Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 203 Ups and Downs
On the ninth day of the first month of the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Gaozu, Beiji Wu led more than one hundred people to Shannong Province.

Shan Nong Province is the old territory of Shan Nong Kingdom and also a key logistics base for the development and construction of Arctic Force.

The prosperity here is no less than that of Luoyang, and the per capita consumption level is second only to Luoyang.

It also had a larger population, making it much more bustling than Luoyang Prefecture, which was always driving people away.

"King Wu is coming! He'll depart on the 9th and arrive in Tongzhou in half a month!"

The households of Tongzhou immediately convened a meeting in the production teams of the mountainous areas most severely affected by the disaster.

The five households of ten thousand and the one hundred households of one thousand all stood straight and listened quietly to the people standing on the platform speaking.

The rules of the mountain farmers are that they eat together, fight together, and die together.

It wasn't strict before, but ever since Arctic Martial Arts discovered that flexibility and leniency could affect combat effectiveness, they've put a firm rule on it.

No one may retreat without orders; whoever retreats will die.

If you're ordered to fight, you must fight. If the commander dies, the deputy commander will take his place. Even if only one person remains, they must die there and not retreat.

It was indeed inhumane, but the results were surprisingly good.

In return, more favorable treatment was provided. For example, those who made military merits could have their relatives exempted from the death penalty, and the death penalty was reduced to forty years, forty years to ten years, and those with less than ten years could be released.

Arctic military forces are more willing to offer money, but they also allow and accept reasonable conditions from those who have made meritorious contributions.

Murong Xinghan looked at his group of men and solemnly shouted, "Rescue everyone within seven days, get this production team organized, and immediately replace any missing cattle and sheep! Clean up the ground! You have seven days left to prepare to welcome King Wu!"

"Did you hear me!"

The crowd roared in unison, "Yes!"

Murong Xinghan didn't waste any words, "Move out immediately! Disband on the spot!"

The other commanders watched as the soldiers quickly dispersed below the stage.

After everyone had left, Wanhu Shi Zhengtang finally spoke up to inquire about the matter.

"The disaster wasn't serious, and everything has been cleaned up. When His Majesty came and saw that no one was injured, he asked what we should do."

Murong Xinghan replied, "Just tell the truth and do your job well."

Upon seeing this, Shi Zhengtang nodded and said, "Okay."

The fact that a few people can become commanders of ten thousand households certainly doesn't depend on bloodline or birth.

Some of them were originally from the hundreds or thousands of households who surrendered and gradually rose through the ranks.

Working alongside the Arctic Army makes it easy to earn merit and get promoted. The Mountain Agriculture Province is also a place that the Arctic Army values. In the early stages when there is a shortage of people, as long as you can make some achievements, you will be promoted.

In the early stages, they were able to defend against grassland invasions and were unable to launch attacks outwards, but they were 100% successful in their defenses.

In the process of arranging immigration and accepting surrendered prisoners, many talented individuals gradually emerged.

Wang Qing, the current governor of the mountainous province, started out as a warehouse manager. Thanks to his sensitivity to numbers and accounts, he offered many constructive suggestions on statistics and verification, and was quickly assigned to some important internship positions by the Arctic Army.

After successfully completing his internship, he was promoted step by step to the position of governor.

Whether they are scholars or warriors, the Arctic Army can use whomever it wants, and promote farmers, workers, and merchants as it pleases.

There were no ancestral laws to restrain them, nor were there court officials passionately speaking out for the people.

The mountain farmers were no longer concerned about the Tongzhou earthquake; everyone was only focused on the arrival of King Wu.

King Wu has not returned for several years.

For all the Shan Nong people and Han people in Shan Nong province, their current life is all thanks to Bei Ji Wu.

This is a fact.

The Mountain Farm Kingdom was created by Arctic Martial; the rest of the people were just laborers driven by force and benefits.

When people went west, a large number of people from Jizhou were left behind. These people from Jizhou traveled between Shanxi and Hebei to cooperate, transporting large amounts of supplies over mountains and valleys, thus creating a faster and safer route.

After gunpowder was used for road clearing and mining, mountains were no longer an obstacle.

The Northern Army allowed the use of gunpowder to destroy terrain and open up roads, and abolished defenses and checkpoints in various places, which solved the control of the imperial court and allowed merchants and locals to open up the transportation route between Jincheng and Handan at a faster and more secure speed.

A large number of cattle and horses died on this road, becoming cheap meat on the tables of workers in both places.

Many workers also died during the road-opening process due to improper operation and various other reasons. Then, compensation was paid where necessary, and lessons were learned where appropriate.

Experience is gained from the dead.

It's much better to learn from experience and improve skills than to simply starve, drown, or freeze to death.

