Chapter 97: Farming And War, Blood Reward Of The Civil Official System
Outside Fen Xing City in the South, rows of rice paddies swayed with the rice ears in the wind. For the Southern Border, this was “high-tech industry”.
The natives are now shifting from extensive gathering to plantation industry. But most Tusi handed in answers that are utterly unacceptable—one dou of seeds only yields three dou of grain. Weeds in the fields are not removed at all, and they are unwilling to collect manure for fertilizer. What a Buddhist-style farming. Wu Fei: “Even if I plant potted plants myself, I do it more carefully than them!”
The farmers from Da Yao moving south practice intensive farming in agriculture, carefully counting statistics on how many mu of land and how many seedlings to transplant.
Wu Fei also places special emphasis on crops such as rice and millet. And he plans experimental fields to determine the suitability of each crop to the soil and water in the Southern Border.
For example now, in the fields around Fen Xing City, the following standards are followed: after flatly inserting 800 seedlings per mu of land, silt fertilizer from the Southern Border rivers is buried in each interval between seedlings; to ensure irrigation, huge water wheels have been built along the river.
Twenty kilometers outside Fen Xing City, a dam has directly blocked the river, raising the water level by thirty meters with the dam, then channeling into various canals. Large water wheels near some main canals creak as they turn—these rotating wooden machines have quite a mechanical punk style.
Farmers from the North, dressed in hemp cloth, carefully tend to their responsibility fields, swaying unsteadily on the field ridges. To prevent snakes, they clean the weeds on the field ridges very thoroughly.
This is the advanced agricultural technology brought by the new immigrants from the North, and also the reason why Wu Fei treats them well.
…System: Analyzing “Farming and War” culture…
So what is the specific concept of agricultural technology? In the 21st century, when he was still a university student, Xuan Chong would talk about technical concepts like “gene breeding” and “drip irrigation”; but after actually operating a vegetable garden, he understood that agriculture, like other manufacturing industries, has competitiveness divided into two ends: R&D innovation and grassroots execution. Both are core competitiveness; missing one makes it a lame duck.
And in agriculture, it actually relies more on grassroots execution.
Once upon a time, during the period when Eastern industrial technology was backward, narratives that were overly contemptuous of their own agricultural model called it “labor-intensive input”, as if it was “lowly physical labor”.
Agriculture boils down to “planned” control of the organisms humans need during their growth; this is similar to sports in the 23rd century and beyond.
For example, Xuan Chong now conducts standard digital inspections of his sports activities every day; his attention to each data point is like elderly people in his previous life checking blood sugar, blood pressure, and calories burned from walking every day.
The future human sports path introduced by the System does not rely on sci-fi drugs, but on increasingly strong “planned” investment. And in agricultural production, “precise planned regulation” surpasses “gene adjustment and fertilizer stacking”.
“Labor-intensive” is a crude name; “precise planning of the full crop growth cycle” is the matching description.
Intensive farming is more advanced than slash-and-burn cultivation; medieval Western Europe’s Saxon wheeled plow and three-field rotation are inferior to the curved plow for fine tillage, daily weeding, and ensuring water levels at all times.
Even in modern times, when Eastern and Western systems for seeds, fertilizer, and farm machinery are on par, Eastern agriculture crushes the West in richness, diversity, and adaptation to terrain.
The Europe and America agricultural production system can only rely on the production advantage of vast plains to produce raw materials; such agricultural production is extremely dependent on large markets and only yields high profits when crushing other regions’ large agriculture.
When all big sellers in the international market maintain their own large agriculture, Europe and America farm owners can only maintain low prices and bear high market fluctuation risks.
The directive agricultural production habits passed down from the serf era among Europe and America farm owners have a generational gap compared to the spontaneous intensive farming habits of Eastern agricultural operators.
In the 20th century, when Eastern agriculture was still in a state of low mechanization and low technology, the advantages of the “Eastern agricultural operation mindset” were not apparent.
By the 21st century, Eastern agricultural workers also fully use various drones, electronic monitoring greenhouses, automatic spray irrigation services, and mountain mini farm machines, comprehensively reducing physical labor difficulty.
Europe and America agriculture is locked into low value-added supply chains, namely, supplying feed to livestock.
Looking back, the historical term “pulling seedlings to help them grow” seems ridiculous, but this vocabulary could not have emerged in those serfdom countries—who would pull up seedlings one by one for no reason? What it reflects behind the scenes is an agricultural attempt, deploying labor on every single seedling at all costs, it just failed; if it had succeeded, it would be another story. Rice transplanting, which involves uprooting seedlings and then replanting them in rice paddies, is a successful case.
Eastern and Western tech point allocation is different; “agriculture” is the Eastern focus point allocation project.
Xuan Chong: From primitive society to slave society, after productivity advances produce a certain amount of material surplus, some people detach from heavy physical labor and engage in mental power labor.
This portion of mental power labor specifically is: non-productive people investing “planned” operations into observed natural phenomena, similar to observing stars, rivers, phenological changes, then linking to production applications.
And in the early process of human civilization, the number of “tech explorers” that could be sustained was limited. In civilization game terms, at a development stage there are only a few tech points, which can only be selectively allocated.
