On the southwestern border of the endless Desolate Moon Continent, the rolling Daqing Mountains form an endless undulating, crisscrossing dark line.
The sun was setting and the night was getting darker. Dim oil lamps had been lit one after another in the village at the foot of the mountain. The leaves of a few old locust trees at the entrance of the village rustled in the wind.
From time to time, a few dog barks could be heard from far away in the village, which would then cause more dogs to bark in response until the sound gradually died down...
The oil lamp illuminated the cracked earthen walls inside the house, and several blurry human figures were reflected on the walls, slanting, some long, some short.
"Mother, this matter is settled!
Being a soldier means eating food, at least you won't starve to death. If you're lucky, you might even have a bright future!"
The old man sitting by the door, leaning against the door frame, had an aged face and his skin was rough from years of hard work. He sat with a hunched back and a pipe in his hand.
There was a yellow and black pipe hanging under the pipe. After he finished speaking, he picked it up and started to suck.
"Pah, pah..."
In the quiet room, the sound is very loud and crisp.
"But, Lao Wu... he is only fourteen years old, so young..."
The old lady sitting on a simple, short chair, her clothes tattered and her face full of wrinkles, spoke with tears in her eyes.
The old man spoke.
"There have been two consecutive years of locust plagues. Not only our family, but more than half of the families in the village have no food. Those who can go to the city to work do so, those who can go far away do so, and those who can join the army do so.
The third brother injured his leg while working a few years ago and became disabled. He can't do anything when he goes out.
Lao Wu's physique makes him look like he is sixteen or seventeen years old, and it is hard not to believe it!
Now that he is a soldier, he will not starve, and he can also receive subsidies in advance. In the future, when he is stable, if he is willing, he can send some back every month. "
After saying that, the old man continued to smoke his cigarette, while the old woman in the house continued to sob with her head down.
Outside the door, a figure was squatting against the wall, facing the distance, staring blankly at the outline of the distant mountains in the dark night. He didn't speak for a long time, and no one knew what he was thinking.
Time passed little by little in the silence inside and outside the house, and the mountain village under the night still seemed unusually quiet.
After a while, the figure outside the house stood up, turned around and walked into the house.
This was a teenager, about sixteen or seventeen years old, but a little thin, with a dark face and a very ordinary appearance. He was wearing old coarse cloth clothes with several holes in them.
As soon as he entered the room, he looked at the people in the room and said in a low voice.
"Dad, Mom, don't worry. Many people in the village have gone out, and the harvest at home is barely enough to feed ourselves.
Although the village chief occasionally led some people to hunt animals in the mountains, they were unable to go deep into the mountains after all. They could only occasionally hunt some pheasants and rabbits on the outskirts, but they were not enough to share.
I also want to go out and have a look. My third brother and fourth sister are at home and they can take care of you."
The boy's real age is only fourteen, but he has been hunting in the mountains and farming outside the mountains for many years, so he has grown fast. However, he is very thin because of lack of nutrition in recent years.
The boy's name was Li Yan. He was a man of few words. He had studied in a private school for six or seven years with an old scholar in the village and a group of children of similar age.
Later, after the old scholar passed away, he had less and less time to study, so he often followed the adults in the village to hunt outside the Daqing Mountain.
At first, he just ran away secretly, but after a long time, his whereabouts were exposed, and when he came back, he would be beaten and scolded by his parents.
But all children in mountain villages are like this. They all grow up being beaten and scolded by their parents.
As Li Yan grew older, he began to openly follow the hunting team into the mountains. He slowly became familiar with the habits of some wild animals and gradually participated in the adults' hunting.
Due to running and jumping in the mountains and streams all year round, his body grew taller and stronger.
However, due to the locust plague in the past two years, the main grain harvest has been greatly reduced. The family can only eat half full for each meal. They are no longer as strong as before and have become thinner.
Li Yan had five brothers and sisters. His eldest and second sisters married far away when he was ten and twelve years old respectively.
Fourth sister Li Xiaozhu has also found a husband, but due to the locust plague in the past two years, her husband's family is not wealthy, so they cannot raise the bride price at the moment.
However, they have promised to collect the betrothal gifts as soon as possible, so I think the marriage will take place within one or two years.
A few years ago, my third brother Li Wei accidentally injured his ankle while working in the fields with a farming tool. Due to insufficient money at home, he delayed looking for a doctor and became lame as a result.
