Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 258 Unity
限水
限粮
限购
Si Jiuba sat in the small house in Luoyang, looking at the sky outside, which resembled the setting sun.

The outside of the glass window was covered in dust, and even though it was three or four o'clock, the sunlight streaming in was so dim.

It is now the year 13 AD. My younger sister has gotten married, and my younger brother has also married Hu Yan and started living as a young couple.

Si Jiuba is still unmarried, and his family has enough food to feed one person for three or four years.

Having just finished dinner at the brigade headquarters, Si Jiuba lay on his bed by the window at home, basking in the sun.

There's no need to sell newspapers anymore. Newspaper production is centrally managed, and they're distributed free of charge.

In order to deliver the newspapers to outsiders to receive King Wu's orders, each production team kept only ten copies of the newspapers for them to read in rotation.

Newspapers are no longer sold outside, nor are they needed to be bought. Money is no longer money, and everything we eat, wear, and use is done according to regulations.

In particular, in the provinces directly under King Wu's jurisdiction, Han Chinese and mountain farmers were treated equally, which was clearly stated in the newspapers.

Soldiers receive the highest pay, followed by patrol teams maintaining order, then workers and local officials, messengers, repairmen, and so on.

498 was given a new mission: to collect manure from the palace.

The palace used special dung carts to transport excrement, which was no longer a traditional method of transportation.

Manure is composted to improve crop yield and quality.

The rest of the propaganda team members also changed jobs; some patrolled the city, some swept the streets, and some went outside to join production teams to herd livestock.

The Huanghuai Province stopped planting wheat and ignored the weeds in the fields. Starting from the afternoon of the day the disaster occurred, King Wu adjusted the production situation and used large areas of farmland and pasture for grazing.

The wells outside are covered with wooden lids every day to prevent volcanic ash from falling in, and some large wells are even covered with wooden houses for protection.

People are now limited to drinking water every day, and bathing is now limited to once a month.

The shop closed down, and Tian Gu Bo and others were transferred to the factory to manufacture pickled vegetables that could be stored for a long time. Si Jiu Ba also returned to the team and was assigned to the workers' team, where he became neighbors with his younger brother's family.

Sijiu fell asleep without realizing it, and when he woke up again, he was woken up by the cold.

The room was pitch black; you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, and you couldn't see the moon or the stars.

"Damn it, I can't sleep..."

Sijiu sat up and sighed with worry. He had only intended to bask in the sun for a while, but he hadn't expected it to be so comfortable that he had fallen asleep.

With nothing to do late at night and no option to go out, I could only hide under the covers to escape the sub-zero temperatures.

"Ah...ah..."

Si Jiuba heard his younger brother and Hu Yan's voices next door again, which made him even more annoyed and unable to sleep.

"Go to hell!!" shouted 498, a single woman in her twenties.

The room next door quickly fell silent, soon filled only with suppressed breathing.

Sijiuba couldn't sleep even more.

***
The chain reaction of multiple volcanic eruptions caused devastating damage to the Tohoku and Fusang regions. Areas near the volcanoes were burned by the intense heat, and the toxic fumes and extreme temperatures caused the deaths of people within a radius of hundreds of kilometers.

Farmland, villages, towns, rivers, and grasslands were all buried by the thick, continuously falling volcanic ash.

Those outside could die from inhaling volcanic ash and suffer internal damage.

Those inside the house would be buried alive or poisoned.

Even those who were lucky enough to survive could not find water or food.

Harsh environments inevitably lead to the rampant spread of disease, and the weak will die in a very short time.

The tsunami rushed towards various coastal areas, but fortunately, there were few people in the coastal areas because of the Lunar New Year, which reduced the damage.

The sky was black, the earth was gray, the air was choking, the water was poisonous, there was no food, and death surrounded us.

Sonnong Province

Murong Xinghan led three hundred people on their westward migration.

Officials and their relatives from the same city set off together with Murong Xinghan.

Everyone boarded the immigration train in silence.

After entering, find a seat and sit down. Murong Xinghan's four subordinates are sitting opposite him.

Chang Chun sighed and said, "Captain, I still think you should stay and take charge of the overall situation."

Murong Xinghan smiled and said, “King Wu will stay in Luoyang to oversee the central government. The other princes have been sent to places like Jiangxia and Lin'an to stabilize the people’s hearts. Now, Sang Yang’an, Xue Chonghu, and more than ten other households have gone to various places to take charge of the overall situation. As a mountain farmer, I should also follow King Wu’s orders and go where I should go.”

“Look at the sky outside. It’s still so dark at eight or nine in the morning. This kind of disaster has never happened in history. Now is a time of life and death for mankind. Whoever can do it should do it.”

"Once we've settled down outside, we'll bring our wives and children over. And once the mountainous agricultural province is better, King Wu will also bring us back."

"If it weren't for the limited capacity of the train, I would definitely be among the first batch of farmers from the mountains to leave!"

Chang Chun knew that his awareness was not high enough, and he was not as selfless as a true mountain farmer.

This time, almost all the farmers in the mountain area were mobilized, and several factories were also working overtime to produce steam engines.

All lighting equipment is prioritized for factories and research personnel, relying on the chemical technology developed over the years to rapidly develop power generation and heating equipment.

Commerce essentially ceased, and the Mountain Farmers Kingdom focused all its attention on food acquisition and industrial technology. Under the resource distribution system, making money was put on hold.

They go to school and learn to read during the day, work in the afternoon, and go home to rest in the evening.

