Three Kingdoms: A Million Soldiers Grown from the Fields

Chapter 28 Peach Blossom Spring (Please continue reading)

The small mountain village is more than ten miles away.

A small stream of the Hutuo River meanders across the vast land, eventually converging with the main stream further away.

A group of five people rode up and stopped on a slightly higher mound.

Fortunately, Tong Yuan was from a small mountain village; otherwise, which villager could have gathered five horses, even if they were all inferior ones?

"Brother Xian, the land that Patriarch Guo gave us is quite good. Not only is the terrain flat, but it also has a water system."

Tiger Cub dismounted and took the reins of his and Zhang Xian's horses.

Zhao Yun, Hei Zi, and Gou Zi all dismounted.

Zhao Yun pointed to one side: "There are a few thatched houses over there. It seems that the 180 mu of cultivated land that Patriarch Guo mentioned is right there."

As the stream flows by, a few thatched houses with courtyards are not far from the stream.

Zhang Xian also dismounted, and the group walked in that direction.

The land totals 400 mu, which sounds large, but it is actually only 200,000 square meters. Zhen Ding is located on a plain, and the 400 mu of land can be connected without being divided. It is only a little over 400 meters long and 400 meters wide.

This is 400 acres of land.

"Brother Xian, we see the landmark. The marks are quite fresh; it looks like it was dug overnight."

Zhao Yun, with his sharp eyes, spotted the wooden marker among the grass and trees on the ground.

Zhang Xian chuckled and said, "It has to be Brother Yun. If it were me, I definitely wouldn't be able to find it in a short time."

"Let's go, let's mark out this territory first. From now on, this will be our territory!"

The five men searched for the landmarks marked by the government and determined the approximate area of ​​the estate. In those days, it was said to be 400 mu, but if Zhang Xian used 420 or 430 mu, it wouldn't be considered anything special.

Not long after the territory was confirmed, Tiger Cub, who had gone to check the area near the few thatched houses, also returned.

"Brother Xian, these are all empty houses, but they look like they just moved out recently. They must have just sold the land. I've already checked those fields with Gouzi, and they're all fertile land. The Guo family didn't lie to us."

The village kids can tell at a glance whether a field is cultivated or not.

"That's good, but these few thatched huts are definitely not enough. Brother Yun, do you know where to find a bricklayer?"

Zhang Xian squatted on the ground, examining the types of uncultivated land. However, considering that 180 acres of land could be cultivated there, and that all of it was from the same plot of land, it should be feasible.

"It's probably hard to find a bricklayer at this time of year; it's almost spring planting season, the busy time for farming."

Zhao Yun replied.

The dog chimed in, "Brother Xian, why bother finding a bricklayer? With our numbers, we can probably build a dozen or so thatched houses without any problem."

"Can this be done?" Now it was Zhang Xian's turn to be surprised.

"We can do it!" Hei Zi chimed in, "There are few men in our village, so we're the ones who usually do things like repairing walls or roofs when someone needs them."

"Don't worry, Brother Xian, this is the first time we've put in our effort, we guarantee we'll do a great job!"

Zhang Xian thought about it and realized it made sense. If he wanted to hire construction workers in the countryside, he could either go to the county town to hire a master craftsman or find a craftsman from a nearby village.

It's busy farming season right now, so craftsmen from nearby villages are definitely too busy. And if you go to the city to look for them, it's hard to say whether those who build houses for big families would even be interested in the profits from these rural thatched huts. So you might as well do it yourself.

However, it would take forever to build with just my friends. It would be better to involve the refugees as well. Even if they can't do any heavy work now, it would be good to lend a hand.

With that in mind, he nodded: "Alright, Tiger Cub, you'll take care of the tools we need. Dog and Blackie, you two help Tiger Cub out."

"Brother Yun, let's go back to the village and bring everyone with us!"

"I'll listen to you, Brother Xian."

In the blink of an eye, the group returned to the small mountain village.

The refugees, who had settled down considerably, began to migrate again, but fortunately, this time the distance was not far, only eleven or twelve miles.

Around 3 p.m., after cooking another thick porridge on the spot, Huwa and his fellow young men began to lead the refugees in repairing their houses.

