In the dark and narrow earthen house, the old woman looked at the tortillas on the table, smelled the fragrance, and was in a trance and couldn't believe it.
She sat there blankly, neither reaching out to take any of the cakes nor eating them. She just stared at the stack of cakes stupidly, without moving a muscle.
She didn't even know whether the man fetching water had left.
The children were tired of crying and curled up together to sleep.
She couldn't quite remember what day it was until she heard a man's voice outside the wooden door: "Mother of the child!"
The old woman finally came to her senses, as if at this moment she had returned to the world.
The old woman stood up, but she was unstable for a moment and almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, she grabbed the edge of the table in time.
Nothing in this house is good - the table was there when my parents-in-law were alive, and now one of the legs is missing, so it's always wobbling, and it's not stable even when propped up with a stone.
It was a square room with only a wobbly wooden table with a missing corner. They usually knelt at the table to eat.
Not far from the table was the "bed", with hay on the ground and a patchwork of fur on top as a quilt.
In addition, there are wooden barrels for storing grain. Wooden barrels always have gaps, and the grain is easily affected by moisture. So they surround the wooden barrels with layers of rags, but even so, the grain still gets damp, so they can only dig cellars to store it.
But now the cellar was empty, with only some wheat stored in the wooden barrels - not enough to feed the family for half a month.
On weekdays, the couple would help the villagers who had more land to do some work in the village and earn some food.
But other families don’t have much surplus food, and the rewards they offer are getting less and less. Maybe in a few days, they won’t be able to earn any food and will have to eat up all their savings.
The old woman opened the door, and standing outside was an old man with cracked skin and an old look like her.
They all look like old people, but their legs and feet are still strong. Judging from their faces, they seem to be in their sixties, but judging from their physique and strength, they seem to be only thirty.
"Old Zhou said someone came to the house?" The old man looked anxious, his voice trembling, "Is it the soldier? Are the children okay?!"
They have a girl in their family! Although she is only six years old, if you encounter someone who is inhumane, six years old can also be used.
The old woman looked at her husband's face. She nodded and then shook her head: "Yes, someone came, but it was not a soldier who came into the house. It was a girl who borrowed our bucket to fetch water."
She walked out the door and looked towards the well, but she didn't see anyone drawing water. She only saw a wooden bucket and a shoulder pole placed next to the well.
The old woman didn't know whether to feel regret or relief. She whispered, "Dad, come in with me."
As she spoke, she grabbed her husband's sleeve and pulled him into the house. She stood at the door, looked around, and closed the wooden door.
As soon as the old man entered the house, he smelled a sweet fragrance. He looked in the direction of the scent and saw a pile of golden cakes.
“This is…” The old man swallowed.
The old woman whispered, "The girl gave it to me and said it was a reward for me."
The old man said in disbelief: "Payment for fetching water?"
What is water worth? They don't lack water.
Their soil and water are good, water can be found anywhere a well is dug, and the land is fertile, so it seems that if you sow a handful of seeds you will have a good harvest the next year.
They are Chen people, born in this rich land.
But they did not gain the benefits of the rich land, only countless disadvantages.
As far as they can remember, the number of grain collections per year has increased from once to twice, then to three times, and last year they were even collected four times.
They guard large tracts of fertile land, but cannot even fill their stomachs.
The old man's voice was so loud that it woke the children.
Their children were eight years old, six years old, and three years old, but except for the eight-year-old, the other two children had not learned to speak. Perhaps they were too hungry and did not have the strength to speak, and crying consumed all their energy.
The eight-year-old boy also smelled the fragrance. He climbed up from his "bed" and ran barefoot to his parents. He reached out and grabbed his mother's clothes. He raised his head and cried out with his mouth open like a hungry baby bird: "Mom, I'm hungry. Eat some bread."
The old woman looked at the old man.
The old man swallowed, broke off a small piece from the top cake and put it carefully into his mouth.
It tastes very smooth when you put it in your mouth, without any hard-to-swallow ingredients like grit, wheat bran, etc., and it has a sweet taste.
It was a sweet fragrance that he had never tasted before. There was no corn here, so they naturally didn't know what corn tasted like. But after taking a bite, he couldn't help but stuff all of it in his hand into his mouth.
Seeing how quickly he was eating, the old woman was afraid that he would choke, so she quickly went to pour him a glass of water.
The old man swallowed the cake in his mouth and nodded to the old woman: "Eat, tell them to eat, and you eat too!"
"A piece of cake is this big." The old man looked at the dozen or so pieces of cake, as if he saw their family's future livelihood.
Old woman: "I'll go and share the bread!"
They didn't dare eat more, as there was only one piece of bread for so many people. Although the children were small, they knew that it was a good thing, and they could tell the good from the bad. The whole family remained silent, and wolfed down the bread.
