Chapter 256: Tenant Farmers

Chapter 256: Tenant Farmers

Chapter 256: Tenant Farmers
Yuantongli is not a big place, and there are not many people living here. There are only about a hundred households in the whole village. Among them, the largest surname is Luo. In the whole Yuantong, families with the surname Luo account for half. As for those with the surname An, although there are also many families, they cannot be compared with those with the surname Luo.

The two young men who were carrying cabbages on the roadside were named Luo. Their names were Luo Chengyu and Luo Chengtang. They were brothers, and Luo Chengyu was the elder brother.

The two Luo brothers are of similar age to An Rushong. When they were young, they were good playmates. However, after they became adults, An Rushong left Gangwon Province and went to Seoul to work. Since then, except during festivals, they met less often, and their relationship naturally became distant.

An Rushong's family has four brothers and a younger sister. The situation is similar for Luo Chengyu and Luo Cheng cousins. They have three brothers and two girls. In fact, both families have five children.

The reason why An Rushong's family needs to arrange for their children to go out to work, while the families of the Luo Chengyu brothers do not need to, is simply because the Luo family has their own land, while An Rushong's family is purely a tenant farmer.

Sharecropper?

This word seems to have nothing to do with South Korea, which is about to become a developed country, but the reality is that An Rusong's family is indeed a tenant farmer, and they have been tenant farmers for hundreds of years.

After the end of World War II, although the peninsula drove out the Japanese who had colonized it for 35 years, the subsequent Syngman Rhee regime did not liquidate the Korean traitors and pro-Japanese factions during the Japanese occupation period, nor did it carry out any form of land revolution. Therefore, in places like Yuantongli, some of the land owners are old landlords who have inherited the land for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Of course, among these landlords, most of them became wealthy during the Japanese occupation. As to how they became wealthy, it is hard to say now.

It is precisely because of this that the "Northern constituency" including Sokcho City, Inje County, Goseong County, and Yangyang County has become the conservative base. This is not for any other reason, but because in this area, a large number of people who control the land are basically what the progressives call "traitors to Korea." How could these people choose to support the progressives who are calling for their destruction?

These people may only be a minority among the voters in the "Northern Constituency", but they control the land, wealth, and resources, and naturally have the ability to influence the vast majority of voters - no one really believes that those congressmen, presidents, etc. are really elected by the masses according to their own votes, right?

Just like An Jia, the land that his family rented belonged to a man named Luo Jinggeng. The family did not live in Yuantongli, but in Chunchuan. They would only show up in Yuantongli when collecting rent every year.

In An Rushong's memory, every time the small constituency council election came, Luo Jinggeng would come back with a lot of things and visit every family who rented his land one by one. While giving them gifts, he would call on everyone to vote for the candidate he supported.

So why did the northern district of Gangwon Province become the base of the conservatives? To be honest, those who sent conservative candidates to the National Assembly were precisely the ordinary people who should have supported the progressives.

Of course, this does not mean that progressives can change the lives and destinies of ordinary people after they come to power. After all, the reality of the progressives in power in the past few years has told everyone that they do not represent the interests of ordinary people. Otherwise, President Roh, a former prosecutor who worked hard from an ordinary family, would not have issued a special decree stipulating that only law school graduates can take the judicial examination.

The introduction of this law blocked another channel for the lower-class people to change their fate through their own efforts. Not only that, after the passage of this law, nearly a hundred law schools sprang up in South Korea in just two or three years, but the tuition fees of any law school were not affordable for ordinary people.

In short, in South Korea, no one who plays politics will really represent the interests of ordinary people. Families like the An family cannot count on the grace or mercy of others to change their destiny, and can only rely on themselves.

To be honest, if it weren't for An Rusong's rebirth, this small family living on the edge of Mount Jiali would probably not be able to escape even if they changed generations. They would only rent other people's fields and pay rent to others. For them, there would be no difference between North Korea a hundred years ago and South Korea a hundred years later.

In the car, An Rushong looked over his sister's shoulder and looked at the two young men on the side of the road, but what was lingering in his mind were the memories left to him by his predecessor.

The reason why childhood playmates became estranged after adulthood was not only because An Rushong went out to work and came back less often, but also because everyone had grown up and their thoughts were no longer simple. When judging whether a person could be their playmate, they no longer simply considered the other person's temperament, but also their family background, status, etc.

Rubin is still young and inexperienced, so he probably cannot understand the ups and downs of life. However, An Rushong, who has lived two lives, knows all this too well. Therefore, even when his eyes met those of the Luo brothers outside the car, he did not think of stopping the car to say hello to them.

