Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 41 Tax Collection
After getting his hair cut, Beijiwu addressed a group of short-haired men and long-haired women.

"Tomorrow morning, every household should bring the grain they are supposed to deliver to the threshing ground. Everyone in the village knows how much land each family has and how much grain they have harvested. We should all deliver what we are owed, and be honest and straightforward!"

"Whoever pays more grain is honored! It's a skill, it's a talent! When you get married, people like hardworking and generous women! Don't hide anything, or I'll kick down your door!!"

The villagers were terrified of Arctic Wu's actions, and now that they'd already cut their hair, they could only accept their bad luck.

Bei Gong Dingbian originally had two braids, the kind of long, melon-shaped braids with two braids on the left and right sides. Now that his hair has been cut, he felt very uncomfortable and immediately put on a straw hat.

"Master Wu! If we pay the grain, we don't need to pay any more money, right?"

Bei Jiwu looked at Beigong Dingbian, who was standing a few meters away, and said, “From now on, call me clan chief!”

Bei Gong Dingbian reluctantly called out, "Clan Chief."

Beijiwu then said with satisfaction, "That's right, you just need to hand over the grain, I'll figure out the money."

"From now on, everything the village needs will be purchased in bulk, which will save a lot of money."

“Each household can also make some straw sandals and wooden baskets, and our village will transport them to the county to sell for money. People will definitely die while building the city wall, and baskets will definitely be needed to carry stones.”

"The world outside is so chaotic, everyone knows how hard it is to survive. Now, we can live a peaceful life just by farming and delivering grain. This is a good thing. Don't look so down. I'll help you when we harvest millet this year!"

Under the threat of a dire external situation and the call to action from capable individuals like Beijiwu, the matter of paying taxes was barely settled.

The next morning, Beijiwu brought several women to the woods in the backyard.

"Sir, what brings you here?" Li Hong looked around.

Li Bing said with a smile, "We definitely need to clean this place up today and build a big yard to raise chickens as soon as possible."

The others agreed that it made sense; they did indeed need a dedicated place to raise chickens, and the backyard had plenty of insects and grass, making it a perfect spot.

Beijiwu bent down, pulled up a pile of weeds and threw them far away, then swept with a broom, revealing a stone beneath the soil.

“There’s a cellar under the rocks. Let’s dig the soil together.”

Beijiwu gave an order, then shook the stone from side to side until it loosened slightly, then grabbed it and tossed it aside.

Li Bing and Xiulan quickly dug in the soil, several hands working together, and soon they dug out a wooden frame.

Beijiwu lifted the wooden shelf, and a damp, rotten smell wafted out.

Several hundred kilograms of grain were pulled out of the cellar by Beijiwu.

"It's probably all moldy. Let's air it out and see if it's still usable."

Arctic warriors don't store food; much of the food they have was obtained last year through working for others, or through shady means.

Because there was no shortage of food, they didn't put much effort into storing it.

Li Hong looked at the grain; some of it looked like it had been gnawed by rats.

"Let's air it out and see if it's usable. If not, we can use it to feed chickens and cows."

Beijiwu also discovered that most of the grain was no longer usable, so he said, "If people can't eat it, cows probably can't either. Let's use it as fertilizer. Just throw it on the ground."

Jiang Rong said, "It's such a waste to throw it away. These hundreds of kilograms of grain represent more than half a year's harvest."

Beijiwu said, "Eating this moldy grain will definitely make you sick. We should dry it in the sun and store it. If we have enough food this year, we won't eat it. Next year, we'll mix it with wood ash and manure to decompose it."

"If problems arise this year, we'll pick out the good ones to use as emergency feed for chickens and cows."

"Anyway, people shouldn't eat this; we have good food to eat."

Li Hong nodded. "Okay, let's talk about it next year."

Beijiwu left the task of drying the moldy grain to the women, while he led the oxen to the threshing ground.

Each household has already moved some of their grain to the threshing ground.

