I am an immortal in heaven and earth

Chapter 366: All Farmers' Children

Xu Jia also wanted to see swords and guns and kill some people.

But Xu's father persuaded him, "Yushan is your hometown, and it is also where our clan is located. We can't even win the hearts and opinions of the people in our hometown, so how can we bring out a group of confidants?"

"Leave it to me. I am also a juren and a landlord, but I also have lofty ideals. I will convince them."

If you are from the same clan or hometown, it is really difficult to kill you unless you are a truly heinous bully. It is not the case that "you are destined to die" just because of a small conflict. The kingly way has never been a rule of terror and repression.

This is even more true for Xu Jia's Taoist country. Perhaps it should be less troublesome for the people. But in this chaotic world, how can one stay away from the world? One must work hard to build a beautiful home.

With Xu Zhiyuan personally setting up the benchmark, and Chen Gongming leading 500 Taoist boys armed with flintlock rifles to recruit soldiers in Yushan and Dexing counties, almost everyone with a little insight knew that this was a big event.

The timid ones were trembling in fear, while the brave ones had already surrendered. Many old mothers held their sons’ hands and said, “Mr. Xu gave us land, but we have nothing to repay him. Why would he care about poor people like us? It’s nothing but our lives. In this chaotic world, we still have food to eat and clothes to wear, which is much better than before. You work hard for him, and he will not treat us unfairly.”

However, when these young men who were ready to risk their lives arrived at the recruitment office, they learned that those who were too young were not accepted, those who were the only sons in the family were not accepted, those who were newly married but had no children were not accepted... those who were too short were not accepted, those with flat feet were not accepted...

Most people were beaten back home, still feeling insulted: "What's wrong with my flat feet?" They threw a set of punches and recited a poem on the spot.

But he was still cruelly brushed off.

Why is it so crazy? Because a sign says: "It is an honor to join the army." It is not just an honor for the face. In terms of honor, you will be given a set of training uniforms, a set of underwear, and a pair of shoes on the spot.

Although there is no petrochemical industry now, basically the armor is still the same as it should be, and there is not too much high-tech. But this thing is related to talismans and refining. This is neither the way of cultivating immortals nor scientific, and it is going off-road.

This looks like a combination of ancient and modern times, a mess, but it is surprisingly in line with the aesthetics. These qualified men put it on on the spot, like gods descending to earth, heavenly soldiers and generals, and the sound of their walking becomes louder.

Then they were trained to move left, right, and march in place...

Every time the left and right were mixed up, the people watching the recruitment would laugh at him: "This idiot, is there something wrong with his brain? How can he not tell the left from the right?"

The dormitory they lived in was actually the surrounding building that the Taoist children had built when they were building the Taoist temple. It was much more complete inside, with bunk beds and water from underground wells...

When they got there, they were divided into fives, teams, platoons, and squads. Two fives made a ten, two tens made a team, and two teams made a squad.

From then on, they ate, lived and trained together. Here, they would march, learn to use flintlock rifles, understand tactical commands, obey orders, learn martial arts, breathing techniques, and be awarded the "Lingbao Taoist Civilian Scroll", or in other words, they should be awarded the "Lingbao Taoist Soldier Scroll".

"Military talismans" are different from "civilian talismans" and are more in line with the way of killing. They can be upgraded through war, training, and "gaining experience", just like those war games. The corresponding stars are the Pojun star, Tanlang star, Qisha star, Yinghuo star, Feilian star, Ketu star... and other evil stars and demon stars in the sky.

These were all designed by Xu Jia. It's not that killing can increase experience, but using the characteristics of the star gods in the sky to conduct a war similar to a sacrifice, so that people can gain upgrades. In addition, by experiencing life and death, people themselves will transform.

.........

The recruitment work was completed quickly. The work in Yushan and Changde went smoothly, or very smoothly, with everyone actively cooperating.

Chen Gongming recruited a total of two thousand soldiers from good families and a thousand self-trained militia to maintain public security in the two counties.

Those Taoist boys who had been to the island, learned the law, and fought with the natives, or in other words, three years had passed and they had grown up a lot and should no longer be called Taoist boys. They had also become the most suitable grassroots non-commissioned officers.

Just as Xu Jia had planned to establish branches in the army, these Taoist children were undoubtedly the most supportive of Xu Jia. Many of them had completed the early stage of human immortal training and entered the middle stage of human immortal. Like America's disciples, such as Li Rentai and the like, if it were not for the support of hot weapons, he would not be able to defeat these people.

