Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 480 Suffering After the War
"Grumble rumble..."

"Moo-"

In June, when the Slight Heat comes, even Yanshan, a summer resort in the north, can't help but feel a little hot.

In the clear stream, a buffalo came ashore from the stream, and Li Dingguo on the bank also fed it a handful of grass.

The two guards who were also on the bank didn't care about that, they just stared at the dark figure in the creek.

"call!"

The figure rushed out of the water, it was Zhu Ciran who was a few shades darker than a month ago.

He swam in the water with such a skillful look that it was obviously not his first time swimming.

Speaking of which, Zhu Youxiao taught him his first swimming. Although the lake in the capital city is also clean, it is not as cool as this stream.

Zhu Ciran walked out of the water in his trousers, and two guards immediately handed over towels and covered him with clothes.

"Is there any farm work today?"

Zhu Ciran looked at Li Dingguo expectantly, and Li Dingguo, who was feeding the cow, was speechless: "It's gone."

"Oh..." Zhu Ciran was a little disappointed when he heard that there was no farm work, but then he asked again: "When will the rice be harvested next month?"

"It's the middle of the month." Li Dingguo watched Zhu Ciran get dressed, and he was also leading the ox to go home.

Seeing this, Zhu Ciran quickly chased after him, then jumped onto the back of the buffalo and sat down.

Li Dingguo led the ox, Zhu Ciran sat on the ox's back, and the guards followed behind them. They walked from the mountains to the valley plain, and saw many people working in the fields.

They didn't know who Zhu Ciran was, they only knew that he was from the capital, someone they couldn't afford to mess with.

"Today I have to go to the Liu's house at the entrance of the village for dinner." Li Dingguo suddenly said while walking.

"What? Who's married again? Or is the child born?"

Hearing that they could have a meal, Zhu Ciran immediately felt his appetite increased, so he hurriedly asked.

"No... Zhongzi of the Liu family died in battle. There is a banquet today. My parents have to go to the market, so I can't go today, so the four of us will go today."

The moment Li Dingguo spoke, Zhu Ciran froze.

It has been a month since he came to Li Dingguo's hometown, so he naturally knows where Zhongzi from the old Liu's family at the entrance of the village went to serve as a soldier.

Eagle Guard...

In other words, there was a high probability that Zhongzi of the Liu family died in the bloody battle at Beishan.

For a moment, Zhu Ciran felt that the "rough tea and light food" that he ate very comfortably on weekdays could not whet his appetite at this moment.

The two of them walked back home without saying a word, put the cow into the cowshed, Zhu Ciran skillfully added hay to the buffalo, filled it with water, then walked out of the yard with Li Dingguo, closed the gate of the yard, and headed towards the entrance of the village. Liu's family went.

Before reaching the entrance of the village, the four of them saw other villagers chatting lively and walking towards Liu's house.

Walking on the dirt road and following Daliu to the door of Liu's house, many low tables, chairs and benches had already been set up at the door.

Due to the opening up of the four northeastern provinces, the distribution of [-] mu of cultivated land per person, and the influence of the northern captives, many people felt that Yanshan was not as safe as the northeast, so many people moved away.

There are only more than 600 people living in the originally lively village, so there are only about [-] tables in the Liu family.

Zhu Ciran and the others came very late, and missed the slaughter of pigs and chickens in Liu's family. When they came, they saw many Liu's family carrying dishes and serving dishes one by one, and other families who were in charge of helping.

Because of Zhu Ciran's status, they were separated at the table by the head of the Liu family.

The dishes on the table are very simple, that is, simple stewed white meat, fried cabbage with bacon, stewed chicken, cold duck, boiled fish, boiled vegetables, fried shredded potatoes, and a large bowl of simple dipping water.

There are chili, green onion, salt, Chinese prickly ash and other condiments in the dipping water. It can be seen that the Liu family spent a lot of money to pay for the funeral of Zhongzi who died in the war.

Dip the chili peppers in water, this is Zhu Youjian’s way of eating chili peppers after he introduced them and promoted them.

