How to Cultivate a Ten-Thousand-Mile Empire for the Young Emperor Qin?

Chapter 131: Post-typhoon mud

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After Zhu Xiang came back, he was responsible for verbal education and Xue Ji was responsible for beating. Ying Xiaozheng finally corrected his bad habit of reading documents in bed.

Whenever Zhu Xiang stayed somewhere temporarily, he would choose a straight little tree in the courtyard to record the height of Ying Xiaozheng.

Ying Xiaozheng stood beside a small tree in the county magistrate's mansion, touched the marks on the trunk, and compared them on tiptoe.

Ying Zheng, ah Ying Zheng, you have to grow up quickly. When you grow up, your uncle and aunt will no longer be able to force you to take a nap.

So taking naps should be banned! Who is the one who encourages this lazy culture in the first place? !

Zhu Xiang couldn't help laughing when he saw Ying Xiaozheng standing on tiptoe in front of the tree trunk and then jumping up.

My own Zheng’er is so adorable that I must make a note of it in my cub-raising diary.

Zhu Xiang did not stay in Wujun for long. After instructing Ying Xiaozheng not to forget to organize the extermination of snails during the slack season, he hurriedly returned to Dong'ou with his men.

Although the Hangzhou-Jiaxing-Huzhou Plain and the Ningshao Plain of Wu County became major grain-producing areas in later generations and were of great development value, schistosomiasis was also rampant.

The Hangzhou-Jiaxing-Huzhou Plain in particular was considered a treasure land in later generations because of its abundant resources and abundant fish and rice. But at that time, it was a "land of death" filled with miasma and water poisoning.

Zhu Xiang knew how many people would die if this place was developed.

When Li Mu and Wang Jian went south, they not only plundered supplies, but also captured prisoners of war. Most of the lives of those prisoners of war were spent here.

Under this productivity condition, any development of wild land will have countless lives buried underground, and the flesh and blood of their own kind will become the best fertilizer to transform the wild land into fertile land.

Zhu Xiang once thought about whether the treatment of prisoners of war could be improved, but Li Mu just told him not to look, not to ask, and not to think about it.

Zhu Xiang still thought about it.

To develop the wild land, human lives must be used. If not the lives of prisoners of war, then the lives of Qin people.

Now that Qin has just taken over the land of Southern Qin, if it exploits the indigenous people too much, Qin's rule in the area will become unstable.

It is necessary to develop the wild land and fill it with many lives, so the best way is to go to war, take prisoners of war, and convict prisoners.

This iron rule has existed since tribal times.

Moreover, Li Mu's treatment of these prisoners of war was quite good in the entire Warring States period. He established a "merit" system similar to military merit, where as long as they worked hard enough every day, they could be freed from their prisoner status and become Qin civilians.

After the Yue people returned to the tribal system, the captives could even become food reserves when they had nothing to eat. Now, not only were they not deliberately abused, but they could also become civilians with fields, which they themselves felt was good.

Most of the captives were slaves of the Baiyue nobles, who had no land of their own in Baiyue.

In short, using the lives of prisoners of war to fill the Hangzhou-Jiaxing-Huzhou Plain is obviously cruel, but it is actually considered "merciful" in this era.

If Li Mu had not met Zhu Xiang and been influenced by Zhu Xiang's thoughts, he would not have been so kind to the prisoners of war.

After Zhu Xiang figured this out, he crossed out some of the plans in his plan.

The development of Wujun and Baiyue required a large amount of manpower. Zhu Xiang knew that the slaves of Baiyue lived a miserable life, and wanted to lure the slaves there to escape and become civilians of Qin.

Now he understood that if he did so, the common people of Wujun, who had gradually come to regard themselves as Qin subjects, would cause trouble.

The people of Wu County had been Chu people for a long time. Although the King of Chu called himself barbarians, as the orthodox vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty, they had already regarded themselves as orthodox civilized people.

Even though their ancestors may have the same origin as the Baiyue, it is a fact that the Baiyue are now barbarians and they are civilized people.

