Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 301 Liangzhou Fireworks
"From the beginning of February to now, ten months' wages, a total of three thousand coins, count them."

“No need to count… No need to count…”

In front of Yongchang Village, Fanhe County, Liangzhou, Zhibai, who came from the county government, settled the wages of Ma Yi and Li Yangchun.

Ma Yi waved his hand and said there was no need to count, but Li Yangchun next to him weighed and counted like a money-grubber.

Seeing Li Yangchun nod, the straightforward man spoke: "There are also ready-made clothes and oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea distributed by the Protectorate on the carriage. Each person gets a piece of linen and three pounds of oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea."

"I'll move your things down right away." He was straightforward and a little flattering, and it was obvious that he knew Ma Yi's identity.

Ma Yi was also very clear about this, so he stopped Zhibai and said, "No need, let's just do this little thing ourselves."

"Okay, then I'll take my leave." Zhibai saw that he could not please Ma Yi, but instead aroused the other party's vigilance. He did not insist and chose to leave decisively.

As Li Yangchun and Ma Yi took the clothes and other things off the carriage, Zhibai also drove the carriage to the next village.

Seeing this, the two people standing at the entrance of the village grinned and turned to walk home.

"Have you two gentlemen received your military pay?"

"That's it!"

"You two uncles are in for a treat."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

On the way home, many villagers who were attracted by the carriage were asking about the purpose of the carriage. But after seeing what Li Yangchun and the other man had in their hands, they immediately guessed why the carriage came.

"Ah-Jun, we are back!!"

Ma Yi's voice was cheerful, and Li A-Zhang and Ma A-Zhang walked out upon hearing the voice.

Seeing that the two people were holding so many things, he hurried forward to take them.

"No need, Zhang. We can carry it ourselves."

Ma Yi and Li Yangchun walked into the earthen house, put down their clothes, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea and other items, and then they weighed the copper coins in their hands.

"It's so heavy, just spend it all on him. I can't even remember the last time I ate meat!"

Ma Yi's saliva was almost flowing out. Although Ma Cheng had sent people to deliver gifts to him many times during the time when he was reclaiming wasteland in Yongchang Village, he basically refused them all.

It was not because he was determined, but because Li Yangchun refused to accept the gifts sent by his family.

If the relative of a martyr like Li Yangchun is like this, how could he, the son of an official, lose to him?

However, because of this, the two of them, who have gone through ten months of pioneering experience, are now thinner than when they first arrived.

If there was no one to prove their identities, they would be no different from ordinary villagers at this time.

"It's almost Chinese New Year, it's time to eat meat!"

Li Yangchun, who was standing next to Ma Yi, also nodded. Li Azhang and Ma Azhang, who were following them, heard this and said:
"The chickens in this chicken coop have been raised for such a long time. If you want to eat meat, just eat them."

The two men raised six chickens in their yard. The chickens ate the food they saved and the insects they caught while doing farm work.

However, because of this, the six chickens did not grow very big, with the largest one weighing only 1.4 jin.

"No, if you want to eat, you have to wait until next year when we leave."

Li Yangchun firmly opposed it, and Ma Yi also cheered him on: "This time when we go to the city, we can just buy some bran to feed the chickens."

"If possible, buy two more pigs and kill them before you leave next year!"

"That's right!" Li Yangchun nodded repeatedly, and Li A-zhang and Ma A-zhang couldn't persuade them, so they had to go to Muramasa and find two horse-drawn carriages for them.

The two men carried more than ten pounds of copper coins and drove the horse-drawn carriage to Fanhe County.

The journey from Yongchang Village to Fanhe County is thirty-six miles. At the speed they are pulling the horse-drawn carriage, they will have to rest in the county today.

Since it is just a village, there is basically no road from the village to Dadou Township. You can only walk along Yongchang River for twenty miles to see Dadou Township.

Dadou Township is located on the former site of Dadou Army and is one of the four townships under the jurisdiction of Fanhe County.

Originally, there were only more than a thousand people in Dadou Township, but as the population continued to move into Liangzhou, the population of Dadou Township exceeded three thousand.

This is not only the case in Dadou Township, but also in several other townships.

According to the Longyou regulations, each township has three people: the township head, the inspector, and the grain chief. All three are straightforward and of low status, but they belong to the official system.

As long as one works diligently during his term of office, even if he has not made any great achievements, he can be transferred to the county seat after serving in office for three consecutive years.

After entering the county and continuing to serve as a Zhibai for three years, there is a high probability that he can be promoted to an official of the Six Departments under the Ninth Grade.

