Slave soldiers were led by Chu Chao Hui to train forcibly for one morning, at noon they finally could sit under the shade of the protective forest in the valley to rest. The protective forest here is actually the original primitive forest trees.
The two Zheng Chu men were going to cut down all the trees in the valley and turn the forest into fields and living quarters, leaving only a row of trees in the west near the Chang River.
These trees could, on the one hand, stabilize the soil and water and, on the other, block the view of the wooden boats exercising in the long river to the valley. However, in order not to lose soil and water on the mountain slopes, the trees on the surrounding slopes could not be cut down, and it was only permitted to cut branches and weeds on the slopes for firewood.
Some of the thousands of years old trees in the valley have not been sawed off, these to be more than a dozen people hand in hand to close the tree, survival to now quite not easy, to stay as the best scenic trees. As for the hundreds of years of trees, in addition to particularly rare, other large trees have been cut down, one-third of the large trees in the valley is such a long age, if they are preserved, the valley simply can not be developed.
The protective forest to the east had cut down a good-sized piece of clearing, the roots of the trees hadn't been plowed away yet, and the stones on the clearing hadn't been cleared yet, and it wouldn't be until next year that the area would be turned into cultivated land. At the edge of the clearing, there were more than two hundred people sawing and falling trees, of these two hundred people, more than one hundred were serfs led by Da Zhuang, and the other thirty to forty were carpenters from the Craftsmen's Office.
The slaves of the Ministry of Agriculture were required to work as lumberjacks under the leadership of a carpenter during their farming days. The weeds in the rice fields had been pulled almost to the ground, and Big Strong had left some to spray the rice fields with vinegar, while all the other slaves had been taken to the west to lumber.
Because there will be a wooden boat loading iron ore docking at the valley pier today, Da Zhuang will stop working for a while and look at the Yangtze River through the path leading to the pier. When the wooden boat from the Southern Barbarian Tribe arrives, Big Strong will have to organize manpower to unload the iron ore from the boat to the shore and then transport it back to the valley.
Big strong wooden boat did not wait, but waited for the end of the training of the soldiers, looking at the soldiers sitting in the shade of the tree to rest, Big strong waved his hand to let the slaves and carpenters also stop to rest, look at the shadow on the ground, the valley to send lunch mule carts are coming soon.
The western logging work-place is a long way from the valley cottage, and it takes an hour to go back on foot; none of the slaves who work here return to the valley to take their luncheon, which is brought to them by the women in mule carts, and a dozen or more mule carts have been purchased in the valley for the convenience of transportation, and for the purpose of cultivating the land seven or eight oxen have been purchased from the surrounding country, which are harnessed to carts, and which are also capable of transporting the goods.
While the mule carts in Dacheng were sold well, the yellow oxen were in short supply, and they had to be purchased in the southern barbarians and in the state of Chu. The yellow oxen in Chu are domesticated and can be bought and put on the yoke to plow the land, while the yellow oxen in Nanban are wild and can only be bought by the small yellow oxen caught by the tribesmen for pulling carts and plowing the land, and these small yellow oxen have to be trained for a period of time to be able to be put on the yoke to plough the land and pull the carts.
The slaves had just stopped to rest from their work when a convoy of vehicles arrived on the east side of the road across the valley with wooden barrels and wooden frames containing rice and vegetables, and wooden bowls and chopsticks in the frames. The women of the kitchen had come to deliver the food.
Seeing the caravan approaching from afar, the logging slaves and soldier slaves all rose from the ground and let out a cheer. The soldiers' meals for the past few days were the same as they were delivered by the valley kitchen, and when the barracks were ready to be used, the soldier slaves wouldn't need the valley kitchen to deliver their meals for them, they would have a specialized cook.
The convoy stopped beside the logging slaves, and two of the mule trains continued on toward the sheltered forest; soldiers and loggers had different lunches; soldiers trained for physical exertion, and their meals were richer than those of the loggers.
Whether they were logging slaves or soldiers, one by one they received their utensils and lined up at the barrels, where the women in charge of distributing the food gave them corn and vegetables, and the slaves who had beaten the food went to another barrel to ladle out some soup. Lining up was a mandatory part of a slave's journey into the valley.