For those who don't work, their three meals a day should be reduced to two.

The food they ate was mainly dry rations, not as plentiful as it had been in the past ten years or so.

Chang Chun sighed and said, "I heard that the volcano in Indonesia has also erupted. Many places in Annam have been hit by rocks from the eruption, and now the only option is to go to West Asia."

"The train service to West Asia hasn't started yet, so we have to go down the mountain before we reach the Western Regions Province."

Murong Xinghan smiled and said, "Don't be discouraged. We are all cadres of the Mountain Farming Kingdom. If you have no ambition all day long, you will be dejected and have a bad influence on the other soldiers."

"No matter how hard it gets, it won't be as hard as it was more than ten years ago. King Wu has clearly told us what we should and shouldn't do."

"Today we are not the dust that cannot settle outside the window, but the sparks of the mountain farmers scattered all over the world, shouldering the historical responsibility of inheriting the spirit of the mountain farmers."

“We are not homeless. We are going to West Asia Province to reunite with the compatriots who went out in the first place. A single spark can start a prairie fire, or it can turn into light to dispel the darkness.”

“You should read the newspapers more and remember King Wu carefully. The doubts and anxieties in your hearts can be answered from the newspapers, both now and in the past. What I am saying is what King Wu said in the newspapers.”

Everyone in the carriage listened quietly to Murong Xinghan's words.

Murong Xinghan was formerly a slave of the Xianbei people, and is now a mountain farmer.

At first, everyone would discuss his origins and lineage, but as they spent more time together, no one would mention the difference between the Xianbei and the mountain farmers anymore.

Seeing him, you'll know that's what a mountain farmer is like!

To the other Turks, Xianbeis, Han Chinese, Mongols, Khitans, Uyghurs, and other ethnic groups, the person who could radiate light and lead everyone forward was the Shan Nong people!
The mountain farmers do not rely on bloodline transmission, but rather on a path of enlightenment!
The situation worsened, and more and more people were mobilized to migrate westward. However, the appeal of the Mountain Farming Kingdom did not diminish due to the disaster; on the contrary, it became even more cohesive.

Disobeying will get you killed!
People used to think so, and they still do now.

They used to be obedient, but now they are obedient from the bottom of their hearts.

Under the command of the Mountain Farmers, the entire nation of Mountain Farmers embarked on a massive self-rescue migration.

The railway tracks began to be laid day and night, connecting several important cities at the fastest speed.

Livestock farming in the Hoang Huai province provides meat, the Southwest and Annam provinces provide grain, and the coastal provinces provide fish and seaweed.

The plains province, which is unable to engage in agriculture and animal husbandry, provides iron weapons and porcelain.

Son Nong province provides meat and industrial products, as well as a large number of technicians and cold-resistant crops.

Potatoes began to be planted in the Western Regions, agriculture and animal husbandry were fully developed in the West Asia Region, and land development began on the southeastern islands.

People from the southeastern coast began to migrate south in village units, trying to disperse the population as much as possible to the mountains and islands.

To protect themselves from wild animals and other tribes, they were organized into units of at least one hundred households, and they regularly communicated and exchanged information with each other.

The ability to organize effectively and the capacity for mutual trust brought people together like never before in the face of ever-present terror.

***
In Luoyang, Beijiwu received a report from the Western Expeditionary Army.

"On December 28, 12 AD, a volcano erupted in Iceland, a region under the jurisdiction of Liaodong. The sky turned yellowish-brown, as if turbid water had poured down from the heavens. The air smelled of scorched earth, and the earth was as pale as night during the day."

Arctic Martial Arts roughly figured out which tectonic plate was causing the problem.

It is currently uncertain whether volcanoes in the Americas will erupt, but the eruptions of multiple large volcanoes in Northern Europe, South Asia, and East Asia are already quite extreme.

The disasters are now mainly concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere, where colder places are even colder, and the entire north is shrouded in long periods of darkness.

The only good thing is that the Southern Hemisphere is relatively peaceful, and a few scattered volcanoes do not affect the overall situation.

Over the past three or four months, volcanoes in various places have become relatively stable. Although volcanic ash still obscures the sky, as long as it doesn't get any worse, that's fine.

Coal for keeping warm is being mined at full capacity, not only in several northern provinces, but also in the coalfields of several southern lords, to ensure that most people do not freeze to death.

There are no problems with food for the time being, and there shouldn't be any major problems for at least three to five years. If we just keep going, we can last for ten years.

Livestock farming and fishing, along with a small amount of crop farming, were able to sustain the economy until the fifth year.

But if it continues for more than ten years... then there's really nothing that can be done.

There is a limit to the idea that humans can conquer nature. Not to mention current technology, even technology two thousand years from now cannot withstand extreme disasters lasting more than ten years.

The nation's fisheries and livestock industries, along with the limited agricultural land in the southwest, are barely enough to sustain the current population of over 100 million.

If it only lasts for a year, or if only one province is affected, then Arctic Wu can easily cope.

All agricultural provinces across the country came to a standstill, and the outside world resembled an apocalyptic scene, with internet and power outages.

This current system and social environment have actually persisted for longer.

Most people still have memories of past wars, and their tolerance is much stronger than that of people in truly peaceful times.

Beijiwu processed memorials sent from various places, and when he had some free time, he would stand in front of the glass window and look at the sun and the night view outside.

The sun, like a faded bronze plate, could neither warm the earth nor dispel the darkness.

(End of this chapter)