers for seven or eight years, how much money have you saved?"

498 replied, "I'll give you my sixty taels first, and we'll pay the one from 496 later."

Xiao Gua, whose real name is 496, quickly said, "I sold thirty taels of newspapers last year, the year before last, and this year."

"Why is it so little?" Jin Yuzhen felt it was too little. "Ever since King Wu took care of us and allowed us to sell more newspapers and recycle more, we should have received at least forty or fifty taels a year. How come you only received thirty taels in two years?" Si Jiuba replied, "He needs money to go to school and buy all sorts of things. Captain, could you ask around to see which family has twelve or thirteen-year-olds who are getting married? My sister will be getting married in a few years."

Jin Yuzhen quickly shook her head, "Our team has no shortage of wives for the boys with household registration. If someone wants to marry, they'll want a girl like you with household registration. Your sister will have a hard time getting married unless she marries someone from outside the city."

Soon, a group of people looked at 498 and began to care about 498's important life events.

"498, what do you think of my second child?"

“My third child is more obedient and taller. If he dares to disobey you, I'll beat him up for you!”

"My youngest son is the same age as you. He's hardworking and caring!"

A group of grown men were all envious of the household registration that came with 498, and they all wanted to merge with it.

However, 498 looked down on this group of people and their children.

In every dynasty, there were many women who did not marry, mostly because they could not find a suitable partner and were unwilling to marry just anyone.

Arctic warriors could distribute female prisoners and female criminals, but they wouldn't go so far as to distribute unmarried girls under their command as well.

If you don't want to get married, then don't get married. Beijiwu doesn't care that these people have so many children and make Luoyang crowded.

The main force of childbirth is still ordinary people, so Arctic Wu has increased the cultivated area, allowing more people to join the workforce to earn money to build houses.

If loans are not accepted, farmers will actually dare not repay them.

Collecting debts in rural areas is extremely difficult. Bei Jiwu understands human nature, so he helps villagers build houses by paying them for their work.

It's already very kind of them to work for at least two years to feed the whole family and build wedding houses for their three sons.

A family of five working for half a year, assuming it's a father, three adult sons, and a woman, can earn 150-200 coins a day.

One can earn 3 to 4 taels a month, and generally 20 to 30 taels from the start of spring planting to the end of autumn planting.

Meals are free, and farmhouse accommodation is also provided. Apart from some miscellaneous expenses, you can save about 20 taels.

In winter, you can also find odd jobs to do, such as washing clothes, doing handicrafts, repairing roads and rivers, moving things at the dock, making paper, mining, forging iron, or joining a construction team to move and fire bricks.

In about two years, we can raise enough money to build a three-story house and solve the problems of our three sons.

The more sons you have, the faster you can work, earn money, and build houses.

Because of blood ties, the eldest son must support his younger brothers after he gets a house.

If there are many sons and daughters in the family, the daughters can stay at home to take care of the young children, while the rest of the family goes out to work and earn money.

The production team and the model of 100 households per village can form an effective community collective model for raising children together.

While it certainly cannot treat everyone equally, it is still the most advanced model of this era, much better than being unsupervised and unable to leave.

The work areas and routes are basically fixed every year, and there are basically no changes except for newly reclaimed areas. Moreover, this matter is arranged by King Wu. Generally, as long as you don't steal from the production team, the people in the production team will not cause trouble for no reason due to discipline.

8 AD.

A large number of Han officials were dispatched to various places to carry out educational work.

A large number of mountain farmers were collectively resettled in places such as western Xinjiang, western regions, western Asia, Liaoning, southeastern Zhao, etc.

More than 90 million agricultural workers have devoted themselves to agriculture, industry, construction, handicrafts and other sectors, working hard to earn money for the sake of future generations.

The majority of the population remained in the north. The south was not mobilized due to a lack of government intervention, but under the protection of hereditary systems and tax-free policies, the population in various regions was also increasing rapidly.

Beijiwu's achievements not only surpassed those of all emperors, but most importantly, his tax exemption policy for many consecutive years made many people believe in the benevolent rule of the mountain farmers.

More and more mountain people are moving from the mountains to the plains, trying to infiltrate the ranks of the lords of the mountain-farming kingdoms, where there are no taxes and land is provided free of charge for cultivation.

The lords in various regions all need people to do the work. The imperial court will buy wheat and rice, but since they themselves cannot do the work, they naturally hope to have more and more people under their command, the more the better.

Some kind-hearted lords also used their private land to build houses for their people.

The Arctic Army's welfare policies did not extend to the lands of hereditary lords.

Just like landlords, lords need to compromise with peasants, otherwise their subordinates will all run away.

Bureaucrats are more hateful than landlords; landlords need peasants to cultivate the land, but bureaucrats do not.

The hereditary system of the Arctic Warlords creates landlords. As long as the lord still owns the land as a means of production, he cannot abandon those who work the land.

Officials who are transferred to other posts will not pay attention to these issues and will only pass the blame to the next official.

There are certainly many bad people among the landlords, but even if the vagrants do not own their own land, they can still rely on the landlords and fight against the tax-collecting bureaucrats together.

The current hereditary system is not a good thing on its own, but the fact that it has been combined with the fact that many local governors and commanders have been killed without being held accountable has created a delicate balance between lords and farmers.

The message conveyed by Arctic Martial Arts is clear: it will not allow the bureaucratic group to oppress and exploit the landlord group, nor will it allow the bureaucratic group to arbitrarily exterminate entire families. However, it also requires the landlord group to do some decent work and honestly make money.

Wang Daoji's example of distributing women and land to his subordinates is not an isolated case. Beijiwu used his own methods to teach the landlord group how to do things.

Anyone who doesn't act like a human being shouldn't live.

Civil service group, maternal relatives

The royal family group was completely suppressed. Beiji Wu had long ago demoted Beiji Yong to a commoner and forbade him from using the surname Beiji anymore.

The aristocratic clans have already been severed from their foundations. Without the value of their land and the protection of officials, they will inevitably decline sooner or later.

The eunuch group was retrained and disciplined from a young age.

The civil service group has been subdued.

The maternal relatives group are all honest and law-abiding; those who were kings before are still kings, and those who were farmers before are still farmers.

Local powerful clans were replaced by hereditary chieftains.

The religious group was replaced by eunuchs and palace maids.

The military merit groups were replaced by rotating households, no longer hereditary, and all recruits were good sons from various places who had received formal training and family education.

Merchant groups have been divided into official merchants, foreign merchants, regional merchants (such as Shanxi and Anhui merchants), and itinerant merchants (responsible for fixed regional trade between local lords and provincial capitals).
The minority groups are being eliminated, and all of them are now written and registered as farmers, regardless of their appearance or background. However, they will only be granted household registration as farmers after they have made official contributions.

All three ministries of the Gui Nong Province are becoming Sinicized, and more and more children are speaking Chinese. In the future, the languages ​​of all ethnic groups will disappear.

Apart from a few die-hards and those with ulterior motives, everyone else is very willing to become a mountain farmer.

From spring planting to autumn planting, no natural disasters occurred in any place that year, and the whole country enjoyed favorable weather.

Even with typhoons along the coast, not many people died because there were no people at the beach.

Starting from this year, after providing security, solving the food problem, and finally addressing the housing issue, the population of the Mountain Farm Kingdom increased at an unbelievable rate!

(End of this chapter)