As soon as the new soldiers recruited by the imperial court arrived, Xiaoan Village became more and more lively.
Having good food and drinks to send off the officials sent by the imperial court to hand over the troops, Yan Laoer directly assigned the new soldiers.
Chopping down trees, digging ditches, building waterwheels by the river, clearing wasteland for planting...
The new recruits started working vigorously when they first arrived.
This time the imperial court recruited troops mainly in Qishan Prefecture, which was severely affected by the disaster.
As soon as this familiar local accent appeared, the recruits and Xiaoan villagers felt close to each other.
Communicate very frequently.
I heard that the current situation in Qishan Prefecture is particularly bad. Prices have skyrocketed. I can't finish my meal. The government's relief food is very poor. They were not allowed to get close, so they had to spend copper coins to buy water. In order to fight for the water wells, people's brains were beaten into dog brains, and countless people died and were injured.
The people of Xiaoan Village were very happy after hearing this.
Fortunately, the village elders had the right idea and followed the Yan family to Guanzhou.
Otherwise they would have to fight for water from others.
After further inquiry, I learned that the quota for the imperial court's conscription was extremely expensive. Only young and strong men were required, and Anjia was only given half of the silver. Just this, everyone in Qishan's hometown was fighting for it.
The An family’s money is naturally reserved for family use.
These five thousand recruits had to live in the open and wind all the way. They had to walk on their own feet. They were even more miserable than when they fled the famine last year.
At least they had several cars to travel around, so they could take turns to rest. The weather was warm, and they had some meat on the way.
Look at these thousands of people, they don’t have a pair of good shoes on their feet.
Let alone food and drink, if they can guarantee that they will not starve to death even if they have completed their mission, how can they expect the officials who escorted them here to give them good food and drink?
The villagers went home and dug out old straw shoes.
There were also some broken bowls and jars. Although they had cracks and other cracks, they were not willing to throw them away and gave them to the fellow villagers for use first.
“You guys, come and settle it with us!”
The ladies in the village were busy sewing clothes and making new shoes while looking at the fire.
"I can't go wrong with you, Mr. Yan! Work hard and see if the porridge we cook is dry or thin. It can fill your stomach without dry food. The day you came here, Mr. Yan Er, oh, Mr. Yan I just said, if you don’t work for nothing, we will give you meat in the village, what do you say?”
“The army and the civilians are in love with each other!” Madam Qi bit off the thread, unfolded the clothes, put them in the ready-made clothes basket on the side, and then took out a few pieces of cut cloth and sewed them with needles. "You help our village farm, we are grateful and we will send you meat and vegetables!"
"Yes, it's the love between fish and water!" Mrs. Wang continued: "My boy has been netting fish for two days. I heard that he is sure. I will bake pancakes and make fish soup for you tonight! Fresh!"
“You said you’re going to bring the pigs back to kill them tomorrow? Luo San has made an agreement with them? Why don’t you kill the sheep? There are so many of us.”
“Lard and water are bigger. These guys have empty stomachs. They have to do such heavy work every day, so we can’t replenish them.”
"Then we all have to go there tomorrow. These old people have to kill a lot of pigs, boil water, scald the hair and collect the pig blood...it's a lot of work!"
“Then you have to help me with the work. Let’s ask Luo San to kill the pigs here. We have all the big stoves and pots ready...”
Before noon, word spread among the recruits that the village would kill a pig for them to eat tomorrow.
“We are so beautiful if we can drink fish soup and eat pancakes, but why do we have to eat pork?!”
“The General Banner has been so kind to us!” “Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooowww! I, I miss my mother, I miss home, in the past when the farming was busy, my mother was willing to buy meat for our brothers...”
"Why are you crying! Let's work hard and send all the money back to our families after we pay them, so that they can have water and food to eat. As long as people are alive, they will have hope to see each other again."
“The General Banner said that the land we opened is not only helping the village, but also our own. Do you think it is true?”
“Didn’t Zong Qi say it in front of all of us the day we came here? Why don’t you believe it?”
"I think what General Banner said is true. Half of the An family's money given to us by the imperial court will be deducted. It's not surprising that the food and salary are not complete. This matter cannot be ignored, and we will not stay in this recruit camp forever. Just ask other soldiers when you go out and you will know.
Then we can't just wait for hunger and expect others to make up for us. Why don't we put in more effort ourselves and plant them when we catch up with the good time for spring plowing? The seeds are all given to us by fellow villagers on credit. Then what does it matter if we help them with some work by the way? Our fellow villagers treat us so dearly and give us shoes and meat. Alas! If I hadn't been so hungry, I wouldn't have been so shameless. "
“One person says yes, ten people say yes, and everyone in the village says the Yan family is good and our general banner is good, then it’s really good, I believe it anyway!”
“I’m afraid you don’t know that not all of us are under General Yan’s control. It is said that when we are ready, we will have to go to other military camps.”
“Then I hope I can stay here.”
"Me too!"
“Me too!”
…
Yan Yu no longer has to go to the fields.
Good guy, the scene of thousands of strong laborers opening up wasteland opened her eyes.
It’s so spectacular!
The water canals in the village have become longer visible to the naked eye, and the location of the high walls has been planned and excavated together.
The progress of land reclamation, not to mention, has already exceeded her expectations.
Because the labor force was abundant, Yan Yu also built grain storage warehouses in the two arrow towers in the west and middle of the village.
Storage food for the new barracks.
Master Lu became the construction leader of the military camp. His brothers, sons, and nephews all brought a long line of apprentices to build houses for the military camp.
Yan Laoer calculated carefully, and after learning from several prisoners who had worked in the Ministry of Works before, he decided to hire a brick-burning master from another village. After deducting the cost of building a brick kiln and the master's labor costs, they still made a profit. !
According to several prisoners, the difficulty lies in building a brick kiln. How to bake bricks later is a matter of accumulating experience, sincerely supporting the master master for a few years, and bringing along a few apprentices. The brick kiln was established in the village.
In addition to the village's own use, it can also be sold out when you are rich in the future.
This is a long-term business.
When the village elders heard about it, they slapped their thighs and said, "Why didn't you know this earlier? How much more money was wasted on buying bricks from outside..."
The prisoners saw how the village elders were cheating.
The village elders also realized that the big men who committed the crime had something really up their sleeves.
The village elders discussed it and decided to build houses for them after the brick kiln in the village was built.
Of course we can’t occupy a house site like the families in the village, with several houses in front and back yards, etc. Instead, we can learn from the small houses and courtyards in the city, where each house is located next to each other. It doesn’t take up much space and can save a lot of materials. (End of chapter)