Chapter 1 1 Peasant Army Soldier

The water of the Yangtze River is vast and surging, flowing from western Sichuan to the East China Sea like a long winding dragon.

Going up the river, countless rivers flow into it, making the river even more magnificent, it is really a river flowing into a big river.

If the Yangtze River is a giant dragon lying on the land of China, then the misty Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake are like the claws of the dragon, making the whole dragon come alive, as if preparing for the last leap, and then it can jump into the sea.

The Yangtze River has been a golden waterway since ancient times. It not only provides abundant irrigation water for the basins along the river, but also promotes the exchange of materials between the east and the west. In August, the Yangtze River is clear and thousands of sails are light with the wind.

Huguang is prosperous and the world is prosperous. The developed water transportation makes its importance in the empire very important, and it is also an important channel for transporting troops.

"In ancient times, there was the Battle of Red Cliffs. Today, there is the Battle of Poyang Lake in the Ming Dynasty. Bah, bah, bah, what am I thinking about? It was a hundred or two hundred years ago, and it's still today."

At this moment, a ten-year-old child is sitting by the river, looking at the sailboats shuttling back and forth on the river. Occasionally, two fishing boats pass by in front of him, showing the prosperity of this golden waterway.

In the distance, on the skyline of the river, the little boy knows that there is the Jiujiang Chaoguan Wharf. Although he can't see it, the little boy has heard from his father that there are hundreds of taels of silver coming in every day, and tens of thousands of taels of silver a year. It is really a first-class place in the world.

For the previous life, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of taels didn't seem to be a big deal, but now it's the Ming Dynasty.

The little boy still remembers that he took a silver ingot from his father, saying that it was 2 taels, and it seemed very heavy. It didn't feel as heavy as the 2 taels in his time, and it seemed a little lighter.

Although it is not clear how many grams a jin was in the Ming Dynasty, it is still known that in ancient China, a jin was 16 liang, so it is estimated that a liang of silver is about 30 grams.

I am still not used to this era.

The little boy sighed in his heart. In the past ten years of education, he has developed the habit of measuring according to the so-called international standards. Grams and kilograms are still a bit difficult to convert.

He rubbed his still red and swollen palms, and remembered the palms of his palms that were hit by the teacher in the private school in the morning. He felt a dull pain in his palms. He picked up a stone beside him and threw it into the river fiercely, splashing a ball of water and rippling everywhere.

"Dongdongdongdong."

At this moment, a harsh gong and drum sound suddenly came from a stone fort in the distance behind him. The drum beats were rapid, showing that it seemed very urgent, which made the little boy look back unconsciously. He just saw a knight jumping out of the city gate and galloping along the riverside path to the distance. Judging from the direction, it should be towards Qianhusuo.

"Fishhead, it seems like something happened at home, hurry back."

"Let's go, let's go."

"Hurry up, there are spies around, something must have happened."

The children who were still playing by the river behind him left the little boy behind, picked up the cloth bag from the ground and ran towards the stone fort, all of them were talking nonsense.

The little boy called Fishhead also stood up at this time, rubbed his muddy hands, bent down and picked up a gray cloth bag beside him, slung it across his body, and then turned around and trotted back with his playmates. As he turned around, he could faintly hear the sound of oars paddling in the river.

Fishhead looked back and saw that they were two fishing boats of the Hundred Households Office. No, they should be patrol boats, which were used to patrol the river defense, and they just caught a few fish on the way.

This kind of patrol boat is about ten meters long, with a canopy in the middle of the boat to shelter from the rain, a mast in front of the boat to hang the sail, and three or four oars on both sides of the boat. Unless there are extreme weather conditions, it is particularly suitable for use on the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake.

Yutou had heard from the soldiers that this boat was called Jiujiang patrol boat, which was produced in the neighboring Hukou County. It was said that it had a flat bottom, curved boat, shallow draft, large buoyancy, heavy load, lightness, sensitivity, durability, and many other advantages.

However, in Yutou's eyes, it was just a wooden boat that could carry a dozen people. In his era, domestic oil tankers of hundreds of thousands of tons and aircraft carriers of tens of thousands of tons were nothing. He really didn't have any interest in the boat in front of him.

It was because of these two small boats that he had never been short of fish meat these days. By the way, he also had a meal of wild rabbit meat, which was hunted by the military households in the mountains to honor his family.

At this moment, several soldiers on the boat were collecting the nets, and some were adjusting the sails while sliding the oars on both sides to approach the small pier.

When the children in front were about to run to the stone fort, they consciously slowed down and waited for the fish head behind. At this time, the fish head was trotting over there leisurely, looking back from time to time to see what the soldiers who got off the boat had gained.

When they got closer, many people ran out of the fields outside the fort and rushed into the gate of the fort in a hurry. Most of them were wearing red clothes, but they looked ragged and a little miserable. Those who ran from the fields were the soldiers guarding the stone fort. Didn’t you see that many of them were holding hoes in their hands?

"Fish head, is there something wrong in the city?"

"Yes, I saw a scout go out first."

"That's going back to the city, not to our fort. It may be a report from the city."

Several children talked to the approaching fish head at the same time.

"We'll go in after they go in, and we'll know when we ask. There must be something wrong."

While he was talking, the sound of gongs and drums in the fort had stopped, but people continued to run into the fort from afar.

A few little guys staggered through the gate of the fortress and saw a lot of people gathered in the small square. They were the soldiers who were urgently summoned by the gongs and drums. They were standing there. On the earthen platform in front, an officer in the uniform of a hundred households was speaking.

On one side of the earthen platform, several people were guarding two large cars. One car was full of swords, shields, spears and other weapons. This was to arm the peasant army, and the other car was piled with red battle clothes.

It was just battle clothes. There were no bright silver helmets and armors on the battlefield in ancient times. They were just some red coarse cloth clothes, but they were a little thicker than cloth, because they were the so-called cotton armor. I don’t know how much they cut corners, but at least they were standard equipment. Maybe they were afraid that they would be able to distinguish their comrades after the battle.

"Go over and listen to what your father is saying there."

A little friend said with a smile after seeing this scene.

"What are you so happy about? Don't you see your dad is also lining up the troops down there? I'm afraid there will be a war."

Another child spoke up, pointing at the two big cars under the earthen platform.

"Who are we going to fight? Where are we going to fight?"

"I don't know, Fishhead, do you know?"

The children chattered for a long time, but couldn't make sense, and all turned their eyes to their leader, Fishhead.

"I don't know either. There hasn't been a war for many years. Let's go over and listen to what my dad has to say."

The children unconsciously quickened their pace.