Chapter 127 Chapter 127 Mountain People Exchange Food
In September, the weather in Xiguang Road is very hot.
After the new emperor ascended the throne, Xiguang Road was designated as a cotton-growing area due to its favorable temperature and abundant daily water supply. Officials organized the people to reclaim a large amount of wasteland and rented it to the people for cotton cultivation.
When people go out in the morning, the whole family goes to the potato and sweet potato fields first, and then pushes the cart to harvest cotton.
The people looked at the snow-white cotton fields, their faces filled with the joy of a good harvest. The county government bought all the cotton at the price, and never shortchanged the cotton by weight.
Their current county magistrate is a good man!
Yan Xuanqing successfully became the county magistrate, and the child who was previously ignored became the hope of the family.
She is now the only official in the entire Yan family.
Yan Xuanqing was clear-headed and decisively applied for Xiguang Road, the program farthest from his home. If his official duties got busy, he might not be able to go home for two or three years.
When the elders in her family found out, they chased after her and scolded her about how she applied for the position.
Even if you cannot report your registered place of residence, there are several nearby routes you can choose from.
Yan Xuanqing explained that Xiguang Road could achieve results and would have materials for future promotion, so he escaped the trap.
Yan Xuanqing lived a good life in Xiguang Road. The county magistrate of the neighboring county was her former classmate Ding Shui, and the two of them had not discussed it when they applied for the position.
The two sides met by chance when they were holding the parliament meeting on Xiguang Road.
In a formal occasion, Ding Shui wanted to laugh but didn't dare to. He lowered his head, covered his mouth and coughed as a greeting.
The entire Xiguang Road has cotton planting quotas. Some of this cotton will be woven into cotton cloth on site in the newly opened textile mills on Xiguang Road, while others will be transported to other textile mills.
Yan Xuanqing heard that water spinning would be promoted next year, and the spinning efficiency would be ten times that of manual spinning.
But that's all next year's matter. She has to write a plan this year.
Now Nanzhao and Xiping have to trade with Da'an, and they are overwhelmed with orders. Factories have to be opened in various places to meet the demand.
As for what kind of factory to open, it is up to the county magistrates and prefects in various places to adapt to local conditions and write their own plans and submit them.
Xiguang Road is now a cotton planting base, so it would be best to open a textile factory there. We can use local materials and maybe even create a brand called Xiguang cloth.
Almost all county magistrates thought so and planned to write so.
After finishing the plan, Yan Xuanqing called Bai Zhi and waited for Ding Shui to arrive.
The reason was simple: there was a big mountain between the counties under her and Ding Shui's jurisdiction. On the mountain lived many uncivilized mountain people who could not understand Chinese and even developed their own language system.
The living conditions were extremely harsh. They lived in caves and relied on hunting for survival. They had no knowledge of farming or weaving.
As for her clothes, Yan Xuanqing was too embarrassed to look at them, so he could only say that she used animal skins and leaves to cover the key parts.
Liang Xiang personally issued a document, saying that these mountain people must be properly utilized and turned into labor.
It would be best to let them come down the mountain and become part of the agricultural society.
This is undoubtedly a daunting task.
But if this task is completed successfully, she and Ding Shui will have materials for evaluation.
You have to know that this is the first year of His Majesty's accession to the throne. One can imagine the value of the outstanding county magistrates evaluated this year.
Maybe His Majesty will remember me directly.
Ding Shui and his men hurried over, and the two chatted on the ox cart.
"Luckily, the magistrate of the neighboring county is you. If it were someone else, this mountain is located between two counties, and not everyone is as easy to talk to as we are. We would have to argue a lot."
The two had a good relationship when they were classmates, and they had a tacit understanding when working together.
Today is the second time for the two of them to go up the mountain.
The last time we went there, the mountain people were so scared that they ran away. Only a few children mustered up the courage to exchange some wild game for food with them.
We hope that this action will let these mountain people know that they are not bad people.
Before this man could be persuaded, Yan Xuanqing and Ding Shui had already planned the use of this labor force.
It is the summer harvest season now, and the urban construction work on Xiguang Road is in dire need of manpower, especially for physical labor such as road construction and cargo handling.
