Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3666 The surrendered camp secretly locks the Dragon Cave, Jing Lang openly burns the Tiger and Leopard Pass

Fei Qian's gaze swept across the map repeatedly, like a tiger surveying its territory.

Humans possess an animalistic nature; territoriality is something ingrained in our genes. Any unauthorized intrusion into our private space will be met with resistance. Rather than saying that social reality smooths out an individual's edges, it's more accurate to say that harsh reality shrinks the concept of "private space" to an extremely small extent.

The same applies to Fei Qian.

His territory, his farmers, his model, his system.

From one perspective, Fei Qian scoffed at the "agricultural defense theory," but at the same time, he himself relied on the "new identity of production" shown by these new farmers in Heluo.

This is itself two sides of the same coin of a contradiction.

It's like war and peace.

Perhaps the Qin Dynasty's "agriculture and war" system was too biased towards war, with everything geared towards war. This sharp blade not only unified China but also greatly stimulated the souls of the remnants of the six states. As a result, in the Han Dynasty, the descendants of these remnants still harbored great hostility towards Guanzhong and Longxi, and incorporated this hostility into textbooks, passing it down from generation to generation.

However, without sharp swords and spears, when faced with external invasion, only the skulls of ordinary people were left to withstand the damage...

Of course, this doesn't matter to some aristocratic families, because the small-scale peasant economy greatly limits the social circle of these aristocratic sons. Even if they talk about "family, country, and the world" every day, in reality they are just "filling in the price"...

To change all this, we must start with the 'turtle shell'.

Or, in modern parlance, "stepping out of one's comfort zone"...

The sprawling "tortoise shell" fortifications cast heavy shadows under the candlelight, resembling a gaping maw ready to devour the lives and spirit of any cavalrymen who dared to charge.

……

……

In the spring, Wang Laonian and his group came.

At that time, the wind on the Heluo Plain was slightly biting, and when it swept across the abandoned fields, it would bring up a layer of sand and dust.

At that time, Wang Laonian, with his back hunched, walked silently with a group of surrendered soldiers, all dressed in tattered Cao army uniforms.

He and the others were used to being driven away.

It's like a sheep and a flock of sheep.

Their eyes are empty and numb, as if they have lost the ability to be curious about life and are completely indifferent to what will come next.

The patrolling cavalrymen and the swords and spears they carried clearly identified Wang Laonian and his men.

prisoner.

Surrendered soldiers.

They are the remnants of war, the marks of defeat.

The line gradually came to a stop.

Old Wang slowly raised his head and looked around.

This place... doesn't seem to be a battlefront?
There seem to be some people digging something in the distance...

Digging?

Are they going to bury us alive?

Even if you lose hope for the future, you will still have an instinctive fear when you realize that you are facing death.

Old Wang shrank back, trying to hide. He didn't dare to resist directly, but he could let others die or cause trouble first, and then he could take the opportunity to escape.

This is how Wang Xiaonian came to be known as Wang Laonian.

"They're going to bury us alive..."

"Look over there, they're digging a hole..."

"where?"

"What? ! 』

"Mother, I don't want to die..."

The initial murmurs gradually turned into some chaos.

Some of the surrendered soldiers began to stir, seemingly looking for an opportunity to escape.

"What are you all doing?" a young military academy officer shouted. "Line up! Come and get your farm tools!"

farm tools?

Under the shouts of the cavalrymen, the surrendered soldiers of Cao's army rearranged themselves and then slowly stepped forward one by one to receive the farm tools.

Wang Laonian was originally in a relatively forward position, but...

Now it's become a bit further back.

'Hoe, shovel, machete, hemp rope...'

The clerk of the cavalry threw down some "unassembled" parts and then made Wang Laonian sign and seal them.

That's right, it's a semi-finished product.

For example, a hoe only has a head and no wooden handle.

old.

Those who arrived first received the new ones, and by the time it was his turn, he mostly received the old ones.

"This is..." Old Wang hesitated, "What are they trying to do?"

"Huh? What what what? Didn't you hear me when I came from Hedong?" The military academy student next to him seemed to have repeated it countless times, to the point of becoming somewhat irritated and stiff, his attitude rude, "Farming! How can you farm without tools?! Take it and get out of here!"

"Hey, hey! I'm leaving, I'm leaving..."

Seeing the military academy's attitude, Wang Laonian felt relieved and readily agreed, signing and affixing his fingerprint...