Allowing a group of barbarians to seize their land at no cost and become people with equal rights to him is just like allowing refugees to enter the country directly in later generations. The locals will absolutely hate it.

This is different from the people fleeing from each other during the war in the Central Plains. In the minds of the Central Plains people, the status of civilians in other countries is the same as their own. Barbarians are completely different.

If the barbarians want to integrate into the Qin people and gain recognition from the locals, they must pay a sufficient price.

For example, making great contributions in land reclamation or achieving great military merit in war.

Treating the barbarians well without cost is not good for the Qin people. Li Mu taught Zhu Xiang a lesson.

Zhu Xiang was willing to risk his life for the Zhao prisoners of war because he was a Zhao person.

But now he is a Qin person.

What's more, the situation of the Zhao prisoners of war in Changping was not good at that time. Every day, some prisoners were short of food and clothing or died of injuries and illnesses, and the Qin people's logistics could not cover the Zhao people.

Zhu Xiang silently thought to himself that people are close to each other and distant from each other. He only has one pair of hands and can only hold the things in front of him.

Then I crossed out some of the content in the plan.

The Baiyue could indeed supplement the lack of manpower in Wujun, but the looting of Li Mu and Wang Jian was enough to make up for the shortfall.

Li Mu and Wang Jian even felt that they were tired of the navy, as they were good at land warfare. Training on the not-so-good continuous mountainous terrain was also good for rehearsing attacks. So they decided to join forces with Meng Wu and go south from Jiangxi to train with the Man Yue.

The Manyue tribes are independent of each other, and as long as the pressure is not great enough and there is no catastrophic disaster, they would tend to use the Qin army to weaken the hostile tribes.

Li Mu often encountered this kind of thing when he went to the grassland to plunder the Huns.

Therefore, Li Mu only needed to scare them first and then contact a few of the more greedy tribes. They would lead the Qin army to attack other Baiyue tribes and collect some prisoners of war and supplies as guide fees.

Some powerful tribes might even destroy small tribes and use prisoners of war from small tribes to exchange for luxury goods from the Qin army.

The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was a unique era of barbarism and the last glimmer of the slave age.

After entering the feudal era, feudal armies rarely did these things, except for Wei Qing.

Whenever Wei Qing attacked grassland tribes, he would always abduct their women and take away all their cattle and sheep. He would then drive the cattle and sheep to the most fertile pastures and eat up all the grass left by others.

The Western Han Dynasty’s characteristic policy of fortifying the city and clearing the countryside.

So the number of prisoners captured and enemies killed by Wei Qing may not be as dazzling as that of his nephew Wei Qing, but the grassland people hated Wei Qing the most. Every time Wei Qing attacked a tribe, he almost killed all the people in that tribe.

The kind of death that is not counted as military merit.

Li Mu treated the Huns in the same way as Wei Qing did.

Now he used the same tactics he had used against the Huns to deal with the Baiyue tribes.

Wang Jian originally took an upright (no tactics of sowing discord) route of fighting with a large army, but after following Li Mu for a long time, he learned Li Mu's insidious tactics because of his association with bad people.

Zhu Xiang was hesitant to speak and sat in front of the candlelight for a long time. Finally, he only said to Li Mu and Wang Jian that they should be a little better to the captives, at least not to humiliate and abuse them for fun, and give them a chance to live, and a little hope that they could become Qin people if they worked hard enough.

Zhu Xiang also suggested that some captives were taken away from their entire tribes, and they were related to each other. They could form a Wu Shi like the Qin army, and work together to reclaim wasteland and make meritorious deeds, and finally the entire Wu Shi could become Qin people together.

Li Mu and Wang Jian agreed.

Zhu Xiang's opinions were not just empty words of goodwill. Following his opinions would better motivate the captives to work more actively.

Zhu Xiang reluctantly left a narrow knife-edge path for the prisoners of war, leading to a future that was not bright but barely enough to survive.

This is enough.

This is enough.

Zhu Xiang kept telling himself that this was enough. Then, he stopped paying attention to Wujun's reclamation of wasteland in the Hangjiahu Plain and went south to Dongou.

