Chapter 1257 Xingtian

Chapter 1257 Xingtian

Chapter 1257 Xingtian (Part )

At dawn, when the ground was covered with frost, a group of people appeared in the wilderness, pointing and holding whips.

The indigo-colored rammed earth walls are faintly visible in the light snow.

There was a crossbow platform on each of the four corner towers, but the platform was empty and the crossbow had long disappeared.

The walls were not thick enough, but the corner towers were connected by flying bridges, allowing the defenders to move quickly.

Several large ponds were dug in the south of the city, and are now covered with thick ice.

The moat extends from both sides of the pond, circles the city, and flows into the river in the north of the city.

In fact, this is not a city, but just a typical country fortress.

Because there are not many terrain advantages, the defensive capabilities of this fortress are only better than those of a camp set up during the march, and not as good as a regular city. However, it still makes a group of noble children from the north very happy.

Du Yi, the governor of Danyang, was sleepy, but he forced himself to introduce the place to the crowd: "This is Zhao Yin's residence. A good emperor - uh, a fake emperor, built a fortress under his feet, which made people laugh at him."

"Lord Du, what's so funny about the fortress?" The person asking the question was Jin Zhu, the eighteen-year-old third son of General Jin Zheng, the Zhenxi General.

Du Yi thought he had said the wrong thing. He explained without changing his expression, "You don't know, County Magistrate Jin, Jianye has been peaceful for many years, and scholars prefer to live in manors rather than fortresses."

Wang Shuang, Jin Zhu and others smiled at each other.

Indeed, the manor was too comfortable to live in, but the cost was sacrificing its defensive capabilities.

The fort is narrow, dark, damp, and very uncomfortable to live in, but it has strong defensive capabilities.

Some bandits and rebel soldiers don't want to waste time with you and will leave if they can't take it in a short time, so forts are still useful, especially in the north.

Even the regular army was the same. They felt that the cost of heavy casualties was not worth it. At most, they would capture one or two forts as an example to establish their authority, and then recruit the rest of the people. After some bargaining, the matter would be over.

The north has been in chaos for so many years, and everyone from top to bottom likes to build forts. Those with strong financial resources build a fort similar to a city, those with average financial resources build a fort similar to the one in front of us, and those with weak financial resources will also build an earthen wall.

But then again, the number of manors built in Henan has increased in the past decade or so, which shows that the impact on the environment is very large.

The environment influences the atmosphere, and the atmosphere lags behind the environment, but they will eventually converge.

"What is Zhao Yin's origin?" another person asked.

Du Yi took a look and saw that the man was Lu Chu, the second son of Lu Rong, the Chief Censor. His elder brother Lu Xin was a lieutenant in the imperial guards.

"Zhao Yin was from Huainan, and his family was a military family. His father, Zhao You, was once the chief clerk of Xi Long, the governor of Yangzhou. Later, he followed Wang Dun to suppress the rebellion and served as a military officer in the shogunate. He made many military achievements, but was eventually defeated and killed by Du Zeng." Du Yi said: "Because of this, Zhao Yin was highly regarded by Wang Dun and Wang Dao, and eventually became a general of the imperial army."

"It's unbelievable that a military strategist would not serve the emperor of Daliang, but would work for Wang Dun and Wang Dao. I don't believe that he would be respected by many people in Jiangnan with his background. It's only because Wang Dao is good at using this knife that he respects him." Lu Chu shook his head and sighed.

"You can switch from military to literature." Du Yi smiled and said, "Zhao Yin has already become the General of the Left Guard, and the family foundation has been laid. If you can encourage your descendants to study hard, understand profound theories, and be good at elegant conversation, the family will be different in two or three generations."

"It would be great if it were that easy." Lu Chu said, "Jin Sanlang, if you like this fortress, I won't rob it."

Jin Zhu ignored him and only kept an eye on Wang Shuang out of the corner of his eye.

Wang Shuang smiled at him and said, "The place is not big, forget it."

The place he said was not big was not referring to the living area, but the space that could be expanded on the edge of the farmland. There were only about 30 hectares of land here, which was a bit small.

