Chapter 1258 New and Old

Chapter 1258 New and Old

Chapter 1258 New and Old
In late winter, there was heavy snow in the south of the Yangtze River for several days in a row, almost as severe as in the north.

This is the second consecutive year that this has happened, and one can't help but sigh at the cruelty of God.

On a long snowy road, a group of captives were escorted westward. When they arrived at a manor, they were temporarily detained and continued on their journey after the snow stopped.

They were escorted by soldiers from the Zuo Jinwu Guard, who were all panting and stamping their feet, complaining.

This snowy day in the south of the Yangtze River feels a little different, making people feel particularly uncomfortable.

The manor is already inhabited.

Dozens of men armed with swords and bows stared at the newly arrived soldiers with sharp eyes, as if they were wary of them entering and colliding with important people.

Sima Xia Wu of the Nanliu Defense Department of Chuitai Longxiong Prefecture was a little unhappy at first, but after seeing that these dozens of guards were quite organized and did not look like country boys, he asked about them. Only then did he know that they had been trained in Gaoliu Town and were the personal soldiers of the town commander Sun He. There was a team of fifty people in total, and they had followed him for many years.

Now most of them are old, with many in their forties and some suffering from injuries, so they brought their families south, and each household was given 30 mu of land at first, and the amount would be doubled after the land was reclaimed.

All in all, it is better than not being able to even be enlisted in the army in Gaoliu Town - many of the personal soldiers are private troops, and the commander-in-chief has to find ways to raise money to support them while in office.

After learning their identities, they became much friendlier towards each other and the atmosphere was no longer tense.

"Whose land is this?" Xia Wu asked.

"Deputy Xu Zhongxian." Before the team leader could answer, a young man passing by said crisply, "It's mine now."

The team leader immediately saluted and called out "Sanlang".

The boy looked to be only in his teens, but following behind him was a woman in her twenties or thirties, who had a pretty face and a nervous look on her face.

She doesn't look like a mother or a wife, but more like a maid. She is holding a food box in her hand. It is so strange.

Xia Wu bowed and knew that the young man was the son of Liangzhou Governor Sun Gong, so he did not dare to neglect him.

The young man left quickly, and the "maid" hurriedly followed.

Xia Wu retracted his gaze and said, "Last time in Jianye, I met an official named Xu Chao who distributed military rations to us..."

"Xu Chao is the younger brother of Deputy Xu. Both brothers served in Shanxia's government. Deputy Xu died of illness first, and Chao followed Shanxia to surrender." The team leader said, "Deputy Xu's sons fought against the Daliang Heavenly Soldiers and were executed, and their property was confiscated. This manor has more than 50 hectares of land and was given to Sanlang. Xu Chao should be fine, and his property is still there. The manor seems to be in Chaisang. I heard that he had no children in his early years, so Deputy Xu gave his eldest son to him. Later, Xu Chao gave birth to a son himself. The two brothers are not very harmonious."

"Deputy Xu is lucky." Xia Wu said with a smile, "He actually has a son, although he was adopted by his younger brother."

"It's really luck." The team leader sighed.

After the two grown men chatted about gossip with great interest, they prepared to go to eat. Just as they came near the kitchen, they saw the young boy Sun Xi coming out, followed by several family soldiers, holding a dustpan full of dust, and smiling bitterly at the team leader.

The "maid" trotted away, constantly admonishing, "Sanlang, don't burn hemp next time. Farmers grow hemp and weave cloth, so they are very careful, but you burned it for fun, and now it's all reduced to ashes."

Sun Xi gave her an impatient look.

He used to be fascinated by this busty woman, but now he just thinks she is noisy and disturbs him from doing interesting things.

He turned around, looked at the first soldier carefully, and asked, "Are you a hemp ash?"

The bodyguard nodded.

Sun Xi looked at the second person and asked, "Is this reed ash?"

The man nodded again.

He walked up to the third person and asked, "Is this the bamboo you burned?"

"Yes." the man replied.

"Let's go, get the deer we hunted yesterday and skin it. Share the meat among you, and leave me a bowl." Sun Xi walked away with his hands behind his back. As he walked, he said, "Brother, you still don't believe me. I'll show you that these three kinds of ashes have different abilities to remove oil."

Xia Wu was stunned.

My goodness, this guy burns everything he sees, even hemp! If he rete it and makes it into white linen cloth, it can be sold for a lot of money. He is just burning money!
"Let's go and eat." The team leader invited Xia Wu to have dinner together.

Xia Wudao thanked him and did not refuse.

******
He Xi, former Lieutenant of the Northern Commander of Jianye and Lieutenant of the State of Kuaiji, sat in the corridor, shivering.

He originally had a brocade robe to keep warm, but it was snatched away by the palace soldiers on the way. Now he could only wear a tattered felt blanket to keep out the cold wind.

His case was not a serious matter, and he would not die, but exile of his entire family was inevitable.

The He family of Shanyin has been a famous family for generations. It is really pitiful and lamentable that they have fallen into such a situation.

"Oh!" Whenever he thought of the past years that he couldn't bear to look back on, he had nightmares.

Countless soldiers wrapped in yellow turbans shouted in unison and launched a charge in the heavy snow, breaking the army formation that they were proud of. As a result, everyone lost their courage and could only defend the city.

Then countless strong men came, as if they were people growing out of the ground, rushing and fighting.

Soon after, Shan Xia and Su Jun also arrived and surrounded the city three times, making it impossible for them to escape.

When the news of Yuyao Yu's surrender came, the He family completely lost the courage to resist and had to surrender Shanyin.

Most of the other dozen or so surnames were left alone and were brutally slaughtered after the defeat. The scene was unbearable to watch.