Okay, it's basically just pressing a handprint.

Holding a pile of things, Wang Laonian subconsciously weighed them in his hands.

these things……

OK!

But even the old one seemed to be heavier than the one he used at his family estate in Shandong.

Perhaps even more durable?
He came from Yanzhou and was once a tenant farmer in a medium-sized manor in Chenliu County.

In Shandong, the land doesn't belong to them, it belongs to the "master of the house".

They can be considered "Yan drifters".

Like some of the drifters of later generations, they had no means of production or livelihood; everything was rented. But unlike those drifters of later generations, they didn't even have the right to "drift" away.

These "retainers," "attached servants," or whatever other titles they held were nothing more than vines clinging to the land. They planted whatever the master told them to plant, and harvested whatever the master said they would harvest.

In good years, people can barely make ends meet, but in years of famine, children are sold and corpses of the starving are everywhere.

He had seen too many of his fellow villagers beaten to death on the ridges of fields by their masters' private soldiers because they couldn't pay their rent.

Even if there are bumper harvests every year and land rent and taxes are paid, does that mean a "happy" life?

Unfortunately not.

Even with good harvests every year, one cannot escape the calamities and illnesses of the people. If one is not careful, one will have to borrow money from the head of the household.

Borrowed money, spent for a while, but paid back for a lifetime.

Lifetime after life.

That manor was not a home, but a cage, a millstone that squeezed their flesh and blood.

When war broke out, he was forcibly conscripted into the army and became an insignificant "cog" in Cao Cao's massive war machine.

Okay, the big guy didn't have screws, but he had nails.

They appear wherever cannon fodder is needed.

After we've eaten our last meal, who knows if we'll have another one...

Later, after being defeated and captured, Wang Laonian thought he was finished, that he would either be buried alive or forced into hard labor and die from exhaustion.

Unexpectedly, after being escorted to Heluo, they were actually...

Farming?

"fraud……"

Someone in the group muttered under their breath. It was young Li Ergou, his face still bearing the traces of childishness and resentment. "Would the General of the Cavalry be so kind? Giving us land to cultivate? They'd just find ways to make us work like slaves, then devour us whole after the harvest! Back home, the head of the household also said that 'military farming' was for our own good, but what happened? They took 80% of the rent! We even had to pay for our own seeds! Bah!"

"Eighty percent? Ha, you're lucky if you say eighty percent, mine's almost ninety percent! All year round, nothing's left! Even mice run away as fast as they can when they come to my house!"

Wang Laonian didn't say anything, but just gripped the hoe tighter.

He's been through too much and no longer believes in any promises.

The Flying Cavalry?

New system?

It's just collecting rent and taxes under a different name.

But if I can live for one more day, then I'll live for one more day, right?

Wang Laonian remained silent, following the queue, watching it gradually disperse, like water flowing into the land of Heluo. Then he realized that what was being dug in the distance wasn't a pit to bury them, but rather the work of "new farmers" who had arrived in Heluo earlier, clearing the silt that had clogged the irrigation ditches.

"Dig for a day, get a token! One token, exchange for a bag of grain!" the clerk shouted by the irrigation ditch. "Bring your own tools! No hires today, those who need it tomorrow, hurry up!"

What do you mean?
Wang Laonian ignored the clerk's shouts. He silently walked to the plot of land that had been allocated to him.

The land wasn't large, but the soil looked much better than the compacted saline-alkali land in Shandong.

He instinctively found a piece of wood, made a wooden handle from a machete, attached a hoe, and then, as he stood in the field and swung the hoe to dig through the somewhat hardened soil, his movements seemed familiar, yet also a little stiff and unfamiliar.

How long has it been since he truly farmed for himself and his family?

forget.

It seems like I've never experienced that in my life.

In the manor, he was merely a numb laborer; the land's produce was irrelevant to him, only to the patriarch's treasury and the government's tax collectors.

The days passed by.

The number of cavalrymen who had been supervising the construction gradually decreased, while the number of people wearing long robes increased...

Wang Laonian referred to them as "agricultural officials," even though they kept saying they were scholars.

Unlike the arrogant stewards of the manor, these people would squat down at the edge of the field, pointing to the newly sprouted crops, and explaining in the simplest language how to thin the seedlings, how to fertilize, and how to control pests. They even brought some tools that Wang Laonian had never seen before, such as a kind of thing called "Huang's Plow," which, whether pulled by oxen or horses, or even by people, was much more efficient at deep plowing than digging with a hoe stroke by stroke.

