Go to ancient times and engage in construction

New Year's Eve was a sunny day, and the city of Kangcheng, the capital of King Wu, was extremely lively with people coming and going. The boy in a wine shop was a little confused when he saw this scene.

"Boss! Didn't you say that this year is a depressed year, and the Chinese New Year will be a bleak year? Why are there more and more people shopping in the city as the year approaches?" The shopkeeper felt that ordinary people were much more active this year than in previous years.

Liquor is a relatively high-end consumer product, and most of the customers who originally entered the winery had decent conditions.This year, due to the turmoil in the royal court, the nobles in the city were killed during the turmoil, or were punished after the turmoil subsided. According to the statistics of the two, the number of nobles in the royal capital city has been reduced by at least half.Many of the missing half of the nobles are regular customers of the winery. If there are fewer customers, the business of the winery will of course suffer.

But at the end of the year, the business of the wine shop was completely contrary to what the owner of the wine shop predicted. Not only did the business of the wine shop not deteriorate, but it became prosperous.There are fewer old customers in the winery, but many new customers.For example, merchants swarmed here, and this group of merchants spent the most alcohol.There is also Huben, which receives a generous retirement subsidy. If it turns out to be good wine and has a lot of coins in its hands, it will frequent it.The most surprising customers are the coolies with a southern accent. Those coolies are porters who help the merchants to transport goods. It is said that the merchants pay the porters well. These porters sometimes come alone, sometimes in groups, and spend a lot of money. How meaty they are.However, these porters are no longer seen in the wine shop. I heard that they all returned to their hometowns in the south for the New Year.

The wine shop owner himself couldn't figure out why after the two turmoils in the capital, the merchants in the city became more active than before, and the things sold by the merchants seemed to be better than before.But when he saw a ragged farmer passing by the door with a bag of things on his shoulders, he felt that he understood the reason why Wangcheng was so crowded.

"It should all be exchanged for grain." The owner of the distillery pointed to the farmer. The reserve soldiers recruited into the army and the laborers who built water conservancy everywhere were paid five catties of millet a day and paid out every ten days. .A few days before the end of the year, it was the day when [-] catties of food stamps were issued.The family members of the labor force will exchange the food stamps at the grain store in Wangdu City immediately, and buy some New Year's goods if they have spare money, so there are a lot of people going to the city these two days.

Boss Mao stood on a big rock near the north city gate, stretched his neck and stared at everyone entering the city gate.Boss Mao is waiting for his wife who is more than four months pregnant.

"Here! Here!" Boss Mao saw his wife walking in from outside the city gate in a thick sackcloth with rolled trousers and cuffs. He jumped off the stone and shouted at his wife.

"Father Niu, are we going to exchange grain now?" Boss Mao's wife wiped the sweat from her forehead, and walked out of her body covered in sweat twenty miles away.

"I'll wipe it for you!" Seeing that his wife was rubbing sweat with her rough sleeve, and her forehead was red, he hurriedly stopped him, and helped his wife dry it with his reserve soldier's padded jacket.

"This is the new clothes? It's so soft!" Mao's wife touched her husband's new cotton clothes.

The reserve soldiers were on holiday last night, from New Year's Eve to the third day of the first lunar month.The reserve soldiers who were close to home could have gone home yesterday, but Boss Mao was greedy for the barracks to serve breakfast on New Year's Eve, so he didn't go back with Mao Zhuzi. The sack came to the capital to hold the exchanged grain.

"I'll wear it for you when I get back." Boss Mao smiled at his wife. After more than half a month of full food, the blood on Boss Mao's face was better than that at home. Although he had a heavy workload every day, Boss Mao felt that his body was weak It used to be powerful.

"I don't want it any more. Buy me a new suit after you become a regular soldier." Boss Mao's wife shook her head.

"Well, okay, next year I will buy you a suit, and I will buy a suit for our daughter too!" Boss Mao patted his chest and promised.

"I haven't become an official soldier yet, so I promise blindly!" Boss Mao's wife reproachfully pushed her husband.

"The supervisor has praised me twice." Boss Mao is very responsible when he works, and he can exert as much force as he can. As long as he can move, he never slackens.When the supervisor praised Boss Mao, he faintly revealed that reserve soldiers with advanced ideology and active work would be promoted to full-time positions in advance.Boss Mao doesn't understand what ideology is, but he understands that he is active in his work.

"Does the supervisor have a lot of power?" Mao's wife doesn't know what a supervisor is, so she can make her husband a full-time official in advance.

