Taking advantage of the day off, Yang Sheng brought several of his brothers to Shijia Village, Xiangfu County, more than ten miles southeast of the city of Bianzhou.
This Shijia Village was originally a small village with less than a hundred common people living in it. After several wars, the village lost people and the fertile fields were abandoned.
After the Marquis of Jin Yue implemented the system of conferring titles based on military merit, he allocated this piece of land to reward soldiers who had made military achievements and obtained titles in the war.
Therefore, it was renamed Shijia Village.
Five families in the village form a group, and a hundred families form a village, living close to each other.
Each li had a main road planned and a simple gate built. A lizheng was appointed to manage the affairs within the gate.
Ten miles make up a pavilion, five pavilions make up a village, and several villages make up a county.
The village had already completed the settlement procedures for Yang Sheng.
But it was Yang Sheng's first time here. The village chief checked the ID Yang Sheng presented and received him warmly. He called in the head of Xucuoli, where Yang Sheng settled, and asked him to take Yang Sheng to see the homestead and fields that he had been allocated.
The village head was a man in his thirties. While leading Yang Sheng and the others, he bowed to Yang Sheng and said, "It is a blessing for us neighbors that Yang Shangzao can settle down in our Xu Village. Most of the people who settle down in our Xu Village are first-class public officers and ordinary soldiers. Yang Shangzao is the first second-class Shangzao."
According to the new policy, positions such as village head and village head should be held by people with lower-level titles.
However, the new policy was just beginning and there were very few people with titles, so they could only select temporary appointees from the common people. Therefore, they were quite enthusiastic about Yang Sheng, a centurion of only the second level.
Yang Sheng has always been a person who is good at winning people over. After several interactions, he became familiar with the village head.
He shook the village head's hand and casually stuffed a small bag of money into his sleeve while chatting: "Brother, I am a single man, without parents or wife, and I report to the army every day. I need your help with the things here."
The man there started laughing. After several refusals, he reluctantly accepted the money bag and led them into the inner gate.
Bianzhou was a place of post-war reconstruction. Although a large number of villages and counties were planned, it was actually sparsely populated, with large tracts of wasteland and many ownerless houses.
The village head led Yang Sheng and others to a dilapidated earthen house.
The walls of this house are built with rammed earth, and the roof is made of reed bundles laid diagonally on the purlins. The ridge, eaves and roof hooks are even covered with earthen tiles.
Although the walls have cracked and the thatch on the roof has been blown away, revealing a skylight due to long-term uninhabited status, it is still a very good earth house among the many abandoned houses in Xucuo, even better than the rammed earth houses where the soldiers in the city live.
"Look, Yang Shangzao, this house was originally occupied by a wealthy family, but that family was wiped out in the war. Yang Shangzao is busy with military affairs, so he probably can't spare the time to build a new house. So my brothers privately decided to give this house to Shangzao as a temporary place to stay. When Shangzao has some free time in the future, it won't be too late to slowly rebuild a new house."
This was a very nice statement. What he meant was that others were only given a piece of residential land, but considering that you don't have any family to help you, I might as well give you a piece of land with an old house on it. Although it's a bit shabby, it can be used after some cleaning, so that you don't have time to build a new one.
Yang Sheng thanked him repeatedly.
After the head of the village left, Yang Luhou and the others cheered, pushed open the shabby, half-tilted wooden door, and rushed in.
This small house is divided into two rows, front and back, surrounding a rammed earth courtyard. The front row has three large rooms, and the back row is a pigpen, toilet and utility room.
There is a well and a set of stone tables and chairs in the yard, and a jujube tree grows majestically against the courtyard wall.
Although the earthen wall had several cracks and light was visible through the roof, the interior had been looted several times and was in a very messy state.
But they still couldn't suppress the excitement and excitement in their hearts.
A month ago, they were still crowded in a slave camp that looked like a pigsty. In order to get a drier place to sleep, they fought countless battles with Brother Sheng.
