Xiangshan City is located in the northwest corner of Yu Province and is known as a nationally famous poverty-stricken city (county level). The rural population accounts for 95% of the entire city, with their primary economic source relying on the harvest of two seasons a year (summer wheat and autumn corn).
Due to the lack of mechanization in the area, farming completely depends on manual labor, so in summer and autumn, the strong labor force stays home to tend to the crops, while in winter and spring they form groups to go to the big cities to do construction work to earn expenses.
This way of working determines that it's unlikely for the farmers in this area to become the main workforce in factories — factories can't work for two seasons and stop for two seasons, right?
When Ye Xuan arrived in Xiangshan City, he faced such a mess: industrial stagnation, poor agricultural harvests, and commerce being ignored.
