55. Rescuing wounded soldiers
"Then let's find them all. I'll find them a way to survive."
Ju Tao went down to run errands and saw that the main courtyard gate was open, so Xu Youcai finally had a chance to see Shen Suqin.
"Madam, the heated kang is ready. Would you like to go and take a look?"
Shen Suqin opened the courtyard gate and saw Xu Youcai covered in dust and dirt, looking as if he hadn't slept for days and nights.
She came out and said, "You've worked hard."
Xu Youcai smiled憨厚ly, "It's my duty."
The heated kang bed in front of me was almost exactly as I remembered it, and it was warm to the touch, neither too hot nor too cold.
"How long will the heat last?" Shen Suqin asked while touching it.
“Two hours,” Xu Youcai replied.
"That's a bit short; it will take at least four hours for it to get to dawn."
"This...we've tried many methods, and this is already the longest we've ever tried."
Shen Suqin leaned down and tapped the bed frame, asking, "Is there anything stuffing in the middle?"
"Yes, it's filled with cattail fluff, just like the kind used for making padded jackets."
"Were the four walls and the floor filled in as well?"
"Filled it out."
Several bricklayers stood by, watching Shen Suqin nervously, afraid that if she said "no," they would be forced to work through the night again.
"What about the flue inside the kang (heated brick bed)? How was it dealt with?" Shen Suqin continued to ask.
"You speak," Xu Youcai said, selecting a bricklayer.
The man stepped forward tremblingly and replied, "There are several low walls built inside," he gestured, "but they don't seem to block them, leaving a smoke duct. Like this, the smoke can circulate around and then go out from here, so the head and foot of the kang are almost heated."
Shen Suqin nodded.
"In that case, it's most likely a problem with the insulation material. Shall we try a few more?"
"What else should we try?"
"I've heard that some people use burnt yellow earth as bedding. Have you heard of that?" Shen Suqin asked.
"I know, I know, we use this at home. When the weather is nice, we burn it in a fire, and then crawl inside at night. We even sweat while we sleep."
“Then let’s give this a try,” Shen Suqin said. “This is the first time I’ve made a kang (heated brick bed). Thank you all for working on it all night.” As she spoke, she took out the wages she had prepared in advance from her sleeve pocket. “You’re busy here and can’t take care of your families. Keep this money and use it to supplement your household expenses.”
She gave each person thirty coins.
Thirty coins is quite a lot. Ordinary people can only earn ten to fifteen coins a day at most when they work.
"You'll get paid for each day you work, so don't complain that it's too little." Shen Suqin handed them the money, but no one came to take it.
She looked at Xu Youcai with some confusion.
Xu Youcai wiped his face and said, "Take them all. Doing a good job is better than any words."
After saying that, he took the copper coins from Shen Suqin and distributed them to everyone one by one.
After he finished distributing the goods, he said to Shen Suqin, "Let me take you back; this place is dirty and messy."
"Alright, I have something else I need to ask you."
Xu Youcai nodded.
On the way back, Xu Youcai took the initiative to explain: "In the past, working for the government was a privilege, and there was never any talk of making money from public funds. You are giving us money today, which is the first time, so it is understandable that everyone is surprised."
“It is only right to get paid for work. There is no reason to work for free,” Shen Suqin said. “From now on, you should tell everyone that everyone who comes to work for me will be paid, and I guarantee that everyone will have enough to eat.”
Xu Youcai laughed: "That's great. Everyone has plenty of strength, but nowhere to earn money. It's a pity you don't have much work here, otherwise I could find a few more people."
Shen Suqin stopped in her tracks. "Who says I don't have enough work here? I was just about to tell you about this. Go find as many people as you can. I need to build something."
"What are you covering?"
"Keep it a secret."
"Okay then, when do you need it?"
"The sooner the better. It's cold, and the ground is frozen, so it's hard to dry. It's a waste of effort and time, so we have to hurry."
"Okay, I'll keep it in mind," Xu Youcai said. "By the way, are there any requirements for this person? Age, gender?"
