Chapter 340 Traveling (Part 1)
Outside Yingyang Pavilion, ditches stretched straight into the distance.
There is still some residual snow in the canal, but as the weather gradually warms up, the remaining snow will melt away in just two or three days.
In the Yingshui River not far away, spring water flows.
There are already boats moving on the river.
The fishermen opened their nets and caught fish and shrimps seemingly in vain. Even small fishes that were only an inch long were collected as if they were treasures. Occasionally, when I catch a big fish in my net, I laugh heartily.
The big fish will not eat themselves. Instead, they will be sold in the market and exchanged for some food. They will be even hungrier than eating fish.
There are several children on the river bank, looking for withered wormwood everywhere, intending to cut some back to feed the donkeys and sheep that are waiting to be fed.
In the lean season, not only people are hungry, but livestock are also hungry.
Some people are already doing spring sowing in the fields.
Natural disasters adjusted everyone's farming rhythms and brought them into line. This year, the land of Henan is full of scenes of "planting a grain of millet in spring".
“I always thought farming was hard before, but now I realize that if I have the chance to farm with peace of mind, I’ll have fun secretly.” Among the fields, Meng Chou, the commander of Yingyang’s field army, laughed at himself.
Meng Chou is not ugly, on the contrary, he is a bit handsome. He was captured in the Battle of Yemagang, and has been farming in Guangchengze since then, working as a servant for the official Lu Tian - Yes, Meng Chou is an official. One of our benefits.
Xu did a good job and caught up with the favorable opportunity for the expansion of the Shaw military and political group. Meng Chou, as the third batch of field sergeants sent to Yingyang, gained freedom - limited freedom. .
The Yingyang Tuntian Army has expanded to more than 1,800 households and more than 2,400 people, cultivating nearly 290 hectares of farmland.
They are called "soldiers", but they are actually "people". They spend most of the year farming instead of training.
In fact, the enemies are similar to them.
Shi Le and Wang Mi often had tens of thousands of troops - it was rumored that Shi Le prepared 80,000 or 90,000 infantry last year, but in the end they did not cross the river and go south - in fact, they were just farmers and soldiers.
Retired professional soldiers are very rare no matter where they are, and they are the most popular among the leaders of various forces.
"In May, when Shi Le attacked Changshe and Yanling, I was scared to death. I thought I was going to fight for my life. Fortunately, the locusts retreated my troops." Wu Commander Zhou Chun grinned and chuckled. , said: "October Wang Sang is only one step away from Changsha, and he almost scared me to death."
Everyone heard what he said was funny and laughed.
Without two heads, who is not afraid of death? Before everyone followed Wang Mi, Ji Sang, and Shi Le to join the army, they were all farm servants who were frightened to death when they saw the bandits. How could they become fearless just because they had been soldiers for a year or two? .
Hearing the laughter here, some people in the large farmland separated by a post road not far away raised their heads and looked here.
This is the junction of the Yingyang Tuntian Army and the Xunshi Zhuangtian. One side of the road belongs to the Tuntian Army, and the other side belongs to the Xunshi.
The guests of Xun's village were somewhat envious of the garrison army.
For no other reason, the troops in the field can eat seventy percent full.
If the weather goes well this year, they may even be able to save some surplus food.
That's the difference.
Moreover, the Xun family did not dare to provoke these field troops.
A villager wanted to marry his daughter to a soldier in the field. The Xun family planners knew about it, but there was nothing they could do about it - in theory, the villager was not a slave and could marry freely, but in reality, only It can be said that internal marriages are the main ones.
These field troops are simply transcendent existences in Yingyin County, and no one can do anything to them.
In fact, they seem to be responsible for surveillance, so no one dares to touch them, because it is unclear, what if someone is accused of betraying Chen Hou?
A group of people came from afar on the post road.
No, to be precise, it was a dozen people with more than a hundred donkeys.
"Yang Cheng, have you gone to Runan to buy donkeys again?" Meng Chou, who was sowing millet grains, heard the noise, straightened up and asked.
“This is what the officials from Runan presented to Chen Hou.” Yang Cheng smiled and said, “I still have to practice a little, you guys won’t be able to catch up.”
Meng Chou sighed. Tone, no more talking.
Runan has many famous mountains and great swamps, as well as many donkeys, which are famous for their plump meat.
However, donkeys are of great use. It would be too wasteful to just eat meat.
Donkeys can plow the land, pull carts, carry goods, and carry people...
If a family can raise a donkey, it will save them a lot of trouble when doing farm work, especially plowing the land.
Yingyang's field army only has more than a hundred cattle, which is far from enough for use.
Guangchengze even sent dozens of old horses over to let them try horse plowing.
In addition to horses, dozens of donkeys and mules were also collected, but there were still not enough.
After the news was reported that each branch of the field army was short of draft animals and farm tools, the Hou Mansion had been thinking of ways to solve the problem.
Before the Chinese New Year, Hao Chang, the captain of the field camp, personally went to Runan to transport the livestock "collected" by local county and county officials back to Yingyang. Yang Cheng and his group were one of them.