To put it bluntly, if you want to occupy more land, you shouldn't come to the vicinity of a big city. Although the conditions are good, there are also many restrictions.

He liked estates with large amounts of wilderness available for development, so that he could create a large amount of land that could be used by three generations of his family to continue developing it.

Seeing that no one was arguing, Du Yi smiled and said, "The ownership of this house has been determined. Once the deed is made, it will be reported to the state, county, and county levels, and another copy will be sent to the Ministry of Civil Affairs for filing. There will be no room for regrets."

"That's it." Jin Zhu said, "If you want more land, I'll find a way myself."

"Jin San, your father gave you a younger brother last year, so you really need to buy a manor." Someone laughed.

"Let's buy some for my fourth brother and I first. We don't have that much money." Jin Zhu said.

"Your elder and second brothers are staying in the North?"

"I've already entered the government, what else can I do?"

Jin Zheng's eldest son Jin Lian is 23 years old this year. He is a recorder of the Left Jinwu Guard (rank eight), a civil and military officer.

The second son, Jin Guan, was 22 years old and served as a cavalry official in the Chang'an government. He had once met the King of Qin.
The third brother is Jin Zhu. He was married at the age of 18. His wife, Ma from Fufeng, was like his second brother Jin Guan’s wife, Wu from Chenliu. They all came from families that were almost expelled from the list of gentry, and most of them were now engaged in military service. In other words, Jin Zhu married the daughter of a general under his father’s command.

The fourth brother, Jin Shou, is thirteen years old. We went south together this time. However, he suffered from vomiting and diarrhea after arriving in Huainan. After he recovered, he felt a little listless and is currently recuperating in Liyang.

Including the newly born one, Jin Zheng currently has six sons. One of them may go south in the future, that is, three sons will stay in the north, and three sons will go to the south of the Yangtze River. Jin Zhu and Jin Shou both came here to paved the way.

Jin Zhu is older, so he basically makes the decisions on everything.

After the group of people finished chatting and laughing, except for Jin Zhu and a few county officials who stayed behind, they all mounted their horses and rushed to another place.

"This is the manor given to Zhou Yuan by Sima Rui. It was not big at first, but after twenty years of cultivation, it has become quite large." Du Yi introduced again.

The children of the nobles were now much more obedient and no one spoke loudly, because Zhang Shuo, the governor of four states, was sitting under a bamboo shed next to the gate, seemingly talking to someone.

This person looked unfamiliar and looked like a scholar, but I didn't know which family he came from. Wang Shuang was the oldest and most senior person in the group, so he went forward to greet him.

A moment later, Sun Ling, the second son of Liangzhou Governor Sun He, also came forward to greet him, relying on the relationship between his father and Zhang Shuo.

Zhang Shuo did not stand up. He just gave a few words of encouragement and let the two leave.

After everyone arrived, Du Yi began to introduce: "There are also farmhands in this house, most of whom were brought here by Zhou Yan from Yixing in his early years. There are a total of one hundred households. Later, some refugees from the north were taken in. Together with the farmhands of the branch family, there are now a total of two hundred households. They grow rice and wheat for their livelihood, and the total land is more than 40 hectares."

"Zhou Yan worked as a dog for the Sima family for so many years, and this is all he has acquired?" someone asked.

"Of course there are more." Du Yi smiled and said, "This manor is not even as big as my house, and Zhou Yan only comes here to stay occasionally."

"It's so fragmented, an estate only has a few dozen hectares of land." Sun Ling sneered.

"These 40-odd hectares of land are already larger than your home. Why are you bragging?" someone laughed.

Sun Ling didn't take it seriously and said, "That's because the emperor is strict. If he hadn't, look at how much land Shi Chong has, and how many fields and paths he has."

"Jiangnan cannot be compared with Henan and Hebei." Du Yi said, "There is little flat land, and it is indeed fragmented. There are also many lakes, swamps, and rivers dividing it, so it is difficult to connect it into one piece. I heard that there were only 20 hectares of good farmland during the Shengui period, and the current scale was developed later. Zhou Yan also had a bad relationship with the Zhou family of Yixing, so it is already good enough to be like this."

As he spoke, he led everyone inside to watch.

