Chapter 4: You Have to Farm

Chapter 4: You Have to Farm

Chapter 4: You Have to Farm (One More Chapter)
After settling down in Pan Garden, everyone launched a vigorous cleanup operation.

The house was roughly renovated.

The weeds were cleared.

The farmland was cleared.

The water mill was repaired.

The owner of the village, Mi Huang, even ordered a large number of livestock to be driven over.

Everything is going in the right direction...

In October of the second year of Yongning (302), it was sunny.

In the wilderness, hundreds of people bent over, wielding scythes, working hard to harvest hay.

Shao Xun straightened up and wiped the sweat off his face.

In those days, soldiers had to work. In fact, most of their lives were spent on farm work.

Delay training? Then just delay it.

The more you train, the more you eat and the more expenses you incur.

As for the poor fighting ability, that doesn't matter. Everyone is like this, so just compare the worst.

Last year, the traitor Sima Lun was executed, and all men over 13 years old in Luoyang and the surrounding areas were conscripted. Are these conscripted soldiers combat-ready? Obviously not many, but they still went to fight in the battlefield, right?
The ones who really didn't have to work were actually some of the Luoyang Imperial Guards. They were conscripted soldiers who spent most of their time honing their killing skills and didn't have to work in the fields.

Especially the armored cavalry under the command of several cavalry commanders, wow, they are so majestic. One person and three horses, both men and horses are wearing heavy armor, charging into battle, invincible, can ordinary soldiers be compared to a leg hair of theirs?

"I need someone to help me." Shao Xun sighed silently.

Without the appreciation of noble people, life would be really hard.

After sighing, he was about to continue working when he caught a glimpse of blood out of the corner of his eye.

"Wait." Shao Xun held a young man's shoulder, looked at him carefully, took off a cowhide water bag from his waist, and asked him to sit down.

The boy was a little overwhelmed and sat down on the ground tremblingly.

Shao Xun washed it with water.

The boy's ankle was accidentally cut by the sickle, and blood was dripping, which looked very scary.

After cleaning the wound, Shao Xun tore off a piece of cloth from his body, bandaged it carefully, and said, "Go rest under the tree over there."

"Captain..." the boy stammered.

He is only ten years old this year, thousands of miles away from home, feeling lost. When he is hurt, he can only lick his wounds silently, and when he misses home, he will cry secretly by himself.

They are still children after all.

"That's fine." Shao Xun said gently, "In my team, everyone should help each other."

After saying that, he called over the other two young men and said, "Carry Mao Er over there. You will take care of him today."

"Captain, we still have to mow the grass..." said a teenager.

Shao Xun patted him on the shoulder and said, "We still have 47 people in our team. If each of us can distribute a little, it will be easy to complete. Go ahead and listen to my orders."

"Yes." The two men accepted the order and helped Mao Er away.

The three of them gradually walked away, and Mao Er looked back from time to time.

Shao Xun smiled and said loudly: "On the battlefield, swords and guns are blind, and no one wants to be abandoned. Cut grass together, kill enemies together, eat meat together, and no one can be left behind."

After saying that, he bent down and swung the sickle with all his might.

Everyone was a little confused after hearing this.

They were still young and generally could not understand the meaning of the words, but under the team leader's demonstration, they subconsciously speeded up their actions.

Shao Xun laughed loudly, and his sickle flew up and down as fast as the wind.

This one thing alone cannot change the perception of a group of people. Fortunately, he still has time. In the long-term interaction, he can deepen the impression through one thing after another, and finally form an unbreakable group.

The hard work lasted until the evening.

Shao Xun had his men pile bundles of fodder on the side of the road, while he leaned on his scabbard and gazed at the red glow in the west.

The people who were bundling the hay were farmhands from Pan Garden. Shao Xun knew some of them and greeted them with a smile.

However, these people were very dull, and only an old man was willing to exchange a few words with him.

"The elder is still in good health." Shao Xun said with a smile.

"It's not good if you don't have the strength." The old man sighed and said while skillfully stacking fodder: "If you don't have the strength to plant the land and pick vegetables, won't you starve to death?"

Shao Xun was silent, then asked: "We have to fight every year and cannot even make a living by farming. What's the point of farming?" "We have to farm all the time." The old man said: "Corn, wheat, cucumbers, and rambutans, we are busy every year. My home is here, and everyone who comes here has to farm. Even if we grow less every year, we still have to farm..."

The words "You have to farm anyway" kept circling in Shao Xun's mind.

There was an indescribable feeling in his heart.

This short sentence is both sad and desperate, yet seems to be full of indomitable vitality.

This world and this nation, perhaps, can overcome numerous hardships and be reborn from the ashes time and time again thanks to the tenacious words "you must always farm the land".