"No, just look around, they'll all work, and they pay you every day."
"OK."
After finishing their business, the two continued walking back.
As they approached the General's Mansion, Shen Suqin saw Yuanxiang leave the mansion and head to another street.
"What is the relationship between this Yuanxiang and your general?" Shen Suqin asked.
"Huh? Oh, so the two of you who grew up together count as such."
"Tsk, childhood sweethearts, doesn't your general have any thoughts about them?"
“Thoughts? What thoughts could there be?” The simple-minded Xu Youcai didn’t think too deeply about it. “The general did say when he was a child that he would marry Yuanxiang when he grew up, but no one takes childhood words seriously.”
Shen Suqin curled her lip and said sarcastically, "That's not necessarily true."
After saying that, she turned around and said, "I'm not going back to the manor. Come with me for a stroll in the suburbs."
"Huh?" Xu Youcai quickened his pace to catch up. "What are you doing in the suburbs on such a cold day? There's nothing there."
Shen Suqin didn't want to speak.
They were in Ningyuan, the capital of Jinzhou. Jinzhou was very large, stretching across Daliang from east to west, and it would take three days and three nights to travel there.
Liangzhou is located south of Jinzhou. It is a narrow valley nestled between two mountain ranges. The land is fertile and the grain production is abundant, which is why the Shatuo repeatedly moved south.
Ningyuan has a long history of urban development. It is bordered by Laomaoling to the northwest, Guzonghe to the south, and flat open land to the east and west.
The western side, nestled between mountains and a river, is a flat, open, triangular-shaped plain, estimated to be over a thousand acres in size.
Shen Suqin stood at the west gate of the city, squinting at the flat ground in front of him, lost in thought.
After a long pause, she asked, "Are people still cultivating these fields?"
"There are a few households, but not many. What, does Madam want them?"
Shen Suqin nodded.
Xu Youcai hesitated, "I'm afraid it will cost money to buy it. The general has instructed us not to seize the people's land."
"I definitely want to buy it. Can you get it for me? I'll ask Ju Tao for the money. Can we do it within three days?"
"Three days is no problem, but would you like to find someone to do the farming, Madam?"
Shen Suqin shook her head, "I have this idea, but the things I want to grow are a bit special."
"How is it special?"
Have you ever seen vegetables grow in winter?
Xu Youcai was dumbfounded.
"This...this is freezing cold, only a god could do this."
Shen Suqin smiled slyly and said slowly, "Want to make a bet?"
Xu Youcai was puzzled.
"If I can grow vegetables on this land in front of me, you can stop calling me 'Madam' and start calling me... 'Old Immortal'."
Xu Youcai glanced in the direction she pointed and saw the biting cold wind scraping the earth like a boning knife, and felt that it was impossible to succeed no matter what.
So he curled his lip and said, "Then Madam is doomed to lose. In this freezing weather, even furry creatures don't breathe, let alone vegetables."
Shen Suqin: "That's not necessarily true."
"Then I'll take the bet. What do you say we do if I lose?"
"If I lose, I'll give you one hundred taels of silver."
Xu Youcai's eyes lit up immediately, and he hurriedly said, "Don't regret it, it's settled then."
Shen Suqin: "You're so happy about a hundred taels of silver?"
"You're still not happy with a hundred taels? I don't even get that much in a year's military pay."
Shen Suqin laughed: "Speaking of which, I wonder how things are on the General's side? Have they run into the Shatuo yet?"
Because of suspicions of spying on military intelligence, Shen Suqin dismissed his men after Xiao Pingchuan regained control of the Black Flag Army, and naturally, no more intelligence was sent.
"We've already met, and we even had a small-scale battle."
Xu Youcai and his group had their own methods of intelligence communication.
"They fought! Did they win?"
"Of course, now the Shatuo are hiding in the city and don't dare to show their faces at all. They even ignore people who go to shout at them."
"So what does the general plan to do? Surround them and kill them?"
Xu Youcai shook his head, "We can't fathom the general's thoughts."