However, Longyou has not expanded its territory or established any new prefectures or counties, so many people are doing straightforward things despite being treated as lower-ranking officials.

There are thirty-nine counties in Longyou. According to the regulations of Longyou, each county should have twelve officials of certain ranks and fifty to seventy officials outside the rank.

However, in the current situation, almost every county has more than 20 officials of different ranks, and at least a hundred officials outside the ranks.

There were more than 900 officials under the jurisdiction of the entire Longyou Protectorate, and more than 4,700 of them were direct officials.

It can be said that the people who want to expand the territory the most now are not Liu Jilian, the commander-in-chief of Longyou Protectorate, but these officials who have treatment but no real power.

Dadou Township gradually became prosperous due to the influx of refugees. Even the Protectorate sent people here to open government-run shops selling coal, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, meat, and cloth.

Because of this, Ma Yi and Li Yangchun were stopped by patrol officers after they drove here.

"Stop, where are you going?"

On the official road from Dadou Township to Fanhe County, an inspector wearing a battle jacket, a breastplate, and a fu hat stopped Ma Yi and others who were driving.

Standing behind the inspector are twenty able-bodied men selected from each township who take turns every month.

These able-bodied men are militiamen, and they can receive 100 coins during their rotation month.

Although the money is little, there is not much to do every day, and meals are provided, so many people are eager to work in the village as militiamen all year round.

The reason for this system is not only to maintain public order in the village, but also to train reserve forces.

The militiamen did not wear full armor, basically only breastplates, and they only had bows and arrows, spears, daggers, broadswords, shields and other weapons, making them very easy to identify.

As students from Linzhou University, Ma Yi and the other two were naturally aware of their identities.

"We are villagers from Yongchang Village. We have saved some money and want to go to the county to buy some things."

When he is out, Ma Yi is full of confidence.

"Yongchang Village?"

Upon hearing this, the patrol inspector stood up, straightened his clothes, and bowed, saying, "Excuse me, do you know Mr. Ma?"

Officials in Liangzhou called students who graduated from Linzhou University "sir", and Ma Yi had a high status among the students. Even though the Protectorate strictly prohibited the publicity of students' family background, this was the way it was in the officialdom.

The news that Ma Yi, the son of Ma Chengchang, the governor of Hezhou, had arrived in Yongchang Village, Dadou Township, Liangzhou, had already spread throughout Liangzhou.

The whereabouts of others, such as Gao Jinda's sons Gao Shu and Gao Huai, as well as some officials' children, were also publicized in order to avoid causing unnecessary trouble.

Ma Yi looked at Li Yangchun helplessly. Seeing Li Yangchun's expression of "as expected", Ma Yi could only say, "It's me!"

"Wang Zhao, the inspector of Dadou Township, greets Mr. Ma!" Wang Zhao, the inspector of Dadou Township, saluted and explained:
"Dadou Township has already opened a government shop. If you two want something from the government shop, you can go to the township instead of the county."

"But if you two have something to deal with in the county, you can go there."

After Wang Zhao finished speaking, he quietly waited for Ma Yi's reply, and Ma Yi also looked at Li Yangchun: "How about it, where are we going?"

"If there is anything here, just buy it here. There is nothing to see in the county."

Li Yangchun responded to Ma Yi, who nodded in agreement and then looked at Wang Zhao: "Then let's go to the village to buy it."

"Yes!" Wang Zhao nodded quickly and made way.

Ma Yi and Li Yangchun drove into Dadou Township, while Wang Zhao watched their departing backs from afar.

The militiaman behind him asked, "Boss, who is this guy?"

"This person has a very important background. He may become a governor in the future."

"Provincial governor?!"

Many militiamen looked at each other in bewilderment. Most of them were immigrants from Jiannan Road. The highest-ranking official they had ever seen in their lives was the Household Registration Officer, one of the six departments in each county.

A household official of the ninth rank was an official they could only see in places like Longyou where the administration was clean and honest.

If they were in Jiannan Road where they used to live, the highest official position they could see in their lifetime would at most be a rankless official.

To them, the chief official of the county is a god-like figure, not to mention the governor.

Thinking of this, the militiamen were a little trembling, and when the patrol inspector Wang Zhao saw them like this, he immediately scolded them:

"You guys, I've told you guys before that the laws in Longyou are strict and you don't have to be afraid of officials. Why are you still so timid?"

The immigrants from Jiannan Road, who had been bullied for many years, were still very afraid of officials even after coming to Longyou.

