Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 98 A letter from home is worth ten thousand dollars

The small brush dipped in thick ink moved quickly on the letter paper. After pausing for a moment at the end of the paper, he wrote his name in the lower right corner.

The letter remained on the desk for a moment, waiting for the evening breeze to dry the ink, and then it was folded and stuffed into the envelope.

The envelope was sealed with wax and the letter was stuffed into a special leather bag.

The leather bag was placed on the horse and left Weigou Village with the rider.

A few days later, the letter was taken out of the leather bag and placed together with many other letters. It was delivered to the military camp by a special sergeant on the evening of August 4.

"A letter has arrived from home. Come and get it if you can read it. Li Yan! Is Li Yan, Li Erlang, here?"

"Zhang Shouxin!"

"Ding Daxing! Ding Daxing!"

"I'm coming."

At this time, the Zhongjun of the Loyal Army was having dinner. Ding Daxing's squad was commended for marching in the most orderly manner, and an extra leg of lamb was added to the dinner. Ding Daxing was holding the bone and gnawing on it until his face was covered with oil.

The worst-ordered formation was in a terrible state. The entire hundred-man team was eating, but they alone needed to practice extra, so dinner was delayed for half an hour. The aroma of food made them hungry, and their anxiety caused the formation to become even more disorganized.

"You idiots, don't you understand now that I don't need to count one, two, one?" The sergeant's forehead was sweating, and under the mocking eyes of the surrounding brothers, he said angrily: "I'll say it again, 'duan' is the duan in holding a bowl, which is the leg on the side of your hand holding a bowl. 'chi' is the chi in eating, which is the leg on the side of your hand holding chopsticks to eat. Whichever word I shout, you stretch out the leg that corresponds to it. Do you understand?"

"Listen to my command, serve, serve, serve, serve!"

After walking only a dozen steps, the formation dispersed again, and the soldiers in the camp couldn't help but burst into laughter.

At the beginning, when the front army commander Liu Dalang used "one, two, one" or "left, right, left" to command the troops, almost all the troops did not march in order.

Because in those days, especially in the north that was occupied by the Jin Dynasty, there was no emphasis on culture and education, and the literacy rate was low. These soldiers, who were originally farmers, salt workers, and miners, had no awareness of distinguishing between left and right.

Although most people can learn to distinguish between left and right easily, with things like queues, if one or two people make a mistake, the whole team will be in chaos.

Liu Huai scratched his head, until he had an idea and changed the slogan to "hold the bowl" and "eat", and then he solved this trouble that was not big but not small.

At this time, Ding Daxing was eating happily and watching happily. He heard the leader calling his name, and was extremely surprised to find that there was a letter from home.

However, after he took two steps forward, he felt his hands were covered in oil. His clothes had just been washed, so he felt reluctant to let them go and froze in place.

The captain shook his head impatiently, took two steps forward and stuffed the letter into Ding Daxing's arms, then took the handful of letters again and read the name aloud.

Ding Daxing returned to his seat and picked up the bowl, but he was absent-minded. He didn't even have the heart to chew the big bone stick. He threw it to his comrade and quickly finished the wheat rice in the bowl. Then he washed his hands and carefully took out the letter from his arms.

After carefully tearing open the wax seal and carefully pulling out the letter, Ding Daxing suddenly realized that he only knew a few words and could not understand the letter at all.

"Brother Daxing, what's written in the letter? Is your family safe?" Several comrades looked at Ding Daxing with envy and asked repeatedly.

It can be seen that after he was stunned, the others suddenly woke up. Two of them hurried to find their literate comrades. However, after just a few glances, a big hand pressed on Ding Daxing's shoulder.

"How about I read it for you?"

Ding Daxing turned around and quickly stood up and saluted: "I'm sorry to trouble you, my Lord Commander."

The Commander, Liu Huai, waved his hand and said, "Everyone is busy eating. If you let someone go hungry, you'll be criticized."

Ding Daxing chuckled and handed over the letter.

Liu Huai cleared his throat, only to find that nearly a hundred people around him had stopped eating and were staring at him intently. "Ding Dalang, do you want me to whisper the words in the letter to you, or read them out loud for everyone to hear?"

