xymnovel Chapter 143 "Land Regulations" and Leveling Up to 14
Chapter 143 "Land Regulations" and Leveling Up to 14
Chapter 143 "Land Regulations" and Leveling Up to 14
Jinchuan City.
Several horse-drawn carriages moved slowly along the dirt road, kicking up a trail of fine yellow dust. Qiu and his party had set off from San Francisco at dawn and, without stopping for a moment, finally arrived in Jinchuan City by evening.
"We've arrived! Get off the bus!"
Chen Youtian, the guard and coachman, stopped the carriage in front of the municipal government building, jumped off the carriage shaft, and stretched his back with a grimacing expression.
After driving the carriage all day, he felt like his waist and buttocks were no longer his own; he had no feeling at all.
At times like this, he envied Chen Chunsheng, who had joined Xinghantang with him. Chen Chunsheng was assigned to be a San Francisco patrolman, and all he had to do every day was walk around the city.
Unlike me, I was shaken so much that my internal organs felt like they were about to jump out of my throat.
"Sir, is this Jinchuan?"
A man leaned out of the carriage, speaking with a heavy Cantonese accent. He was holding a little boy in his arms, who was also curiously peering out, his bright black eyes taking in the scenery outside.
Unlike San Francisco, Nishimcheon is extremely flat. You can only see rolling hills when you look into the distance.
"Yeah, those foreigners used to call it San Jose, it was such a weird name." Chen Youtian turned to look at him, grinned, "Now it's called Jinchuan, isn't that much easier to pronounce?"
"really."
Chen Youtian said, "Alright, get out of the car quickly. The municipal government is just ahead. Go there to register, and you can go select the land tomorrow."
According to Xinghantang, oh no, it should be the imperial court now.
According to the "Land Decree" issued by the Xinghan court, all Han people, regardless of gender, who are 20 years of age or older, can apply to the court for a plot of 50 mu of cultivated land or a plot of 150 mu of uncultivated land.
Once the application is successful, as long as one continues to live, cultivate, and build residences on the land for more than five years, one can obtain the right to contract and manage the land.
"Yes, yes, thank you, sir."
The man, carrying a bundle and holding his son, led his wife and daughter off the carriage. Similar families were disembarking from several other carriages behind. The children, still half-asleep, were being pulled from their carriages by their parents, rubbing their eyes.
Using the light from the streetlights, Chen Youtian counted the number of people and, after confirming that no one was missing, led them into the municipal government building.
The lobby was brightly lit, with dazzling electric lights. Behind the reception desk sat a young man in a neat gray uniform, his head down, writing something.
Chen Youtian walked over and placed a stack of documents on the table: "Carriages numbered C6 to C9, from San Francisco to Jinchuan City, eight families, a total of twenty-nine people, not one missing."
The front desk assassin nodded, took the document, flipped through it, picked up a pen, and began registering: "Okay, you can go and rest now."
He looked up at the group of somewhat reserved men and women behind him and raised his voice, saying, "Come over here to register first. We'll arrange rooms for you to stay in for the night, and someone will take you to see the land tomorrow."
the next day.
Before dawn, Guan Peisheng and his family of four woke up.
Last night, the officials led them to a row of newly built adobe houses. Inside, there were several wooden beds with mattresses filled with dry straw.
Although it couldn't compare to the bed at home, it was extremely comfortable compared to the wilderness, dilapidated temples, and thatched huts we slept in during our escape.
Early in the morning, officials brought several soft white flour cakes, saying it was breakfast. Then they took the group to the fields.
The fields stretched as far as the eye could see, reaching to the horizon and merging with the grey-blue skyline. The fields were filled with the stubble left after the harvest, standing in neat rows.
The white men, their feet chained, were bending over, turning over wheat stalks and pressing them into the soil. No one dared to stop, for a foreman with a gun stood nearby.
Guan Peisheng squatted down, reached out and grabbed a handful of soil, squeezing it tightly. The soil clung stickily to the lines of his palm, its color so dark and shiny it looked as if it could be squeezed to release a pool of oil.
"Wow, so muddy! So muddy!"
From the houses of the families who came with us, some men squatted down, their eyes red: "Ah, back home, even the best paddy fields don't have this kind of mud!"
The group, all from Guangdong, nodded in agreement, saying, "Yes, yes!"
The assassin who brought them coughed, and after everyone looked over, he said loudly, "Although you may have heard this in San Francisco, I'll say it again here."
"According to the Residential Land Law, each household can choose 50 mu of developed land or 150 mu of uncultivated land."
