I am a woman, I am a man, I want to marry a wife so that I can farm

Ye Ze frowned. Refugees fleeing famine? Do we need to guess? They must be fleeing from the famine! Ye Ze had no time to go out these days, so he naturally didn't know about these things.

"Oh? You know a lot. Have you heard about the border?"

"I heard a few words from those traveling merchants," Brother Hu replied thoughtfully, "It is said that the emperor appointed the nephew of the queen's mother's family as the General of the North, and ordered him to lead 100,000 troops to guard the border. The last time our county increased the grain tax, several small battles had already occurred at the border. Both sides had won and lost. Later, the enemy launched a large-scale attack. Seeing that he could not win, our General of the North directly abandoned the city and fled. Not to mention the tragic situation in the city, many people in the surrounding villages fled south with their families..."

Brother Hu knew all this from what he heard from the traveling merchants in teahouses and taverns. Brother Hu didn't know the details, but he just said it out loud when he saw that Ye Ze wanted to hear it.

In fact, the real situation was much more tragic than what Brother Hu knew. One hundred thousand elite soldiers were defeated and suffered heavy casualties. In the end, only thirty to forty thousand soldiers followed the general to escape.

After taking over the city, the enemy also needed to reorganize, so they did not continue to pursue.

When the news of the city's fall reached the capital, the old emperor was so anxious that he summoned all his ministers overnight to discuss countermeasures.

Some ministers proposed to restart the Mu family army. Although the emperor was unwilling, there was no general who could lead troops better than He Chengfeng (the queen's nephew, the General Zhenbei).

Although the Mu Family Army had long been split up by the Emperor, as long as General Mu Heng is still there, the Mu Family Army will be there!

Mu Heng has been keeping a low profile over the years and has never done anything beyond the line. After much deliberation, the emperor issued an imperial decree to Mu Heng, appointing him as deputy general, with 50,000 troops, to quickly go to the border to guard it.

*

Brother Hu's narration was simple, but Ye Ze could hear the cruelty of the battle from his few words. A general's success is built on the bones of hundreds of soldiers, and no matter who wins or loses, there will be sacrifices, and those are human lives!

After the enemy occupied the border town, they would inevitably burn, kill, and loot. Those civilians who did not escape in time would become slaves even if they were lucky enough to survive.

After lamenting the cruelty of the war, Ye Ze suddenly had a bad premonition in his heart, feeling that it was all over!

"You know a lot." Ye Ze felt a little unsure and drank a sip of tea to calm himself.

After chatting with Brother Hu for a while, Ye Ze stood up and prepared to leave. He took out a small wooden box from his arms and handed it to Brother Hu: "Here are two antidotes. Take one every thirty days."

"Yes, yes, thank you, boss." Brother Hu held the small wooden box in his hands as if he had found a treasure. The heart that had been hanging in the air for the past few days finally settled down!

......

The next day, Ye Ze took gifts and went to the next village with Village Chief Ye to visit Mr. Wu.

On the way, Village Chief Ye introduced the story of Mr. Wu to Ye Ze in advance.

Wu Xiucai passed the imperial examination eighteen years ago, but he failed five times since then. It's a pity that Wu Xiucai has so much ambition but nowhere to display it.

All the money in the family was used to support his studies. When Wu Xiucai's wife was seriously ill, he had no money to buy medicine and could only watch her leave. Later, his two sons also became estranged from him. Wu Xiucai, who was only in his forties, turned gray overnight.

After thirty-five years of studying, he was left with only a head of white hair, a penniless family, and his wife and children left him. As a result, his temper became a little strange. He lived alone in a thatched house at the end of the village and did not interact with anyone.

It is said that the dean of Qingfeng Academy once visited him and wanted to invite him to teach at the academy, but Wu Xiucai politely declined.

When Ye Ze and his companion arrived at Wu Xiucai's house, he was collecting thatch and preparing to repair the roof.

The house where Mr. Wu lived had only two rooms, an outer room connected to an inner room. The eaves were low and the door was also low, blocked by a thatched curtain.

Village Chief Ye stood outside the door and asked politely, "Is this Mr. Wu's home?"

"I don't know him. You've come to the wrong place." Wu Xiucai glanced at the two of them and replied indifferently. Then he lowered his head and busy himself with his own work. He arranged and fixed the small bundles of straw neatly, then held the straw in one hand and climbed up the bamboo ladder tremblingly.

Village Chief Ye sighed helplessly and looked at Ye Ze. Just look and he will know.

"Let me try." Ye Ze walked straight into Wu Xiucai's courtyard and reached out to help him hold the bamboo ladder: "Uncle Wu, be careful..."

Wu Xiucai frowned and glared at him, muttering, "Nosy!"

After he had laid the thatch flat on the roof and fixed it, Wu Xiucai came down the bamboo ladder. The reason why he had delayed repairing the roof until now was because no one helped him. Where had he done such a thing before? After his wife passed away, his two sons had a falling out with him and never came to see him again.

"Didn't I tell you that you've come to the wrong place? If nothing's wrong, just leave now." Wu Xiucai scolded Ye Ze impatiently, then went back into the house with his hands behind his back, obviously not appreciating his kindness.

Village Chief Ye frowned. What a stubborn old man! No wonder his two sons became estranged from him. He deserved it!

Ye Ze took the opportunity to peek inside when Wu Xiucai lifted the door curtain. The room was dimly lit. There was only a small square table and a small stool in the outer room. The large coarse porcelain bowl on the table was still filled with unfinished pickles...

Ye Ze turned around and walked out of the yard, without even having the chance to give away the gift he had prepared.

"Don't be discouraged. If it doesn't work, we can look for someone else. Even if he is not a scholar but just a student, he is qualified to teach the children in our clan." Village Chief Ye comforted.

Ye Ze: "Well, I want to try again. If it doesn't work, it won't be too late to find someone else."

Village Chief Ye nodded, "Then let's go back today?"

"it is good."

There are only a few people in the village who can pass the imperial examination and become a scholar, and Ye Ze does not want to give up easily.

If you want to find a scholar from a town or county to teach in the village, it is almost impossible without any opportunity. It is more comfortable to run a school by yourself than to work for someone else. If that doesn't work, you can teach in a school or academy in a town or county. Who would come to this remote and poor mountain village to be a teacher in a little-known clan school?

Ye Ze felt that maybe this old man Wu didn't have a weird temper, he just didn't know how to get along with others and had a somewhat eccentric personality.

After returning home, Ye Ze kept thinking about Wu Xiucai. In the afternoon, before dinner time, Ye Ze asked Zhao Li to help him fry two dishes. He also made two white flour cakes, put them in a basket and covered them with a clean cotton cloth. Then Ye Ze carried the basket and went to Wu Xiucai's house again.

When he went out, he put the basket in the space first, and took it out when he arrived outside Wu Xiucai's house.

"Is Uncle Wu eating?"

When Ye Ze opened the straw curtain and walked in, Wu Xiucai was just about to have dinner: a bowl of brown rice soup so thin that you could see your reflection in it, a black and hard black-flour pancake, and the unfinished bowl of pickles on the table.

Ye Ze came straight to the table without any hesitation and put the vegetables and bread in the basket on the table.

The dishes and pancakes were still steaming, and the overbearing aroma of the braised pork immediately filled the small thatched hut.

......