"It must be very big, he has a plum blossom mark on his forehead!" Boss Mao told his wife in a low voice.

"Plum blossom mark? Isn't that a bad mark?" Mrs. Mao's eyes were wide open. Although she had little experience, she also knew that only slaves branded their faces, and most of the people who branded plum blossom marks were handsome men and women. , the usefulness of these men and women is self-evident.

"What's wrong? It depends on who branded them. The supervisor of our team is the slave of the son and the general!"

After Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui took control of the power of Wu, they transferred all the slaves and civilians who could be called in the valley and Nanbu to the capital and placed them in various departments.The officer who supervised Boss Mao was a boy in the valley. He had studied under Fan Jin for two years. After the Ulsan army moved out, there was a shortage of defenders in the valley. And Security Bureau refills.After the capital was pacified, these teenagers with only three or four months of management experience were sent to the capital to supervise the military discipline of the reserve soldiers and guide ideological education.

"Ah! It's the same as the two generals who were enlisted!" Mao's wife exclaimed.The news that Zhou Cheng and Zeng You, who were born as slaves, were knighted shocked the people in the vicinity of King Wu's capital.

"Yeah, so I think being a soldier is very promising." Boss Mao was a peaceful farmer, but he couldn't help but feel excited when he heard the news. This would change the fate of the whole family.

Talking and laughing, the couple walked to the exchange office of the grain store. When they reached the exchange office of the grain store, the boss and his wife were a little dumbfounded.Because there were too many people coming to redeem the grain, there was already a long queue at the gate of the grain store.Next to the team are six Ulsan soldiers in armor who are in charge of order. The winter sun shines on the weapons they hold, reflecting the dazzling light.Under the shock of this dazzling light, everyone who went to the grain store to exchange grain consciously queued to the end of the line. Those who could not tell the situation and wanted to squeeze to the front to jump in the line would always be immediately removed from the line by the soldiers. Drag it out, drag it to the end of the line, once is a warning, twice is confiscation of food coupons, three times, it seems that there are no more than three times, one warning and confiscation of food coupons is enough, food is the guarantee of their lives, no one will make trouble with their lives .

Although the line in front of the grain store was long, the speed of exchanging grain in the store was not slow, because the number of food stamps was fixed. The grain store first divided the grain into baskets of [-] catties, received a note, and then poured out a basket to the money changer. corn.The boss Mao and his wife waited in line for less than an hour before they exchanged for corn.But when it was Boss Mao's turn to exchange, there was already a long queue behind him.

Boss Mao packed it in the sack brought by his wife and carried it on his shoulders, and the couple rushed home side by side.Although the sharp winter wind blows to the body, Mao and his wife don't feel cold. They are full of hope for the new year.

When Mao and his wife drove home, a middle-aged man and a 17-year-old boy were kneeling in front of an earthen grave in a mountain village near Dadu, the capital of Tang Dynasty.

"Nephew, before your father died, I asked Uncle Wei to tell you that you must never become a tiger in the future."

"Uncle, please tell me more about how my father was shot by an arrow when he broke through." The boy's face was pale, and hatred was shining in his eyes.

"Say it again?" The middle-aged man looked at his nephew suspiciously. He has already said it twice. Didn't the nephew hear clearly?

This middle-aged man is the middle-aged man who wanted to follow the Tang king to get meritorious service at the end of July last year.Half a year of combat career has seriously damaged his health.

"That's my army of [-] troops from the Tang Dynasty, Wu Jun, who was besieged in a mountain depression..." The middle-aged man couldn't help closing his eyes when he said this, and the two colors of white and red once again occupied his mind.

The earth is a vast expanse of white, and the blood sown by the breakout operation is bright red.The middle-aged man and his elder brother participated in every breakout operation, but facing the enemy whose weapons and equipment were a few notches higher than theirs, every breakout operation by Tang Jun ended in failure. During the last breakout, a sharp arrow shot Hit the middle-aged man's brother in the back.

"The sharp arrow was shot from the Chu character flag?" The young man clenched his fists tightly.

"Yes, the shape of the arrow branch is too sinister. It is very difficult to pull out when it is shot into the body, but it keeps bleeding if you don't pull it out." Even more painful, the arrow has a barb, which cannot be removed without a scalpel.

"My father was tortured to death just like that?" The boy had tears in his eyes.

"Hey, now that I think about it, it would be better to be hit directly by that arrow, so that your father will be less...pained." The middle-aged man covered his face and cried bitterly.

