Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 266 The Revival of Humanity (The Finale)

In the spring of 18 AD, five years after the disaster.

Light gradually returned to the world.

The past five years feel like a dream, they just passed by in a daze, it feels like five years were stolen from me.

As the sun gradually rises over the Central Plains, people from all over the country, struggling to make ends meet, are returning to their long-awaited hometowns.

There was no more war, no more struggle. All that the remaining less than five million people could do was quickly rebuild their ravaged homeland and clean up the dust that had accumulated over the past five years.

With only a handful of livestock remaining, it will take hundreds of years to recover to its former size.

Even under ideal conditions, within a hundred years, the population will probably only recover to 100,000.

The recovery of cattle and horses was slower, and without them there was no long-distance transportation capability, making commerce more reliant on train routes.

War is impossible to break out. The foundation of the entire world has been rewritten by the catastrophe. The outside world is barren wasteland, and the areas far from the mountain farmers are still in the midst of the catastrophe.

The mountain farmers pooled the resources of the entire tribe to create a farm that could sustain everyone, while the rest of the people continued to eat corpses. Their community shrank, and fewer and fewer of their kind remained alive. Once the corpses were gone, they would starve to death.

Especially after the mountain farmers who were outside the area evacuated and returned home, the small community of farmers who were no longer producers and instead raised insects, rats, mushrooms, and wild grasses would quickly collapse on its own.

Acid rain fell in many parts of the southern coast, while some parts of the north experienced hail and blizzards.

It rained in Luoyang too; the corrosive rainwater and the ubiquitous ashes left the land barren.

Fortunately, a piece of land was cleared in time, which was a stroke of luck amidst misfortune.

That year, Beijiwu was still growing high-yield potatoes that were easy to grow and raise.

Wheat was trialed in a small number of areas.

Tea and mulberry trees in the south have all disappeared, and now only some mountainous areas still retain the embers of fire.

The insects hiding underground probably didn't all die out, but many birds are likely to have gone extinct.

Most birds that feed on grains and insects do not survive the first winter, and after that, they are practically nonexistent.

Apart from a few birds remaining in the palace, almost all of them have become extinct in the wild.

Although many insects died, and some insects could lie dormant for several years, they could not find mates when they came out, and there was no food for them to grow.

Insects that eat wood survive, while those that eat grain mostly starve to death.

The locusts in the floods, droughts, and locust plagues have almost all been wiped out. Before the plants recover, animals can't run too fast.

While Beiji Wu was busy with spring plowing, friends from the Southern Dynasty came to pay their respects.

Inside the Divine Martial Palace, Beiji Wu received King Wen and his sons and daughters.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects! Long live the Emperor!"

The former emperor of the Southern Dynasty was now an old man with white hair, nearing fifty, and appeared to be in poor health.

Good people don't live long. Wan Dai from Shu did not survive the dark times and died of lung disease due to poor health.

Beijiwu smiled and said, "No need for formalities, sit down and let's talk. I've already approved your matter. What are your plans for your successor?"

King Wen carefully sat on the sofa about one and a half meters away from the North Star Emperor and cautiously replied, "I am in poor health and feel that my days are numbered. None of my children are capable of shouldering great responsibilities. I only wish that they can live as wealthy men."

Beijiwu glanced at Wanhu's sons and daughters.

Most of them are either fat or thin.

There wasn't a single one who wasn't either fat or thin.

“Alright.” Beijiwu readily agreed. “These are extraordinary times. Natural disasters have been constant over the past century. I have worked diligently every day for the past eighteen years, yet I still cannot ensure the peace and stability of the Mountain Farm Kingdom. If something happens, I will have to put in a lot of effort to keep things in the right direction.”

“I understand how difficult it is to govern a place. If it weren’t for the critical situation over the past five years, I would also like to take a good rest.”

Wan Hu politely replied, "Your Majesty is wise and powerful, in the prime of your life, and full of vigor."

Beijiwu shook his head. "Although we haven't met many times, we've known each other for eighteen years. I'm in my thirties now, and I'll be a grandfather in a couple of years."

“I know I don’t have many years left in my youth, so I’m just trying to hold on for a few more years and get through this hurdle.”

Wan Hu was stunned, suddenly feeling that time had flown by.

"Your Majesty is right. More than a decade has passed in the blink of an eye. We still hope that Your Majesty will personally govern Jiangnan Province. The people of Jiangnan Province are loyal to Your Majesty!"

Beijiwu smiled and said, "Since you say so, I will definitely treat the people of Jiangnan well."

“News from Western Europe and other places came from many years ago that many countries have been destroyed, and tens of millions of people have died in some of them.”

"To the east, in Goryeo and Fusang, there are no living people left."