In the entire Kuaiji County, except for a few branches of the Yu and He families who survived, only the Shao and Zhongli families were spared.

The descendants of the Shao family said that the Wu general Shao Kai led his troops to surrender and was settled in Xuzhou. He was a relative of the Shao family of Donghai, and the soldiers could not tell them apart for a while and did not dare to take action, so they were lucky enough to escape.

The Zhongli clan was exempted because they had produced two naval commanders (the commander of the Dongwu naval fleet and the commander of the naval forces) and their sons had previously led a fleet to blockade the Yangtze River. As a family of naval commanders, they were exempted.

The Jiangdong County, which was once a great county, was overthrown just like that. It was even more tragic than Sima Jin's conquest of Wu. When Sima destroyed Wu, he did not carry out a large-scale settlement with the old people of Eastern Wu, but mainly appeased the Jiangdong nobles.

There were also many families of scholars who had fled south in Kuaiji. They were the most shameless. They had already secretly communicated with the enemy before the arrival of the army, and actively provided food, weapons, and even sent young men to attack the city. Except for a few who were slow and were directly defeated, most of them survived.

What made He Xi feel the most sad was Wang. When Liang soldiers rushed into Wang's house in Shanyin City, Wang Shu and Wang Zhen were captured and Wang Jianji shouted that she was the Princess of Kuaiji.

The Liang soldiers hesitated and did not dare to move. After confirming the situation, they were so overjoyed that they started arguing and pushing each other over who had captured the Princess of Kuaiji.

After He Xi learned about it, he was speechless for a long time.

If the King of Kuaiji were still alive, I wonder what he would think.

Footsteps were heard in the distance. A moment later, a group of soldiers came over and shouted at them to line up for porridge.

He Xi was helped up by his son and limped to the yard to get porridge.

The porridge is steaming hot, which whets your appetite.

He Xi could even hear his son swallowing his saliva, but he had no appetite at all.

"I know! I know! These three piles of ashes are different!" A boy's slightly childish voice shouted loudly in the yard across the wall.

"Hemp ash is the best for removing oil, reed ash is second, and bamboo ash is the worst!"

"They are all dust in the same basket, why is there such a huge difference? Why?"

"Hemp ash is better than the pine ash we burned that day, and is about the same as reed ash."

"Quick! Quick! Filter the ash water for me. I want to see if the degreasing agent is in the ash or in the water."

"Well, it's probably in the water, otherwise why would it be soaking in water?"

By the end, his voice was almost insane.

"Sanlang." A gentle female voice sounded: "What do you use to filter water?"

"Use that! Use that!" The boy almost jumped up and down: "Where is the fine yarn you used to make steamed buns for me this morning? Use that."

"Sanlang, that gauze net is very expensive, so just bring this one. Ordinary people don't have it." said the female voice.

"I don't want to eat steamed buns anymore. Filter it for me, quickly." The boy said anxiously.

"Okay! Okay! Don't be anxious." The female voice advised, and then whispered orders to others.

There was another rush.

He Xi's son was speechless after hearing this.

He came from a wealthy family, so he naturally knew what the young man and the woman were talking about.

Generally speaking, the color of newly ground flour is dark yellow and ugly, so wealthy families will use extremely fine silk gauze to filter out the relatively white flour, and then make white flour cakes and the like.

He Xi snorted coldly, feeling a little sad at the same time.

The officials' sons of the Liang Dynasty were of such character, not much better than those of the Jin Dynasty, yet they actually won?
Heaven is unfair! Heaven is unfair!

"Sanlang, what would you do if you were in the water? I think the water is all the same." someone asked.

"No rush. Let's see where the degreasing stuff is first." said the young man.

"Sanlang, let's eat first." The female voice advised again.

"Shut up! What else can you do besides sleep with me?" The boy scolded, "This is all I have to offer in my life, don't bother me."

He Xi and his son didn't understand what they were saying, and they were not in the mood to listen. After each of them received a bowl of porridge, they went back to sit in the corridor.

The wind and snow seemed to be stronger, covering the sky and the earth, and there was a constant howling.

From time to time, the sound of horse hooves could be heard in the wind. There was no doubt that those who could gallop on horseback in the south of the Yangtze River must be soldiers from the north.

Occasionally, a carriage would pass by. The carriage was full, and the soldiers guarding the carriages were so cautious that one could tell that it was filled with loot.

He Xi looked up again at where he was.

Since migrating south from Runan during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Later Han Dynasty, the Xu family of Jurong had taken root in Jiangdong for one hundred and thirty to forty years. They had intermarried with local Jiangdong noble families such as Dai, Ge, Tao, and Sun for several generations. Although they were not as good as the He family of Shanyin, they were also a prominent family. However, they were destroyed in one day.

Perhaps more than a hundred years later, there will no longer be noble families such as Gu, Lu, Zhu, Zhang, Yu, Kong, Xu, and Tao in Jiangnan, but instead there will be families such as Wang, Jin, Hou, Li, Zhang, and Sun.

The new Jiangdong clans replaced the old Jiangdong clans. This is not just a guess, it may already be a fact.

The wind and snow did not subside until nightfall.

Amid the sound of hurried horse hooves, more than a thousand people suddenly arrived.

He Xi heard a cry of surprise in his ears, but he was too lazy to open his eyes and just fell asleep in a daze.

After a moment, he felt something heavy on his body and opened his eyes involuntarily. It turned out to be a quilt.

"Lu Shiyao!" He Xi said in surprise.

"It's me." Lu Wan, wearing a gorgeous fox fur coat, stood in front of He Xi.

"You came from Wujun?"

"Yes."

"Wu Jun... is gone?"

Lu Wan's face straightened and he said, "Wu County has been recaptured by the king's army."

(End of this chapter)