No matter if you are a human or an immortal, you can still farm for me after traveling through time!

Since the beginning of summer, most parts of the south are still in the hot rainy season, while the north has not seen a drop of rain for a long time. One day in August, a sudden and heavy rain came like a pouring of water, ending the three-month drought with thunder.

It is not a good or bad rain. The time when water is particularly needed for spring plowing and summer planting has long passed, and it is not yet the autumn harvest. This heavy rain has not had much impact on the crops, but it has only temporarily relieved the people's urgent need for daily water.

Today, the fields around Shandan are different from the past. There is no longer endless wheat and millet, but large areas of white dew.

That is a cotton field with buds already opened.

The government attached great importance to this first crop of cotton. The county magistrate was always paying attention to the situation in the fields and kept sending people to supervise farming and inspect the growth of cotton.

Among them, the village with the largest proportion of cotton fields is Lijia Village, which Ji Qingyue strongly supported. Farmers there who have fields will go to the county government to get seeds, and those who don't have land will also find ways to borrow cotton seeds from Li's family.

The Li family integrated all the land at home. There were more than a dozen people in their family, and four generations over several decades had received a total of 400 acres of land, most of which were open fields that needed to be cultivated by themselves. During this period, due to various reasons, they sold more than 100 acres of land one after another, and the government took back some arable land. Now there are less than 300 acres of land left, and of these 200 acres of land, less than half is suitable for farming. The rest is either mountainous land or desert salt land, which cannot be used to grow crops at all.

The government implemented two taxes: money tax in summer and grain tax in autumn. The tax was calculated per person. Except for children under three years old who were not counted as "people", all other people were taxed one share of the tax.

Sanlang was exempt from taxes because of his status as a scholar, and after the military reform, Erlang did not have to pay taxes when he served in the army. In total, the family had to pay nine parts of the head tax twice.

Of the more than one hundred acres of land, the majority is inferior land, with less than forty acres of superior land.

The wheat, millet and cotton they are planting now are related to the food and clothing of their family, so they must be done with great caution.

Father Li and Weng Li discussed for a long time before the spring plowing and finally decided on this year's farming plan.

Because the family still had some stored grain, and Erlang was going to get married and Sanlang was going to take the imperial examination, both of which would require money, so they decided to grow as much cotton as possible. After leaving enough for their own use, whether they sold it to the government or to merchants, it would be a good income.

This year's autumn harvest is destined to be very busy.

Whenever people looked at the cotton gradually drying in the field, they couldn't help but admire the seeds cultivated by Ji Qingyue. Although the quality of cotton grown by each household varied, no one dared to question the quality of the seeds. The reason why the quality of cotton varied was all due to the influence of different amounts of fertilizer. As long as the cotton sprouted smoothly and grew vigorously, it was a success in the eyes of farmers.

The cotton mill was successfully completed. Based on the spinning wheel and loom drawings submitted by Mr. Li, the craftsmen improved the machines that were more suitable for spinning cotton. Mrs. Li led the women in the family into the cotton mill and taught the weavers how to spin yarn, weave cloth, and fluff cotton to make quilts.

In the future, there will be more than just this cotton mill. The county government will establish cotton mills in various places to ensure the smooth promotion of cotton and purchase cotton from the people to make clothes for soldiers and send to barracks and border checkpoints.

Whenever Li A Niang went to the cotton mill, she would bring Jin Niang with her. Not only did she learn how to manage the cotton mill, but she also asked the county magistrate's wife to teach her how to manage the account books, in order to become the manager of the cotton mill. Previously, Ji Qingyue not only appointed candidates several times, but also provided cotton, which paved the way for them. As long as they worked harder, they could accomplish things they had never dared to think of or do before.

The autumn harvest is approaching, and this heavy rain takes away the heat from the north. The autumn atmosphere gradually becomes stronger after this rain.

While the family was making preparations for the grand autumn harvest, Li Changxiang, who was far away at the border, had already led his teammates deep into the grassland.

The vast grassland is sparsely visited by people. When autumn comes, gusts of dry yellow wind blow across the grassland, and the sparsely grown grass is no longer green, but gradually withers from the tip to the root.

Yang Xiaolai in the team can be considered half a grassland person. After his mother married a Han man, his family lived on the grassland for a long time. Later, they left the grassland to settle down and farm.

Yang Xiaolai was riding in the front. At this time, they were crossing an area that was half grassland and half desert. Facing the gradually flying sand and dust, he pointed in a direction in front and kept gesturing behind him. The three people walking behind immediately followed closely.

The wind blew up yellow sand, and in a short time the sky was covered without a trace of light. The four men covered their mouths and noses tightly with headscarves and rode their horses through the yellow sand with difficulty.

The four men finally arrived behind a huge rock. After dismounting, they immediately surrounded the horses in a circle and covered their heads with cloth. The four of them huddled in the circle, waiting for the wind and sand to pass.