It’s a pity that some people don’t cherish it, and the chaotic times are about to come. What will happen to the world under the knives of the barbarians, refugees, and the rebel army?
But - it is true that we have to farm.

******
It was getting dark, and Mi Huang led his men to count the fodder inside the garden.

The farm originally had quite a few farmhands, but after the Pan family lost power, some of them fled, some died in the wars of the past two years, and only about thirty or forty families were left. Now they are all farming on the fields belonging to the manor.

Mi Huang had no control over these farmhands because the princess had already sent her trusted confidants to take charge of them. He could only manage this group of soldiers - there were only more than 470 of them left.

The old ones are old, the young ones are young, it’s not easy to deal with.

Mi Huang knew that he did not have the talent in this area, but Sikong had no talent in his pocket, so he had to bite the bullet and do it. After more than a month, he was exhausted and simply stopped caring about it, leaving it to the captains of each team to handle it themselves.

He only appears during assessments.

There was a group of livestock raised in Pan Garden, and they were about to winterize, so fodder needed to be prepared. This was an order from the princess and a task that had to be completed, so he left the forum and came in a ox cart to supervise and count the animals.

But after counting only half of it, he lost interest and just looked around casually and chatted with the guests.

"If a person doesn't obey the stone, nothing will go well." Mi Huang yawned, squeezed out two tears, and said, "I got tired in just a moment."

"Who told you to leave so early?" The guest Pei Dun said with a smile, "It's rare for Minister Cao to take out his treasures and share them with everyone. After taking the medicine, there were also beautiful maids singing and dancing to entertain us. Tsk tsk, and you actually ran away."

"I have military duties to attend to..." Mi Huang sighed, "Besides, I'm worried that I'll become unruly after taking the medicine, which would not be good."

Pei Dun laughed loudly and said, "You are truly an honest person."

Mi Huang smiled shyly.

It would be fine to take the medicine, but it would be a bit embarrassing to behave unruly in someone else's house. Although many people do this, Minister Cao would not mind.

Sometimes he is also confused.

The scholars and officials were unrestrained, talking about metaphysics in vain, and often ignored military and political affairs for the sake of gathering, leaving them to the people below to do. As for the suffering of the people and the lives of the people, they did not consider them at all...

If this continues, will the country really be better?

He was a little afraid to think about these things, and subconsciously avoided them. Moreover, everyone around him was like this, what could he do? The Mi family was not a big family. If you were not sociable, you would not be able to integrate into other people's circles, and in the end you would suffer.

What a world this is.

"Have you seen the princess?" Mi Huang suddenly asked.

Pei Dun nodded and said, "I met him in Beijing. I brought a letter home and was scolded."

Mi Huang was speechless.

He knew that although Pei Dun was the older brother, he was a little afraid of his younger sister. It might not only be because his sister was the Princess of Donghai, but also because of other factors - the princess was actually a very powerful person.

Pei Dun also had a younger sister who married Bian Kun of Jiyin.

The Bian family is a typical wealthy and powerful family. The grandfather, Bian Cui, is the Minister of the Central Secretariat and is granted the title of Duke of Chengyang County. The six brothers "all hold the position of Prime Minister" and are known as the "Six Dragons of the Bian Family".

Bian Xu's mother was the daughter of Zhang Hua, the Minister of the Central Secretariat who once served as prime minister. Her family background was amazing, no wonder she married into the Pei family of Wenxi.

Xu had a reputation for being a virtuous man when he was young, and was once recruited by Sima Jiong, the King of Qi, but he refused. Now he is still wandering around the capital, attending various parties, waiting for the opportunity.

Mi Huang was really a little envious.

The children of the gentry were not in a hurry to become officials because they had so many opportunities and could refuse one after another until they were willing.

Sometimes, they feel unhappy with their official duties, or feel that their official duties are too busy and affect their ability to attend parties, so they simply quit their official duties. After returning home to rest for a while, they change to another place to serve as an official, feeling relaxed, as if those official positions were originally reserved for them.

The Mi family of Donghai can only be considered a humble family, but they cannot be as willful as the gentry, and their opportunities are much fewer.

His colleague Liu Qia, who had no family background, dared not leave the Sikong Mansion easily, because others might not accept him. If he were a noble, he could be an official in the Qi Wang Mansion today, and work as a staff member for the Changsha Wang in a while, without too much resistance, and the transition would be smooth.

Not only could the King of Qi, the King of Changsha and other nobles not be angry, they had to try to win them over, because they needed to rely on the power of the gentry to consolidate their power.

This is the reality, the bleak reality.

Fortunately, Mi Huang has a good mentality. He is not as good as the best, but better than the worst. The King of the East China Sea has no one else to use. He has been given this opportunity, so he must devote himself to the cause until his death.

Get to work!
He cheered himself up and continued to supervise.

(End of this chapter)