There are more than a hundred little donkeys. Although they have to spend food and fodder to feed them, they are also easy to train, so that the donkeys can get used to doing hard work from an early age - it is not so easy to train them when they are older.
"The days are indeed getting better day by day." Meng Chou smiled and called to the young men: "You will go to Runan to look for donkeys for us. It will save us a lot of effort in the future. Please be patient." If you do it, you can marry your mother-in-law."
As soon as the word "mother-in-law" came out, everyone became energetic and their limbs became much faster.
Meng Chou laughed loudly, that's what the dogs were thinking about. But then again, he was thinking about this too.
Well, just as I thought of the woman, more than ten cars came from far ahead. As they got closer, one of the cars lifted the curtain, revealing a woman's figure.
On both sides of the convoy were cavalrymen leading horses and walking. They were numerous and mighty.
"Mingguang Armor!" Meng Chou quickly looked away and bent down to work.
Many years ago, Chen Hou led his men to plunder the Xuchang arsenal and stole a lot of Mingguang Armor.
In addition to being used as a reward, most of this armor was distributed to his soldiers. Seeing the formation of troops wearing Mingguang armor, you should know that Chen Hou is nearby.
Sure enough, after a while, a horse came from behind, walked to the carriage just now, and said: "This is Yingyang Pavilion. If the princess wants to get off the car and have a rest, she can go to the warehouse in front. Rest in the city."
There was a sound in the car, and the carriage slowly stopped.
Concubine Pei gently got off the carriage and looked at the crisscrossed fields, the ditches extending in all directions and a tall earth city. She was a little surprised: "I came to Luoyang nine years ago and stayed overnight at Yingyang Pavilion. , This city didn’t exist at that time.”
“It’s just a small earth city, it’s not a big deal.” Shao Xun followed Concubine Pei and said softly: “Yingyangcang City can garrison three thousand troops. Store 300,000 dendrobiums of grain and 100,000 bundles of hay.”
"Is this still a small town?" Concubine Pei glanced at him, as if she was scolding him, then continued to look at the city and asked, "How much food and grass are there in the city?"
"About fifty thousand dendrobiums. Grain and beans."
"Not enough for several people."
"Yes." Shao Xun said, "Before August this year, there was probably a shortage of food."
"How many warehouse cities do you still have?"
"This one has been built in Yuzhou, and there are two ready-made ones, Ningping City and Xinzheng, and there may be Guancheng in the middle of the year."
Concubine Pei nodded slightly, and then looked at the scene of spring sowing in full swing, feeling happy in her heart.
This is his legacy, the legacy he built with his own hands.
"This is our foundation..." Shao Xun took two steps forward and whispered.
"Go and talk to Yu Wenjun about this." Concubine Pei blushed slightly and started walking along the post road.
Shao Xun followed, introducing his plans that only existed on "PPT".
Concubine Pei listened very carefully and replied a few words from time to time, which could also help Shao Xun and make the plan more complete.
“Finally leaving!” Meng Chou glanced at the fleet of vehicles that was gradually going away, and he didn’t know what he felt in his heart.
The noble lady just now walked with a graceful posture, her head held high and her chest held high.
When he stopped to talk to Chen Hou, he was generous and elegant.
When his eyes glanced over, he was calm and confident, without a trace of timidity, surprise or weakness. Meng Chou could even feel a hint of scrutiny.
This woman is always in charge! Meng Chou came to a conclusion in an instant.
I think back then, when he was traveling across Hebei, he had seen several women like this, but they were not as powerful as the one in front of him.
Only Chen Hou can control such a woman, right?
If nothing else, the way this woman looks at people is very scary, as if she can dig out the secrets in your heart. Who can stand this?
Meng Chou finally found this woman's major "flaw" and felt much better: a woman would be boring if she was too solemn and majestic.
After the convoy passed, another large group of people came.
Meng Chou glanced at it, it turned out to be the Silver Spear Army, and then he felt a little gloating: half of the Silver Spear sergeants who were used to being the masters were pulling carts, riding horses, and doing auxiliary work. .
Now is the busy spring sowing season. It is impossible for the two ministers of the Hou Mansion to issue an order to recruit the field army and even the county and township men to serve as auxiliary troops. Then they can only let the Silver Spear Army do it themselves.
However, besides taking pleasure in others' misfortunes, Meng Chou was also a little envious.
What kind of life do people live? What kind of life are you living? It's hard to compare, really hard to compare.
The guests of the Xun family village on the opposite side of the post road also secretly looked at the passing Silver Spear Army.
This majestic army passed by Yingyang Pavilion several times last year and came again this year.
The more people come, the more honest they become.
Yes, not all bankers are honest and friendly people.
During slack times, it is not uncommon for outsiders to be robbed.
Otherwise, how could the common phenomenon of refugees being inflicted upon residents in various states come from?
Strictly speaking, the field troops in Yingyangting are all outsiders, but they residents dare not do anything.
After a year together, there was even a marriage proposal.
In the final analysis, it is because of someone’s growing prestige in Yingchuan.
(End of this chapter)