After an unknown amount of time, the sudden sandstorm finally stopped, and not a single sound of wind could be heard in the dry grassland. Seeing this, the four men immediately stood up from the sand and cleaned the sand off their bodies and around their horses.

Li Changxiang ordered a quarter of an hour's rest, while he discussed with Yang Xiaolai what to do next.

Trapped in the vast grasslands, learning to identify directions and find food and water is a basic survival skill for nomadic people.

"Captain, the yellow sand has covered the footprints on the ground. Now we can only determine the direction based on the sun. The last direction they disappeared was northwest. Should we chase them?" Yang Xiaolai quickly identified the direction based on the sun above his head. After pointing out the location where the enemy disappeared to Li Changxiang, he asked how to make the decision.

Li Changxiang took out the map. While they were preparing their luggage at Hutou Pass, they were also waiting for news that the Huihe people would launch another attack. Finally, they received a military report that the Huihe people were harassing a checkpoint dozens of miles away from Hutou Pass.

So, Li Changxiang immediately led four people to the checkpoint. They did not go for support, but quietly went out of the checkpoint, lurking outside the checkpoint and observing the small group of Uighur cavalry.

If the Uighurs did not launch a large-scale attack, the victims were usually not Dali, but the grassland tribes that had friendly relations with Dali and were willing to submit to Dali. After being harassed and plundered by the Uighurs, they would go to nearby checkpoints to seek refuge from Dali.

When Dali sent out its troops, the hundred or so cavalrymen immediately dispersed and returned to the deep grassland.

As soon as they returned to the grassland, the Uighur cavalry disappeared without a trace in an instant, just like fish returning to the sea.

Li Changxiang and his four companions had been keeping a close eye on this group of people for a long time. When they fled back to the grassland, they immediately followed them, chasing the traces they left behind and staying far behind them. A distance of more than ten miles would prevent them from discovering them, nor would they lose them.

I didn't expect this sandstorm to happen.

Now the four of them have been chasing in the grassland almost day and night for more than ten days. After coming out of the checkpoint, they crossed the three deserts and Gobi behind Liancang Mountain and chased all the way to the northwest.

After going deep into the grassland, Li Changxiang realized that the grassland was so vast that it would be difficult to be discovered, let alone a cavalry of a hundred or so people, even an army of tens of thousands of people marching in the grassland.

The accuracy of the map is not very high, and the direction can only be roughly determined based on the several mountain ranges drawn on it.

"Captain, my mother told me that the people on the grassland would go to new pastures before winter. The pastures there are usually in valleys surrounded by mountains on three sides. I think this place is very likely." Yang Xiaolai pointed to a place on the map that was surrounded by mountains on three sides and had a lake.

How could Li Changxiang not know this? However, these locations were marked on the Dali map, which meant that their scouts had been to these places and had been explored. It was impossible for the Uighurs to be so careless as to set up their base camp there. The opening of the valley faced straight to the south, so even if it was a good place, the Uighurs would not stay there.

At their current speed, it would take several days to reach the valley marked on the map.

Anyway, the valley is also in the northwest, so there is no problem in going to take a look. There are no more markings on the map further down.

"Not to mention that this is not the Huihe grassland, just looking at the fact that there is a water source, they must pass through here if they go north." Li Changxiang put away the map, and after clarifying the direction, he quickly took out some dry food to fill his stomach.

After chasing for two days, they could feel the struggle between the grassland and the desert. As they went deeper into the north, they could feel the tenacity of the grassland and the power of the desert.

The desert is constantly moving, swallowing up the surrounding grasslands bit by bit.

They were still about a day's journey to the valley. Now that night was about to fall, the four of them were concentrating on their journey. Li Changxiang, who was in the front of the team, suddenly pulled the reins and raised his hand to signal his teammates to stop immediately.

The other three immediately became alert and looked around.

Tang Kaide looked for a long time and found nothing unusual. He walked to the side of Li Changxiang's horse and reported: "Captain, everything is safe, there is no problem."

Li Changxiang pointed to the sky ahead and said, "There was an eagle flying over the sky ahead just now. It looks very much like the messenger eagle that followed the group of Uighur cavalry a few days ago."

Yang Xiaolai and Feng Yingman were shocked after hearing this. They looked hard in the direction Li Changxiang pointed, but there was nothing in the sky which was getting darker.

"It was just circling near the skyline, but now it has flown towards the valley. Look at its flying posture. It seems that it has not discovered us." Li Changxiang was sitting on the horse, wrapped in a turban with only a pair of eyes exposed. The moment he saw the carrier eagle, he knew that their direction was correct and that the group of cavalry was in the valley.

