Chapter 21: Advancing towards Wànghǎi Fort

  When Pang Gang and his party returned to the Ling Mountain Garrison, the official document promoting Pang Gang to hundred households had already been delivered to the Ling Mountain Garrison by a fast horse from the Qingzhou Command. All the hundred households who survived the Wang Family Village Battle were shocked, no one expected that Pang Gang, an originally inconspicuous little soldier, would go to Qingzhou for a lap and become a hundred households on an equal footing with them in the blink of an eye.

  In front of the main hall of the original Qianhu Fu, seven or eight hundred households stood in a row at the door, looking forward. Although they all had some resentment towards this lucky boy's rapid promotion, after all, he had saved their lives back then in Wangjiatun, and now he was also a hundred households on an equal footing with everyone else, so the necessary etiquette still had to be followed.

  "Rumble, rumble, rumble..." A burst of horseshoes sounded from the front gate of Qianhu Fu, and soon came to an abrupt stop in front of the gate. Before long, a sturdy figure appeared at the entrance of the main hall, followed by three young men dressed in small flag attire.

  "Looks like they've gained quite a bit from this trip to Qingzhou." Bin Shiyan thought to himself as he followed the crowd forward.

  Pang Gang, wearing a sixth-grade official uniform with a curved knife at his waist, walked up proudly and saluted the crowd with a fist, "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm glad to report that I have safely escorted Madam back to Qingzhou without incident. Now, I return to the Wei camp to hand over my orders to you all."

  "Hahaha……" The clear and bright voice of Qi Wu Ming quickly rang out among the crowd, he walked quickly to Pang Gang's side and laughed: "Good kid, I, old Qi, had discovered that you are not an ordinary person from the beginning, now it has been proven, in the blink of an eye, you have become equal with us." After finishing speaking, he also patted Pang Gang's broad shoulder heavily.

  Pang Gang also had a good impression of this straightforward hundred households, and hurriedly cupped his hands to say: "Pang's today is all thanks to the support of you gentlemen and Lord Qi. In the future, there will be many places where Pang Gang needs to rely on your help, I hope you gentlemen can help more."

  "That's that... definitely, definitely..." The faces of the hundred or so households also hung with smiles that couldn't be discerned as true or false. After all, it was just an empty promise, and it didn't cost them a single penny.

  Looking around at the crowd, Pang Gang clasped his fists and said: "Everyone, I'm a newcomer here. Thanks to your mighty help, I was able to achieve some military merit and was mistakenly favored by General Song Hui and promoted to be in charge of 100 households. However, I'm not self-aware of my own abilities and want to go to Wang Hai Fortress to cultivate the land, but unfortunately, Wang Hai Fortress has been abandoned for a long time, lacking people, seeds, and farming tools. I hope everyone can sympathize with me and allocate another 60 households, 50 head of cattle, seeds, and farming tools to me. If so, I would be eternally grateful."

  After hearing Pang Gang's words, everyone looked at each other and couldn't help but think that although they had agreed earlier with great enthusiasm, once it involved their own interests... Hehe, the weather is really nice today!

  Looking at everyone's silent faces, Pang Gang's face began to look ugly. How could you guys just open your mouths and ask for such a small thing, but you're not even willing to give it?

  At this time, Qi Wuming on the side spoke up first, "Pang younger brother, originally you were ordered to station troops among us brothers, it's not that we can't take care of you, but you know we are all struggling to make ends meet. Moving sixty households is easy to say, but the seeds, oxen and farming tools you mentioned are a bit troublesome. You also know, our daily lives are not easy, most of the land and seeds are under the jurisdiction of Commander Qian, but now Commander Qian is no longer around, so..."

  Looking at Qi Wuming's "you know" expression, Pang suddenly realized that the resources of Lingshan Wei were naturally under the full control of Qian Hu. Now that He Zhengnan was dead, according to the rules, before a new Qian Hu was appointed, these Bai Hu would not dare to arbitrarily allocate them, otherwise it would be an overstep.

  "Ah!" Pang Gang pretended to be suddenly enlightened, smiling and saying: "Of course, brother is not asking for nothing. It just so happens that this time the Commander-in-Chief rewarded me with some silver, and I also saved up some spare money over the years. So, I am willing to use 500 taels of silver to buy these 50 head of oxen and farming tools, etc. What do you gentlemen think?"

