Little Zhuangtou and the Great General

040

Three days later, Wu Liu left Biezhuang with his people.

News came from ahead that Zhenhai Jiedu envoy Zhou Bao died of serious injuries shortly after he arrived in Hangzhou. Dong Chang was furious when he heard the news and ordered Qian Liu to send troops to Zhejiang West Road to avenge Zhou Bao.Qian Liu ordered Chengji and Du Ling to attack Runzhou, and ordered his younger brother Qian Kui and his six sons Qian Juan to contain Xu Yue and attack Suzhou if they had the opportunity.

Shen Miao knew that the war should not be delayed, so she didn't try to keep him, and thought about Wu Liu's injury, before leaving, she told Monk Gu: "You have to watch out for me, and don't let his injury worsen." Shen Miao has been While changing Wu Liu's dressing, he knew very well that Wu Liu's injury had improved, but due to his frequent movements, his speed was not fast.

Upon hearing this, Monk Gu teased: "Don't worry, after leaving Biezhuang, he won't 'work' so frequently, and the injury will definitely heal soon."

Shen Miao immediately understood Monk Gu's meaning, her ears blushed, and she said angrily, "He's fine, you can take care of him less when you go to the battlefield, that's a good thing, you're lucky, you just know how to tease me."

Monk Gu looked at Shen Miao with an unrepentant expression, folded his arms and smiled.Unexpectedly, Wu Liu's voice sounded: "Have you finished all the things you were asked to do? Do you have the time to chat here?"

When Monk Gu heard that he was begging for mercy, he ran away in a hurry. This Wu Liu was too much. The materials needed to build a house on the mountain were sent by Luo Zhaojian the next day after the discussion. do it.It was hard to find in the first place, and with the sudden news, Gu Monk was too tired to say anything.It's finally finished, but Wu Liu can't let Wu Liu catch the strong man again.

Shen Miao and Wu Liu were the only ones left in the courtyard. Shen Miao was extremely reluctant to say goodbye soon, especially after these few days, the two became more and more intimate.

Wu Liu put his arms around Shen Miao and said with a smile, "Don't worry, I'll be back soon."

Although Zhexi Dao has a strong army, Zhou Bao has neglected politics for many years and left his power to others. There are many capable generals under his command, but they do their own thing and seek their own future, resulting in frequent battles.Qian Liu's place is different, the soldiers are united, even against Liu Hao and Xue Lang, the two famous generals of West Zhejiang Road, the odds of winning are quite high.That's why Wu Liu made such a promise to Shen Miao.

Shen Miao didn't know anything about war, but she was assured of Wu Liu's ability, so she said with a smile: "You don't worry, when you come back victorious, I will definitely show you how to treat the village here."

"We'll wait and see." Wu Liu smiled and lowered his head to kiss Shen Miao.

The two caressed each other, reluctantly, Wu Liufang got on his horse and led them away.

The building of the house on the crevice of the cliff went very smoothly. Before Monk Gu left, he found all the materials he needed, and transported them up together with the soldiers. The bandits who had been subdued before were also transported together. After transporting, they lived directly in the crevice of the cliff. While building a house, they began to inspect.

Refugees began to appear in twos and threes. Unlike Shen Miao's imagination, those who fled were not all hard-working people. Many small wealthy businessmen and gentry also followed them. , along the way, there are friends from aristocratic families to help, and there are many guards and private soldiers around them to protect them.With their strength, if they walked on the plains, after exploiting all the way, they would not have much property to live on, so they also chose the relatively safer mountain road.

According to the previously discussed method, Luo Zhao asked those people on the mountain to pretend to be farmers, whether they were chopping firewood, or hunting. The knowledge, even calluses on the hands are real farmers.

According to Luo Zhaojian's instructions, they all answered the refugees truthfully: the manor at the foot of the mountain belonged to their master, and the master was away from home, so he didn't know what he was doing, he only knew that his status was quite high.The master knows that people from the Western Zhejiang Road have come over the mountain, and they have set up porridge in the pergola at the foot of the mountain. You can go and rest.