There were 2,500 soldiers who were trained intensively for two months. The county magistrates and gentry in the surrounding counties were all terrified, and some even reported to the court, accusing them of treason.

Because of the large number of closures of post stations, the speed of this accusation was slow. It took more than half a month for the court to reply. It was not the emperor's order but the order of the central government: the county magistrate was ordered to recruit soldiers on his own and execute those who plotted treason, or to issue an amnesty.

There's no other reason. There are too many rebels and they can't handle it. They are even a little angry. You, Jiangnan West Road, haven't suffered any disaster. Why are you joining in the rebellion?
The rebellion in the Central Plains is fine, but this year is the third year of abnormal weather, with spring floods, summer droughts, plague, famine...

Although the Jiangnan West Road seemed peaceful, the killing outside had already gone crazy, especially in the Central Plains, where famine had basically reached the point where people were cannibalizing each other.

The court officials believed that there was no basis for rebellion in Jiangnan West Road. If there was a rebellion, it must be the fault of the Jiangnan West Road officials. Therefore, officials should be sent to pacify the local area and inspect Jiangnan West Road.

Another reason was that the imperial court had run out of money, and the emperor died a few years after ascending the throne. The top priority now was to make the seven-year-old prince the emperor.

It’s good to be a little emperor. It means that no one is telling you what to do and you can reach the pinnacle of power. Many officials have worked for their entire lives but are unable to realize their ambitions and political ideals, and end up giving up.

But now that we have the little emperor, that’s great. As long as I control the little emperor, can’t I change the law however I want and reform however I want?

They believed that external rebellion was temporary, and as long as they were in power at the central level and implemented their own policies, there would be peace in the world. They completely failed to see that the entire Da Ning Dynasty was already a decaying and rotting corpse, and they were the maggots wriggling inside the corpse, excitedly devouring the rotten flesh and blood.

Therefore, Xu Jia originally thought that Yushan and Changde were his own territories, and there were already disciples from the Immortal Hall preaching there, and he had also appeared in spirit to spread the Dharma, so there was a corresponding foundation. Just as Xu Zhiyuan's father said, this was his hometown, and it might not be so smooth in other places. But he didn't expect that when it came to conquering the city, it was actually so simple.

When they arrived in Wuzhou, the officials had already given up their seals. The people in the city tied up the landlord and asked with bright eyes, "Who is Mr. Xu?"

Xu Zhiyuan originally did not want to participate in the siege, but because he was very popular, Chen Gongming took him along.

This is a good thing, but not entirely a good thing. The higher you praise someone, the harder they fall. Many people even set up their own agricultural cooperatives and blindly follow the trend. In fact, they are just self-proclaimed kings who use the title to drink big bowls of wine, divide gold with large scales, and eat meat with big mouthfuls.

They combined the equal-field land reform with the images of some bandits and outlaws, and some of them spread some supernatural stories, taking the opportunity to gain benefits. In short, it was a chaos of demons.

When Xu Zhiyuan arrived in Wuzhou City, he entered the government office and called in local people of high reputation to inquire about things. He first presided over the work of equal distribution of land, but then he felt that it would be too slow to distribute the land one by one. If he let them distribute the land on their own, it would affect the image of their own team and easily cause too many problems.

In this case, a group of people must be trained to go to each village to guide the equal distribution of land, and someone must also be sent to protect their safety and health.

Xu Zhiyuan took out a mirror and used the magic tool of "Thousand Mile Courtyard Round Light Technique". He used the magical powers of two little ghosts, Duowen Boy and Guangmu Boy, and synchronized sound and picture to ask Xu Jia for advice.

Xu Jia did not expect that his father would encounter such a problem so early, and said, "This is our problem. If we do not have enough manpower, we should do subtraction instead of blindly expanding. We need to digest everything. Dad, you should stay in Wuzhou for half a month or a month, solve the problem in Wuzhou, and invite the people to come to the trial together. In addition to equalizing the land, we should also solve some problems for the people. We are here to equalize the land, but are we here just to equalize the land? Do we leave after equalizing it, or do we have to keep our people to continue the work and prevent them from making a comeback?"

"Where is our superiority reflected? How can our system make a city with hundreds of thousands of people in the countryside identify with us and think that we are really different from them?"

"Maintain the operation of Wuzhou, then find employment for the people, build large-scale projects, just give orders, and let local people who are willing to take charge of the rest of the projects, promote and appoint some trustworthy people, and then go to the next place."

"It's easy to take Wuzhou, but the officials have all fled. What can we do to govern? They have made a mess of it, robbing the land. Can the people live a good life after we leave?"

