Chapter 31

Over the years, the Song Dynasty may have obtained horses from the Western Xia through various channels, but apart from the great victory at Fuzhou, it rarely got the truly fine horses from the northern and southern river basins of the Western Xia.

After the third snowfall, thirty-one fine horses were brought to Yan Prefecture by the Zhu family.

The price was a bit high, but there was not a single inferior horse among them, and even nine of them were military horses.

Seeing the brand on them, Zhu Huan couldn't help but laugh. It turned out that the Western Xia army on the other side of the mountain was almost the same as the Song army.

This caused a sensation, and the commanders of the various forts all asked Cheng Kan for these fine horses.

At this time, Wang Ju was trying to write parallel prose and poetry on a sand tray.

If he made slight modifications to the time, place, and background, even if he plagiarized Su Shi's "Tune: Prelude to Water Melody" and "Tune: Nian Nu Jiao," when Su Shi's inspiration suddenly struck one day, he could only sigh: "At the end of Chibi, I sigh at the song, Wang Ju writes the lyrics above."

But plagiarism is not the right way.

For occasions like banquets or farewell parties, if he became a scholar, the Song Emperor would often invite ministers to the palace for feasts and ask them to write poems on the spot, or the most critical imperial examination required writing poems and essays, and these topics were given by others. Who could he copy then?

Even more fatal was that he learned simplified characters, but this era used traditional characters. He could recognize them, but that didn't mean he could write them.

Even more critical was punctuation. In this era, there were no punctuation marks. Often, the meaning of a sentence would be completely different if a comma or period was missing, or if a period was replaced with a question mark.

"Big brother, have some tea." Erniu walked in with a steaming cup of tea.

Everyone thought Wang Ju was an unusually good big brother.

Lady Wei Qiniang, because she had many daughters, sighed and wished to swap identities with Erniu.

But they all overlooked Erniu and San Niu's understanding.

Of course, this deep brother-sister affection was mutual. Wang Ju gave love, and Erniu and San Niu gave respect.

Taking a sip of tea, Wang Ju asked, "Erniu, what are those young masters doing outside?"

"They are having a snowball fight, Big brother. Why do I feel they are all inferior to you?" The gap was too large. Even though Wang Ju came from a humble background, this huge disparity was obvious even to an eight-year-old like Erniu.

"Everyone has their own way of living. As long as they don't harm others and live by their own wisdom and labor, we should respect them."

"They have money..."

"That's not the right way to say it. Long ago, their ancestors were just commoners like us. Some families only recently became prosperous, like the Zhu family, which was founded by Zhu Erlang's grandfather and became a prominent family in Yan Prefecture by the time of his father. As long as one works hard, one can have; if one doesn't work hard, one can lose. This is too deep for you. Call San Niu back, and let's go feed the sheep."

When Wang Ju arrived in the Song Dynasty in spring, he saw how barren Wang Family Village was, and his heart turned cold. He racked his brain and found some alfalfa.

It had nothing to do with changing the soil. The deterioration of the soil in Shaanxi was a fait accompli. Unless all the people from Dajishi Mountain to Longmen were relocated to other places and farming, grazing, and logging were banned for a hundred years, the Yellow River could not recover. But was that possible?

Even if the northwest were unified, how could so many people be forcibly relocated, and how could it be ensured that no other tribes would come in? Even the vast Dafei Plain, which was almost a desert, still had many tribes grazing.

Grasses on the plain wither and flourish each year, wild fires cannot consume them, and cattle and sheep can graze them all.

Yan Prefecture, including Fuzhou to the southeast and Huaiqing to the southwest, had a large amount of pastoral land, though not as extensive as the desert and not far away. However, the problem was that Shaanxi had both agriculture and pastoralism, which meant it could support more people, and more people meant more cattle and sheep. It was said that the small Hehuang region alone had over 700,000 households.

Cattle and sheep struggled to graze, and people needed to live, so they had to eat the roots of the grass, leading to a vicious cycle. This was the reason why most of Yan Prefecture was now barren.

The soil in Wang Family Village was also very poor.