After the middle-aged man's elder brother was injured, he died of pain for two days.At that time, the Tang army's barracks were in short supply of supplies, and all dead tigers were thrown out of the camp.

The middle-aged man didn't want his brother's body to explode in the wild, so he hid the body in the tent.The emaciated slave brought by the two brothers had already starved to death.Huben who was in the same tent was almost dead, and those who survived were already exhausted. No one noticed that there was a dead body lying beside him.

After Tang Wang signed the compensation agreement, he left with the walking tiger.The middle-aged man could have returned to the country with the king of Tang, but because he couldn't let go of his brother's remains, he stayed in the military camp.

What he didn't expect was that the Wu army treated the defeated prisoners very kindly. After eating and drinking, they even distributed some rations to let them go home on their own. Shipping supplies will also be paid.

The village where the middle-aged man lived was not included in the Tang King's compensation agreement. The middle-aged man received the rations, carried his brother's body on his back, leaned on a tree branch, and walked towards his hometown. He stopped and walked for nearly a month. Just walked back.Fortunately, it was severe winter and the temperature was very low. The body of the middle-aged man's elder brother did not decompose, and only relatives in the family were able to see the remains.

Before the middle-aged man returned home, the villagers already knew the news of the Tang army's defeat. For those who did not return, the family members were worried all day long.The middle-aged man's wife and his sister-in-law had hugged each other and cried countless times. The middle-aged man's return brought joy and sorrow to the family.

The sad one is the middle-aged man's sister-in-law, and the happy one is the middle-aged man's wife.However, after the middle-aged man's wife was happy, she fell into an existential crisis.There was a severe drought in the Tang Dynasty last year, and the autumn harvest was reduced. The wife of a middle-aged man had hoped that her husband would be rewarded to overcome the family difficulties by following the king of Tang. Now it seems that this hope was not only shattered, but also caused her husband to lose his health.

"My father died at the hands of that vicious villain surnamed Chu!" The boy bit his lips with blood.

"Alas! On the battlefield, there is no mercy." The middle-aged man sighed. He originally wanted to say that his brother's life and his own health were destroyed by the king of Tang, but seeing his bookish nephew, he still Shut up.His nephew studied under a celebrity in Dadu, the capital city of the Tang Dynasty. The celebrity respected the supremacy of the king. He wanted to talk about the faults of the Tang king in front of his nephew. If the young and vigorous nephew leaked it in front of the celebrity, it would be bad. It is a serious crime to talk about the king's immorality behind his back. If the king doesn't know, no one will pursue it. If he gets angry, it is possible to destroy the nine clans.

"Nephew, you should study hard with your master, and you can become a famous celebrity like him in the future." The middle-aged man had already extinguished his desire to glorify his family through military exploits.

"Uncle! Nephew understands!" The young man bowed his head, but secretly swore to his father's grave in his heart.

The middle-aged man looked at his thin nephew, and then at the desolation all around him. His heart was gloomy, and he felt that there was no light in front of him.

On the evening of New Year’s Eve, Zhou Cheng led his men to patrol outside the tent. His feet were the land of the original Tang State, but now it has belonged to the Wu State. .

Zhou Cheng took his hands down to inspect a border line today. He wanted to see if there were any changes to the boundary markers on the border line.The border between Tang State and Wu State is very vague, but the direction is roughly determined.Set up a boundary marker at the main road intersection or in a conspicuous place to show the distinction.

Zhou Cheng rode his horse to the place to be inspected, and found that yesterday's boundary marker had moved another thirty meters to the north.It has been about ten days since the boundary marker moved north by itself. At first, Zhou Cheng thought that his eyesight was wrong, but when he found a somewhat eye-catching plant beside the boundary marker as a reference, he realized that he was not dazzled. The boundary marker does move north by itself every night.

Seeing the change in the position of the boundary marker, Zhou Cheng did not get off his horse to investigate. Instead, he took out his binoculars and looked north. There was a small village with four or five families more than two miles to the north.

After Zhou Cheng saw the terrain of the small village, he couldn't help but pursed his lips and smiled. There were several footprints on the boundary marker going straight to the direction of the small village. It seemed that the boundary marker was moved for the villagers of the small village. The villagers of the small village hoped that by changing the position of the marker, the I became a man of Wu.

Zhou Cheng looked beyond the small village and looked further north. To the north of Tang State was the State of Lu, which used to be Zhou Cheng's hometown.The sneaky behavior of the villagers in the small village made Zhou Cheng feel emotional. If he could be allowed to move the boundary marker, Zhou Cheng hoped to move the boundary marker to the back of his hometown.