"Mom! I'm back!"
Early on the third day, Liu Da rode back to his hometown. It was impossible for Li Yuanyin to take care of everyone when assigning tasks.
But the platoon leader Liu Shuang was still very generous, and he estimated that the task of harvesting crops could be completed, because as soon as the village tyrant Li He fell, the enthusiasm of the village miners was immediately mobilized, and the wheat harvest was even faster than before.
In this way, it didn't matter that I was short of manpower, so I asked Liu Da to go home in advance to help, otherwise I would have to let this kid go back and move in the end.
The soldiers of the King's Division around Jifu can enjoy the treatment of their immediate family members moving into the capital for free, and there is no need to pay the entry fee of fifty kilograms of wheat per person.
This is a benefit given by a certain prince to the henchmen below. As long as they are not orphans and have relatives and friends at home, they can get five days of leave.
If the round-trip journey exceeds the time limit, we can only count on other troops to bring the villagers along the way into the capital when they shrink towards the capital.
Most of the four thousand people Li Yuanyin brought with him were from Tongzhou. Not only Liu Da, but others were also waiting to get the order to take a vacation so that they could go home and clean up quickly.
"My son is back! My son is back!"
When an old woman heard the very familiar greetings, she got off the fire kang tremblingly with excitement. She walked out of the earthen house with a cane. When she saw Liu Da at the door, she immediately shed tears.
"Mom! Don't cry! Isn't this a good thing for me? When my son comes back this time, he wants to take his mother to the capital to enjoy the blessings. Along with my brother and my sister-in-law, our whole family will go to the capital!"
Liu Da couldn't wait to tell his mother the good news. He worked so hard in the army just to live a good life.
"My son has finally made his mark. Mother is so happy! A lot of soldiers and horses came to the village the day before yesterday. They said that Donglu was coming and asked the whole village to harvest the crops as soon as possible. Your brother and your sister-in-law have gone to the fields. , my mother’s legs and feet are weak, so she can only look after the house.”
The old woman hoped that her son would be among the officers and soldiers who came before, but after asking many people, Liu Da was not seen. She was very disappointed, so she finally got her son back.
"Mother, do you know everything? The prince has already received the news that the Tatars are about to knock off the pass, and ordered the farmers around Jifu to harvest all the wheat and transport it to the capital within ten days. Whether the people enter the capital is entirely voluntary. Mother, This Donglu kills people without blinking an eye. If he can't get food, he will take it out on the people of Ming Dynasty. Our whole family can't get into this bad luck. After harvesting the wheat, I will ask my eldest brother and sister-in-law to take my mother to the capital. Once we get there, we can Settle down. My son is here to pick up my mother when I get home. Don’t worry, mother, it’s very lively over there in the capital. No, my son has even bought a lot of delicious food for my mother to try!"
Liu Da first said all the instructions, then grabbed a large bag, took out a box of good pastries, and placed it in front of his mother.
"Oh! This will cost a lot of money, right? It's not easy for my son to make money, so don't spend money randomly!"
The old woman was frightened when she saw the high-quality packaging. She just looked at it with her eyes and didn't dare to move her hands at all. She felt sorry for her son who spent money in vain, but she didn't dare to criticize it. After all, it was It is indeed a filial piety.
"Mom, you can eat as much as you want. I can make money now. The prince is very kind to us. Each of us can receive three taels of silver and half a stone of polished rice per month. If we can kill a Donglu, we can earn two hundred taels. Where’s the silver!”
When it comes to making money, Liu Da is very happy. Although his results have not entered the top 100 list, his monthly salary alone is enough to support himself and help his family.
"My son, please be careful. On the battlefield, swords and guns are blind!"
When the old woman heard this, she immediately worried about her son's life. The child's father had passed away early, and he had raised both sons. If something went wrong, how could she have the face to see the child's father in the future? ah?
"Mom! Don't worry! Look at this armor. It's invulnerable. Mom, touch it. It's very thick. If Donglu wants to kill the child, that's just a daydream!"
Ever since the incident with Li Ji, no one in Liu Shuang's platoon dared to take off their armor, for fear that someone in the village would dare to sneak attack on them. Liu Da also wore armor and went home. It was a little hotter, but it was better than Even if you die, you must be strong.
"Okay, okay! This will make my mother feel at ease!"
The old woman touched the armor doubtfully, and it was indeed as thick as her son said. In her opinion, the thicker the armor, the better. It could at least block the arrows fired by Donglu.
"Mom, you eat first. I'll go to the fields to see my brother and sister-in-law. I can also do a favor. I'll let them go home for dinner at noon."
As Liu Da said this, he placed the edible things he bought on a kang, which was considered a kind of filial piety with an element of showing off.
