fake gentry

Just before dinner, Xie Hong led his convoy back to Taoping.

"They're back! They're back!"

"Young Master Xie is back."

The lookout, a refugee named Ah Liu, turned around and shouted as soon as he saw the caravan.

The refugees were silent for a moment, then suddenly stood up and ran over one after another. They stared at the four oxcarts, which were fully loaded, and stood there dumbfounded.

Liu Chong, who had returned to the mountain first, also came out of the cave, holding his ring-pommel sword in his arms, his lips pursed into a thin line, looking depressed. He was clearly still not over whether he could kill his enemy with his own hands.

Xie Hong jumped off the oxcart and called out to all the refugees, "I have fulfilled my mission. Tonight, you will have a good meal, and each of you will receive a pair of shoes, a coat, and a mat."

For the refugees who lacked food and clothing and whose lives were uncertain, these three items were incredibly precious, immediately eliciting cheers and applause.

Xie Hong smiled and waved to Liu Chong, who reluctantly stepped forward: "What is it?"

Xie Hong looked at him and smiled, "Brother Liu will be in charge of the distribution. Master Chen, I'll leave this to you."

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an air of superiority. Chen San understood the difference in circumstances and had no choice but to bow and say, "This servant obeys."

Xie Hong didn't care about anything else and took Li Shi, A Ling, and A Heng to deal with their own problems first.

The curtains had to be erected inside the cave; he used one, while his three servants shared another.

Mount Lu is a horst landform, with steep rises and falls that easily form valleys and caves; otherwise, Tao Yuanming would not have been able to write the Peach Blossom Spring.

There are several caves of varying sizes in Taoping. Xie Hong, now free and with choices, naturally didn't want to squeeze into a cave with a group of refugees anymore, so he chose a relatively smaller, dry, and flat one to settle in.

"It's right here."

When the oxcart reached the cave entrance, seeing that he wanted to do it himself, Li quickly stepped forward, curtsied, and said, "My lord, let me do it."

As she spoke, she untied a cloth belt from her waist and tied it around the cuffs of her ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress). She then directly instructed A-Ling and A-Heng: "A-Ling, go and fetch five straw mats. The young master's things cannot be placed on the ground. A-Heng, come and take down the curtains."

As she spoke, her gaze swept across the entire cave, and she didn't see any surprise on the faces of the refugees; she simply observed everything.

But the two girls were starting to panic.

They originally thought they were coming to live a good life with the noblemen, but they didn't expect to find nothing when they came up the mountain and end up living like wild people.

Aheng glanced at Aling unconsciously. Aling had her eyes downcast, and her knuckles were slightly white.

"My lord," Ah Heng looked up at Xie Hong, "are we... going to live in this cave forever?"

Xie Hong laughed heartily: "Are you disappointed? Don't worry, I'll settle here for now. In a few days, your clan leader will send people to build me a thatched hut and a separate courtyard. Everything will be provided then."

He understood the two girls' anxiety, but Li was far too calm.

Was this woman from a self-sufficient farming family a maidservant or a housekeeper from a fallen aristocratic family?

Xie Hong did not press the matter further. In this era, even a princess could be sold into slavery.

Princess Linhai, Sima Rui's niece, is the only princess in Chinese history who is recorded as having been sold into slavery and then found again.

Li stood at the spot Xie Hong had chosen for a moment, then got busy with Ah Heng and Ah Ling.

First, lay a moisture barrier on a flat stone platform, then lay a layer of insulating mat, and then lay a straw mat.

Then they unloaded the blue cloth curtain from the oxcart, spread it out with bamboo poles, and laid another bamboo pole across the stone wall to hang a curtain, separating the inside from the outside.

Inside was Xie Hong's bed, while outside was a couch used for entertaining guests. Both the inside and outside were covered with cushions, and a low table and several straw mats brought from the Dong family's fortified village were placed there.

Then another small tent was erected and placed in front of Xie Hong's tent, thus settling them in properly.

Xie Hong watched all this, and couldn't help but feel a little excited.

And that's how you live a simple life, isn't it?

I need to express my feelings.

"Aheng, bring the zither."

Aheng was taken aback, but immediately presented her guqin with great joy.

Although she had been learning the zither since childhood, she was limited by the humble status of the Dong family and could not learn much. She also had no access to zither scores. Scores were only passed down orally between teachers and students or copied and circulated within a very small circle of aristocratic families.

She was able to play Ji Kang's Guangling San because Ji Kang himself came from a poor family, which made his music widely popular among the people.

"My lord, my zither is not good." Ah Heng was much more lively than Ah Ling, and had completely forgotten about the situation at hand.

Xie Hong sat cross-legged on a cushion, placed the seven-stringed zither on his lap, and observed it for a moment. The zithers of the Wei and Jin dynasties were not much different from the guqin of later generations, except for the strings.

He tested the notes again and found them to be completely easy to play, so he started playing them right away.

