Chapter 185: Reject
Editor: Atlas Studios
“Mu Yangling!” Qi Haoran ran over and looked at her wheat field. “Not bad. It looks like you’ve almost finished watering.”
“As a matter of fact, we’re already done. Why are you only here now after such a huge incident happened at on your territory? Also, my father hasn’t been back for more than two years. What exactly did you send him for?”
“I don’t know anything about farming anyway. What’s the use of me coming?” Qi Haoran looked around before saying softly, “Your father has earned military merits. Don’t worry.”
Mu Yangling widened her eyes and looked at him. “You sent my father to the battlefield?”
Qi Haoran defended himself. “This is your father’s own request.”
Mu Yangling was silent for a moment and did not ask further.
Qi Haoran said, “Your father had someone bring something back for you. I’ll bring it over for you later.”
Qi Haoran asked Mu Yangling, “I still remember you saying that there will be a drought in the early summer this year. Now that there are signs, how long do you think the drought will last?”
“I don’t know.” Mu Yangling said, “I only heard it from the elders in the village. They won’t know either. If they could predict the weather, farming wouldn’t be so difficult. Perhaps you can ask someone who knows astronomy.”
“Our 5th Division has three reservoirs and three canals. At the very least, our losses won’t be too great, but it might not be the same for other places. Since the Imperial Court won’t allocate this year’s rations, Big Brother must be in a difficult position now.” Qi Haoran was a little depressed. He wanted to help his brother.
Mu Yangling looked at Fan Zijin, who said, “The trade caravan has just arrived at Lin’an. We don’t know when they’ll return, let alone bring back the money.” Without money, they couldn’t buy rations.
Sighing, Mu Yangling said, “There are still three months before the wheat can be harvested. At the moment, it’s impossible to tell what the harvest will be like.”
Fan Zijin’s heart skipped a beat.
As Xingzhou Prefecture was located in the north, the planting started later, and the harvest was also later than Jiangnan. Moreover, rice could be planted twice a year in Jiangnan. The first harvest was in May, and then the seeds were sown. In September, another batch was harvested.
If he had the money to transfer a batch of grains from Jiangnan…
The corners of Fan Zijin’s lips curled up slightly. He did not have money now, but his mother did.
Fan Zijin did not think that there was anything wrong with asking for money from his mother. Anyway, his mother only had one son. If she did not give it to him, who else could she give it to?
Fan Zijin calculated in his heart that perhaps he should let his mother embezzle some of the money in the residence. Most of his father’s money should belong to him, but his absence from Lin’an Prefecture had benefited those concubine-born brothers. If only he could take some of that money.
While Fan Zijin was scrounging for his parents’ money, Qi Haoran was also scrounging for his own money in his heart. After calculating, he realized that not only did he not have a single copper coin, but he also seemed to owe Fan Zijin a lot of money.
Qi Haoran felt that he was really poor.
Qi Haoran had never thought of borrowing money from Fan Zijin to buy rations. It was one thing for him to take advantage of his brother, but it was another thing for the army to take advantage of his brother.
After the Mu family watered their cornfields, the fields in various places were also watered one after another. The river water decreased greatly, making everyone tremble in fear.
Fortunately, the three reservoirs were full of water. Every time the people of the 5th Division saw the three large reservoirs, they would smile in relief.
However, things weren’t so optimistic in other places. Some river segments had already begun to stop flowing, and the heavens still showed no signs of rain.
The local officials could only look enviously at Qi Haoran’s three reservoirs, but the other camps had already come to ask for water.
The main mission of the 1st and 2nd Division was to guard Xingcheng Pass, thus they weren’t in charge of farming many military fields. However, the 3rd and the 4th Division did not receive any preferential treatment. There were many military fields that they had to be responsible for like the 5th Division, so the two assistant commanders came to look for them.
Qi Haoran rejected them all and refused bluntly, “Back then, I wanted to build houses, a camp, and repair the water conservancy facilities. When I begged you, you said that you wanted to guard the pass and train soldiers. Don’t tell me I didn’t have to train soldiers back then? In short, I don’t have any water! Scram.”
Smiling, the two assistant commanders said, “Little General, aren’t you treating us like outsiders? We’re all working for you. At that time, the Jin soldiers were attacking us fiercely, so we really couldn’t spare the time to help. Now, for some reason, the Jin soldiers have started fighting with West Xia. If you need our help for anything, just say the word and we’ll immediately pull people over.”
Qi Haoran pursed his lips. “Now that we’ve done everything, it’s too late for you to say that. Alright, I still have to train my troops. Please help yourselves.”
When the assistant commander of the 3rd Division saw him wave his hand and leave, his expression turned a little ugly. “He’s too arrogant. We begged him nicely, but he didn’t give us any face.”
“Well, he has the confidence. What can you do when there’s a general shielding him?”
The assistant commander of the 3rd Division gritted his teeth and said, “In the past, I thought that it wasn’t a bad idea to place him in the 5th Division. At the very least, he helped us take in a lot of trash. But now, it seems that he will still make things difficult for us. If it were anyone else, would they dare to speak to us like this with such a trash battalion?”
“Aiyo, shut up. Do you think Little General is only relying on the general to make a living because he doesn’t have the ability? Previously, the 4th Division was trained by him alone.” The assistant commander of the 4th Division said in a low voice, “Don’t anger him. He has a bad temper. Even the general can’t do anything to him when he flares up.”
The assistant commander of the 3rd Division waved his hand and left.
The matter here was quickly reported to Qi Xiuyuan. Jiang Ze said, “General, why don’t you tell the Fourth Young Master to give in to them? Otherwise, I’m afraid the soldiers below will have objections.”
Qi Xiuyuan said nonchalantly, “So what if they have objections? Haoran spent a lot of effort to build the water conservancy facilities. Why should he give it to others just because they ask? Let them make a fuss. I want to see how far they can go. Don’t restrain Haoran. As long as no one dies, he can do whatever he wants. My brother is not a child who only knows how to drink milk. Let him handle it himself.”
Qi Xiuyuan also wanted to know how far his brother could go. In the past, he had only dealt with the soldiers under his charge. But now, he was dealing with his colleagues of the same level.
Since Qi Haoran refused to give it to them, the assistant commanders of the 3rd and 4th Division did not come again. Anyway, it was only the end of April, and there was still a long time before they had to water the fields again. It could very well rain during this period of time.
Now that he didn’t have to be troubled by them, Qi Haoran began to focus on training his troops. With Big Brother’s approval, he established a scout team specializing in detecting the enemy’s situation. Mu Shi was the captain, and he had sent him out. Now, he was staying in the Jin Kingdom. Because of Mu Shi’s looks, it was very easy for him to be trusted by the Jurchens1 there.
Qi Haoran opened the bag that he had brought back. After checking and seeing that there was nothing special inside, he tasked Fei Bai to hand it to Mu Yangling.
Fei Bai took out a gold bar from the bag and asked in a low voice, “Master, do you want to keep this too?”
“Keep it. In the future, as long as it’s not accompanied by information, send it to them. Why would I covet the gold bars, especially when Mu Shi risked his life to obtain them?”
“No, I just feel that the amount of gold bars is too big. What if Miss Mu guessed that Uncle Mu is in the Jin Kingdom?”
Qi Haoran looked at him disdainfully as he said, “Mu Yangling has long guessed that Mu Shi is in the Jin Kingdom. As long as she doesn’t know what her father is doing there, wouldn’t it be fine? On the other hand, considering you’re always by my side, it’s a wonder it only just occurred to you that Mu Shi is in the Jin Kingdom.”
Fei Bai shrank his neck.