  Everyone heard, "Oh? Buy with silver? That's different! Although the Thousand House Master is not here now, we subordinates can still help them out! Otherwise, how would Ling Shan Wei Ba operate?"

  The principle that money can make ghosts grind is the same in any era. When Pang Gang said he was willing to spend 500 taels of silver to buy cattle, seeds and farming tools, the faces of the hundred households were completely different. In the past, when He Zhengnan was there, they only had a share of drinking soup when good things happened. Now they can finally take advantage of it openly and honestly, how can they not be happy?

  Seeing the faces of the hundred households change from gloomy to sunny in an instant, a wave of sadness surged up in Pang Gang's heart. Originally, distributing oxen for plowing, seeds and farm tools were things that the Wei should have done, but now they actually had to use bribery to get them, and the Wei in the Ming dynasty had already become so rotten. No wonder since the mid-Ming dynasty, the Wei system had completely collapsed and finally became a group of parasites that only knew how to devour the national treasury.

  After leaving the Qianhu Fu, Pang Gang turned his head and took another look at the vermilion gate of the Qianhu Fu, silently making up his mind that he would definitely return to this place again, and by then, his identity would be a Baihu.

  The next morning, Pang Gang took out 500 taels of silver from the 2,700 taels he had copied from Wangjiatun and handed them over to Bin Shiqian, the hundred households in charge of the handover. He received the household registration books of 60 military households, 50 oxen for farming, and a batch of seeds from him. Immediately afterwards, he set off with Da Zhuang Dog Remaining and the 60 households.

  Among these people, Pang Gang unexpectedly saw Li Xian and his family. It turned out that they had also joined the military household registry to move to Wanghai Castle. On the way to Wanghai Castle, Pang Gang had privately asked Li Xian why he was willing to follow him to suffer in Wanghai Castle. Li Xian's original words were: "I'm old and my years are already great, but I heard that as long as we follow you to Wanghai Castle to open up the land, apart from the barren land that is opened up by ourselves, there will also be two years of tax exemption. I want to make a last-ditch effort to leave a few thin fields for my children and grandchildren, so they won't have to be tenants like me for their whole lives!"

  Pang Gang couldn't help but smile wryly, it seemed that the temptation of farmland to farmers was not ordinary, and could even make people abandon their original comfortable life to come and open up wasteland with him.

  There were more than 360 people in the 60 households, among whom there were over 80 young and middle-aged people between the ages of 18 and 35. Pang Gang led these people to rush for three hours and finally arrived at Wanghai Castle in the afternoon.

  Standing in front of the Wanghai Fortress, Pang Gang carefully examined it and secretly sighed. This fortress built to overlook the sea had been abandoned for many years due to lack of inhabitants, and the wild grass inside was over half a person tall. Most of the buildings were damaged, and part of the fortress wall had collapsed, requiring great effort to repair.

  However, Pang Gang was not unprepared. With a single order, he began to instruct the crowd to start cleaning up every corner of the fortress. The Wang Hai Fortress was not large, only about one mile in circumference, but it could still accommodate the more than 300 people brought by Pang Gang without any problem.

  After the efforts of over 300 people for two days, the originally dilapidated Wanghai Fortress finally had a somewhat tidy appearance. This was also Pang Gang's requirement. As someone from later generations, Pang Gang deeply understood the great benefits that a clean environment has on people's physical and mental health. Therefore, under his strict orders, the soldiers dug over 10 toilets in various parts of the fortress. Pang Gang also issued an order: From now on, anyone who urinates or defecates anywhere within the fortress will be punished by being made to clean the fortress's sanitation for three days.

  The situation inside the fort has temporarily stabilized, but another severe problem has been placed on Pang's desk, that is, the food problem. It is now April and June is the season for planting corn, so repairing the water meter and measuring the land has become a top priority at present.

  Updated at midnight, Ah Ding urgently asks for recommendations and collections! Thank you everyone!

  Also thank you to Fēng Rén Yuǎn (Institute Director), Lán Sè De Yǔ 3, and Yī Jiàn Piāo 123 for the three big rewards!