Chapter 256 Tenant Farmers
Yuantongli is not a big place, and there are not many people living here. There are only a hundred or so households in the whole place. Among them, the largest surname is Luo. In the entire Yuantong, families with the surname Luo account for 90% of the total. Half of them went there. As for the people surnamed An, although there were quite a few of them, they were incomparable to those surnamed Luo.
The two young men who were moving cabbage on the roadside were named Luo. They were named Luo Chengyu and Luo Chengtang. They were brothers, with Luo Chengyu being the elder brother.
The two Luo brothers were similar in age to An Rusong. When they were young, they were relatively good playmates. However, after they became adults, An Rusong left Gangwon Province and went to work in Seoul. From then on, in addition to meeting each other, During the New Year holidays, they even met less often, and their relationship with each other naturally became unfamiliar.
An Rusong's family has four brothers and one sister, while cousins Luo Chengyu and Luo Cheng have similar families. They have three brothers and two girls. In fact, both families have five children.
The reason why An Rusong's family needs to arrange for their children to go out to work, but the Luo Chengyu brothers' family does not, is simply because the Luo family has their own land, while An Rusong's family is purely a tenant farmer.
Sharecropper?
This term does not seem to be relevant to South Korea, which is about to become a developed country, but the reality is that the An Rusong 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 away the Japanese who had colonized it for 35 years, the subsequent Rhee Syngman regime did not liquidate the Korean traitors and pro-Japanese factions during the Japanese occupation, nor did it carry out any form of land reclamation Revolution, so in places like Yuantongli, some of the land owners are old landlords who have inherited the land for hundreds of years, or even hundreds of years.
Of course, most of these landlords were those who became prosperous during the Japanese occupation. As for how they prospered, 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 base of conservatives, if not for any other reason than that in this area, A large number of people who control the land are basically what the progressives call "Korean traitors." How could these people choose to support the progressives who want to beat and kill them?
These people may only be a minority among the voters in the "Northern Constituency", but they hold land, wealth and resources in their hands, and they naturally have the ability to influence the vast majority of voters - no one really thinks that Those congressmen, president, etc., are really elected by the people according to their heartfelt votes, right?
Just like Anjia, the land his family rents belongs to a man named Luo Jinggen. This family does not live in Yuantong, but in Chunchuan. They only live in Yuantong every year when rent is collected. Show up.
In An Rusong's memory, every time when the small constituency councilors were elected, Luo Chinggen would come back with a lot of things, visit each person who rented his land one by one, give gifts and at the same time call on everyone to give him Vote for the candidate you support.
Therefore, why has Gangwon Province’s “Northern Constituency” become the base of conservatives? To be honest, those who sent conservative candidates to Congress were the same ordinary people who should have supported progressives.
Of course, this does not mean that the progressives will be able to change the lives and destiny of ordinary people after they come to power. After all, the reality of the progressives being in power in the past few years has told everyone that what they represent is not the interests of ordinary people. Otherwise, President Lu, a former prosecutor who came from an ordinary family, would not have issued a decree stipulating that only law school graduates can take the judicial examination.
It was the promulgation of this law that blocked another channel for the people at the bottom to change their destiny through their own efforts. Not only that, just after this law was passed, in just two or three years, nearly a hundred law schools sprung up in South Korea, but the tuition fees of any law school were not affordable by ordinary families. .
All in all, in South Korea, no one who plays politics will really represent the interests of ordinary people. A family like the Anjia cannot rely on others' gifts or mercy to change their destiny. They can only rely on themselves.
To be honest, if it hadn't been for An Rusong's rebirth, this small family living on the edge of Mount Garry would not have been able to escape from here even if it changed several generations. They would only rent other people's houses from generation to generation. Land is paid rent to others from generation to generation. For them, there will be no difference between North Korea a hundred years ago and South Korea a hundred years from now.
In the car, An Rusong's eyes passed through his sister's shoulders and looked at the two young people on the roadside. What was swirling in his mind was the memory left by his predecessor.
The reason why childhood playmates have become strangers in adulthood is not only because An Rusong went out to work and came back less often, but also because everyone has grown up and their thoughts are no longer simple. It is difficult to judge a person. Whether you can be your playmate or not, you no longer just consider the other person's temperament, but also consider the other person's family background, status, etc.
Rubin is still young and not deeply involved in the world, so he probably doesn't understand the warmth and warmth of the world. However, An Rusong, who has been born in two generations, is very clear about this, so even if his eyes collide with the Luo brothers outside the car, When they got together, he didn't even think about stopping to say hello or anything.
