At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 458: Going to the Countryside and Helping Farmers
On the 15th day of the third month in the eighteenth year of the Han calendar, in Diaoyin County, Shangjun, Gushanli.

"My fellow villagers, everyone knows about our life here. It's easy to have enough food to eat, but it's very difficult to make money." Wu Yue said.

The villagers in Gushan laughed and said, "It's the same for everyone. We are even worse off in Gushan. The mountain roads are rugged and we work so hard to carry two loads of wheat down the mountain and sell them for only a few dollars. Although the court collects less taxes, it still spends money. In the past, it was enough to feed the boys, but now we have to support them to study. Pens, ink, paper and inkstones all cost money. This is still a failure. If you succeed and get admitted to a middle school, the annual tuition fee of 5000 will really tire your parents to death."

"You can't say that. Although life is a little hard now, once you are admitted to middle school, you can go to the county town to work. This year, the imperial court built an oil factory in Gaonu and recruited more than 3,000 craftsmen in our county. All of those recruited are intellectuals, so now you can eat the government's food." An elderly man retorted, dissatisfied with the useless appearance of the villagers around him.

The villagers did not refute, they just complained about their own depression out of habit, but they also recognized the path of studying.

The first industrial revolution was unfolding rapidly in Dahan. All emerging industries required highly qualified personnel. It was not a problem for people with a high school diploma to earn a middle-level income in Dahan.

For ordinary farmers, this is already a leap forward, because there is hope. So for these farmers, as long as their son has a talent for studying, they will support him to study even if they have to borrow money. The villagers in Gushan will also find ways to support such families.

Wu Yue waved his hand and said, "Today we are talking about making money, and we will talk about studying next time."

"Everyone understands that it is difficult to make a fortune just by farming. Only when everyone works together and develops local specialties can we make money."

The villagers asked: "What specialty products do you want to develop?"

Wu Yue smiled and said, "We will have to investigate the market later. But it is obviously not feasible for us to do our own thing as we are doing now. For one thing, the road on Gushan is rugged. If we don't repair this road, we won't be able to transport our special products even if we have them on the mountain."

An elderly villager frowned and asked, "The court wants us to perform corvée labor?"

"Corvée!!!" All the villagers were shocked. Although the Han Dynasty had been founded for more than ten years, more than half of the villagers had lived through the Qin Dynasty. They had deep memories of the corvée during that period. Once they went out, they would be in danger of death. No one could guarantee that their loved ones could return alive. No one wanted to go back to that era. They only faced development issues during the Han Dynasty, but if they returned to the Qin Dynasty, they would face survival issues.

Wu Yue shook his head and said, "Don't worry, we farmers are not the imperial court, and we are not qualified to send corvée labor."

"But everyone always wants to build their hometown well. If the fields want to increase production, new water conservancy projects must be built. Just now, a villager said that carrying two loads of wheat down the mountain was tiring. But if this road is repaired, we can use a horse-drawn carriage to pull the wheat down the mountain. If there is no horse-drawn carriage, at least we can use a wheelbarrow, which is better than carrying wheat down the mountain. In addition, we have so many fruit trees on the mountain. These are the wealth left to us by our ancestors. We can make them into preserved fruits or canned fruits. How much money can we make by transporting them down the mountain?"

Shang Nong originally wrote a letter to Xu Fan, wanting to relax the restrictions on corvée labor among the villagers, but Xu Fan eventually gave up due to various concerns and told Shang Nong about the court's concerns.

The businessmen also recognized Xu Fan's concerns, and later he decided to use the power of the farmers to organize the farmers and let them build water conservancy and roads and other infrastructure by themselves. The farmers are non-governmental organizations, and the farmers are also protecting their hometowns, so naturally they cannot be said to be corvee labor.

But one farmer said, "We still have to go to the county to do odd jobs to earn money. If we stay in the village, who will make up for the loss?"