As soon as they entered, they smelled a faint odor. They looked around and found that some farmhands were carrying manure from the stable.

Obviously, livestock were raised here.

"There are more than a hundred houses, large and small, enough for a large family with four generations living together." Du Yi said, "It is more than 20 miles away from the outer city of Jianye, farther than the fortress just now, and it is not considered a suburb, but it is not bad. Everyone——"

"Is there a workshop?" Sun Ling asked.

Du Yi was startled: "That's not the case."

"What about the daily expenses of the manor?"

"I heard that the families of the Luoyang Imperial Guards make bran bags and saddles after farming, and the farmhands do the same. Those who can weave baskets make baskets, those who can weave mats make mats, those who can make pottery make pottery, those who can smelt iron smelt iron, and as for weaving cloth and the like, every household can do it. After making all kinds of things--" Du Yi pointed ahead and said, "That thatched shed is the store, you can put it in there for consignment. Speaking of which, the farmhands who have skills have better marriages than ordinary families, which can supplement the family income."

Everyone understands.

Sun Ling sighed and said, "I don't want it anymore."

Wang Shuang pulled him aside and asked in a low voice, "This house is nice, why don't you want it? The royal family will only give you this reward once. If you want to buy one in the future, you can either reclaim the wasteland or buy it with money. Think carefully."

"Some people want something close to Jianye, and would rather have a smaller farm. Some people want something with direct access to the river, which is good for business. Some people just want something big, even if it's in the wilderness. I just want something with a workshop." Sun Ling said, "It's not for me, but for my third brother. My father wrote back to tell me this."

"Your third brother?" Wang Shuang recalled and slowly formed an impression.

"That's him. He will be seventeen years old next year." Sun Ling said, "His father doted on him and always granted his requests. He got spoiled and did nothing all day long."

"Oh?" Wang Shuang asked, "How do you mean by not doing your job properly?"

"You should have heard of it." Sun Ling was reluctant to say more.

Wang Shuang smiled and said he had indeed heard of it.

At the age of thirteen, he secretly hugged his father's concubine and was beaten by his eldest brother (Sun Xiong, the Minister of the Imperial Household Department Huang Shucheng).

At the age of fourteen, he got a maid pregnant and was beaten again.

At the age of fifteen, he became obsessed with hunting and sneaked into the Western Garden to hunt foxes and wolves. He was caught by the soldiers guarding the garden, but the emperor just laughed it off and released him.

I heard that he wasn't very interested in women or hunting this year, and he burned something in the woodshed, causing a fire...

There was a reason why Sun He doted on this son so much.

I heard that he had a very close relationship with his first wife, and they had two sons, the eldest and the third. Before his first wife passed away, she cried and asked Sun He to take good care of their children, so he couldn't bear to do it.

In Wang Shuang's opinion, Sun Jia Sanlang was doomed as he was not doing his job properly.

"What does he want the workshop for?" Wang Shuang asked casually.

"Before my father left for Liangzhou, he came home to buy leather armor for the soldiers who were accompanying him. My third brother had nothing to do, so he went to watch." Sun Ling said, "He saw the craftsmen using wood ash to soak in water to wash away the grease on the leather. Some wood ashes removed the grease very quickly, while others removed it very slowly. He said it must not be the wood ash that could remove the grease, but something in the wood ash that could remove the grease. No one paid attention to it at the time. After my father left, my third brother secretly burned the wood ash at home..."

Wang Shuang was stunned. So this is what was happening.

From the age of thirteen to sixteen, and soon to be seventeen, my interests change every year. I am so changeable.

Seeing Wang Shuang's expression, Sun Ling also smiled bitterly and said, "Brother said that he should become a Taoist priest. This way he will be on the right path."

Wang Shuang nodded slightly.

It is the right way for Taoists to make elixirs. People can take them. Even if they don't make you immortal, they may help you live longer.

What's the matter with burning wood ash? It's really not doing your job properly.

"Then let's do as he wishes." Wang Shuang patted Sun Ling on the shoulder and said, "We are brothers. Give him a manor and he will have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of his life. He can do whatever he wants."

(End of this chapter)