Scholars of the Age of Discovery civilization invested “planned” effort into observing ocean currents and fish school migrations; while Eastern civilization invested planned effort into farming.
Xuan Chong summarizes culture and system: So to develop advanced agriculture, farmers cannot be turned into slaves. In the Farming and War system, the status of self-cultivating farmers must be guaranteed.
In fact, this is exactly the case; Wu Fei will not demote Yao People from the North to slaves unless absolutely necessary; despite them repeatedly violating laws and disciplines, Wu Fei actually tilts as much as possible in their favor. Even when unavoidable, he tries to “open extra-legal channels”.
…Divider for neat seedlings…
This day, Wu Fei was inspecting the farmland and plantations, and the foremen of each public slave camp, like minor cadres meeting a top leader, began introducing the prosperity achievements of the pioneering group, starting from the latest crop planting conditions.
However, when passing by slave workers, Wu Fei heard whispers by the roadside like “This is a big shot”, “We can have more food today”. At this time, Wu Fei’s senses are superhuman, able to distinguish various contents in a conversation of twenty people, and among them, a resentful phrase “deceive superiors and conceal from subordinates” was heard very abruptly by Wu Fei.
Wu Xiao Que has no feeling for good words, but bad words are certainly heard clearly.
Thus, Wu Fei stopped his steps, thought for a moment, and did not ask directly, but temporarily instructed the slave masters that he wanted to hear the slaves’ words, to question them one by one, and have the slave masters bring the team over.—Because asking directly would be too obvious, and before people are brought over, mid-to-lower levels within the Group would “retaliate” on their own, causing the informant to die directly.
Wu Fei now embodies the monarch and begins analyzing the monarch’s dilemma: In human society, after reaching a certain high position, wanting to see lower-level people requires the acquiescence of the group around them. Otherwise, even naming specific lower-level people or things to see would be collectively covered up by mid-to-high levels feeling their interests damaged. This is why the Ming had to employ secret service institutions like the Jinyiwei and eunuchs, and the Qing launched the secret memorial system.
Two shichen later, after experiencing a round of praise, Wu Fei encountered that “full of resentment” slave, who was a Yao Person. He had an iron collar around his neck instead of a branded character, which was proof.
Wu Fei looked at him, and he mechanically praised after, but did not offer advice.
Wu Fei could only get straight to the point: “What did you just complain about?”
Chen Si, his name before becoming a slave, was Chen Shengxi; upon hearing Wu Fei point it out, he flatly denied it.
Wu Fei: “Whether you say it or not, I will transfer you from here. If what you say is useful, the ring on your neck can be removed; if useless, you will go work in the mines.”
Chen Shengxi paused, then began recounting the situation he knew at the lower level. Thus, Wu Fei took a deep breath and learned of a serious ongoing corruption case at the lower level.
To talk about corruption, one must first detail the vast public resources under the Southern Border General’s Mansion system. After all, without public resources, there’s no way to embezzle. Just as in later generations, only strong great powers have exaggerated corruption, while small countries consistently rank at the top of international clean government indices.
The Southern Border’s resources are the public slave camps.
Currently, Fen Xing City’s rapid construction relies on “labor force unification” management; this large farm system can nearly obtain these “labor forces” for free compared to the villages in northern Da Yao to do chores like clearing canals.
In northern Da Yao as well, there exists this “public labor force” situation, where wheat matures from west to east successively, and villages everywhere must use limited grain to hire “wheat guest” labor from outside, even if these villages suffer disaster, cannot sustain with stored grain, face the lean period, and some people starve. But during harvest, they still need to hire people, otherwise the grain cannot be harvested.
Under the Da Yao system, hiring wheat guests is commercial behavior, recruited by tooth man gangs; while here in the Southern Border, it belongs to public services.
These years, Wu Fei has been very attentive to public slave camp policies, fearing abnormal losses of labor forces. For example, epidemic prevention is emphasized by Wu Fei every time; slogans are brushed with white lime on every earthen wall, water must be boiled before drinking, and meals cannot be spoiled.
Under the General’s Mansion orders, slave camp managers must check the status of “able-bodied males” in the slave camps daily; the supervision intensity is like farmers clearly knowing if their own livestock has lost weight. And precisely because of this order, it acquiesces to public slave masters pushing back 10% to 30% of slave usage requests from various blocks.
In Chen Shengxi’s answer, these work tasks were actually fully completed by the slave camp persons in charge! But these persons in charge shifted the costs to the countryside and obtained massive gray income.
After hearing the details, Wu Fei nodded repeatedly; he had long heard that slave camp managers had enormous power. According to reports from the investigation department, Wu Fei knew these publicly staffed slave masters never lacked alcohol and meat daily; immigrants in various blocks, to ensure harvests with sufficient labor, would offer money, alcohol, and meat banquets to these slave camp managers. But exactly how much was received was unaccounted for.
Wu Fei obtained some concrete estimated data from Chen Shengxi, and learned that what the public slave camp bunch did was not just “extorting various agricultural villages through labor deductions”—they also participated in surplus grain purchases.