The life of men farming and women weaving has been completely destroyed by the industrialization of the Han Dynasty, but the farmers themselves have found other ways to make money. Since there is no corvee in the Han Dynasty, farmers do not need to be trapped on the land, and they can go out to work during the slack season.

The Han Dynasty was in a period of great construction. The Han court had to build two to three kilometers of track every year, which required a large number of workers.

Like local county magistrates, they need to achieve political achievements, and they also need to build a large number of projects, such as repairing canals, water channels, and bridges, all of which require a large number of people.

These construction sites provide a large number of jobs. Every year during the slack season, a large number of farmers go to these construction sites to work. Although they only earn a few hundred yuan a month, it is a considerable income for those farmers.

So when Wu Yue said he wanted to build roads and canals, many farmers were not happy. It was obviously impossible to pay for these projects, and they would not be able to complete them in the short term. It would almost waste two or three years of their working time. In addition, they would have to pay for the road construction. They would at least lose several thousand dollars.

So if you do a quick calculation, you will find that local farmers will not be happy to do such a free thing. Although building a new road will benefit them, this benefit will only come after a few years and is intangible, while the loss of their profits is real.

Most villagers supported this idea, but one farmer agreed with the road construction: "This is not doing something for yourself. After the water conservancy project is built, the extra wheat in your fields is a harvest. This is good for everyone. We should all work together. Just like Master Wu said, after the road is built, I have to transport the wheat, which also saves effort."

"This road has been like this for hundreds of years. Our ancestors have walked on it, so why can't we walk on it? Although a well-built road is easier to walk on and saves effort, do we farmers lack strength? We lack money. Instead of spending this effort on building roads, we might as well go to the court's construction site to earn some money."

"This is a mountain road of dozens of miles. With only a hundred of us, it will take a long time to repair it." Another villager pointed out the most realistic problem. The road out of the mountain is more than ten miles long and they definitely cannot complete the repair alone.

Wu Yue smiled and said, "It's not just one family in Gushan who is repairing the road. My family has also found a way to contact eight other villages, and everyone is working together to repair the road."

Despite our best efforts to persuade them, many farmers were still unwilling to contribute, and the conversation ultimately came to nothing.

That night, the farmers gathered in the small courtyard they rented.

Xu Aimin was a little angry and said, "These farmers are too ignorant. We are obviously thinking about them, but they don't appreciate it at all. I think I understand what they mean. They want us farmers to help them build the road. Why? They use this road themselves and they benefit from it. How can we farmers help them build the road?"

Last year, Xu Aimin’s social practice class was very effective. This year, Xu Fan simply asked them to come to Shangjun, the farmer’s base camp, and told the merchants and farmers to let Xu Aimin understand the situation in the poor villages of Dahan.

Shangnong handed Xu Aimin over to Wu Yue for education, which led to the scene before us.

Wu Yue smiled calmly and said, "The farmers have been in poverty for hundreds of years, and have suffered from wars for hundreds of years. Any natural disaster or man-made disaster can destroy their families. This has cultivated their habits of being cautious and taking advantage, because if they don't do this, they can't survive. Now we are organizing them, but we can't act too hastily. We must understand them. As long as my farmers can bring them benefits, they will naturally support us."

Chen Mai asked, "Master Wu, what should we do now?"

Wu Yue smiled and said, "We will reclaim wasteland and engage in breeding so that farmers can see our ability. As long as our lives get better and better, there will naturally be farmers who want to live a good life and join us. When my family becomes stronger and stronger, farmers will trust me more and more and know the benefits of building roads and canals for them, then they will not oppose building roads and canals."

Xu Aimin was surprised and asked, "How long will this take?"

Wu Yue smiled and said, "It may take two to three years at the slowest, or half a year to a year at the fastest. But the prerequisite is that we want to grow crops and make the farmers feel that we are their own people."

