Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 75 Forced Conscription
Beijiwu and his two companions rode horses to Zhoujia Village.

Zhoujia Village is nestled against the mountains and beside the river. If something happens, one can take refuge in the mountains. Also, because it is close to the county town, it is located near the official road.

Beijiwu rode a horse into the village via a side path. Between the village and the official road, there was a 200-meter-long path with wheat fields on both sides.

The official road and the river are several hundred meters apart and in different directions.

Official roads are usually built on the edge of villages, while rivers are built to cover as much land as possible, typically passing through the center.

Beijiwu glanced around and realized that the village had at least a hundred households.

If there are more than 100 households, there will naturally be a head of 100 households.

As the three approached the village entrance, they encountered a group of elderly women who seemed to be doing something at the village entrance.

An old woman shouted at Beijiwu, "This is Zhoujia Village, what are you doing here?"

Sitting on his horse, Beiji Wu calmly said, "I am Beiji Wu, and I've come on behalf of the Yang Family Rice Shop to collect a debt from Zhou Er in the west of your village. Call your village chief over here!"

After speaking, Beijiwu rode his horse westward.

Mu Chuanliang and Ai Dake followed on horseback.

Upon seeing this, more than a dozen old women, daughters-in-law, and children at the village entrance quickly went into the village to call for help.

Beijiwu rode his horse slowly to inspect this small mountain village. There were mud houses and thatched huts on both sides of the road.

The courtyard has houses on three sides, with a wall and wooden door on the side closest to the gate. Wheat or vegetables are planted in front of the gate. Each courtyard is six or seven hundred square meters, much larger than the rural houses I remember.

Upon entering the village, you can hear dogs barking. Some dogs are in the yard, while others have run directly to the vicinity of Beijiwu and are barking.

"Woof...Woof!"

"Wang Wang!"

Beijiwu saw two large wolfhounds barking at him, so he dismounted and took out a knife.

Upon seeing this, the two dogs quickly stopped barking, but instead of running away, they pretended to be nonchalant.

Without wasting words, Beijiwu rushed forward and chopped off the head of a large wolfhound with a single stroke!
The horses and dogs nearby, as well as the dog owners and curious villagers who came out of the nearby yards to check the situation, were all astonished!

Horses, dogs, and humans alike were all trying to stay away from the dangerous man and the severed, dead dog on the ground.

"Take this dead dog with you."

Arctic Martial looked coldly at the others, and no one dared to come out and talk to him.

Bei Jiwu looked at a man who came out nearby and said, "Where does Zhou Er live? Tell me quickly! Otherwise, you're Zhou Er!"

The male villager dared not become Tuesday, and seeing that Beijiwu was holding a blood-stained knife, he could only point in a direction.

"That's Zhou Er's house over there."

Beijiwu said no more and rode his horse to Zhou Er's house.

The men and women in the neighborhood were terrified and rushed home to call for help.

The village was mostly inhabited by military households; out of every hundred households, there were sixty or seventy soldiers.

But these soldiers witnessed Arctic warriors killing dogs with their own eyes, yet none of them dared to utter any harsh words.

Not long after, a group of men went home, picked up their weapons, and regrouped before daring to approach the west of the village together.

At first, the crowd was timid and dared not say anything harsh, but when one or two hundred people gathered together, and with the support of the women and boys of the whole village, there were more than a hundred people.

Three or four hundred people from the village of four or five hundred came, all carrying weapons such as spears, sickles, and pitchforks, and gathered in a dense mass towards the west of the village.

Beijiwu had already arrived at Zhou's house in the west of the village. He saw two two- or three-year-old children squatting in the vegetable garden at the door, whispering to each other, so he dismounted.

The two children saw the stranger and quickly ran into the yard.

"Father! Mother! Grandma!"

Arctic Martial originally intended to throw the dead dog in, but seeing this, he waited.

About a minute later, a man came out with his wife.

On Tuesday, I looked at Arctic Martial Arts and then at the dead dog on the ground.

"Whom are you looking for, sir?" Zhou Er asked cautiously.

Beiji Wu said, "I am Beiji Wu, here to collect a debt on behalf of the owner of Yang Family Rice Shop in the city. Pay up now."

Upon hearing that this person was Beiji Wu, Tuesday immediately knelt down and cried, "Master Wu! My family is really broke. We have prepared ten shi of rice this year. If Master Wu doesn't mind, please take it all!"

I owed two shi of rice for over a year, and I'm willing to repay ten shi of rice!
Two bushels of rice would yield roughly the same amount if planted in the ground, not to mention the savings in manpower and resources.

"Alright, get ready and transport the grain to my place, and I won't charge you the twelve taels of silver debt."

Beijiwu originally wanted to bring people up the mountain, but decided to earn an extra ten shi of rice.

Beijiwu pulled out the blood-stained ledger and took out the first IOU from it.

"This is an IOU. Can you read?"

On Tuesday, he quickly shook his head, "I can't read."

Beijiwu said, "It's alright. When your village chief comes over, or when someone in the village can read, he can take a look. Prepare ten shi of grain tomorrow, and I'll come and collect it."

