In a village of seventy-odd families, twenty miles away from Kang, the capital of the King of Wu, the eastern sky was still dark, and Boss Mao woke up in a thatched roof with a low earth wall.
"Father, is it going to be dawn?" The hay on the dirt bed with the Mao boss turned over to make 'shivering shivering shivering' sound, woke up covered with a broken quilt Mao boss daughter-in-law, Mao boss daughter-in-law to sleep in the middle of the two five-year-old girl into his arms, whispered to ask her husband.
"No, our chickens haven't crowed yet." Boss Mao has not been able to sleep since he laid down yesterday, and he always seems to hear the chickens crowing around his ears, but he wakes up to find his home very quiet.
Boss Mao's daughter-in-law asked and answered questions with her husband, her sleepiness disappeared, and when she saw that her husband did not want to go back to sleep, she simply talked to him.
"Father, is it true what Zhu Zi said? Can you really get money and land if you go to the army?" The pillar that Boss Mao's daughter-in-law was talking about was a nineteen-year-old boy from their village.
In September, a dozen young men in the village were taken by the feudal lords to which they belonged, and except for Zhu Zi, who was assigned to be an auxiliary soldier in the army of the Western Secretary, the other villagers stayed in the royal capital, and the army of Azure Mountain broke the city too quickly, and the auxiliaries who stayed in the royal city were dispatched as cannon fodder before Ripple Ji and Jiang Dafu were finished, and these forcibly taken strong men were released one after another to return to their villages. Boss Mao in the feudal lord forced to pull the strong man, just happened to take his daughter-in-law and daughter to the old man's house in the mountains, luckily avoided this torment.
West Sima's army in the Ulsan pass was completely destroyed the news spread to the king's capital, but also spread to the village of Mao not far from the king's capital, the village of Mao ninety percent of the village with Mao as the surname, the village of five generations can be counted within the kinship, the village people heard the news, they are worried about Mao Zhu Zi, because in the king's city as an auxiliary soldiers of the village are safe to return to the village, and Mao Zhu Zi has not heard from, everyone guessed that the Mao Zhu Zi has been in the death of the Ulsan! .
What people did not expect is that Mao Zhuzi appeared in the village entrance half a month ago, although the person is much darker than when he left the village, but fatter, and the body is dressed in a bright, upper body and even set a very thick cotton coat, the feet also wore a pair of shoes made of leather, only the shoes are a little larger, the Maozhuizi in the leather shoes stuffed with some hay in order to wear it.
Mao Zhu Zi's dress was not the focus of Boss Mao's attention, but the news he brought back about the conscription in the royal capital.
"This is not false, our patriarch went to the king's capital to inquire specifically, the great general recruiting does not ask about identity, as long as more than seventeen years old, twenty-two years of age or less can be enrolled in the army, join the army for a full five years will be able to come back, to share the fields and money, the countryside communal farming tools also have to prioritize the care of the families with soldiers." Boss Mao didn't quite trust the pillar, but trusted the patriarch, who was highly respected in the village.
Pillar is usually a bit of a liar, and when he returns to the village to recount his experience, only a small part of the village believes Pillar's story.
Pillar came back and boasted about the army's new policy, and Pillar earned his pay by working as a footman for merchants applying grain and grass and tasted the benefits of exchanging strength for money, so after the victory in the battle of the royal capital, Mao Pillar didn't return to his village but found a job repairing the city, and worked until the walls of the royal capital were repaired and he received his pay before he returned home in high spirits.
Before Mao Zhu Zi went home, Chu Chao Hui's reform policy for the army just came out, half of the noble Huben will be demobilized and go home, and while the army is reduced, it started to recruit new soldiers, and the new recruits don't ask about their origins. Recruits after five years of enlistment and demobilization can enjoy half of the treatment of retired Huben deeply attracted the eyes of the common people.
"A five-year discharge will bring back money to buy two cows and a share of twenty to thirty acres of good land." Boss Mao's daughter-in-law envisioned. A civilian family might not be able to come up with enough money for a cow in their entire lives, and the price of cattle was high.
