Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 309 Listen, there is wind blowing
It was the third day after Xia Lin was in danger in the mountains. An ordinary person, even a hunter, would have starved to death long ago, but Xia Lin led a group of people to survive in the winter wilderness.

A mere minus ten degrees was nothing to him. When they were training, they would just throw people into Siberia and pick them up three months later. If they couldn't stand it anymore, they would call for a medical team, and when they came back, they would be kicked out of the team.

In the winter in this place, there is no need to worry about food and drink. There are wild boars, deer roe deer, rabbits in the mountains. Xia Lin also digs nuts hidden by squirrels all over the mountains, and can even dig snakes and mice out of their holes.

I gained three pounds while wandering in the wilderness.

"Master Xia, how come you feel like an old hunter in the wilderness? You can see things at a glance."

"Forced."

Xia Lin hugged his knees and sat in the shed, staring at the flames. "Back then, Lao Zhang and I had nothing to eat in the winter, so we roamed the mountains looking for food. Zhang Zhongchun was so hungry that he had no choice but to pick up cow dung and boil it into soup. I couldn't drink it anymore, so I went out and learned how to dig out squirrel nests. When I came back, he had eaten the whole pot of cow dung by himself."

"It smells quite strong..." Sister Chuntao rolled her eyes at Xia Lin and said, "You are talking nonsense. You are making up stories about Master Zhang again."

As they were talking about this, there was a sudden noise outside. The Archer heard the noise and ran out quickly. He saw heads slowly appearing not far ahead, followed by people all over the mountains. There were probably about four to five hundred people. They were divided into two or three groups, holding hands and groping forward. No matter who stepped on empty air, they would be caught immediately.

Around them there were many hunting dogs barking and running through the snow, as if they were looking for Xia Lin and the others as if they were bears.

Soon the leader rushed into the small shed they had built temporarily. At this moment, Xia Lin was eating roasted rats. The leader was also stunned for a moment, and said with a wry smile: "Master Xia... is quite good."

"Let's eat some together?" Xia Lin picked up a rat: "It's freshly roasted, a big fat field mouse, very delicious."

"My Lord...come back with me."

Xia Lin didn't even raise his eyes to look at him, but just lowered his eyelids: "Three days, you made me wait here for three days. If it was someone else, you would only find a corpse. Tell me, who wants me dead."

The man knelt down upon hearing this, slapping his own big mouth, "Master Xia, this is unjust...unjust. We in Jiujiang County, from the county governor to the yamen runners, have all come out to look for you, but the messenger fell down a mountain stream, delaying our journey, so we didn't get the news until today. Heaven and earth are clear...Master Xia... this is unjust."

At this moment, the county magistrate outside also hurried over with his hat pressed down. He looked at Xia Lin with a breath in his mouth, "Master Xia, you misunderstood. It was really a misunderstanding. The person who reported the news was injured. Three fingers were frozen off. He crawled back to report the news. If you don't believe it, you can ask the person who reported the news."

Xia Lin glanced at him, his brows gradually relaxed, and he stood up and said, "I still have a few mice to eat. Please help me eat them before going down the mountain."

"I eat, I eat."

Jiujiang County Magistrate, a fifth-rank official, was a level higher than Xia Lin, but now he was like a dog in front of him. Even after Xia Lin left, he still sat there roasting the fire and eating roasted rat, and he enjoyed it very much.

"Mr. County Magistrate, you are too humble. Xia Daosheng has a bad temper and is disrespectful to his superiors."

"Shut up and eat rat."

The county governor glanced at him with a look of disappointment: "If he scolds you, just bear with it. Why are you talking so much nonsense?"

"My Lord... Master! I don't understand."

"Tsk..." The county magistrate sighed, "He has to do this in his current situation, otherwise someone will really harm him in the future. As for me, face is nothing, political achievements are the real thing, Xiao Wu!"

"Ah? I still don't understand."

"Eat the rat in your hand, and I'll tell you."

The young man who first came to look for Xia Lin was filled with humiliation as he sat in the snow on the barren mountain and ate a roasted field mouse.

"Hmm? It smells pretty good."

"It smells good." The governor of Jiujiang smacked his lips and said, "It would be great if there was some wine."

"But Master, you haven't told me why. Why do you, the superior officer, have to endure the anger of the inferior officer?"

"What's the point of being in the middle? The one who has milk is the mother. Let me tell you this. One day you are out of money, but the New Year is coming soon. Your wife is complaining about you at home, and your daughter is crying with hunger on the bed. Now you go to the next door and ask to borrow five taels of silver for the New Year."

"Yes." "Then the aunt next door gave you fifty taels, but she scolded you from head to toe and asked you, a scholar, to prepare water for her to wash her feet. Do you hate her?"

"This……"

"You are still a little hesitant." The Jiujiang County Magistrate laughed: "You still hate it, because you think that fifty taels cannot buy your scholar's pride."

"Ah."