"This is a global disaster. Not only us, but also volcanoes erupted in Europe, tens of thousands of miles away."

"The main reason we survived was that we had stored up a lot of food, and we also survived for several years by eating beef, mutton and seafood. That's why there was no cannibalism and no fighting among our own people over food."

Wan Hu bowed with both hands, saying, "It's all thanks to His Majesty's excellent leadership. If it were anyone else, a little snow would have caused a rebellion and even cannibalism."

Beijiwu laughed and said, "Let's not talk about such things. Have you thought about where you'll be buried after you die? I don't care much about Luoyang. If you want to be buried here, then bury me according to the emperor's standards, with your family."

"Your child can no longer act like an emperor; from now on, he can live a peaceful life."

Wan Hu hurriedly refused, saying, "How can this be? Luoyang is now His Majesty's territory."

Beijiwu waved his hand and said, "The Luoyang river problem is too troublesome, and the population will continue to grow in the future."

“I’ve already sent my son to Xia City, but it’s still not good that it’s too close.”

"I plan to retire in the south in a few years, so I won't be buried in Luoyang. Luoyang will not be the capital in the future, so you can rest assured."

“Mountain farmers say what they mean, there’s no need to lie. Use it if you want. In the future, I’ll also let city people come in and take a look, and collect some admission fees to support them. After I move away, my family and your good-for-nothing descendants can make money by collecting admission fees, and that will save them from having nothing to do.”

Beijiwu left a way out for his family and all his descendants.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Wan Hu said gratefully, and then added, "I have a favor to ask."

Beijiwu nodded and said, "Just say it, no need to be so polite."

Wan Hu cautiously said, "I do not wish to inherit the throne. I would rather be a wealthy man in Luoyang, like the King of Goryeo and the King of Nanzhao."

The Goryeo Kingdom and the Nanzhao Kingdom have both perished, and Fusang has also been destroyed. The Arctic Warriors will not retain the title of King of Fusang for the sake of the last few tens of thousands of people.

Assimilation is the best approach, rather than pretending to preserve a group of descendants and allowing them to rise from the ashes.

However, Beiji Wu was indeed good to the King of Nanzhao and the King of Goryeo. Even in the darkest period when people were most likely to die, he did not kill them to save food.

“Alright,” Beijiwu said, “Since you think so, then I will take back your hereditary territory in Jiangnan, grant you two houses and shops in and around Luoyang, and give you 10,000 taels of silver to purchase the land and the things on it. At the same time, after your death, the national treasury will pay for your burial in the Luoyang Imperial Mausoleum with the rites due to an emperor.”

Wanhu was very satisfied with this, especially since many of the burial items were only available at Beijiwu.

Although Wan Hu could obtain some himself, he needed the approval of the Northern King to use the imperial standard. Some things cannot be accomplished with money, especially for the wealthy Shan Nong Kingdom. If King Wu was willing to do something, anything was easily accomplished.

Anyone who does something that King Wu dislikes deserves to die.

The world is at peace now, but it has never truly been at peace in recent years. Volcanoes outside are still erupting intermittently, and the seaside is now filled with a foul stench and toxic fumes.

The tea and mulberry industries were completely wiped out, and the sea salt industry will not be able to recover for at least a hundred years. The South has lost three of its three main sources of revenue, and with a population of less than a million, the abolition of hereditary succession is indeed a blessing.

Nowadays, no one thinks about inheriting the family business outside the capital; being able to stay in the capital is the real honor.

Wan Hu successfully declined the hereditary title, choosing not to become the King of Jiangnan, but instead to live the life of a wealthy man in Luoyang.

"Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty!" Wan Hu and his son and daughter said together.

There's really nothing good about hereditary succession; at least for the past decade or so, people haven't felt any special privileges associated with it.

The biggest reason is not that others talk about conscience and morality, but that the Arctic Army has always been suppressing those below and eliminating those who are not human, which is why the hereditary lords feel that they have little power.

After chatting for a while, and after agreeing to help Wanhu's children settle down and register their household in the production team, Beijiwu told them to go back to their mansion in the capital to rest and prepare to go back to work in a few days.

Now that the two Wan brothers are either dead or retired, there will be no more King Wen or King Shu, only King Wu.

However, it's almost time for Arctic Martial to step down.

After Wan Hu left, Bei Jiwu thought about his own life.

"I was incredibly strong when I was young, and although I feel about the same now, I might suddenly become weaker one day."

“The people around me have aged very quickly in the past few years. A person is considered finished when they are around sixty or seventy years old. I am now about halfway through my life.”

"More than a decade has passed too quickly."

Arctic Martial thought that if he didn't rebel, he could have survived the disasters of the past few years.

The people in the neighborhood will surely die, but my family can definitely survive by hunting and herding.

