Chapter 282 Go to the Grassroots
In Green Willow Garden, everything is as usual.
But in the eyes of outsiders, this house with a bit of a nouveau riche atmosphere has become the political center of Henan - at least one of the centers.
A few days before the Chinese New Year, Shao Xun went out again: Going to the grassroots in the New Year!
Lu Xun, with a big belly, carefully helped him arrange his clothes.
Le Lanji packed his bags for him.
Looking at the two delicate flowers, Shao Xun was so satisfied!
After returning from the expedition, he quietly asked his mother and learned that the two princesses seemed to be difficult to deal with. But Lu Xun was with her, and Lan Ji was quite polite to her on the surface. As for what she was thinking in her heart, Shao Xun didn't have the nerve to ask, and she wouldn't tell her.
Le Shi has been pardoned as a concubine of the Chengdu King, and Shao Xun officially accepted her as a concubine.
As for Song Yi, she is now a tool for Shao Xun to vent his sexual desires when he changes his taste, and she has no status.
To be honest, she needs to be good-looking, talented, and young, but she is really unlucky to meet someone like Shao Xun who doesn't want to spend time on her. If it had been any other family, he would have been spoiled long ago.
"That's pretty much it. When I go to see the emperor, I'm not that particular." Shao Xun said with a smile.
Lu Xun took two steps back, took a closer look, and then stepped forward to adjust the position of the bow tip. When she saw the colorful knot she made by herself hanging on the hilt of the saber, she felt happy.
"Lang Jun established himself with martial arts. When he goes to meet the soldiers, it is best to be more powerful. In the future, we will rely on them to fight bravely." She said.
Shao Xun took her in his arms, kissed her forehead gently, and said, "What Xun Niang said is absolutely true. Domination in the world must be fought with swords and guns. Soldiers are the most important."
"The husband is more important." Leshi came over and whispered.
Shao Xun smiled proudly, hugged both women in his arms, and said shamelessly: "In the past, Wang Hui of Fanyang was also considered brave and decisive, but the year is not a holiday. Wang Ying of Chengdu won first and was arrogant later. In jail, there is no way to escape death. Lang Jun has his destiny, and everything will be fine."
Before he finished speaking, his left and right waists were pinched.
Le Shi and Lu Shi's pretty faces turned red, they glanced at each other, and then smiled. For a moment, I actually felt a bit of sympathy for each other.
Shao Xun felt very happy.
He's not a masochist, but he just feels good and proud.
Don’t say anything, you have to toast the yellow-haired god when he comes.
"You two should discuss matters at home." Shao Xun said, "If you have any difficulty, just ask my mother."
Both women hesitated to speak. .
"Speak quickly before I leave."
"My third brother has moved to Liang County..." Le Lanji said.
Shao Xun understood immediately, so he said: "If Hongmao does not go well with Situ, he can first come to the Hou Mansion to be the temple chief."
The temple chief is in charge of sacrifices. , actually pretty good.
"My heir Li has come to Luoyang..." Lu Xun said.
"Sima Mo's son? Come to rob the family property? Haha, ignore him." Shao Xun waved his hand and walked out of the house. When he got on his horse, he waved to the two girls and left with a laugh.
Shao Xun's first stop was the villages of Liang County, where Silver Spear soldiers gathered.
When we arrived at the entrance of the village, the men who had received the news came out to greet them.
"Zhao Huai!" Shao Xun threw the riding whip to Tang Jian and said: "Did you behead two levels of people in the battle of Jianshui?"
"See Chen Hou." Silver Spear The leader of the army, Zhao Huai, stepped forward to salute.
In the Battle of Jianshui, the original team leader was unable to return to the team after recovering from injury. Director Zhao Huai was promoted to the team leader and took his place.
He is one of the few people who has climbed all the way from a soldier to the position of team leader. This level of Gein is usually held by student officers.
"Have you received the reissued silk cotton from the Hou Mansion?" Shao Xun looked at Zhao Huai's home and asked.
"Received, ten bolts of silk and five pounds of cotton." When Zhao Huai heard this, his face was filled with joy.
Shao Xun entered his yard.
Zhao Huai is from Luoyang. After coming to Liang County, he took over this abandoned house. It looked very dilapidated at the time, but after a lot of efforts were made to repair it, it has a completely new look.
Shao Xun looked carefully.
The courtyard wall is a fence made of bamboo and wood. The fence wall is roughly divided into two large blocks on the left and right, with a road in the middle leading directly to the main house.
