Greece to roman road

Kalia dragged the two Varvis brothers and ran excitedly towards the intersection of the alley. She rushed into the crowd surrounding the notice board and stood on tiptoes to read the text with difficulty.

The people near Kalia's house were in a similar situation to Kalia's family. They were all Greeks from Eastern Rumelia.

They came to Greece and were uniformly settled in the small town of Kavala by the local Greek government.

Therefore, now that the Greek government's land reclamation policy has come down, they are equally excited.

"The government's announcement has come out and it has been confirmed that every landless family can reclaim up to fifty acres of wasteland for free. It's great."

The people around happily discussed the contents of the notice.

"With land, we can survive here."

"Thanks to the merciful God, long live the generous king, long live Greece"

The inner excitement was beyond words, and someone praised loudly with a trembling voice.

Two administrative staff who posted the notice stood on either side of the notice board and explained to the crowded crowd in front of them: "The government's policy of encouraging land reclamation has been approved by the king, the prime minister, and the parliament and will take effect from now on."

“If you have any questions about this, you can ask us.”

This civil servant is a staff member of the recently established administrative office of Kavala Town. They naturally understand the tragic situation of these people who have been displaced from East Rumelia all the way south to Greece.

For the compatriots who became miserable refugees during the war, sympathy and pity emerged in their hearts, making the two of them want to do something for them, even if they could help these people after experiencing terrible sudden changes.

The joy made everyone ecstatic, and the noisy discussion drowned out the two people's reminders.

It wasn't until everyone around was talking about land reclamation that Kalia, who only hugged Varvis and Little Loves, finally realized, fifty acres of free land, fifty acres of free land, Kalia murmured Talk to yourself, repeat, over and over again.

With these lands, the three orphans and widowed mother have something to rely on to survive.

Since the death of her husband, Kaliya has been in a really difficult situation as a woman with two children.

Even after arriving in Kavala, the local Greek government and church have tried their best to help them.

It's just that the war has just ended. Kavala is a small port town on the Aegean Sea and a newly occupied territory by Greece from the Bulgarians. Everything is still chaotic. The past month has been really difficult for Kalia's family.

All belongings were lost, the land in Eastern Rumelia was confiscated, and even the packages he carried with him were lost while escaping in a hurry on the road to avoid being intercepted by the Bulgarians.

In just two months, everything changed. In order to make ends meet, Kalia even wanted to find a new man to marry, as long as he didn't hate Varvis and Little Loves.

But the war had just ended, the society was in turmoil, and it was impossible to find a job.

All the young people of the right age have gone to the battlefield. The only people they can see every day are girls and widows who lost their husbands in the war. Men have become rare animals, and even remarriage is not feasible.

More than once, in the dead of night, the exhausted Kalia came up with the extreme idea of ​​ending it all.

The confusion in her heart and the loneliness of living in a different place, with no friends and no way to escape, eroded her heart all the time, and the misery and suffering made it difficult for her to sleep.

But when she saw the two young children sleeping, Kalia dismissed this dangerous thought.

Their lives have just begun, and I can't be so cruel, leaving them two ignorant children to face the world alone.

Later, the refugees who lived nearby and had a similar situation to Kalia's family, who also lost most of their property and became homeless, were spreading a rumor that after the war, the Greek government would distribute land to the invincible people for free.

Although the origin of such rumors is unknown and it is difficult to tell whether they are true or false, everyone is still willing to discuss them tirelessly every day because this is their only hope.

Everyone is no stranger to war.

After the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, the situation in the Balkans was complicated and chaotic. There was never a day of peace. Turmoil was the norm here, and everyone was numb.

The Russo-Turkish War, the Bulgarian War, the independence uprising, religious disputes, ethnic disputes, the two Balkan Wars, and the three countries of Greece, Bulgaria and Serbia in the Balkans for more than ten years, overt and covert fights for control of the Balkans, all These conflicts will affect people living in the Balkans.

In this turbulent era, hope is something more precious than gold.

The reason why they are fleeing to Greece, which is on the Aegean Sea coast in the south, is because everyone has heard that Greece has experienced rapid economic development and stable social order in recent years.

Of course, the most important thing is that it is said that the Greek army has relatively strong combat effectiveness. It has not been defeated in recent years and can protect the lives and property of its people.

Especially after the Bulgarian army was defeated by the Greek army on the battlefield in Thrace, more people fled to Greece.

Everyone is already familiar with the perennial war. Once Bulgaria is defeated, the people in Bulgaria will be plundered again. The reconstruction of the army, the compensation for the defeat, the foreign debt borrowed from abroad, and the reconstruction of domestic order will all require money. The king who has no money will need money. In order to tide over the difficulties, we must increase taxes on them.

According to Greek government statistics, many of the refugees who fled are Slavs.

Regarding these people, the Greek government’s attitude is to accept them without any discrimination.

Now the news of land reclamation has been confirmed. Fifty acres of land is enough for myself and my two children.

And these fifty acres of land belong entirely to you.

In an instant, Kalia felt that the burden on her body disappeared, and the breath she had been holding on was released. Like a balloon punctured by a needle, her body limply fell to the ground.

One of the two civil servants, Lundhardt, looked at the rude woman in front of him and quickly stepped forward to carefully help Kaliya up.

Lundhardt, who had just returned from the army, noticed that Greece was establishing grassroots administrative institutions in the newly acquired territory from Bulgaria and needed to recruit a large number of personnel.

Lundhart took advantage of Greek Army veterans' benefits and found a position working in Kavala's administrative office.

The reason why he works in Kavala is because Lundhardt believes that Kavala is a port city on the Aegean coast and has better prospects for economic development after being ruled by Greece.