Children would also pick up the biscuit crumbs that fell on the ground and put them in their mouths.
The parents also tried to stop them, but they just resisted the urge to fight with their children for the crumbs on the ground.
"Put these away." The old man frowned. "If we put them in the barrel, what if they get damp?"
The old woman sighed and said, "There's nowhere else to put it. It's wet, so we can still eat it."
After filling his stomach, the old man remembered to take out a cloth bag from his arms. He put the bag on the table and opened it to reveal a handful of wheat.
"Yesterday's." The old man couldn't help but sigh, "Old Yang said I don't need to go anymore. He doesn't have any food left, so I have to do it myself."
The old woman was silent for a while: "How can I live like this..."
The old man patted her on the shoulder and said, "Isn't this okay? There are so many cakes! They are enough for many days!"
Old woman: "...Have you finished eating these cakes?"
The old man said: "It's time for the autumn harvest. After we harvest the food, we can have a good New Year!"
The old woman said: "After we harvest the grain, the grain official will come again. If we hand in the grain, we may not be able to make it to the spring plowing season this year."
They were able to survive last year thanks to the help from their fellow villagers. There were always some wealthy families in the village who were kind-hearted and willing to help their honest neighbors. However, they still cannot pay back the grain they owed last year, and they are afraid that no one will lend them money if they borrow again this year.
The old man was silent for a long time before he said, "I can always find a way! Don't worry!"
The old man stopped talking about this matter and just asked: "You said it was a girl? A girl from a noble family?"
The old woman: "She doesn't look like a maid, but more like a general!"
The old man laughed and said, "Even if she doesn't look like a maid, she should look like a young lady. How can a girl look like a general?"
The old woman was also surprised: "She is tall, about this tall."
She measured her height.
The old man was shocked: "It's so high!"
The old woman nodded. It was rare for her to see someone new, so she said excitedly, "She's very impressive! I think those soldiers out there are afraid of her. She looks like a good person."
The old man said: "She gave us so many cakes, so she must be a good person! Oh! This time we really met a noble person."
"It seems that those nobles are not all bad."
Old woman: "It would be nice if she came again."
Now that she thought about it, she might never meet someone like that girl again.
·
"If you do this, the people won't trust the soldiers. When the war really comes, the people won't cooperate and guerrilla warfare won't be able to be fought!" Chen Shu, who returned to the camp, scolded Chen Hou fiercely. She even didn't let Chen Yan go. "You are a general at least. Can't you manage your soldiers and enforce discipline? If I were you, I would have jumped into the river out of shame!"
After she finished scolding the person, she drank some water and continued to scold: "Without the mass base, the army is rootless and floating. Do you think the people are not important?"
"fart!"
"When a war really breaks out, the common people can not only pass on information and provide cover, but also deliver supplies. The common people are more familiar with the local ecology and know where to hide people and where to provide cover. Without the common people, the army would be like a headless fly."
Chen Hou and Chen Yan sat in the tent, being trained by Chen Shu like his grandsons.
Both of them lowered their heads, hoping that the immortal would come in and rescue them quickly.
But Ye Zhou, who was outside the tent, listened to Chen Shu's scolding and obediently returned to his tent - he would never offend Chen Shu, and what's more, he didn't think Chen Shu was wrong.
Chen Shu vented his anger for a while, and then said to Chen Yan: "I will help you lead the troops! You watch carefully and study hard! Write a report for me after you finish learning."
Chen Yan asked quietly, "Miss Chen can lead troops?"
Chen Shu: "I joined the army when I was fourteen. I've fought in more battles than you've crossed bridges!"
Although she had not fought many battles in her own plane, she had fought more battles since becoming an employee of the plane.
Compared to General Chen Yan, who only read military books and had no actual training, she was indeed more experienced.
"Military books are static, but people are alive, and the battlefield is also dynamic. When it comes to the battlefield, it depends on who is more flexible and can better adapt to changes." Chen Shu, "You can only be considered to have mastered what the military books teach you if you can use it flexibly. Otherwise, it's just rote learning. It's useless to study rote books."
Lord Chen looked at his brother and mourned for him for two seconds in his heart.
Chen Shu even said the word "fart" and she didn't know how many times she said it. It can be imagined that she was really angry.
Chen Hou was also a little curious: "Miss Chen was also a soldier?"
Chen Shu nodded. After scolding everyone, she finally calmed down and stopped being so aggressive. She said calmly, "I have been."
Chen Hou became even more curious: "In heaven, women can also lead troops to fight?"
But he was more curious: "Who to hit?"
Is there anyone who can go against the gods?
Chen Shu recalled the fear of being dominated by Chen Hou's "100,000 whys" and said quickly, "Don't ask too many questions. You won't understand even if you ask. You just need to know that your military discipline needs to be rectified. Soldiers should behave like soldiers. Military pay is not for nothing."