An Rusong didn't have any local sentiments, and he never thought about returning home in fine clothes. To him, Yuantongli was a small puzzle piece left in his memory by his predecessor. The reason why he was willing to come back was not Because he has feelings for this place, simply because he doesn't want to be criticized for being too alienated from his family.
From the driver's seat in front, Luo Minzhi glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that An Rusong didn't show any sign, so he didn't stop the car. Instead, he drove slowly past the tractor and headed straight for the entrance of the village.
An Rusong's home is located in the northernmost part of Yuantong. The courtyard of the home is not very big. Behind the quaint Korean-style house, only four to five hundred meters away is the slope to the mountain. Along the slope road into the mountain, there are several cemeteries, one of which is Anjia's ancestral grave, where he goes every year to worship his ancestors. The Mercedes Benz drove through the village, attracting many people to watch. Rubin was simple and lively. When he saw the acquaintances in the village, he forgot his previous anxiety and just leaned by the car window to say hello to everyone. Uncle Auntie, grandpa and grandma, has a very sweet mouth when calling people.
But An Rusong was sitting in the car, turning a blind eye to everything outside the car. He didn't cough lightly until the car stopped outside his courtyard. He didn't need Luo Minzhi to open the door for him and opened the door on his own. Got out of the car.
Compared with Seoul, the weather in Wontongli seemed to be colder. After getting off the car, An Rusong took a deep breath subconsciously, only to feel a biting chill rush into the trachea and reach the abdominal cavity.
Carrying a backpack, Rubin came around from the other side, stood next to An Rusong with a nervous expression, and whispered: "Brother, you go first."
An Rusong smiled, put a hand on his sister's shoulder, and pushed her toward the courtyard door.
After walking only two or three steps, he saw an area on the east side of his courtyard, only a dozen meters away, surrounded by asbestos boards. It looked like a homestead under construction, but at this time, it was already It's winter, so the construction has obviously stopped. A layer of snow has accumulated on the edge of the circle of asbestos boards.
Just when An Rusong looked over, at the entrance of the homestead, a short young man walked out, carrying a bloody fiber bag in his hand.
Seeing the Mercedes-Benz parked on the roadside and An Rusong and the others, the young man seemed stunned for a moment, and then shouted loudly: "Brother!"
After shouting, the young man threw the bag in his hand and ran towards this side.
After staring at the young man running over, his appearance gradually overlapped with that of a figure in his memory. An Rusong pursed his lips, and a faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
In the countryside of Yuantongli, he has three younger brothers. This is the youngest. He should be 16 this year, and his name is An Ruhui.
The latest chapter of this novel was first published on 6@9书#. Please go to Liujiu Book Bar to read it!
In terms of age, Rubin was older than An Ruhui, but when the latter saw the three of them, he only called "big brother" and ignored Rubin. This is enough to illustrate Rubin's status in the family.
In these years, don't underestimate the deep-rooted patriarchal mentality in Korea. Especially in rural areas, the status of women is not generally low. It is precisely because of this that the feminist movement in South Korea has gone so far that gender opposition has become a major problem in Korean society.
After waiting for Ruhui to rush to him, An Rusong reached out and rubbed the other person's head and asked, "Where are your parents?"
After asking the question, he turned to look at the homestead again, and then asked: "Whose homestead is that?"
"My parents and my second brother went to Jinde Mian," Ruhui said with a naive smile. "That's our family's homestead over there. My parents bought it from Uncle Deheng's house last month and said it was completed. Our whole family will move to the new house.”
An Rusong had never heard his parents mention this before, but he didn't mind. He just turned around and asked, "Why are you going to Jinde Noodles?"
Geondeok-myeon is a place name, and it belongs to Samseok. The administrative divisions in Korea are different from those in China. The so-called "so-and-so-myeon" is equivalent to a township, and Geumdeok-myeon can be understood as Geumdeok-hyang. Even though Geumdeok-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 near Demian," Ruhui answered honestly.
An Rusong nodded and then asked: "Where is Ruyu?"
There are four An Rusong brothers. Except for him, the eldest, the remaining three brothers are Ze, Yu, and Hui. Not to mention pine, cypress, willow, and locust tree, people who understand Chinese culture will name them like this, but people like Lao An’s family In this kind of uneducated family, names are given based on pronunciation. Just like the name An Rusong, its original meaning is not to be as stable as a pine, it just takes that sound.
(End of chapter)