Wang Zhao, who was first a slave of Tubo and later an official in Longyou, naturally had no idea about the moral character of the Tang officials outside Longyou.

If he were thrown under the rule of those officials, he would understand why the immigrants in Jiannan Road were so afraid of officials...

"They are all castrated pigs, right?"

In the only butcher shop in Dadou Township, as Ma Yi asked, the shop owner's eyes suddenly lit up: "Are you from Helong?"

Dadou Township and the people under its jurisdiction are basically immigrants from Jiannan Road. Most of the immigrants speak the Xichuan dialect and rarely speak Mandarin.

People like Ma Yi who are young and can speak fluent Mandarin are basically natives of Helong. "Yes."

Ma Yi nodded, and the head knew the identity of their teacher: "So he is a teacher from the university."

"We only have pork belly here. Do you want pork belly, pork fat, or lean meat?"

Ma Yi was not surprised that the person in charge guessed their identities. After all, his identity had long been made public.

His identity as a student of Linzhou University is actually the most common one among his many identities.

"Buy a few pounds of suet and go back to refine it. The six pounds of oil at home won't last long."

Ma Yi turned around and looked at Li Yangchun. Li Yangchun nodded and said to the manager: "Ten catties of pork fat, ten catties of pork belly, and ten fat hens!"

"Also, are there any live pigs in the village? We want to buy a breeding pig and a sow."

Li Yangchun's words made the headmaster's eyes light up, and he immediately smiled and said, "Of course there are live pigs. There is a pig farm owned by the government outside the city."

"A breeding pig costs eight strings of cash, a sow costs ten strings of cash..."

"How much?!" Ma Yi and Li Yangchun gasped.

When Ma Yi was in Linzhou, he only cared about eating, and his family had servants to buy things for him.

Although Li Yangchun buys meat, he rarely goes to the market, so he was shocked when he heard the price of a whole pig.

"Eight strings of cash for a breeding pig, ten strings of cash for a sow..."

The manager spoke with a smile. He liked to see the shocked looks of these gentlemen the most.

"us……"

Li Yangchun and Ma Yi looked at each other awkwardly. Originally, they had thought of buying a pair of pigs to give birth to piglets so that Li Azhang and Ma Azhang could live a better life.

Now it seems that with the six strings of money they have, it's enough to buy some pork.

"Where are the live sheep?"

Ma Yi asked with a red face, and the steward smiled and said, "A whole live sheep costs eight hundred coins, which can be used to buy a breeding sheep. The more ewes, the better."

He naturally saw what the two were thinking, so he took the initiative to give suggestions.

Upon hearing this, Ma Yi immediately looked at Li Yangchun and asked, "How about buying a few sheep?"

"Let's buy a breeding sheep and two ewes." Li Yangchun nodded and suggested.

Upon seeing this, Ma Yi immediately placed the three strings of money in his hand on the table: "One breeding sheep, two ewes, ten catties of pork fat, ten catties of pork belly, and ten fat hens."

The manager said nothing, but just put the money on the scale.

"Three strings of cash?" the steward asked Ma Yi. Seeing Ma Yi nod, he immediately shook his head and said, "We are only buying three sheep and ten kilograms of pork fat."

"According to the price you just quoted, it would cost at least five strings of cash."

"Five strings of cash is five strings of cash." Li Yangchun took out his two strings of cash and put them on the table, saying, "Come back in half an hour to get them."

"Okay!" The manager responded with a smile, and Li Yangchun and Ma Yi also walked out of the butcher shop.

"This money is really hard to spend. There is only one tael left."

Ma Yi clicked his tongue a few times, a look of pain evident on his face.

I didn’t think much of spending my family’s money before, but now that I earn my own money and spend it myself, I realize how difficult it is to make money, but how easy it is to spend money.

"I only have one tael left, what else can I buy?"

Ma Yi asked Li Yangchun, and Li Yangchun took him to the rice shop next door.

A wooden sign was inserted into an opened bag of bran, which read one hundred and twenty coins per stone.

Li Yangchun did some calculations and finally said, "Buy two shi of bran and two rolls of cloth."

"We can just wear our old clothes. We need to get new clothes for Grandpa and the others."

"That's true." Ma Yi nodded without refuting.

After all, for him who used to wear brocade robes, linen clothes are the same whether new or old.

Seeing this, the two went to the cloth shop and spent 600 coins to buy two pieces of coarse cloth.

The remaining 160 coins were also used by them to buy two kilograms of sweet cakes.

