The road construction work was too tiring, so I changed it to three meals a day, including lunch.
He stopped what he was doing and saw that Wang Xiaolie was still there. The old man wondered: "We are about to eat, are the officials still there?"
Wang Xiaolie said: "Of course I am. It's a good time today, so I'll have a meal with you."
The old man rubbed his hands and said: "To be fair to the officials, we country people just want to eat enough, and the food is not exquisite. If the officials eat together, I'm afraid they won't be able to eat it. If you rich people don't have wine and meat, how can you eat?" Go down?"
Wang Xiaolie smiled and said: "Old man, I'm not that picky. As long as you can have a full stomach, what can't you eat?"
While he was talking, someone brought the food over. Each person has a large bowl of corn rice and a large spoonful of vegetables. There is no meat in the dishes, but there is tofu every day. Add in conveniently available vegetables and cook them together.
After eating, Wang Xiaolie held the bowl and squatted with the old man and his son.
In Wang Xiaolie's previous life, he drank too much millet soup and never had dry millet rice. It’s been almost a year since I arrived in this world, and I’m still not used to it. I always feel that millet is too dry and too thick, making it difficult to swallow. But I have been forcing myself to adapt.
Seeing Wang Xiaohunting take a big mouthful of food. The old man said: "I heard that many wealthy people in the city are not used to eating this kind of rice. What they eat every meal is white rice, or just white flour. The rice cooked with corn is too dry, and many people can't swallow it."
Wang Xiaolie said: "To be honest, corn is not as good as white rice or white flour for cooking. But there is no way, there is too much dry land, so we can only grow these. If the ditches are opened and wheat can be grown instead, it will be different."
The old man laughed when he heard this: "We have been accustomed to eating since we were young, so this is different. If we can have a full meal every time for a year, it will be a good life. In the past, during the slack season, when I didn't do any work at night, I would just drink some water for dinner. Yes. Just have a few grains of rice, and most of them are wild vegetables for soup."
The son on the side said: "The rice here is served every day. There is tofu in it, and there is enough salt. It is full of flavor!"
Looking at the two of them, Wang Xiaolie smiled but said nothing.
The life of a farmer is indeed hard. Even in this era of abundant resources, this is still the case. It’s not that they don’t produce much food, or that society as a whole doesn’t produce that much material, it’s that the distribution is uneven. A large amount of social wealth was actually taken away by the powerful, which in later generations is called the ruling class. They have to eat white rice and flour, and they have to eat meat and wine regularly, so the people at the bottom will not have enough to eat.
It is not the government and bureaucrats that account for the bulk of social distribution, but the middle and lower classes. There were powerful families in the prefectures and counties, landlords in the countryside, and all kinds of local snakes who worked for the government. Can we do without these people? Actually it's not possible. At least if the government's governance capabilities are not improved, these people will be indispensable. Without them, the government's governance capabilities would not be able to reach the bottom.
From the time he was in Ruzhou, Wang Xiaolie had been rectifying the official style and attacking the powerful classes in the middle. This was the reason. Without this, the richest resources of society cannot be obtained. Without the middle class, people at the bottom will benefit and government income will increase.
Of course, attacking the middle power class must be accompanied by changes in governance methods. Therefore, schools must be built extensively to cultivate talents. The quality of talents can be ignored for the time being. As long as reliable people can be selected, the management method should be made as simple as possible.
The two tasks complement each other. If one is missing, the other will not be done well. Without new talents rising up, there will be no one to fill the vacancies left after the middle class is hit. Without attacking the middle class, talents will be cultivated and there will be no jobs.
After the founding of New China, the overthrow of local tyrants and evil gentry was actually accompanied by the training of new cadres and changes in the way of governance. The two together created an earth-shaking situation. Without one, the work will be difficult to complete.
In addition to filling their stomachs with rice, civilian husbands often eat tofu to supplement protein. In fact, oil is also added to the dishes. With oil, meals are completely different from before. Even if you eat the same amount of food, you won't get tired easily.
Seeing Wang Xiaolie eating a large bowl of rice and a bowl of vegetables, the people around him were all amazed. Officials and officials usually ate corn as porridge, which was easy to swallow. It is still rare for people like Wang Xiaolie to enjoy a bowl of dry corn rice.
After dinner, we toured the construction site again. Watching the sun set in the west, Wang Xiaolie returned to Xinye City.
As soon as he entered the city, he saw Shao Ling scolding an official there. The official lowered his head and didn't say a word. But from the look in his eyes, he must be dissatisfied. Next to the two people, stood a fat and tall young man, looking at the two people at a loss.
Wang Xiaolie stepped forward and asked, "What's going on? There's an endless quarrel here! What will other people think when they see this?"
Shao Ling hurriedly crossed his hands and said: "Back to Zhizhou, this man is an official from Tangzhou, and he is here to send the soldiers to join forces. But when Zhizhou saw this man, although he was tall and strong, he was obese. His family was rich, and he had grown up since he was a child. I haven't done any work since I was a kid, and I can't even run three steps without gasping for breath. How can a person like this become a soldier? Because it's like joining the army, and this person wants to be a soldier, the people below don't dare to make the decision, so they cause trouble to me."
