Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 30 Patriarch
Jiang Rong, a young mother in her twenties, knelt down with her youngest daughter. She had washed her face and tidied her hair before coming. At this moment, they kowtowed to Beijiwu together.

"grandfather!"

Arctic Warrior cursed, "Get lost!"

Mu Chuanliang refused to leave and continued to kneel and beg, "Grandpa, please have mercy! I really can't go on living. This year's horse tax, grain tax, salt tax, and poll tax add up to six taels of silver. The county will come to collect the grain in a month. I really can't go on living. Please have mercy, Grandpa!"

The woman, along with her youngest daughter whom she couldn't afford to raise, kowtowed, ignoring the rope around her neck, crying and pleading, "Grandpa, please have mercy! Please, Grandpa, have mercy and buy us, mother and daughter."

The woman cried and pleaded, looking imploringly at the enraged Arctic Warrior.

Beijiwu understood the principle of not flaunting wealth, and he had always known that these villagers were always freeloading and swindling money, but he still underestimated how shameless they would be in order to survive.

In fact, I rarely interacted with locals throughout the year, and I always used my irritable temper and behavior to isolate myself and protect myself.

Now, the protective layer he had built up has been opened by him, and others, seeing that he is rich and kind, naturally come to leech off him and become parasitic.

Helping others would lead to your own starvation; Arctic Martial Arts would never do such a thing.

Li Hong quickly ran out of the house, and after one glance, she understood what was going on. She was so angry that she hurried over.

"You shameless people, all you do is bully honest people! You're just sucking our blood!! Get out! All of you get out!"

Li Hong angrily picked up a stick placed next to the grape trellis and started yelling at the two adults and the little girl.

Mu Chuanliang continued to kowtow to Beijiwu, pleading, "Grandpa, please have mercy! Please, Grandpa! These women can give birth and don't need to take care of the baby or breastfeed. The two of them can serve you tonight!"

Jiang Rong wiped away her tears and cried, "Grandpa, your lowly servant and daughter will serve you well. Please give us some food so that we children can have something to eat. Even if we are beaten to death or sold, we will not complain."

Li Hong was furious and picked up a stick to hit Mu Chuanliang.

"roll!"

Boom!
The wooden stick struck Mu Chuanliang on the back.

To Beijiwu's surprise, the man remained kneeling on the ground without uttering a sound.

"Get out!" The fiery Li Hong raised the stick and struck his back again, shouting anxiously, "Get out! If you don't, I'll beat you to death! You filthy beggar!"

Boom!
Boom!
Li Hong struck him twice more with the stick, but Mu Chuanliang remained silent, enduring the pain as he continued to kowtow, pleading, "Grandpa, please have mercy! Please, Grandpa, give me some food!"

Boom!
Li Hong was both angry and anxious. She tried her best to get rid of the bloodsucking worms, but she was exhausted.

"Get out! We don't have enough rice to feed you! We can't keep you alive! And we have no money to give you! Get out!"

Li Hong hit the man hard, hoping he would flee as quickly as possible.

Jiang Rong, who was behind her, reached out and shielded her daughter's head in front of her, then bent down and kowtowed, pleading, "Grandpa, please give us some food! Even if you don't beat us to death, we won't survive."

Jiang Rong choked back tears as she cried. The imperial taxes were too heavy. If they couldn't pay the taxes, their families would be torn apart, and she would be sold elsewhere.

Seeing this, Li Hong raised her stick and was about to hit Jiang Rong.

Li Hong yelled, "Get out of here! Don't wait until you get hit to know the pain!"

Jiang Rong cried and said, "Our family was planning to die together a few days ago. Now that we're dead, it's all over!"

Li Hong angrily said, "If you want to die, go die somewhere else! Find a rope and hang yourself, don't die in our house! We don't even have enough food to eat, and with several people coming every day, how are we supposed to survive? We're going to starve to death!!"

Kitada Village is full of people who have truly experienced hunger and are pitiful people who have gone through all sorts of tragic lives.

There are too many people like this in this world, but they remain the same as always.

Seeing that she refused to leave and that her family would not be able to survive, Li Hong raised a stick and hit her on the back.

Boom!
The stick landed heavily on the woman's thin body, striking her bony spine hard.

Jiang Rong held the child, tears streaming down her face from the pain.

But she refused to leave and didn't say a word.

Li Hong was about to continue fighting when Beiji Wu finally spoke up, "Stop fighting. If you were her, what do you think you would do?"

Arctic fighters are capable of killing, and they do not experience fear or regret after killing.

If someone kills me, I will kill them.

However, the current situation is still unacceptable to Arctic Martial.

Li Hong said anxiously, "Brother! If I were kneeling there, she would still beat me. People say that it takes a hundred families' food to feed one person. Our family already doesn't have enough food. Those women are hungry ghosts who only prey on kind people. If you are soft-hearted, we will be the ones who die!"

Gao Conglian followed them out, kneeling and pleading while holding the child, "Grandpa! This world really doesn't reward good people! My father was a good person, and he was dragged down and killed by a group of people!!"

