Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Chapter 196 The Saka

I had planned to return to Liujiagang at the beginning of April, but this has been postponed again.

In the evening, Li Fu, who was leading his men to clean the cargo hold on the Pingjia ship, was called over.

"Shao She." Li Fu's trouser legs were wet, and his forehead was covered in sweat.

"Sit down." Shao Shuyi pulled him to sit by the bamboo grove, and after a moment of contemplation, asked, "What if I offered you a job as an archer at the Matuosha Patrol Station? Would you be willing?"

Li Fu did not answer immediately, but instead stroked a bronze bracelet on his left wrist and asked, "Shao She, why did you spend so much money at the Hibiscus Pavilion last time?"

The question wasn't very polite, and it had a hint of skepticism, but Shao Shuyi didn't care at all. He just laughed and said, "Those who achieve great things don't concern themselves with trifles. If someone wants me to do this, then I'll just show them."

"What about the land at the foot of Shipai Mountain?" Li Fu asked. "Wu Heizi has already bought land in Taicang, five or six mu here, seven or eight mu there, and he's enthusiastically talking about how to exchange land with others to consolidate his own land into one large plot. You..."

"My interest in the land lies solely in its ability to sustain people," Shao Shuyi said. "You've been with me for so long, don't you understand my thoughts?" Li Fu lowered his head and thought for a moment, then said, "Alright, I'm willing to go to the Patrol and Inspection Division."

"Don't forget to change your name." Shao Shuyi patted him on the shoulder and said, "Once you go to Matuosha, you'll be closer to home and can see your children more often." When Li Fu mentioned his two children, his expression relaxed and a smile appeared on his lips.

"Sihai is getting bigger and bigger. I think he has something on his mind. Keep an eye on him," Shao Shuyi added.

Li Fu's son, Sihai, is nine years old this year. He's becoming increasingly quiet and withdrawn, and lately his mind has been completely preoccupied with some inexplicable things. For example, ever since Shao Shuyi mentioned that overloading a musket could cause it to explode, he's made several bamboo tubes of roughly the same thickness and length to store gunpowder. He then asked a neighbor to sew a piece of cloth with a pocket onto his clothes so he could insert the bamboo tubes and access them whenever needed. Shao Shuyi, upon learning this, was at a loss for words.

Besides studying and learning to read, this child has been playing with all sorts of murderous toys, which has caused serious mental health problems. Therefore, Shao Shuyi also hopes to see Li Fu return to Matuosha and spend more time with the children.

"I'll go back and check," Li Fu sighed, then asked, "Shao She, which month are you going to collect salt?"

Upon hearing this, Shao Shuyi said with some helplessness, "Someone told me that the sea off Tongzhou was quite rough in April, and suggested that I go in May, but I'm afraid I can't wait that long."

"Actually, just sitting here collecting salt will make your money grow exponentially," Li Fu said. "If you train those new salt carriers well, they'll all be good soldiers in the future. In Jiangnan, if you search carefully, you'll find that only these people dare to fight and risk their lives."

Shao Shuyi nodded upon hearing this, but at the same time, he was somewhat unwilling.

He once wondered where the army of Zhu Yuanzhang, who had only tens of thousands of soldiers before he marched south, came from. The first batch of troops that crossed the Yangtze River numbered only a little over ten thousand. Where did the hundreds of thousands of soldiers that later grew up come from? Weren't they conscripted from the south of the Yangtze River?

However, in my memory, after Zhu Yuanzhang conquered Jinhua, he wanted to recruit soldiers on a large scale in the area—it was obviously routine to recruit soldiers after conquering a place—but he was advised against it by Hu Han, who said that "most of the people in Jinhua are scholars and few are skilled in military affairs. Recruiting them would only waste money." This shows that the quality of the soldiers was indeed not very good.

Moreover, Shao Shuyi had met merchants from Jiaxing in this time and space. They mentioned that literary gatherings were frequently held in the area, with many scholars, artisans, and merchants, but very few people practiced martial arts. Furthermore, the local officials and people were proud of their literary pursuits, which gave a glimpse into the social atmosphere.

With that in mind, he finally gave up.

"You're right," Shao Shuyi said. "Fortunately, we don't need to maintain many soldiers right now. Jiangnan is so vast; through the process of sifting through the sands of time, we'll surely find some brave and capable men. Let's leave it at that for now. Tomorrow, you'll return to Matuosha and await news."

"Okay." Li Fu nodded without saying anything more.

After seeing Li Fu off, Shao Shuyi called over Zhao Xiaoer and his brother Xiao San.

The two men had already moved their homes to Ma Tuo Sha and had no objection to being hired by the patrol inspectorate; in fact, they were quite happy with it.

Shao Shuyi was insightful enough to know that the Zhao brothers were fond of wealth and status, and whether it was the wealth and status under the Yuan Dynasty or the new dynasty was not that important to them.

The reason they obeyed him so readily was twofold: first, their prestige and the favor they received; second, the fact that it would make them rich. So they made do with what they had. In the chaotic rebellion, some people harbored deep hatred for the old dynasty, while others were simply swept up in the chaos and ended up becoming the new elites.

Guo Xian, Su Shuisheng, and Wu Jian, who had just returned from buying furs in Taicang, shared a similar attitude with the Zhao brothers.

The first two belonged to the extremely poor class and had already moved here. Wu Jian simply had too many people in his family and was too far back in the family, so he had no choice but to go out and make a living.

After Shao Shuyi proposed to the three men that they be archers, he agreed almost without much thought.

Wu Shangyuan, Wei Erdi, and Jiang Sanbao were actually reluctant to become archers, but they said they were willing to listen to "Brother Shao" and do whatever he asked, so they all agreed to go.

