Chapter 7: Prepare to Defend Yunhe County! The Goddess is Ours! ...
People from both the local and out-of-town counties who went home to handle household chores and invite their relatives and friends to come over were all quite bewildered when they returned to Yunhe County.
Because the county town is under martial law.
There were twenty armed young men standing on either side of the city gate.
There was a table on each side, with a man and a woman sitting on each side, writing something.
The people walked over hesitantly, receiving fierce glares from the young men, before being stopped by the young man standing at the front.
"Go over there to register your information."
"Huh?"
Mo Jingchun held a calligraphy brush in her right hand and a blank bamboo slip in her left. She looked up at the uncle who was walking towards her and calmly asked, "What's your name? Where do you live?"
The middle-aged man was taken aback. "Uh, young lady, what are you doing?"
Mo Jingchun repeated as if it were a machine, "In order to prevent criminals from invading Yunhe County, martial law has been implemented in the county recently. From now on, everyone must register when entering or leaving the county town."
The middle-aged man scratched his face. "Oh."
Mo Jingchun: "What's your name? Where do you live?"
The uncle smiled kindly and said, "My name is Gao Changshou, and I'm from Gaojiaba Village."
Mo Jingchun asked, "Gaojiaba Village, Yunhe County?"
The uncle shook his head. "It's Gaojiaba Village in Baoshan County."
Mo Jingchun wrote his name and hometown on a bamboo slip and patiently said to the uncle, "By the grace of the goddess, you no longer need to drink porridge every day. The goddess has bestowed upon you soup noodles, rice noodles, buns, steamed buns, eggs, and soy milk."
The middle-aged man stared in disbelief. "What did you say?"
He swallowed subconsciously. "Besides porridge, what else can we eat? And eggs?"
Before Mo Jingchun could answer, he immediately turned to his wife and daughter, "Sister, girl, did you hear that? I didn't lie to you, I..."
Mo Jingchun closed his eyes slightly and said coldly, "Next!"
After Gao Changshou and his family of three passed through the security checkpoint at the city gate and entered Yunhe County, they found that the city had indeed changed.
Someone stood at the intersection, introducing various workshops to the people who had just entered the city.
"Those skilled in carpentry should go to the carpentry workshop in the east, those skilled in stonemasonry should go to the stonemasonry workshop in the west, those skilled in blacksmithing should go to the weapons workshop in the east, those who want to join the city defense team should go to the north for training, those skilled in embroidery should go to the embroidery workshop in the west, and those who know a little about medicine should go to the medical clinic in the west."
"Children went to the (temporary) academy opposite the county government office to study and learn to read. All children under the age of fifteen went, including girls!"
The older women enthusiastically explained to everyone the reasons for these changes in Yunhe County.
"Hey, you all know that there's a goddess bestowing porridge in Yunhe County. Come to Yunhe County, don't others know that?"
"Those refugees from other places, they left their homes to survive, searching for places with food to live. If they knew that there was a goddess here, wouldn't they risk their lives to come here?"
"It doesn't matter if refugees come. We are all pitiful people. The goddess saves all living beings and blesses everyone equally."
"but!"
The woman who was speaking suddenly raised her voice.
"If it were those mountain bandits! Those scoundrels! Those high-ranking officers with troops under their command!"
"What if they want to monopolize the goddess's blessings?!"
"They will either coerce or bribe the goddess to go with them to their land, or they will drive us poor people out and occupy Yunhe County!"
"Then we'll just starve to death!"
“Our Yunhe County is located in a remote area, and news doesn’t spread that fast, so we can still enjoy the blessings of the goddess.”
"If those guys find out the news and launch an attack, and we can't defend ourselves or drive them away, we'll just starve to death!"
The old woman's voice was shrill, "What's more, now the goddess has not only bestowed porridge, but also eggs! Meat buns! Noodles and rice noodles with pork, beef, and chicken!"
"We must plan ahead and defend Yunhe County!"
