Chapter 295 Dinner is served, the first meal is swill.
The soldier yelled at the women, "Can't you use a little more force? Cut harder!"
Li Yuying said, "The grass is too tough, the knife is too dull, I don't have the strength, I can't cut it."
She was the eldest daughter of a noble family, living a life of luxury and had never done such rough work before.
The soldier sneered, "You blame the knife for being useless, or you blame the ground for being too hard if you can't poop?"
"You're so vulgar!"
The soldier lashed out with his whip, "Crack!"
"Who do you think you are, daring to call me vulgar?"
"Exactly, saying a few words is vulgar, but if I piss on you, would that be obscene?"
Li Yuying glared, her face arrogant, "You dare!? Do you know who I am? I am the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Jiangling!"
"The legitimate daughter of a marquis's family? Bah! You're a prisoner now, under our jurisdiction. If we tell you to kneel down and lick our shoes, you'll kneel down."
The soldier raised his whip and lashed it at her.
"ah!"
"Wait!" Yun Yanzhe quickly handed over an ounce of silver, pleading on her behalf, "Gentlemen, my wife is ignorant; please don't stoop to her level."
The soldier tossed up a tael of silver, weighed it in his hand, and smiled with satisfaction: "That's more like it. Keep an eye on your wife. If she dares to cause trouble again, I'll beat her to death."
Hearing the sound of whips coming from behind, Yang, along with her daughter-in-law, daughter, and two grandsons, cut with even more vigor, leaving the people around them far behind.
A closer look will reveal that their knives are different from others.
Their swords were not the rusty, dull swords from the city defense camp, but curved swords forged in advance from black iron, making them easy to cut with.
Yang glanced at the distance behind them before muttering to herself.
"Luckily, we had this sharp knife, and the gloves that Xue'er gave us. With the gloves on, my palms didn't hurt at all."
“Mom, my third sister-in-law said these are called work gloves, specially made for working. I’ve never seen this kind of material before. They look very expensive, and I’m almost reluctant to use them.”
Xiao Mingshu said, "Sister-in-law, Third Sister-in-law said we don't need to be frugal. If it gets worn out or broken, we can ask her for more. If we hurt our hands and get blisters on our palms, it will feel like we're being pricked by needles when we hold the knife handle. Third Sister-in-law gave me a pair before and asked me to collect firewood. I found them to be very good. If we're careful, we won't break them. They can be used many times."
The official surnamed Liu ordered one of his soldiers to demonstrate for them.
The soldier gripped the wooden handle tightly with his right hand, while his left hand pulled the grass tips towards his chest. With the blade angled to the ground, he flicked his wrist back, and with a "whoosh," the grass fell neatly to the ground.
Another soldier shouted, "Those who don't know, come and take a closer look!"
The soldier demonstrated again, this time a little faster, and cut several handfuls in just a few strokes.
With someone demonstrating such a simple action, they gradually got the hang of it and became much more efficient. However, after just a few cuts, they felt a sharp pain in their palms and slowed down.
The man was tilling the ground, but he hadn't dug to the bottom; he'd only turned over the grass roots, and the tilling was uneven, like a dog had chewed it up, with the soil scattered here and there.
He only knew how to use brute force, and after a couple of swings he was exhausted, rubbing his lower back and blowing on his reddened palms, "Huff! Huff! Huff!"
"My palms hurt so much, they're all blistered. I used to see the servants on the estate working so easily, why does it hurt so much for us? It hurts like hell."
When the soldiers saw them slacking off, they came over and scolded them, "What are you doing? You still have time to chat? If you're slacking off, you won't get any food. While others are eating, you're working."
Seeing that Xiao Xuance's hoe went deep into the soil with each stroke, turning the bottom over and even flipping over the grass roots.
That's good, there's another one who can do the work.
"Those who don't know how should watch him translate; his method is correct, so learn from it."