Finally, there's Liu Jiu, who recently came to join us; he was originally a shop assistant at Zheng's Greenware Shop.

"I heard from Shi Tou that you're practicing martial arts. How's it going?" Shao Shuyi pulled Liu Jiu down to sit and asked with a smile.

Liu Jiu had just sat down when he immediately stood up again, his face full of excitement. "Brother Shao, I don't want to live like before anymore. I want to be like you." "Sit down," Shao Shuyi said, pressing his shoulder. "Martial arts isn't something that can be mastered overnight. You've already finished practicing?"

Liu Jiu calmed down and shook his head, saying, "I have no money left."

Shao Shuyi was speechless.

Practicing martial arts is indeed very taxing.

First, one must have enough to eat; second, one must eat meat from time to time; and third, one must bear the expenses of equipment, clothing, and even medicine for sprains and bruises. How can a shop assistant afford all of this?

Liu entered the ceramics shop at the age of ninety-four. At first, he couldn't do heavy work and could only do chores like sweeping and cleaning, earning very little. Later, he gradually became a shop assistant, and his income improved, but not by much.

He had spent all his savings in less than a year of martial arts training, and now he was struggling to make ends meet and had no choice but to seek refuge with others.

"Buddha's Tooth and Wu Song just tested your skills. What did they say?" Shao Shuyi asked.

Liu Jiu was somewhat embarrassed upon hearing this, and said with a flushed face, "Guard Liang said that I am not yet a beginner, and Brother Wu said that my skills are... that they are unbearable." At this point, he suddenly raised his head and said with a determined look, "Brother Shao, please give me a chance. I will definitely do my best."

Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "We're brothers, what's this talk about giving each other a chance? I wouldn't believe it if it were an outsider. Let's go to the Matuosha Patrol Office first, register as archers, and make a living first."

"Brother Shao, I want to follow you." Liu Jiu shook his head.

"Those going to the Matuosha Patrol Station are also my men," Shao Shuyi said. "I'll be going to the station often in the future, otherwise your training will be wasted. Let's leave it at that for now."

Seeing that Shao Shuyi was adamant, Liu Jiu had no choice but to agree.

Shao Shuyi finally breathed a sigh of relief. After cramming in ten more people, the number of archers in the Matuosha Patrol Office barely reached nineteen. The quota wasn't full, and there was still room for maneuver.

However, even if people are put in there, the money still has to be paid. At most, the cost of meals might be saved, but probably not by much.

One problem was that the patrol office's pay was already problematic, often taking months to arrive, and sometimes even a year in arrears, forcing the archers to find extra income on their own.

Another reason is that if you don't distribute money, but the imperial court does, then who will they listen to?

There's no way to cut corners; Shengye Commercial Group still has to prepare this part of the budget. Shao Shuyi was already aware of this.

On the fifth day of the fourth lunar month, the city of Jiangxia was lit up with lanterns.

Shao Shuyi had just finished meeting with two young men from Wenzhou.

One of them was Liu Zhenru, who was Madam Liu's cousin, and the other was Chen Yue, who was said to be a relative of Madam Liu's mother.

The two were about the same age, around fifteen or sixteen. They had studied since childhood and had a certain level of education, so one was assigned to the Household Registration Office as a trainee clerk, and the other was assigned to the Criminal Affairs Office.

It didn't cost much. Through Ge Daji's introduction, each of them spent about five ingots of paper money to register their names at the state government office, and each of them was assigned an old official to be their mentor.

"You asked me to find teenagers who are literate? I really can't find that many right now," Shao Shuyi said. "But do pirates also study?" "Why don't they study?" Liu was a little unhappy and said, "When pirates make money, their biggest dream is to let their descendants read and write and bring glory to their ancestors."

"That's true." Shao Shuyi chuckled to himself, "Whose family has been pirates for generations?"

"You still dare to look down on pirates?" Madam Liu was even more displeased. "If you dare to go to sea to Wen, Li Da Weng will rob you until you're left with nothing but a pair of short trousers."

Shao Shuyi hugged Liu from behind and chuckled, "Why are you so angry today?"

"Where did you go during the day?" Liu struggled for a moment, but couldn't break free, so she let him be.

"It cost two ingots of silver, just a show for those corrupt officials," Shao Shuyi said.

Liu grabbed his hands, which were darting around, and whispered, "Don't go there again."

"Alright, as you wish." Shao Shuyi reached inside with both hands and gently untied the ties of the Hehuan robe.

The palms of his large hands, calloused from years of drawing a bow, made Liu shudder as they brushed against her skin.

She was out of breath and her legs were unsteady.

"You've become quite capable now," Liu said, but before she could finish speaking, her upper body was violently pressed against the window.

"It's been so long since I've..." she said in a trembling voice.

"Don't talk." Shao Shuyi slapped him twice forcefully.

The room fell silent, with only the monotonous, mechanical sound remaining.

After a long while, the flush on Liu's face faded, replaced by a pale expression. "What if... you kill me?"

"Brothers fight together, fathers and sons go to war together," the man said shamelessly.

After a moment of silence, Liu said, "I'll raise him myself, and I'll make sure he takes the surname Liu. That'll drive you crazy."

"You're so considerate of me?" Shao Shuyi asked.

Liu did not answer, but only said, "I'm going to wash up."

Shao Shuyi nodded, lay back on the couch, and felt that he had never been so relaxed since he transmigrated.

The next morning, when Shao Shuyi gently pushed away the woman in his arms, dressed, and walked out of the room, Liu Xing, who had just returned drunk, stared wide-eyed.

"Come here, I have something to tell you." Shao Shuyi nodded to him and said.