The key point is that this "Huang family plow" can still be borrowed!

This is an iron plowshare!

If this were in Shandong, how many knives and guns could we fight?
In Shandong, good ironware is considered to be controlled products.

As for farm tools?

Does that mean anything not made of wood can be used as a substitute?

"This...this plow, is it really for us to use?"

Wang Laonian stared wide-eyed at the gleaming iron plowshare, his voice filled with disbelief.

"It's not a 'gift,' it's a loan," explained the young agricultural official Zhang Xu. "After the autumn harvest, you can repay it using a portion of your harvest. This is called 'using public resources for private purposes, with repayment based on value.'"

He paused, looking at the bewildered faces of Wang Laonian and the other surrendered soldiers, and added, "What I mean is, these plows belong to the public. You can use them for now, and after the grain harvest, you can use the grain to offset part of the rent, based on the plow's value. It's much cheaper than buying them yourself. The rent isn't much, only half a percent."

For the first time, Wang Laonian's heart skipped a beat.

It's not a free gift, but it's not a gratuitous plunder either.

This……

Something seems a little different?
He secretly observed Zhang Xu and found that when he talked about things in the fields, his eyes were bright, without the aloof indifference of a manor manager.

When Zhang Xu announced that after the harvest, the surrendered soldiers would only need to pay 50% of the harvest as "land rent," with rent for cattle, horses, and plows calculated separately, and the remainder belonging to the farmers, the surrendered soldiers' camp erupted in uproar.

"Fifty percent?! Really?" Li Ergou was the first to jump up. "In Shandong, you'd be begging the patriarch to give thanks if you could keep even thirty percent!"

"Yeah, are you kidding me? We're working hard now, but you'll change your mind in the fall, won't you?"

"Exactly! Who knows if they'll admit it after the harvest? The power is in their hands!"

Wang Laonian didn't join in the commotion. He squatted by his wheat field, watching the tender green swaying in the spring breeze.

Five percent...

This number, like a pebble thrown into stagnant water, stirred ripples in the long-silent lake of his heart.

He thought of his son who died in forced labor, his wife who died of hunger and edema, and himself who had spent his whole life hunched over under the landowner's whip.

in case……

If only I had kept 50% of it back then...

But he couldn't believe it.

The greater the hope, the more painful the disappointment.

He simply tended the fields in silence, like a devout believer worshipping a nonexistent deity.

He carefully weeded, caught insects, and learned the composting method taught by the "farm official".

He valued that small wheat field more than his own life, not only for the possible harvest, but also because it was the only thing he could grasp in this strange and cruel world that seemed to still belong to him.

From that time on, he, squatting in the fields, was no longer a surrendered soldier of Cao Cao's army, no longer a prisoner, but a farmer, a farmer waiting for his fate to be pronounced.

until now.

Summer is here.

As the crops grew and thrived, their roots stretched out, seemingly deepening the bond between Wang Laonian and this land of Heluo...

In Wang Laonian's eyes, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope.

……

……

"We can't launch a direct attack..."

Fei Qian reaffirmed his judgment, his voice low yet carrying an undeniable weight.

He pounded heavily on the dark area representing Gongxian and Sishui Pass. "This is exactly what Cao Mengde wants! To use these deep trenches and high walls to wear down my army, cripple my logistics, and plunge those newly settled farmers of the Heluo region into panic and displacement once more!"

"Chariots, horses, cannons..." he muttered to himself, "They can't be separated..."

The road to Jingxiang was fraught with high mountains and deep valleys, its paths rugged and narrow, far superior to the Qinling plank roads he had painstakingly developed over many years. Those powerful artillery pieces, those supply wagons requiring stable logistical support, those cavalry groups needing open terrain…

Can they be abandoned?

Obviously not!

Once these core forces that constitute the cavalry's overwhelming advantage on the battlefield are abandoned, and the army ventures deep into enemy territory alone, it is tantamount to deliberately crawling into another huge "tortoise shell" made of mountains and rivers.

The temptations in the north and south are indeed tempting enough, but they are also dangerous enough.