Wang Xiaolie turned to look at the young man next to him. Because he is too fat, he cannot tell his age, but he is estimated to be around twenty years old. He has a round face and a body of fat that trembles whenever he moves. Fortunately, the clothes at this time were roomy and very conspicuous.
After looking up and down, Wang Xiaolie asked, "What's your name? What do you do at home? Are you really willing to be a soldier?"
The man said: "Back to the officials. The young Chi Yuping's family has a shop in Tangzhou, selling some food. My parents have loved it since I was a child, and I also like to eat, so I have gained some weight. Now the Jin people are raging in the Central Plains, with bloody My man should be a soldier! But every time I wanted to join the army, I was told that I was fat and no one would accept me. The officer led the army to destroy Yang Jin and treated the people well. He was a good officer. I heard that you were recruiting soldiers, so I asked Someone is coming."
Wang Xiaolie nodded: "As long as you are willing to join the army. But let me be clear first, being a soldier requires hardship. Looking at you, I'm afraid you haven't suffered any hardship since you were a child. Others won't accept you because you are fat. One of the reasons is that I am more afraid that you will not be able to endure hardship."
Chi Yuping said proudly: "When the country is destroyed and the family is destroyed, it is nothing to suffer a little!"
Wang Xiao smiled and said to Shao Ling: "As long as he can endure hardship, how can the army be afraid of him getting fat! After joining the army, you sent people to watch him carefully, and in two months, he lost all his fat!" Look at him, he’s become a good man now that he’s lost some weight!”
Shao Ling crossed his hands and said yes, looking a little annoyed. In this world, some people are born not to gain weight no matter what they eat, and some people gain weight unreasonably as long as they eat normally. This Chi Yuping is obviously someone who gains weight easily and is really not suitable for joining the army.
Wang Xiaolie looked at Chi Yuping again, said nothing more, and returned to the Yamen. As long as we join forces, the army is still worried about you getting fat? If you are obese, you have not practiced enough. As long as you exercise more, you will lose weight in a month or two.
This era is different from later generations. There is no discrimination against fat people as long as they are not pathological. Even in society, a somewhat wealthy body is even more enviable. Just like the portraits left by several famous generals at that time, they all actually had bellies.
In the army, because there is no emphasis on flexible movements, but more emphasis on strength and strength, what is important is strength and strength. He doesn't have a few ounces of meat on his body, so he's not yet a qualified soldier. A true elite soldier does not require height and long legs as in later generations, but is as strong as an ox and has infinite strength.
After returning to the yamen and sitting down, Wang Xiaolie closed his eyes and took a short rest.
Not long after, Shao Ling came in hurriedly. He saluted and said: "Zhizhou, the man like just now should not be recruited into the army. He is obese. Not to mention that it is not easy to lose fat. He is obviously not a hard-working person!"
Wang Xiaolie opened his eyes and looked at Shao Ling. Said: "If you can't endure the hardships in the army, you will naturally cry and shout to go home. As long as he doesn't run, no matter whether he cries or shouts, the army should train him out! Control, the soldiers in the army cannot be chosen by us. , as long as the soldiers are united, there will be all kinds of people. The so-called military training is to train all kinds of people into elite soldiers! In the past, the soldiers in our army came from poor families, and their quality was generally good. It is different now. If you recruit too many people, you have to practice in a different way than before!"
"What's the different approach?" Shao Ling looked confused. "Zhizhou, the way we train now is to learn from Instructor Lin. Instructor Lin teaches carefully and our students are diligent, which is why we are what we are today. If we try another method, who knows what it will look like?"
Wang Xiaolie said: "The method taught by Coach Lin is the method used by the Forbidden Army in the past. Let me ask you, is the Forbidden Army strong? How many battles have the Forbidden Army won since the Jin Army came south? We learned the methods of the Forbidden Army because we are originally King Qin's militia. I really don’t know how to train troops. After learning how to do it, if we can’t surpass the imperial army, how can we deal with the golden soldiers? As for what method to use, of course we can learn in practice.”
Shao Ling couldn't accept this statement for a while, and didn't know how to refute it. He was stunned for a while.
Wang Xiaolie said: "Commander, you need to know that this time the Jin army came south, the Song Dynasty court suffered a terrible defeat! If we want to defeat the Jin army, we must do something that has never been done by our predecessors. How to do it, we need to I learned it. The most important thing now is not what we already know, but what we can learn and how much time it takes to learn it!"
After a while, Shao Ling said: "What Zhizhou said is something I have never thought of before."
Wang Xiaolie nodded: "It's normal. But I told you, you have to keep it in your heart. This city of Xinye, the army trained here will be very different from before! We need to build an army New army!”
Shao Ling stood there, not knowing what to say for a moment. Originally, after occupying several states and expanding the number of troops, it was a time of great joy and great ambition. Unexpectedly, Wang Xiaolie would say these words again.
