Zhu Nao

Li Shen sat in his backyard staring at a half-bald jujube tree in a daze.

The weather was getting colder, and at this time of year, he would either be drinking hot wine with his arms around a beautiful girl in the bar, or spending money like water with a group of cronies in the gambling house.But right now, he can only sit here in a daze.

He has no money to drink flowers, and no money to gamble.

A bleak autumn wind blew by, the branches rustled, and a few more withered autumn leaves fell, making the poor jujube tree even more bald.

Li Shen tightened his outer robe, thinking that it was too windy outside, and was about to enter the house to avoid it, when a man ran in from the back door.

"Boss, Junao left the city again early this morning."

Li Shen squinted at him: "Oh?"

The guy asked: "Boss, do I want to go and have a look?"

"Yes..." Li Shen thought for a while, then waved his hand, "Forget it, there's no need to go."

Where did Zhu Nao go, he could guess.Recently, Zhu Nao often goes out of the city to see places.

In the early days of the founding of the dynasty, Taizu once ordered the prohibition of annexation and embezzlement of land.However, after more than [-] years, the government has been corrupted and the laws and regulations have been relaxed. The previous laws and regulations have long since become a dead letter.It is now so easy to buy and sell land that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

When he first heard the news that Zhu Naozhen planned to buy the land, Li Shen was so panicked that he couldn't sleep.Could it be that Zhu Nao really intends to fatten those straws and feed them to pigs? !Then he hangs himself by weaving a straw rope out of wheat straw!

Fortunately, Zhu Nao has been looking at several pieces of land for more than a month, but he has not bought any of them so far.Li Shen gradually put his heart back into his stomach.

He thought to himself, blindfolded!This must be Jun Nao's blindfold again!You can't be fooled by him!Zhu Nao will not buy land!Definitely won't buy it! ...I hope he never buys...

Another gust of wind blew by, and Li Shen shivered.He waved his hand weakly: "Okay, okay, go do your work!" After speaking, he hurried into the house.

……

A carriage stopped in front of the farm.

The curtain of the car was lifted, and a nimble young man jumped out of the car first, and then Jun Nao also got out of the car.

After Zhu Nao came out, the boy stepped on the car again, and reached out to help the old man in the car: "Grandpa, slow down."

The surname of the person Jing Zhe called grandpa was Liu, and it was the old man that Zhu Nao took back with him that day.Like Jing Zhe, he doesn't have a proper name, and when he gets old, people call him Old Liu.

Mr. Liu was helped out of the car by Jing Zhe, and he couldn't help but let out an "ouch" as soon as his feet hit the ground.Although the old man's illness has been cured these days, his rotten leg can't heal, and he remains limping.

Jing Zhe whispered: "Grandpa, are you alright?"

Mr. Liu waved his hand: "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

While talking, a young man ran towards them.

"Is it Young Master Zhu?"

"it's me."

"Ah, my name is Shi San, and I'm a farmer here." Shi San said, "The owner of the village wanted to come in person, but last month a group of bandits broke into the village and robbed the village owner. It’s still being raised at home now. Young master, don’t mind.”

Zhu Nao said, "I don't mind."

Shi San hurriedly said: "Follow me, I will take you into the village to have a look."

The owner of the farm here is surnamed Wang, so the farm is called Wangjiazhuang.The owner of Wangjiazhuang intends to sell the farm, Zhu Nao brought Mr. Liu and Jing Zhe to have a look today.

There is a deep trench around Wangjiazhuang, which is used to keep out uninvited guests.Knowing that Zhu Nao was coming today, Shi San had already laid wooden boards to make a bridge.

After passing the ditch, there is another tall and pointed wooden fence as a barrier.The fence was as high as a man, and the bottom was sunk deep into the soil.It is not easy for outsiders to climb over the fence.But a few people looked around, and at a glance they saw a big gap in the fence that could allow several people to pass through.The section at the gap is neat, obviously split by someone with an axe.

