The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

"There's nothing we can do about it. Let's do a good job of defending the city," Zhang Pingan replied. "Especially the outposts. The enemy's last sneak attack wiped out all our outposts, which means our secret sentries are still not good enough. We need to strengthen them!"

"I have paid attention to this aspect and arranged Zou Ping and Ruan San to be in charge of the secret sentry work together. One of them is steady and the other is flexible. They are most suitable to cooperate with each other in training the secret sentry." Lao Tu also understood that the outpost was very important.

The top priority of the county town recently is to protect the large field of buckwheat near the city gate.

Especially when it is close to harvest, we must not be careless, for fear that the rebel army will take the opportunity to rob.

If the peaches were picked, it would make people vomit to death!

The old bald man came here today to discuss countermeasures.

"How's the progress of digging trenches around the fertile fields?" asked Zhang Ping'an.

"That's no problem. We've dug trenches a man deep at 500 and 800 paces near the farmland as a basic defense. We've also scattered caltrops and broken tiles in the trenches. We've also raised the observation tower in the middle of the farmland by three meters, as you requested. Your telescope will come in handy! As for other measures, they're difficult to implement due to the vast area they occupy. It's a headache for me!"

After saying this, the bald old man patted his head to suit the situation.

"I've thought about it carefully these past two days. Do you think it's feasible to harvest early?" Zhang Ping'an pondered.

“But this will affect production!”

"I also know that it will affect the output, but if we harvest at the same time, the soldiers and civilians in the county will definitely be very tired in the next two days, and the defense will be negligent, which may allow the rebel army to take advantage of the opportunity to sneak in. This is not cost-effective. It is better to harvest in batches and save more energy to deal with possible chaos. Of course, this is just my idea. Isn't this what I am discussing with you?" Zhang Pingan analyzed and explained slowly.

"What you said makes sense. I'll think about it and discuss the deployment with the other people." The old bald man knew Zhang Ping'an's character, so he didn't refuse in a hurry.

"Okay, there's still time," Zhang Ping'an was not in a hurry. He picked up the teacup, skimmed off the foam, and started drinking tea.

After a moment, he talked about another matter: "Since Lord Zhou and his men are passing by here, why don't you write a letter and ask them to bring more medicinal herbs. Seeds are also fine. My family used to grow medicinal herbs. In the future, we can be self-sufficient, especially for treating colds and injuries. Prepare more.

Many of the people who were officially paired up in the past two months are pregnant, and we will be welcoming new babies in August or September next year!"

"Okay, no problem," the old bald man nodded and smacked his lips. "Time flies! Two or three months have already passed in a flash, and it's almost Chinese New Year again!"

"Yes, time flies so fast. Being a stranger in a foreign land, I miss my family even more during every festival. This year is the first time that I don't celebrate the New Year with my family," Zhang Pingan sighed with a smile.

"You'll get used to it. There are many of us in the army who haven't seen our relatives for more than ten years from the time we joined the army to the time we retired." The old bald man no longer felt sad about this matter and was very indifferent.

"It will be better in the future. When the country is unified, it will be the best time for the soldiers," Zhang Pingan comforted.

"Yes!" The old bald man exhaled, "But I don't know how much blood and corpses of soldiers will be used as stepping stones!"

This is a heavy question!

Zhang Pingan couldn't answer.

Under the wheel of history, everyone is an ant!

With layers of defense, it is finally time to harvest buckwheat.

It was already early December.

Buckwheat is harvested similarly to rice and wheat.

However, due to the short growth cycle of buckwheat and the fact that the grains are easy to fall off, the harvesting requires more precision and caution to prevent collisions that may cause the grains to fall off.

The season for planting buckwheat this time was not very suitable, so the buckwheat in the field did not grow very well.

Fortunately, the weather was good and there was no heavy rain. Judging from the weather, it should be sunny for several days in a row during the days of preparation for harvest.

It is convenient to quickly thresh and dry the buckwheat after harvesting, so that it can be stored in the warehouse.

The yield of buckwheat is much lower than that of rice and wheat, with an average yield of about 120 kilograms per mu, and the lowest is only 80 kilograms.

The soldiers and civilians in the county were all on high alert, as if there were wolves chasing them. They moved very quickly and did not dare to let their guard down for a moment.

Fortunately, in the end, all the food was recovered safely.

In addition to buckwheat, buckwheat stalks are also excellent firewood.

In the end, these more than 300 acres of land harvested nearly 40,000 kilograms of grain. Even if some of it was lost due to drying and dehydration, there was still a lot left. Buckwheat is also very nutritious, so it can alleviate a lot of pressure on military food.

Anyway, Lao Bale is quite satisfied.

In addition, vegetables are harvested intermittently and can be mixed with grains, made into pickles, or dried.

The people became busy and the city became lively again, much better than before.

"After we harvest the peas next spring, we'll plant other things and replant all these abandoned fields. Then our lives will be better."

The old bald man smiled with a look of satisfaction, like Maitreya Buddha. He didn't look like a military commander, but more like a local rich man.

At the same time, he was puzzled: "Hey, tell me, this is a good opportunity to grab food, why didn't those rebel bandits come? I don't know what happened. I haven't slept well for several nights. I'm worried and sweating."

"Is it possible that we have sent people to clean up again?" Zhang Ping'an was also puzzled. After thinking about it, this was the most likely possibility.

"Who knows," the baldy old man suddenly realized.

He counted the days on his fingers again, "In six days at most, Lord Zhou will definitely pass by here. We'll know then."

"Old Baldy, do you think the war will start this year?" Ruan San asked while chewing dried konjac.

The man was leaning in the chair, sitting in an awkward position, and the food he was chewing made a crunching sound.

Now that everyone is getting to know each other better, they are no longer so concerned about formalities.

When he was not on the battlefield or on duty, Ruan San just called him Lao Tu for free.

The old bald man hesitated, "I'm not sure. If we were to march north and recapture the Central Plains in one fell swoop, but now, with so many restrictions imposed by the imperial court and insufficient food and fodder, it's hard to say. How can we fight without food and fodder? How much does a meal for so many soldiers consume? How can they have the strength to fight if they're hungry?"

Zhang Ping'an felt uncomfortable after hearing the bald old man's three questions.

How could the people in the court not understand the truth? But when it comes to doing it, they have more ideas.

Otherwise why would it come to this!

Liu Sanlang didn't say anything, but just looked at his stomach. He had never eaten a full meal since he came to the front line.

He is not like Ruan San, who can shamelessly take a sip from the bowls of others.

If it weren't for Zhang Ping'an's help, based on the current level of physical exertion and food intake, Liu Sanlang estimated that he might not have been able to pull the magic arm bow long ago!