Chapter 25: The Calamity of War and Nature
Zhao An had long anticipated that the grain production near Changxi County would decrease. In April, just after the rice seedlings were planted, they were hit by a torrential downpour that washed away many paddy fields. This was followed by over a month of continuous drought, causing the seedlings to grow wildly but refuse to ear.
The villagers all said that this year’s grain ears were twenty to thirty percent shorter than in previous years. It was only because everyone had received extra income this year and had built new houses that most people did not show anxious expressions.
“Is the drought in other places very severe?” Zhao An had been very busy recently and had no time to think about inconveniences like poor transportation or lack of entertainment. It was precisely for these reasons that he was unaware of the news from the outside world.
Hu Sheng shook his head. “I’m telling you to hoard grain, and it is indeed partly due to the drought. From the looks of it this year, both Jiaozhou and Shuzhou will have reduced grain production. But the more serious problem is that three days ago, some Miao villages in the Xiangxi area rebelled. I’ve looked at the battle situation. Xiangyang is heavily guarded, and troops can reach the battlefield within a day. Those Miao villages definitely won’t be able to cause much trouble. However, after they are defeated, they will flee towards Qianzhou and Shuzhou. At that time, the drought combined with the military conflict will most likely cause a famine.”
Zhao An squeezed the leg of the table, which helped to calm his mind. “With both a military conflict and a natural disaster, won’t the imperial court grant tax exemptions?”
As he spoke, he carefully recalled the descriptions in Tears of a City-Toppling Beauty. But the book really only revolved around the love story of the male and female leads. The only mention of a general amnesty seemed to be when the female lead’s child became the crown prince. And the content of the amnesty was just to release some criminals who had not committed capital offenses. It was hard to say whether such an amnesty was a good deed or a bad one.
Thinking of this, Zhao An realized his question was too naive. He quickly made an apologetic expression to Hu Sheng, then touched the silver ingot he had placed on the table. “My family has enough food to last until next year. Do you think I can tell the villagers of Zhaojia Village this news? I feel that even if I can store enough grain, without enough manpower to protect it, I won’t be able to hold onto it in the event of a military conflict. It might even attract more trouble.”
After several months of continuous training, Zhao An’s wood-elemental ability had more than doubled since he first arrived in this world. The number of plants he could ripen each day had increased to eight. Even if he only used it to ripen rice and wheat, it would be enough to keep him, Qin Tong, and Hai Bo from starving.
But what was the use of just being able to fill their stomachs? Since coming to this world, although Zhao An had never encountered direct danger like in the era of spiritual energy revival, life in this world was not easy. Besides the oppression from the imperial power and the strife from the clan, he would also encounter military conflicts and natural disasters. It was simply overwhelming.
More importantly, he had lost the kind of control over his own power that he once had. Because he had seen the contest between Feng Shaoping and Hu Sheng, he realized that when they used their martial arts to their full extent, they were basically comparable to fourth or fifth-rank physical ability users. And his wood-elemental ability was still at the initial stage of the first rank.
Fortunately, according to Hu Sheng, martial arts masters of his and Feng Shaoping’s level were extremely rare in this world; you could count them on one hand. Otherwise, Zhao An would have been so worried about his own safety that he would have dropped everything to enhance his own strength at all costs.
But now, Zhao An bitterly hated himself for slacking off on his own training. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be worried about being threatened by rogue soldiers at this time.
But what was done was done, and regrets were useless. So he quickly thought of a way to resist external enemies, which was to unite the forces around him, such as the entire Zhaojia Village.
Ever since the money from selling the strawberry seedlings had been distributed, the number of people willing to work at the brick kiln had decreased. Some people felt that they could just use the money to buy bricks and tiles to repair their houses, without having to work so hard themselves.
Excluding the small number of people who had backed out, those who had persisted in working at the brick and tile kiln had reached the point of obeying Zhao An’s every command, even after he had stopped buying pork for them to eat.
So, on one hand, Zhao An felt that people’s hearts could be won over with benefits. On the other hand, he also felt that when encountering such a problem, he should inform those who had been following him.
As someone skilled in military strategy, Hu Sheng naturally understood Zhao An’s intentions. “Since you feel you can trust the villagers, then tell them. But you must ensure that this news is not spread out, or it will cause panic before the rogue soldiers even arrive.”
Zhao An first nodded, then asked with some unease, “Then what about the other people in Changxi County?”
