In Green Willow Garden, everything is as usual.
But in the eyes of outsiders, this house, which has a bit of a nouveau riche vibe, has become the political center of Henan—at least one of the centers.
A few days before the Chinese New Year, Shao Xun went out again: Going to the grassroots in the New Year!
Lu Xun, who had a big belly, carefully helped him arrange his clothes.
Le Lanji packed his bags for him.
Looking at the two beautiful flowers, Shao Xun was so satisfied!
After returning from the expedition, he quietly asked his mother and learned that the two princesses seemed to be difficult to deal with. But Lu Xun was with her, and Lan Ji was polite to her on the surface. As for what he was thinking in his heart, Shao Xun didn't have the nerve to ask.
She won't tell either.
Le's family has been pardoned as a concubine of the Chengdu King, and Shao Xun officially took her as his concubine.
As for Song Yi, she is now Shao Xun's sexual outlet when he changes his taste, and she has no status.
To be honest, she needs to be good-looking, talented, and young, but she is really unlucky. When she meets someone like Shao Xun, he doesn't want to spend time on her. If it were any other family, she would have been pampered long ago.
No more.
"That's pretty much it. When I go to see the emperor, I'm not that particular." Shao Xun said with a smile.
Lu Xun took two steps back, took a closer look, and then stepped forward to adjust the position of the bow tip. When she saw the colorful knot she made by herself hanging on the handle of the saber, she felt happy.
"Mr. Lang established himself with military force. When he goes to meet the soldiers, it is best to be more powerful. In the future, we will have to rely on them to fight bravely." She said.
Shao Xun took her in his arms, kissed her forehead gently, and said, "What Xun Niang said is true. Domination in the world must be fought with swords and guns. Soldiers are the most important."
"The husband is more important." Leshi came over and whispered.
Shao Xun smiled proudly, hugged both girls in his arms, and said shamelessly: "In the past, Wang Hui of Fanyang was also considered brave and decisive, but the year is not a holiday. Wang Ying of Chengdu won first and was arrogant later, and was imprisoned, and he could not escape death.
.Langjun has his own destiny, and nothing will happen to him."
Before he finished speaking, his left and right waists were pinched by each other.
Le's and Lu's pretty faces were slightly red. They looked at each other and smiled. For a moment, they actually felt like they were in the same boat.
Shao Xun felt very happy.
He is not a masochist, but he just feels very happy and proud.
Don't say anything else. When the yellow-haired god comes, you have to toast him.
"You two should discuss matters at home." Shao Xun said, "If you have any difficulty, just ask my grandma."
Both women were about to speak but stopped.
"Speak quickly before I leave."
"My third brother has moved to Liang County..." Le Lanji said.
Shao Xun understood immediately, so he said: "If Hong Mao doesn't do well with Situ, he can first come to the Hou Mansion and become the temple chief."
The temple chief is in charge of the sacrificial affairs, which is actually pretty good.
"My heir Li has come to Luoyang..." Lu Xun said.
"Sima Mo's son? Come to rob the family property? Haha, ignore him." Shao Xun waved his hand and walked out of the house. When he got on his horse, he waved to the two girls and left with a laugh.
Shao Xun's first stop was the villages of Liang County, where Silver Spear soldiers gathered.
When we arrived at the entrance of the village, we were greeted by the men who had received the news.
"Zhao Huai!" Shao Xun threw the riding whip to Tang Jian and said: "Did you behead two levels of people in the battle of Jianshui?"
"See Marquis Chen." Zhao Huai, the leader of the Silver Spear Army, stepped forward and saluted.
During the Battle of Jianshui, the original team leader was unable to return to the team after recovering from injury. Commander Zhao Huai was promoted to the team leader and took his place.
He is one of the few people who has climbed all the way from a soldier to the position of team leader. This level of Gein is usually held by student officers.
"Have you received the reissued silk cotton from the Hou Mansion?" Shao Xun looked at Zhao Huai's home and asked.
"Received, ten bolts of silk and five pounds of cotton." When Zhao Huai heard this, his face was filled with joy.
Shao Xun entered his yard.
Zhao Huai is from Luoyang. After coming to Liang County, he took over this abandoned house. It looked very dilapidated at the time, but after making great efforts to repair it, it has a completely new look.
Shao Xun looked at it carefully.
The courtyard wall is a fence made of bamboo and wood. The fence wall is roughly divided into two large blocks on the left and right, with a road in the middle leading directly to the main house.
The outermost one on the left side of the road is a sheep pen, which contains seven or eight sheep, large and small.
