Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 293: Feeling Different (The last day of the lucky draw, asking for monthly tickets)
"Moo-"

In late spring in March, the earth thawed, all things revived, and the land reclamation movement in Liangzhou also began in full swing.

In Fanhe County, nearly ten thousand people who fled from Jiannan Road to Longyou are now working hard.

They had only been in Fanhe City for half a month.

But in order to live a comfortable life as soon as possible, everyone joined the public land reclamation movement arranged by the government.

Since more than 20,000 people had moved into Fanhe County last year, the cultivated fields closer to the city were divided up and the wasteland was turned into public fields to be reclaimed by the people in the county.

The nearly 10,000 people who moved in later could only be organized into townships or villages. Those with good luck were organized into townships, while those with unlucky luck were organized into villages.

As students from Linzhou University, Liu Jilong sent these 52 promising students to the most difficult front-line reclamation area in Liangzhou.

"Mr. Xiao Li, you can't do this job like this!"

Outside the newly built village, a couple in their forties were talking to a figure not far away.

Hearing this, the figure driving the oxen gradually stopped and cast a curious look.

The land beneath their feet had been burned by a fire. Now all they had to do was plow the land, dig out the rocks and transport them away to make it into reclaimed land.

"Grandma, is there anything wrong with what I did?"

Li Yangchun asked Li Azhang and his wife, and Li Azhang came forward, took the hoe from his hand, and demonstrated: "When clearing land, you must follow the terrain, not act recklessly."

"You see, even though you've plowed the land with oxen, there are still a lot of rocks hidden in the soil. You have to break up the soil first to get the rocks out."

"If you dig directly like you did, it's easy to break the hoe."

"If this wrought iron hoe was placed in Jiannan Road, it would be worth at least a hundred dollars. We can't waste it like this..."

In the face of Li Azhang's explanation, Li Yangchun did not become arrogant. Instead, he listened carefully and nodded from time to time.

He was no more than fourteen or fifteen years old, and only five feet two or three inches tall. He looked no different from an ordinary farmer, but he had an air of scholarliness about him.

"Mr. Li got up so early!"

"We are a bunch of farmers, but we can't even get up earlier than Mr. Li, haha..."

Laughter was heard, and many people walked out from the village in the distance. They were all immigrants who had left the village early to open up wasteland.

Liangzhou was very large, and a large number of people moved in, so the 52 students were arranged in a dispersed manner.

Under the village's memorial archway, Ma Yi, who was five feet five or six inches tall, looked at Li Yangchun in the distance and couldn't help but sigh:

"He's the youngest but gets up the earliest. It seems that I can't compare to him in terms of endurance."

He walked out from under the memorial archway, on which were written the words "Yongchang Village, Dadou Township, Fanhe County" and so on.

Yongchang Village is located in the southwest of Fanhe County, in a wide river valley between Yanzhi Mountain and Qilian Mountain.

As early as a hundred years ago, there was a large army here with a strength of 1,500 soldiers.

Later, Tubo invaded Liangzhou, and the Dadou Army was basically destroyed, and the former Dadou Army camp also turned into ruins in the vicissitudes of life.

Dadou Township was built on the site of the former Dadou military camp, and Yongchang Village is located more than 20 miles southwest of Dadou Township.

No one has built a village here for thousands of years, so this place is very primitive.

However, although this place is far away from Fanhe County and Dadou Township, there are two small rivers passing through it, so there is no shortage of water. The terrain is also very flat, and the difficulty of reclaiming land is not too great.

Although Ma Yi and Li Yangchun are classmates in the same grade, Ma Yi has already reached adulthood, while Li Yangchun skipped a grade due to his precocious intelligence and is only fifteen years old now.

Because of the age gap between the two, they didn't communicate much in class.

Nowadays, even if they are assigned to the same village to participate in the reclamation of public land, they don’t have much time to communicate.

Li Yangchun skipped a grade and Ma Yi grew up rich, so they didn't know how to open up new land.

They were registered as members of the Li and Ma families in the village, and shared meals and land reclamation with the two families.

There are sixteen households in the entire Yongchang Village, with a population of only more than seventy people, which is not considered large.

But now the wave of migration is still continuing, and I believe that in the near future the population of Yongchang Village will increase several times.

"Hoe... hoe..."

Since it is public land, there is no need to demarcate the land for reclamation.

Li A-Zhang and Ma A-Zhang were reclaiming wasteland together, so Li Yangchun and Ma Yi also got together.

Compared to the talkative A-Zhang Li, A-Zhang Ma, who is in his fifties, seems to be taciturn.

Therefore, the work for the two of them was arranged by Li Azhang.