The old woman was dazzled and overwhelmed by the sight. Her son left for a while and she didn't recover.
There is a platoon stationed in the village. Although it is not from Liu Da's company, it is from the same battalion.
Even if we can't call each other by name, we can still nod to acknowledge each other, because we usually train together, so we are more or less familiar with each other.
The armor uniforms of the East Palace Guards are different from those of other troops. You can tell at a glance that they are one of our own, so there is no need to take precautions.
There was only one class of soldiers responsible for patrolling in the village. When they saw Liu Da, they just chatted for a few words and then went about their own business.
Liu Da's farmland is not too far from the village, only a mile away. Riding a horse is faster and you can get there in minutes.
"Brother! Sister-in-law!"
"Brother is back!"
"I haven't seen you for a few months. My uncle is getting stronger!"
A sweaty man straightened up, saw the long-lost figure, and then tried his best to wave hello to Liu Da in the distance.
The same is true for the women around him. Their family is just an ordinary person. If there is one person who can eat the royal food, it is the manifestation of the ancestors.
There are two ways to eat royal food. One is official career, which is naturally being an official. The other is to join the army, that is, to serve as a soldier.
As a farmer, there are very few people who can be elected, so it is not easy to become a soldier.
Especially when you join the East Palace Guards, you not only get free food and drink, but also get a generous monthly salary, and you can also enjoy tax-free treatment at home.
The Liu family now only has three acres of land and cannot support the family at all, so they rely on being a tenant to the village landlord Liu Gui.
As a tenant, 20% of the harvest from an acre of land would have to be paid in taxes, 50% in rent, and the remaining 30% would be yours.
Now that the prince has been exempted from taxes, Liu Gui has taken away all the tax paid, and he has no intention of sharing it equally with the tenants.
Therefore, whether the prince is tax-free or not, Liu Da's family will not enjoy the corresponding discount at all. At most, they will be exempted from the part of their own land.
Originally, the Liu family had ten acres of land, but because Emperor Chongzhen increased taxes and fees year after year, the Liu family was unable to pay the full amount of taxes and fees when their fields were damaged, so they had to borrow money from Liu Gui.
If the debt cannot be repaid, the land in hand will have to be used to pay off the debt. As a result, the seven acres of land that originally belonged to Liu Da's family became Liu Gui's.
There is nothing we can do about it. If we don't pay taxes, we have to flee. Otherwise, if the government finds out, the whole family will be jailed.
Liu Da's father Liu Wen died because of this coward, and the family went from bad to worse after that.
The eldest brother Liu Tong originally wanted to go out to find work, but Liu Da felt that it was time for him to share the worries of the family, so he left his hometown and went to Tongzhou.
He worked as a coolie at Tongzhou Wharf for a period of time, carrying grain, and later followed the shipowner to the capital.
At this time, the prince happened to be recruiting troops. Liu Da felt that it was right to eat the imperial food, and his fate changed fundamentally.
Liu Da was very hesitant at first, because he might die in battle as a soldier, which would make his mother very sad.
But now it seems that it is undoubtedly a very correct decision. With this set of armor, he will probably not be killed by Donglu.
Because his name has the same pronunciation as Tatar, Liu Da was nicknamed "Dog Tatar" in the army, and he often pretended to be a dog Tatar as the attacking party in exercises.
Over time, Liu Da had a good idea of the Dog Tartars' tactics, but when it came to the battlefield, he had to listen to the instructions of the squad leader and platoon leader. After all, they only had actual combat experience.
At present, Liu Da's enemies are just the wheat waves around him. If he is asked to set fire to his own wheat, he will definitely not be happy. He might as well be more diligent and collect it first.
"If you don't go home and rest, what are you doing here?"
Liu Tong said he was blaming, but his meaning was concern. My younger brother has never come back since he passed the probation period. When he finally came back, he couldn't bear to let him work anymore.
"Brother, did our village also receive an order to harvest the wheat within five days? Didn't I rush back to help? Besides, our whole family has to move to the capital with the team."
Liu Da understood what his eldest brother meant, but he also had his own plan. After harvesting the wheat early, the whole family would be able to move earlier, and when they stabilized, he could concentrate on fending off the enemy.
"Moving to the capital?"
Liu Tong heard about this from the officers and soldiers, but he just thought about it. What kind of place is the capital? How can their villagers live in it?
Besides, it is very expensive to live in the capital. Their family is almost so poor that they only live on this small amount of food. Once they move there, how will they live in the future?
