Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 32 Cohesion
"We mountain farmers eat three meals a day."

Arctic Martial filled the mountain farmer tribe he had just created less than ten minutes ago with all sorts of good rules.

Li Bing, Xiang Lan, Xi Dan, Jiang Cao, Gao Cong Lian, and Jiang Rong all looked at Bei Ji Wu with excitement.

Li Hong and Xiulan looked distressed; they really didn't have enough food at home.

Beijiwu sat on the kang (a heated brick bed), with a plate of fragrant braised pork and a basket of potstickers in front of him.

"There are rules for eating too. Women are not allowed to sit at the table to eat. Do you have any objections?"

"No objections." Some of the women spoke, while others shook their heads.

They never imagined they would be happy just to eat meat and drink some soup with Arctic Warriors and smell the aroma of meat.

Arctic warriors were unwilling to share the meat because there wasn't enough to eat.

Now, with so many mouths to feed in the whole family, if even a great Confucian scholar were to come and judge, it would be the Northern Wu who should eat more.

A full stomach gives you strength. Beijiwu ate heartily, taking bites of meat and bread, slurping up the tender stewed pork and then slowly chewing one bread after another.

The table was covered not only with meat and bread, but also with pickled vegetables and wild fruits and vegetables that had been gathered.

Summer is the time when food is plentiful, and it's also the time of year when it's easiest to eat your fill.

Wild grasses and fruits, flying insects and crawling insects—there are so many things to eat.

It took Beijiwu twenty minutes to finish eating. He then said to the women who had been watching for a long time, "You all go ahead and eat. I'm going to lie down and think about something."

"Yes, sir." Jiang Rong obeyed willingly.

Beijiwu said to the others, "You all need to open your mouths and speak. When I ask you to do something, you have to respond!"

"If you can do it and are obedient, then say 'Yes, sir' just like Jiang Rong."

"If you can't do it, just say: 'Sir,' and then explain where the problem lies."

"I will judge whether you can do it or not. After I tell you what to do, you will do it. If you want to eat your fill, you have to be obedient. From now on, whoever is disobedient and doesn't work will not eat."

"If it happens too many times, I'll leave here and go out to live on my own."

Jiang Rong immediately replied, "Yes, sir!"

Gao Conglian echoed, "Yes, sir."

Li Hong and Li Bing echoed, "Yes, sir."

Next, the young girls and older girls all started saying it together, and gradually got used to the title "sir".

Beijiwu was finally satisfied. "Let the children do the cooking. You adults can discuss building the house. There are still more than ten days until the millet harvest. I'll go talk to the villagers about clearing land, cooking, feeding the cattle, making clothes, and you can think about building the house. I'll tell you when I get back."

Li Hong quickly replied, "Yes, sir."

Beijiwu didn't rest either; he got dressed and went to visit other people's homes.

After seeing Beijiwu off, the women in the family finally began to eat.

Li Hong was in charge of distributing the food.

"Two bowls of porridge and two steamed buns for each person. Wild vegetables are free to eat. We'll give you a little bit of soup to dip your buns in."

With a larger population, the food standards cannot be set too high.

Li Hong handed out pancakes to everyone, but gave Gao Conglian an extra one.

Gao Conglian quickly accepted the gift and took the child to the cowshed for a meal.

The others certainly saw it, they just didn't say anything.

Jiang Rong was eating a flatbread and a bowl of porridge. Her daughter, Jiang Cao, also got a flatbread. After taking two bites, she put the flatbread on her lap and sat in the haystack drinking her porridge.

The food standards for adults and children are the same, without any further distinction. Only Gao Conglian, who needs to be breastfed, eats a little more.

While eating, Li Hong chatted with Jiang Rong, who was sitting at the door.

How are the bricks used to build houses made?

Jiang Rong drank a bowl of soup and swallowed the food in her mouth, explaining, "Get some wheat straw and yellow soil, make a square wooden box, pour it in, compact it, and dry it in the sun."

Li Hong thought for a moment, then said to Zhang Xiulan, "Xiulan, ask your father to come and help."

“I’ll take care of it!” Zhang Xiulan readily agreed.

Gao Conglian was still worried about her children. Her husband was a good-for-nothing, and while the children had food to eat now, things would be tough in the winter. They needed to save up more food. "Let Ai Dake come and help too. That man is a cowardly good-for-nothing, but he's alright at doing some work."