The slaves who had beaten the meal found a stake under the shade of a tree and sat down to eat, today there was not only a lot of meat in the dishes, but also in the soup, and even a lot of meat bones. People in this time and space, except for the nobles, generally have two meals, after arriving in the valley, two meals were changed to three. The slaves now, even though they could eat one more meal per day, the amount of rice per meal still hadn't decreased a bit. However, the benefits of eating one more meal were soon reflected in the slaves, the slaves no longer had vegetable color on their faces, their bodies were no longer stripped naked with only ribs visible, but they started to grow muscles, everyone's resistance was stronger, they got sick less often, their strength was greater, and some of the slaves who were less than twenty even grew a lot taller.
Big Strong walked over to the soldiers with his meal in hand looking for the second son. The two found a stake in the shade and sat down.
"Second son, it's better for you, you can eat a lot of meat when you become a guard." Da Zhuang looked at the large chunks of wild boar meat in Er Zi's bowl with envy, he only had a few small pieces of wild chicken meat in his bowl, unlike Er Zi's bowl which had more meat with rice.
"Soldiers sweat more than they work, look at my blouse." Er Zi's short top had been taken off and rested on his shoulders, the cloth top was glistening with white salt cream. Erzi said as he gave a piece of fat meat from his own bowl to Dazhuang, people without oil like to eat fat meat, Erzi was giving Dazhuang the best meat in the bowl.
"Well, sweating more than me." There were also traces of sweat left behind by drying sweat on Da Zhuang's short cloth coat, though not as much as on Er Zi's clothes, where the large amount of salt cream on Er Zi's clothes was obviously left behind by repeated wetting and then becoming dry again.
"We still have to practice after eating and resting for a while, the chief said that those who can't keep up with the intensity of the training will be returned to the valley." Er Zi was the best of the slave soldiers, he wasn't worried at all about being brushed off.
"Return to the valley? Not to mention no monthly hardware and a face to lose." Da Zhuang shook, then put his head to Er Zi's ear and spoke quietly. "Outside the valley only the sons of noble lords' families are allowed to be soldiers, do you think the guards will be converted into soldiers in the future?"
"Turn into a soldier? To be a Huben?" Er Zi's mouth stopped chewing and his eyes shone. Soldiers in this time and space were all noble sons and daughters, and civilians and slaves could only do logistics, or auxiliary soldiers. Chu Chao Hui's original intention was to train slaves into soldiers, but he only verbalized that they were trained as guards to protect the valley.
"Dazhuang, if His Excellency serves the King of Wu in conquests in the future, it is possible for us to follow him to the battlefield and get rid of our slavery with merit?" Er Zi didn't dare to fantasize about becoming a Huben, but it was possible to go from slave to house slave.
There were many slaves who followed their masters to war, rescued their masters on the battlefield, or killed the enemy, and at the end of the war when the rewards were recognized, these slaves would be removed from slavery and become their masters' household soldiers. The status of a soldier was similar to that of a civilian, and his life was better than that of a civilian.
"But we seem to be having a better time than the house slaves now, what if we take off our slavery to go outside the valley?" After his excitement, the second son suddenly thought that these months of living in the valley was a life he had dreamed of.
"Yeah, turning into a house slave will definitely get you kicked out of the valley." Big strong old man often go to the south port to have something, many wandering to the south port of the starving people if they refused to sell their bodies, Zheng Chu two people only allowed them to be in the south port as a temporary resident, in exchange for hard labor in exchange for food, when the south port does not need hard labor, these people will have to leave the south port, only the slaves will be brought to the valley, food, drink and housing by the master all inclusive.
"I'm not going out of the valley, I'm going to live here all the time from now on, and when I have a family, my children and grandchildren will live here all the time." The second son swore firmly, he hadn't seen civilians who lived more comfortably than the valley, this was his ideal place.
Chu Zhaohui and the slave soldiers the same training, together with the same suffering, but eating, clothing and sleeping did not have the same with the soldiers, want anything the same, he is not a slave owner, not a fiefdom of the small aristocrat. Chu Zhaohui never think that people can be truly equal, the twenty-first century again democratic countries, there are in fact different levels.
There are not many vegetables in this time and space, there were only about twenty kinds of vegetables commonly consumed by people at that time, with bitter and astringent flavor and bad taste, and most of them have retreated from the ranks of vegetables and become weeds in modern times. The only vegetables of the pre-Qin and Qin-Han dynasties that are still consumed in modern times are leeks, radishes, scallions and garlic, among several other varieties. The common vegetables of the twenty-first century, such as eggplant, cucumber, spinach, lentils, and sword beans, were introduced from abroad one after another from the Wei and Jin dynasties to the Tang and Song dynasties.