For Shanxi and Hebei provinces, with populations exceeding ten million, the deaths of a few hundred people in the earthquake are hardly a cause for concern.

Destroyed houses can be rebuilt quickly, and the dead can be brought back to life in a few days.

In comparison, welcoming King Wu is naturally more important!

For the entire Shan Nong Kingdom, King Wu was definitely not just a monarch in the traditional sense.

There can be many emperors, but there can only be one King Wu.

For the entire Shan Nong Kingdom, especially the people of the three northern provinces, King Wu was more like a guardian, a protector, and a master.

A single adjective is insufficient to accurately describe the specific significance of Arctic Martial Arts to the Mountain Farming Kingdom.

Especially for the current mountain farmers and Han people in the north, Beijiwu is the master who can help them solve all their survival problems and grant them permission to live on this land.

Arctic Wu possesses all rights to this land, not only public land, but even the private land belonging to everyone is not private land in the traditional sense.

Everyone joined the Mountain Farm Kingdom as a slave or captive of the Arctic Warriors, especially in the Yamaguchi region of the Mountain Farm Province, where everyone was a servant or slave of the Arctic Warriors.

The lower one's social status, the higher one's actual social standing.

Free citizens were ranked below royal lackeys, who in turn were ranked below royal servants and even below the emperor's lackeys and playthings.

The Nine Provinces behind the mountains were conquered by Beiji Wu alone; they were essentially Beiji Wu's private backyard.

Here, equality exists only in a relative sense; that is, under the Arctic military, everyone is equal.

If you're going to work, then work together. If you don't work, you won't get a high wage. People who don't work aren't true mountain farmers.

When Beijiwu rode his fast horse for 1,400 to 1,500 miles, and after seven or eight days, he arrived alone at the epicenter of the earthquake, at the 1st Production Team, the 24th Team, and the 300th Household Commune.

The earthquake epicenter has been cleared, and the collapsed houses and factories are being dismantled as quickly as possible.

One after another, oxcarts carrying large amounts of soil and straw debris left this place.

Beijiwu rode his horse closer and saw the earthquake ruins, which had been largely cleared.

The cleanup of the ruins relied solely on manual labor. People used their bare hands to lift clods of earth and bricks onto carts, which were then transported out one cart after another.

Most of the houses here were built nine years ago, when it was still Shannong County, not Shannong Kingdom. When the houses were built, the people living here or people from the same nearby group built them together, one house after another.

You help me, I'll help you.

The collective consciousness of the Shan Nong people had already been formed before the establishment of the Shan Nong Kingdom. Later, the ability to quickly convert a large number of Hu and Han prisoners was inseparable from these people who first built houses.

In areas with strong kinship ties or a strong sense of collective consciousness, it is indeed possible for those who get rich first to help those who get rich later.

The people of the North were united by their shared interest in Arctic martial arts, and in their daily lives, they formed distinct large and small collectives in their respective villages and production teams.

The larger the group, the stronger the sense of identity.

The recognition of Arctic Wu is greater than that of Wanhu Team, and the recognition of Wanhu Team is also greater than that of Qianhu and Baihu Team.

Although they have the least sense of belonging to their own family and believe that the greater good should be prioritized over their own, in reality, their own family has always been cared for by the public good, the greater good, and their own family.

The reason for ignoring the Southerners is that when the Southerners were suffering, the Wen Dynasty people didn't care about them. While they were living in hardship, the Southerners were living a life of luxury and pleasure.

Many people were harmed and used to fill the borders; this was a good thing that the Wen Dynasty people of the South did.

Many of them belonged to the group abandoned by the Wen Dynasty army. They were used as cannon fodder to fill the borders, and were prevented from returning home by the southerners. Even after being captured, the southerners refused to pay for their ransom.

Once things got better, they not only refrained from retaliating against the Southerners, but also stopped collecting taxes from them and sold their own grain and industrial products to the Southerners at low prices.

Arctic Martial quickly and discreetly left the epicenter, not wanting to delay anyone's work.

The villagers didn't recognize Beiji Wu, but when Beiji Wu rode into Tongzhou City, the soldiers and patrol officers along the way all knelt down.

Merchants and residents on both sides of the road watched the people kneeling by the roadside.

After discovering that those kneeling were soldiers and officers, the rest of the people carefully knelt down as well.

Riding his horse, Beijiwu walked quietly toward the governor's mansion.

The governor's office of Shan Nong Province was always located in Tongzhou, while in other places such as Jinzhou, Wuzhou, and Zezhou, prefects were appointed to handle affairs.

Provinces, prefectures, and counties are divided into several levels. A county is composed of 10,000 households, and below that are towns with 1,000 households and villages with 100 households.

A province is a province, while Shan Nong Province is two places, Qin and Jin. Because of the barriers of mountains and rivers, there are many inconveniences, so multiple prefectures and circuits were set up to manage them.

