Three months later.

Liu Zhan was standing at the door of the Qichun Supply and Marketing Cooperative, listening to the people from the Xuanyi Department reading last month's newspaper.

"The Marquis of Gao Cai announced that he would give up all fiefs and the power of the princes, and declared that Gao Cai's land was owned by the people in accordance with the three generations of antiquity, and he believed that he had stolen the people's land and returned to himself as a thief......"

Many people next to him listened with their ears sideways, Liu Zhan thought to himself, this Gao Caihou understands the reason, it is pointless to resist stubbornly, it is better to surrender.

At the door of the supply and marketing cooperative, several people are buying salt there, and the supply and marketing cooperatives refuse to exchange grain directly, even if it is like taking off their pants and farting, they must sell the grain into money at the supply and marketing cooperatives and then buy salt from the supply and marketing cooperatives.

There were several people who were paying off installments of iron, farm tools, and seeds, some of whom were illiterate, but who already knew the face value of paper money.

In the primary school hall decorated with Xuan Lin windows next to it, the sound of Lang Lang reading was being heard, and many children did not have pen and paper, but just held a cheap bluestone slab and scribbled on it with talc.

The local dialect of Song, Chu, Qi, Yue and Yayin is blended in Sishang, and the taste has changed here, but you can still understand the words of the sun and moon, fish and shrimp, and rice read aloud by the children.

The order for conscription for conscription had been issued, and it did not seem to have had much of an impact, and the distribution of new agricultural implements and new planting techniques, as well as the outlawing of feudal servitude, were full of hope for the future of life, and given that the service policy was a transitional policy of only one person per family, it did not have much impact on families with four or five children at this time.

At the door of the supply and marketing cooperative, Liu Zhan saw a somewhat familiar person, who was selling a crocodile skin for money, and carrying a large arquebus.

When this person's family drew a surname, he drew a surname Liu, and there were not many people in the village community who drew the surname Liu, and Liu Zhan was somewhat impressed.

This person is the third in the family, so after having a surname, he named Liu San.

Later, the county organized a crocodile hunt, and this man was quite brave, and after killing two crocodiles in a row, the county rewarded him with an arquebus and some money.

Later, Liu Zhan learned that this person was not engaged in production at home, and after each family divided the land, the family was busy planting and reclamation, but he was lazy when he could, he didn't like to work in the farmland, and he was quite unpopular at home.

His brothers and sisters-in-law had a lot of opinions about him, and no one in the village community was willing to marry his daughter to him, but considering that he would have to serve for a while, the brothers finally did not kick him out.

After getting the arquebus, he often went in and out of the mountains and rivers, and did not farm, but only hunted and exchanged money with a few people in the nearby villages and communities who were "not engaged in production and idle", and his life was also nourishing.

However, although he does not like production and labor, this person likes to listen to things outside, and is full of curiosity about the distant Sishang and the distant world.

After the order to serve was given, he was the happiest one, and felt that he should go out and see instead of farming at home for the rest of his life.

Liu San sold the crocodile skin, made some wine from the supply and marketing cooperative, bought half a catty of gunpowder, thought about it and asked about the price of the iron pot, gritted his teeth and sighed.

Seeing Liu Zhan standing next to him, he went over and said hello: "County magistrate, I will serve in a few days." Can a warrior like me in the Mo family army be a company commander? ”

He has heard a lot of things about Sishang these days and knows about the establishment of the Sishang army. The policy is also intended to break the previous tradition of respect and order, because Liu San is not afraid of this county magistrate who manages thousands of households.

Liu Zhan thought to himself, the unhanging army is not what you think, as long as you have courage.

Besides, those of you who served were not going to combat troops, and the servants recruited by the county were going to Hubei to build, so they said: "It's not your turn to fight." However, the service has to be like a service, and it is not up to people like you to win the victory of the unhanging army. ”

"Sishang is not a brave and desperate person everywhere, but there is not a single crocodile or tiger in Sishang now."

Liu San grinned and asked, "What are you going to do if you don't go to war in service?" ”

Before Liu Zhan could answer, someone next to him called him, so he said goodbye and left in a hurry.

A few days later, the people serving in the various villages under the jurisdiction of the county gathered in Qichun, and the next day Liu San crossed the river by boat with these people and went to the south bank of the river.

When they arrived at the south bank of the river, there was a military station, where they took a bath together, and each of them was given a set of military uniforms, a set of soap, pig's bristles, and a toothbrush with a little tooth powder.

Liu San looked at the black and white foam on his hair and was stunned, he had seen this thing in the village community, in fact, the supply and marketing cooperatives also sold it, but the people in the village community would not choose to buy these things.

Although it is said that he preaches morality and new life and hygiene for three days, it has not yet reached the point where everyone accepts it.

It is acceptable to everyone in Sishang, because in the past few years, Sishang was a large barracks, and the eradication of illiteracy, health campaigns, new living habits, new names, etc., were basically solved during the service, and it took 30 years to form a custom.

Liu San didn't expect that the army would send these things, which was completely different from what he imagined. Imagination always stems from reality, and the previous village and military systems formed the basis of his imagination.

Liu San knew that the Xie Xuan Army could fight, and according to his imagination, he must have selected warriors to serve, but now it seems that it is not what he thinks.

