When she got up in the morning, Meng Yan found that her brother and sister-in-law Le Yan were already cooking breakfast in Zhang Luo, and she hurried up to help.

"Sister-in-law, I'm up late."

She said apologetically to her sister-in-law.

Le Yan looked back at her apologetic sister-in-law, and said with a smile: "I must have slept in the middle of the night last night, right?" ”

"Hee-hee-hee......"

Meng Yan laughed embarrassedly.

Yesterday, she was really excited, because yesterday they actually moved into this Wuyang eup.

Since the people of this Wuyang Yi were all moved to Yeyi, yesterday Meng Yan and her mother Ge and sister-in-law Le Yan, under the leadership of her brother Meng Zhong, selected a satisfactory mansion everywhere in the city, and finally, they chose this mansion that is said to be the surname He, cleaned up and moved in.

I have to say that this new home is much bigger than their home in Mengyi, and according to my sister-in-law's estimate, it is not a problem to live in a family of 180 people.

"Sister-in-law, where's Brother?"

While helping her sister-in-law with housework, Meng Yan couldn't help but ask.

"I've been up a long time ago, and I'm the ...... who woke me up by him"

When she said this, Le Yan's face was slightly red.

The newlyweds have been separated for nearly a year, and last night was like a dry firewood, and last night's husband's fierceness made Le Yan feel a little numb in a certain part when she got up, and her legs couldn't help but feel a little weak.

Her husband, however, was in good spirits, and got up at dawn this morning to exercise.

"Hee-hee."

Suddenly, Meng Yan's sneer interrupted Le Yan's thoughts, and when she raised her head, she saw that the sister-in-law was staring at her intently.

"What to do, what to do?"

"Hehe, I heard my sister-in-law's voice last night, my sister-in-law seemed to have been crying last night, and what else did she say, don't want it, don't want it, the concubine can't bear it......"

Le Yan's cheeks flushed when she heard this, and she bit her lip and scolded in a low voice: "Dead girl......"

After that, she made a gesture to fight Meng Yan, but was lightly avoided by the latter: "Hehe, I'll go and see if my mother has gotten up." ”

"This girl ......"

Looking at Meng Yan's back as if she was leaving, Le Yan touched her somewhat hot earlobe, and her heart was pounding.

The sister-in-law's words reminded her of her husband's strong and firm chest last night, which felt as solid as a rock to the touch, but with a temperature that made her feel extremely shy.

Thinking about it, she couldn't help but feel her whole body start to heat up again.

"Didn't he do those things when he was in Wei......

Le Yan thought secretly in her heart.

As the clan daughter of the Le clan, of course she will learn some things that ordinary civilian women will not understand, for example, with her husband's mentorship and skills, she will definitely be treated as a guest when she arrives in Wei, and the host who entertains him will definitely not be stingy to let the maid in the family accompany her at night.

This is true, at least on the way to Wuyang, she had heard her two cousins, namely Le Jin and Le Xu, boast in front of their brothers, saying that a few of them—Le Yan later learned that it was Menghu, Huahu, Mu Wu, and Le Jin—that she had tasted the women of Zhao, Wei, and Han so far, and that the brothers of Le Yu and the other clans were full of yearning.

"I don't know Ah Zhong...... No, no, Ah Zhong won't be like the bad boys of Lejin......

Recalling her husband's fierceness and courage last night, Le Yan thought secretly in her heart.

But then again, in fact, even if there is, it doesn't matter, after all, this is a commonplace thing in the world, even if her father has several concubines in the family, it is not a big deal, as long as the other party has a good character and does not want to cause trouble at home, she will not stop anything.

For now, however, it seems that her husband is quite strict about this aspect on the outside.

"Could it be because Ah Zhong is a Taoist disciple?"

Le Yan thought wildly.

Not long after, Meng Yan came back, and she said to Le Yan: "Sister-in-law, she is still asleep." ”

Hearing this, Le Yan said: "It must be that I am tired these days, don't bother, let's go and wash the clothes first." ”

"Hmm."

