In mid-March, the ice and snow melted across Shandong.
The turmoil and war that began in the second half of last year seemed to have come to an end during this period. Now that the weather is getting warmer, people everywhere have begun to start spring plowing early, and those who have been included in the military household system have started earlier. After all, they have more land in their hands, but most of them lack servants. They have to pay close attention to plowing, raising ridges and many other things.
For a time, crowds of people like ants were seen running around in the fields all over Laizhou, which made people feel like there was new smoke in the countryside.
At this time, Ding Haijun Mansion was also quite busy.
No matter how well-prepared I am in winter, when the farming season comes, I always feel that something is not right here or not complete there. In some counties, there are more cattle for farming, but not enough grain seeds; in some counties, there are grain seeds, but not enough farm tools; in some counties, they started to plow the land, but found that the canals they dug before did not work at all.
It is inevitable that some warriors would complain that most of their households were old and weak and could not do anything. Seeing that we were about to miss the farming season, we had no time to train at home.
The staff in the military government had a special discussion, and they all felt that the situation was not difficult to adjust, but the people were all going to farm, and there was a lack of manpower on hand.
Fortunately, after a whole winter, Ding Haijun's control over the local area has become stronger and stronger, his family wealth has become stronger, and he has more methods.
Previously, the navy was ordered to reorganize the soldiers from Dengzhou, Laizhou, and Ninghai prefectures, and the prison troops in Dengzhou and Ninghai prefectures were also screened together. There is no doubt that the navy is elite, and the requirements for selecting soldiers are also high. There are two to three thousand soldiers who were eliminated. But many of them left the army and were completely homeless, and were only temporarily managed by the people of Jing'an.
This time, the military government simply deregistered them all, and the Secretary of Government coordinated the arrangements and sent them to various places. A small number assisted in the transportation of materials, and most of them directly assisted in spring plowing. After the spring plowing, the area was designated as a shade house, which also gave them a place to go.
The so-called prison army was inherited from the Song Dynasty system. As the name suggests, it was people who committed crimes and committed crimes, and was used for defense and construction.
However, the people in Dajin's prison army were not actually guilty people, but unidentified people kidnapped from various places by local officials when the court was in a hurry to sign military orders.
Since the identity is unknown, it is inevitable to commit adultery. In order to prevent them from committing crimes and committing crimes, it is natural and normal to have their faces tattooed in advance and sent to prison. As for the soldiers of the prison army, all of them say that they are innocent and have never committed any crime. How can they be believed? How can the thieves in the prison be trusted?
Local officials always found a way to smooth things over, and the soldiers of the Prison Army became the lowest cannon fodder of the Jin Kingdom, with a status worse than that of the Food Shooting Army.
Wang Erbai is a prison soldier who was eliminated.
He was originally a fisherman from Wandu Village in Haizhou. When he was born, his father harvested 200 kilograms of fish in one net at sea, so he got this name.
In the summer of the year before last, Wang Erbai and the young men from his village went out to sea to fish, and they were hit by a storm at sea. Wang Erbai relied on his outstanding water skills to rescue his companions who fell into the water in the violent storm. However, his own family was in bad luck and was cut off. The mast was blown off and fell into the water.
He held the mast and floated on the sea for six full days, relying on raw fish to replenish his strength, and finally landed in the Chengshan area of Ninghai Prefecture. After surviving the catastrophe, he shouted wildly for joy twice, and then he was discovered by the officials who signed the army.
When the officials saw it, they thought, oh, what a big man. They couldn't help but gathered around him, knocked him over with a stick, and took him back to the city with big ties.
After a period of confusion, Wang Erbai's identity became a pirate of unknown origin, and then he got a gold seal on his face, and from then on he became a prison sergeant in Wendeng County.
In the next two years, he did not fight, but he saw mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the battlefield several times. This made Wang Erbai miss his family even more.
He tried to escape one after another, but he was unlucky. He was caught several times and was severely punished by his superiors. One of the times he was hit hard by a military stick and injured his hip, and now he walks with a slight limp.
When Ding Haijun reorganized his troops, Wang Erbai still wanted to return to Haizhou, so he cheated and performed poorly in every assessment.
Sure enough, he was eliminated.
Unexpectedly, Ding Haijun treated these eliminated soldiers well and continued to provide them with food and drink. For half a month, I could eat two half-full meals every day and sleep soundly at night.