Li Wei, who was half-kneeling and supporting his mother in the room, raised his head apologetically and looked at Li Yan.
"Old Five, Third Brother..."
"Third brother, you don't have to say anything. The family will need you to take care of it more in the future." Li Yan smiled at his third brother and interrupted.
"Maybe I can become a general or something in the future, and then I can take you all to live with me, that would be glorious."
Li Wei looked at him, then sighed softly. He then turned his head again to look at his mother who was being patted on the back by his fourth sister and still sobbing softly, and said comfortingly.
"Then maybe the fifth child of the Li family will be able to bring honor to the family in the future!"
In fact, Li Wei and Li Yan were not completely ignorant of the outside world. For example, the villagers would tell them about when they went to the city to sell wild animal meat or fur, or when they went to the city to buy things.
They are a border town, and to the south is the State of Meng. The two countries on the border often fight each other, so the chance of being a soldier on the battlefield is still very high, especially in recent years when wars have broken out from time to time.
Therefore, they have frequently recruited soldiers here in recent years. In the past, recruitment required each village to write a letter of guarantee to prove their age, identity, past experience at home, etc.
Now, as long as the village chief sends you there, you can join the army, and there are fewer restrictions.
These wars are also caused by the fact that the emperor of the current dynasty rules the world with culture, morality and ethics.
The dynasty's civil power was stronger than its military power, which led to the neighboring countries becoming restless and wars breaking out from time to time. In recent years, wars have occurred not only in this direction, but also on other borders.
Therefore, the imperial garrison dispatched from the capital could not meet the needs of local garrisons, and the local garrisons could only recruit soldiers on the spot to supplement the manpower.
The refugees from other places may not know the inside story here, but some local people know something about it. The chances of them joining the army and fighting are higher, so the local villagers are not very enthusiastic about joining the army.
However, the local defense forces could not be forcibly conscripted due to the emperor's rule of law that governs the world with culture and morality.
Therefore, in recent years, as long as you join the army, you can get a sum of money to give to your family, which is actually a resettlement fee to stimulate enthusiasm for joining the army.
Once this method was introduced, it attracted many farmers to send their sons to join the army. Of course, these were basically poor farmers, not wealthy businessmen.
However, these situations are not known to the women in the village. In this world where men are superior to women, men rarely tell their mother-in-law and daughter-in-law about these situations.
Their mountain village is more than 200 miles away from the county town. There are only twelve or thirteen families in the village, and there is not even one person who has joined the army for many years.
These things could be used as topics of conversation in their village and in the fields, and the brothers Li Wei and Li Yan could hear some news while working in the fields or following the team into the mountains.
Then the room fell silent again. After a long time, Old Man Li knocked his pipe on the doorstep a few times and said.
"Then I'll go find the village chief. You guys take a rest."
After saying that, he walked towards the village under the moonlight in the dark night. Soon, a hunched figure disappeared in the early autumn moonlight, and the night wind was already cool!
The moonlight scattered onto the pit through several wooden window panes with torn paper holes. A torn quilt with cotton exposed in places covered the two people. Li Wei and Li Yan lay back to back.
"Old Five, stay calm when you encounter something in the barracks. Be patient when you can and don't force yourself to stand out."
"Um!"
After a moment of silence.
"If...if there is a war, if no one is watching, don't rush to the front, be sure to lag behind!"
"Um!"
After another period of silence.
"Don't worry about home. With the allowance you get from joining the army, I will take good care of your parents. Use your monthly salary to buy yourself more meat. If you are strong, you won't be bullied."
"Yes! Third brother, you should do more farm work. Parents are old."
"Okay, as long as I'm here, Dad and Mom won't go hungry."
“.”
Silence and occasional words continued in the darkness.
The moonlight is like water, and the night is cool!
In the middle of the night, there was a slight knock on the main room door and the two brothers stopped talking.
Then, the low, barely audible voices of my father and mother talking could be heard from the side room, the rustling sound was so loud that it was hard to hear clearly...
Soon after, the sound of low sobbing was heard from my fourth sister and mother. It seemed that my fourth sister had been staying with my mother.
Li Yan still had his back to his third brother, staring blankly at the wall in the darkness.
The cracks on the wall, illuminated by the dim moonlight, are like the voices of family members and past events, spreading from the head to the heart...