Chapter 217: Conscription for War
Pingzhou, Xiangping
The Qin family made meritorious contributions with the curved plow, so Mo Lianfeng asked the Qin family members to continue to do the work of weeding, and did not assign them a workload, so they could weed leisurely.
Of course, there were also those with dark thoughts who could not bear to see others have a good life, and went to report to the supervisors, but the supervisors had obviously been warned, so they ignored them and only scolded those people, asking them to take care of themselves.
Qin Sheng bent over and weeded intermittently.
Obviously, his mind was not on this, and there were a lot of fish that slipped through the net.
Qin Zhao followed him to check for omissions and fill in the gaps.
Finally, he found that Qin Sheng's work was getting rougher and rougher. He helplessly called him, "Six Ah——" to signal him to look at his own work.
Qin Sheng turned his head, took a look, and then gave him a contemptuous look. His wife said that if you don't use your power, it will expire. Isn't it better to save your strength to go back and do private work? There is not much firewood at home. If you want to build a bathroom, you need to prepare a lot of materials... These are all jobs.
The wife doesn't like to make the room wet. She wants to build a bathroom. Qin Sheng thinks this is not a high request.
You know, before they were exiled, each of them lived in a courtyard, and the room they lived in had an annex.
Gathering their whole family, the house they live in is small and barely accommodating, but it is really inconvenient to take a bath. He and his brothers carry water to the backyard at night and wash their bodies in the dark. It is more troublesome for the women. Therefore, it is very important to build a bathroom.
Hearing his powerful excuse for laziness, Qin Zhao finally uttered one sentence, "You know how to cut corners, I can't argue with you."
Qin Sheng was about to reply to him when he was interrupted by Qin Zhao, "Your wife is looking for you--"
Qin Sheng turned around quickly.
Qin Zhao looked in the direction of his sight and saw his sixth brother's wife calling Xiaoliu at the field, "Let's go, Lord Mo is going out to get something, you come with us, protect our Lord Mo."
"Come on!"
Qin Zhao shouted in his heart, Sixth brother's wife, just spoil him! He kept finding ways to let him rest, God knows, pulling weeds is not tiring!
At this time, he heard his son looking up and saying to him, "Dad, Yu'er is so tired, can you take a break?"
Qin Zhao:... This is the son who is always trying to sabotage him! You said you just played with two weeds and said you were tired?
He kept trying his luck and told himself that this was born by his wife!
He pointed to the field near the roadside, "Go over there and rest."
Mo Lianfeng took Qin Sheng and Lu Songli and their husbands to the blacksmith shop and took the curved plow made of ordinary molten iron. After confirming that the curved plow was very useful, he first let the carriage go back to the military settlement gate, put the young couple down, and then took the newly made curved plow and its drawings to find his superiors.
Xiangping is the seat of Pingzhou and also the office of the local governor. Its status is different from that of ordinary county towns. And he is not the kind of person without a background. His top superior is the commander of Liaoxi County and the commander of the army of a county.
Their entire military settlement is very concerned about spring plowing, all because the army does not have enough food.
The court is not very willing to provide food and grass for their Pingzhou army. In fact, the court is also in trouble, supporting 500,000 or 600,000 troops. The most important thing is that they have a good governor in Pingzhou. Most of the taxes collected every year are transported to Chang'an, and only one or two tenths are transferred to the garrison.
The garrison does not have enough food, and the governor and the county magistrate suppress them and do not let them report. There is no way, they have to eat, so their Pingzhou army set up military settlements, at least they can grow some food to supplement one or two.
Just when Mo Lianfeng went to meet his superiors, a big thing happened in the Xiangping military settlement.
As soon as Lv Songli and Qin Sheng returned home, a soldier came and violently knocked on the door, "Open the door, open the door quickly!"
"All male prisoners over the age of fifteen come out! Gather!"
Qin Heng asked Nie Yunniang, Su Shi and Qin's mother to stay in the house with the children.
Standing in the yard, you can hear the commotion outside.
"Something happened, it must have happened!"
"Sir, what happened?" Qin Heng asked.
The soldier knew that this family had some backers, so he explained briefly and ignored others.
"A Xianbei army passed through Wangping County and went straight to Liaoyang County. Liaoyang was attacked by surprise. The local county lieutenant Wu Bei hurriedly responded to the battle and asked for help from the surrounding county governments. Xiangping has decided to send troops to support it. All of you prisoners over the age of fifteen are included in the list of conscription!"
There were many people present, and they all took a breath of cold air when they heard it. These Xianbei people are really rampant!
The Qin family understood that Liaoyang and Xiangping were adjacent, so they drew troops from their military settlements to meet the enemy. Of course, they were obviously used as cannon fodder.
But why would there be a war at this time? Didn't the Xianbei usually go south after the autumn harvest? It was about to start spring plowing at this time, and it was the time when there was a shortage of food. What could they get by going south?
Later, they learned that this Xianbei army was led by Tuoba Lian, one of the eight nobles of the Xianbei clan. They went south for no other reason than to fall in love with a beautiful Han woman. The Han woman refused and fled from Wangping to Liaoyang. Tuoba Lian led his troops to chase them.
Qin Heng asked, "Sir, can we go with three of the four men in our family and leave one at home?" They were not afraid of fighting. But there couldn't be no man at home.
The soldier was in a dilemma, not because he was unwilling to make concessions, but because the superiors had ordered that all the exiles, as long as they were over 15 years old, must be transferred. Many of the exiles in the military settlements were alone, but the Qin family was different.
Just when the soldier was in a dilemma, an officer who was obviously a soldier came in. Judging from the official uniform he was wearing, his rank should be the same as Mo Lianfeng.
"What's the matter?"
The soldier hurriedly explained.
The man said directly, "No! As long as you are over 15 years old, you must all go to fight against the Xianbei army!"
While speaking, the man's eyes fell on the two young women of the Qin family, Cai and Lu Songli, and they were very sticky.
Second sister-in-law Cai turned her face away in disgust.
Lv Songli's expression did not change, but her originally gentle expression suddenly became a few degrees colder.
Qin Sheng stepped forward and blocked the man's sight.
The Qin brothers looked at each other obscurely.
The man waved his hand, "Take it away!"
"Wait--" Mo Lianfeng came back.
"Mo Lianfeng, you dare to interfere with the military order?"
Mo Lianfeng was not afraid of him, "Qiu Dashan, this is not how you draft soldiers!"
Mo Lianfeng stopped him, "They are a family, not to mention one man per household. The most outrageous is to draft one from two men, one from three men, not four soldiers from one household like you!"
Qiu Dashan sneered, "They are good citizens, how can these fugitives be qualified?"
"Take three and leave one! Otherwise, don't even think about taking them away!" Mo Lianfeng directly showed his bottom line, he was too lazy to deal with Qiu Dashan.
"Okay, then three!" Qiu Dashan also knew that this was his bottom line.
Mo Lianfeng said to the Qin family, "Give you some time to discuss the candidates."