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After Qingming, the weather is getting warmer day by day, and the spring of this year is about to pass.

In the green of the mountains, the wild flowers are in full bloom, and the meadows on the hillsides are full of life.

More than a dozen horses wagged their tails leisurely on the hillside, nibbling on the tender grass, and occasionally making a pleasant snort or two.

A little farther away from the horses, three little lambs were grazing.

The horses and lambs were very leisurely, but Uncle Shen and his eldest son Shen Chou sat on the grass side by knee, staring at them with four eyes, not daring to relax a little.

Thirteen-year-old Shen Chou didn't look ugly, but he was born when he was ugly, so he was called by this name. In fact, in the ancient traditional Chinese characters in China, the ugly ugly character is written as "ugly", which has nothing to do with the "ugly" of Zi Chou Yinmao, which should be two words with different sounds.

Compared with Nanyang County, where generations have lived, the winter in Liangzhou is longer and much colder, but it is almost summer, and the noon sun is equally poisonous, and the father and son both wear big hats on their heads to protect themselves from the sun.

The bruise on Uncle Shen's jaw has not yet dissipated, and it is the price that the big green horse yesterday was frightened and ran away for some reason, and paid to recover it.

If you lose an adult horse, you have to compensate the government for thirty stone grains, which is already very low, but Uncle Shen still can't afford it.

It's just that for the people of Nanyang, riding is not so easy to practice, and after the rest of the grazing month, Uncle Shen has just overcome his fear, and he can straddle the back of the most docile female yellow horse, and walk slowly with the reins, but he can still only be regarded as a beginner, and it is too reluctant to run wildly.

Yesterday, Uncle Shen only chased out a few steps on a female yellow horse, and was ruthlessly thrown to the ground, although his son was still young. but he is more vigorous than him. Regardless of the obstacles, he rode a female yellow horse to chase after him. Finally, I found a calm Daqingma more than ten miles away, but I couldn't find my way home when I turned back.

For the authentic Nanyang people, Gaoping County in Anding County is too big, and there are too few surrounding residents.

How big is Gao Ping? Well, it's more than half of the entire Anding County, which is bigger than the entire Henan County.

How many fewer inhabitants? If you don't count the Qiang and bandits hiding in the deep mountains, in such a large county, the government has deliberately set up two more pavilions than other counties in the county. The newly arrived Nanyang people plus the local Han people, a total of only five pavilion people live, less than 5,000 households.

Therefore, around each Mintun in Gaoping County, in addition to being empty or empty, most of the sight is similar to the loess slope, not to mention children, that is, adults are on the loess plateau with ravines and ravines, and it is common to get lost.

Fortunately, the pavilion chief who lived with Jiatun was willing to lend a hand, and after learning the situation, he personally took more than a dozen people who were good at riding out to look for it. When the sky was over, the child and the two horses were brought home.

Compared to the familiar Nanyang. The new home is rough and sinister, which makes Uncle Shen's family very uncomfortable.

It's just that there is no turning back from the bow, although there are many problems, it is impossible for Uncle Shen to take his family to travel thousands of miles back to Nanyang, who has nothing.

Not for anything else, as long as there is no problem with the horses grazing at home, the government will give half a bucket of millet to each horse every month, and it is genuine without sand and coarse chaff, which is not less than the grain produced by the hometown, which is enough to make people's hearts bloom.

Not to mention, there are also 20 acres of land divided, although it is barren when it misses the agricultural time this year, it is the hope of a large family in the future.

In addition to allocating the land, the government here also gave each new family a lamb, anyway, when grazing horses, they could graze sheep along the way, Uncle Shen was ruthless, and took out the money from selling the house in his hometown, and asked the local Xiliang people to exchange two more.

has 20 acres of land in his own name, has three lambs, and has the income from grazing horses for the government, even if he can only live in a dilapidated house that has been abandoned first, Uncle Shen doesn't want to go back at all.

Xiliang is very good, but he is afraid that the horses will run, and today the father and son are sitting next to each other and staring closely, and there can be no more dangerous situation yesterday.

Shen Lu, a descendant of the Boyi or Zhou royal family, was sealed in Shen by the king of Zhou, in Nanyang. At the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, the Shen Kingdom was destroyed by King Wen of Chu, and his descendants took the country as their name and called the surname Shen. Nanyang is one of the origins of the Shen family, and the Shen family is also a big family, but like the previous Deng Ji family, the big family must not have poor households.

Uncle Shen's family is also such a poor peasant, their husband and wife have five children, but the seven people only get five or six acres of land, and they have to rent more than ten acres of land from rich households every year to barely earn half a full, Deng Ji in Nanyang to bewitch the people to go north, his family background is innocent, and he has been hesitant earlier, until the Sizhou soldiers are about to leave, they gritted their teeth and followed ruthlessly, but they are already the last batch, and it was too late when the team traveled hard to the head of Xiliangdi, and the land was divided but missed the spring sowing.

Fortunately, the new Nanyang people in Xiliang, Deng Ji no longer forcibly stuffed the elderly into every house, and the government is also useful for those who failed to catch up with the spring sowing: the two counties of Anding and Wuwei that were included in the last year, and the large number of horses, cattle and sheep captured by the old department of Ma Teng and the Qiangdi tribe are lacking people to take care of the grazing.

missed the spring ploughing, and Uncle Shen easily found an errand to feed a family of seven, but the horses were really precious, and they had never been domesticated before, which made him very frightened.

When there is land to take care of tomorrow, this errand of herding horses will no longer be accepted.

Staring at the horses and seeing the sour eyes did not turn their heads, but today's luck was good, there were no accidents, until the sun was in the west, the end of grazing, Uncle Shen put the two wooden baskets on the back of an inferior horse, and the three lambs were carried into the wooden basket, and he led the big green horse in front, and Shen Chou rode the female yellow horse in the back to press the formation, and shouted together to collect the horses and return home.