Seeing that they were almost unable to hold the hoe, Li Azhang took the initiative to say:

"Mr. Xiao Li, Mr. Xiao Ma, you just need to pick up the stones from the ground, load them onto the ox cart, and bring them back to the village for the woman."

"No need, Zhang, we can do it!"

Despite the severe pain in his hand, Ma Yi still stayed.

Upon hearing this, Li Azhang immediately looked at Li Yangchun, only to see that Li Yangchun also smiled and said, "Azhang, we are also farmers' children, don't worry about us."

"All right……"

Mr. Li smiled helplessly, then lowered his head and started working.

Ma Yi and Li Yangchun beside him were unfamiliar with the movements of clearing the land, but their attitude was very serious.

The two men imitated Li A-zhang's movements. Although they were still clumsy, they had already acquired some resemblance to him.

Gradually, time passed from Chenshi to Sishi, and Ma Yi could no longer hold the hoe, so he had to stop.

He looked down at his palms and saw that the calluses there were swollen and there were even blisters underneath the calluses.

"The calluses from horseback riding, archery and short-armed martial arts are not hard enough. Blisters have even formed underneath the calluses..."

Feeling the pain under the callus, Ma Yi took a breath and looked at Li Yangchun.

Li Yangchun freed his hands to take a look, and said, "I was wondering why it was so uncomfortable..."

"Young gentlemen, why don't you sit down and rest for a while?"

"Need not!"

In response to Li A-zhang's words, the two men responded in unison, then looked at each other in surprise, then picked up the hoe and continued to work hard.

Half an hour passed quickly and the women working in the fields left one after another, including Grandma Li and Grandma Ma.

"They will go back to prepare breakfast. If you are tired, sit down and take a rest."

Mr. Li was still talkative and explained with a smile.

Ma Yi and Li Yangchun nodded when they heard this, but did not stop working.

After more than half an hour, the women who returned to the village finally came to the fields one by one.

They carried bamboo baskets on their backs containing water bags and breakfast.

Ever since the government informed the immigrants about the dangers of drinking raw water, they began to mainly drink boiled water.

Anyway, the government office will distribute a load of coal every month, so it will be enough if we save a little.

"Come on, come on, let's eat!"

Li Yangchun and Ma Yi felt relieved by what A-zhang Li said. They sat down tiredly and waited for A-po Li and A-po Ma to bring the food.

Soon, Grandma Li and Grandma Ma arrived. They first changed the kettle for them and then served the food.

A bowl of corn rice and half a bowl of sunflower greens, this is their breakfast...

Li Yangchun didn't hesitate and picked up the bowl in one breath.

Although he felt it was shabby, he still ate it with big mouthfuls.

In comparison to him, Ma Yi frowned, looked at the food in the bowl, and was reluctant to pick up his chopsticks.

"Mr. Ma, eat quickly. We still have work to do in the afternoon."

Grandma Ma reminded with a smile, with a hint of concern in her tone.

"Okay..." Ma Yi forced a smile, picked up the bowl, and started eating.

Although the meal was simple, hunger forced him to humble himself.

During the meal, Li Yangchun and Li Azhang talked about the past of Jiannan Road.

"Ah-zhang, why did you flee from Jiannan Road to Longyou?" Li Yangchun asked.

Li Azhang sighed, his eyes flashing with three parts of helplessness and seven parts of resentment:
"The government is raising taxes, corrupt officials are rampant, and we ordinary people can no longer survive."

"Six out of ten farmlands in Jiannan Road are occupied by noble families and commoners."

"We don't have much arable land to begin with, but since the imperial court started increasing taxes in the 12th year of Dazhong, there has been no talk of reducing taxes."

"My fellow villagers and I worked hard to farm the land for a year, but in the end, we didn't even have enough food left, and we even owed the government several buckets of grain."

Hearing this, Ma Yi couldn't help but interrupt: "Then why don't you resist?"

"Resist?" Li Azhang looked at Ma Yi with a wry smile, then lowered his head and said, "How can ordinary people like us resist?"

"They have weapons and armor, but even our farm tools are made of pig iron and stone. When the government collects taxes, we can only flee to the mountains."

"But there was no food or salt in the mountains, so we had to be forced out in the end."

"In the end, we had no other options. We heard that Marshal Liu Jie in Longyou was kind-hearted, so we refugees fled to Longyou."

"It's just that the journey to escape was not easy. My Erlang died of illness on the way, and the two daughters of the Ma family were also separated..."

Li Yangchun and Ma Yi were stunned by what Li Azhang said, especially Ma Yi, who couldn't help looking at the silent Ma family Azhang and Ma Po. Seeing that the food and sunflowers in their bowls were less than half of what he had, he couldn't help feeling a little guilty.

