A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 471 Shi Shouxin

On the plains on both sides of the Baiqu River in the north of Weibei, this piece of Guanzhong cabbage heart is now golden.

That color is really beautiful, and it can bring joy to the hearts of all the people. It is the color of a good harvest.

The golden ears of wheat show their charm in the summer wind. Pull a wheat ear, knead it in your hand a few times, blow away the wheat husk, and leave the full wheat grains in the palm of your hand, throw them into your mouth, and feel the softness and hardness of each grain of wheat in your mouth.

A bit firm to chew, just a sign of ripeness.

"This summer's wheat is growing well, Guanzhong Dafeng!"

Huaiyu looked at those people who were still struggling to wield their sickles under the scorching sun. They seemed tireless, but Huaiyu also knew that they must be tired too.

Lao Wu pointed to the section of land that Huaiyu had mowed, "Look at the stubble you left behind."

The shorter the stubble, the better, but the thicker the lower the stalk, the harder it is to cut. The stubble left by Wu Huaiyu was not only high, but also uneven. It would take a lot of work to plow the land to grow corn.

Lao Wu used to be a good hand at harvesting wheat, but now he is also a bit drunk and empty. Now he is no longer the thrifty old military military officer of the Imperial Guard when he first settled in Longqiao.

His legs are not good. Of course, he has taken too many concubines, and his body is weak. He hasn't been on the ground for two years, and his belly is up.

The big mulberry tree is very tall, its crown is like a canopy, and it is very cool and comfortable to sit in the shade. Wu Huaiyu waited for the sweat to rest, then went down to the Qinghe River for a swim, and changed clothes after coming up.

After a while, the mikes over there have already started to bind the wheat. The wheat binding seems simple but also very particular.

Pick up two wheat stalks with wheat ears and twist them together as ropes, put the harvested wheat on top, cross the wheat ropes, kneel on one leg and press them firmly, then twist the two ends of the wheat ropes together, twist a few turns and pin them on top.

Those mikes are proficient in their movements, doing it in one go, like clouds and flowing water, but there is a lot of skill in it. From binding the wheat to the final threshing, there are several tossings in the middle. If the binding is not good, the wheat will fall apart.

When tying the wheat, the wheat awns pierce the hands, face, and arms, and the sweat is very itchy.

Cutting wheat, tying wheat, and then driving back to the wheat field by car. The Wu family’s wheat field is very large, and it has been prepared in advance. The field after harvesting rapeseed at the entrance of the village is cleared and leveled in advance to ensure that there are no weeds and stones. In the scorching summer, it is necessary to carry a load of water to pour on the field.

The field was soaked with water, and the whole field had to be rolled back and forth with a large roller to make it smooth, and stove ash had to be sprinkled while rolling, so as not to stick to the mortar. Even this work had to be done before the sun rose, otherwise the sun would be too strong, and it would be easy to dry and ash.

The wheat was put away, and the ground was ground for several days, and finally a large, smooth and flat drying ground was produced, which was hard and solid.

Midday.

Huaiyu sent people to call the people who cut, bound, and transported the wheat in the field to come back and have lunch under the tree.

The food was brought directly from home in a carriage, and lunch was much richer than breakfast.

Braised pork in brown sauce, stewed mutton, kelp ribs, soybean pig's feet, and four vegetarian dishes, including millet porridge, rice, and steamed bun noodles.

There is no such good wheat harvest food in ten miles and eight towns.

Even if each item is one or two yuan, the Mikes feel that it is better than the Chinese New Year!
Huaiyu helped to pack meals.

That kid's face was flushed in the morning, but he was still smiling. Wu Huaiyu liked this kid very much, and his energy was very good.

He noticed that there was an old Mai Ke who saved him some energy. After all, although Mai Ke collected money by the mu, a wheat season was as short as half a month and as long as a month. If you didn't spare any effort to harvest, you might get tired first, but this kid was still working hard.

I gave him some braised pork, stewed mutton, kelp ribs, soybean pig's feet, fried beans, etc., and added a few extra pieces of mutton for him.

"What's your name?"

"Everyone calls me Stone."

"Where's your name?"

"My surname is Shi, so my first name is Shishi."

The kid might be really hungry, and while answering, he couldn't help picking up a large piece of mutton belly and stuffing it into his mouth.

"Slower,"

Huaiyu asked this boy to have dinner with him under the shade of a tree. Wu Huaiyu's lunch was the same as everyone else's, scooped from a bucket.

The little stone does taste like a hungry ghost lifting a tire, which is matched with his aura of riding the dust when harvesting wheat.

"Who else is in your family?"

"I am my mother, my grandmother, I have two younger brothers and two younger sisters, I used to have an older brother and older sister, but they all starved to death, my ancestor also starved to death, I also have two uncles who were forced to serve as soldiers by Master Liang and died in the war,"

Xiaoshitou's family has lived in Shuofang for generations, and they seem to have some Hu blood, which seems to be the blood of the Huns.But Xiao Shitou only knows that their family has had a difficult life for several generations. They don’t have their own fields and live by herding sheep and farming.
Xiao Shitou’s deepest memory since he was a child is hunger. It seems that he has always been hungry and has never been full, so he is also short in stature. At the beginning, he almost starved to death like his brothers and sisters, but in the end his mother sold himself to a bachelor next door for a year in exchange for some food, which brought him back to life.

Because of this, his mother was forced to follow the bachelor for a year, and gave birth to a son for the bachelor. After one year, the mother left the child for the bachelor, and returned to Shi's house, and the days continued.