After extinguishing the open fire in the stove and smothering the rice in the pot, Le Yan and Meng Yan each carried a wooden basin and headed towards a river near Wuyang.

To the south of Muyang, there is a large river called "Musui (潕水)", and there is this river first, and then there is Muyang-eup.

On the way to Wushui for Le Yan and Meng Yan, they met a lot of women one after another, these women are the families of the children of various families in Mengyi, such as Mengheng, Mengmin, and Le Yu, most of them look very young, and they are obviously the wives of the children of the various families, and occasionally you can see a few old women, who are obviously the mothers of the children of those families.

For these women, most of the two daughters, Le Yan and Meng Yan, didn't recognize them at first, but fortunately, they followed the men from Mengyi to Wuyang together, and they had been in contact with each other for a while on the way, so they were not unimpressed.

No, on the way to Wushui, there were many young women who were familiar or unfamiliar with Le Yan and Meng Yan, and called Le Yan "Mrs. Zhong".

In fact, it stands to reason that these women should call Le Yan "Mrs. Meng" or "Meng Le's", but because Wuyangyi now lives in dozens of hundreds of Montessori children's wives, and among these Montessori children, there are also many people who marry Le women as wives, so it is easy to confuse Mrs. Meng or Meng Leshi with others.

Of course, there is another reason, that is, most of these women have never read any books, and only know that Le Yan is Meng Zhong's wife, so they call Le Yan Mrs. Zhong or Zhong Le's family - people who don't know the situation may think that Le Yan's husband's surname is Zhong.

Le Yan was born in the Le clan and is the youngest daughter of the patriarch of the Le clan, of course she knew that those women had a mistake in calling her, but considering that the other party had no malicious intent, she didn't think of forcibly correcting it, after all, at this age, it is also very common for descendants to use the ancestor's name as a clan name - maybe in the future, Meng Zhong and her descendants will also use "Zhong" as the family name to distinguish it from "Zi surname Meng".

Thinking about it this way, it is not a big deal that she is now mistakenly called "Lady Zhong" by these women.

It is worth mentioning that the women they met along the way who were married to Montessori children correctly called her "Monle", and even several of them called her "Lady of the City Guard"—these women were apparently in the know.

For example, the two daughters of Le Yan and Meng Yan met the wives of Meng Heng and Meng Min on the way.

Meng Heng's wife is from the Xiang family, and Meng Min's wife is from the Le family, because the two brothers are close to each other on weekdays, so the Xiang family and the Le family are also close - it is said that when choosing a mansion in the city yesterday, the two families also chose a large mansion, so that when the two men are not at home, they can take care of each other.

Meng Heng and Meng Min's wives are older than Le Yan, so Le Yan is called her sister, which makes Xiang and Le's two daughters quite uncomfortable, especially Le's, she and Le Yan were born in the same family, she used to know that Le Yan's identity is noble - probably the degree of Meng Zhong and Meng Da and Meng Ao brothers, one side is just an ordinary child of the clan, and the other side is the family's descendant and big clan, and the status gap is huge.

But Le Yan is very educated, and her approachable attitude quickly made Xiang and Le Shi let go of their worries, and the four of them chatted about their own men while washing clothes by the river - oh, Meng Yan is not married yet, she may only be able to talk about her brother.

When it comes to the men here, the two daughters of Xiang and Le are still very happy, because their husbands Meng Heng and Meng Min started as brigade commanders in the new army that Meng Zhong is now rectifying.

In fact, it is not that Meng Zhong treats his people well, the key reason is because Meng Heng and Meng Min are both veterans who have fought in wars, although they have been idle at home for several years to farm, and their martial arts have regressed, but their mentality has long been out of the category of "ordinary civilians", even if they are asked to immediately bring weapons to participate in the war, they will never be timid on the battlefield - this is the gap between the old pawns who have fought and the new pawns who have not fought in the war.