"Oh right, I haven't taken you guys to see the wild rice yet."
He slapped his forehead, then led the group onto the carriage. After traveling for more than ten minutes, they arrived at a pasture with a fence.
The assassin pointed to the land within the ranch and said, "This is the safe haven."
Looking around, the group saw a patch of uneven wasteland inside the fence.
In some places, waist-high shrubs and wild grasses grow, rustling in the autumn wind; in other places, there are dry riverbeds covered with pebbles of all sizes; and in the distance, there is a low-lying area that will probably turn into a swamp during the rainy season.
"If you choose this option, it will be 150 mu. How do you choose? Give me an answer as soon as possible. Once you've chosen and registered it, the land contracting and management rights will be yours."
Guan Peisheng asked, "Sir, what do you mean by 'contracting right' and 'management right'?"
The assassin scratched his head and explained, "The right to contract means you are entitled to cultivate this land. Even if you die, your wife, son, and daughter can continue to cultivate it."
"The right to operate means that if you don't want to farm anymore one day, you can sublet the land under your name to someone else to farm, and they will just pay you rent every year."
Guan Peisheng suddenly realized: "They're the rights to the subsurface and the surface of the land!"
Since the Qing Dynasty, most land has been owned by landlords, which led to the practice of having two owners for the same piece of land.
Landlords have the right to the land itself; tenants have the right to the land surface. They can use the land and can also sell, pawn, or sublet this right of use separately, without the landlord having the right to interfere.
"If I had to say, they're pretty much the same, but there's only one difference."
The assassin's expression turned serious, and he slowly said, "These lands belong to the imperial court. You are only qualified to cultivate or sublet them, not to sell them."
"In other words, you can't sell this land to anyone else. If you do, it doesn't count, and the imperial court won't recognize it."
As soon as the words were spoken, murmurs broke out in the crowd. A middle-aged man in a short jacket frowned and asked, "What if the imperial court wants to take back the land one day?"
"Why would the imperial court give you land now? Just for the few dollars you paid to register?"
The assassin chuckled lightly: "Alright, you don't need to worry about that. Quickly discuss with your families whether you want undeveloped or developed land."
The group of people who were brought over looked at each other and quickly began to discuss things with their families.
Guan Peisheng's wife tugged at his sleeve and whispered, "Honey, should we choose unfamiliar land or fertile land?"
"Xia, I want to choose the birthplace."
After much deliberation, Guan Peisheng gritted his teeth and said, "That's 150 mu! How many mu do we have back home? Only 4.6 mu, and that's rented!"
"With these 150 mu of land, even if we work hard for a few years, our family will never have to worry about food and clothing again. We can sell the grain, send our son to school, and save up a generous dowry for our daughter!"
Xia asked worriedly, "But the land needs to be cultivated; can you manage it all?"
"Your husband is very strong, what are you afraid of?"
Guan Peisheng laughed and said, "Besides, didn't the people from the yamen say before we came here that we could rent oxen, steel plows and machetes from them? With these, we can start clearing land very quickly."
Xia was persuaded.
Guan Peisheng looked at the assassin and said, "Sir, our family has chosen 150 mu of land."
Meanwhile, the other households also made their choices.
Some people chose 50 mu of cultivated land, hoping to plant immediately and harvest in the same year, seeking stability. Others, like Guan Peisheng, chose uncultivated land; the number 150 mu was simply too large, firmly attracting their attention.
evening.
San Francisco, outside the city.
As the sun slowly sank into the western Pacific Ocean, it burned half the sky into a deep orange-red. Zeng Tai and Jian Yuan's group leisurely rode their horses back to the city, carrying the game they had hunted that day.
The prey was plentiful: two black-tailed deer and one elk. However, the biggest catch wasn't any of these, but a black bear weighing a whopping 400 kilograms.
Legendary animals, get them!
"Jianyuan, what are you planning to do with the black bear?"
Without hesitation, Jian Yuan said, "Chop off the bear paw, blanch it with scallions, ginger, and garlic, then pluck off the hair. Then stew it in a rich broth made from chicken, duck, and ham for eight hours, and then steam it for two hours."
After cooking, arrange the meat on a plate, pour over the sauce, and serve with a small dish of fragrant vinegar. After tasting it, you can discard the pot and meat together.
Zeng Tai was stunned: "Huh?"
Just kidding.
Jian Yuan shrugged, glanced at the black bear on the trailer, and said casually, "But my lord, to be honest, this thing doesn't taste very good."
The meat was both gamey and fishy; the fatty parts were greasy and the lean parts were tough and chewy. Only the broth and seasonings masked the strange taste.