Immediately, a shill in the crowd shouted, "Defend Yunhe County!"
"The goddess is ours!"
Gao Changshou's family also joined in the shouting: "Defend Yunhe County! The Goddess is ours!"
Upon entering the city, the Gao family of three, who were immediately brainwashed and in a daze, first arrived at the (temporary) academy opposite the county government office.
That place was originally a residence. The original sign has been removed and replaced with a new one that reads: Qinglan Academy.
Gao Changshou's heart skipped a beat. Qinglan... isn't that the goddess's name?
They actually named the academy after a goddess?
But this originally meant "goddess".
"Qinglan, meaning 'blue comes from blue but surpasses blue,' wouldn't it be a good name for the academy?"
He Qinglan picked up a brush and wrote the four characters "Qinglan Academy" on the snow-white Xuan paper. The characters were beautiful and elegant, yet vigorous and powerful.
She gave the inscription to Cheng Hui.
The shock Cheng Hui felt at that moment can be imagined.
When the first cohort of "grassroots administrative personnel" in Yunhe County saw the inscription written by the goddess for the academy, they were also extremely surprised.
The academy's first headmaster, Master Qian Shiwen, held the Xuan paper in trembling hands. Surprised, he ran his fingers over the paper...
Back to the present.
Gao Changshou and his wife led their daughter to queue up.
The appointment was scheduled for 3:45 PM.
The tutor sitting at the door came from an academy in Qingyang County. He looked up at Gao Changshou's daughter and asked gently, "What's your name?"
Gao Changshou quickly said, "Xinghua, Gao Xinghua."
The teacher paused, then looked at the little girl who was about half his height and said, "Xinghua, you will be studying at the academy from now on. How about I give you a proper name?"
The little girl was surprised that the teacher would ask her a question. She subconsciously looked up at her father, Gao Changshou, who nodded to her. The little girl then said "Okay" to the teacher.
The master was skilled in naming. “There is a line in the ‘Lament for the Times’ in the ‘Songs of Chu’: ‘My body is white and my substance is pure, my heart is bright and my virtue is clear.’ So I will name you ‘Shuqing,’ which means kind and upright. From now on, your formal name will be Gao, Shu, and Qing.”
This was naturally the goddess's intention; the masters could change the names of some children.
When He Qinglan first proposed that "children under the age of fifteen should study at Qinglan Academy, with boys and girls taught together," Cheng Hui looked astonished.
He hesitated before expressing his fear that some people might not be able to accept boys and girls studying and learning to read together.
He Qinglan sneered expressionlessly, "When you came here to line up for porridge, why didn't you mind men and women being together?"
Cheng Hui immediately shut up.
With the issue of "co-education" taking precedence, the questions of "why girls should also be in school" and "changing the more common names of boys and girls" seem relatively less important.
There were protests when the news was released.
However, the goddess's attitude is what it is.
She clearly has a personality that doesn't allow anyone to refuse her.
Therefore, Cheng Hui and the others took a very firm stance: "Our most important task right now is to improve our combat effectiveness and fight against the approaching enemy. If anyone disagrees with this small matter, we'll throw him outside the city and starve him for two days."
Just kidding, who would defy the goddess over such a trivial matter?
It's just that boys and girls study together. When everyone is planting rice in the fields, growing vegetables in the soil, collecting firewood in the mountains, or catching fish in the stream, there is no distinction between boys and girls.
Moreover, the most important thing right now is to fight against foreign enemies.
It would be good to have more literate people, regardless of whether they are male or female.
This matter was thus forcibly carried out.
Those who opposed it most vehemently were thrown outside the city and starved for a day or two until they were willing to admit their mistakes.
After sending their daughter Gao Shuqing to the academy, Gao Changshou and his wife immediately went to find things to do.
Wu Yuxiang, the wife, felt that her sewing skills were not good enough to work in the embroidery workshop. After asking the old lady at the entrance of the academy, she went to the laundry workshop in the north of the city, where the women were responsible for washing the clothes and bedding of the city guards.
