004:You have to farm

After settling down in Pan Garden, everyone started a vigorous cleanup operation.

The house was roughly repaired.

The weeds were cleared.

The farmland was tidied.

The water mill was repaired.

The owner of the building, Mi Huang, even had a large number of livestock driven over.

Everything was moving in a good direction...

In October of the second year of Yongning (302), it was sunny.

In the wilderness, hundreds of people bent over, wielding sickles, and worked hard to harvest fodder.

Shao Xun straightened up and wiped his sweat.

In those days, soldiers had to work. In fact, the soldiers spent most of their lives doing farm work.

Delaying training? Just delay it.

More training means more food and more expenses.

As for the poor combat effectiveness, it doesn't matter. Everyone is like this, so just compare the worst.

Last year, the traitor Sima Lun was executed, and all men over 13 years old in Luoyang and the surrounding areas were conscripted. Are these conscripted soldiers combat-ready? Obviously not many, but they still went to fight in the battlefield?

The ones who really don't have to work are actually some of the Luoyang Imperial Guards. They are recruited soldiers, and most of the time they are honing their killing skills, and they don't need to work in the fields.

Especially the armored cavalry under the command of several cavalry commanders, wow, they are so majestic. One person and three horses, both men and horses are heavily armored, charging into battle, invincible, can ordinary soldiers be compared to a leg hair of theirs?

"I need the help of a noble person." Shao Xun sighed silently.

Without the appreciation of a noble person, life is really hard.

After sighing for a while, just as he was about to continue working, he caught a glimpse of blood in the corner of his eye.

"Wait." Shao Xun held a boy's shoulder, took a closer look, untied the cowhide water bag from his waist, and asked him to sit down.

The boy was a little at a loss, and sat on the ground tremblingly.

Shao Xun washed it with water.

The boy's ankle was accidentally cut by the sickle, and blood was dripping, which looked very scary.

After cleaning the wound, Shao Xun tore off a piece of cloth from his body, bandaged it carefully, and said: "Go to rest under the tree over there."

"Team leader..." the boy stammered.

He was only ten years old this year, thousands of miles away from home, and felt lost. When he was injured, he could only lick his wounds silently, and when he missed home, he would cry secretly alone.

After all, he was still a child.

"It's okay." Shao Xun said gently: "In my team, everyone should help each other."

After that, he called the other two boys and said: "Help Mao Er over, you will take care of him today."

"Team leader, we still need to cut grass..." said a boy.

Shao Xun patted him on the shoulder and said: "There are still 47 people in our team. If each person is evenly distributed, it will be easy to complete. Go, listen to the order."

"Yes sir." The two took the order and helped Mao Er away.

The three gradually went away, and Mao Er looked back from time to time.

Shao Xun smiled and said loudly: "On the battlefield, bows and swords will not show mercy, and no one wants to be abandoned. Cut grass together, kill enemies together, eat meat together, and no one can be left behind."

After saying that, he bent down and swung the sickle vigorously.

Everyone was a little confused after hearing this.

They were still young and generally did not understand the meaning of the words, but under the demonstration of the team leader, they all subconsciously accelerated their actions.

Shao Xun laughed loudly, his sickle flying up and down, as fast as the wind.

This one thing alone cannot change the concept of a group of people. Fortunately, he still has time. In the long-term interaction, he can deepen the impression through one thing after another, and finally form an unbreakable group.

The hard work lasted until the evening.

Shao Xun asked people to pile bundles of hay on the side of the road, and he leaned on the scabbard and looked at the red clouds in the west.

The people who bundled the hay were farmhands from Pan farm. Shao Xun knew a few of them and greeted them with a smile.

However, these people were very dull, and only one old man was willing to exchange a few words with him.

"The elder is still healthy." Shao Xun said with a smile.

"It's not okay if I'm not healthy." The old man sighed, and said while stacking fodder skillfully: "If you don't have the energy to farm and pick vegetables, won't you starve to death?"

Shao Xun was silent, and then asked: "There are wars every year, and farming can't make a living. What's the point of farming?"

"You have to farm." The old man said: "Millet, wheat, cucumber, and rambutan, busy every year. My home is here, and everyone who comes here has to farm. Even if you grow less every year, you still have to farm..."

The words "You have to farm" kept circling in Shao Xun's mind.

He had an indescribable feeling in his heart.

This short sentence was both sad and desperate, but also seemed to be full of indomitable vitality.

This world, this nation, may be able to overcome numerous hardships and rise from the ashes again and again under this tenacious saying of "You have to farm".