"But after a while, when you pawned your wife's dowry to pay back the debt, the aunt beat you up and called you a worthless bitch, but she paid to redeem your wife's dowry, waived your loan of fifty taels of silver, and even gave your daughter a pair of gold bracelets. Do you still hate her?"

"This... How can I still hate this? This is a pair of step-parents who have a sharp tongue but a soft heart. If they scold me, I can just take it as pity for their misfortune and anger at their lack of resistance."

The governor of Jiujiang clapped his hands and ate a mouthful of rat meat. "You see, this is what happened. A few years ago, when I was the magistrate of Pengze County, Pengze County needed to build water conservancy projects to prepare for His Majesty's southern tour. Curry really couldn't come up with even a tael of silver, so I racked my brains and shamelessly asked Lord Xia for it, intending to ask for 180,000 taels. He scolded me and then approved 300,000 taels for me."

"Wow……"

"In the end, we spent 130,000 taels of silver, and had 170,000 taels of silver left. I paid him back, and he said in public that I had no future at all, and that I deserved to be a county magistrate all my life. He told me to use the silver as capital to invest in Jiujiang Shipyard, with Pengze County holding 10%. How much silver did Jiujiang Shipyard make for us in the past few years? The silver was used to provide disaster relief, repair roads, and build bridges, and the extra money could allow me to be promoted to the position of Jiujiang County Magistrate. Now he scolds me, why should I argue with him?"

"Ah? This... but he is still a county magistrate."

"Have you ever seen a county magistrate commanding 3,000 elite armored soldiers? This is the minister appointed by the current emperor to the new crown prince! A new emperor appoints new ministers. Guess who will command the military office of Jiangnan Road in the future?"

"Yes! After the new emperor ascends the throne, Lord Guo will definitely step down, but not everyone can get involved in the Jiangnan Road."

"Right. He is obviously the future chief officer, a person like a frontier official. What's wrong with you being scolded by him? You are still feeling indignant, right? You would feel uncomfortable if he didn't scold you."

"Master is amazing."

"Otherwise I wouldn't be your master. Eat it. I'll catch some rats next time I go back. They'll be really tasty."

After Xia Lin went down, the first thing he did was to scold the entire Jiujiang Garrison Office from top to bottom, including the garrison commander who was addicted to eating rats. He scolded everyone from top to bottom, as if he was scolding his son.

After the training, he threw out an investment plan of 500,000 taels, to expand the roads around Mount Lushan to three times its current width, to have obvious warning signs, and to add a post station every half mile on the mountain to prepare for emergencies.

"Take the silver and get out." Xia Lin was silent for a while. "No, this is your government office. I'm leaving. If this happens again next time, you can stop being a garrison commander."

Xia Lin left in a rage with his hands behind his back, and the garrison commander sent him out the door in fear and trepidation, then came back humming a little tune, picked up the note Xia Lin had written on the table and slapped his apprentice in the face twice: "This scolding, in exchange for a great achievement, the county annals will have to scold me, do you think this scolding is worth it?"

“It’s… so worth it.”

"Don't say that Lord Xia scolded me. Even if you asked me to be a dog, I would be willing to do it. Integrity, integrity is shown in front of outsiders. There is no need to have integrity in front of family members."

"Master, what you said is... Actually, this is an excuse for Lord Xia to allocate 500,000 taels to repair this winding mountain road, right?"

"Hey, kid, you've finally got it." The Jiujiang garrison commander laughed. "I'll use the five hundred thousand taels to hire someone to buy materials, and in disguise, I'll allocate the money to the people. People's livelihood will improve, government performance will improve, and reputation will improve. There will also be an additional way to go up the mountain. In the future, scholars and poets will come to enjoy the snow and the scenery, which will be another huge source of income. Do you think Lord Xia is the living Bodhisattva with a vicious mouth and a soft heart?"

"What does he want..."

"Boy." The governor of Jiujiang patted his apprentice on the shoulder and said, "Those who seek wealth are short-sighted, those who seek fame are content with their own fate, and only those who seek the world will suffer losses together."

"Why is it that both parties suffer, Master?"

The governor of Jiujiang County chuckled, "Life is for self-interest, so it's easy to prosper together, but the way of heaven is that things flourish and wither, and no flower lasts forever, young man. There are always ups and downs in life. When the tide rises, you prosper together with others, and when the tide falls, others will cut off your flesh to protect themselves. But when the tide rises, you suffer together, and when the tide falls, they have no flesh to cut and can only protect you. The officialdom is not as easy as the battlefield, and the loser will lose his life as well."

"But I still don't understand why he is doing this to the detriment of all."

"The money is his, the road is his, the name is his, I just followed behind and picked up the leaks, this is a win-win situation for all. The money is his, the road is mine, the name is mine, and the political achievements are also mine. I was promoted because of him, I became famous because of him, so I am his person, this is a loss for all." The Jiujiang garrison laughed and said, "Xiao Wu, the art of giving up is a great learning. This officialdom emphasizes giving and taking, and only in the process of advancing and retreating can one show ingenuity. You are still a new scholar, and you still have a long way to go. You should learn well."

(End of this chapter)