To the north of the sheepfold is the woodshed, which is filled with dead branches and dead wood, as well as a lot of hay that has not yet been chopped.
Further north of the woodshed is the kitchen, where smoke is curling up and lunch is being cooked.
There are several fruit trees in front of the sheepfold, woodshed, and kitchen. Two of them seem to have died, possibly due to the severe drought in spring and summer this year.
On the right side of the road is a neatly tended vegetable patch, with a well dug in the center and covered with a lid.
There is a small door at the northernmost edge of the vegetable patch, which is now open, revealing the woodpile and haystack outside.
Behind the firewood pile is the toilet. There are also many old and new feces piled up against the wall outside the toilet, covered with a thin layer of soil.
It is a typical farmhouse, and it is a farmhouse that has been run for at least one generation.
Zhao Huai is lucky to have picked it up.
"Not bad." After reading it, Shao Xun nodded, and then under the guidance of Zhao Huai, he entered the nave and sat at the first place.
Zhao Huai's ten-year-old eldest son brought warm wine.
Shao Xun was not polite, picked up the wine bowl, took a sip and said, "Good wine."
"This is a rice wine for sacrifice, brewed during the Spring Society. If Chen Hou likes it, you can drink a few more cups." Zhao Huai said.
"Sit down and drink together." Shao Xun greeted and asked Zhao Huai and several other Silver Spear sergeants to sit down together.
Everyone declined, but when Shao Xun insisted, they sat down and drank together.
Chu is a high-alcohol wine that requires a long time to brew, even two or three times.
Jimichu, as the name suggests, is a high-quality liquor brewed from Jimi rice, with the addition of five eggplant peels, dried ginger and other seasonings. The taste is very special. At this time, people not only like to add various things to tea, but also to wine.
"Starting from next year, you will have fifty acres of land. After the wheat harvest in May, the campers will bring the harvested wheat." Shao Xun said: "It's time to prepare stone mills at home. Donkeys, mules, and horses are the best.
Raise one or two horses."
"Thank you, Marquis Chen, for the reward. It's hard to repay such kindness and kindness." Hearing this, Zhao Huai immediately stood up and saluted, his eyes becoming moist.
When hauling on the river, there is not much gained in a day, and it is difficult to support the family. Moreover, the trackers are often covered with injuries and do not live long, so the days are really unspeakable.
After joining the Silver Spear Army, life gradually improved.
Although the days of living in Yunzhongwu were poor, the family was able to have enough to eat.
After moving to Liang County, not only did he get this small house, he was also promoted from chief to team leader, and could receive 36 grains of grain, 10 bolts of silk, 5 pounds of cotton, plus an income of fifty acres of land every year.
If the battle is won, the spoils can be divided - Chen Hou is never stingy in this regard.
It can be said that Zhao Huai's life has undergone earth-shaking changes.
Some people in Luoyang wonder why the Silver Spear Army has such high morale and dares to fight. This is the reason.
There is no love or hate for no reason in the world. Zhao Huai was a beneficiary of the military and political group established by Shao Xun. He had the urge to protect this group spontaneously. The soldiers knew why they were fighting, and their combat effectiveness was already extraordinary.
No one else can pull away such an army!
"After the Spring Festival, you will follow me to Chen County, so that the people of Yuzhou can have a good look at the style of the Silver Spear Soldier." After drinking two bowls of wine, Shao Xun stopped Zhao Huai who continued to pour him wine.
Said: "I've had enough wine to enjoy myself. That's enough."
Zhao Huai sat down and said, "I will obey your order."
"I sincerely obey your order." The rest of the people responded in unison.
While talking, Zhao Huai's wife brought more fruits, snacks and tea and porridge.
Shao Xun couldn't resist, so he took the tea and porridge and started eating. He also asked his soldiers to come and get fruits and snacks.
Tea at this time was generally called "tea".
It was not until the middle and late Tang Dynasty that the commodity tea became widely popular, so much so that there were tea soup sellers in small places, and traders and lackeys could drink it for just a few cents.
Among the "Business Poems", a major school of poetry in the Tang Dynasty, there are countless things related to tea.
Nowadays, tea is not as unpopular as people think.
Needless to say, there were quite a few scholar families who entertained their guests with tea.
In big cities such as Luoyang, tea is also a popular commodity.
During the reign of the late emperor, the crown prince Sima Yu once ordered his subordinates to sell tea, vegetables and other items, so much so that Prince Xima Jiang sent a letter to the emperor to advise him.