Therefore, he immediately ordered not to pursue them today, but to rest on the spot for one night and pursue them again tomorrow. Because the distance between them and the Huihe was very close to the danger line, the Huihe people released the carrier eagle to indicate that they were stopping to rest, and they needed the carrier eagle's wide field of vision to follow them.

You know, once a carrier eagle flies high into the sky, it can easily detect the enemy nearly a hundred miles away.

The four men let the horses go, letting them grab grass roots around them, while they sat on the ground and ate dry food with cold water.

In order to avoid being discovered, they were cautious not to light a bonfire. Instead, they sat on the ground with their backs against each other, wrapped their cloaks tightly, and kept watch one after another.

It was just getting dark and it was not time to go to bed yet, so the four of them started chatting.

Among the four, only Li Changxiang is not married. The oldest, Feng Yingman, already has a child. Yang Xiaolai and Tang Kaide also have two children each. Whenever they have free time, what they miss most is their family.

When talking about the reasons for joining the army, all three were attracted by the benefits of being a private first class. As long as they made military achievements, they could easily support their families.

"Captain, I heard that the emperor would select the best soldiers from the first-class soldiers every few years and send them to Chang'an City to serve as the imperial guards?"

Li Changxiang knew the news. The official news was that every two years the emperor would select a small number of the best first-class soldiers from the various military governors of Dali, and have them join the Jinwu Guard under the emperor's personal command to take on the responsibility of guarding the capital.

This is one of the promotion paths. The salary is only higher than that of a private first class, and it sounds much more prestigious than being a border soldier.

Chang'an City, a place where all nations come to pay tribute, is a place that everyone yearns for.

Tang Kaide snorted, "I heard that Chang'an has a lot of rules, and there are important nobles everywhere. You can't offend this or do that. I don't want to go to Chang'an and suffer that humiliation! It would be great to stay at the border and make achievements! Captain, what do you think?"

Li Changxiang smiled and said, "I must go to Chang'an."

Unexpectedly, his own team did not want to stay in the Northwest just like ordinary people. Tang Kaide shouted that he had seen the wrong person!

Feng Yingman saw Li Changxiang taking out ointment from his chest bag, taking off his headscarf and applying it on his face. He joked: "Captain, your scar is very powerful when you kill the enemy. It scared those bastards to death. I think it's not a bad idea to keep it..."

Tang Kaide scolded: "You are married, but the captain is not yet married!"

Feng Yingman agreed. The scar on Li Changxiang's face could scare the Uighurs to death on the battlefield, and it would definitely stop his child from crying at night when he got home. But it would be bad if it scared his unmarried fiancée.

Yang Xiaolai asked curiously, "Captain, what kind of person is the girl you are going to marry?"

Tang Kaide chased after him and said, "When you get married, you must invite us to join in the fun!"

"Yes, yes, yes... I will definitely invite you all to come!" Li Changxiang did not specify that his other half was also a man. He could only agree while applying ointment on his face. In fact, he really wanted to invite these three good friends to attend his wedding.

"Captain, you haven't told me what kind of person that girl is!"

"He is... a strange man."

"A strange man? How can you be considered a strange man? But he has a strange temper?"

"No, he has a good personality, is well-educated, and has seen a lot. He came to my house unexpectedly because he got into trouble..."

Ji Qingyue, who was described by Li Changxiang as a man of great learning and knowledge who had come here only after falling into trouble, had been staying in Huaiyuanfang for several days.

When he could come out, he would wander around the area. When he couldn't come out, he would find a place in the dilapidated temple to hide the drawing paper. Then he would go back to the painting to plant the fields, feed the chickens and ducks, and live a normal life.

During these times, Ji Qingyue learned that most of the Hu people living in Huaiyuanfang came from the Western Regions of Persia and the Arabs, with a small number of people from the eastern and southeastern countries mixed in. What's worse, there were also black people called Kunlun slaves. Most of them were commodities waiting to be traded in the Makouhang.

During this period, Ji Qingyue not only devoted himself to studying the Hu people, but also bought a box of indigo for drawing eyebrows and rice powder as foundation from the rouge shop, intending to prepare for the subsequent plan.

That day, he returned to the painting, put an iron rod into the stove to heat it up, and used the heat from the iron rod to curl his straight long hair into small wool curls. He also tried to mix indigo and rice powder together, using rice powder to blend the color of indigo and make the black color lighter. Then he applied the mixed powder to both sides of the nose and eye sockets.

Commonly known as nose shadow and eye shadow.

In this way, the already high nose bridge becomes more upright against the shadow, and the eye sockets appear deeper.

When he first came out of the painting, Aaron mistook him for a "foreigner". This was because one of his ancestors was a foreigner, which made him look mixed-race. This mixed-race look was enhanced by makeup.

If he were to walk down the street in disguise, no one would think he was from Dali.

There are still some difficulties in terms of language.

Even if you can't speak Persian and Arabic, you can speak English.