This time, the King of Dong'ou led his troops to fight against the Manyue people. Seeing that Dong'ou had exchanged many good things from the Qin army, the Manyue people became itchy and started to plunder Dong'ou again.

As for the northern part of Manyue being plundered by the Qin army, what does it matter? The people of the Central Plains called them Manyang and Manyue. Are they a tribe and a country

Come on, they are a lot of different people. What does what happens to other tribes have to do with them

Before they encountered the catastrophic disaster, their cohesion was far inferior to that of the Hu people in the north.

Although the King of Dong'ou did not personally welcome Zhu Xiang, all the royal family members who stayed behind in Dong'ou came.

Zhu Xiang also saw a child among them whose clothes looked especially like those of people from the Central Plains.

The child was probably about the same age as Zheng'er and behaved very calmly.

The important official of King Dong'ou, whose eyes lit up every time he saw Zhu Xiang, saw that Zhu Xiang noticed the child and immediately brought the child forward to pay his respects.

The child's name was Ouyang Yao, and he was the favorite child of the young Dong'ou King Ouyang Anzhu, who had just ascended the throne. Although he had not yet appointed a crown prince, the King of Dong'ou sent the few important officials around him who were familiar with the Central Plains culture to Ouyang Yao as a teacher, and it was obvious that he had chosen Ouyang Yao to be the crown prince.

King Dong'ou asked Ouyang Yao to learn the Central Plains culture and dress up as a child from the Central Plains. This also revealed the restless heart of this young King Dong'ou, who seemed timid in front of Zhu Xiang.

Sooner or later, Dong'ou will return to the ancestral land of Yue State, rebuild the glory of their ancestors, and wash away their barbarian identity.

After talking with Zhu Xiang, King Dong'ou became more determined.

Zhu Xiang did not know that this Ouyang Yao was the historical celebrity of Yue who changed his name to Zou Yao after being conquered by Qin Shihuang, who raised the banner of anti-Qin during the peasant uprising at the end of the Qin Dynasty, and was named King of Donghai by the Western Han Dynasty.

The Dong'ou Kingdom re-entered feudalism, changed the custom of cutting hair and tattooing, and stepped into the feudal era from a primitive life of eating fish, clams, snakes and frogs. Ouyang Yao was the chief contributor and had a high status among the people in Wenzhou and other places in later generations, and temple worship continued to the modern day.

But Zhu Xiang knew that this child would become a historical figure, because when he looked at the child, he thought of his fat nephew who worked hard in Wujun, and he instinctively took out a piece of candy and handed it to the child.

With the teacher's encouraging gaze, the child took the candy ball wrapped in white paper and put it in his mouth. Then his eyes lit up and he gave Zhu Xiang half a heart of favorability, and appeared in Zhu Xiang's favorability list.

Zhu Xiang didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

In order to gain a large amount of favorability, should he look for historical celebrities in their childhood and distribute candies in a programmatic manner

"Study hard, and you will have a bright future." Zhu Xiang presented Ouyang Yao with a volume of Confucian classics that he had read, and expressed his sincere blessing.

Although Ouyang Yao would definitely be defeated by the Qin army again, and he might become a Qin citizen before he became the King of Dong'ou, a talent is a talent, and if he becomes a Qin citizen, he will definitely make a career in the future.

He has already appeared in Zhu Xiang's favorability list, even though as he grows older he has forgotten the taste of the candy Zhu Xiang gave him and has forgotten Zhu Xiang.

But Zhu Xiang will remember him.

He will have opportunities to display his talents in the future.

When the child was holding the Confucian classics annotated by Zhu Xiang, his expression was a little silly, and he didn't know what good thing he had obtained.

His teacher was so happy that tears came to his eyes, and asked the child to kowtow to Zhu Xiang and thank him for teaching and answering his questions.

Although the child was ignorant, he kowtowed to Zhu Xiang as the teacher said, even though he was now the Prince of Dong'ou.

Zhu Xiang waited until he kowtowed before letting him stand up.

If he didn't let the child kowtow, his gift would be too heavy.

After this brief interlude, Zhu Xiang devoted himself wholeheartedly to farming.