There was also an old woman from Shu selling tea and porridge in Luoyang market, but her utensils were broken by city officials, causing disputes.
These are all sales for the general public, at least in big cities there are a certain number of consumers.
Tea porridge was popular until the Tang Dynasty and was called "ming porridge". After that, tea rice was developed, which is considered a major traditional food.
Shao Xun doesn't like tea and porridge very much, because it contains a lot of messy spices and medicinal materials, and the taste is very touching.
But this time at Zhao Huai's house, he ate without changing his expression and praised him repeatedly, which made Zhao Huai happy.
After eating, he stopped disturbing and stood up to say goodbye.
Before leaving, he held Tang Jian and gave him a few instructions.
After a while, Yang Qin, a private soldier, led a horse into the yard and said: "Captain Zhao, this is the horse awarded by Marquis Chen. Please accept it."
Zhao Huai was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly.
Others also looked at Zhao Huai with envy. After eating and drinking at your house, they gave him a horse as a gift. It was so profitable.
Shao Xun smiled, turned and left.
The "aging" of the Xianbei horses in Guangchengze is very serious. Some horses are completely unfit for riding, but they can help farmers work and are suitable for rewards.
After leaving Zhao Huai's house, Shao Xun went to the house of a soldier named Ren Na who died in the war in the east of the village.
Ren Na's parents are gone, leaving behind only his wife and three children, as well as one younger brother and one sister at home.
When Shao Xun and others arrived, the whole family knelt down and worshiped on the ground.
Shao Xun helped them up one by one and said: "Ren Na is an old soldier. He is very brave in the battle formation and has many achievements. You don't need to kneel."
After several people got up, they stood aside cautiously.
Shao Xun walked around the courtyard casually, and then looked at the household items in the house and the food in the kitchen.
"Have you received this year's pension?" He looked at the woman in her thirties and asked.
"I got it," the woman replied softly.
"How much did you get?"
"Twelve husks of wheat, five husks of millet, and three husks of beans."
"Take me to see it."
The woman nodded and turned to lead the way, but she stumbled because she was too nervous.
After arriving at the West Wing Grain Store, Shao Xun took a closer look.
The grain store is basically empty, with only a little left.
There are still grains in several sacks placed in the corner, which should be the pensions sent years ago - the pensions are distributed in two times, the first batch is distributed in the autumn after the summer harvest is completed, and the second batch is distributed before the autumn harvest is completed.
"Has it been sown this autumn?" Shao Xun asked.
"I planted a little," the woman replied.
Shao Xun frowned, it seemed like he didn't plant much.
In fact, it is completely conceivable that there is only one woman and two seven or eight-year-old children in the family. Renner's younger brothers and sisters are not too old to do hard work such as farming.
"Are there no clansmen?" Shao Xun asked.
"My family originally lived in Chenggao. After I was recruited, I moved first to Tanshanwu and then to Liang County. I have no clan members," the woman replied.
Shao Xun glanced at Tang Jian.
Tang Jian understood and left.
After a while, several soldiers brought in several bags of wheat, and there were always seven or eight bushels of dendrobium.
After putting them down, he took a few iron farm tools and put them in the corner - this family didn't have any decent farm tools.
Shao Xun looked at the woman and the boys and girls behind her, and said warmly: "Let Na kill the enemy for me, I can't treat his family badly. Please keep these grains and farm tools. There is also a horse tied in the yard.
Guang Chengze has practiced over there, and if he can manage to farm the land, he will give it to you as well."
After hearing this, the woman covered her face, shrugged her shoulders, and tears overflowed.
Everyone was sympathetic.
Shao Xun sighed, and asked someone to get two more pieces of silk and put them on the table outside, and said, "Have a good life. After these few years, when the children grow up, they will be ready to run."
"My husband's death was not in vain..." the woman cried: "Since ancient times, no king has ever treated his soldiers so kindly."
"My soldiers cannot bleed or shed tears." Shao Xun said, "Life will get better."
After saying that, he left the house.
In the next few days, he visited Liang, Jiacheng, and Xiangcheng counties, randomly visited dozens of families of the Silver Spear Army, gave gifts to them one by one, and helped them solve some practical difficulties.
It wasn't until New Year's Eve that I returned to Green Willow Garden and reunited with my family.
After the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he would also visit the families of the Yamen sergeants. They are mainly located in Liang, Yangzhai, Yangcheng, Fucheng and other counties, and they have all moved here in the past year or two.
After finishing these things, we will prepare to head east.
Chapter completed!