In prosperous big cities like Thessaloniki, government jobs are more popular. Retired personnel from the same group as Lundhardt competed for positions there. Lundhardt chose a job with a lower reputation but better prospects. of Zavala.

Lundhardt believes that as long as peace can be maintained in the next few years, the economy of Kavala, a coastal city, will grow rapidly.

Because Bulgaria has controlled Kavala for a relatively short time, even though Kavala is Bulgaria's only Aegean port, it has not been able to develop effectively and has been affected by wars many times. Until now, it is still a small seaside town.

Lundhardt, who has been working in Kavala for more than ten days, knows Kalia, understands their family's situation, and can understand Kalia's mood.

"Kalia, as a widow with two children, even if the government allows each family to reclaim fifty acres of wasteland for free, can you handle such a heavy work?" Lendhart helped him. Looking at Kalia, he reminded.

Kalia, who was overwhelmed by joy, seemed to be in a trance, and murmured absently: "What?"

It has been more than ten days since I came to Kavala. Lundhart, who is a staff member of the Administration Department, is quite familiar with the land information around the small town of Kavala.

Due to its small population and suffering from war, land reclamation around Kavala is limited, and a large amount of reclaimable wasteland has been preserved.

Just reclaiming wasteland in the barren wilderness is a very difficult job, especially for a woman named Kalia.

In the wilderness around Kavala, there are many swamps and woods with lush trees and weeds.

It takes a lot of sweat and effort to transform uncultivated land into mature land.

Reclaiming wasteland requires draining away the accumulated water in the wilderness swamps, and then transporting soil to fill it up. Weak areas in the soil need to be thickened. Crops cannot grow if the soil is too thin;

The rhizomes of grass and trees must be cleaned up, otherwise the weeds will swamp the crops. The trees must be cut down first, and then the remaining stumps must be dug out. The roots of the trees are so intertwined that if they cannot be cleaned up, they may regenerate and sprout new shoots in previous years.

In addition, there are a lot of stones and rubble in the wasteland, which also need to be carefully sorted out.

Even if these tasks can be completed, there is still a difficulty in growing crops on the land, and that is water conservancy facilities.

If crops cannot be irrigated in time, the harvest will be seriously affected. Excavation of water conservancy facilities is also a big project and is no less difficult than land reclamation.

Varvis, who was beside Kalia, raised his head and volunteered: "It doesn't matter, I can help mom go to the fields together. We will have a holiday soon, and I can go to work every day."

Little Loves, who was holding his brother's hand, didn't understand what the others were talking about, but when he saw his brother's actions, he was not to be outdone. He jumped and shouted: "There's me, I can do it too."

Lundhardt caressed the heads of the two children. The childlike words spoken by these two well-behaved and sensible children made him feel more compassionate and looked at Kalia.

After being reminded by Lundhart, Kaliya also woke up from the surprise and realized the difficulty of reclaiming wasteland.

"Yes, but there is no good solution. What can we do? This is our family's only hope, and we can't give up." Kalia forced a smile and said.

After Lundhart considered it carefully, he once again gave his advice: "It is really difficult for you, a woman, to reclaim fifty acres of wasteland. Do you know that Greece has an agricultural cooperative system, right?"

Lundhart's words attracted the attention of the people around him. Everyone's situation was similar to that of Kalia's family. Even for an ordinary family, working on fifty acres of wasteland was a staggering job.

Although I have only been in Greece for a short time, agricultural cooperatives have already become popular in Greece, and everyone is familiar with this new agricultural system in Greece, but it is still too one-sided.

Seeing everyone's expressions, Lundhart introduced the Greek agricultural cooperative system to everyone at the same time as himself.

Due to the support of the government and the strong vitality of the new system of agricultural cooperatives, agricultural cooperatives have become widely popular among Greek farmers in recent years, attracting most farmers who own land to participate in this new system.

Even though Greek agricultural cooperatives and various family farms are independent of each other, they can cooperate with each other: a single family is responsible for the planting and production of crops, and the cooperative is responsible for providing sales channels and transportation services. Such a clear division of labor allows Greek agricultural production to Suddenly, traditional decentralized crop cultivation has been transformed into intensive and large-scale production of crops, and production efficiency has been greatly improved.

Farmers don't have to worry about the marketability of their crops. They only need to concentrate on improving the yield and quality of their crops, because their income is only related to the yield and quality of their crops.

In addition, agricultural cooperatives will coordinate with members to purchase production tools, fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, etc. in bulk to reduce farmers' costs. When selling agricultural products, everyone gathers together to gain more say and increase the price of agricultural products.

"Actually, you are all in a similar situation, and you are all faced with the work of reclaiming wasteland. You can form a cooperative. First, you can pool your respective shares of wasteland together. You can help each other, unite, and improve the efficiency of reclamation."

"Secondly, if an agricultural cooperative is established, according to Greek policies, cooperatives in the land reclamation stage can receive government policy support. You can use the name of the newly established agricultural cooperative to apply for a one-year loan from the bank. interest-free loan”

"You can use this loan to purchase tools to speed up the efficiency of reclaiming wasteland, make the land profitable faster, and help your life get on track."

After everyone heard Lundhart's suggestion, they discussed it quietly.

"If you decide to establish an agricultural cooperative, the Kavala Administration Office can send professionals to guide you in establishing an agricultural cooperative and help you get the agricultural cooperative on the right track faster."

"In addition, I have some good news to tell you. The soil and climate in Kavala are very suitable for growing tobacco. I met a businessman from Thessaloniki a few days ago and asked me for local advice. Among agricultural cooperatives, are there any whose main products are tobacco? If there is an agricultural cooperative willing to grow tobacco, they can send professionals to guide you to grow tobacco. If the agricultural cooperative agrees to sign the contract, they can even pay a one-year deposit in advance."