I never dared to dream of having my own house and my own land.
Now, although only Brother Sheng has got the house, for them, this has become a dream that they can see and touch. In order to realize this dream, they are willing to risk their lives.
Several young and strong men acted quickly.
Cut the reeds and borrow the tools.
Repairing the roof, building walls, cleaning the house, they started working busily.
Yang Luhou fetched two large buckets of water and dumped them heavily into the house. He could not help but roll around on the rammed earth bed, with his limbs spread out and his face raised, motionless. Yang Luhou looked through the hole in the roof above his head and saw Yang Sheng sitting on the purlin to rest.
"That's great, Brother Sheng." Yang Luhou said, "It would be great to have a yard like this, marry a wife, put her on the bed, and have some big fat boys. I'll fight on the front line, earn money and land, and send it back for them to spend."
Yang Sheng snorted softly. He didn't say anything, but looked into the distance, wondering what he was thinking.
"Tomorrow, I will carry the pestle myself."
Yang Sheng looked down at him and threw a reed through the gap.
"Oh, brother Sheng." Yang Luhou sat up. "Just now I went to borrow some tools and found that the whole place was empty with only a few households. You have so many fields, what should you do? You must find someone to rent them to."
…
At this moment, at the foot of the West Mountain, an old farmer and his family were busy in the fields.
A noble man in luxurious clothes squatted at the edge of the field and greeted him with a smile.
"Father, how are the crops growing this year? Will it be a good year?"
This nobleman was handsome and gentle. Behind him stood a black-clad attendant with a vigilant look on his face. Not far away was a carriage and a large entourage, the scene was quite astonishing.
I guess he is a noble lord in the city, out for an outing.
The old man didn't flinch.
"It's growing well. This hundred mu of land will surely produce two hundred shi of millet, and there will be some left over."
"Two hundred shi? So little?" Cheng Qianye was stunned for a moment and blurted out.
Although she grew up in the city and didn't know much about agriculture in modern times, she had the impression that one acre of land should be able to produce one or two thousand kilograms of grain.
In this era, how can we only produce this much
"Sir, you are a nobleman, but you don't know how to work on the land." The old farmer didn't care. He stopped hoeing and talked to Cheng Qian, "This is only possible when the weather is good and the harvest is good. I take good care of every acre of land as if it were my own apple, and only then can we produce so much."
"I also have one hundred mu of land at the other end of the West Mountain. It's close to the Bian River, the land is fertile and has plenty of water. I hope to produce three hundred dan."
"Father-in-law, your family has so much land?"
"My family just escaped from the war in Zhengzhou, how could we have so much land? Thanks to the kindness of our lord, we became citizens of Jin and were given thirty acres of land. But there are many people in my family, and we have to pay rent every year, which is not enough for the whole family." The old man wiped the sweat off his forehead with the towel on his shoulders.
"Fortunately, there are many military households here, and there are villages specifically for soldiers to settle down. Many of these soldiers have recently won military merits, been awarded titles, and been allocated land. However, their families have not moved here yet. There is a lot of land but no one is farming it. The old man rented 200 acres of land in one go."
"Can you handle it like this?" Cheng Qianye asked.
"Well, there's nothing to be too busy about. Having fields to plant is better than going hungry. The whole family should help. Look, even my little grandchildren are called to help." The old man pointed at several naked children busy in the fields.
"This is the first year, and our master said that he will not collect rent. As long as we can get through this year and save some money to buy a cow, we will have a better life next year."
Cheng Qianye stood up, clapped his hands, and bowed, "Thank you for clearing up my doubts, old man."
"Hey, my lord, you are so polite. What's the value of this?"
Cheng Qianye glanced at Mo Qiaosheng, then turned and walked towards the convoy.
Mo Qiaosheng took out a purse from his pocket and placed it on the ridge of the field.
"Buy some clothes for the kids."
…
The convoy arrived at Xishan Hot Spring Villa.
There is white mist in the Moon Goddess Spring.
