Xu Huai made a big fuss in Huo Lutang, but there was no movement in Beizhai for more than half a month.
In the past twenty days, in addition to transporting two to three thousand kilograms of grain to Jinshagou on shoulders and backs as supplies, Su Di, her father Su Laochang, and Xu Xin'an's father Xu Guanshan took the lead and brought all the soldiers
All the fields farmed by the family outside Nanzhai were cleared away.
However, there are more than a hundred people in the families of the soldiers, and so many people cannot stay idle.
Firstly, there is no time to rest, and secondly, when people are free, there will be more disputes.
Nanzhai is located in the Zhongfeng Basin of Yuhuangling. The terrain is 50 to 60 feet higher than that along the Qingliu River. There are no streams flowing through it. Over the past hundred years, the ancestors of the Xu family have built dozens of large and small ponds in the mountains according to local conditions.
It stores rainwater and irrigates one or two thousand acres of cultivated land in the basin.
In fact, there were more than 400 people in Nanzhai, and the land resources that could be cultivated were too limited. Even if Xu Zhongyu and others did not interfere, Su Di and his family would not be able to rent or buy farmland near Nanzhai for farming.
As for the southern and western slopes of Yuhuang Ridge, the terrain is too steep and rugged, and there are stone cliffs and rocky fields everywhere. It is also difficult to cultivate sloping fields according to local conditions.
Only the east and north slopes are gentle, but they are livestock pastures controlled by the Shangfang and Xu families. It is impossible to easily allow the warriors and their families to reclaim the land.
In order to obtain enough land to house the families of various military soldiers, Su Laochang, Xu Guanshan and others could only focus on the mountainous area to the west of Yuhuang Ridge.
The overall terrain of this slope called Shituoling is steeper and more rugged than the northeastern slope of Yuhuangling, but better than the southwest slope of Yuhuangling. Unfortunately, there is no existing stream around it, and it is far away from water sources.
Dry land can only be irrigated by rain.
In the early years, there were some scattered families living in Shituoling and cultivating dry land. However, in addition to the ongoing conflict with Lutai Village over land, due to the increasing banditry in Tongbai Mountain, the scattered families could not become a force and were eventually forced to move away.
.
Shituoling then became a mountain forestland controlled by the Xu family and used by the Xu family members to gather medicine and hunt.
If Shituoling were to be reclaimed, some arable land resources could still be excavated. However, after the Xu family had established themselves in Yuhuangling for four or five generations, the arable land and pastures and other resources were concentrated in the hands of the Xu family in Shangfang. There was no longer any resources from the deep mountains and old forests.
The motivation to dig into the soil.
Shangfang Xu had abundant resources and was more willing to expand business in Huaiyuan Town and Qinyang City.
As the whole mountain forest in Shituoling is not developed, it is more convenient for them to control it, instead of cultivating patches of mountain fields and scattering them into the hands of each household; even if they organize manpower to cultivate and then farm out the crops, the harvest will be very good.
limited.
In addition, there is also the disadvantage of unfavorable control after the tribesmen disperse.
Due to the situation, the various military and military families were united together, and they had the conditions to develop the mountains and fields in large areas.
At first, Xu Wufu also sent people to come over and say that Shituoling is a clan property, but how to reclaim the clan's forest wasteland, how to pay money and grain to the clan after the reclamation, and how to purchase clan land, the Xu family has established a foothold in Tongbai Mountain for 1560 years
The rules were formed early, and Xu Wufu was not able to cover the sky with one hand.
Xu Wufu, Xu Zhongyu, etc. will definitely not allow it. Su Laochang and Su Guanshan can also request to convene an ancestral hall meeting and summon all the leading men of the Xu family to speak out.
The Xu family first established its foothold in the North Village of Lu Tai, and the East Village, Xizhai and Nan Village were also established step by step.
In the past 20 to 30 years, the Xu family's population has multiplied and has exceeded the carrying capacity of Yuhuang Ridge. A large number of Dingkou have been forced to go out to find a living. Xiafang Xu has long had a call to reclaim Shituoling.
Shangfang Xu has not dared to object openly in these years, but without the money and food support of Shangfang Xu, Xufang Xu has been led by the nose and cannot gather the strength. No one has been able to accomplish this before.