"Too."
Finding someone to buy land isn't difficult; as long as the money is in place, it can be done in the time it takes to eat a meal.
Moreover, Ningyuan is only warm in the summer, which is suitable for growing grain. The rest of the year is a long and cold winter, with the land frozen for most of the year, resulting in poor grain production and difficulty in feeding the people.
These people, tied to the land, would have run away long ago if they had any other choice.
Now, when someone offered a high price for the land, they agreed without hesitation and, once they received the money, planned to move to the south in the spring.
In just three days, thousands of acres of farmland and wasteland on the west side of the city were acquired.
When Xu Youcai went to deliver the land deeds, he casually asked, "How can we cultivate thousands of acres of land? We can't even gather enough people to dig the ground."
Shen Suqin took the land deed and carefully handed it to Ju Tao, telling her to keep it safe. She then said to Xu Youcai, "We'll have to rely on the general for manpower."
Xu Youcai took a step back. "First there were bricklayers, then house builders, and now there are farmers. Where am I supposed to find so many strong and healthy people for you?"
Shen Suqin smiled mysteriously: "This time it's different. I don't want outsiders, I want my own people."
"Our own people? What kind of 'our own people' are we talking about?"
"Aren't the wounded, elderly, and retired soldiers in your Black Flag Army considered our own? By the way, how are they all being cared for?"
Shen Suqin was genuinely curious, since in her view the Black Flag Army was openly poor, and she wondered if they had paid the resettlement fees.
Upon hearing this, Xu Youcai on the other side was stunned for a long time. He hadn't expected that Shen Suqin would actually remember those brothers.
His expression was complicated, and he hesitated for a while before slowly explaining, "Years ago, when the court returned the silver, everyone who retired from the army would receive several dozen taels of silver as a resettlement allowance. In the past two years, there has been no silver, and the resettlement allowance has been raised by the general himself. With his rank, there is only a dilapidated house left in his residence, and he has to find both food and money, which is quite difficult."
Shen Suqin: "Did we mistreat them?"
“Yes,” Xu Youcai said, his voice choked with emotion, “so some people with limp legs or broken arms went to beg for food.”
"None of the brothers want to quit, because they're afraid they'll have to beg for food even if they do."
Shen Suqin looked reluctant: "How many of these people can you still find?"
“They can all be found, all of them can be found. The general sends people to register them every year.”
“Then let’s find them all. I’ll find them a way to survive.”
Xu Youcai's eyes widened: "Really, really?"
"When have I ever lied?"
"But there are many of these people, more than ten thousand."
Shen Suqin paused, realizing that if the number was more than ten thousand, given her current condition, she feared she wouldn't be able to handle it all.
Xu Youcai, thinking she had changed her mind, tried to smooth things over, saying, "There are indeed quite a lot, it's normal that we can't manage them all, or we can choose some..."
Shen Suqin shook her head, "If we say we'll find them all, then we can't leave a single one behind. But right now, everything is just getting started, and we really don't need that many people all at once."
She thought for a moment and said, "Let's do it in batches. In the early stages, we'll do more heavy physical work, so you should try to find strong and healthy people first. Once the building is up and running, we can gradually add more people."
"Okay, okay, I'll go and arrange it right away."
"Wait, I haven't finished speaking. They'll have to take care of their own food and lodging in the early stages, but I'll pay them every day."
"As long as you have money, that's fine." Xu Youcai grinned. "How many do you need this batch? Fifty?"
Shen Suqin glanced at him disdainfully: "Find a thousand first, and we'll talk about it if that's not enough. Also, we need to speed up the construction of the kang (heated brick bed), as it's closely related to what I'm doing. If the kang doesn't work, your brothers will have to continue to starve."
Xu Youcai's expression hardened. "I'll keep an eye on them right away."
[Author's Note]
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 00:27:35 and 23:54:19 on April 5, 2023!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Ah~ Rabbit (10 bottles); Si Huai (5 bottles); Bao Fu Fu (2 bottles);
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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