"Every day will get better."

"Although life today is not as good as it was a decade ago, at least we don't have to worry about food and drink."

"The honest people in the village said that during the period of reclamation of the public land, each person can receive five dou of corn per month, plus two liang of oil and salt and one hundred jin of coal."

"As long as there is someone to stutter, we can still live a comfortable life in three or four years!"

Facing the two silent people, Li Azhang smiled and comforted them, or rather, he was comforting himself, with longing in his eyes.

Life will get better day by day, at least that's what Li Azhang and the immigrants in Yongchang Village think.

"Yeah! Definitely!"

Compared to Li Yangchun, who was too young, Ma Yi was much more determined.

After all, although he did not suffer much, he experienced the changes in Longyou personally.

It took only three to five years for the once impoverished Longyou to regain its prosperity under the hands of their own commander, not to mention Liangzhou.

However, after communicating with them, Ma Yi and Li Yangchun realized how cruel the world outside Longyou is.

They were all glad that they did not have to experience such a world, but they could not accept the fact that they still had to farm in Yongchang Village for two more years.

The environment is changing too fast and the gap is too big, they need time to adapt.

But even so, they didn't think of escaping.

After all, when they graduated, Marshal Ji made it very clear.

Anyone who dares to give up halfway will not be tolerated by the government or the army, and will only be able to return home and inherit the family land, let alone achieve anything else.

Because of this, Li Yangchun and Ma Yi could only keep trying to integrate into Yongchang Village, and from time to time discuss with other families who were reclaiming wasteland in the surrounding area about their experiences before they fled to Longyou.

There are many people who have experienced this, such as Li A-Zhang and Ma A-Zhang.

Either their children died on the way to escape, or they were separated from their fellow villagers and relatives.

Looking at their relieved expressions, Li Yangchun and Ma Yi felt uncomfortable.

Compared with the sufferings they have endured, what are the sufferings I am going through today?
"I now understand why Marshal Jie asked us to come here to open up new land..."

Ma Yi took a deep breath and thought about what he had done before.

Although he has restrained himself a lot under the guidance of Liu Jilong after entering Linzhou University.

But in his opinion, many of his past ideas seemed to be no different from those of the Jiannan Dao families and officials who exploited these immigrants.

Even if those ideas have been corrected by him, who can say whether he will pick them up again in the future?
On the contrary, after going through such an incident, today's experiences will probably be difficult to forget.

While he was thinking, many people in the fields stood up and prepared to continue working.

This time, Ma Yi didn't complain so much. He got up and started working.

"Li Lang, you said that people like me who have studied Redology for five years need to go to the countryside to feel the same way. Can the children of officials from other universities understand the difficulties of the people?"

Ma Yi took the initiative to chat with Li Yangchun. Li Yangchun looked at him in surprise, as if he did not expect that this guy had such a high level of ideological awareness.

But after realizing what was happening, he shook his head and said, "You should know better than me whether they can understand or not."

"Yeah..." Ma Yi sighed, and Li Yangchun comforted him:
"Don't think too much. We still have to open up wasteland for two years, serve as a soldier for two years, and work as a clerk for two years..."

"That's true." Ma Yi smiled bitterly, then he came to his senses and couldn't help laughing at himself.

"I am a 23-year-old man, yet I still need a 15-year-old boy like you to enlighten me."

Li Yangchun rolled his eyes at him and then continued to work hard with his head down.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Ma Yi didn't get angry at the moment. Instead, he laughed and played with him while clearing the land.

The experiences and feelings of the two of them are not something that all students at Linzhou University can understand.

The remaining fifty students still felt it was tormenting, even those who came from common families thought so.

Their mindset has not changed yet. Once they adapt to the new environment, they will naturally apply what they have learned in the past to their lives.

As the governor of Liangzhou, Li Shangyin also paid special attention to them. He sent messages to Liu Jilian from time to time to tell him about the situation of these students.

Although Liu Jilong also cared about it, he really had too many things to do.

"How should we accommodate the more than 5,400 people who poured in in February? Please give us instructions, General..."

In the Protectorate, Gao Jinda bowed to Liu Jilong and asked.

In this regard, Liu Jilong, who was in the main seat, could only distract himself while reading the memorial written by Li Shangyin, and then replied:

"Continue to settle them in Liangzhou. If possible, send 2,000 people to build cities in Xiu Tu Ze and Bai Ting Hai in the north."

"In the past, Xiutu City, Baiting Shouzhuo, Wuan Shu, Mingwei Shu, Heibaosha and other places all built cities and planted trees on their ruins, and relocated people."

"Each city must have at least one regiment of soldiers stationed there. It can only be more, not less."

