When the news first came a few days ago, although people were resentful of Liu Zeqing's arrogance and unreasonableness, and they were also full of hatred for the guest soldiers, they soon appeared at the intersections of the villages pushing small carts to flee.

It is usually a family unit, with a woman holding a child and sitting on one side of a wheelbarrow, while on the other side there are some food and furniture.

It is known that the guest soldiers gathered from Andong to Guannan, so they generally chose to cross the river to Haizhou or Guanyun.

Some people want to flee to a safer place like Yancheng and Yangzhou, but they are afraid of encountering guest soldiers on the way to the south, and Yancheng and Yangzhou are too far away, so more than ninety percent of the people run across the north bank of the Huai River.

On the first day, the largest number of people ran, with an estimated 100 cars and more than 1,000 people running to the north shore.

By the next day, when the trenches were cut down to make large arrow towers and sharp piles, there were far fewer people running, but there were still hundreds of people running to the north bank.

After the third day, almost no one had run away.

In fact, if people were not afraid of the ferocity and cruelty of the guest soldiers, and knew that the war would burn all the jade and stones, those guest soldiers and beasts were not as good, and they still killed people and goods, burned, killed and looted, and in the area of Yunti Pass, it was a war zone, and dozens of nearby villages were leveled, and Liu Zeqing would not have come out to maintain military law.

In addition to conniving at their subordinates in peacetime, ordinary generals let their soldiers burn and loot in wartime.

This is one of the ways to maintain an army for the generals, and it is the most effective.

That's why there is a saying that thieves are like combs and soldiers are like grates.

These robbers are more patient, more detailed, more grandiose and unscrupulous than the rogues.

The rogues are also afraid of the officers and soldiers, and these people who do the same thing as the rogues are themselves officers and soldiers, who will kill them?

The imperial court can't control the generals, the generals can't control their subordinates, and they connive at their subordinates to brutalize the people, and this kind of thing has no pressure on Liu Zeqing.

The people are not stupid, the rogues are fearful, the officers and soldiers are terrible, and none of them are good.

In the event of war, the villages were burned to the ground, and ordinary men were either killed or forcibly conscripted into strong men, and from then on they were reduced to hard labor in the barracks.

The elderly, children, and women will not end well.

If it weren't for the fact that the long fence was built in a short period of time, giving people a strong psychological hint and a sense of security, I am afraid that most of the villages within a dozen miles of the vicinity would have run out of ten rooms and nine empty rooms.

Ding Ruqi was extremely disapproving, the Ding family prepared for a few days, and the furniture and everything were put on the two cars, before leaving, Li Ruqi also persuaded Guan Lei and Wang Mingyuan and others to leave, in his opinion, the gentleman does not stand under the dangerous wall, why bother to be tied up with a careerist like Min Yuanqi, but Guan Lei is determined not to leave, Wang Mingyuan is also hesitant.

"It's not necessarily going to be defeated." Wang Mingyuan listened to Ding Ruqi's words, and somehow felt a burst of light in his heart, this surnamed Ding is really pedantic, and it has been difficult to change his views on Min Yuanqi and Yuntiguan, and Guan Lei and Wang Mingyuan are in it, and they can see every bit of change in their eyes, and they can empathize.

"Not necessarily defeated?" The boss with Ding Ruqi's mouth open, raised a finger and shook it, and said with a sneer: "Brother Wang, it's not more than 1,000 people who came, but more than 10,000 people!" And it's not a bandit or the like, it's a serious court officer and soldier! This fight is up, not to mention losing, Min Yuanqi is all supervising affairs and guerrillas, and the garrison official position will definitely be deprived by the imperial court, even if you stay and get away with your life, what will you do if you are rebellious in the future? Isn't that a great injustice! Or listen to me, go north with me to take refuge in Haizhou, Haizhou is remote off the coast, I know that you are afraid of the cruelty of the guest soldiers, am I not? Let's go to Haizhou to find a good place to study near the sea, polish the scriptures, in the future, whether the Ming Dynasty comes back or there is a new dynasty to establish the imperial examination, the imperial examination is easy to get after the war, this road is the right way, why do you waste a good time here, and put yourself in danger? ”

I have to say that Ding Ruqi's words were sincere, at least he really considered the two friends.

He thinks the same way in his own house, and the way out for a scholar is always to read, not to waste time here.

Wang Mingyuan thought for a while, and said to Ding Ruqi: "If it was two months ago, I would have been moved by Brother Ding's words, and I would have left with Brother Ding directly." But now it's different, and it's hard to obey your fate. ”

Ding Ruqi's expression was so ugly that he looked at Guan Lei and said, "Brother Guan is also the same choice?" ”

"It's the same as Brother Wang." Guan Lei smiled: "Actually, Brother Wang doesn't say it, I also know that he won't leave." Brother Ding is not in it, I don't know how much potential there is here in Yunti Pass, and in the future, Lord Min will not only think about what you think at most, but will not be a general, a deputy general, and will not be just an ordinary general soldier. In the troubled times, the emergence of strong feudal clans is inevitable, and even like the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, there will be a family of feudal towns that have been divided for a hundred years, and even called the king and the marquis. Of course, we don't want Lord Min to be like this, but it is also very possible for him to rise to the top and win a princely position with tens of thousands of strong soldiers. When the time comes, we will have the merit of the counselor's assistance, and we may not necessarily have to be meritorious to become an official. And in this troubled world, there is no shame in clinging to the wings of the strong, to be honest, Brother Ding, I am worried about you when you go to Haizhou, who knows when Haizhou is so lacking in armaments, when it will be conquered by rebellious soldiers or rogues, it will be dangerous and dangerous, there is nothing to rely on, and there is nowhere to hide. Why don't you stay here with us? ”

Ding Ruqi will not be moved no matter what, and he sneered at the moment, obviously disagreeing with Guan Lei's statement.