Uncle Shen's family now lives in a large village under the ridge, the original owner does not know whether he suffered a military disaster or fled, the whole village has not seen anyone in the morning, leaving many dilapidated houses, and now there are more than 90 families from Nanyang, plus 30 or 40 Xiliang people in the mountain col a few miles away, which is all the existing residents of Tiema Ting Jiatun.

According to the practice of Sizhou, Jiatun is the location of the pavilion, many fifty households, and the vacancies left are for the future placement of local soldiers.

"Brother Shen is happy!"

When Uncle Shen's father and son led the horses close to the walled gate, Bentuntun Changwanggu leaned against a sour jujube tree and said hello.

Although they have known each other for less than two months, the other party has already helped a lot, Uncle Shen has long lost his sense of rustiness, and he responded with a smile, Shen Chou also got off the horse and came to see the juniors: "Uncle is here to rest and cool?" ”

Wang Gu shook his head with a smile and said to Uncle Shen: "There is something today, the pavilion chief ordered all the heads of households to gather at the mill at three o'clock, return home and call my sister-in-law to cook earlier!" ”

I don't know the details, the first time I heard that there was going to be a party, Uncle Shen was taken aback, and asked in surprise as usual: "But you want to be conscripted?" ”

Wang Gu hurriedly waved his hand: "It's irrelevant, it's irrelevant!" There was no servitude under the rule of Duke Deng, how could there be any pretense? ”

When asked him again, Wang Gu didn't know what was going on, so he only urged his father and son to go home for dinner.

The horses were driven into the stable in front of the house, the lambs were carried into the house, Shen Chou slipped away to tease his younger siblings, and Uncle Shen urged his wife to cook.

Dinner was only one dish and one soup, and there was no oiliness, but the amount was not enough, so that the five children could eat enough, and the family was very satisfied.

However, Uncle Shen had no appetite today, so he took a few bites of the bar, put down the dishes and chopsticks, got up and went out to the grinding field.

The appointed time was far from coming, but many people had already gathered on the mill, and some of the local Xiliang people who lived in the mountain col a few miles away had also arrived.

Uncle Shen quickly blends in and participates in the mutual inquiry between people, but no one knows the real answer.

It grew darker and darker until it was completely dark, and a fire was lit to light the fire.

More and more people gathered, and everyone was suspicious for a while, only to see the tun chief accompanying the pavilion chief Shi Shiran, but he didn't see the three elders.

Separated from the crowd in the dark, the tun chief jumped on the stone mill first, asked someone to beat the torch, and first finished the name according to the head of the household, and then changed the pavilion chief Yan Bo jumped up: "Today, all the people are gathered here, just to inform that after five days, each household needs to work hard to open a kiln to make bricks outside Dingtun!" ”

The pavilion chief is an official, and Uncle Shen even heard Wang Gu say that the pavilion chief of his own family was born in the Son of Heaven's guard, followed Dong Zhuo, and after being selected into the Sizhou soldiers, he was a scout, and he was a heroic figure.

It's just that I haven't heard of the payment of money and food, even such a character will be questioned, the audience was quiet for a while, and before Yan Bo could answer, someone dared to say loudly: "Deng Yuanjun does not levy forced labor under his rule, and the government wants to use people's husbands, so they need to be hired!" How can we levy it again? ”

"This is not forced labor, and there is no money and food!" Yan Bo paused before, waiting for a rebuttal, and only when there are doubts can the people quickly grasp various laws and regulations, this is the task issued by the county order. He explained with satisfaction: "There are few stones in this county, and the county guard orders the county pavilions to make their own adobe bricks to build the Mintunwu Fort!" It is necessary to know that Liangzhou is vast and sparsely populated, and has been in turmoil for a long time, there is no shortage of thieves and soldiers in the deep mountains, and the soldiers are not yet able to suppress it. This pavilion makes adobe bricks to build a dock fort, which is for your own family affairs, for the sake of life, each household needs to contribute, just take advantage of the idle farming! ”

The people who migrated from here had seen each other along the way, and they were all happy to hear that brick-making was built for their own homes.

Most people have no opinion, and seeing that the person interjected before Yan Bo was not angry, Uncle Shen couldn't help but ask: "He is waiting for the farmer, the small family still needs to raise horses, and the labor is insufficient!" ”

Yan Bo really didn't care: "You wait for the grazing house of the government, just drive the horse to the kiln to pack bricks!" Those who are unbearable should no longer graze, but can stay in the stable, so that the family can be more miserable, and the grass is fed. ”

"If the horses of the government are damaged, they are really unable to repay them, and the small people will not dare to make them carry bricks!"

Seeing Uncle Shen's appearance, Uncle Yan smiled, turned around and said to Tunchang Wang Gu: "In order for you to cherish the livestock of the official family, if the bricks are damaged from time to time, how about compensation from the public warehouse in Tunzhong?" ”

Wang Gu continued: "We are waiting for the new establishment of Mintun, and there is no surplus grain in each family, and there is no public warehouse!" ”

"It doesn't matter! You can owe it for a year, and you will pay it back in the next year! ”

The two agreed a few words, and Yan Bo said loudly: "In order to help us build the dock fort as soon as possible, Deng asked Junte to hire people from Sizhou to use it, and it will be soon." Build a dock fort, the people of Sizhou are all skilled workers, but the cost of hiring is also heavy, this is paid by the government, no need for you to know the reward of kindness, just ask for all spare no effort! Tunzhong should record the work of each household every day, and wait for the dock fort to be erected, if the household with insufficient work is discussed, it is not allowed to move in! (To be continued......)