"It's okay, let's try it out."
Zeng Tai didn't care at all, his hands resting on the saddle bridge. "Whether it smells good or bad, it's meat once it's in your mouth."
As he walked, the system upgrade interface popped up before his eyes, something he hadn't seen in a long time.
【Name: Life for Life System】
[Host: Zeng Tai]
[Level: 14]
[Effect: Automatically generates 8,192 assassins daily, whose physical constitution is 2.4 times that of a normal adult Homo sapiens male.]
Times]
Current number of assassins: 461398
Number of summonable assassins: 8192
[Upgrade condition: Kill 16384 humans (1/16384)]
[Currently Unlocked Sub-items]:
[Hive Consciousness]: ————
[The dead fear death]: ————
[Warspace Teleportation]: You can place a newly summoned assassin next to an already summoned assassin. After consuming a certain number of summoning slots, you can instantly teleport an already summoned assassin and its equipment to the side of another assassin.
Consumption quota = Total mass (kg) / 100
[Thirst for knowledge]: ————
[Exquisite craftsmanship]: ————
[Practicing medicine to help the world]: ————
Strategic Planning: ————
Lord of Humanity: ————
[The Angel of Death]: ————
[The Soul of Ten Thousand Machines]: ————
[Please choose whether to unlock a new sub-skill or upgrade an existing one.]
"It's been upgraded again."
Zeng Tai blinked, thought for a moment, and chose to unlock the new sub-skill.
A flash of light appeared on the screen, and new text emerged.
【Enjoying the Cool Under the Rice Plants】: You can choose to summon a zombie with this trait. Zombies with this trait will possess top-tier agricultural abilities. The cost is that it occupies two summoning slots.
"Oh, after all this time, we finally have another basic skill similar to thirst for knowledge and ingenuity?"
Without hesitation, he used the new skill, and options quickly popped up on the screen.
Please select a direction: crop farming, forestry, animal husbandry, or fishery.
really.
"This is like a pillow delivered just when you're about to fall asleep."
Guilliman had mentioned to him just a few days ago that the territory was growing larger and larger, but there was a serious shortage of agricultural and livestock talent.
There are quite a few people who know how to farm. Most of the immigrants from Guangdong and Fujian are skilled farmers, but when it comes to new things like the use of Western farm tools, crop rotation, livestock breeding, and land improvement, they are completely clueless.
Now everything is fine, the problem is solved directly.
Zeng Tai quickly considered the options in his mind and decided to take some from all four directions.
Planting and animal husbandry are the top priorities. There are so many wastelands in Lingxi Province waiting to be reclaimed, and cattle, sheep and horses need to be managed. Forestry is not urgent, but it needs to be prepared in advance. California has abundant forest resources, which can be used for timber processing and shipbuilding. Fisheries can be less, but they cannot be absent, after all, it is located near the Pacific Ocean.
San Francisco City Hall, second-floor office.
Guilliman sat at his desk and quickly finished the task that Zeng Tai had given him, assigning the newly summoned assassins to suitable locations.
He picked up the strong tea on the table, took a sip, and then began to deal with the next matter.
Martin and his accomplice, who had infiltrated the California National Salvation Army, delivered intelligence:
Joseph Hook has assembled five hundred men and plans to launch a surprise attack on Gold Creek Valley at midnight tonight, targeting the valley's armory and granaries.
He stood up and walked to the topographic map of the coastal mountain range hanging on the wall.
Golden Creek Valley, which Americans call Napa Valley.
The valley is long and narrow, flanked by two mountains, and gradually widens from north to south, with complex and varied terrain. If the main roads leading into the valley were blocked, it would become a dead end.
"Third Company Commander."
With a sudden thought, Guilliman contacted the head of Xinghan Hall stationed in Golden Creek Valley.
"You've received the intelligence, so pass the order: move all supplies in Golden Creek Valley overnight. Grain, gunpowder, lead bullets—relocate them all."
The wooden crates used for storing munitions were stacked as before, filled with sand and gravel, and covered with a layer of straw. The grain sacks were all replaced with sand, but the seams remained the same.
"If they're coming, this is the perfect opportunity to lure them into a trap and then trap them!"
The company commander asked, "Are we relying on just our company? I'm afraid we won't be able to annihilate them all."
"The Fourth and Fifth Companies, which are near you, will be mobilized to block the entrances into the valley."
7
Guilliman said, "You have only one task: to leave these white men in the valley and use their corpses to fertilize the fields!"
'
"clear!"