Wang Mingyuan was already very impatient, and made a hand gesture at the moment, and said: "Brother Ding, let's take care of yourself, I will go to see if the roads between the villages are cut off by the long trenches, and whether the strong men of each hundred households have been mobilized, this is my father's errand, and everyone is very busy." Now the salt ponds, workshops, construction sites, kiln factories, farmlands, are busy everywhere, and we really don't have the time to delay here. Brother Ding doesn't have to be afraid of not seeing each other for a long time, after the war, we will build the road to Haizhou, and I may go north to Haizhou at that time, and then ask Brother Ding to conspire to get drunk. ”

At this point, there was really nothing to say, Ding Ruqi sneered and left.

Looking at his back, Wang Mingyuan turned to his father, who had been looking at the scene in front of him with a smile, bowed down and said, "Father, don't wait for you to answer, my son already has an answer." ”

"I am very comforted by the fact that you have benefited in this way." Wang Sanyi's face was full of relief, and he said in a deep voice: "I haven't spoken out yet, waiting for you to talk to Guan Xian's nephew and Ding Xian's nephew, now it seems that it is right to ask you to come out to practice." The inexplicable arrogance on your body before has disappeared, and you can look down at the beings under your feet. Even if there is a imperial examination in the future, practical experience is also important, I remember hearing people say, the Sun scholar of the Apocalypse Dynasty, once went out to experience when he was a talent, and went to the border to practice for many years when he was lifting people, and he only went to the examination when he was middle-aged, and he entered the Hanlin and did everything more sophisticated and skillful than others, and he was selected as the emperor in a few years, and he became a scholar of the palace in a few years. It can be seen that as long as you have real skills, it will only be beneficial and will not be harmful. ”

Wang Mingyuan listened quietly, and Guan Lei also had a teachable expression.

If before, Wang Sanyi, who was old and sophisticated, could not enter the ears of these young scholars who were full of arrogance and only felt that the truth of the world was in the book.

"Okay, I'm also going to set up guards along the way, this time it's to cooperate with Gao Cuncheng's goods, but the goods are not easy to get along with, training the new army to tan their faces, and their hearts are also ruthless, completely ignoring the face of my old-timers. If there is any omission in the mobilization of the Security Division, this guy will definitely not give me half of the face. ”

Wang Mingyuan first agreed, and then showed hesitation, and felt a little like he wanted to speak.

"If you have something to say, just say it." Wang Sanyi scolded with a smile: "It's not that the old man still has official business and can't be delayed." You don't see your Uncle Li, now at this time, he is still digging ditches everywhere every day to control water, and fortunately, thousands of manpower were mobilized a while ago to finish the water conservancy. ”

Li Guoding is now an outlier in Yunti Pass, the entire Yunti Pass is in the security and mobilization, everyone either ran away, or is preparing for war, only Li Guoding leads a hundred or ten people every day, all of them are strong men, because of the two things of agriculture and water conservancy, Li Guoding is caught every day, and even the guards of the fortifications are ignored.

Li Guoding has Min Yuanqi's support, but he doesn't care about the opposition of others at all, Min Yuanqi knows that farming is fundamental, and it doesn't matter now and it will be extremely important in the future.

Yuntiguan has enough manpower, enough place, and enough farmland, so improve the saline-alkali field to increase the yield, and at least collect an additional 200,000 stone a year.

It is equivalent to 100,000 taels of color, and the price of grain is higher during the war, and sometimes it is impossible to buy grain with silver, so that grain is the foundation of the fundamentals, not to mention that Li Guoding only brings a hundred people, even if he brings a thousand people, Min Yuanqi will also give him support.

Everyone understands this truth, so every day everyone can see Li Guoding running around with people.

In fact, the matter is simple, that is, the water stored in some main roads and canals is opened in a number of plots, and the water is filled and then plugged.

Take turns to release water to rinse, and then let people plough the soil with ploughing cattle to dry.

The saline-alkali land treated in this way can basically solve the problem of excessive salinity affecting the yield, and there are many better ways in later generations, but basically they have to be built on the basis of modern agricultural products.

Even if this is very good, if the effect is good, it is quite certain that the yield of one mu will increase by more than one stone, which is also the reason why Li Guoding is quite persistent and not afraid of anything.

People who have not lived in the Yellow Flood Area and the Huai River area do not know how much these two rivers have hurt the people in this area.

There is no permanent property and no perseverance, the local people are bad, there is no clan and gentry organization, they often abandon their families and property to flee, after a long time, people have no confidence in life, have a bad temper, are easy to be impulsive, lazy, and many vices are formed in the Southern Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

To have a chance to change, and the fact that more than 10,000 guest soldiers have committed crimes is not worth mentioning to Li Guoding.