Chapter 217: Conscripting Men to Fight
Pingzhou, Xiangping
Because the Qin family had made great contributions with the Quyuan Plow, Mo Lianfeng asked the Qin family members to continue to pull weeds and did not assign them any workload, so they could pull weeds leisurely.
Of course, there are also some sinister people with red-eye syndrome who can't bear to see others have a good time, so they go and tell tales to the supervisory managers. But the supervisors have obviously been warned, so they ignore them and just scold those people and tell them to mind their own business.
Qin Sheng bent over and pulled weeds intermittently.
Obviously, he was not thinking about this, and a lot of things slipped through the net.
Qin Zhao followed him to check for omissions and fill in the gaps.
Finally, he found that Qin Sheng's work was becoming more and more rough, so he called him helplessly, "Six-ah——" and motioned him to look at the work he had done.
Qin Sheng turned his head, took a look, and then gave him a look of contempt. His wife had said that if you don't use your rights, they will expire. Wouldn't it be better to save your energy for private work? There wasn't much firewood left at home, and if you wanted to build a bathroom, you needed to prepare a lot of materials... These were all jobs.
The daughter-in-law doesn't like the room to be wet, she wants to have a bathroom, Qin Sheng thinks this is not a high request.
You know, before they were exiled, each of them lived in a courtyard and each room had an ear room.
Gathering their entire family, their current house was small, barely enough to accommodate them, but bathing was inconvenient. He and his brothers would carry water to the backyard at night to wash up in the dark, but it was more difficult for the women. Therefore, having a bathroom was crucial.
After hearing his powerful excuse for being lazy, Qin Zhao finally managed to utter one sentence, "You know how to cut corners. I can't argue with you."
Qin Sheng was about to reply when he was interrupted by Qin Zhao, "Your wife is looking for you—"
Qin Sheng turned around quickly.
Qin Zhao followed his gaze and saw his sixth brother's wife calling Xiaoliu from the field, "Let's go, Master Mo is going out to get something, you come with us, and protect our Master Mo."
"Coming soon!"
Qin Zhao cried out in his heart, "Sixth brother-in-law, just spoil him!" He kept finding ways to let him rest. God knows, pulling weeds isn't tiring!
At this time, he heard his son looking up and saying to him, "Dad, Yu'er is so tired, can you take a rest?"
Qin Zhao: ...This is his son who's always trying to sabotage him! You said you only played with two blades of grass, and you're telling him you're tired?
He kept trying to find the best luck, telling himself that this was the baby his wife gave birth to!
He pointed to the field near the road and said, "Let's go over there and rest."
Mo Lianfeng took Qin Sheng and Lu Songli to a blacksmith's shop and took out a curved plow made of ordinary molten iron. After confirming that the curved plow was easy to use, he first had the carriage go back to the gate of the military settlement, dropped off the young couple, and then took the newly made curved plow and its blueprint to find his superior.
Xiangping was the seat of Pingzhou and also the local governor's office, holding a different status from ordinary county towns. And he wasn't someone without a background; his highest-ranking superior was the Liaoxi Commandery Commandant, in charge of the entire county's military.
The entire military settlement is very concerned about spring plowing, all because the army does not have enough food.
The imperial court was reluctant to provide food and fodder for the Pingzhou troops. The court was also struggling, maintaining an army of 500,000 or 600,000 men. Most importantly, Pingzhou had a good governor. Most of the taxes collected each year went to Chang'an, with only about 10% or 20% going to the garrison.
The garrison was running low on food, and the provincial governors and prefects kept them from reporting the problem. They had no choice but to eat, so the Pingzhou army set up military farms, where they could grow some food to supplement their income.
Just when Mo Lianfeng went to meet his superiors, a major event occurred in the Xiangping military settlement.
As soon as Lu Songli and Qin Sheng returned home, soldiers came and violently knocked on the door, "Open the door, open the door quickly!"
"All male prisoners over fifteen, come out! Assemble!"
Qin Heng asked Nie Yunniang, Su Shi, and Qin's mother to stay in the house with the child.
Standing in the yard, you can hear the noise outside.
"Something happened, it must have happened!"
"Commander, what happened?" Qin Heng asked.
The soldier knew that this family had some background, so he explained briefly and ignored everyone else.
"A Xianbei army passed through Wangping County and headed straight for Liaoyang County. Liaoyang was suddenly attacked, and the local county lieutenant rushed to fight and appealed to the surrounding counties for help. Xiangping has decided to send troops to support them. All of you exiles over the age of fifteen are included in the call-up!"
There were many people present, and they all gasped when they heard this. These Xianbei people were so arrogant!
The Qin family understood that Liaoyang and Xiangping were adjacent to each other, so they drew troops from their military settlements to meet the enemy. Of course, these people were obviously used as cannon fodder.
But why would they be fighting at this time? Didn't the Xianbei usually move south after the autumn harvest? It was almost spring plowing time, the lean season between harvest and harvest. What could they possibly have snatched from the south?
Later, they learned that this Xianbei army was led by Tuoba Lian, one of the eight great Xianbei nobles. He had marched south for no other reason than to fall in love with a beautiful Han woman. The woman refused to obey him and fled from Wangping to Liaoyang. Tuoba Lian then launched his army in pursuit.
Qin Heng asked, "Sir, we have four men in our family. Can three of them go and one stay at home?" They were not afraid of fighting, but they couldn't live without a man at home.
The soldier was in a dilemma, not because he was unwilling to make concessions, but because his superiors had issued an order that all prisoners aged fifteen or above must be transferred. Many of the prisoners in the military settlements were alone, but the Qin family was different.
Just when the soldier was in trouble, a man who was obviously his superior came in. Judging from the official uniform he was wearing, his rank should be the same as Mo Lianfeng.
"What's up?"
The soldier hurried to explain.
The man said bluntly, "No! As long as you are fifteen years old, you must all go to fight against the Xianbei army!"
As he spoke, the man's eyes fell on the two young women of the Qin family, Cai and Lu Songli, and were very sticky.
Second sister-in-law Cai turned her face away in disgust.
Lu Songli's expression did not change, but her originally gentle look suddenly became several degrees colder.
Qin Sheng stepped forward and blocked the man's sight.
The Qin brothers exchanged subtle glances with each other.
The man waved his hand and said, "Take it away!"
"Wait—" Mo Lianfeng rushed back.
"Mo Lianfeng, how dare you interfere with military orders?"
Mo Lianfeng wasn't afraid of him, "Qiu Dashan, this isn't the way you draw the lottery!"
Mo Lianfeng stopped the man and said, "They are a family. It's not just one man from each household. The worst that can happen is one man from two men, one man from three men. There's no such thing as four men from one household like you!"
Qiu Dashan sneered, "Those are good citizens. Do these fugitives deserve them?"
"Take three and leave one! Otherwise, you can't take the person away!" Mo Lianfeng directly revealed his bottom line. He was too lazy to deal with Qiu Dashan.
"Okay, then three!" Qiu Dashan also knew that this was his bottom line.
Mo Lianfeng said to the Qin family, "I'll give you some time to discuss the candidate."
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