After taking a shower, I eat. The food is worse than in the village community, at least he eats meat occasionally, but it is not a problem to eat enough here.

Each person had a bowl of coarse rice, sweet potatoes and pumpkins, a dish of radishes that he had never seen before, some beans and peanuts that he only knew today, and some vegetable oil that he didn't know either.

The next two months were painful and exhausting.

Liu San learned a lot in this military station.

For example, you have to wash your face and brush your teeth every day, wash your clothes every few days, go to the toilet if you can't pee anywhere when you go to the toilet, and call each other comrades.

For example, after lunch every day, you should learn to read and sing; To practice running queues; Understand discipline and obedience; Understand equality and love; It is necessary to understand the meaning of the existence of this army.

For example, there are people who talk about simple natural principles and show experiments that seem like miracles but are now easy to do.

At least for two months, everything Liu San could see was something he could understand.

By the time two months later, thousands of people who seemed to have been reborn were standing on the wasteland again, at least they could stand up straight, stand firm, and understand all kinds of orders.

When someone read his name, he almost subconsciously shouted "yes", and then stood up with the password.

At the end of the two-month exercise, Liu San thought he would receive a musket, but to his surprise, he received a shovel.

He was assigned to a unit called the "Third Division of the Construction Corps" and served as a non-commissioned officer of the Construction Corps in a company.

And some of the people from the same village who came with him, some of them were assigned to the "fishing company" and some were assigned to the "logging company", but after all, it didn't sound like they were going to fight.

Only then did Liu San understand how the fish he ate and the house he lived in during the two months of training came from.

He thought to himself that this service was also interesting, and that he would not fight but fish; If you don't cut down the enemy, you will cut down the wood.

Although I was puzzled, I could only accept such an arrangement, thinking that this was not similar to the previous hard labor? But it's different, at least this is in charge of food, and in the past, when farming for the owner of the fiefdom, he needed to send food to his own family.

Soon, the company elected the soldiers' committee, because he was smart, he had learned a few words before and could calculate some simple numbers, and became a member of the soldiers' committee, mainly to supervise the distribution of pocket money.

Although it is usually a supply system, and meals are three meals a day, some money is still sent to the company every month.

He didn't know that this was to make everyone in the company realize that money could buy things; The second is also to cultivate the understanding of equality and supervision among the soldiers in the company, not to do the same as in later generations, but also to cultivate some cognition that does not belong to this era.

The money can be used to buy some things from the supply and marketing cooperatives near the barracks and the military vendors, such as cotton cloth, jerky, sugar, tea, and other things.

And the same money is exactly the same as the money they see in the village community, and many people know that they can buy ironware, cotton cloth and other things that they need at home, so they usually save as much as possible, and give them out to save for a few months.

Shortly after they were incorporated into the company, in May, the army had a strange meal: polished rice wrapped in large leaves or bamboo leaves, and some things called dates that are rarely seen here, and it is said that it was to commemorate the comrades who died for the benefit of the world in the battle of Jiangkou.

Later, Liu San learned that this thing was called zongzi, and a few years later, after they retired and returned to the village community, it became a habit, and every household would do so every year.

But at this time, after Liu San ate the zongzi, the company issued an order, saying that everyone should pack up their bedding and belongings and leave for Hubei tomorrow.

He had heard of Eyi, in fact, it was only a few dozen miles away from here, and it was only across the Yangtze River from their village, but it used to be an extremely distant place for him.

In fact, on the second day they did not go directly to Eyi, but to the riverside in the southeast of Eyi, where there were already some improvised houses, and many companies were temporarily stationed there.

Early the next morning, their company received the task of carrying some goods on the wharf by the river.

He had seen a boat, and although the next day he had seen it was a little bigger, it was still a ship after all, with sails on it and rudder at the back, only slightly larger.

But when it came time to unload, he saw something he had never seen before.

A long foot was as long as seven or eight men, and it was heavy enough to be lifted by many people, and it looked oddly like something wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, made of iron.

After asking boldly and curiously, I learned that this thing is called a "rail", and after it is repaired, it can be used to pull goods with a special carriage on it.

I heard that some iron-producing places in Sishang have replaced roads with this kind of thing, because horses can pull more, so they can produce more iron, and then build more rails, and then pull more mines, and produce more iron.

He couldn't figure out what kind of carriage could run on it.

After two days of loading and unloading, the ships continued north, and they heard that there were still a lot of iron and farm tools in the ships, which were to be sent upstream to transport rice and grain upstream.

When the things that were loaded and unloaded appeared on the third day, he couldn't understand it even more.

It was a strange-looking pile of iron, he recognized it as iron, but he couldn't understand what it was.

After asking, he learned that this thing could be used to carry water by burning a black stone, and that the large copper mines near Eyi had been dug below the waterline more than ten years ago, causing a large number of slaves and slave laborers to devote a lot of energy to draining water every day.

Liu San racked his brains and couldn't figure out how these strange iron things could lift water.

Of course, he couldn't even think of how the mines below the waterline had been mined before, but he knew that it might save a lot of people, and that the people who saved the water could dig more mines, smelt more copper, and make more cannons—the kind of thing that scared them on the battlefield.

Liu San suddenly felt that from now on, he would see many strange things that he might never have seen in his previous village community in his life. So he was even more curious about what the outside world was like.