Farming to Defy My Fate 40

Chapter 40: The Thief

Zhao An’s position offered an excellent view, and his eyesight was much better than that of an ordinary person. Standing there, he could even see the sweat rolling down Hu Sheng’s slightly exposed chest.

He saw Hu Sheng holding a long saber, and with a single horizontal slash, he cut down a tree stump the size of a bowl. His heart leaped like a lively fish. A thousand words could only be condensed into one sentence: My man is so handsome.

But a young man who had been caught hiding and sleeping and was now brought before Hu Sheng, seeing him split the wooden stump with one hand, could only tremble.

After demonstrating his attitude with his actions, Hu Sheng waved his hand and had this habitual slacker dragged away. For the next ten days, he would be hauling manure and composting with the captives.

Yesterday, when he was in bed with Zhao An, to prevent him from getting handsy, Hu Sheng had always found ways to change the subject. For example, he had told him that he had captured those who had once attacked Zhaojia Village and had them do hard labor in the stronghold, carving stones for foundations and digging up the most difficult tree roots when clearing the mountain.

But recently, there hadn’t been much work on the mountain. Besides farming in a concentrated area, Hu Sheng didn’t dare to let them scatter too far, in case they tried to escape.

Yesterday, Zhao An had suddenly said that they could use withered branches, fallen leaves, and some mature manure to make fire manure. Then he had talked endlessly about the benefits of fire manure, such as killing insect eggs, increasing the potassium content, and preventing soil acidification.

When Zhao An talked about these things, he forgot the soreness in his body and no longer clung to Hu Sheng. On one hand, Hu Sheng felt a sense of relief; on the other, he felt a little disappointed. But what Zhao An said was indeed feasible, and the next morning, he had his men carry it out.

Hu Sheng had already noticed Zhao An’s gaze. As he sheathed his long saber, he remembered what had happened yesterday and couldn’t help but laugh to himself. They had actually discussed fire manure in bed yesterday. It was a bit of a mood-killer, but it was also so real and lovely.

He really wanted to turn around and greet Zhao An now, but he never raised his head. He methodically had his men lead out forty horses. “In ten days, we’re taking the horse caravan to sell goods. In groups of forty, you must learn to ride a horse within three days.”

These rogue commoners that Hu Sheng had gathered had originally followed Ma Dian to rob the government granary because they couldn’t get enough to eat and couldn’t survive. But they hadn’t eaten their fill for two days before they were attacked and killed by Zhao Nanyu’s troops.

Then they had followed Ma Dian’s son, Ma Chuan, and had come to Daqing Mountain in a daze, with a new king. Fortunately, this king was willing to give them enough to eat. For the first few days, no one had any wild thoughts and was willing to follow commands. Whether it was numbering and forming squads, clearing land for farming, or building houses, everyone worked in an orderly manner.

After a few more days on the mountain, they encountered the king’s wedding. Although the king had married a man, they had eaten meat, so they were content.

If they were allowed to remain idle like this, someone’s mind would surely start to wander. So, on the third day after his marriage, Hu Sheng began to organize these newly recruited subordinates for military formation training.

Zhao An also returned to Zhaojia Village on the same day. As he had promised, he went from house to house to distribute wedding candy to the villagers.

The price of sugar had recently tripled compared to before. Most of the villagers were very happy to receive this wedding candy. Only Liu Huan said to Zhao An with some worry, “The price of grain hasn’t come down recently. I heard that all the stored grain in the prefectural granary has been sent to the bandit suppression army. The tax official already came to the village yesterday to have a look and told us to pay the tax immediately after we harvest the rice. Eldest Young Master, you’d better not run around outside for a while. I’m not at ease when you’re gone.”

At the end, Liu Huan looked at Zhao An almost pleadingly. He was very afraid that Zhao An would leave with Hu Sheng, and the village would return to its previous state of just getting by. Although that wouldn’t lead to the whole family starving to death, he knew that the neighboring village had already started selling people.

That’s how things were. A small-scale natural disaster would not cause widespread starvation, and for the imperial court, it was of no consequence. Moreover, Changxi County was in a remote area, unlike the economically prosperous Jiangnan or the land of fish and rice, Huguang. Even if all the people in this place died, at worst, they could just move a batch of immigrants from the increasingly populous central plains.

Liu Huan, who had only been to the prefectural city at most in his life, couldn’t think that far. But he deeply understood that Changxi County was a place where the heavens were high and the emperor was far away. He had heard from storytellers that cities should have city walls, city gates, and curfews, but Changxi County had none of these.

So the massacre at Wangjia Village could happen. It wasn’t necessarily safe even in the county town. Only with grain in the house and a knife in hand could he feel a little safer. Now, Zhaojia Village had both grain and knives, and all of this was brought to everyone by Zhao An.

Being told this by Liu Huan, Zhao An thought a lot. In that book, Tears of a City-Toppling Beauty, which had become clearer and clearer after his countless recollections, there was never any description of a drought in the area of Shuzhou and Jiaozhou. Until the birth of Zhao Qingcheng’s son, it seemed that the world was at peace. It wasn’t until the second year that a smallpox epidemic occurred near the capital, killing several hundred people. Someone had secretly obtained smallpox scabs, wanting to harm Zhao Qingcheng’s son by infecting him with smallpox. That was the work of the empress. In the end, the emperor deposed the empress on the charge of plotting against the imperial heir and then made Zhao Qingcheng the empress. But there was no further description of the aftermath of the smallpox. It was probably a small epidemic that naturally ended after the patients recovered or died.