"The soldiers in General Chu's army are usually also paid, the pillar and the soldiers in the army have inquired clearly, clothing and food do not cost money, the army pay is can be saved to send home by the military messenger." Boss Mao added.
"But there is always danger in war, on the battlefield swords have no eyes, child father, it is better not to go this way, our village feudal lord was beheaded by the new king, the village headman said, the land we planted will be redistributed, after the distribution of the land can be allowed to let us keep on planting, the tax on the fields in the future will only be collected by 10%, which is 20% to 30% less than the original it." Being a soldier was promising, but in the eyes of Boss Mao's daughter-in-law, her husband's life was more important.
"Alas, the land is only for you to plant, not for us. After I become a soldier, the land I get can be my own, and I can leave it to our children. Besides, if I want to become a soldier, I can get my pay in a month, and I can have the money to buy some corn, so our family can survive next year's shortage of green and yellow." Boss Mao touched his daughter-in-law's stomach, where their third child was. Sleeping in the middle of the couple's girl is the oldest, the second is a boy, just died at more than a year old, Boss Mao hopes the third child is a boy.
Boss Mao's daughter-in-law tilted her head to see her family's thatched roof with a hole in it, and couldn't help but sigh, nowadays the new royal court has enacted policies that are good for the commoners, but many people are just like Boss Mao's family, after the grain from the fall harvest has been levied by the feudal lords and ripples for several times, there is not much left in their homes, so how to survive until next year's summer harvest is a problem, and that's the reason Boss Mao wants to become a soldier because after a month of soldiering the soldiers are paid military pay, and the pay becomes a straw to live on. This is also the reason why Boss Mao wants to become a soldier.
The couple was sighing when the rooster in the chicken coop at the door crowed. Boss Mao immediately climbed up, wearing hemp clothes and pants, while instructing his wife.
"Child her mother, you don't go out today, and Dainiao just stay under the quilt." Mao Boss had only one pair of thick linen pants in his family, and usually whoever went out had to wear them. When Boss Mao wore off his thick linen pants, his daughter-in-law only had a single pair of pants to wear, and now that the temperature outside was freezing, Boss Mao was afraid that his pregnant wife would freeze if she went out.
"Got it." Boss Mao's daughter-in-law burrowed into the comforter, which was missing her husband, and the temperature immediately dropped a lot.
Not only did the old Mao family have only one pair of thick linen pants, they also had only one ragged quilt, which was also the Mao family's most expensive possession, so the oldest Mao's parents and younger brother had to burrow into the hay at night and sleep under the rough, coarse linen quilt.
Though Boss Mao got up when the rooster crowed, and when he got dressed and rushed to the village headman's house, he wasn't the first to arrive; Mao Zhuzi and another young man from the village were already there.
"Zhu Zi, good morning!" Boss Mao greeted the village chief and turned to greet Mao Zhuzi affectionately.
"It's not early, Boss Mao!" Mao Zhuzi's eyes glanced at the thick hemp clothes and pants on Mao Boss, tugged at the fifty percent new cotton shirt on his body, and lifted his chin upward; his cotton shirt was much warmer than Mao Boss's hemp clothes and pants.
After Mao Zhuzi was hired by the merchant as a footman, he worked hard and was very sweet-talking, which was very pleasing to the merchant. The merchant saw Mao Zhuzi's ragged body, only grass shoes on his feet, such clothing is difficult to withstand the cold, so he gave Mao Zhuzi the old cotton clothes he did not wear, and helped Mao Zhuzi to the shoe merchant to buy a pair of low-price inferior leather shoes. Mao Zhuzi borrowed a needle and thread to patch up the holes in the toes of the second-rate shoes.
"Hehe, it is not early." Boss Mao had a request for Mao Zhu Zi, and remained with a smiling face in the face of Mao Zhu Zi's arrogant reply. The young people in the village were going to sign up for the army in the royal capital today, and for Mao Zhuzi, who was the most familiar with the situation of Great General Chu's army, the village people were all very bashful.