Arctic Martial plans to take over both the people and the food.

On Tuesday, he quickly kowtowed, "Thank you, Master Wu! Thank you, Master Wu, for your mercy!"

Beijiwu then said, "I'm worried you'll run away. How about this: today, have your wife and children come with us to the village. Tomorrow, you can take the grain there and bring them back."

On Tuesday, he pleaded, "I won't run away! I absolutely won't run away!"

Arctic Warrior said expressionlessly, "I am dashing, handsome, and incredibly strong. I am a born warrior, and I am hundreds of times stronger than you, a country bumpkin."

"Your wife is short, dark-skinned, ugly, and illiterate. What, do you think she's good enough for me? Don't worry, I won't get involved with that kind of woman, nor will I let my men harass her."

"The three of them can stay for one night. If one of them is missing or a finger is missing tomorrow, it's my fault."

"I've already said all this, so don't take advantage of my easy-going nature and try to make me listen to you."

"If you don't know what's good for you, I'll let you take this dog and talk to Boss Yang!!"

On Tuesday, I was so anxious that my scalp tingled, but I didn't dare to say another word of begging for mercy.

The news that Boss Yang had been killed by Arctic Martial Arts made Zhou Er and the other borrowers overjoyed, and they ate two extra bowls of rice.

But now that Arctic Martial has appeared with the ledger, his dream has been shattered.

"Yes... I'll listen to Master Wu... but my three children aren't on the IOU..."

I'd like to try again on Tuesday.

Beijiwu said, "Don't worry, food and lodging will be provided for both adults and children. If you can't stand any hardship, you two can dismount and let the women and children ride the horses while you walk on the ground!"

Beijiwu gave orders to his two subordinates, and the two men, who had also sold their wives, came down laughing.

Ai Dake comforted him, saying, "Don't cry. You're living a good life by following our clan leader! You'll understand in a couple of days!"

Mu Chuanliang had mixed feelings, but he took the initiative to say, "As long as you are obedient, our clan leader will not bully you. Judging from your accent, you are from Jingzhou Prefecture in the south. I am also from there, and my family is doing well now."

Upon hearing Mu Chuanliang speak on Tuesday, he immediately replied, "I am from Zhouwang County, Jingzhou Prefecture."

Mu Chuanliang said happily, "Me too. After the county was destroyed, I wandered around and ended up here."

Seeing that he was from the same county and township, Tuesday felt somewhat relieved.

At this moment, Beijiwu heard a commotion behind him and saw three or four hundred people with weapons coming towards him.

"It's them!"

"Don't let them get away!"

"Fuck your mother! How dare you mess with Zhoujia Village!"

"Your Majesty!"

"You little brat! Didn't you hear me tell you to kneel down?!" A group of armed men shouted at Arctic Martial Arts from dozens of meters away.

Without wasting words, Beijiwu picked up his sword and walked over.

Four hundred people versus one person!
When the villagers saw Beijiwu approaching with a knife, they quickly raised their weapons at him, using various forks, hoes, long sticks, brooms, and other implements to keep their distance.

This group of villagers, led by sixty or seventy border soldiers, remained calm when faced with the knife-wielding assailant and used their manpower to try to subdue him.

"Put down the knife!"

"Put down the knife! Stop!"

"Stop, or I'll kill you!"

"Report to the authorities! Report to the authorities!"

Arctic Martial rushed forward and quickly engaged the troops in close combat!

Dozens of border soldiers could only hold their weapons stiffly, and when the Arctic Warrior approached, they all attacked it together.

Long spears, wooden sticks, long knives, shovels... all sorts of weapons were mixed together, but only two or three could actually fight in the Arctic.

Beijiwu leaped up, jumping two or three meters high like a tiger, and landed five or six meters into the crowd.

His foot was planted directly on the heads of several men and women, terrifying these armed men and women into a panic.

The crowded people descended into complete chaos, and Beijiwu landed on an open space within the crowd.

With a sweeping motion, the sharp blade caused people in the surrounding half-circle to cry out in pain.

The intense pain drove men and women to flee to the outer perimeter like madmen, causing the water to boil over.

Without showing any mercy or abandoning their weapons, and without any of their absurd habit of not targeting the elderly, weak, women, and children, Arctic Martial Arts used extreme violence to render everyone in Zhoujia Village devoid of fighting spirit in just a few breaths.

A sense of horror arose spontaneously!

Kneel down! Or die!

"Anyone who dares to run will be killed without mercy!"

One by one, hundreds of people from Zhoujia Village laid down their weapons and knelt down, weeping.

This group consisted of soldiers, bandits, lackeys, and compliant citizens, making them a very diverse group. However, they had all witnessed warfare and the fall of cities, so they did not have much of a resistance mentality.

Those who dared to resist were basically all dead.

Beijiwu looked down on the large group of people and said, "I'll let you off the hook for today. Now prepare two oxcarts to transport the grain and people away. To prevent you from reporting to the authorities, the families of the dead will also come with me to my village to live. The rest of you should stay here and farm the land."

"Anyone who reports this to the authorities and leaks the information will be in for trouble later!"