Hu Sheng smiled. “Isn’t there still Feng Shaoping? He will find a way to organize a patrol to protect the safety of Changxi County. So you don’t actually have to worry too much. I just think that under these circumstances, the price of grain will definitely rise, which is why I came to inform you in advance. You don’t have to be particularly worried about safety.”
However, how could he not be worried? Zhao An had no appetite for dinner and wanted to go find Liu Huan and Scholar Zhao to discuss buying grain and training a militia.
But just as he stood up, Hu Sheng grabbed his hand. “Don’t be in a hurry. The battle in Xiangxi won’t be over in a short while. The earliest the defeated soldiers will return is in half a month. Eat dinner first, get some sleep. We’ll talk about whatever it is tomorrow morning.”
Hai Bo brought in a bowl of stuffed eggplant with meat. Seeing Hu Sheng holding Zhao An’s hand, he quickly lowered his head and pretended not to see.
Living under the same roof, even the naive little Qin Tong had not yet discovered the affair between Zhao An and Hu Sheng, but how could Hai Bo, who had eaten a few more bowls of rice, not have noticed?
On one hand, the Young Master was still in the first year of mourning for his mother, with more than a year of mourning to go. The Miss Gu he had been betrothed to had long since married and had even given birth to her eldest son before they left the capital. On the other hand, the Young Master had once hinted to him that a person’s fortune was limited. Having received the guidance of an immortal, he would not be able to have descendants in the future, just like those monks and Taoist priests.
Hai Bo didn’t know if the Young Master was telling the truth or not, but as a servant, he could only choose to believe and pray in his heart that one day, the Young Master would no longer like that blue-eyed man and would go and get married and have children.
Zhao An knew that Hai Bo was unhappy every time he saw Hu Sheng, so he didn’t ask him to eat with them. Instead, he instructed, “Ah Sheng and I can’t eat much. You and Qin Tong should keep more of the dishes for yourselves.”
“I know.” Nowadays, the relationship between Hai Bo and Zhao An was much more casual than before. Sometimes he would blame himself for his lack of propriety, and other times he would be delighted by Zhao An’s concern.
Today, Zhao An had something on his mind and didn’t pay much attention to Hai Bo’s thoughts. After a tasteless dinner and washing up, he was escorted back to his room by Hu Sheng to sleep.
But Zhao An lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep. On one hand, the weather was hot; on the other, he had things on his mind. He wriggled like a chrysalis to Hu Sheng, who was gently fanning him, and pillowed his head on his leg. “Are you still leaving tonight?”
“Mm,” Hu Sheng replied softly, gently waving the fan in his hand, hoping that the rhythmic movement would help Zhao An fall asleep quickly.
But Zhao An had no intention of sleeping at all. Full of energy, he asked the question that had been weighing on his mind for a long time. “Do you know what the Miao village rebellion is all about?”
Regarding this point, Hu Sheng really did know, and he knew many unknown details. For example, on the surface, the reason for the Miao village rebellion was that the tax officials demanded they hand over more dyes and medicinal herbs. But the real reason was that the imperial court deliberately had the tax collectors do this, because the officials from the Songhe Academy faction, who occupied the position of Prime Minister, felt that the population of the Miao villages was too large and needed to be reduced.
Although the people who deliberately forced the Miao villages to rebel did not represent the entire imperial court, they were a force not to be underestimated. Because they felt that the Miao people of Xiangxi had begun to compete with the ordinary people of the Xu Kingdom for survival resources, they decided to wield the butcher’s knife without hesitation against this foreign group. As for the series of consequences that would follow, that was also within their calculations. Because the Xiongnu had been annihilated, those idle military generals had nothing to do. It was better to send them to the southwestern mountainous areas to suppress the bandits. This would not only exclude them from the imperial court but also quiet down these troublemaking military generals. It was a move that killed several birds with one stone, so why not?
As for what Hu Sheng wanted to do, after much consideration, he finally decided to find a way to recruit some of the defeated Miao people to work for him.
He was a man with a family now, after all. He couldn’t be as muddle-headed as before. He had to have a force in his hands to feel at ease.
By the time Hu Sheng finished answering Zhao An’s last question, “The leader of the Miao village rebellion this time is called Ma Dian. He is already fifty-two years old this year, but he is still hale and hearty. It is said that he can cut off a cow’s head with one blow. Last year, a little girl from a Yao village even clamored to marry him as his second wife,” he looked down and found that Zhao An had already fallen asleep with his head on his leg.