Zhu Ciran made a bowl of rice, and while eating authentic farm food with chopsticks, he looked around at the chattering and laughing people, and asked curiously, "Isn't it a funeral banquet? Why are you all laughing?"

"This is a funeral banquet, you can't cry." Li Dingguo explained while eating, and the two guards beside him also ate very happily.

While eating, Zhu Ciran looked at the table in the Liu family, and then continued to ask: "This Zhongzi died in battle, what other arrangements does the imperial court have besides giving money?"

"100 taels of pension silver, and reward silver for military exploits, and then ten acres of pension land, exempt from taxes for three years."

As Li Dingguo said, he also remembered that he was by Zhu Youjian's side and had seen the scene of the wounded barracks after the war with his own eyes.

The capital city is so miserable, but Beishan...

Thinking of this, Li Dingguo couldn't eat anymore, but he continued to eat after he slowed down.

On the contrary, Zhu Ciran didn't move his chopsticks when he heard Li Dingguo's words, but instead asked Li Dingguo: "Brother Li, why do you think the court wants to fight?"

"In order to expand the frontier and expand the land, to give the people arable land, and to counter the rebellion, so that others will not attack us." Li Dingguo didn't say anything profound, but just told Zhu Ciran superficially.

After Zhu Ciran heard this, he nodded thoughtfully, and then continued to ask: "If Jianlu is destroyed this time, will the people's life be easier?"

"Yes..." Li Dingguo took a sip of the vegetable soup and talked about outside the pass:
"Although the vegetation is lush outside the pass, you can still see the wasteland reclaimed by the Jin Kingdom in the Song Dynasty. These wastelands are estimated to be millions of acres, plus the land opened by the old slaves. As long as the land is immigrated enough, it will last for a year or two. It can be cultivated."

"There are more people going to the Northeast, but fewer people in the pass, just like our village."

As he spoke, Li Dingguo looked at the people around him, and then said: "There were 1000 people in the village before, and later, each person only had two or three acres of arable land. Those who remained were also allocated their land, and each person in the village had at least seven or eight mu of land."

"One mu of land in Yanshan can produce one stone of rice, five mu of land can feed a person, and seven or eight mu of land can feed a person and raise pigs at the same time."

"For example, the pork you are eating. Ten years ago, we people living in northern Shaanxi might only be able to eat it during the Chinese New Year."

Li Dingguo recalled his childhood experience, and his father told him about their life in that era, and he couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed.

"So fighting is good, right?" Zhu Ciran asked puzzledly, but Li Dingguo shook his head:
"Wars must be fought in the right place, and if the fight is wrong, the people will only suffer more and more."

"But the people in the capital all said they wanted to beat the captives, and so did the people in Yanshan." Zhu Ciran frowned, talking about what he had seen and heard.

"The common people can say that, but they don't know how much money is needed to fight a war. If the court doesn't have enough money and food and taxes are collected from them, can they still clamor for war like this? What if they ask them for corvee?"

Li Dingguo took a sip of the soup: "The common people don't understand that it is difficult to stop the war once it starts. They only think that fighting can give off bad breath, but they don't understand the consequences of this bad breath."

"Throughout the dynasties, good generals who have experienced wars are often the least willing to start wars lightly, but civil servants love to start wars lightly."

"Perhaps the common people will think that only by fighting can generals earn military merits, but such generals are reckless, not good generals."

"A good general will not start a war lightly, this is what His Highness said."

Li Dingguo used Zhu Youjian's words to tell Zhu Ciran not to listen to the attitude of the common people towards the war, because this type of people is often the easiest to fight against the war.

It is especially shameless to clamor for war when there is no war, and clamor for anti-war after war...

Understand war, know war, prepare for war, and finally dare to speak out. This is the conclusion Li Dingguo has seen from Zhu Youjian's words and deeds, as well as many military books.

"If you ascend to a high position in the future, don't listen to what the officials and the people say about the war. You should judge it according to your own judgment. Otherwise, I am afraid that every family in the Ming Dynasty will be like this."