"The north and south flanks... seemingly weak points, but actually traps." Fei Qian shook his head and smiled, a hint of感慨 (gan3kai3, a complex emotion encompassing regret, regret, and a sense of awe). "Old Cao, you've mastered the 'luring the enemy into the trap' trick. You want me to divide my forces? To keep my main force away from the core of Heluo, so you can seize the opportunity to pounce, or to concentrate your forces to wipe out one of my flanks first?"

Fei Qian's gaze lingered on the Heluo region on the map. In that region, near the old capital of Luoyang, there were more than 20,000 surrendered soldiers who had undergone preliminary screening and were waiting for transfer or reorganization.

They were a burden that Cao Cao "discarded," but they were also the source of hope for "new life" under Fei Qian's new policies.

At the same time, they were a potential thorn in Cao Cao's side!
After all, if they were completely assimilated and reorganized by Fei Qian, they would become a force to be reckoned with under the command of the Flying Cavalry.

More importantly, these camps are located in the relatively open Heluo Plain, far from the rugged mountainous areas, but they are not the core, reclaimed agricultural areas that have resumed production.

The locations of these camps...

Very subtle.

Fei Qian turned his gaze to the east of Gong County and Sishui Pass. He seemed to see Cao Cao's sharp and deep eyes watching him through the map, with a hint of cunning and expectation.

"Cao Mengde, are you still betting correctly?"

Fei Qian whispered.

Yes, Cao Cao was gambling. He was betting that Fei Qian would be blinded by the "benefits" before his eyes, unable to suppress his impulse to make a name for himself, and like countless other warlords in the past, would step into his carefully laid rhythm in the illusion that "the overall situation is settled," raising his sword and spear, shouting "Kill! Kill! Kill!", and then falling into the trap like a fool.

Like Yuan Shu, like Yuan Shao...

"What a pity..." Fei Qian's eyes suddenly sharpened like knives. "I'm not stupid... What I need to confirm now is, Lao Cao, are you going to turn the tables and devise this scheme against me..."

Report—

A messenger rushed in, bringing a piece of intelligence.

"Hmm..." Fei Qian looked at it, then suddenly laughed, "Ying Yin? Ha, ha... This is truly... interesting..."

News came from an inside source in Shandong that Cao Cao had moved his troops to Yingyin.

Yingyin is located south of Xuxian County.

During the previous pursuit, Cao Cao's elite troops ran faster than rabbits, leaving behind only small fry from counties and prefectures...

This kind of victory is not very meaningful, and it will also make Fei Qian and the General of the Cavalry stained with too much blood from other counties in Shandong!

Blood contains nourishment, but it also brings hatred.

Just like when humans eat the corpses of animals and plants, they also ingest toxins in the process of consuming nutrients.

Yes, in the process of consuming animal and plant "corpses," or euphemistically called "food," to obtain nutrition, humans do ingest some toxins at the same time.

Some toxins are naturally occurring; after all, many plants have evolved natural toxins to defend themselves against insects, fungi, or other herbivores. For example, many plants are poisonous when eaten raw, but their toxicity is weakened or destroyed when cooked. There are even plants that still pose risks even when cooked; for instance, plants with excessive oxalic acid can increase the risk of kidney stones.

And even more toxins were added artificially later...

Of course, discussing toxicity without considering dosage is meaningless. Many natural toxins are present in foods at levels far below the threshold that would cause acute toxicity. When the human body is healthy, it also has powerful detoxification and excretion systems, such as the liver and kidneys, to process low doses of toxins.

but……

What if the body becomes weak?
The General of the Cavalry is healthy and powerful now, but wasn't it once the same as Cao Cao was before?
The "toxins" that Cao Cao is now unleashing are nothing more than the "food" he ate before that never manifested.
Cao Cao was luring Fei Qian to eat, especially to eat Ji Province.

War is terrible. Its terrible nature is not only in external destruction, such as the destruction of cities and villages, but also in the destruction and devastation within the human heart!
"The new system... is taking root and sprouting here..." Fei Qian's voice carried a firm tone. "Cao Cao can discard his county troops like discarding worn-out shoes, because he only cares about the core of his hegemony, his foundation in Yan and Yu! But I, Fei Qian, cannot! If the Heluo region is left vulnerable, allowing Cao Cao's army to once again trample this land that has just begun to recover, then my new system... will become the biggest joke..."

Fei Qian's gaze lingered on the location representing the core area of ​​the Heluo Plain, a place that symbolized a new life where hope and fragility coexisted.

Soon, once Fei Qian identified the core priorities, a new strategy began to take shape...