Although her husband can't be compared with the husband of the "Meng Le's" in front of him, the two daughters of the Xiang family and the Le family are already very satisfied, after all, there are not many men who start with the position of brigade commander, and there are really not many people in this city, and there are only about twenty when they are full, and the vast majority of people still have to start from the commander - yes, even if they start from the pawn, Meng Zhong will still give these children of the family who defected to him a position of captain, after all, these people will become the backbone of his army in the future, the generals, There's no need for them to be pawns from the beginning.

“…… My men left last night, saying that they were going to Fangcheng to work, but I think they must have followed their brothers to fool around......"

"That's what my family's Ah Min said too...... Fang just met a woman, her husband's name is Xiang Ji, who was also classified into the 'Fangcheng Army', but people said that Fangcheng didn't start training until three days later......"

Hearing the second daughter's complaint, Le Yan covered her mouth and chuckled.

After all, her two cousins Le Jin and Le Xu are the same, when Meng Zhong took them to choose a mansion in the city yesterday, the two cousins followed honestly, but as soon as Meng Hu came, Le Jin and Le Xu ran away.

Oh, by the way, her two cousins, Le Jin and Le Xu, the former is already the military Sima of the Fangcheng Army, and the latter is the Yi Sima of Yeyi, which is considered the highest general level in the "Mengjia Army", but considering that the two are not married, Le Yan is also a little worried about them.

What to worry about?

Of course, I was worried that I had been messing with Menghu for a long time, and I was ambitious.

As the saying goes, good things don't go out and evil things go thousands of miles, Meng Hu boasts of countless royal daughters all day long, and the women in the city are very unhappy that their husbands and younger brothers follow this guy too closely, even if everyone knows that Meng Hu is one of Meng Zhong's most trusted generals.

Suddenly, Xiang Shi seemed to see something, and hurriedly pushed Le Yan gently, and signaled: "Meng Leshi, your man." ”

"Huh?"

Le Yan subconsciously raised her head, and then saw her husband Le Yan running slowly on the other side of the river.

"Didn't he notice you, didn't he shout?" Seeing Le Yan looking at her husband on the bank of the river stupidly, Xiang quipped.

"No need ......"

Le Yan hurriedly shook her head.

You know, there are at least thirty or forty women washing clothes by the river, how can she be embarrassed to call her husband in full view?

The upbringing she received from her childhood prevented her from doing such a shameful thing.

However, beside her, Meng Yan did not have any scruples in this regard, and stood up and shouted to the other side of the river: "Ahhh

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Meng Zhong on the other side of the river stop running, and immediately walked a few steps towards the river bank and waved at them.

"That's Meng Zhong of the Montessori clan, right?"

"Yes, I heard that he has made a contribution to the Wei State, and the King of Wei rewarded him with the three cities of Fangcheng, Yeyi, and Wuyang......"

"My man is a brigade commander under him...... What is a Brigade Marshal? Well, listening to my man, it seems to be a general in charge of five hundred soldiers, anyway, it's amazing, that's what my man said......"

"By the way, this Meng Zhong looks very young, about the same age as my brother......

On the riverbank, the women whispered and discussed, which made Le Yan and Meng Yan very proud.

The difference between the two daughters is only that Le Yan, who has been taught very strictly since she was a child, will never show this pride and pride, and will never make any moves that damage her man's face, on the contrary, the better her man, the harder she has to work harder to be worthy of her man.

Meng Yan had no such concerns, she was proud to have such a wonderful brother, and she didn't mind letting others see her pride.

Because that's her brother, a very good brother to her.

Half an hour later, after Le Yan and Meng Yan finished washing their clothes, they returned home, and Meng Zhong also returned home soon after.

At this time, Ge Shi had already gotten up, and the family of four had breakfast together in the hall at home.

During the meal, Meng Yan talked about what happened on the bank of the river.

