Chapter Seventy-Five: Yuan Longping

After driving Guo Decai away, Xu Wenshan gazed coldly at the hunters, who were holding their money with elation. He uttered not a single word. As more and more hunters received their payment, they took note of Xu Wenshan’s sour expression; the joy on their faces gradually faded away.

Xu Wenshan mounted his horse and looked down upon the assembled hunters. “Well, well,” he said.

The hunters exchanged uneasy glances, unsure of what the young master of the Xu family was implying.

“Not bad at all,” Xu Wenshan continued with a mocking tone. “You’ve only had a few days of full bellies, and already you’ve learned to demand your wages.”

The hunters grew restless and uneasy.

“Let me tell you what you used to be,” he went on, pointing at them one by one with his riding crop. “You spent your days showing off your mediocre archery, desperately trading your meager kills at the Guo household for some rice, eating rats and frogs when you couldn’t even get that. Sometimes, you couldn’t get rice at all.”

“Now look at you—wearing my thumb rings, drinking millet porridge for a month, growing fat and fair-skinned, and already your minds are turning crooked! Who built your archery range? Who pays your wages? Who bought all your game? Who taught you how to train your archery? When I was here, things were fine. The moment I leave, you block the gates to my house! How is that any different from the Guo family? Are you all animals?”

Shame washed over the hunters; the money in their hands suddenly felt unbearably heavy.

Then someone stepped forward and said, “Young master, we were wrong.”

It was Wu Yi, an archer Xu Wenshan recognized for his skill.

“It was my foolish idea—I led them to make a scene. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me, not them. If you must hold someone accountable, let it be me,” Wu Yi said, lowering his head. “I can’t in good conscience accept this money.”

With that, he tossed his payment to the ground, the copper coins spinning on the dirt.

At that moment, Lei Laohu stepped forward, pushing Wu Yi aside. “Who do you think you are? I’m the real leader here. Pick your money back up. The fault is mine, not yours. If I hadn’t rallied everyone, none of this would have happened.”

It seemed the two shared genuine camaraderie. Was this the legendary spirit of revolution?

“Did I ever say I wouldn’t pay you?” Xu Wenshan asked.

“What?” they replied.

“I said, did I ever refuse to pay you?” he repeated. “It seems you all don’t know me well enough. Let me be clear: my word is final. Anything I promise is like water poured on the ground—it cannot be taken back. If I say I’m buying from you, I will never withhold payment. And any money I give out, I will never ask to be returned.”

The hunters were taken aback. In Luhe Valley, this was not an age or a place where law and fairness prevailed. It was commonplace for the powerful to go back on their word, and the common folk had come to expect such treatment. Confronted with a landlord who kept his word, they were unaccustomed, and many were moved to tears.

Xu Wenshan spoke again, “I didn’t come here today to scold you. I have important matters to discuss.”

“First, this is not the season for hunting. It’s time for Luhe Valley to close the mountains and allow the forests to recover. From today on, the club will only purchase a maximum of ten catties of meat per person. Any excess will not be bought, not even for a single coin.”

The hunters erupted in protest. The young master had just claimed to bear no grudge and not to rob them of their livelihood, but now he was smashing their very rice bowls!

“Second, during my time outside, I discovered that the world is growing turbulent. It’s necessary to form a village guard. I intend to recruit twenty-five people, providing food and lodging, and a monthly wage of fifty coins. Loyalty, dedication, and love for the village are required…”

This announcement sparked even more murmurs among the hunters.

“Third, I plan to dig a canal and need to hire laborers. The wages will be generous. Spread these tidings far and wide—let the whole village know.”

With that, Xu Wenshan turned and left, ignoring the flurry of discussion behind him.

He knew these three announcements would stir all of Luhe Valley, but this was no sudden decision—he had planned for this day a long time.

Luhe Valley was a place starved of resources; its main crop was millet, and it lacked water, minerals, and people.

The people here lived far from the influence of the state. They believed not in money, but in grain stored at home. Talk to them about labor for wages, and they would not understand. Only once they saw the benefits of money would they be willing to work for it.

It was just like the early days of economic reforms, when being a factory worker brought immense pride to a family, and going into business was looked down upon. But what about now?

Changing people’s minds is easy, provided some get rich first—soon enough, the rest will envy them.

This was why Xu Wenshan offered such high wages to these hunters: to let a portion of them “get rich first.”

The army was the heart of the matter. Although he had Saya’s Viper unit as a secret weapon, it could not be used openly against ordinary folk. If, in a future conflict, he deployed the Vipers, their presence would inevitably be revealed amid the crowds—and that would only hasten a large-scale purge by the Immortal Alliance.

He had not recruited more soldiers earlier simply because he could not afford to feed them.

An army is not just about paying salaries. Soldiers have to give up their own livelihoods; their food must be grown by others. With Luhe Valley’s meager productivity and pitiful land, it was a stretch to support a hundred men in full-time service. Even with his father’s two hundred mu of land, they could only supply a dozen or twenty diehard loyalists.

In a small place, one had to make do.

Some might ask: if the army lacks provisions, why not have the soldiers farm as well? That is a misunderstanding. Military colonies require soldiers to train and farm simultaneously—but if Luhe Valley had surplus land to farm, why would anyone volunteer for the army?

Therefore, these twenty-five full-time soldiers were not meant for conquest, but to maintain order within their own ranks.

Transforming Luhe Valley’s resource situation required improving its waterworks, but that in turn demanded a great deal of labor. With a shortage of people, the only solution was to “squeeze” laborers out of the fields.

The simplest way to do that was with his family’s tenant farmers.

There were close to a hundred tenant households under his family’s name. If his father dismissed a batch, he would have the manpower he needed.

But once they were driven off the land, he would have to feed them.

That was why Xu Wenshan was so determined to obtain the “Breathing Earth.”

Lu Ze, Saya, and Spider gathered in Xu Wenshan’s room. At the center sat a tray of earth.

Xu Wenshan clasped his hands behind his back. “This pot of Breathing Earth is our most important strategic resource. It has a miraculous property: it can grow immortal herbs.”

“But we have no immortal herbs,” he said, turning around.

Spider blurted, “Then should I dump it out?”

Xu Wenshan flicked her forehead twice, making the spider spirit fall silent. He continued, “Even if we can’t grow immortal herbs, this Breathing Earth has another special trait. If you drop an ordinary seed into it, it will sprout with extraordinary speed—overnight, it will be fully grown.”

He picked up a grass seed and dropped it onto the tray; before their eyes, it sprouted rapidly.

Pulling up the fresh blade, Xu Wenshan explained, “From my observations, if a plant produces full, plump seeds, its offspring will be just as bountiful. If we constantly select and breed the best seeds, we can cultivate the most productive plants.”

At this, Saya and Lu Ze both nodded in agreement.

Xu Wenshan took out the potatoes, corn, rice, and wheat he’d acquired from Shaxian. “Your task for the next month is to breed the finest strains of these crops, then spread them to every field in Luhe Valley.”