The outermost one on the left side of the road is a sheepfold, which contains seven or eight sheep, large and small.
North of the sheepfold is the woodshed, which is filled with dead branches and dead wood, as well as a lot of hay that has not yet been chopped.
Further north from the woodshed is the kitchen, where smoke is curling up and lunch is being made.
There are several fruit trees in front of the sheepfold, woodshed, and kitchen. Two of them seem to have died, possibly due to the severe drought in spring and summer this year.
On the right side of the road is a very neatly tended vegetable patch, with a well dug in the center and covered with a lid.
There is a small door at the northernmost edge of the vegetable patch, which is now open, revealing the woodpile and haystack outside.
Behind the firewood pile is the toilet. There are also many old and new feces piled up against the wall outside the toilet, covered with a thin layer of soil.
A typical farmhouse, and it is a farmhouse that has been run for at least one generation.
Zhao Huai is lucky to have picked it up.
"Not bad." After reading it, Shao Xun nodded, and then under the guidance of Zhao Huai, he entered the middle hall and sat at the first place.
Zhao Huai's ten-year-old eldest son brought warm wine.
Shao Xun was not polite, picked up the wine bowl, took a sip, and said: "Good wine."
"This is Mizuo, brewed in Chunshe. Chen Houruo likes it, but Have a few more drinks," Zhao Huai said.
"Sit down and drink together." Shao Xun greeted and asked Zhao Huai and several other Silver Spear sergeants to sit down together.
Everyone declined, but when Shao Xun insisted, they sat down and drank together.
Chū is a high-alcohol wine that requires a long time to brew, even two or three times.
Ji Mi Shu, as the name suggests, is a high-quality liquor brewed from Ji Mi. It also adds five eggplant peels, dried ginger and other seasonings. The taste is very special. At this time, people not only like to add various things to tea. , the same goes for wine.
"Starting from next year, you will have fifty acres of land. After the wheat harvest in May, the campers will bring the harvested wheat." Shao Xun said: "It's time to prepare a stone mill at home. It’s best to have one or two donkeys, mules, and horses.”
"Thank you, Marquis Chen, for the reward. It's hard to repay such kindness and virtue." Upon hearing this, Zhao Huai immediately stood up and saluted, his eyes becoming moist.
When I was pulling fiber on the river, I didn’t get much at the end of the day, and it was difficult to support my family. Moreover, trackers are often covered with injuries and do not live long. Those days are really unspeakable.
After joining the Silver Spear Army, life gradually improved.
Although the days of living in Yunzhongwu were poor, the family was able to have enough to eat.
After moving to Liang County, not only did he get this small house, he was also promoted from chief to team leader. He can receive 36 grains of grain, 10 bolts of silk, 5 pounds of cotton, plus an income of fifty acres of land every year. .
If the battle is won, the spoils can be divided - Chen Hou is never stingy in this regard.
It can be said that Zhao Huai’s life has undergone earth-shaking changes. Some people in Luoyang wonder why the Silver Spear Army has such high morale and dares to fight. This is the reason.
There is no such thing as love or hate without reason. Zhao Huai is a beneficiary of the military and political group established by Shao Xun. He has the urge to protect this group spontaneously. The soldiers know why they are fighting, and their combat effectiveness is already extraordinary.
No one else can pull away such an army!
"After the Spring Festival, you will follow me to Chen County, so that the people of Yuzhou can see the style of the Silver Spear Soldier." After drinking two bowls of wine, Shao Xun stopped Zhao Huai who continued to pour him wine. Said: "I've had enough wine, that's enough."
Zhao Huai sat down and said: "I will obey your order."
"I will obey your order." The rest Several people responded in unison.
While talking, Zhao Huai's wife brought more fruits, snacks and tea and porridge.
Shao Xun couldn't resist, so he took the tea and porridge and started eating. He also asked his soldiers to come and get fruits and snacks to eat.
Tea is generally called "tea" at this time.
Tea, a commodity, did not become widely popular until the middle and late Tang Dynasty, so much so that tea soup was sold in small places, and traders and lackeys could drink it for just a few pennies.
Among the "Business Poems", a major school of poetry in the Tang Dynasty, there are countless things related to tea.
At this time, tea is not as unpopular as people think.
Needless to say, there were quite a few scholar families who entertained their guests with tea.
In big cities such as Luoyang, tea is also a popular commodity.
The prince Sima Yu of the late emperor once ordered his subordinates to sell tea, vegetables and other items, so much so that the prince Xima Jiang sent a letter to the emperor to advise him.