Thanks to Zheng Yuming's cousin's sister-in-law bought a large bag of vegetable seed seeds, eggplant, cucumber, spinach, lentils, beans, tomatoes, broad beans are planted in the greenhouse, these vegetables in addition to save the seeds, the excess into the stomach of the two Zheng Chu, followed by the only three children and Su women. It is a pity that there is no peanut and sunflower seeds in the villa, these two crops to the Ming Dynasty only from the Americas into the Kingdom of Heaven.
The dishes Su women made for Chu Chao Hui today were cucumber fried wild eggs, wild boar meat stewed with sword beans, eel tube roasted eggplant, soup was tomato wild chicken egg soup, and rice was white rice. The villa's japonica rice has been eaten up, and the japonica rice for cooking now is the rice that was eliminated after screening the rice seeds and pounded out with a stone mortar and pestle.
Chu Chao Hui's lunch placed on the stake red and green is very nice, look at all let a person's appetite, the slaves stretched out their heads to look at the master to enjoy the meal, one by one, their mouths gulp, I heard that by next year, the master is now eating the things that all people in the valley can enjoy. The news hadn't been circulating from the villa for more than a day before the slaves all knew about it, and they seemed to be most after food.
Just as the people were almost done with their meal, there was a string of wooden boats in the long river coming towards the western dock; it was the southern barbarian tribes pinpointing the time to deliver iron ore to the valley.
The southern barbarian tribes and Dacheng are across the river from each other, and when the winds and waves are calm, it only takes two hours for a wooden boat to reach the valley from the southern barbarians. The southern barbarian tribesmen tend to load the ore onto the wooden boats the day before, and then set off early in the morning of the next day, and arrive at the pier of the valley at eight or nine o'clock in the morning. In a month, the southern barbarian tribes will be transported to the valley three times, unloading will return. Originally this unloading time can be fixed, do not want to have a windy delay, two hours late wooden boat arrived at the pier, at that time, not far from the pier lumberjack slaves are eating lunch, the person in charge of the southern barbarian tribesmen see people are still hungry, they will be the remaining meals to them, lumberjack slaves of the enthusiasm of the one time, change the southern barbarian tribes used to the time of the delivery, they delayed the delivery time for an hour, specifically Catching up with the valley lumberjack slaves meal time came.
Chu Chao Hui stood on the forest path with a cigarette in his mouth, smiling as he watched a dark-skinned, short young man jump up from a wooden boat at the dock.
The young man, who was only 163 centimeters tall, was Takusu, a warrior of the Southern Barbarian Cow Tribe, and was in charge of the flotilla.
"Chu adults!" Tuosu went ashore and saw Chu Chao Hui standing on the path, let the clan first moor the wooden boat next to the pier, he jogged to Chu Chao Hui in front of the right hand clasped his chest and saluted, the southern barbarian tribes salute and the Great Qin is very different, the tribes retained the ancient rituals.
"Takusu warriors, please have your people eat in the valley before unloading." Chu Chao Hui invited.
"Haha! Honorable Governor Nambu, Tuosu and his clan left late from home just to have lunch in the valley." Tuosu was a warrior of the Barbarian Tribe, and it seemed that none of the Barbarian Tribesmen knew what politeness was, and had always spoken straight. After Tuosu and his clan had eaten the valley's meals by chance, they couldn't get enough of the valley's meals, but although Tuosu didn't hide his cravings, they abided by the principles of equivalence and fairness, and every time they went to the valley miso meal they would always bring some of the southern barbarian's local specialties with them. Today brought a ginseng, this ginseng is relatively thick, to be in the twenty-first century is a very rare and valuable medicinal herbs, but here, from the surrounding mountains will often dig to the thumb thick ginseng, Tuosu brought ginseng is only a little thicker than the thumb. Ginseng is not precious or rare, but it is still more than enough to exchange for a meal.
"Thanks." Chu Chao Hui took the ginseng and threw it to Er Zi.
"What is this?" Tuosu saw Chu Chao Hui accept the ginseng, so he justified himself and walked towards the mule cart, ready to fetch his meal there. His eyes glanced at the several pots of red and green dishes left over from Chu Chao Hui's meal and inquired in surprise. It was the first time he had encountered the valley master dining, which of course meant it was the first time he had seen twenty-first century vegetables.
