The subordinates put the blame on Zhao Feng.
He clasped his fists and smiled: "Mr. Shen saved the general's life. The general wants to repay his kindness. I can only obey your orders..."
It’s all because of our own general!
It was definitely not his own will! He would be so "corrupted" because he sacrificed himself for his general!
Wu Xian's expression was numb, as if he had been struck by lightning.
I couldn't utter a word for a long time.
His lips moved twice.
"So, Dayi also... built a kang?"
The subordinates carefully tried to save the reputation of their general.
"Well, the general always likes to lead by example. Regardless of whether he is rich or poor, he always stands together with his subordinates. This kind of thing will naturally happen... The general's skills are better than his subordinates'."
Zhao Feng was not sent on this mission...
Alas, I just think it has a bad influence.
Zhao Feng was once a powerful and brave warrior who had been famous for many years. He was a ruthless character who made countless thieves tremble with fear at the mere mention of his name. He was so skilled in building kangs. What would his colleagues think of him
Otherwise he would have come on his own.
Facing the confused and worried looks of his subordinates, his eyes quickly turned red with tears, and he wiped his tears with his sleeves and said, "My Dayi, how could Brother Shen treat Dayi so badly? I can't bear it... I know that Dayi is the most loyal person, but to repay a favor, I have to do this... Woo woo woo, my heart aches... Tell me, has Dayi been wronged by Brother Shen?"
Official: "... Well, I'm not wronged. The general has been quite heavy these days..."
When there is work, they work. When there is no work, they are forced to practice tactics and military formations, or to discuss with the generals Gongshu and others. They drink and eat meat all day long. Their lives are comfortable and they cannot lose weight even if they want to. The general is enjoying himself.
Wu Xian wiped his tears: "Ah? It's too heavy?"
Official: "I just got fatter..."
That kind of fat is not the kind of fat that has abdominal muscles, but the face looks less tough than before and a little rounder. In fact, it is much easier for the general to beat him with one hand than before.
Wu Xian: “…”
Xu Jie changed from lowering his head to covering his face with his hands.
Wu Xian sighed and said, "But what Brother Shen asked Dayi to do was really unfair to Dayi..."
Let the warriors who are good at fighting do the work of craftsmen...
The officials did not comment.
Wronged
A livelihood that can feed people is not a grievance.
The official was different from Wu Xian and others. He was born into a peasant family and his ancestors had made a living in the mud for generations.
Why did he join the army
The purpose of joining the army is to get paid and have enough food to eat.
Because in today's world, there are many common people who do not have land and sell their labor to landlords who have land as tenants.
Follow your fellow villagers to join the army, fight, kill the enemy, and make achievements. Although your life may be in danger, at least you won't starve to death.
If they are luckier, they may receive rewards or other extra income, and can send the remaining food back to their hometown to support their parents, wife and children.
Weak parents;
a hard-working wife;
A hungry baby.
They are all obsessions that cannot be let go in midnight dreams.
The same is true for brave warriors, who live only to fight, achieve merit, build a career, and provide food for their family.
His family is similar.
The official is from the same village as Zhao Feng.
The two of them were childhood friends, growing up together. Zhao Feng was born with supernatural powers and extraordinary talent. He had the body of a teenager when he was only seven or eight years old. He had a bad temper and imitated the knights-errant to roam the countryside.
The subordinates believed that the other party had a promising future and followed him.
Over the past twenty years, Zhao Feng left his hometown with a bag on his back as a young man, and then lived through the demise of his homeland. He was displaced and hungry for several years, moving around to make a living, until he finally came to Wu Xian and settled down, and he never left him.
Zhao Feng is also nice to this childhood friend.
She carried him with her through all the ups and downs in life, and would rather cut her own expenses than treat her brother badly.
The official always felt that he was lucky.
Compared with other fellow villagers and neighbors who died early on the road of escape, he was not only still alive, but also his parents, wife and children were lucky enough to be alive. He didn't live a rich life, but at least he didn't have to starve. But even so, he was still worried.
They were afraid that they would die on a battlefield one day and that the elderly, the weak, women and children at home would have no one to protect them. They were even more worried that they would be bullied, not have enough food or warm clothes, and they even began to fear death.
He has to go to the battlefield, as the whole family depends on him to feed.
He only knows how to fight and kill people.
Farming
He has no land to farm.
Crouching in He Yin, he gradually changed from his original resistance and rejection - how could a warrior be so noble as to make a living in the mud like a mud-legged peasant? to his current acceptance.
Sometimes he would come back covered in mud, and he would vaguely feel that he was a craftsman. The world was peaceful, and he could support his family with his exquisite craftsmanship instead of fighting wars and killing people endlessly.