Gao Conglian looked at Li Hong, thinking that if Ai Dake came over for an extra meal, the family could save on a meal.

Jiang Rong added, "My family... Mu Chuanliang can also come and help."

Jiang Rong gradually developed an awareness of maintaining her innocence and a sense of identity as a woman of the mountain peasant ethnic group.

Eating the food and sleeping in the beds of the mountain farmers, if they were sold to the mountain farmers and still thought about their original families, Jiang Rong and the others would definitely be beaten or sold.

Li Hong had no intention of feeding them. She frowned and said coldly, "There's not enough food! Even if we added bran and vegetables, we wouldn't have enough rice and flour to last until the New Year!"

Seeing her sister say such frightening things again, Li Bing gently advised, "Let's wait for the doctor to take a look. He will definitely have a solution."

Li Hong could only hope that Beijiwu could come up with a solution, otherwise the family would go hungry again if there was no food at home.

If you go hungry in winter, you can forget about borrowing food or finding any to eat; you'll freeze to death because you won't have anything to eat!
People might lend grain in the summer and autumn, but it's absolutely impossible in the winter.

Everyone knows that eating a little more or a little less in winter doesn't make much difference, but if there isn't enough food at home, people will definitely die.

After the meal, the women of the family, with so many members, started working.

Gao Conglian led the cow out, and somehow managed to twist a hemp rope and tie it around the cow's neck.

Jiang Rong looked at the rope around the cow's neck and thought it looked like the same rope that had been used to tie her up before.

After this idea came to her, Jiang Rong felt that it was most likely true.

But it didn't really move her; this cow was far more valuable than her.

Gao Conglian said, "Let Xidan lead the cow to graze in the backyard. She's too young to do anything else."

Li Hong had no objection. "Okay, Xiulan and Li Bing go fetch water, Xianglan and Jiangcao go tidy up the cowshed, collect the cow dung in baskets and dry it, it will be useful later."

"it is good!"

"Yes!"

The crowd gave their incoherent answers.

Li Hong is well aware of the importance of fertilizer, as she plans to plant 20 to 30 mu of land next year, and has already started collecting cow dung.

In extreme cases, cow dung can even be eaten.

It can be used as fertilizer, as a building material, and it can also be burned. After burning, the ash can be used to treat fur, and it can be poured around the toilet to deodorize.

In short, there are basically no unusable discarded items in rural areas; almost everything can be put to use.

Even with the best efforts to survive, there are always those who fall behind and die in poverty.

The family of ten is now supported by one man, and the rest of them must work hard. Apart from Gao Conglian's ten-month-old son, there is no one who is idle.

Beijiwu went to visit the Kitada family. When he entered the courtyard, he saw the Kitada women and children drying grain.

"Master Wu!" When Bei Tian's eldest daughter-in-law saw Bei Jiwu enter, she quickly stood up to greet him.

Beijiwu asked, "Is your husband home?"

"Dad!" the child called out, craning his neck towards the house.

Kitada Negi came out with his son and, upon seeing Beiji Wuhou, quickly smiled and said, "Master Wuhou, have you eaten yet?"

“I’ve already eaten,” Beijiwu said. “There’s clearly not enough food in the village. Yesterday, Mu Chuanliang couldn’t go on living and asked me for help. I took his wife and a few acres of land and promised to help him.”

“Now, many people in the village are going to suffer from disaster. We can’t just watch them starve to death. I’ve come to ask Old Man Li who he owes money to. If he doesn’t have the ability to pay, then we won’t pay it back for now. I’ll take those wheat back to tide us over.”

"Although it's unethical, I can't watch Mu Chuanliang and Ai Dake's families starve to death. The fewer people there are in our village, the easier it will be for outsiders to bully us in the future."

Upon hearing what Kitakata Takeshi said, Kitakata Negi felt that this kid was someone special.

"The debt is owed to Boss Yang of the grain store in the north of the city. Boss Yang has four or five men working for him, and he knows people in the city."

Beijiwu smiled, and for some reason, this smile made the Kitada brothers and Kitada Ne nearby feel much more at ease, and they also smiled.

"Then let's wait here for a while, I'll talk to those people later."

"I'll listen to Master Wu."

(End of this chapter)