Chapter 7 Digging Wild Vegetables

  In the late afternoon, the earth that had absorbed the sunshine of the morning began to emit heat. Pang Gang, Da Zhuang and Gou Sheng, carrying a large bamboo basket, left the castle and walked south for about one mile before stopping behind a hillside. As he grew up in the countryside since childhood, Pang Gang was not an ignorant "new human" who could not tell grains apart. He took a closer look and found that the hillside was densely covered with wild vegetables such as fragrant clover and ferns.

  Wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve, Pang Gang asked strangely: "Dazhuang, Gou Sheng, aren't you usually helping Qian Hu and Bai Hu with their farming? Why are you only eating these wild vegetables?"

  Dazhuang shook his head: "Of course not, now it's April, the time when green and yellow are not connected, our food is all gone, how can we not go out to dig wild vegetables?"

  "Didn't last year's harvest go badly?" Pang Gang was puzzled.

  "It's not that either." The big and strong man next to him shook his head, "Last year's harvest was okay, otherwise Gou Sheng and I wouldn't have been able to hold on until now. We only started running out of grain after the Qingming Festival."

  Pang Gang curiously asked: "Then how much is your land rent and yield per mu? How can you run out of food in just three months?"

  "We two rented a piece of dry land, about four mu, with an annual yield of about one dan (a unit of measurement) of wheat per mu. After deducting the rent, which was three qian and seven fen (a fraction of a dan), our net income would be around one dan and two dou (another unit of measurement). It's already not easy to make ends meet until March." Dog Left's face showed a hint of helplessness.

  "What, 370 yuan per mu?" Pang Gang was shocked. Whoever could set such an outrageous land rent must have a very dark heart. According to Gou Sheng's harvest, the two of them would get about 1.2 shi (a unit of measurement), which is around 360 kilograms of wheat. After threshing, they might get around 220 kilograms. But these grains were supposed to last them half a year, how could that be enough?

  It's not like the later generations who had an overabundance of nutrition, where meat was always on the table and rice was just a token gesture. If people didn't have meat or other side dishes to go with their rice, they would need to eat at least 30 kilograms of grain per month to sustain themselves as adults. And if they were doing high-intensity physical labor, that number would increase to 40 kilograms per person per month. That's why there's the saying "a half-grown child can bankrupt his father." These two people being able to make do with over 100 kilograms of grain for half a year is already quite frugal.

  "You can go out to sea and catch fish! This way, you can at least fill your bellies a bit!" Pang Gang pointed to the south, where the sound of waves was already faintly audible.

  "Go fishing?" Da Zhuang's face showed a wry smile: "Don't you know that the Great Ming has a sea ban? Anyone who secretly goes out to sea will be beheaded! Besides, going out to sea to fish also requires caution, who knows if you'll encounter pirates or Japanese bandits, and if you do, you might lose your life."

  "Damn it!" Even Pang Gang, whose nerves had been honed to a certain thickness, couldn't help but curse out loud. What kind of bird regulation, bird dynasty was this? Were they even allowed to live?! However, Pang Gang thought for a moment and remembered that he had seen some soldiers earlier, their mental state was clearly much better than Da Zhuang's group. At least they had armor, what made the difference so big between military households? Thinking of this, Pang Gang asked again: "But didn't I see some soldiers at the Thousand Households Office earlier? They all looked quite spirited, who were they?"

  "They are all family members of the Thousand Households and various hundred officials, and we naturally can't compare with them."

  "Servant?"

  Pang Gang scratched his head and still didn't understand what was going on, but later under Da Zhuang's explanation he finally understood the origin of the Ming Dynasty's household registration system.

  Originally, in the mid-to-late Ming dynasty, due to the collapse of the military household system, tens of millions of military households across the country had transformed into thoroughgoing peasants, completely losing their combat effectiveness at the beginning of the founding of the country. Although the military households lost their fighting power, the border areas still need to be guarded? Therefore, the recruitment system gradually replaced the military household system, and the generals used their own private money to raise private soldiers in order to control the army and ensure safety, and these private soldiers are now commonly known as "household servants".

  According to later generations, private armed forces like the family army were illegal and would be resolutely cracked down on according to the laws of any dynasty. However, since entering the late Ming Dynasty, especially during the Chongzhen years, due to the presence of the Manchu Qing in the north and the bandits' rebellion within, the power and status of local or border town generals were greatly enhanced, and thus the family army, this illegal armed force, gradually came onto the stage with a legitimate appearance.

  Pang Gang was still deep in thought, but Gou Lian didn't care about that now and only worried about his stomach tonight.

  "Alright, stop grumbling and hurry up to dig some wild vegetables to fill our bellies. After all, we are a poor and declining military household." Dog Left sighed and took out a small hoe from the basket, squatted down and started digging up wild vegetables.

  Just as Pang Gang and the others were digging wild vegetables on the mountain slope, a group of military officers including He Zhengnan, the commander of Qianhu, were drinking and having a great time in the Qianhu government office.

  At this time, everyone was a bit drunk. He Zhengnan patted Zhao Daxian's shoulder and said: "Zhao Xiongdi, you are truly great for bringing in this batch of grain. With these 2,000 dan of grain, if we sell them in the Jinan Prefecture area, we can at least make a profit of 4,000 taels of silver." After finishing speaking, He Zhengnan stretched out four fingers as thick as carrots and waved them non-stop.