They were at least more likely to survive than the officials, soldiers, gentry, and wealthy landowners of the entire Beiyuan County.

But back then, I was definitely the most skilled robber in Kitahara Prefecture...

"If it weren't for me, and Wen Chao had encountered something like this, I'm afraid the entire population would be less than one ten-thousandth."

No country could withstand four or five consecutive years of darkness.

Annam was able to withstand the pressure because it purged a portion of the population, reducing food consumption, and invested heavily in cultivating farmland there, providing various tools to aid in farming.

After three or four years of support, a foundation was laid to withstand the disasters that followed in the next four or five years.

Later, a large number of hardworking people immigrated there, braving the mosquitoes and bloodsuckers that ravaged the darkness, and managed to build a paradise in that malaria-ridden place.

A few years ago, the situation would have been much better.

If it were delayed by a year or two, the death toll would more than double.

Fortunately, the indigenous people of the Indochina Peninsula were wiped out in advance; otherwise, it would have been much more troublesome to launch an attack after the disaster.

Another factor is their willingness to fight and issue orders for external conquest on behalf of their own people.

If a different, indecisive emperor were appointed, unwilling to wage war, a few months of delay would mean missing a golden opportunity.

A leader who, in a time of crisis, would lead his own people out to rob and make a living instead of thinking about trading peacefully with outsiders for food... indeed has the bandit mentality of a nomadic people.

Arctic military forces still maintain a bandit mentality, but they also possess advanced productivity and security systems.

When problems arise, orders are given decisively, and one's own people are always given priority. This is how the flame of humanity's ability to sustain industry and its heritage has been preserved.

Every day of hesitation brings one more harm to humanity.

Without expecting all of humanity to survive, after a cataclysmic natural disaster occurred, Arctic Martial decisively divided his subordinates into different levels.

Those who survived are those whom Arctic Martial considers to be on their side, as well as some lucky individuals.

The fact that five million people survived is already an amazing achievement.

Modern people are still in a cold and dark place without water and electricity and without enough food, and even with the help of technology, they cannot survive for more than five years.

Arctic Martial Arts has done a great job, but there is still much to be done.

Agriculture will need several more years to recover, but once crops mature, the toxic volcanic ash will become fertile soil over the next century, improving the barren soil throughout the northern region.

Over the next century, global food production will increase dramatically.

The price is this generation.

From frail and sickly elderly people in their fifties and sixties who never got to see the sun, to children as young as one or two suffering from illness, and to humans who died in the Dark Ages.

These are all costs.

The death of 100 million people is the price, the survival of Arctic Martial Arts and its children is the price, and the men and women working in the dusty environment outside are also the price.

Future generations will inherit vast amounts of fertile land.

The fertile soil holds the remains of generations of people.

The great revival of the Mountain Farming Kingdom requires the joint efforts of Arctic Martial Arts and all of humanity. The remaining four to five million humans in the world have begun to work hard to cultivate this dirty and chaotic land in order to have enough food and clothing and a happy life.

As cattle and sheep give birth and grains are harvested, the vigorous and hardworking Arctic warrior diligently and leisurely guides the country toward revival.

The world, once filled with toxic fumes, will eventually calm down, and the stinking ocean will regain its clarity and vitality.

Climate change has occurred around the world, and the unpredictable Yellow River has repeatedly ravaged the land, washing away dust and acidic water along its course with its relentless floods and carrying nutrients from upstream to the Central Plains.

They fought against the heavens for time and struggled against the earth for their last breath, year after year.

After the abundant harvest was stored in the granary, Beiji Wu viewed his own statue at the foot of Emperor Mountain and personally wrote an imperial edict instructing craftsmen to erect a monument.

From then on, Shan Nong Kingdom worked diligently to govern itself, and after eight generations of effort by the Beiji family, it took more than two hundred years to recover to its pre-catastrophe scale.

At the foot of the first emperor of Emperor Mountain, the imperial edict of the Holy Virtue and Divine Martial Emperor is carved.

The term "divine martial prowess" is easy to understand. Although "holy virtue" doesn't seem to have much to do with martial prowess, later generations have come to accept this title.

The Arctic warriors are gone, and no matter how later generations evaluate them, the inscriptions written on the stones have been preserved.

For eighteen years, I have traversed thorns and brambles, braved frost and dew, and with the strength of my fists and feet, expanded our territory, brought blessings to the four seas, and helped us overcome the darkness and barbarity, ensuring the continuation of the human race.

Today, all of us, your descendants, united in heart and mind, inheriting the virtues of our ancestors, reflecting upon ourselves with their wisdom, working together as one, sailing thousands of miles, traversing the Milky Way.

***
End of the book

(End of this chapter)