However, the style of house construction here is different from that in the small mountain village. The 400 mu of land is not large, so Zhang Xian could not use a large area of ​​land to build houses. Therefore, the houses are all connected one after another without small courtyards.

The construction of the house began with determining its size. Using a three-room, 35-square-meter house for a family of five as a blueprint, Huwa and his friends drew fifty house frames on Zhang Xiandi.

Seeing the bustling work site, Zhang Xian, Xiahou Lan, and Zhao Yun exchanged a smile. "By the way, Brother Xian, since we're building a manor here, what should we name it?"

Zhao Yun asked Zhang Xian.

The question "What should I call you?" really stumped him. He had thought of everything, but he hadn't really considered this name.

As soon as the thought crossed my mind, my middle school textbooks involuntarily came to mind.

"Let's call it Peach Blossom Spring. From now on, let's plant more peach trees here."
-
On the other side, an unnamed little village.

At nightfall.

The bandits who had previously encountered Zhao Yun and his men on the imperial road spat on the ground in frustration and pulled their knives from the man's chest.

"What bad luck! There's no money or food at home, and he's covered in pockmarks. It's creepy to look at."

"Brother, why do all the people in this house look so lifeless? Could they have caught the virus?"

Among the group, a man who was riding on a woman and enjoying himself was so frightened by what he heard that he suddenly trembled.

"What did you say! You're just teasing me!"

However, when he thought about how the man and woman looked coughing and weak when he broke into the house, he seemed to believe it a little more.

"Let's go, let's go quickly!"

The man jumped off the bed and called his brothers to leave.

He had just come down from Jingjing Mountain and hadn't even had two days of fun when he got sick and died. Who can he complain to?

"They're all those lowlifes. Why did they have to run away? If they run away, who will feed us?"

"Damn it, the more I think about it, the worse it gets. Luckily, the group we found yesterday seems to be good targets. Once the brothers on the mountain arrive, we'll go and pull off a heist!"

As the man spoke, he drew a dagger from his waist and plunged it into the chest of the woman, who was already powerless to struggle.

"gone!"

The group climbed out of the window and quietly disappeared into the countryside under the cover of night.
-
Peach Blossom Spring (the protagonist is Zhuangzi.)
The house was under construction and the repairs took a week each time.

During this week, Zhang Xian continued to train his skills as usual.

However, because the young men were busy repairing the house, his command experience was gained much more slowly.

They could only focus most of their energy on reclamation and fighting.

His agricultural skills have now been upgraded to level 2.

Agriculture: 2 (122/5000)

Sub-skill: Homestead Farmland Level 2: You will have a plot of homestead farmland with an area of ​​no more than 18 square meters. Each square meter of farmland can accommodate no more than nine plants. This has game-specific features.

Sub-skill: Benign Mutation: There is an extremely small probability that the crops you plant will produce an excellent variant. The direction of the variant is random, and the current probability of variant generation is one in ten thousand.

He gained two skill points from upgrading his agriculture skill to level 2. Considering the experience points gained, he upgraded his homestead farmland to level 2, doubling the size of his homestead farmland.

The second skill point was allocated to choosing between double probability and probability variant.

After all, this isn't a real game. In terms of harvest, you can rely entirely on external fields to supplement your income, but improving the quality of the seeds is extremely important, not to mention that the skill is called "Beneficial Mutation".

As for probability, one in ten thousand is actually not low. As we all know, the probability of games is pseudo-probability. Since it says it's one in ten thousand, then harvesting ten thousand crops will definitely happen once.

If it's only once, then it means that the germplasm can be provided indefinitely.

At the current maximum of 162 crops per 18 square meters, even 10,000 crops would only yield 62 harvests.

With the changing seasons, the time it takes for his farm produce to be harvested has been reduced from once every 480 hours to once every 240 hours, or once every ten days.

The sixty-two harvests took less than two years to complete.

Besides, who can really be sure they're just unlucky? Maybe a mutated version will appear in a few days?
Moreover, and more importantly, wouldn't his agricultural skills have improved in two years?

So even in the worst-case scenario, it won't take that long.

Thinking of the crops growing in his farmland, Zhang Xian chuckled and cracked his whip at the old ox. The sturdy ox winced in pain but pulled the plow forward.

(End of this chapter)