As soon as the intro started, memories began to surface, and aunties and older sisters kept appearing in the live stream.

The Wei-Jin style was not just about abstract discussions, wearing brocade, or running naked; one had to have cultural refinement to have social status, and social status represented political prospects.

Xie Hong was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. In modern times, he might be considered a jack-of-all-trades but master of none, but in this era, he could hold his own against even the most renowned masters.

He doesn't know what famous people do, but he also knows things that famous people don't know. The main point is to create a sense of contrast and novelty.

Just like the piece he was playing at that moment, it made Ah Heng's eyes light up, while Ah Ling and Li Shi looked on with enjoyment.

Xie Hong's playing technique was far ahead of its time, something that had never been seen in the Jin Dynasty.

After the piece ended, Aheng couldn't wait to ask, "My lord, you played so well! This piece is extremely beautiful, yet also so poignant. What is its name?"

Xie Hong smiled slightly, a hint of mischief in his eyes: "The offering of love."

Then he noticed someone moving outside the curtain. He got up and saw that it was Liu Chong. The guy's eyes were red, as if the music had stirred something within him.

"Brother Liu, are you crying?"

Liu Chong glared at Xie Hong: "I didn't cry. Chen San asked me to bring you these two bushels of fine rice and asked you what your plans are next."

He pointed to the two burlap sacks on the ground.

Xie Hong smiled and said thank you for your hard work, then followed him out.

The oxcart had been completely unloaded and was parked at the entrance of the cave, where the four oxen were leisurely grazing on the grass.

The refugees all received straw sandals, straw mats, and brown clothes.

Each person was given a pair of straw sandals according to their size. Although these things were not valuable, they required a certain level of skill to make, and ordinary people could not weave them. They were the biggest consumable item for the migrant population.

The new straw mat was naturally much warmer than the dry straw that refugees used to sleep on at night; at least it could be wrapped around their bodies.

Each person wore a brown coat with a collar. The brand-new coarse linen was finely stitched, and the collar and cuffs were reinforced. Even before they were refugees, many of them would not have been willing to buy such a new coat.

The remaining salt, grain, cloth, and firewood were not distributed to individuals.

These were all under Chen San's unified management. Grain and salt were cooked according to the number of people, and the wood-chopping knives were even more controlled items, which had to be stored in a unified manner. When and by whom they were used had to be personally allocated by Chen San, and they had to be returned immediately after use.

After reviewing it, Xie Hong was very satisfied: "Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Chen."

For Chen San, arranging such a small amount of supplies was a piece of cake. He could easily handle not just thirty or so refugees, but even three thousand.

With these supplies, the basic survival of the refugees was no longer a problem.

However, how to win over the displaced people, gradually expand the group, and form cohesion are not trivial matters.

Chen San realized that as long as Xie Hong was around, only Xie Hong could do such a thing.

He can't.

Liu Chong won't do either.

Unless he kills Xie Hong and uses intimidation to force the refugees to return.

However, as the team expands in the future, it will inevitably suffer a backlash.

For these refugees, Xie Hong brought them everything. Regardless of the supplies, the method of finding honey alone was a secret technique that they had no access to.

Anyone who possesses such a secret skill can sneak away and find a noble family to rely on, thus gaining the status of a slave.

Nuke were not slaves; they were semi-free people who had food and drink and didn't have to pay taxes, making them much more carefree than self-cultivating farmers.

This was not wishful thinking; in fact, Chen San had already noticed that some of the refugees had other ideas.

In his mind, he would make an example of them and execute those guys in public.

But Xie Hong, this young man, seemed unwilling to kill the refugees.

Or rather, he was fundamentally different from other aristocratic gentlemen; he was too compassionate and empathetic.

Her husband was young, impulsive yet quick-witted.

The refugee group really needs Xie Hong to grow and expand.

Chen San kept thinking about one question from the moment he came down the mountain until he returned.

What should my husband and I do next?

Is it really true that the young master will remain a wandering hero forever?

In that case, when will the young master be able to regain his status and bring glory to the family?

Even if Xie Hong's statement is true, and Wang Dun is bound to be defeated and killed in two years, how should I, along with my husband, conduct myself during those two years?

Is he really going to be a servant to Xie's son?

I don't care if I take the blame myself.

However, since the young master is the General Who Conquers the West, even the Xie clan chief must take the initiative to pay his respects to the young master, which shows how noble the young master's status is.

"Young Master Xie, do you really not want to be our leader?"

Chen San asked Xie Hong again, but this time there was no longer any probing in his tone.

Xie Hong shook his head with a smile, secretly amused.

This Chen San really knows how to play his cards right.

The old man is clearly trying to have his cake and eat it too.

He wanted to control the refugees, but also wanted to rely on himself. However, he was worried that he would hinder Liu Chong's prestige among the refugees.

Little did he know that he was also plotting against Liu Chong.