Newborn 1927

Yan Donglai had arranged for people to arrive at the Gao family's residence ahead of time, so the Gao family already knew Gao Huilan would be returning home today and had made arrangements in advance. After Yang Jiefang and the others arrived, they were settled in a separate courtyard to rest. The Gao family had always been indifferent to the people of Qinglong Village, neither warm nor cold towards them. Gao Huilan said apologetically, "From childhood to adulthood, all the brothers who brought me back or came to pick me up have always arranged for me to rest here. You can rest here for a while, and we'll make arrangements after I see Grandma." Yang Jiefang smiled and said, "It's alright, I like staying with my brothers."

Soon, Fatty came to invite Yang Jiefang to the backyard, saying that the old lady wanted to see him. Yang Jiefang followed Fatty to the backyard, where Gao Huilan was waiting. She led Yang Jiefang into a room. An elderly woman with white hair sat in the room, looking up at Yang Jiefang. Gao Huilan said, "Grandma, this is Yang Jiefang." Yang Jiefang replied, "Hello, Grandma!" The old lady said, "A distinguished guest has arrived. This old woman's legs are not good, so I cannot get up to greet you. Please don't mind!" Only then did Yang Jiefang notice that the old lady had bound feet. He quickly said, "Grandma, you are too kind. You are an elder, and it is my blessing that you are willing to see me. I am very happy!" The old lady was clearly quite satisfied and beckoned, "Come! Sit next to me, let me take a good look at you!" Yang Jiefang went over and sat down beside her, while Gao Huilan sat on the other side. The old lady carefully examined Yang Jiefang's appearance and praised, "Hmm, he looks kind. He's from a good family!" Then they chatted casually, asking a series of questions about family matters. Yang Jiefang had been instructed by Gao Huilan that he could tell her anything except that he was a bandit. Yang Jiefang naturally told her about his background in a half-truthful way, which made the old lady nod frequently.

As dusk settled, Gao Yao came to the backyard and invited Yang Jiefang to dinner. Gao Huilan naturally wanted to stay and eat with her grandmother, so she told Yang Jiefang to go with Gao Yao. As they walked, Gao Yao said, "The brothers who came with us have already been served. Actually, my father wanted to see you; let's chat while we eat." Yang Jiefang knew that Gao Wen must have become interested in business. Following Gao Yao to the east wing of the front yard, a middle-aged man sat at a table with several dishes laid out. Seeing Gao Yao and Yang Jiefang enter, the man stood up. Gao Yao called out "Father," and they introduced themselves. Yang Jiefang greeted, "Uncle, hello!" Gao Wen gestured for Yang Jiefang to sit down, and Gao Yao picked up the wine pot to pour some wine, but Yang Jiefang refused, saying, "Excuse me! Uncle, Brother Gao, I don't drink. Please, make yourselves at home!" Gao Wen waved his hand, and Gao Yao put down the wine pot and sat down as well.

Gao Wen immediately asked, "What's your position on the mountain?" Yang Jiefang knew he couldn't hide it from them, and didn't intend to. Since there were only the three of them, he said, "I'm the junior manager. Before, there was only a senior manager on the mountain, but now there's a junior manager." Gao Wen was quite surprised and asked, "I've never heard of you before." Yang Jiefang said, "I haven't been on the mountain for very long. Uncle, you didn't just call me here to interrogate me about my background, did you?"

Gao Yao interjected, "That business you mentioned this afternoon..." Yang Jiefang smiled and said, "This business isn't a partnership between you and me, it's a partnership between our Qinglong Village and your Gao family. To be honest, I don't want Qinglong Village to continue those highway robberies and banditry. I want to do some legitimate business to earn money to support the brothers on the mountain. I heard that your Gao family has many people but little land, so you also need to do some small business to supplement your income. Wouldn't it be a win-win situation for both of us to cooperate?" Gao Wen said, "With so many people on your mountain, you can easily do it yourselves. Why do you want to cooperate with our Gao family?" Yang Jiefang truthfully replied, "After all, carrying the reputation of bandits, business isn't easy." "To expand, we need to cooperate with others. Our cooperation with you is naturally because of the head of the family and Gao Huilan. Your Gao family isn't an outsider; we trust you." Gao Wen nodded and asked, "You really can invest 100,000 silver dollars?" Yang Jiefang nodded and said, "This is just the initial investment; we'll increase investment as the business expands. In business, the more capital you have, the more you earn." Gao Wen was clearly tempted and said, "If you're willing to take the legitimate path, how can our Gao family refuse? However, to do business together, we must consider the interests of both parties to ensure long-term success. You provide the capital, we provide the labor; how about a 30/70 split?"