So, an emperor like Li Xiuye, who only wanted to be in love, was indeed ruling the country by inertia, just like the two emperors in the history he knew of, who had not held court for decades in the Ming Dynasty. Even though the country did not fall apart during their reign, the lives of the common people were getting worse day by day, planting the seeds of the final collapse of the country.

However, at this moment, Li Xiuye was not as idle as Zhao An imagined. Although he was very happy that his beloved woman was pregnant and would no longer think about running outside all day, an urgent report had come from the southwest. Zhao Nanyu, who was in charge of suppressing the bandits, had disappeared in the mountains. People sent to investigate only found some broken trees and shattered rocks at the scene. They also visited the nearby villages, and the villagers all said that there had been loud thunder at that time, and perhaps a heaven-swallowing, earth-devouring monster had appeared.

Besides these strange tales, the local officials had found nothing, which made Li Xiuye so angry that he wanted to tear up the memorial.

This Zhao Nanyu did have a small flaw of being greedy for money, but he was an extremely sharp blade. Li Xiuye had wanted him to come back after achieving meritorious service this time to help him get rid of Shang Xiqing. He hadn’t expected him to disappear for no reason. This made him suspect that Shang Xiqing had a hand in it. Could it be that the Shang family had colluded with the local officials to kill Zhao Nanyu, leaving no trace of him, dead or alive?

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He slammed the table. “Ying Yi, come out! Send people to investigate how Zhao Nanyu died.”

He had already sent half of the Shadow Guards to protect Zhao Qingcheng recently. Now he had to send more people to investigate Zhao Nanyu’s disappearance.

Many people who had been eyeing the throne began to stir. Li Xiuye was only the son of a vassal king. Everyone had a chance, didn’t they?

At this time, the power struggle at the upper echelons of the Xu Kingdom had not yet affected the people of Zhaojia Village harvesting their rice. Although the ears of grain were very few this year due to the drought, only sixty to seventy percent of previous years, smiles still couldn’t help but appear on everyone’s faces. Because the village had already decided to let everyone use money to pay this year’s grain tax, and all the grain in the village could be kept for themselves to eat.

The thought of being able to eat fine grain for the whole next year, even though the thought of spending silver was heartbreaking, still filled everyone’s faces with smiles.

But on the second night after their village had finished harvesting the rice, the sound of pots and pans being banged came from the house of Liu Baogen, who lived at the outermost edge of the village. This was the signal they had agreed on to summon the village guards.

Zhao An pushed Hu Sheng and sat up abruptly from the bed. “Bandits have entered the village again! Get up!”

However, this time it was not the group of murderous robbers from Banpo Village who had come to the village, but four half-grown children, all skin and bones. After being caught and brought to the training ground of Zhaojia Village, they shrank their necks and trembled like sick chickens.

They were not here to rob, nor were they carrying any weapons. They had just climbed the wall into Liu Baogen’s house, wanting to steal the rice he had just harvested, which had not yet been dried and stored.

When they saw Zhao An coming over, surrounded by a group of people, they immediately knelt down to him. “Eldest Young Master, don’t kill us! We were just too hungry. You can make us work like cattle and horses for you, but please don’t kill us.”

The people in the nearby villages all knew that Zhaojia Village had recently gotten money and had even organized the villagers for training. They also knew that the last time they had encountered the bandits who had massacred Wangjia Village, they had killed seven on the spot and captured five to be sent to the county yamen. Some of the distorted rumors were even more terrifying, directly adding a zero to the number of deaths.

So these four children were all afraid that they would be killed on the spot after being caught. But they were willing to risk death to come and steal grain, which showed how hungry they really were.

But that’s not right. “Even if the grain harvest is reduced this year and the grain tax has been paid, there are still some sweet potatoes and vegetables on the mountain. The nearby common people shouldn’t be starving yet. Even if there is a famine, it should be after the winter, right?”

The few kneeling youths began to wipe their tears and said in a jumble, what with the landlord taking all the grain and it still not being enough to cover the land rent, someone in the family being sick, and having to pay taxes, they were at their wit’s end.

These few half-grown boys were scrawny and weak, and also ugly. No one wanted to buy them to pay off their debts, unless it was for free, then maybe they could get some thin congee. So they had gathered together and started a life of petty theft.

Seeing them crying and making a scene, it was clear that there was an element of feigning pity, but they were also truly pitiful.

Zhao An could only press his brow. “Alright, shut up. I won’t kill you. But you few must stay and work at the village’s kiln. Unpaid labor, until this time next year.”

The victim, Liu Baogen, really wanted to say, “Why should they work for the villagers? I’m the victim. Why don’t they just work for me?” Fortunately, his wife knew his temper and stepped on his foot before he could open his mouth, and he shut up.

Someone stealing in the village was indeed a small matter, but it also let Zhao An know that the situation was becoming more and more serious.

Just as he was at his wit’s end, he heard Hu Sheng say, “Have County Magistrate Feng organize people to go into the mountains to hunt, fish, and gather wild fruits. After this winter, things should get better.”