Fortunately, when Wu Huaiyu arrived in Shuofang, the Tang army also wiped out Liang Shidu. Wu Huaiyu sold the land in Shuofang. Xiaoshizi's family was lucky. As aboriginals, they were allocated [-] mu of land.

Speaking of these, Xiao Shitou feels very happy and full of hope for the future. He feels that he will be able to eat enough in the future and no longer need to be hungry.

"Is it bitter to be a Mac?"

"Fortunately."

Xiao Shitou said, although the journey to the south was very difficult, and harvesting wheat was also very hard, but he had suffered too much since he was a child, and he was used to it.

Today's braised pork is delicious. Not only do we add cinnamon, star anise and ginger slices, but also some rock sugar and rice wine.

The stewed mutton is also delicious. Although the Tan sheep in Shuofang is famous, but the small stone is so big that there is no chance to eat mutton.

He only now knows that mutton tastes like this, the soup is so fresh.

The thick green thing was originally called kelp, and it was also delicious.

Seeing his appetite so good, Huaiyu was quite envious.

This kid can make great achievements, and love for talents has been born in his heart.

"May I give you a name?"

"Thank you Mr. Wu."

"I see that although you are young, you are very optimistic and vigorous. Why don't you call me Shi Xiong, and you are trustworthy."

"Is it the hero's hero?"

"Ah."

"Mr. Xie Wu, I like the name Shi Xiong." The young man thanked him and did not forget to work hard to cook.

The first meal was finished in no time.

"I'll give you this too."

"Xie Xianggong," the young man didn't know how to be polite, even though he knew that the person in front of him was their family's benefactor, he also knew that this Wu Gong with a majestic fortress was the prime minister of the court, a very big official, but he still didn't know how to be polite.

When the young man cut the wheat, he didn't know how to save energy, he only knew that if he ate well in the morning, he had to be the right owner, so he just kept his head down and worked hard, no less than those grown-ups did.

"Stone, do you want to study?"

"read?"

Shito looked up, a little confused, he had never thought about this question, and he shouldn’t have thought about it. Since he could remember, he had endured hardships except starvation and cold.

Sometimes when the sheep are grazing, he seldom lies on the grass, and he also thinks about some things, such as what he can do in the future, whether he will go to Guanzhong to be a mike when he grows up, or will he follow others to sell sheep?

But he never thought that he would go to school in the future.

"I...I..." The young man wanted to say that studying requires a lot of money, or that he is a smart person, but he originally wanted to say that he is not worthy of studying, but he couldn't say the last word.

Huaiyu smiled and patted him on the shoulder, "I really like you kid, if you want, you can stay with me, you can be my book boy first, and you can also study and study after serving,"

The boy froze.

"I will cover your food, clothing and accommodation, and I will give you [-] yuan per month. Every year, I will give you another [-] yuan to your parents in Xiazhou. If you do well in the future, you can add more to this monthly money and annuity."

The boy couldn't believe there was such a good thing.

He couldn't react for a moment.

"Think about it, this is a rare opportunity to change your destiny. I like the spirit of your kid. This is an opportunity you deserve.
If you are willing, I can give you [-] yuan to your parents in Xiazhou, and it will be used as a settling fee for you to follow me. "

"But I am 13 years old, and I have never read a book. I only know how to herd sheep, cut wheat, thresh grass, and pick up dung,"

"It's okay, just learn slowly."

"I like the spirit in you, learn it well, there is actually another way of life in this world, you deserve it,

If you can maintain your innocence without losing yourself, I can accept you as a student in the future. "

The young man still doesn't know what it means to be Wu Huaiyu's student. Now there are less than ten students under Wu Huaiyu's name, two of them are Xinke Jinshi, one is the crown prince, and the other is the king of Wei.

Shi Xiong doesn't understand those things, but he knows that it seems that God has opened a door for him, and a golden road flashes.

He finally put down his rice bowl, braised pork, and stewed pig's feet. He didn't know how to express it, so he bowed and kowtowed.

Knock very seriously, the scalp is broken.

Huaiyu helped the boy up, what he likes is the energy in this boy, it doesn't matter if he is stupid or innocent.

People have this kind of temperament, and if someone helps them, they can accomplish great things.

Of course, if there is no help, an ordinary low-level teenager may go through a few years of beatings and setbacks, and the light in his eyes will eventually be worn out, and he will become numb.

Huaiyu wanted to give him a hand.

After eating, Shi Xiong picked up the sickle and prepared to continue cutting the wheat.

Huaiyu stopped him, "From now on, you are no longer a Mai Ke, you are now my follower, Wu Huaiyu, you just follow me, first do odd jobs and run errands, and learn some rules."

The young man looked at the golden wheat field with a sickle in his hand, and couldn't change his mind for a while.

Lao Wu, Fan Xuanfu and even Wei Shanjun were all surprised when they heard that Wu Huaiyu had taken in a black and thin Shuofang boy from Maike as his entourage.

Everyone gathered around to look at the young man, thinking that there must be something extraordinary about this young man, but the more he looked at him, the more ordinary he became.

Even Wei Shanjun, who thought he knew a little about physiognomy, couldn't see anything special about this kid's face.

On the contrary, his disciple Ye Fashan, a 14-year-old Taoist priest who is nine feet tall and full of forehead tattoos, believes that this little blackie who is still holding on to the sickle must be extraordinary in the future.

There were several teenagers around Wu Huaiyu, Yuwen Chengdu, An Lushan who were driving the car, and his brother-in-law Qiu Shenji, etc. Ye Fashan felt that it was unusual.

The same is true of the boy's feeling to him.

He firmly believes that the young man who can make Wu Huaiyu catch a glance from all the other mikes must be extraordinary. This must be a piece of jade in the rough!
(End of this chapter)