This made the officer start to have complicated thoughts. Once, when he was drunk, he asked the general: General, what do you think we will eat if we don't have a war to fight
Zhao Feng said casually: Drink wine and eat meat.
The officer shook his head and said sadly: "If there is no war, who would be willing to pay a lot of money to support us? To support idle people? No meat to eat, no wine to drink...
Zhao Feng sneered: You are worrying about nothing.
There have been wars for hundreds of years.
How can we stop fighting? Even if there is a day when there is no war, it will not be their generation, so they should relax. After all, it is not their turn to worry about how to live without war.
The official sighed even more heavily, and then he thought, if there were no more wars to fight, he would go and build kangs for others, help people build bridges and roads, plant fields and dig canals... See, there are still many things he can do.
After some self-enlightenment, the official finally let go of the issue.
Wu Xian asked his men to do their best to cooperate with Zhao Feng's officials.
The latter needs to prepare all the materials needed.
After the subordinates left, where was the trace of sadness on Wu Xian's face? There was a chill in his eyes. Xu Jie heard him sigh: "This brother Shen is really hard to understand."
Xu Jie asked: "Mr. Shen?"
Wu Xian smiled and said, "Is this person really devoted to the people and has no distractions, or is he hiding his true colors and has other plans? Brother Shen treats us completely without any defense. No matter how honest a gentleman is in the world, he would never hand over his life and property to an outsider, right?"
But Shen Tang did it.
Wu Xian added: "Every time I thought Brother Shen would suffer a loss, he would always come up with an unexpected way to deal with it. You see - I paid money to buy a 'craftsman' from Brother Shen to build a kang, but it turned out that this 'craftsman' was one of our own, and he made all the money, while I suffered a loss. I was thinking, is this really a coincidence?"
Xu Jie frowned and said, "It can be said that Shen Jun is a hidden talent. In such a large Heyin County, there are only a few decent soldiers. Among them, the 1,000 elite soldiers were brought by Dayi to support, which is not good enough. Jie has been to Heyin several times and paid close attention to his movements. Except for the last time he rushed to help Luxia to recruit a group of strong men, there has been no other movement... This is unreasonable..."
"That's why I say this person is full of contradictions..." Wu Xian has always been more wary of Shen Tang than trusting him.
The officials passed on their experience in building a kang to the craftsmen and even took the craftsmen to demonstrate for a few days. The kang was indeed more convenient and cleaner than a charcoal basin. There was less smoke and dust in the house, and there was no need to worry about discomfort caused by poor ventilation.
Wu Xian set an example by building a wall for his own home first.
They also arranged for a few families of common people who were affected by the winter disaster, and then they spread the word among the common people. It won't take long before this thing will be completely accepted.
It just so happened that that group of craftsmen were able to learn and become masters.
The subordinate took his men on a business trip to Tianhai for nearly half a month.
Shen Tang is still busy in the office.
There isn't much to do, so I can still be lazy.
"Miss Lu, have you been adapting well these past few days?"
She took a sip of the warm tea, and the warmth spread through her throat and all over her body, and her hands and feet also became much warmer. Miss Lu was wearing mourning clothes, and her face was calm, as if she had recovered from the grief that day. "If there is any inadequate hospitality or neglect, please do not tolerate it."
Miss Lu forced out a faint, unfamiliar smile.
"No, I'm adapting very well."
It should be said that it is great.
After Miss Lu completed the funeral for her entire family, she stayed awake for another month before packing her bags and moving to Heyin County with her infant nephew, her elderly housekeeper, her wet nurse, and her maid.
She was confused about the future and even prepared herself for the worst, but the result was better than she had imagined.
Mr. Shen is such a good person.
Worried about the elderly, the weak, women and children in their family, they specially arranged a residence near the government office, which was heavily guarded, so there was no need to worry about public security even if the door was not locked at night. Miss Lu was grateful to Shen Tang for taking her in and taking care of her. From time to time, she would bring her own tea and snacks to show her gratitude, which attracted a group of subordinates who knew the whole story and cast meaningful glances at her.
As they came here more often, Miss Lu and Shen Tang became familiar with each other. Once, Shen Tang was too busy and asked her to find a book to send to the chief clerk, and Miss Lu lent a hand.
As a result, Shen Jun asked her for help from time to time.
After that, I simply bought her a small table of my own.
When we have nothing to do, we can have fun together.
Drink tea, chat and eat snacks.
In the past two days, Miss Lu always seemed to be hesitant to speak, and Shen Tang thought she was wronged, which was why the higher-ups cared about her. But when he heard her say that she was adapting well, he felt relieved.
but-
Miss Lu tried to hold back, but still couldn't.
She asked: "Why doesn't Mr. Shen recruit more soldiers?"
Shen Tang was stuffing food into his mouth, his cheeks puffed up.