There are more than a hundred members of the military soldiers' families, old and young, and they borrowed more than 500 yuan from Liu Qiong'er to buy cattle, mules and horses, farm tools, and grain seeds. They entered Shituoling to cut down forests, level the land, and build buildings.
Water storage ponds and roads.
They even hired more than a hundred young people from the Fourth Village to help build the houses in the village. Xu Wufu, Xu Zhongyu and others couldn't object openly. They could only watch the foundation of a small village quickly sprouting up on the east slope of Shituoling.
Of course, the root of all this is that Xu Wujiang and the others are determined to establish themselves in Jinshagou.
Shituoling is the gateway to the east of Jinshagou. It is separated by a hill. A remote trail can be opened in the middle. It only takes an hour for those with strong legs to walk back and forth. The families of the military soldiers who are young can move into Shituoling, even openly and openly.
We will use the manpower of Lutai Village to build the fortress. When the time comes, it will be like the inside and outside of Jinshagou, supporting each other, and we will have the resources to gain a foothold.
This was also the day after Xu Huai made a big fuss in Lutang. Xu Wujiang personally sneaked back to Nanzhai and discussed and decided with Su Laochang, Xu Guanshan and others. Xu Wujiang also met with the principals of Zhuwu's family.
To further bring people's hearts together.
Whether it is deserting the army or surrendering to bandits, it is a serious crime that is not tolerated by the court.
As long as the people's hearts are not scattered at first, what will they do now? The leaders of each family and the soldiers have no other choice but to follow Xu Wujiang to death.
The ragged road opens up the mountains and forests.
Of course, the initial conditions were difficult, but fortunately, almost all the warriors were from extremely poor families, so there was no hardship that they could not bear. After more than ten days, forty or fifty shacks were built in a depression on the east slope of Shituo Ridge.
They all moved out of Nanzhai one after another.
Naturally, Xu Wukun also completely parted ways with Xu Wuqi and Xu Wufu, and moved his family to Shituoling. He and Xu Wuliang did not care about the chores of cultivating fields and building walled houses, but mainly patrolled the mountains and forests with Xu Huai;
After the soldiers' families have been busy for a day, they will also organize the young men to conduct training in the evening.
After driving Tang Tiande away, Xu Wuliang, Xu Wukun and others were worried that Deng Gui would report the matter of "surrendering to bandits" to the prefecture and county. The prefecture and county would send officials directly from Biyang City to capture the soldiers and their families for interrogation.
In fact, more than half a month had passed, and not only was everything calm in Huaiyuan Town, but Deng Gui acted as if this incident had never happened, and the prefecture and county did not directly send officials to Yuhuang Ridge.
A few days ago, I just heard from the Beizhai tribe that some officials had gone to see the situation near Qingxi Village and then returned directly to Biyang City. There was no one to tell whether Xu Wujiang and others had surrendered to the bandits or been annihilated by the Hutou Village bandits.
Accurate statement.
However, news came out from Hutou Village that Xu Wujiang had brought people to seek refuge there. However, this kind of news was only circulated secretly. No one would put this news on the table - after all, no one would admit that such a thing happened.
source of information.
Xu Huai also expected this situation.
Deng Gui revealed his feelings in the secret letters he exchanged with Chen Tong.
Deng Gui arranged for Xu Wujiang and others to die, just waiting to be transferred out of Huaiyuan, and Cai Zheng randomly sent his direct descendants to take over as the inspection envoy. At that time, whether Wang Zhen lived or died would have nothing to do with him.
Xu Wujiang and others disappeared from Qingxi Village. Whether they surrendered to the bandits, were annihilated by the Hutou Village bandits, or were hiding in the deep mountains and old forests, it actually made no big difference to Deng Gui.
Deng Gui is just waiting to leave now, what else needs to be done?
As for the prefecture magistrate Chen Shi and the county magistrate Cheng Lunying, even if they did not directly collude with the assassins, it was obvious that they would not be easily involved in this vortex at this time.
The calm at this time is not difficult to imagine, but Xu Huai cannot guess what kind of storm is brewing beneath the calm...
…………
…………
One day in mid-May, Xu Huai was sitting on a cliff on the east slope of Shituo Ridge. In front of him was a broad mountain valley formed by the gorge between the east slope of Shituo Ridge and the west slope of Yuhuang Ridge.
This mountain valley occupies a very large area, with a length of more than seven miles from north to south and a width of nearly three miles from east to west.