  "Mr. He, if we take it to Shaanxi, the price can be increased several times." Someone next to him was also making suggestions.

  "Alas..." He Zhengnan waved his hand and shook his head, "Although the grain price in Shaanxi is high, we don't have any connections over there. Moreover, the distance is too far, and it's not easy to transport food thousands of miles away. It's not worth taking this risk, what do you all think?"

  "That's right, Lord Qianhu is wise and brilliant!" The crowd at the wine table burst into applause.

  After drinking two more cups, Bai Huabin said with some concern: "However, sir, please forgive me for speaking out of turn. This time the governor is willing to allocate grain and rations mainly because he wants us to send troops to eliminate the bandits who have been entrenched in Wangjiatun for generations. Since we've received the grain, we should at least make a show of sending troops. Otherwise, if the governor finds out, it won't be good for us."

  He Zhengnan put down the chicken leg in his hand, picked up his sleeve and wiped his mouth casually, saying: "What are you afraid of? I've thought it through. Tomorrow we'll gather our troops and go to Wangjiatun for a stroll, make a show of ourselves, then kill a few more heads and turn them in. That's all there is to it."

  "Sir, please forgive me for my boldness. I've heard that the bandits in Wangjiatun are colluding with the Li Zicheng's rebels and have gathered hundreds of people. We can't... You absolutely cannot be careless!" Although Bin Shiqian didn't finish his sentence, everyone understood what he meant.

  Those who know the situation of Ling Shan Wei best are themselves. The only ones with real fighting power in Ling Shan Wei are He Zhengnan and the household guards under the various hundred households. Although the register says there are 1,200 troops stationed, in fact, there are less than 500. Adding He Zhengnan and the household guards of each hundred households, there are only about 600 people. They know the combat effectiveness of the garrison troops very well, purely a role to shake flags and shout slogans, let them farm one by one is a good hand, but if they rely on them to suppress bandits, it's better not to.

  However, He Zhengnan obviously didn't listen to Bin Shi's words. He just laughed and said: "Bin Baihu, you don't have to worry? I've already said that tomorrow when we send out the troops, we'll just go around Wangjiatun and come back. We'll kill a few rioters along the way, cut off their heads, and it will be done. Why are you worrying unnecessarily? Come on... let's drink this cup again!"

  The officers all burst out laughing after hearing He Zhengnan's words, and one by one they raised their wine cups to continue drinking, not worrying about tomorrow's bandit suppression at all.

  Bin Shiqian looked at He Zhengnan, who had already drunk his face red and whose nose was shining with a bright red light, and sighed silently. Although he was worried about He Zhengnan's attitude of underestimating the enemy, he was just a hundred households and had no way to decide such things. In his heart, he secretly decided that tomorrow, he would select some good weapons from the armory and issue them to the flag soldiers under his command, which could be considered as preparing for the worst.

  The sky gradually brightened, and Pang Gang, who had slept in his clothes for a night, got up early. He came to the door, sat down, and looked at the "Modern Firearms Encyclopedia" in his hand under the weak light, which had accompanied him to this miserable era.

  He was amazed at He Zhengnan's behavior when he flipped through the book yesterday. How did a "Modern Weapon Encyclopedia" turn into an Analects of Confucius in He Zhengnan's hands? Did this guy have hallucinations in broad daylight? Or does this book have an automatic hiding function that only I can use?

  Pang Gang, who was deep in thought, inadvertently flipped through the book in his hand. When he inadvertently turned to the front page of the catalog, he saw a small line of bold font at the bottom that read: Iron ore 270, Wood 270, Tungsten ore 0.

  "What the hell does this mean, are you saying that with these resources I can just conjure up weapons like we used to play games back in the day? Is it because of a lack of resources that I couldn't produce hot weapons?"

  As he thought of this, Pang Gang turned the book from the still black and white picture of the Hot Weapons Chapter to the colored picture of the Cold Arms Chapter, carefully browsing through the data of the Cold Arms Chapter. His current situation gave him a strong sense of crisis, and he had a strong feeling that the Thousand Households who looked very generous and the Deputy Thousand Households Zhao Da Xian who brought himself here would not let go of themselves. Yesterday, he escaped by luck because he was just an ant to them, and they didn't kill him immediately because this ant was harmless to them. If they wanted his life, it would be a matter of one word. Feeling that his life could disappear at any time, Pang Gang felt so helpless, hugging the thick book in his hand tightly, his intuition told him that this book was absolutely crucial to his future.

  Just as Pong Gang was deep in thought, he suddenly heard a dull bell ringing from within the fortress. The bell rang eight times before stopping.

  When Pang Gang was still puzzled, Da Zhuang and Gou Sheng, who were originally lying in bed, suddenly jumped up, hastily put on their clothes, pulled Pang Gang out and ran outside.

  "Hurry up, the bell has rung!"

  "What's going on? I haven't even had breakfast yet."

  "Stop eating, General Qianhu is about to inspect the troops."

  "Ah... roll call? Didn't you say yesterday that it's hard to have a roll call here even in eight lifetimes? How come there's suddenly a roll call?"

  "Who the hell knows, this is also the second time in my life?"

  Gou Sheng finished speaking and then pulled Pang Gang out to run...