Protect Our Clan Leader

...

While the situation in Shangjing City was unpredictable,

inside the fortress of Anbeiwei.

With the migration of the population, Anbeiwei had gradually ceased to be as sparsely populated as before. Although the population was still not large, the gathering of people had given birth to a considerable number of natural villages.

The lives of the common people at the bottom were simple. Whether it was a battle for the throne by an emperor's son or the high-level power games, they were all far removed from their everyday lives and did not affect them in the slightest. To them, the most practical thing was to have three square meals a day. They worked hard and strove for a life that was just slightly better than the present.

Little Deer Village.

It was one of the many natural villages formed due to population migration, an ordinary little village not yet half a year old.

Its name was casually chosen by the village chief after spotting a rock by the village entrance that looked like a little deer. As time passed, everyone gradually got used to the name.

The Li family lived in a row of residential buildings in the village.

For generations, they had been tenant farmers for the Sun Clan from the Prominent Family of the Southern Desert. With the land reclamation in Anbeiwei, a direct branch of the Sun Clan from the Southern Desert moved there, and so their family followed.

Of course, the main reason was that in Southern Desert County, there was a scarcity of land for the abundance of people. Being tenant farmers, they had not had land to cultivate for a long time. Hearing they could receive land just by coming here, they decided to try their luck.

As for the residential buildings, they were funded and constructed by a business association called "Wang Family Triple Construction." They used a material known as "cement," along with pebbles and steel bars, and built several residential buildings in just half a month.

These houses were not only large and spacious but also exceptionally sturdy, far better than any house they could build themselves.

The people from "Wang Family Triple Construction" knew they couldn't afford to buy houses, so they promised that by paying a relatively small sum of money every month, they could live in these houses indefinitely, and, reportedly, after twenty years, they would own the houses outright.

Of course, the price was that, for the next twenty years, they could only plant the seeds provided by the Wang Family Grain and Seed Business in their allocated lands. When harvesting time came, they also had to sell the produce to the Wang Family Grain and Seed Business first.

But what did that matter? As long as they had land to till and could earn money to support themselves and their families, what they cultivated was all the same to them.

Early that day, Old Li took his son out of their row house, carrying a hoe to the field on the east side of the village to begin loosening the soil and fertilizing the land.

The fields around them were already filled with people who were busy and heads-down at work.

However, unlike the initial nervousness and insecurity, they now worked with calm and composure; even their hoeing gestures carried an air of nonchalance.

It was, in fact, quite normal, because over the past few months, they had started to notice the differences in Anbeiwei compared to other places. Not to speak of anything else, the seeds provided by the Wang Family Grain and Seed Business for planting were no ordinary matter.

These tenant farmers had spent their whole lives eking out an existence from the soil. They might not be able to study how to improve seeds, but they were much more sensitive to the quality of seeds than most people.

The seeds from the Wang Family Grain and Seed Business not only germinated quickly and had a high survival rate, but their vigor was extraordinarily strong, thriving even in the arid lands of Anbeiweiwei.

This was the case with the previously planted pearl rice and cumin, and now it was the same with the alfalfa.

Their own alfalfa seeds were no good, hardly sprouting at all, and even the few that did were weak and wilted, nowhere near as healthy as those from the Wang Family Grain and Seed Business.

The contrast was striking, and the inferiority was evident.

The thoughts of a tenant farmer were simple. In their view, a high-quality variety meant a good harvest, which in turn meant more money to be earned.

So when they discovered that all the seed varieties from the Wang Family Grain and Seed Business were excellent, they felt reassured and had new hope for the future of Anbeiwei.

"Dada dada~"

The crisp sound of horse hooves rang out as a black half-grown colt, followed by two smaller ones, trotted along the cement road in the center of the village.

"Hey~ Big Black, taking your wives for a walk again~" Little Li, seeing this, leaned on his hoe and joked with a grin.

Whether Big Black understood or not, it neighed at him in greeting before ambling into the field to enjoy the alfalfa with the other two colts.

Since there was a share of alfalfa meant for them, Little Li didn't stop them. Instead, he walked over and patted the neck of Big Black.

Big Black was clearly familiar with him, not resisting at all; it even nudged him affectionately.

"Dad, Big Black is growing so fast and his muscles are getting strong. He'll surely grow up to be tall," said Little Li with a satisfied smile. "The horses we raised before never looked this good. Do you think it has something to do with this alfalfa?"

"Is that even a question?" Old Li gave him a look. "Haven't you seen that they won't even touch other grasses besides the alfalfa?"

Indeed, they wouldn't even consider eating them, let alone give them a second glance. It seemed that in their eyes, the Wang Family's alfalfa was a delicacy, whereas ordinary alfalfa was nothing but spoiled leftovers.

In fact, there were many other wonders in Anbeiwei.

Besides the towering structures made from cement and the excessively good quality seeds, there were also the broad and straight gray-white roads constructed in an incredibly short time, the "Unified Irrigation System" buried deep underground and composed of countless pipes, as well as the enormous "Large-Scale Agricultural Machinery" made entirely of metal that they had seen during harvest time...