When he was selected and came to Tunbao in Yifeng Town, he was a little scared, thinking that the military men in Dinghai Navy armed with swords and guns would make them work hard until they died, so he was planning to escape along the way.
It wasn't until he heard that the strongmen in Haizhou were rebelling and the war was in chaos that he gave up in despair.
Of course, some people did take advantage of the chaos to escape, but there must be a lot of cavalry in the navy, and most of the people who escaped were captured. Those captured for the first time were given twenty military sticks each; those captured for the second time were beheaded directly.
The severed heads were hung on bamboo poles and stood outside the camp. It is said that this was the preference of Dingjun Guo Jiedu.
How can normal people have such preferences? Guo Jiedu must have a green face and fangs, and he must be very vicious.
When Wang Erbai was a boy, he had heard in the fishing village that the senior officials of the Kingdom of Jin were all Jurchens from the mountains to the north. They are different from Han'er, they are ruthless, cannibalize human flesh, and even drink human blood!
But after ten or so timid days in Yifeng Town, Wang Erbai didn't want to leave.
Life in Tunpu, Yifeng Town, was much better than that in Ninghai Prefecture. You can eat scones every day, including cereals and sometimes some salted vegetables and fish. This is really good. The scones are as big as your face, hard and solid. In the fishing village, you could only eat them during the Chinese New Year!
If I have to say there's something I'm unhappy about, it's that I'm a little tired from working.
The prison army was originally engaged in miscellaneous work in defense construction, and it was not like Wang Erbai had never worked as a coolie in Wendeng County. But who is not making do when working for the government? But it's different here in Dinghaijun. The weather is still cold, so we have to dig trenches, build walls, and build houses.
Wang Erbai dug the ditch for three to five days, and then was sent to dig adobe. There is something special about this matter: the adobe used to build the wall does not just need to be tamped. It must be sieved before tamping, and all grass seeds and roots in the soil must be removed, otherwise the adobe will not be strong.
It's true that Wang Erbai doesn't want to be a soldier, but he is a kind man. He felt that since he had good food, he had to work well, so he took a few soldiers who also came from the Wendeng Lao City Camp and were familiar with his family to carefully sift the soil every day and compact the soil in a down-to-earth manner. .
He is very strong. When tamping, one person can be used as two people, and the progress of making adobe is also fast. Therefore, after being praised several times by the officials above him, he soon became the leader of more than 20 people. He was given an extra pancake every day when eating.
There is a team leader in the camp. It is said that he is a fellow villager of Guo Jiedu in Changzhou, and he is called Zhao Bin.
Zhao Bin really likes Wang Erbai, who is tall and powerful. He asked Wang Erbai why he was not selected by the military government, and asked Wang Erbai if he was interested in becoming his disciple. Being his disciple would bring many benefits.
When he was recruiting troops before, Wang Erbai thought a lot, but now for some reason, he was too lazy to think about it.
He said, OK.
Zhao Bin laughed.
I heard from others that many people who have been eliminated by Sha now regret it, but it is not so easy to rejoin the army.
But since Zhao Bin boasted that he and Ding Haijun Guo Jiedu were from the same hometown...this may be true, and he really has some confidence. For this matter, Zhao Bin took Wang Erbai on a special trip to Laizhou Ye County.
Because we took a large truck transporting supplies from the military government, it took only three days to cover a hundred miles. Sitting on the roof of the car, Wang Erbai felt that the road was straight and solid, with fields and canals on both sides. Every ten miles or so, there was a small fort similar to that of Yifeng Town.
After arriving in Yexian County, Zhao Bin was indeed very familiar with government offices. The yamen he went directly to was said to be the newly established Commandery Department of Laizhou Capital.
After walking through several small courtyards and handing in documents, Zhao Bin asked Wang Erbai to put his fingerprints on the book at the last place.
He said: "Hey kid, press it quickly. Once you finish pressing it, you will be my Alixi! Hahaha!"
Since he had to press his fingerprints, Wang Erbai simply bit his finger. He was a little happy thinking about being able to divide the land in the future, and his mind was full of thoughts about being able to bring his family and the villagers in Wandu Village, Haizhou, to live a good life. Thinking it was a good thing, he bit down a little harder. When his upper and lower teeth touched, blood dripped from his mouth and flowed out from the corners of his mouth.
After biting it, I found that several officers around me were dumbfounded and kept saying that there was red cinnabar available on the table, so brothers don't need to be so cruel.