Ding Daxing was slightly startled, but immediately responded with a cracked mouth: "We are brothers in life and death, there is nothing to hide." Someone started to make a noise: "Maybe there are some private words from your wife in it."

There was another round of laughter.

Ding Daxing wasn't angry either. He just taunted in that direction, "Huh? I have a letter from home, but you don't. Ugh, I'll piss you off to death!"

The laughter grew louder.

Liu Huai waved his hand again: "Okay, I'm going to start reading the letter."

Not only because of his high prestige but also because everyone wanted to hear the contents of the letter clearly, the voice quickly disappeared.

"Dang, I hope you'll feel like you're seeing me when you read this letter." Liu Huai had just read one sentence when he realized he shouldn't use flowery, written language. Instead, he should use plain language: "What I mean is, Ding Dalang, I hope you'll feel like you're seeing a family member when you read this letter."

"Everything is fine at home. Dad's cough has improved after taking a few doses of herbal medicine. Mom's knees still hurt a little when it rains, but it's nothing serious. My sister-in-law and Xiaowang are also in good health and have no illness or disaster."

"Our cow was taken away by the Ding Baopi family, but it was returned after the loyal army raided Ding Baopi's house. The cow is pregnant with a calf, so it's a blessing in disguise. We'll let the cow take care of the baby. The men in our family may have to work harder during the autumn harvest, but it's not a big deal."

"Now we have a great event. After the loyal and righteous army officers raided Ding Paopi's house, they distributed his land to the villagers. Our family received twelve acres of paddy fields. Add to that the fifteen acres of land that Dalang received as a reward, and we rented ten acres of public land from the loyal and righteous army officers. That gives us a total of thirty-seven acres of land."

"The loyal and righteous officers have shown kindness. This year, they only need to pay 20% of their harvest. With the surplus, I plan to buy another cow and buy new clothes for my father, mother, sister-in-law, and Xiaowang. This will also provide for Xiaowang's tuition for his first schooling next year."

"Only Dalang is wandering around, and I miss him so much. My mother said she recites sutras a thousand times every day, praying for his safety. We miss him every day, too, and only hope we can be reunited one day and live a peaceful life."

"Ding Ersheng, Wang Shi, and Ding Xiaowang kowtowed once more. I burst into tears while writing this letter, my words were incoherent, and I didn't know what to say. I only wish Dalang good health and safety."

A letter was read aloud. At the beginning, there were whispers, but in the end, everyone was silent. No one knew what they were thinking.

Liu Huai folded the letter and handed it back to Ding Daxing, then warned him, "Ding Dalang, listen to my advice and learn more words. I'm not saying that knowing military documents will facilitate your promotion, but if you can't even read a letter from home, wouldn't that be embarrassing?"

After saying that, Liu Huai continued to patrol the camp without caring about the other party's reaction.

Ding Daxing opened the letter again, looked at it carefully for a moment, carefully put it into the envelope, and then put it in his arms.

"Ding Dalang, it's really... really dividing the land..."

Only then did someone ask in a low voice.

Someone else immediately responded, "Of course it's true. Didn't you see that Brother Ding's family wrote to us? This was agreed to by both Marshal Wei and Commander Liu. How could it be different?"

The inquiring person shrank his neck while holding the bowl. "I thought it was only the few hundred yuan that was distributed from the land. We all got the reward... Then why is the land only distributed to Ding Dalang's village? There are skinning thieves in our village too."

"You're stupid." Ding Daxing finally calmed down, but immediately started cursing, "Your family lives in the north of Yizhou, and we haven't conquered it yet. How are you going to divide the land? Besides, dividing the land also requires manpower. We have to go village by village. How can we divide the land of hundreds of villages in one day?"

"Exactly."

"That makes sense!"

"Father and mother, thirty-seven acres of land cannot be exchanged for your life!"

"Fuck his mother, I have to fight for this land!"

"We have to fight hard!"

There was another round of responses, and the atmosphere in the camp quickly became lively.

Even the ten-man team practicing the formation seemed to be encouraged, shouting "Serve and eat" even louder.

(End of this chapter)