It's a pity that some people don't cherish it, and the chaotic world is about to come. What will it look like under the knives of the Hu people, refugees, and the rebel army?

But - You have to farm.

****** ******

It was getting dark, and Mi Huang led his men to count the fodder inside the mansion.

There were many farmhands in the farm. After the Pan family lost power, some of them fled, and some died in the wars in the past two years. Only thirty or forty families were left, and now they were all farming in the fields of the manor.

Mi Huang could not manage these farmhands, because the princess had sent her confidants to manage them. He could only manage this group of soldiers - there were only more than 470 left.

They were old and young, and it was not easy to deal with them.

Mi Huang knew that he did not have the talent in this area, but the prime minister had no talent in his pocket, so he had to bite the bullet. After more than a month, he was exhausted and simply stopped caring about it, leaving it to the leaders of each team to do it themselves.

He only showed up during the assessment.

There was a group of livestock in Pan farm, and they were about to go through the winter, so they needed to prepare fodder. This was ordered by the princess and was a task that had to be completed, so he left the Qingtan venue and came in a bullock cart to supervise and count.

But he lost interest after only half of the count, and he looked around casually and chatted with the guests.

"If people don't take SHI1, everything will go wrong." Mi Huang yawned, squeezed out two tears, and said, "I'm tired after just a while."

"Who told you to leave so early?" The guest Pei Dun said with a smile, "It's rare for Minister Cao to take out his treasures and share them with everyone. After taking the medicine, there are beautiful maids singing and dancing to entertain you. Tsk tsk, you actually ran away."

"I have military duties..." Mi Huang sighed, "Besides, I'm worried that you will be unrestrained after taking the medicine, which will not be beautiful."

Pei Dun laughed and said, "You are really an honest person."

Mi Huang smiled shyly.

It was okay to take the medicine, but it would be embarrassing to behave in a dissolute manner in someone else's house, although many people did so and Minister Cao would not mind.

Sometimes he was also confused.

The scholars were dissolute, talking about metaphysics, and often ignored military and political affairs for the sake of gatherings, leaving them to the people below. As for the suffering of the people and the lives of the people, they were not even within their consideration...

If this continues, will the country really be good?

He was a little afraid to think about these things, and subconsciously avoided them. Moreover, everyone around him was like this, what could he do? The Mi family was not a big family. If you were not sociable, you would not be able to integrate into other people's circles, and in the end you would suffer.

This world, alas.

"Have you met the princess?" Mi Huang suddenly asked.

Pei Dun nodded and said, "I met her in the capital. I brought a letter home and was scolded."

Mi Huang was speechless.

He knew that although Pei Dun was the elder brother, he was a little afraid of his sister. It might not only be because his sister was the princess of Donghai, but also because of other factors - the princess was actually a very powerful person.

Pei Dun also had a younger sister who married Bian Hu of Jiyin.

The Bian family was a typical wealthy family. Hu's father, Bian Cui, was now the Minister of the Central Secretariat and was granted the title of Duke of Chengyang County. The six brothers "all served as prime ministers" and were known as the "Six Dragons of the Bian Family".

Bian Hu's mother was the daughter of Zhang Hua, the Minister of the Central Secretariat who had served as prime minister. This family background was amazing, so it was no wonder that he married into the Pei family of Wenxi.

Bian Hu had a reputation for being a virtuous man since he was young. He was once recruited by Sima Jiong, King of Qi, but he refused. Now he is still wandering around the capital, attending various parties, waiting for the opportunity.

Mi Huang was really a little envious.

The sons of the noble families were not in a hurry to become officials, because they had too many opportunities and could refuse one after another until they were willing.

Sometimes they were not satisfied with being an official, or felt that the official duties were too busy and affected their participation in parties, so they simply quit their official positions. After returning home to rest for a while, they changed places to become officials, and it was easy, as if those official positions were originally reserved for them.

The Mi family of Donghai could only be regarded as a poor noble family, but they could not be as willful as the noble families, and they had much fewer opportunities.

His colleague Liu Qia, who had no family background, dared not leave the Sikong Mansion easily, because others might not accept him. If he were a noble, he could be an official in the Qi Wang Mansion today, and work as a staff member for the Changsha Wang in a while, without too much resistance, and the transition would be smooth.

The Qi Wang, Changsha Wang and other nobles should not be angry, but should be wooed, because they need to rely on the power of the nobles to consolidate their power.

This is reality, a bleak reality.

Fortunately, Mi Huang has a good mentality, not as good as the best, but better than the worst. The Donghai Wang has no one to use, and he has been given this opportunity, so he must work hard until his death.

Work!

He cheered up and continued to supervise.