Yang Jiefang understood; this was the crux of today's conversation. He asked, "Uncle, there must be some reason behind what you're saying!" Gao Wen replied, "Let me give you an example. Nowadays, tenants cultivate land for landlords. The land belongs to the landlord, the houses the tenants live in also belong to the landlord, and the seeds, oxen, and farm tools are all provided by the landlord. When the harvest is ready, the rent is split 30/70. The landlord gets 70%, and the tenant gets 30%." Yang Jiefang was stunned. In his previous life, he had learned from movies and TV shows that rent was as high as 70%, and he thought landlords were exploiting people too much. Now he understood that there was a reason for this 70% rent. He asked, "What if the landlord only rents out the land? How does he usually collect rent?" Gao Wen answered, "That's not always the case. If the tenant has their own oxen, farm tools, and seeds, it's usually a 50/50 split; some landlords only collect 40% of the rent."

Yang Jiefang thought for a moment, then said, "Uncle, there's a question I don't know if you've considered. The key to our business lies in the flow of goods. Smooth trade routes mean profits, while unsmooth ones mean losses. These days, the world isn't peaceful! We, the Qinglong Village, have men and guns, and we can speak with authority in the underworld. We can't ignore that, can we?" Gao Wen nodded and said, "That certainly needs consideration. Let me think about it more carefully!" Yang Jiefang smiled and said, "No rush, we have plenty of time."

Gao Yao suggested, "Why don't we eat first? The food's getting cold. Let's chat while we eat." After some polite exchanges, the three began to eat. They ate and chatted casually. Yang Jiefang casually asked, "Uncle, I wonder how many acres of land your family owns, and how the harvest is?" Gao Wen shook his head, "My family doesn't own any land. We rent out a few dozen acres, which my second brother manages. It's barely enough to make ends meet." Yang Jiefang asked in surprise, "Your family doesn't own any land! When I came to the village, I found your family to be the most well-off. Even your family rents land to farm, so who owns all the land in your village?" Gao Wen replied, "The Gao family's land naturally belongs to the Gao family." This only confused Yang Jiefang more. Gao Yao explained from the side, “This land was inherited from our ancestors, so it naturally belongs to the Gao family clan, not to any individual. The villagers rent land from the clan and pay 40% rent to the clan's charitable granary. My father is now the head of the Gao family and manages the granary along with three elders.” Yang Jiefang was surprised again and asked, “Then is it not allowed for private sale of land in your village?” Gao Yao said, “Yes. Each family rents as much land as they can cultivate based on their labor capacity. Land cannot be left uncultivated. If there is a shortage of labor, the land must be handed over to others to cultivate. Now there are too many people and not enough land to cultivate. Everyone is the same; there is only a feeling that there is too little land, not a situation where more is given up. It is becoming increasingly difficult to rent more land now. That's why we want to do business to earn money to support our families.”

Yang Jiefang finally understood. Wasn't this a collective ownership land model? He had thought it was a new product of New China, but it turned out this model had existed for a long time. Yang Jiefang laughed, "Forgive my ignorance, but I originally thought that all the land in the world, like in our village, belonged to the landlords. Everyone else was just farming for the landlords." Gao Yao said, "That shouldn't be the case. I've traveled to many villages, and seven or eight out of ten are like our Gao family. The land in the village belongs to the clan, not to individuals. That landlord in your village, does someone in his family hold an official position?" Yang Jiefang agreed, "He holds a minor official position." Gao Yao said, "That makes sense. The higher the official's rank, the more land they own, all acquired through cunning and plunder. If no one in the family holds an official position, even the largest family fortune will be ruined after a few generations."

Yang Jiefang finally understood. In over two thousand years of feudal society, the exploitation of peasants by small and medium-sized landlords wasn't as terrible as imagined. The real exploiters were the bureaucratic landlords, who not only exploited peasants but also small and medium-sized landlords, driving them into bankruptcy. Therefore, throughout history, so many dynastic changes only changed the officials; the land ownership system remained the same. In vast rural areas, often a village shared only one surname, and fundamentally, they all shared a common ancestor. The land in the village was passed down from the same ancestor. The collective ownership model of the Gao family was actually a relatively stable model, thus becoming a common land ownership model. Therefore, the struggle against landlords and the redistribution of land were aimed at the extremely small minority of bureaucratic landlords.