Seeing Zhu Nao and others looking at the gap in the fence, Shi San laughed at himself and said, "We dig the trench every year, and the deeper and deeper we dig; It's been more than a year. Now we don't bother to fix it, anyway, we can't stop them."

Everyone looked at each other with solemn expressions.

Through the fence, there is a vast arable land.At this moment, the arable land also showed signs of being trampled and destroyed, and the crops were crumbling.

Mr. Liu had planted the land all his life, and when he saw this scene, he sighed sadly.

Everyone walked around the farm.This village is neither big nor small, with more than a hundred acres of land and a dozen or so families.Backed by mountains and facing the water, this place is sunny and beautiful.

After walking around, Zhu Nao asked, "Old Liu, do you think the land here is good?"

Mr. Liu had planted the land for 50 years before the disaster, so he is very familiar with all kinds of farming.That's why Zhu Nao brought the old man out this time and asked him to take a look at it.

Mr. Liu bent down, twisted a handful of soil, rubbed it in his hands, and brought it under his nose to smell it.After a while, he clapped his hands: "This is a good place, the land is very fertile. There are fruit trees in the mountains, vegetables in the middle, and wheat in the south. Self-sufficiency is not a problem."

After a pause, he turned his head and glanced at the emerald green mountains, hesitating to speak worriedly: "It's just..."

Zhu Nao understood what he wanted to say: "You are worried about bandits."

Elder Liu nodded: "Yes..."

Originally, this place was surrounded by mountains and rivers, so it can be said to be uniquely blessed during the Taiping period.But this is not the case in this world today.Where there are mountains, there are caves, and where there are caves, there are bandits.It's too close to the mountain, and it's too close to the bandits, so life must be difficult.

Sure enough, Shi San immediately confirmed Mr. Liu's worry: "Young Master Zhu, this place... oh! I also advise you to think about it. Behind our farm is the Longcheng Mountains, and there are already many bandits in the mountains. The flood flooded many places. Those people had no home to return to and went to the mountains to become thieves! Now there are at least a dozen villages in the mountains, and merchants dare not pass here. How do ordinary people like us live? ?”

After all, Shi San is just a farmer, the farm does not belong to him, and Zhu Nao will not give him money if he buys the farm here or not.He couldn't bear to entrap Zhu Nao, so he poured out all the bitterness in his stomach: "There used to be a dozen or so families in our village, all of whom have lived here for several generations. Since this year, six families have run away. If it weren't for my daughter-in-law I just had a baby and it was hard to move, so I took them away long ago. I really can’t stay in this place.”

He made the pros and cons clear, and thought that Zhu Nao would be scared away, but Zhu Nao thought for a while and asked, "You said there are more than a dozen villages in the mountain? It seems that they are all small villages?"

Shi San was taken aback.This is true, although there are many bandits in the nearby mountains, they are all small gangs.There are as few as a few people, and as many as dozens of people.After all, if there are large villages, they will often drive out or annex other nearby cottages.

Shi Sandao: "There are not many people in each village, but they are all bandits. Today one will steal, and tomorrow the other will rob. There are only so many men in our village, how can we deal with it?"

Farms and villages are often far away from the city, so naturally the government cannot be expected to send officers and soldiers to guard them.Whether a farm or village is safe depends on their terrain and whether there are many bandits around them.Second, look at their scale, how many people are there in the village.If there are fewer thieves nearby and there are more strong men in the village, then they will be able to guard their homeland.But this Wangjiazhuang is just the opposite. It used to be able to protect itself, but recently there are more and more bandits, but the people are running less and less, and life is impossible.

Zhu Nao thought for a moment, then looked around the entire Zhuangtian again.

The land in this place is fertile, the water conservancy is mature, and the harvest in previous years has always been plentiful, so it is coveted by bandits.If the arrangement here is more compact, it should be able to barely accommodate 200 people.There are still some barren fields nearby, which can be reclaimed slowly in the future.

The biggest problem is those bandits.If you can't think of a way to deal with them, this farm is indeed impossible to buy.

Zhu Nao thought for a while, and then he had an idea in his mind.

The author has something to say: I want to be a master!