Li Dingguo taught Zhu Ciran a lesson, and Zhu Ciran also looked at the Liu family at this moment when he heard the words.

Looking at his appearance, at first Li Dingguo thought that Zhu Ciran would listen to what he said, but the next second Zhu Ciran's words made him clenched his fists.

"Forget it, these things should be considered by uncle and father. I read "Yanshan Medicine" written by my uncle, which said that as long as a person does not take medicine indiscriminately, his normal life span should be passed down from his genes. The life expectancy of the elders is about the same, or fluctuates by [-]%."

"I even went to the Imperial Hospital to ask the envoy of the royal court about this matter. The envoy of the royal court said that if the emperors of all dynasties did not take the elixir, there is a high probability that they would live to be in their sixties."

"Think about it, my father is only 27 now, and Uncle Qi Wang is only 21. They still have at least 40 years left."

"They must know how to govern the world better than me, so let them govern."

Zhu Ciran was eating food heartlessly, Li Dingguo couldn't bear to hear the words: "Then what about you?"

"Me?" Hearing Li Dingguo's words, Zhu Ciran chewed the rice in his mouth, and then said with a "sudden realization":
"I'll wait until I'm 50 to succeed to the throne, then let my son supervise the country, and then let Brother Li be the chief assistant, and then I can play everywhere!"

"..." Li Dingguo's nails almost sank into his flesh, and he said with a gloomy face, "I won't be your chief assistant, I want to go to Qi Kingdom with your highness..."

"Bah!" Zhu Ciran spat: "If I become a great treasure, then Qi State will be Daming's vassal state, and you will be my vassal. Then I transfer you, can you not listen?"

"I..." Li Dingguo didn't know how to refute for a while, and he couldn't say that he ignored it, because the Ming vassal system could not tolerate provocation.

Therefore, after hesitating for a long time, he could only lower his head and continue eating, while Zhu Ciran was still sighing at his "genius" idea.

But when he was sighing, after one and a half months, Zhu Fuju, who finally rushed back to Lutai County, also handed over the last wooden box in his hand to the person in front of him.

"This is the relic and ashes of Officer Zhang Xiaoqi. It also contains his suicide note and bank iron roll. You can exchange it at the bank in Chang'an County, Xi'an Prefecture with an enlistment iron plate."

At the entrance of a small courtyard in an alley in Guanshan Town, Lutai County, when Zhu Fuju handed over a box weighing about [-] catties to a woman in her forties and three children aged eleven or twelve, who were dressed in plain clothes, Zhu Fuju The mood is both relief and heaviness.

"thanks……"

The woman in her forties had a haggard face, and she had obviously learned about her man's death in battle through the village officials in the market town.

She took the wooden box, while the three children behind him, two boys and one girl, were stunned in place, not knowing what to do, they could only look at the small wooden box, and couldn't imagine that it was once tall. Father.

"My name is Zhu Fuju, and I live in the fourth house in Lane [-], Waibaishui Town, Lutai County. If someone makes things difficult for you, please send me a letter, and I will come to help."

"General Xie..." Hearing Zhu Fuju's words, the woman bowed her head in gratitude, but Zhu Fuju didn't stay long after seeing this, but turned and left.

When he delivered ashes to several other families along the way, he had already seen too many things that made him feel at a loss.

At first, he still wanted to comfort him, but later he found out that people didn't want his comfort, they just wanted him to leave quickly, so that he could go home and vent his feelings, and prevent outsiders from seeing his wronged side.

What he can do, perhaps, is to help the eight families when they encounter problems.

Thinking of this, Zhu Fuju suddenly found footsteps coming from behind him.

He turned his head to look, but saw the three eleven or twelve-year-old children coming out after him, separated by seven or eight steps.

He stopped, and they stopped too.

"Go back quickly and take care of your mother."

Zhu Fuju waved his hand to signal them to go back, then turned around and continued to leave.

It's just that his words didn't make the three of them listen. The three of them continued to follow him out of the alley and onto the street. Even after he got into the cart, the three children were still chasing him.