"Brother, don't you know that the banks of the river were talking about you at that time......"

"Huh." Meng Zhong smiled slightly, in fact, he also thought about going to the other side of the river to say a few words to Le Yan and Meng Yan, or help them bring a basin of clothes home, but considering that there were too many women on the riverbank and many people, he finally gave up this plan.

After thinking about it, he said: "In a few days, the King of Wei should send people to send his rewards to me one after another, in addition to the two fiefdoms of Yeyi and Wuyang, the King of Wei also rewarded ten maidservants, a hundred servants, and some money and copper, copper and iron, I will let Xiang Yi enter the county treasury of Yeyi at that time, as for the maid and the servants, I will let Xiang Yi and Le Xu come to the Yi at that time, and let them do the chores at home in the future, and you can also relax ......"

Hearing this, Ge Shi hurriedly said, "What kind of servants do we want......

"It's still needed."

As he spoke, Meng Zhong turned his head to look at Le Yan and instructed, "Ah Yan, you will manage those people in the future......

"Hmm."

As the daughter of the Le family, Le Yan naturally does not lack the experience of controlling her subordinates, but in the past, her husband's family did not have maids and servants, so she had to do some things by herself.

"Are those people reliable?" She asked.

"Hmm......" Meng Zhong thought for a while and said, "These maidservants and servants should be 'sinners', that is, the family members of those who committed crimes in the Wei State, and most of them should be gentle......

Indeed, the servants and servants of the world were generally slaves whose status was not even as good as that of civilians, and most of these servants and servants rewarded by the King of Wei were the families of the offending officials and belonged to the "untouchables", most of these people were cowardly and gentle, because most of the people who did not want to obey were already dead - either tortured to death, or confiscated to the front line of the battlefield, and the remaining gentle people, after relevant training, were used as one of the rewards given by the royal family to the courtiers.

Today, this kind of thing is commonplace.

For this kind of person, Meng Zhong will not be kind enough to exempt the other party from slave status, after all, these people have long been trained by Wei to lose the will to resist and escape, to put it mildly, if these people lose their masters, they will not be able to live.

Moreover, this is also not allowed by the laws of Wei: no one has the right to pardon the slavery status of "sinners" except the king of Wei.

It is no exaggeration to say that Meng Zhong can beat and scold these servants and maidservants at will, and even kill them, which does not matter, but it is not allowed to pardon his slave status, otherwise, there will be special officials around the King of Wei who will come to question Meng Zhong and even punish them accordingly.

In fact, not only Wei, but also all countries today, in fact, have similar regulations, the main purpose of which is to ensure the majesty of the "national law" and "legal order", so that the subjects under the rule dare not commit crimes.

Of course, if you insist on pardoning the slave status of "sinners", it is not impossible, take Qin State as an example, Qin State can use "Mingjue" to offset crimes, and the Mingjue obtained by killing the enemy is simply a transaction currency that is harder than money in Qin, and can do a lot of things; In Wei, the owner of a slave had to pay a large amount of money to exempt a slave from slavery status, which was about a hundred times the value of the slave.

The reason why this "price" is so high is, to put it bluntly, because the state does not allow anyone to easily pardon sinners.

What Meng Zhong can do is to at least treat these people as human beings, and while treating them well, he can also reduce the burden on his mother, wife, and sister, which can be regarded as the best of both worlds.

Just as Meng Zhong had predicted, a few days later, the reward given to him by the King of Wei was slowly sent to the area of Yeyi, a total of a set of copper ritual vessels, 100 catties of iron, 50 catties of copper, and 10 handmaidens and 100 slaves.

One hundred catties of iron and fifty catties of copper, Meng Zhong instructed Xiang Yu to include them in the county treasury of Yeyi, after all, in this era, copper and iron can be used as trading currency, and the value of both is actually higher than the currency of various countries, which is hard currency.