The valley is sandwiched between two mountains, and the edge terrain is steep. When rainwater falls, it drains directly to the Qingliu River and Baijian River in the north, making it impossible to form a stable stream.
There are many rocks in the valley, making it difficult to cultivate; and flash floods occur from time to time in summer. As far as the eye can see, there are stone ditches carved by flash floods like leaf veins distributed in the valley.
In such natural conditions, except for the overgrown trees and shrubs and the occasional intrusion of roe deer, no one lives there.
Pictures related to the terrain of the valley often flashed through Xu Huai's mind in the past few days, and he couldn't help but ponder them.
"What are you thinking about?" Liu Qiong'er asked when she saw Xu Wuliang and Xu Wukun standing aside talking. Xu Huai, who usually sat on the cliff in a daze, sat over.
"Su Laochang and others are now leading people to build ponds in the mountains to store rainwater. I thought, this valley can also build ponds. If enough rainwater is stored, the three to four thousand acres of valley below can be improved little by little and cultivated.
"Xu Huai said.
"How can it be as simple as you say? There are thousands of acres of steep ponds to be built in this valley. How high do you have to build a dam to store water? And how strong does this dam have to be?
Only people dare to live in the valley? You have been growing up in Tongbai Mountain for more than ten years. It’s not like you haven’t seen how violent flash floods are in summer - you were stupid before, are you still stupid now?" Liu Qiong'er is now Zhuwu.
The biggest "creditor" of the Zu family, she stayed in Yuhuangling and did not have to work. She walked around every day accompanied by Ge Shi and Xiaohuan.
Su Di has been tired and haggard these days, while Liu Qiong'er is as charming as a flower when she travels around.
On the one hand, Liu Qiong'er was well-informed at Yuehong Mansion, but on the other hand, she also liked to read miscellaneous books in her spare time. She thought she knew a little more about building ponds than the village craftsmen, and she helped Su Di from time to time.
Su Laochang, Xu Guanshan and others came up with some ideas.
She had to ensure that the "debt" she had lent out would be recovered one day, unlike Xu Huai who had been idle these days and ignored these chores.
Of course, although Xu Wujiang adopted her suggestion and secretly encouraged the soldiers with Wang Zhen's comeback, Xu Wujiang did not even send anyone to Huaiyuan Town to inquire about the news, let alone contact Wang Zhen.
This made Liu Qiong'er suspect that Xu Wujiang was just using this statement to get everyone's attention, but in fact he didn't care about Wang Zhen's life or death.
To put it bluntly, Liu Qiong'er suspected that Xu Wujiang was also waiting for the assassins to withdraw after Wang Zhen's death, so that the situation in Tongbai Mountain would become simpler, and then he could think of other plans.
To a certain extent, Xu Wujiang’s approach is not fundamentally different from Xu Wufu’s.
This is not what Liu Qiong'er wants to see.
However, for more than half a month, Xu Huai, apart from practicing martial arts, patrolled the mountains and forests with Xu Wuliang and Xu Wukun to prevent anyone from infiltrating and snooping, but there was no other expression.
Liu Qiong'er didn't know what Xu Huai was thinking, so it was inevitable that she would hold her breath.
Now I heard Xu Huai's whimsical idea of building a pond between two mountains without considering the practical difficulty at all, so I couldn't help but laugh at him.
"Am I stupid?"
Xu Huai smiled, picked up a piece of red red stone, and simply drew the pictures that had flashed in his mind in the past few days on the white cliff, and said to Liu Qiong'er,
"If you think about building a dam more than a hundred feet long and several feet high to block all the rainwater in the mountains, it is undoubtedly a wishful dream. Even if it is caused at all costs, every time a flash flood occurs, the downstream will be extremely dangerous, and the dam
There is a danger of collapse at any time. Who dares to build a house under a dam and open up fields? However, what if we build shallow dams according to the terrain and store rainwater in grades according to the terrain? Look, every dam has
It doesn’t need to be too high, three to five feet is enough. Even if there is a heavy downpour in the mountains, the rainwater will overflow the dam and be released. Not only will it not pose a threat to the downstream, it will actually greatly weaken the flash floods in summer. Do you think this is true?"
Liu Qiong'er was stunned there, wanting to ask Xu Huai how he came up with this, but thinking of those weird things he often said about "being born knowing it", she held back her questions and didn't give him a chance to show off.