"Call..."

Zhu Fuju stopped, turned around and looked at the three tired and panting children, he beckoned for the three to come over.

Seeing this, the three trotted over regardless of their fatigue, and Zhu Fuju also asked when they arrived, "Why are you following me?"

"..." The three remained silent.

Seeing this, Zhu Fuju had no choice but to take out some candies from his own package and hand them to the three of them.

The three of them didn't dare to eat at first, but after watching Zhu Fuju hand it to them, they took one each carefully.

It's not that they can't afford candy. After all, their father is a small banner official with an annual salary of 30 taels of silver. Candy is not a luxury to them.

"Go home after eating, especially you two boys, you have to take care of your mother after you go home."

Zhu Fuju looked at the two boys among the three and confessed that even though they were only eleven or twelve years old, they could barely be regarded as half of the pillars in this era.

But as soon as he said this, the two boys immediately lowered their heads, while the girl sobbed softly while eating the candy.

Seeing this, Zhu Fuju thought he had said something wrong, and after forcing the candy to the three of them, he could only leave one sentence: "If you encounter any trouble, come to the fourth house in the third lane of Baishui Town to find me. My name is Zhu Fuju."

He reported his home address and his name for the second time, then stretched out his hands to rub the hair of the two smaller boys and girls in a mysterious way, and finally got into the carriage and set foot on the way home.

There was no accident in this process, the three children were still chasing after his back, Zhu Fuju speeded up and tried to get rid of them, but they ran with their heads buried in their heads, until Zhu Fuju's figure disappeared completely, and the three sat on the ground.

Many years later, Zhu Fuju recalled this incident, and later realized that they were not chasing after him...

Zhu Fuju continued on his way home, but Shaanxi has changed a lot. The once densely populated hometown now has most of the population gathered in Guanzhong, Hetao, and Hanzhong.

There are some soldiers who died in battle, and the addresses they left behind are all the places they used to be, including many returning soldiers, and their hometowns have also moved.

Fortunately for Zhu Fuju, his home was originally in the Guanzhong Plain, so the address basically remained unchanged.

When he drove two carriages to Baishui Town, Lutai County, and saw the concrete road that had already passed through the whole town, he couldn't help feeling a little scared.

Perhaps because of his timidity of being close to his hometown, he sat in the carriage and watched the town quietly one mile away from the town. After watching for a long time, he mustered up the courage to drive the carriage and drove towards his home.

Before reaching the entrance of the town, he saw a hunchbacked figure.

The figure sat on a horseshoe, hid in the shadow of a small tree next to him, fanned himself with a cattail fan in one hand, and looked towards the road at the same time.

When he saw Zhu Fuju coming in the carriage, although he couldn't see his face clearly, he still stood up, feeling very nervous.

As Zhu Fuju approached, he was stunned for a moment, and he didn't continue to fan the cattail fan in his hand.

But soon, he realized that the cattail fan in his hand fanned the wind cheerfully, but he sat down again, waiting for Zhu Fuju to drive the carriage to the entrance of the town.

"father……"

Looking at Zhu Cunlin who was sitting on the horse-leaf paper and fanning the cattail fan quickly in his hand, Zhu Fuju called out to him.

"Hey!" Hearing Zhu Fuju's voice and seeing his appearance, Zhu Cunlin stretched his facial features and responded with a smile.

Zhu Cunlin, who is only 43 years old, looks like an old man in his [-]s because of his long-term work. But when he saw his eldest son who had been in the army for three years and returned home for the first time, he got up excitedly and hugged Ma Zha. :
"Just come back, your mother has prepared a lot of food, go home quickly, the food will be cold later."

"Get in the carriage and go back." Seeing his father's appearance, Zhu Fuju signaled him to get on the carriage, but Zhu Cunlin saw the sign of the Fifth Army Commander's Mansion on the carriage, and immediately became cautious.

"This is the imperial court's car. We don't have official status, where can we sit..."

"You just sit on it, no one dares to say it." Seeing this, Zhu Fuju got out of the car and grabbed Zhu Cunlin, forcing him to the car.