Jiang Rong looked at Gao Conglian, who had also been sold in, and wanted to say something, but couldn't find a way to defend herself.

No matter how their positions change, the things they do in each position are the same.

Gao Conglian would also kneel and refuse to get up, Jiang Rong would definitely refuse to let others freeload, and Li Hong would do almost the same things no matter who she was in.

There's only so much grain. The village has experienced two consecutive years of reduced grain production. If someone eats one more bite, someone else will have to eat one more bite.

Unless we can get food, people are bound to die in years of famine.

If someone who should have died doesn't, then someone else must die in their place.

If someone is kind-hearted and wants to die in someone else's place, then let them die; it would be best if they took their whole family with them.

Beijiwu sat there looking at the two of them. "Take off your shirts, let me see the injuries on your backs."

Mu Chuanliang quickly kowtowed, "Yes! Grandpa!"

Jiang Rong also released the child. After letting go of her crying daughter in her arms, she looked down at the Empress Wu of the North Pole, reached out and untied her linen clothes.

Because it was summer, Jiang Rong was only wearing one piece of clothing, and at that moment she was displaying her body like merchandise.

Beijiwu said to Li Hong, "Close the door."

There were already people watching the commotion outside, and upon hearing Beijiwu's words, they quickly slipped away through the doorway.

Li Hong looked anxiously at Beijiwu, but in the end she obediently went to close the door.

Li Hong knew very well whether her family had enough food. Right now, they didn't even have enough to eat, and with these few bloodsuckers coming, the family would barely have enough for a few days!
If you're not ruthless, you can't stand firm; a kind-hearted person will only get disemboweled!
Li Hong burst into tears, forced to watch helplessly as Bei Jiwu led his family down a path of no return.

At this moment, Beijiwu looked at the red and swollen marks on Mu Chuanliang's back and also at the red marks on Jiang Rong's body.

"She was so ruthless, yet you two remained silent. With that kind of backbone, how did you end up like this?"

Beijiwu asked the two men why Mu Chuanliang, a man who was clearly not a good-for-nothing like Ai Dake, had ended up selling his wife and daughter.

Mu Chuanliang cried and said, "Grandpa! You can't eat your pride. I've worked hard every year, but I've worked until my family was ruined and I've never had a good day!"

Beijiwu didn't believe it. "If you work hard, as long as there are no major problems after the wheat harvest, you can support your family of three for a year."

Mu Chuanliang couldn't stop his tears.

“Grandpa! My family consists of five people, including my mother and son who also help with the work. I work from dawn till dusk. This year, when it rained, my wheat was harvested. But every year when it rains, the tax collectors only collect silver and not wheat, saying that the grain is damp.”

"Normally, three bushels of grain can be exchanged for one tael of silver. But when it's tax season, we have to carry six or seven bushels to the city to exchange for one tael. My family isn't a military household, but we still have to serve in the city, building fortifications and delivering grain and feeding horses to the border troops. This year, we can't afford to pay the taxes, and the whole family will be forced to serve in the military to earn money. It's worse than death!"

Arctic Martial Arts finally understood.

The imperial court said it would exempt taxes and that the tax rate would be 10%, but in reality, the total amount of exorbitant taxes and levies far exceeded 50%.

The actual situation in Kitada Village alone probably exceeds 70%. Beijiwu suddenly thought of himself.

"It turns out I've never seriously considered the issue of paying taxes."

"They always naively thought that because they were military households, they didn't have to serve and only had to pay a small amount of taxes."

"Completely ignoring the actual situation."

Arctic Warrior was reflecting on what happened last year, before the tax was collected, when...

Beijiwu touched the palm-length hair on his head.

“I remember now. I cut my hair short last year, and my accent is different from here. They probably thought I was a Hu person.”

"Ok?"

Beijiwu recalled that when he went to buy the pot today, it seemed that the merchants also regarded him as a Hu person.

Hiding in the mountains does indeed allow you to avoid paying taxes.

If you become a minority in the border regions, you will pay less tax.

Beijiwu decided to get his hair cut more often, since people in the border regions tend to move between places when taxes are high.

The Beigong family is in this situation; it all boils down to survival strategies.

"eat first."

Beijiwu decided to help because he himself was also facing the tax oppression of the feudal dynasty, and at this time he needed to unite more people.

Even if we hide in the mountains in the future, it's easier for a group of people to develop than for one person.

Faced with the immense pressure of the feudal dynasty, people should not fight amongst themselves or exclude each other, but rather find a way to stab it in the back and let it know that continuing to oppress will backfire.

There were no muskets or cannons in this era.

Although bows and crossbows are still very dangerous, in mountain warfare, even hundreds of people would be doomed if they encountered the sturdy Arctic warriors.

Arctic warriors aren't very bright. If they can handle taxes properly, they'll handle them properly; if they can't, they'll resort to violence to solve problems.

"Thank you, Grandpa! Thank you, Grandpa!" Mu Chuanliang kowtowed excitedly, tears streaming down his face.

Jiang Rong and her daughter kowtowed together, shouting, "Thank you, Grandpa!"

Beijiwu laughed and said, "Alright, get up. Go and call your other children and your old mother. There won't be any meat for you, but you can have two or three bowls of porridge."