"Think it through. There are hundreds of people in your village. We all share the same fate! I will take the families who have died back to the mountain to settle them and provide them with good food and drink. But if any of you think this matter is not over, then next time I won't make you kneel down!"

"Anyone who disagrees, stand up and speak! My knife is still bleeding!"

Village chief Zhou Shoucai hurriedly said, "Don't worry, Uncle Wu, we absolutely won't tell!"

Beijiwu realized this was a military settlement village, so he asked, "Who is the centurion here?"

Zhou Shoucai replied, "It is my son, who is working in the city today."

Beijiwu nodded. "I heard that smugglers in the garrison sell grain for money. One tael of silver can buy several bushels of grain?"

There were still dead bodies near Zhou Shoucai. At this moment, he honestly replied, "One tael of silver can buy one shi of grain. It will be more expensive to sell to the Mongols, one shi and one tael and five fen."

Arctic Martial felt that the price was far from what he had expected.

However, he soon realized that selling grain to the enemy was indeed much more expensive and profitable than selling it to his own people.

Nomadic peoples, lacking food, would certainly rely on trade with the border armies to obtain enough food.

However, as Ma Tuchai said, nomadic peoples do not have that much silver, cattle, horses, slaves, and livestock unless they rob others.

The border troops didn't care about the price of public grain; they just wanted to exchange it for money.

Professional matters should be left to professionals; this matter is better handled by the Ma Tu Chai route.

"I need some warm quilts and good boots, and I have plenty of money. I'll come back in a few days to ask. Now, hand over the relatives of these dead people and come back to live with me in the mountain tribe."

"Go back and pack your things now. Give the rice and grain to your neighbors. Just bring your pots, farm tools, and clothes. My family will feed you! Don't worry about your chastity; I have no interest in your bodies!"

"If they run away, I'll settle accounts with the others!"

Arctic warriors force others to serve them.

The effect is very good.

Perhaps Mu Chuanliang and Ai Dake were both refugees, because with their introduction, the group of weeping women and children finally agreed to cooperate.

Even Zhou Er's family obediently distributed their food and followed the group with their remaining possessions.

They wanted to swarm in and subdue Arctic Martial, but that was far too difficult. The few people who were instantly killed terrified everyone.

As evening fell, Beijiwu returned home with a bountiful harvest.

Three oxen and carts, two donkeys, twenty-five people of all ages and genders, a large cartload of clothes and bedding, twenty bushels of grain, and several knives.

A large group of people returned to their rural village via the official road.

The adults and children of the mountain people all ran over to greet them warmly.

"Clan leader!"

The crowd knelt on the ground to welcome this great patriarch who always brought back bountiful harvests.

Just like a hunter bringing home prey, the whole family was overjoyed.

Those who were supposed to be the ones to reap the rewards were far from happy; they watched this scene with tension and discomfort.

"Let the canteen cook for us. These are the new members of our tribe. We will arrange houses for each family, one courtyard per family, and give them some eggs and meat to calm their nerves."

A group of old women happily replied, "Yes, clan leader!"

On Tuesday, it was discovered that the people here were not carrying knives or guns, nor were they bound like the officers and barbarians of the past.

The five new families were quickly assigned a courtyard.

Mu Chuanliang explained, "Let's eat something and take a nap today. We'll help you build houses tomorrow. We're all from the same village, and I'm not lying to you. We provide food and lodging here. If you do a good job, we'll give you oxen and horses. The clan chief will also allocate land for us to cultivate."

"For men without wives, the clan chief will find them wives from outside."

"For women without husbands, there are plenty of capable young men in our village."

"What's past is past. Everyone's life is hard enough as it is. Rather than being bullied to death by those corrupt officials, we'd rather live a good life here with the mountain farmers!"

"Whoever's donkey belongs to them, and whoever's ox belongs to them too, so don't worry."

The people of Zhoujia Village thought they had fallen into a den of demons, but after an afternoon and evening, they quickly discovered that it was actually a good place.

The border residents, who were forcibly relocated to fill the border area, had no feelings for their hometown in Zhoujia Village, nor were they grateful to the imperial court that had forcibly brought them here.

It wasn't just the Arctic warriors who killed their family members, but also the imperial court and the Hu people.

Now that the mountain farmers are willing to give these people a way to make a living, they naturally join the mountain farmers.

The matter had escalated to a certain point, and Beiji Wu had finally officially entered the mind of the highest commander of Beiyuanwei.

“If the general dares to provoke me, I will kill him.” Lu Siming said to the general, “Sir, these are the boy’s exact words.”

"Outrageous!!" the general roared in fury. "I've fought my way through countless battles, how could I be afraid of a country bumpkin! Bring him here, I'll deal with him myself!"

Lu Siming warned, "Sir, this man is incredibly brave. He can kill a giant boar weighing a thousand pounds with one punch, carry an ox back to the village from the county, and strangle a tiger and leopard with one hand!"

The general was immediately shocked, and the old man quickly abandoned his plan to fight Arctic Martial one-on-one.

"Call everyone over! We need to have a meeting!"

These traitors must be dealt with in a meeting.

(End of this chapter)