After hearing this, Xu Zhiyuan suddenly realized what was most important, so he stayed in the county government office and began to work wholeheartedly. He didn't need to care about the fake per capita land in other places. He just told the people that he was still in Wuzhou, how long he would stay in Wuzhou, and where he would go next.

For a while, those who tried to take advantage of the situation were very conspicuous in such a "quiet" state. Many people found that they were not Xu Gong's team at all, and they cursed them. Some were shameless and took the initiative to come to Wuzhou to offer their tribute, saying that they had already mastered a certain piece of land and completed the equal distribution of land in a certain place, hoping that Xu Gong would appoint them as officials...

These are all jumping clowns. When Xu Zhiyuan is no longer in a hurry, he will use the method of "Dharma Realm" and "hold a night trial for the Yin" in the name of Xu Jia.

During the day, he solved cases and distributed land equally. At night, his spirit left his body and arrived at the City God Temple. The City God could only greet Xu Zhiyuan obediently and greet him respectfully, "Mr. Xu."

Therefore, Xu Zhiyuan was able to obtain corresponding information from the City God and be able to see everything clearly.

Half a month after Wuzhou was captured, the people in Xinzhou could no longer wait. Xinzhou officials realized that they could not suppress the people's sentiments and it was difficult for them to escape, so they took the lead in surrendering and took the initiative to express their willingness to distribute the land equally. Even the gentry and landlords in the city, as well as the various aristocratic families, hoped to "distribute their own land" and not let outsiders confiscate their homes and distribute the land equally.

Of course, this plan was too good to be true. It was basically impossible to get away with it. But Xu Jia was very disappointed. They didn't even fight a single battle. Are these officials in Jiangnan West Road spineless?
This was Xu Jia's misunderstanding. The governor of Nanchang in the western part of Jiangnan was a man who understood military preparations. He had already received news of the rebellion, so he actively trained soldiers and horses. He trained 3,000 sailors in Poyang and recruited 20,000 infantrymen.

Why did they have so much money to train soldiers? Because these gentry families were afraid that they would come to divide their land and overthrow their lives. Xu Jia didn't actually kill many people. What they described was that they killed anyone they saw. Men who crossed the wheel were killed, and women were married to peasants...

But they forgot that Poyang was also Xu Jia's territory. The little dragon king Shunji of Poyang was the incarnation of South China Sea dragon Ao Jia. Poyang Water Palace was the government office of the Jiangnan West Road, in charge of all matters concerning demons and ghosts.

The Nanchang governor's navy ship was training when it was blown to the middle of Poyang Lake by a strong wind. Then a dragon appeared and said to the officers and soldiers on the ship: "Mr. Xu asked me to tell you to go back home quickly. The land is distributed according to the number of people. Each male has three acres and each female has two acres. If you go back and marry a wife immediately, you can get five acres of land."

Afterwards, the boat was pushed ashore, the officers and soldiers took off their armor and ran away, and the boat was transported to Raozhou at night.

Not only the navy, but also the infantrymen gradually started to speak out and it could not be stopped.

"There are seven people in my family, my grandfather, my father, my mother, my brother, my sister-in-law, me, my nephew, and me... If I go back and marry another wife, I can get five more acres of land. If I give birth to a fat boy, I can get another two acres. These seven acres of land, one acre of good land, cost eight taels of silver to buy. It will take my family three years to open up the wasteland. Where can I find fifty-six taels of silver?"

"My father and mother couldn't farm. They were weak and died of illness in their early years. Now my brother and sister-in-law are the only ones raising three children. If I don't go back and divide the land, my brother won't be able to finish farming. It will definitely be taken away. If my brother and I farm together, we will definitely be able to finish it."

At this time, the land was already cultivated intensively, with the yield per mu in a season being about 200 to 300 kilograms. One mu can produce more than 500 kilograms of grain per year, and one person's annual grain supply is about 800 kilograms. For an adult, three mu of land is actually enough to feed the person, or at least keep him from starving to death.

Of course, this does not take into account the mess of taxes and corvee labor.

However, when Xu Jia divided the land, he also gave some to the elderly, children and women. Although they got less, only two acres each, they had less food to eat, so these were the extra money and the profit. At least there was some food left over every year, and no matter how much was left over, it would be enough for the next year. This increased the farmers' ability to resist risks.

It is not like in the past, when farmers could not even grow enough food to feed themselves and had to borrow seeds. Although the Green Seed Loan may seem well-intentioned, it is actually a huge burden on farmers.

Now that we have such hope, how can we not yearn for it?

These soldiers are all children of farmers.

(End of this chapter)