Jiang Rong was shocked by this wonderful thing. She cried and laughed at the same time, kowtowing repeatedly, "Thank you, Grandpa! Thank you for your kindness, Grandpa!"

Li Hong said anxiously, "Brother! We really don't have enough food. We'll all starve to death if this continues!"

Beijiwu laughed and said, "Just get your ten bushels of grain back!"

Li Hong immediately fell silent and whispered, "They need to pay off their debts..."

Beijiwu smiled and said, "Prioritize the people in our village. He can leave his debts unpaid for now. If the creditors come knocking, I'll reason with them. Saving the people in our village is the most important thing right now!"

Li Hong was unable to speak, dared not speak for her own family, because Arctic Martial Arts was now her own.

A woman cannot have two homes. Li Hong did not hesitate much and ultimately chose the husband's family that treated her well.

Beijiwu said to Jiang Rong and Mu Chuanliang, "Get up, both of you. I will help you this time and I will also help you pay taxes in the future. However, you have to give me one-third of the things your family receives. I will find a way to handle the rest, including corvée labor."

Jiang Rong and Mu Chuanliang quickly kowtowed: "Yes! Thank you, Grandpa!"

Beijiwu didn't like that title. "Stop calling me Grandpa. From now on, whether it's Li Hong or you, call me Chief. Now get up, put on your clothes, wash your faces, and wait for dinner. What are you two called?"

Mu Chuanliang replied, "I am Mu Chuanliang, Zizijie. These are the women I... sold to the clan chief, Jiang Rong and Xiaocao."

Looking at Jiang Rong, whose neck was still tied with a rope, Bei Jiwu asked, "Besides this girl, how old is the youngest member of your family?"

Jiang Rong replied in a sorrowful voice, "The youngest is my three-year-old son, who is being cared for by my mother-in-law."

Beijiwu smiled and said, "That's good then. Do you know how to weave cloth and do chores?"

Jiang Rong nodded, "Besides weaving cloth, washing clothes, and cooking, this lowly servant can also raise chickens, cook, make straw sandals, help build houses, and mix mud to make bricks."

Beijiwu was even happier. "Great! From now on, you can live here with my daughter. I'll get some people to come and help me build a few rooms in the next few days, otherwise there won't be enough room for all the women!"

"Yes, clan leader." Jiang Rong felt a little sad, but also relieved.

In any case, the young man in front of me is a nice person, kind-hearted, and can provide food for me and my daughter, as well as a way for my children to survive.

Jiang Rong originally wanted her whole family to die together, but the appearance of Beijiwu gave them a way to survive.

Especially after Beijiwu bought a cow today, Jiang Rong took the initiative to offer to sell herself and her daughter so that the family could survive.

It's better to be in the same village than to die or be separated from your family.

If you can live, you don't want to die.

It's better to live a miserable life than to die a good death. Jiang Rong also wanted to have enough to eat and live a life where she wouldn't be bullied by anyone.

Beijiwu watched as Mu Chuanliang went home to pick up his elderly mother and young son.

Then he looked at Jiang Rong and said, "Go inside. From now on, your daughter will take your surname and be named Jiang Cao."

"Yes, clan leader," Jiang Rong replied, bowing her head as she smelled the aroma of meat.

Beijiwu followed him into the house, smiling as he said, "I didn't notice you yesterday because it was dark."

Jiang Rong was very nervous, but she carefully forced a smile and said, "This humble servant didn't come yesterday; I was busy at home."

Beijiwu looked at Li Hong and Li Bing, who were not speaking, and the other adults and children whose faces were not good.

His whole family disagreed with him taking a concubine.

Beijiwu cursed, "Those who don't want to live here can leave. I'm in charge of things at home. Anyone who wants to be in charge back then can go back to their own home."

“You’re all just here to eat. If you don’t work, you don’t get to eat. And don’t even think about excluding others. If I see this kind of thing again, I’ll deal with it according to family rules!”

Beijiwu then changed his tune, saying, "Outsiders call me clan chief! You lot who sell yourselves for food can't call me that. From now on, call me factory manager! You're all my employees! You're all indentured laborers!"

Beijiwu doesn't want to support so many women by himself. He has no choice during these difficult times. Once the economy improves, whoever has the wife and daughters can take them home and raise them.

Even if their husbands refuse to support them, they will still support their sons!

The mentally challenged Arctic warrior used two routes to solve all the current problems.

One approach is the capitalist route, learning from the landlord capitalists' approach to dealing with disaster victims.

Throughout thousands of years of history, the landlord class and the vagrants have fought and compromised with each other, lived and died together, and accumulated a great deal of experience.

We can save lives, but we mainly treat women and children, giving them a chance to live without burdening them by accepting everyone.

This approach is too unethical and doesn't solve all the problems.

Therefore, they united the remaining men in the village, using the clan as a bond, and transformed the village collective into a clan tribe, thus dealing with the dual oppression of the Xiongnu Tatar cavalry and the imperial army in this northwestern frontier region.

The goal is to ensure everyone survives!
(End of this chapter)