Mo Qiaosheng spontaneously tied a black cloth around his eyes, held the railing, and stepped into the spring.
There was a sound of someone falling into the water.
A wet hand took his hand and led him to lean against the pool wall and sit on the steps in the water.
"Soaking in a hot spring is the most relaxing thing." A voice sounded beside him, "I really want to come here with you every day."
"Qiaosheng." The man said softly, "Do you want to take the cloth off your eyes?"
Mo Qiaosheng was startled and subconsciously tried to stand up in a hurry.
But he accidentally slipped and sank into the water.
Cheng Qianye stretched out his arms to hold the panicked man and lifted him out of the water.
"Why are you so scared?" she said with a smile.
The face covered by the black cloth was flushed, and even the tips of the ears were red.
"If you don't want it, forget it." Cheng Qianye touched the embarrassed head, "You will be going to the battle soon, I can tell you in the future."
He is so cute.
Cheng Qianye bit his lip and touched the head again and again.
This man said nothing on the surface, but he had such strong emotions in his heart.
The flowers blooming before my eyes one after another are like a silent confession.
How can I bear it
Cheng Qianye frowned.
Her hand slowly moved down along Mo Qiaosheng's black hair, touched the three-dimensional brow bone, slid across the well-defined face, and gently stroked the light thin lips with her thumb.
In the misty spring water, the man lay on the edge of the white marble pool, his lips slightly open, motionless, with a black cloth covering his eyes and a flush on his face.
How can I resist bullying him
Cheng Qianye leaned over and kissed his forehead, carefully kissing his brow bone, eyes, nose bridge, and his red ear tips.
Mo Qiaosheng flinched.
Cheng Qianye pinched his jaw to prevent him from struggling.
She leaned close to his ear, whispered her feelings, and stretched out her tongue to slowly tease him while he was in a panic.
The tip of his finger gently swept back and forth across those lips, until those lips became cold due to excessive excitement.
Cheng Qianye suddenly stopped all his movements and whispered in his ear in a seductive voice, "Do you want... me to kiss you?"
After a long time, she saw the jaw in front of her nod slightly.
So, she confidently covered the man's lips, parted his thin lips with the tip of her tongue, and drove straight in, conquering the city and doing whatever she wanted.
Mo Qiaosheng stretched out his hand and tried to refuse.
Cheng Qianye held his wrist in the water, pressed it against the pool wall, and continued to deepen the kiss.
Mo Qiaosheng suddenly shuddered, he pushed Cheng Qianye away, turned over from the pool, and ran away. He was too flustered and couldn't see anything, and even bumped into a tree trunk.
He tore off the black cloth in front of him and disappeared into the woods without looking back.
Oops. I did something wrong.
Cheng Qianye looked at the suspicious water surface and touched his chin.
Back to Bianzhou City,
Yao Tianxiang slipped into Cheng Qianye's bedroom with an excited look on her face.
"How's it going? Is it done?"
"Uh..." Cheng Qianye was a little embarrassed.
"What!" Yao Tianxiang was shocked. "You just kissed him and he surrendered?"
"… "
"Is he just good-looking but useless?" Yao Tianxiang said.
The two women huddled in front of the table, staring at the candlelight on the table, lost in strange thoughts.
"That's not right. The last time was the night we got married." Yao Tianxiang pushed Cheng Qianye, "How many times did you bully him? Tell me the truth."
"Well." Cheng Qianye blushed, "Two... three times."
"That's all right. He was probably just too happy. He got too excited."
Cheng Qianye held his chin and looked at the candlelight. "Alas, I just wanted to kiss him, but he is always like that, with tears in his eyes, making people want to love him but can't help bullying him. I accidentally went a little too far."
"It sounds interesting." Yao Tianxiang seemed to have discovered a new world. "I'll try it some other day. Let Sima Tu cry once."
The author has something to say: The architectural models in this article are mostly referenced from the "Book on the History of Ancient Chinese Architecture" published by China Architecture & Building Press.