The real hardworking refugees ran all the way, most of them were starving, and when they heard that there was a porridge shed down the mountain, they rushed down the mountain.

Small rich merchants and petty gentry are not short of food and are not in a hurry to go down. Instead, they sit aside to rest and ask more about things down the mountain. For them, their future livelihood is more important.

For this group of people, Wu Liu, Shen Miao, and the others discussed it before. These people have some money on hand, and their spirits are much higher than those of farmers. It may not be a good thing to stay. They mainly give it away, and only those who are willing to stay will be allowed to stay.

Therefore, Luo Zhaojian instructed the mountain people to answer: "Out of the village and go south along the stream, you can go to Fuyang, Qiantang and other counties, which are naturally much more prosperous than ours. It’s a hard life, but most of them are farmers, and we haven’t seen rich businessmen come here.”

After hearing these words, most of the small rich merchants and small gentry went down the mountain. Although they still didn't know much about the mountain, they already had some knowledge and thought it would be no problem for them to go out to hang out.

After these people have been screened, the rest who are still inquiring should be paid attention to.Luo Zhaojian particularly emphasized that the more talkative and tricky the person, the more closely one should be watched, the person who talks to them should answer honestly, and the people who are in ambush should be responsible for the surveillance.

Under such a division of labor, most of those who inquired about the news did not have much good results.

Shen Miao was assigned by Luo Zhaojian to the porridge shed at the foot of the mountain, where she often talked with the refugees who ate porridge, and selected some people to stay on the basis of willingness to take the bait.Shen Miao went there full of energy. The refugees were hungry all the way, and most of them recovered after drinking the porridge. They were not in a hurry to leave, and liked to sit aside and talk.

Shen Miao is lovable and has a good attitude. Whenever he goes up to talk to the refugees, most of them are willing to talk about them. Where did they come from, how did they escape, how did they climb the mountain, and what did they encounter on the way? .

Shen Miao also responded one by one, empathetic and considerate, and the refugees liked him even more.

An old farmer was holding a bowl of porridge and chatting with him about opening up mountains and reclaiming fields: "My little brother, I just came down the mountain road and saw a lot of people in the valley from a distance. Is that going to open up mountains and open up fields?"

Shen Miao nodded hurriedly: "Yes, there are too many people and too little land. If you can't get enough to eat, you can only open up fields."

"How did you cultivate your fields?" asked the old farmer.

Shen Miao explained the method of opening up fields that had been set before, and the old farmer shook his head: "This method is too wasteful."

Shen Miao was overjoyed and hurriedly asked: "The old man has a better way."

"Of course there are." The old farmer took a sip of porridge and said with a smile, "The reason why you use this method is nothing more than the reason that the mountain soil here is too thin, but you know, not all the mountains here are all Those mountains with thin soil layer and thick soil layer can be turned into terraced fields in Xiangyang."

Shen Miao immediately remembered the mountains in Bashu mentioned by the old men during the initial discussion. The mountains and plains are all covered with terraced fields up to the top of the mountain, because of the thick soil layer of Bashu.If a mountain with a thick soil layer can be found here as the old man said, the man-hours spent on the field will be greatly shortened.Then he said, "The old man knows how to investigate?"

The old farmer smiled smugly: "Since I dare to mention it, of course I will."

"It's so good." Shen Miao was overjoyed and asked, "Will the old man teach you?"

The old farmer smiled a little embarrassedly and said, "Xiangshou is naturally willing, just a request."

"But it's okay to talk." Shen Miao said hastily.

"I took my children and grandchildren all the way here from Zhexi Road. I heard the servants of the merchants in front say that the life of the farmers is not easy to go further down. I thought that it would be better to stay here than to go hard. I just don't know..." The old man didn't continue, he just looked at Shen Miao with a sneer.