He replanned the fields, dug canals, and used water to flush the land with more serious salinization to dilute the salt.

Many areas in Guandong of Qin State had salinization problems, so they had rich experience in dealing with saline-alkali land. After Zheng State, whose location was unknown, built Zhengguo Canal, one of its biggest functions was to reduce the salinity of saline-alkali land and improve the fertility of the fields by flooding and then draining.

There is an abundance of water here, so this can be easily accomplished as long as there are adequate irrigation facilities.

While building the canal, Zhu Xiang encountered a little trouble.

Although the nobles were willing to use slaves to dig the canal, they were too petty. This section was in my territory, and that section was in his territory. A hundred-meter canal had to be repaired in two or three times, and each had to contribute different amounts of effort. Otherwise, they would think they were losing out.

Zhu Xiang finally discussed with them and asked them to take out gold, silver, cloth and other valuables and hire the Qin army to dig canals for them.

Although the Qin army had food and wages when there was no war, the amount of food and wages was obviously not much. The hardworking people of Qin cherished the opportunity to earn extra money without risking their lives.

It was just digging a canal. I think the Qin army, prisoners and common people went together to build the infrastructure. They would also use water attacks when fighting, so they were very familiar with it.

When the nobles of Dong'ou paid, they followed the "prices" of their own country, so items such as Dongzhu and silk were much cheaper than those in the Central Plains.

Zhu Xiang bargained and got a higher reward by threatening, "You are the one who caused the trouble. I am very angry, Lord Changping."

Then, he did not take a penny, but distributed all of it reasonably to the Qin soldiers who were working.

This kind of "general" who does not take a single cent for himself has always been wildly supported by the soldiers.

Zhu Xiang felt that they were suffering too much, so he not only gave them all his wages, but also strictly controlled the logistics, bought salted fish and dried meat, so that they could have meat soup to drink every day. The Qin soldiers were so enthusiastic about digging the canal that they were all willing to die for Zhu Xiang.

Some generals even secretly told Zhu Xiang whether he wanted to fight or not, and they urgently needed to prove their loyalty to him. Zhu Xiang said they would fight anyone, even if it was to attack the Dong'ou Palace, and he believed they could win with their current morale.

A series of crows flew over Zhu Xiang’s head, and his face was covered with “dots”.

Why did the Qin soldiers, while digging ditches, suddenly say they wanted to fight for him and die for him

"It is enough for you to complete the tasks I assign to you every day." Zhu Xiang said, "Also, I emphasize again that you are not allowed to work without permission! You should rest when you need to. You are not used to the climate here to begin with. If you get sick or injured, I can't save you."

As the general listened to Zhu Xiang's nagging instructions, he suddenly remembered the story of Wu Qi sucking out the pus for the soldiers.

When he read this story, he sneered at Wu Qi's behavior and believed that he could not be bribed.

However, perhaps because he was originally a middle-level general, he would not be confused by Wu Qi's behavior.

But now he wasn't sure.

At least if Duke Zhu Xiang was assassinated now, he thought he would definitely block the sword for him.

The general went back and sighed about this matter, and the people around him said: "But Zhu Xianggong would definitely not want you to die for him."

Another person laughed and said, "That's why we are willing to die for him."

Ask others to nod.

They were all thinking, Duke Zhu Xiang, please give us a chance

After Zhu Xiang learned about this, he quickly convened a security meeting in the army, emphasizing military order and safety.

They weren't here to fight, they were just digging a canal. If there were casualties, he would be upset to death.

When Li Mu came to deliver supplies to him, Zhu Xiang complained to Li Mu for a long time and bluntly said that there was a problem with Li Mu's military training.

Li Mu rolled his eyes at Zhu Xiang and was too lazy to argue.

He was once again convinced that if Zhu Xiang led troops, he would become a very powerful general.

It’s just that Zhu Xiang himself doesn’t want to.

"How are you doing?" Li Mu asked, "There will be strong winds and heavy rains here in July, which is very dangerous. You need to return to Wujun in advance."