An Rushong has no attachment to his hometown, nor has he ever thought about returning home in glory. To him, Yuantongli is just a small puzzle piece left in his memory from his predecessor. The reason why he is willing to come back is not because he has any feelings for this place, but simply because he does not want to be criticized for being too alienated from his family.

Sitting in the front driver's seat, Luo Minzhi glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that An Rushong did not say anything, so he did not stop the car, but drove slowly past the tractor and headed straight for the village entrance.

An Rusong's home is located at the northernmost part of Yuantongli. The courtyard of the home is not very big. Behind the quaint Korean-style house, only four or five hundred meters away, is the slope leading to the mountain. Along the slope into the mountain, there are several cemeteries, one of which is the ancestral tomb of the An family, and they go there every year to worship their ancestors. The Mercedes-Benz drove through the village, attracting many people to watch. Rubin is simple and lively. When he saw the acquaintances in the village, he forgot his previous uneasiness and just leaned against the car window to greet everyone, uncle, aunt, grandpa, grandma, and called them sweetly.

However, An Rushong sat in the car, ignoring everything outside the car. Only when the car stopped outside his own yard did he cough lightly. Without needing Luo Minzhi to open the door for him, he pushed the door open and got out of the car.

Compared to Seoul, the weather in Yuantongli seemed to be colder. After getting off the car, An Rushong subconsciously took a deep breath and felt a piercing chill rushing into his trachea and straight into his abdominal cavity.

Carrying a backpack, Ru Bin came around from the other side, stood next to An Rusong with a nervous look, and whispered, "Brother, you go in first."

An Rushong smiled, put a hand on his sister's shoulder, and pushed her towards the gate of the courtyard.

After walking only two or three steps, he saw an area surrounded by asbestos boards on the east side of his yard, only a dozen meters away. It looked like a residential site under construction. However, it was already winter and the construction had obviously stopped. A layer of snow had accumulated on the edge of the asbestos board.

Just as An Rushong looked over, a short young man walked out from the entrance of the residential plot, holding a bloody fiber bag in his hand.

Seeing the Mercedes-Benz parked on the side of the road, and An Rusong and the other two, the young man seemed stunned for a moment, then shouted loudly: "Brother!"

After shouting, the boy threw the bag in his hand and ran towards this side.

Staring at the young man running towards him, An Rushong saw that his appearance gradually overlapped with a figure in his previous memory. He pursed his lips, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips.

He has three younger brothers in the countryside of Yuantongli. This is the youngest one, who should be 16 this year. His name is An Ruhui.

In terms of age, Rubin is older than An Ruhui, but when the latter saw the three of them, he only called them "Big Brother" and ignored Rubin. This is enough to show Rubin's status in the family.

In these years, we must not underestimate the deep-rooted idea of ​​favoring boys over girls in Korea, especially in rural areas, where the status of women is extremely low. It is precisely because of this that the women's rights movement in Korea has become so outrageous that the opposition between the sexes has become a major problem in Korean society.

After waiting for Ruhui to run to him, An Rusong reached out and rubbed his head, then asked, "Where are your parents?"

After asking the question, he turned and looked at the house site again, and then asked: "Whose house site is that?"

"My parents and my second brother went to Jinde Mian," Ruhui said with a silly smile, "That's our homestead. My parents bought it from Uncle Deheng's family last month. They said they had built a new house, so our whole family would move there."

An Rusong had never heard his parents mention this before, but he didn't mind it. He just changed the subject and asked, "What are you going to do in Jindemian?"

Geundeok-myeon is a place name, belonging to Samseop. The administrative divisions in Korea are different from those in China. The so-called "something-myeon" is equivalent to a township, and Geundeok-myeon can be understood as Geundeok Township. Although Geundeok-myeon does not belong to Sokcho City, it is geographically close to Wontong-ri.

"A matchmaker introduced a woman to my second brother. Her family is close to Demian," Ruhui answered honestly.

An Rusong nodded, then asked, "Where's Ruyu?"

An Rusong has four brothers. Apart from the eldest brother, the remaining three brothers are Ze, Yu, and Hui. Don't mention Song, Bai, Liu, and Huai. People who understand Chinese culture would name them like this, while families like the An family, who don't have much culture, name them according to pronunciation. For example, the name An Rusong does not originally mean stable like a pine tree. It just takes that sound.

(End of this chapter)