Wu Fei looked at Chen Shengxi, very interested: “He, a slave in a situation where every meal being ‘hungry’ or ‘full’ depends on the slave master’s mood, yet calculated to the heads of those labor users’ superiors that governance costs were damaged. What is this called in the 21st century? A scab.” Thus he asked why he would do this.
Chen Shengxi: “The General uses slave camps to obtain taxes; if one day the tax sources dry up, the General will plunder from outside, and at that time we will be driven to the battlefield.”
In response, Wu Fei looked at him with great appreciation. A person who can see the big picture, detach from their own social stratum, see other strata’s interests, and conduct associative thinking and balancing calculations—Wu Fei glanced at the collar on his neck; clearly so insightful, retaining integrity as a slave, he must be an unlucky one who previously escaped but was caught and reduced to slave status.
Wu Fei: “What do you think should be done? First, don’t talk to me about benevolent governance. What I want is land reclamation degree. More grain, more population, the General’s Mansion taxes will be abundant, can collect taxes effectively, stimulate soldiers to dare to fight. As long as the above requirements are met, a reputation for benevolence is secondary to me; I don’t oppose you gaining a reputation for protecting benevolence while meeting my requirements, but you must first do well the main job I assigned.”
Chen Shengxi: General, you are?—He felt Wu Fei’s questions to him had gone deeper.
Wu Fei picked up the small knife in his hand, condensed killing intent on the blade, easily cut off his collar, and said to him: “You are no longer a slave now, and we won’t play the game of a scholar dying for a confidant. Truth is, I like you very much; manage people for me, think carefully yourself how to manage specifically, give me a report. Then I will arrange your employment; don’t think of escaping—if not used by me, I will kill you; don’t think of slacking—if you slack, I will whip you.”
At this point, Wu Fei thought and instructed: “I give you five thousand silver leaves as startup funds; if your plan exceeds the situation, you can apply, ten times, twenty times are fine.”
Chen Shengxi, hearing this, bowed according to scholar etiquette.
While the dissolute Wu Fei was not as arrogant as in his previous words, he also followed the Da Yao monarch standard of respectfully supporting talents and helped him up.
From then on, Chen Shengxi entered Wu Fei’s service, beginning to help Wu Fei reform the bottom laborers in the Southern Border and Lingnan regions, perfecting the system. A civil official system homologous to the Da Yao system thus began to be built.
…Continuing expansion on the notebook…
Wu Fei: The army became a military government, war logistics turned from simple plundering to long-term management. The scale increasingly large, allocation increasingly complex. Important post nodes increasing, the various “blood reward” stratum post resources he masters cannot simply be given to brave and daring officers and soldiers.
In Wu Fei’s current labor reward system: blood reward and blood labor are clearly distinguished.
In a word. Blood labor is rewards in material economy, bonuses, welfare. Blood reward focuses on social grade elevation rewards, staffing quota, qualification for self and direct descendants to rise into management layer.
How to fairly elevate grades within a group? Or rather, how to reduce the probability of speculators climbing to the top? First, warriors taking huge risks in war should be prioritized in the “grade sequence”.
However, blood battle warriors have “virtue”, but not necessarily “talent” in construction domains; even though Wu Fei can cultivate through “cadre night school”, as the Southern Border governance system becomes increasingly complex, no longer a colony but needing long-term stability. Water conservancy, artisans, agriculture, culture and education work advancement has already formed the embryonic “officials, household, rites, works, war, punishment” in the General’s Mansion advisor offices, and rules in each category are increasing.
The relevant knowledge required for these bureaucratic subdivided domains is increasingly professional and rigorous; without examination and screening, they cannot perform.
For example, supervisors in military workshops must have sufficient “professional” ability; those in the army system who rose through blood labor, no matter how much “virtue”, cannot be inserted into these high social grade management posts.
The current public slave camp managers have “virtue not matching position” in management. These high management positions are “blood rewards”, but now they have become situations where no one can be assigned. These positions with virtue not matching position lead to massive waste.
Historical counterexample: During the prosperous era of the Eastern Dynasty, it produced massive surplus labor envied by European feudal lords, but the value created by massive population did not return to “national public engineering” accumulation, but was eaten clean by the equally massive official system within the dynasty.
Massive primary wealth “population, land” and other production materials were internally divided, forming numerous hidden households of noble families.
Wu Fei: “The civil official system also needs a fair and just “blood labor” “blood reward” allocation mechanism. This is the clerk system problem that has troubled the Eastern Dynasty for thousands of years.
Starting from the Han Dynasty, the long-term confrontation between the central authority and noble families, Wu Fei now believes: also possesses high risk, accumulated over a dozen years, its intensity no less than the short-term risk of battlefield sabers and spears confrontation.
When Wu Fei decided to use Chen Shengxi, he selected a batch of people from his side for him to transition, and also gave him some staffing quota slots to recruit personnel. However, Wu Fei could foresee he would 99% recruit from noble family factions.
Wu Fei sighed about this; Emperor Shu gave him nominal status, and he inevitably had to give nominal status to his subordinates.
Social development is so complex; a mode with one person above all, only monarch and slave two strata, cannot exist in a massive national body.
