Chapter 17: Building Villages (Part 2)

  At the banquet, A'gu Da asked Aru Man: "Is there anyone else in your family? How did you end up drifting here?"

  Aru Mo said: "There is no one else in my family. I offended the Khitan people and fled everywhere, fortunately to be with these Han brothers. Our clan leader Hu Shimeng was good to me, but because I offended the Khitan people, he also had no way to protect me, so he could only cover for me to escape."

  Aguda said with a sigh: "Now that our tribe has become powerful, why don't you just join the Wanyan clan and be called Wanyan Aluwen, what do you think?"

  "Great! But I'd like to live with Da Ge and the others."

  "Alright then," Ah Gu Da nodded after a moment of thought.

  That night everyone got drunk and slept in the open air. Aru was especially drunk.

  Yang Yingqi was a "youngster", claiming he couldn't drink, and went to bed early. The next day, before dawn, he got up and ran to the riverbank to survey the terrain. At noon, when he returned, several leaders were still asleep, Yang Yingqi pulled out all those who hadn't gotten drunk and started building a fence, driving wooden stakes, and enclosing the piece of land by the river that Abao had promised him.

  Ouyang Shi was the second to wake up and saw Yang Yingqi busy running around, so he grabbed him and said: "What's the hurry? Afraid someone will snatch your broken bowl?"

  Yang Yingqi said, "If things drag on, there will be changes. Although this riverbank is small, it's still a place where we can gather. Aguda's words yesterday were full of hidden meanings. We have few people, if he scatters us and inserts us among the Jurchen people, then from now on we'll really only be able to serve as teachers for the Jurchen people."

  Ouyang Yi nodded in agreement, and then said: "However, what do you want to do with this riverbank? There's hardly any grass growing! You can't even plant anything. Old farmer Zhou will be so angry he'll grind his teeth."

  Yang Yingqi said, "If it's a good place that everyone knows about, where would they easily give it to us? Farming is slow to show results and can be delayed for the time being. After all, we only have 300 people, and the grain we need can be squeezed out of the Jurchen population."

  "How crowded is it?"

  Yang Yingqi said: "Aguoda agreed to share the benefits of mountains, rivers and grasslands with us. Hehe, their tools are poor, our tools are good, their technology is poor, our technology is good, many things they can't use become treasures in our hands. Just watch, within a year or two, the Jurchen people will envy our lives. Aguoda wants to assimilate us, but I want to assimilate them!"

  He and Zhang Lao Yu had already discussed and mastered the method of burning red bricks in the Valley of Plague. At this time, they first dug out mud from low-lying areas, piled up earth to build a kiln, and burned mud into bricks. Cao Guangyi's trained cavalry went out to explore and ask around, looking for the raw materials Yang Yingqi wanted. There were no large coal mines in this area, but there were small ones. It was not difficult to get wood either. And iron was even found nearby!

  The bricks were soon burned to a crisp, while the low-lying areas had already formed a large pit! This pit was originally chosen beside the river, and only a thin layer of mud wall separated it from the river water.

  This matter came to an end, and Yang Yingqi prepared to catch fish in the dry river - this dry river is not really draining the river water, but building a fence in a shallower place on the riverbank.

  After the fence was built, Yang Yingqi came to the front of the big pit formed by digging mud and let people chisel open the mud wall. The river water rushed in and formed a large pool. The downstream river water became shallow, and many fish in the previously enclosed earth and stone enclosure were stranded. Yang Kai led people to catch all the fish, and the big fish were sent to the Jurchen people. The Jurchen people got benefits and didn't care about the sudden shallowness of the river water. Anyway, it returned to normal soon. The small fish were divided into species, and the carnivorous fish were removed, leaving only the herbivorous fish as the breed, which was thrown into the large pool. A wooden fence was used to separate the pool from the river to prevent the fish from escaping.

  Yang Yingqi then used honey to attract many 10-odd-year-old Jurchen children, organizing them to herd the cattle and sheep together. He also used surplus horses to exchange pigs from the Jurchens, which were also raised in pens. Domesticated livestock could not run wild, and they grew fat quickly.

  They were busy during the day and lived in tents at night - setting up tents was a skill brought by Xiao Tienu and his gang, passed down from the Mongolian department.