"The vegetables grown in the valley, if Tuosu doesn't mind Chu using them first, he can taste them here."
"Serve dry rice." Tuosu didn't even have the concept of hygiene in his mind, so of course he wouldn't mind Chu Chao Hui's saliva. The rice was already finished, and there were only a few pots of vegetables on the stake.
The mule carts don't deliver more than one meal, but they do deliver more than one dry meal. The slaves had already eaten all the food today, leaving only a little corn meal and vegetable soup, which contained a few large bones with not a trace of meat to be found.
The way of cooking in the valley has been gradually approaching the twenty-first century, except for soy sauce and sugar are not made, other seasonings that can be found are used in the dishes. Roasted meat put ginger and wine to remove the fishy flavor has become a customary practice in the valley, and the meat made is fragrant without a fishy taste.
"Lord Chu, the meals in your valley are just delicious." Tuosu and his clan members ate by pouring, so it didn't take a few minutes for Tuosu to pour his stomach full.
"Then send more ore so that you can come to the valley often to eat." Chu Chao Hui pulled out a cigarette from the cigarette box and handed it to Tuosu: "Take a drag, a cigarette after a meal is like a god."
"Cigarette?" Tuoso took the cigarette and put it to his nose to smell it. "It smells good!"
Takuso was about to swallow the cigarette right into his mouth when he finished.
"Don't! This can't be eaten directly into the stomach, this is eaten with the nose." Fortunately, Chu Chao Hui's hands and feet were quick, and he rushed to stop Tuosu before he swallowed the smoke.
"Nose eating?" Tuoso's interest grew.
Chu Chao Hui taught Tuosu by hand for ten minutes, and then demonstrated once in person, Tuosu finally lit the cigarette and 'ate' it.
"Ahem! Not bad, it's choking and spicy!" Tuosu began to think that cigarettes were just choking, but after seeing Chu Chao Hui leisurely exhaling smoke rings, he realized the way to 'eat' cigarettes.
After Tuosu wasted three cigarettes in a row, he finally learned to puff smoke out of his nose. Being wasted four cigarettes by Tuosu at once, Chu Chao Hui didn't feel any pain.
"Haha, not bad! Nice stuff from your valley." Takusu comprehended it well enough to hum smoke rings from his nose.
"I also have a long knife here for the warriors of your Eagle Tribe." Chu Chao Hui drew out a sharp long knife and held it in front of Tuosu with both hands.
"Divine Blade!" Tuosu's body rose from the stake in a single bound, the face of the long blade reflecting the daylight and shaking his eyes.
Chu Chao Hui said that the knife was given to the warriors of the Eagle Clan, and Tuo Su was the first warrior of the clan, so of course the knife was given to him.
"This sword is too valuable for me to take." Tuosu's mouth and hands were pushing back, but his face was all disenchantment.
"As long as your tribe digs up more iron and stone, you can have a few of these precious swords."
"But the tribe no longer has the manpower to dig iron ore." Tuosu looked at the long knife fondly.
"The Eagle Tribe doesn't have enough manpower, so they can ask people from the surrounding smaller tribes to come and help with the mining." Chu Chao Hui had a thousand ways to increase the number of miners in his stomach.
"Invite people from the smaller tribes around here to help with the digging?" Tuosu thought that there would not be too many people willing to come if he wanted to invite them, when he saw the long knife shining brightly, he pondered that he could use the long knife to invite them, with more iron ore, the tribe could have more food and cloths, and now there was also the long knife, so the tribe could be stronger in the future, and they would not be afraid of the Tiger Tribe in the south any more, and as for the small tribes who were invited with the knife, they could be given a little bit of food as a reward.
Chu Chao Hui watched with satisfaction as the Eagle Tribe's fleet unloaded and left the pier, the long knife given to Tuosu was just an iron knife that had not been completely tempered, only a little bit sharper than the bronze knives of this time and space, and could only be regarded as a substandard weapon in his eyes, and touching Tuosu's autonomy to look for laborers with a long knife was a good deal.
While Chu Chao-hui was in the valley tempting Tuosu to Little Tribe Latin with a sub-par knife, Jung Yoo-ming was snubbing the Eagle Clan's patriarch, Tuosu's father, Tuohsiung, at his mudroom office in Nambu.