"Joining the army is to defend our country and to protect the people."
"If soldiers attack civilians, they are worse than animals!"
Chen Shu sighed: "You guys, if you don't win over the people's hearts and minds, don't carry out patriotic education, and don't have cohesion, you won't need others to fight you. Maybe in a few years, you will naturally lose your country."
The common people have no country in their hearts, the soldiers have no country in their hearts, and even the scholars and ministers have no country in their hearts.
Then, is this country still worthy of being called a country?
Chen Shu didn't know what the people here were thinking. They didn't seem to care about the country at all, and didn't even think that their own fate was connected to the fate of the country.
Chen Hou quickly said seriously: "Miss, teach me."
This was the first time he had performed a formal ceremony on a woman.
Chen Shu: "Patriotic education is secondary. It is not something that can be cultivated overnight, but the military's orders must be followed. Ordinary people are afraid of soldiers and regard them as monsters. When a war breaks out, they will keep silent even if they know the news."
"You are a general. You have read military books. You should know how serious it is to delay the opportunity to fight." Chen Shu looked at Chen Yan, "If you don't fight for people's hearts, others will."
Chen Shu looked at Chen Hou and said, "Just like you, your decrees cannot be carried out outside Linzi, but if the people of the world recognize you as the king, then even if you don't send people to each city, the people can help you seize these cities."
Chen Hou's eyes widened: "They...help me rob?"
Chen Shu: "Of course, don't underestimate the common people. As long as they are willing to work together for a goal, they can overthrow not only the nobles, but even you, the Lord."
“It’s just that they don’t realize it yet.”
The common people had no weapons, no one to lead them, and no ideological guidance.
Chen Shu: "It's like if you want to attack a city, as long as the people trust you and are willing to follow you, they will always find a way to open the city gate."
"If your army stops outside the city, they can also pass messages for you. By then, everyone in the city will be your accomplice. Is there any battle you cannot win or any city you cannot take back?"
Chen Hou was stunned. It was the first time he heard such remarks. Chen Shu's words were like a wake-up call, which made him sober up.
He felt more awake than ever before.
He only wanted to win the support of the nobles and aristocrats, and never thought about the common people.
The truth is that the people are poor and incompetent. They can only farm and do hard labor. They have no wisdom and no family heritage.
But now, Chen Shu's words opened the door to a new world for him and allowed him to see another possibility.
The noble families complement him, but are also naturally hostile to him.
He wanted to maintain his royal power, while the noble families wanted to maintain their own power.
Therefore, unless foreign enemies invade, they will never unify their goals. It is difficult to win their support, and even if you do, no one knows when they will counterattack.
But the common people are easy to win over.
Even though Marquis Chen had never been a commoner, he knew that common people wanted to have enough food to eat every day, have surplus food at home, live a stable life without selling their children, and be able to live a good life without soldiers breaking into their homes.
"Miss Chen, I'll leave the task of leading the troops to you!" Lord Chen stood up and bowed to Chen Shu, "Brother Yan will also accompany you."
Chen Shu waved his hand: "I'm going out. I'll take a walk around here."
After saying this, she didn't even look at Chen Hou and Chen Yan, but opened the curtain and walked out of the tent.
She looked at the thousands of acres of fertile fields in front of her, and at the skinny people still working in the fields, and punched the tree next to her.
After she walked away, the soldiers saw that the relatively "strong" little tree was shaking and breaking where she had hit it, and then bent to one side.
Someone swallowed.
If this fist hits someone's head, it would probably kill them instantly, right?
Chen Shu did not go back to the tent to rest. She felt angry. She had experienced so many dimensions but had never been so angry.
Maybe it was because she had been a soldier for so many years and she couldn't stand soldiers bullying men and women, or maybe the old woman's expression touched the softest part of her heart.
Chen Shu did not move forward. She went into Ye Zhou's tent and shouted to him as soon as she entered: "Boss, I haven't used my salary for this month, right? I also got an advance for next month."
Ye Zhou looked at her: "What are you going to buy with the advance salary? Food?"
Chen Shu nodded: "I feel uncomfortable and I am going to be a money-giving boy."
"Now that it's out, I feel better." Chen Shu looked into Ye Zhou's eyes, "Boss, I'll be willful just this once."
Ye Zhou didn't try to persuade her: "What do you want to change? I brought a lot of food with me this time."
Chen Shu: "Rice, sweet potatoes, potatoes, anything cheap and in large quantities will do."
Ye Zhou: "Okay, let's find an empty space and I'll get the things out."
When Ye Zhou saw Chen Shu like this, it was as if he saw his past self, but he also knew that Chen Shu had experienced more than him, and he would not just ignore the poor people he saw. He must have been thinking of something related to his own experience.
