Ch 356: We Are Farming
The farmland on the outskirts of the city was rather barren, with the fertile land all being enclosed within the city walls during successive expansions of the Beast City.
“Wei Ce, your father’s idea is good, but look around, the grass in other places is already sprouting in patches, while here it’s still sparse and scattered. Can we really rely on the silt deposited by the rain to grow good crops?” As they walked along, the beastmen, who had initially been full of enthusiasm and eager to work hard, gradually felt their hearts sink.
Wei Ce glanced at the striped tiger beastman beside him and nodded, “As long as we strictly follow the requirements for farming, even if the crops we grow are not as good as those on the fertile land within the city, they will definitely be much better than those grown by the beastmen in the suburbs.”
This was indeed true. The silt was full of good things that could fertilize the soil. When mixed with this land, the fertility would certainly be better than that of the farmland outside the city.
What they needed to consider now was how much better, and whether the extra harvest would be worth their effort.
They didn’t want to work hard only to have a meager harvest, making them a laughingstock in front of the beastmen in the suburbs.
The land in the suburbs was too barren. At first, the beastmen in the suburbs were full of confidence. They learned planting techniques from the city and reclaimed land outside the city to plant. But after months of hard work, the yield from the land was pitifully low, not even as good as what grew naturally in the wild. Therefore, they preferred to work in the city or hunt and gather nearby, rather than continue farming.
At least seventy to eighty percent of the flat land in the suburbs was unclaimed. Wei Ce and the others were currently surveying the area and ownership of these lands.
Suddenly, a group of beastmen came running with tools, burying their heads and digging randomly on the open ground.
“Hey, what are you people doing?” a small team leader of the beast soldiers frowned and asked loudly.
One of the older females smiled and said, “Lord, you can see, we are farming. The weather has just warmed up, so we need to hurry up and plow the land and sow seeds, hoping for a good harvest in the summer!”
This made everyone stunned. Since they had come, they had naturally inquired about which lands were occupied and which were vacant.
This piece of land was obviously abandoned, so how come there were beastmen claiming it?
“Are you mistaken? This is unclaimed land,” one beastman said displeased.
“How could that be? Lords, just ask around in our village and see if this piece of land belongs to our family,” the female knocked on the hoe in her hand and said calmly, “Our family has many males and cubs, all strong and capable, all good at working. If it weren’t for my poor health in the past two years, and their neglect of the farmland, it wouldn’t have become so desolate.
You wouldn’t be trying to bully us because you have many people and are from prominent families and tribes in the city, would you?”
Wei Ce, and Wei Si Shuo Lian exchanged a glance and understood. This land must have been cultivated before, but because its yield was pitifully low, it was abandoned.
Now, these beastmen, seeing them surveying this area, smelled an opportunity and rushed over to claim ownership first.
Wei Si Shuo Lian smiled, “Aunt, could you tell us where your family’s land starts and ends?”
The female thought these people were bluffed by her, her eyes darted around, and she started running: “From here all the way to that rocky area, and on both sides from that crooked tree to the river on the other side.”
That was a full thirty mu of land!
Not only was farmland in the city in high demand, but it used to be the same in the suburbs. It was already very good for each family to have two or three mu of land. Thirty mu of land, huh, did she think this was a pasture for cattle and horses?
Wei Ce’s eyes were cold, and he said lightly, “You better think carefully before answering. If we learn from others that you have lied about the area of your land, huh, what kind of punishment do you think you will face?”
Wei Si Shuo Lian raised his hand, “I guess the families in the city won’t want the males from their family to work, after all, who would dare to use beastmen who lie, love to take advantage, and distort the truth?”
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Yi Mei’s pangolin beast husband, Level Eleven Yue Heng, was also in this survey team. He sneered, “Only her family would benefit from such an advantage. Other beastmen would be unbalanced and might ostracize them.”
“That’s right, you beastmen in the suburbs, although you live outside the city, we beast soldiers also patrol and scout outside the city. If it weren’t for us, there would definitely be many high-level wild beasts active in this area. It would be impossible for you to forget the difficulty of survival and have the mind to scheme against us…” other beastmen said resentfully.
“Don’t think I don’t know, you just dislike that farming yields are low and have abandoned this land. This is unclaimed land! You came here just to take advantage of it, right? Pfft, open your eyes and see, are we the kind of people you can afford to offend?”
The female’s face turned red and then green with anger. She was still unwilling to give up, “Yes, you are right about one thing, this land is not entirely ours, but it belongs to our relatives.”
She wasn’t wrong about this. Back then, everyone migrated here together and settled in the outskirts of the city, full of hope as they reclaimed land in this area.
She was defending the land for them and fighting for some benefits, there was nothing wrong with that!
Wei Si Shuo Lian smiled, “Oh? Then can you tell us who they are? So we can exclude this piece of land and plant in other places, and avoid hiring you when we need people to work.
After all, you have your own land and don’t need to be hired by us.”
What? The female had only heard that the aristocratic families in the city were competing for land, but they didn’t know why.
Since everyone was fighting for it, it must be something good. No matter what, it wouldn’t hurt for them to claim it first.
But what did she hear? These beastmen must be fools, they actually wanted to use this land to farm?
“If we don’t farm, then we don’t farm,” the female said without thinking. The yield from the land was not much, and after paying half of it in taxes, how much would be left? Not even enough to raise a cub, only a fool would farm.
“Then register with our contract beast soldiers, which piece of land belongs to whom, so we can avoid your land when arranging this year’s spring plowing,” Wei Ce didn’t indulge her and directly gave up this piece of land.
The beastmen behind him had no objections either. Anyway, the silt they had accumulated was only enough to cover half of the area within the city. There was a lot of wasteland in the suburbs, and they could only transform thirty percent of the unclaimed land, so there was really no need to stick with these thirty mu of land.
The female was a little dumbfounded. These people really wanted to give up their family’s land? This was a bit abnormal, it was far from the domineering and arrogant image of the beastmen in the city.
“Why are you still standing there? Come on, let’s quickly confirm the ownership of the land so we can hurry up and arrange the next task,” the contract beast soldier urged.
Wei Si Shuo Lian instructed, “Young man, remember who is responsible for which piece of land, you need to record it clearly, and you’ll have to find people to verify the authenticity of the information later…”