Zhang Piqiang was surprised and said, "Master Wu, this is too inefficient. Just to repair these dozens of miles of mountain roads, the farmers will waste two or three years. There are more than tens of millions of villages like Gushanli in the world. Even Yugong moving the mountain is not that difficult."

Wu Yue smiled and said, "How can you say that farmers are inefficient in their farm work? Once this mountain road is repaired, more than a dozen nearby villages will benefit. This is progress. As long as we move towards this goal, we will eventually complete it."

The hero was a little depressed and said: "How long will we stay here?"

Wu Yue and his friends have been in Gushan for three days, and these three days have made him feel like a year. It can be said that all the hardships he has experienced in his life are concentrated in these three days. Now he actually wants to start school as soon as possible, because the school environment will at least not be as harsh as Gushan. However, when he thinks that there are still two months left, Yingxiong's face becomes even more sad.

Wu Yue naturally understood what the hero meant. He smiled and said, "If you want to live a good life, then create it with your own hands. You have studied for seven or eight years and have been taught by famous teachers. You should learn to use the knowledge you have learned from books to improve your life. If you can't even solve your own problems, how can you help farmers solve their problems? Classes don't have to be held in school. This mountain is also a school." That night Wu Yue visited all the villagers in Gushan. He didn't talk about building roads and canals, but about farmers creating a kind of Western fruit called watermelon. This fruit is the favorite of people in the city, and the income is more than ten times that of fields. As long as two or three acres are planted, it will be a considerable income. Farmers can provide seeds and technical guidance, and the profits will be shared equally by everyone.

Finally, ten families agreed to Wu Yue's proposal, and the ten families planted a total of 10 acres of watermelons.

Then Wu Yue led Xu Aimin and others to build their own houses in Gushan. They hired farmers to help transport bricks from top to bottom. They built the first brick house, earthworm fields, hatcheries and other common products of farmers in Gushan.

Most farmers are self-reliant, and each base must achieve economic independence. If they cannot even support themselves, how can they guide farmers to become rich?

Therefore, at this time, the survival ability of the farmers was even better than that of the Mohists, and every student from a farming family had mastered several survival skills.

In this way, the farmers took root in Gushan. Wu Yue would usually guide ten farmers who were trusted to farm. As the saying goes, an expert can tell whether there is a good thing or not with just one hand. After Wu Yue's guidance, the wheat seedlings of these farmers were obviously better than those of other farmers.

Such scenes earned Wu Yue considerable prestige in Gushan, as a farmer could always gain the respect of farmers.

Many farmers asked Wu Yue for advice on farming, and Wu Yue also patiently guided them.

Xu Aimin and his friends also began to adapt to life in Gushan.

Wu Yue asked them to find ways to improve their lives. The hero showed his true colors as a rich man and spent money to buy chickens and ducks from the villagers, or the villagers' prey, in order to improve their meals. The four little rich men created a considerable economy for Gushan.

When the farmhouses were built, their living environment began to improve. They had a good relationship with the children in the village. The children invited them to eat wild fruits from the mountains. Xu Aimin and his friends taught them to read and write. Gushan was too poor, and no teachers were willing to come here to teach. Local children had to go to the countryside outside the mountains to study. They also told these children stories from outside the mountains, especially stories about Chang'an City. At this time, they were a little reluctant to leave.

Wu Yue's transformation of Gushanli was also progressing slowly. After the incubator was built, the first batch of 500 chicks were hatched, which caused a great shock to the small mountain village. Wu Yue sold these chicks to the villagers at a low price, and Gushanli, a small mountain village, became much more lively. The villagers also began to learn from the farmer to build their own earthworm fields.

Xu Aimin was puzzled and asked, "Why does Master Wu still want to charge money? Didn't our farm say that we want to make profits for farmers?"

Wu Yue smiled and said, "Giving chicks to farmers at a low price is to make a profit for them. If we don't charge them, firstly, my family can't afford it, and secondly, farmers won't value free things. I remember I told you that farmers are extremely short-sighted. At the beginning, many farmers took the poultry distributed by my family and ate them directly, and then came to my family to get more after eating them."

