Three Kingdoms: A Million Soldiers Grown from the Fields

Chapter 26 Refugees (Please continue reading)

Even late at night, the small mountain village is still illuminated by lights.

On the threshing ground, several large pots were cooking millet porridge.

However, compared to the thick porridge served in the afternoon, the porridge served late at night was much bland.

A spoonful yields only slightly sticky water droplets, and when placed in a bowl, only twenty or thirty grains of rice are added.

Zhang Xian personally served the extremely bland porridge. It wasn't that he was unwilling to give the refugees food, but rather that these people had been starving for an unknown amount of time, and he could only temporarily feed them water to help their nearly atrophied stomachs gradually revive.

Zhao Yun was right behind him, telling him what had happened on the straight road outside the village.

"Brother Xian, there haven't been any thieves near Zhen Ding County for a long time. This time, they've taken the lives of eight yamen officials. Those people are definitely big thieves!"

Zhang Xian nodded slightly, but his hands did not stop. After serving six bowls of porridge to a refugee family with a son and a daughter and both parents present, he said softly.

"I understand. In your opinion, will those people come to our little mountain village?"

Zhao Yun shook his head: "I don't know. It depends on whether those few people are the entire number of the thieves. If so, I estimate they won't dare to come over. But if there are other thieves, then it's hard to say."

"Hmm." Zhang Xian pondered, continuing to slurp the porridge. After a while, he said, "Let's take precautions first. We'll report this to the authorities tomorrow. We don't need to worry about this kind of thing."

"Brother Yun, go and rest. Among us, you are the strongest in martial arts. If the bandits really come, we will have to rely on your skills."

Perhaps due to the imminent threat of an enemy, Zhao Yun no longer displayed the youthful spirit he had in the afternoon; his face was now filled with composure and calmness.

"I understand, then I'll go and rest first."

"Okay." Zhang Xian scooped out the last spoonful of porridge from the bottom of the pot, placed the wooden spoon on the rim of the pot, and wiped his hands.

The night sky was ablaze with stars. He stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the heavens. "You'd better not come," he murmured, then looked down at his own hands. "I don't want to get used to killing so quickly."

A layer of straw was spread on the threshing ground, and the refugees, who had drunk a bowl or two of porridge, slept on the ground, with only the crackling of flames around them.

Most of the village boys had already gone home to sleep, but Zhang Xian left eight or nine of them behind to keep watch at night.

This night must be kept watch, not against thieves, but against these refugees.

Theft is not uncommon among refugees when their backgrounds are completely unknown.

Even if Zhang Xian didn't consider his own interests, he still had to take care of the households in the small mountain village.

"Brother Xian, the statistics are done."

Around a campfire, Zhang Xian chatted with several young men.

Xiahou Lan came over from the side and handed over a piece of wood about the length of an arm.

Several marks were drawn on it with charcoal.

Squares represent men, triangles represent women, circles represent the elderly, and pentagons represent children.

Each mark is followed by a vertical bar to indicate the quantity.

Xiahou Lan knew some writing, but Zhang Xian still made him express himself using this primitive counting method.

Because they can read, while most of the young men in the village cannot.

"How many people?" Zhang Xian reached out and took it.

Xiahou Lan replied, "Half of them are elderly people and children, and the other half are men and women, totaling 122 people."

"So that means there are only sixty-two able-bodied men and women?" Zhang Xian glanced at the count on the wooden piece.

Xiahou Lan nodded, "Yes." He became a little embarrassed and hesitated, then said, "I didn't pay much attention when selecting the refugees. I only realized there were a lot of children and elderly people when we were counting them. Maybe we should send some people away tomorrow?"

"No need for that." He smiled and patted Xiahou Lan on the head: "I told you to choose the people, why are you so embarrassed? It's okay if there are more elderly people and children, I can still afford to support your brother Xian for now."

"Furthermore," Zhang Xianchao glanced in the direction of the refugees sleeping on the ground, "people with families and members to support are reliable to employ."

"Brother Xian is kind and benevolent." Xiahou Lan clasped his hands in respect towards him.

The young men beside him looked at Zhang Xian with admiration. "You rascal," he glared at Xiahou Lan, then said with concern, "You've been out there for so long, go and rest. Get some sleep, we might need you tomorrow."

"Okay, Brother Xian, I'll go and rest for now."

"Go ahead," Zhang Xian waved his hand.

The campfire crackled and popped, and eight or nine boys would get up every now and then to add firewood to the refugees' campfire.

The night was somewhat lonely, with only the chirping of insects for company.

The Milky Way spun around, and soon it was the end of the Yin hour (five o'clock).

Zhao Yun and Xiahou Lan, who had gone to rest earlier, brought several young men from the village with them.

"Ha, Brother Xian, we'll come in the middle of the night, you guys go to sleep."

"That works too." After sitting there all night, Zhang Xian was also extremely sleepy.

He assigned the task of guarding the refugees to Zhao Yun and a few others, and then went back to sleep with the young men who had been on guard duty for half the night.

However, he didn't just sit idly that night; he had already drafted the contracts for the refugees and the young men.

They all used an employment system rather than a system of selling oneself into servitude.

When he first drafted it, he was really worried. The writing style had to be traditional characters, and the writing format had to be from top to bottom.

If he hadn't spent the past month or so learning traditional Chinese characters, he probably would have had to find someone else to write this contract today.

Fortunately, only the first one was difficult; the rest could be copied directly.

The refugees wrote more than thirty contracts, organized by family unit.

The teenagers wrote twenty-seven individual submissions.

For this purpose, he used several feet of hemp cloth.

With droopy eyelids, I returned to the Zhao family courtyard and slept straight through until 11 a.m. the next day.

Pushing open the door, I was greeted by blinding sunlight streaming in; it was a rare sunny day.

Although he had slept for a while, he was still clearly sleepy, so he went to the water tank and used cold water to refresh himself.

"Zhen'er, where are your mother and aunts?"

After washing up, only Li Zhen, a young girl, remained in the Zhao family's courtyard.

She shook her head: "Mother and the old lady went to the threshing ground."

Zhang Xian suddenly realized, "Oh right, we received over a hundred refugees yesterday. I almost forgot about it while I was sleeping."

Thinking of this, he also ran to the threshing ground.

The more than one hundred refugees had already woken up, and they were in much better spirits today than yesterday.

At least I drank enough water and fell asleep, and my body's functions began to awaken.

A dozen or so teenagers maintained order, while Xiahou Lan walked back and forth in the crowd, creating a lively scene.

"Brother Xian is here!"

A sharp-eyed person spotted Zhang Xian running towards them and shouted.

Everyone else's gaze followed in that direction.

Xiahou Lan, who was worried that the refugees would cause trouble, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He was only fourteen or fifteen years old and had never had an experience like this before.

Zhao Yun, standing to the side, was even more uncomfortable. He was naturally a bit cold-hearted, and facing so many unfamiliar faces and their difficult circumstances, he had already begun to feel uneasy.

(End of this chapter)