Gao Changshou believed he was in good health, so he went to the city garrison, which was also located in the north of the city, and passed the interview.
The person in charge of the city defense team was the strongest among the people who initially organized the guard team in Yunhe County. His name was Hu Dazhu.
He had never been a soldier or a yamen runner, so he didn't know how to lead or train a team. He could manage a dozen or twenty people, but hundreds or thousands would be too much for him.
However, Cheng Hui assigned him a "strategist," Xiang Yuesheng, a young scholar in his twenties from the county.
Xiang Yuesheng naturally didn't know how to train soldiers, but he was literate.
The goddess bestowed upon him a book called "True Records of Military Training," which he found astounding! He quickly studied it for two days with Hu Dazhu and a few other leaders before taking up his post, and thereafter learned while training.
Of course, what Xiang Yuesheng coveted even more was the paper book itself!
Look at this smooth paper, look at this perfect font, look at this exquisite cover! Its destructive power against Xiang Yuesheng (and Cheng Hui and others) is immeasurable.
Although we now have papermaking technology with inexpensive raw materials, the quality of the paper produced is completely incomparable to the paper in the books given by the goddess! Xiang Yuesheng touched the pages so much that his fingertips felt a little sore from the scratches on the sides, but he thought it was just his imagination.
Needless to say, he could tell that the words were definitely not handwritten, and the illustrations on the cover were not drawn with a pen, but he couldn't understand how this book was made.
He mustered his courage and went to ask the goddess.
However, He Qinglan wanted to keep everyone in suspense.
"Once you have established yourselves and passed my test, I will teach you new techniques."
She gazed at Xiang Yuesheng and said, "Keep it up."
Xiang Yuesheng sensed encouragement in her words and threw himself into the "brutal" training of the Yunhe County city defense team!
system:【……】
The electronic sphere bounced around in He Qinglan's sea of consciousness. [Host, when did you say you were going to test them?]
He Qinglan closed the chat window with "When the Sea Turns Blue, Whales Appear" and replied to the system, "[I didn't say that.]"
System: [Huh? So you mean you want them to pass your test?]
After a moment's thought, He Qinglan opened the chat box with "Savior Witch Sakura" and sent her a message asking her to send her some medical books.
[Give them a sense of crisis, and make them strive to improve themselves to protect me.]
Are there any weak security guards?
System: [Host, are you trying to trick me?]
He Qinglan's lips curled slightly.
"System, you're an electronic system. All you need to do is complete the mission."
You don't need to worry about how your host performs the task.
A minute later, "Savior Shrine Maiden Sakura" replied to her message: [Want some Chinese herbal medicine seeds?]
He Qinglan wanted to say, "I can go to the deep mountains to collect herbs." She had just sent a large batch of herbs she had collected in the deep mountains of Southwest China to "Hai Lan Shi Jian Jing".
Then the other person sent another message: "You can't keep going to be the one gathering herbs yourself, can you? What about your dignity?"
He Qinglan: "..."
She replied decisively, "Send it to me."
Closing the chat window, He Qinglan said to the system: "System, I need to go out for a bit."
The system paused, then asked, "Are you going out again?"
He Qinglan nodded. "I've realized I still need a mouthpiece—no, a maid."
system:【……】
He Qinglan raised an eyebrow. "I can't expect her to go out and find someone herself every time I need to give an order, can I? What about my image?"
System: [...Aren't there security guards at the entrance who can relay messages?]
He Qinglan's statement that she was feudal and superstitious was not without merit.
For example, she is looking for a maid now.
She doesn't consider appearance, personality, family background, or physical condition; she just calculates directly.
system:【……】
With so many security guards at your door, and them following you wherever you go, are you worried about not having anyone to relay messages?
He Qinglan ignored everyone and went out the door on her own, heading straight for the direction she had calculated.
Go find "the person with whom I have a connection".
A note from the author:
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