"Typhoon? I know." Zhu Xiang said, "It is precisely because there will be a typhoon in late June or early July that I have to hurry. The typhoon will only last a few days, so I just need to hide from it. I won't go back."

Li Mu said: "If you don't go to Wujun, go to the palace. I believe their palace should not collapse."

Zhu Xiang wanted to say that it was not necessary, but seeing Li Mu's disapproving look, he nodded and said, "Okay."

Li Mu didn't believe him. After he finished his work, he would come here to supervise Zhu Xiang.

Zhu Xiang didn't know that Li Mu was determined to be his nanny this time. After Li Mu left, he said to Xiang He, "Will he do it if he agrees? The Dong'ou Palace is too far away, so he won't go there. Just find a noble mansion to live in for a few days. The noble mansion has been ravaged by typhoons for a long time, so it will definitely not collapse."

Xianghe couldn't help but roll his eyes at Zhu Xiang.

Sometimes Duke Zhu Xiang is really infuriating.

After Li Mu left, Zhu Xiang continued to plan the fields and build canals.

He would start farming after the typhoon came, and before that he had to build the canal. As for the crops growing wildly on the ground, he would just let them continue to grow.

There are three types of typhoons that land in Wenzhou. The first is a "frontal typhoon", which lands in Xiamen and Wenzhou and poses the greatest threat to Wenzhou. The second type is a "southern typhoon", which lands south of Xiamen and has little impact on Wenzhou, with only sporadic wind and rain. The third type is a "northern typhoon", which has a greater impact on Wenzhou's main grain-producing areas, Leqing and Yongjia.

The remaining typhoons are offshore hurricanes that suddenly turn into typhoons. They usually brush against the back of Wenzhou's coastline. They have little impact on Wenzhou and are not included.

The measures to deal with typhoons have been similar from ancient times to the present, except that better machinery is used in modern times, and typhoon forecasts are available, so preparations can be made earlier.

Before the typhoon arrives, Zhu Xiang must make preparations for drainage and harvesting.

After he hastily built simple ditches and water wheels in the areas with the most plain fields, he asked Xianghe to take people to the sea to measure the air pressure and ask the fishermen at sea about the weather near the coast.

Zhu Xiang also used transparent crystal pieces to grind a telescope - in fact, he had wanted to make a telescope for a long time, but only knew the general principle and had never succeeded.

Now Xianghe has led people to complete the relevant calculations and has done it themselves.

Zhu Xiang was startled when Xianghe took out the telescope.

He had said this casually a few years ago, and he had long forgotten it. When he saw Xianghe take out a simple telescope, he thought a fellow time traveler had appeared.

Xianghe took a warship to fish near the coast to earn extra money, while observing the weather in the distance to detect typhoons as early as possible.

Zhu Xiang took Xu Ming to search the plains for fields that were ready to be harvested and helped them harvest as soon as possible.

Some of the land was not yet mature, and Zhu Xiang could only persuade them to harvest it when a typhoon was approaching. And even if he persuaded them, they might not be willing to cut their losses, but would rather take a chance.

Zhu Xiang could only collect as much grain as he could.

In June, Li Mu arrived at Dong'ou State. He first commanded the Qin army docked at the natural harbor of Wenzhou to reinforce the ships to resist the typhoon, and then went to find Zhu Xiang, who was indeed disobedient, and took Zhu Xiang to the Dong'ou Palace.

Zhu Xiang was reluctant to go at first, but Li Mu gave him two choices: one was to knock him out and take him away, and the other was to tie him up and take him away. Zhu Xiang then went there obediently.

When Li Mu gets angry, he really does what he says.

The group of Qin soldiers around Zhu Xiang who said they were willing to die for him not only kept silent when Li Mu threatened Zhu Xiang, but also rubbed their hands to help Li Mu.

"Duke Zhu Xiang, this place is too dangerous, you must leave!"

Zhu Xiang was deserted by everyone and was extremely miserable.

Xu Minghe and Xianghe: "Serves you right!"

This year's typhoons came early, with the first typhoon making landfall at the end of June.