  The brick house was soon completed, and Yang Yingqi planned well. The ancestral hall, living room, conference room, study, toilet and other facilities were all available. Those kilns were not abandoned and could be used for making ceramics in the future. Yang Yingqi also left some space as a place for future forging rooms and so on.

  Zhe Yan Chong, Di Yu, Xiao Tie Nu and Alu Man accompanied A'ga Da to go hunting with dozens of riders every day, without asking about Yang Yingqi's affairs, as if they didn't care at all. At first, A'ga Da also didn't pay attention.

  It wasn't until two months later, when the village was completed, that he inadvertently caught sight of smoke rising from the village and was shocked. He brought people to see it, and found that Zhe Yan Chong and others had already moved into the brick houses. When Abuda heard the commotion, he hastily came out to greet them. Abuda saw that although the village was small in scale, everything was neat and tidy, with its back to the northwest and facing southeast, a river embankment on the right, and fish ponds on the side. The construction of public toilets, the layout of water ditches, and the location of temples were all well-organized. When he returned to Huining City, he felt that everything was dilapidated and there was no decent place to be seen.

  He thought for a moment and came to see Wuyazhu at night, telling him about the situation in Hanbulu village.

  "We ourselves only learned to build houses from our ancestors, and it's been less than a hundred years. But I've heard that the Han people have known how to do these things for two or three thousand years. It's not surprising that they know more about these things than we do. I've heard that the Song people's imperial palace is as beautiful as heaven, but didn't they still get beaten by the Khitan? In my opinion, these are nothing to be feared. As long as we can make use of them, their strengths will all become our own."

  "Brother is right," Ah Gu said. Suddenly, he remembered something and said: "When I entered the village, that Yang Kaiyuan kept telling me about where to set up feng shui, where to look out for beauty... Hmph, Han people are too deeply mired in these meaningless things, which is why they are poor and weak."

  Wu Ya sighed and said, "But no matter what, the Han people's learning is still worth studying. After all, they are the orthodox ones. Their learning is unmatched by any of the ten thousand nations and tribes. Hmm, didn't they say they would teach our children to read books? Why haven't they started yet?"

  "They said they wanted to settle down first and then focus on other things, which isn't unreasonable. I just didn't expect it would take them over two months."

  "This is also their weakness. We set up our tents and settle in within a few days, while they need to fuss over theirs for more than two months. The palace may be beautiful, but it's cumbersome."

  That night, in the Han nationality village, there was another scene. After being trapped for half a year and wandering for several months, they finally had a place to sleep peacefully.

  Inside "Miao Suan Tang", Di Yu said to Zhe Yan Chong, "People's hearts have finally stabilized, but it seems that there are signs of slackening."

  Zhe Yan Chong said: "This is inevitable. The Ministry of Civil Affairs can be let go, but the 160 riders are our mainstay and cannot be abandoned."

  "The best way, of course, is to go hunting! Reconnaissance, ambush, encirclement, and attack - all the principles of warfare are contained within. Throughout history, every dynasty has emphasized hunting, not without reason; it's just that after a long period of peace, hunting has become an empty ritual, with no practical effect on training soldiers."

  Yang Yingqi said: "If one wants to do a good job, he must first sharpen his tools. Military affairs are also like this. Tomorrow, Kaifeng will host the repair of the book, and I will support the refining of the military equipment. In recent days, I have observed the Jurchen people's so-called 'Wu Chunliang Zhang's soldiers', which is nothing more than that. I have a new method, using water power to forge steel, which can be used to cast good steel, and our military equipment will definitely be more exquisite than that of the Jurchen people."

  Zhe Yan Chong said: "It's enough if we can make ordinary weapons. We don't need to be better than the Jurchen people."

  Yang Yingqi was taken aback, and Yang Kaiyuan said: "You know how to let me go and have a great discussion with Ah Gu about the advantages of Feng Shui and the beauty of house tiles. How can you make mistakes on this?"

  Yang Yingqi immediately came to his senses and knew that he had to keep a low profile in a foreign land, so as not to arouse the jealousy of the Jurchen people. He sighed: "What a pity! Such a good geographical location. I even chose a place with a suitable water level difference. Alas, forget it."

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  Note: Aguda's ancestor, Hanpu, married into the Wanyan clan and married a powerful old woman (60 years old) from the Wanyan clan before gradually establishing his position within the Wanyan clan.

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