"Mao Da seems to be past the age of conscription, right?" Mao Zhuzi saw Boss Mao still accompanied by a smiling face, his heart could not help but breathe freely. Mao Boss married a wife at the age of sixteen, the earliest scion in the village to marry a wife, Mao Zhu Zi is nineteen years old this year and has yet to settle down, and in his heart there has always been a share of jealousy towards Mao Boss.
"No, no, I am exactly twenty-two this year." Boss Mao waved his hands repeatedly.
"Twenty-two?" Mao Zhuzi suspiciously looked at Boss Mao's face that was showing its age, as far as he remembered, Boss Mao seemed to have passed the age of twenty-two long ago.
"My family's big girl is five years old, I had her in my second year of marriage." Boss Mao hurriedly laid out evidence that could prove his age.
Mao Zhu Zi looked down and wiggled his fingers for a moment and figured out that Boss Mao really wasn't outside the draft age range.
The two were counting their ages when the young men in the village who wanted to go as soldiers arrived. The patriarch harnessed his family's mule to a wooden wagon and drove all five young men from the village toward the royal capital. At this time, the sky was slightly white in the east, and the muddy ground on the road was frozen solid, so the mule carts could walk before the mud opened up.
"Pillar, tell us again how General Chu unleashed his divine power to defeat the adulterous concubine." The patriarch's mule cart had no carriage, and the young men of the Mao Family Village sat back to back on the boards, their legs falling beside them.
"Haha, when it comes to how Great General Chu unleashes his divine energy, there is no one who knows better than me, and both times I have seen it with my own eyes." The low temperature of the morning did not freeze Mao Zhu Zi's divine energy. "At the Ulsan road junction, the Western Sima sent by the treacherous princess led an army of 30,000 men to storm General Chu's position, you don't know ah, it was raging at the time, there were only half of the men on General Chu's side, and I was worried to death for General Chu from behind the position."
Mao Zhu Zi didn't worry about the Ulsan army at that time, at that time he was hoping that Xi Sima would win a battle quickly and capture Da Cheng so that he could have enough to eat.
"Brother Pillar, did you help General Chu kill the rebels?" One of the youngest lads in the village interjected.
"That Western Sima rebel was afraid that the auxiliary soldiers would help General Chu, so he didn't give us any weapons." Mao Zhuzi rolled his eyes, at that time, he was so hungry that he couldn't even walk, and he couldn't resist even if he was issued weapons.
"Pillar don't pay attention to this kid interrupting, continue to talk about how General Chu is powerful." An older young man in the village slapped his head at the interrupting young man.
"General Chu faced thousands of troops, his face didn't change, his heart didn't skip a beat, and he only waited for the chaotic troops to attack to one side, sacrificed his spells, and spewed hundreds of fire dragons out of his mouth, burning all of the chaotic troops to death..." Mao Zhuzi's eyebrows fluttered as if he had seen it with his own eyes.
In fact, the truth is, Mao Zhu Zi only heard a burst of noise in front, the front of the army rose a smoke, the West Sima army began to chaos. The Huben who were charging forward all turned around and ran backward, and Mao Zhuzi who stayed at the back of the army tried his best to escape to the side and hid behind a big tree to avoid being trampled to death by the wagons and the defeated soldiers. After the battle at Ulsan Road, Mao Zhuzi didn't even know what happened to Xishima's Huben.
Mao Zhuzi was not clear about the reasons for the failure of the battles he personally participated in, but he saw clearly when he worked as a laborer to transport grain and grass to follow the Ulsan army to Wangcheng, and when the Ulsan army attacked Wangcheng and blew up the gate of the city with gunpowder.
"I think that the king's capital city wall is so high, but General Chu merely sprayed two mouths of fire at the city gate, and the city gate was collapsed by fire, and the crusading army easily attacked the king's capital, and leveled the treacherous consort's rebellion in a single blow."
"Pillar, in that case, Great General Chu's skill is heavenly, and there is no danger in following him to war, is there?" While the young scions in the village were immersed in Chu Chao Hui's divine bravery, Boss Mao made a new discovery.