Since she is not out of her mind, there is nothing to say about her changing the food.
What's more, there are no large royal families in such villages, so if we give them food, we don't have to worry about the food in their hands being snatched away again.
"You've already paid, so I, as the boss, can't not pay." Ye Zhou said, "How about this, I'll pay half."
Zou Ming, who walked into the tent at this time, also said: "I will also pay one month's salary."
Sarah, who came in with Zou Ming, immediately said, "I'll go out too!"
Cao'er, who was passing by, poked his head over and asked, "What happened?"
Sarah: "I don't know, but it's the right thing to do."
Cao'er said "Oh". Since her sister said so, she didn't ask any more questions and just said, "I'll go too."
Soon, all the employees in the supermarket were "out", even though they had no idea what was happening or what was going to happen.
Ye Zhou could only explain to them.
Ye Zhou originally thought that these employees who had suffered would not be willing to donate their wages - after all, having experienced hardship and poverty, they would value what they have more. It was okay to ask them to work hard, but it was not okay to ask them to pay money.
Unexpectedly, the employees were very generous, especially Cao'er's mother: "My god, I'll pay for half a year! Just leave me some so I can have enough food."
Wu Yan also said: "My Immortal, my family will pay me half a year's salary."
Zhou Wen: "My god, my family has also provided me with half a year's labor."
Feng Yao: "I'll pay for three months. I also want to save some to bring back to my friends."
Cao'er's mother smiled and said, "It's good to donate money! It can feed them, that's good!"
How she wished that there had been someone like this to help her when she was fleeing famine.
But she didn't meet him.
Now that she can help others, it’s like seeing her old self.
She had met an immortal before, and now she was willing to lend a helping hand to these poor people.
Ye Zhou was slightly surprised and smiled at them: "It doesn't need to be so much. How about this, half a month's salary per person, that's enough."
There are such employees in the supermarket. Their half-month salary adds up to tens of thousands of yuan. I don’t know how much rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn flour they can buy. It is not a problem to feed the people in this village for a year.
Moreover, they can save potatoes and sweet potatoes for seeds, and the soil here is good, so their future life will not be too difficult.
Ye Zhou: "Chen Shu, I'll let you handle the grain distribution."
This time, Ye Zhou was not worried that the act of delivering food would make the local people greedy - after all, they would only stay here for one night.
After this night, they would never have anything to do with these villagers again.
In that case, if you want to do good things, just do it. There is nothing to worry about.
As for whether the villagers will appreciate it or become greedy because of it, it doesn’t matter.
Ye Zhou looked at Chen Shu.
Chen Shu nodded: "Okay."
·
Zhaojia Village is a secluded small village. There are no outsiders in the village, and the villagers only intermarry with people from a few surrounding villages. They only know how to farm, and have no other skills to survive.
Therefore, there are seldom any major events in the village, the most common being a wedding.
But nowadays, there is no wedding banquet. Most of the time, the family just gets together and has a meal and that's considered the ceremony complete.
So when the village chief went door to door and said something big was going to happen, all the villagers were thinking was - do we have to pay grain again?
Someone started crying before the village chief could even explain what the big deal was. A healthy man burst into tears: "Village chief, I can't pay anymore, I really can't pay anymore. If I pay more, my family will just find a rock to kill themselves! Come in and take a look, come in and take a look, there's no more food left in the grain barrel, there's really no more!"
The village chief looked at the tears on Hanzi's face, but he was not affected by the pain at all. Instead, he was still excited: "It's the nobles! They are the nobles who stopped by our bank and said they want to send us food! They don't want money! They don't want people! They don't want anything!"
"There's rice!" the village chief shouted. "There's rice!"
The man was stunned, and his wife hid behind her husband and asked in a low voice: "Village Chief...is he crazy?"
How could a noble man be so kind? Why would he send food to these untouchables?
The village chief glared at her and said, "You are the one who is crazy!"
"If you want to get it, go there."
The village chief pointed to an open space. It was almost dark at this time and the villagers could not see clearly, so they could only squint their eyes to see.
They saw someone walking on the open space, and there were a lot of things piled behind the person, but they couldn't see clearly what they were.
The village chief didn't say much to them, and just said, "I have to go to the next house, you guys go by yourselves."
After saying that, he ran to the next house without looking back.
His old body hasn't been this strong for a long time.
As the village chief, he could only watch as households gradually ran out of food. His family had been the village chief for many years. His grandfather was the village chief, and so was his father. Their family lent out a lot of food every year, knowing that most of the food would not be recovered.
But if he didn't lend it, he couldn't just watch these villagers die.
He had never been to school and could not read, but he knew in his heart that as the head of the village, he had to take care of them and not let them starve to death.
Otherwise, what would be the village? What would be the chief?
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