"Brother, don't worry. Now I have a monthly salary in the army. It's half a stone per month for all the polished rice. It's enough to feed the whole family. When we get to the capital, the prince will send someone to arrange accommodation, so there is no need to worry about it. And now that the wheat has been harvested, there will be no work to do in the future. It will be different in the capital. There are many factories in the prince's area, such as steelmaking, oil refining, city building, and building houses, which all require a lot of manpower. Brother, don't you know how to be a bricklayer? Do you want to work? It just comes in handy. Working as a bricklayer in the capital can make much more money than here. Even those employers can't hire decent bricklayers without being fired for twenty taels of silver per month!"
Liu Da is completely different from before. This is due to the fact that the East Palace Guards not only provide military training, but also teach the soldiers cultural knowledge. Literacy is the minimum, and they read newspapers every day so that they will have a general understanding of the contents.
No matter how prosperous Tongzhou is, it can't compare to the capital city. In Liu Da's view, all the places in the south of the Yangtze River combined are not as good as the current capital city. Under the governance of the prince, the capital city has firmly ranked first in the entire Ming Dynasty city.
Although Liu Da has only been to the city twice, he has already settled here because there are many shops in the capital. If you are sick, you can go to the Army Hospital for treatment. There are also fireworks performances during the holidays.
Although his family is far inferior to that of a wealthy family, they can enjoy benefits that benefit ordinary people. This is what Liu Da likes.
Not only himself, but also the officers and soldiers of the East Palace Guard thought so. Even if they lived in a rented house in the capital, it would be better than living in their own house in their hometown.
"Is this...serious?"
Liu Tong was just a simple and honest farmer. The most he had ever been to was Tongzhou, and he had never seen the prosperity of the capital. He couldn't help but be a little agitated by his eloquent younger brother's encouragement.
After all, after the wheat harvest, I really had nothing to do. The most I could do was work as a coolie at Tongzhou Wharf, and I couldn’t make much money in a month. This job was gone when the weather got cold, because water transportation had stopped.
If he could find a job as a bricklayer in the capital, it would indeed be a way to help his family, but he still didn't know what the requirements of the employers in the capital were and whether they would appreciate his skills.
"Brother, look what you said, you are my brother, who can I lie to you? If that's the case, why don't you beat me to death?"
In the past, Liu Da was as honest and simple as his elder brother, but after training in the army, his horizons were much broadened, and he became much more sophisticated and diplomatic. At least this way, he would be less bullied and less deceived. Determination was a good thing for him. Good thing.
"Let's wait until after the wheat harvest. We have to finish harvesting the wheat first!"
The matter was so important that he had to go home and discuss it with his mother. Liu Tong did not dare to agree easily. It was more important to do the job at hand well.
"Sister-in-law! With my brothers here, you don't have to work hard. Go home and rest. By the way, I bought a lot of food, which is all delicious food from the capital. When we go home at noon, our family People just have a good meal!”
Liu Da felt that he was also a strong laborer, so there was no need for the women at home to cut wheat. This was a laborious job, and it was better for men to do it.
"Brother-in-law, as you said, your brother and I usually go to the fields together. I'm not as delicate as the women in the city, so it's okay!"
The woman accepted Liu Da's kindness, and most of the wheat in the field was confiscated. Even if the three of them worked together, they could save a day or two.
"How about this? Sister-in-law, you are in the field in the morning and don't have to go out in the afternoon. You can just sift the wheat straw at home and sift it carefully!"
Since his sister-in-law refused to go home, Liu Da came up with a compromise plan that would at least take care of both sides.
"Master, what do you think?"
"Okay! You can't bring a pole to hold the bag here. You can sift it at home in the afternoon!"
Liu Tong thought for a while and agreed. Anyway, he was working in the fields and at home, and he could also take care of his mother. This arrangement was good.
"I happen to have a horse here, and I will pull the harvested wheat back at noon!"
The Liu family couldn't afford to raise livestock at all. They were so poor that they didn't even have a donkey. They relied on a human flatbed truck to pull all the food. Now that they finally had a horse, Liu Da planned to make good use of it.
"you……"
Liu Tong was worried that his brother would be punished by his superiors for using the horses equipped by the tribe without permission, so he hesitated.
"Brother, don't worry. This horse has to carry me even if it doesn't pull the cart. At worst, why don't we give it something good to eat later?"
This horse is either a war horse or an ordinary pack horse. It is stronger than a donkey when used to pull a cart.
"Forget it! We can't take advantage of others in vain!"
Liu Tong finally agreed. After all, he was itching to leave the animals alone.
"That's enough, sister-in-law, you stay here to look at the things and sort them out, and I'll go to the fields with my brother!"
Liu Da was thinking about the food he had brought back. He tied up his horse, took off his armor and started working hard.