Without a climate forecast, Zhu Xiang didn’t know what the typhoon was called, how powerful it was, or whether there would be stronger typhoons in the future.

He could only look up at the sky helplessly, like all the farmers of that era who depended on the weather for their livelihood, and pray that the typhoon would be weaker and the wind and rain would pass quickly.

The typhoon came and went quickly, and after a few days, the weather cleared up completely.

Zhu Xiang quickly joined the post-typhoon disaster relief efforts.

Clean up the silt and dead grass, drain the water with the newly built drainage channels, clean the silt on the crops, disinfect the possible pests and diseases with lime and plant ash, count the damaged plants...

For the Dong'ou people, once a typhoon hits their farmland, they just wait for the water in the fields to recede naturally, and then harvest as much as they can.

They don't know how to remedy the situation.

When they saw the Qin army busy in the fields, they were all confused.

The Dongou nobles were also confused. They stood by the fields, watching the Qin army, which would have frightened them to death under normal circumstances, working like slaves in the fields. Even the honorable Duke Zhu Xiang and General Li Mu came to the fields, but they could not understand what they were seeing.

Zhu Xiang was very busy in the race against time to carry out disaster relief so as to give crops a short break before the next typhoon came, and he had no time to answer the questions of these nobles.

There are still people in Dong'ou who can understand Zhu Xiang.

For example, those who have their eyes light up when they mention Duke Zhu Xiang, and who roll up their sleeves and fight with others when others say that Duke Zhu Xiang is not good, while still wearing the clothes of the Central Plains.

Of course, the people of the Central Plains would definitely not recognize these clothes. They wore clothes from the former Yue State, some wore clothes from the Chu State, some wore a mixture of Chu and Yue, and even clothes from the Wu State.

But they all wore crowns and had no tattoos on their bodies.

They watched Duke Zhu Xiang working in the fields, wrote and drew on the bamboo slips, and then carefully asked Duke Zhu Xiang if they could accompany him to the fields.

Zhu Xiang shook his head and only asked them to help coordinate and ask Dong'ou's army and noble slaves to help.

Zhu Xiang was thinking, you guys don’t know how to farm, and going to the fields will only interfere with my work.

However, this group of people were thinking that Duke Zhu Xiang was strict with himself and lenient with others, and he knew that the people of Dong'ou State could not understand his behavior, so he did not want them to be misunderstood.

The misunderstanding was serious. Although Zhu Xiang was indeed a person who was strict with himself and lenient with others.

The child to whom Zhu Xiang gave candy and Confucian scriptures also watched this scene quietly.

One day, the child asked Zhu Xiang who was resting, "Duke Zhu Xiang, I heard that you love the people. But the fields you are cultivating now are not the people's fields, but the fields of the nobles. You are not cultivating the land for the people, but for the Dong'ou nobles."

Zhu Xiang took the water handed over by the child, drank a sip, and said with a smile: "I know."

The child was puzzled: "Since Duke Zhu Xiang knew, why did he do it?"

Zhu Xiang said: "Because most of the land in Dongou... almost all of the land is in the hands of the nobles, and the people are poor nobles and slaves."

The child's voice was slightly shrill: "Slave?!"

Zhu Xiang nodded: "Your people are either nobles or slaves, and there are almost no common people. Then aren't slaves common people? If the land yields less, it is difficult for nobles to starve to death, and people without land will be abandoned immediately. You see me farming for the nobles, but in fact I just want the nobles to have enough food so that they can leave some food to reward the common people you treat as slaves."

Zhu Xiang sighed and said, "This is all I can do."

The child still looked puzzled.

Zhu Xiang sighed again and smiled: "Besides, it doesn't matter who I farm for. My goal is to make the fields here full of crops."

The child thought for a moment and bowed to Zhu Xiang: "Duke Zhu Xiang is righteous, but I don't understand. I will try to understand."

Zhu Xiang said: "When you go to the Central Plains, you may understand. If you have the chance, don't stay in this secluded place all the time, walk more and see more. It's better to read thousands of books than to travel thousands of miles."

The child bowed again: "Yes."

