Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 875 - 726: The Emperor’s Path Begins with Cattle and Sheep Entering the Water

Chapter 875: Chapter 726: The Emperor’s Path Begins with Cattle and Sheep Entering the Water

In the bitter cold of winter, Liaodong was already blanketed in a layer of white.

At Qilitun, east of Benxi City, Wang Sangu had used a manually-pulled sled to haul back a ten-zhang-long red pine tree to Qilitun early in the morning.

By then, Wang Sangu was drenched in sweat, but he and a few sturdy young men from the vicinity had then unloaded the red pine. They had split it into planks as thick as a finger and laid them outside a strangely shaped stone house to dry.

The stone house had a peculiar design, resembling a semi-circular stove, with a fierce fire burning inside and intense heat radiating from the outside.

After dealing with the red pine tree, Wang Sangu finally took a break.

It was exactly noon, and he had just settled his account with the foreman before he wiped off his sweat and, with a flush face, walked toward the large wooden house built at the center of Qilitun.

There lay Qilitun’s canteen where, prior to yielding produce from their fields, all the immigrants would dine.

Wang Sangu was also one of the immigrants, originally from Shandong with his family near the city of Yidu in Qingzhou Government. As he was the third son in his family, he was called Wang Sangu.

In October of that year, Wang Sangu’s family had also seen a dramatic decline in their ten-acre millet field due to drought, yielding only seventy percent of the previous years’ harvest.

This caused worry for all seven members of the Wang family as they only had fifteen acres in total—ten of millet and five of sorghum. With the current harvest, after paying the taxes due to The Court, they could barely save about twenty bushels of grain.

This amount of grain was hardly enough to sustain his family until the next year.

In previous years, the able-bodied men in the family would go to the city to do odd jobs to supplement their income. However, this year, for some reason, there were very few people hiring short-term laborers, and the wages were pressed very low.

To make matters worse, Wang Ergui, the second oldest in the family, had already arranged a marriage with the Ma family at the end of the village and had planned to bring his bride home early next spring. But with the current situation, they could not even scrape together the money for the dowry.

It happened that at that time, The Court was recruiting people in the region to go to the frontier to cultivate new lands, and with gritted teeth, Wang Sangu followed the Baihu recruiting near Yidu city to Liaodong and was then assigned to Qilitun.

Initially, his mood was very apprehensive. The Jin Dynasty had enlisted citizens for border cultivation more than once, but had any of those attempts ever been successful?

In the end, countless immigrants died—from exhaustion, freezing, or starvation—making the people fear such missions like the plague.

Moreover, people are always attached to their land; who would leave their homes and travel to a strange environment to make a living unless absolutely necessary?

But after arriving at Qilitun, Wang Sangu found the situation here far better than he had imagined.

To his surprise, during the journey, The Court had provided him with two sets of cotton clothes and two pairs of leather boots for protection against the cold.

Upon arriving at Qilitun, there were large wooden houses already prepared for their accommodation. Although Wang Sangu had to squeeze in with more than twenty people, making the air inside almost unbearable, these houses had something new called "kang" beds. They were heated every day, and sleeping on them felt comfortably warm.

Although the winters in Liaodong were colder than in Shandong, Wang Sangu felt that the area around Benxi City was warmer.

In addition, The Court had allocated him fifty acres of land and various agricultural tools.

Of course, these items, like the cotton clothes, weren’t free—Wang Sangu would need to work for several years, until his debt was cleared, for these things to truly become his own.

Wang Sangu had actually arrived somewhat late, as The Court had begun relocating people to populate Liaodong back in September.

Those who had arrived early were able to plant a season of winter wheat in the fifty acres assigned by The Court.

The climate of the northeast is harsh, and in winter most of the land is frozen. However, the temperature near Benxi City remains somewhat mild and it is still possible to grow winter wheat.

Privately, Wang Sangu also regretted not making up his mind earlier; otherwise, he could have harvested a season of wheat next year.

Although the fields were new and thus the soil was extremely fertile, especially after being burned off, promising a high yield.

Eventually, under the direction of the Tuntian Qianhu, Wang Sangu planted a brownish tuber in the soil and covered it with a thick layer of straw for warmth.

This tuber was said to be called "potato" or "Fenyang potato." Wang Sangu had never seen it before and did not know what kind of yield it would produce.

Wang Sangu hardly bothered to care; aside from lighting a few fires in the potato fields every other day, he didn’t tend to them much.

Because after December, all the able-bodied men of Qilitun were directed by the Tuntian Qianhu to extensively log the nearby woods.

In the northeast, the best time for logging is winter. Firstly, because the cold, dry weather makes the wood easier to cut; secondly, transportation is easier on snow. One only needs to make a simple sled or pour water to create an ice chute.

Some of the timber was used for building houses, some to construct the walls of Qilitun, and a large part was sold to timber merchants.

Meanwhile, the leaders of Qilitun, including the Tuntian Qianhu, Tuntian Jianshu, and Tuntian Duanshiguan, were very fair, allowing them to earn wages after their labor.

Wang Sangu earned wages every day he worked, making more than a hundred wen a day.

Although he could not keep this money and had to use it to offset his debt and food expenses, Wang Sangu remained highly motivated, feeling that there was promise in his days.

It was said that the person in charge of the Liaodong settlement this time was none other than the regent minister and Dadudu of five armies who had captured Mongwu Khan, Totaabuqa Khan — the County Prince Fenyang.