Longyou does not produce sugar, so brown sugar can only be obtained from Jiannan, Lingnan and other places through merchants. Only after the brown sugar is brought back to Longyou can it be made into sugar cakes.

Although Dadou Township is a large township with a population of 3,000, only a few people can afford sugar cakes, so there is no sugar cake shop. Sugar cakes are sold in rice shops.

The wages they had worked hard for for ten months were spent on shopping within half a day after they were paid.

After loading all the necessary items into the car, they drove away amid the envious gazes of many residents of Dadou Township.

When passing by the inspection station, the inspectors inside the station all looked envious.

"Snowing?"

On the way back to Yongchang Village, Ma Yi saw that the Qilian Mountains in the south were covered with dark clouds, and the top of the mountain was stained with a layer of white.

"It's good that it snows. If it snows, we don't have to worry about the meat going bad."

Li Yangchun said "good", but Ma Yi was surprised and said: "It's only ten kilograms of pork belly. I can eat it all in two or three days."

Seeing him say this, Li Yangchun couldn't help but say:
"You and I have to save our wages until next New Year's Eve, when we can buy a pig."

"We'll kill a pig and treat the whole village to a meal. We'll have to go back to Linzhou in February next year."

"Return to Linzhou?" Ma Yi curled his lips and continued:

"My father wrote to me and told me that after we finish the land reclamation, we will most likely serve as soldiers in the local area."

"That's hard to say." Li Yangchun drove alongside him, and the confidence on his face made Ma Yi unsure: "Do you have any news?"

"No, but I know that the commander-in-chief would never let us serve as soldiers in such a good place."

Li Yangchun called Liangzhou a good place, which made Ma Yi frown slightly.

He just thought about it for a moment, then nodded and agreed: "It's not a good place for us, but Liangzhou is indeed much better than those places in Longnan."

"You mean, Marshal Jie will send us to Longnan to serve as soldiers?"

After all, Liangzhou is a plain with lush grass and beautiful water. Serving as a soldier in such a place is indeed much happier than serving in Longnan.

For the soldiers, Longnan, located in the mountainous area, especially Dang, Die, Tao, Song and other states, is a relatively difficult place.

In that kind of place, even with horse-drawn carriages and ox-drawn carts to aid marching, it is still several times more difficult than marching on the plains.

"My guess."

Li Yangchun responded to Ma Yi with a smile, but Ma Yi already believed it about 70%.

Although Li Yangchun is younger than himself and his family background is not as good as his, he does have a long-term vision.

During the days of reclaiming wasteland in Yongchang Village, Ma Yi gradually understood a truth.

Aye, whom he once looked up to, including most of the officials and generals in Longyou, were actually not people with a long-term vision.

If there were no Marshal Liu Jie, most of them would probably only be at the level of brigade commanders or colonels.

It is precisely because of Liu Jieshuai as the team leader that they can reach their current heights.

Many people fail to see this point, so they attribute all of this to their past efforts and their own talents.

In Ma Yi's opinion, the only people in the entire Longyou who understood this truth were his father, Zhang Chang, Chen Jingchong, Geng Ming and a few others.

Because of this, they often implemented the policies issued by the Protectorate without objection.

In comparison, the others were a little less convinced.

However, with Marshal Liu Jie in charge, even if they were not convinced, they still had to do their job honestly according to the rules of the Protectorate.

Perhaps Marshal Jie saw this point, so he focused on training students like them who graduated from Linzhou University.

Compared with the Hexi veterans who were born as slaves and became monks halfway through their careers, this group of Linzhou students may lack the courage and faith to die, but their vision is definitely longer-term than that of the Hexi veterans.

This can be seen from the fact that no Linzhou students have dropped out so far. They all understand what they will face after completing the six-year process.

The six-year process is just an assessment. Only by passing the assessment can they become the group of people that the commander dares to command boldly.

Thinking of this, Ma Yi shook the reins and drove faster.

By the time he and Li Yangchun returned to Yongchang Village, it was already completely dark.

Uncle Li, Uncle Ma, and two old ladies were waiting for them at the entrance of the village.

Seeing that they brought so many things back, I couldn't help but talk to them about the concept of saving.

The two families have been living together for nearly a year and have long regarded the two as their own children.

Now I chat with them only out of concern for them.

The two of them agreed with a smile, then took the things they bought back home and shared the two kilograms of sugar cakes.

It was obviously just the cheapest sugar cake, but it tasted sweeter than any cake that Ma Yi and Li Yangchun had ever eaten before...

(End of this chapter)