"In addition, the old cities, garrisons, and forts in each state may be repaired, and those that can be expanded into cities should be expanded into cities."

“There must be enough villages between states and counties.”

"In addition, some of the boatmen who fled from Jiannan Road to Longyou built boats in Hezhou, and some in Wuzhou."

"We not only want to build ships, we want to build big ships."

"In a few months I will draw two blueprints of the ship's appearance. You can ask the craftsmen at the shipyard to study them and see if they can be built."

Liu Jilong was not familiar with ship drawings, but he still remembered a lot about the appearance of some ships from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Of course, he didn't know what the internal structure of the ship was, and the craftsmen needed to study it themselves.

Anyway, these things will have to be studied later, so it is better to study them in advance while there is time now.

They don't have any use for seagoing vessels, but they are still in short supply of river vessels.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong also collected his thoughts, and Gao Jinda also bowed and responded and then reported:
"Since the beginning of this year, the number of people pouring into Longyou has begun to decrease. This is probably due to Gao Pian of Dongchuan."

"Yes," Liu Jilong nodded in agreement. After all, last year, due to the successive defeats of Cui Shenyou and Xiahou Zi, the people of Shuzhong were worried that the southern barbarians would invade Chengdu.

Now that Gao Pian and Xiahou Zi have stabilized the front line, those who can avoid fleeing will naturally not flee.

Most of the people who are still on the run are poor farmers who are being forced to pay taxes by government offices and are burdened with heavy taxes.

The rich peasants and small commoners who are slightly better off than the poor peasants can naturally still hold on, but they can only hold on for a while.

When a dynasty enters the countdown, the first to suffer are the "middle class" within it.

As a large number of middle-class people are exploited and fall to the bottom of the pyramid, they will be unwilling to accept this and will instigate other lower-class people to jointly attack the group at the top of the pyramid.

However, in the context of the feudal era, governing the world still required this group of knowledgeable people, so when the struggle reached its middle stage, they still had to win over this group of people.

The reason why many peasant uprisings failed was not only that they were unable to carry out the content of their "slogans", but also that they were not good at winning over the group of people who controlled knowledge and means of production.

Because of my appearance, many things are wrong with today's history.

Therefore, Liu Jilian was not clear under what circumstances the death knell of the Tang Dynasty would be sounded.

He only knows one thing: the first bird to stick its head out gets shot.

As long as he can maintain his current strategic focus and not be the first to stand out, Longyou will have the greatest chance of conquering the world.

"General, Gao Pian has sent someone to Pandi to ask if he can buy some mules and draft horses from us. What do you think..."

Gao Jinda's voice brought Liu Jilong back to reality, and after he reacted, he asked, "How many mules and horses are there in the stable?"

"More than 3,000 horses." Gao Jinda responded without hesitation.

"More than three thousand..." Liu Jilong muttered the amount, and then continued to ask: "How much did they offer?"

"No price has been offered yet. It seems that they want us to make an offer." Gao Jinda explained:
"There is unrest in Shu now, and ordinary mules and horses are as high as ten strings of cash each, and draft horses are as high as twenty strings of cash."

"This is a good opportunity to make money from him." Liu Jilong said with a smile after learning the price of mules and horses:

"We don't have any use for this mule and horse. Let's see how much he can eat and sell it to him at the market price in Shuzhong."

"Yes!" Gao Jinda nodded in response, and at this time Cui Shu also hurried into the hall.

"General Jie, there is news from Chang'an."

Cui Shu handed over the letter. Liu Jilong took it and opened it. Soon he frowned.

The letter was written by Yang Xin, and its content was that Li Yi had tried to attack Longyou in Chang'an but was stopped by Bai Minzhong.

"Is Bai Minzhong still alive?"

Liu Jilong's brows never relaxed. He remembered that Bai Minzhong should have died of illness due to a fall not long after he started working during the Xiantong period.

Judging from the content of the letter sent by Yang Xin, this guy seems to be in good health, which is not good news for me.

Fortunately, Bai Minzhong has some vision and can stop some of Li Yi's arrogant behavior.

Liu Jilong could resist the urge to be the first to take action, but he could not control Li Yi's intention to use him as an example to scare the monkeys.

It would be fine if Li Yi could just stay in Chang'an and be the emperor. After all, he is still young and can wait.

But if he really thinks that he is the chicken to be killed to scare the monkeys, I will let him see what a Helong man is!
"Gao Jinda..."

Liu Jilong glanced at Gao Jinda, and then said calmly under Gao Jinda's gaze:

"Send someone to tell Yang Xin to keep a close eye on the Southern Court."

"Yes……"

(End of this chapter)