I don't know whether it's because his father is old or the other party didn't resist with all his strength. In short, Zhu Fuju realized that his father, who used to make him tremble when he opened his mouth, was not as strong as himself in terms of strength.

"It's not good..."

Zhu Cunlin sat in the car. Although it was indeed comfortable, he was afraid of affecting his son's career.

"Just sit down." Zhu Fuju also got into the carriage, and drove the carriage towards his home.

Along the way, the concrete road and some newly built houses made Zhu Fuju feel that his hometown had changed a lot. Zhu Cunlin next to him didn't speak halfway until they reached a newly built courtyard, and Zhu Cunlin asked him to stop. Then got out of the car immediately.

"Brother Zhang is back, get ready to prepare the dishes!"

"Hey! Good! Good!"

He yelled towards the door, while Zhu Fuju looked at the house in front of him, which was different from the low earthen walls in his impression, and did not return to his senses for a long time.

After Zhu Cunlin yelled, when he heard his wife's response, he turned his head and saw Zhu Fuju looking at the room, and immediately walked to him and proudly said:

"How is it? It was repaired by a master craftsman from Lutai County, and it took up five cents."

Zhu Cunlin was very proud of being able to build such a house, while Zhu Fuju was concerned after recovering, "Is there any money at home?"

"Yes! Yes!" Fearing that his son felt that he had spent all the money, Zhu Cunlin immediately nodded and said:
"There are quite a few at home. You came back this time just in time, just in time for someone to match you with a daughter-in-law."

After the family became rich, Zhu Cunlin always worried about the number of people, especially after the news of the death of children from other market towns came from all over Shaanxi this time, Zhu Cunlin was even more worried.

Taking advantage of Zhu Fuju's return home, Zhu Cunlin wanted to settle the matter, but Zhu Fuju didn't refute, but kept silent, which was regarded as an agreement.

"Brother?"

While the father and son were talking, a woman in a brown cloth came out of the yard.

"mother……"

Looking at his mother who was younger than three years ago, Zhu Fuju breathed a sigh of relief.

The tenants under the Wanli emperor had a better life than the self-cultivating farmers, but the self-cultivating farmers under Zhu Youjian's rule can be said to be better than the rich peasants under the Wanli rule.

"Didn't you buy the cow your father asked you to bring back?"

Zhu Qinshi looked at the door and found that the carriage belonged to the official family, and immediately looked at Zhu Fuju suspiciously. Zhu Fuju had long been accustomed to this seemingly indifferent conversation, and his mother was so carefree.

"No, after the war this year, the captured cattle and sheep were all kept by the Governor's Mansion, but it's not a problem. I'm going to work in Ningxia in two months. The cattle and sheep there are not only plentiful but also cheap."

Zhu Fuju and Zhu Qinshi explained, while Zhu Cunlin left with two carriages, ready to take them to the stables in the backyard.

"Ningxia? Ningxia is good, it's close to home, have you been promoted?" Zhu Qinshi asked pleasantly.

"I've been promoted... where are my brothers?" Zhu Fuju looked around the room curiously, while Zhu Qinshi said with a smile: "I'm still young, I'm taking a nap at the moment, let's have dinner first."

After finishing speaking, Zhu Qinshi closed the courtyard door, pulled Zhu Fuju into the meeting hall, and Zhu Fuju also saw the three meat, three vegetables and two soups on the table.

This kind of food was something they could only eat together with a large table of tenants when the sons and grandsons of the Prince of Qin's mansion were born, but now they can eat whatever they want.

Zhu Fuju sat in his seat, and Zhu Cunlin also entered the meeting hall after finishing his work. The family of three started talking and laughing at the dinner table, and the two children in the side room also slept soundly.

Perhaps it is only at this moment that Zhu Fuju can forget the cruel battlefield of the Beishan bloody battle, and forget the families whose ashes were sent to Hachinohe...

　Chapter 2 updated at 05:30 PM
　　
　
(End of this chapter)