Geographically, it is located in the north-south center of Qin and the north-south center of Jin.

In addition to the traditional territory, Jinzhou also includes places like Wuzhou, so Tongzhou is part of the Jinzhong region.

Southern Shanxi remains unchanged, while Central Shanxi belongs to Southern Shanxi.

In this way, the Weizhou Plain in northern Shanxi can provide grain, and it can also strengthen the bond between Shanxi Province and Guizhou Province, allowing for the circular use of two trade ports in the north and central regions.

Arctic military forces do not consider the impact of a single province growing too powerful on their rule; they only consider whether the geographical location, roads, and farmland are compatible.

Since they're all in the same region, why split them into two provinces?

If people are separated by mountains and rivers and rarely communicate, then dividing them into two places would naturally make management easier.

Although the Mountain Farming Kingdom is now separated by various mountains, deserts, and snow-capped peaks, everyone speaks the same words and worships the same person.

Beijiwu rode his horse to the gate of the governor's mansion, where a large group of high-ranking officials were already kneeling at the entrance.

"Your Majesty, we respectfully welcome you! Long live the Emperor!"

The officers of all ranks who remained in Tongzhou shouted in unison.

Beiji Wu dismounted and casually said, "Rise. I've already been to the site. Just let them continue their work. You all do your work too. Just leave three people behind."

"Yes!" Zuo Canzheng Yan Zhen thanked him before getting up. Seeing that Bei Jiwu had already gone inside, he quickly followed.

Yan Zhen said cautiously, "Your Majesty, we thought you would arrive in half a month, so we were not prepared enough."

Beiji Wu calmly said, "I heard something happened here. I rode a fast horse back the whole way, traveling day and night to get faster. I changed horses more than ten times along the way. The others couldn't keep up with me and fell behind. Wang Qing and the others won't be back for a few more days."

"I'll rest for a bit. Just prepare the meals as the governor requested. Once you're done with your work, go and get on with the disaster relief and rescue efforts."

Yan Zhen lowered her head and whispered with excitement and admiration, "Yes!"

The news of Beijiwu returning home quickly inspired people both inside and outside Tongzhou.

Tongzhou city has only a few hundred thousand people, but the villages and county towns of Tongzhou together have a population of one million.

The disaster affected more than one area; Arctic Martial Arts only visited the most severely affected region.

Before the first month of the lunar calendar was over, the mountain farmers who had just suffered from disaster and lost their loved ones were inspired. With the arrival of King Wu, they quickly emerged from their grief and began to rebuild their homes together with a million people in Tongzhou and three to four million people in southern and northern Shanxi.

After Beijiwu arrived, even without saying a word, people from the south, north, and west of the province, as well as the neighboring prefectures of Handan and Baoding, all sent people to help.

Arctic Army doesn't need to go to the field to work; he only needs to eat, rest, and read reports at the Governor's Mansion.

As the guardian deity in the hearts of the mountain farmers, Beijiwu's presence here is the greatest help to the others.

While people in the north were united in fighting the earthquake and providing disaster relief, the canals in the south were frozen over due to the extreme cold and unable to transport grain.

The terrain in the south is different from that in the north. Here, there are many waterways, and small boats are needed to travel in many places.

Water and land did not hinder transportation; people did not need horse-drawn carriages, cars, or trains, they only needed a boat to do business.

However, once the ground freezes, people without surplus food at home will face many troubles.

Because they didn't pay taxes and because food was cheap, people who had stored a lot of food were able to survive the winter.

Those who did not store grain, especially not food, drink, or fuel during the Lunar New Year, suffered the second-worst losses after the Jiangnan merchants who had just planted tea and mulberry trees.

This winter, a large number of merchants in the Jiangnan region committed suicide by hanging or taking poison.

A large number of people were unable to migrate to San Nong Province, and outsiders had long been prohibited from cutting in line in San Nong Province and Luoyang.

So, in a state of utter despair for the future, many merchants and artisans moved to Jiangxia.

Jiangxia is currently the only northern city that accepts people from outside the region to settle there.

Although Jiangxia should be considered a southern city, its administrators are northerners, and it is a new city being built by the future emperor of the mountain farmers.

Maybe after I go there I will be able to enjoy the same treatment as the farmers in the mountains.

Even at its worst, it couldn't be worse than the time of King Wen.

At least in the future, if natural disasters or man-made calamities occur in Xia City, the mountain farmers will really save people.

Just like farmers who have lost their land due to a natural disaster, many people in the business sector know very well that they will definitely lose their jobs this year and will surely die of poverty if they stay in their hometowns.

The rise of one city signifies the decline of another.

Life will always find a way.

(End of this chapter)