After chatting with Zhu Xiang, the child asked embarrassedly: "Am I now considered a student of Zhu Xianggong?"

Zhu Xiang laughed: "I will tell anyone who sincerely seeks my guidance."

The child sighed: "How can I become a student of Duke Zhu Xiang?"

Zhu Xiang looked at the child with a smile, and the child gradually lowered his head and his face turned red.

Ouyang Yao realized that he might have been being clever. He couldn't hide his little thoughts in front of the great sage.

Zhu Xiang smiled and said, "I only have one student, and that is my nephew, Qin Gongzi Zheng."

Ouyang Yao looked up in surprise.

Zhu Xiang said calmly, "You should have heard of my status in Qin. I am a relative of the Qin State, and Zheng'er is the future Qin King designated by several generations of Qin Kings. Zheng'er is already my student, how can I accept other students? No one is qualified to be Zheng'er's fellow apprentice."

Ouyang Yao's mind was shaken. Looking at Zhu Xiang's suddenly cold expression, he didn't know why he felt a sense of fear in his heart.

Zhu Xiang didn't say anything else, just quietly recovered his strength.

After resting enough, he continued to work in the field with a hoe, removing the silt and weeds.

Zhu Xiang didn't mean to scare the child. He found out that Ouyang Yao wanted to use his reputation to consolidate his position as the heir to Dong'ou.

It’s nothing, it’s normal to have such little thoughts.

But Ouyang Yao also did some other things besides these. For example, he took advantage of his childhood to sneak into the Qin army and find out the strength of the Qin army.

As expected of someone who is on his favorability list, Ouyang Yao is probably only about ten years old, but he already has great ambition and vision.

He had keenly realized that the Qin State would definitely have a war with the Dong'ou State.

Ouyang Yao knew that Ying Xiaozheng was in Wujun. He wanted to befriend Zhu Xiang and get closer to this Prince Qin.

He thought he could definitely win over Master Qin.

He told this idea to his confidant. Li Mu got the news and told Zhu Xiang to be careful.

Ouyang Yao's "plan" may not harm Ying Xiaozheng. However, Zhu Xiang still wants to give him a warning to stop doing useless work.

This is not because he is worried that Ouyang Yao will hurt him and Zheng'er, but because he is too aggressive and Zheng'er may lose a subordinate in the future.

Given how much Li Mu and Wang Jian valued Zheng'er and themselves, if he acted too ostentatiously, Li Mu and Wang Jian would probably not care how "despicable" it was to treat a child.

Zhu Xiang hopes he can be more sensible.

"If you stay here well, maybe you can become a county magistrate in the future." Zhu Xiang wiped the sweat off his face, looked up at the clear sky, and talked to himself in a voice that no one else could hear.

It's a nice day today.

When Zhu Xiang and the Qin army were clearing the silt, many non-noble Dong'ou people watched quietly.

Afterwards, they were forced to work with the Qin army. Whenever they had a break, they would stare at the Qin army in a daze.

I heard that this group of people are afraid of even their masters, so why would they go to the fields to work

Is it true that in the far north, everyone works in the fields

They tried to imagine what the North looked like, but could not picture it.

Then they stared at Qin Jun intently, imprinting his appearance in their minds to replace their imagination.

Some slaves who were favored by the nobles were good at speaking and had quick minds. They secretly learned some of the Qin army's words, talked with them, and asked about the situation in the north.

The Qin army told the truth that Nanjun was reclaiming wasteland and many prisoners of war were there. If they reclaimed enough wasteland and worked hard enough, they could become Qin citizens and get a piece of land.

"Land? Your own land?"

"right."

“Can food be eaten by itself?”

"I have to pay part of it to the government, and I have to do corvée labor."

In fact, it was quite hard. Qin Bing told the truth about the not-so-good life of the common people.

Compared to being a commoner and farming, it is better to serve in the army, and you can earn more money. Of course, usually their family members farm the land while they serve in the army, so they can earn money on both sides.

Now they were living well under General Li Mu, who rarely took away their food and wages.

They helped Duke Zhu Xiang with farming, and lived a good life because Duke Zhu Xiang also subsidized them.