As for the ten maidservants and a hundred servants, they were brought back to Wuyang's house by Meng Zhong - those maidservants could help Ge and Le Yan with some housework, and those servants could help cultivate the family's fields.

For these people, Meng Zhong personally discerned, as he knew the situation, the handmaidens and servants rewarded by the King of Wei were basically honest and cowardly—of course, at least this is the case with the master, and as for the treatment of outsiders, it may not be.

According to Meng Zhong's eyesight, the ten maidservants were all about fourteen to eighteen years old, and their faces looked quite beautiful, while the servants were between twenty and thirty years old, and they all looked quite honest, and they all lowered their eyebrows.

Meng Zhong promoted one of the servants, named "Liang", and sent them to the fields around Wuyang-eup, where they were responsible for cultivating crops for the family.

As for the ten maidservants, let Le Yan and Meng Yan lead them and live at home.

During this period, the rectification of Fangcheng and Yeyi was also rapidly implemented.

The anti-theft team under the command of Sima Lexu in Yeyi was built the fastest, after all, those soldiers who were brushed down from the Fangcheng army were all flooded into this army, and Le Xu took these people around Yeyi, Fangcheng, and Wuyang every day, on the one hand, they were familiar with each other, and on the other hand, they were also familiar with the scope of patrol.

After all, Meng Zhong moved the people of Fangcheng and Wuyang to Yeyi, so Xiang Yi was fully responsible for settling these people, and at the same time, he also had to plan and reclaim new fields, and distribute these fields to each household according to households.

At the same time, he is also responsible for collecting this year's field tax.

The same as all the countries in the world, the tax of Wei is also divided into two kinds: tax and fu, simple distinction, "tax" is used for the state, the country receives this tax, can be used for construction, such as building water conservancy, opening up roads, repairing cities, etc., and "fu" is used for the army, the grain and grass eaten by the army is basically from the "fu".

Contemporary taxation can be said to be very heavy, basically taking half, that is, half of a family's annual harvest, not including additional taxes levied in special circumstances. [PS: The highest in this area is Qin, and when it is the most harsh, it takes two out of three, and the rest of the Central Plains countries basically take half. 】

In order to motivate the people of Yeyi to vigorously reclaim the wasteland, Meng Zhong and Xiang Yi decided to combine the taxes and collect the "tithe" tax, and promised not to collect additional taxes.

It has to be said that the tax of "tithes" is still very high, but at least compared with the countries of the world, the amount of tithes is at least 10% less, and it is even more important to say that the countries set up a name and then collect other taxes.

Meng Zhong believes that this is conducive to attracting displaced people to Yeyi.

Of course, the amount of taxes paid by Tithes is far from "leniency", but in order to feed the 50,000 troops, Meng Zhong can only temporarily set this standard.

After the implementation of the army in the future, the 50,000 troops will be self-sufficient, and Meng Zhong will gradually reduce the taxes of Yeyi in order to attract more people to this side.

His goal is to govern Yeyi as a first-class city like Handan, Linzi, Daliang, and Taoyi, after all, this is his foundation.

While Xiang Yi, Le Xu and others were busy, Mengsui, Menghu and other Fangcheng generals were not idle, Mengsui stepped up the planning of the "military tuntian" around Fangcheng, and Menghu, Huahu and others stepped up the training of the army, but the problem of insufficient manpower still inevitably became the main problem of Fangcheng.

Restricted by the population problem, Meng Zhong had to put the matter of "going to Chu to rob people" on the agenda.

In late September, while Fangcheng and Yeyi were gradually developing, Meng Zhong took Menghu, Huahu, and Mu Wu and led more than 1,000 cavalry to embark on the road to Chu.

Its purpose is naturally to hope to abduct some people from the Chu State to Yeyi.

At the same time, the Qin general Bai Qi also formed an army of tens of thousands of people in the south of Xianyang, carrying enough grain and grass, and was slowly heading towards the state of Chu.