Shen Miao understood what the old farmer meant, but Luo Zhaojian had told him in advance that when he met a farmer who wanted to stay in the farm, he must not agree immediately, and waited for a few days before talking.He said: "I can't decide this matter, I have to go back and tell the steward, the old man is willing to wait."

The old man rubbed his hands, hesitated for a while, and finally made a decision: "Okay, I'll wait. There is porridge to drink every day, and if you don't starve to death, the big deal is to sleep on the side of the road. I have slept in places worse than this when I was fleeing."

Upon hearing this, Shen Miao quickly pointed to the drying yard in the village and said with a smile: "There is no need to sunbathe there now, the elderly can sleep there."

The old man laughed and said, "Thank you very much."

When Shen Miao went back, she told Luo Zhaojian about this matter, and Luo Zhaojian nodded upon hearing that, "If it's true, it's a good thing, let him hang out for a few days before we talk about it."

Shen Miao knew the intention of Luo Zhao's remonstrance, one was to find out the truth, and the other was to put it aside on purpose to force him to work hard.

Sure enough, three days later, the old man came to ask again, and this time he returned some other refugees, some old and young, all of them looked forward to it, and the old man spoke on his behalf: "My little brother, I don't know what to say about what I mentioned that day. Over the past few days, I have been wandering around. Women and children go to the fields, and strong men go to the mountains. I think Guizhuang is short of manpower, so I haven’t replied for a long time. I found some people, and most of them came here together. They are all of good character. Work hard, you can come to open up mountains and fields."

Shen Miao was overjoyed when she heard it, but she didn't show it on her face, but said with a smile: "You wait a minute, I'll send someone to look for the manager." Then, he glanced at Duo'er, and Duo'er hurried back to the village Go and retell the matter.

Luo Zhao remonstrated with a smile, and said to the steward, "Go ahead, follow what we discussed earlier."

The steward hurriedly followed Duo'er, the old man repeated the story, and the steward frowned embarrassingly: "Our village is not very rich, we only have enough money for those people to reclaim the land, and we really can't afford you. "

The old man brought all the farmers to have a look at each other, and some of them really came here because they wanted to make money by making money.

More people said to the old man, "As long as Zhuangzi can accept us, if there is no money to earn, let's first have no money to earn."

"What do we eat if we don't have money? What do our children eat?" Someone objected.

"It's really not good. I come here to drink porridge every day. Passers-by can drink it. Is it possible to watch us starve to death?"

"Yes, yes, yes! It's good if you can stay."

"This won't work, how can you work hard after drinking porridge? I won't do it, you can do it." Someone heard this and left immediately.

More people stayed and informed the old man of the result of the discussion. The old man said to the steward: "We are trying to make things stable. As long as we can stay, we don't need money."

When Shen Miao heard this, she was excited, and the desired result of the previous negotiation was achieved so easily.

"That's fine." The steward nodded, "You guys follow me back and discuss the specific method, how about it?"

The old man nodded hurriedly and said yes repeatedly.

Shen Miao watched a group of people leave. He, Luo Zhaojian, and the steward had already discussed the specific method. The wages were not paid, but the workers were guaranteed two meals in the morning and evening; , there is only a lack of stones, and there are so many streams and ditches in the mountains that there are huge stones, so you can use what you can; the family members of the workers can set aside land to live in for their planting, and when there is no output in the early stage, they can eat in the porridge shed. Solve it by yourself after leaving; as for building a house, you have to pay by yourself.

In the evening, when the porridge shed was closed, Shen Miao took Duo'er back to the villa, and on the way, he met the refugees who had returned from the conversation, and their faces were full of joy.After so long, he finally has a place to stay. The owner of the village is still a kind person, not harsh.

Shen Miao looked at the refugees' smiles happily, stretched her waist, and relieved the fatigue of the day. The sunset was shining, and the sunset was like fire, which indicated that tomorrow would be a good weather again.