"Generally speaking, you won't meet such a good general." Qin Bing said, "But as long as you don't die in battle, it won't be difficult to survive."

Qin Bing thought about the common people from other countries he had met and finally came to this conclusion.

At least now, it is not difficult for the Qin people to survive compared to the other six countries.

He doesn't know what the future will be like, he only talks about the present.

"Why, do you want to be a Qin man?" The Qin soldier guessed the slave's thoughts and whispered, "There are either mountains or seas around here, how can you escape? Unless you surrender on the battlefield. But swords on the battlefield have no eyes. If you don't fight well, you will probably be beheaded directly and you won't have the chance to be captured."

After hearing what Qin Bing said, the slave did not answer and left quietly.

Afterwards, another slave came secretly to ask the Qin soldiers about the situation in the distant Wu County.

I heard that if you cross one mountain and then another mountain, you will reach the State of Qin.

Qin Bing always poured cold water on them.

"Don't even think about it. How could you possibly escape? I heard that if you were caught, you would be killed."

"Instead of thinking about how to escape, you might as well hope that we can attack you... Ah, that's definitely not possible now. We have to fight the six nations, not you."

"I've already told you, there's no hope."

The Qin soldiers were annoyed by the questions.

Perhaps the slaves noticed Qin Bing's impatience and stopped asking questions, and Qin Bing became much quieter.

Another half month passed, and Zhu Xiang and his men finally cleaned up the accumulated water and silt after the disaster, and the crops that had not yet matured were ripe and could be harvested.

Next, Zhu Xiang will lead them to plant new crops and teach them new planting methods.

Zhu Xiang had a good idea, but it was very troublesome to implement.

Slaves have always been lazy whenever they can. If they have too much work to do, the slave owners will only give them more work and there is no chance of rest.

Although Zhu Xiang’s planting method can make the fields produce more grain, what is the relationship between this grain and the people who grow crops

All they know is that their workload has increased.

So Zhu Xiang taught enthusiastically, but the response was sparse.

The nobles of Dong'ou State were willing to get the slaves moving, and sent people to whip them to punish those who were lazy.

But even so, Zhu Xiang's promotion of new farming technology was still very unsuccessful.

Zhu Xiang thought about it and asked Li Mu to take over Ying Xiaozheng and let Wang Jian go back to temporarily take over the position of county governor.

Productivity and production relations influence each other, just like feet and shoes. This scene is just the right time to teach Zheng'er a lesson.

He also asked Xu Ming and Xiang He to watch this scene carefully and get inspiration from it.

Zhu Xiang did not transmit ideas to them mechanically, but simply guided them to think in this direction.

The beautiful vision of Mohism and Agriculture is difficult to achieve, because people with interests will not harm their own interests. So they need to find a "middle point" like Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism.

How to improve the treatment of farmers and handicraftsmen while helping the monarch obtain more troops and money, this is the "middle point" they should look for.

Although Zhu Xiang told them what would happen two thousand years later, people cannot rely on promising things in the future and must still focus on the present.

If bread cannot be found in this age, people will still starve to death.

After Ying Xiaozheng came to Dong'ou, he met Ouyang Yao, who, although he did not dare to "provoke" Zhu Xiang again, still shamelessly asked Zhu Xiang for advice every now and then.

Ying Xiaozheng didn't know why, but he felt unhappy when he saw Ouyang Yao.

So he secretly brought people to threaten Ouyang Yao without Zhu Xiang's knowledge. Ouyang Yao never appeared in front of Zhu Xiang again.

When Zhu Xiang learned about this, he only knew that Ying Xiaozheng had threatened someone, but he didn't know how he threatened him.

"Zheng'er, what did you threaten him with?" Zhu Xiang was really curious.

Ying Xiaozheng said: "I didn't threaten him. I just discussed knowledge with him."

Just tell that little barbarian not to embarrass himself with his little knowledge in front of his uncle.

As for threatening to attack Dong'ou with the identity of the future King of Qin, he will definitely attack Dong'ou. How can it be called a threat

(End of this chapter)