The soldier explained to them, "The hand gesture for holding a hoe is with your right hand in front and your left hand behind, raised high above your shoulder. Swing it in a circle and bring it down with the momentum, embedding the blade into the soil. Pull it back, and the loose soil and weeds will be turned up. Step by step backward, overlapping the hoes, you break up the clods of soil and flatten it. Only soft soil can grow crops. You can't step back and compact the soil. If you do, you'll have to turn it over again. Do you understand?"
"He translated it well, you can tell he's studied it. Watch closely, learn from him. I've taught you everything I need to. If you still can't learn it, don't force me to beat you to death. Okay, let's begin."
This land was a plain reclaimed by the local people.
The convicts lined up and, almost coincidentally, divided the land into roughly equal areas to turn over.
Xiao Xuance had already rolled seven or eight meters away, while some people were still lingering in the same spot.
Three soldiers were enjoying the cool shade and drinking tea under a tree. When they got bored, they would wander around and then come back to check. They found that their land hadn't even been half turned over yet.
A soldier complained, "Brother Liu, they're slacking off and not doing any work. It's been half a day, and they're still just dawdling in the same spot."
"It must be because I, Lao Liu, have been too good to them. Go and give those guys a good beating, don't give them lunch, let them starve to death, and see if they dare to slack off again."
"Alright!"
Two of his soldiers lashed their whips as they approached Uncle Xiao and his men. The men were so frightened that their legs went weak, and they raised their hoes to block their way. "What do you want to do? Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer!"
The whip cracked, followed by screams of agony, "Aaaaaah!!!..."
After each of them had been whipped three or four times, Old Liu finally spoke up insincerely, saying, "That's enough. If you beat them badly, no one will be able to work."
"We're taking it easy, Brother Liu, don't worry."
Everyone looked up and saw that the sun was almost directly overhead, hoping for lunch and a midday rest.
They waited and waited, until they were drenched in sweat, panting, their arms trembling so much they could barely hold the hoe and sickle, until finally the soldiers shouted, "Time to eat!"
"Dinner is finally served, I'm exhausted."
"I've been looking forward to the opening at noon ever since I started working."
"Eat quickly, then keep working."
"Huh? So fast? It's noon now, the sun is scorching. If we're out in the sun for an hour, we'll be dried into human jerky. Can't we rest for an hour before we start working?"
"I want to rest for another hour and dream."
"Two quarters of an hour, no more than that. You'd better take care of your poop and pee. Don't go to poop or pee again when you're working. My whip doesn't discriminate. Did you all understand?"
"I heard you."
A group of people dropped their hoes, opened their bundles, took out bowls and chopsticks, and headed towards the tent. Before they even reached it, they were hit by the stench of swill and immediately vomited, "Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!!!"
"What is this thing? Can you eat it?"
"This is swill! I can't stand it! Move it away..."
Old Liu scooped up some swill in the bucket with a spoon. "At least the swill has some meat in it. If you don't eat it, you'll have to work on an empty stomach."
"My lord, dinner is ready."
"Okay, hurry up and put it on the table, I'm starving." Old Liu ran back to his seat and sat down, rolling up his sleeves as he watched the soldier put his food on the table: one meat dish and one vegetable dish, a plate of braised pork with potatoes, a plate of vegetables, and three bowls of rice. This was their lunch for the three of them.
Seeing the food laid out on their table, some people couldn't help but swallow hard and shouted, "You eat big fish and meat, while we eat swill! We've worked all day, and we still get to eat swill? Why should we?"
"That's right, we don't accept it!"
No matter how poor or destitute they were, they never ate swill; they would rather starve to death.
Old Liu quickly shoveled down a mouthful of rice, chewed it twice, swallowed it, then picked up a piece of meat, put it in his mouth right in front of them, and gave a provocative glance to the people protesting under the sun. A contemptuous and mocking smile curled at the corner of his lips. "Men, if they're not convinced, beat them until they are!"
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