The people had to take care of the summer harvest, so they had much less time to work, which affected the progress.
There are quite a lot of these mountain people, and they don't farm. Even if they don't speak the language, they are still very useful as labor.
When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, Ding Shui had good eyesight and saw from afar several mountain people with their children picking things at the foot of the mountain.
As expected, once there was any movement, the mountain people would run and hide like stressed cats.
Ding Shui touched his head awkwardly.
"These people are too timid. I'm afraid they will fail again this time."
Yan Xuanqing said calmly, "Don't worry, take your time. Let them know we mean no harm."
After a while, several mountain children ran wildly excitedly. They were carrying backpacks woven from vines. There was no wariness towards strangers in their eyes, only desire for food.
The first time they exchanged food was under a tree with a strange man.
The food they exchanged for was very delicious. They didn’t know what it was, but it tasted soft.
Several people almost fought over the cake.
The second time was more than ten days ago. The people in the cave were afraid of the people down the mountain, but they were not.
Because they think that as long as they take out what they have in the mountains, they can exchange it for food. Isn't such a deal much better than working hard every day to hunt for food?
The food they exchanged for the second time was even more delicious than the first. It was the first time they knew that meat could be so delicious and have such complex aromas.
The mountain people don't know how to cook, they can only boil or roast the meat.
After eating it for a long time, it will naturally become boring.
The children became greedy after tasting it once. Today, they met people from the foot of the mountain again. Why didn’t they run faster?
The people in the cave are afraid, but they are not afraid. As long as they can eat delicious food again, they will do anything.
The children kept a safe distance in front of Ding Shui, Yan Xuanqing and others and then stopped, then handed the backpack out as if holding a treasure.
Ding Shui was still saying something that Yan Xuanqing couldn't understand.
Gibberish.
Ding Shui was very satisfied. "Sure enough, our last visit was effective. These kids all know we're not bad people."
Yan Xuanqing wanted very much to communicate with the children, but they couldn't communicate in the same language.
So she tried using body language and drawing pictures on the ground.
The mountain people could not even learn to read, and were basically no different from people without any intelligence. A few dark-skinned children stared at the pictures on the ground without saying a word, and just kept passing the backpacks to the children.
Yan Xuanqing thought of an idea. She took out the food basket she had prepared in advance. The food inside was not actually any delicacies, but just some steamed pork with seasonings.
She first took a small paper bag and handed it to the mountain child.
The mountain children waited eagerly for her to hand over the second and third packages.
Yan Xuanqing didn't move.
The mountain children began to get impatient at this time, scratching their heads and ears.
Last time I only gave you half a basket of mushrooms, which could have been exchanged for two bags. Why did you only give me one bag this time?
They even specially picked out good mushrooms!
The mountain child looked at the paper bag of meat and mooed anxiously, almost crying.
Yan Xuanqing then gave them the second bag, shook the third bag, and then pointed to the backpack on the ground.
Now it seemed as if something had opened the minds of the mountain children, and they immediately understood what Yan Xuanqing meant.
You also need a backpack to get to the second job.
The children were so happy that they made monkey calls and ran back happily.
After a while, they came with a few other slightly older children. Those children were carrying baskets on their backs, but when they saw people coming down the mountain, they were so scared that they turned around and wanted to run away.
The mountain children hurriedly stopped them and explained to them in a jumbled manner. Only then did the older children move forward suspiciously, their eyes full of vigilance.
The older children were very cautious until they got the paper package and smelled the aroma of meat, then their expressions relaxed.
The mountain boy laughed and said, "See, I told you that you can exchange mushrooms for delicious food!"
“This meat smells so good.”
"I'm going to take it back and eat it with the people in the cave."
"Yeah, yeah, but we don't know when they'll come next time, and we can't understand what they're saying."
"Am always says that the people down there are scarier than wolves, but I don't think that's the case."
After the transaction was completed, the children's expressions towards Yan Xuanqing and Ding Shui softened a lot, and even when they left, there was a hint of reluctance in their eyes.
After all, I don’t know whether they will come next time, and if they do, whether I can meet them.
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