Thus, Wang Ju had this idea and found purple alfalfa, a plant brought back to Chang'an by Zhang Qian from his mission to the Western Regions. People planted it mostly as an ornamental plant, for greening, or as a vegetable. There were also many wild alfalfa plants and some artificially planted ones near Yan Prefecture, but people did not know its true value.

This hardy plant grew quickly once planted.

After cutting it twice, he also cut some green reeds, dried them, and saved them as winter feed.

When winter came, he fed the sheep with this green feed and dry straw, making his sheep fat and healthy.

At the same time, during the autumn, Wang Ju, using the trust people had in him, gathered the labor force and built a dam in a valley northwest of the village, installed a simple sluice gate, and diverted river water from Hunzhou. Thus, a small reservoir of about forty acres was formed.

In the northwest, water was the source of life.

With this small reservoir, the crops would be bountiful the next year.

Wang Ju first removed the wet straw from the sheep pen, not to waste it, as it contained a lot of sheep urine and manure, which, when composted, would become the best farm fertilizer.

Then he replaced it with dry straw.

Actually, the sheep pen was built according to his instructions, facing the sun, on high ground, and with a layer of slaked lime underneath.

At present, his sheep were still communal property, and he had to get help from everyone when he had time, or he wouldn't be able to study.

However, the lambs would belong to him, as agreed with the villagers.

A few young people almost wanted to cover their noses from a distance.

But they also saw that Wu Lin, after retiring, planted rice and tilled the fields, which moved even the iron-hearted Zhu Yuanzhang. However, farmers planting rice and tilling the fields, who could not even feed themselves or clothe themselves, moved no one. Craftsmen building houses were despised as lowly masons, but the scholar Luo Furen, who was so poor that he had to build his own house, made Zhu Yuanzhang sigh for a long time.

If it were an ordinary shepherd doing this work, they would have run away long ago.

This was why the families were not foolish and allowed their children to hang around in Wang Family Village.

To some extent, they believed that Wang Ju's interaction with their children would make them see the life of the poor and appreciate wealth, so they wouldn't squander it in the future.

Wang Ju then used a wheelbarrow to bring the feed.

"Alfalfa?"

Li Xiaoniang's family came over curiously to watch.

"It's a good thing. Come, I'll show you something good."

He led everyone to his house and took out a sprig of alfalfa from the cabinet: "This is it."

"What's so good about it?" Zhu Jun asked, puzzled.

"Look at its leaves."

"Leaves?"

"Count how many leaves it has."

"Four."

"Count how many leaves other alfalfa plants have."

"Hey, they are different."

"Alfalfa is a lucky plant. It not only provides beauty and vegetables but can also be used to feed pigs, horses, cattle, and sheep, and its effects are better than wheat and beans. It can also bring luck."

"Wang Xiaolang, you're going to tell a story again."

"I'm not lying to you, but not every alfalfa can bring luck. Only four-leaf alfalfa can. Tear off its leaves one by one. When you tear the first leaf, say, 'One leaf brings honor.' When you tear the second leaf, say, 'One leaf brings wealth.' The third leaf is 'One leaf brings true love,' and the fourth leaf is 'One leaf brings health.' Finally, say, 'Four-leaf clover, you have these four powers,' and then make a wish. It will likely come true. Zhu Erlang, you try it. But remember, the wish shouldn't be too high."

Erniu giggled.

This was what Big Brother used to say to make her happy.

The key was in the last sentence: the wish shouldn't be too high. What wish did she have? Just to hear more stories, and of course, they all came true. So she secretly collected some four-leaf alfalfa and kept it.

This alfalfa was what she had collected and dried.

Over time, with Wang Ju's guidance, she knew that Big Brother was just making her happy.

But Zhu Jun didn't know.

He really followed Wang Ju's words and made a wish.

"Erniu, what did you wish for?"

"To be happy for a day and forget worries."

"I wonder if it will come true."

"It really did," Li Xiaoniang giggled. Making Zhu Jun happy was easy; just bring in Xiang Yuniang and have her sing a song, and Zhu Jun would be happy. But who knew where the bandits had taken the three of them to hide.

"Never mind, I'll take you out to fish."

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