There was also an old woman from Shu selling tea and porridge in Luoyang market, but the officials in the city broke her utensils, causing disputes.
These are all sales for the public, at least in big cities there are certain consumer groups.
Tea porridge was popular until the Tang Dynasty and was called "ming porridge". After that, tea rice was also developed, which is regarded as a major traditional food.
Shao Xun doesn't like tea porridge very much, because it contains a lot of messy spices and medicinal materials, and the taste is very touching.
But this time at Zhao Huai's house, he ate without changing his expression and praised him repeatedly, which made Zhao Huai happy.
After eating, he stopped disturbing and stood up to leave.
Before leaving, he held Tang Jian and gave him a few instructions.
After a while, Yang Qin, a soldier, led a horse into the yard and said: "Captain Zhao, this is the horse rewarded by Marquis Chen. Please accept it."
Zhao Huai was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly.
Others also looked at Zhao Huai with envy. After eating and drinking at your house, they gave him a horse as a gift. It was so profitable.
Shao Xun smiled, turned and left.
The "aging" of the Xianbei horses in Guangcheng Ze is very serious. Some horses are completely unfit for riding, but they can help farmers work and are suitable for rewards.
After leaving Zhao Huai's house, Shao Xun went to the house of a soldier named Ren Na who died in the war in the east of the village.
Ren Na’s parents are gone, leaving only his wife and three children, and one younger brother and sister at home.
When Shao Xun and others arrived, the whole family knelt on the ground tremblingly.
Shao Xun helped them up one by one and said: "Ren Na is an old soldier. He is very brave in the battle formation and has made many achievements. You don't need to kneel."
A few people After getting up, he stood aside cautiously.
Shao Xun walked around the courtyard casually, and then looked at the household items in the house and the food in the kitchen.
"Have you received this year's pension?" He looked at the woman in her thirties and asked.
"I got it." The woman replied softly.
“How many did you get?”
“Twelve husks of wheat, five husks of millet, and three husks of beans.”
“Take me to see.”
The woman nodded and turned to lead the way, but she stumbled because she was too nervous.
After arriving at the West Wing Grain Store, Shao Xun took a closer look.
The grain store is basically empty, with only a little left.
There are still grains in several sacks placed in the corner, which should be the pensions sent years ago - the pensions are distributed in two parts, the first batch is distributed in the autumn after the summer harvest is completed, and the first batch is distributed after the autumn harvest is completed. Second batch.
"Have you sown this autumn?" Shao Xun asked.
"Planted a little," the woman replied.
Shao Xun frowned, it seemed like he didn’t plant much.
In fact, it is completely conceivable that there is only one woman at home, plus two children aged seven or eight. Ren Na's younger brothers and sisters are not too old to do hard work like farming.
“Are there no clansmen?” Shao Xun asked.
"My family was originally from Chenggao. After I was recruited, I moved first to Tanshanwu and then to Liang County. I have no clan members." The woman replied.
Shao Xun glanced at Tang Jian.
Tang Jian understood and left.
After a while, several soldiers brought in several bags of wheat, and there were always seven or eight husks of dendrobium.
After putting them down, I took a few more iron farm tools and put them in the corner - there was no decent farm tool in this family.
Shao Xun looked at the woman and the boys and girls behind her, and said warmly: "Let Na kill the enemy for me. I can't treat his family badly. Please accept these grains and farm tools. There are still chains in the yard. I have a horse that has been trained in Guangchengze and is suitable for plowing. I will give it to you as well."
After hearing this, the woman covered her face, shrugged her shoulders, and tears overflowed.
Everyone felt sympathy.
Shao Xun sighed, and asked someone to take two pieces of silk and put them on the table outside, and said, "Have a good life. After these few years, when the children grow up, they will be ready to run."
"My husband's death was not in vain..." the woman cried: "Since ancient times, no king has treated his soldiers so kindly."
"My soldiers cannot bleed or shed tears." Shao Xun Said: "Life will get better."
After that, he left the house.
In the next few days, he visited Liang, Jiacheng, and Xiangcheng counties, randomly visited dozens of families of Silver Spear Soldiers, gave gifts to them one by one, and helped them solve some practical difficulties. .
It wasn’t until New Year’s Eve that I returned to Green Willow Garden and reunited with my family.
After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he will also visit the families of the Yamen sergeants. They are mainly located in Liang, Yangzhai, Yangcheng, Fucheng and other counties. They have all moved here in the past year or two. .
After finishing these things, it is time to prepare to head east.
(End of chapter)