Yang Jiefang asked again, "Uncle, you manage the granary. May I ask how the grain in the granary is handled?" Gao Wen replied, "The land rent goes to the granary, and the imperial taxes and national levies borne by the land must be paid from the granary. This is the bulk of the revenue, and it's unavoidable. The rest is stored up for famine. If there's any surplus, we'll set up a community school and hire a teacher to instruct the village children. These past few years, there's been almost a famine every year, so the community school has been running intermittently, which is disheartening. Alas, we're short of money!" Yang Jiefang praised, "Uncle, your righteousness is admirable! How about this? I'll donate some money on behalf of Qinglong Village to the village..." "Let's open a new-style school." Gao Wen shook his head and said, "No need for that. We'll open it ourselves once we've made some money. To be honest, Xiao Lan's mother has been thinking of donating some money to the village school these past few years. I didn't agree. This school is a place for teaching and nurturing people; it's not a place where we can just take any amount of money." Yang Jiefang couldn't help but feel respect and said, "I'm ashamed, nephew." Gao Wen said, "I'm not trying to embarrass you. I agreed to cooperate with you in business because we really need money. But, let's keep to ourselves. We'll only earn what we're entitled to and will never take advantage of you." Yang Jiefang nodded and said, "I understand."

Gao Yao quickly changed the subject, saying, "Over the years, my little sister Xiao Lan has lived at home, and her mother has provided her with everything she needs; even those two girls, they all went to school together, and we paid for their education. Don't underestimate my sister just because she's a girl; she's just as good at studying as the boys in the village. And her daughter, Chu Gu, not only is she a good student, but she also has beautiful handwriting!" After the three of them finished dinner and chatted for a while, Yang Jiefang got up to say goodbye, and Gao Yao escorted him back to his residence.

The next morning, Gao Huilan found Yang Jiefang and said, "Come for a walk with me!" Yang Jiefang readily agreed, and they strolled together to the edge of the village. Seeing her head down, looking somewhat sullen, Yang Jiefang asked, "What's wrong? You look unhappy. Is something wrong?" Gao Huilan turned around, scrutinized him carefully, and after a while said, "I can't see anything." Her appearance reminded Yang Jiefang of the old lady's scrutiny of him the day before, and he tentatively asked, "Did your grandmother say something?" Gao Huilan nodded and said, "My grandmother doesn't like you." Yang Jiefang was taken aback and asked, "Why? Wasn't she very happy yesterday? She kept praising me." Gao Huilan said helplessly, "She's a shrewd old woman; she won't show anything. Praising you to your face is true, but..." "It's true that I didn't like you." Yang Jiefang pressed, "Why is that? Is there something I didn't do well enough?" Gao Huilan shook her head, sighed, and said, "My grandma said that you can't judge a person just by how good they are, you also have to see how bad they are." Yang Jiefang said dejectedly, "So I'm not a good person, I'm a bad person." Gao Huilan continued, "Only by accepting a person's bad side can you stay with them in the long run. Grandma said you're too handsome, have a sweet tongue, and are too fickle; you're not a man who's faithful. Who knows how many women you'll attract in the future? To be honest, I need to think carefully about whether I can accept your bad side."

Yang Jiefang fell silent. He had dated one girlfriend after another, and was indeed not a man of few words. After transmigrating, he had been preoccupied with controlling Qinglong Village and building a revolutionary force; he hadn't had time for romance. Besides, he felt that in this world, one should prioritize national duty over personal feelings. Everyone thought he should marry Gao Huilan to rightfully take over Qinglong Village. In his opinion, it didn't matter whether he married Gao Huilan or not; he could control Qinglong Village just the same. Gao Huilan had feelings for him and was very beautiful, so he wasn't opposed to her; marrying her wouldn't be a loss, but not marrying her wouldn't be a regret either.

Seeing his nonchalant attitude, Gao Huilan was exasperated and said, "You don't seem worried at all? Do you already have other plans in mind?" Yang Jiefang smiled bitterly, "Your grandmother didn't approve of me, and you listen to her. What plans could I possibly have?" Gao Huilan said, "Can't you promise to be a good man?" Yang Jiefang replied, "If this could win you over, I'd give you any promise you want. But would such a promise really be effective?" Gao Huilan stomped her feet in anger. She now believed that her grandmother hadn't misjudged him; this wasn't a good man. Whether she could accept such a man was something she really needed to think about carefully.

At this moment, Gao Yao jogged over and said, "I've been looking for you for a while, so this is where you are." Yang Jiefang asked, "Brother Gao, is there something you need?" Gao Yao nodded and said, "Yes. Last night, my father and I discussed it carefully, and we've decided to split our profits 70/30, you get 70%, I get 30%. You only need to provide the capital; you don't need to show yourselves. Our Gao family can form a guard team to ensure the smooth flow of the trade route." Yang Jiefang understood; cooperation was possible, but the division of responsibilities had to be clear. It was evident that the Gao family still maintained a respectful distance from bandits. Yang Jiefang nodded and said, "Okay, no problem, let's do it that way. I'll arrange it later and send the money over as soon as possible. The weather is starting to warm up; look at the broad beans by the roadside and the wheat seedlings in the fields—they're all starting to turn green. We need to get the trade route up before the summer harvest."