He turned his head and looked at her in confusion: "What?"
Miss Lu bit her lower lip and wanted to retreat and gloss over the matter, but she felt that this was not a good idea. Mr. Shen was the benefactor who took her family in, so how could he see the problem and not point it out
She considered and said, "... Yesterday, Commandant Gongshu handed me a letter, requesting for the new month's military pay..."
"I know this. Lingde has also calculated it and said there is no problem. But what is missing?"
Miss Lu said: "It's not that there is a shortage, but that little military pay can only support four or five thousand soldiers... With such a small number of troops in Heyin County, how can we deal with a strong enemy?"
Shen Tang understood and asked with a smile.
"So what do you say we should do?"
Miss Lu said, "It should be at least 20,000."
There used to be more Luxia County than this.
Shen Tang asked again: "Who said there is no 20,000?"
Miss Lu was stunned for a moment: "Ah?"
The remaining 15,000 was hidden away
"If that's the case, it doesn't seem right..." Although she is quiet and gentle now, Miss Lu also grew up in the military camp and is very familiar with the ins and outs of it. Her father never hid anything from her and even taught her step by step.
Therefore, she is more sensitive to this.
Shen Tang smiled and said, "Hide? There's nothing wrong with that, but I'm not hiding my troops in the mountains or forests. With He Yin in such an 'unguarded' state, he will be easily discovered by someone with ulterior motives..."
If she has 20,000 soldiers and horses, her neighbors will be worried.
How could it be as harmonious as it is now
Fifteen thousand is not a small amount.
You can't hide it no matter how hard you try.
Miss Lu was tactful and did not pursue the matter to the end, but she could not hide the curiosity and speculation in her eyes.
Shen Tang said half-truthfully, as if jokingly: "If there really is a war, we can raise 15,000 soldiers through emergency recruitment..."
Miss Lu: “…”
Little did he know that Shen Tang was not joking.
This was the strategy she and Chu Yao had discussed for a long time - if they wanted to maintain good relations with the three families and quietly develop themselves in a relatively stable environment, they could not have too many troops openly.
But without soldiers and horses, they would be very passive - having a sword in hand but not using it is different from having no sword in hand.
Furthermore, she currently did not have the financial resources to support so many soldiers, so she discussed a compromise.
Try to make the lives of the common people under your rule as good as possible.
Every household has surplus food.
They are completely tied to Ha Yin, and the concept of "they have no other way out except Ha Yin, and they will lose all their foundation without Ha Yin" is forced into their minds, making it deeply ingrained!
Once the war comes, they will be so scared that they dare not take their wealth and family members to escape, because the world outside is even more cruel and bloody! At this time, if you tell them that the enemy is coming to kill people, rob money and intercept food, they will naturally be willing to stand up to defend their wealth and bring their own food.
In the past, they joined the army to fill their stomachs. Surviving on the battlefield was the most important thing. What did winning or losing have to do with them? Anyway, the situation couldn't get any worse. Now they joined the army to defend their own food. Failure would mean losing both their lives and their money.
Naturally, the latter is more willing to fight to the death.
Shen Tang planned to find an excuse to organize the common people after the busy farming season in spring, and conduct light military training on a village basis, so that they could use the villages as combat units and become familiar with them.
If Wu Xiansan's family asked, he could find an excuse to fool them.
Excuses are not hard to find.
Just say that there was a conflict in the village and people were fighting.
This kind of thing is not uncommon.
It is not uncommon for a dispute between two villages over a well or even a verbal dispute to eventually turn into a fight involving hundreds of people.
As long as Shen Tang needs—
Regardless of gender, age or status, everyone is a soldier.
Chu Yao: Keep a low profile and take things step by step.
Shen Tang: Naturally.
She has plenty of patience and can bear it.
Little did we know that such peaceful days would only last a few months.
Miss Lu went to the government office frequently and gradually got to know Lin Feng and Yu Zi, but the one who matched her temperament was the elusive Bai Su. The latter seemed cold, but the aura of killing around her made her feel particularly close to him.
Jiang Sheng saw this scene.
Looking at Miss Lu smiling sweetly at Bai Suyu, Jiang Sheng sighed, "The difference between people..."
Look at Mr. Bai Su, and then look at my master, this is the difference between people! My master is obsessed with official business, and occasionally chats with Miss Lu just to coax her to handle official business for him...
And Mr. Bai also knows how to give gifts!
Shen·Mangmang·Tang: “???”
Gu Chi's face was cramping from trying so hard to hold back his laughter.
He suppressed his laughter and said, "My lord, there is a long way to go!"
I don’t know if everyone has bad intentions, but no one took the initiative to tell Jiang Sheng the lord’s real gender.
Winter goes and spring comes, and spring plowing season is here again.
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