Beitian Village has 30 households, and each household has an average of 30 to 40 mu of land.

Some families received 100 mu of land after enlisting in the army, but this was very different from the 100 mu of land owned by the wealthy Wen. On the same 100 mu of land, some only had a person and a cow, while others had several cows and various agricultural tools; naturally, the way they were managed was different.

"Master Wu!"

"What 'Master Wu'? Call him Clan Chief!"

"Clan leader!"

"Chieftain, everything has been moved here. Our family harvested 20 mu of wheat this year, which adds up to 12 shi. We've already handed over 6 shi, and the rest is for planting and food for the year."

Beijiwu walked over to the nearby baskets and looked at them, seeing the baskets full of wheat and old millet.

Not all land can yield 120 jin per mu. The land in the north is inherently barren, and this area is almost mountainous, so there are plenty of places that yield only 50 or 60 jin per mu.

The ears of wheat are very small, and most of them are stalks.

Other grains are about the same. This region has never been a grain-producing area since ancient times, and the imperial court never expected that much crops could be grown here. They just wanted to reduce the burden on the inland areas a little.

Looking at the approximately four or five hundred baskets of grain, Beijiwu nodded in satisfaction.

"Fellow tribesmen," Beiji Wu said with a smile, raising one hand to the crowd, "we only need to pay sixty shi of grain. The remaining four hundred shi will be used as public grain for the mountain farmers!"

"This batch of grain will be used as relief grain. If there is a problem due to heavy snow this winter, or if there is a food crisis in the village, we will eat the grain here together."

"We need to build a place to store this grain to prevent it from getting moldy, infested with insects, or ruined by rats!"

"Now I'm taking ten men to deliver the grain to Hutou Town. The rest of you, dry all the grain in the sun. If anyone puts stones in their basket, kneel down and wait for me to come back to deal with it. Or, if any grain is mixed in with dirt, bring ten times the amount of good stuff to atone for your sins!"

Beijiwu left about four hundred baskets of grain as relief food, and then took the lead in dumping a basket of grain on the ground to collect all the grain.

Once the baskets of grain were dumped onto the threshing ground, it would quickly become clear who had added moldy grain or stones to it.

Before long, Beijiwu noticed that everyone was adding things to their baskets.

Is it true that the law does not punish the masses?

No, they all got beaten.

"Snapped!"

"Pia!"

In broad daylight, the young Beiji Wu was slapped in the face by a group of men and women.

Some people, unable to contain their anger, tried to retaliate, only to be beaten so badly they couldn't stand up.

After all the men and women in the village were slapped, the morale of the mountain farmers plummeted.

Fortunately, everyone got beaten up. After seeing their neighbors with swollen faces and the former village leader who had been beaten up just like them, they all got used to it within a few minutes.

"Let's go! Off to pay our taxes!"

Beijiwu shouted, riding someone else's horse, pulling someone else's grain, and leading someone else's children to pay off debts.

After Beijiwu left, the women, girls, and children in other families all breathed a sigh of relief.

The people of Beitian Village don't know the exact amount of tax they pay; they just pay it, and it seems to be less than in previous years.

Beiji Wu can handle the tax payment; the rest of them just want to live their lives honestly.

Mu Chuanliang and Li Laotou's families paid more taxes than in previous years, as did Bei Tiangen and Bei Gong Dingbian's families. Only Bei Jiwu and a few middle-class families paid less.

However, everyone assumed that the money was raised to buy cattle, and since Beijiwu guaranteed that no one in the village would starve, everyone believed him.

The grain was now being managed centrally, and everyone was dutifully helping to build the collective granary. In addition, having already endured the beatings, they no longer had any unruly thoughts.

They left all the outside affairs to Beijiwu, and the men and women in the village were actually afraid to greet the officials, bandits and robbers from the outside world.

A tough leader like Arctic Wu, who takes on everything, is actually quite well-suited to the mountain people in this war-torn region.

(End of this chapter)