"Of course, how can there be any danger in following General Chu to war? Not only there is no danger, but also only enjoy the blessings, you can eat three dry meals a day, each meal is full! There's also armor, cotton clothes, cotton pants, and cotton shoes on your feet... Here, it's the kind on my feet!" Mao Zhu Zi once again raised his feet so that everyone could see the pair of sub-standard military shoes with a hole in them. In fact, only a third of the soldiers in the Ulsan army were equipped with leather shoes, the rest were just cotton shoes.
Although the Western Marquis in ten days before Bintian, the royal capital of Kangcheng, in addition to the city building tied up white linen, with the usual and there is no difference. Mao Jia Village mule cart arrived at the north city gate of the royal capital, the north city gate has been opened, a few people dressed in short clothes, escorting a carriage slowly out of the city gate face to face, Mao Jia Village mule cart on the sound of discussing the enlistment of the voice of these people to hear clearly.
"Proprietor, there are more and more young men coming to the King's Capital to enroll, it won't take a month for Wu to recruit tens of thousands of men." A fellow with a leather cap on his head approached the merchant who appeared to be the proprietor of the goods and muttered in a low voice.
"Wu is desperately trying to fight our Zhao Kingdom to the death." The cargo owner-looking leader grimaced.
"Owner, another group of wagons transporting grain and grass to Qu City has come out." The fellow wearing a leather hat drove his own wagon towards the roadside, they were Zhao's spies based in the capital of the King of Wu, and they drove their wagons out of the city every day just to find out how much grain and grass Wu was transporting to the border of Qucheng, so as to estimate how many men and women Wu would send to the border to fight against Zhao.
Unlike the slow traveling speed of Zhao's secret agents, the caravan consisting of a dozen mule carts and wagons coming up from the back was walking very fast, and the team leader rode his horse after the caravan and even urged, "Add fuel to the group, and send it to the destination quickly, so that we can perhaps rush back to celebrate the Chinese New Year."
"Master, we know!" The fellows sitting on the wagons to drive the livestock replied loudly, this trip to escort the wagons was well paid, and if they rushed home after delivering the goods before the year, everyone could have a prosperous year.
"This proprietor, seeing as you're all in a flurry, where are you transporting the goods to?" The leather-hatted fellow smiled and accosted the convoy team owner.
"Naturally, it is transported to where it should be." The caravan owner merchant looked wary, the shipment he was responsible for escorting had signed a confidentiality agreement and could not tell outsiders what the caravan was transporting and where it was going to be transported to.
The head of Zhao's secret agents saw that the convoy team leader looked on guard, and quickly gave a wink to his leather-hatted henchman, and the leather-hatted fellow immediately shut up and stopped asking questions.
Only when the convoy was far away did the head of Zhao's spies snicker. "The wheel marks on the ground are deep, the wagons must be loaded with something as heavy as grain, and to go north in this hard-to-travel weather isn't delivering military rations to Qu City, what is it?"
Wu this phenomenon to prepare for a great war has been half a month long, as early as ten days ago, after the West Hou wee bintian, the head of the secret agent immediately sent to Zhao Xuan all the information, at that time, the delivery of information is still a little apprehensive, but the next consecutively observed the situation, so that the head of the secret agent is glad that he handed back the information on time.
On the north city tower, Huang Zhong was watching the slowly walking Zhao secret agent caravan, a caravan that, every day, disguised as all kinds of merchants, left the city in the morning and returned in the evening, just outside the north city gate on the avenue to observe the passing situation.
Huang Zhong understood Chu Chao Hui's intention of recruiting soldiers with great fanfare, but was a bit puzzled by the fact that Chu Chao Hui employed merchants to deliver goods to the northern thoroughfare of the royal capital with generous pay. The goods transported by the merchants were not meant to be transported to Qu City, but to the place where the post station was to be built, and the sealed sacks on the carts were not food, but only bricks and stones, which were the construction materials for building the post station.
"Hey, I don't know what the Great General is doing this for, there aren't many discarded bricks and stones left in the King's City ah, and I don't know if I'll be able to get the merchants to transport them for a few more days."