"Ah!" Xu Aimin obviously couldn't imagine that someone would do such a thing.

Wu Yue said: "Since then, my family has established two rules. One is that economic activities must be profitable and not charity. The second is that we must work together with the people."

"If farmers want to lead the people to become rich, they must understand economics better than the people, and free services are unacceptable in economic activities."

June 10
The watermelons in Gushan are ripe. The villagers look at these huge fruits curiously. Each fruit weighs dozens of kilograms. Such fruits are very rare. Many villagers point and comment on these unfamiliar watermelons.

Wu Yue led the villagers to pick tens of thousands of kilograms of watermelons, transported them down the mountain in bamboo baskets and wheelbarrows, and transported them to Diaoyin County for sale.

In the evening, all the villagers looked towards the entrance of the village. Everyone felt a little upset, wondering how their melon-selling trip would go.

Before the sun went down, everyone was back.

The villagers immediately gathered around and asked, "How is the sales? Are the city people willing to eat it?"

Wang Er said excitedly: "People in the city are rushing to buy melons. One melon is sold for 10 coins. We have collected 1200 coins in total today."

"Wow!" All the villagers were shocked.

There are a total of 10 households that planted watermelons. If the profits are divided like this, each household can get 120 coins. The key point is that this is only the amount on the first day. There are still many watermelons to be seen in the fields. As long as all are sold, each of these 1 households can earn several thousand coins.

For a moment, the villagers in Gushan looked at these 10 lucky families with jealous eyes. This income was considered high not to mention in Gushan, even in the county town.

Wu Yue said: "To thank all the villagers for their support, we will give each village elder a melon. There are also melons and fruits out of the mountains. Please help, and we are willing to give ten coins a day."

Wu Yue distributed the profits in this way, and the surrounding villagers felt better.

But some smart villagers immediately asked: "Master Wu, we also want to grow watermelons. I wonder if Master Wu can provide seeds and guide us in growing watermelons."

"Yes, yes, Master Wu, we also want to grow watermelons." The other villagers also reacted and surrounded Wu Yue.

They watched the watermelons being planted and growing, and it took two or three months for them to mature. It is only June now, and after another season of planting, they can be harvested in September. By then, they will not be able to make the money.

Wu Yue said, "It's OK if we plant a small amount, but it took us two hours to carry these 1 kilograms of watermelons out of the mountain, and a few of them were damaged. It was already so difficult to transport these 1 kilograms. If everyone planted watermelons, we would have to transport 10 kilograms of watermelons every day. Even if the whole village was mobilized, it would still be difficult to transport them, not to mention how many watermelons would be damaged along the way."

"What a pity! If we had built the road when Master Wu came to our village, we wouldn't be unable to get watermelons out of the mountain now."

After hearing Wu Yue's words, the villagers felt extremely regretful. If they had started building the road three months ago, it might not be completed now, but it would definitely be much easier to travel on.

Wu Yue said: "Good things never come late. We can plant watermelons and build the road at the same time. When the watermelons are ripe, the road will be built to a certain length. If it is not built well this year, we can build it next year. As long as this road is open, the treasures in our lonely mountain can be sold for money continuously."

Wu Yue also said this three months ago, but the effect on the villagers was completely different. Three months ago, it was just empty talk and they were asked to spend money and effort to build the road, so the local people were naturally not happy.

But now that the villagers have seen the practical example of watermelons, they naturally understand the benefits they can gain from repairing the road, and road construction has become their most urgent need.

"This mountain has blocked our way to wealth," said a villager.

"That's right. We have to repair this road. Paying the land tax every year costs us half our lives. If the road is repaired, we can use horse-drawn carts to transport food down the mountain, and we don't have to work so hard every year."

"Build the road, build the road!" all the villagers shouted.

(End of this chapter)